A/N: I'm delving into the world of Bones on this multi-chapter fic. I'm not sure where the idea actually sprang from, but once I started writing I just couldn't stop. I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks to Lori and Alex for their input and encouragement. You guys have been awesome and I appreciate all the feedback you've provided.
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Bones…but I'd chew off my arm in order to work Hart Hanson. That would be amazing.
---
It had been five years since Seeley Booth had stepped foot in the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building in Washington D.C. Five years of working cases in the southwest, as far away from D.C. as he could possible get. And yet, here he was, walking right back into the life he had run away from those years ago.
"Agent Booth," the red haired receptionist acknowledged his entrance with a smile. "Welcome back to D.C."
"Thanks Melinda," Booth answered and flashed his million-watt smile. "It's good to be back."
"Assistant Director Williams is waiting for you in his office," Melinda stated and turned her attention back to her computer.
Taking a deep breath, Booth walked over to the elevators and promptly hit the floor number he needed much harder than necessary. His nerves were all over the place. It wasn't supposed to be like this.
Five years in San Diego were supposed to clear his head and his heart. But he wasn't sure it had worked.
"Come on Bones," Booth prompted, "Let's get some food. I've been craving some pie for days."
"You had pie yesterday," Temperance Brennan answered with a groan. "And I've got to get this paperwork done."
"You've been working on paperwork all day," Booth argued, "you need a break. Just come with me. My treat."
"Booth…"
"Please?" And with just the turn of his head and charming smile he saw her defenses start to tumble.
"Fine," Brennan answered and closed the file she had been working on. "But I'm ordering whatever I want and you definitely are paying."
Dr. Temperance Brennan. World renowned forensic anthropologist and best-selling author. And the one girl that had held onto his heart for just under a decade.
"Seeley!" a voice called to him when he stepped out of the elevator and his hand reached out to greet his old friend. "Seeley Booth. I was wondering when you would get your ass back here to D.C."
"Well Kyle," Booth started with a wry grin, "I go where the work takes me. You been able to hold down the fort here?"
"I do my best," Kyle Watson answered with a shrug. "Working on case right now, actually I'm heading over to the Jeffersonian…"
"No one there needs to know I'm here Watson," Booth interrupted, his friendly tone turning cold. "I'm here with my meeting with Assistant Director Williams and then I'm headed back to San Diego. I don't want this to turn into a social call."
"Sure thing Booth," Watson automatically agreed with a wave of his hand. "Forget I mentioned it."
"See you around," Booth said in dismissal and walked away from Watson before the man had a chance to say anything else.
The last thing Seeley Booth needed was for anyone at the Jeffersonian to know he was in town. It would raise up the questions he didn't want to answer and he was sure that he wouldn't be able to see her again, in person, without severe consequences.
"Thanks again for doing this Booth," Brennan whispered with a sigh. "I wasn't sure I'd be able to do this on my own."
"No problem Bones," Booth answered with a laugh. "What good would I do you if I couldn't help you out around your place?"
"Not much," Brennan teased, "besides you know, that whole changing history thing."
"Right," Booth answered, "I do make that easier, huh?"
"Don't let your ego grow too much Booth. Are you about donewith that fan?"
"I think so," Booth answered as he finished tightening the last bolt on her newest ceiling fan. "Alright, give it a whirl."
"Huh?"
"Turn it on Bones."
"Ah," Brennan nodded and flipped the switched and watched the fan hum into motion. "Look at that, another successful fix by Special Agent Seeley Booth."
"Only for you Bones."
"Booth," Assistant Director Williams greeted him as Booth approached his office door, "come in. Thanks for flying out here on such short notice."
"It's my pleasure sir," Booth answered quickly and took a seat across from the older man. "How can I help you?"
"I was wondering if there had been a specific reason for leaving the D.C. area."
The question took Booth by surprise and his mind jumped back in time. The night that everything changed, the night that made him realize he had nothing to look for in Washington D.C. The night he realized he needed to leave.
"Bones," Booth whispered across the table. "Can I ask you something?"
"Um," Booth stammered in front of his boss, "There were some…personal matters that caused me to leave the area sir. Can I ask why this is being questioned now?"
"Personal matters," Assistant Director Williams said and noted something on a pad of paper in front of him. "I see."
"Sir?"
"We want to offer you a position here Agent Booth," Williams answered the question. "As Special Agent in Charge of Forensic Operations."
"Forensic Operations…"
"You're well aware of how successful our partnership with the Jeffersonian has been over the past ten years," Williams stated and Booth nodded his agreement without question. "Agent Watson has worked as a liaison with them since you departed and although he's finishing up this last case, he's been asked to transfer to another division. We're asking you to come back and work again with the Jeffersonian."
"Work with the Jeffersonian again…" Booth repeated his voice trailing off into a silence that neither man dared to venture into. "I…I'm going to have to think about it sir."
