A/N: Just a little idea that I had floating around in my head, and felt compelled to turn into a fic. This is the first "Bones" story I've attempted, as well as the first focusing on an established relationship...so please let me know what you think.

Enjoy :)

Four-Letter Word

"You never said it."

"Well, you never meant it."

This was a fight she had tried hard to avoid, but here it was…staring her in the face.

People always made such a big deal about that stupid little four-letter word.

Love.

She never could understand why it made people act so drastically. People murdered, stole, cheated, did everything humanly possible in the name of love. And for what? It always faded away. And never to the benefit of both people. One always felt the same while the other changed...and she was watching it happen right in front of her.

This particular four-letter word was one she didn't use…And for obvious reasons. It was an illusion, a myth. For a while at least, love seemed wonderful in theory. In reality however, it never lasted.

Most people said she was being cynical. She thought she was being intelligent. She recognized all the emotions a person could feel and the power love had. She just didn't believe in it lasting. It was all just a chemical reaction of Oxytocin and Dopamine that would subside eventually…And since it was so fleeting, she eventually decided to keep the word out of her vocabulary.

Although she was positive he knew of this concept, he continued to try and convince her otherwise. He told her repeatedly that he was in love with her and nothing was going to change that.

But in the past few months the "I love you's" had dwindled down and become nonexistant. She never asked why, for this was just another case in her file. Nobody was ever capable of loving forever. Romeo and Juliet had died before their love had had to come up against the test of time, Pierre Curie had stupidly slipped and gotten hit by a horse drawn carriage before he and Marie had had to settle into the tedious years of marriage, and by the time Scarlett O'Hara finally decided that she was happy with Rhett, her fickle nature had already driven him away. History suggested that even the strongest love stories didn't last...And it was a fact that she wished more people had been aware of.

She was content in being right. Or at least she had been until this fight had reared its ugly head.

"You never said it."

"Well, you never meant it."

She knew she was lying. He had meant it, at one point. She could tell. But she had refused to acknowledge it before, and she wasn't going to now.

"I meant it. I loved you as much as I was capable of. And maybe you loved me, too. Whether you expressed it or not, you loved me." He paused for a moment as a wave of sadness and regret washed over him. "But how could I tell? Every time I spoke to you about how I felt, you said that it was nice, but that I wasn't going to always feel that way."

"Well, I was right, wasn't I?"

"Of course you were right." He almost snorted. "You always are. You made it so that you were right. You tried to tell me that it was possible to love without telling, to be loved without knowing. And I tried to do it your way and not believe in love. If that's what I needed to do to keep you in my life, then so be it."

Maybe he didn't understand the concept as well as she thought. She sighed. "I never said I didn't believe in love. Just that it wouldn't last. And it didn't."

"How could it?" He asked her sadly. "You pushed it away every chance you got, and I got sick of trying."

"You gave up."

"No, I accepted. But you know what? You don't believe that love won't last, you're just scared that it will." He told her, taking a step closer so that their faces were merely inches apart. "Well I'm sorry, but you're not always right Bones. Because I haven't stopped loving you, I never will…I've just stopped saying it."

She opened and closed her mouth. Then opened it again, and closed it…not quite sure what to make of what he was saying. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm in love you. I always have been. You think you're stronger by denying what's there…but saying that you don't believe in love, is actually just saying that you're either too weak to recognize it, or too scared to accept it."

Her head snapped up at him in defiance. "Maybe. But you still can't make me say it."

He smiled, and kissed her on the forehead lightly…mouthing two simple words to her before walking away.

"I know."