Temperance Brennan sat down at the cold table. She faced a young man who she had not seen in some time, but who she had, once and always, felt should have been her child.
"Dr. Brennan," Zack greeted earnestly, always eager to please his mentor.
"Hello, Zack. How are you?" Brennan replied, tracing her eyes over the figure of the boy she'd trained into a man, and whose so called betrayal, she still felt in the depths of night.
"Things here are monotonous," Zack revealed, "but I am being well taken care of. And I believe that this place is better than prison could have been."
"That is probably so," Brennan agreed. "Prisons are getting terribly overcrowded. Things are so awful out there, Zack. Booth and I have put away so many people who have had chances to do good in the world, but threw them away."
"Well," Zack mulled this over, his thoughts racing quickly. This was not the cold analytical Dr. Brennan of old. He had noticed her demeanor changing in their last few meetings, though they had been ages ago. Yet, this emotional Dr. Brennan who was putting these opinionated confidences into the air between them, seemed this new person entirely.
"Some are genetically predisposed to – "
Brennan quickly cut Zack off. "Oh, I know the science," she said brusquely, reminding Zack of his long-admired Dr. Brennan. Her words did not seem a snub, just the reaction of a person who did not see the point in reiterating what she already knew. "But people claim that murder is an accident." Brennan stressed the words.
"Serendipity," Zack remarked, a cool air of sarcasm about him.
"Which I still do not believe in."
"I was not saying that you did, Dr. Brennan," Zack was quick to assure her. "My intention was simply to bring in the words of a person who does not know that there is not a divine plan."
Brennan nodded to show she understood his meaning. "Things happen by accident," she said forcefully. Zack recognized the tone. It was the one she used when she was trying to convince herself of something. Before he could ask, or comment, Brennan had tactfully switched topics while still relating to the previous conversation. "Booth once tried to convince me there was such a thing as soul mates," she recalled.
"The idea that there is someone out there that is 'perfect' for everyone is ludicrous. People are always, throughout their lifetimes, changing. Their needs are always changing too. What we want one day is different from the next."
"Exactly," Brennan gave him her pleased smile. The one he was always, metaphorically, killing himself to get when she had first accepted him as her intern. "It's comparable to the fact that the needs of an infant are different from the needs of, say, a toddler."
"Yes, very much so." Zack agreed. "Or how what is good for a dog is not good for a cat."
"Yes," Brennan's eyes gave the proud sparkle that was reserved for Zack and Zack alone. Her pleased smiles and rare praises were for any intern who deserved it, but that proud sparkle, the almost maternal sparkle, was for Zack alone.
Brennan cocked her head to the side as she contemplated something. "But I did not come here to talk of cats and dogs." She leaned on the table, and Zack, in turn, tilted his body closer to hers. "I trust you Zack. You are, undoubtedly, the best intern I ever had. I think of you as a protégée and friend. I sincerely hope you can keep my confidence."
"Of course, Dr. Brennan." Zack's heart thrilled. They were friends, and she trusted him. The work relationship that had been between them for so long was giving way to a personal, emotional exchange, progressing as it would have had he not made his mistake so long ago.
"I am finding myself in a situation I am not prepared for. A situation I have not planned on," she began slowly. Zack listened avidly. He would need to remember all of these words, whether to give her advice, or comfort her later on.
"What is it?"
"I am pregnant." The words fell from Brennan's lips and she felt slightly chilled. It was the first time she had said those words aloud. She had not told anyone yet. She had not even told the father of the child that was already developing in her womb.
"Oh, Dr. Brennan!" Zack exclaimed, unable to contain the emotions. "Isn't Angela about to have her baby?"
"Yes," Brennan nodded, confirming his words. "I have not yet told anyone. I do not want to take away their excitement from the birth of their baby. This is their time, and I will let them have it."
Zack noted, almost with sadness, that Brennan had become aware of her friends, of her peers, and their needs. She was not the woman from his memories, and though he cherished them deeply, he was also extremely curious as to how her character had formed since he had gone.
"I think that is wise." The question was burning in his mind. Zack reflected on how Dr. Brennan had always encouraged his curiosity, welcomed every question his brilliant mind had been able to formulate. "Who is the father?"
Brennan studied him for a moment. "Booth," she revealed, with a short tone.
Zack schooled his features. He'd had a sneaking suspicion as to who it was. Brennan would not have been coming to him first if it had been the product of a one night stand or casual sexual relationship. She would have gone to Booth.
"Are you a couple now?" Surely Hodgins would have mentioned that on his last visit to Zack. Hodgins mind had been filled with the baby lately, and whether or not his first child would be blind. All of this was perfectly understandable to Zack, but Hodgins always slipped in pieces of workplace gossip and occurrences in between his worries and excited speeches.
"I – " Brennan hesitated. Zack disliked this, as he always did when Brennan hesitated. It was surely the product from years of blind idolatry, he admitted to himself. "We have had sexual intercourse on three occasions, and our emotional relationship has seemed more intense, but nothing has been said to make me believe Booth considers us in a monogamous relationship."
"Agent Booth," Zack reflected, "does not match your way of thinking. What seems clear to him may not seem clear to you. For example, a sexual relationship and intense emotional connection may make Booth believe that you are monogamous. It's not a question to him. Just like, it may be clear to you, looking at a skeleton, that a victim was a young girl, but all Booth could see is a pile of Bones."
Brennan mulled this over for several seconds. "When," she asked quietly, "did you become so understanding?" Her eyes shone with new respect for her pupil.
"It must be Dr. Sweets work," Zack sighed. "Are you going to keep the baby?"
"I believe I will. I have been desiring a child for a long period of time. Booth is a very good breeder, Parker is proof of that. Also, I am very smart, and good-looking. A child of ours will have very good changes."
"That is true," Zack agreed.
"I also have the assets to care for a baby. And my work will not suffer, as I can afford a nanny."
"Perhaps," Zack mused, "you could share a nanny with Angela and Hodgins."
"Well, there's time to think of that yet." Brennan rose. "I must go, but it was wonderful to see you Zack. Things seem clearer to me now, simply because we've touched on the subject of my pregnancy. Thank you."
"You are quite welcome, Dr. Brennan." Zack looked up at her. "Come back and see me, will you? I would like to know how the child is doing first hand from its mother, not second hand from Hodgins."
"Of course I'll come see you." Brennan's eyes shone slightly with tears. She pushed past her emotions and hugged Zack, remembering a scene in which he was lying in a hospital bed and they'd both cried.
"Congratulations," Zack added. "I believe that is the appropriate phrase for a pregnancy."
"That it is," Brennan said, with the proud sparkle in her eye.
I do not own Bones. I have not been inclined to write as of late (because of issues we will not discuss) but something had to be done about the finale.
~DI4MGZ~