AN: Hi! This fic started as a quick response to labsquint who reviewed for Deviating From Normal. This chap isn't graphic, but it's a primer to what may come.

Song: "I love you 'till the end" by the Pogues

Summary: Booth offers comfort when a case hits Brennan hard.

I just want to be there

When we're caught in the rain

I just want to see you laugh, not cry

I just want to feel you

When the night puts on its cloak

I'm lost for words, don't tell me

All I can say

I love you 'till the end

This case had been tough; it had put Brennan on edge, which had, in turn, put Booth on edge. Booth knew the exact moment the ID had been made; this would not be just another case for her.

The victim: Gracie Carlyle, a 14-year-old foster child who had gone missing four years ago. The foster family had thought she was a runaway, as had been her habit in prior foster homes. Yet, they had filed a missing persons report, hoping to find her. But she was not a runaway, and her bones were found by a birdwatcher, hidden in a dense thicket within Rock Creek Park.

But, to their credit, it only took Booth and Brennan three days to identify a suspect (an ex-foster brother), and obtain a confession. He had used her for his own purposes: drug running. When he no longer found her useful, he had "gotten rid of the evidence" – or so he said in his confession.

"She would have been 18 this week, Booth. She would have had an entire life ahead of her." Booth had to focus on her in order to hear what she was saying. Brennan's voice sounded far away, though she was standing mere feet from him. She was at the window, her back to him, staring out at the gathering storm that occasionally lit the night sky with flashes of lightning.

Booth rose from his position on the couch, putting aside the paperwork for the case. That could wait until later. He turned to give her his full attention. He slowly came up behind her, and turned his face to follow her gaze out the window as the rain steadily began to fall. He noticed her arms were crossed in front of her, as if trying to stave of a bone chilling cold. He placed his large, warm hands on her upper arms, lightly brushing his palms on her cool skin in an effort to warm her, though he was sure the cold was not physical.

The slight activity roused her from her distant thoughts, and Booth felt a sudden sense of loss as she moved away from him. "Bones, are you alright?" he queried, his voice laden with concern.

Brennan shrugged. She knew this was not really an answer, and would probably give rise to more questions from her partner. But at this moment, she did not quite know if she was alright.

"Bones?"

She turned her pale face toward him, allowing him to see the hurt and sadness in her eyes. She could not bear the look of what she incorrectly identified as pity. She had never been good at reading people, though she was usually pretty good about reading Booth. It was not pity that Booth was projecting, but a mixture of concern and longing.

Instead, she quickly began to gather her belongings, throwing them haphazardly into her brown leather shoulder bag. "Not tonight Booth. I can't finish this up tonight. I need to get out of here. Will you get me out of here?" she all but begged.

Booth was always good at reading her, and had reached for their coats long before she asked her question. She shot him a grateful smile as he held her raincoat out, and she shrugged into it. That smile meant the world to Booth; it meant she had not completely shut him out. It was still possible she would open up to him, tell him what she was thinking.

They approached the exterior sliding glass doors, nodding to Ray, the night guard. Booth quickly glanced at the clock on the wall behind him: 12:42. The diner would still be open, he would take her there, offer her pie, and maybe she would open up.

He was lost in thought, and did not notice that she had dropped her bag and stopped outside the Jeffersonian to lift her face to the heavens and watch the lightning again. He almost ran into her; and they resumed their prior positions: her with her arms crossed, and him, grasping her upper arms. Both were mere inches from the rain, and had stopped under the overhang of the entrance.

He felt her relax against him, and he moved his hands up her arms onto her shoulders, pressing his thumbs ever so slightly into her tense muscles. She sighed, and turned her head to her left, pressing her cheek to the back of his fingers as they lay on her shoulders. He could feel wetness against his hand, and briefly wondered if it were due to the rain, or if it were her tears.

She turned in his arms, and found his hands again resting on her upper arms as he stared at her clear blue eyes, swimming with sadness. "He threw her away. As if she was garbage. He treated her like nothing." She shook her head.

"She was not nothing. Her foster family wanted her back. They cared for her. They loved her. And if their interview was anything to go by, they loved her 'till the end." Booth drew her into a soft and comforting hug, and she knew this was not a 'guy hug', but she did not care if they were crossing a boundary. She needed him, and he knew it.

What she didn't know is if he needed her. As this thought flitted across her mind, she withdrew from his arms quickly, as if recoiling from being burnt. She took three steps back, right into the April downpour. Her raincoat was useless to her, as she had not fastened the buttons, and she was instantly soaked.

It was apparent to Booth that she had just realized something. He stepped into the rain, and reached for her, trying – without words – to convey his want to feel her. "She was not nothing," Booth repeated, not caring that he was getting drenched.

Brennan shook her head, as if to clear the painful thoughts bombarding her, and droplets of rain fell from her hair. Booth took this as rejection, and dropped his arms to his sides, his demeanor taking the familiar sense of sadness that encompassed him every time Brennan held him at arms length.

"She was me. I was her. We could have…" she trailed off, the thought too much for her to continue.

Brennan lowered her head and raised her right hand to her brow in an effort to steady her mind. Her shoulders slumped and Booth took another step toward her, his resolve regained as his need to care for her overtook his dejection.

He placed his forefinger under her chin, raising her face to his and causing her to drop her hand to meet his gaze. "You are not nothing." She blinked at him, willing her eyes to focus on him, to read the truth in his eyes. It was there; she recognized it for what it was.

He reached for her again; the sense of touch providing a way to heal. He pulled her into his embrace, offering only the truest of emotions whispered into her ear as the rain continued to beat relentlessly on and around them.

"But you are like her in a way." This stated opinion caused her to raise her face to his, a question forming on her tongue.

Booth continued his thought, whispered into the rain, as he brought her closer.

"I'm lost for words. All I can say…" he faltered as he felt her breath on his lips, and their eyes fluttered closed.

"I love you 'till the end."

Please review. The next two chapters will include the other verses of this song.