Disclaimer : I, alas, don't own this show or those character.

A/N : English not being my first language, don't mind the spelling errors please.

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4:47am

That's when it all started. After collapsing into bed with Booth, the minutes felt like hours. Brennan's train of thought was still in process while her head pressed against his chest, the beating of his heart, her proof that he was safe and sound. Unlike -Murray. Vincent, a young and bright man who wanted to live, not to leave. But the universe had decided otherwise.

The universe. Memories of a rainy December night came flashing back. When she had received the signal that had resulted in her letting go of a big part of her imperviousness. Could it be another one of those? For every effect there is a corresponding cause. Everything happens for a reason, everything happens eventually.

When would 'eventually' be? The answer did not depend solely on her, but on the man holding her, too. Could he possibly have, finally, come to term with his anger? Brennan looked up to her partner, his eyes were closed but she could tell by the rythm of his heart that he was not yet asleep.

Taking a deep breath, she voiced her question, as straightforward as she was known to be."Are you still angry?"

Seeley Booth answered immediatly."Yes, I am." With his eyes fixed on the wall in front of him, he missed the expression on his partner's face after his affirmation. "Broadsky will pay for what he did to Vincent, the kid didn't deserve to die." he added.

A flicker of relief, that he misunderstood her reference, appeared on Brennan's face. "No, I mean, are you still angry?"

She saw the realization on his face after asking for a second time. Booth glanced a her face where you could still see the trace of her previous tears and shook his head. "No, not anymore no."

In the darkness of the room, hope was evident in her shinning eyes. "What does that mean? For us." He frankly had no idea what that meant, everything was so confusing right now, he couldn't discern what his guts were telling him at that very moment.

"I don't know." Simple and clear, what they both, all, needed right now.

"We should talk about it." Some things might be better left unsaid but others really needed to be discussed, especially between the two of them. Oblivious as she sometime was, Brennan was aware that this very moment wouldn't be appropriate after all the events that had taken place in just one day. "But not now."

"Yeah, not now." he said while he started caressing her arm and back inconsciously like he did earlier. "But we will, when the time is right." And they would, he'd make sure of that.

After a moment of silence, Brennan's soft voice came up again. "Is it bad that i feel glad? Does that make me a bad person?" She sounded so vulnerable, a rare sight when it came to Brennan, diva, forensic genius, best-selling author, better than Cyndi Lauper. If he was honest, it had happened a lot more frequently during the past several months.

"Bones, you're not a bad anything, alright?" he said louder this time in comparaison to hers. It was the second time in the space of an hour that she was wondering out loud if she was a bad person. It amazed him to see how she could even think that. "It's normal after losing a friend so suddenly to think like that."

"Like what?" she enquired. "Like you are running out of time." he explained.

She remained silent for an instant, furrowing her brows. "That does not make any sense, there is no such thing as running out of..." He cut her right away, knowing that a Anthropology lesson was about to come if he let her go on. "Metaphorically speaking Bones, it makes you realise that life is short and can stop any second." Noticing her frown increasing he knew that something else didn't made sense to her. "We work with death all the time, our approach shouldn't differ."

"Come on Bones, it simply does. We knew him, we saw him..." his voice cracked, before he could take a breath, Brennan finished his sentence. "Die." Booth nodded, not trusting his voice again.

They laid there, lost in their respective thoughts when Brennan, her head back on his chest, spoke with a shaky voice. "It should have been you." Booth squeezed her a bit tighter, trying to reassure her. "It could have been you." she said more firmly.

He knew that, Broadsky meant to shoot him, not Vincent, he would have succeeded if not for the fact that Booth handed the British man his phone while tracking the location of the man he served with. "I know." He looked at her face, her eyes had become glassy with unshed tears again. He saw her lips about to form a word but no sound was heard, she looked unsure of her next words.

"I know." he repeated. It brought her out of her daze as she looked at him confused. "But i didn't say anything!" in a good old Temperance Brennan fashion way.

A tiny smile made its way on his face at her tone. "You don't need to, you feel selfish for being relieved it wasn't me but there's nothing wrong with that Bones. It's a natural response. It doesn't make Vincent's death right in your eyes."

"How did you know that's what I was thinking?" she asked looking up to him. "Because I feel the same way." he said with a small shrug like it was obvious.

She nodded before placing her head where it seemed to belong that night. Booth expected her to keep talking but as he watched her, he saw that she had closed her eyes. He did the same even though he suddenly felt no longer tired. His mind was relieving everything, from Vincent's death to the conversation Bones and him just had, it was a miracle that after such a day, none of them were graced by a headache actually.

"I'm afraid to lose you."

Booth's eyes shot open, not sure if he heard his partner whispers or if he had imagined it at all. When he saw a single tear escape her still closed eyes, he needed no more proof. "You won't lose me." he said while weeping away the drop on her cheek. "I know, I cannot promise you that but I'll never leave willingly."

A tremor of some kind shook her body as she went on "I need you." Booth observed her visage, her eyes were still closed, no more tears were shed, she oddly looked relaxed unlike what her body showed him. It was a big step for her to admit these words out loud, a year ago she might have been running away right after ushering these statements. "Are you okay with that?"

He didn't know what he expected her to say when asking that question but he surely didn't dare expecting to see her eyes open and look straight into his own, with a hint of a smirk as she said "Yes, I am quite strong you know." His breath hitched, he didn't know what to do, crush her in his arms or kiss her. He opted for a genuine smile, the first one since the tragedy that occured. "That's really good to hear."

And god knows it was! A third party wouldn't have understood what was the reason of this smile gracing both of their faces now, but for them, it meant so much. He wasn't angry, she was strong. They were ready for what he hoped would be the next 50 years.

Brennan had this glint in her beautiful eyes that told him she was sharing his silent thought. "I trust you Booth." She paused to look at their now intertwined hands. "I knew you wouldn't give up." she finished, bitting her lower lip almost shyly, endearingly.

Booth recalled the time when she first told him that, five years ago, in his church, of all places, after she had been burried alive by the Gravedigger. He would have never giving up on her back then and he wasn't about to do that now. "I knew you wouldn't give up." He had lost his way, they both had, but they would always come back to one another because they are the center, and it must hold. "That's faith baby." he said while pressing a kiss to her forehead.

Brennan froze at his words, remembering Hodgins telling her something alike about faith and Booth, when they were in the backseat of her car, six feet under. She swallowed the lump in her throat before coming back to her senses. She slapped his arm as one specific word finally made its way to her ears. "Don't call me baby! "

"Don't be such a baby and let me call you baby, baby." He said teasing her and grabbing her wrist in his larger hand to stop her assault. She had this horrified look on her face as she exclaimed "My name is Bones!" They looked at each other, both surprised but amused by her little outburst. Sigh of contentment filled the room as they settled comfortably in each other's arms and shared one more smile, knowing that a new kind of partnership was awaiting for them.

That's when he said "Do you believe in fate?"

That's when she said "Absolutely not, ludicrous."

Eventually, they will share a ride together, with no regrets to be have, they both know that would never happen, this is going somewhere after all.

5:26am