One year later…
I can hear our daughter crying somewhere, her wails getting louder and more insistent. I lift my head from my pillow and groan. Baby Christine at 3 months old is not yet sleeping through the night and it is having a serious impact on my wellbeing. I rub my eyes but just as I am about to sit up, I feel Booth's hand on my shoulder "Go back to sleep, I've got this." he says. I am grateful and as I lay my head back down, I can hear through the baby monitor Booth cooing and whispering to her, our baby. I know I need to be up in a few hours and I desperately need more sleep but as I lay there, it just won't seem to come. Our lives have changed considerably since the birth of our daughter and it has been a big shock to both of us. Even though Booth has previous experience of parenting an infant with Parker, he wasn't there all the time and he tells me he has forgotten how hard it was, especially when faced with broken sleep night after night. She is worth it though. Christine Angela is named after the two women I have loved the most in my life, my mother and my best friend who I owe so much to. Naming my child after her seemed to be a fitting way to demonstrate my gratitude for what she has done for me. Raising our babies together has been an unexpected joy for me and also helpful as Michael Vincent is six months older than Christine and Angela's experiences with him usually give me an idea of what to expect.
Christine's cries and Booth's murmurs eventually stop, and the house is quiet again. We purchased a new dwelling only a few months into the pregnancy when we both realised that we both wanted to give our child the kind of life we were both denied. So while it would have been perfectly acceptable to raise a child in the city in an apartment, we both decided we wanted a family home where Christine can play in the yard and Booth can fix up his car in the garage. I already knew that Booth liked to fix up classic cars, but it wasn't something I had ever witnessed him doing before. It was an unexpected pleasure when a few weeks after moving in I went to watch him work on the car. Watching his hands as he worked; seeing the strength in them and the dexterity of his touch fascinated me. I felt I finally understood why he liked to watch me work.
The bedroom door opens as Booth creeps back in the room and slides between the sheets. I shift so I am closer to him and he wraps me in his arms. Safely tucked into his warm embrace, I find myself finally drifting back to sleep.
The alarm wakes us only a couple of hours later which is unusual as Christine usually wakes before the alarm. However, this morning the alarm is set earlier than normal for a reason. I wearily get out of bed and head for the bathroom. I look in the mirror and sigh. The dark circles under my eyes are going to require a lot of make up to cover them. I hear knocking at the front door and I know it will be my father. I go downstairs to let him in with him starting to knock again as I open the door.
"Hi, Dad."
"Good morning, Sweetheart. How are you?" he asks with a twinkle in his eye. Learning to trust my dad again has been difficult and I still don't entirely have confidence in him, but I am glad he is here.
"I'm fine, Dad. I need to go and start getting ready."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"No, Dad. Just get Christine up and dressed when she wakes."
"Sure thing Tempe." He nods and smiles as I turn and go back upstairs.
As I turn the corner at the top of the stairs, I bump into Booth who has got dressed and is ready to leave. He grabs me at the waist and pulls me closer to him. He places a brief but passionate kiss on my lips. "Are you ok, Bones?"
"Yes." I say, exasperated. "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"
Booth chuckles before kissing me again. "See you later." He says before heading down the stairs and out the door.
I enter our bedroom and head for the closet pulling out the garment bag that I had carefully hidden behind some of my lesser used clothing. I know Booth wouldn't have looked anyway, and I don't believe in superstitions, but it felt necessary.
I unzip the bag and stare at the dress. My wedding dress. It is a white silk chiffon empire line dress with a v neckline which has been adapted slightly to enable me to still feed Christine if necessary. It is different to the one I had secretly kept a picture of since my teen years, but I love it and it is perfect nonetheless. I hear Christine stirring and my father heading up the stairs to see to her. Having a wedding with a 3-month-old infant is less than ideal. Christine still requires regular feeds and the sleep deprivation has brought me tiredness I have never felt before. The female body undergoes several irreversible changes throughout pregnancy. For example, the pubic symphyses permanently widen to accommodate the growing infant and to allow its passage through the birth canal and even though I knew of the changes and had anticipated them, I found experiencing them is an entirely different matter. Irrationally, I feel as if my body doesn't belong to me. However, despite it all, I find I am excited. A wedding isn't something I ever thought I would have and for a long time didn't believe I wanted.
I sit on the edge of the bed and twirl my engagement ring around my finger as I recall Booth's proposal. When he said the words sat in my office I was choked with emotion and couldn't speak for a moment. He mistook my silence as a refusal. "Bones, say something, please. Are you saying no?" He sounded so sad. When we had discussed marriage just a week previously, I had said I wanted him to ask me when the time was right, anticipating it to maybe be in a few months or a year. Not at that moment. "Why now?" is all I could think to say.
"Because Bones, you're right, the future is unknown and knowing that I will have you by my side for the rest of our lives is the only way I want to face that future."
Having very nearly lost him, I felt the same way. I couldn't imagine my life without him.
