A/N: I started this a long time ago...never finished it, found it the other day, Finished it, and now I'm posting it.
Warning: This has not been beta'ed.
Title: Meaning of Life
Summarey: Every Life has meaning. We just must learn to open our own eyes and see it.
Rating: K+
Disclaimer: I do not own BONES. Yaddayaddayadda. The plot line is mine. Thus © WolfMyjic 2007
Doctor Temperance Brennan stood at her living room window watching the rain fall in slow, fat bullets from a dark gray sky. Mist formed a white fog around the city of DC. With a heavy sigh, Brennan wrapped her arms around her torso and rubbed her hands up and down her upper arms. The chill from outside seemed to seep into her apartment, causing her to shiver. Today was different from many of the other days in her life. Today she woke up feeling empty and alone. After a short fight with herself, she had reached over for her cellphone and dialed Cam's number. After a quick explanation to the other doctor's voicemail, Brennan snapped her phone shut and then settled back into bed for a much-needed day off. She tried to think back to the last time she had called in sick and couldn't recall. She didn't know if this was a show of commitment to work on her part, or a non-commitment to herself. She knew that in reality, she had let herself go. Not physically, and not mentally, but emotionally. Not long after that phone call to Cam, the sky opened up and released a cold, steady rain. She had pulled herself out of bed, slipping her bare feet into a fuzzy pair of slippers, then she reached out for her matching red robe and tied it on. After a stop in the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth, she headed off to the kitchen for a cup of hot peppermint tea.
Now, after a long day of doing nothing, Brennan found herself starring out the window watching it rain. Events from the last few days played over in her head. How could I have been such a fool? she asked herself. She brought her fourth cup of tea to her lips and sipped it slowly. As the warm liquid filled her mouth and the slid down her throat, a knock on the door pulled her attention away from the gray world outside. Brennan sat her cup of tea down on the end table, then slowly made her way toward the door. She looked through the peek hole, let out a breath and then opened the door. "What are you doing here?"
"The famous Doctor Temperance Brennan called in sick," her partner, FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth said. "I couldn't believe it. I had to come by and see if for myself."
"Come on in, Booth." Brennan stepped to the side and let him walk in past her. She closed the door and then turned back to her partner.
"Are you okay?" he asked, concern in his dark chocolate brown eyes.
"I'm fine," she answered, crossing the room and picking her tea back up.
"You sure?"
"I just needed some time off," she said then took a sip of tea. Booth sat down on her couch and watched her. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, and her red robe was tied tightly around her waist. Brennan turned back to the window and studied the rain. "Booth," she finally said. "Do you think there's a meaning to life?"
"In general or a meaning to your life?" Brennan didn't answer and Booth saw her shoulders slum slightly. "Bones?"
"Both." Booth nodded even though she couldn't see him.
"Well, I do think there is a meaning to life."
"What is it?" she asked, spinning to face him.
"I don't know for sure," Booth told her. "I think it's more important to figure out the meaning to my life versus the meaning of Life."
Brennan drew her brows together in confusion. "What?"
Booth gave a slight laugh. "What I mean is that you have to search for meaning in your own life. I can't tell you what that is. For me, it's watching Parker grow up. It's having dinner with my best friend," at this he offered her a wide, lazy smile. "It's catching the bad guy and it's sitting by myself when I'm out fishing."
"That doesn't sound like much of a meaning."
Booth lifted one shoulder in a shrug and then let it fall. "Maybe not, but it works for me. The meaning of life doesn't have to be something huge and world changing. It can be simple things. Things that make you feel whole. Things that make you happy. And the best thing about it, is that it can change as often as you do."
Brennan seemed to think about this for a moment. "I don't know what makes me happy, Booth."
"Sure you do."
"I do?"
"I do," he offered. "I see it in your eyes every time we catch the crook. Every time you examine some forgotten remains and are able to figure out what they're trying to tell you. I see it when Zack does something on his own and you see that he's turning into a great anthropologist, and if you ever repeat that to anybody I'll deny it." This made Brennan laugh.
"But is any of that the meaning of life?"
"Why this sudden interest in the meaning of life? I mean, it's not like something you can scientifically prove, is it? It's something you feel inside. Something you think."
"I don't know," she answered turning back to the window. "I just feel like I'm missing something. Everybody seems to be moving on, and I'm stuck here. Stuck being, well, being Bones." She jumped slightly when she felt his hand come down on her shoulder.
"You are so much more than Bones, Bones," he said. "Trust me on that. And you are moving on, Temperance. You just have to open your eyes and see it. See how much you've changed and grown. You help give meaning to the lives of everybody that knows you. You just have to be open to the meaning we all give you." Brennan glanced over at Booth for a moment, before letting her attention drift back to the world out side. She felt comfortably with the weight of her partner's hand resting on her shoulder for support.
"You really think that?" she asked, breaking the silence that had settled around them. "That my life has meaning?" Booth used his hand to turn her to face him.
"Your life has meaning, Bones," he said. "Think of it like this. If you were to up and leave, how would that change your friends?"
Brennan dropped her eyes from Booth's gaze, her mind twirling at the question. "Would they change?" she asked.
"Well, take Angela. She would miss her best friend."
"But…"
"But nothing," he interrupted. "You're her best friend, and if you left then I know she would too. You give her the strength to do her job. And Zack, everything he knows he learns from you, Bones. Without you there to trust in him, he would be out of the Medico-Labs doing God knows what. Hodgins would most likely be fired. They would all be different. If that doesn't give your life meaning, what does?"
"You make things sound so easy, Booth."
"Because it is, Temperance. Just that simple."
Brennan shook her head, but when she lifted her eyes back to his, a smile graced her lips. "Maybe it is." They both turned back to the window, again watching the rain pour from the sky. "And you?"
"Me what?" Booth asked.
"Would you be different?" She felt Booth inhale deeply, and then exhale it slowly.
"Yes," he answered. Brennan's smile grew at the one word answer, but she didn't ask for more. Booth moved his hand to her lower back and they stood like this. Both knowing how much weight that single word held.
And before you ask, the 'events of the last few days', I have no idea what events.