Mid October. 12 months since THAT Wednesday

It was a crisp fall Wednesday morning as Temperance Brennan drove down a tree lined residential street on her way to the Jeffersonian. The beautiful red and yellow fall colors brought a wistful smile to her face as she recalled autumns past and drives through the countryside with Booth as they headed to various crime scenes. Temperance had always loved autumn best with the respite from sweltering summer temperatures and the sometimes spectacular displays in the leafy residential areas of DC.

'Wait, was this a deja vu? No, deja vu was a phenomenon that was housed in your brain thinking you were experiencing something identical to a previous experience. Well, this was similar, but this was real life.' Brennan remembered thinking these same thoughts on her drive to work on a Wednesday morning almost exactly a year ago. It was a day she would never forget. It was the day her relationship with Booth imploded, with really no chance of ever being put back together. She recalled once when an intern dropped a skull that shattered into hundreds of pieces. Brennan could, and had, put that skull back together. It was as good as new except for the hundreds of lines where the glue held it together. This imploded relationship? Not so much. She didn't have those skills. It made sense that her drive to work along the same streets would yield the same beautiful fall colors as the drive exactly a year ago. But how did Booth end up in her thoughts? Any beautiful autumn drives with Booth would have been at least two years ago. But he had been on her mind a lot in the last month. It was just a month ago that Cam told her that Booth and Hannah's relationship had ended last New Years Eve. And that just two months ago Booth was shot and almost died. How did she not feel that? Shouldn't she have felt that? She misses him. She still misses him.

'This is ridiculous. You haven't seen him in a year. You haven't heard him in a year. You haven't heard FROM him in a year. If he wanted to come to you to apologize, he could have done so. The whole reason for the debacle had left for Afghanistan almost a year ago. He would have been single earlier in the year and if he had any interest in you, that was the time to try to patch things up. The fact that he had made no overtures had to mean that there was no interest. You have to stop missing him because he obviously doesn't miss you. Hell, he's probably dating someone else by now. That's probably the real reason why no one told you that he was gravely ill. Didn't they realize that you would want to know? That you would have put aside your differences and gone to his bedside?' The best explanation was that there was someone else tending to his bedside. Bones knew that Booth would never stop looking for the woman to love him for 30, 40, 50 years. That was the only logical explanation why his family would keep this from her. She just didn't buy the excuse that he wouldn't have wanted her to end the stalemate for this reason.

When she sat down at her desk, she looked at her computer screen and remembered the time that she had signed up on the dating website on this very computer. Well, not this updated one, but the one that sat on year desk a few years ago. Maybe it was time to try this again. Perhaps getting back into the dating world would occupy her time and her mind enough to stop all of the unbidden thoughts of her former partner. 'What was the name of that site? Professional Partners? Executive Partners? Sensible Partners! That was it!' She typed the name into her search engine and there it was. The website had been updated and looked much more modern and sleek. She remembered her screen name "Doc206", of course. She chuckled, proud of the fact that she had grabbed that moniker before any other doctor thought of it. She hoped it was still active, and after signing in found that it had just been placed in hibernation mode for inactivity. She reset it, looked at her profile, updated a few items, and then started looking at matches. She felt a little naughty for looking for a date on work time, but damn it! No one kept their nose to the grindstone more than she did, so she deserved to take a few minutes for herself. She saw a few interesting possibilities and decided to let it sit for awhile and take a second look later.

As she was clearing her desk at the end of the day, she was about to turn off her computer when she remembered the dating website. She pulled up the possible matches she had flagged earlier and started reading their profiles again. Her nose was almost touching the screen as she read some of the small print under one name, so she didn't notice Angela approaching her desk. "Hey Brennan. You have any plans for dinner? Hodgie is all excited to watch a game of some sort tonight so I thought maybe we could have some girl time." Brennan was startled and fumbled around looking for the key on the keyboard to shut down the display, but Angela was too quick for her. "What's this? Sensible Partners? Isn't that the place where you met that cutie pie who you let read your new book before Booth and he got his nose all out of joint with jealousy? Oohhhh. Find him again!" Brennan rolled her eyes. "No Ange. If you must know, I'm looking for someone new. I've decided to dip my toe in the water again. Do you think that's a good idea?" She turned from the screen to see a wide grin on Angela's face. "Sweetie. That's not a good idea, that's a great idea! You've been moping around over that no good…grrrrr…for far too long. Get out there and get you some!" Brennan started laughing and looked back to the screen. "This guy looks interesting. He's a 38 year old MD with his own practice. He's kind of cute, don't you think?" She swung the monitor around for Angela to see. "Oh yeah! He's a stone cold fox! You could do a lot worse. Hit that 'accept' button right now!" Brennan smiled and with a big flourish, clicked the button. Angela clapped her hands. "Yippee! Now, let's go have some dinner and we can keep checking to see if he accepts."

Saturday night found Brennan walking into Founding Fathers for the first time in at least a year. She was meeting the good looking MD, John Scott, for drinks. When he responded to her acceptance on the dating site, he messaged her and told her that he would love to meet her. When he suggested Founding Fathers, she thought about trying to change it to another local spot, but then decided that there was no reason not to go to a place where she always felt comfortable. She responded that she would meet him at 8:00.

It felt very strange walking into this place that she knew so well, but had avoided for so long. She nervously looked around just to make sure that he wasn't at the bar. After scanning both the bar and the dining area she relaxed and started looking for her date. She quickly spotted him sitting in the dining area at one of their small two-top tables. He waved, she smiled, and she confidently strode over to the table to begin her date. Her first actual, real live date in over two years.