Spoilers/Timeline: Reference to S4 finale spoiler (go back now if you don't want to know!)/Set in future.
A/N: Quite honestly, I didn't plan on writing this one today. I have a completely different idea that I'm dying to tackle, but my Muse apparently had other plans.
Disclaimer: Bones does not belong to me. Title found in Nickel Creek's Hanging By a Thread
She didn't know how he knew when the timing was right, but he did. It wasn't after they slept together. No, they weren't ready. The connection was too powerful - too scary - for both of them then. The awkwardness and uncertainty had lasted a few weeks broken only by even more tense arguments than usual, but they pushed past it. They had to.
A little over a year later and their relationship was steadily changing - growing even deeper, if that was possible. She wasn't sure if it was in spite of the fact that they'd slept together or because of it. Either way, she found herself welcoming it more fully than she could have ever imagined. Not that she did imagine it. She didn't do that sort of thing.
More and more, there had been dates abandoned to work on closing cases or spend time filling out paperwork, weekends spent watching various sporting events with him and Parker or being dragged to the park with them (actually, she quite enjoyed the swings), and nights varying between take-out dinners, trips to foreign films, and anthropology lectures. The latter of which only happened twice as she found she spent most of the lecture poking Booth to prevent him from snoring and missed most of the presentation in the process.
So now here they stood after closing a particularly gruesome case in the suburbs. They'd stopped and grabbed take-out on the way back to her apartment and spent the rest of the night talking about everything from Cam's increasing annoyance at Angela and Hodgins practically being fused together to Russ' nervousness over Amy's pregnancy. The Discovery Channel played mutely in the background as she gathered their plates and he moved for the door.
"Hey, Bones-"
There was something about his tone of voice as he shrugged into his jacket that made her feel like she knew what he was going to say before he said it. She could practically hear the words: 'Let's go out on a date' and her eager, albeit tempered acceptance. But the words didn't come because, instead, he reached out and pulled her to him. His lips covered hers almost as soon as she was in his arms and it... it just felt right. As if they'd been saying goodnight to one another this way for years. Though, her knees did buckle a bit.
And, just like that, she knew. Knew that they'd been together all this time - before they'd ever slept together. Knew that this was exactly where she wanted to be and that, even if she couldn't trust anyone else to get it right - to understand - she could always trust him to.