Gabriella had been in St. Thomas for two weeks now, and while she kept her eyes peeled, she'd not seen Seeley yet. She was lounging on the beach, reading a book, her ink peeking lightly from beneath her swimsuit. Sometimes she regretted getting so much, but at least it was covered when she was dressed.

Her thumb turned the page, a heavy breath escaping.

---

Someone sent Seeley an open one-way ticket to St. Thomas. He flipped it over in his fingers as he sipped his Glennfiddich.

“I’m getting too old for this shit.” Two weeks ago he’d made all the arrangements to retire. He may as well leave in the morning.

---

A day later, he was there, on the beach, settling down on a lounger next to the woman who’d left him the ticket, wearing only a pair of swimming shorts. “I took you up on your offer.”

Gabi turned her head. Seeley. She gave him a gentle smile, warm. Empathetic. “I'm glad you did.” She said gently. “I'd ask how you're feeling but I can guess at it.” Sadness flickered in her eyes. “Makes…twice the collar has betrayed me.”

She reached over and patted his knee. “But I am glad to see you, Sir.”

Was he expecting to be teasingly called Daddy? Hopefully not, Gabi had more class than that.

And she was a whole grown ass woman. She didn't use that term.

Sir. That made a change from the woman who broke him. She’d used that once or twice, but… Daddy was what got him. Old enough to be her actual father, it just felt weird.

He placed his hand on hers. “I’m glad to see you, too. Gabi, was it?” It felt so long ago. Another life even. “Maybe we can make a new life here without others to drag us down.”

She looked at their hands. Something about the way he said it made her feel like he meant it a little deeper than two friends on an island. “You never know. Those other us's seemed really happy together.” She said quietly. “Found a good church to go to Mass at too, if you're Catholic like me.” She informed him.

“There's a good cafe too. Makes a good cup. None of that frothy crap. Just good coffee.” She moved slightly, her fingers curling around his. “She wasn't good enough for you, Seeley. I saw enough to know that. That Daddy crap…that was weird. That never should have been your foray into the life. And she was always trying to make you whip it out. It's more than just sex. I mean. Don't get me wrong it's fun but…it's so much more than that. That she never bothered to explore that with you…always bothered me when I saw it.” She turned her head to look at him with a soft smile.

“I could see it in my… His… My… Ugh, this multiple universe crap gives me a headache. Eyes.” He twisted his hand, rotating it under hers and finagling his fingers between hers, holding her hand. It revealed the tattoo on his wrist. 'Hope'. In Kanji. It might have said 'Soup' for all he cared, the feeling was there.

“It's hard to find a good coffee place. Thank God for small favors.” He closed his eyes as she spoke about his last fling. That's all it was now. “Yeah. Fun. Just… In public? That guy I saw you with seemed a little off too. I notice these things. Part of the… Job.” That he just retired from. “Those are all in the past now.” He turned to look at her with a faded cheeky grin, his eyes barely smoldering, a shadow of his former self. Something about this woman meant he was opening up.

“You know that kanji says 'ass-man', right?” Gabi deadpanned, holding a neutral expression a moment before she began to crack a smile, her gaze softening as she looked at their hands. “I think they're…things we could be, or could have been, had different choices been made.”

She sighed and bit her lip. “Yeah. I didn't want to see it. But he told me while he'd care for me, he'd never love me. Not the way a man loves a woman. That's not how it works. There's supposed to be love. Genuine love.” She looked at him and took a risk. She shifted, moving from where she was, into his lap. He'd almost pushed her away before even though the gesture was well-intended.

“Oh come on, Seeley. I've seen you smile. Give me a real one….Sir.” She said quietly. “Try. And I'll try.”

He looked at his wrist before noticing she was joking, his smile broadening slightly towards the smile he would usually have on his lips. “It's 'Hope' you incorrigible…” He let that thought fade away, half formed as she continued. “Yeah, that's the way I see it.” He let the smile fade a little again.

