Title: When You Smiled for Me

Rating: T

Summary: Max and Booth talk about Brennan after the events of "The Hole in the Heart". AU

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones or anything affiliated with it. I am just a first time Bones poster who's really excited about the last two episodes.

Booth didn't look up when someone sat across from him, even though he had picked the table in the farthest corner of the darkest bar for a reason. The heaviness as the body hit the seat said it wasn't Bones or Angela, and the lack of immediate conversation meant it wasn't any of the other squints.

"Booth" Max's scratchy voice said, almost gently, after a few minutes of silence. "What are you doing?"

Attempting to drink himself to death. Trying to forget. Wishing he wasn't the cause of Vincent Nigel Murray's death, and hating himself for being the reason Bones had tears in her eyes that day.

He didn't answer.

Max sighed, and slid a paper across the table so it was right next to the beer mug Booth was trying to find salvation in. Unwillingly, he glanced over at it.

Three photos. One was older. Bones was young, maybe fourteen, and smiling so widely it looked like her face would crack. No one else was in the picture, or anyway, Booth's eyes didn't notice anyone else, too transfixed on the bright eyes and pearly teeth of the woman he loved.

The next was one was surprising-he was in it. He and Bones walked side by side, her arm looped around his, leaning into each other. In this photo as well, she was smiling, not as widely, but softly and happily.

The Polaroid was from tonight. The shirt Bones was wearing was easily recognizable. Unlike the other two pictures, in this there was no smile on her lips. Her eyes were sad and haunted, and lines of grief marred her pale skin. It was his fault she looked like that.

"Damn it, Max." He slapped the table, looking up at his companion for the first time. "I know how much I've hurt her by just being around her. I know."

Max shook his head. "That's not the point, Booth. This hurt," he tapped the polariod, "It's not because you are a part of her life."

He pushed the other two pictures forward. "She hadn't smiled like that since her mother and I left. You make her smile, you make her happy."

Booth laughed bitterly. "Then explain that one."

That grief on her face could only be because of him. He was the reason her intern was dead, he was the reason she was never truly safe.

Max's eyes fixed on his. "That's because she doesn't know where you are right now. Temperance called me panicked that you weren't at your apartment, terrified that Broadsky got you. She begged me to use my "criminal" contacts to find where you might be."

Of course she did. Bones never blamed him for his faults. For someone as smart as she was, she couldn't seem to make the connection that being around him just caused her pain and danger. It would have been so much better if the bullet meant for him had hit him.

"Stop that." The voice was sharp. "You take that self-pitying look off your face right now. My daughter is worried sick right now about you, alone in your apartment where she spent most of that two weeks she thought you were dead…"

Booth straightened immediately. "You left her alone in my apartment? Are you insane? She's probably next on his list, just because he knows how I feel about her."

He could have bit his tongue. So many months controlling his feelings for her, and to admit them to her father? Stupid. Still, there was a time and place for regrets, and anytime Bones could be in danger meant only action.

A hand grips his arm before he can get out of his seat. "Broadsky thinks you're dead, he has no reason to go to your apartment. She's safe. I want to talk to you."

Booth strained blindly, weakened by sorrow and alcohol. "I need to get to her. I can't let her look like this anymore."

Max chuckled, but continued to push him back into his chair. Reluctantly, Booth sat; still poised to flee the second Max had said his piece.

The three images still lay on the table. The older man gently picked up the middle one. "I used to be able to make her smile like this." His eyes went soft with nostalgia. "I was the main man in her life. She'd hear my car pull in the drive way, and race out to meet me, all her teeth showing. She'd have a new fact to tell me, a new experiment she wanted to try."

Mental images of a younger Bones raced through his mind, but they were wiped out by more recent images-her shell-shocked face and blood covered hands. "I need to be there for her." He muttered. "I should have been there tonight."

"Yeah, you should have. But Booth, you're going to be there for the rest of her life. You're the one who she'll wait to greet when you come home, or rather, be excited to see when she comes home. Now, I'm going to drive you to your apartment, and you…you're going to do what I can't for her."

Booth stared into the amber dregs of his drink. "I don't know how to do that. I've tried to keep her safe, to keep her happy, to prove not everyone who loves her will leave her, and I've failed at every one. I'm a failure. I'm a degenerate gambler and a murderer, and no matter how hard I try, I will never be good enough for her."

Max shrugged. "Hey, maybe you're right. Let's face it. My daughter is much smarter than you, and if you haven't been able to get her to see the virtues of lifelong monogamy in six years, what makes you think you can do it before she gets tired of you?"

Before Booth could respond angrily, he continued. "But I know my daughter, and she believes in you. Whether she believes in marriage or anything like that, she believes in you, and your relationship. This is the one constant in her life, you are the one person she counts on above all others. She needs you now, and you need to know that you make her so happy."

Booth didn't hesitate. He grabbed two of the three pictures and tore out of the bar. His apartment was nearby-he practically ran the entire way.

"Bones! Bones!" He burst through the door shouting, not caring if he woke the neighbors, but suddenly irrationally terrified she was no longer waiting.

There was a noise from his bedroom. Then she appeared in the door of his bedroom wearing an old sweatshirt of his, and his heart froze in his chest for a second at her puffy eyes and tearstained flushed cheeks. She was beautiful.

With four long strides he was across the room and had her in his arms. Brennan wrapped herself around him as well, and cried into his rumpled shirt.

"I came here, and you weren't here, and I know it's ridiculous but for a second I feared you were dead in place of Vincent and I panicked." She looked up at him with a lost look on her face. "Please don't let me go?" She whimpered softly.

"Never, baby. I'll never let you go." He soothed, feeling the knobs of her spine through her borrowed sweatshirt.

Some minutes later, she sighed deeply and looked up. "Are you still angry? Because I do not feel very impervious."

Booth shook his head, smoothing her hair away from her face. "I'm not angry. Bones, I want to make you happy."
"You do."

They made eye contact. She paused, blushed, looked down. "Can I stay with you tonight?"

He would do anything to make that note of fear leave her voice. "And any night you choose." Booth reassured her.

Brennan took his hand, and led him to bed.

Yay first BONES fic completed. Tell me I didn't fail at characterization?

Anyway, please review, to help keep ihatehiatusitis away!