All that was left to say, by chibiness87
Rating: K+? Can't really call it more than that.
Spoilers: 5.22. You know, That scene, from that episode... you know, the one where all our hearts were broken, no matter how hot Booth looked in uniform.
Pairing: B/B, in a really angst-y way.
Disclaimer: Not mine. I wouldn't do a year apart time jump thing!

A/N: I know what you're thinking, dear reader. "How can you possibly be writing on shots when you have that WIP on the go? You left us hanging, wondering what was going on... this isn't helping our stress levels any!" And I know this, and I apologise for it. But, well, I just saw that ep again, and well, this took over. It is an abuse of the English grammar system, and a love child of angst and single sentence paragraphs. Just so ya'll know. Written in about 15 minutes, and not beta'd.

He's crushing her hand.

He knows he's crushing her hand; he can see the slight edge of pain in the corner of her eye, and saw the slight flinch when he grasped it and started to squeeze.

He knows all of this, and yet, he cannot stop.

Because if he stops crushing her hand, he's likely to do something else.

Something more stupid than risk sneaking of an army base to say goodbye to the one person he never wanted to say goodbye to.

Like crush her lips with his.

And that would be bad.

Very, very bad.

Not just because he is love with her and she is in love with him but says she is not in love with him, but because if he starts to kiss her, really kiss her, he fears he will not be able to stop.

Not stop kissing her, not stop crushing her, not stop loving her.

And he needs it to.

Stop.

Because this?

What he's feeling right now?

It hurts.

It hurts.

Hurts him, hurts her, hurts them. Hurts in a way he didn't even know it could hurt. And he does not want to be the cause of all that pain.

So.

The hand crush.

Better than a confession of love and a kiss and a beg to stay, but worse than all of that at the same time.

Because without doing all of that, how can he say he tried everything to keep them together?

And then even the hand crush and a promise of a year is too much, and so he pulls his hand away.

And then there is nothing keeping him there (there is everything keeping him there), and he turns and walks away.

Only, he can't do that.

So he looks back.

Just once more.

Just once.

And she is looking at him.

Until even that hurts, and he leaves.

This, he thinks, this is going to be a long year.

End