Happy New Year!
The response to "Horizon Line" and "Vanishing Point" was so great I couldn't help but want to jump into a third one. This story, like "Vanishing Point" follows the general plot of the show - in this case, season six - though obviously the characters are in a little different spot than they were in the "real" season six. Hope you enjoy my take on what could have happened! I love hearing from all of you so please drop a line and say hi to me on Twitter. I'm Thnx4theGum
Gum :)
Linear Perspective
Chapter 1: Gotta Start Somewhere
Seeley Booth leaned back in his beach chair and yawned, drinking in the sights and smells surrounding him. Stretched out in front of him was a panoramic view of the Atlantic, white-capped waves extending out as far as the eye could see. On shore, the sun's residual heat radiated up from the white sand, keeping his legs warm despite the coolness of the encroaching night. Purples, pinks, oranges, and reds blended together in the rippling clouds as the sun dipped low in the western sky.
Beside him, lay an even more beautiful sight as the woman he loved sighed gently in her sleep, her hand coming to rest unconsciously on the gentle swell of her abdomen. Her newly styled hair, pulled back in a ponytail to escape the ocean zephyrs, framed her face perfectly, reminding him of the brash young woman he'd kissed in the rain so many years ago.
His phone vibrated in the sand beside him and he stood, scooping it up and bringing it to his ear in one smooth motion, "Booth."
"Hello?" the voice on the other end spoke loudly as if she hadn't heard him.
"I'm here, Caroline," he said at his normal volume now as he entered the beach house, far away from the sleeping woman. "What's up?"
"What's up?" he pulled the phone away from his ear to shield himself from the prosecutor's roar. "You and your partner abandon decent civilization without so much as a post card for a month and you ask 'what's up?'"
"Caroline-" he started to protest, reaching for some bread to make himself a sandwich.
"I know, I know, you two decided to run away after the bad guys framed you for murder and took Dr. Brennan away while they were at it," he could almost see Caroline gesticulating wildly on the other end. "And now you're growing a baby together and that is all well and good, but we need you back in the real world again and pronto."
"What's going on?" Booth's buttered bread and the sandwich fixings were abandoned as he snapped to attention. "Is everyone okay?"
"If by okay you mean the standing and breathing part than yes," she confirmed. "But as far as the crime-solving, murderer-catching, job-keeping part goes: no."
"Cam?"
"You got it in one, Cherie," Caroline nodded, earrings clacking against the phone noisily.
Booth moved out to the porch and sank into the hammock, listening as Caroline filled him in on the situation with Cam and the missing boy. They'd heard about it on the news when it had happened, of course, but he didn't realize that the case had gone cold, or that a set of young boy's remains had been found, putting Cam under the microscope. With Hodgins and Angela still away on their honeymoon, Booth on leave, and Brennan on sabbatical, it left Cam in a tight spot and there was little or nothing she and Sweets could do without the rest of the team.
"Look, Caroline," he started, "I know what you're asking, but I don't know if we're ready-"
A soft hand rested on his arm, cutting him off, "We're ready."
B&B&B&B&B&B&B
After waking to find herself alone on the beach, Temperance Brennan made her way back to the bungalow where she and Booth had been living for the past month, curious as to what could have drawn him away. He was swinging lazily in the hammock, but his voice was all business, his focus so tight she wasn't sure he heard her come up beside him.
Caroline's voice was easy to recognize even if she couldn't make out the exact words. Catching the gist of the conversation from there was relatively easy and there was no doubt in her mind that they would go back when the question was finally raised. As she'd expected, Booth looked surprised to see her and told the prosecutor they'd let her know their plans soon before he hung up.
"Bones-"
"Shh," she pressed a finger to his lips. "Cam needs us. We're going home."
"It's not that simple," he shook his head, gathering her into his arms as he leaned back once more. "We haven't figured out how things will be sorted out at work, or where we're going to live, or when you're finally going to marry me."
She pulled away slightly and met his eyes, "Being married to you is not a prerequisite for going back to DC."
"It'd be nice to have a date," he raised a eyebrow, then shrugged. "Pops has been asking."
"You leave Hank to me," she told him.
"And what about the other stuff?" he asked gently, trailing light kisses up and down her neck.
"Hacker gave himself permission to date me, so he can't argue with our engagement, and as for our apartments," she sank back closer into him with a yawn, "we each have leases to fulfill."
Booth sensed this wasn't the time to press the apartment issue and instead settled his hands on her stomach. At twelve weeks along, only someone who knew to look would notice how much fuller she was all around and the slight raising at her mid-section. Even the people they'd gotten to know in passing over their stay didn't realize she was pregnant and the part of Booth that was extremely private loved that. He loved having a secret here that only they knew and a tiny piece of him wished that none of their families knew either.
"So how big is Bean by now?" he asked, his nimble fingers releasing the lower buttons on her blouse so that he could slide his hand against the warmth of her still-smooth skin.
She'd given up chiding him about his nickname for the baby weeks ago and he closed his eyes, allowing his fingers to rest over the little one as his partner in life and love spilled out every drop of information she had. It fascinated him that she could store all of that knowledge in her brain and recall it at the drop of a hat. He'd read all the dad books he could get his hands on back when they'd first found out, but he was lucky if he remembered the chapter titles, let alone what was inside of them.
There was a sense of wonder in her voice as she talked about how the baby's kidneys would soon begin secreting urine and his or her brain structure was now exactly the way it would be twenty-eight weeks from now when they were born. This was one of the things he enjoyed most about these moments because it not only helped him imagine what their tiny son or daughter looked like, but it helped him see the pregnancy through Brennan's eyes as well. He would challenge anyone who'd ever accused her of being cold or unfeeling to say the same after one of these sessions, which sometimes ended with a few tears leaking down her cheeks.
Tonight, though, the hormones didn't get the best of her and when she was done she announced it was high time they found something to eat.
B&B&B&B&B&B&B&B
"Why are you so reluctant to go back?" she asked, abandoning her now-empty plate to the coffee table and stretching out on the couch. "Cam is one of your oldest friends, don't you want to help her?"
"Of course," a slight scowl crossed his face as he lifted his arms to accept her feet on his lap, "But you're more important, Bones."
"Me?" she tilted her head to one side.
Finishing the last of his sandwich, he smiled tenderly and nodded, speaking softly, "Not that long ago you told me you needed a break from the violence, the crimes, the danger, and the stress of what we do, Bones. You had nightmares; you were constantly worried; and you damn near threw everything between us away after Heather Taffet's trial because it was getting to you so much.
"If," he stressed the word heavily, "we go back all of those things will still be there. Our jobs will go back to being what they always were and if you're still not ready for that, I don't wanna rush it. Especially now, with Bean in the equation."
"Bean," she couldn't help the light chuckle at the nickname, "will be fine. My body is designed to nurture and protect at this stage of development and I wouldn't do anything to put myself or our child deliberately in harm's way.
"That being said, the remainder of your concerns are also unnecessary," she smiled, attempting not to minimize his feelings on the subject. "Our time here has provided me the much needed rest and objective perspective I needed to refocus and now I want to help Cam."
"And after that?" he pressed gently.
His eyes soaked up the blue-gray of hers, catching the sliver of uncertainty they still held before her shoulders hitched up and down.
"Okay," he nodded, reaching out to take her hand. "We'll start with helping Cam and see where it goes from there."