Title: Whiskey Lullaby

Rating: T

Pairing: Booth/Brennan, implied Angela/Hodgins

POV: Angela

Summary: CHARACTER DEATH Brennan breaks Booth's heart. And finally, he gives up. What does Brennan do when he leaves her for good?

"Booth, I don't think we are working. Maybe we should just go back to being partners."

She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette
She broke his heart he spent his whole life tryin' to forget

It had been four years. Four years he'd spent going to Sid's every night, drinking his whiskey. He'd always sit in that same seat, staring at the same spot on the bar table. Sometimes, I would stay with him, just to make sure he got home okay and didn't drink too much.

We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind

But no matter how much he drank, he still remembered her. Remembered every moment they'd spent together. Every single moment. I felt so bad for him, but there was nothing I could do but drive him home and listen to him tell me of the times they'd spent together as a couple, from food fights to just lying in bed, not wanting to get up. She was nearly in tears as he told her how much he wished he wouldn't have gotten comfortable with the relationship, how maybe if he had just tried a little harder, done a little more, she wouldn't have broken up with him.

Until the night

I tried to make Brennan see reason, but she never did. She insisted that she'd moved on, and in time he would too. That they were much better off as just partner, and friends. She didn't have to see how messed up he was. He hid the fact that he was drinking from her. He was always poker faced when he came into the lab. She didn't see the sorrow behind the brown irises.

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away her memory

Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees

When I walked into his bedroom that night, to see why he hadn't gone to Sid's, I know I should have been surprised, and sorrowful. But really, I had seen it coming all along. I was sad, so sad that this had happened, but a part of me was relieved that he wasn't suffering anymore. And for a long time I wondered if that was bad, that I was relieved one of my friends was dead.

We found him with his face down in the pillow
With a note that said I'll love her till I die

I opened his clutched hand after seeing the corner of white. It was a suicide note. I sat down, tears streaing down my face as I read my friend's last moments.

To whoever finds this,

I hope to God it's not you Ange. If it is, I am so sorry I had to put you through this. I wasn't sure, at firs, if I wanted to do this, but I'm sure now. For months, I've been trying to talk myself out of it. Telling myself she wasn't worth dying over. But she is.

I can't take the pain anymore. I hate seeing Angela's pitying looks as she drove me home from the bar. I hate hearing Bones say over and over again that she'd not in love with me, but with Jake.

You'll find my will in the bottom drawer of the bed. Please follow my wishes.

I'll love her until I die.

For a long time I sat there and cried, then I finally managed to call Hodgins. He walked into the living room of Booth's living room, took one look at me and enveloped me in his arms.

And when we buried him beneath the willow
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby

They buried him beneath an old willow tree in the cemetery. I hadn't even known that it had had a willow tree.

Bren was stone faced through the entire ceremony, and didn't show up at the dinner afterwards.

Brennan sat in front of the tombstone. Everyone had left for the dinner, and she finally let herself cry for her lost love. She called Jake and broke up with him that night. It was all her fault.

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" They say she's going to be fired if she doesn't get her act straight."

"Wow, that story is so sad."

"It's all that Brennan's fault."

"He was such a good man. He didn't deserve that."

The rumors flew but nobody know how much she blamed herself
For years and years she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath.

Brennan sat in her office, nursing a bottle of whiskey. She hid it from me and the others, but I knew. I knew she can't help thinking if Booth were here, he'd know.

She drank everyday, same as Booth, and I couldn't help but fear the worst. So I drove her home every night, and tried to talk her out of drinking so much. No matter who she dated, they never matched up to the agent she had killed.

She finally drank her pain away a little at a time
But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind

She never forgot the G-Man. No matter how drunk she was, she simply repeated what Booth had once done. She talked about all the times they'd been together, couple or otherwise. And I worried so much. But I finally got comfortable that she was just drinking, that she wouldn't kill herself.

Until the night

Brennan sat on the edge of her bed, facing the wall. She looked down at the picture in her hands and smiled a little. It was from Aurora, when they had danced together. She missed those times, so much. When everything was so less complicated.

She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away his memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength she had to get up off her knees

She tried to talk herself out of it, but she couldn't. She couldn't find one good reason that she shouldn't end her life. She died clutching her favorite picture, her favorite piece of history, in one hand, a .44 in the other.

We found her with her face down in the pillow
Clinging to his picture for dear life

I entered the apartment, looking for Tempe with a strange sense of déjà vu. I made my way to the bedroom with a sense of dread and screamed. Why Tempe surprised me more, I wasn't sure. Maybe it was just losing two of my friends, each killing themselves because of the other.

We laid her next to him beneath the willow
While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby

I requested the be buried together. I think Bren would have liked that. The entire time I was clutching Hodgins, crying over the loss of my two crime fighting friends.

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