Greysisthecatspajamas suggested I get Hodgins and Booth to get stranded somewhere and have Hodgins yell at Booth, post-the-Hannah-breakup. Since I was physically incapable of focusing on anything today but tonight's episode of #Bones (who's gonna die, who's gonna die?), this happened over my lunch hour. And hey, it's even got Angry Booth for a change (but who are we kidding- he's been angry most of this season)!
Assume Hodgins didn't say sorry while examining the bikini in the soup vic and that this takes place just days after that hideous proposal. *shudders* - Enjoy!
"Great, just great," Booth groaned, shoving the SUV into park after moving as far over as possible on the right median on the Interstate.
He jumped out of the driver's side and walked around to assess the damage. His passenger, who had also jumped out, chuckled at the damage. That was, apparently, the wrong sound to make.
"Hey, I didn't cause two flat tires," Hodgins said, with his hands in the air, metaphorically deflecting the agent's ire. "Though I bet I still get chewed out when I get to the crime scene late."
"Just, shut up, would you?" Booth said, pulling out his cell phone and dialing dispatch with his back to Hodgins.
After finishing the call, he turned around to find Hodgins on the phone as well. "Thanks, babe… Love you too," he said before hanging up.
"A tow truck will be here in an hour, I hope," Booth said, leaning up against the truck in defeat.
"I told Angela to let Cam and Dr. B know we'd be late. And she's calling my car service to come pick us up," Hodgins said. Booth gave him his best sometimes-I-forget-you're-a-rich-bastard glare and Hodgins shrugged his shoulders. "What, I rarely use it. But occasionally, it comes in handy… like in a two flat tires kind of situation."
Booth continued to glare until he looked away and slid down to sit on the ground next to one of those flat tires.
"Just great. Such a fitting addition to my already shitty week," Booth grumbled. Despite the traffic, Hodgins heard him.
"Sorry man, about… you know. Sorry that didn't work out for you."
"Son of a… what, did Bones announce my failed proposal to Hannah to the whole damn lab?" he yelled angrily.
"Actually, you might want to talk to your shrink about his need to gossip," Hodgins said bluntly, pausing before asking his next question. "So, Dr. B knows already?"
"Hannah called her that night. Like it's not bad enough she kicked me, but she has to send Bones to watch me while I'm down."
"I'm sure that wasn't her intent. Brennan's your best friend…"
"She's just my partner."
"Really? You're still parading that line of bullshit around? She's a lot more than just your partner, Booth. Deal with it."
"If I need a lecture, squint, I'll ask for one."
"Yeah, because people always ask for lectures when they need them." They both stayed silent for a few minutes, before Hodgins spoke again.
"Listen… Hannah said no. That sucks. I've been there. I've proposed a half dozen times, I've been engaged twice, to two women who both broke up with me, my first wedding was ruined by the announcement that my fiancée was already married and my second wedding took place inside a po'dunk jail cell. Trust me, you aren't the only man in the history of the world who's had problems with the woman he loves or had a woman say no to his marriage proposal. Not even close. And absolutely nothing happens like a damn fairytale."
Booth's jaw locked as he considered Hodgins' words. "I thought she could be the one," he muttered quietly after a couple of minutes had passed.
"Then, why'd you break up with her?"
"She said no! We obviously don't want the same things. I want to get married. I don't think that's so much to ask of someone who's really committed to me."
"That's just it though. If she's 'really committed' to you, what difference does a piece of paper make. And so what, if she said no. Angie said no to me four times before she proposed to me instead. I didn't break up with her every time she said no. Did I want to get married? Yes. Did I need to get married more than I needed Angela in my life? No way. If you really loved Hannah, one 'no' to a proposal wouldn't be the end of it for you guys. If you really thought 'she's the one,' you couldn't give that up so easily."
Booth scoffed. "It doesn't feel easy."
"You got burned. That's gonna sting for awhile. But you'll get over it and get your head back on straight," Hodgins said.
Booth chuckled dejectedly. "My head on straight? I don't know what straight looks like anymore. Or what happy feels likes without questioning whether it's real or not."
"All I can tell you is that it gets better. It gets better. But…" Hodgins hesitated before continuing. "Do you regret not marrying Rebecca?"
Booth shuffled his feet in the dirt below him. "Nah… I loved Becs, but it turned out, it just wasn't meant to be."
"And even though she said no, you don't count not marrying her as one of your big mistakes in life."
"If there was a mistake, it was the way I proposed," Booth said with an actual laugh. "You know, the stick turning blue and all. I mean, I'd love to give Parker the kind of family he deserves with a full-time mom and dad, but Rebecca and I wouldn't have worked out even if she had said yes. It wasn't meant to be."
"So, odds are it wasn't meant to work out with Hannah either. You can be miserable about it for a long time, or work to get over it and get on with life."
"You don't think I should call her and beg her to take me back?" Booth asked sarcastically.
