"Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful." – Mark Victor Hansen
Confident(Cocky)
From the moment he had dumped it unceremoniously on his bed along with the rest of his clothes that he had gone into the hospital with it had been staring at him. He'd double-checked with Cam when she'd dropped him off that it belonged to him and despite the huge smirk of her face, he had to believe that she was telling the truth.
His first thought was, "Why?" He hated chickens in all forms, so to wear one, seemed more than a little strange. Then, of course, there was the obvious phallic reference and he wasn't really sure he wanted people's eyes to be drawn there all of the time; didn't seem like a serious "cop" thing to do. Finding his way back had definitely set his self-confidence back a notch, so it didn't sit well with him that way either.
The odd thing was, that he remembered it being in his coma dream. There, though, he thought it had been better placed. Jared, after all, had always been the more self-assured of the two Booth brothers and putting his sexual prowess on display seemed like something Jared would do too. But then, he also could've sworn that Cam was Jared's partner and that Bren was his wife, so the dream impressions could only get him so far.
The thing had really started eating at him once Bones was back and they were back to solving cases again. At the fountain she'd questioned his lack of garish socks, flashy ties, the belt buckle. Every day after that he'd questioned whether or not he should put it back on. The socks had been easy to go back to, being super comfy on his aching feet, not to mention they made him smile. The ties he wasn't so sure about, but he knew he'd get around to that eventually. The belt buckle, though made him wonder if he still even was the man who used to wear it.
Then came the call about the body on the tracks. He'd called Bones as usual and told her he'd swing by and pick her up on the way to the crime scene. He'd hung up, slid on a gray tie instead of his black one, and once again, the belt buckle had called to him. This time, instead of ignoring it, he picked it up, brushing his fingers against the smooth, cool metal and triggering a firestorm of memories. The ship. Completing the circuit. His rescue. Her graveside gift.
It still made him feel a little uncomfortable and he wasn't sure exactly why he was doing it, but he slipped it on anyway. If it was that important to her that she would replace it, well, he owed it to her to give it a shot. If, that is, she even noticed its return at all.