Author's Note – This is my very first Bones fic, and the only fic I have written since I was maybe 13 years old. So reviews, comments, questions, etc would be more than appreciated. Spoilers for The End in the Beginning.
Disclaimer – Yeah I don't own Bones. If I did, those two would have been getting it on long ago.
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Who are you?
She exhales a short breath, disbelieving, confused... as though the universe has twisted on her and she is in some sort of strange alternative reality, one in which her constant has been forcefully removed from her and she is left stranded, helpless, lost, confused, and worst of all: alone.
He once promised her he wouldn't leave her. That nothing would change. (But she is confused because he also once told her that everything happens eventually, and sometimes she misses his meaning and knows there's something more to his words but she fears change as much as she knows it's inevitable). And so she told him that change is a natural evolution. Entropy is the way of things. Sometimes.
Images flash before her eyes as she attempts to process this Who are you? A dark bedroom, tangled sheets, promises of love and proof... the feeling of a burden, of it being worth it—worth something, but as she is reminded of Who are you? she wonders, "worth what?"
It has been only seconds since Who are you? And he stares at her, sharing her confused look, attempting to understand this woman who is so present yet so distant in her thoughts, as she wanders through a vast range of emotions.
"Bren?" He asks. But as soon as the name crosses his lips it feels wrong. It feels right too, but in an alternate-reality right, and she feels that, but she feels the wrongness and the absence of Bones and its heart wrenching.
She breaks their eye contact, and responds quietly, "No, it's me. Bones. You call me Bones."
He slowly reaches out his right hand, gently pushes her chin up and forces her to look at him, to see him, because now he knows and now he remembers and now he understands and he needs her to know and remember and understand.
"Yeah, you're Bones." And he smiles. And she smiles. And they peel off that layer of confusion and misunderstanding and are left with confidence, reassurance, and proof. So much proof in their shared smiles that her eyes become glassy but before even a single tear can drop he brushes his thumb across the smooth skin of her face and her eyes flutter closed because she knows that everything will be okay, that entropy may be inevitable, but not now, now they have each other, and her momentary fear has been squelched and whatever lies ahead they will get through. Together.
Quietly, with a sad, sweet smile, he says, "In my dream you were Bren."
She nods. Perhaps change isn't as far off as she imagined.