Mr. Lincoln's Steps
The sun was sitting low in the sky and the tourist crowds had dissipated a bit as Booth and Brennan sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in a companionable silence sipping cups of coffee. To say that it had been a hard day was an understatement. Zach confessing that he was not only Gormagon's apprentice but that he had committed murder as well; somehow intellectually justifying it until Brennan had shown him the flaw in his reasoning had been almost too much for her to bear; almost because at least Booth hadn't really died. She was still trying to forgive him for not telling her himself despite protocol, but the fact that he was sitting next to her very alive went a long way in getting there.
Booth seemed to be at a loss for words himself; Bones had put her head on his shoulder in the stairwell of the Jeffersonian and let her tears fall; somehow to inject words into that situation seemed completely inadequate and so after she seemed to have been satisfied, or sufficiently embarrassed at crying in front of him yet again, he suggested that they go for a walk. The diner just didn't seem to be appropriate this time – there was no satisfaction in finding that Zach was part of it all – and neither one of them was really in the mood to mull the case over anyway so somehow they had ended up here on the steps overlooking the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument.
Somehow the coffee reminded Brennan of a conversation in Sweet's office that she'd had with Booth and her brow furrowed at the memory. Coffee; she'd said that their relationship was coffee. Facing what his death felt like made her realize that no amount of coffee could explain or symbolize or be what they had between them. They were so much more than coffee. She glanced over at Booth, taking note of the way the fading light seemed to bring an extra warmth to his features, "We're not coffee."
Booth seemed confused at first and then it hit him what exactly she was talking about and he felt a smile pull at the corners of his mouth for the first time since she'd told him that she was sure that Zach was involved, "No, we're not are we." Not that either one of them was really sure what they were, but coffee wasn't it.
"But pie isn't quite right either; because I don't like pie and I wouldn't want our relationship described with something I didn't enjoy – because most of the time, I enjoy it you know – our relationship, not pie," Brennan wasn't given to sentiment, but nearly losing Booth had caused her to feel things she didn't want to ever feel again and with a bit of introspection she'd realized that he meant far more to her than she'd ever admitted.
Booth shook his head in agreement, "No, we're not pie either." Pie was something that you had with coffee or at the end of a meal. She was right, they weren't pie either.
Brennan let out a complicated sigh as her thoughts turned back to Zach, "I should have done something, Booth." There was nothing specific that she could think of, but that didn't stop the irrational thought that she was somehow partially responsible for Zach's actions simply because she hadn't known.
Words really weren't going to help here and so Booth abandoned his coffee on the step next to him and reached out and enveloped her hand in the security of his, "Hindsight is twenty-twenty." Sure now they could all see things that they might have done that might have made a difference, but they couldn't know that for sure that anything they would have done would have made any difference at all anyway.
"If that's an attempt at trying to make me feel better, it's not helping," Despite her comment Brennan took comfort from the warmth of his hand; another reminder that he was very real and very alive.
"Nothing I say is going to make any of us feel better, we all care about Zach; there's nothing about this situation that is going to feel better for a long time," Booth knew that Brennan had a protectiveness for Zach that was almost maternal and only time was going to allow her to deal with this kind of betrayal if she ever really dealt with it at all.
She nodded in agreement – she couldn't see how she was going to ever feel good about what Zach had done – what had happened to him really. The loss she felt went far beyond the loss of what he brought to her team; he had been her protégé, her colleague and her friend. Although, at the moment she wondered if she even knew how to be a friend herself because if she had been the kind of friend that Zach needed, perhaps she would have been able to intervene before he'd become a murderer.
Booth seemed to know where her thoughts had drifted, "Bones...Temperance, we can't change what happened, no matter how much we all wish we could...all we can do is be there for Zach – be his friend, visit him. He's gonna need that now more than ever," Booth was glad that Zach wasn't going to prison, but he wasn't sure that a mental hospital was going to be very good for him either.
For the second time that day, Brennan leaned her head against Booth's shoulder and let out a sigh. He was right – Zach needed them now more than ever. When she had offered Zach the position as her grad student, she had thought he would find a home there at the Jeffersonian. He had, but more than that, they had all become a sort of family. She wasn't going to abandon Zach the way her parents had abandoned her. But even that had come full circle – because of the man sitting next to her holding her hand she had her family again. The reality was that without Booth, she would be less of a person because she wouldn't have had the opportunity to live her life quite as wide and as full and she wasn't sure that she would have realized just what her Jeffersonian family meant to her. She lifted her head and offered him a smile as he glanced over at her, "I think we're more like Thai food, Booth."
Booth let out a soft chuckle and raised a brow at her, "Thai food." He couldn't disagree with that assessment – Thai food was late nights working and long talks and all of those moments that went far beyond coffee and pie and talks at the diner. Thai food was fighting over the last of Mee Krab or showing up at her apartment at midnight knowing full well he had no reason to be there other than he knew that she was still up and needed some distraction. Thai food was sitting close and mulling over cases and catching bad guys together in such a way that they really were superheroes because they made a difference while everyone else was sleeping. Thai food was the perfect way to describe what there relationship was and hopefully what it would remain for a very long time.
She nodded, "Yeah, Thai food." There was so much that had happened over Thai food that if there was no crime left to fight that she'd still want him to show up at her apartment with a boyish smirk on his face with bags of take out. She most certainly would want him to interrupt her when she should have gone home hours before just so she'd stop and eat and share a conversation that often turned into friendly bickering. There was something comforting in Thai food with Booth and she was sure that if there was no more crime to fight that she'd want to describe their relationship like that.
"Thai food it is," Booth noticed the determination in her expression and he knew that despite her claim that she compartmentalized well that she hadn't dealt with the news of his death very well at all. He wanted to reassure her that if it was up to him that he was never going to leave her, never going to purposely disappoint her, and most certainly was never going to betray her.
Brennan let out another sigh, "Thank you, Booth." She wasn't sure what she was thanking him for; maybe for really being alive especially in light of what had happened with Zach.
"If I had known that Sweets wasn't going to tell you, I would have told you myself – it wasn't fair to put you through that, Bones," She might not admit how it had all made her feel, but Booth knew by the way she'd reacted to finding out that he was still alive that she cared very deeply, maybe as deeply as he cared for her.
As irrational as the words were, they tumbled out of her mouth anyway, "Booth, please don't die again." She wasn't sure she could handle losing him twice.
"Not if I can help it, Bones," There was such a warmth in her eyes as Booth looked into them that he acted purely on what he was feeling and didn't consider the implications of what he was doing – or maybe he really didn't care anymore what the consequences would be.
The press of his lips against hers was just another reminder to her of just how real and alive he was and Brennan found herself sighing against his mouth as she kissed him back.
It wasn't a long kiss or even a particularly passionate one, but it held promise for something that was definitely unfurling between them. As they pulled apart, Brennan let her head come to rest against Booth's shoulder again, smiling as he gave her hand a squeeze, content to just sit there and be together.
I hope you enjoyed this. The next location will come as soon as real life allows and I'm always open to suggestions for locations for future chapters.
