A/N: How does the PhD program the interns are in work? What school is it through? How does any PhD program work? Who cares? Not me!

Dear Journal/Sweets,

I did it.

I really did it.

I submitted my PhD application.

Well, one of my PhD applications. But the most important one. The one to the program partnered with the Jeffersonian. The one I really, really want, more than anything.

I know that I've never had the real college experience, away from my parents, but… Aubrey is here. My whole life is here. And t's not like there's a forensic anthropologist anywhere in the world better than my mom, or a lab better than this one. I should keep learning from the best.

I'm so nervous. I mean, besides the whole "what if I don't get in because of grades or test scores or an interview etc. etc." (even though all of those things are good enough, I know that—and I come highly recommended by people from both the Jeffersonian and the FBI), there's this fear that I can't get in because it will look like nepotism, like they're taking me over someone more qualified, more deserving, because Dr. Brennan is my mom. What if I'm automatically disqualified?

I mean, Mom let me apply. Surely if there was a rule against it, she would have told me?

I submitted my application in Mom's office. It felt like an application to get to stay at the Jeffersonian, and so that's where I wanted to do it. I wanted it to be just for us, just Mom and me and my computer. I've wanted to be like her since the day that we met. She sat next to me as I decided that it was as perfect as it was going to get and pressed the button and sent it away, and she hugged me and told me she was proud of me and she loved me.

Will I get any sleep between now and the notification date?

Lily

"Really? EasyMac?" Aubrey asked, frowning at the empty plastic cup on the coffee table.

"What?" Lily frowned, looking up from where she was laying on the couch.

With a sigh, he crawled onto the couch so that he was over her, his elbows propping him up on either side of her ribs. He bent down to kiss her, pushing forward until his weight was on his forearms. She moved one of her legs between his, putting her hands on the sides of his face.

"What's wrong with EasyMac?" she asked seriously, pulling away.

"You know," he smirked, "sometimes I forget I'm dating a college student, and then something like this happens."

She frowned, letting her head drop back onto the pillow, nervously playing with the collar of his t-shirt.

"Does it bother you?" she asked in a small voice.

"Does what bother me?" He rolled over to lie on his side between her and the back of the couch, and she wiggled away to give him enough room. He reached a hand underneath her shirt to splay across her stomach, lazily running his fingertips across her skin.

"The age difference," she explained. "Does it bother you?"

He shook his head. "No." Then, he stilled his hand, looking concerned. "Does it bother you?"

"No, of course not. I just—I wondered if—if you ever wish you were dating someone not in college. Someone your own age."

"Hey." He pulled his hand from her stomach to lay it against her cheek, turning her face toward him. "No, because then that someone wouldn't be you." She blushed, but he didn't move his hand from the pink heat blossoming across her face. "It's important to me that you know that I am totally, madly in love with you. Forever." She nodded, and he kissed her on the forehead. "You're way smarter than me, anyway. Kinda evens it out."

She smiled, hitching her leg up over his hip and kissing him roughly.

"What's that cake for?" Lily asked, looking at the four cakes on the table in confusion, after everyone had congratulated Daisy on her new job.

"Which cake?" Brennan looked over them, trying to figure out which was unclear.

"The purple one. The one that says 'Congratulations, Lily'."

"That's for you," Brennan answered. "Isn't it obvious?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "But what is it for? What did I do?"

Brennan smiled. "You applied to the PhD program!"

"I get a cake for that?"

"Of course. It's a huge deal, and I'm very proud of you."

"But what if…" Lily looked around hesitantly, settling her eyes on the floor. "What if I don't get in?" she asked quietly.

Brennan walked around the table to her older daughter, putting her hands on her shoulders. "Then I will still be proud of you. But today is my birthday, and I say that you get a cake."

Lily smiled. "Thanks, Mom. You're the best."

Brennan winked. "I know."