Plan "A": Redux

By LizD

Winter 2011

Chapter One

Spoilers: Through Daredevil in the Mold with one significant change: Hannah said yes. (EW - I know) Don't worry we will FFWD this story about nine months. BYW there is a WILD speculation in this chapter about a rumored event that will happen sometime this year on Bones. Please know that it is just speculation.

A/N: While this story does have a distinct smell of Hannah, I will keep her off the page and use her as a prop as much as the story will allow. Think of her like the diner, or Founding Fathers, or Booth's gun or one of Brennan's necklaces. She is there like any other prop, something for the characters to move around or toss aside. She is not good nor is she evil, she just is. This will be a B&B story (at some point) since I'm a shipper, hopelessly so, but not sure how I will get there.

A/N2: This story has been done by others and probably better, but I thought I would put my own spin on it. Just for something to do while the show is taking its NEXT hiatus. I really should find another hobby. Will try to post as quickly as possible, encouragement by way of comments and alerts is always a good motivator.

-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-_-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-_-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-_-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-

I thought I was looking for a good time, but the truth is I think I'm looking for little bit more. I was ... you know what? ... I was going to wait but ... I love you, Hannah ... When I met you I really honestly wondered if I was ever going to meet anyone ever again. ... Marry me ... I want you to be my wife.

Oh Seeley ... you know I'm not the marrying kind ... But, I love you, Seeley. ... I love you. ... Yes, Yes I will be your wife, I will marry you. Yes.

It took ten hours for Booth's buyer's remorse to set in. They had a great dinner and a wonderful night, but there was no talk of what their future would bring. The next morning before dawn, Hannah was gone again on assignment. She left her ring in the box on the bureau. When he questioned her on it she said that it was too loose, the stone was too big for a work day, and she didn't want to lose it. He accepted that logic, but he didn't like it. Three days later she was back, the ring was again on her finger and she was having lunch with Brennan. Booth hadn't told Brennan about the proposal and he had no idea how Hannah presented it to her. Afterward, she said that Brennan said she was very happy for them both, but Brennan didn't say anything to him. In fact she seemed somewhat cold, curt and aloof with him. He assumed she got hurt and he felt pretty shitty about how the whole thing went down, but assumed they would work it out in time. It was time they didn't get.

Later that February after the engagement, Broadsky struck again and rocked the world for Booth et al. This time Broadsky's aim was not for a killer but one of the finest people Booth had ever known: Caroline Julian. Booth was standing next to her, as were Brennan, Sweets and the Deputy Director of the FBI. While everyone else was convinced that Broadsky's aim was for Booth and missed, Booth knew that Broadsky hit his intended target. Booth felt responsible - he was responsible. He became a man with a single minded mission who accepted help from no one - not even Brennan. He was on the trail of Broadsky and wouldn't let up until he brought him in dead or alive. And that is exactly what he did three months later, Broadsky was brought in bloody and bruised, but he was alive. The FBI hailed Booth as a hero and a super agent; he would accept none of the accolades. Too many innocent people died in his pursuit of Broadsky and those lives were weighing heavily on Booth more heavily than if he had killed them himself.

During that time, Booth had no time for anything personal. His relationship with Hannah was put on hold; less than hold. In those three months, they saw each other only a couple of dozen times between his mission and her work. They were little more than roommates. He wouldn't talk to Hannah about what he was going through tracking down Broadsky or how much it was bringing out his own sniper skeletons. He completely closed off to her emotionally; it was a very dark and lonely time for him. There was little if anything that Hannah could do to help; she just hung on and focused on her career stateside. She changed jobs; she got off the Washington Press Corps and was doing features for a network station. She had done very well for herself.

Booth did not return to major crimes or working homicides. At the start of summer Booth was assigned to head a task force to investigate organized crime on the eastern seaboard. It was a huge responsibility and he had a large budget and staff to manage. The FBI was expecting great things from him. It was a lot more hours and Booth had no need for a forensic anthropologist or any of the other squints. It seemed that the partnership with Brennan was unceremoniously over.

Booth saw the wedge he had placed in his relationship with Hannah, and rededicated himself to working on it. Sadly Hannah did not see the need to rededicate herself to Booth. She loved him there was nothing more she wanted from him; she was quite content with her career and her home life what little there was of it. Booth wanted more. The summer was filled heated discussions about some things that were pretty hard for Booth to accept in stride. First and foremost was her absenteeism. She was away a lot more than she was home and the ring was in the box on the bureau each time. She did not see it as an issue but said she would make an effort to not take every assignment that came her way. Second was the way she acted and dressed particularly when she was not with him. It was nothing short of provocative. She wrote it off as her reporter's style - how she got her good scoops. He didn't like it; she refused to change. She played the trust card and he had to back down or blow the whole thing out of the water. Trusting that she would not make a fool of him did not come easily particularly when she didn't wear the ring, she didn't refer to him as her fiancée and she didn't want to talk about a wedding date or anything beyond her next big story.

Then in August they had a major discussion that nearly broke them. Booth was pushing for a wedding date, Hannah was resisting. He made a comment about not wanting to be fifty when he had his next child. Hannah stated in no uncertain terms that she would never have a baby. It wasn't up for discussion. Booth of course forced the issue. She made some valid points about over population and career responsibilities and that they were not at a point in their relationship or in their careers to even think about having children. He suggested that she not speak for him. They were at an impasse. His position was that they needed to come to a compromise before they actually got married. Hannah was fine with putting off the wedding. The fight ended as per usual with Hannah seducing him. Sex-instead-of-talking wasn't working for Booth they way it had in the past, but he decided to back burner the baby/wedding issue.

