She finally made it to China to examine the pre-historic remains that had been found. The plane rumbled around her, the cabin growing quiet as passengers settled in for a long flight. She'd come to escape the silence that had surrounded her, only to find a different kind of silence.
The music of Coldplay filled her ears as she slid the Bose headphones over her ears, shutting out the plane's drone. The sleeping pill she had taken working its way through her system. She wished she didn't have to take it, didn't need a pill to stop the sleeplessness she'd had over the past months. The last flight she'd be on, she would have given anything for Booth to stop annoying her so she could rest. Now, she'd given anything to have him jabbing her in the shoulder. She turned towards the window and lifted it just a bit. Darkness filled the horizon with the stars and the bright moon as the only points of lights.
She wondered if it was night where he was. If the same darkness she saw was the same for him. She'd reasoned a thousand times that he was in a place of conflict. Wondered if he'd been called up because of his sniper training. He hadn't given her much detail. It had frustrated her at first. Now, it just left her wondering. She'd started paying more attention to the news, wondered if he'd been behind one of the hundreds of deaths that had occurred since he left. His past had never concerned her. His sharp eye and quick reflexes had saved her life more than once.
Her eyes grew heavy and with a sigh, she pushed the cover back down over the window and pulled the blanket over herself. Her last thoughts before drifting off were of the afternoon she'd gone to the shooting range with him. Gordon Gordon, Sweets, herself…they'd all offered him advice, but none of it seemed to be what he was looking for. Then they'd had dinner in Gordon Gordon's kitchen and it seemed he found whatever he was looking for. He'd managed a perfect shot the next morning. She'd treated him to breakfast afterwards.
She dreamt of him. She dreamt of the book she'd written andd read to him when he was comatose. A happiness she'd never felt before filled her, almost overloading her senses. She felt his arms around her, his lips against hers as he kissed her. The smell of his cologne, the feel of his stubble against her cheek, the pressure of his forehead as it rested against hers…it all was almost too much for her to take in. It was everything she'd wanted, but was too afraid to grasp. Always thought she didn't deserve the one thing the rest of the world seemed to be able to obtain. The love of another.
She awoke with a gasp, not from pain, but of sadness. Her vision was blurred from the tears that had fallen down her cheeks. A glimpse out the window showed that it was daylight. The stewards voice informed the passengers they would be landing in fifteen minutes.
As she gathered her belongings and raised the back of her seat, her mind drifted back to the dream. She reasoned that the sleeping pill had caused the vividness she felt. Explained the reason she could feel, smell and taste him, even though she'd never been that intimate with them. What she couldn't blame on the pill was the sadness that filled her heart. The sorrow she felt at realizing the dream had just been that, and may not have the chance to become nothing more.