When two people tell each other, "One year from today, we meet at the Reflecting Pool," then you have an idea how their story will end. A year from today, a man in Army fatigues will stand at the pool, his face worn and weary, but filled with hope, and he will look towards a woman approaching him, a woman with fair skin bronzed by a year under open skies. Her face will light up as she sees him, and she will quicken her pace, and he will start running, and they will meet halfway and embrace and cling to each other and laugh and cry and never let go. The camera will slowly zoom out, and you will know it's the end of the story because all happy stories end with a beginning.
But this is neither the end, nor the beginning, but the convoluted middle of the story, and the woman with fair skin and sun-bleached hair at the Reflecting Pool is looking towards a man in jeans and a blonde young woman approaching her. The man looks worn and weary, and his expression is tense, but he still smiles when he reaches the woman at the pool, and she smiles back and embraces him. He tells her he's happy to see her again, and he means it, and then he takes the hand of the blonde woman at his side and says, "Bones, I'd like you to meet Becky Richards, my fiancée."
It had been so easy to fall in love with her.
He didn't know how to deal with it, because nothing in Booth's life has ever been easy, but she pushed past his barriers with no more effort than it takes the rays of the sun to shine through the bars of a prison window. He felt like a deer caught in the headlights, but soon wanted nothing but to bask in her warmth and let her chase away the chill that's a constant ache in his heart. She's a journalist, freelancing around the world wherever there are stories to tell. She may have seen more death and destruction in her life than he has, but the stories she tells him have nothing to do with death, she's all life and laughter and dirty jokes that shock his Catholic sensibilities. She's brave – has to, if she made her way into this hellhole of a country – but not reckless, she listens when people tell her things, and she cares about the people whose stories she tells.
He was in love with her before he knew what was happening, and although training killers in the middle of a war left him hardly any time to spend with her, he felt more alive during those moments than he had in what felt like years. As the day drew closer when he was bound to go back to the life he had put on hold a year ago, he found that he couldn't imagine going without her. Two days before his flight back home, he asked her to come to DC with him and marry him. She laughed at him and called him a hopeless romantic, but she still said yes.
And now he's here, his heart in his throat, and watches Bones and Becky shake hands and smile politely at each other. He's nervous as hell, but Bones seems calm, if a little surprised. She still looks like the woman in his memory, a bit thinner maybe, but leaner too, her porcelain doll appearance hardened around the edges. He used to be able to read her quite well, but now he has no idea what she's thinking, and he feels a small pang of regret at the thought that she too may have changed beyond recognition during the past year. But then she smiles at him and tells him she's happy for him, and she sounds like she means it too, and Booth finds he can finally breathe again.
It's strange to settle back into what used to be his old life and yet feels so new. Booth cleared out his place when he left for Afghanistan, so he and Becky find an apartment that suits them for now – they're agreed that they'll look for a bigger, permanent home in a greener area once they have children. Becky wants them, but says there's no rush because she's only 31, and it will be a few years before the ticking of her biological clock becomes deafening. Booth too is content to wait, since a part of him is still busy catching up with everything that happened during the past year, but sometimes he looks at her and wonders what it will be like to see her holding their baby, and he has to kiss her right then and there because he's so happy that he doesn't know what to do with himself.
Things aren't quite so bright when she's away, which is often given her line of work. Booth has lived alone for years, and it never bothered him before, but now the silence in the apartment weighs down on him when she's not around, and he has trouble falling asleep at night when he doesn't feel her warmth next to him. She makes up for that when she's back, though – she's just as playful and affectionate in her lovemaking as she is with everything else she does, and Booth doesn't think he has ever laughed so much in bed with any other woman. Then again, there has never been so much laughter in his life at all as there is now, and sometimes he feels like stopping and pinching himself because he still can't quite believe it's all real.