"I figured as much Agent Booth," Williams assured him. "You've been excused for the duration of the week from your work in San Diego. I'd like to have an answer by Friday if possible."
"Yes sir," Booth answered with a curt nod. "Is there anything else at the moment?"
"No," Williams told him and turned his attention to the file in front of him. "Melinda will have the hotel information where we have you set up for the week. Please let her know if you need anything while you are here. Thank you for considering , Agent Booth."
"Yes sir."
Booth rose from the chair he'd been frozen to and left the Assistant Director's office in a daze. Working with the Jeffersonian again was going to be the hardest assignment of his life, if he decided to take the job. The new title of Special Agent in Charge was thrown in there as an enticement he was certain, along with the pay raise he knew would accompany it.
Now all he had to decide was whether or not it was worth reliving the one night he'd tried to forget for the past five years.
---
Dr. Temperance Brennan stood of the forensic platform of the Jeffersonian, her body hunched over a set of remains that she was determined to identify. Because, when she could identify the girl in front of her she'd be able to help put the bastard who did this to her behind bars, for life.
"Dr. Brennan," a voice interrupted her thought process, "what do you have?"
Agent Watson, her…partner, was standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the platform, his phone in hand, waiting for her to be able to tell him anything about the case.
"Female, between eighteen to twenty years of age, dead approximately four weeks. Dr. Hodgins is working on narrowing that down further. Angela is working on a facial reconstruction for a more positive identification. "
"Great," Watson answered with a nod. "The sooner we get this solved the sooner I can meet up with my family."
"We'll get you headed home as quickly as we can Agent Watson. Do they know who will be replacing you yet?"
Watson shook his head no and returned his attention back to his phone and walked back out the doors. She had a good working relationship with Watson, but it was nothing like the relationship she had once had with her former partner.
Seeley Booth had been more than a partner, he had been her friend, her confidant. The one person who she had opened herself up to.
"Booth, really, you don't have to do that…"
"I want to help Bones," Booth argued and pulled up a chair and grabbed a pen. "Paperwork waits for no one."
"I'm sorry about earlier."
"You don't have to apologize."
"Yes, I do. I was way out of line."
"You reacted like a normal person…"
"I'm not a normal person Booth," Brennan insisted. "I shouldn't have been so emotional."
"It touched you close to home," Booth told her. "It's understandable."
"Thanks for always being there for me Booth," Brennan whispered quietly. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
One night changed everything. He'd left. Without a word and nearly without a trace. She'd been so angry. .. so hurt.
She choose to ignore his departure and that is why, five years later, she still couldn't forget the person she had grown to care about more than anyone else in the world.
"Bren," the voice of her best friend, Angela, startled her out of her thoughts, "you okay?"
"Yeah," Brennan nodded and turned her attention towards her friends. "Did you finish the facial reconstruction?"
"Yeah" Angela answered with a small nod of her head, "and I think I've got a match."
"Send the information to Agent Watson," Brennan told Angela and turned her attention back towards the body. "Do you know if Wendell has been able to identity the marking on the spinal cord?"
"He's working with Jack," Angela said with a shrug, "I'm not sure if they have anything yet though."
"Okay. Thanks."
Brennan heard her friend walk back down the steps of the platform after a few moments and pressed her eyelids together tightly.
His face popped into her mind, his warm brown eyes and big smile. The dimples in his cheeks that she saw every day. Her heart hurt for the partner she hadn't spoken one word too in the years since he'd left her after that disastrous night.
"Bones," Booth whispered across the table. "Can I ask you something?
She knew that things had been changing between them for years and yet she'd pushed back her feelings and ignored the obvious signs. She should have known that a night like that would have happened.
Anthropologically, it was inevitable.
Yet she'd allowed them to get to the point they'd ended up at. The point that changed everything.
It still haunted her. And she was sure that it always would.
---
Booth banged his head against the backboard of the bed in his hotel room. It was everything he could do to not scream in frustration against the decision he now had to make. As corny as it sounded he'd made a pro/con list to try and help him decide.
It wasn't working.
Because every time he wrote something positive down the same thing was placed in the negative column.
Bones.
He wasn't sure he'd ever be able to face her again. Not after, that last night together.
Really together.
"Bones," Booth whispered across the table. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Why didn't you run away with Sully?"
"Excuse me?"
"Why didn't you go sailing off into the sunset with Sully when he asked you too."
"That was years ago Booth, why are you bringing it up now?"
"Cause I've always wondered, that's all."
They'd been drunk, that should have been his first red flag, and yet he'd inched closer and closer to the partner he'd fallen in love with. She didn't move away and that had given him just enough courage to bring his lips down on hers with an intensity he'd never felt before.
He hit his head against the bed frame again to drag himself out of the memory that was suffocating him. Like it always did.
