So, for a little background on this, Booth comes back with Hannah. Of course, Brennan is heartbroken and doesn't seem to want to hang out with Booth, because of the pain. However, Brennan soon meets this good looking, successful economics professor, Grant Wylde (portrayed by Bailey Chase), who is originally from Austin, TX, but moved to Washington, DC to advance his career. Eventually, they become serious and Booth, still not completely over Brennan (although he won't admit that to himself), displays classic signs of jealousy (sort of like Sully 2.0). Then, Grant asks Brennan to move back to Texas with him and Brennan, thinking she has lost Booth forever, agrees to go. Oh and for those who are curious, Brennan has secured a job in Austin, heading up the Anthropology Department at the University of Texas at Austin.
NO COPYRIGHT INTENDED! The characters and story lines of Bones belong to FOX, Kathy Reichs, and Hart Hanson, not me. Except for Grant, Grant is mine. So, (drum roll please) on with the scene
[He sat there, in the airport, his heart shattering into a million pieces like a porcelain vase that had just been dropped from fifty feet. He sat there, contemplating what was written in the paper, what it meant, and what it would mean. Bones…Bones loved me. That thought repeated itself over and over and over again in his head until a new one breached through the portals of his mind…How… how did I not see it. Maybe, maybe he was never any good at reading people. If he was…then why couldn't he read her? He could never read her. Caroline was right…he didn't know her as well as he thought he did. There was actually so much he didn't know about her. Like the fact that not only could she sing, but that…she loved to sing and that she was the girl he heard on the radio eight years ago, two years before he even met her. Like the fact that she, like most people would, missed her mom and missed being seen the way that her mom saw her and that she felt no one could see her that way again. He hadn't proved her wrong in that aspect. In fact, he had proved her right; he had proved to her that…she could never be the center of his world, without even meaning to. Which of course tied into the final thing he never knew about her. That she had been in love with him…for years.]
"I blew it." (the words slipped out in a dry mumble)
[He buried his head in his hands, feeling the crinkled paper against his bewhiskered cheek. He had blown it. He had let the love of his life fly away and out of his life forever. He had lost her…but far before this. He lost her years ago, when he laid down that line, that barrier in their relationship. He had lost her…before he even knew that he wanted her. And now, he had taken the place that she had wanted him to fill all those years ago. She was going to be his wife, the mother of his children. She was going to build…a life and a family…with him. That thought in itself, sent a knife hurdling through his heart. If only…if only he had seen it two, three, four years ago, the way that she felt….Who was he kidding? He probably would've said "Bones, you know we can't cross that line." Insisted that they kept that damn line intact, undiminished, unbroken. She probably hated him for all those years that he had said that…she probably should. This train of self-flagellating thought was disrupted when he heard a timid voice say from over him]
"Uh…excuse me, sir?" (Booth looks up, it's the airline rep that he had just talked to, the one that delivered the news that crushed his soul.)
(When Booth looks at him with questioning eyes, he says)
"I…I couldn't help but feel a little guilty after you came by the counter earlier….Um." (he sighs) "I could probably lose my job because of this, but…" (He takes out a folded piece of paper from his pant pocket.) "I printed out the flight log from the flight that you asked about. It left about an hour ago, but…" (he says unfolding the paper and handing it off to Booth.)
"You're…Dr. Brennan…she wasn't on the flight." (he said before walking away, leaving a dumbfounded, yet relieved, Booth in his wake)
[About an hour and a half ago, at the entrance to that same airport. Grant is busy unloading luggage and handing it off to a baggage handler. Brennan stands by the front of the shuttle cab, staring off into the distance. She's looking for something…she doesn't even know what, though. She's brought out of her reverie when Grant comes over and disturbs her gaze.]
"Hey, babe." (He says strolling up to her and dropping a feather light kiss on her forehead) "Here's your carry on, we have to get going." (He says handing her the handle of her green rollaway suitcase with black trim)
"What you looking at?" (he asks, noticing that he disrupted her stare)
"Uh…nothing." (she says, shaking her head to dispel the thoughts that were occupying her mind)
"Kay well, come on. We have to get to the gate at least an hour beforehand." (he says, hurrying her along)
[Brennan and Grant walk into the airport and as they make their way to the check-in counter, a passing traveler, who is so detached from reality that the sight of Brennan and her luggage does not deter them in their advance, collides with Brennan's suitcase, wrenching it from her grasp. The suitcase crashes on the cold tile floor, one of the closed pockets reopens, causing a number of items to spill out onto the floor. The traveler that has just caused the accident is knocked out of her trance and kneels down to help Brennan collect her belongings.]
"Oh my god, I am so sorry." (she says guiltily)
"Oh, no…it's okay, really." (Brennan says trying to mask the annoyance she feels, she kneels to the floor to collect her belongings.)
