[A/N: This one-shot is loosely, and I mean loosely inspired by Bruno Mars "Marry You". I told you guys that I had another muse coming to me, and this was is. Now, *clears throat* I DO NOT Own BONES. This wonderful creation of a television series belongs to the Fox Network. With that said, please Enjoy "Marry You." ~P]
Temperance Brennan didn't believe in marriage. She used to not believe in love. Then Seeley Booth entered her life.
Seeley Booth believed in marriage, and he believed in love. The moment Dr. Temperance Brennan entered his life, he believed only in love and marriage if it involved her.
Six years. Six years was how long it took for Temperance Brennan to realize that she believed in love, and the moment that Seeley Booth told her he was in love with another woman, she quickly retreated back to her scientific background, and resorted back to no longer believing in love….or, at least she tried. The FBI agent-slash-former Army Ranger-slash-father of a young boy that Temperance had become very fond of had changed her forever, and she could hardly believe it.
Six days. Six days was all it took for Seeley Booth to look at the woman he claimed to love and tell her the truth. "She's the standard, Hannah." He had told her. "And, we're the center of everything over there." The "over there" he was talking about was the Jeffersonian, part of the best crime-fighting, murder-solving unit out there. If Brennan and Booth weren't talking, the whole atmosphere of the Squint Squad was thrown out of whack.
Today was the day that Seeley Booth had dreamed about for five years. Today, whether she liked it or not, he was going to propose to Dr. Temperance Brennan. Bones was the nickname that he had given her all those years ago, and Bones was going to be the name he used to day when he asked her the simplest question of his life.
The lab at the Jeffersonian was quite today, and Booth was happy that the case they had taken on two days ago was simmering down. As he walked through the lab, he caught sight of her best friend, Angela, and she eyed him as he walked towards her office. One too many times Angela had warned him not to cross her, and if he wasn't going to listen to her, that was his own stupidity. After passing Angela, he passed her husband, leading entomologist Jack Hodgins. This was point one on his map of destinations today.
"Hey, Hodgins," Booth called, sticking his head into the mini-lab the man was standing in. Hodgins quickly pulled his attention away from an artifact of some sort, and looked towards his friend with magnified eyes.
"Whoa, hey Booth, sorry." He laughed, pulling the magnifiers off his eyes and snapping his gloves off. Booth quickly shut the door of the mini lab and looked at one of the men that he considered his best friends. "What's up," Hodgins asked, noticing Booth's apprehension.
"I'm doing it today," Was all Booth said, and Hodgins hissed through clenched teeth.
"Are you sure that's the right move, man?" He asked. "She just started getting back to her old attitude a couple of days ago. You breaking that point again might just ruin this." He said, pointing around him and outside of the mini lab. Booth sighed and ran a hand over his face.
"I haven't been surer of anything in my life." He placed his hands on his hips nervously. "I mean, what do I have to lose?" He asked. This pulled a small laugh out of Hodgins.
"Your life, your career, your family." Hodgins claimed, pointing out at the mini lab again. Booth shook his head, outwardly confident in himself.
"I'm not going to rush it on her unless I have to." He sighed. Hodgins shrugged, but patted the man on the back as he walked out of the mini lab and started back on his path to her office. When he arrived at the point of interest, he found the woman he loved with her head on her desk, and her eyes closed, but she wasn't asleep. A soft, small tear fell from her eye, and that's all Seeley Booth could handle. His heart broke at the sight of her being broken, and he just couldn't live like this any longer. He pushed her door open, and her head quickly flashed upward, and her hands quickly flew to her eyes, wiping away the lose tears.
"Booth, what are you doing here?" She asked, her tone hard, but broken. She was about to move from her desk toward him, but Booth stopped her.
"No," He said, pushing a hand out at her, telling her to stay in her place. "Please, don't move." He sighed. He came towards her desk a little bit, leaving the door open. "I came here to talk to me, and you're going to listen." He stated.
"Excuse you?" She asked, taken aback.
"You heard me loud and clear, Bones." He said, placing his hands on the cool wood of her desk.
"Booth I am not finding your alpha male moves very sensual right at the moment—"
"And you're not supposed to, Bones." He said. "Listen, all I want to do is talk to you without interruption or squint talk or logic." He said, and he could feel his blood starting to boil. He watched her with intense dark eyes, and she gasped. Brennan swallowed, but something told her not to test his patience today, so she wasn't going to. She knew that Booth could never hurt her, and he wouldn't even if his life depended on it, but it still scared her when he looked at her that way.
"Temperance," He sighed, placing his thumb and forefinger on the bridge of his nose. "I have been fighting a constant battle of right versus wrong since the day I met you." He sighed, not opening his eyes for a second. "I have told myself time and time again that I would never be good enough for you, so I settled." He said, and he finally moved his hand, opening his eyes. "I settled for lousy dates with beautiful women. I settled for watching you while you worked and dreaming of you when I went to bed at night." He said, before leaning over her desk again.
"And then you started getting more active in the field, and I felt it was my right to protect you." He stated. This made the anthropologist nearly laugh, but he shook his head quickly silencing her. "I don't care if you're skilled in martial arts, I still felt like I had to protect you." He sighed. "And when you started getting hurt, that's exactly what I did, or at least that's what I tried to do." And he pressed forward.
"When you got stabbed, when you got shot, when you got kidnapped by that God damned gravedigger," He hissed. "I found you, Bones. And you wanna know why I found you?" He asked. She went to open her mouth to answer him, but then she realized that he was being rhetorical, another thing she had learned from him.
