Seeley Booth yawned and glanced at the clock, it showed 11.27p.m. but in Booth's mind it was twenty three twenty seven hours, a throw-back to his days spent as a ranger in the army. He closed the file he had been reading before placing it on the coffee table. He rose from his sofa, wincing at the pop-pop-pop sound his knees made and was making his way down the hall towards the bathroom when he heard the knocking on his door. He crossed to his gun safe and retrieved his service pistol, 'can't be too careful these days' he thought. He approached the door of his apartment and looked through the peep-hole. He automatically took a step backwards with a stunned look on his face caused by what he had just seen. He leant back, his head on the wall of the hall, pinched the bridge of his nose between thumb and index finger and took in a deep breath through his nose and held it before noisily exhaling through his mouth, in an attempt to regain his composure and gather his thoughts. He checked the peep-hole once more to make sure he was not seeing things. Then he opened the door.
"Temperance, when did you get back to DC?" Booth asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "Hello to you too, Booth." She replied before walking past him and into his living room. "You're not going to shoot me are you?" nodding at the gun in his hand. "Well come on in, why don't you." Booth's tone sarcastic. "My plane landed about an hour ago and I knew I had to tell you that I was back before anyone else could." She replied, carefully studying a spot on the floor near her feet. "I knew my first stop had to be here, I knew I had to come here and apologise, Booth. I knew I had come to come here and tell you how sorry I was. What I did was wrong, I know that now, so very wrong, and I know that I have to beg your forgiveness. What I did, running, leaving without any explanation was so wrong. So I'm here to apologise and tell you how sorry I am for doing what I did to you." Still unable to look him in the eye. "Well that's good then." Booth said in a cold distant voice, still barely above a whisper. "You apologise, I accept your apology and now everything in the world is back to normal. We're square. Now, if you don't mind it's late and I was just about to go to bed." "Alone?" Brennan quipped with just the hint of a smile, hoping to lighten the mood and get some sort of reaction from Booth. "Yes, alone Temperance." Replied Booth determined not to react. "You can search the place if it's important to you." "I'm sorry Booth, that was a low punch, I shouldn't have said that. I am sorry." "Again, I accept your apology Temperance, now I really do need to go to bed." Booth said, as he crossed to the door, opening it and gesturing for his visitor to leave. Brennan slowly made her way out of his apartment. It was when she heard the door close and the lock engage that the tears started to flow down her cheeks. Booth made his way to the bedroom and got into bed despite the knowledge that tonight there would be no sleep for him.
Brennan got into the rental that she had picked up at the airport and then tears changed to sobs. She sat in the driver's seat for half an hour sobbing before the tears ceased and she felt composed enough to make a phone call. "Hello?" Angela muttered in a sleepy voice. "Hello, is there anybody there?" She asked when no one spoke. "Look, if this is some sort of prank call I really don't appreciate….." "Ange, it's me." "Bren? Bren is that you, sweetie?" Angela said, now fully awake. "Bren talk to me, can you hear me? Sweetie?" "Oh Ange! What have I done?" Brennan began to softly cry once more. "Bren, sweetie, what's the matter? Talk to me please, what's happened? Tell me , let me help you sort it out." " Ange, it's all gone so wrong, what was I thinking? I don't know what to do, I've ruined everything. Can we talk, please. Can I come over so we can talk?" Brennan was now crying again. "Wait, what? You're back in DC? When did that happen? Why didn't you let me know that you were coming home?" Angela exclaimed. "I flew in this evening, I went to see Booth." "Oh!" Was all Angela could think to say. "Ange it was horrible. I went to see Booth and tell him that I was back and that I was sorry. It was horrible, he was horrible." "What happened sweetie, what did he do? Tell me Bren, if he did anything to hurt you then I guarantee he has a proper Texas bitch-slap coming his way the next time I see him." " No Ange, it was nothing like that. He's changed he's so different and it's all my fault." "OK sweetie, get yourself over here, right this minute. I'll have a large glass of your favourite wine waiting and the ice cream will be on stand-by and you're staying here tonight OK? That's an order Bren."
