I guess the first chapter was a bit strange on its own, so here is the next part. I really hope you'll take time to review, just a few words to let me know what you think would be sooo great. Me being quite new to this, I feel it's important to get your openions. The song-inspiration for this chapter is of course My Immortal by Evanescence.

Chapter 1 - My immortal

Temperance looks down at the picture in the paper. A smiling Seeley Booth looks back at her. She closes her eyes, and pushes the paper aside. Sure, they hadn't been able to get hold of her for a comment. She silently shakes her head, just as good, she has nothing to say, what she knows, she just can't tell….

The picture from the article fades in her mind, and is replaced with another picture. A not so happy face, eyes filled with tears and pain. The way he looked the last time she ever saw him. Her secret, the one she's been carrying alone all these years.

What nobody knows is that Seeley came to see her before he left for Europe. He had been close to a complete breakdown. The preassure from his new employer, on top of the ever present guilt from not being able to save Parker was crushing him. They had sat down by her kitchen table and talked for hours, really talked, for the first time in months. Eventually he had found the courage to tell her exactly how he felt. He loved her! The first few months after Parker died he had been like a zombie, the only person he had managed to talk to was her. Slowly he had been able to start collecting the pieces of his broken existence, and the only reason he was able to do this, was her. She became the most important part of the newfound foundation of his life, and he got scared.

Seeley had come back, terrified of becoming even closer to Temperance, believing that if he kept his distance he wouldn't get hurt when he lost her, because he was certain that he would eventually loose her, as he had with most people he held dear. He kept pushing her away, trying to ignore the frustration and despair in her eyes. What exactly had made him wake up, he didn't know, but one day he just realised that without Temperance he was nothing. It was better to have loved and lost, than not to have allowed himself to love at all. She was the only person who really knew him, who read him like an open book. She was the only one who had been there through the worst time of his life, the time he wasn't even able to find comfort in his own parents.

Temperance had listened to him, tears in her eyes. How long she had been waiting to hear him say those words, that he loved her. He wanted to share his life with her, just as much as she wanted to be with him, for real! Before she knew what he was doing, he was down on one knee in front of her. What he said next had been tattooed on her mind ever since: "Tempie, my love for you is eternal, you are my one true love, the one I've been looking for all my life. Would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?" She had totally lost the ability to speak. All she could do was stare with an open mouth, at the antique golden ring in his hand. The inscription had read "Forever is for good. Your Seeley"

Her silence made him get up, not daring to look her in the eyes anymore. He had moved in to kiss her, and then left her with the following words: "This is our secret. All I ask of you is to think about my proposal until I get back." Temperance could still feel the burning sensation of his lips on hers. She had immediately known what her answer would be, there was only one answer to his question. Temperance loved Seeley, just as much as he loved her, she might have tried to deny it from time to time, but now she didn't have to anymore.

And then he disappeared. Temperance had been on vacation and had to read about it in the paper, nobody had bothered to inform her. For two months she didn't leave her apartment. Her brother and friends had tried their best to help her, but there was no way they could even start to comprehend her sorrow, and how could they? All they knew was that the contact between herself and Seeley Booth had been almost non-existent after he came back to work.

Exactly when the dreams started to haunt her, she didn't remember, but every night was the same: She's walking along an unknown street, the twilight half covering the outlines of the many buildings she passes. Then she hears his voice: "Come, my only love! I'm waiting for you!" A familiar figure appears out of the darkness in front of her, Seeley. She starts running after him, but always wakes up just as she reaches him, and is about to put her hand on his arm to turn him around. Temperance always wakes up crying, feeling totally abandoned.

It's obvious that both Seeleys friends, and now even his familiy have given up on him, they have started talking about him in past-tense. They believe he's dead. But he isn't! She just knows, deep in her soul she knows he's out there somewhere. He would never leave her like this! Temperance carries his ring in a chain around her neck. Placing it on her finger would lead to far too many questions. Besides only Seeley himself can complete the pact between them, he must be the one to put the ring in its rightful place.

Temperance has changed dramatically since Seeley disappeared. Her state of mind has darkened in a way. She finds comfort in her work, and spends the day, seemingly happy, with her colleagues, but when the day is done, she goes home, alone. All these years she has managed to stay strong, to keep her feelings to herself, but the newspaper article had ripped open the wound once again. There was only one way to close it, Temperance knew what she had to do.

Lifting the newspaper, she revealed a small brochure "Discover Rumania", and a plane ticket. She had to go, she knows she won't be able to find any peace before she finds him.

That night the dream is even more intense, and Seeleys voice even more urgent: "I'm waiting Tempie!"

"I'm so tired of being here

Suppressed by all my childish fears

And if you have to leave

I wish that you would just leave

Your presence still lingers here

And it won't leave me alone

These wounds won't seem to heal

This pain is just too real

There's just too much that time cannot erase

When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears

When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears

And I've held your hand through all of these years

But you still have all of me"