Given the number of alerts on this story, I'm going to say unfocused humor works for you guys? : )

There is nothing, NOTHING that annoys me more than fanfic writers changing Booth and Brennan's names once they're partners in *every* sense of the word. He will always be Booth to her (never Seeley) and she will definitely always, always be "Bones" (never Tempe, rarely Temperance). *shudders* And maybe, given the HH's song choice in the S5 finale, he could call her "Baby"… it's all about timing though. :)

If you don't grasp the concept, I'm not sure what show you've been watching. Maybe this here could convince you? *fingers crossed*


What's in a Name?

"So, I've been wondering about something…" Angela murmured, watching her best friend make herself a cup of coffee at the break area above the platform.

"What's that?" Brennan asked distractedly as she carefully stirs her drink to perfection.

"What do you call Booth?" Angela asked, unable to hide a grin.

Brennan gave her a patented "Are you stupid?" look and asked, "Is that supposed to be a hoax question?"

"Trick question, sweetie, the phrase is 'trick question' and no, this isn't one of them."

"I call Booth 'Booth,'" she said, sipping her coffee.

"Not just when you're working or talking or whatever. I mean, when you're, you know, in the throws of… you know."

"You mean when we're making love?" Angela chuckled at how that phrase has forever replaced the words 'sex' and 'coitus' in her friend's vocabulary when it comes to Booth.

"I've told you that Booth prefers that I don't discuss details and I want to respect his wishes, Ange."

"I'm not asking for measurements or a performance report. Although…" Brennan gave her a pointed stare and Angela raised her hands in concession.

"Come on Bren, just give me a little something to go with for my imagination."

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with you imagining what you want to imagine. And besides, why would I call Booth something other than Booth when we're in bed?"

"Well, he has another name. Do you ever call him 'Seeley'?"

"Booth doesn't like his first name. Why would I call him a name he doesn't like?"

"It just strikes me that… um… people, you know… women, who he has been with in the past call him Seeley."

"By people, I'm assuming you mean Cam and Hannah?"

"And Tessa. And Rebecca too, if I recall."

"Yes, they all called him his first name. I don't see your point."

"Well, why don't you call him by his first name?"

Brennan made a face. "That would be akin to him calling me Temperance. That sounds… wrong."

"What sounds wrong?" said the man in question, bounding up the stairs and toward the women.

"Angela wants to know if I'm ever inclined to call you 'Seeley.'"

"Oh God… please, don't start doing that," he responded and she chuckled at the nearly horrified look on his face.

"Other people call you Seeley, Booth. Other women," Angela drawled out.

"Other men have called me Temperance, but that doesn't mean I want Booth to start referring to me by my first name."

"Why not?" Angela asks.

"Because she's Bones."

"My name is Bones."

They answered simultaneously and shared one of those looks that Angela's knows means a whole meaningful conversation is taking place under the guise of a glance.

Because with that look, he doesn't say that Seeley is the name his Mom used to cry and his Dad used to yell in a drunken rage, just before he was about to take hit from a fist or a kick from a boot.

And with that look, she doesn't say that Temperance isn't even her real name, but a false identity her bank robbing parents gave her while trying to hide from the law for a decade before they abandoned her altogether.

He doesn't say that Booth is what he went by once he got off the streets of Philly and into the army, where for the first time, he became his own man and when people call him Seeley, it's either because they were either a part of his dark past or because he's never let them in far enough for them to know any better.

She doesn't say that she likes 'Bones' because the man who nicknamed her became the first person to give her a place and a person to belong to since she was a child, when he swore "I know who you are," despite her different identities, her celebrity status and her academic reputations.

"So it's decided," Angela said, in an attempt to lighten the mood. "You don't call her Temperance and she doesn't call you Seeley," she said, pointing at them respectively.

"I don't believe it was a decision of recent consequence but your conclusion is correct."

"So, in bed, you're just 'Booth and Bones?'" Angela asked, seeing Booth's face twitch with a grin he tried to cover.

Brennan saw the twitch too and rolled her eyes. "Come on…" Angela prodded.

"He may…" Brennan started with a huff. "From time to time, he calls me 'baby.'"

Angela let out a shocked squeak. "And you let him get away with that?"

Booth chose this moment to put his arm around and whisk his eye-rolling forensic anthropologist back to her office, but still managed to throwback over his shoulder, "She's usually a little too busy thanking God to call me on it."

"Booth!" Brennan shouted, landing a playful smack to his shoulder.

"Geez, Bones, you're such a prude."

"Just so you know, this will someday be a baby," she said, placing her hand on her abdomen, "while I am a fully-grown woman."

"Yeah you are," he murmured knowingly.

"And here I thought pregnancy was supposed to make me more amorous," she shot back sarcastically.

"Apparently, it works both ways… Baby."

The partners didn't notice that Angela continued to follow them with eyes and ears, listening to their banter until they were back in Brennan's office, working on the case. After putting up with seven years of nearly unbearable sexual tension, she figured she'd earned it.


I'd love to know your thoughts... or if you are someone who *needs* more convincing that changing their names is like breaking a Bones commandment. Just Saying… :)