Disclaimer: See first chapter.

A/N: Sorry for the long delay. School was kicking my butt and I had two classes with finals and final papers. But I'm done now, and actually sitting on the airplane on my way home. Did I mention I got a new laptop that actually works so I can now use it as a portable computer instead of being restricted to somewhere where I could ice it down (the fan broke and the heat fried the hard drive)? It's very nice. And very energy efficient when you don't use the internet.

So! My reasoning for the other side of the argument, that it's Booth who knows about his feelings and fights them every day. Aside from the finale, I have a few pieces of evidence. Generally, when something is the heart of the matter to you, you aren't that thing. Therefore, saying Bones is the heart of the matter is saying it's Booth. Also, he's the emotional one. Brennan is logical to the point of almost not believing in love (like that conversation where she tells Booth she wants to be able to believe in forever and relationships like everyone else), so she's capable of writing her attraction off as merely physical, based on the fact that he meets the criteria for a goo mate, anthropologically speaking. I can't see Booth sharing that information with Sweets without some serious feelings for Brennan, and he's in touch with his emotions enough to know it. Come on, he reveals this massive secret that is obviously a source of personal pain and probably some guilt (Catholic, remember?), and then turns around and asks if SHE'S okay? So here you go. Car ride from Booth's point of view, with him knowing he loves Bones.

Youth, Part 2

There was nothing but silence on the car ride back to his apartment. Even Sweets didn't have anything to say. Of all the things that had been revealed that evening, Brennan's was likely the worst. They all had their demons, but he'd taken the liberty of checking out Sweets when he started working with them, and he knew he'd been adopted at a relatively young age. His father had been abusive, but he hadn't known anything else and he'd had his grandfather. Brennan, though...

She'd grown up in a loving family, with parents who were, okay, criminals, but ones who had gotten out of the life. She'd had a brother who protected her and always made sure she knew he was there. And then, in a brief period of time, she'd lost it all. Her father, her mother, her brother... she'd gone into foster homes, where he'd always thought she'd been unhappy but generally safe. Now? Now he wanted to hunt down every one of her foster parents, find out which one had locked her in that trunk, and kill them. Slowly. Painfully. Maybe put them in the trunk of that car.

They'd taught her that mistakes were unforgivable. She had such a well-developed sense of right and wrong, and being told that wrong became right if you warned people it was happening would have confused her young mind. No wonder she pushed herself so hard, held herself to such a high standard. There was so much he couldn't take away about her life, so much he couldn't fix for her because it was indelibly etched in her memory, but he could definitely take care of her now.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd felt this protective. He knew on some level he should be worried, because violence outside of fighting for his country in one way or another was something he avoided, because he knew too well what a man with his strength and training could do to another person who couldn't defend themselves. This should scare him, because he should be worried he was turning into his father.

He spent the first fifteen minutes plotting the death of her foster parents and the next ten trying to figure out why he felt free to do so without worrying he'd actually go and do anything.

When the answer came, it was so simple he was surprised he'd taken so long to realize it.

He wasn't going to find the horrible people who'd abused Brennan because she didn't want him to, didn't want him to hurt anyone if he could help it. Despite the things she'd seen, despite being held prisoner by some warlord in South America and being locked in the trunk of a car for two days and losing her parents and being kidnapped by the Gravedigger and finding out her father was a murderer and risking prison to keep him out of it and losing Zach to Gormagon and all bodies she saw and all the horrific things people did to each other, she still had a heart, buried in there somewhere where she hid it for her own protection. She believed he was a good man, so he could be one.

He glanced over at her face, set in her normal stoic mask but with a hint of tear tracks on her cheeks, and realized something important.

There was nothing he wouldn't do for this woman.

But as she turned her head to look at him and he saw that she was still on the verge of tears, he decided that was best saved for another day.

He had time.

A/N: After the second to last episode of the season, I couldn't resist the last line. Next word is zed.