"I went after you because I loved you, Bones." He sighed. "You set the standard for me," He told her again. He stopped for a second to read her, like she knew he knew how to do. She tried to camouflage her eyes, but Booth knew her inside and out, so there was no point in hiding. When dark brown eyes met their innocent blue-gray counterpart, he sighed and sat down in one of the chair at the front of her desk. He put his forehead on her desk and placed his hands at the back of his head, sighing.
"Say something," He said, muffled by his strong arms and the table. "Please," he said, and when his head flashed up again, tears were welling at the brims. Bones' eyes went wide, and tried to stop the tears that were following his. He was broken, she had realized. She was broken, he had known. He put his hands down on her desk and placed his head where it was before. She sighed heavily, looking away for a second. Her hand left her lap, her mind screaming in protest, and gently cupped the fists that were formed on her desk.
"I don't know what to say," He finally heard her whisper, and she sounded so broken. He didn't move he just listened; if she was going to speak, he was going to repay her with the same respect. "You taught me so much, Booth. You somehow managed to deal with my logic and reason and helped me find an equal balance between facts and feelings." She sighed, and her other hand found his other first. Gently, she moved to where her fingers were resting in his, and his thumb gently rubbed against her knuckles.
"Look at me," Her words were barely audible, but his body responded to her call. More tears had fallen, and she instinctively reached toward him. He sighed and rested his face in her palm; the contract of five o'clock shadow against soft, lilac scented skin was tremendous. "Booth, I gave you my world six nights ago, and you broke it again." She sighed and went to remove her hand, but Booth stopped her.
"Then let me try to put it back together, Bones, please." He pleaded. She sighed, pursing her lips, and he knew that this was his moment. He moved from his chair to where she was sitting on her side of the desk. "Temperance, listen to me, please." He sighed, and he squatted in front of her. "I am about to take one of the biggest risks of my life, and if you don't jump in with me, I am not too sure I can stay here anymore." He sighed.
"You mean you would leave the FBI?" She asked in a hushed whisper. "Seeley Booth is no quitter." And he could've sworn that there was a slight pull of her lips, almost forming a smirk. Booth sighed and shook his head.
"No, Bones, I mean it." He said, and then he moved to the kneeling position, and took both of her hands in his. Brennan recognized this position, as she had seen it a few times before. She wasn't too sure what he was doing, but she was sure where it was heading, and her head started spinning.
"Booth, no." She shook her head, but he stopped her by looking up at her with desperate brown eyes.
"I helped you believe in love, and I ruined that." He sighed. "But I know with a little begging and pleading, I might be able to win you back." And his cockiness, the cockiness that she had come to love, was starting to fill his body with courage. "You told me that you didn't believe in marriage." He said, and then he scurried around in his pockets, finding what he was looking for.
When he presented it to her, she gasped. Staring Temperance Brennan in the face was a small, round cut diamond ring. She couldn't breathe for a second, and when her eyes finally met the man she still loved, she felt the walls that she was working so hard to repair crumble again.
"Bren," The voice that matched the man was the voice of the man in his coma dream, the story she had written for him. "I am litterly begging here." He sighed, before taking her left hand in his right. "I am the farthest thing from perfect anyone has ever met. I am an ex-sniper, an ex-gambler, and a man who couldn't kill if his life depended on it, but have done so in cases that I'm not too proud of." He sighed, and Brennan did too, touching his face ever so gently. "But I'm putting it all out on the line here, and I'm betting my last bet."
Temperance Brennan looked at the man kneeling below her, knowing that with his bad back he had to be in pain. She looked in his eyes and saw what he was heading for. She held her breath again.
"Bones," He whispered. "Marry me." He stated. There was no asking, there was no questioning. It was him telling her what to do, and it took Brennan aback at his statement. But, when she noticed that he had not used Temperance, Bren, or Brennan when he asked the question. He used the name that he had dubbed her with.
Someone shuffled at the door, and they both looked to see the whole entire squint squad standing at Brennan's door. Angela clung to her husband, Cam silently held onto Sweets tie, and Caroline cleared her throat.
"Alright, listen you too." She said, pushing her way in the door slightly. "I know that you have been through hell and back with each other but—"
"Caroline," Brennan's voice was calm, and when she looked at one of the Big Bosses, she smiled sweetly. "I do believe this is my question to answer." And then she turned back to Bones. She sighed, smoothing her pants with her one hand. A small smile started to form on her lips.
"I'm not wearing white," She said. Booth's frown started changing. "And you know I don't believe in God so I would like for it to not be in a church." He sighed at this comment, his Catholic guilt twanging at him for a second, but then he returned to her. "And it's not going to be big." She sighed for a second, and then stood, her hand never leaving his. "You're lucky I'm letting you give me a ring." She smiled, and Booth did too.
He went to slip the ring on her slender finger, but she stopped him. He looked up at her, confused, but she just smiled and shook my head.
"Ask me again, please, Booth." She smiled, moving some curls that had fallen astray back behind her ears. "I want to give you the proper answer you deserve." Booth smiled larger, and cleared his throat, sitting up a little bit straighter.
"Bones," He said, his voice ringing a bit louder. "Marry me?" And this time there was a questioning tone in his voice. Brennan smiled and shook her head slowly.
"Yes," She smiled. He slipped the ring on her finger this time and got up, his back making an awful cracking noise as he did so. He ignored it and took the woman in his arms.
"God, I love you." He sighed, before their lips met in their consummating kiss. She smiled against him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"I never believed in love," She sighed, and he pulled away for a second. "That is," She drew lazy circles on his chest. "Until I met you." She sighed. They kissed again and their squad cheered around him.
"Wait," Angela said unsatisfied. "Bren, we've worked on this." She said. "Don't lie to yourself anymore." She said. Brennan sighed an acted sigh and bright, wanting eyes met brown ones again.
"I love you too, Booth. I love you, too."