He takes Becky with him when he goes to see Pops, and the old man is nice and polite towards her, although he doesn't fail to inform Booth she's all wrong for him the next time they talk on the phone. Booth takes it in stride, since Pops never liked any girl he brought home, so the world would probably tumble off its axis if he started now. Parker seems a little wary around her as well, but Booth knows that his absence must have been tough for the boy, and tries not to push too hard. Becky understands, and assures him his son will come around once he realizes that his dad doesn't love him any less because of the new woman in his life.
Afghanistan is still with him, but he's had a lot of practice in dealing with that kind of thing. Sometimes, when he's not on his guard, he finds himself thinking of all those boys – he can't think of them as men, God, was he ever that young? – he helped turn into more efficient killers, and he wonders how many of them will come back as messed up as he was, if not in caskets. He knows that it means more blood on his hands, even though he's no longer the one pulling the trigger, but the nightmares he used to have back then don't return. He isn't sure how he feels about that, whether it means he's finally losing his grip on humanity just like Sweets insinuated once, but there's no way he'd ever bring it up around that kid of a therapist who probably hasn't seen a spatter of blood in his life. He has it under control, he's sure of it – just like his hands no longer itch for a deck of cards to take his mind off the images in his memory. Perhaps it's because Becky is the biggest gamble he ever took, and now that he finally ended up winning he doesn't need the rush of the game any more.
Returning to his old job seems like the easiest part of all – they gave him back his old position at the Bureau (nothing like going to war for your country if you want your bosses to forgive you a year of absence, he thinks with just a tad of cynicism), Jeffersonian liaison included. The squints welcome him back without much fuss – Cam gives him a hug and tells him she's happy he's still in one piece ("You're getting too old for this kind of shit, Seeley"), Hodgins is busy reacquainting himself with his bugs after a year in Paris, where they obviously don't have them, and seems hardly aware that Booth was away at all. It's just Angela who gives him the silent treatment, but considering that she's in her last trimester and moves with the grace of a beached whale, he's willing to cut her a lot of slack because he still remembers how Rebecca went hormone-crazy during the last months of her pregnancy.
It's Bones, however, who really makes him believe that the fates are finally done taking shots at him. It's like they erased the last year of their partnership, when all that soul-baring and heartbreak left them reeling off center until they no longer knew how to deal with each other, how to hold on to their precious connection without clinging too tightly and leaving bruises. He can't help thinking that she was right to force them apart for a year – not only did it leave him with Becky, it also gave him back his partner, and it's only now that he can safely admit to himself just how desperately he missed her.
He's tense around her during their first new case, but she seems so comfortable with him that he soon finds himself relaxing. The painful awkwardness that used to poison each second they spent together before she left is gone, and they can once again talk and laugh and argue like they used to before he ruined it all by forcing his convoluted feelings on her. With that in mind, he holds himself a little apart at first, but after just a few weeks his hand is once more at the small of her back when they're walking side by side, and it's so natural that he doesn't even notice it for a while.
Two months after his return, they get into their first real squabble during a car ride back from a crime scene when Bones scoffs at his remark that his St. Christopher's medal kept him safe in yet another war. They end up bickering about the value of religion (or superstition, as she calls it) and the effectiveness of blessings and prayers until they're back in DC, and when he drops her off at the Jeffersonian, Booth feels truly normal again for the first time since he woke up from his coma. She's almost out of the car when she turns back and asks him whether Becky is religious, and he answers her truthfully that she isn't, but respects his beliefs as part of her general 'live and let live' approach that he likes so much about her. Bones smiles and tells him he's lucky to have her, and Booth thinks that right now he may indeed be the luckiest bastard to ever walk the earth.
He told Becky about Bones, of course – about the whole fucked-up mess that used to be their relationship, because not only has she a right to know, he needs her to know and understand. She'd guessed half of it already when she jokingly asked him, back when they first sat down together for a drink, what kind of girl problems he was running away from since the reason behind a man his age going back to the Army could only be a woman. She'd clearly expected to hear about a divorce or a bad break-up, but she took his story in stride (and the fact that he was able to tell her was his first indication that he was falling for her, and falling hard). He wasn't quite sure how she would feel about the fact that he's working with Bones again, but she's fine with it – she tells him she understands the importance of partnership and friendship, and that she's glad he and Bones have worked out their issues. He feels humbled by her trust in him, and her easy acceptance of his messed-up past.
