An: A filler no less, but a sad/kinda cute happy filler. It works until the finale I suppose. So enjoy until then! :)
Brennan returned to her apartment with the feeling as if she wasn't alive; a dead woman walking in essence.
Sadness and confusion settled hard in her chest, and she felt completely weak as she stumbled into her apartment and closed the door gently behind her.
Her breathing only consisted of deep inhalations and long sighs as she traveled back into her bedroom and immediately climbed into her shower.
She washed herself with slow, tired movements, and when she stepped into the congested room, and almost fell to the ground when her knees locked under her, and the water under her feet disrupted her balance; but in the end, she didn't care.
She felt completely off kilter. Disrupted and damaged, and she didn't understand why. She was the one who pushed him away from her, so why was she the one hurting so terribly?
Temperance Brennan never understood relationships. She didn't understand love, and she didn't understand that feeling of pure joy to just stare into that single person's eyes…
She felt it…but she didn't understand it.
She needed to understand, but no matter who she went to, she couldn't get the solid, clear answers that she needed, but she blamed that more on the fact that love, other than its hormone chemistry, was unrelated to science.
She needed an out, some time away, from everything. She needed to return to her roots, to analyze who she was, and who she has become; and most importantly, how she got there. Maybe then, and only then, will she begin to comprehend the mass of confusion around her at this moment.
The next day, on Sunday at 6:30 in the morning, she was hard at work, already in limbo graced in her blue lab coat with her eyes on the abnormal humerus she held in her fingers.
She knew nobody would be looking for her on this day, and that fact not only relieved her, but saddened her at the same time.
She felt as if she had thrown Booth completely from her life, and no matter how desperately she wanted to arrive on his door steps and wrap her arms around him, she knew she couldn't, and probably never should again.
She was his partner, his friend, and he was hers; they weren't meant to be anything more…
"Even I think that sounds pathetic," she whispered to herself, placing the bone down on the examination table, and snapping her gloves off before slowly making her way upstairs, and into her office.
She sat in front of her computer, and searched through her email, one in particular catching her eye.
It was from a friend of hers in Indonesia. He said they found a human body that might be a crucial link in the chain of evolution, and he wondered if she would be interested in coming for a year to study with other anthropologists on the team. She of course would be the most qualified, and would head the entire analysis.
This was her roots. She was an anthropologist before he walked into her life, and she missed the emotionless feeling of looking at a 5,000 year old body and only wondering how his or her life was, and not who took it.
Seeing so many people in pain over murder was unbearable to her recently, and seeing Taffet's face once again, terrorized her, and made her rethink everything she has ever done.
She was too linked to people. She had too many connections, and she didn't want to break them, but she needed to be in a certain field where those connections wouldn't cloud her rational mind, and make her feel, more rather than use her brain.
She needed out, and this was her open door.
She accepted it without hesitation.
Booth decided not to push her, and if she wanted space, he would give it to her.
If she wanted to talk to him, she could call him, and if she wanted to see him, she can try and find him; but he sure as hell wouldn't be able to stay cooped up in his house with only her on his mind for the whole day.
He decided to go for a run, and did his usual 3 miles around the city before returning, and taking a quick shower.
He went out with a couple of his friends, had lunch, and played football in the park, until he found himself alone again, and he ended up at the ice rink.
He took his hockey stick and brought a puck of his to work on his slap shots, gliding easily on the ice and slamming the wood so hard into the black discus that he almost thought the wood was going to shatter.
But nothing broke, and he found that angering, until eventually he threw the hockey stick to the other side of the rink, and punched the Plexiglas with a large burst of force that surprised himself.
He turned, and fell to the ice, sitting with his arms wrapped around his knees as he stared across into the seats and shook his head. He didn't know what he was doing, and he couldn't seem to find anything to get his mind off of her.
He wanted to see her, but he was adamant on letting her make the first move.
'One big mistake after the other you fuck up'
She found herself staring at her phone for long periods of time through her work day, and even though she was uninterrupted like she knew she would be, she would always glance to the sliding doors in hope that Booth would walk him, but he never did.
Her fingers wrapped around the device, and she slowly pushed the button that Booth was reserved on, his number sliding in front of her before she placed the speaker to her ear, and listened to the monotone rings that seemed to her like some kind of warning.
"Hello?" he asked gruffly, his voice deep and ragged, a sure sign something was on his mind.
"Hi Booth," Brennan whispered softly, running her fingers nervously over the end of her shirt. "I was wondering if maybe…I could order us some Chinese, and you can come to the lab, and have lunch with me."
She sounded stupid to herself, and she wanted to repeatedly beat herself in the head, but she practically heard the smile dripping from his voice.
"Sure Bones, I'll be there."
Somehow, the Chinese was there before he was, and she carried the white box top into her office before she started sorting food out on two plates.
Too engrossed in the food, she didn't hear him walk in, but jumped, and almost flung rice everywhere once his arms circled her waist, and he pulled her back into his chest.
The touch was extremely intimate and she felt herself getting dizzy. She stammered when she spoke, but through the blush and the slowing of her thinking process, she extremely enjoyed having his arms around her. "B-Booth, w-what are you doing?"
"I feel you slipping away more and more each day Temperance," he whispered, his voice full of tears as his cheek rested against her shoulder. "I felt the need to hug you now, instead of wait until it's too late."
Her throat started to hurt as the muscles tightened, and a small drop of water fell from her eye. She rested her hand over his intertwined ones, and instead of turning and pushing him away, she allowed him to have the moment he needed, but when her head tilted and rested against his, her eyes closed and she whispered only four words that Booth knew weren't going to come true.
"Let's just be happy…"