The gates to the Hodgins mansion slowly began to swing open as she approached. Angela greeted her with a massive bear hug as she locked the car door. "Sweetie, it's so good to see you, let's get you inside and sat down. There's a bottle of wine in there with your name on it, then you can tell me everything. OK?" Brennan sat on the sofa, kicked off her shoes and curled her legs beneath her. Angela returned with a large glass of wine in each hand and a box of tissues under her arm and sat next to her best friend. "So, tell me sweetie, are you back for good or is this just s flying visit? And why didn't you let me know that you were coming home? I could have picked you up at the airport. "I thought I was coming back permanently, but now after seeing Booth I don't know what to do. I don't know if I have a future here anymore." Said Brennan taking a tissue and dabbing her eyes and blowing her nose, before takin a sip of her wine." My thoughts are so confused Ange and that's not something I'm used to." "OK Bren, spill, tell me everything, let me have it all, we can talk about your time at the dig later. I need to know what just happened between you and your hunky FB eye candy." "Ange, how many times do I have to tell you that Booth doesn't belong to me.I knew that I had to tell him personally that I was home, I couldn't bare the thought of him finding out from someone else that I was back. So I just turned up on his door step unannounced. Although in actuality he doesn't have a doorstep, just a doorway. The Booth that answered the door wasn't my Booth, Ange. He's changed, so much. He was cold and distant, he couldn't look at me and it was all he could do to even talk to me. He's lost weight and not in a good way, he looks older and he has a forlorn look in his eyes. It was as though he was talking to a complete stranger and it's all my fault. I did that to him. What am I going to do Ange?" Asked Brennan as she took another tissue.
"oh sweetie, I'm sorry but Booth's been through so much whilst you've been way. I really do fear that he might be…well,…. broken." Angela said, reluctantly. "I know Ange, I was the one who broke him. This is my fault. What can I do? Please I need you to tell everything that's happened since I left." "OK. Well, I know that something happened between the two of you and I still don't know what it was. You left without telling anyone, just sending me a text telling me not to worry and that you were safe. Then you sent that email explaining that you needed some time away so you had signed up for a three month long dig on Easter Island being run by your old uni pal Paul Tompkinson. You asked me not to tell anyone where you were, especially Booth as you didn't want him following you out there. Well I tried my best to keep your secret, but Booth was so stressed when he came into the lab that first Monday morning to find you gone with no explanation. He panicked, he thought you might have taken ill, or kidnapped, or even worse. So I told him that you had sent me a text telling me that you were OK and needed sometime on your own. I knew straight away that something serious had happened between you two, just by looking at him, but he wasn't going to tell me what had happened. He was so worried and I knew that what I told him wouldn't cut the mustard with him. "Angela I do not comprehend. Why did you feel the need to cut some mustard? I didn't even know that your cultivated said item." Said, a somewhat confused, Brennan. "It's a saying sweetie, just a saying. Don't worry about it. Angela replied with a slight smile and a shake of her head. "So I made a decision, I decided to come clean and tell him everything I knew. I told him that you had an invitation from Paul, an old friend from Uni to join his dig on Easter Island and that the dig would last for three months. I told him that you needed some time alone and I begged him to allow you the time you needed and not to go chasing after you. It seemed that I convinced him, eventually he agreed to give you the time and space you required. At first he seemed OK but as the days passed he got stressed, he became angry, he snapped at everyone, had no patience no one could do anything right. He became a man always looking for an argument. His work with the lab continued, he was working with Zach, but he wasn't happy and the two together just didn't work somehow. Don't get me wrong, the work still got done, crimes still got solved but communication was by phone or email, he seldom came to the lab anymore. When, after three months, you failed to come home something in him snapped. He went off the rails." "What! Booth was in a train accident? What happened?" Brennan demanded. "No sweetie, just another saying, there was no train crash. Booth just lost focus, it was like he had given up. You hadn't returned and I think he blamed himself for that. I always keep in touch with Charlie, you know, Agent Burns, Booth's number two in the major crimes department. He told me that when you didn't return Booth hit the bottle and I mean hard. People at the Hoover building started avoiding him he was always in such a foul mood and liable to snap anyone's head off if they dared even speak to him. He would turn up for work smelling of alcohol, unshaven and wearing yesterday's clothes looking as if he'd slept in them and it was only the loyalty of his staff that kept from getting into some serious trouble at work. Charlie tried his best to talk to him but Booth just wouldn't listen. He was taking sick days due to the booze and going on benders for days on end. Charlie phoned me up one day and asked if I knew where Booth was, he hadn't been seen for three days and no one had any idea where he was. I met up with Charlie at Booth's apartment, you had told me where he kept his spare door key. That pretend rock? Seriously? Does he think that fools anybody? Anyway, we let ourselves in and found him passed out, fully clothed on his bed. His apartment was a tip, take out containers on every surface beer bottles and whisky bottles all over the place and it stank like a distillery.
