Author's note May 4, 2019: Today this story has been updated, each chapter replaced and new added. Reason is, this was my very first story and upon re-reading it eight months and some 2000 written pages later, I realised there was room for improvement.

The plot remains the same, but I have edited the language and there is more of essentially everything; more dialogue, more feelings, hotter sex - lol. This may in fact be one of my hottest stories. When reading in one fell swoop I realised there is quite much hotness going on and if you don't like a bit of smut (some of it deserve M-rating) you just have to skip those parts. Above all this is a love story though, you know I have a weakness for that.

There is more of Bones too as there are two new full chapters from his POV; Chapter 19 and Epilogue 2. However, ALL chapters are heavily edited so the story now is some 100 pages longer. It may seem a waste to put this effort into an already complete story but since this is my only full-length Bones & Georgie fic I thought it deserved as good as I got. It was also nice to revive my crush on Bones. Now I can pleased put this story aside and will not make the mistake of reading my own stories again for a while.

I have kept the original author's notes in this version. If you wish to read a clean version, it is posted as an e-book on my blog: www misspionyff wordpress com (replace space with .)

I'm on twitter under my pen name MissPiony if you wish to join me for updates or a chat.

Happy reading!

/Miss P

About the story

Are we really sure Bones died a far too early death for such a charismatic character? Nah, don't think so. This is my alternative take on Season 3.

The story begins during the Bangladesh tour at the end of episode 5, when Bones has just been blown to pieces in front of 2 section at a garden party. I was very unhappy about the turn of events, so out of pure frustration I decided to have try at writing fanfiction. I anyway always have side stories about movie characters I like running in my head, so why not write them down.

The past is basically canon.

Credits to Tony Grounds and BBC for the characters, I just let them live another life for a while here.

Chapter 1: Goodbye Bones

That evening it was dead quiet at barracks. None of the usual noisy chatter or banter was heard among the privates in 2 section, instead they all stayed together supporting each other in silence. Only Rab and Maisie were talking in low voices, and Georgie, who knew they secretly were a couple, guessed they would have liked to cuddle up close, though they were unable to here without being put up for charges or sent home for breaking Army regulations. Even Sergeant King, Kingy, moved his belongings to come and stay with the rest of the section, could not stand being alone in a situation like this.

They were still shell-shocked over the events that had passed earlier that day, could not quite believe or accept what had happened right in front of them. Their commanding officer, Captain McClyde, a.k.a. Bones, had been redmisted by an explosive device at a fancy garden party, a VIP reception in honour of their Brigadier hosted by a local general. It was like the setting where it had occurred made it all the more unbelievable. Bones had not been killed in the battlefield where it would have been less unexpected, instead the attack had taken place during a serene afternoon tea party, at an emerald green to perfection mowed Bangladesh lawn, where a string quartet only moments earlier had played classical music and 2 section, in immaculate uniforms and polished shoes had attended to the esteemed guests. Bones himself had done Her Majesty's Army proud, looking arrogantly dashing in dress uniform right before he was blown to pieces. It seemed too absurd to be true.

Georgie Lane, the section medic, was now laying on her bed still dressed in uniform as she had not bothered to change after the section's return to barracks one man short. She found it impossible to sleep despite the unusual calm in the dorm and was staring at the ceiling where a large fan was spinning round and round doing little to ease the humid heat, her thoughts drifting. As soon as she closed her eyes, Bones appeared out of her memory again and again, the way she had seen him at some distance during his last moments on this Earth. Distance which he, running like a madman, had put between himself and the other party guests when he had discovered an IED hidden in a back-pack and as by spinal reflex chosen to sacrifice his life to save them. He had stared at her, standing there in a beautiful gazebo in the middle of the lawn, explosive in his hands. Then came the inevitable violent, deafening explosion followed by thick smoke, which when it vanished revealed that there was absolutely nothing left of Bones but dust. If Georgie had not found his bloody medals now lying without owner in the grass, ripped off by the blast, nothing would had been left to indicate Bones had been among them. Nothing but his heroic deed.

What had he been thinking those last seconds? Why had he not tried to get rid of the bomb and ran the other direction? He was the last person Georgie would have expected not to have the presence of mind to act and throw the bomb as far away as he could. She thought of his quick reaction in a similar situation in Nigeria, when the timer on a Boko haram suicide vest worn by a poor girl had started ticking down. That time he had saved them all and barely seemed affected by the presence of the lethal device. Today in the garden, when his eyes had met hers those last moments, his look had not really been one of fear either, more like he wanted to tell her something. Whatever it was she would never know now.

Bones death today was not the only reason she was shaken, she admitted that to herself. Even if the setting was very different, it reminded her of another time, another man; Bones was the second man she had seen die of a bomb in little over a year. Even if she did not love this one or even liked him much, it was impossible not to grieve both over him and over Elvis. Such a bloody waste!

Bones had never allowed any of them to come close to him. He had chosen to keep to himself except when he tormented or insulted them, never socialized or partaken in the banter among the section members but stayed a distant officer. Over the months when he had been their replacement commander, since Captain James had been seriously injured during a training exercise in Belize, Georgie had been frustrated most of the time, furious at him on several occasions and even thought that she hated him every once in a while. Yet she felt strangely hollow now that he was gone. She had never wished for anything like this to happen, not to him not to anyone.

