Alrighty, here's another update. The big enchilada from Booth. Hopefully.

"But as I wrote you that note I realized that Hodgins was right. Even though we were in a desperate situation, and even though it seemed like our last ditch attempt to get out was probably going to kill us before it saved us, I still believed that you would get us out. And that was the most irrational thought of all. It really, truly was faith. Is faith. Will always be faith. And that's also when I realized that I loved you."

Chapter Ten~ It's Not Just You

Whenever Booth imagined this scenario in his head, damaged or otherwise, he always saw himself saying those words first. Then, inevitably, the scene would go one of three ways: She would say she loved him back and throw herself into his arms, she would laugh heartily and pretend it never happened, or she would run for the furthest archeological dig she could find. He never, not once, imagined that she would be the one to say it first. So he hoped that she would understand if it took him a few minutes for his brain to register just exactly what was happening here.

"Booth?" Brennan nervously twisted her fingers together, trying unsuccessfully to decipher the look on his face. She'd never seen anything like it. It was almost as if he had, as Angela would say, "gone bye-bye". Brennan had never understood that saying until this moment. "Booth? You're scaring me. Are you okay?"

He finally brought his head up to look into her clear, gorgeous, worried blue eyes. "Bones?"

"Seriously, Booth. You're not making me feel very comfortable here. Did I say something wrong?" Oh God, she had. He didn't feel the same way…her heart plummeted into her stomach. Then, she realized that his eyes weren't unfocused like she thought they were. He was crying!

Without another rational thought, Brennan launched herself onto the sofa and into his arms, clutching him desperately and releasing three years of pent-up tension as she sobbed against his shoulder. Booth held onto her tight, rubbing soft circles on her back and holding her just as tightly, getting his tears under control as her breath began to hitch and her sobs subsided. He finally leaned back, pulling her head away from his shoulder so he could look her in the eye.

"I love you too, Bones."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Why didn't…how…but you said…"

"I know, and it was the single dumbest thing I've ever said in my entire life."

*sniff* "I agree."

"I'm so proud of you, Temperance."

"Me? Why?"

Booth pulled her close again and kissed her temple lovingly. "Because you did something that I have been trying to get the courage to do for over two years now. You put your heart out there and trusted me to catch it, and I couldn't seem to trust you the same way. You're amazing, and I don't deserve you."

Brennan shook her head. "Admittedly, I had the easier task. I had the advantage of having you to declare my love to. I, however, am a little harder to make that kind of confession to. I understand that. You were afraid I would either balk or run."

"I still should have trusted you."

"And you always have. I know you've been conflicted. But there is one thing I did want to know."

"What's that?"

"Why did you add that qualifier at the end, when you said you loved me? After the clown…"

Booth sighed and pulled her off his lap and onto the sofa cushion. "It's a long story…"