One year. Twelve months. Three hundred and sixty-five days. That was the amount of time that Booth had spent away from the United States. He had spent it all in Afghanistan, training the next generation of soldiers to find insurgents to bring in and question. Of course, he had done his fair share of work in the field, but he was mostly there to train the younger guys to do his job so he wouldn't have to. Booth had taken his mid-tour leave around seven months in and gone back to DC for two weeks to spend with Parker, but he didn't dare go near the Jeffersonian. He knew she wouldn't be there anyways, so there was no point in going. So, he'd spent his leave with his son doing father/son things that he knew he would miss when he went back over. Parker had started hockey this year, under Rebecca's permission and insistence that he be properly taught, so Booth showed him how to skate and use the stick at the same time. He was proud of his son and couldn't wait to come home to him for good. The remainder of his leave had been spent visiting with people, including his grandfather at his retirement home and Cam at the diner. Just before leaving, he went and paid a visit to Zack at the insane asylum. It was a good visit and Booth remembered why he liked the kid so much.

The remainder of his tour, Booth went in and out of war zones, taught rookies how to shoot like a sniper, and finished up the training of his original guys. He had no communication with the outside world, other than the occasional video chat session with Parker. Everyone else, he figured, wouldn't want to see this world or side of him. Angela and Hodgins were in Paris, living in newly wedded bliss. Cam had her hands full at the Jeffersonian working with some other forensic anthropologist trying to do Bones' job. Bones was in Maluku with Daisy tracking down the evolutionary track or something like that. Booth didn't actually understand what Bones was off doing on the other side of the world. He just knew that she wasn't in DC and she sure as hell was not in Afghanistan with him. But they had made a promise to each other. They were going to meet at that coffee cart by the reflecting pool. Everyday he thought about those last few moments he had spent with her, saying goodbye before she left. Part of him hadn't wanted to leave. He had wanted to stay, but knowing that she hadn't felt the same for him gave him the courage he'd needed to step away.

He thought of Bones all the time, even if he didn't really want to. She permeated his thoughts all through the day and at night during his dreams. However, he knew that she was the only thing getting him through this deployment, aside from Parker. There were times when he entertained the thought of being with her as a couple, even if he knew that was an impossibility. Bones had made that absolutely clear when she told him that she couldn't change. He had told her then that he would have to find someone who would love him in thirty or forty years, but the truth was that there was no one else. There was no one for him aside from Temperance Brennan. He had fallen in love with her many, many times over. For all of her social awkwardness and inability to relate to most people on a non-academic level, he could see the best parts of her that could. She was everything to him that he never knew he wanted. After the disaster with Rebecca, he never thought he'd find himself wanting to marry someone else again, but Bones was different. He wanted to all along and after his coma and dream, he allowed that feeling to grow stronger into his conscious mind. But she hadn't wanted it.

As Booth finished his last few weeks of deployment, he wrapped up the training and gave his guys field tests, which they all passed with flying colors. Booth was done. This was what he had come to Afghanistan to do and he had served his country once again and for the last time in the Army. He was honorably discharged, again, from the Army and given the clear to go home. As fast as he could, Booth packed his bags and was on the first flight out of Afghanistan heading toward the United States of America. The flight was long and dull, but Booth was just happy to be going home. He slept through most of the flight, dreaming of the life he wanted to have once he came back. A life worth living that he had once dreamed about before. It was a version of the dream he had once had before, where he and Bones were married. Only this dream was different in the sense that their baby had already been born and they retained their current jobs. A little girl they named Christine Elizabeth Booth, after Bones' mother and his grandmother. But it was only a dream.

It wasn't too long after the dream ended that Booth was being woken up by one of the flight attendants to tell him that he was home. He sat up in his chair and gathered his things before the plane landed. After getting off the plane, he headed toward customs and showed them the military ID that got him back into the country without any problem. That along with the fact that he was wearing camouflage clothing helped. Once he was through security and retrieved his bags, he was greeted by the biggest surprise of them all. A smaller body hit him in the back and he felt two smaller arms wrap around his waist.

"DAD!" a voice cried from behind him, which he immediately knew as Parker's. "You're home! You're home! You're really home!"

Booth turned around and hugged his son tightly, looking up to see Rebecca standing not too far behind. He mouthed a silent 'Thank you' to her before looking down at his son.

"I'm really home buddy," he said.

"I have so much stuff to show you Dad!" Parker cried excitedly. "I can almost do a slap shot now for hockey and I got picked for pitcher for baseball this year and Mom bought me this airplane we have to put together!"

"Whoa, slow down there Hoss," he said, laughing. "You'll definitely have to show me the slap shot soon and that airplane. Did your mom record any of your baseball games where you were pitching?"

Parker nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, she recorded nearly all the games so you could watch when you got back."

"Well we'll just have to watch them all back at my place when I have you for a weekend…we'll get Mexican food and pig out. Sound good?" he asked.

