Story title: The way they are
Part 2/?
Disclaimer: No, they're not mine. Doesn't mean I don't want Booth/David/Angel ...I'll take any form of him you can come up with. :p No infringement is intended, and I'm not making any money out of this.
31. Passion
Intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction
He is passion, in everything he does.
There is a certain odd enthusiasm to every new case, an undercurrent of the kind of passion you'd expect to see displayed in a more romantic setting, and yet there it is, in plain sight for everyone to see. The thing with Booth, she's decided, is that he doesn't seem content with doing things half-way. Either he's all in, or he's out.
He's usually all in. Passionate can sometimes mean stubborn, obnoxious and obtuse, but it can also help solve crimes. Most of the time he's a little too confident, a little too sensitive, a little too open, but loath as she was to admit it at first, it works for him.
Anthropologically speaking, it makes no sense. Self-preservation should kick in. His first instinct should be to protect himself, isolate his emotions. It's what he should do. It's what they both should do. It's what she tries to do.
Yet, at times, he even manages to influence her, drag her into his web of emotions, and she becomes this woman she hardly recognizes. She isn't sure she dislikes the woman she sees herself becoming sometimes, but one thing she is sure of is that she doesn't know how to deal with her.
She's seen it with Parker too. Granted, she hasn't seen much of them, just a few glimpses here and there, but from that and a few phone conversations she's overheard when he thinks she isn't paying attention, she's gathered enough. It's not that he would give up his life for the little boy, and she doesn't doubt that he would, it's that he would give up his time. She doesn't fully understand why taking a kid to a baseball game would take precedence over well-earned sleep, or a much-needed drink after a particularly hard case, and she doesn't think she ever will.
She is less likely to ever understand why that simple baseball game would be treated with such reverence, create such joy. She can understand duty, but when she looks into his eyes, she doesn't see an obligation; she sees passion.
Even in his choice of food there is a trace of passion, for he doesn't eat, he savors food. And not the silly 'stare into the abyss as he chews' kind of savor, no, the full-blown 'look at you while his eyes roll and little noises escape his lips' type that makes her a bit weak in the knees.
It's in those moments that she wonders what it would be like to be the sole recipient of that passion.
But she never lets that thought go any further. Sure, he can be passionate about his work, his kid, his life. He can be passionate about his commitment to their partnership. Hell, he can even be passionate about his eating choices.
But she never lets herself consider how passionate he could be about other things.
A passionate lover is a thought she will admit to herself, but then again Temperance isn't strange to lust, doesn't bother to deny what's merely human nature. She finds Booth attractive; she's known this for a while now. That doesn't affect their working relationship – it doesn't have to.
What she won't ever let herself consider is the possibility that a man who puts so much passion into the simplest things could love just as passionately as he lives.
To be continued ...
A/N: And we change POV's with this one. I've got a little plan of mixing it up, maybe one Brennan, one Booth. I'm very sorry this took so long, blame the 'cold' of DEATH. I should post at least one, if not two a week, if all goes well. Thank you very much to and who took the time to review. Shame on the rest of you ...I can see the hit count. So where are my reviews? pouts It may sound cliche but reviews DO make authors work faster.