This is something that has been rolling around in my head for a while. This is set in the future, after Booth's recovery from his surgery. Mostly takes place in Angela's point of view. However, this is my first venture into writing Bones, so let me know what you think. Please, leave feedback!!!!
Life goes on, it seems. Three months ago Temperance Brennen and Seeley Both had disappeared from the Jeffersonian. The only remaining sign of the two was Brennen's empty, darkened office with Booth's suit jacket slung over the back of the couch. Angela stood up on the walkway, observing the changes.
Dr. Goodman had returned, mostly help Dr. Saroyan select a temporary head forensic anthropologist to fill Bren's indefinite absence. Angela knew Bren would be beyond furious when she found out that Michael Stires had been given her position, but it had to be a name with clout. Suddenly the group had fallen apart at this point, at least mostly. Yeah, she and Jack were back together and they still spent free time with Cam, Sweets, and their significant others, but the work dynamic was a group of strangers. What was it Bren had told her Booth said? He called the two of them the center and said the center must hold – how true that had proven to be!
Of course, their 'new' FBI friends did not help matters, nor were they truly new. They were just new in the sense that they were the liaisons they were now forced to endure in Booth's place. Sully was back from his sail around the Caribbean, waiting on Bren to come back so they could pick up right where they left off. Perotta was ready to jump Booth the first chance she got. She knew it would not go over well with Bren, just as Sully's return wouldn't with Booth. Why was it that every time things seem to get back to normal, someone's ex-lover or one of their demons made a reappearance to upset the balance?
However, Stires was in a league of his own when it came to how much everyone hated him – Sully and Perotta didn't even compare. He had brought in his own interns, one of whom he was for sure sleeping with and two others whom he was most likely sleeping with. It was sickening to watch the way he worked over the three female interns. They fawned over him and were barely allowed to do any of the work on cases. The one boy did all the work and Stires treated him like a prince and even let him order around Clark Edison who had been hired as a second forensic anthropologist.
Angela sighed realizing how this was driving every last one of them away. She had no clue how much longer Cam would hold out. For all the difficulty between Cam and Bren and they first started working together, the two had put it all behind them and make it work. She had been offered a high-ranking job within the Virginia's Chief Medical Examiner's office and just a month into dealing with Stires she had been ready to quit – now she had the means to do so. It didn't really help that the new man in her life lived in Virginia. This would put her closer to him no matter how close they had been in the first place.
Jack was allowing himself to be wooed to another area of the museum. He would still get to be the 'bug and slime' guy, but he would be running his own department that would do consults for any part of the museum needing help. He would still get to do his work, but he would get out of the Medico-Legal Lab and dealing with Stires and company.
As for herself, she knew that she needed to get away from this place. She had problems dealing with it when Bren was there, giving her a reason to stay; now, everyone who really mattered to her was moving on and she felt a compulsion to do the same. She had been spending more and more of her free time working on sketching and paintings. She loved the Angelator, but dealing with other mediums had been reminding her just how much she loves that area of her life. Her dad would say that her free spirit was ready to roam again. They may never have seen eye to eye on every area of her life, but her dad did understand why she was the way she's always been.
One thing was for sure, by the time Bren and Booth returned there would likely be nothing for the center to hold anyway…