Disclaimer: I don't own Bones or its characters.
Timeline/Spoilers: Set post The Bone that Blew. Spoilers for 4x02 The Man in the Outhouse and 4x10 The Bone that Blew. Slight reference to 4x08 The Con Man in the Meth Lab.
A/N: I want to take a minute to thank everyone for continually reading and reviewing. It makes me feel appreciated and loved, which, given my current job situation, is always nice. All right, rambling done, enjoy!
Sweets' words echoed through his head for what surely was the ten thousandth time. It had been weeks - no, Booth took a surreptitious look at the date on his watch, almost two months - since he had said it. Surrogate relationship. It had gotten under his skin. If Bones hadn't been in such a state of turmoil at the time he would've protested more, but he knew what she needed then was an outlet. He let her have it.
Still, the term was nagging at him like his ninety-two year old grandmother after he hadn't called in a couple months. By now he knew that Sweets wouldn't have suggested it if he didn't believe it was true, but, damn it, he was wrong. There was nothing surrogate about it; they had a relationship. Period. It was probably part of the reason that he hadn't made it past the first date with a woman lately. Hell, he hadn't really been inclined to ask anyone out in the first place.
He heard a sigh from her side of the table and looked up to make sure she was all right. It had been an emotionally draining case for the entire team, but for them especially. Their eyes met and she nodded before she went back to what she was reading. He made another note on the paper in front of him and found his previous train of thought had taken over once more.
He had known for a while that, despite what they told everyone who questioned it, they were more than just partners. They were friends. Good friends. The truth, though, was that he knew that it went a lot deeper than friendship. There was an understanding - a deep trust between them - he found with no one else. It drove him to watch out for her, to support her, even to push her past her comfort zone. More than anything it made him want to show her in every way possible that someone - someone that would never leave - cared.
There were times in the past when he'd shown her through a simple touch or smile. Once in a great while there would be physical representation of a shared secret: Jasper the pig and Brainy Smurf. Now - he suppressed a sigh of his own - now he was beginning to share things with her that he hadn't shared with anyone else. Not even Cam. Sure, she knew - she'd seen some of the effects firsthand - but he had never come out and told her. With Brennan it was different. Opening up like he was should scare him, but it didn't. In fact, it felt natural. Right.
He looked up again, watching as she flipped to another page in the file and continued reading. With her, well, he knew how much the simplest smile, the smallest laugh meant. She'd let him in. That she trusted him enough to share stories like Brainy Smurf and feelings she herself didn't understand - her hope that her father would be found innocent - meant even more. She was there for him in her own ways, too. She accepted what it would mean to have her dad at the Jeffersonian to continue the children's science program; though, he was sure she recognized his ulterior motives. During particularly hard cases involving children around Parker's age she'd bully him out of the lab to the diner so they could get a break from it. Not because his hovering annoyed her, which it did to an extent, but because she knew.
Suddenly, she reached across the table and stole the pen from his hand, using it to make some notes on the report she'd started working on. He turned to another part of the file in front of him and reread the ballistics report. Neither of them missed a beat. A single thought ran through his head as they shared a smile. Nope, there was nothing surrogate here.