He had no idea what to expect of Bones' reaction to his wife-to-be, but it seems that she's genuinely happy to see him in a stable relationship. She doesn't mention Becky often – there are none of the prying questions she used to needle him with while he was dating Tessa or Catherine (he figures Cam was different, because he has to admit that she had a right to know whether he was doing her boss). She never questions the new limitations on the time they spend together (he can't very well show up at her place with takeout at eleven p.m. while Becky is waiting for him, after all); sometimes she even admonishes him to go home when they're working too late.
It's only Sweets who seems a little too interested in qualifying Becky's impact on their work relationship, and Booth is greatly pleased by the way Bones puts the boy in his place when he starts prodding. Their partnership is intact, much more so than it used to be before the year apart, and Booth doesn't feel sorry for Sweets in the slightest when Bones tells him in her iciest tone that he has no business sticking his nose into anything beyond that. When Sweets tries to insist, she reminds him calmly that he gave up on his fiancée at the first sign of trouble, which means he's hardly in a position to offer her partner unsolicited relationship advice. Booth winces a bit in sympathy when Sweets turns pale, but he still squeezes her hand and whispers "Thanks there, Bones" into her ear when they walk out of Sweets' office. She smirks a little, and he hopes for Sweets' sake that the boy learned a lesson today.
Booth asks Becky to accompany him to the Christmas party at the Jeffersonian; he figures it's time she faces the Squint Squad. Becky isn't overly fond of detailed work-related discussions, and while that suited him just fine in Afghanistan, he figures he wants her to have at least some idea of what he actually does at his current job. He's pleased when she readily agrees, and he can tell that she makes quite an impression with the squints. He isn't surprised, of course – Becky is a people person, and easygoing enough to get along with almost everyone. Even Angela warms up to her when Becky ohhs and ahhs over her latest batch of baby pictures (he knows she isn't just doing it out of politeness, too, since Becky loves children), and after her third eggnog, Cam pinches his cheek and tells him that he and Becky look really cute together. Bones asks her questions about the customs of the Afghan population and seems genuinely interested in what Becky has to say.
Bones arrived at the party with a sleazy-looking guy whom she introduced as a colleague from the Archeology department, and who keeps pawing at her in a way she doesn't seem quite comfortable with. Booth isn't stupid enough to interfere, of course – he knows that she can take care of herself, and sure enough, halfway through the evening he spots the guy in a secluded corner with a clearly visible handprint on his left cheek while Bones stalks away with flashing eyes. Booth pulls her aside and tells her "Atta girl, Bones", which dissolves her angry frown and gets him the grin he was hoping for, even though it's accompanied by an eyeroll.
He can tell that Becky was quite taken with Bones, too – on the way home, she keeps bringing up their conversation about Becky's impressions of Afghanistan and Bones' recent work in Indonesia. "Dr. Brennan told me that it was one of the most fascinating projects she has ever worked on, but that she's still glad to be back at the Jeffersonian," she says, and Booth smiles to himself and thinks that he's glad too. "They liked you", he tells her, and Becky laughs and informs him she promised Hodgins to bring back a bug for him from each of her trips abroad from now on.
Life isn't all laughter and happiness, though, and he's forcefully reminded of that when Bones' sick little stepniece dies unexpectedly two days after Christmas. Bones doesn't talk about it much, but he knows her well enough to see that she's hurting – she was planning to spend the New Year with her brother and his family, but now she'll be making the trip for the funeral. Booth thinks about it for all of three seconds before he offers to accompany her, and even though she protests at first, he sees how relieved she is that she won't have to go by herself. He isn't worried that Becky might not understand – she knows that Bones is his friend, and that you don't leave friends to fend for themselves at such a difficult time.
