Okay, I'm saying this up front. Please do not complain about Hannah being in the story. Please. I know most people dislike her, but I really don't have a problem with her. I'm giving you another chapter within a week, so please?
Okay, thank you as always to my awesome beta, meredithgrey23. I hope your internet stops being a pain.
Disclaimers in chapter one.
Surprisingly, Booth and Brennan made it out of the FBI with only a couple of odd stares. After all, Booth and Brennan's relationship had been the biggest piece of gossip since Spooky and the missus had disappeared; and Booth had answered more than one question about their relationship right after she had left. So with her sudden reappearance, new rumors would be circling around the Hoover by noon.
At the Diner, the two chatted nothing important, mostly just getting reacquainted. Booth asked when a good time to see Katy again would be, and Brennan offered to let him watch her for the weekend. Of course, Booth quickly agreed. As they were leaving, Booth asked if Brennan wanted to grab lunch at their favorite Thai place which she agreed to.
After breakfast at the Diner, Brennan went to the lab. She had asked Angela to let Cam know she would be a little late as she had matters to attend to before work. So, when she walked in at nine- fifteen, she was surprised to find that Cam was on the platform looking over a body with almost no flesh. Brennan quickly approached her. "This doesn't look like the type of body you normally examine."
Cam jumped a little out of surprise before turning to face Brennan. "Dr. Brennan, when did you get here?"
"Just now. Let me put on my lab coat, and then I'll start working with the remains-"
"You've got a visitor in your office."
"I wasn't expecting anyone," Brennan told her.
"Yeah, well, neither was Angela when she walked into your office to ask how your morning meeting with Sweets went- which I expect you or Booth to tell me about eventually."
"That's reasonable. Is Angela still in my office, too?"
"No, I sent her to see Hodgins or to do work or something because I wasn't even in the proper lab yet and I could feel the temperature drop twenty degrees."
"Angela adjusted the thermostat?" she asked walking back down the steps towards her office.
Cam sighed. Seven years without much verbal contact with Dr. Brennan made her forget sometimes how literal the anthropologist could be. "No, but the tension between her and Hannah was thick enough to cut with a knife."
The name stopped Brennan in her tracks, and after a moment, she turned around to look at Cam. "Hannah?"
"Yeah, she said she really needed to talk to you in private. I'm pretty sure Angela told her to get out, but she said she wouldn't until she saw you."
"I haven't spoken to Hannah since the night she called to tell me she and Booth broke up."
Cam nodded, knowing what a difficult time that was for her. It had only been two months prior the entire lab had seen her undergo a slightly terrifying transformation during one of the cases that had urged three of them to go ask Sweets to check on her. Cam wasn't sure when Dr. Brennan had fully recovered from that, or if she ever did.
"Well, now's your chance, unless you want me to tell her you're sick."
Brennan shook her head. "No, I'll see what she wants."
Brennan walked into her office to find Hannah sitting on her couch. The two women made immediate eye contact, but neither spoke a word. They maintained the eye contact as Brennan put her things away and sat across from Hannah.
"Hello, Hannah."
"Hi, Temperance. How have you been?"
"Fine. And yourself?"
"Pretty good."
Another awkward moment passed, before Brennan said, "Is there something you wanted to talk to me about?"
Hannah took a deep breath. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry for whatever part I played in your decision to leave. I had no idea that you and Seeley were involved when I asked him to help me raise Brooke. If I had, I never would have asked him. I just knew he had always wanted more kids, and I knew I had made a mistake when I turned him down. I guess I just didn't think a few months later he'd be in another serious relationship."
"Why is that so hard to believe?"
Hannah let a small, sad smiled slid across her face. "When I first met Seeley, I thought he'd just gone through a divorce or serious break-up. It took him saving me three months after he arrived for him to know I existed, and that was not due to a lack of trying on my part. He mentioned you a lot once we started talking, and for a while, I thought that you were his best male friend. Honestly, when I found out you were a woman, I was jealous. But he told me there was nothing between you; and I believed him. But if it took him three months to notice my existence on the outskirts of a military base, where there were only a handful of American women, he didn't want to see us. That was five months after you turned him down over entering a relationship. I came back, five months after he proposed to me. I thought he would just be starting to back into dating. But I realized something after you left, actually a couple of things. First was that he was never fully mine. As much as he would deny it, if you had asked him to do something in the middle of the night, he would have dropped what he was doing and coming running. Second, I was a replacement for you, Temperance."
"No," Brennan interrupted her. "Booth loved you. You were not a consolation prize."
Hannah shook her head. "Have you ever noticed that two months after you told Seeley that you had made a mistake, he decides to ask a woman who had made it very clear from the start she didn't want to be married, to marry him. Because Sweets had pointed out he wasn't getting any younger, and we both know how much Seeley listens to him. And he made the decision to ask me while drunk. I was convenient, fun, but Seeley and I never would have lasted. His heart wasn't completely in it, because you would always have a piece of it."