Charlie and I got him off the bed and we walked him round and around his apartment, pumping coffee into him to try and wake him up and we poured water into him to rehydrate. When he was sort of conscious I cleaned up his flat as best as I could and we gave him some aspirin and left him to it. It had little effect on him and eventually Sam Cullen, you know, Booth's boss, well Sam called Booth to his office and read him the riot act." "Excuse me Angela, but can I ask why director Cullen would need to read the riot act to Booth? As a federal special agent, surely Booth should already be familiar with that particular piece of legislation relating to civil unrest." Brennan asked, frowning. "A saying sweetie, it's just another saying. It means that Cullen gave Booth a good telling off and told him that he needed to sort himself and his life out before his job became jeopardised." Angela responded . "It had little or no effect on Booth though. It seemed that he was content to drink himself into oblivion or until either his liver gave out or his money did." "Oh Ange! Poor Booth, I had no idea. Why didn't you tell me when we spoke on the phone?" Brennan asked, tears back in her eyes. "Well I knew you were going through some things and the last thing I wanted was burden you with Booth's problems, you had enough of your own problems to deal with, without adding his problems to the mix." Taking one of Brennan's hands and holding it with both of hers. "So, please Ange, tell me what happened next?" "What happened next? Well I'll tell you what happened next. Rebecca, that's what happened next. Apparently whenever Booth had Parker, he and Rebecca had got into the habit of meeting at the diner, Rebecca would arrive with Parker and Booth would leave with him and Booth would then drop Parker back at Rebecca's house at the agreed time. On this one occasion Rebecca needed to drop Parker off early and was unable to contact Booth so just turned up at his apartment unannounced. When Booth answered the door Rebecca took one look at the state of Booth's apartment, she blew a fuse when she saw the squalor that her son was expected to live in. She told him that all visitation rights were now revoked until further notice, before storming off taking Parker with her. As you might guess, Booth was devastated, first he loses you, now he has lost Parker, the two things he values the most, both gone. When Charlie told me what had happened I really did fear the worst. But it turned out to be the wake-up call the Booth needed. He changed overnight, the drinking stopped, I'm not sure but I don't think he's touched alcohol since that day. He got his act together, tidied his apartment and himself. Then he threw himself into his work. Without you and Parker there was only one thing left in his life, the FBI. He worked relentlessly starting early, staying late, sometimes not even bothering to go home, he'd just grab a couple of hours sleep in his office and carry on. He was also relentless with his staff, always pushing, never satisfied. Eventually Rebecca relented and after inspecting Booth's apartment agreed to let Parker to spend time with his father. That was now Booth's life, work and his son. There was no socializing, no meeting up with anyone from the lab or the FBI for a meal of drinks, it was just Parker and the FBI. Then about six months ago Sam Cullen had a bit of a health scare and decided to take early retirement. There was a shake-up at the FBI and Booth ended up with a promotion, a raise and a desk job. His field work was now a thing of the past and so we were introduced to Special Agent Sean Finnegan, the FBI's new liaison with the Jeffersonian. I know he's cute and all, but you know….he's just not Booth and with him and Zach working cases together it's more like high school than crime fighting. That's pretty much where we are Bren, you're now up to date." "That's terrible Ange and I did that to him, it was all my fault. I know how much he loved working in the field and how much he hated paperwork. No wonder he was so unhappy when I turned up at his door earlier."