"Yeah!" Parker smiled and agreed happily before adding, "And we can make milkshakes…if you don't break the blender this time with frozen candy pieces."

"Oh that was one time…and if I remember correctly, you thought it was funny when the ice cream went flying all over the apartment…and me." Booth looked at his son with a knowing look, arching one eyebrow with a smile.

"It was funny!" Parker started to laugh.

"Alright, let's get my stuff and we can get out of here," he said.

Parker nodded and grabbed a bag before taking off, still in sight of his parents as Booth approached Rebecca. He was thankful to her in many ways for bringing Parker to come pick him up from the airport. Over the years, they had come to some mutual understanding about their son and found a friendship they could both handle. Booth still remembered the early years when he barely saw his son because Rebecca wouldn't allow him to take him for longer periods of time than a few hours. But now he got to take Parker on the weekends most of the time and hang out with him during the summer and holidays more.

"Thank you Rebecca," he said quietly.

"You're welcome Seeley," she replied, giving him a hug to welcome him home.

Parker zoomed in and around his parents happily as they started to walk out of the airport to the car.

"Seeley, I think you should take Parker for a week sometime," Rebecca said as they walked across the parking lot.

Booth was slightly stunned for a moment. She'd never let him take Parker for that long ever before. He wondered what was so different now or if something had happened in her family. Quizzically, he looked at her as he put his luggage in the car trunk.

"I think it's important that he spends time with his father and you've been deployed for a year," she replied, getting in. "I've thought about that a lot while you were gone and I want him to start spending more time with you. You're a good man and a good father, so I think you deserve that right."

"Thank you," he said, not knowing what else to say as he got in the passenger side of the car.

Rebecca and Parker dropped him off at his place where he was able to deposit his luggage and change out of his uniform into a normal pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He checked the clock and saw that he had a few minutes to spare before he would have to leave for the reflecting pool. The FBI had already dropped off his SUV in the parking lot and left the key with the landlord, which he would pick up on the way out. Looking around, he knew that he was home. He was really home. His thoughts drifted to Bones again, knowing he would see her in less than an hour's time. This was what he had been preparing himself for during the last half of his deployment. Coming home and seeing her after they'd parted ways with so many unanswered feelings. She had said that she couldn't change, but the look in her eyes told him that she didn't want him to go to Afghanistan as much as he didn't want her to go Maluku. Booth had lived his life reading people's emotions and whether or not they were telling the truth. He could see so much more behind her eyes when they parted ways one year ago. Sweets had been dead on in his conclusion that they were in love with one another. The complication lived in the fact that one of them did not believe in love the way the other did.

Booth grabbed his wallet and keys to the apartment before heading out the door, stopping by the landlord's apartment to get his SUV keys before leaving the building. He found his black SUV parked in its normal spot and got inside. Even after a year and probably a couple trips to the carwash, it still smelled like Bones to him. Smiling, he put the keys in the ignition and turned it over, backing out of the parking space. He left the apartment complex and drove toward the reflecting pool, dwelling on what he would even say to his partner after being apart for a year. Would there still be that spark when he saw her or would that be gone now that they hadn't seen each other for so long? He wondered where this was all going to go from here. Would they be able to work cases together like they had before or was everything so different now that they wouldn't? All the questions left unanswered in his head drove him crazy as he found a parking space and turned the ignition off, pulling the key out and stepping out of the car, looking toward the coffee cart.

There she was.

She was even more beautiful than he remembered. Her hair was a little longer that he could see as she'd left it down. From what he could see, she was still the same Bones he'd always known and had fallen for. But he pushed that thought away as he approached her. When she saw him, she gave that smile he always loved before walking over to him. He embraced her tightly and felt her holding him just as tight. A whole year away could change a person, but it hadn't changed Booth. No, it most definitely hadn't.

"It's good to see you Bones," he said, letting go and giving her a smile.

"It's good to see you too Booth," she replied, giving him an imitation smile. Her blue eyes were exactly the same as he remembered them from his dreams.

"How was Malulu?" he asked.

"Maluku," she corrected him, smirking as she did so. "It was a very successful trip for Miss Wick and myself. How was Afghanistan?"

He smiled at her correction, knowing she would even if he had purposefully done so. "It was…the same old, same old."

"I don't know what that means," she replied.

"It was good Bones, a little dry and boring, but good." Booth smiled at her and laughed, loving the familiarity of their conversation.

There was a lull for a moment between them as they sat on the bench they always sat on to talk. He looked at Bones and smiled.

"I think we should talk," she said, looking at him.

Booth felt his heart drop to his stomach. Those were the five worst words coming from any woman, regardless of if they were your mother, best friend, wife, partner, or lover. Booth dreaded the day that Bones would ever say that to him, but that day had to be today of all days.


A/N: Yes...I left you at a cliffie! But there is a reason for this...you will see. Like this story? Leave me a review!