What a hard challenge this was. I've tried my best to transport our favourite couple into a couple of scenes from the infamous 'When Harry Met Sally' movie. Some of it will be a little out of character but what can you do – Booth and Brennan are original. There is no other couple in the entertainment world quite like them. I hope you enjoy.
It is late at night and Booth is relaxing in bed, a copy of Brennan's new book open on his lap. He turns past the dedication having already read it a thousand times and begins to read the first page. After a couple more pages he begins to get impatient and he flicks to the last page, dying to know just how Kathy Reiches and Andy Lister solve the crime. As he scans the words on the page a smile creeps onto his face. But before he can get to the very end, his phone rings, startling him. He grabs the handset and holds it to his ear.
"Hello." He answers, his eyes still focused on the final page of the book.
"Are you alone?" Booth recognises Brennan's voice immediately, there is no need for her to announce who she is.
"Yeah I was just finishing a book." He lies, a small smile on his face as he closes the book on his lap.
"Could you come over?" Brennan asks, her voice just a little hesitant. Booth sits up straight, concerned about why she would want him to come over in the middle of the night.
"What's the matter?" he asks.
"He's getting married." Brennan states.
"Who?"
"Joe." Upon hearing the name, Booth realises just why Brennan called. She needs her best friend.
"I'll be right there." he assures her.
xxxx
A few seconds after Booth knocks on Brennan's door she answers wearing a pair of cute white cotton pyjamas. Her hair is a mess and her face is stained with tears. Fresh tears are still flowing down her cheeks.
"Hi." She tries to sound okay but her appearance and tone contradict her words.
"Are you alright?" Booth asks, now very concerned by the state she is in. He doesn't remember seeing her quite this upset before. Brennan is not one for crying.
"Come on in." Brennan steps aside to let Booth into her apartment. He closes the door behind him and follows her as she walks across the room.
"I'm sorry to call you so late." Brennan apologises.
"It's alright." Booth will never have a problem with Brennan calling him when she needs to.
"I need a Kleenex." Brennan sniffs.
"OK." Booth nods and follows her across the room.
xxxx
The pair makes their way to Brennan's bedroom where they sit down together on the end of the bed, their knees just touching. Brennan wipes her nose with a Kleenex.
"He just called me up, 'Wanted to see how you were'.
Fine. 'How are you?' Fine. His secretary's on vacation, everything's
all backed up and he's got a big case to do, blah blah blah. And I'm
sitting on the phone I'm thinking, I'm over him, I really am over him.
I can't believe that I'd ever be remotely interested in any of that.
And then he said 'I have some news'. She works in his office, she's a paralegal, her name is Kimberley." Brennan begins to cry again, raising the tissue to wipe away the fresh tears. Booth sits patiently listening as Brennan explains everything to him, his eyes focused on her.
"He just met her. She's supposed to be his transitional person, she's not suppose to be the one. All this time I've been saying that he didn't want to get married, but the truth is, he didn't want to marry me. He didn't love me." She stops talking and hangs her head, a little embarrassed at blurting everything out to Booth. She isn't sure how he does it but whenever she needs to talk about something he manages to get her to open up without pushing her too much.
"If you could take him back right now, would you?" Booth asks, looking into her eyes.
"No, but why didn't he want to marry me? What's the matter with me?"
"Aw, nothing." Booth replies. He has never been able to find anything wrong with Brennan. Even the things that might annoy others like her social inadequacies, her use of big words and her complete lack of understanding about pop culture, he simply finds endearing and a unique part of her personality.
"I'm difficult." Brennan states.
"You're challenging." Booth counters, turning a negative to a positive.
"I'm too structured, I'm completely closed off."
"But in a good way." He smiles, that patented charm smile creeping through.
"No, no, no I drove him away, and I'm going to be forty."
"When?" Booth looks confused at that statement. He's sure he knows exactly how old Brennan is and she is nowhere near forty.
"Someday."
"In eight years." He nods, knowing his initial calculations were right.
"But it's there. It's just sitting there like this big dead end. And it's not the same for men. Charlie Chaplain had babies when he was seventy three."
"Yeah but he was too old to pick them up." Brennan laughs a little at this, then begins sobbing again.
"Aw... Come here, come here, it's going to be OK. It's going to be fine, you'll see. As Booth holds her, Brennan sobs all over Booth's sweater, turning the light grey material to a deep charcoal. He looks down and smiles.
"Oh go ahead, it's not one of my favourites anyway." He raises his hand to rub her back comfortingly. "It's going to be OK, hmm? You're OK? OK." Booth leans down and gives Brennan a soft, quick kiss on the lips.
"I'll make some tea." He says.
"Booth, Booth. Could you just hold me a little longer?" she asks, hope in her eyes. Not needing to be asked twice, Booth pulls her back to him and places another soft kiss on her lips. That one soft kiss turns into more and before either realises what's happening, IT happens.
xxxx
Afterwards, Booth and Brennan lie in bed but instead of being curled up together like a couple, there is a wide gap between them. Brennan has a small smile on her face but Booth on the other hand is staring blankly into space, frankly just stunned by what has happened between them.
"Are you comfortable?" Brennan asks, breaking the silence.
"Sure." Booth replies quickly.
"Do you want something to drink, or something?"
"No I'm Ok." Booth insists.
"Well I'm going to get up for some water so it's really no trouble."
"OK, water." Booth nods. He is having a really hard time wrapping his head around sleeping with his partner.
xxxx
When Brennan returns from the kitchen she finds Booth going through her video tape index cards.
"You have all the video tapes alphabetised on index cards?" Brennan hands Booth a glass of water. "Thank you."
"Do you want to watch something?" Brennan asks, knowing Booth is more of a TV person than she is.
