"Hey, Bones, come on, we've got a case!"
Brennan's head jerks up from her computer screen at the sound of Booth's voice booming through the lab. He's certainly loud enough, but she still has trouble believing that she's heard correctly. Before she has time to get over her astonishment, he has already swept into her office, a Styrofoam cup of coffee in his hand and a grin on his face.
"Jeez, Bones, it's six thirty in the morning, do you ever go home? I swung by your place to pick you up, but you weren't there –"
"I had a lot of paperwork to catch up on," she stammers; it sounds like an excuse to her own ears. The truth is that she barely slept last night and finally gave up around four o'clock, deciding that she'd better get some work done if she wasn't going to sleep anyway.
"Well, forget about it now, we've got a long drive ahead of us. What are you still waiting for? Chop, chop, we gotta get going!"
"Sure, I – I'll get my gear…" She feels like she's stepped into a scene from a happier past, a time when Booth would burst into her lab like a small tornado and happily drag her away instead of walking on eggshells around her like he's been doing it lately. She hasn't seen him in such a good mood for months, and now she's becoming painfully aware of how much she has missed that easy smile lighting up his whole face.
He fills her in on the details of the case on their way out – a badly decayed corpse found in the middle of a wood by a hiker –, but she barely listens. She clutches the coffee he has pressed into her hands, the heat against her skin serving as proof that no matter how surreal she feels, she's wide awake and neither dreaming nor imagining things.
Once they're in the car, Booth switches on the radio and hums along to the music while they're making their way out of the city. Brennan casts sidelong glances at him, trying in vain to decipher his behavior. This isn't them any more – she hasn't experienced this relaxed, companionable silence between them ever since… then. Things have been normal on the surface, but there's always a false note to everything they do, every word and look careful and laden with apprehension. They're partners, and they both still know that each of them would die for the other, but the easy, comfortable camaraderie they once shared has been shattered completely. Booth danced with her at her high school reunion and let her cling to him during the horrible days of the Gravedigger trial, but in their everyday interactions, he always keeps himself a little apart from her – no more casual touches, no more unannounced late-night visits with takeout food at her apartment. She remembers what he said about 'moving on' back then, and she has tried to take her cues from him – when she once would have gone to his place in the evening to help him with paperwork or to discuss a case, she now meets him on neutral territory, at the diner or the Founding Fathers. Something that used to make them special is gone, and Brennan doesn't know how to deal with the fact that things feel suddenly normal again for the first time in months when their partnership is on the brink of falling apart and nothing should feel normal at all.
She can only hope that the sudden change in Booth's demeanor is an indication that Rebecca's plan was successful, but she doesn't see a way to ask Booth about it without revealing her involvement. So she keeps watching him out of the corner of her eye while she sips her coffee and listens to him humming along to the radio, out of tune as always.
It's Booth who finally breaks the impasse. "You're awfully quiet today, Bones. Everything okay?"
For some reason, the simple question leaves her with a tight feeling in her throat, and she has to take a deep breath before she can reply. "Yes, I'm fine, thank you." She pauses, and then quickly adds, "You're in a good mood today."
"Yeah, I guess I am." He stretches his arms for a moment, pressing his back against his seat. "I had a long talk with Rebecca yesterday evening."
"Oh?" Brennan does her best to act surprised, although it feels uncomfortably like a lie. "Talking with Rebecca doesn't usually make you this cheerful."
He shoots her a quick look. "Is that an undertone I hear, Bones? Because when I say 'talked', I actually mean 'talked', you know."
"What – oh!" It takes her a second to get the implication. "No, I didn't mean – I mean, I wasn't thinking…" She falls silent when she sees his grin and realizes he was merely teasing her. Still, she's struck by the thought that perhaps this was Rebecca's idea – making Booth stay by suggesting that the two of them get together again for Parker's sake?