He stands next to her when the small white coffin is lowered into the ground. She isn't crying, but he can tell that she's glad he's here even though she would never have asked him to come. She wouldn't have reached out towards him during the service either, but clung to him tightly as soon as he took her hand. She doesn't want to stay with her family afterwards, claiming that Russ and Amy already have her father staying with them and that she's no good at consoling grieving parents. So he takes her home and accompanies her back to her apartment, even though he hasn't set foot in it since the Gravedigger trial. Just as he expected, her brave façade finally crumbles in the safety of her own place, and he holds her and lets her cry into his shoulder until she finally pulls herself together and reminds him that he should be heading home.
It's almost midnight when he comes home, and Becky is asleep, but she wakes up when he slips into bed with her. He apologizes for his lateness and tells her he didn't want to leave Bones alone at a time like this, and she gives him a sleepy smile and murmurs, "You're a good man, Seeley Booth" as he leans in to kiss her goodnight. He lies awake for a long time after she's gone back to sleep; he can't help pondering how frighteningly short life can be and how he has almost begun to forget this after just a few months of love and laughter and happiness.
The next morning, he tells Becky that he wants to set a date for the wedding.
They settle on the first Saturday in March. Becky wants a small, private ceremony, claiming that neither of them has the time for extensive wedding preparations. Booth is fine with it, although he suspects that she just wants to avoid inviting her mother who married a man Becky despises after Becky's father died. In the end, her guest list consists of a few old friends and a cousin she's close with; on Booth's side, it'll be his son, his brother, and his grandfather plus Bones and the Squint Squad. He briefly considers inviting Sweets too, but then decides against it because he doesn't want to get his wedding dissected during their next therapy session.
Jared asks, "What's the rush, big brother? Got another girl pregnant?" when Booth invites him, and Booth has to fight the all-too-familiar urge to smack him. Instead, he shuts him up by pointing out that he's already known Becky longer than Jared knew Padme when he married her. He asks Jared to stand up with him because in spite of everything, Jared is family and Booth still feels bad about missing his brother's wedding while he was in Afghanistan. Pops grumbles when Booth delivers his invitation over the phone, and he informs Booth that he'll probably get a heart attack from seeing his grandson at the altar with the wrong woman. Booth sighs and does his best not to let it get to him; he doesn't tell Becky about it, of course, but he ends up telling Bones who reminds him that Pops is an old man who's used to seeing things his way. She doesn't say anything anthropological about marriage when he invites her, either, and he's grateful for that.
They have their first huge row in January when Booth misses the appointment for his half-yearly post-tumor checkup. He's already had to reschedule twice because he's just too swamped with work, and even though Bones reminds him several times, he forgets the third one completely. Bones nags him for half an hour when she finds out, and he finally gets cranky and asks her to mind her own business. Her expression tightens, and he feels a bit guilty since he knows that she's only trying to look out for him, but every last shred of remorse evaporates when he comes home that evening and is faced with the fact that Bones called Becky and told her.
What follows is loud, and rather ugly; he's mad at Bones for ganging up on him with his fiancée, Becky is mad at him because she had to learn from his partner that he isn't taking care of his health like he should. "I thought you wanted me to be your wife, not your widow, Seeley," she snaps, and if he wasn't so angry he'd probably admit that she has a point. He is angry, though, and slams the door behind him when he leaves for Bones' apartment to yell at her too. Bones doesn't yell back, but informs him coolly that he should stop behaving like a child if he doesn't like people treating him like one before she throws him out on his ass.
He cools off a little on his way home, and does a bit of groveling once he arrives since he realizes he let things get out of hand. He feels somewhat humiliated by Becky's insistence to accompany him to his new appointment, but in the end he's rather glad of her presence because his tumor-related experiences have left him with a deep-seated loathing of hospitals. He gets a clean bill of health, and things return to normal when he promises Becky he won't jeopardize their future together like that again. He means it, too, especially now that those thirty, forty, maybe fifty years of love and happiness are no longer just a dream, but a very real possibility.
