A/N: Hi, guys! Just another one-shot for you! We hope you like it! We'd like to thank chelslamb for her amazing beta reader skills!

The Mother in the Scientist

B&B

Bruninha Galle and Thaís Christ

She has always taught her students that they should leave the emotions behind and face every single new case as just a case. She has taught them that they should find an identity, face the reality, sum all evidence and gather the facts to prove what had happened to their victim. She has always taught them that getting emotionally involved to a case wasn't something good, that they should compartmentalize it all and be able to deal with all kinds of cases they'd get. That was how she had managed to solve everything she needed to, but only until the day her daughter was born.

"Do you think that someone highly objective her whole life can suddenly become subjective?"

His head snapped up, the report he was reading immediately forgotten. His partner wasn't the type to just pop out a question out of nowhere, meaning she'd given some thought to the subject and, unable to find an answer herself, decided to ask his opinion.

Brennan was staring at him, the pen she was using to fill the paperwork related to their most recent case in one hand, and to anyone, her face would show nothing but coolness. Not to him. He saw the trouble, the confusion and on the top of it all, the fear.

Booth stopped himself from crossing the office to her table, searching for an answer inside his head instead. He knew what had triggered it all, what she had to deal with during their whole last case. Damn, he had to deal with it himself. A 2 year old baby girl was found dead in a dumpster near the Jeffersonian. A week of investigation and careful forensic work proved that the baby's parents had abandoned her in the place she was found and where she died of a mix of starvation and hypothermia.

For 7 days, he gave her space, realizing from the moment she read those bones, at the crime scene, that she wouldn't be able to face a case like this the same way anymore. There were tears in her eyes when she disclosed the age and genre of the victim. There were tears in her eyes while she silently reassembled the tiny bones in anatomical order. And there were tears in her eyes every night she put Christine to sleep.

And every time, she didn't let them fall free, didn't let them destroy the last of her objectivity and throw her in a place she'd never let herself or her students go: a place where the victims had faces. A place where the victims had names. The last place she would go while she was Temperance Brennan, the forensic anthropology. She just didn't expect that the mother in her could be stronger than the scientist, that motherhood could overcome logic.

"Why are you actually asking me this, Bones?"

Booth was holding Christine in his arms while Brennan was sitting on her chair, finishing filling up the case's reports. They were both staring at Christine's serenity while she was asleep on Booth's arms. There was no way for them to describe that feeling. The feeling of being able to put their daughter to sleep every night and know that they'd wake up just a door away from her. There was no better feeling that the feeling of knowing their daughter was safe, warm and well fed.

That was the reason of why that case really messed up with Brennan's feelings and really played with her concept of partnership. She was confused, she was sad, she was afraid that it could happen to their daughter. She knew Booth would give his life for Christine, but she didn't want this to happen, she didn't want to lose anyone she loved again, because the thought of losing someone she loved was something she couldn't bear.

She couldn't escape from the question "What if it was Christine and you weren't there to protect her?". She knew it was irrational, she knew it probably wouldn't happen, but that scaring thought would not get out of her, because seeing a child lying on her table, from now on, wouldn't be just about seeing a skeleton or reading bones, it would be about giving life back to an innocent person who didn't even get the chance to prove the world the reason of his or hers existence.

Booth knew that it was being a very difficult moment to his partner. Christine was just eight weeks old and Brennan had just come back to work. She was getting used to missing her child, used to the thought of not spending as much time as she expected to with her progeny, because she knew that what she was doing wasn't something selfish, but something important, something that would leave their daughter a legacy, something for her family.

"Bones, are you ok? Why are you asking me this?"

He knew she wasn't. He was the first person to see her face right after they've got the call saying that a dog walker had found child remains in a dumpster close to the Jeffersonian. It was Brennan's first child case since the day she found out she was pregnant and Booth knew exactly how she was feeling, because he was a parent too, and those feelings were also affecting him.

"I can't do this, Booth. I can't just look at a child's remains lying on my table and do not think about how happy this kid could have been if her parents weren't crazy enough to leave their child starve and freeze to death. Why do people do this, Booth?"- he embraced her, trying to calm her down, trying to show her he was there and that nothing bad would happen to them, to their girl. "It was a girl, Booth. She was only 2 years old. Just like Christine will soon grow up to be."- she stopped to clear her throat. Tears weren't allowing her to see Booth's face.-"I clearly remember my first case involving a child, he wasn't this young, in fact, he was an adolescent, but it is still the same thing. It was our fourth case together and, by that time, I didn't really care about it. To me, it seemed just like any other case. But, in the end, when we actually solved it, the boy's mother told me that all a mother wants is to know if she had raised her child well. That her biggest regret would be to never know if her child would grow up to be a good person. I want this, Booth. It's…"

Brennan closed her eyes the moment she felt Booth's index finger against her lips, effectively silencing her. For a moment, the only sound she could hear was Christine's cooing right in front of her and she concentrated on it, the simple thought of knowing her daughter was fine and growing up to be a great person enough to help her regain control over her emotions.

"We're not leaving Christine's side, Bones." –Booth spoke softly, his hand cupping one side of his partner's face. She opened her eyes at the sound of his voice, her clear and vulnerable blue eyes fixed on his. – "We're gonna give our best to always protect her and help her be the best person she can be." – He smiled then, looking from his partner to their daughter and back to his scientist. – "And with you as her mother, our daughter is destined to be extraordinary, Bones."

"I don't believe in destiny." – She quickly replied, a small smile tugging on her lips.

"I still do." - She nodded, letting him know she knew what he meant. – "No one can blame you for letting this case hit you, Bones. Logically speaking, only now you know what it feels like to be a mother, how it would be like not be able to be one anymore so only now you're struggling with cases involving children because now you know how much they mean to someone else or, in our case, how much they should mean. It doesn't mean you're losing your objectivity or that you're less of a scientist now that you were during the case before. Don't be so hard on yourself."

She lifted her chin staring at his giant brown eyes. That was the moment in which she realized how lucky she was.

"I just want you to know, Booth, that even if Christine wasn't here, I'd love to be your lover. I never thought I would admit it to a male, but I don't know how harsh my life would have been if you weren't around. You have the qualities I don't have. You read through me like nobody else can. You're my partner and – as you said – that's what we do. And even if I try not to care, those cases are always going to affect me, because I've changed. I have a family now, I have a daughter, I have someone who loves me, someone who comes to me every night and shows me how much I am loved."

He cupped one side of her face again, pulling her closer to his face. Christine opened her eyes when Brennan touched her forehead with her index finger.

"You know what, Bones? I do that because I love you. Because I love her."- he stared at Christine- "Because I love us. And, I don't care how rich you are, how smart you are, how pretty you are. I am with you for who you are, because you complete me. And… And Christine is the tangible proof of how much we love each other. That's never gonna change, Bones."