Finding Out **LAST CHAPTER IS POSTED**

Attention!! hot action straight ahead

srsly..c'est chaud! you can't leave us hanging like that.

I agree with CanadianBones you can't leave us hanging....it is just mean. Loved the chapter, I really can't wait for more....your KILLING ME here.

I am diligently working on the last (and smutty ) chapter. My goal is to have it finished and posted by tomorrow evening! Now back to writing.

I can't wait for it.
I really liked the last one.....

Chapter Thirteen

A/N: Here it is, the last chapter. Thank you for reading and reviewing. It is NOT smutty. I just couldn't do that to them.


“Okay Bones your little game, whatever it is - it’s over. Now put your clothes on.” He reached for her jeans but was stopped by her slender fingers wrapped around his wrist.

Their eyes locked, as her hand remained on his wrist, neither moving.

“What’s wrong with you Booth?”

“I need you to put your clothes back on.” There was no uncertainty in his words.

Blood rushed to her face as she stared back at him - standing before her fully clothed.

“I thought you wanted this. I thought you wanted me,” she muttered as she grabbed her clothes and practically ran to the bathroom.

As Booth ran his hands through his hair and paced the hallway outside his bathroom waiting for her to emerge, his thoughts wandered to when they first met. All the moments that built their relationship, their trust in each other, their respect for one another. He had wanted a sexual component added to their relationship for quite awhile. It was easy, very easy, to imagine how and when but reality was much more complicated. The sound of the lock on the bathroom door jolted him out of his thoughts.

As she tried to squeeze past him, she kept her head down and muttered, “I should go.”

Grabbing her arm, she halted her steps and tried to pull away from him.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.” She couldn’t bring herself to look him in the face.

“Bones look at me. You have nothing to be sorry about. I’m just not ready to add sex to our relationship.”

No man had ever said those words to her. The sincerity in his voice encouraged her to lift her head and meet his eyes. “ You said you wanted me, desired me. Make up your mind."

He paused a moment and pointed towards the living room. “Let’s sit down.”

Once situated on the couch facing each other, Booth searched silently and carefully for the words he wanted, then spoke, “I love you Temperance.”

“But … “ she started to say with pessimism in her voice.

“There is no but. I love you and want you to be part of my life and me a part of yours. As work partners, as friends and one day as lovers.” His eyes were glistening, as tears fought with all their might not to flow. “I don’t want to screw up what we have, what we can have. What we will have.”

“You think by us having sex that will screw things up?”

His head was spinning, thoughts were racing and one that kept coming to the forefront of his mind was that he was screwing things up right now.

Booth shifted his position, placed both his hands over hers and found her eyes with his. “We have come along way Temperance in developing our relationship, having sex will be an important part of it, however, I am not ready to take that step with you, tonight. I like, I love, just sitting here talking with you, holding your hand, looking into your eyes, watching your face. listening to your voice as you talk about your life, your dreams.”

Brennan stayed motionless, eyes fixated on his as he continued to talk.

“We haven’t been on date yet. You know, where I pick you up we go out and then I bring you home and we dance around the question of whether or not we should kiss good night.”

His warm smile appeared, the one she knew was reserved for her. How she knew, wasn’t important. The fact she reciprocated one for him was.

“What did I do to be worthy of your love?” she asked quietly.

He saw the darkness in her eyes, her past rising to their edges, when it was he who was wondering what he had done to earn her love, which was safe guarded underneath her often cool exterior. His hands squeezed hers, completely engulfing them.

“There isn’t one or two or even three things, Bones. Well maybe the fact that you didn’t attempt to kick my ass when I kept calling you Bones after you asked me not too.” His mouth twitched upward on the right side and raised both his eyebrows.

“I’m being serious Booth.”

“So am I.” He let go of her hands and shifted a bit on the couch, uneasy in position and thought. “We both have turbulent pasts and although you have taken the odd cheap shot at me for having taken many lives, I know you understand how difficult it is for me to live with that.”

“Booth, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have made those comments.”

“Your wording was a bit harsh.”

“I will try and work on my diplomacy.”

“Thanks.”

He wasn’t sure if he should bring it up but since honesty was of abundance, he took a gamble, “ My dad told me once that the reason Rebecca didn’t marry me was because I was a killer and who would want a killer in their bed, let alone helping raise a child.”

Temperance Brennan knew abandonment by her father was painful, but never had Max been cruel to her. She could see the pain in Booth’s eyes; the faint lines around them that probably came with every year that past after his father said that to him. Her pain at the moment of her parents leaving her for her own safety was paling compared to what Booth was revealing. She didn’t speak; her body instinctively moved closer to him and without warning his faced buried itself on her chest, tears flowing gently.


Epilogue - Temperance’s POV

I will always remember that night as the poignant turn in our relationship. Our mutual honesty pact was easier for me to adhere to. After that painstaking revelation, it was weeks before Seeley revealed another dark part of himself to me. It wasn’t a competition to see whose past was darker, but often I felt that every time I revealed something his overshadowed mine. He was always sympathetic and compassionate but would never let me reciprocate. A revelation would be done without warning catching me off guard. After the third time, I pulled him to me, kissed him softly at first, then hungrily. We didn’t speak a word until our tangled bodies encountered ecstasy. Never had my given name been said with such vigor.

Snoop, that was some break you took - two and a half months since you last promised the next chapter!! When I saw in IHBFC that you were writing it piqued my interest, and then I saw ** LAST CHAPTER HAS POSTED ** - WooHoo!! I'd forgotten so much I had to start over from the beginning...

This was great! When I got to the "deserve more, deserve better" part I relived all the angst from last time - that is one of my all-time favorite fanfic lines!

Your previous chapter ended with ... "For a Special Agent, he was faltering at the situation presented before him." Well all I have to say is that he didn't disappoint, Snoop! I was there rooting for both of them, not having any clue what could possibly save the day. But Booth found a way ... always the consummate gentleman!

Thank you!

Wow I had to read the last two chapters again, to remember what happened before.....but it was so worth it!
I like that you didn't let it end with smut, although I wouldn't have said no to that either.
But I think that it is very likely that Booth would act exactely like that in this situation.
And the epilogue from Brennan's POV was also great.
Great Story!

Great story, I love B&B relationship!