She dismisses the thought immediately, chiding herself for such an outlandish assumption. To the best of her knowledge, Rebecca is in a long-term relationship, and even though Booth hasn't worn the dolphin tie in weeks, he is still seeing Catherine as far as Brennan is aware.
"Yeah, whatever. Rebecca told me she got an offer to lead some big marketing project at the company she works for – I didn't really understand what it's about, and it doesn't matter anyway, because the important thing is that she'll have to move to New York for the next ten months if she wants to do it."
Brennan isn't sure how to reply; this is definitely unexpected. "Is she going to accept?"
"She says it would be an important career move for her, but the problem is Parker – if she takes him with her, he has to switch schools now, and then again when she comes back, and she doesn't think that's good for him. So…" Booth pauses, and now he's smiling again, that brilliant smile she has missed so much lately. "She asked me if Parker could stay with me while she's away."
Brennan suddenly finds it difficult to breathe. "And did you agree?"
"Are you kidding?" Booth is no longer smiling now, he's beaming. "Ten months with my boy? Bones, I've never had him longer than five days in a row since he was born! Of course I agreed!"
Brennan clutches her empty coffee cup so hard that her fingers leave dents in the Styrofoam. It's utterly heartwarming to see him so happy, but her rational mind can't help pointing out the possible problems she sees looming ahead. "This isn't going to be permanent, though, is it?" Booth frowns, and she clarifies hastily, "Are you sure this won't lead to Rebecca moving to New York on a permanent basis? With Parker, I mean?"
She fully expects him to be angry with her for spoiling his good mood, but to her surprise, the beaming smile is back on his face. "Bones, I'm not stupid – that's the first thing I asked her."
"And?"
"And she said that she knows how important Parker is to me, and..." Booth sounds like he's the one with a lump in his throat now. "She promised that she won't ever take my boy away from me."
Brennan falls silent, stunned by the magnitude of this announcement. She knows how much his son means to Booth, and how devastated he was whenever Rebecca dangled the threat of revoking his visiting rights over his head. It hasn't happened in a long time, and Brennan is aware that Booth and Rebecca are on quite amicable terms now, but she still wouldn't have expected Rebecca to surrender her most valuable bargaining chip like that. She can't even begin to imagine what a relief it must be for Booth to no longer worry about being separated from his son for good.
"That's… great news." Brennan reaches out and places her hand on his arm for a moment. "I'm really happy for you, Booth."
"Thanks, Bones." The warmth in his tone makes her throat constrict again, and she hastily removes her hand, summoning all her courage for the question she is dying to ask him.
"Does that mean you're not going back into the army?"
Booth is silent for a moment, and she notices how the muscles in his jaw contract as if he were clenching his teeth. When he answers, his tone is clipped. "Yes, of course it does. I already left Pelant a message that I'm not available."
Brennan bites her lower lip, desperately searching for the right thing to say. The relief she expected to feel hasn't set in yet, and she just wants to make him understand how much this means to her, how grateful she is that for all her mistakes, she at least hasn't ruined his life completely. The words won't come, though, and after a while she gives up and settles for a simple, "I'm glad."
Booth's posture relaxes, and his voice is quiet when he answers, "Yes, me too."
They ride on in silence for a long time; Booth keeps his eyes on the road, and his expression doesn't give away what's he's thinking. Brennan finds herself studying him out of the corner of her eye again; now that she's paying attention, she can see in his face that these past months have been hard on him. The lines etched into his forehead and the corners of his mouth are a lot deeper than they used to be, and the shadows around his eyes make him look tired and significantly older than he is. She feels a fresh stab of guilt at the thought that no matter how difficult it must have been for him, he has always been there for her when she needed him, and the only thing she has given him in return lately was a little white lie about a dead president.
She tears her eyes away from his face, reining in her racing thoughts. Now that it seems like they will keep working together like they used to, it's time for her to make good on her word and really allow him to move on, to leave the pain and heartache she has caused him behind. It will probably be easier for him now that Parker will be the focus of his life, and hopefully Catherine can help him too.
