TITLE: Agápe, éros, philía, and storgē
AUTHOR: frappingdecafs
RATING: K
PAIRING: Booth/Brennan
WARNINGS: Spoilers through the season 5 finale.
SUMMARY: Brennan changes her perspective on love.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Bones.
NOTES: This is my first foray into the Bones fandom, so hello! This was influenced by Chuck Palahniuk's writing style. If you haven't read him, you should. This was also unbeta'd, so all mistakes are my own. Also, I don't have any Bones friends to squee or freak out with, so please be mine?
Brennan finds something missing from her life.
Lonely isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind.
Her work is satisfying; the discoveries thus far have been groundbreaking. She spends approximately fifteen hours each day, digging and examining, teaching and learning. She spends nights in her tent, writing furiously in her notebook. She writes mostly of their discoveries - journaling of daily finds - but sometimes finds herself writing ridiculous love stories about Kathy and Andy or letters to him that she never sends. The letters are sometimes sad, sometimes hopeful, sometimes filled with love, but she can't ever bring herself to tear them out and send them.
Love isn't the valediction she uses, but it's the one she wishes she was brave enough to write.
Sweets told her once that writing letters can be therapeutic. He told her to write and delete them, to release her feelings. She told him that was one of the dumbest ideas she had ever heard, because writing doesn't release anything, and writing without purpose is a waste of time. She isn't sure quite when she changed her mind about these things; when she became a whimsical poet.
See also: Romanticist
See also: Idealist
See also: Optimist
It's 117 days into her island stay when she decides she's in love with him. She's known she loved him for a while now, but in love is different. She hasn't been in love before, not with Peter, not with Sully, not with Michael. She loves him in a much different way than she loves Angela, her father, her brother. In other languages, the idea of love cannot be expressed in one word.
Chemicals, is what she used to say, but now she thinks love has a nice sound to it.
See also: agápe
See also: éros
See also: philía
See also: storgē
She doesn't know much Greek, but she knows the idea of the four words they used to describe it. Love is too extraordinary to be summed up in one word.
See also: Too astonishing
See also: Too amazing
She writes each of the Greek words down on her paper.
Agápe: Deep, true love. Unconditional, self-sacrificing love.
She makes a dark check mark with her pencil in the margin.
Éros: Passionate love. Sensual desire. Love at first sight.
She makes another check and thinks about that first day he walked into her classroom.
Philía: Brotherly love, friendship. Aristotle says, lifelong friends.
Definitely check.
Storgē: Natural affection. Friends that turn into lovers.
She makes the last check and is satisfied with her list.
That night, she starts counting down the days until she returns home, rather than counting the days she's been gone. She sleeps soundly, feeling contented and confident. She wonders if her Nerve Growth Factor is elevated, but finally, for once, chemicals and science don't matter.