Chapter 26 Rain

Booth stood at the back door looking out at his newly planted vegetable garden. He had just finished setting out the Big Boy and Better Boy tomato plants Brennan wanted to cultivate this summer when a spring shower had drenched him. He'd dashed into the garage to store his hoe so it wouldn't rust, and made a run for the back porch. After a hand towel got his face fairly dry, he surveyed his morning's work with a certain satisfaction. By the time Bones returned from the grocery store, the plants would have been nicely watered by the rain and she ought to be pleased.

He had intended to go upstairs for a shower, but the steady rhythm of the rainfall mesmerized him into a day-dreamish trance. His eyes glazed over, focused on nothing at all, and his mind wandered around the cache of experiences stored within its archives. The rain's ozone scents and pattering sounds evoked several memories.

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The spring rains of Afghanistan could mean flooded roads in some provinces but they could also coax green growth from the usually dry sandy desert soil where he had been stationed. The sudden brief appearance of colorful plant life brought a respite to the routine dull beige and gray landscape. The dusty streets were temporarily cleaner and the air was cooler, fresh and easy to breathe compared to its furnace-like sting when summer arrived. It was during these spring showers that he and Hannah had enjoyed a few weeks of fun together. By now, she was only a faded memory, a reminder of the wrenchingly painful separation he and Brennan had endured, which had finally cleared his Bones' mind of her commitment fears and ultimately made their presently happy life together possible.

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He shivered as he unwillingly remembered a dark raincoat-soaking night when he'd followed Bones' taxi to a seedy part of D.C. and jogged toward her, wondering why in God's green earth she was crouched in the middle of the water-filled street, examining a traffic marker. A car's oncoming headlights suddenly illuminated her like FBI searchlights, and he raced to pull her to the curb, out of danger's path. The two of them lost their balance on the sidewalk, a horrific collision narrowly averted by his quick reflexes and strong arms. And then she had broken his heart.

"My world turned upside down for three days, Booth. Micah says the universe is full of faint static-ky messages. But I got the message Booth. I want to give us a try."

"But I'm with someone….I moved on. I had to. ….Hannah's not a consolation prize."

"Ohhh… I missed my chance…that's okay. I'm okay. I'll adjust."

"I did."

"Yes, you did."

The tears blurring his eyes cleared as another memory replaced that one…

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A long, slow, sweet kiss in the rain as they stood beside a waiting cab, a kiss that was finally interrupted by the impatient driver's honk.

"You'd never regret spending the night with me, Booth. But I'm not going home with you tonight. We're not having sex tonight."

"Why?"

"Tequila!" And Bones had waved at him through the back window of the taxi as it drove away down the street, and left him standing in the rain under a red neon sign blinking "Liquor Store." And Booth smiled slightly because he'd carried the warmth of that kiss in his head for eight years, until Jacob Broadsky's sniper shot had shattered the Jeffersonian's glass skylight and Vincent Nigel-Murray's young life. Bones' grief and confusion that night had driven her into his arms.

"What kind of person am I, Booth? He thought I was sending him away."

"He wasn't talking to you….That's not how things work….He was talking to God….Okay, he was talking to the Universe…..he didn't want to go, Bones."

And he'd held her, letting her sob out her pain until her tears were gone.

And then something unspeakably tragic had led to something inexpressibly wonderful.

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The front door opened as Brennan stepped in with two grocery sacks in her arms.

"What a downpour! Did you finish your planting? Booth, you're all wet….. Booth?"

He turned and reached for her.

"What?" she asked.

He pulled her to him in a fierce hug, and his lips sought hers.

"I love kissing you when it rains, Bones."

"Right back at you, Booth."

A/N: Those tomato plant varieties were my dad's favorites to grow. Every year we were drowning in tasty tomatoes by mid-summer. And our neighbors loved the overflow.