Hodgins snorted. "Listen, I'm not a girl, okay, so I'm gonna be as brief as I can when making this point. I'm sure you loved her on some level, but you barely know the woman. You met her in the desert and trust me, weird shit happens in the desert. But she came back here and you guys tried it for a couple of months in your real life. If it was meant to be, you wouldn't have let her go so easy when she said no. My opinion… you've already had the best thing you could hope for right under your nose for a very long time, and it wouldn't matter if Hannah was your freaking dream bride … it was never gonna work."
"Ha. See, now that's where you're wrong. You think… you know you're spending too much time listening to your wife about who I am and am not supposed to be with."
"Yeah, yet, I'm married and you're the one here complaining about…" Hodgins stopped speaking at Booth's glare, thankful his hand hadn't moved to his weapon yet.
A couple of minutes passed in silence before Booth nearly whispered, "She said 'no' too."
Hodgins uttered an extended, "Duuuuude. You proposed to Brennan?"
"No! No… geez. I asked her to give, you know, 'us' a shot. And she said no."
Hodgins snorted. "Let me guess? Pre-your other-side-of-the-world-sabbaticals, right?"
Booth nodded before Hodgins continued. "Well, that's… romantic. 'Hey, I know you're my best friend and work partner and surrogate family to my son, but I think we should try adding sex to our already complex relationship and see how that goes.' Can't believe that didn't win her over, first time around."
"It wasn't like that."
"Really? So you gave her a logical argument listing all the reasons why taking a step forward makes sense?"
"Love, relationships… they're not always logical."
"Yeah, but Brennan is. And you know this about her. Instead of expecting her to just do what you want, you should try to meet her in the middle. Explicate your reasoning before jumping to conclusions like, 'we should spend the rest of our lives together.' Which, by the way, she would never promise you she could do."
"Why?" Booth shouted, standing off the ground in a huff. "Why is that so much to ask of someone if they love you?"
"Because it's an impossible promise to keep. She can't promise you she'll love you next week, next month, in a year or 10 years. She doesn't know the factors that could change how she'll feel or how you'll feel. Things change, people change, every day. And you know better than anyone that, in Brennan's experience, people in her life don't always stick around. She could hypothesize that it's likely she'll still love you in 50 years, but she'll never be able to promise you that she will definitely love you until the day she dies because that day hasn't come yet. And Dr. B. is all about honesty… if she made that promise to you, she'd be lying to you. And Brennan doesn't lie. So, don't expect her to just so you can live out some 'happily ever after' scenario in your own head."
A few more minutes went by in silence before Booth let out a sigh.
"God… that's what she was saying. She… she said that she was a scientist. That she didn't know how to change for me."
Hodgins rolled his eyes. "Geez, she knows you better than you know you."
Booth sat back down and put his head in his hands. "Is that what you want?" Hodgins asked after a few minutes passed.
"What?"
"Do you want her to change for you? I mean, yes, sometimes she's way too logical. She works too hard, so she wouldn't be the kind of woman to be at home every night. She's far too blunt, so you'd always have this want to apologize for her. She doesn't understand pop culture, she tells really bad jokes…"
"That doesn't… that stuff, it's just the stuff that makes Bones 'Bones.' It's why she's one of a kind. She's a drop dead gorgeous genius who can write compelling novels and give amazing speeches in front of hundreds of people despite her completely awkward lack of social skills face-to-face. People think she's cold or uncaring, but they don't get her process. That she has to step back to be objective about a victim but that she still relates to every family who's lost someone because she's been in their shoes."
At that moment, a black town car pulled up behind the SUV, indicating their ride to the crime scene had arrived.
Hodgins stood up and wiped his jeans free of a subsoil accumulation of clay. "I'm only gonna say one more thing. In this whole conversation about the rejections you've received from women you purportedly love, it sounds to me like one of them never really rejected 'you.' You might want to consider that as work on your timeline of how long you'd like to stay angry about this whole Hannah thing. What you and Brennan had before you took off… well, it's pretty much a consensus around the lab that you guys had the most frustrating sexless marriage we all had ringside seats for. And you managed to be an old bickering married couple without official paperwork or checking a different box on your tax forms."
Booth sighed before nodding his understanding in Hodgins' direction.
"Also, let's not mention to anyone we've had this conversation," Hodgins said as he put his field kit in the trunk of the car. "I really don't want Sweets talking to me about Daisy, in any manner."
"Deal," Booth said with a chuckle. "Thanks for listening, Squint."
"Let's hurry… Dr. B's gonna have my ass for being late to scene," he said, turning to Booth with his hand in a 'stop' motion just before he got in the car.
"Actually, I reserve my right to mention this to Angie someday."
Booth rolled his eyes. "Get in the car."
"I'd get rewarded, heavily, for this conversation," he said with a glint in his eye as he got into the car.
"You know I carry a loaded gun around, right… it's not just for show?" Booth said as he got into the town car.
"Yeah, yeah…" Hodgins muttered as the car pulled back on to the interstate.
So… uh, your thoughts? Pretty please! I love them dearly with all my heart, so just clicky on the review button and let your fingers do the work.
Up next: Either an Angry Angela or an Angry Parker… intrigued? :)