Thai

Summary: Brennan's ruminations at the end of the workday. Set sometime in season 4 (pre-Michelle, pre-Roxie/Angela breakup).

Temperance Brennan was done working for the day.

It was something rare. Something… not really ever seen by human eyes. She leaned against the railing of the lounge and watched her co-workers leave to go home for the night.

Cam left first, around half-past five. She could leave whenever she wanted; she was the boss. But Brennan supposed it was unfair to judge her for this; Cam was a capable administrator, and apart from that it was obvious that she really cared about the team. She ruminated for a moment on what Cam would go home to. She wasn't sure if she had anyone to go home to… it dawned on her that she knew very little about the personal life of her immediate superior. She'd never asked, she supposed.

Hodgins and Angela left around the same time, a vestigial habit of their long-gone love affair. Brennan wondered if they ever met on their way to their respective vehicles, whether accidentally or otherwise.

Angela would go home to Roxie, though not to one domicile that they cohabited, because Roxie had denied her request that they move-in together. Hodgins would go home to his empty mansion, passing the garage, besieged by memories of its former inhabitant. The thought made Brennan feel an upsurge of affection and sympathy for the bugs'n'slime guy. She knew how she felt to have a void left by the betrayal of a loved one. She knew it several times over.

The building continued to empty and she stayed stationary from her perch overlooking the platform. If anyone asked, Brennan wouldn't be able to tell them why she was still hanging around the office; she had identified her last remains nearly an hour ago. She was waiting for something. She wasn't consciously aware of what this thing was, but she somehow just knew it was coming.

The last other employee of the Jeffersonian medico-legal lab made his way through the doors to the exit, glancing at the enigmatic author as he did so. Three years ago, the sight would have saddened him, but he knew better now. Lonely as she may have looked, there was a hole in her life that had been filled with Som Tum and partnership and fried rice and love. He smiled as the FBI agent passed him going in the other direction, clutching paper bags of crispy noodles and companionship.

She smelled the mee krob and pad thai faintly at first, and at first heard no sign of her partner approaching. She wondered vaguely if it simply was a misfiring of neurons before whirling around to see her partner, grinning that familiar grin.

"You shouldn't sneak up on people like that," she chided, "As a former sniper, you have an unfair advantage,"

He bowed his head in mock apology, "My deepest regrets, madam," he held the bags out to her and gestured her to the nearest couch, "I come bearing gifts,"

She settled down on the couch next to him and pulled the nearest carton towards her, relaxing into the cushions in a manner so complete she never would have thought it possible before she met him. Her mind flashed back to her colleagues' departure into their own lives and realized that her life was sitting next to her, and she'd never felt so fully complete and less alone. There was more to it than this, of course, but it was a good metaphor. Thai was her favourite food. Thai never let her down. He was her favourite person who never let her down, and for the time being, there was no place in the world she'd rather be, and quite honestly nothing she'd rather be eating.

She broke her chopsticks and sighed contentedly as she viewed her partner through a sidelong glance.

He caught her contagious smile and inquired, "what are you smiling about, Bones?"

She simply shrugged, holding his eyes for a moment before returning to her dinner, "I like Thai."

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Up next: last one, more Brennanthoughts, this time on the recent changes in her life and all of its newfound interconnections with those around her.