With that in mind, she asks in the most encouraging tone she can muster, "What does Catherine think about Parker living with you for almost a year?"
She expected another smile, and perhaps a story about how good Catherine is with children, but Booth's expression is as neutral as his tone when he replies, "I didn't ask."
"Oh." Brennan falls silent again as she realizes that she seems to have touched upon a sensitive topic.
Booth notices her discomfort and takes pity on her. "Hey, Bones, it's okay." His easy smile makes her relax a bit. "It's not like I'll have much time for dating anyway, now that I'm a full-time single dad."
At this, Brennan can finally bring herself to smile back. "You don't seem to mind."
"I don't." Booth slows down the car and points at a narrow dirt road leading away from the main road and into the thick of the forest. "Hang on, this is where we're going, and it looks like it's going to be a bumpy ride. On the plus side, we're almost there."
It turns out that the road isn't that bad, and it doesn't take them long to reach their destination, a small clearing where Booth parks the SUV next to an empty police truck. Brennan pulls her coverall over her clothes while Booth gets her bag; when she steps up to him, he's scanning the lush undergrowth that surrounds them.
"Local cop said we should leave the car here and take a small footpath leading away from the clearing – ah, there it is. Come on, Bones, let's go!"
Indicating the path he discovered with one hand, he places his other hand on the small of her back to steer her towards their destination.
Brennan stops dead, feeling as if all the air had left her lungs in a whoosh that makes her head spin. It's a small gesture, and it used to be so familiar that she barely noticed it any longer, but now the long-missed gentle pressure of his fingers on her back finally makes the realization hit that this is real, that Booth is right next to her, alive and whole and happier than she has seen him in a long time, that she's not going to lose him to duty and war and pain and her own mistakes.
The relief that floods her is so overwhelming that for once, her rational mind loses out against her instincts. In the next moment, her arms are around Booth in a hug that is so tight it probably knocks the air from his lungs.
Booth tenses, and for one heart-stopping moment, it seems like he's not going to respond. Brennan freezes, remembering too late that things are no longer like they used to be, that she doesn't have the right to hug him whenever she feels like it any more. There is no Gravedigger now, no heartbreak or danger that gives her an excuse for clinging to him; she is the one who set up these new boundaries between them, and she has no right to overstep them now.
Yet she can't bring herself to let go, and then his arms come up, gently encircling her in the safety of his embrace like they've always done. It feels like a homecoming.
"I'm sorry, Booth." She whispers it into his neck, over and over – "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…," and then, because she needs him to understand, "It's just that I'm so happy right now –"
The arms around her tighten, and she feels rather than hears him sigh softly. There is a strange edge in his voice when he murmurs into her hair, "Bones, I swear you're gonna be the death of me one day."
"I hope not." Brennan knows he didn't mean it literally, but his words still hit much too close to home, touching upon the fear that has been haunting her ever since she dreamed about him drowning every night. Again, she searches for words, for a way to make him understand without causing him further pain, and she finally remembers something she heard him say a long time ago, when they were both playing unfamiliar parts during that undercover investigation in Vegas. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
Booth draws in a sharp breath and gently pushes her away until he's holding her at arm's length, his dark eyes intent on hers as if he were searching for something in her gaze. "I gotta say you've got a funny way of showing it, Bones."
Brennan forces herself not to look away, although she feels the sting of tears in her eyes and hates that he has to see it. "I know, Booth, I –"
"Hey." He shushes her with his finger on her lips; the touch is brief and feather-light, but it still sends a jolt through her. "It's alright, Bones, I get it. You and me, we've got stuff to work out, but there'll plenty of time for it later, and today – let's both just be happy today, okay?"
He gives her a smile, and although it turns out a little lopsided, Brennan feels an unexpected peal of laughter bubbling deep in her throat. She blinks back the tears that are threatening to spill over her cheeks. "Okay."
"Great." Booth releases her and picks up her bag again. "Then let's go find some bones for you."