"Well sweetie now you're up to date. So let's forget about all that, it's in the past, there's nothing we can do to change it. The real question that you need to ask yourself is: what do you want to happen next, where do you want to go from here? To my mind you have two options: with Booth or without Booth and if you choose without Booth then you need to make your mind up, will you try to live here in DC without him or do you go somewhere totally different and begin a new life? You need to give it some serious thought and decide what it is that you really want and then you need to fully commit to whichever decision you make. Booth is still in a very fragile place and I seriously don't think he will be able to take another disappointment from you" "I want this Ange, I really do want to be with Booth in DC. I don't know what else to say. I've had two years to come to terms with my feelings for him and I missed him so badly and when I came to realise just how big a part he played in my life, I couldn't picture my life without him in it. Booth means everything to me and he has done for quite some time, even though I was unable to admit it, even to myself." "OK then Bren, that's good. All we need now is a plan. We need to come up with a fool-proof plan. I think I'm going to enjoy this!"
Brennan was welcomed back by the Jeffersonian and it was quickly agreed that she would work on identifying the remains held in limbo and Zach would continue to work the cases with the FBI and agent Finnegan but he reserved the option to call on Dr Brennan to consult whenever he saw fit. Brennan had moved back into her apartment and retrieved her car from long-term storage things were slowly returning to normal. The one problem she had was Booth. She had made several attempts to contact him, called to his mobile went unanswered and she thought better of leaving any sort of message when transferred to his voice mail. Calls to his landline were the same, but she did leave a couple of messages asking him to call her back, to no avail. When she turned up at his new office, unannounced, his secretary did a good job of protecting him, saying: 'sorry, he's in a meeting', 'sorry he's not in the office today' or 'sorry, I'm under strict instructions, he can't be disturbed '. Brennan had requested an appointment but was told, in no uncertain terms, that that wouldn't be a good idea. When she pressed the point she was given an appointment in three months time and told that he was a really busy man. When she had said that it was an important personal matter that she needed to discuss with him, her appointment was duly cancelled and she was politely informed that personal matters were not a valid reason for granting an appointment with Booth during working hours, apparently an FBI directive. Her visits to his apartment when unanswered except once when he opened the door said 'leave me alone' before slamming the door in her face. She resorted to consulting Angela and with a little input from Hodgins a plan was formulated. It would be risky, but with things how they currently were, what did she really have to lose. She was as determined to talk to him as he was determined not to talk to her. So if the plan failed she would devise another plan. This was how determined she to make this work, somehow and she would resist the nagging urge to flee and see it through to a hopefully satisfactory conclusion. It was a little after 4 the following Sunday afternoon when she entered the park and strolled over to a bench by the swings and sat down. "Hi Booth." She said hoping to sound casual in spite of her racing heartbeat. Booth had been watching Parker on the swings but turned towards her, surprised, when he heard her voice. 'When did she learn how to do that?' Booth thought.' I'm an ex-sniper and an experienced field agent, she shouldn't be able to sneak up on me like that.' "Temperance, what are you doing here?" Booth asked, the irritation in his voice clearly evident, before returning his gaze to his son. "You're avoiding me Booth. We need to talk. No, let me rephrase, I need to talk to you, but you're avoiding me, even using your secretary to keep me from seeing you. So I had no choice, I had to resort to ambushing you here today. Brennan quietly replied, determined to keep this civil, if at all possible. "You've crossed a line here!" Exclaimed Booth, annoyed. "This is my time with Parker, you surely remember how little time I get to spend with him and much I value that time. How could you do this to me?" "Look, I'm sorry Booth. I do know how much your father-son time with Parker means to you, but you gave me no choice. You refused my every effort to speak to you. My