Set after the Booth arrests Brennan's father and after the court testimony where Max Keenan is acquitted. Booth, Bones, Max, and Parker aren't mine. I'd also like to thank whoever gave me the idea about what Booth's worst sound is/was. I can't find it in cannon off the top of my head, and I could swear someone used it briefly in a story once. I wanted to expand a bit on that theme.
He'd been up all night, remembering the last time he'd felt like he'd betrayed everything worth anything. The last time the needs of father and child fought in conflict with the needs of The Government of the United States of America, with Seeley Booth caught in-between. Breath in, breath out. In and out. Line up the shot – no one was better. It was a still day, the birthday candles were barely flickering. He thumbed his safety off almost soundlessly. Five, Four, Three, Crack. A young boy, like his own son, seeing his father's murder. Now was not the time for the shnick of the safety being set, it didn't matter, he only ever brought one bullet. Then running with his spotter, escaping to the extraction point. Safely on the helicopter, safely going home, he cleaned his rifle, putting away the scope, brushing out the bore. But it was resetting the safety that did him in, killing a father in front of his own child was too much to take. He felt like he was drowning; he felt worse than the time he was captured and tortured. There only his body could be hurt, though hurt it they did. This torture was of his own making, and cut at his very soul. He knew his fellow Rangers were looking at him oddly, but he didn't care. Only later did he realize what it all meant; that the click of a safety – what an odd word – was the switch to his feelings. Later too was a gambling addiction, one he would eventually overcome. He would never drink like his father. And later still was a new addiction, of soft grey-blue eyes that sought answers buried deep inside.
"…anthropologically speaking, it is fairly common for Alpha males to provide food and sustenance to those they care for."
"What was that?"
"Booth, if you're not going to listen to me, then why should I bother trying to explain to you that I know you care, because you always bring me food. It's the classic peace offering of a dominant personality."
"No, Bones, before that."
"Oh, I had just said that the silence of an empty house used to be my least favorite sound, and I was afraid that my father's trial would make 'guilty' in those stern, judge voices be my least favorite. And I didn't want that, because I like judges saying that at the end of our cases."
And then, with her signature finger-poke, "You yourself told me that sharing things was a way to bond, which I was trying to do because you had your self-flagellating look on. But sharing seems to be something only I'm suppose to do and I don't know why, mmph"
"Bones, you're rambling. And don't bite my finger!"
"If you keep trying to 'shush' me, -"
"Bones."
"What?"
"The sound of my safety."
…
And later again, after the two partners pulled away from Brennan's impulsive embrace; to quell that strange, deep look in soulful, brown eyes, she said, "So, Booth, since I gave you the hug this time, do we call it a 'girl-hug'?"