Happy Fourth of July, Bones
Seeley kicked his heels back, raising his feet to the railing of Tempe's deck and took a swig of beer. Outside, the local fireworks show was just visible about the neighborhood tree line and wasn't half bad. He was feeling good. The country he loved was celebrating its 233rd birthday. What a grand day it was!
Bones followed with a glass of merlot, carefully sliding the patio door shut before taking her place opposite him in the rattan chair. She regarded his alpha male posture of relaxation: feet up, reclining back and cold beer. Totally Booth, she thought.
He turned his head towards her and smiled raising his beer, "Happy Fourth of July, Bones!"
She regarded him and he could just feel some scientific or information based response formulating in her brain. "What's so great about it?"
He didn't expect that and tried for several moments to scoop his jaw off the floor, "What?! What do you mean?" His beer threatened to slosh from the bottle because of his agitation.
"I mean that this story has played itself over countless times through the human experience: the Bar Kokhba's revolt against the Roman Empire in 132 AD? Poland has been taken over many times in its history. Vietnam? The list could go on all night of revolutions… the Bolsheviks! Why is America so special?" she said in her professor voice. She took a sip of her wine as the sky back lit with mortar fire; gold, green and blue.
Booth scrambled his thoughts, while the mortars reported with loud booms, digging back to civics class in high school but he didn't need to look far from his own experience, "Ok. You want to play intellectual hardball. Let me tell you what makes America so special. I don't know about some Kokhba… but I do know my recent history. Poland became a communist state in 1947, not a free democracy until June of 1989… ironically that's when the Tiananmen Square protests and murders occurred: fighting for freedom. The Berlin Wall fell for freedom, Russia eventually became more democratic….", he suddenly realized that he was on the edge of his seat gesturing wildly and he felt flushed. Bones was patiently listening to his dissertation. Seeley stopped and looked long and hard at Temperance, and his last point was, "Freedom Bones. It's all about the will and desire to be free. We are certainly not perfect, but we are free."
Booth sat back on in his chair, put his feet back up and took a swig of beer. Brennan again was caught by the passion that Seeley was able to show. He loved his country. He was a veteran from a long line of veterans. She realized that this was not some normal picnic in the park kind of holiday. This was his best friend's birthday. His statement, "We are certainly not perfect, but we are free.", stayed with her. Usually apolitical, she agreed with him as it percolated down through her intellect like water in limestone, pooling in her ocean of rationality.
Several moments of silence passed between them as the fireworks continued. Tempe could sense he was still tense by his posture. " Booth?"she said and he turned to look at her, " Happy Fourth of July."
His smile, barely visible in the dark, was the only comment she needed. Both of them raised their beverages and saluted.
Happy Fourth of July Everyone.