Suddenly and surprisingly it pained her when she reminisced an unexpected shared moment alone back in Nigeria. It was during that tour 2 section first came across Bones and the dislike was instant and mutual, long before he became their CO. She had been so sure he despised her, that she was completely taken aback when he one off-duty evening after driving her back to barracks from a bar, shamelessly and with a cheeky smile offered her to casually share a whiskey and his bed. She turned him down, trying to make a joke out of it and he did not seem to take the rejection hard. Bigger fish in the sea and all that, not that he said it, but she was sure he thought it, she had for sure only been a female body to him. What if she had accepted? Then another lover of hers would be dead by now instead of a fellow soldier she only knew superficially. But this was stupid, unnecessary thoughts as she had not even considered accepting at that point. She had found him attractive in a rough, impolite and annoying way, but her heart was still too filled with Elvis even for a one-night stand. Thank God for that as Bones by a twist of fate had become her commanding officer only months afterwards. It would have been totally awkward to serve under him if they had shared bed. Although he never mentioned it, she suspected he felt the same way and that he sometimes had been extra hard on her as a way to ensure her that the offer would not be repeated. As her captain he had been hard but strictly professional, not once touched her or come with inappropriate suggestions.

Georgie had never involved herself in a relationship with a commanding officer, and never intended to. Sure, Elvis had outranked her, a Special Forces captain just like Bones, but she had never served under him. She had crossed his path during a tour in Afghan and reluctantly fallen in love, but only once they were back in UK. Even if they were not in the same chain of command they had not dated until the tour was over and Elvis had had to apply all his charms and persuasion skills to make her agree to see him even then, though part of her had wanted it from the moment she met him. When she finally did date him, she had been lost of course, fallen fast and hard and for some time been the happiest she ever had been. It felt like those happy, carefree days were a lifetime away now, gone long before Elvis died.

Now her mind drifted to Captain James, who had been less professional than Bones in the aspect of crossing the line and getting too personal with someone in his chain of command. When the two of them were stuck alone in the Belizean jungle, him half delirious from pain and infection induced fever, he had made an incoherent declaration of feelings towards her. She had taken it for the gibberish of a close to dying man, but later when he was safe and sound he had sent her cryptical text messages which she had deleted without answering them. She was glad that she had made the boundaries of their relationship clear when she went to visit him in rehab in Warwickshire before going off on this tour and she had not heard from him since. Nothing would ever happen between them, over her dead body. Besides him being her superior officer, it was obvious that he and his wife, Molly, belonged together. They might be going through a rough time right now, staying together as an Army couple was not a walk in the park, but Georgie was convinced that they would make it. There was true love between them and they were fighters, she could not see them giving up on each other. She would never do anything to stand in their way and even if she respected him and loved him as a friend or a brother, she felt nothing beyond that. She and Charles James were not meant to be. Her heart still belonged to his best friend, even if Elvis' heart since long had stilled, never to beat again.

- OG -

A few days later a small ceremony was held before Bones' coffin was shipped to UK. As the medic, Georgie knew what the rest of 2 section did not; that the coffin was empty. Bones had been pulverised by the bomb to the extent that there had been nothing to put in there. In addition to 2 section, the Brigadier and some other army folks, a blonde woman and two boys accompanied the coffin. Georgie watched the crying woman and assumed it was Bones' wife and sons, feeling she had yet another reason to be thankful they had not slept together. She would have felt ashamed in this moment even if Bones would have been the cheater. Accompanied by a sad trumpet tapto, the flag covered coffin with the wrath of poppies on top was placed in a car, doors closed and that was the last any of them would see of Captain McClyde.

As they returned to barracks after the ceremony she walked next to Fingers.

"I still can't get my head around it, that he really is gone. Even if we didn't like him, it's all so sad", she said.

"I liked him."

"You did? Seriously? After he scolded you when you had tried out for the Special Forces?"

Fingers had since long nourished a dream of joining the SF, and a month ago he finally had tried out on Bones recommendation, but failed selection. Devastated and embarrassed he had returned to 2 section and joined them here in Bangladesh, but they had all welcomed him back without the usual piss-taking and let him know how incredibly pleased they were to have him among them again. However, they had all been sure that the SF officer Bones would have let Fingers know he was a sorry arse for not making it, especially as Bones was the one who had recommended him for selection.

"But he didn't. I think maybe he wanted everyone else to think that, but he did nothing of the sort. He was really supportive, tried his best to cheer me up talking about apples and oranges."

"What?"

"Yeah, told me how none of them is better than the other, just different. Said that it was great that I had tried, and I now should be proud to be here and focus on being the best I could be. It meant the world to me coming from him, to know that he was not looking down his nose at me at all. My take on Bones is that he just wanted to seem harder than he really was to push us to do our best, up our game. Think of it, we're in better shape than we ever were under Captain James' leadership. Bones was a pain in the arse, but I'm bloody sad he is gone."

They continued their walk in silence and Georgie thought it seemed like there had been more to Bones than he had chosen to show most of the time.

A memory from his last evening among them emerged from the back of her head. He had made a kit inspection, in preparation for the VIP parade next day and he had not been pleased. Cursed over Maisie's hair, Finger's breath, Rab's posture, Brains' uniform. He had ended up in front of her, staring down on her and maybe she had not been able to keep a flicker of disdain from her eyes.

"Don't you sneer at me, Lane", he had said in his deep, threatening voice, so low that only she could hear the words. "You save lives and I save lives, so I thought we were on the same side."

"We are, Sir."

She had been avoiding his gaze, looking at his pips instead but could not avoid looking up in that moment, to lock with those intensively blue eyes. His face was so close to hers that his breath made a few lose strands of her hair flutter. She had thought it strange how a situation could be threatening and at the same time almost intimate.

"When I look at you, I need to know you know what I'm saying. You will understand."

"Yes, Boss", she had said again but she had not understood what he was saying. Now it struck her as a foreboding. Had he had some kind of premonition that he would give his life for them already the next day?

She remembered the Brigadier's words just now, at the end of the ceremony and how they had made her flinch. He had said he would escort "the body" back to UK. It was tragic that this strong, courageous and vital man, who had not always been likeable but had saved many lives, now had been reduced to "the body". He did not deserve that.