Chapter Twelve: To give you everything . . .
He was up at the crack of dawn because he couldn't sleep and he couldn't contain his restless energy any longer, he had to move. He was conscious of his blood thrumming through his veins and his heart pounding in his chest. Having waited so long, so many years for this moment to finally be approaching in his life; it was almost more than he could stand.
This day will only happen once, there will only be one first time to hear her say 'I love you Booth' and somehow, someway he knows this is what she will tell him today, she will make her confession and ask him to be hers. He knows now, after his experience with Hannah, that he would wait a lifetime to hear Brennan tell him this.
He really is a one-woman man, and for better or worse no matter what happens, Brennan is that woman for him. What he knew in the beginning he still knows now and though he doubted, seriously doubted for a while there, in the end he found he could do nothing more than follow his heart; and his heart is hers.
Thank God she finally wants it.
Though he's cursed himself for over a year for taking that gamble when Sweets urged him too, he's thinking now that maybe it was all worth it. Maybe if he hadn't pushed, she wouldn't have run and he wouldn't have gone back to the Army and maybe they'd still be dancing around each other instead of where they are right now.
It has been a tough road forward for the both of them it seems and yet finally here they stand, he's ready, she's ready, and with them both on the same page at long last now they get to write themselves a new future. One they build together that allows them to be partners in every sense of the word.
God he just loves her so much, and he wants to be able to express it, to show her just how much she means to him. How it physically hurts to be away from her too long, how she's the last thought in his head at night, how she's woven into his dreams and the first thing he thinks of when he wakes. He only hopes she loves him half as much . . . that would be everything.
But she does love him, he has no doubts of this now, and she will tell him and it'll be today.
He feels a little odd as he pulls on his fatigues, he's ex-Army again and just wearing them brings unpleasant memories, and yet the picture in his head when he told her goodbye a year ago had him still wearing them when they finally met up again. He wants to do this right, as if he's only just returned and the last five months and his relationship with Hannah are things that exist in an alternate reality only. It makes sense, maybe only to him he thinks, but in his own way he's trying to convey that he's come home to her . . . and that he'll always come home to her.
He checks his watch and it's still only 7am. Funny how they decided on a date and a place, but a time was too precise a year away so it never made it into the mix. He has no idea what time Brennan will consider appropriate, so he smiles to himself, and heads out anyway. Like Cary Grant in 'An Affair to Remember', he'll wait all day if necessary, at some point she'll show.
It takes him 30 minutes to get to the reflecting pool. Their bench looks no different from the last time he was here, the coffee cart has just opened and the smell of freshly brewed coffee mingles with the smell of damp grass and rain. It poured all day yesterday, but today has dawned bright and sunny, it seems only fitting that the weather too should be smiling on him today.
Heaven is smiling on him today; he gives himself a mental shake at the fanciful nature of his thoughts.
His stomach rumbles and reminds him he hasn't eaten, if she keeps him waiting this is going to get uncomfortable so he buys himself a coffee and a Danish from the cart and parks himself on the bench.
Eight am comes and goes and he's not hungry anymore and though it's still ridiculously early to worry, he buys another coffee and paces for a bit.
'You're Agent Booth . . . right?'
The voice of the coffee cart guy interrupts his steps, and Booth smiles at the young vendor he recognizes now he's paying attention.
'Sure am. Good to see you Phil.'
The young man smiles widely at the recognition and looks about him. 'I thought it was you but the uniform confused me. When did you join the Army?'
'I went back only for a year – just to help out with some interrogation training. I'm still FBI.'
'You waiting for Dr. Brennan? I haven't seen her for as long as you've been away.'
Booth smiles inwardly at the hero-worship in the young man's voice. He remembers now that Phil is a huge 'Brennanite' and that Bones actually signed her last book for him, kid gave them free coffee for weeks after that.
'Yeah. Not sure what time she'll be here.'
Phil points over Booth's shoulder, 'Looks like she's coming right now, isn't that her over there?'
His heart suddenly in his throat, Booth turns around slowly to see Brennan approaching on the walkway, and though she's fifty meters away his eyes lock with hers and then suddenly he's running, his coffee cup falling to the floor forgotten. Brennan is running too and though he stops a few meters from her she slams into him, jumping into his arms her legs wrapping tightly around his waist as she plasters herself too him.
For a heartbeat he's stunned. Then all that matters is the woman in his arms and the fact that she's trembling all over. Her face is buried against his neck and her breathing is rapid, hot puffs of air tickle the back of his head. She's repeating something over and over but he can't hear it properly so he strokes her hair soothingly and holds her close.
'Bones.' He breathes.
A moment more passes before she lifts her face to look at him, and he's stunned again at the emotions swimming in her vivid eyes. Her face breaks into her heart-stopping smile and when she speaks this time he hears her.
'I love you Booth. Love you so much. Forgive me.'
His answer is a kiss.
