Disclaimer: See first chapter.
A/N: Okay! So you people get a bonus to make up for my incredible lateness! Because I can't decide whether I think Gordon was talking about, for several reasons. That scene in Sweets office could go either way. Many people on hulu seemed to think he meant Brennan, because of the title change. And I agree, looking at it, that it could mean Brennan is the one fighting her feelings every day. And I think she's logical enough to know she's got a thing for him and fight it. Also, she pushes him to admit his problems and talk about the emotions he would rather pretend he doesn't have, like those relating to the war or his childhood. So this is version one, where Bones is the one fighting her feelings. And then you'll get version two, where it's Booth.
Youth, Pt. 1
The car ride back to Booth's place was slightly awkward. There was silence. Lots and lots of silence.
She spent the first five minutes mulling over the obvious confusion and her apparently classic lack of understanding of real meaning. Scars on the back was apparently not even metaphorical. It was apparently code for "Go get Sweets and bring him back for dinner."
And so she'd shared something she'd never told anyone, something she'd been keeping a secret since it had happened, told it to Sweets... and Booth. And then she'd forced Booth to share his secret. She'd prodded him, used the eyes... yes, she did know what effect she could have on someone if she tried. She didn't use it often, because it was an emotional look and she wasn't often so lost in those emotions that she could conjure it up, but...
The rest of the ride she spend contemplating one incredibly scary fact: she very nearly never got to meet Booth. Without his grandfather, he said he might have killed himself, and that was possibly the most frightening thing she'd ever heard. She wasn't used to being this afraid of a possibility that no longer even applied.
She consoled herself with the thought that Booth was Catholic, and suicide was so far beyond a sin there was no chance he would ever consider it now. But the idea that he could have died before she met him, the idea that she could have lost him because he felt there was no reason for him to stay alive...
She'd figured out a long time ago that she was very attracted to Booth. It was a logical reaction: he was attractive, he was a good father, a soldier who'd proved his ability to provide, to protect. Beyond that, he was kind, he had the emotional and people skills she lacked, and on a purely objective level she was sure he was a good lover.
The fact that he'd revealed something so personal to Sweets, who he thought of as a kind of immature, unrealistic kid brother, just because she asked him to, and then to turn around and instantly ask if she was alright? There was this curious melting feeling in the general vicinity of her heart, which made no sense whatsoever because the heart was NOT the center of emotion and it was completely illogical.
But if there was one thing Booth was making her realize, just because something was illogical didn't mean it couldn't affect someone. And sometimes the illogical things actually made life amazing in ways none of her science could explain.
A/N: Next chapter is Young, Pt. 2.