Biting her lip. A tell. Something she wasn't sure of. She told him her story, then… Sat in his lap. He nearly pushed her away but kept his hands off her. She was beautiful, tattoos and all, but she was broken. He could tell. So was he.

That was an order. He didn't do good with orders. Wait, no, not an order, not with that word at the end. Tug Something hidden away since… Her… Stirred at the back of his mind. Pull Try. Try and smile. Yoink YES I know, you're there… DRAG

He smiled. It kept getting broader. It turned into a grin. Almost, but not quite back to normal. His hollow eyes started to smolder. Something behind them was starting to fight back to the surface.

He was, almost, back.

“Incorrigible what?” She prodded, her eyes sparkling as his smile broadened, but her face fell slightly, it didn't have far to fall really with those black-ringed mournful hazel eyes of hers.

“I'm just sitting here as a friend, Seeley…” She said softly. “No pressure. For either of us.” She said, hoping it eased his mind if he was going to push her off. And then he….smiled.

Smouldering.

Not wholly but it was there, and in turn, her eyes lit up.

“You're adorkable.” She cheerfully informed him.

“Brat.” Grin. Smoulder. Better. Not quite back to normal, but every moment got imperceptibly closer.

“I'm what?” Smooth, suave, sophisticated, handsome… He could see those words, but this one? He wasn't a squint, yet here was this beautiful, broken woman, sitting in his lap, calling him awkward and adorable. He couldn't help but grin more. Why? He couldn't tell you, even if he wanted to. Something about her… Maybe it was seeing the happiness in his alternate's demeanor, his relationship with her alternate… Maybe she just brought it out in him…

“There's a word you keep using… That she used… It doesn't sound the same when you use it.”

“Brat?!” She stuck her tongue out at him, but it wasn't childlike at all. No, this was a woman just playing around with him because she saw how it made him smile.

“Adorkable. Your smile. It's adorable. But dorky. In wonderful ways.” And sexy as hell too, but she didn't say that. She met his eyes. “What word? I don't want to invoke bad memories. You deserve to smile, Seeley.” She said softly.

“Yes, brat!” He was talking about her personality. He liked that she was feisty, self-assured, a woman. Not childlike, despite the connotations of the word.

“Sir.” When he said it, nothing. When his ex said it, it gave him a tiny little buzz. When Gabi said it… It evoked images of a woman choosing to submit to his will, kneeling at his feet, sitting in his l… Wait… She's sitting in his lap, nearly naked… BUZZ Yes, I know you're there, I know you're fighting to show your dominance, but she fucking broke me! POKE Ugh. Please don't let this one break me too, I like her.

“It's not a bad memory when you say it. It makes me smile.”

Seeley Booth was nothing like either of the men who had previously collared her. Seeley was warm. Genuine. Funny. She could see how the other two had fallen in love. “Mob princess and a Fed.” She shook her head, chuckling as she thought of it.

Brat. From those before him, it had pissed her off. Made her irritated beyond belief. From Seeley? It sounded like a term of endearment.

Sir? “Sir.” She said, gazing at him. “How did it sound when she said it? I don't think I ever heard her call you that.” She tilted her head.

“And why does it make you smile when I say it?” She asked curiously.

A shiver ran unbidden up his spine when she said it again. “I think it was once or twice, early in the relationship. I didn't see you until a little later. It… Pushed the right buttons, but it didn't grow like that when she shifted to 'Daddy'.” The thought made him visibly pale, the smolder and the grin fading. He looked like he wanted to be sick.

He focused on her use of the word. Smile. Smoulder. Back. Still pale, but a happier visage.

“Because it conjures certain images in my mind.” Just say it Seeley. “You mentioned a collar, your hand went to your throat. My first experience wasn't good, but… That image. Among others.”

St. Thomas was a beautiful island with blue skies, crystal clear water, and soft sand. Her chin lifted and she looked out over the sea, the wind lifting her long black hair slightly. “She was a child. A child who thought she had a toy but had a priceless treasure instead. And she didn't know what to do with it. She wouldn't know what to do with it. She only knows how to play.” Her gaze turned back to him. “She doesn't know how to live.”