"Hannah, I think you're giving me too much credit."
"No, I'm not. He got drunk the night I broke up with him. He started gambling after you left him. Rebecca told me that he didn't start gambling until he got back from serving, after Parker was born, so it wasn't their break up that started it, either. Also, according to her, there's a strange correlation between when you worked your first case together and he stopped gambling. You made him work at being a better man; the man I met in the Middle East."
"That was his career, Parker, and his friendships, not only with me, but the entire team at the lab."
"No, because he when you left, he stopped being the same Seeley Booth. Temperance, have you ever heard the phrase 'With great power comes great responsibility'?"
"I believe so. Why is that relevant?"
"Because you held Seeley's heart and then you broke it. And I'm not saying Seeley's without fault, or I'm not without fault. But you never forced him to explain the situation, and made a wrong assumption that hurt him because of it. We both know that he is going to take the blame for this, too, because he's always trying to protect the people he cares about. I think that's the only reason he asked to help take care of Brooke, because he needed to protect someone. And now he'll protect you from the guilt as much as possible; he'll try to protect Katy from your work and every other problem she might face. But he won't protect his heart when he tries to give it to you, and that's part of your responsibility."
"Hannah, Booth and I aren't in love anymore. It's been seven years. We share a daughter and past, that's it. I'm hoping to regain a friendship, too."
"But he's going to ask for a relationship, again. And if you say no, again, I'm not sure how he's going to take it."
"You're exaggerating," Brennan tried to convince herself and Hannah.
"No, I'm not. You know what I've come to realize in the past decade? You only have that moment when you know you're supposed to be with somebody once, if you're lucky. But occasionally, if the universe really thinks you belong together, you'll get as many chances as it takes. Temperance, Seeley told me about that night in the rain during your first case. He told me about the night outside of the FBI building. He told me about the night you told him you made a mistake. And then he told me how your friend got shot, and that was what it took for you two to take your relationship to the next level. It took four times for you both to be ready before anything happened. And then that got screwed up. Now, you're getting a fifth chance. And as much as I want the universe to give you as many as it takes, eventually it's going to give up. So take the bull by the horns and run with it."
"There are several flaws in your suggestion. The largest being that the universe does not affect Booth and my relationship."
"But you two still need to give this another shot; I've seen Seeley without you, and it's not a pretty sight. At least in Afghanistan, he knew he'd have a friend to come back to. But really, it's up to you and Seeley. I just thought you might want to have more evidence before you came to a final conclusion."
Brennan stayed silent and watched as Hannah stood to leave, the office now holding the same tension as when Brennan entered. The reporter was at the door, when Brennan had a question that she felt the need to ask. "Hannah, why did you come to Booth for help to raise your child? Why not Brooke's biological father?"
"You were always direct," Hannah smiled. "Honestly, I wanted to get him involved, but we never exchanged last names and Seeley always says he'll look into but never does. He won't even listen to the entire story. I think he just doesn't want to lose his daughter."
"How did you meet Brooke's biological father then?"
"I had just been sent to Florida to cover a story, because I asked to be sent out of Washington after Seeley and my breakup. I went to get drunk one night, and began talking to a guy at the bar. He was smart, witty, cute, and somehow we started talking about our exes. I talked about Seeley, he talked about his girlfriend who refused to cruise the Caribbean with him." Hannah let out a laugh at this point. "I had forgotten about her. He said that it was probably for the best, but he still missed her. He cared about her like I do for Seeley, but they didn't have the right moment. She stayed back to work with his friend. He always knew the two of them had something, but neither of them would admit it."
"So talking about your past relationships made you want to have intercourse with each other?"
"Not exactly. He knew what I was going through, and like I said, he was sweet and cute. He took me back to his boat," Hannah burst into laughter at his point, "I refused to get on it, too! So, we ended up going back to my motel room."
"Why wouldn't you get on his boat?" Brennan asked, even though she knew it was none of her business.
"Because the boat made me think of Seeley, and that wouldn't be far to Tim."
"How does a boat remind you of Booth? He doesn't even like being on boats particularly. Or he didn't seven years ago."
"He still, doesn't," Hannah assured her. "And it wasn't the boat itself; it was the name of the boat."
"Was it named after John Wilkes Booth or something?"
"No! It was actually named after alcohol free movement in the early twentieth century."
Brennan froze. The chances of the two meeting were so small, but it would explain why Brooke looked familiar to Brennan, besides Hannah's traits that is. She took a deep breath and asked, "It was named after me."
"Well, I think it's more likely named after the virtue, but it-"
Before Hannah was finished, Brennan walked out of her office, cell phone in hand. She rushed to Angela's office and found the artist sitting at her computer. She needed his number to know if it was true. "Ange, I need you to get me a number."
"Sure, Sweetie. But what's the rush?"
"I know who Brooke's father is."
