Goodbye
Prologue
N/A: Christine's POV. The other chapters are not gonna be POVs. Let's just say this is the present and the other chapters are gonna be the past. From Christine's birth to Brennan's death. I hope you like it.
I never thought that someday I'd have to say goodbye to the person who raised me, the one who taught me how to tie my shoes, the one who dried my eyes every time I was crying. I never thought that someday I'd stand still, sitting at the edge of my mother's bed, holding her hand and telling her that it would end up soon. That all she was feeling, all that suffering, would get to an end and that she'd go to a place where she'd once again meet my grandmother, the one I was named after, the one I've never met, but have always heard about.
This certainly was the saddest moment of my life. I stayed by her side until the very end, until she unhanded me for the first time in my whole life. I know I'm a big girl now, I know I can take care of myself, but I'd like her to be here to my graduation, to my wedding, to her first grandchild. Because she did so much for me and I didn't even have the chance to do, at least, half of what she did.
The cancer spread so fast that when she felt the first symptom, there was nothing left to do, but to watch her die. It killed me to hear my father cry, late at night, in the kitchen, and know that I wasn't able to go there and hug him, because I knew he didn't want me to see him in that way. Every single night, my dad hid himself in the kitchen, the only place he thought no one would be able to hear him cry, or the only place he thought no one would go to at night.
But the saddest thing related to it, was to watch my father lay right by her side, every night, hold her hand and talk to her until the pain was lower, because the painkillers were starting to work. My dad knew she'd die. We all knew. And all we could do was to stand there and watch it happen. It could have been today, it could have been tomorrow or even next week, but we knew it would happen.
So, on a sunny day, right after school, I went to my mother's room, sat by the edge of her bed, held her hand and she opened her blue eyes – just like mine – to tell me something for the last time. I knew it was going to be the saddest thing I have ever heard, because she had tears in her eyes and nothing or no one could stop them from falling.
"Christine, I'm so proud of you that I can't even describe. You know that rationality is something I praise, but right here, right now, rationality has no space." – her voice was getting lower, she could barely speak. – "Today your father brought me a letter that was addressed to you. I know I shouldn't have opened, but he brought me this because he knew that it would make me so happy. It is a letter from Northern West University, the place in which I got my Ph.D." – she handed me the letter.- "It says you got accepted."
I wanted to celebrate. I wanted her to jump around, to run around the house and tell everyone that I got accepted. That was what she'd do if she was okay. She'd call grandpa Max, she'd invite Parker over. She'd get all family together to spread the news and be proud of me. I knew how much this meant to her and that was why I really fought so hard to get this spot. Especially now that she wouldn't be here to teach me how to become a good anthropologist.
People say that there is some sort of balance in the universe. That sometimes bad things are balanced to good things, so if you get one good thing as a reward, you're gonna have to get a bad thing too. My mom didn't believe in it, she said it was ludicrous, nonsense. But after that day, it all made sense.
I got accepted, I'd become an anthropologist, just like Dr. Temperance Brennan was. Maybe someday I'd get a partner just like Seeley Booth and this story would happen again. Or maybe I'd just be an anthropologist. I didn't know what was gonna happen, but right in the moment I read those words written in that letter, my eyes moved from the paper to my mom and her last words were directed to me. She was holding my hand, she was looking me in the eye and I was able to understand what she was trying to say.
"Christine, I don't have much time. I just want you to know that these 17 years I've spent with you, were the best years of my life. I'm so proud of you. You've been the daughter every mother wants. And I'm happy to be your mom. I love you and that's not rational, but I've loved you since the moment I saw you. And you'll always be my little girl, no matter where I am, no matter where you are, I'm always gonna be watching over you."
She unhanded me. Her chest stopped moving, she wasn't breathing anymore. And I stayed there, for a very long while, frozen, quite. The only thing I could do was to cry and try to wake her up, because it all seemed so unreal.