Disclaimer: They're not mine; I just borrowed them for some super writing fun! I promise to return them when I'm finished. No infringement intended.

A/N: Spoilers for "The Beginning in the End" and "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole."

I would like to say thanks to The Enigmatic Raven (my roommate) for sitting at my computer with me for hours helping me proof read and edit! (He helped up until about chapter 9.)

(New Author's Note)I wrote this story a year ago (nearly). And have decided to go through and fix some mistakes I noticed when re-reading my story, so from here on, all the chapters will be the revised versions.

The sun was shining brightly outside with the promise of a beautiful day in D.C. as I stepped off the plane and into the airport. How good it was to be home! After spending a year in Afghanistan training U.S. soldiers how to track down the enemy, I was looking forward to a nice walk in the park to take in all the scents and views I had missed while I was gone.

The day Bones left we had made a promise that in one year we would meet at the reflecting pool by the coffee vendor, and today was one year later. Bones would be meeting me there in about 3 hours, and I needed to freshen up after endless hours on a plane, so I headed to baggage claim to get my luggage, then took a cab home.

I couldn't wait to tell Bones about everything that happened. She'd be happy to know that I'd finally found somebody I could be happy with. As I watched the city fly by me in the cab, I thought about the day that I kissed her on the stairs after our meeting in Sweets' office.

I winced as I remembered how quickly she had turned me down and stomped my heart into the ground below our feet. Getting over her was probably one of the hardest things I ever had to do in my life. And the sad part about that is... I still wasn't completely over her and probably never would be. I told her that day that I needed to move on with my life. I couldn't spend the rest of my life waiting around for something that probably would never happen. She didn't believe in love. She didn't believe in commitment to somebody else. Well that's what she put off anyway, though I think that deep down she really does believe, but would never admit it to anybody. Especially me. She's too afraid that she'll get hurt again. But DAMNIT, I'm not her father. I wouldn't have abandoned her like he did.

I sighed as the cab pulled up in front of my place, which quickly yanked me out of my thoughts. I handed the cab driver my fair plus an extra ten dollar bill as a tip and headed up to my apartment with my luggage.

(Page Break)

It's been horrible. An entire week of waiting until the day that Booth returned. I missed him so much while I was away for a year at the Maluku Islands. The archaeological dig was very refreshing. We learned a lot about the ancient civilization that was buried beneath the sands there, but it wasn't the same as chasing bad guys with Booth.

I thought a lot about us while I was gone... and I did some soul searching, as Booth would call it. I don't remember when exactly, but it wasn't long after I left that I realized that a life with Booth didn't seem so bad after all. He was the one person in the whole universe who understood me. Angela was pretty good about reading me. Not like Booth, however.

I looked at my watch and realized that it was nearly six pm. I had promised Booth a year ago that today we would meet and I was about to be late after not seeing him for a year!

I grabbed my keys and ran out of my apartment so fast that I forgot to grab the gift that I had gotten for him in Indonesia. By the time I realized that I didn't have it, I was already pulling up and parking near our meeting place.

Just as I turned off my car I looked up and saw him. There he was in his Army fatigues, looking very handsome sitting on the bench we had promised to meet at in front of the reflecting pool. He had a smile on his face as he stared into the water. Seeing the smile on his face made my heart skip a beat. Was he thinking about me with that smile plastered all over his face?

Little did I know that smile wasn't for me, it was for somebody else entirely...

A/N: I haven't written fan-fiction in 10 years since my days as an X-Files fanatic... so bare with me please!