Chapter One: You Were Everything to Me
Brennan could feel her heart slowly sink into her stomach as the last few utterances of her partner sliced her down to the core. He was the one that always believed in love and in them, he had proved it time and time again, but that was before and this was now.
He was no longer the man that had been in love with her for the last six years; this man was a shattered, figment of that man. This man was filled with bitterness and revenge. Yet Brennan couldn't help but let herself fall into his love's deathly grasp once more. With every shallow breath and longing gaze, she knew in the end there was only hope and him.
"Those are my only choices?" Brennan's voice cracked as her heart slammed in her chest. "The only ones?" She murmured once more, hoping this was all just a nightmare and in the morning she would wake up and they would be how they always been, not this hell an outsider had created by destroying a heart that was never hers to take.
This was not how it was supposed to end; he was supposed to come running to her, not some empty bottle and a no-name barkeep. But there the determined anthropologist sat, willing the tears not to flow as the soft words of a bitter man barraged what little emotion she had left.
"Yep." Booth slurred, his halfcocked grin still firmly in place. "The only ones."
With a deep inhale Brennan's eyes finally fell against her partner for the first time the evening. The shards of his heart lay out before her, always out of reach of her carefully mending fingers. The walls around his heart were closing in around them and if she wasn't careful, Brennan would be the one to pay the cost.
"But… but…" Brennan defiantly stammered, "I made a mistake. We both know I did. What if I…"
"Nope." Booth shrugged as he slammed another shot back, "I gave you the choice, now it is up to you to choose what path you will take."
"But what if I want to take a different path?" Brennan pleaded against all rational, "What if we choose our own destiny instead of these preconceived notions you have of what it has to be. We have the power to change our destiny." Brennan whispered as her hand slowly crept along the bar, "You taught me that, Booth. If I have learned anything at all from you, it is that we as humans have the ability to be more than what we were before, what we were destined to be. We can forge a new destiny if we just…"
"No." Booth growled as his body lashed back in defense of her wandering hands, "Those are the only two cards this old man has to deal. You can take it or leave it."
"So…" Brenan meekly whispered in defeat, "This is it?"
She could feel his mind resisting the urge to soothe the radiating pain dripping from every syllable but the pain filling his heart was much more than she knew he could bear. It was not as though he had not tried night after night to push back the tears brimming, but there is only so much you can do to soothe a broken heart that had not been yours for so long.
"If you want it to be." His voice shook in defeat, knowing this could be the end of the one thing he had managed to do right.
And there it was, her worse fear laid out in the open. He was giving up on all they had because of words she had never spoken. A deed she had never done was all that stood in-between her and the happiness her heart knew she deserved. She knew she loved him now but that would be all in vain if he would never look at her in the eyes the same again.
"Just look at me." She pleaded as her eyes bore into his soul, "Give me at least that much closure. If you want me to leave then I will, just let me show you all you have done to me."
"So which is it going to be, Bones?" Booth's half laden eyes finally made contact with his partner, "Are you going to stay or are you going to go?"