The Reunion

Introduction

The phone calls from Caroline Julian had them scurrying from all corners of the globe, with a common destination of Washington, D.C. Temperance Brennan and Daisy Wick had the farthest to travel, the trip back from Indonesia and the Maluku Islands would take them almost two days because of layovers. It didn't take Booth long to get back home once he was on his way, but the out-processing paperwork that the military required meant that red tape would keep him in the desert longer than he would have liked and it delayed his arrival. Jack and Angela were loving their time in Paris and would have stayed for the full year, if not for the call from the FBI Prosecutor; but they were the foot loose and fancy free ones of the group and so they just moved with it and made it back home waiting for their old team to get into place.

While on the plane, Brennan had a lot of time to think about her upcoming rendezvous with Booth. She was anxious and nervous all at the same time. There was so much for her to tell him, to talk to him about and she wanted it all to go right. This was an important conversation – possibly the most important talk of her life. To help her organize her thoughts, she had told Daisy that she had field notes to organize and could not be disturbed. Brennan paid for two seats for Ms Wick – in the back cabin of the plane. Brennan felt fairly certain that Daisy wouldn't try to come up to first class and bother her, as the extra seat gave the young woman some extra room to stretch out. Her plan worked, and Temperance had not a single interruption from her intern while in flight.

Time on the island had been very busy and even hectic. As the lead of the operation, Brennan had more on her plate than any of the other scientists. Her first six weeks had been non-stop, and she'd literally spent every waking hour, thinking about the dig and all its components. It wasn't until they'd been there almost two months that she had had time to relax a bit and think about other things. That, of course, meant that Temperance found her thoughts drifting back to her partner, and especially, to the night she turned down Booth's offer of giving them a chance. She would physically wince as she replayed the scene in her mind.

There were some nights where it seemed that the scene was from a movie that was on constant replay. Try as she might, she couldn't get it out of her head that Booth had asked her to give a relationship together a chance. Brennan knew why she'd turned him down. It wasn't because she didn't want what he wanted – on the contrary, she very much wished for a romantic relationship with her partner. She had thought about Booth as a romantic partner for a long time before their confrontation outside the Hoover; but after fantasizing about it (for that is what her rational side told her it was) Brennan would always allow her fear of rejection to take a place front and center, and explain it away. Her rational side would overpower her emotions, and she would tell herself that they were too different, or Booth would tire of her and her ways (she knew she could be difficult to deal with at times), and they wouldn't last together as a couple.

The trouble with these rational thoughts, though, is that they didn't stop Brennan from wanting to know what his touch felt like. She wanted his hands caressing her body, not just one placed on the small of her back. She wanted to explore his mouth again, as she'd done twice before and had never been able to forget those kisses. She wanted a real hug from her best friend, and not just a guy hug. It was these wants and desires that lead Brennan to realize that if she never took the chance, she would regret it for the rest of her life. And so, for five months Brennan thought about how to go about letting Seeley Booth know that she had made a mistake and wanted a second chance at 'them'. She knew that she had time to think about it and so, even after seven months she'd made no attempt to contact Booth. They still had five months to go before their rendezvous at the National Mall.

Brennan didn't put down her thoughts to paper, because she didn't trust that someone wouldn't come into her tent while she was of-site and go through her personal belongings. It had happened early on, that a site assistant had been caught rummaging through tents and taking things. Many personal items belonging to six of the scientists had come up missing. Brennan had her cell phone stolen, along with some of her soap and body lotions. They found many of the items later, being sold on the black market; but the cell phone was never recovered. The loss of the phone seemed unimportant at the time. There was a satellite phone that could be used in an emergency, so Brennan wasn't completely cut off from the rest of the world. It was this phone that Caroline Julian had called her on.

Chapter 1 The Meeting

Brennan arrived at Dulles Airport and walked directly through the terminal, out the door, to a waiting cab. She had her carry-on bag with her and that was all. She had made arrangements through the plane's steward, for her bags to be collected and delivered the following day to her apartment. Right now, she was on a mission, headed towards the National Mall. She had a meeting with her partner and even though she hadn't talked to him, ever since the call from Caroline Julian, Brennan knew that he would be there when she got in.

She still wore the dirty shirt and cargo pants she'd had on when Caroline informed her of the situation. There would be time to shower, change, and sleep later. Right now, there was something important she had to say and she couldn't take the time to change her clothes or freshen up first.

After exiting the cab, Brennan walked to the designated meeting spot, where the coffee cart was usually perched during the day. Taking the time to catch her breath, Temperance slowly looked around. Her eyes were wide and her senses on alert. After only a moment or two she felt him near. Turning around, her face broke out in an involuntary smile as she finally saw the one person she had missed more than anyone. They walked quickly towards each other, dropped their bags at their feet, and hugged.