Booth may have gotten the memo about taking better care of himself, but it seems that Bones hasn't. A year without having him around to be her gun has left her more reckless than she's been in a long time; she often reminds him of the woman he met seven years ago, the one who punched federal judges and shot murder suspects before they could set her on fire. More than once she ignores his admonition to hang back when things get too dangerous, and her luck finally runs out when they're chasing a suspect through the slush of early February in one of the seedier parts of the city. She's so intent on catching the guy that she pushes forward without checking the surroundings, and Booth notices a split second too late that there's a second guy lying in wait for them with a gun. It's too late to dive for cover, so he does the only thing he can: he barrels into her, pushing her to the ground and landing on top of her to get between her and the bullet. He's lucky that the guy is a lousy shot and only ends up nicking his left shoulder before Booth returns fire and finishes him.
It's probably the adrenaline, but at that moment there's none of the sickening feeling that usually accompanies each killing shot he fires. He tells himself the guy tried to kill Bones and got what was coming to him, and besides, he doesn't have time to worry about it since they still have their original perp to catch. However, their suspect ends up getting away, and Bones finally turns her attention towards Booth and notices his blood-soaked sleeve. He tells her it's nothing, but she wrestles the car keys from him and insists on driving him to the ER. He indulges her and lets the doctors patch him up; it's really not much of an injury, although it stings like a bitch.
Becky turns pale when she comes home in the evening and sees him with a fresh bandage, and although he assures her that he'll be right as rain in a couple of days, she seems more shaken by the incident than she should be. He knows it must seem like a cruel irony to her that he survived a year in a war zone without so much as a scratch on him only to get shot back home, but it's something she'll have to accept because no matter how much he loves her, he just isn't the kind of guy who could ever be happy at a desk job.
She clearly doesn't like it when he tells her just that, but she doesn't say anything about it and asks him instead to tell her what happened. He does, although he leaves out the part where he thought Bones should have let him go ahead, but Becky isn't stupid. "You took a bullet for her?" she asks in a strangely choked voice, and Booth has to explain again that partners have to look out for each other and keep each other's backs during dangerous situations. Yet she still won't let him off the hook; she reminds him how he always told her to keep her head down in Afghanistan because he was worried about her, and he patiently reminds her that it's not the same because she's a civilian, while the risk of getting shot at was and is part of his job description. She asks him waspishly whether taking stupid risks is part of his job description too, and his own temper rises when he snaps back that he doesn't see anything stupid in trying to save his partner's life. He manages to calm down before things get out of hand, though; he knows she's just worried about him, and his slip-up with the doctor's appointment (which, okay, was a stupid thing to do) must still be fresh on her mind.
She has calmed down too by the time they go to bed, and Booth does his best not to let her notice that he's in quite a bit of pain now that the shots they gave him at the hospital have worn off. His prior adventures with Vicodin have left him wary of painkillers, so he grits his teeth and resigns himself to a sleepless night while Becky dozes off next to him. It's already getting light outside when he finally falls asleep from sheer exhaustion, but at least it's Saturday, which means he'll get a chance to sleep in.
Becky isn't home when he wakes up shortly before noon, but it doesn't take long before she returns with a bag full of groceries. She still seems downcast, but Booth figures she'll get over it, and he's grateful that she doesn't mention the incident any more after asking whether his shoulder still hurts. Bones, too, acts a little subdued around him when he returns to work on Monday; he hopes it means that she's got a guilty conscience, which might make her think twice before putting herself in unnecessary danger in the future.
On Valentine's Day, Booth gives Bones a box of fancy Swiss chocolates. He's never given her a Valentine's Day present before because the holiday is too fraught with meaning, but he figures it's alright now that things are finally clear between them. Besides, he's got the feeling that she's still blaming herself for getting him injured, and he wants to make her understand that they're okay as far as he is concerned. Bones rolls her eyes at him and gives him a lecture on holiday-related consumerism, but she still opens the box while they're on their way to a crime scene, and between the two of them they've polished off most of the chocolates by the time they arrive.
In the evening, he returns home with a bunch of red roses, and Becky bursts into tears and tells him she's calling off the wedding.