Been there, done that, blahblahblah. This general storyline has been done by millions of others but I really wanted to use the quote: "The families that we are given and the families that we find," which is credited to my friend Chloe's poem dedication that she read at Baccalaureate when we graduated. Also, I originally wrote this story for the "Family" theme and then decided that I wanted to use it for "Blood" instead.

Thank-yous go out to SapphireDesire for beta-ing, and more thank-yous go out to everyone who's added me to their various alerts and favorites lists and for reviewing :) It really makes my day.

Lastly, updates might become more sporadic. I'm kind of burning out on life at the moment which leaves me with little energy for anything but dragging my ass out of bed for work and class.


Blood

She stood up at the balcony in the lounge, watching, not quite ready to join yet.

They were all there: Booth, Hodgins, Angela, Cam, Max, Russ, Zach, hell, even Sweets. She couldn't remember why they had all gathered, just that they had. The why wasn't all that important anyway.

She liked watching them all, together. Rare were the moments when she could just observe them all, even rarer was when she could observe them all at once. Every time, though, she was intrigued by how her families meshed. She had two families: her biological one and her non-biological one.

Her non-biological family was larger, and more eclectic. Her biological family consisted solely of her brother and her father. Well, there were her aunts, but she wasn't sure yet if she wanted to contact them. So for now they didn't count.

Someone downstairs asked where she was. She heard Booth answer, "I think she went to the bathroom. She'll be back in a few minutes, I'm sure." He knew she wasn't in the bathroom. And he knew that she knew that he was absolutely aware of where she was. She liked that, though, that she had someone back in her life who cared about where she was all the time. Not to mention the fact that he understood that sometimes she just needed some time to herself.

She continued watching, and mulling (despite the fact that she told Cam it was a waste of time) over her two families.

Her biological family was back, but she couldn't trust them. Not the way she did before. Once someone has left, there's always the risk they'd do it again. It's easier the second time. You've got that history, that past of having left and knowing that everyone had survived in your absence. Surviving didn't necessarily mean surviving unscathed, though.

Max had come back. But he never stayed for long. At first it was because Booth was trying to arrest him. Once he was acquitted he left again, only to reappear months later instead of years, suddenly wanting a job at the lab so he could be around more. He'd proven that he would return, but she could never predict exactly when he would come back. That unpredictability unsettled her and it certainly didn't engender a return to the absolute trust she used to have in him.

Russ had come back, too, though mostly at Booth's insistence. She wouldn't even have talked to him if Booth hadn't forced her to. And while he was easier to find than Max most of the time, he lived in North Carolina and had Amy and her girls to take care of. It's not that he didn't care, but he had his own life. Had had his own life for so long that she didn't really factor in anymore. She was no longer very high on his list of priorities. Marco and Polo had fallen to the wayside.

Regardless, they were her biological family, therefore, she cared for them. That's just how it works. She didn't, however, care for them as much as she cared for her non-biological family.

This family had accumulated over time. She hadn't even realized that she'd accumulated them until Booth pointed it out. It started with Angela, but as she continued working at the Jeffersonian, they just kind of stuck around and were absorbed.

Stuck around. That's the key part. These are the people who, for the last few years of her life, have stuck by her. They have worked, searched, fought, cried, and laughed together. These were the people she turned to (as much as she dared) when things got rough. These were the people who searched for her when she was kidnapped. These were the people who hugged her when they found her. These were the people who understood that just because she didn't react "normally" that it doesn't mean she doesn't feel the same way they do. Well, they mostly realized that.

They took care of her, made sure she ate, slept, pushed forward, fought, and everything in between. Without them, without this family, she wouldn't be where she is today. Without them she wouldn't have found her biological family again. Without them she wouldn't be the happiest she's been in years.

"Whatcha thinkin' 'bout, Bones?" It's become increasingly rare that he's been able to sneak up on her, but he still managed occasionally.

"The families that we are given and the families that we find."

"Very introspective. Are you coming to positive conclusions or negative ones?" He leaned backwards against the balcony next to her, so that their sides touched.

"A little bit of both." She didn't move to face him, preferring to continue leaning on her elbows, looking down at her families instead. "My biological family has come back, but I think I like my non-biological family better. I'm not sure yet if that's okay."

"Ah."

They stood in silence for a moment before Booth spoke again. "You know, I can understand why you might like the family you found better."

"Yeah?" She shifted to look at him.

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Well, like I told you before, if you know that your family's going to hurt you tomorrow, how do you forgive that? Your family, your father and brother, they did something terrible. And, sure, they're trying to atone for that now, but how do you really, totally and absolutely, forgive them for hurting you like they did? You can't. It's not something that you, that anyone, can ever fully forget. And there's always the risk that they'll do it again." He looked at her earnestly, "I like Max and Russ, you know that, but what they did to you? I'm not sure that's something that anyone can ever fully recover from. It's no wonder you think you like your other family better. And that's not a bad thing. We, your other family, we haven't hurt you like that, and there's a hope in you that we won't. There's still the fear that we will, but you'd rather hope that we won't right now. This makes it easier to like us more, because it's not yet fact, it's not yet definitive that we'll hurt you. And maybe, just maybe, we won't ever." He paused, "Blood isn't everything, Bones. Sometimes the ties to the people you choose are stronger and more meaningful than the blood ties you couldn't choose for yourself."

She smiled. "Thanks, Booth."

"Like I told you before, you're not a bad anything." He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "Come on, Bones. Let's get back to your birthday party. People have been wondering where you disappeared to."