being here, when I know how much your time with Parker means to you, should show you just how much I need to talk to you and the lengths to which I am prepared to go." "How did you even know I'd be here?" Booth muttered under his breath. "I know you Booth. We both know each other, so when I knew that you had Parker this weekend, I knew it was your routine to take Parker here to the swings Sunday afternoon, then the pair of you would head off to the diner for cheeseburgers before dropping him off at Rebecca's." "So, tell me why world the famous doctor Temperance Brennan, world reknowned forensic anthropologist and New York Times listed best-selling author want to talk to a lowly boring FBI employee like me?" Booth asked, with a sneer. Further conversation was abruptly interrupted when Parker spotted who was sitting beside his father. "Doctor Bones! Doctor Bones! Is that really you?" Parker bellowed and took off sprinting towards her. She stood and took a pace forward, anticipating what was about to happen. As she had expected, the excited little boy crashed into her, nearly knocking her off her feet. Parker threw his arms around her waist and gave her the biggest bear hug he could manage. She responded by placing one hand on his back and the other behind his head and returned the hug, smiling. "Parker, it's so good to see you again. I do believe that you must be at least a foot taller than when I last saw you." Brennan said, unable to resist chuckling out loud. Parker released Brennan from the hug and took a half pace backwards and stood with his chin on his chest. "Did I do something wrong, Doctor Bones? Parker muttered bashfully. "No Parker, of course you haven't done anything wrong, you could never do anything wrong. Why would you even think that? Brennan asked, frowning, confused. "Well, when I stayed with my Dad you were always around and we'd hang out and you'd tell me lots of really cool stuff about everything and you were the only one I knew who didn't talk to me like I was a baby and I really liked that. Then I didn't see you for so long, I thought that I had done something wrong and you had fallen out with me." Said Parker quietly, looking down and transferring his weight from one foot to the other and then back again. Brennan's response was to drop to one knee and embrace the little boy in a tight hug. When she felt the boy hug her back she spoke. "Oh Parker! No, you've got it wrong. You haven't done anything wrong and I haven't fallen out with you. You're my friend, one of my very best friends and nothing you could ever do would make me fall out with you. Please, Parker, listen to me, OK. Let me explain. I had this job that I had to do, but I had to go a long way away to do it. I had to go to a whole different country and the job took longer than I thought it would. But, now I'm back and I have to tell you that you were not the reason I left and you were not the reason I didn't comeback for so long. OK?" She leant back and when the two made eye contact she continued. "Parker, can I tell you a secret? Whilst I was away I thought about you a lot. I thought about you and about your Dad every single day. I swear!" Booth was gob-smacked at Brennan's revelation and also marvelled at the bond between her and his son. Had she really thought about him and about Parker every day? And why had he never once thought of how Parker was feeling about her no longer being around? He never considered how much of an effect her absence could possibly have on his son. He felt ashamed of how selfish and self-centred he had been. He was acting like this was all about him he never considered how other people were feeling. These last two years were probably hard on her too. "Say Bub, were off soon, so you've got five minutes left on the swings, then we're off to the diner. OK" Said Booth. "Can I get a cheeseburger, Dad? Please!" Whined Parker giving Booth the puppy-dog eyes that he knew were guaranteed to get him what he wanted. Brennan released parker from their hug. "We'll see OK?" Parker's face broke out into a smile, it was that Boothy charm smile, the one that had always had such an effect on her, she couldn't help but smile. "Laters Doctor Bones," Parker called as he charged off towards the swings. "He's grown so tall, Booth." Brennan ventured, hoping to resume their conversation. "And he gets more and more like you every day." "OK! OK! I have to get him back to Rebecca's by seven. So be at my place for eight and then you can have your talk." Booth muttered, running his hand through his hair. "Thank you Booth. I'll see you at eight. I really am sorry that I had to do it this way." Brennan said, standing and heading out of the park.