[She starts cramming items back into the suitcase; her anthropology books, one of her novels, a pack of Nutri-Grain bars she had bought as a snack. She repeats this motion of reaching and grabbing repetitively, almost as if she has been hypnotized, that is, until she grabs one item that breaks that spell. She is about to place it in the suitcase when she notices, she has just grabbed the photograph that Russ gave to her, the photo of him, her father, herself…and Booth, all at the diner. She stroked the right part of the image, that which contained her and Booth, his arm around her, with her thumb. She was so enchanted by the picture that she didn't even notice when the woman who had just slammed into her suitcase came up from behind her.]
"Oh, how sweet. Is that your family?" (the woman asks in a touched manner)
(Brennan looks at her for a second before answering, trying to formulate an answer that would explain what Booth is to her. It was then that she realized)
"Yes…yes it is." (Booth…Booth was family. He was her family before her biological family had come back into her life)
[Grant, who hadn't been aware of the mishap with the passing woman, strolled over in an attempt to help.]
"Tempe, are you okay? What happened?" (he says concerned)
"No, I'm okay Grant." (Temperance says rising to her feet. The woman hands Brennan a few fallen items before departing)
"Okay, well, we should head over to check in. We have to get to the terminal." (he said as he turned, assuming that she was following him)
[Brennan hesitates. Suddenly, she understood what Angela had been trying to say at their final conversation. She couldn't let history repeat itself]
"Wait, Grant! I can't…"
[Grant turns around, a confused expression displayed across his features]
"Can't…what?" (he asks)
"I…I can't go with you." (she says tears already starting to form in her eyes)
(Grant dons a face of sadness and confusion)
"Wh…why, Temperance? I mean…I thought we had it all planned."
"I'm…I'm sorry, Grant." (she says hoping that one day he can forgive her) "It's just…you deserve what I can't have."
(At his confused expression) "You deserve…someone who you love; someone who loves you back."
(He seems to get the point she's trying to hammer through) "And…you don't…love me"
(She pauses before answering) "No….I'm sorry."
"Then…then why did you agree to marry me?" (he asks hurt)
"Because…because I was trying to run from something…something I've been trying to run from for…a long time. But…I realize now…that getting on that plane with you, I'd be doing to you the same thing that has been making me run." (he looks confused so Brennan elaborates)
"I can't sentence you to a life of continually giving your heart to someone, who can't or won't give you theirs in return…I know that life, I lived that life for such a long time…It makes you feel stupid and pathetic and invisible…like nobody can see you, like nobody wants to see you." (she says wiping tears from her eyes)
[He looks downward with sympathy and understanding in her eye]
"You see…I gave my heart away a long time ago. I didn't mean to, I didn't plan it…but, I did. And the truth is…I never really got it back. I tricked myself into thinking that I had…or that being with someone…else would help me move on." (she dons a guilty look) "But, if I do that…then I'll just be putting you through the same thing that I went through." (she wipes away more tears) "And I can't do that to you…you deserve better than that."
[He silently digests this before he says]
"The guy you gave your heart to…Agent Booth?" (he asks, already knowing the answer)
"I never said…" (she says trying to deny it, but failing)
"You didn't have to…I see the way he looks at you. The way you look at him."
[Brennan is silent for a moment before saying the words that she has been afraid to even think.]
"I love him…I wish that I didn't…but I can't help it. I can't stop. No matter how hard I try…he's always there." (she says, tears still falling from her eyes)
[Grant comes up and embraces her in a hug.]
"You deserve the world Temperance. I just wish that Agent Booth knew what he let slip through his fingers." (he says, his eyes glimmering with tears of his own)
[She hugs him back. Grant was…such a good guy. As he hugged her, part of her wished that she were in love with Grant. But, she knew…that Booth had her heart and she couldn't drag Grant into her struggle to get it back from him. That was something that she had to wrestle with all on her own. Once they parted, she took off the ring that he had given her and handed it back to him. He accepted it with a pained but understanding look of sorrow on his face, while she signaled the handler to help her load her luggage back into the cab.]
"So...what are you going to do now…without a heart I mean?"
(she looked at him for a second and he started to sputter thinking she was offended)
"I mean…uh well." (he stammered)
"No…I know what you meant."
[She knew that he didn't mean any negative connotation, he just had used the same words she had used. What was she going to do without a heart? She had given her own away and for so long…she had gone without receiving one in return.]
"I don't know." (she said, sounding unsure) "The same thing I've been doing? You know, people have called me heartless my entire adult life…I guess now, they can just finally be right about it."
"Goodbye Temperance."
"Goodbye Grant."
[Without another word, he turned around and made his way off and away toward the terminal. She, however, took a moment to collect herself, to calculate her next move and then she, herself, turned around and made her way out of the airport and on with her life.]