Disclaimer: I don't own Bones.

Prompt #34: Knight - The title applied - he protected her every single day from the dragons they hunted. And he did look damn good in that standard-issue body armor...

Words: 886

"You actually have a knight in shining FBI standard-issue body armor."

When Angela first said that, Temperance had brushed it off as an overly romantic assumption. Knights were only granted that title by a ruling monarch, and to the best of her knowledge, Booth had not recieved it from any king, queen, emperor, or empress. (She really didn't count the toy store Junior Knight of the Realm badge from their time in the U.K) Body armor did not shine; it was made from reinforced Kevlar fibers in matte black.

But as she soon came to learn, Angela hadn't been speaking in as literal a sense as Temperance had taken it. Knights were dashing, gallant, strong, and true. Booth filled out all the criteria quite well. A fact she mentioned as Halloween started to creep closer upon Washington, D.C. Needless to say, he found the comparison very flattering.

"You're saying I'm your knight in shining armor, Bones?" he asked as they sat on the Jeffersonian Medico-Legal Lab's catwalk, their legs dangling in the air as they watched everyone scurry around with festive decorations.

"No, that's what Angela said," she clarified. "I do, however, agree with her statement in the fact that you are quite knightly."

His grin appeared, bright and warm and charming. "Yeah, you don't really strike me as a DID."

"A dee-eye-dee?" Temperance repeated, confused by the acronym. "I'm not familiar with that agency."

Booth laughed at her puzzlement. "No Bones, it stands for Damsel In Distress. DID."

"Oh, you mean the feminine archetype that is present in many fairy tales stipulating that women are weak-willed individuals who require the services of one or more men, usually knights or heroes, to save them from some dire predicament."

He blinked dumbly at her long-winded explanation. "Yeah, that."

"Because I'm not," Temperance said with not a little pride. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I'm trained in many forms of martial arts - "

"Can carry and shoot a gun, can survive in the forest avoiding a foreign army..." Booth cut in with the smooth patience of experience. "Yeah Bones, I know, you've only told me a couple dozen times."

But not everything, she admitted silently. She never told him how much she appreciated his presence whenever they were heading into dangerous situations. She never mentioned the overwhelming relief she'd felt when he came in guns blazing to save her from whatever bit of serious trouble she would manage to get into. She never spoke of how she'd come to depend on him, rely on him, hope that, in the face of danger and somewhat-certain death, that he'd rescue her.

He saved her from more than just the job dangers too. She'd lost count of how many times Booth had come by in the middle of the night after a trying case, bearing Thai and some type of booze in an attempt to cheer her up. She'd forgotten exactly how many phone calls had passed between them that weren't case- or work-related. She couldn't recall the number of times he'd made to include her in outings with Parker.

She never admitted that, in truth, he had become her champion. That he saved her from being alone in her ivory tower, guarded by the thorny walls of her facts and fears. That he battled the dragons of her past to try and show her the brightness of her possible future.

She didn't need it, though. She was too strong for that. Or was she?

They fell silent again. Temperance fiddled with her bracelet and said, almost to herself, "Maybe I won't go as Wonder Woman this year..."

That caught Booth's attention faster than a shiny lure attracted a fish. "You've always been Wonder Woman," he stated. "Why the change?"

She looked over at him and toyed with telling him the truth. That Wonder Woman, for all her strengths and powers, was kind of like Temperance - somwhat alone. That being Wonder Woman had been her pillar of strength for many years, and now she was strong enough without needing the fantasy of having super-strength, super-speed, or being able to fly. That now she wanted to try and be something new, something different...maybe someone who needed to be saved. Sometimes.

But since she wasn't bound with the heroine's mystical Lasso, the urge wasn't all-consuming. So she merely said, "I feel like a change. Is that so wrong?"

"No, no, not at all," he said. "Just curious. Then what will you go as?"

"I don't know." Temperance thought for a few seconds. "Angela says that I could be someone called Princess Zelda, but I don't know who that is."

"It's a character from a video game, Bones. Legend of Zelda," he explained. "Parker loves that game."

"Perhaps he could instruct me on how to create my costume?"

Booth grinned. "Yeah, maybe. You wanna come over tonight and ask him? I have him for the weekend."

"I'd like that. Thank you."

It started out serious, and then Halloween came around and it got cute. Lemme know what you think!

Review please!