"Ha, ha, very funny, Seeley," she said. Turning back around she made an attempt at flipping the pancakes cooking in the pan. She managed to turn one successfully, the other falling into a heap on the stove.
"Damn," she muttered, trying to retrieve it. "You know," she said over her shoulder, "you could come help me."
Booth made no move to approach her. "What are you doing here?" he asked again.
This time when she answered, her voice was annoyed. "I don't know why you keep asking me that. I live here, remember? I told you I wasn't leaving for my next assignment until tomorrow. I thought we could spend time together before I left. You always complain that I don't make time for you when I'm home."
Reaching up, she turned the burner off with a click that echoed in the silent apartment. Sliding the pan off the heat, she turned and rested her back against the counter. "I thought you would be happy I was making breakfast." Her face took on a pout she thought Booth would find sexy.
Without thinking, he motioned with the hand still holding the gun. "You don't live here, Hannah. And I sure as hell don't live here."
Her eyes widened at the sight of him holding the gun. "What's your problem, Seeley? We've always lived here."
Looking down at the gun and back at her, Booth tried to make sense of the situation. Was Hannah the one that was confused? Or was he? Had he hit his head or fallen into another coma?
"We don't live together, Hannah. We broke up after you refused my proposal." That had happened, right? Around Valentine's Day? It was the end for them and the start for him and Bones.
Booth was so confused. This wasn't just a dream; it was a full-blown nightmare. There were sights, sounds, and smells that told him nothing about this was imagined. But even for a superstitious man, Booth wasn't one to believe you fell asleep and woke up in a different reality.
Hannah shook her head. "Did you take some sort of pain medication that you shouldn't have? You always react so weirdly to that stuff."
She approached him slowly, wary of the gun. Lifting her left hand, she wiggled her fingers in front of his face. "I didn't turn down your proposal, Seeley." On her finger was the expensive diamond, purchased in a moment of panic when he realized that he was never going to be able to walk away from Bones. It had been a last desperate act to prove that he could move on.
He'd known Hannah wasn't the marrying kind. Subconsciously, he'd counted on it.
"I accepted your proposal. We've been married almost five years now." Her eyes filled with concern, Hannah reached up to brush her fingers across his face, but let her hand drop when he stepped back. "Don't you remember?"
Of course he didn't remember, because it didn't happen. She'd turned him down and he'd tossed the ring into the water at the reflecting pool. He hadn't seen her or talked to her since she'd walked away from him that night.
But now here she was, in an apartment he hadn't seen the inside of in years. The black rotary phone she'd given him was sitting on the stand. Her purse was on the counter. And despite the terror her words were causing, they certainly had the ring of truth to them.
"You accepted my proposal?" he repeated.
"Yes, Seeley," she said patiently. It was apparent something was wrong with him and the gun was making her very nervous, so she decided to just go along with whatever was happening. Tomorrow, she'd be back on a plane to Turkey and that would give her time to decide if this relationship was something she really wanted to continue. Even though she was pretty sure she didn't want to.
So, if Seeley wanted to act like he'd lost his mind for the day, let him. She'd dealt with worse.
There was that little issue of the brain tumor that had occurred in the past. He'd told her about it one night, not long after they were married. Maybe, after she was safely away, she'd let one of his friends know what was going on, just in case. She didn't necessarily want him to die a horrible death. Hannah just wasn't sure she wanted to be married to him anymore.
"And we got married?" he said, looking around the apartment. "Are there pictures or something?" Maybe if he saw actual proof of what she was claiming, he would begin to understand what was happening to him.
And begin to understand where Bones and his children had disappeared to.
"No pictures," Hannah answered, turning away to begin cleaning up the mess. "We eloped a few weeks after you gave me the ring. Said you didn't want to wait." Hannah sighed, remembering how it had felt at the time. "It was really quite romantic."
But the romance was long gone from their relationship. Nothing had been the same since the incident six months after their marriage. Booth was distant and had been for some time.