He had pulled a small box from his jacket pocket and opened it. Inside was a beautifully delicate ring. A platinum band with a simple solitaire in the centre. Its simplicity only added to its fineness.
"After we talked last week, I bought this. I wanted to be ready." He explained "So, will you? Marry me?"
"Yes" I had whispered through tears. He had kissed me very passionately before gently slipping the ring onto my finger.
A whole year has passed since his proposal and we are getting married on almost the same date. A month ago, I was feeding Christine and Booth was checking the calendar in the kitchen. "Hey, Bones! Will you look at that! In one month, it will have been a year since I proposed, and you said yes. We should do something to celebrate." He'd said with a cocky grin. I shook my head and smiled at his tendency to want to celebrate inconsequential anniversaries.
"I know I am fairly new to all this Booth, but I am certain that we are supposed to celebrate the anniversary of the marriage, not the proposal and we aren't married yet. Besides, the day before it is also the anniversary of the date when we both got abducted by the Gravedigger's partner. I'm not sure that is something we should be celebrating the anniversary of."
"Oh, yeah. I never thought of that." He was quiet for a moment before he said "I have an idea. Why don't we get married on that date?"
"Why would we do that, Booth?"
"Because then it would make it significant for a different reason. A good reason. When we think back about it in future, we can forget all about the Gravedigger because we'll be able to think about our wedding day instead. We can reclaim the date. Instead of it being the day someone tried to break us apart and end us, it will be the day we tied ourselves to each other for the rest of our lives. It's symbolic."
I had thought about it for a moment, it made no sense and yet I liked the idea. "I don't know, Booth. It's only a month. Is that enough time to plan a wedding?"
"It doesn't have to be fancy, Bones. Unless you want it to be? We could always do it next year if you want time to plan." He sounded disappointed and as I took in the sad expression I could see he was trying to hide, I knew that waiting wasn't what I wanted. Getting married would make him so happy. It is what he has wanted for a long time and I realised it would make me very happy too.
"No, Booth. I don't want to wait. Let's do it."
His eyes had lit up and a huge smile spread across his face. "Really?! Are you sure Bones?"
"Yes."
A month of intense planning had begun and now, here we are. Today is the day. We have invited only close friends and family so it will be an intimate gathering, but it will be meaningful. We want our friends and colleagues to celebrate with us because I'm certain that without them, we wouldn't be here.
I hear knocking at the front door again. I hear voices and I know it is Angela here to help me get ready. At her insistence, Booth has gone to her house to get ready with Hodgins. She didn't want to risk him seeing me in my dress before the actual wedding. She says he needs to see it for the first time when I walk down the aisle. I don't see how it matters but Booth was satisfied with the arrangement, so I acquiesced. She suddenly appears in my bedroom doorway. She has a large bag over her shoulder, and a garment bag containing her navy-blue bridesmaid's dress in her hand. She stands for a moment with her free hand on her hip, studying me.
"Why haven't you started getting ready Brennan?"
"There's plenty of time, Angela. Why do we have to start so early anyway?" I ask supressing a yawn.
"You're getting married at noon." She says it like she is speaking to a small child while glancing at her watch. "We have to leave here at 11.30. That gives us only 3 and a half hours to do your hair, nails, make up etcetera."
"All right." I say curtly to her and she grins in response. I head to the bathroom to take a shower so we can begin the process of getting ready.
0-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-0
I am sitting in the car with Angela outside Booth's church and I am inexplicably nervous. My fingers are itching to find something to touch as if the action will calm me and Angela turns to glare at me when she catches me fidgeting with my hair that she has twisted up perfectly into place.
Even though I do not believe in his god, it is important to Booth to get married here. It wouldn't have mattered to me where the ceremony took place and the fact it is in church makes no difference to me. For the first time in a long time I am suddenly assaulted by a memory from the dream. I was sitting in a car, my car outside this very church, waiting for Booth to come out to confirm that he went through with his marriage to Hannah. It is a painful memory, but I suddenly smile to myself when I realise that it is me who is marrying him. It is me who will get to spend the rest of my life with him. This realisation makes my nerves disappear and suddenly I can't wait to get inside. I open the door and as I exit the car, I glance to my right and see Angela's father holding Michael Vincent and I see he also has Christine in her pram. I thought she was going to be staying with my father.
I turn to Angela who is walking around the rear of the car having just gotten out of the other side, "Why does your father have Christine, Angela?"
"How is your Dad going to give you away if he's taking care of Christine? My Dad was already going to be taking care of Michael Vincent, so I asked him if he'd have Christine during the ceremony too. He was the only person I trusted who didn't mind missing the wedding."
"Ange…" I begin to protest but she cuts me off.
"He's great with kids. Honestly, Sweetie, don't worry, she'll be fine."
"That's not what I was going to say Angela. I was going to say my father will not be 'giving me away'. I am not property to be handed from one man to another."
