![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
[ficlet] countdown
Sep. 2nd, 2025 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deniabilitiesThe omen happens two weeks before Brennan files his retirement papers.
"God damn it," Michael blurts out, causing everyone in the financial crimes bullpen to glance over at him while he looks at his wrist. "My watch stopped working."
It's completely irrelevant and not at the same time. He can easily get another battery or replace the entire watch. But this is the Breitling Navitimer Janet gave him over a decade ago after their car went into Kingman Lake. It's his sentimental reminder of his partner and all their history together. He's worn it every day for eleven years. So nobody trivializes it as Michael sighs and says, "I'll get it looked at."
"That has to be a sign," Adam suggests because he's always been a little superstitious and they all know what's been hanging over them recently. Michael arches an eyebrow. "It's just getting older," he replies, though his watch was old a long time ago.
That watch has been with him through almost everything in his career and thus life as he knows it. From the midpoint of his fourth year through all but one of his major cases and more importantly, so many emotional turning points. The band has a few scratches from moments like diving behind a police car outside First National. But he's had it on his wrist for weddings, birthdays, the nights when everything seemed in place and the ones where it all fell apart. Michael has gotten used to having it on his wrist, even moreso than Janet is used to wearing his ring.
He finds out that afternoon it's not just the battery but a broken mechanism that would be too difficult to replace. But he keeps it on his wrist regardless. That weekend he asks Janet to come with him, and she helps Michael pick out another watch—still another Navitimer that's still navy blue, just a newer model with a leather band instead of metal—and doesn't think much of it at the time. But it puts the first bit of fear into her mind that will prompt her to run away to Miami the week that Brennan files his papers and has his retirement party. She'll explain it to Michael when they finally speak after the case she got herself into: she couldn't face seeing someone else walk out of her home, the way her father walked out of her house when she was a teenager.
They're both sentimental people. Michael wanted Janet to pick out his next watch for a reason. And even then it's not quite the same, because he asked her to do it. That first one was a surprise—a kind gesture she'd made just because he'd mentioned his old watch breaking in the accident. The act was even more beautiful than the gift.
That first Breitling Navitimer goes back into the box that it came in, and Michael keeps that box in his bedside drawer. He refuses to get rid of something that has so much emotional meaning. He hasn't ruled out finding a way to fix it someday. But now he has another watch Janet picked out on his wrist and another set of history to make.
[534 words]
"God damn it," Michael blurts out, causing everyone in the financial crimes bullpen to glance over at him while he looks at his wrist. "My watch stopped working."
It's completely irrelevant and not at the same time. He can easily get another battery or replace the entire watch. But this is the Breitling Navitimer Janet gave him over a decade ago after their car went into Kingman Lake. It's his sentimental reminder of his partner and all their history together. He's worn it every day for eleven years. So nobody trivializes it as Michael sighs and says, "I'll get it looked at."
"That has to be a sign," Adam suggests because he's always been a little superstitious and they all know what's been hanging over them recently. Michael arches an eyebrow. "It's just getting older," he replies, though his watch was old a long time ago.
That watch has been with him through almost everything in his career and thus life as he knows it. From the midpoint of his fourth year through all but one of his major cases and more importantly, so many emotional turning points. The band has a few scratches from moments like diving behind a police car outside First National. But he's had it on his wrist for weddings, birthdays, the nights when everything seemed in place and the ones where it all fell apart. Michael has gotten used to having it on his wrist, even moreso than Janet is used to wearing his ring.
He finds out that afternoon it's not just the battery but a broken mechanism that would be too difficult to replace. But he keeps it on his wrist regardless. That weekend he asks Janet to come with him, and she helps Michael pick out another watch—still another Navitimer that's still navy blue, just a newer model with a leather band instead of metal—and doesn't think much of it at the time. But it puts the first bit of fear into her mind that will prompt her to run away to Miami the week that Brennan files his papers and has his retirement party. She'll explain it to Michael when they finally speak after the case she got herself into: she couldn't face seeing someone else walk out of her home, the way her father walked out of her house when she was a teenager.
They're both sentimental people. Michael wanted Janet to pick out his next watch for a reason. And even then it's not quite the same, because he asked her to do it. That first one was a surprise—a kind gesture she'd made just because he'd mentioned his old watch breaking in the accident. The act was even more beautiful than the gift.
That first Breitling Navitimer goes back into the box that it came in, and Michael keeps that box in his bedside drawer. He refuses to get rid of something that has so much emotional meaning. He hasn't ruled out finding a way to fix it someday. But now he has another watch Janet picked out on his wrist and another set of history to make.
[534 words]
