May 2011
Saturday morning, they wandered through the town and found one of the other restaurants that had been recommended for breakfast. They noticed an increase in foot traffic now that the weekend was upon them and were glad they were heading up the coast for the day.
They drove to the state park and spent the next few hours visiting the nature center, walking the nature trails, and exploring the old fort. They had stopped on the way and picked up a couple of boxed lunches and two bottles of beer, so they found their way to the area with picnic tables overlooking the beach.
Booth looked around at the long expanse of beach in both directions. "We have to bring Parker here one day. He would love it." Brennan nodded. "Yes, I think he would. He would also enjoy the nature center with all of the hands-on exhibits. I can just see how excited he would be to touch the stingrays and the crabs." Booth laughed. "And we need to come in summer so we can all jump in the surf. The water is way too cold to do that in May."
They finished their lunch and hopped back in the car to drive to the remote beach at the tip of the cape. After parking in the mostly empty lot, Brennan grabbed the blanket she always kept in her trunk, and they walked hand in hand down to the beach.
Booth looked around for a spot to sit, and they headed over to the wooden fence line sitting back from the beach. They opened up the blanket in front of one of the sturdy fence posts so that Booth could sit with his back supported by the post. He pulled her down to sit between his legs and wrapped his arms around her waist.
She leaned back against his shoulder. "Oh, this is nice Booth. I was afraid it would be a little chilly for a beach day, but it's perfect. And I love that we practically have the beach to ourselves."
He grabbed her legs and turned her around so that she was sitting sideways. He smiled. "Now, this is more like it." As his arms tightened around her shoulders, he went in for a long, sexy kiss. They spent several minutes exploring each other's lips and tongues. It was a languorous kiss. The kind that lovers share when they are completely at ease with each other and have no schedule to keep. The thought running through Booth's head was that he could keep this up for the rest of the day. This felt like the fulfillment of all of the dreams he had had for many years.
They continued their little make out session, but eventually the combination of the food in their bellies and the sea air began making them drowsy. She snuggled up into his chest and he realized she was sleeping within minutes. So he closed his eyes and joined her.
She awakened twenty minutes later, and as she moved slightly, it also woke him. They sleepily smiled at each other and he snuggled her back against him. They sat there silently watching and listening to the gently lapping waves.
After awhile, they had both managed to shake the cobwebs, and Booth decided it was the right time to bring up a subject he had hoped to address this weekend. "So, Bones. There's something I've been wanting to ask you about." She looked at him with curiosity. He brought his hand up to cup the side of her cheek. "If you don't want to talk about it, I'll understand completely. And I won't bring it up again." Now she was staring into his face, slightly puzzled, slightly worried. "What is it Booth. You're scaring me."
He immediately sat up straighter. "No, no, no. It's nothing bad." The worry lines fell from her face. "No Bones. It's….about your conversation with God when I was missing. I really would like to know more about it. Why? How? All of that. But I completely understand if you don't feel comfortable talking about it."
She bit her bottom lip and stared down the beach. Did she want to discuss it? Did she even really understand what happened that morning? After several long minutes, she decided that if they were to have a true partnership, they needed to be vulnerable enough to share everything. She turned back to him and saw the worried look on his face. She put both of her hands up to cradle his face. "I'm sorry Booth. Yes, I'd like to talk about it. I think we need to start off on the right foot and share everything with each other - good and bad."
She smiled when she saw the look of relief on his face. "Now, you know Booth. This is going to be difficult for me. I've never been in a relationship where I had to share - I always held a lot back. But you keep saying that this is for keeps. So I give you permission to push me, to challenge me when you think I'm withholding anything. And I need to be able to do the same with you."
He smiled and pulled her in for a sweet kiss. "I promise. You're getting pretty good at this relationship stuff already." She huffed. "Well, I always was a quick study." That made him laugh. "Okay Bones. So…YOU TALKED TO GOD?" He raised an eyebrow. "Please. Tell me everything."
She took a deep breath and turned in his arms so that she was sitting back between his legs and facing away from him toward the ocean. His arms had been around her waist, but now he pulled them up and proceeded to gently run his hands up and down her arms. He knew exactly what she was doing. She didn't want to be looking directly at him while she sorted out her feelings. And he didn't want to constrain her - he just wanted to comfort her.
