Another quick chapter from me.
Thank you for all the reviews. Glad you all liked Max's appearance, he's such a big BB shipper I like him lots. A big THANK YOU to Evanjalin64, horseninja (don't worry this story's gonna get resolved real soon), sassybee, nertooold54, Tartantrace, Lunalovesbones, aracely6, mendenbar (I try my best to keep everyone in character, so really glad you think I managed to, oh and I'm not giving out Davids as well), Alicia9876, hot4booth, Ger (agree next to Booth, Max is best for looking after Brennan, how's Booth gonna turn out, well you all wait and see!), xoxokiss210, bones35 (right on about Max!), wazo29 (I'm sorry if you're getting upset about Booth, just keep reading to find out what happens!)
Be nice I wrote this chapter in a rush while my little kids were napping!
She sat on the bench by the reflecting pool in the mall by the coffee cart. The day had started with two cups of coffee in her hands but as the day wore on and she realized she had drank more than her usual share she stopped. Just sitting there, watching the rest of the world go about their business, all the time having a sinking feeling in her heart.
By evening, she had disappointedly come to the conclusion that he wasn't going to show. She tried to come up with a reasonable explanation. Maybe he had been held up, his flight delayed. An emergency with Parker? Hank? Did he not show up because he had been wounded? Or worse, dead?
The thought made her depressed, upset and she lowered her head. A pair of Army boots came into view. But something didn't quite add up. She lifted her head. The face that confronted her wasn't Booth's.
"Dr Temperance Brennan?"
"Yes." She couldn't hide the tremble in her voice.
"Sarge wanted me to give you this."
The man in the Army fatigues standing in front of her handed her an envelope. It looked crumpled, like it had been kept in the soldier's uniform for a significant period of time.
Brennan couldn't stop trembling as she stood to take the letter.
"You best sit down while reading it M'am."
Brennan sat down. She was almost afraid to ask. "Where's Booth?" Her voice barely audible.
"Well, he couldn't make it Ma'am. Sarge, he wanted to be here, he really did. All he could talk about the last couple of weeks before we were to come home was coming here to meet you. Couple days before we were to return stateside there was this one last mission. I broke my arm in training and I couldn't go with them."
The soldier held up his arm which was in a cast to illustrate his point.
"The Sarge he gave me this letter, told me to meet you on this day, this time, give you this letter if he - " the soldier choked on his words.
The tears started rolling down her cheeks before he finished his sentence. " - he, there was an ambush. I'm sorry Ma'am. Sergeant Major Booth was killed in the line of duty four days ago."
"No!"
Brennan sat up, her breathing ragged, drenched in her own sweat. For a moment she was disorientated. Then the ringing of her alarm clock brought her back to reality. It was a dream, only a dream.
She had this recurring dream at a disconcerting frequency and it had plagued her sleep for the past few nights. She hit the snooze button on her alarm and walked to her bathroom to get ready for the day ahead. Brennan had been back in DC for a month now and had moved back to her old apartment. She had returned to her job at the Jeffersonian but things weren't quite the same without her friends. Angela and Hodgins were due to return the following week. Cam was the only familiar face there and although her boss had been more than overjoyed to see her, and gave her some sense of familiarity like one year ago, work was never quite the same without the people she cared about the most. Without Booth.
Looking at herself in the bathroom mirror her stomach did a nervous flip. Today was the day. He had to show.
The Temperance Brennan that stared back at her in the mirror wasn't the same as the one a year ago. Her hair might be shorter, her skin tanner but those were just the exterior. Inside, she had changed as well. She had given things alot of thought. She knew with certainty now what she wanted and she had the answer she had promised Booth in her letter.
The fact that he never wrote back bothered her and she worried for his safety. She didn't even know if he had received her letter.
Moving through her house that still had boxes of unpacking left, her eyes came to rest on the pink toy pig, Jasper, sitting on a shelf beside an ancient jar from Tibet. Jasper had been a gift from Booth years ago. She smiled, picking up the toy and brushing off the dust. On the other side of Jasper stood Brainy Smurf.
Memories of the times she spent with Booth suddenly came to her in a rush.
Their first tequila tasting kiss in the rain.
"I know who you are." The day she hugged him in that barn so many years ago.
"There's more than one kind of family Bones." Outside the diner, his finger under her chin.
His hand on her shoulder as they watched Max and Russ drive off without her again.
"Everything happens eventually, you just gotta be ready for it." Him looping his arms round her shoulders on the dock as Sully sailed away.
"I thanked God for saving us." His hand reaching for hers in the dirt, pulling her to life, digging her out of certain death.
Helping her fix things with Max.
Blackmailed by Caroline Julian. Their kiss under the mistletoe lingering in her brain as if it was yesterday.
"There's someone for everyone, you just gotta be open enough to see it." His eyes burning into hers.
His confession of almost killing himself when he was a boy if not for his grandfather.
"I love you Bones... in an atta girl kind of way."
Their almost kiss the night of the opening of the Egyptian exhibit.
Her undressing him in the bone room.
"I knew, right from the beginning. I'm that guy Bones, I'm that guy. I know." Their emotionally charged kiss a little more than a year ago when she turned him down after their session with Sweets and sparked the point of no return.
"I gotta move on." Words that cut her deeper than a knife.
"One year from now, at the reflecting pool, by the coffee cart."
The time was now, the one year was up. Booth had told her he knew. He knew right from the beginning. She knew now too.
"He knows the truth of you and is dazzled by that truth."
The psychic's words were the last she thought of as she got ready to set off for her meeting with the only man she ever loved.
I only picked certain BB moments to mention, things I thought significant and my brain can dredge up. If I listed every significant BB moment, this chapter would go on for pages! Again I hadn't intended on this chapter but I had to write something on BB moments so this chapter came to life!
I promise, next chapter, everything gets resolved. You'll find out what happened to Booth, I'm not Hart Hanson I won't keep you guys waiting an entire summer! But don't get me wrong, I love HH I think his writing is fantabulistic! To borrow a phrase from Angela. HH is a freaking genius! Just get BB together already!
Ok rant over, hey keep those reviews coming!
