Author's Note: So this is really the end of this particular story. I hope that you enjoyed taking the trip with me. I would like to thank everyone who reviewed along the way. It was an amazing experience. I also want to thank all those that really own BONES for lending me their friends.

Epilogue - Two years later

Hopefully Someday Patiently

Brennan had never told anyone about the story she so painstakingly typed in the hospital. The tale she had intricately woven in order to escape. At the time it hadn't mattered. She initially had hit the delete button, making all of the words instantly disappear, trying to make the images evaporate along with the words. But in the grief of those first few minutes, the loss of their memories, she didn't want to throw anymore of him away. The undo button was a true act of compassion by Microsoft. So the story had been retrieved, burned to a CD and once again deleted from the hard drive. It was only supposed to be for herself, something she could go to, to hide in when reality got too hard.

She had never told Booth, or Angela or anyone about her own private fantasy about the story where her hearts desire was fulfilled. There was never a mention about the nights when struggled with who they were, who they had become and she would silently creep to the living room to read and add and envelope herself in an easier version of a love story. It had been her salvation during that impossibly dark month after the accident and before their first real kiss. What had started out as a cathartic musing had been remolded into an actual novel.

The success of her Kathy Reichts books had her publisher hounding her night and day for at least a glimpse of a few chapters. But during those months with Booth and desperately trying to hold it together there wasn't time to maintain her old life, her new life, and the lives of Kathy and Andy. In an act of desperation she sent off the story of Bren and Booth at The Lab. Figuring that they would hate it, but it would at least buy her a few weeks.

It wasn't the first time Brennan had been wrong.

While they demanded a ridiculous amount of edits, they in fact loved it. It would seem that there were other notable murder mystery authors that dabbled in slushy sentimental romance, with amazing success. It was a bandwagon that her editor was more than happy to leap aboard. Burdens That Allow Us To Fly was hyped to be the next evolution in author Temperance Brennan.

Here they were, nearly two years later; Bren and Mr. B, Brennan and Booth, Bones and Booth, Temperance and Seeley? No not definitely not Temperance and Seeley she thought with a smile. All the same the story had been written, and rewritten until it was deemed ready for her audiences. What she getting soft? Losing her edge? Did happiness change who she was as an author? She hoped so. She was no longer afraid of losing who she was, of finding an alternate path. The woman she was in the arms of Booth was the woman she was always meant to be. It is how you identify true love; it is in true love that we become the best versions of ourselves. Yes, it was a line from her book; it was a line that encompassed all that they were.

As he had with all her books, Booth had read it intently cover to cover, making little post-it notes on the margins. This time was different, now he got to read the story before it was sent to press. It was packing for this trip she had read his thoughts on the final manuscript and in those notes that she realized there was a perfect time for everything. On that small yellow scrap of paper tucked on a page toward the end of the story were three little words. Hopefully Someday Patiently. Three little words. She knew exactly what the moment would be, and what she would say.

He had come with her to New York for the book release. Being her official FBI partner definitely had its perks not the least was being able to travel with her. She had been the near victim of too many homicidal nuts and because her irreplaceable value to the FBI she now warranted an escort on out of town trips. He was always said escort and although it wasn't as intense as some of his other assignments it had quickly become his favorite part of the job. Brennan it seemed had a thing for hotel rooms.

A local nightclub had been re-imagined as The Lab for the launch party. For the first time she saw what her fantasies, her words could become if fleshed out into reality. It was actually quite startling and somewhat comical. They too were in character for the evening, although no one but she and Booth knew it. She had searched for two weeks for just the right outfits to set the mood. It recaptured a moment. Her vision was captured brilliantly right down to the band Gormagon. Of course Sweets wasn't the lead singer and none of the squints worked the bar but all had been invited and had come to the event.

So much had evolved since their perfect moment on the scaffolding of the lab. She would never forget his words that day nor the fact that it was the end of the beginning for them, the beginning of forever. His words had been magical It was a dream, a beautiful dream of a life that we CAN have together. Brennan knew that those words would comfort her for the rest of her days. At the time she hadn't even known that his words were the truth, only for her it wasn't a dream, it was a story. This story she had written, that he had dreamed, that they had shared, had somehow become a life.

Late into the night, after scores of important guests had begun to trickle home Booth and Brennan went in search of a little privacy. Brennan had a particular spot in mind, in fact her editor had it set up on purpose. Authors were known for odd requests. To have a private area, set in a particular way was not uncommon, although her specific parameters were a bit…odd. A small back room had been recreated into an office, just like the one in the story. What no one knew was that this was the location of the scene Booth had marked. She had in her hand the yellow note from the pages of her book. In response to his three carefully scribbled words she had a few of her own. Brennan wanted this to be the location to complete both of their stories, their dreams, their lives.

She carefully guides him into the room and playfully tosses him into the leather club chair that is in front of the office desk. She crawls into his lap. In an instant she sees that he recognizes the scene, the room the clothes. He grins and it makes her heart melt. It feels right to do this here, away from the lab, from the bodies, from the FBI. That part of their life isn't going anywhere, they are the center. But this moment doesn't belong there. He looks at her trying to hide is anticipation when she hands him a small bit of paper, his note on this particular scene, Hopefully Someday Patiently. His heart stops as he realizes that her handwriting has been added below his. Life imitates art.

Three words. Three words can change the world forever. It can send everything crashing into a million tiny pieces or tie two people together.

Who are you?

Hopefully Someday Patiently.

Life imitates art.

I love you.

I'll marry you.

Monumental moments that stem from so little. Three words. He looks deep into her blue eyes barely able to fathom the meaning, the moment of three little words. Three words. He needs to say three little words. Just three more and he will have everything the world in a single moment.

"Are you Pregnant?"

And it that moment as her lips crushed onto his and he gathered his wife into his arms, he knew that nothing else mattered, that no words were required. He had all the answers he would ever need.