An Arrest for a Life
Disclaimer: Do not own, not for profit
My tag for episode 5x01 "Harbingers in the Fountain" I've had this typed for a while, just finally started posting stuff.
"Are we drinking coffee because we didn't officially solve the case?" Brennan slowly stirred her coffee with a spoon even though it was black.
"No, we are drinking coffee because you are on pain killers and you can't drink when you're on pain killers." Booth waved a fork full of pie at Brennan's injured arm.
Brennan starred into her coffee. She hadn't been hurt that badly. Well, she had been, but it could have been worse. One minor flesh wound and one deep stab, no damage to the arteries or tendon, but a slight nick to the bone. She smirked internally, she would get herself re x-rayed. She had been hurt many times in her life, innocent childhood injuries, beatings in foster care, fights at school, and numerous injuries in numerous foreign countries. She studies people's bones for a living, it was her passion, it was only natural she kept records of all of her injuries, tracked their recovery and remodeling. She had actually learned quite a bit from her own injuries.
"Bones? You okay over there?" she had been silent for longer then she realized. Booth began to worry.
"Sorry, yes, sorry I'm fine." She looked up and mistook his worry for regret, "I'm, I'm sorry you had to kill someone Booth. It was never my intention to need you to shoot that man."
Booth dropped his fork and took Brennan's hand from beside her coffee mug, "Bones, he would have killed you. I'm just glad that you're okay, that I got there in time." He squeezed her hand, willing her to look at him, "If I hadn't gotten there when I did, God bones there was so much blood, I was so worried."
"If we catch Fargood it will make you equal right? You told me you wanted to catch one bad guy for every man you killed, you killed Leacock, Fargood would make it equal."
Booth looked at his partner, sometimes she seemed so incredibly insightful and sometimes she seemed so obtuse. She understood his need to maintain a balance, whether she agreed with it or not, and yet she didn't understand his innate need to protect her. He wanted so badly to tell her how much he loved her, but Cam's, and okay even Sweets, words kept rattling in his head, he had to be sure, before he told her, and possibly hurt her, he had to be sure.
"I promise to be more careful next time, I'm sorry Booth." She thought his sudden silence was a bad sign.
"Hey, Bones don't be sorry, please try to be more careful, but don't be sorry. Neither of us thought Leacock was dangerous, I'm not mad that you went there. Bones, your life was in danger, I reacted, you didn't make me react, I could have wounded him, and I went for the kill that was my choice. It is NOT your fault I killed a man" he squeezed her hand and rubbed it with his thumb.
"You killed him on instinct…because he was threatening me?" he was struck by how childlike she looked in that moment; he wanted to cup her cheek but resisted, instead rubbing her hand with his thumb once again.
"Yes." He said it definitively, no question.
She squeezed his hand, "Thank you." She said it equally as definitively, and then again, quieter, "Thank you, Booth."
"You're welcome, Bones." He knew then that he had to tell her. This wasn't the coma, or the tumor. He loved her, he loved Temperence Brennan. "Let's get out of here."
"Yeah, let's."