Hello! Thanks for giving me a chance. It's been a while since I wrote/published anything, and never anything for Bones. I hope you enjoy it, please let me know! If you like it and want me to continue, I'll be happy to acquisce, just let me know. Otherwise, this will remain in One-Shot never-to-be-seen-again Heaven.

*Since posting, I went back and looked at it in the live view, and realized that none of my line breaks made it in. Now fixed :)

None of these characters or quotes in italics are mine. Just borrowing them.

Enjoy! (I'll stop talking now)

Home is Where You're Safest From the Storm

In the darkest moments before dawn a woman returns to her bed. What life is she leading? Is it the same life the woman was leading an hour ago? a day ago? a year ago? Who is this man? Do they lead separate lives or is it a single life shared?

Creeping into the dark bedroom, Temperance Brennan pauses in the doorway. Images flash through her mind, of the last time she tiptoed into this man's bedroom. She remembers the pain, the fear, the grief, the hope that she could see in his eyes then. She wonders if she will see that now.

Silently undressing down to her camisole and sweatpants, she places her hair tie on the nightstand. Glancing at the clock, she watches as it turns over to 4:48 in the morning. With an almost silent sigh, she slips between the covers on what was once, and she hopes still is, her side of the bed. Settling quickly after months spent in dingy hotels with creaky mattresses that groan with every move, her eyes adjust to focus on the sight she has been longing most to see over the seemingly endless months of summer.

After spending so much of his life on the alert against the danger of intruders in his bedroom, Seeley Booth's eyes snap open the moment his bedroom door whispers open. It crosses his mind that it may be Pelant, that he may be in danger, but within seconds he knows. He knows that there is no danger, that the person slipping into his bedroom means him no harm, (intentionally, at least), and instead represents safety. Security. Trust. Home.For the first time in three months, though he has slept in this house almost every night, he is at home.

Opening his eyes, he sees the most beautiful sight for the sorest eyes he has ever experienced. She is a mess. Her hair is disheveled, her clothes both stained and too large for her small frame, she reeks of seedy motels and days spent traveling in a car. He has never seen her more stunning, but for the day their daughter was born.

Upon realizing that his eyes are open, the chocolate brown orbs aimed in her direction, she finally allows a sigh of relief, a gasp of fresh air to escape. First one, then another, until she is sobbing. Laying next to him, being close enough to touch, is enough to break down the feeble walls she had managed to construct during her absence. Just as she was that night now more than a year ago, she is the first to initiate contact; to seek comfort from him, where he so freely offered in the past. And he, in parallel with the actions of his past self on that same night that is currently haunting her, gives her all that she asks for. He comforts her in the way they both need, the way that was only newly discovered (allowed) after the death of an intern.

A storm approaches. It is still over the horizon, but there is lightning in the air. Are either of them aware of the gathering turbulence? Can they feel the crackle of electricity in the wind, or are they aware of only the power that they generate between themselves? The first hint of this storm is not a thunderclap... it is a knock.

He is awakened by the pounding on his front door. With a groan, Booth closes his eyes even tighter, ignoring the noise in favor of the dream he had been yanked from. The pressure of her head on his chest, the warmth of her laying in his arms, the wetness on his chest from her tears, all feels so real. Resolving to ignore the artist pounding away on his front door (for it is her turn to babysit him today; he smirks to himself in the knowledge that they think they are fooling him by the schedule they keep in rotating constant company for him), he continues to think about his dream, and slowly begins to drift back to sleep.

Thanks in large part to his training and experience in the Army, the sound of the doorbell now being rung does not pull him from the hazy in between separating sleep and consciousness. With a concentrated effort, he is able to ignore the doorbell. What he cannot ignore, however, is the frustrated wail that arises due to the incessant ringing and knocking. It only takes him a few moments to realize that the crying is not the result of his imagination, and that it is coming from inside the house.

Springing up, his back immediately ramrod straight, (and vehemently protesting the sudden change in position), Seeley Booth opens his eyes for the first time that morning. Looking to his right, the veil between dream and reality is unceremoniously yanked up. Eyes widening in both disbelief and surprise, he is stunned to see the woman he loves (the most; not that there was ever truly any doubt for him, only denial). Just as he is able to force closed his jaw, their daughter's cries penetrate her sleep and bring the woman (finally) next to him to consciousness.

"Who's ringing the doorbell?"

From minutes after he saw her drive away, leaving him stranded at the church, he has obsessively imagined their first conversation upon her return. He plotted out so many possibilities on how the reunion would go; anger, relief, happiness, sadness, filled with sweeping declarations and accusations of betrayal. He never considered the first words she would say to him to be so… ordinary. (He does not count the things she said, moaned, in those early morning hours.)

Looking down into her sleep filled eyes, blinking up at him unfamiliarly, (since when were her eyes brown?) he registers the fact that though the pounding has stopped, the ringing and subsequent crying has not. With a sigh, he swings his feet out of bed, answering quietly on his way to the door, "Your best friend."

Biting back the instinct to say that such an occurrence would be impossible, since she was looking at her best friend, she gives a nod in recognition. Climbing out of bed, she reaches for her robe on the back of the chair. Barely registering the fact that it is where she left it three months before, she heads straight for her still sobbing daughter.

As she enters the nursery and spots her progeny, she hears the front door open, which sparks immediate silence. Content to let her… partner? Boyfriend?... deal with her best female friend and surrogate sister, Brennan lifts her daughter out of the crib, and proceeds to prepare the baby for the day. Now that her daughter is silent but for occasional coos and giggles, she strains to hear what is occurring on the first floor. Hearing nothing, she resigns herself to having to go down and face Angela (and Booth) to know.

Her daughter in her arms, she stands at the top of the stairs and takes a deep breath. Realizing on some level that what most awaits her are questions, she tightens her grip on her baby. Once she begins to descend the stairs, there will be no turning back. There will be, must be, explanations, questions asked and answered, and likely tears shed. She will be forced to confess her whereabouts since she last left the house, and to explain the changes to her. The eyes, (she never should have slept with those contacts in; she knows her eyes will likely ache for days because of it), the color of her hair, (why on Earth had she ever let her father talk her into blonde?), and the weight loss.

With a last deep breath, and a quick inhale of her precious daughter's scent, (sunshine, happiness, baby powder, innocence), she begins her journey, knowing the hardest part of this unbearable ordeal is only just beginning.

Hello, me again. :) First, thank you for reading to the end! It means a great deal to me, as I'm sure you yourself know. Second, the initial response I have received has encouraged me to continue this story, which I shall do. I have some vague ideas of where to go, but if there's anything you particularly want to see, let me know!

Thank you for reading!