Love, Surprise, Relief, a bones fanfic

Disclaimer: The author does not own the rights to any of the characters or locations mentioned below that have appeared in the Bones series on Fox.

When someone tells you that they love you, a range of emotions hit you at once. When that person is someone that you have loved forever and never expected them to reciprocate your feelings, the emotions are even stronger. I learned of the multifaceted nature of love in a bizarre turn of events that led me to where I am now.

We started out as partners. For me, it was love at first sight, well, at least love after thirty minutes of her company. Her fierce independence and internal strength hid a fear of abandonment that she allowed only me to see. She trusted me with her soul, even though she doesn't believe that souls exist, to do with as I wish.

I knew that if told her that I loved her, she, in her science-induced naïveté, would tell me that love didn't exist. Gone would be the days when I could admire from afar and not have to worry about her opinion of me. We would both hurting, her from her confusion concerning her emotions and me over her rejection. After that day, it would take us a while to achieve normality again. As of now, she seemed wary of letting me in, of giving me the opportunity to hurt her, so it would still be a while before I tell her of my feelings.

"Hey, Booth! What are you doing? If you're free, do you want to go to the diner with Angie, Hodgins, and me?" Her voice broke through the peacefulness that his office had fallen into as he wrote. Of course, he never complained when she was with him.

"Hi Bones! Yeah, I'm free." He got up from his desk, "Let's head over now!" He smiled in response to the huge grin plastered across her face. In terms of her physical attributes, his favorites were her smile and her eyes. Spending his days studying her different traits and mannerisms had led him to believe that he was an expert on all things Temperance Brennan. He knew her favorite food, music, flowers and perfume. He knew how she hated how the FBI techs had a tendency to ruin her crime scenes and so he arranged things so that the techs would never bother her again. When she found out, it was worth all the extra paperwork. He would do anything for her. Of course, there were things that she had yet to find out about, like his feelings for her.

"So what were you typing, Booth?" She enquired as they left the building.

"Oh, this and that." He replied nonchalantly.

"Hoping to write the next bestselling crime-romance novel?" She teased. "Sorry, Booth, but that position has already been filled in this partnership!" She flashed a grin in his direction, something that he would treasure all day. He held the door of the diner open for her, waiting for the retort that he knew would come. Sure enough, it did, "Booth, you know that I can do that myself! I am a perfectly able bodied human being and suffer from no ailments that might prevent me from opening that door." He merely smiled in response as he led her to their table with his hand resting in its usual spot, the small of her back.