Title: The Real Thing

Series: 206 Ways to Say, "I Love You"

Rating: K+

There are moments in our lives we can look back on and say, "This is when I changed. This is when I knew, this is when my world flipped completely upside down." Listening to Booth, Temperance knew she was in one right now. One minute, everything was normal, and the next… the next her partner was telling her he loved her.

Those weren't the words he used, but she heard the passion in his voice when he described the difference between sex and making love—that goal to become one with another person—and she suddenly knew what he was saying.

"And yes, Bones, he's handsome and she's beautiful and maybe that's all they see at first, but making love . . .making love—that's when two people become one."

Her mind still whirling at the conclusion she'd come to, she frantically grasped for any straw of logic. "It is scientifically impossible for two objects to occupy the same space," she said and wondered if he could hear how flustered she was.

He grinned a little, and once again her world tipped. He knew her, he knew how she argued, and he was patient with her. "Yeah, but what's important is we try. And when we do it right, we get close."

Close… she could feel that she was close to something right now, but she didn't know what it was. Her heart felt like it was lost in a current, drifting dangerously close to an eddy she wasn't sure she wanted to avoid. "To what? Breaking the laws of physics?" she asked, trying for her usual sarcastic edge and knowing instantly that she'd failed stupendously.

This time he did roll his eyes, just a little, but she knew she deserved it. She was being purposely obtuse, and he knew it. "Yeah, Bones. A miracle. Those people, role playing, the fetishes and their little sex games is crappy sex. Well, at least compared to the real thing."

And suddenly, she knew. She'd thought her defining moment was earlier, when she realized he loved her… but it was now, when she realized she loved him. "You're right," she said, almost without thinking about it. He was. He was so right, it was scary. No man she'd ever been with before would be like Booth, simply because she loved him… because she wanted that connection more than she wanted a release of endorphins.

She smirked when he prepared himself to counter her argument. "Yeah, but…" She watched the look on his face when he realized what she'd said, and her smirk became a full smile. "Wait a second, I just won that argument?" She inclined her head slightly to indicate that yes, he had won… but did he know how much?

They were silent for a few minutes, and she watched him process what had just happened. There was a look in his eye she hadn't seen before, a new version of his charm smile on his lips. This smile wasn't trying to get something out of her, it was reveling in what it already had, what they already had—the real thing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bones, its characters, or its cast (more's the pity).