A/N: I don't own any part of Bones or Fox
His face burned. It felt so hot around him. He saw a flash of brilliant white light and she appeared.
"You saved me from them Seeley." She said. Her shining blonde hair flowed around. A flash of dark red. Only voices spoke.
"Maybe I'm just one of those people that don't get to have a family." his own voice filled the space. "There's more than one kind of family." Flashes of moments, pieces of memories. He held her once, twice... She kissed his cheek. Kissed under the mistletoe. He pulled her into a passionate kiss after confessing his love.
"I'm the guy!" He pleaded.
"I can't." She sobbed.
The scene where he pulled her from the street in the pouring rain replayed.
"I love her." he said. Brennan's face cut in pain. It changed from the car to the lab. It was empty. A single piece of paper remained where the platform once stood.
"I'm better off alone." he read in Brennan's writing. He clutched it as he screamed for her hoping she'd appear. Hannah walked in.
"She's gone Seeley. She's left and she's never coming back." He stared at her in horror. Suddenly her face took a malicious expression as she dropped Brennan's lab coat on the floor and tossed a match on it.
"Forget it all Seeley. Every single second together. It never happened. It never mattered." Booth was so horrified he couldn't speak. All he heard was "I'm just one of those people that don't get to have a family."
Booth shot up in bed in a cold sweat. He looked to his side and saw Hannah sleeping there. She looked so angelic there compared to his dream where she had a sinister sneer on her radiant face. He looked at the clock next to the bed. 3:09. He got up and trudged to the bathroom. He looked at himself in the mirror. A miserable man stared back. A man suffering an enternal battle of epic proportions. He didn't know what he was gonna do. He trudged to the kitchen and poured a shot of scotch. Then another, and another. He fell asleep on the table hand wrapped around the bottle.
Brennan was reading a paper about the importance of Carbon 14 in timing remains in a science journal. It was late, and she was tired, but she couldn't sleep. Her mind was swimming with thought. Like how she wanted to be with Booth instead of lying alone. She never really wanted a relationship but now that she saw what she was missing she wanted it more than anything. She got up and found herself hunting for the ice cream in her freezer. She ate half a gallon before realizing that she was holding the container. She stuck it back in the freezer slowly like maybe if she did the half gallon would reappear. She dragged her feet back to a bed that now felt empty.
In the morning the platform was busy with everyone doing their work. Hodgins was starting to reconstruct the bomb, Angela drew the face of John Doe from the blast scene and was running it against all the databases. Cam was checking tox screens, Wendell was cleaning bones and Brennan, well she just sat in the chair by the computer staring off. Angela walked over to her holding a half empty bag of pretzels. She silently offered Brennan some and she declined.
"Sweetie, are you alright?" Brennan sighed and reached for her coffee cup, then noticed it was empty.
"I don't know, after what happened with Booth I can't seem to sleep. It was foolish for me to say anything to him." Angela grabbed Brennan's arm and led her to her office.
"Sweetie, it wasn't foolish. But what's foolish is what took so damn long to say anything?" Brennan looked taken aback. "Sorry, I don't mean to yell but it's so obvious that you need to be with him and I can't deal with the game anymore. It's to the point where it's getting ridiculous."
"Well what am I supposed to do Ange? He told me that he loves Hannah." Angela wrapped an arm around Brennan's shoulders.
"You know, people can love many different people at the same time. It's the varying degree of it that matters."
"So what you're proposing is that Booth loves Hannah but not to the same degree as me?" Brennan asked. Angela nodded and crunched on a pretzel. Brennan considered this for a few moments. That's when a haggard looking Booth pratically stumbled into her office.
"Angela do you have an ID on that guy yet." Brennan and Angela stared at him in shock.
"Booth are you okay?" Brennan asked, obviously concerned. He didn't shave and he was wearing battered jeans and an old tee shirt.
"I didn't sleep well." He rubbed his temples. "And made the mistake of drinking scotch." His eyes were closed as Brennan and Angela exchanged looks. "So did you get an ID yet?" Angela turned to her computer.
"It's still searching but we'll let you know when we get something. Do you need to crash?" Brennan grabbed his arm.
"Ok you're going to my office and sleeping you look like you're going down any second." She led him from Angela's office.
"Why couldn't you sleep?" She asked him as he sat on the couch. He looked up at her his brown eyes clouded with fatigue.
"I had a nightmare, and couldn't fall back." He admitted. He fell back and stared at the ceiling. "I have this feeling something is weird with Hannah. I don't know what it is and I can't shake it." Brennan looked at the floor then turned away.
"I'm sure it's nothing. Everything between you guys is...perfect." She heard her own voice crack on the last word. Booth stood up.
"Temperance..." He started. She cleared her throat and turned to face him.
"You don't need to say anything. Everything's fine." She felt the lie swallow her. "Anyway you should sleep you look like you should be on a table." she joked halfheartedly. Booth looked at her with his penetrating gaze. His eyes clouded with something other than fatigue. They darkened as Brennan stepped back cautiously. He stepped closer to her.
"It's not all that it seems Temperance, between me and her. Between you and me." He took a step closer until the space was closed. His mouth was dangerously close to hers. Brennan's face flushed as her heartbeat rose. He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. At first she wanted to resist, knowing it was wrong. She found herself wrapping her arms around his neck and wanting more and more. Suddenly as if a bolt of electricity hit them they broke apart, both breathing heavily.
"Booth..."
"I need to go, I'm sorry." He started for the door but Brennan grabbed his wrist. He turned to look at her. She said nothing but her eyes said one thing "What the hell?" Booth looked at her hand wrapped around his wrist. She let go, this time he wasn't so fast to leave. "I need to figure out a lot of things." He leaned to move the hair from her face. He looked at her mouth and fought kissing her again. He stared a few seconds when his phone when off. He jumped and reached for the phone. Brennan put a hand to her face where he brushed her hair from. He looked at his phone.
Hey Seeley ;)
I just wanted 2 say I 3 u.
Hannah
The words from the screen stared back at him. He felt his heart drop to his feet. How could he ever think something was wrong between them. He looked up at Brennan who was still touching her face. He felt like he was gonna throw up.
"Is everything ok?" He looked up at her.
"Yeah I just need to go to the office." He lied. He pratically barreled out the door. Brennan was still touching her face when he left.