3.
After working on the case for a few more hours, Booth went home. He was exhausted.
As he opens the door, the smell of Italian food reaches his nose. Hannah has been cooking.
'Hey Seeley, I thought you wouldn't mind me being the cook for once,' she greeted him.
He put his coat on the hook by the door and walked inside. 'You were right, it smells great.' He was grateful that she didn't bring up Bones straight away, but he knew they'd have to talk later on. He thought it best to break the ice before she did.
'I hope you know that I love you,' he said. She smiled at him.
'I know, and I thank you for telling me so much about your history with Temperance. You didn't have to.'
'You needed to know,' Booth said. 'And it was unfair of me to wait so long.'
'Seeley, you didn't have to tell me. I knew,' Hannah said, while directing him towards the table and pulling out a chair for him. He turned around, facing her. 'You knew? How?'
She laughed at him, pushing him down onto the chair. 'It's written all over your faces when you are together. It's hard for anyone but yourselves not to notice.'
'You should tell Bones that,' Booth muttered.
'Maybe I will do just that,' Hannah called back to him from the kitchen, before emerging with two steaming plates.
They ate their food in silence, neither of them needing to speak, until Hannah felt she had one more thing to say.
'I'll support you through any choice you make, Seeley. You don't have to give her up because you're with me.'
He looked at her with big eyes. 'But I don't want to loose you, Hannah. Not yet anyway,' he tried to lighten the mood. She smiled at him. 'You won't, if you don't want to. But whenever you feel Temperance needs you more than I do, you can go to her, just know that.' He nodded, feeling relieved that Hannah understood their relationship so well. Bones would most likely need him more than Hannah, and he would like to be there for her, if it helped.
The next morning Booth picked Brennan up to interview the victim's wife for a second time. She seemed distant, but Booth thought it best to wait until she was ready to talk. Finally, she did.
'What if she did it?'
He frowned. 'What if who did what?'
'What if the wife killed her husband. Where does that lead your theory?'
'What theory?' He was having trouble keeping up with her.
'About love being eternal, people being together for forty, fifty years, never letting each other down.'
He looked at her. 'Bones, come on. You know that only applies to some of us. We struggle our whole lives to find this one person, and sometimes we get lucky.' He knew she was talking about more than the case here, but he'd let it to her to make the bridge.
'But how do you know that you've found this person? I mean, I think I'm quite capable of assessing the competence and compatibility of my mates, but I've been unsuccessful so far.'
'That's because you keep getting scared.'
She hadn't expected that and she didn't know what to answer. He knew her too well.
'I have an alibi,' the wife said. 'Pretty shaky one as far as I'm concerned,' Booth countered. Brennan stood back and tried to read the woman. Why would someone kill the one she loved? Did she feel betrayed by him? What was her motive? Brennan herself had thought of hurting Booth in the past, for example when he had played dead and she had attended his funeral only to find he was still alive. That had been pure betrayal to her, and she couldn't trust him not to do that ever again. That was one of the reasons she was afraid of getting closer to him: Getting hurt by Booth meant getting hurt hard and deep, and she'd had enough of that. She knew she should have told him all of this ages ago but she had just never found the right time.
'Bones?'
She woke up from her thoughts. 'What?'
'I said, wasn't the murderweapon a kitchen knife just like the ones ma'am over here is using for cutting up her vegetables?'
'Booth, there are millions of those knives, to be found anywhere.'
'Yeah, but I still think it's worth spraying your magic water over them to see if there's any blood on them.'
The wife blocked their path. 'Not without a warrant, that's for sure,' she said.
Booth nodded. 'All right, we'll be back,' he said and he directed Brennan out.
'What was that about?' Once they were outside, Booth grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him. 'You've never done that before. You could have just said yes and I'd have legal reasons to take her in you know.'
'I'm aware of that. Now let go.'
He let her go. 'I'm sorry.'
'No Booth, you're not. You're the one that taught me about love, and I was almost starting to believe you when I went to the Maluku islands and you to Afghanistan. I thought you'd try again, I really thought you'd try again.' She let it all out, not knowing what else to say or how else to continue her life. He had to know.
Booth put a hand on her back and guided her to his car. Once they were in, he looked at her. She was avoiding his eyes, and he could see the pain he had caused her. That broke his heart.
'I know, Bones. I wanted to. But then I met Hannah and I just.. I don't know. I didn't know how you felt, you never tell me how you feel. I knew how I felt about Hannah and how she felt about me. It was the more logical thing, I guess. But it hurt.'
'No, you hurt me. And I know I hurt you but I was protecting you.'
'But don't you see that protecting me from you makes both of us miserable?' He started the car. 'Let's get back to the Jeffersonian, see what you squints have figured out.' He wanted to let her think things over before she said anything she didn't mean or she'd regret later. She nodded, she understood.
Back at the Jeffersonian, Booth went up the platform to talk to Hodgins and Brennan immediately made for Angela's office. 'Ange, we need to talk.'
Angela looked up. 'Sure, come in,' she said. If she could help, she would.
'Do you have any plans this evening?' Brennan asked her.
'No, why, do you?' Angela smiled at her. She thought it would be good for Brennan to do something wild, but she knew she'd never convince her friend to go out with her unless she was completely at ease when Angela asked.
'No, I was wondering if you'd come over for dinner? I need to ask you some questions,' Brennan asked. Was she asking for romantic advice? Angela didn't know what to think.
'You know what? We'll eat out. Pick the restaurant. You need to get away from home, sweetie.'
Brennan thought about it for a second, then she nodded. 'Ok, but you're not going to try to hook me up. I'm not in the mood.' Angela agreed.
Later that evening, Angela picked Brennan up and they went to have dinner. After dinner, they went to a club a few blocks from Brennan's apartment. Brennan had refused to go at first, but Angela had said that her favorite band was playing and she wanted to check them out. Brennan had agreed and so they ended up at the bar, chatting with each other. 'So, what did you want to ask me?' Angela asked Brennan. She hoped the alcohol would make her more talkative, because she really wanted to know what was on her friends mind.
'How did you know that Hodgins was the one for you, Angela? How do you know?'
'You're not going to believe me, whatever I say, sweetie.'
'I'll try, I promise.'
Angela sighed. 'Ok. You.. You feel this tingle when he looks at you. You feel safe when he walks behind you. When you see his name on your phone you can't wait to pick up or answer his text.'
'That's teenage infatuation,' Brennan frowned.
'When it goes on for longer than you thought it would, it's love,' Angela said.
Brennan looked at her, still needing so much more answers. 'But how do you know that it's going to last?'
'Sweetie.. You don't. That's part of it, you have to live in the moment to be happy. You can't live in doubt your entire life. Just go with it, have fun and see where it leads. Even if it hurts in the end, it's worth it, believe me.'
Brennan smiled and put a hand on her friends arm. 'Thanks, Ange. I still have a lot to learn, I guess.'
Angela covered Brennan's hand with one of her own. 'And you'll be a quick study. Just allow Booth in every once and again, he's worth it.'
Brennan nodded. 'I know.'