At exactly 8p.m. Booth answered the knocking on his door. Opening the door wide he gestured for Brennan to enter. She entered the living room and sat on the sofa. "Can I get you anything to drink?" Booth asked in his cold distant voice that she was quickly coming to hate. "I don't have anything alcoholic." "Water would be good thanks." She answered. Booth headed into the kitchen and reappeared with two bottles of water which he set down on the coffee table. "Temperance I know that you're here tonight so you can have your say but before I let you have your turn I'd like to say something, OK?" Booth hadn't sat down he was pacing up and down the living room. Brennan nodded in response. Booth then sat in the recliner opposite the sofa ran his fingers through his hair nervously and took a deep breath preparing himself for what was about to come. "OK. I need to tell you, before you tell me everything you need to tell me, I've changed during the time you've been away. I'm not the same Seeley Booth you left two years ago. You, being a world famous anthropologist, you might even say that I've evolved. At some point whilst you were away at your dig I recognised something in myself, I suppose a genius like you might say that I had an epiphany. You know I like that word: epiphany. It sounds very squinty. I suppose before you left I might have pretended that I didn't know what it meant just so you could explain it to me and I would let you appear superior to me. So what did I discover? Well I discovered that I was living my life scared. So I took stock of my life and where I thought it was going and I decided I didn't want to be scared anymore. I no longer wanted to live my life in fear." Booth paused reached for his bottle of water and took a drink. "I don't know what that means Booth." Brennan said quietly. "You were never scared of anything or anyone, if you were I would have known." "You're wrong Temperance I was living my life constantly in fear but now I've changed. I used to live my life fearing you!" Brennan was about to interrupt but Booth held up his hand to silence her. "Do you know what I feared? I feared that if I told of my feelings for you it would cause you to panic and run away and leave me. You have to admit that I got that one right. I was scared that one day some jerk would come into your life sweep you off your feet and take you away from me. I was scared that you would think that I wasn't good enough for you. I was scared that I wouldn't be able to protect you and you would get injured or even worse die when we were chasing criminals. I was scared every time you told me that you were more than capable of looking after yourself before doing something dangerous. I was scared I would lose our partnership and our friendship. That's what scared me every day. So I did what any coward would do: I buried my fear, I kept my mouth shut and tried to get on with my life. But all that is over now. The very thing I was trying so hard to prevent happened anyway. So I decided it was time to change. From now on I say exactly what I think, I'm fed up of dancing the dance that we've been dancing for all these years. No more hiding, when you left without any warning I decided now was the time to speak my mind and if you don't like what I have to say then that's your problem. No more holding back." Booth leant back in his recliner. "So that's where I'm coming from, now the floor's all yours." Brennan sat there with a stunned look on her face. This wasn't at all how she expected evening to unfold. She picked up her bottle of water and took a long swallow using the time to gather her thoughts before starting. "Booth, I know that you are annoyed with hearing me saying this, in fact, I am getting fed up of saying it, but I really am so very sorry. I know that I have hurt you. I have done things that have hurt and I need to tell you that was never my intention. I never wanted to hurt you. All I ever wanted was for you to be happy and I didn't believe that would be possible if you were with me. I knew that you wanted to settle down with the perfect wife in the perfect house with a lovely white picket fence and 2.4 perfect children and a dog. I knew that I couldn't give you that and that I would become a disappointment to you, sooner or later. You deserve so much better. You deserve someone who doesn't come with all the issues and baggage that I have. My greatest fear was that if you and I got together, sooner or later you would realise just what you had let yourself in for and you'd want to move on. You'd realise that I would never, could never, be the person you thought I was, the person you wanted me to be. I thought when we reached that point our friendship and our partnership would suffer. I saw us unable to carry on and going our own separate ways, never seeing each other again. Just the thought of that, losing our friendship and our partnership caused me to panic. I was wrong when I rejected you that night on the steps of the Hoover building. I was wrong when I panicked and ran off to Easter Island without warning. I stupidly thought that if I said no to you that night we could continue to work our cases and still be friends, so I rejected you and begged you to keep working with me. The more I thought about it the more I realised that things would never be able to go back to how they were. That was when I panicked and ran." She said never looking anywhere but her hands which were clasped together on her lap.
