Sixty Hours by traciepwns
Summary: “And now, the morning after, less than an hour after they had said their final goodbyes at the marina, she sat at the diner staring at her plate, pushing her eggs around - not really feeling all that hungry afterall.”
Rating: PG
Pairing: Brennan/Booth, Brennan/Sully
Spoilers: Through "The Boneless Bride in the River"
Notes: So, I’ve decided to dabble in fan fic. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Before he had
left, she told Sully that as much as she cared about him, she couldn't
wait for him to come back and that she didn't expect him to wait for her
either. If he did, in fact, come back, which he swore he would, they'd
have to see where they stood with each other then. No promises and no
expectations. It was the only logical solution that she could come up
with, though it didn't make the fact that he was leaving, any
less painful.
The sound of a fork hitting her plate and the sight of her eggs being
stolen brought her back to present time.
"Hey!" She protested weakly, batting Booth’s hand away, half heartedly.
"If you wanted eggs, you should have ordered them."
"I didn't want eggs, but I had to save those," he stated,
matter-of-factly, again pointing his fork towards eggs on her plate.
"Save them," she replied, with a slight question in her tone. "From
who?"
"From you." She wrinkled her eyebrows, giving him yet another
questioning look. "Bones, you've been pushing them around your plate and
stabbing at them for a good five minutes now. I'm barely carrying out my
civic duty to protect and serve."
"Booth. Eggs don't need to be protected."
"Protected? No. But they were served, therefore they should be eaten."
With that, his fork, once again, descended upon her plate. She rolled
her eyes and smiled at his lame attempt at a joke, but then conceded by
pushing the plate towards him.
A few minutes of silence passed between them. While Brennan seemed quite
focused on a non existent spot on the table, Booth was transfixed upon
her face, trying to figure out exactly what was going on in that head of
hers and what he could say to make things right She looked up, and
caught his gaze.
"What?” She asked. “Do I have
ketchup on my face?" She took the back of her hand and wiped it against
her mouth.
"Nope." He said, never once breaking their eye contact.
"Then what is it, Booth?" She watched him as he appeared to struggle to
say what he was thinking.
Letting out a breath, that he had been unaware he was holding, he began.
"I'm sorry, Bones. I kept pushing you towards Sully, telling you what a
great guy he was and all and I, uh, knew from the start that he was a
bit of a, um, free spirited. I just never in a million years thought
that he'd just up and leave you like he did. Otherwise, I would have
never encouraged it. I’m sorry that, once again, you had to watch
someone you care about leave you behind...I'm just -". He trailed off,
not really knowing what else to say.
"Booth," she said placing her hand atop his on the table, "Sully didn't
leave me behind. I chose not to go. This time it's different.
Yes, it doesn't make this whole situation any less painful, but this
time, the choice was mine to make. It was my decision to stay." She
paused a second before continuing. "Besides, it was inevitable that
Sully and I wouldn't last - our goals in life were completely opposite.
After all, it was just a fling.."
"Bones, you know it was more than that," he said, calling her bluff.
"Sully loved you - still
loves you. As cheesy as it is, hell, he named his boat after you. That's
BIG. Really big."
"Yeah..." She trailed off as she looked out the window onto the cars
passing by. Booth could see that there was something on her mind other
than the subject of their prior conversation when she turned her face
back to him. Not wanting to push her too far too fast, he continued to
eat the rest of her breakfast, knowing that she’d eventually ask him.
"Booth? You didn't want me to go, did you?" With that, he almost spit
out his coffee. That definitely wasn’t the question he thought she would
ask.
"Now, why would you say that? I
told you that you should live wide," he said, starting to fidget
slightly in his seat.
"What you told me and what I saw on your face were two different things.
I couldn't figure out exactly what it meant at the time, but thinking
back on it, I'm pretty sure that was, what you would call, your 'poker
face'.”
"But you're forgetting one thing, I don't gamble anymore."
"You don't need to be a gambler to have a poker face," she retorted.
"What happened to you not being able to read people?"
"I can't, but I can read you – sometimes," she said. A light smile
played on her lips at their all too familiar banter, but it was shortly
replaced with a serious expression. "Why didn't you just tell me the
truth?"
"I did," he said. He leaned slightly forward, his elbows on the table in
front of him, and brought his hands down over his face. "I knew that
Angela would encourage you to go and I didn't want to make your decision
any harder than it already was. So yeah, I told you that you should go."
Trying to lighten the tone of the conversation he said, "Besides, I
already knew that you were going to stay." He sat back in the seat, and
smiled, smugly.
"Oh, you did, did you?" She asked, slightly raising an eyebrow.
"Of course. I mean, where else are you going to find a diner that has
pie this good and is open 24 hours a day in the Caribbean? What
happens if you have a craving for a piece of lemon meringue pie in the
middle of the night? Where are you going to go to get some? Hmm?”
“I don’t like lemon meringue pie, Booth. So that would never have been an issue,” she played along.
“Okay, then cherry. I know you
love cherry pie, Bones. Besides, eventually, you would have gone crazy
if you couldn't bicker with anyone. I know for a fact that Sully isn't
big on the bicker." They both laughed, realizing how naturally they play
off each other.
"Can I get you two anything else?" Their waitress asked as she refilled
their coffee cups.
"How about a piece of that cherry pie over there?" Brennan asked as she
watched Booth's eyes grow wide.
"Bones! You didn't want your breakfast, but now you want pie?" He
mockingly gasped.
"Hey, a girls gotta live wide, right?" She jestingly.
"Yeah. Yeah she does," he smiled back at her than turned to the
waitress. "Make that two."
"Coming right up, Sweetie," she said as she turned and walked away.
"Hey Bones? If you had gone…" Once again, his gaze was transfixed on
hers. A weighted silence hung between them, only to be interrupted by
the return of the waitress.
"I would have missed you too, Booth," she said, finishing his thoughts
after the waitress had left.
"You're gonna be okay, you know that, right?” He assured her.
"Yeah," she said, her eyes meeting his. "I know."
It was in that moment that she realized - there was no wrong or
right decision, just two choices leading her down two distinctly
different paths. And eventually, things would turn out exactly how they
were supposed to, just like Booth had said.
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