A/N: I know that everyone is writing things for the EitB, and that they don't want to be like everyone else and write some cheesy episode tag, but that is essentially what we are all doing. I swear I can hear the keyboards crunching this very moment.

While I loved the ending, I also loathed it. I was furious. Now, after clarity finally reached me, I think I see what Hart was trying to do. Throughout the past four years, we have watch these two lovely, intense, intelligent people grow. We have been there beside them all along the journey, and this is just another part of it. Things will get worse before they get better -- that's just how it goes, and we should know it by now. I do believe that things will be good for them... one day, but that doesn't mean that it will be soon.

By the way, I don't own Bones; however, I do have all three seasons on DVD.

You thought that you saw him, but no you did not
It's not him coming across the sea to surprise you
Not him who would know where in London to find you
Sadness so real that it populates
The city and leaves you homeless again

-The Park, Leslie Fiest

There were things that you had figured out, things that you now understood. And there were still things that left you feeling blind sided; as if you would never be smart enough or capable enough to ever grasp what they truly meant.

You can only think for so long until your thoughts start to go in circles. It only takes so long before you are completely lost inside the own irrationality of your mind.

It only takes so long for you to become completely delusional.

You heard him stir, but you'd thought that you'd heard it so many times before that you knew not to be hopeful. Then he stirred again. You sat up. "Booth," you asked.

For a minute, you figured he was tired, he simply needed to wake up. That had to be why something felt so... off -- that had to be why it felt so wrong.

You looked into his eyes and thought you saw recognition, so you explained what had happened. You had never been more mistaken in your life.

"It seemed so real," he had told you.

"It wasn't real," you replied. Although you had no idea as to what he was referring, you knew you were right. This was real, of that you were certain.

You had also been certain that metaphors were completely arbitrary. You could rarely understand them, and when you did, they seemed so ephemeral.

Well, you had believed it until you felt your heart literally rip inside your chest.

"Who are you?"

That was a good question. Who are you, really? Reality was something you wished you could deny. Who you were depended on what he thought of you, and now, neither of you were certain of the answer to that question.

"Booth..." You were at a loss for words.

You had been left behind by those whom you cared for too many times. You had been lonely for too long. You had been so stupid. You wasted so much time.

And now, the one person who said they would stay forever could, but wasn't the same.

Yes, the man you lay in front of you was Booth, but he wasn't Booth. He was neither your partner nor your best friend. He was not your knight in standard issue FBI uniform.

He wasn't the man who traveled the world with you. He wasn't the man who saved you time and time again. He was not the partner that gave you little figurines that sat on your shelf. He wasn't the best friend who understood where you came from.

But worst of all, he wasn't yours.

He might never be.

That was the worst realization of all.