"Whilst I was on Easter Island I had an epiphany of my own. I had three months to process our relationship, what it meant to me and where I wanted it to go. I came to realise just how much I needed you in my life, how much I missed you, how much I wanted you. That was selfish of me, wanting you but knowing I could never satisfy your desires, your dreams. I also realised that by running away to supposedly protect our friendship and partnership what I was actually doing was destroying it. What was the point in me running away from you in a vain attempt to keep us together? It makes no logical sense." She uttered attempting to prevent tears from falling. "OK Temperance, just tell me this, if I accept your apology and I accept your explanation, what changes?" He asked then paused, not wanting an answer, before continuing. "For the last, I don't know how many years, I have witnessed a procession of jerks come into your life, hang around for a while before drifting on and being replaced by the next jerk. Do you have any idea how much that hurt? The first one I remember was that time we went to Aurora we caught that cannibal doctor and you managed to hook-up with Charlie-the-overnight-guy, or as I called him: Charlie the one-night-stand-guy. You even bragged about his perfectly developed hips and thighs whilst I was trying to eat my breakfast. That's what I call rubbing my face in the dirt. Then there was that guy, Jesse, he made a career out of finding his dead dad instead of accepting it and moving on with his life. Who could forget the fireman? He chopped his brother's head off with his own fire axe! They came and went, Dick431 who can forget your internet date? Didn't he turn out to be the recruiter for some weird cult? All this time, there I was by your side, your partner, helping you pick up the pieces, but you couldn't see me or chose not to. It was like I was invisible, there but not seen. Next there was the deep-sea diver , who sent months at sea repairing oil rigs then spent his shore leave tied to your bed. That's when you decided to up your game. In came Sully and before you know it you and Tim Sullivan, FBI Agent and all-round good guy are together, my face rubbed in the dirt once more. What could you possibly do to beat that one? Oh! I know let's go out with Jared, my own brother, surely even you must have realised how low a blow that was? Then when I finally drum up enough courage to tell you I feel about you, I am dismissed out of hand, rejected after a nano-second of thought from you. Then you disappear without a word I hear nothing from you for two years. When you turned up out of the blue on my door step after two years what did you expect? What were you hoping to find? Did you think that I'd give you a hug, ask how you'd been and we would just pick up and carry on as though nothing had happened?" He was angry but still fighting to keep his voice low and his temper in check. "What's going to change? I've never run off and abandoned you. I've always kept my relationships private and never tried to flaunt them in front of you." "Booth I accept I have made mistakes, lots of them, but it was you, on our very first case that said we couldn't date because of FBI rules forbidding it. Then there was that line Booth, do you remember, it was you who drew that line that we weren't allowed to cross. So there is blame on both sides. You weren't exactly living the life of a monk, if I remember correctly. Tessa, Rebecca and Cam for example. Whilst I was away on the Maluku islands I had my own epiphany, I came to realise two things, first: I want you in my life and I am prepared to do whatever is required to achieve that goal. I am ready to fight for there to be an 'us' Booth. You know how stubborn I can be. How stubborn we both are. Second I also came to realise that whilst we are so different in so many aspects in one aspect we are so alike. Whilst we are both excellent communicators in our professional lives, we are both so poor when it comes to communicating with each other. We both shy away from revealing our thoughts and feelings to each other. We are both content to make assumptions about the other. I find that particularly disappointing from my stand point because I make such a big deal out of ensuring we have all the facts and not jumping to conclusions before all the evidence has been examined. We both make assumptions and create scenarios about the other one that have no actual basis in fact." Brennan replied. "Sorry Temperance, but to quote your good self 'I don't know what that means'." "OK then Booth answer me this and please be honest. When you heard that I'd run off to Easter Island to join a dig being hosted by my old friend Paul, you pictured Paul and I falling into bed together the moment I stepped off the plane and you imagined us spending every spare moment together having sex for the next two years. Please tell me if I'm wrong." Booth glanced nervously left and right frantically trying to think of an