He always thought he'd make it here before her. Always. He had hoped she'd be the one coming to visit him. Not everything happens the way you think, or hope, apparently. He looked down at the wonderingly simple headstone. The epitaph imprinted on it not do the woman resting there prematurely justice.

It had been almost 2 years. Every night he still woke up to the memory of the blood on the floor, the words she spoke, the tears that had been shed. His hand always falling automatically to the necklace around his neck with her two favorite rings on it, caressing them until his breathing returned to normal. Rarely did he fall back asleep after that. The dark circles under his eyes had turned seemingly permanent. His sessions with Sweets increased and the times ran longer.

He often wondered what would have happened had he gotten there sooner. If she'd still be here, if she'd be happy. He wondered what would have happened had he not said not to her that night. He wondered if Sweets, Cam, and Hodgins wouldn't have withdrawn into themselves a little. He wondered if Angela wouldn't have damn near quit her job because she could hardly handle being in The Jeffersonian anymore without her best friend a few steps away. He tried not to dwell but he missed her so damn much.

He smiled as he thought about how Brennan would have thought him silly for these irrational thoughts. She promised him she'd visit his grave, sometimes he wondered if she really would have. He visited her every weekend. His friends told him he needed to let her go but how can you let someone whom you loved so dearly, so intensely, go? He wanted to tell them if someone you loved like that died in your arms you wouldn't want to let them go either. And he hadn't. That night, he had known when the life left her. He couldn't let her go when the paramedics came. He held her, crying, begging her to come back to him. But she had left him. Alone. To deal with in the coldness of this world. Alone.

At first he had been angry but even in death he couldn't stay angry at her. Then he tried denial, but when he called her phone and instead of her voice telling him to leave a message he got a recording from the phone company telling him the number was no longer in service, his denial shattered, along with his phone.

Now he just tried to get through the day. Everyday was the same, a set routine he no longer paid attention to nor deviated from unless he had Parker. He looked up to the sky, as if he would see her there. It was December and yet he was here in a short sleeved shirt and the sunlight momentarily blinded him. God must be mocking him he thought bitterly. "Parker told me to tell you he loves you really misses you, Bones." Tears clouded his eyes and he shifted on his feet slightly, breathing in shakily. "So do I" He laid a hand on the stone, only slightly cool to the touch and then turned heading for his car.

He closed the door and took another deep breath, steeling himself, then letting it out on a sigh looking back to her headstone. His eyes misted over again making the his vision blurry. Blinking and letting the tears fall as a ray of sunlight beamed directly onto her stone. He smiled as he wondered what Bones would have to say about it as he drove away.

I wanted to put this epilogue first so if you read both of them, you'll get a happy ending.