Story title: The way they are
Part 6/?
Disclaimer: Can I have Booth? Be like Brennan? No? Dang it....*sighs* Oh yeah ...not mine. No infringement is intended, and I'm not making any money out of this.
28. Hope
To desire with expectation of obtainment
To her, he is hope.
She isn't used to expecting good things from life. In her experience, when you expect good things, life hardly ever delivers. It's much more sensible to expect the worst, because that way, you're always prepared when life deals you a shitty hand. It's been her approach for many years, and she's used to it, has come to depend on it.
He, on the other hand, is always filled with optimism, despite all the awful things he's seen and done. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and she often worries about it being trampled by the many hardships they encounter along the way. But nothing seems to faze him, and he always emerges from difficulties with his heart on his sleeve, and hope shinning bright in his eyes.
She wonders if it has something to do with bringing a child to this world that makes you an eternal optimist, mostly, because you have to be. If you can't believe you've brought your child into a world where he'll find something other than pain, then what's the point of bringing it into the world in the first place.
That's where they differ, she thinks. She sees that there are more bad things in this world than good – can't stare at life through rose-colored glasses and try to paint everything in a favorable light just because some things, like friendship, she's discovered lately, are worth fighting for. It doesn't mean the rest of the world is worth it.
And, yet he seems to think it does. To her hope is an isolated thing, she can have hope in people and place her expectations on certain things, but to him, hope is an encompassing sentiment. He cannot be hopeful just about certain things, no. He is just hopeful.
She realizes, one day, after a particularly hard case, as she sits next to him, her head resting against his shoulder as he stares ahead, saying nothing, that the spark she sees in his eyes isn't one of hope for the world. He sees the world as a better place than she does, but that spark doesn't have a thing to do with the world, and a lot to do with her.
He has hope that one day, she'll see things the way he does.
She isn't ready to admit it, not out loud, anyway, but she suspects he'll see right through her with just one look if she raises her head in this particular moment. Instead, she holds onto him more tightly, and closes her eyes firmly, because she might be many things, but brave doesn't feel like one of them at the time. And, when his hands cover hers she let's out a deep breath and opens up her heart to the knowledge that to her, he is hope.
Hope of a better today, hope of a clearer yesterday, and sometimes, when they're just sitting side by side in silence after a case, like today, she lets herself consider the hope of a happy tomorrow.
To be continued ...