Disclaimer: I do not own or lay claim to anything even tenuously associated with Bones; it belongs to various individuals and corporations who are considerably more talented and well-off than myself. I am only playing with the aforesaid characters, situations, settings, etc. for my own amusement and am making no profit whatsoever from this (other than the bettering of my writing skills and my own amusement). No copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: So this definitely (and thankfully) isn't the route that Hart & Co. are taking, but it's something that I wrote shortly after the season finale when I was feeling a strange combination of melancholy, resignation, and hope.
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"O mistress mine! where are you roaming?/ O! stay and hear; your true love's coming,/ That can sing both high and low:/ Trip no further, pretty sweeting;/ Journeys end in lovers meeting,/ Every wise man's son doth know." ~ Festes, Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: Act 2, Scene 3
"The idea of soul mates actually originated with Plato… His theory was that humans originally consisted of four arms, four legs and two faces. Zeus was threatened by their power and split them all in half, condemning us all to spend our lives trying to complete ourselves…" ~ Temperance Brennan, 5x15: The Bones on the Blue Line
It's been ten years. Ten years since she last saw him. When they parted ways, it was only supposed to be for a year, but somehow one year turned into two, and two into ten.
Avoidance has always been easier for her.
She still knows a bit about what's going on in his life, primarily due to Angela. She has a suspicious feeling that that's his main source of information about her as well.
She's been busy, and though not quite happy, content. Her prominence in the anthropological field has grown by leaps and bounds; she's published several very important papers. More importantly, she's established a closer bond with her immediate family. Although she hasn't returned to D.C. since she left, she spends every other weekend with her nieces in Florida, and makes sure that the entire family gets together for the holidays. She remembers her father's words about how 'being alone' on those days means that 'nobody loves you', and she does not wish for any of her family to feel that way.
Of course, her father isn't the only one who taught her about the importance of family. She knows that she has Booth to thank for this closeness.
According to Angela (and the bits and pieces she finds in the news), Booth has made quite the name for himself as well. He's been promoted to Assistant Director at the D.C. branch of the F.B.I. Although he's been involved in some serious relationships, none of them have lasted. Parker is doing well, too. The Air Force put him through school, where he earned a degree in chemical engineering. Brennan's so proud of both of them, she feels as though she could burst... metaphorically, of course. And she finds it amusing, in a bittersweet way, that Booth's son became a squint of sorts after all.
She took a bit of a hiatus from writing about Kathy Reichs when she first left; it was too raw, too painful. After the first year, however, she returned to writing fiction and found it strangely cathartic. She's gotten better at writing human interaction over the years, so Angela's help isn't needed as often. (She still consults her when it comes to the sex scenes, however, as she's pretty sure that Angela has sex on a much more regular basis than she herself does.)
Hodgins, Angela, and their brood often join her family for the holidays; with Hodgins' money, they can easily afford to fly down and visit as often as they want.
She still keeps in contact with Zack through letters, phone calls, and video conferences. He's… doing as well as can be expected, shut up in a mental facility.
It's taken her a while to come to terms with herself, let alone what happened between Booth and her. But, ten years later, she's finally at peace. She knows.
So, the dedication of her next novel reads like this:
To Seeley Booth, the man who taught me that I was capable of change. Because although I am still a scientist, I no longer find Plato's theory ridiculous. On some level, I knew too.