That distance had led her to take more and more assignments outside the country. This was the first time she'd been home for more than one night in six months.
This time, she'd made it three nights before calling and begging for another assignment. It was clear that whatever they'd felt for each other had died a long time ago.
Seeley, being the man he was, would never end their marriage. So it was going to be up to her to cut the cord and force the issue.
She'd planned on discussing it with him this morning over pancakes. But the mental breakdown and the gun had her throwing those plans out the window. After she landed in Turkey she'd call a lawyer and get divorce proceedings started.
She dealt with enough craziness in her job. She wasn't coming home to it.
Booth watched Hannah clean up his kitchen. He didn't move to help, just continued to watch her with a confused expression on his face.
"Do I work at the FBI?" he finally asked. "What day is today?"
She turned slowly back toward him. "You're starting to really scare me, Seeley." Hannah wanted to turn back and finish cleaning up the breakfast that wasn't going to happen, but she was afraid to turn her back on the man behind her.
Booth waved the hand with the gun in it again. "Just answer the questions, Hannah."
She bit her lip and nodded. He didn't appear to even realize he still held the gun. "Yes, you work at the FBI. And today is Thursday, December twenty-forth, Christmas Eve."
So the date was still the same. It just seemed Booth had fallen into a rabbit hole with no clear way out. But he had no doubt in his mind he would figure all this out.
Noticing the gun, he made sure the safety was on, but didn't set it down. One of the people in this room had lost his or her mind and he was pretty sure it wasn't him.
"Where is the Christmas tree?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Don't ask me. You're the one who stays here all the time. I don't."
The whole thing didn't have the fuzzy quality of a dream. It felt solid and real. HIs heart pounded in his chest and he could feel the gun in his fist. But there was no way any of this was real.
Wake up! Wake up! He had to wake up.
"Where's Bones?" he asked as Hannah finished cleaning his kitchen and turned back toward him. Booth could see the fear in her eyes and wondered what had put it there. Was she afraid of him or for him?
Her eyes clouded over and she shook her head. "Bones? You mean Temperance? I think that's the first time you've said her name in almost a year."
What? He hadn't said her name in a year? If he still worked at the FBI, then he assumed Bones was still his partner. There was no way that partnership had been severed. He simply wouldn't allow it to happen.
"And my children? Where are my children?"
"Where is your child?" she clarified. "We haven't had kids, Booth, and Parker is in London with his mother. He'll be home in a couple days to spend time with you for the holiday."
"Of course, we didn't have children," Booth snapped. "I had children with Bones. Two of them."
Hannah lifted her eyebrows in shock. There was something he'd never shared with her. She hadn't even been aware Booth and his former partner had been intimate, say nothing about having two children together. "Where are those children supposed to be?"
Booth began to pace back and forth. "I'm assuming they're with Bones. When was the last time I saw them?"
This time, when he met Hannah's eyes, he recognized the look in them. Pity. For whatever reason, she pitied him.
"Stop," he demanded, using his free hand to rub the bridge of his nose. "I didn't marry you, I married Bones. I had two children with her. You went back to being a war correspondent. That was how it happened and this is just a nightmare."
"Well at least you got something right," Hannah mumbled, reaching for her keys. She wasn't sure how she felt about him referring to their life together as nothing but a nightmare. Sure, it hadn't always been great, but there had been some good times.
"Which part?" he demanded. "Which part did I get right?"
Hannah twirled the keys in her hand as she watched him. The gun didn't scare her anymore. What she saw was a pathetic, confused man. As soon as she got out of the apartment, she'd call his friend Cam from the Jeffersonian. She could figure all this out.
"The part about me being a war correspondent. That's what you got right." Hannah considered her options and made a decision. "Listen, I'll take you to see Temperance, if you promise I only have to drop you off."
Narrowing his eyes, Booth watched her. "You know where she is?"
Nodding slowly, Hannah reached for her purse. "I'll take you. But you're not going to like it."