Rebecca loved to run.

The habit had started in her early teens because there was nothing like a good argument with her parents to motivate Rebecca to get out of the house for a run.She got up every morning before school an hour earlier, slipped into her sweats and sneakers, and jogged around the block three times. This was her time for solace, her time when she could block out everything: her parent's increasingly vicious arguments, her little sister throwing tantrums, and the pressure that she received about school. She cherished this time, because it let her get away from everything for an hour every day while still giving her mother the illusion that they got along fine.

When she got to high school, she decided to join the track team on a whim. She signed up for the long distance running, where she would be required to run a minimum of three miles at practice every other afternoon, record her times with the coach, and compete in track meets once a month. Rebecca was dedicated to the team, never missing a practice. However, she never really interacted socially with the other runners. She still had the mindset that running was her alone time, and she hated when any of the other runners tried to run alongside her and make idle conversation. Sometimes, Rebecca even brought her small CD player with her and held it in one hand while she circled the track to ward off chatty teammates. Rebecca stayed on the track team until senior year, and by that time pretty much everybody knew that you shouldn't disturb Rebecca while she was running.

However, one day that all changed. Rebecca was a senior at that time, and she had not gone to school that day because of a doctor's appointment. She didn't want to miss track though, so she headed back to the school and met up with the rest of the team as usual. She had just started her loops around the track when a tall, dark-haired boy started running next to her. Rebecca tried to ignore him for a few minutes, hoping that he would get the hint. He didn't.

"Hi, I'm Seeley Booth, but I just go by Booth. I'm new here. Just moved from Philly over the weekend."

He waited for a moment for Rebecca to respond before he asked. "Who are you?"

"Not interested," she tossed out over her shoulder as she sped up.

Rebecca had seen his type before- star athlete, smooth and hoping for a chance with her. Rebecca wasn't a prude, oh no. She was one of the more popular girls in school, and she had spent some private time with some of the boys that were in her circle of friends. She might have even given this new kid a chance- after all, he was gorgeous, and his type. She couldn't ignore the little feeling she had in her stomach when she had glanced back at him. But she wouldn't give him a chance, because he had so rudely interrupted her running. After all, the other kids must have warned him to stay away while she was running.

While Rebecca's thoughts were whirling around this new boy, she failed to notice that he had caught up with her. She gave him a scathing look, then switched lanes and sped up again. He moved alongside her like a shadow. Pretty soon, she was switching lanes every few meters and speeding up, then slowing down right along with her. To anybody that didn't know what was going on, they would have looked crazy- and they did.

Once Rebecca had finished her required miles for the day and some extra, she signed out with the coach and loped off towards the locker rooms for a shower, barely sparing a contemptuous glance towards this Seeley Booth. She thought she had finally lost him as she stepped out of the locker rooms, dressed in clean clothes and smelling like apples. She was sadly mistaken when she saw him leaning against her silver four door sedan.

"Stalker much?" She called out as she popped open the trunk to throw her bag in.

He just grinned.

Rebecca rolled her eyes, bid him a frosty farewell, and set her car in reverse, making him jump off the hood in surprise.

The next day, and the day after that, and so on, Rebecca would start running and then Seeley would catch up with her. He obviously hadn't heard, or hadn't heeded the warnings about her by their teammates because he still continued to run alongside her every day. Sometimes it was her, sometimes it was him that set the pace. They built up a sort of silent comradeship, and on the night of the senior prom, they fell into bed together.

They began to date, and unsurprisingly enough, most of their dates took place right after track practice. They had just settled into a comfortable balance of school, family, and running, when Rebecca received the news that she had received a full scholarship from University of Michigan. There was never any question that she would go. She loved to run, and in return for it, she would be getting a free, top-notch education.

They broke up at graduation, and went their separate ways. Rebecca went to college three months later, and Seeley disappeared to who-knows-where. Rebecca was a runner for the university, and it was unsurprising that her old rules immediately shifted back into place: she ran alone. Just like in high school, her teammates respected this. She continued at college for four years, when a twist of fate brought her and Seeley back together again. They met up for coffee that night, slept together, and when they woke up in the morning amidst tangled sheets, they went for a jog together. After they came back, they spent the entire day in bed together.

Thoughts plagued both of their minds, but they agreed that this couldn't happen again. Seeley was leaving for a special mission, and Rebecca was thinking about graduate school. Neither of them was thinking about the tiny human life growing inside Rebecca that very moment.

Nine months later, Parker was born. Seeley wasn't there; he was on a mission in Iraq. Naturally, he had been thrilled when he received the news three days later. He came home soon enough to see the baby, and was only slightly surprised when Rebecca greeted him at her apartment door dressed in a jogging outfit and sneakers.

"I haven't ran in nearly two months. I am going stir crazy and I need to get out of the house and away from the baby and you can watch him for twenty minutes, right?" Without waiting for a response, Rebecca dashed out the door and into the elevator.

Rebecca's run that day had been her best ever. Though she was out of shape and heavier than she used to be, that wonderful burning feeling in her legs and lungs, the sound of her feet slapping the pavement, was like coming home. On her run she could pretend that she and Seeley were still together, that she wasn't a single mom, that her dreams hadn't come true like she thought they would. She couldn't fool herself for long, and when she got back to the apartment, she laid Parker in the bassinet and tugged Booth into bed, not caring that she was sweaty and her stomach was loose from having Parker. They spent that wonderful day together, and when they finished, Booth asked Rebecca to marry him. She said no and he left.

She spent the next five years in a blur, juggling her time with Parker, work, and her family. She didn't get to run as often as she would have liked to- and some part of her felt like something was missing. She didn't feel like Rebecca the Runner anymore- she felt like Parker's mom and the Head of Marketing. She tried to fix this missing piece by being with Seeley off and on between boyfriends, but it was never the same. They had lost their silent, slow burning fire.

One morning, she had dropped Parker next door and taken a long, luxurious run that made her feel invigorated, happy, and purposeful. She felt like her old self again when she was running, and she ran all the way to Seeley's apartment. It was still early morning, so she had let herself in and joined him in bed. They had just finished and were getting dressed when Booth's phone had rang. He was getting dressed, so she answered it.

"Hello, Agent Booth's phone," she greeted the caller with a distracted air.

"Oh. I'm sorry. This is, uh, Temperance Brennan. Is Agent Booth… there?" came a voice on the other line.

"Doctor Brennan! I've heard about you. Yeah, he's here, hold on," she then tossed the phone and a smile to Booth before heading out the door. Because she had seen it in his eyes when he had heard Doctor Brennan's name- that look, that feeling that had always been missing from their relationship.

In that one moment, Rebecca knew what she had to do. She would stop going to Seeley whenever she needed some comfort, whenever she needed to feel like her old self. Because it wasn't fair to him, or to her, or even to Parker, to keep pretending. From now on, she would just stick to her running as her getaway.

-----------------------------THE END-----------------------------------------------------

Authors Note: I decided to write this little one-shot because I, for one, don't know much about Rebecca, as you can probably tell because I never even mentioned her last time. I thought that her character was interesting, and wanted to explore it a little bit more. This idea came to me while I was on a run, and I inadvertently applied some of my running history to Rebecca's character. Hopefully, you all thought this was interesting and not completely horrible- please read and review, I'm nervous about posting here! (The Bones section of this site is pretty intimidating!)

Thanks for reading!