A/N: This is my first Bones fanfiction, so I hope you like it. It is set at the end of the dinner in the 2009 Christmas episode. There will be two chapters one for Booth and one for Bones. Please review. And last but not least unfortunately I don't own any of the characters.
Belonging
Booth looked around and instantly felt a familiar warmth spreading through him. While it was possible the two glasses of Chardonnay he'd had with dinner were contributing to it, he knew without a doubt that it was caused by the people surrounding the table. It was Christmas and they were a family. He wasn't quite sure how it had happened, but sometime in the last six years they had melded into one. They were all so different, yet all similar, and in search of the same things, belonging and happiness. It did his heart good to think that even though he couldn't spend this holiday with Parker, he could spend it with the rest of the people he cared about.
He glanced to his left and attempted to covertly watch Temperance Brennan over the top of his wine glass as he sipped. His eyes skimmed the lovely features of her face, her forehead, her nose, her lips, and finally her eyes. It was always her eyes that intrigued him. She showed all her emotion through her eyes. Even when the rest of her put on the tough, impenetrable façade, he could tell by looking in her eyes what she was feeling. She tried so hard to hide her emotions from the world, to keep them locked up inside her, afraid to release them. He didn't blame her, after what she had been through as a child, but he always felt a little sad that she felt the need to keep up that front now, with these people.
She had made great strides in the past few years of opening up to people and allowing herself to express emotions and feel things. Just looking around this table was a testament to that. Each person here loved her in their own way. One as a parent, one as a best friend, several as a close colleague, and one as a lover. She had endeared herself to them in her own standoffish way. And they in turn had burrowed themselves into her life when she had least expected or wanted it.
Since his brain tumor, he had struggled with his feelings for this woman sitting beside him. Did he really, truly love her, or were these just remnants, that like the memory of a dream will slowly fade come morning. Every day that passed convinced him a little more that what he felt was real. Sitting around this table with their family just reinforced this for him. Why was he trying to kid himself? He was in love with this woman, this beautiful, successful, highly intelligent woman. In those moments when he was truly truthful with himself, he knew that he had been in love with her long before his coma dream. He had tried so hard to suppress those feeling s back then.
Now, he was finally able to admit it. He loved her. In truth, that was the easy part, admitting his feelings. The hard part was yet to come. While he could generally read her like an open book, he was never quite sure about her feelings for him. Of course he knew she cared deeply for their friendship and partnership, and would do anything to help him, but did she reciprocate his feelings? Sometimes when she looked at him, he could swear that there was a glimmer of something there in her eyes. A deep tenderness that she saved only for him. Moments like now. As she glanced up and caught his eye as she sipped her wine. Her eyes shone bright with emotion – warmth, happiness, and love. Though she might not admit it to herself, she loved these people, and he could see it in her eyes, which crinkled at the corners as she smiled at him.
Impulsively she reached out and touched him. Her hand lingering on his after a brief squeeze. These were the moments he lived for. Where the real her was let out for some air. Where he began to realize that he might not be alone in his feelings. Where he knew that someday they would be a real family. He realized it would take some time for him to coax her out of her armor, but he knew without a doubt that this was where he belonged.