This takes place sometime beyond season 8. Yorkey's Knob, Australia. I've never snorkeled before, and I hope that that fact isn't completely obvious in this chapter.

I don't own Bones.

Realization

It had been somewhat of a struggle to get her here. But that's how it always was with her. A struggle. A struggle that he never tired of, maybe even secretly enjoyed. She pushed him, prodded and poked, needled and jabbed but he couldn't imagine his life without the constant back and forth, without her. In fact, he flat out refused to imagine his life without her; it just wasn't going to happen.

The night brought relief from the heat, not much but some. Honestly, he didn't mind it. The warm air hugging them both as they lay on the large bed, limbs sprawled. He lay on his side facing her, and she lay on her stomach, her head turned away from him. There was a significant amount of space between them and his hand the only part of him touching her. He ran his fingertips over the lines of her back, following the contours of her body lazily. She was breathing easy, completely relaxed and every once in awhile she'd moan or sigh when he traced over a particular sensitive spot. She moved her leg over and hooked her foot around his leg.

"It's a little warm."

"Do you want me to turn the a/c on?"

"Mmm, maybe you could switch the fan on instead?"

Booth sat up in bed, and then stood on it, completely naked. His legs wobbled a little as he steadied himself before he reached up in the dark and fumble around for the short chain with the small gold ball on the end of it that he knew was there somewhere. Once he felt the thin piece of metal scrape against his fingers he grasped it tightly and yanked on it twice, setting the fan to a speed he knew she was most comfortable with. Once he was back and settled she turned from her side and faced him. She placed her hands under the side of her face so that her head was slightly propped. She pulled her legs up towards her chest like she always did when she was about to start a conversation in bed, and now her mouth was set into a firm line. He smiled a little.

"What's up, Bones?"

"Thank you for forcing me to come here."

The fan was blowing a gentle but steady breeze around their room now; making her hair move like it was dancing around her face, doing some kind of observance ritual dance in honor of her beauty. It must have tickled her because she suddenly scooped all of her hair in her hand and moved it to the other side of her neck where she could lay on it.

"I'd hate to feel like I forced you, Bones." He said, a little jokingly but a little serious too.

"I just meant, thank you for helping me to realize that this vacation was necessary. I am thoroughly enjoying myself."

He placed his hand or her arm gently, rubbing down to her elbow and then back up to where he started before giving her flesh a light squeeze.

"I am so happy that you're happy."

She moved into him then, snuggling into his chest and he wrapped his arm around her, tucking his fingers under the other side of her. Long moments passed and he was in that weird phase where you're still awake but you're also having these bizarre dreams where you suddenly find yourself falling and you twitch so hard you actually wake yourself up from the dream.

"Booth." She murmured sleepily.

"Yeah." He whispered back, tucking his hand in even more under her side.

"I wish we could stay like this forever." She mumbled.

The gravity of her words may have been lost on her in her sleepy state but they hit him like a brick to his chest. Of course she didn't mean literally. But, figuratively it meant so much to him, though it maybe meant nothing to her at all. By the time his mind stopped obsessing over her simple or maybe very complex confession he realized he hadn't responded to her and when he was about to he decided that maybe he should just let her fall asleep, finally. It was late and they had a lot planned for tomorrow.

"Booth." He heard barely as he was suddenly yanked back from drifting off into that weird dream phase again.

"Hmm." He muttered.

"I'm cold."

His eyes still closed, he pulled her closer. He moved his hand out from under her side and swept his large palm over her back, caressing her softly while he nuzzled his face into the side of her neck. He felt her lift her head a little bit in response giving him better access.

Her eyes were still closed as well; she was so very tired, but not tired enough to keep her from wanting him.

He opened his mouth against her neck so she could feel the hotness of his breath. He moved his lips against her skin grazing his chapped skin against her. His hand slid down her back and he moved it towards her thigh. He seemingly without effort lifted her leg and draped it over his waist. He felt her arm go around his back and she pulled them together even closer. Both of them on their sides, their fronts pressed together he slid into her and she sighed, long and hard. He opened his eyes then and kissed her lips. They stayed together without movement all except for their mouths and their heads as he kissed her deeply and without hurry like their night would last forever and the moon would become their sun.

She could feel him throbbing inside of her for awhile now and finally she moved against him, thrusting her hips into his, encouraging him. His mouth fell open and he let out a grunt. She did it again and again and again and soon he started meeting her with thrusts of her own. Eventually his movements became harder and more consistent and she stopped moving and just succumbed to his power, letting him do what he wanted to do. He twisted his fingers in her long brown hair and pulled hard as his last few thrusts had them both falling over the edge crying each other names; confessing adoration on her part and him promising devotion.