"No, not unless you do." He puts the cards down and turns to her.
"No, that's OK." Brennan replies as she snuggles down into bed. "Do you want to go to sleep?"
"OK." Booth replies.
When Brennan wakes in the morning she finds Booth out of bed putting his clothes on.
"Where are you going?" she asks, tugging the sheets around her and trying not to look upset that he's leaving.
"I gotta go. Gotta go home, I gotta change my clothes and then I have to go to work and so do you. But after work I'd like to take out to dinner if you're free, are you free?" he realises he is rambling and feels a little embarrassed about that.
"Yes." Brennan readily agrees.
"Right, I'll call you later." Booth says.
"Fine."
"Fine." Booth leans down and kisses her gently on the forehead. Brennan watches as he leaves the room, a disheartening look crossing her face.
NEW YEARS EVE
At a busy New Year's Eve party, Brennan is dancing to the song 'Don't get around much' with some random guy Angela introduced her to and it is clear to all those around her that she isn't having a very good time.
"I don't know why I let you drag me into this." Brennan says to Angela as her dance partner moves her across the floor somewhat clumsily. She can't help but think how easily she and Booth danced together, like they were made to be in each others arms.
xxxx
Away from the party and on his own, Booth is out walking the empty streets, his mind buzzing with thoughts about everything that has happened in the last few months.
This is much better, fresh air, I have the streets all to myself. Who needs to be at a big, crowded party pretending to have a good time? Plus this is the perfect time to catch up on my window shopping. This is good. As he walks he hears laughter and spots a happy couple. His face falls for a moment before he turns away, the pain of knowing he doesn't have that growing too much to bear.
xxxx
Back at the party, Brennan stands impatiently, trying to look interested in some joke a not so bad looking man is telling her.
"So the guy says, 'Read the card.'" He laughs. Brennan laughs too even though she does not get the joke. She quickly turns to Angela.
"I'm going home."
"You'll never get a taxi." Angela counters. She knows Brennan isn't having a great time but she doesn't want her friend to be alone at midnight.
xxxx
In the street, Booth finishes off an ice-cream and throws it in the bin. He starts to reminisce about a conversation he had with Brennan a long time ago, back when their partnership was in its infancy.
"You realise of course that we can never be friends."
"Why not?" Brennan replied.
"What I'm saying... is that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way." Booth nodded knowingly.
"That's not true." Brennan recalled the friendships she had with men, not aware that while she thought they were friends, those men had crushes on her.
"No man can be friends with a woman he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her." Booth explained.
"What if they don't want to have sex with you?" Brennan asked, not realising what Booth had actually said was that he was attracted to her and wanted to have sex.
"Doesn't matter, because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story."
"Well I guess we're not going to be friends then."
"Guess not."
Brought back to reality and realising what he needs to do, Booth begins running to the party he knows Brennan is at this evening. He has to talk to her, to set things straight.
xxxx
At the party, Brennan resolves to leave despite Angela's protestations.
"I'm going." Brennan tells Angela as she begins to push her way through the crowd.
"It's almost midnight." Angela grabs her arm to stop her.
"Well, the thought of not kissing somebody is just..."
"I'll kiss you." Hodgins grins cheekily from Angela's side.
Out on the street, Booth desperately tries to hail a cab but every driver ignores him so he keeps running, thankful for his fitness level but knowing he's probably be paying for it in the morning.
"Come one, stay, please." Hodgins asks Brennan.
"Thanks Hodgins, I just, I have to go." She pulls away.
"Oh wait two minutes." Angela begs.
"I'll call you tomorrow." Brennan assures her friend. She places a friendly goodbye kiss on Angela's cheek and turns to leave but as she does so she catches sight of Booth arriving. He looks out of breath as he scans the room, his eyes finally settling on Brennan. He quickly makes his way through the crowd to stand before her. She turns on a glare, determined not to let him twist her thoughts or words. He steps towards her and focuses his eyes on hers.
"I've been doing a lot of thinking. And the thing is, I love you." He states.
"What?" Brennan exclaims.
"I love you." Booth repeats, finding it easier to say this time.
"How do you expect me to respond to this?" Brennan asks, planting her hands on her hips.
"How about you love me too?" he asks hopefully.
"How about I'm leaving." Brennan moves to walk away.
"Doesn't what I said mean anything to you?" he asks, a little hurt by her instant dismissal of his feelings.
"I'm sorry Booth, I know it's New Years Eve, I know you're feeling lonely, but you just can't show up here, tell me you love me and expect that to make everything alright. It doesn't work this way."
"Well how does it work?" Booth asks.
"I don't know but not this way." She pouts.
"Well how about this way. I love that you get cold when it's seventy one degrees out, I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich, I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts, I love that after I spend a day with you I can still smell your perfume on my clothes and I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Years Eve. I came here tonight because when you realise you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of the life to start as soon as possible."
"You see, that is just like you Booth. You say things like that and you make it impossible for me to hate you." Brennan feels her emotions building up and tears stinging behind her eyes. "And I hate you Booth... I really hate you. I hate you." She insists before falling into his arms and kissing him reminiscent of a scene from a classic movie like 'When Harry Met Sally'. As they kiss the traditional New Years song, Old Lang Syne, begins to play.
"What does this song mean? For my whole life I don't know what this song means. I mean, 'Should old acquaintance be forgot". Does that mean we should forget old acquaintances or does it mean if we happen to forget them we should remember them, which is not possible because we already forgot them!?" Booth asks, not really sure why he even brought it up.
"Well may be it just means that we should remember that we forgot them or something. Anyway it's about old friends." She leans in and captures his lips for another long passionate kiss.