A/N: I want to thank everyone. This has been an amazing journey for me. I appreciate everyone who stood by me and kept coming back. This is the final chapter, but don't fear, there is also an epilogue on the way too, I just don't know when I will update that yet. The epilogue is with the beta, so I depend on her. Are you there jenlovesbones? Thanks for going through the novel, btw. I still very much appreciate you!

Also, I just wanted to point out that I was blackmailed into posting this early. You guys can blame or thank sunsetdreamer and RositaLG for making me update earlier. I think I should call Booth to arrest both of them, you know, for blackmailing me.

Song "Coming Home" by Diddy

I'm coming home
I'm coming home
Tell the World I'm coming home
Let the rain wash away all the pain of yesterday
I know my kingdom awaits and they've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home, I'm coming home
Tell the World that I'm coming

Chapter 26

Booth walked into the house. He felt a little apprehensive, because he couldn't help but remember how he left the night before. He saw the windows were still open; the fresh air had wiped out the scent of death. The house seemed more alive but he saw no sign of Brennan anywhere.

He went up the steps. First to her studio, he was surprised to find the mess of gray and black that he obliterated was gone. There were no signs of the wreckage he left there. There was one new white easel standing in the center of the room, and he went to it afraid; his mouth dropped open when he saw it was the beginning of a new painting on the canvas, but nothing like darkness she had been painting before. This was peace of heaven, a painting of one very unique angel, his Liz. He could see it would be beautiful when it was finished. He leaned in to touch the dear sweet face that he would never expunge from his soul.

"Be at Peace Liz, Mommy and Daddy are going to see you again someday." Tears ran down his cheek as he felt the pain mixing with renewed hope.

Booth went to the master bedroom next. He saw she had been in there too. He saw her clothing lying in stacks on the bed as if she was taking up residence again. Her perfume bottles and her makeup were back on the dressing table, a part of him registered this was new too. Booth realized she hadn't been here the whole time he was gone. His heart lurched as he grasped how lonely she had been. He walked to the bathroom; the flood had dried up, the bathtub showed no sign of the emotional voltage of the previous night. He saw them there, struggling with the grief and the pain washed away by the love that flourished again for a brief moment. It gave him renewed faith.

He heard sounds coming from down the hall; he followed them, not daring to believe Brennan was actually in that room. The morning sun casted a golden glow as it always had, and now it seemed brighter than ever as he saw that she was indeed there. He stood in the broken door watching as she packed Liz's belongings away, sadly.

Tears were pouring down her cheeks as she said her bittersweet goodbye to the little girl who lived forever in her heart. Booth felt his own tears falling and he knew how monumentally important it was that Brennan had chosen to do this. He saw it as a miraculous sign that she was coming back, his Bones was coming back. She was holding the silly bear Liz loved to fall asleep with and her hands clutched it unwilling to put it away. She struggled with the idea of taking it away from Liz. They should have buried it with her, and that thought brought out a gulping harsh sob.

He took a step forward and she heard the noise. She looked up and her eyes were filled with relief when she saw him. She really hadn't believed he would come back, but he has.

Her hands went up to her mouth to hold back the cries of regret. Before he even knew what was happening, he had moved and she was in his arms. Her hands melted into him as though they had been waiting for eons to touch him, and her body collapsed against his. She felt like she had been gone for a very long time, and now she had returned to something very different, yet no less precious. She felt as though she had been awakened from a long and terrible nightmare, but now she would find beauty in his arms again.

"I'm here, Bones… I'm here… " Booth wept with her, holding her as close as he could to him. He was holding her again. It was her; he felt it in every cell of his being, his beloved beautiful wife was in his arms.

"It's so damn hard to say goodbye." She cried against his chest.

"I know."

"I don't want to say goodbye." She wailed hitting against his chest with her fist in protest.

"I don't either, baby." He nodded, letting her get it all out, finally letting her express what she had been holding inside for months.

"I'm so sorry, Booth. You had to hold that inside and deal with it all alone." Brennan whispered into his ear. Her heart filled with love for him, she felt his grief beating against her and she knew what all of this had cost him.

"I… never wanted to keep it from you… you have to know it." She looked into his eyes seeing him as he was, knowing she had been looking at everything through warped vision. "Bones, I can't do anything to bring her back… God knows I would. I'd give up anything to have her back."

Brennan nodded unable to speak through her tears.

"If I could have made it there, I swear to you I would have… to think of her there without either one of us… I don't know why it happened that way… I can't understand it either." His thumb brushed her tears. "I can't make you any promises that nothing bad will ever happen again, and I can't stop you from doing what you want to do… but I can tell you this one thing… the only thing I can promise for certain is that I will always love you, whether you love me back or not, I will love you forever.

"I know you don't want any more pain, but I don't believe that our being together is wrong. I will never believe that. We were meant to be together, we were destined to have Cooper and Elizabeth. No matter how short it was for, I will never regret one moment of her existence."

Brennan knew he had been in as much anguish and sorrow as she had. She understood why he had to have someone help him and she knew Emma was a blessing for both of them. Without her, Booth wouldn't have been able to sustain the sorrow or the secret, and he might not have held it together as he had for her, and for Cooper and Parker. She knew he was right, if she had heard that her baby died alone the day of her death, she wouldn't have made it over those days with any sanity left. Now, after some time passed, she could digest it and try to accept it. She knew that Booth did it entirely out of love and concern. She also knew it in her heart and soul it was the most selfless gift of love he could give her.

