Parallels
Booth's been her rock for so long, that it's hard for things to be the other way around. They didn't want to send him home alone, so she now stays in his guest bedroom.
He'd lost a significant portion of his life. Seven years. Seven years is a long amount of time to forget. He was getting so overwhelmed with new faces. She could see it in his face. She'd see him look over to her and have to talk to who ever it was that was confusing him, and casually slip in their name.
Booth's dependence on her was a little too much. Sweets had said something about imprinting. He was just a helpless baby duck that was scared to be alone. But she couldn't help but wonder if maybe there was a subconscious recognition.
He'd picked up her name quickly. But this could be contributed to the fact that she was almost always by his side. What about how he had asked her for macaroni and cheese? Was it just coincidence? She couldn't be sure.
"Hello Temper" Booth came up from behind her.
Temper was another thing that had changed. She was afraid to get mad at him, not after the scare she'd had. She'd only told him her full name as well, never mentioning that she was his Bones. He'd started picking at the fact that she didn't get mad at all, even when he purposefully tried provoking her. It was like when he'd started calling her Bones.
"Hiya Bones!" He called at her.
"What did you just call me?" She glared at him.
"Bones."
"Well don't! My name is-"
"Dr. Temperance Brennan." He finished. "It's such a mouthful though! Bones is simpler."
"Don't call me Bones!"
"Bones, Bones, Bones. Bonesy, boney Bones!"
She glared.
"Booth." She nodded.
"What're you doing?" He asked, curious.
"Writing." She answered back.
"You write?" He looked surprised. "It's a for your own entertainment sort of thing, right?"
"Actually no, I'm a New York Times best selling author."
She could tell he was trying to work out if it was sarcasm. She forgot that being too plain tended to confuse him. He didn't understand that she just couldn't do sarcasm. Just like when she first worked with him.
"No, he was killed with a steak knife" She said walking up behind him as he was muttering to himself about a dagger.
"Are you being sarcastic?"
Nicknames, and sarcasm weren't the only parallels she was able to pull from this situation and from when they first met. And every little parallel made her just a little bit more scared. She really was starting over with him. Except that she was already four years ahead in their relationship. Oh how she wished he could remember.
"I don't know how I could have ever gotten along with someone smart like you so easily." He paused, "You write books, you know thousands of different things about bones and different cultures. Add in this stupid memory loss and you've got me feeling like the dumbest person in the world." He told her.
"You're not dumb. You're just street smart." She tried to console him.
"I don't know how street smart I am without seven years of memories."
She suddenly got mad with him. How could he keep bringing it up? How can he not realize that his casualness cut her so deeply?
"I take it you want dinner." She snapped at him.
"Easy Temper." He tried to soothe.
She walked off to the kitchen leaving her already lost Booth just a bit more lost.
***
He hated not being able to remember. He'd missed almost all of his son's life. He knew very little of the people that were concerned about him. He couldn't tell you if it was baseball season or football season (though he judged by the heat that it was baseball season).
Sometimes he felt like his subconscious knew something that he didn't. This annoyed him to no end. Especially when it came to her.
Every time that they talked he could feel that there was something off. But he couldn't tell you what. At one point he decided that Brennan was just the completely wrong thing to call her. It just didn't feel right on his tongue. So he tried a few different nicknames in his head, and what felt most comfortable was Temper. But he could still tell that there was something a little off about it.
He'd figured out very quickly that the two of them must have had something special. Why else would she have been sitting at his bedside until he woke up? Not to mention that in the moments that they spent together he felt an attraction that he didn't understand, no matter how clearly his subconscious seemed to.
"Easy Temper." He told her with a strong, and hopefully soothing voice.
It didn't work though, and she walked off.
Sighing he resigned himself to ignoring it. He walked over to the couch and lied down, staring at the ceiling.
What he would give to remember Bones.
Wait a moment! Bones. Bones, Bones, Bones, Bones, Bones. He mouthed the word. It felt so right on his tongue. Familiar. Had he just remembered something? She was his Bones.
He wanted to immediately get up and tell her about this first memory. She deserved to know that something she was doing for him must be going right. But then he remembered that she was steamed at him for some reason. She was so hard to gauge. He could tell that she was being very careful.
Deciding it for the better he got up and walked over to the kitchen where Bones was making grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for him, and just grilled cheese for her.
"Booth go sit back down." She sounded exasperated. Was he really such a trouble?
"But I remembered something!" He said eagerly.
"You remembered something?" She asked slowly.
There was a smell of burning grilled cheese, but nobody took notice.
"Yes," he said playing with her hair. Why was he playing with her hair? "You are Bones. Not Temper. And I have a feeling I'm the only one who calls you that too."
They were so close right now, but he didn't want to step back. It felt too right.
"That's right Booth…" She whispered.
Booth closed the small gap between her and kissed her. It had just seemed exactly like what he should do. He tried deepening the kiss, but she stepped back.
"Booth," her voice was trembling, "please, just go back into the living room."
Much later that night, when he couldn't sleep, he could hear her sobbing.
Oh how he wished he could remember.
A/N: Parallels is only the chapter title. I have no idea what to call this yet. I'm planing on making this a summer project to keep me occupied without new episodes to look forward to. Please review and save the ego of an author! Haha.