It had been a year. A year since Booth had 'died', a year since they had cracked the Gormagon case, and a year since Zack Addy had been sent to a mental health facility for being the cannibal's apprentice and killing a man. His coworkers and his friends were still dealing with the shock.
Of course it didn't show on the outside: Booth still dropped by with bodies and unsolved cases, Bones kept on IDing bodies, Hodgins analyzed particulates, Angela reconstructed faces, and Cam still oversaw everything. But there was always that awkward silence when Booth asked a math question Zack would have immediately known the answer to. Or Hodgins's need to double-check his work because he was experimenting by himself. Bones's annoyance when Clarke didn't do something as precisely as her former assistant did. Angela's sorrowful glances at his old workstation. Cam finding herself thinking about how she no longer had to break up 'King of the Lab' disagreements. The Squint Squad just wasn't the same.
Booth was thinking about this one day as he strode into the Jeffersonian, one day late in August. There'd been a break in the case they were working on-some lumbar belonging to an unidentified person-and he knew Bones and the others would want to see it.
Pushing open the large, glass-plated doors, he quickly slid his card through the slot and ascended the stairs. "Booth," Bones called out, "did you talk to the girl's parents?"
"I was on my way there when the Crime Lab called; they'd swept the crime scene again and found these." The FBI agent placed the lumbar on the body table. "Have they been identified yet?" Booth shook his head. "That's why we brought 'em to you. They say you're the best." He gave her a wry smile, which she returned. "Then they would be correct."
They were still staring at one another when Angela burst in. "I think you guys need to see this." The three swiftly made their way to Angela's office, where Cam was waiting. The artist wasted no time in booting up her machine.
"I took the measurements and angles Clarke gave me and-" She was cut short by several screams. Instantly, the party was racing out to door and toward where they had just left. Where Zack Addy was standing holding a gun with the bullet-peppered and bloody body of Clarke at his feet.
x-X-x
Breathing hard and fast, a feral look in his eye, and spattered with blood and gore, the former renowned doctor aimed his gun at Booth. The FBI agent didn't even have time to draw his own gun. "Zack…why?"
It was Hodgins who spoke. He'd heard the commotion and had come running. "Zack…Clarke…why?" Now the gun shifted to his former best friend. "Zack, answer the question!" Bones yelled. "Why did you kill, Clarke? Why, Zack? Huh, WHY?" Instantly, the firearm moved to her.
"Now, wait just a second, Zack." Booth said, putting both his hands up, as if that would somehow protect his partner. "There's really no need for th-"
"Yes there is. He replaced me. ALL OF YOU replaced me! You," Zack went on pointing to Cam, "wanted him to replace me when I wasn't even gone! When I was only in Iraq!"
"Zack, I-" BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Silence. Except for the sound of Zack hastily reloading his .45 and Angela's scream as Cam's lifeless body thudded to floor.
Silence. That is until Zack turned his attention to Angela. "You could have vouched for me! You could have kept them from sending me to that place! You could hav-"
"Listen, man, you leave Angela alone!" Hodgins cried, jumping in front of his fiancée. "She didn-" He never finished his sentence, because he too was shot full of lead. Angela, screaming in fury and agony, leapt toward Zack as if to tackle him, but she joined her boss and fiancée on the crimson linoleum floor.
Reload. Zack turned his attention to the man who had he had come to with all his embarrassing questions and the woman who had given him a home. "Zack," Bones spoke, with tears running down her cheeks. But before she could say more,
Booth stepped in front of her. "Zack, it doesn't have to be this way."
"Oh, but it does."
Boom.
No more Booth.
He had joined the other mangled corpses: Angela's on top of Hodgins's, Cam's to their left, Clarke's by himself, and now Booth, partially on top of Cam. That's what did it. Seeing those bodies. The bodies of her coworkers, friends, and family. Something snapped inside of Bones.
Boosted by a surge of anger and a hate so strong she couldn't even fathom it, she succeeded where Angela had failed and leaped onto her former assistant. They fell to the ground where she rolled so she was on top and proceeded to shove her elbow into his nose.
Bones's tried to wrench the gun from his grasp, but instead was reward a head but. They rolled down the steps, still fight for control of the .45 and exchanging blows. On the last step, Bones managed to bang Zack's head against the edge, thus stunning him enough to twist the gun from his grasp.
"You deserve to die." Boom. Zack's head jerked back, his eyes still fixed on his old boss's. He tried to say something, but only blood gurgled out. She shot him. Again and again and again.
Bones stood up and saw the bodies of her friends again. Then she looked to Zack's. And realized for the first time that she was alone now. There would be no more chatting with Angela, or trying to reason with Hodgins, or discussions with Cam, no more ID's with Clarke. No more cases with Booth.
That's when she knew what to do. She glanced at the cartridge; one bullet left. And turned her attentions to both sets of bodies: her friends' and their killer's. Then she raised the gun to her temple and pulled the trigger.
I just finished Season 3, and I was literally crying. It was so sad! So this is what I do: I write ghastly FanFiction stories such as these. Hope you liked it.