A few weeks ago, I mentioned in 'Roots and Wings' that there was a continuity error in that story and if someone figured out what it was, I'd write something based on a prompt of their choosing.' Chosenname' took on the challenge of slogging through all of those chapters, bless her heart, and found my mistake. The first prompts she gave me involved chapters for R&W that I already have planned but just haven't written yet and since that didn't seem quite fair to her, I asked her for another prompt.

So she gave me this: "What if Hannah had said yes?"

Ouch. And OUCH. With the benefit of hindsight I no longer hate Hannah as much as I did (and definitely not as much as I do certain other stupid fucking characters ::cough::MamaBooth::cough::) but still . . . Ouch. This one is going to hurt before it gets better.

It will get better, though, and there will be a happy ending because, hello? Me. The queen of fluff and cotton candy, the one whose stories aren't real because I write about happy people living happy lives and only stories about sadness and tragedy and misery qualify as 'real.' Yes, those remarks still piss me off. Whatever. Anyway, Booth and Brennan are the end game here, as they always have been, as they always will be. I can promise you that we will get to that happy ending but first we're going to let this scenario play out. What if Hannah had said yes?

I'm sure there are already stories in the fandom based on this premise and I mean no disrespect to anyone or anything written previously. Since we're all using the same canon as source material, the unintentional duplication of ideas is bound to happen occasionally.

Chosenname, this is for you. Thanks for playing along and finding my needle in a haystack. :-) I hope this story is what you hoped it could be.

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The small velvet box burned in his pocket with enough heat to seep through his clothes and brand the square shape into his bare skin. Despite the cool temperatures of the winter evening, his palms were damp with sweat. His fingers brushed repeatedly against his coat, over the lump beneath the heavy wool, in a nervous gesture he couldn't control.

He was going to do this.

He was ready.

Booth took a deep breath and let it out slowly in an attempt to calm the nerves that were tying his guts into knots. This is normal, he told himself . . . again. A man was supposed to be nervous when he was about to propose.

You weren't nervous when you proposed to Rebecca.

He brushed aside the tiny, skeptical voice. He hadn't really proposed to Rebecca. The minute she'd said baby he'd just assumed they would get married and then launched into his plans for the future - plans which Rebecca had immediately shot down.

His head turned at the sound of laughter. A group of tourists from the look of them, taking advantage of the clear night to see the monuments under the stars. They left him in relative privacy, stopping several feet away from where he stood at the decorative concrete railing over the reflecting pool. A rapid, repeated tapping caught his attention, coming from the heel of one shoe bouncing up and down against the pavement. He brought the unconscious gesture to a halt and sucked in another gulp of cold air.

That was then and this is now and now will be different. He repeated those words to himself silently. That was then and this is now and now will be different. This time will be different.

"Hey!"

A cheerful feminine voice drew his attention away from the rippling silver reflection of the Washington Monument.

"Hey, soldier." Hannah was smiling, her blue eyes twinkling and flirtatious as she raised her face to meet his kiss. Her arms automatically looped around his neck. "You looking for a good time?"

Booth forced his shoulders to relax beneath her touch.

"Wow," he grinned back. "Look at you!" She was beautiful, as she always was. Her blonde hair hung in long, loose curls that gleamed with moonlight as they fell across the oversize collar of her coat.

She touched her lips to his again. "You didn't answer the question," she teased.

"Well, I . . ." He hesitated briefly. That was then and this is now. Ignoring one last hint of doubt, he plunged forward. "I thought I was looking for a good time but you know, the truth is that I . . . I think I'm looking for a little bit more."

Hannah drew back, her smile faltering at the serious tone of his voice. She tried to recapture the earlier light atmosphere with a joke. "Well, don't underestimate a good time!"

Booth barely heard her, so focused was he on getting his own words right that hers didn't register.

"I . . . I was going to . . . I was going to wait but . . ." The velvet box in his pocket began to throb, as if it had a heartbeat of its own. He stuck his hand in his pocket and closed his fingers hard around it. "I love you, Hannah. When I met you, I really wondered if I was ever going to meet anyone again but . . ." His jaw clenched on another thought, of another cold night, and another woman in a white coat.

Hannah gasped when she saw the box. She took a step back, physically separating herself from him.

"Seeley. Oh my God."

Booth heard the shock in her voice and stepped forward, closing the gap she'd just created.

"Marry me," he said baldly. Every random ray of light scattered throughout the area seemed to twinkle off the diamonds inside when he opened the box to reveal the ring. "I want you to be my wife."

"Oh my God," Hannah said again. Her fingers flew up to cover her mouth as tears filled her eyes. "Oh, Seeley. I love you, I really do but . . . I can't. I'm just . . . I'm just not the marrying kind."

"I am." There was an urgency to his words now, a pleading they both heard. "I am. And I want to marry you, Hannah. I do."

She shook her head. One tear escaped. "I . . . I can't . . ."

"Don't say no!" The lid closed with a snap, cutting off the sparkle from the ring when he clutched her shoulders with both hands. "Don't say no," he repeated. "Hear me out first. You . . . you didn't come all this way, back to the States . . . you didn't change jobs just to . . . to . . . to shack up with me, just because we were having a good time. And it's not just because we're good in bed, either. I love you, Hannah. I love you and I want to marry you. I want to build my life with you."

"Seeley." Hannah was staring at him with sad, regret-filled eyes. "I love you, too, I do, but I don't know how to be married. I barely know how to be in a relationship! I can't –"

"I don't either!" he blurted out quickly. "And that's okay, we can figure it out together, right?" He squeezed her shoulders hard. "I love you. Parker loves you! You know, you have the . . . the ice cream thing, and . . . and you went to the zoo and . . ." When his mind blanked, he simply babbled on. "He loves you. Just like I do. We can do this, Hannah. You and me. I can make it work! I promise!"

Their heavy breathing fell into the cold air between them in little puffs of clouds as they stared at each other. Seconds ticked away slowly in silence.

Booth swallowed hard. "Hannah."

Her reluctance was visible. "Seeley . . ."

"Do you love me?" A pulse throbbed in his jaw.

"You know I do—"

"Then say yes," he interrupted. "Say yes. Everything else we can figure out. It's not like we're getting married tomorrow, right? Just . . . just say yes now and . . . and we'll take care of the rest later. Look . . ." Booth opened the box again, took out the ring and reached for her left hand. "All you have to do right now is say yes."

The ring stopped at her knuckle. Hannah gave a watery, hiccup sob of a laugh.

"It's too small."

Booth brushed off the problem immediately. "That's okay, we can get it sized tomorrow. Just say yes. Marry me, Hannah."

Her fingers closed into a fist with the thumb pressing hard on the ill-fitting ring. She searched his eyes intently. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"I've never been more sure of anything," Booth insisted gruffly. "It will work for us, Hannah. I promise."

"Alright then." Her smile was tentative but it grew and widened when his did the same. "Yes. Yes, Seeley. I'll marry you."

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Anyone know if Costco sells big industrial-sized bottles of Pepto-Bismal? I think I'm going to need one or three.

Thanks for reading - and I'm sorry for what I'm about to put you through.