Title: The Return
Author: Chymom
Word count: 772 words
Parings: Booth, Bones, and OC
Rating: G
Beta: Fan girl and undeertherose
Spoilers: This is based on an idea that I read online in an article. The writers said that Booth and Bones will meet up but one might not be alone. Any and all Bones shows might be talked about.
Disclaimer: If you know the people then they are not mine. However any one else is from my mind.
Summary: Booth and Bones are meeting as they had planed. But does everything work out like they had planed?
Author Notes: This is not my first fan fiction but the first in Bones. Any and all honest feedback is more then welcome. Thank you.
The Return
One of the longest years in Dr. Brennan's life was coming to an end. She had spent the last twelve months in the jungle identifying bones. As she had once told her partner Booth, this is why she does what she does. Putting names to others passed loved ones.
At least that's what she had thought. The longer the year went on, the more she missed her life in DC. The more she realized that what she had started out doing was not where her heart now laid. Her days were filled with hard shifts and digging and sifting, her nights with dreams of a man she had pushed away.
Stepping closer to the pool where they had said they would meet Bones spotted him. Booth looked as though he had aged ten years in their one year apart. She took a small breath seeing that Booth was home and in one piece. Her heart started to beat out of her chest at the thought of once again being held in his loving arms. Still a few yards away that dream was shattered. Walking up Bones had seen a woman beside him but didn't thinking anything about it. With a few yards to go she watched as Booth placed his arms around the woman's midsection and kissed her lips. Her world started spinning. He had moved on.
The kiss had mostly been pressing of lips but to Bones it showed her what she didn't want to think about. Their time apart had helped and hurt them at the same time. It had shown Bones how much she needed Booth in her life and had given him the space he needed to let his feelings for her go. She wanted to be mad at him. Wanted to storm right up to him and slap him. She wanted to yell at the top of her lungs that she loved him. Instead, knowing that the couple had yet to see her, she turned to go thinking that she would call him once she got home. She didn't yet know what she would tell him but it would be easier over the phone because then she could hold onto the dream just one more night before her world would come apart again.
Then the memory of a night came back to her. They had just left Sweets' office, talking about the book that he had written about them. Booth had taken the chance and asked her to be with him, to truly be with him not as a partner but as the woman he loved. She can still vividly see the hurt in his eyes as she told him. "I'm a scientist I can't change. I don't know how." She had watched as he sunk down to sit on the wall. He had tears in his eyes as she told him that she was saving him from her. Then she had asked the question that she wished that she could take back. With the one question she had set their partnership as well as there friendship on its head.
"Can we still work together?"
She knew her fear was showing in her face but at that point she didn't care. She might be losing part of Booth, but she could lose all of him too. "Yeah, but I have to find some one to love me for the next thirty, forty or fifty years." His words had been only words before they left. At the airport she had seen the emotions that crossed his face as they said goodbye. She had wanted him to pull her into his arms and whisper that he would be there for her. That she wasn't going to lose him. Only he didn't nor did she. They had shook hands said goodbye and walked away. The look that they had shared before he had truly walked out the door had been full of hope and promise.
Now, after she had told him there was no reason to wait for her, she was mad that he hadn't. Where was the logic in that? Knowing that leaving would be running, and being as tired of running from herself as she was, Bones did the only thing she could do. She turned around and walked up to the couple at the pool. Booth had his back to her. When she stood beside him he didn't seem to know she was there. This was the nail in the coffin for Bones. Booth always knew when she was near him. He had truly moved on and she had no choice but to be happy for him.