acceptable answer to her question but came up dry. Just shook his head slightly and shrugged in agreement. "Just as I thought. I'm even worse, the novelist in me made up a whole scenario concerning what you were doing. I signed up for a three month period and during that time I imagined you spending time drowning you sorrows at the Founding Fathers during the first few days I was gone. Then I imagined a tall, beautiful blond approaching as you sat at the bar with your drink and you would be rude and dismissive when she first spoke to you, but by the end of the night she had got you to open up about yours troubles. She was there again the next night and before long you two were together. She was intelligent, articulate, funny and at home in any social situation and everyone liked her, including Parker. She really was nothing like me. So when my initial three month term was up I was faced with the option of returning to DC to find you and your lady friend together or sign up to extend my time at the dig to two years. You know, obviously, I took the cowards way out and that I stayed for the full two years. During the rest of my stay at the dig I embellished my story, I named your lady friend Hannah, She was a journalist and news reporter, reporting the news from the front line as it was happening. You two were engaged and there was even a wedding being planned." Brennan paused to take a drink of water and held up a hand when Booth was about to speak. "So my two years was almost up and I had an important decision to make. Do I return to DC with my newly found openness and have to live with my sadness at your relationship with your lady friend or should I relocate to somewhere I wouldn't have to see you and her happy together. I could perhaps move to Chicago or Los Angeles or even to Montreal. I even considered moving to Europe or Australia. It was then that I made my third call home to Angela, the first two were just to assure her that I was still alive and looking out for myself. I never asked about you and she never volunteered anything, but this time I asked how you were and what you were up to. When she told me there was no one in your life, as far as she knew, that was when I made my decision. I would return home and fight for what I wanted….you. So, the truth is that we both concocted stories about each other, neither of which had the slightest basis in actual facts. Your lady friend turned out to be nothing more than a figment of my over active imagination and my 'lover' is in fact a homosexual. He and his husband, Clive, are happily married and live with their two adoptive children. There never was anything happening between Paul and I, nor anyone else for that matter. What a pair we are Booth , you couldn't make it up. We are both so lacking in self-esteem when it comes to dealing with each other. It's almost like we have some sort of death wish. So that brings me right up to date. Thank you for letting me have my say and for listening patiently to me ramble on. I just want to tell you that I'm here, where I want to be and I'm not going anywhere else. I now throw myself at your mercy, you know why I'm here and what I've come for. Now, the next step, it's up to you, it's your decision." "That's a lot for me to consider. I need to give everything you've said some serious though and get it all straight in my head." Booth answered. "I understand Booth and I promise to accept whatever conclusion you arrive at." "I need time and space, so if you can give me a couple of weeks, then, perhaps, give me a call." "Thank you Booth. I can ask no more." With that she let herself out of his apartment and went home.
It was ten days later when she called his mobile. He answered on the second ring. She invited him to have coffee with her at 9am on Saturday morning at their coffee cart by the Reflecting Pool. "Temperance, I'm so sorry…" "That's alright Booth I understand perfectly." The disappointment was evident in her voice. "No Temperance, you've got it wrong. I can't make it Saturday because I have Parker this weekend." "Well, if that's the case, I would like to revise my invitation. I know how much you Booth boys enjoy your lie-ins, so would you and Parker like to meet me at the diner at say… eleven? Parker can have one of their famous double choc milk shakes, if it's still his favourite, and we can have coffee, who knows, there might even be a slice of pie. Can we call it a fig, Booth?" "It's a date, Bones, shall we call it a date." Booth said chuckling to himself. "See you Saturday morning at the diner at eleven o'clock." "Yes Booth that's what I said, it's a date." She ended the call with the biggest smile on her face, she felt the happiest she had felt since returning from Maluku, no, the happiest for two years. First, he had corrected her misuse of a common phrase and even more pleasing, he had finally called her by the name she had waited so long to hear. He had called her 'Bones' perhaps there was a chance for them after all.