A/N: I should be grading Geometry quizes right now, but I had to get this little fluff bunny out of my head first. These "five ways" fics have been floating around all over the place, and this is my contribution to the pool. No spoilers that I'm aware of, and it can be considered an independent piece or a compaion to "Five Ways She Says I Love You".


Five ways Booth tells Brennan he loves her, without her knowing it.

1. Not flirting with other women. He was a flirt, he admits now. And he was good at it, which is probably why he did it so much. But he doesn't flirt much any more, even when she's not with him. Not even when the pretty waitress slipped him her phone number with his apple pie at dinner the other night. He could have flashed her his patented charm smile, but she would merely have reciprocated and given him a free cup of coffee instead of becoming all indignant and flustered like someone else he knew. Where was the fun in that?

2. Standing up for her. He did it, too, when they first became partners. He'd joke about her profession, about how dumb it was to think a scientist could solve a crime, even about how strange she seemed to be. But now when a cop or another agent does it behind her back, he puts his foot down. She is unorthodox, but she does amazing work, solving mysteries not even the best agent at the Bureau could untangle, and he makes sure everyone knows it.

3. Driving. Yes, she hates it that he always insists on driving. And yes, she swears she's an excellent driver, as he's heard so many times before. But it isn't her driving skills he's worried about, it's the other crazies on the roads. There was even a study done not long ago that placed DC second in the country on the list of worst drivers, ahead of states like New York and California. So if he can keep her safe for one more day by taking the wheel himself, he'll endure the complaining…with pleasure.

4. The religious medal in the glove compartment. He's not sure when exactly he bought it, but he does remember going home one night and looking up the patron saint of scientists online. Soon after he stopped at a little catholic bookstore to purchase a St. Albertus Magnus medal, then stashed it in the glove compartment of his SUV. He knew she didn't believe in God or saints, and wouldn't wear it if he gave it to her, but he also knew he couldn't protect her from everything bad in this world. Maybe if he kept the medal near her, and if he believed, it would be enough.

5. The way he looks at her. She doesn't notice, and half the time neither does he, but there is a way that he looks at her that no one else in the world can induce. When she needs a shoulder to cry on, when she has a run-in with a tough suspect, when she solves a case, when she's napping on the couch in her office, when she's engrossed in some anthropology journal… Whenever he sees her and knows no one else is watching, his features soften and his dark eyes fill with affection, and he wonders to himself how he, out of all the people on the planet, was lucky enough to be there with her. And he thanks God that he is.