(After season 12)
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I don't own Bones.
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There is a four hour difference between London and Washington D.C., so Parker had to choose an appropriate time to call his father. Trying not to interfere with his father's family time with Brennan and the kids he chose to call at midnight, London time and hoped it was alright.
Parker, you don't normally call me on the phone, is everything alright?
"Yeah, Dad, everything is fine." He was nervous, but tried to hide it. "I just wanted to talk to you, man to man."
Man to man? . . . Sure, what do you want to talk about?
"Um, well . . . when did you know when you were in love?" There, he'd asked. He hoped to God his father didn't laugh at him. He was still upset with his mother over her ghastly reaction.
With your mother or Bones or just in general?
He forgot his father was a romantic. His mother had always thought that was one his father's main weaknesses, but he thought it meant that his father just felt things deeper than his mother did. That was not to say his mother was cold, but she was cautious. Maybe too cautious. "When you fell in love with Bones. When did you know when you'd fallen in love with her?"
That's a complicated question, Parker.
"If you don't want to answer that's okay." He had hoped his father would talk to him since his mother was being such a stick about his problem. "Don't worry about it. It's okay."
I'm not saying I don't want to answer the question, Son. It really is a complicated question . . . Okay look, I fell in love with Bones the first time I met her, but she and I were worlds apart and we didn't really get along. When we finally started working together we had our ups and downs. We had to learn to trust each other and that took a while. Eventually we became friends, really good friends.
"I don't understand." And he really didn't. Why did love have to be so hard? "You fell in love at first sight, but you guys didn't do anything about it?"
Well no . . . like I said it's complicated and it takes two in this kind of situation. Bones didn't believe in love when we met and I didn't want to push her. She had a terrible childhood and that made her kind of afraid that love wasn't real . . . She had to learn to trust me . . . Of course, if I'm going to be totally honest with you, I had my trust issues too . . . Well, we knew each other for about seven years and worked as partners for about six before we both got our act together and admitted we loved each other. It wasn't Bones' fault and it probably wasn't mine . . . maybe . . . I don't know . . . see it's complicated.
He was more confused than ever. "I don't get it. I just need to know how can I tell if I'm in love with someone. I mean real love. Not just friends."
You need to talk to Dene, Parker. That was Bones' and my biggest mistake. We didn't really talk to each other. We assumed a lot and we fought the attraction we had for each other, but that was mostly because we loved our friendship so much and we were afraid we'd screw everything up if we became romantically involved. You can see that was a mistake. We've been together for eight years now and we have two beautiful children together . . . I suppose we could have got together earlier, but we weren't ready and if we had jumped the gun, I'm pretty sure our relationship would have failed. We needed time to work out a bunch of stuff, her and me, but we did it and now we're married and we're happy. Talk to Dene and see how she feels about you. Talking is the key.
"Who said I was in love with Dene?" He felt his cheeks burning from embarrassment and he was so thankful that he wasn't on Skype at the moment. "I was just asking you a theoretical question."
Uh, huh . . . just talk to whoever you're in love with and see if the attractions is mutual. Don't assume anything. Open up the line of communications and keep them open.
His father's advice was better than his mother's. "Mom thinks I'm too young to be in love. Dad I'm 20. How is that too young?"
If you're in love then you're in love. I do hope you plan to finish your degree before you get married though. It'd be even better if you waited until you've established yourself in your field, but I'm not telling you what to do. I got married when I was 42 and your mother has never been married . . . Pops married when he was 21 and my other grandfather was 25. Your Uncle Jared was 33 . . . I don't know what else to say. You do have to talk to her and be honest. Be very honest.
"I'm not talking about getting married, Dad." Or was he? He was so confused and so afraid. Marriage? Wow that would be a life changer. "Um, thanks for talking to me. I have to go."
The call ended, Booth smiled at Brennan. "You heard?"
"Yes and you didn't really answer his question, but then again we both know that love is hard." Sometimes she still felt like she didn't know what she was doing, but she persevered. She loved Booth and she loved her family and she would never give up on them. "Was he talking about Dene?"
"I think so." Booth placed the phone down and leaned on the counter top. "I'd hate to be where he's at in life. Trying to figure out how stuff works. Shit I was forty before I figured out all that love stuff."
Brennan smiled. "And yet you always had advice for me about love." She had had many conversations with her partner about love and he had always seemed confident. It wasn't until his relationship with Hannah had failed that she had finally understood that Booth wasn't any better at love than she was. He just hid his failures and confusion better. "It was nice advice, but I was never sure how much of it was wishful thinking."
He thought about it for a few seconds and conceded she had hit the nail on the head. "I guess it was mostly wishful thinking. I had this idea about what love was and reality had a way of messing with that idea. When I finally let go of some of my pie in the sky ideas that's when it all clicked together. I finally figured out that I didn't need the house in the suburbs, the white picket fence, the dog and marriage. Those were just dreams and they were nice dreams, but what I really needed was you. Just you."
"Aw." Her man could be so romantic. Moving around the counter she moved closer to him as he turned. Placing her arms around his chest she leaned against him. "And all I needed was you. I'm glad I married you because it made you happy."
"No." Booth hugged her. "No, you made me happy. Marriage was just the cherry on my sundae. I love you and I always will."
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