Title: Over It.
Author: Eyrianone
Rating: K
Summary: Booth keeps thinking about rings and questions . . .
Disclaimer: Like if these characters were mine I'd have wasted half a season on Hannah?
Authors Note: Getting back to 'Upside Down' right now, but this scene for the 'The Daredevil in the Mold' wouldn't go away until I wrote it. God the thought of tonight's episode is scaring me.
'I love you . . . will you marry me?' He's practiced the words over and over, simple as they are. The ring is a dead weight in his pocket though and there are moments when he does realize that he's an idiot for letting Sweets get to him, he has nothing to prove with regards to his relationship with Hannah.
Except that he does.
Except that the words he's practicing keep coming out his mouth thus . . .
'I love you Bones . . . will you marry me?'
It's like its automatic, his brain and his heart working in concert with his subconscious and that's THE LINE.
Except that it isn't. How can it be when the ring in his pocket, the one that feels like lead, is not something he could ever picture on Bones' slender fingers. She's not one for flash, or size, he'd buy her a 'wedding band' rather than an engagement ring, a simple white gold affair with channel-set diamonds that would circle her entire finger. It wouldn't get caught on her latex gloves and it wouldn't interfere with her work and it would suit her simple and elegant style and . . . what the hell is he thinking this for?
Why does he picture her ring so clearly? Why? Because he picked it out a million years ago and knows exactly where to find it. The same reason lies behind his brains automatic addition of Bones name to the phrase 'will you marry me', he loves her. He adores her, he doesn't want to live without her and the fact that he's bought an engagement ring for another woman is SO wrong on SO many levels and . . . there is no way he can go through with it.
Not when he closes his eyes and pictures Bones accepting, despite her views on marriage. Not when he hears her saying 'I made a mistake' and 'what if you let that person go?' every single night in his dreams.
He's not a fool, it's time he stopped acting like one.
And just like that the ring in his pocket is not a lead weight but a purchase he'll be returning. And just like that his proposal turns into a break-up speech that it's pointless preparing. And just like that his heart lightens in his chest and it rejoices loudly that one day . . . eventually . . . he'll buy the ring he sees in his mind, and one day he'll say the line his lips want to speak and one day he'll see Bones' eyes fill with tears as he hears the word 'Yes' fall from her lips.
And until then, he'll make do with seeing the shadows vanish from where they lurk in her gaze when he tells her this . . .
'About Hannah . . . it's over.'