She sat still for several minutes and then finally began. "That Wednesday night when you missed our call, I wasn't worried. It had happened a couple of times before and I always received an email from you the next day explaining why you couldn't get back for the call. I kept checking my email all day Thursday, and by the time I went to bed that night I was starting to worry. As I went through the day on Friday, I became more and more frantic. The worst part was that I had no idea how to contact anyone to try to find out what was happening."
He brought his arms back down, hugged her around the waist, and kissed the back of her head. "I guess I never realized I hadn't given you any contact information for the people I worked with there." She shook her head. "That was the problem. I only knew the first names of the people you talked about. I couldn't very well try sending an email to 'joe at usarmy'. It wasn't like the base you were on had a main telephone number to call. If you had been working at the FBI in Washington, I could have called the main switchboard and ask to be transferred to someone in your group."
"I got very little sleep on Friday night, and somehow made it through the day on Saturday. I was despondent as the evening wore on, knowing that I needed to attempt the normal call to you, but with no confidence that it would be answered. I let it ring for several minutes before disconnecting. And that was when I finally broke down and cried myself to exhaustion. But I still didn't sleep that night. I just curled into a ball on my bed and waited for morning."
Booth could barely take listening to the despair in her voice as she relived that week. "I'm so sorry Bones. I wish I could have done something to ease your pain. I never really thought about how I would feel if the roles were reversed and I had no way to reach your camp." He pulled her tighter to him and dropped several more kisses to the back of her head.
She continued. "So, I got out of bed on Sunday morning as the sky was beginning to lighten. I grabbed a cup of coffee from the canteen and took a walk. There was a small forest grove right next to the camp, and, after a ten minute walk, it opened to a beautiful vista of the valley below and mountains off in the distance. There was a very large, flat rock right there, and Mary and I often walked out to the rock when we needed to get away. We would sometimes go together and sit and chat, and sometimes alone when we just needed time on our own."
She relaxed against his chest. "After sitting on the rock for a few minutes, trying to just take in the beauty that was in front of me, my mind couldn't rest. I thought about how it was Sunday morning, and how you would be going to mass if we were home. Then I thought about God. And how you believed in praying to him when you were feeling despair. I wondered if I could pray FOR you, since you were the believer. But I realized that I didn't know how to pray. I had watched you do it several times - kneeling in a pew, hands clasped, eyes closed. But I didn't know the words. Or if you used different words for different situations."
She gently pulled herself from his tight grasp and leaned forward, pulling her legs up and dropping her chin to her knees. He let her go and his arms fell to his sides. "I decided that maybe I just needed to have a conversation with him. To implore him to protect you, to bring you home to Parker. I wasn't asking anything for myself because I wasn't the believer. I was asking him to save you, the believer, the good and moral man. The man who deserved to watch his son grow to adulthood."
She let out a deep breath. "There were just a few possible explanations for your silence. Either you were dead, horribly injured, missing, or captured. And then I thought of another. What if you had come to a decision that we just couldn't be together? Or what if that Hannah woman had returned and lured you into her bed? I would be devastated. But at least you would still be alive and safe. As much as it would shatter me, it meant that you could return to Parker. I would accept the pain of losing you in exchange for your life and health."
He could no longer let her relive the pain alone, and he reached out and pulled her back against him. "Oh Bones. I would never do that to you. You have to know that. You know I never loved Hanna. Since the minute that we declared our love for each other, she has never crossed my mind again. Not for a second. Not for a fraction of a second."
She turned her body so she was back sitting sideways on his lap and wrapped her arms around his back. She buried her face in his shoulder and started crying. He ran his hands up and down her back to comfort her and felt tears stinging his cheeks. After a few minutes, his hands pushed her hair back so he could see her face. "I will never put you through anything like that again Bones. We're home now and we have a lot of catching up to do. And we have such a great life ahead of us."
She smiled at him through her tears and crooked her head. "I'm sorry I didn't know the right way to pray for you, but somehow it seems like it worked. Everything I could have hoped for came to pass." He chuckled. "There is no right or wrong in praying. In fact, just talking to Him is the best way you can pray. It's what I do most of the time. Remember when we were in Notre Dame? I had a conversation asking Him to bless our union. You did exactly the right thing Bones."
