This was meant to be just a little fluff about Brennan singing, somehow it didn't turn out fluffy. Oh well. Enjoy anyway.

Disclaimer: Recognizable characters and places not mine.


SK

Booth laid in his bed, eyes closed, trying to summon the energy for the day. He wasn't as young as he used to be. His joints ached before he even set foot out of the bed. Booth rolled over, sliding his hand across the bed, sighing and then opening his eyes. He knew she wouldn't be there.

He threw the covers off of him swinging his feet to the floor popping all of the joints in his toes before stand and heading to the bathroom to begin his morning routine. He went through the motions of his routine trying not to think too much about this last week. Another case, another sicko with a taste for little kids and a certain liking of them once their eyes closed for good, another week of working too much, high emotions and not enough sleep. He rinsed off his razor one last time setting it down and wiping his face. His reflection… was almost wraith-like. The bags under his eyes were deep in color, his complexion was pale and his eyes screamed at him that it was time retire his running shoes and put on the suit. Sighing again he turned shutting off the light and headed out of the room.

His movements were slow and sluggish. His feet took a turn away from the kitchen and the coffee brewing there and he found himself at a threshold with a sound he hadn't heard in what he felt was far too long emanating from within. He had missed that sound so much, the past week squelching it completely.

He stood at the threshold still tired, still weary, but smiling. She hadn't noticed him yet, her attention fully on the not so small bundle of pink in her arms. She was pacing the floor gently swaying back and forth, her song reverberating around them. Booth remembered the first time he woke up to the sound of her voice, gently wafting through the bathroom door. A song he shouldn't have been surprised she knew but found himself being precisely that coming at him with a genuine belief behind the words.

He had sneaked into the bathroom being sure she didn't here him to begin his day as the words of The Longest Time came from behind the curtain. She started slightly when she pulled back the curtain and saw him standing there. A brief panic crossed his face replaced by a smile as her laughter started. She got out of the shower still dripping wet and wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his smiling up at him.

"What's got you in such a good mood this morning?" He asked with mirth in his eyes as his hand slipped around her. If it was possible her smile got bigger and she stared him in the eye for a moment.

"I've been thinking… We should find a bigger place. It's wonderful here but there's just not enough space for four people, wouldn't you agree?" She asked, her smile turning mischievous.

"Bones, surely that fancy-shmancy college of yours taught basic math." Booth smirked at her but when she just stared at him pointedly, his smiled faltered and his mouth fell open on a gasp and a whispered, disbelieving "No?" She giggled and nodded her head in the affirmative. "Really?" His voice getting higher with each "no" and "really" until he decided it was true and picked her up, kissing her and laughing.

That day had been so happy and everyday he'd hear her singing something, most of which was unrecognizable to him, but last week the singing never even began, the case taking its toll on the new mother as soon as they got the call. She couldn't bear the thought of someone losing their child in such a horrific way and she lamented for them in silence.

He watched her swing their sleeping daughter back and forth gently. He could see from the door the six month old was sleeping peacefully in her mother's arms, no doubt being lulled back to sleep after her feeding by the voice still singing softly over her. She began her rendition of Fly Me to the Moon again and Booth smiled and slipped into the room, feeling all of his worries and anxieties slip away as he wound himself around his wife. She turned her head to him and smiled. He could see in her eyes that she was ok, that she had bandaged the figurative wounds that the case had placed on her metaphorical heart and that she was back with him. He could see in her eyes the look of a mother.

He gave her a peck on her lips resting his head on her shoulder "Hey."

"Good morning." She said in reply turning back to their daughter and he followed suit, running his hand of her mass of dark brown hair. He couldn't but be struck by her.

"She's so beautiful, Bones." He said clearly smitten.

"Yes, she is." They stood a moment longer in silence just staring at her.

"Booth?" He hummed in response, his chin still resting on her shoulder. He placed a soft kiss under her jaw sensing a tension in her.

"I miss being a lab rat." He lifted his head off her and looked at her, but she was still staring at Erynn. She had never been a good liar and he knew she was lying now. She knew the dangers of her job, only before now it had only affected her, now there was someone she had to put ahead of herself.

At least he wasn't the only one putting up his running shoes.

"Ok." He said simply.

"Will you find another partner?" She asked her voice not as steady as it had been a moment before.

He studied her face momentarily, searching for something. "Never." He said definitively and just hoped that she would understand his double meaning. She would be his only partner in this life. She turned and kissed him again smiling as she pulled back, obviously happy.

"Breakfast?" She asked adjusting the sleeping baby in her arms to shift her into his waiting arms.

"Yes, please." He said, leaning in. She took his lead and kissed him again, this time longer and deeper.

"I love you" She as she pulled back. He would never tire of hearing that.

"Of course you do. I'm irresistible." He joked and followed her beautiful laugh to the kitchen, and when the laughing died down the singing began again.

And when she was singing everything felt okay.

SK