In September he recommitted to the relationship again and vowed to himself to make it work. He could compromise on children and she could compromise on the amount of time she was away on assignment. That worked for a while, but by Thanksgiving she was working harder than she had been, and no wedding date had been picked.

-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-

Brennan's life was less dramatic over those ten months and was also very good for her career. When Booth went off alone to find Broadsky, Agent Perotta took over the homicide investigations and worked with the squints at the Jeffersonian. Brennan didn't go into the field or interview suspects with Perotta; she was a lab rat just like the rest of the squints. It again became SOP to keep the squints in the lab. She turned over most of the work she was doing with the FBI to Clark Edison who was hired permanently by the Jeffersonian. She consulted on very difficult or high profile cases, but it was not her daily assignment. She maintained an office at the Medico-Legal lab, but she was there less three days a week. The Jeffersonian asked and Brennan accepted a project in Egypt to help restore the museums to their glory after Mubarak stepped down. She met an archeologist from Ireland on that project and they started dating; dating in as much as Brennan dated and the thousands of miles of ocean that separated them would allow. She was writing quite a bit. She finished her last Kathy Reichs novel in April, had created a new heroine and finished that book by middle of summer. It would be published for the Christmas rush. By fall she was three quarters of the way through the next book.

One morning in early September Brennan was struck with a feeling that there was something missing in her life. Career-wise she was at the top of her profession and very well respected. Her work was varied, important and very rewarding. Creatively she had her novels and felt that this new heroine would far surpass the popularity of Kathy Reichs. She really matured as a writer. Personally she had some very close friends that she treasured and a goddaughter that she loved. Her relationship with her father, brother and his family was great. She was satisfied sexually with her relationship with Liam, the archeologist (and a various others that did not warrant a mention), and didn't want more. But there was still something missing.

What Brennan was missing was a child. Spending time with her goddaughter was very fulfilling and it stimulated her maternal instinct. Logically if she were to have a child she would need to do it sooner than later. She did not want Liam involved in her decision nor did she want him as the father. After carefully considering the consequences of her actions, weighing all her options, doing all the research and asking all the questions, she made a decision. She met with her doctor and made an appointment at the fertility clinic to be artificially inseminated. Through Devine intervention, providence or good timing, Brennan got pregnant very quickly. She didn't share the information with anyone but Angela. She had heard the tales of speaking too soon and then miscarrying. She would wait until the end of the first trimester.

-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-

So the winter melted to spring and the spring heated to summer and the summer cooled to fall. As the seasons changed so did the relationship between Booth and Brennan: partnership faded into colleagues and colleagues paled to acquaintances. Professional communication between Booth and Brennan all but stopped by mid July; personal communication was sporadic and limited to making and breaking arrangements for lunch, drinks or coffee. At first there was a pretense to maintain the friendship, but gradually over time that went by the wayside too. No one questioned it. At first it was just a matter of logistics; one of them was busy, and then the next was otherwise occupied, days passed, weeks passed, months passed, seasons passed. Life went on as it does and people grew apart. It was a sad fact of life that both accepted a little too easily.

Once the engagement was announced the crew at the Jeffersonian lost all hope for Booth and Brennan, even Clark Edison had to say that his money backed the wrong horse. The lives of the core group became filled with other things as well. Hodgins and Angela had a beautiful baby girl and they were doting parents which left little time to worry about the love life of even their closest friends. Cam and Paul also got engaged and ran away to Virginia over Memorial Day weekend to tie the knot. Likewise Daisy and Sweets on Fourth of July but they went to Vegas. And the rest of the squints all were happy in their personal lives, even Fisher. It seemed that there were fewer gatherings with extended friends as they all had paired off and were into other things. They had all moved on.

-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-

Angela and Hodgins felt the loss of the group and wanted more people in their daughter's life. They decided to host Thanksgiving. Everyone was invited including Booth and Hannah - they came late and Hannah left early. It was a very festive event. There was some awkwardness about Booth and Brennan sitting at the same table, but it didn't come from them. They, Brennan and the Couple Booth chatted cordially and inquired about the other's activities and suggested a lunch date that they knew would never been firmed up. Sweets observed them - the three of them - all night long. Brennan always had a glass of wine in her hand or in front of her, but Sweets noticed she wasn't drinking. She didn't eat much either. He also noticed that Brennan didn't look at Hannah even when she was speaking to her. She was looking down, away, anywhere but at Hannah or anyone else. Sweets also noticed the subtle glances from Booth to Brennan particularly when Hannah was regaling the group with some fantastic story of far off places and newsworthy people. The topic of the wedding was broached and Sweets thought he saw Brennan blush. Booth held his comments and looked past Hannah as she answered the question: no date set. Hannah left and Sweets noticed that Booth seemed more relaxed after she was gone. His smile seemed genuine and the glances in Brennan's direction grew more frequent. Brennan left shortly after Hannah did claiming an early call with her publisher. Booth and Brennan never spoke in private that Sweets observed and the parting was not unfriendly, but not friendly either.

Sweets rarely saw Booth or Brennan anymore, but he was still distracted by the Booth/Brennan dynamic. His assumption was that there were still some unresolved feelings between them. Booth seemed open to talking to Brennan, but she was completely close off to him. Booth was clearly unhappy in his relationship with Hannah but probably not to the point of ending it. As for Brennan, if he were to make a guess, he would say that she never got over Booth. Of course he had nothing to base that on and it was probably more a romantic wish that they would find their way back to each other than a belief that it would actually happen. Sweets still felt responsible for Booth and Brennan's break up. He never reconciled the role he played. Sweets tried not to feel responsible, but he did. He was. He would see what he could do to help them if not get back together socially or professionally, then he would help each of them to find some closure.

-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-_-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-_-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-_-P-L-A-N-.-"A"-

A/N: Anyone want to throw Sweets a blanket party?