Smile

Smiles are a funny thing. Though, the exact count is disputed from doctor to doctor, it takes no less than twelve muscles to form an authentic one. The corners of the lips must rise, along with the nose. The angle of the mouth must be elevated and its corners be pulled sideways. Finally, each of the eyes must crinkle slightly; though some would argue that a smile begins in the eyes and radiates throughout the entire face from there.

Smiles can be used for all sorts of purposes. There is the sardonic smile, used to convey sarcasm or cynicism. The smirk, for teasing; the closed smile for when you don't agree with someone, but you must for courtesy's sake. Smiles can convey pleasure, pride, or even pain. If you become exceptionally good, no one can tell whether you are smiling because you are genuinely happy, or because you are masking a hidden heartache. A smile can light up a room and swell the heart.

As a one-time student of the human psyche, as well as a current student of the human body, Daisy Wick has seen each of these smiles on the faces of her co-workers at the Jeffersonian. She knows that she is looked down on by them for being too chipper, too eager to please- and possibly for smiling too much- but she cannot help herself. Her parents are dour, cheerless people who never once praised her for her achievements great or small and so she seeks the approval of others in the only way she knows how.

So when the inevitable comes to pass and she is released from her coveted position as Dr. Brennan's grad student, she once again resorts to a smile. It is a sad one at first, but the man in front of her has one of the kindest smiles she has ever seen. She reads the love in his eyes and feels it in the short kiss that they share on the forensic platform. And she suddenly realizes that she might not have a job, but she finally has a reason to really smile.