Angela chuckles and shakes her head "I know that Sweetie. It's an expression, that's all. Come on, we'd better go in before Booth thinks you got cold feet and are going to leave him at the altar."
"My feet are cold Angela but that is because it's February and the air temperature is approximately 10 degrees Celsius. I'm not going to leave Booth at the altar because of it."
Angela doesn't respond but just shakes her head some more and grabs me by the arm to guide me up the steps to the door of the church. My father greets me just inside the door and takes my arm.
"Are you ready, honey?" He smiles a huge smile at me and his eyes glisten with unshed tears.
"Yes Dad, I'm ready."
Angela walks ahead of us as the music from the church organ starts playing. Booth made all the church arrangements, so I do not know what music to expect to be played. I recognise it, not as a classical piece as I expected but it is a version of a modern song that I can't quite name. All thoughts of the music leave my mind though as my Dad and I walk down the aisle. I see everyone in the small congregation turn to look at me. I don't really see them though. All I can see is Booth waiting for me. He looks handsome in his tuxedo and when he catches me looking at him, he smiles at me and I have to remember to breathe. As his best man, Parker is stood next to him, also in a tux. He grins at me and I wink at him making his smile get even bigger.
As I reach the altar and Booth takes my hand, I have the strangest feeling of homecoming. Wherever he is is where I belong. I seem to tune out the ceremony focussing only on his face until it is time to say our vows. Booth's sweet, heartfelt words almost bring me to tears and mine appear to do the same to him when he realises my vows are the words I had written to him when I had been buried alive with Hodgins by the Gravedigger. I hadn't originally intended my vows to be these words but when I found the folded piece of paper in a box in my closet last week, I thought that given the timing of our wedding, it would be fitting somehow. We exchange rings and 'I do's' and are pronounced husband and wife. Cheers and applause from our friends and family ring out through the church as we kiss. We walk back down the aisle together and out of the church to be met by everyone outside who shower us with confetti and grab us for fierce hugs. I hadn't really known what to expect from our wedding and I certainly had never expected to be shown this much love or to feel this happy. Booth tugs on my hand and guides me down the steps towards the car. He opens the door and I climb in. As we are driven towards our reception, I take hold of his left hand and touch the wedding band on his finger. It's almost as if I need tangible evidence to prove that this isn't a dream, that it is real. He catches my eye and I know in that instant he knows what I'm thinking. He smiles broadly as he cups my face in his hand and kisses me passionately, confirming to me definitively that I am not dreaming.
0-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-0
Booth and I stumble through the front door of our home still laughing with the giddy joy that the day has brought us. Our reception at the Jeffersonian in one of the function rooms had involved dancing, drinking and laughter. It was perfect. It isn't even that late but we were both tired and Christine was getting cranky so we decided to come home, put Christine to bed and continue our celebrations in private leaving our friends to continue partying for as long as they wish.
I sit down to feed Christine then when she is finished, Booth takes her from me "I'll take her and put her to bed, Bones. You relax and put your feet up. Just don't take your dress off. That's my job." He says as he waggles his eyebrows in a suggestive manner. We both laugh as he takes the baby and heads upstairs. I don't want to sit though; I still feel too hyped up and the muscles in my core are clenching in anticipation of what Booth might intend to do once he has removed my dress.
I go to stand by the back windows overlooking our yard. There are several trees in our garden. Their branches are bare, but they seem to be glistening. The rain that has recently landed on them is reflecting the light of the moon that has emerged in the clearing sky.
The moon is providing just enough illumination to see through the darkness, to allow a path to be followed with enough light to only require a little faith that you are going in the right direction, rather than the total faith required to walk in complete darkness. It strikes me then that this is what my prophetic dream did for me. I used to proclaim that I didn't have faith, that it was an irrational belief in something that was logically impossible. But when I had been buried alive with Hodgins, he had told me that I have faith in Booth, and I had to admit that I do. I have complete confidence and trust in him. Faith in myself however, trusting in my heart and my emotions, is another matter. When Booth declared himself to me that night outside the Hoover, I was in complete darkness, requiring faith in myself and my ability to love that I didn't possess in order to walk the path he wanted us to go down. But the dream provided me with just enough illumination to allow me to follow that path. The path that has led me to Booth and this happy life I now lead that I never thought I would have.
I see Booth's reflection in the window as he approaches me from behind. He has removed his jacket and bow tie. He wraps his arms around my waist and presses himself up close behind me. He begins to nuzzle and kiss my neck before saying "Well, Mrs Booth, are you ready to consummate our marriage and begin our lives together?"
I start a little when he calls me 'Mrs Booth.' I smile and turn in his arms to face him placing my arms around his neck. "Yes, I am. For 30 or 40 or 50 years?"
"Absolutely." He whispers before kissing me and whisking me up into his arms, carrying me upstairs to do exactly that.
A/N: I hadn't intended to include a pregnancy or a wedding when I starting writing this but I went where my muse took me. I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!