BOOTH'S NEW LIFE
A/N: Please read
Title: Booth's New Life
Summary: Booth loved Brennan, and he left for Afghanistan with a broken heart. Fate decided to give him a hand, and bring him love again. Follow him and the squint squad in his trip to find justice and a new life.
Genre: Romance, humor, some angst, crime, season rewrite… pretty much a little bit of everything…
Season: Season 5 finale. Season 6 rewrite.
Spoilers: All seasons
Pairing(s): Booth/Original Female Character (main focus), Angela/Hodgins, Cam/Paul, Wendell/OFC, Booth/Hannah (only for a few chapters)
Rating: T (If anyone disagrees please let me know)
Warnings: Crime; violence and violent situations (like we'd find in the show); sexual innuendo and not graphic or descriptive sexual situations (again much like we'd find in the show). Not canon. Not B&B story.
Important Information: This is a rewrite of season 6 starting from the events of the season 5 finale (the original episodes will be used to create a time line) centered on Booth's life. There will be small and big changes both in the cases and in the personal stories of the characters, as I will be breaking with canon early in the story.
We will see Booth moving on from Brennan, and falling in love again with someone else.
Booth and Brennan will go back to being friends, as they will repair their friendship, but not without some tension, bickering, and arguments.
There will be original cases.
Comments: This is a very big and complex story for me, and it's still a WIP.
Disclaimer: Read profile
Acknowledgements: Big thanks to my beta Whatever55 for her great job.
Also I want to thank FaithinBones for her help with military data, and Covalent Bond for playing the Devil's advocate to help me make this story stronger.
BOOTH'S NEW LIFE
Prologue
Timeline: February 2010
Season/episode: Season 5's finale
He approached the tomb of his dead comrade with heavy steps while observing the peaceful surroundings of the cemetery that his nation designed to honor his fellow servicemen and women. He was wearing his dress uniform and was ready to report to the base that night for a yearlong deployment in Afghanistan, but before that, he needed to see one more time the two Parkers in his life. That need brought him here, to this particular area of this big graveyard, to pay his respects to one Teddy Parker before going to hug his precious boy, Parker Matthew Booth.
Some won't understand his decision; he has a great job and a beautiful son who needed him, so leaving the country for a whole year seems wrong, and some may even call it abandonment. But, he knows best; he knows that he will be doing some good out there; he knows that he will keep in contact with his boy; he knows that they will miss each other, but that they will survive. The most important thing is that he knows that this trip will give him back his sanity, and he will come back stronger and will be a better father for it.
He knows that the moment that she gets onto that plane to Maluku, the bridge that love had built between them over the years will be broken, but that it will still be there standing tall and strong between them: a broken bridge that could be repaired or destroyed. That is where the soldier comes in. He will destroy that bridge freeing the agent to move on, allowing him to keep his much needed sanity.
So today, as he was here standing over the grave of his friend saying a prayer when over the silence of the dead soldiers, he heard the soft squeal of a baby. As if the little one was calling for him, he turned his head to the sound, ready to provide any help needed but what he found was an image that accompanied him for a long time. It was his point of no return. The feeling of warmth the sight created proved to him that he was ready to let go of his love for Brennan and truly move on.
He could see a woman, a very beautiful woman, petite, no taller than 5'5", but still with a perfectly toned body. She was completely dressed in black, or at least that is what it looked like through the black open coat that allowed a black dress and two gorgeous legs to show. Her hair was very long and curly, a deep dark brown, almost black mess of waves hanging freely down her back. But her body, her frame, her hair and her beautiful face could not even begin to compete with her big, warm, black eyes that were filled with love, strength and determination.
She was carrying a baby on her right hip, a little girl of about seven months, while holding tight to the hand of another cute girl of about three years old. Both of the little girls wore twin dark purple coats, bright purple rain boots, gloves and scarves, and berets: little tiny bright purple berets that looked exactly like military berets just in a very girly color.
The beautiful woman that caught his attention stood in front of one of the graves with her very expressive eyes staring intently at the name on the stone. Under the supervision of her mother, the little girl by her side couldn't stop moving nervously and looking in every direction possible, taking in all her surroundings including him.
Suddenly, the little girl dropped a ball and it rolled down in his direction. Obviously, without being conscious of the risks, the little girl wanted to run after it, but her mom stopped her and Booth, always the gentleman, picked up the ball and went to return it to its very cute and very small owner.
"Here ya go, kiddo," he said kneeling down to her eye level and offering the ball with an open hand.
The girl stared at the man a few seconds, studying him and then finally took the ball from his hand.
"What do we say, Maya?" her mom asked her, kindly warning her to mind her manners.
"Thank you, sir," the little girl told him with a smile.
"You're welcome, Maya," Booth answered, returning the smile. "You're wearing a very pretty beret, you know?" he complimented her.
"Yep, like my dad… but his was big, very big and green," the tiny girl told him with a sad smile but her voice was full of wonder, even at the face of the very obvious heartbreaking circumstances. She sounded exactly like any kid would when telling a story.
Booth forced himself to smile at her once more and stood up looking at the woman apologetically and with concern.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," he apologized, "and I'm very sorry for your loss," he added. He really was sorry to see such a young family broken that way.
"Don't apologize, they should remember their father," the woman answered with her voice full of sorrow and tearful eyes. But Booth was surprised again by the strength in the woman. Once an old friend of him from his special ops time had told him that the strongest kind of woman was a military wife, and now he was seeing that he was absolutely right; this woman was strong and determined to make her two girls happy and keep the memories of the father that was never coming back home to them.
"I should get going," Booth said in a soft voice, knowing that the conversation had already finished.
The woman nodded, offering him a small smile and whispering a good bye. Booth turned around and started walking towards his car, ready to visit Parker. He hadn't walked far when the woman called after him.
"Hey, Sergeant, take care of yourself out there," she said in that sad voice she had, but even then it sounded more like an order than a plea.
"I will, ma'am," he promised and walked away, convinced that he wasn't going to see her or her daughters ever again.
He couldn't have been more wrong about it, but sometimes being wrong is a very good thing.
Thanks for reading. Please, let me know what you think.