"Make love to me Booth," Brennan's whispered plea sounded in his ear. "Show me what it's really like to make love."
He pulled away long enough to search her eyes before leading her down the hallway and into her room.
He couldn't take the job. There wasn't any way he'd be able to see her everyday without reliving that night over and over every time she saw her.
He'd had to tell the Assistant Director that he couldn't take it.
That's what he'd do, just after he got pie at the diner.
---
"Sweetie," Angela interrupted her again, "shouldn't you be taking off pretty soon?"
Brennan glanced down at her watch and nodded, "yeah, thanks for reminding me Ang. I get lost in the work sometimes."
"Sometimes?"
"Okay," Brennan said with a chuckle, "most of the time. Are you and Jack and the boys still coming over for dinner tomorrow?"
"We'd be honored," Angela assured her. "Are you sure we can't bring anything."
"Nope," Brennan shook her head. "We've got everything under control."
"If you're sure…"
"I am Angela," Brennan insisted with a smile. "Alright, I'm gone for the day. Have Wendell text me or Agent Watson with any new information. I'll be back in the morning."
"Night Sweetie."
Brennan waved as she gathered up her belongings and headed to her car. After a few minutes of discussion with Wendall and Cam she was out the door. Only a few minutes later than she would have liked.
"Make love to me Booth," Brennan whispered to Booth before she could stop herself. "Show me what it's like to really make love."
Those words taunted her every day, and yet warmed her insides at the same time. Something a phenomenon she wasn't sure she would ever be able to explain to herself.
Brennan pushed her way into The Royal Diner, a place that she could never get enough of. Even with the one person gone that she'd spent the most time at that local eatery, she still went there almost every day.
Sometimes by herself and sometimes with those closest to her. There was an occasional piece of pie, when she was feeling exceptionally lonely.
"Bones," Booth's raspy voice said against her forehead, "are you sure about this?"
"Yes Booth," she answered back passionately. "I've never been more sure of anything…"
"Dr. Brennan," her favorite waitress Loretta greeted her with a wide smile. "Solve the case yet?"
"Getting close Loretta," Brennan assured her. "I always do."
"Yup," the waitress agreed. "Coffee?"
"That would be perfect," Brennan requested and took a seat a table. "They aren't here yet?"
"Nope," Loretta said, "but you're actually a few minutes earlier than normal."
"First time for everything, huh?"
Loretta chuckled a bit before setting down a mug of coffee. Brennan opened a case file and just waited.
---
He was hearing things. It had to be that. She couldn't be here. Not today, not in this diner. Not where they had spent countless nights sharing meals and comparing notes. She couldn't really be here.
He was afraid to turn around. To see the one person he'd failed to forget after all those years.
"Booth," Brennan's voice pulled him from a sleep. "Booth, wake up."
"Bones?"
"You should go," Brennan said, her eyes not meeting his. "Please…"
"Temperance…"
"This was a mistake," she said quietly. "We shouldn't have…I'm sorry."
"Temperance, don't do this…"
"Booth please," Brennan pleaded, "just go…"
"I love you Temperance, I always have."
"No. No you don't."
"Yes Temperance, I do. And I don't think this was a mistake."
"It was…"
"Temperance…"
"Please go Booth," Brennan's voice said with a calm he didn't think she could possibly be feeling. "It was a mistake.'
"Temperance," Booth's voice was colder than he'd intended. "If I leave now, I won't come back. I'm sorry, but I won't be able to see you every day, to work with you, and know what we could possible be…"
"I'm sorry Booth, I can't…"
"Good bye Temperance."
"Getting close Loretta," Brennan assured her. "I always do."
"Yup," the waitress agreed. "Coffee?"
"That would be perfect," Brennan requested and took a seat a table. "They aren't here yet?"
"Nope," Loretta said, "but you're actually a few minutes earlier than normal."
"First time for everything, huh?"
She was waiting for someone. Angela maybe? Or someone he didn't know at all. The thought paralyzed him. He kept his face down and studied the counter. She was almost directly behind him and he couldn't move.
"Need anything else, sugar?" The waitress that Bones had so casually called Loretta asked, surprising him out of his stupor. He shook his head no and dared to glance around his shoulder for a glimpse of the woman he was still in love with.
Yeah, he was certain he couldn't take the job.
Her brown hair was down around her shoulders, shining in the setting sun's rays. She was studying what appeared to be a case file, her long slender fingers shifting through the pages around her.
When the bell rang over the door to the diner her head popped up and he turned back around quickly. The next word he heard though caused him to turn back around without thinking.
Without the thought of what consequences revealing himself could possibly bring.
"Mommy!"
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A/N: So there is the fruit of my brain. Like I said, I'm not sure where this came from, but I've gone with it. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'd really like ya'll to take a moment to review if possible. It would make my day!