She could feel the resolve she had made to stay away from him would never last. Who else but Booth would cover up the deepest heartache of his life to spare her hearing the worst news over a telephone? Who else would stand by and allow her to believe their little girl had a peaceful death filled with love surrounding her bedside? Who else would hold it all inside, worrying first about her healing and her grief before his? There was only one man who would do it for her.

She had seen the fear in his eyes the night before. The same fear she saw in his eyes when he rescued her from the gravedigger, when they found out about his brain tumor and so many other times. He had protected her, he had stood beside her. He had put his life on the line for hers yet again. They had made a life. It was not always filled with happiness and flowers. He never told her it would be. She knew what and whom she could count on. She knew who would always and forever be by her side. She knew how deeply he had loved Liz and still did, and how much Cooper and Parker meant to him.

"It hurts…" Brennan's tortured cry broke his broken heart to shreds.

"I know… " He felt helpless, unable to take away the pain, to give her what she wanted most in the world. "You think I don't know… I know. I know each day something will jog a memory, and each month as we go on, she will be there. Every birthday, we will be thinking of how old she would have been. How pretty she would have been. What kind of things she would be doing. It will be that way year after year, what it should have been her first crush, her first date, the prom. I will always wonder what she would have looked like, who she would have married. I will never walk my little girl down the aisle or hold her first child… " Booth choked in tears.

Brennan cried for all those lost moment, her heart felt like it was broken beyond repair. "I'm not sure… how can we go on without her?" Brennan's tears made her words both a plea and a question.

"We take it one day, one moment at a time and we talk about her, we laugh about the funny things and we cry, sometimes we cry our hearts out when it gets too painful."

"And we say goodbye… " Brennan looked into his eyes.

"Yes, Bones, we say goodbye." His voice was calming.

"I'm not sure how… I mean I thought packing up… "

"That painting you started is a beautiful goodbye, Bones." He was so proud of her for taking these steps, his eyes glowed with pride. "I can feel the love you have put into it emitting from the canvas."

"Angela was right. It certainly helps to paint. Although, I wasn't sure what to do. I could hardly hold the brush..." She looked away. She had to stop, because she was sobbing too hard to finish it.

His fingers under her chin brought her back to him. "I'm not sure either, Bones. I mean I had to say good bye to my mother and Pops, and now our daughter, I can't…" Booth's voice broke and he gave into the sobs rising inside.

Brennan held him tightly as they try to find a way to let go and move on with their lives. "Maybe we don't have to say goodbye really, because our love is with her, and hers is still with us."

"Yeah… maybe it's okay not to say it… she knew it would be too hard for us, maybe she knew she wasn't going to be here for very long, and that's why she went alone. We had her for a precious few years, but she brought us more in those years than we could ever imagine."

"Yeah, she was so perfect… " Brennan agreed lovingly.

"She's watching over her family too. I feel her sometimes when I'm really sad, I can feel her little hand patting my back..."

"I miss her…" Brennan took a deep breath, and then dissolved into more tears.

"It's okay baby, I miss her too. You will be with her, because you two exude the same beauty and the same love. I will never believe she's completely gone from us… and I'll see her in your smile, you two were so alike."

"Us? Is there still an us, Booth?"

"I'm here… I'm here, and it's the only place I want to be… "

"Are you sure?" Brennan looked away. "Emma was here… and I think I understand..."

"There's nothing between us, Bones. What I feel for you outshines anything for anyone else."

"I love you, Booth. I was so afraid to love you, because of… "

"I know… but baby, isn't it worse not being together?"

"Yes… much, much worse… " Brennan gulped on a broken sob. She had missed him more than words could say. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry I haven't been here for you… "

"I know, I know…. it's all right… I know..." Booth hugged her tightly to him, he was going to be able to take care of her now, he would make sure she ate, and got better. They could get help if she needed, and they would get better. They had a little boy who needed them to be whole and happy again. He felt a little stirring of happiness and for the first time, not an ounce of guilt for feeling it.

"Booth, I know I don't have any right to expect you to do this now… I mean maybe you need time to get over… "

"What? Bones, ask me anything." Booth's eyes told her she could, and that he wasn't going to say 'no' to anything she asked.

"Come home, please come home. The idea of you never walking in that door again… I need you to come home. Whatever happens next, Booth… the only thing I know is that I don't want it to happen without you."

Brennan saw his need for her. She felt his eyes yearning for his family, his wife, and his sons. His home, he was home.

"Come home, Booth, please just come home." She begged for him.

"I'm home, Bones. I'm home." He promised as their lips met softly and sweetly and the tears fell.

They could almost hear a tinkling laughter in the room. The joyous sound of Liz's blessing as she happily watched her parents begin to heal. They hugged consoling one another, giving and receiving the love she radiated so beautifully into their hearts. Brennan looked up into Booth's eyes, they smiled through the tears as they fondly remembered the little happy soul that was, and would always be their little Liz.

A/N: Thanks again for reading. Don't forget to tell me what you guys through. I hope this end was satisfactory for everyone. Epilogue will be up sometime in the next week.