…

The day was cloudless, perfect, really. Perfection wasn't actually reality but she could dismiss that today. She could dismiss that for now because what her eyes were telling her as she swam just beneath the surface of the ocean was that the colors, the life, the peace, all separated from human life on land, was indeed perfect. Maybe she would have to study this some more. Maybe perfect wasn't defined the way it should be. Perhaps perfection and what could be was all up to each individual and less universal. Maybe if looked at on a smaller scale, perfect is real. The bright orange reef just under her stare seemed to nod in agreement with her as a school of saddleback butterfly fish swam by making it sway back and forth easily with the fish made current.

Booth tapped her arm and motioned that he was going up and she followed his lead. They penetrated the surface cascading water over their heads as they balanced themselves in four feet of water. He pulled his snorkel mask away from his eyes and let it sit against his forehead as she did the same. Breathing a little heavy they waited until each other caught their breath before speaking.

"Wow!" Booth laughed and gasped at the same time.

"Booth, this is so amazing! I could do this all day. I mean, even though I've snorkeled before this experience just feels so different. Better." She said, hoping that he could somehow make sense of what she was saying even if she couldn't.

He let out another laugh and wiped his hand over his face trying to clear any remnants of water.

"I could do anything with you all day, or much longer." He smiled sweetly at her.

She bobbed in the water, looking at him seriously for a moment.

"You ok?" He asked her. "You want to go back to the boat?" He looked over his shoulder to confirm that the boat was still there. It was.

"Yes, we can do that but I just…" She made a sound of frustration and took her eyes off of his for a moment as she tried to think of what she needed to say.

"It's just that everything that I've done in my life, all the places I've been… I wish to do it all over again so that I can experience them with you. I don't want to have any experiences without you." He could hear her voice crack and knew she was fighting back emotion and just the sight of her like this and her words triggered his own emotion to rally and he didn't want to fight it back. He moved closer to her.

"Bones, that's so sweet… I don't," he looked up at the sky silently trying to put his own thoughts together, "I don't want to ever be apart from you."

She looked a little relieved and that kind of crushed him.

"I love being here with you; I want to do more things like this. I want us to go places, do things, with Christine and Parker. I love you, I love our family. This is all that matters to me and I never want to experience anything without you either."

She was breathing harder now and he couldn't really understand what had gotten into her and he really didn't care to figure it out.

"You are perfect to me, Booth."

He cocked his head to the side not exactly sure what to say but trying to somehow find something that could follow such a statement.

"I don't know if I'm perfect Bones, but what I do know is that I will always do whatever I can for my family. My life is about you guys, and that's it."

She nodded and fell silent though the silence didn't last long before she was speaking again.

"You make me feel differently about things… you make me question things that I believed to be true. Concrete. Fact." She said in a low voice. The voice he knew meant she was on the verge of breaking down.

She stood up completely now and he wrapped his arms around her.

"God Bones, come here."

They hugged each other tight for a long while until she felt him pull her away from his chest. She looked into his eyes and she saw comfort. She saw his love, his protectiveness, his reassurance. She also saw a bit of terror and she felt his hands reach down between them and take hers into his. His were shaking.

"Let me promise you that you will never have to experience anything on your own again."

She looked confused, she wasn't sure where he was going but she trusted him so she kept her hands in his and he continued to drill straight into her eyes.

"In fact, let me promise you that you will never ever do anything on your own again, that you'll never actually be on your own again."

He was nearly panting now and she could fell a rush of warm air with each exhale of breath the came from his mouth and nose and she couldn't help but think how good it felt. She had gotten cold standing in the water and now he was here warming her, he was warming her and he didn't even realize it.

She must have gotten lost in the moment because she wasn't responding to him. She was staring past him, over his shoulder. "Bones." He said her name softly. "Let me…" He didn't know how it came to this. He didn't know why it came to this moment but he did know that it felt right. It felt like it was what he needed to do and he never went against his gut. Never. "Let me promise you." He swallowed hard and her eyes were back in his then.

"I will let you promise me." She said, tears beginning to prick at her eyes. "I will let you promise me." She said again, realizing the full meaning of what was actually happening right now.

He squeezed her hands tighter.

"So that means that you have to let me marry you." His voice so shaky it was nearly impossible to make out what he was saying. But she knew. She let her tears fall freely then, falling down her cheeks, falling off her face and into the water they were still standing in.

"You are a part of me Bones…" He choked, not sure exactly why he said that in that particular moment but he just did.

Sniffing and taking a long deep breath she moved a few strands of wet hair away from her face and looked him directly in the eye.

"You just proved my earlier point, Booth."

He didn't say anything. He couldn't say anything. What was she saying?

"You cause me to think differently about….everything."

He knew then. He knew. He used the pad of his thumb to brush away her tears and leaned into her.

"Thank you." He said and it wasn't a simple thank you. The words were heavy. His voice was heavy. His eyes were heavy and when his mouth fell to hers it was also heavy. He kissed her with every bit of happiness that he felt in that moment, wanting it to last…forever.

I just really wanted to write something with him proposing while they were on vacation. Now I really want to go snorkeling. Pretty colors!