She noticed how he paled and she shook her head. Get those thoughts out of his head, Gabi. Distraction. We want him to smoulder and smile and be ridiculously adorkable to the point it makes our insides go all woobly.

“Please tell me more about these….images….Sir.” She grinned.

He listened. His eyes wandered as she spoke. Where hers went to the beautiful view around them, his went over the beautiful view in front of him. Then back to her eyes when she looked back. She should notice his gaze travelling over her, but he was still somewhat self conscious, cautious around her.

“Ummm…” He flushed, those images jumping around in his head. He tried to focus on them, even with where she sat in his lap. She was distracting, already in his head. But her residence there was a good one, given what he was about to say.

“The collar you know about. A leash.” A slight twinge as he remembered the other woman, but pushed her out of his mind. “Sitting in my lap.” Tinier twinge as Gabi's image replaced her. “Kneeling at my feet.” Only a minor flinch. “In my bed.” Nothing. “Kissing you.” Flushing cheeks, averted gaze, shifting hips. “Your naked body.” That grin. That smolder. “You.”

She felt his eyes and her sun-kissed skin flushed pink in response, even before she turned back to him. She waited as he thought. What's going on in that beautiful mind? She thought to herself, her eyes locked on his. Soft. Tender. Warm. Playful.

Collar. Seeley brushing her hair from her shoulders, fingers tracing a collar he'd placed there. Oh. Leash. Smoldering eyes gazing into hers as he clipped a leash onto the loop in her collar. Ohh… Lap. Now, perched like she was meant to be there all along. Kneeling. Arms draped around his leg, her head on his thigh. Ohh, love…In his bed. Bodies, music…magic…kisses, touch.

The shifting of his hips had her suddenly very aware of her state of dress in her black bikini, the place where her hips met his. Grin. Smolder. There you are. Holy Mother of God, you're resplendent. “Do you even realize how incredible you are? I'd kill for a man like you.” Had she said that out loud?

He tilted his head as she seemed to respond to the images in his mind as he spoke them. Hands involuntarily twitching towards her throat. Curling as if around a chain. A shift of her hips where she sat. The tense in her legs. The melt of her body. Her tongue over her lips. She was imagining everything. Good.

“Incredible? I'm just a man.” That was an odd comment. “I… Have killed. You don't want to.” A tinge of guilt? A bad memory? Something crossed his face, then was snuffed out by his smoldering gaze and his cheeky grin.

She shook her head. “You are a man, yes. But not 'just'. Never 'just', Seeley.” She said as she stared at him. “And no, I don't want to kill. I saw enough of it growing up.” She reached out, lightly touched his face. “I'd do almost anything else, but I'm simply a little lady with a bunch of tattoos and piercings in places that don't see the light of day.”

She caught that something. Hey. No. Back to me. Come back to me. Don't go there.

His head twitched away from her hand, then back against it. She wasn't doing something bad, she was showing how she felt. Don't fight her, she's not… That one. She's a woman, not a child.

“Oh? Perhaps you could show me some day, Gabi.” He smirked, his demeanour returning to the mostly happy go lucky guy he should be. Early retirement suited him. This woman seemed to appreciate him for who he was, not the dick in his pants. Even if she was sitting on it.

She almost dropped her hand from his face when he twitched away, but then he came back before she could. This was hard for her, staying unguarded like this just so she could help him, just so she could see his smile. She pushed aside the hurt that tried to float to the surface. You're unguarded no don't let yourself get hurt again.

“Show me yours I'll show you mine…Sir.” She purred. Well aware she's sitting on his dick. Fabric's a little thin there. Trying real hard to not think about that dick and the magic they would make together once the stars aligned. He was more than his body but damnit, it's a little hard here…

He frowned, he didn't have any piercings. He had ink, the ones on his wrists. He held up his hands and grinned behind them, hands either side of his face so she could still see him.

