Booth stood behind his desk watching her back as she walked through the bullpen on her way to the elevator bank. Once she walked around the corner and out of sight, his legs suddenly could no longer hold him and he dropped into his chair. He sat there shellshocked as the anger quickly drained from his body. He had never seen her so angry, but the last two things she said to him felt like she had put a knife through his abdomen. Was it just her anger making her lash out and say things she would regret later when the anger faded away? It sure didn't feel that way. Those last words were said very calmly and softly. As if she wanted him to understand how serious she was. How did he get here? Could he imagine his life without ever seeing her again?
As he sat there, he remembered the conversation with Hannah that had taken place on Friday evening. She hadn't been too happy with him over the celebratory drinks with Bones after they closed their latest case. "The last thing I wanted to do last night was go out for drinks after the day I had. But I just don't like the idea of you drinking with her. What would happen if you both had a bit too much to drink and she made a move on you?" Booth scoffed at the idea. "That's not going to happen Hannah. She knows I'm in love with you and that I would never even consider anything that would threaten the life we're building." Hannah didn't look convinced. "I'm sorry Seeley, but if we're going to have a chance to make this work, you have to move on to a new partner. Someone you haven't had feelings for in the past. It's just not fair to me and not fair to our relationship." They spent the weekend discussing it, with Booth suggesting ways he could change the working relationship to spend less time with her. But by Sunday evening, he had finally agreed to meet with his boss Monday morning to get the ball rolling. Hacker wasn't too pleased about breaking up his best team, but Booth insisted that his mind was made up. On Tuesday they settled on O'Brien as the best fit for her and her team and met with him Wednesday morning to finalize the agent transfer. So, the transfer was inevitable. It had to be done for Booth to have the life and the loving partner he had always desired. You sometimes have to make sacrifices for the person you love, right? But the decision he now knew would haunt him was not having the courage to go to Bones and explain why he had to make this choice. Perhaps if he had she would have understood and moved on.
As he sat at his desk he thought about the concept of "moving on". The night she turned him down he told her that he had to move on, and she gracefully accepted it. Now he was telling her that she needed to move on, but he had gone about it in such a ham-fisted way that it appeared she would never forgive him. Maybe it was for the best? Have her out of his life completely to make things easier with Hannah? It sure didn't feel that way. He looked down at his hands and they were shaking. His throat was feeling constricted and he was taking in gulps of air, finding it hard to breathe. He had to get out of here, screw the paperwork. He grabbed his jacket and slipped out of his office and around the corner to the staircase where there was less chance of anyone stopping him to talk. His legs felt like rubber as he made his way down to the parking garage. He wasn't sure if he could make it to his SUV, but stumbled there, threw himself into the seat, and slammed the door. He was grateful to see no one around and was thankful that it was midafternoon - the quietest time for this area. His hands were still shaking and he was having a hard time getting his breathing under control. He let his head fall to rest on the steering wheel as a sob escaped his throat. Before he knew it, he was sobbing uncontrollably. All he could think about was the last words from Bones. Possibly the last words he would ever hear from her. It almost felt like it was worse than if she had died, because she was making the choice to never see him again. The problem for him was that he had loved her. And despite telling Hannah that it was all in the past, he knew in his heart that she would always own a small piece of it. He eventually managed to get his emotions under control and started the car. It was time to go home to Hannah. He would let her comfort him to help take away the pain he was suffering from excising Bones from his life, but he could never let on to Hannah exactly how deep those wounds really were.
Brennan, meanwhile, stepped onto the elevator after leaving Booth's office. She was grateful to find herself alone and as soon as the doors closed, she leaned against the wall, reached behind her with both hands to grab the handrails, and closed her eyes. The anger was starting to ebb and she knew she had to get to her car quickly. She was not going to break down in front of anyone from the FBI and have it possibly get back to Booth. She was able to hold herself together long enough to get to the car and drive a few miles to her favorite waterfront overlook where she felt a little bit of privacy. Only then did new emotions take over and she began to cry. Temperance Brennan very rarely cried, and this was a mostly silent cry with lots of tears streaming down her face, blurring her vision, and turning the familiar view into an even more beautiful Monet painting. All she felt was emotion and a monumental feeling of loss. All she saw was the tear drenched view. All she thought was…nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was as if her brain had shut down because the emotions were consuming all of the life force within her. Later, she tried to come up with a scientific explanation for how she lost an hour of her life in that catatonic state, but the answer evaded her. After driving home, she was so exhausted that she curled up on the sofa and slept for 6 hours, waking up at 10PM, but never slept again the rest of the night.