Disclaimer: I only own the contents of my bedroom, a red bicycle and a goat called Lola. So I think we can safely say that none of those things are 'Bones'!
This fic here is the first ever multi-chaptered story that I have ever written, and it's basically just a big, padded out, bit of fluff. Just the way you like it, I hope!
It is generally based around a song called 'God by Another Name' by Ben's Brother. (An English guy, just in case you were wondering why you haven't heard of him!)
Anyway, please read and review! I hope you like it...
Booth and Brennan were sitting side by side in Booth's car, speeding along some nondescript two-lane highway, both glad to be heading home after closing their latest case. They had both been sitting in silence for a while, although, from Booth's regular glances over at Brennan he could tell she was thinking about something. She'll ask me something in a minute, Booth thought. I can tell.
"Booth, you know when you 'talk to God-'" Brennan said suddenly, highlighting the last phrase by indicating quotation marks with her fingers.
"-Praying?" Booth almost always had to use that incredulous tone at some point during their discussions about religion. But he didn't really mind because he had just proved to himself how well he knew Brennan, and the thought gave him a strange buzz.
"Yeah, whatever you want to call it"
Booth sighed; no matter how many times the subject of religion came up it always just ended in disagreements. Still, it was too late now. May as well carry on, Booth thought. We've passed the point of no return. "Yes, what about it?"
"What you ask for, does it ever come true?"
"Jeez Bones just jump right in there why don't you? Did it never occur to you that that might be, you know, personal?"
"Well, you only have to say that. It's just a question. Don't bite my head off"
Booth sighed. How did she always manage to do that too him, make him feel guilty about anything? He glanced at her sideways, only taking his eyes off the road for a moment. Brennan seemed to have already forgotten. She was facing forward, eyes on the road. Yet another way in which she amazed Booth. How could she take something so lightly, on such face value? He didn't think she always did it. She needed proof, scientific facts normally. She had to question everything until there was nothing more to learn. But not with him. She trusted him, he knew. Thinking about this always made him feel strangely special, and he felt the uncontrollable urge to grin at the thought. Knowing who was sitting next to him though, he managed to stifle it to a faint smile.
"Not always. But sometimes," Booth said.
"What?"
"Does what I pray for happen? Not always"
Brennan looked at Booth, and he could see that she was thinking hard, trying to work out why he had brought the subject back up. He could see it in her eyes, the way they were now focussed steadily on him, like they always did when she was trying to understand him. He forced himself to keep looking at the road, not to look back at her.
"Then why do you do it? Why bother praying, if it's no guarantee?"
"It's faith, Bones. You've always gotta have faith. It helps me to get out of bed in the morning, you know, when I have to go do this job, see all the bad things in the world. It just helps to believe that there is something better out here, somewhere."
"Why does it have to be God though? Because I have that too, faith I mean. But it doesn't mean I have to believe in something that centuries of scientific discovery suggest is completely implausible and irrational. That is something you can have faith in. Science."
"No, Bones, you cannot have faith in science. You just don't get it"
"What, why not?"
"Faith is not something that can be proven or demonstrated with facts or little, I don't know, chemical experiments. It's not rational. That's the point. It's just something you believe, not something that you can explain why, or how. Definitely not with science"
"Okay, that's your opinion"
"No it's not my opinion Bones, it's the truth. That's like if you read me out the dictionary definition of say, anthropology-"
"It's The scientific study of the origin, the behavior, and the physical, social, and cultural developm-"
"Yes Bones, I know that, I'm just trying to demonstrate something here. If you read that out, which there is no need to do, I do know what one is. If I didn't by now that would be slightly worrying being as we have worked together for years. But that's beside the point. If you did that, I couldn't dispute what you said. It's just a truth, right?"
"It sure took you a long time to make a tiny little point there"
"Bones!-"
"But I guess I can see where you're coming from. Although it doesn't mean you're right. About needing to have faith. If I can't have it in science, I don't think I have it at all."
"Everyone has faith Bones. You need it."
"Is this another one of those facts that can't be argued with?"
"Yes, Bones, yes. Everyone has faith in something, or someone at least. Someone they love. That's all most people have faith in. Love."
"So are you saying that everyone needs to be in love? Because I don't need that-"
"Yes. No. Sometimes, okay, everyone needs to have someone to love sometimes. If you didn't, you wouldn't be alive."
"Well now you're just being ridiculous. It's not going to kill them-"
"I mean metaphorically Bones, not alive metaphorically, okay? Not literally! Obviously it wouldn't really kill them!" It's killing me inside though. Literally. Being so close to you every day, so close and yet not close enough.
Booth took one last glance over at Brennan before he pulled up outside the Jeffersonian lab front steps and stopped to let her out. She had opened the car door, but hadn't yet moved from her seat. Booth could tell she was still thinking deeply about their love and faith discussion.
"I've just never felt that, Booth"
"Never felt what?"
"That I loved someone so much I actually needed them." Brennan avoided eye contact. She hated intimate revelations. Silently, she climbed out of her seat and onto the pavement.
What about me?Booth grimaced slightly. Still, I'm proud you were open enough to tell me that. "It'll happen Bones, trust me, everything happens eventually"
"Well now that's just stu-"
"Bye Bones!" Booth reached over and pulled the door shut. Brennan was still standing there, arms crossed, so Booth opened the passenger side window. "Just think about it Bones. You've got faith in something. Everyone does. You'll work out what it is one day" Booth smiled at her and immediately pulled the car away, speeding off in the direction of home.
Okay so please tell me what you thought, reviews would be greatly appreciated!
You would make my day
And any constructive criticism about what you wanna see, or what could be better, throw it this way! Go on, click that little button, you know you want to...