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Brennan paced the platform while her coworkers watched worryingly from the side, trying to stay out of her way. Finally Angela stepped forward.

"Sweetie, look, I'm really sorry. We're not lying though. Booth really is dead." She tried to sound compassionate but they had been trying to get through to her for a few days now so the statement had become more forceful than it's predecessors.

Brennan stopped and stared at her for a moment before resuming her pacing. "No, last time he was just placed into safety so the bad guy would come out of hiding."

"There is no bad guy in hiding this time, Bren. I'm sorry." Angela said, stepping closer to her friend, but Brennan twisted away from her and glared at the artist.

"They haven't found his body – he- he… there's no proof!" Brennan insisted. She had been insisting her story was correct based on that one line; that and one other she would never voice. He'd said he would never leave her. Logically she knew that he was going to die someday but she hadn't been prepared for this.

Brennan turned and speed walked to her office, needing to get away from them all and be alone just for a little bit so she wouldn't have to feel their eyes shining with pity and remorse. Once in her office she shut the door and blinds and finally allowed herself to break down. With her back to the wall she slid down until she was sitting with her knees pressed to her chest and she wept.

He'd left for real this time.

**Three days ago**

"Bren! There's a call coming through to your office!" Angela shouted up to the platform where the anthropologist stood bent over the latest skeleton from the Boston area.

"Let them leave a voicemail; I'm busy." Brennan half shouted without looking up from her task. She heard the beeping of a card being swiped and the click of Angela's heels on the stainless steel floor.

"It's Cullen and he said it was something to do with Booth." Angela waited for Brennan to raise her head before continuing. "It sounded very bad and very serious, hun."

Brennan grimaced at her friend but obediently made her way off the platform and to her office where her phone was blinking signaling a call on hold. Taking a deep breath and letting it out she picked the phone up, feeling in the pit of her stomach that something wasn't right, but not willing to trust that part of her anatomy.

"Brennan," she said shortly.

"Dr. Brennan, this is Director Cullen. There was an accident in at the warehouse Agent Booth and several other agents were sent to, and I'm afraid he didn't make it. The building exploded due to a gas leak and he didn't make it out in time." A heavy sigh came over the phone and Brennan stayed quiet and frozen. "I'm sorry Dr. Brennan. We will find the people behind this and make sure they're put away."

Brennan felt her body still and her breath got stuck in her lungs. After a minute passed she began to feel herself grow weak and faint from the lack of oxygen and it all came out of her in a rush.

"Dr. Brennan? Dr. Brennan?" Cullen's voice came over the line rather concerned.

"Yes – I understand." Her voice was flat and sounded hollow even to her. She hung up the phone and let herself drop onto her office sofa. She never even heard Angela walk into her office until the seat beside her dented in signifying that she had company.

"Sweetie, what did he have to say?" Angela asked, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"He said Booth is dead." Brennan deadpanned but never once looked over at her friend.

Angela gasped, "what?"

"He can't be though. He's just in hiding like last time." Brennan blinked fast as if finally coming loose from her shock with complete understanding. She smiled over at her friend and let her tense shoulders relax some.

Angela grimaced but didn't outright tell her friend she was wrong. "Are you sure?"

"Booth is very careful in the field and because of this case his life has been at stake a lot so it makes sense for the FBI to fake his death." Brennan reasoned, feeling the emotional pain ease from her body and mind. She just had to make sure she kept working to solve this case so he could come back to her.

**Six days later**

Brennan knelt in the grass before his grave as the rain poured down around her matching her mood perfectly.

Seeley M. Booth

Beloved Father and Friend

11/15/1973 – 08/01/2010

Tears tracked down her cheeks but the rain kept that fact hidden. Rain soaked into her jeans and button top and she shivered but didn't care. She'd promised him she would be here.

"I don't know why I'm here – I mean I know why because I promised you, but it doesn't make sense. You can't hear me because you're gone." A sob caught in her throat, but she swallowed it. "You said you'd never leave me, like everyone else in my life – but you did."

Brennan hunched over and fisted the wet and fresh grass before taking a deep breath.

"You once told me that you wanted to put behind bars as many murderers as you had killed during your time as a sniper. You never got to finish that mission and so I'll try and finish it for you." A cold smile crossed her face as the tears continued to roll down her pale cheeks. "Starting with this case."

Resolve settled over her being as Brennan forced herself to stand and give one last glance at where her partner and best friend lay, buried six feet deep and beyond her reach.

When she got back to her car she dialed Director Cullen.

"I want in on the case and not just from the lab." She said, clearly determined to not take 'no' for an answer.

"I don't think that's wise, Dr. Brennan." He tried to reason with the scientist.

"No, it really is. Besides Booth, I'm the person who knows the most about this case and if anyone is going to solve it, it'll be me." She was all calm logic infused with passion and she could feel his resolve breaking.

"Fine. You'll be flying out to Boston to work with their agent and you'll be helping him. I'll let the director there in Boston know you'll be there." Cullen hung up and Brennan grinned almost sadistically. She wasn't going to disappoint Booth and she would find justice for him.