The Emotions in the Departure
Rating: K+
Summary: Oneshot, set after the Beginning in the End. Different viewpoints based around the finale.
Characters: Cam, Daisy, Booth, Brennan, Angela, Hodgins, and Sweets.
Warnings: Major spoilers for the Beginning in the End. Please don't read unless you've seen the season five finale. I'd honestly feel horrible if I spoiled it for you.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bones.
A/N: I just wanted to say that I cannot wait for Show to give us the reuniting scene. I hope it's just as fluffy as the one from Harbingers in the Fountain, which still to this day is one of my favorite BB moments. :) I know there are a great number of post-finale fics and that I'm extremely late posting this, but I've had random drabbles coming to me since the season ender. Here is my contribution to that flood of fics.
The wheels have fallen off the wagon, Cam thought darkly. As she stood next to a heartbroken Sweets in the bustling DC airport, she could only liken what had just happened to a train derailing before their eyes. In slow motion, she tacked on mentally, the little voice in her head sounding almost bitter.
There had been nothing she could do to prevent it – nothing she could do to keep her team together. She had failed, and all that she could do was watch as a chunk of the Jeffersonian team boarded their respective planes and flew off to different ends of the earth.
She felt cold even though the planes had yet to leave their runways. Her throat felt tight, and an uncomfortable knot had settled in the pit of her stomach.
A whole year without her quirky co-workers and a lab full of strangers.
It was hard picturing the lab without them. There would be no walking in on Hodgins and Angela going at it when they thought that no one was looking (or perhaps when the knew someone was watching and just didn't care). There would be no more ecstatic outbursts from Daisy – which, if Cam was being honest, might not necessarily be the most horrible thing for both her sanity and hearing – or her fluffy puppy dog love with Sweets. There would be no infamous banter between Booth and Brennan, and gone with them was the center and the glue that held the team together.
That left her, a few rotating interns, and Sweets – who technically had no official liaison to the Jeffersonian. She'd be spending the next few days scouring over multiple applications for the positions of her friends, and she'd have to hire someone to attempt to do their jobs.
She felt a painful constriction in her chest at the thought of what the next year would bring. She swallowed the bitter taste that had formed in her mouth.
The heart of the Jeffersonian was gone.
Sheer excitement was the only thing that Daisy's (super-genius, if she did say so herself) mind could possibly process. This was the opportunity that she had been waiting for all of her life, and she knew that she was so lucky to have been able to snatch it.
A whole year at a groundbreaking dig with Dr. Brennan herself.
The word stoked didn't come close to describing her excitement.
Dr. Brennan, she noted, appeared anxious as well – just not in the same way. Though she rarely showed emotions (unless around those extremely close to her), Daisy would have thought that she would appear much more upbeat. She instead wore a frown on her brow and worried her hands in her lap.
Daisy had asked what the matter was only to be hushed with a brash "Not now, Miss Wick." Despite the reprimand, it didn't damper her mood in the slightest.
She wasn't hardly as bothered by the fact that this trip had just broken off her engagement to Lance as she should have been, but it was impossible to focus on any form of negativity when such a bright year loomed before her.
She couldn't contain her enthusiasm. She would have squealed again, but the last time she had done so, Dr. Brennan had sent her a beyond-threatening look. She'd contain it, at least until they got there.
Once they were on site, however, all bets were off.
Booth had managed to sneak back on base without too much difficulty, and in the end, he hadn't even been missed during his absence. He had been slightly surprised, seeing as he hadn't made a mad dash to get back to the base. On the contrary, he had stayed and watched her plane take off and had hated himself for it as the distance between them grew larger with every given second.
A whole year without his partner, his best friend, and the woman whom he loved. He was so use to her presence that it was hard to fathom a year without it.
A whole year without seeing his son. Those weeks that he had gone without seeing Parker in the past suddenly paled in comparison to what was coming. He was missing an entire year of his son's life, and his heart instantly went out to a man standing to his right, staring quietly at the photograph of which he had told Booth was of his one-week-old baby girl.
The more that everything sunk in, the more agitated he felt. How the hell had this seemed like a good idea? Suddenly, he realized that it never had. Apart from the 'white knight syndrome' – as Sweets would call his sense of responsibility of helping others – was the simple fact that he couldn't stand being left behind and having to wait for her return. He knew that his sanity would have been unable to survive working cases without her. However, now it was clear that he would be spending much of this upcoming year kicking himself in the rear for not stopping this from happening. He shouldn't have signed the documents. He should have tried harder to stop her; surely he could have convinced her somehow…
What if she came back having found the perspective she was desperately searching for, and it had nothing to do with FBI casework? How would he ever be able to go back to the way things were before he met Dr. Temperance Brennan? He shook his head. He couldn't entertain such thoughts. If he did, he'd go mad.
