Author's Note: It's a sad one. Perhaps you should wait until you're in a better mood.
Chill Wind: Wrapped tightly against a chill wind she just remembered from a long time ago & no amount of current time & temperature can help this one.
oOo
It isn't my job anymore, analyzing people. Now, I make food. Damn good food, if I do say so. His date, the lovely Ms. Burley, she certainly seemed to enjoy it.
So, as I am now a chef- as I am no longer in the business of psychology and professional distance- I can confess my disappointment. In all of them- Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan, Dr. Sweets. I'd counseled hope and patience. I'd counseled caution and observation. But they allowed push to come to shove.
Not that I didn't understand Dr. Sweets' exasperation, or Agent Booth's desire to gamble, or Dr. Brennan's need for self-preservation. I had just hoped that at least one of them would be able to rise above.
Dr. Sweets is an excellent psychologist, but Booth and Brennan are not entirely wrong to be skeptical of his age. He is young, and he lost sight of the fact that Dr. Brennan could never respond positively to a gamble. There is a part of her, a very real part of her, that is still fifteen-years-old and learning what it feels like to be left behind. She could not risk another loss. Just like the part of Agent Booth that remained in the moment following his first kill, needing to be punished. He could not wait for a sure thing.
So, they stood there, fulfilling each other's prophecies. I am old enough to know that they are not unique this way. We all leave pieces of ourselves scattered in the past. This is what the young fail to realize- that none of us are whole. When we meet each other, we are meeting the parts that have survived, the pieces that have managed to put themselves back together again.
The bits that have survived are wary. They cannot risk being lost, so they build walls and mazes and traps. They are difficult to navigate. It must be done with care.
And since I am no longer a psychologist, I can tell you that I wish they had taken a bit more care.
I am too old to believe in fairytales. I know there is no such thing as 'meant to be.' There are only decisions and their consequences. Dr. Brennan knows this too well. Agent Booth likes to pretend he doesn't know it at all. That is why it would have been a lovely story, the two of them.
I do not believe in fairytales, but I was hoping...