“This is all I got. But, given what you said… Your place or mine?” No hint of coyness, no expectation she would say no. Trying not to run away screaming from yet another woman who might break his heart as soon as look at him. He could tell she was fighting her instincts just as much as he was.

Gabi looked at him. Oh god, help her. This was hard. Really hard. But she knew what she had to do. Needed to do. “Seeley…I'd absolutely love to sleep with you. I'm certain you'd want me too. But…I don't want to break your heart. I don't want whatever we could be to wind up not happening because we sleep together too soon. Those others? They're us. They're what we would have been if we made different choices. And they're genuinely happy. Did you see the way they look at each other? I've always wanted someone to look at me like that.” She paused. “A deal is a deal but if we go back to your place and I show you everything…and we wind up in bed together…I want us to make it last.”

“Look, we're both… Struggling from bad relationships. They looked so in love.” It was true. He wished he was in that position, and here was that same woman. Ish. With that offer. “We both want something better than we left. We both want more than just sex, even with how fun that would be.” He'd had a few relationships that didn't go any further than that so he wasn't unfamiliar.

He took a gamble. He reached out and pulled her down against his chest so her face was barely an inch from him, where she could feel his breath. “I will if you will.” Nothing ventured, nothing gained. He took the risk to come out here, why not take the risk with the woman who he loved? Errrr… In some other part of the multiverse, at least. If it worked for them, why wouldn't it work for them?

Language gets so confusing talking about multiverses. Or time travel.

“We are. But I've also been here a couple weeks longer than you and let me tell you…two weeks of sun, beautiful storms, warm sand and freedom does a soul good. And now I have sand, sun, and a gorgeous man letting me sit in his lap?”

He pulled her down and she smiled at him. “I will. They are us but with different choices. Which means the chemistry is still there. I can feel it, even now. We're going to be so happy…and I trust you to never hurt me.”

And then Gabi leaned down slightly and pressed her lips to his.

Surprise. He wasn't expecting her to kiss him, but he melted into the kiss as if it was something he wanted. Because it was something he wanted. His hand lifted to the back of her head, holding her tenderly in his arms as he returned the kiss with passion. It felt as if he'd known her for some time, yet they'd barely met a few weeks ago in that impossible conjunction of realities.

When he pulled away, his goofy grin, his smouldering eyes, his display of happiness, all were there on his face. “So can I.” His breathing was laboured, both from having her on top of him, and from the passion in the kiss.

“You didn't give me an answer.” And he hated to repeat himself.

God above kissing Seeley Booth was unlike any kiss she'd ever had. She felt his lips straight through to her core, the passion in his embrace, in the dance of their kiss had her mind conjuring images. His mouth all over her. Hers all over him.

Her eyes searched his when he pulled away, her eyes filled with wonder. Good. He would try.

“Your place. And I'm not leaving.”

“I'd say you need to get up, but…” He shifted his legs either side of the lounger, his arms parting from hugging her dropping back and pushing him upright. Then, with her still wrapped around him, he pushed with his thighs and one arm, the other wrapping back around her to hold her. He expected her to wrap her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. He took the 'not leaving' comment to mean his lap, let alone his place.

“Still got it.” He grinned. He'd rented a room at the Ritz-Carlton while he was figuring out if he was going to stay and while his apartment in DC was being sold.

He wasn't leaving.

---

Seeley sold his apartment in DC, and Gabi's apartment on the island was sold as well. They made one trip back, together, to get Seeley's things, and swiftly returned to the island.

One month later, Seeley collared Gabriella. Eleven months after that, they married on the beach in a small, intimate ceremony. Nine months later they welcomed Concetta Joy Booth, named for Gabi's mother. Then came Lance Joseph Booth a year later. They were happy, wholly in love, and utterly at peace with where life had led.

No one could ever doubt how all-encompassing the Booths' relationship was. And those that came before they found each other were left to rot in a mental graveyard.

Life was beautiful.