It was much more than a guy hug. It was a meeting of two very close, very dear friends, truly glad to see each other. They hugged for a long time, and then as they slowly separated, they held on to each others' arms and just looked at the other. It was if they were drinking in the site and burning the view into their memory. It was surreal to Brennan; in the past she knew she would have pulled away to put distance between them, feeling uncomfortable with the close proximity to her partner. Now however, she didn't want to let go of him. It was if by holding on to him, Brennan was gathering the courage to say what she knew she had to say tonight. Without acknowledging it, Brennan sensed that something had changed while Booth was away and she knew that she had to tell him about her revelations before he could say something to interfere with her thoughts.

Looking up into his eyes, Brennan found the courage to speak. Those dark chocolate eyes held so much expression, and at any other time she would have liked to just stare at them for hours. Instead, their comforting gaze propelled her to voice her thoughts. "Booth, I'm so glad to see you. I have so much to tell you. Let's sit over here for a little bit, ok?" And just like that, they picked up their duffle bags and headed for the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial. They had had many good times here through the years, and Brennan hoped this was the starting point for more good memories to come.

As they sat there, Booth pulled out a picture of himself from a jacket pocket. It was if he had the picture ready to show her even before she spoke; but when she did, she asked "was it dangerous in Afghanistan?"

"No. What I did was mostly administrative"

Booth glanced away from the picture as he said the words, leading Brennan to think he was holding something back – "Cause, you seem really very heavily armed in this photo." She was concerned but decided not to push the question any more.

"How about you? Any head hunters or cannibals?" Booth asked with a bit of a smile and a twinkle in his eye. Brennan was glad to know that the charm smile was still there.

"Daisy and I were attacked by armed guerillas. But I… I beat them up and we got away."

"You beat up armed guerillas?"

"I had to. You weren't there to save me" she said with what Booth took as Brennan's version of a cocky smile.

Booth shook his head and laughed as he asked his next question. "Oh Bones"… he laughed… "So – did you meet anyone special?"

Brennan almost let out a gasp at this question, because she knew what she wanted to tell him – that she met up with her reality while on the island and she'd realized it was the man now sitting next to her. Instead, she deflected back to her squinty way of talking because it was her 'normal' way to speak. "You mean, did I have sex with anyone?"

"I missed that about you. You just cut right to the chase."

It worked! She said to herself as she breathed an internal sigh of relief. They were still communicating on the same wavelength – that was going to be important with what she was about to tell him. "Well, I was working, so there was no time or inclination for sex… or romance." At that, Brennan paused slightly and Booth was about to say something but she rushed back in to talk, not wanting him to interrupt while she had her thoughts organized.

"But, I did have a special someone who occupied my thoughts" and with that comment Booth raised an eyebrow. The surprise of her words kept him quiet, and with that Brennan continued in her awkward way. "About six weeks into the project, after we fell into a routine and the worked settled down and I had time for quiet reflection, I began to think about us, Booth."

This caught the FBI man off guard. He did not expect Bones to say this. "What do you mean, thinking about us, Bones?"

"Well, I replayed that night in front of the Hoover building when you asked that I give us a chance."

"Bones, don't go there. Really. You don't have to. I get it. I…"

Booth didn't get to finish his thoughts because Brennan cut him off with her small delicate hand on top of his arm. The touch seemed to make him mute and even through his fatigues, Booth could feel her warmth coming through and reaching to his core. Up until now he hadn't realized how much he had missed his partner's touch. He couldn't help the smile that broke across his face, as he looked at her seated next to him.

"Booth, as I said, I had a lot of time to think about things… and the one thought that wouldn't leave me alone was that I had blurted out my rejection out of fear. I let my old fears and inadequacies take hold, and I know that was wrong. You told me once that you would never hurt me - and I believe you, Booth."

Booth was staring at his friend with a questioning look on his face. It made Brennan anxious, because she knew she had to get this right and she had to tell him now. She couldn't put it off and think about it any more. She was tired of thinking about that night, and had to get herself past it, so she just kept on talking. "It was a mistake for me to tell you no, Booth. I desperately wanted a different kind of partnership with you. I still do; I want to give us a chance."

At that, she stopped. Brennan had known it wasn't a sure thing that Booth would still want a romantic relationship with her; after all, it had been almost nine months since that night. For all she knew, Booth might have taken time to think about it and decided he wanted to keep their relationship as friends and work partners only. He had said that he needed to move on – Brennan hoped that he hadn't taken his own advice since that fateful night. This new thought occupied Brennan's head, and had her bite her lower lip in frustration.

Booth stood there looking at his friend and wasn't sure what to say. He'd dreamt of Bones saying something like this. He couldn't count the number of nights he had stared out his tent to the stars above, asking God why Bones couldn't get past her fears and take a chance on them. Now she was speaking the words he'd longed to hear last year outside the FBI offices. The trouble was, he had met someone over in the desert – a woman reporter, and had started a relationship with her. She was still in Afghanistan when Booth left to come home. He didn't know what would come of their relationship now that he was in DC and she was half a world away. He'd told the woman that he had to go home to be there for his son – that was the main reason, but the official reason that got him out of his contract with the army was the Federal Prosecutor needing him on a case. They'd left things up in the air and Booth had told her he would call once he got settled in. Now, he wasn't sure what he would tell her. With a perplexed look on his face, Booth turned to Brennan.