Scenes that Should've Been

Not so much that this is a missing from Goop, but that Goop opens the doors to allow this scenario to play out in a way that used to be relegated to the realm of fanfic...

“Life without idealism is empty indeed. We just hope or starve to death.” –Pearl S. Buck



Happiness- the kind that fills you up and never leaves- had always eluded him.

When he was five it had leaked out of him slowly as lips that had smiled and kissed and encouraged him had become dry and cracked from the chemo. Soft hands that had soothed him when he was sad or sick and corrected him when he wrote his “S”s backward or if he forgot how to treat girls became rough and papery and so frail he thought he might break her with a touch. Eyes that had glinted and teased about what she’d hidden in the meatloaf dulled; and after they’d closed for the last time he would listen to the radio for hours just to hear her sing her songs to him over and over again.

It had been beaten out of him in the years that followed her death. Little boys with no mother will be rowdy and their dad drowned his pain in his booze before taking it out on their hides. Some days they were completely ignored and other days they were the focus of all of the rage Dad kept in check at the barber shop. He never thought it would hurt so much when his dad gave up on them, but it had and he was pretty sure he would’ve killed himself if Pops hadn’t taken them in.

The army had taken him and transformed him from boy to man. Teamwork replaced independence and it felt good to be fighting for something. He learned well how to operate within a team and later how to lead one. By the time he got out, though, he was no longer a wide-eyed, optimistic kid, but rather a scarred and soul-weary veteran whose feet would be a daily reminder of the high price freedom came at.

When he was a kid growing up with Pops and Granny, he had dreamed about the great family he would have when he got old enough to fall in love and get married. Instead, he found himself at 33, a reformed gambler, single father with no rights to show for it, and despite making Special Agent quickly, a job that was far from extraordinary.

What happened next was the stuff of legends and fairytales. Boy meets girl, girl blackmails him into letting her into his world, they fight, they find success, they fall in love despite themselves. Five years and a lifetimes’ worth of adventures later, he pursues her only to find that she’d been pursuing him too, just in her own way, waiting for a “good reason.” She accepts his reasons and offers her love in return.

Happiness is still something that comes and goes through his life. Marriage has all of the thorns that any other bed of roses does and he grudgingly concludes that they will never see eye to eye on certain things. They laugh and cry; fight and make love. She helps him raise his son and gives him a little daughter with her eyes and his charm smile. And in the end he discovers that he doesn’t need happiness after all because what he has- what they have uncovered together- is Joy.

Gum!

So sweet! And sad and adorable all at the same time! And I love the final word: "Joy," considering that that's Brennan's birth name. Lovely.

“One of the hardest things to teach a child is that the truth is more important than the consequences.” –O.A. Battista

The Proof in the Pudding

When the adrenaline wore off, he stopped pacing and sat far enough in the shadows so as not to be seen, but close enough to see everything. He nodded his head at one of the passing spooks to move along and smirked when the man did so. Sure, the might’ve taken him down when he’d first come in, but he’d earned their respect with his two shots.

No one but the spooks- and possibly Cam- had recognized the skills he’d put on display; how deadly accurate his aim had been. He’d felt the weight of the suited gazes and the grudging respect they now showed. The squints- on the other hand- were way too wrapped up in proving whose bones they were identifying to focus long on his shooting. It’d stung more than a little when they’d started dismissing things they had no clue about outside of their pristine lab.

He watched as White approached Cam and Bones, no doubt to announce he was shutting down the whole investigation. He heard the defiance in his partner’s voice and knew she wouldn’t be handing anything over until she had what she was looking for. Even as White and the others left, she bent back over the remains, studying them closely.

“Having a good sulk, Seeley?” an all-too familiar voice interrupted his thoughts.

“What do you want from me, Camille?” he asked, never taking his eyes off of Bones.

“Some adult behavior would be a good start,” she sat down on the catwalk beside him, “Though at this point I’d settle for some good stall tactics.”

He grunted in response, continuing his silent vigil.

“Look,” she put a hand on his arm, “I don’t pretend to know what the two of you were arguing about, but I do know that this case is way bigger than any one person in this lab.”

“She doesn’t get it, Cam,” he shook his head in frustration. “None of them do.”

“Maybe not Sweets, or Hodgins, or Angela,” she agreed, “But Dr. Brennan? You know she’s faced the same horrors we have first-hand; or at the very least seen their after-effects. Corrupt governments aren’t a stretch for her.”

“This one should be!” the metal railing reverberated where his hand struck it. “We’re better than that!”

“O-kay,” she held up her hands, “let’s step back from that ledge and think about what’s really going on here. Do you know what she’s doing down there?”

“Proving Hodgins is right,” the sulk was back in his voice but he didn’t care.

“Come on, Big Man, you know better than that,” his old friend admonished. “Dr. Brennan has one motive and one motive only.”

“The truth,” Booth finally muttered.

“The truth,” she confirmed. “Would you seriously ask her to set that aside just so you can feel better?”

She let the question hang between them; for once not pressing for an answer.

“Well,” she stood after a few moments, “I have some more people to motivate in the right direction and maybe give these guys a run for their money. You decide you want a piece of that action- well- you know where to find us.”

He watched her head down and enter the room where the squints had gathered, absorbing everything she’d said. As he watched the squints scatter once again he realized she was right.

