(The Pain in the Heart)

Thank you for reviewing my story. There are fewer readers now that Bones is winding down, so I value every review I get.

I'm on vacation right now and I will be in Pennsylvania starting Thursday at a family camp, so I hope I'll be able to keep posting my stories. It will depend upon whether or not I can access Verizon in the mountains. I'll be back next Wednesday. I hope everyone has a happy Labor Day.

Warning: tissue alert.

I don't own Bones.

Oooooooooooooooooooo

It had been three days and she was still stunned. How could that have happened? Why did it happen? He wasn't supposed to die like that. He was supposed to live. Booth had a son and a grandfather to live for.

Booth had promised her that he wouldn't betray her and leave her, but he broke his promise. He broke his promise.

Oooooooooooooooooooo

She used her spare key and entered his apartment. The silence was almost deafening as she closed the door behind her. Booth's apartment was rarely quiet. If he didn't have his television on, he had his stereo on instead. Her partner wasn't a fan of silence when he was alone.

Brennan walked down the hallway and scanned the living room. "Booth . . . Booth are you here?" She waited with a tiny morsel of hope until the silence became a pressure pressing against her ears. Quickly moving over to where his stereo was, she flipped a switch and the room was filled with sounds of retro-rock.

Relieved to have noise beating back the silence, Brennan swiftly walked into Booth's bedroom and found it to be neat as usual. Not sure why she was there, she moved around the room, touching the things that lay on the dresser and nightstand. As jumbled and cluttered as the living room was, Booth's bedroom was always neat and clean.

Standing in front of the dresser, she opened the top drawer and looked inside. The piles of socks and underwear were bright and festive. Solemnly she closed the drawer and opened the next drawer. Pleased she spotted neatly folded t-shirts and ran her fingers over the soft material. Curious, she separated them and quickly found his stack of FBI t-shirts on the right side of the drawer.

"I'm taking a few of your shirts, Booth." Since he wasn't there to stop her, she pulled out two FBI t-shirts and three of her favorite concert t-shirts. After she placed them in a stack on the bed, she looked through the rest of the drawers and found his khaki jacket. "I'm taking your jacket too, Booth. I don't know why you don't wear it anymore. I thought it looked nice on you, but then again you look good in most things you wear."

Once she was done with his dresser, she moved over to the nightstand and looked in the drawers. He had an interesting collection of comic books in one them and she removed the one on top. "I know you read novels since you have a stack of them in the living room, but I never imagined that you would read comic books. I thought those were just for children. I guess not . . . you're a very complicated person Booth. Warrior, Agent, father . . . friend . . ."

After she placed it on the pile of shirts and jacket, she picked up her loot and looked around the room. "If you want these thing back then you must come and get them Booth. They will be at my apartment." The only noise coming from the stereo in the living room, Brennan felt tears slide down her cheeks. "You broke your promise to me, Booth. I thought I could count on you. I thought you were my friend."

Unable to remain, she walked into the living room, turned off the stereo and left the apartment. Her arms filled with her treasures, Brennan was determined to move on. Booth was dead and he was no longer her partner. She had work to do.

Ooooooooooooooooooooooo

The Army had sent her a body that had been found in South Korea. It was possible that the skeleton was the remains of a serviceman killed during the Conflict between North and South Korea. Alone in the examination room, the door firmly closed and locked, Brennan laid out the skeleton on the stainless steel table and started her examination. "You might find this very interesting Booth. This may be the remains of a serviceman killed during the Korean War. I know some historians call it a conflict, but that's ridiculous, it was a war."

Once the bones were laid out, she picked up the skull and started to examine it. As she did that she made notations in a notebook of the facial markers Angela would need to attempt a facial reconstruction. "The markers indicate an African American male . . . or perhaps I should say of a male of African descent. It remains to be seen if he is American. Ethiopia had troops as part of the UN forces that served there during the war. There were fibers surrounding the skeleton in the grave which I will assume was what was left of his uniform. Dr. Hodgins has those and he is trying to determine their origin right now."

Studying the skeleton more closely, Brennan smiled. "He doesn't appear to be Ethiopian . . . No, most definitely not." After she made notes about all of the markers she wanted Angela to use, Brennan placed the skull down on the table. "He must have died away from his unit. If he had died with them, his body would have been brought back and he would have been buried in the United States. Perhaps he became separated from his unit or he was a prisoner of war when he died. He was given a simple grave. There was no marker to point to him being buried where he was found. His skeleton was found by a farmer who was expanding his fields. The field this soldier was buried in hadn't been used for many years."

Not sure why she was talking to Booth when he was dead, Brennan sighed. "I don't believe in an afterlife, but I remember you telling me that this was a way to connect with our deceased loved ones, that it's a way to remember them . . . yes I said it. I loved you Booth. You were a dear friend and I loved you for that . . . you were my best friend and now all I have left is Angela. Yes, I know Max and Russ are back in my life, but . . . I still don't trust them. I don't think I ever will. I only have . . . had three people in this world I could count on and now there are just two, Angela and Hodgins . . . you weren't supposed to die, Booth. Not yet."

Her eyes watering, Brennan sniffed. "This is silly . . . you're dead. You can't hear me . . . You had no right to step in front of that bullet. No right at all. I didn't ask you to do that. I am so angry with you. You always have to protect me when I can protect myself . . . if you were standing right here I would tell you to your face what a selfish thing you did . . . yes selfish. You did that because you . . . because you always think you have to protect me . . . because you have to do things your way. Well, I didn't want you to do that . . . Do you hear me, Booth?"

Furious, Brennan dashed the tears from her cheeks. "I'm going to stop talking to you . . . If you want me to talk to you then come back and talk to me in person . . . That was a stupid thing to say . . . I don't know why I'm so emotional."

Tears pouring down her cheeks, Brennan walked over to the door and sat on the floor in front of it. Drawing her knees up, she placed her arms around them and gave herself permission to cry. Sobs racking her body, Brennan knew that she would never have a friend like Booth again. He allowed her to be who she was and she would miss that the most about him. "You broke your promise, Booth . . . you promised not to leave me. Why did you do that? Why?"

Oooooooooooooooooooo

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