He could see the wheels turning in her head. "But what's the purpose of all of those written down prayers that are in the books in the churches?" He thought about it for a moment. "When I was a kid, the priests and nuns made us learn the prayers and recite them in church. When I was older, I found that just having a conversation with Him was what worked best for me. I suspect there are people who rely on those prayers for comfort, but I just find it better for me to have that conversation. So see. You didn't realize it, but you were doing exactly what I do. I think it means we are more in sync than we realized."
She smiled up at him and he kissed her forehead. "You used the beautiful view you had sitting on your rock to put you in that meditative state. Do you know where my favorite place is to have that talk?" She guessed. "In a church?" He shook his head. "Well, sometimes in a church. But I usually seek out a body of water. A river, a lake, an ocean. I let myself be mesmerized by the play of the surface of the water. And you know how when the sun is shining, the water sparkles?" She nodded and he continued. "That's always been an indication to me that He is there and listening. It's probably silly, but it's how I feel inside."
He pointed out to the water. "See way out there, that line of sparkling water stretching as far as the eye can see? He's out there looking out for us. I think He approves of our conversation. I know that you may never believe, but I have enough belief for the two of us. And, if I'm right about what happens after we die, I know we will be together for eternity. I don't think He's all that concerned about what you believe or don't believe. I think it's all about how you live your life. You're a good woman, Temperance. You have such a reverence for life. The way you handle the bones of people who have passed on, and your determination to identify and honor them? That's just one of the things that will get you into heaven when the time comes."
She scoffed. "That's ridiculous Booth. There is no afterlife. I just can't see, scientifically, how it could possibly happen." He smiled and kissed her hand. "Okay. We'll have a bet on it. When we die, in our late 90s, together, holding hands… Remember that movie we watched with the couple who died together that way?" She nodded. "Well, when we wake up together in paradise, I'll turn to you and say, 'Told ya!'" She laughed and shook her head. "Booth! No gambling!" He pulled her into a tight hug. "I think I get a dispensation for that one."
They finally got up, gathered their things, and headed back to the car. They stopped at the nature center on their way out to ask for a restaurant recommendation. They were directed to a nice little dockside place that featured a wide array of fresh seafood.
After a very enjoyable meal, they drove back to town and parked in the lot beneath their hotel. They decided to take a walk along the boardwalk and were lured back to the center of town by the music coming from the bandshell. Booth immediately recognized the style of music. "Bones! It's a 'parrot head' band! Remember how much fun we had listening to a similar one on New Year's Eve?" Her face lit up. "Oh, yes! They were a lot of fun. Let's go listen."
The area around the bandshell was filled with families enjoying the performance. Booth found a spot to lean against a storefront, and pulled Brennan in front of him. They watched and listened to the band for the next hour, enjoying the unseasonably warm May evening. There was a small cleared area in front of the band, and it was filled the whole time with kids dancing and jumping around to the lively calypso beat.
At one point, Booth brought his lips close to her ear and whispered to her. "I think this is a perfect way to top off our little 'honeymoon'." She turned her head and kissed his cheek. "I agree. I love you." He was overwhelmed, and pulled her even closer, burying his face in her neck.
They stayed until the band finished up and then started walking down the boardwalk back to their hotel. Booth suddenly noticed that the wind was kicking up. "I wonder if we've got a storm moving in? It was a pretty warm day today." Brennan looked off to the east and saw a lightning strike. She pointed in that direction. "Yes, looks like it's headed this way."
On their way through the lobby, they stopped at reception and asked if there were any weather warnings. The staff member said that a severe thunderstorm warning had just been issued. He advised them to stay off their balcony while the storm was overhead. "Once the storm heads out over the water, you can safely watch the light show from there. It can be really spectacular sometimes."
When they got up to the room, they turned off all the lights, opened the sliding door to the balcony, and sat on some cushions on the floor a few feet from the open door. When the storm hit, they had a fun, but occasionally startling, view as it came over the hotel and headed to the beach. A couple of the close hits made them both jump, and then burst into laughter at each other.
It only took about 20 minutes for the storm to pass, and they went out onto the balcony to watch the light show as it moved away from them. It was still pouring rain, and they relaxed to the sound of the rain hitting various surfaces on the hotel. The lightning put on quite a show for them. For the next hour they watched forks of light, over and over again, run from cloud to cloud, lighting up the whole sky. It was a magical experience, and they cuddled together on the balcony loveseat thrilled to experience it together.
It was like a fireworks style "grand finale" to their honeymoon. They didn't discuss it, but they were both excited for the next morning - and the drive back to Washington to start their lives together.