“Okay,” he said to himself, waving casually to the spooks as he took the stairs two at a time, “time for the fun to start.”

Gum, now I want to go watch it again! I loved seeing Seeley sitting on the catwalk like that again. I don't think we've seen that since Man in the Fallout Shelter, and I was too busy reminiscing to think of what he was feeling at the moment.

And what you wrote adds meaning to Cam speaking to Brennan outside the diner too - I won't forget what you did for him.

Thanks!

Was anyone else as bothered by this as me?

“Don’t rely too much on labels, for too often they are fables.” –Charles H. Spurgeon

The Devil in the Details

It had been a week since their last case, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t busy. In fact, she’d gotten to work early and spent several hours in Limbo before she determined it was time to get started on her office work. Still, she couldn’t deny the small smile on the corner of her lips as she peered at the caller ID box on her ringing phone.

“What do you need, Booth?” she pretended to be preoccupied so as not to seem too eager, “I’m quite busy this morning.”

“Well, stop whatever it is because we have a case,” he told her.

Deep below her calm exterior, her anticipation bloomed into a rush of excitement, though it quickly occurred to her, “If we have a case, why aren’t you here?”

“The Bureau took my wheels,” he pouted.

“What?” her attention was suddenly focused solely on the call. “Were you fired? Are you sick? Did you shoot another clown? Because really, Booth, you need to stop discharging your firearm at inanimate ob-“

“I wasn’t fired, I’m feeling just fine, and no clowns- live or fake- have been harmed,” amusement colored his tone as he interrupted her. “They don’t give cases to agents who are in trouble you know?”

“Yes,” she composed herself and squashed the irrational fears that had arisen, “of course. I should have deduced as much, however, I’m still at a loss to understand why you are currently without your, ‘wheels.’”

“Hm,” he hesitated. “You know how they got a contract with Toyota a while back?”

“Yes.”

“Well, now there’s this thing with all of the recalls and stuff so I guess they need to make sure that we’re not going to play Keanu Reeves anytime soon,” he sounded irritated by the inconvenience.

“I’m not sure what that means on either count,” she admitted.

“The recalls were all over the news, Bones, if you’d bother to watch,” he chuckled, “and we’re watching Speed this weekend.”

“If you insist,” she shrugged. “Would you like me to pick you up or will you be taking a cab to the crime scene and meeting me there?”

“FBI agents don’t take cabs to crime scenes,” he informed her.

“Then I will be picking you up shortly,” she said, gathering her kit. “Unless of course you feel the gravity of your FBI presence will be compromised by the presence of my new Prius?”

“Bones,” his tone grew longsuffering, “just get over here so that we can get to the scene before I have to start collecting Social Security.”

She turned off the lights to her office and headed for the parking garage, “You were the one who complained about that the first time my publisher gave me a car, Booth.”

“Yeah, well, a Prius isn’t exactly a sports car now is it?” he asked.

“I’m leaving now, Booth,” she ignored his question, “I will see you shortly.”

______

The Devil in the Details

______

It was relatively early when they finished at the diner.

“Wanna walk around a little?” Booth asked as they stepped outside, proffering his elbow.

She nodded, linking her arm with his as they set off down the sidewalk. For a while, neither of them said anything, but simply enjoyed each other’s company.

“So,” he broke the silence with a teasing voice, “the publisher gave you another car, eh Ms. Rolex?”

“Yes,” she gave him a slight nudge with her shoulder. “For your information my book is coming out soon and they are anticipating record sales. Several thousand copies have been reserved on Amazon already.”

“Ships the 29th and hits bookstores at home and abroad on April Fools’ Day,” he smiled knowingly. She arched an eyebrow and he explained, “Hey, I wanna know what going to happen to me too. That last one was a doozy of a cliffhanger.”

“For the last time, Booth,” she shook her head reprovingly, “You are not Andy Lister!”

“You just keep telling yourself that, Bones,” his charm smile was in full force. “Hey, look,” he pointed at one of the televisions in the shop window they were passing, “it’s your car.”

Her proud smile was only temporary as the words “recall” flashed onto the screen, followed by a woman’s account of how she barely managed to avoid certain death when the car malfunctioned.

“Well,” Booth said beside her, “guess we’ll be taking a cab today after all.”

Thanks, Gum! That was a great take on the "there's no set-up for it, Bones is driving" scene. They couldn't have picked a worse time to flaunt Toyota in our faces.

Oh, trust me, her driving him around was a hot topic! Love your take on it, especially the Prius recall at the end (I heard that on the radio yesterday and wondered abour her car, too)

Between colds and getting snowed in with the kids, internet/ABY time's been at a premium. Ah the joys of adult hood!

I read a transcript of HH's speech the other day in Canada and he said that the network basically forces product placement b/c they feel not enough people watch commercials in the DVR age. Guess I understand that from a buisness POV, but really, it's not that hard to set up an excuse for her to flaunt the new Prius. Even a line or two would've done just fine.

I'll admit to an evil cuckle or two at the irony of a blatent product ep in the middle of Toyota's big troubles and when the Prius news hit I just HAD to add a second tag to what I'd planned on in the first place.

*skips off to read Inkslingers and prays that even with the foot of snow that's coming the power will stay on*