Leaning back heavily against the wall behind him, he released a quiet sigh and sent up a prayer to God. He asked for protection for both Bones and himself and for the strength to get him through this hellishly long year that was currently staring him in the face.
Leaving had been a whole lot easier back when he was fresh out of high school.
He sucked at goodbyes.
Had it not felt as if her heart was being crushed in a vice grip (metaphorically, of course - there is no possible way for that to happen while the human heart is still within the confines of the chest), Brennan very well could have committed murder. She was at her wits' end with Miss Wick already, and they hadn't even reached the archeological dig yet.
She struggled to swallow down the knot that had seemingly materialized in her throat. It was almost difficult to breath properly. Her stomach clenched painfully, and she fiddled with her hands in her lap.
A whole year without her partner, her best friend, and the only person she had ever fully learned to lean on and trust completely – the only person able to even make her consider the possibility of something as illogical as love to be real.
What was she doing? The opportunity that had been placed before her no longer seemed as enticing and exciting now, despite how amazingly important it was to science. She no longer felt like she had to be there, and that the perspective she had been seeking no longer seemed so important.
She missed both him and Angela already, but she feared more for Booth's safety. Hodgins and Angela were in Paris, not a war zone like Booth. What if something happened to him? She'd been down that road once, and it had been hell. Now that she was even closer to him - perhaps in love, if she knew what love felt like – how would she do without him? She knew that she'd never be able to return to the cold, closed off demeanor that he had worked so hard to pry her out of.
It wasn't until she felt the damp drip of something onto her hand that she realized the first tear had fallen. Struggling to maintain her composure, she knew she could only hold on to the promise that he would return and meet her at the coffee cart.
Never before had a year seemed so long
Angela was restless in her seat and nearly trembling in anticipation as the plane took off. Despite the hurt of leaving her friends behind – especially Bren - she had somehow managed to push it to the back of her mind and enjoy the adventure that had been placed before her. After so much death for so long, she needed a break from the morbidity of her work.
A whole year in Paris on a honeymoon with the most wonderful freaking man that she'd ever met.
She glanced to her left, and warm brown eyes met startling blue. Hodgins was watching her intently with the most genuine of smiles on his handsome face. "I love you." He said, his tone so sincere that it caused tears threatening to fall.
Reaching for his hand, she smiled with everything she had. "I love you, too."
Yes, life was grand.
Hodgins couldn't take his eyes off of Angela. She was ecstatic, and seeing her like that made his heart soar higher than the plane that they were on. He couldn't bring himself to worry about the Jeffersonian, not when she was sitting there gloriously beside of him.
A whole year in Paris on a honeymoon with the most beautiful, fantastic woman that he'd ever met.
After all the heartache she'd put him through and the pain of regret that had plagued him from not stopping her from leaving the dinner two years before, he had finally found complete, pure happiness.
He knew he couldn't be any luckier.
Sweets felt a different number of emotions, but mostly he felt deflated. How had everything gone so wrong in such a short period of time? Last week he had felt fantastic. He had had a fiancé and friends (well, he considered Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan his friends, even though he had a great habit of pissing them off). Now it appeared that he was very much alone again.
A whole year without the woman he loved. He didn't see how it would be possible to wait that long for someone, but then again he didn't see how he could move on either. He ran a hand down his face as he realized his predicament very much so mirrored the same troubles that Booth had been facing for a long time. Sweets had to give the guy props for enduring for so long because this totally sucked.
A whole year without the most interesting clients he had ever dealt with. He was sure that this was one aspect of the year away from home that they were looking forward to. As much as they complained about being forced to attend counseling, a part of Sweets knew that they enjoyed the banter both between themselves and when taking the united offense against their psychiatrist. A part of Sweets enjoyed it too, even if Booth still said that he was ten years old (was it ten, or had he moved up to twelve?).
With a heavy sigh, he collapsed into his office chair. He felt like a ten year old, not knowing what to do when his parents had broken up and flown to different ends of the earth. Defeated, he let his head fall forward and his forehead hit the desk with a thump.
Life sucked.
A/N: Review? Sorry for any grammatical/spelling errors. I don't have a beta.