(The Truth in the Myth)

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"You know I saw a Yeti." At first she thought he was joking. How could he claim to have seen something that doesn't exist? She tried to point out that it might have been a hallucination, but Booth didn't listen to her. Instead he asked her why she couldn't trust him. He wanted her to believe that there was a possibility that what he was saying was true, but there are no Yetis, so how could what he said be true?

She needed facts. She counted on them. They made the world make sense to her and there was no room in her life for imaginary beings or folk myths. She knew that Booth was a man of faith and he believed in God, but she didn't. There was no quantifiable proof that there was a god or gods and she needed that proof. It was who she was. Facts helped her navigate a world that often didn't make sense to her.

They had been tentatively moving towards each other since the day they had been trapped in the elevator at Booth's apartment building, but sometimes they appeared to step back at the oddest moments. Brennan wasn't sure why, but perhaps it was because Booth was still angry with the world and she was still impervious and not strong. They were still trying to figure out if they were compatible and neither wanted to be hurt if their relationship failed. Wasn't that what the previous year had been about? He had asked her to take a chance and she couldn't. She knew that they had both been hurt at that moment and they had both done what they could to protect themselves from further hurt. She didn't want a repeat of that scenario, but she still felt a sense of dread that she was going to lose Booth's friendship if they made a wrong decision about their future.

He wanted her to trust him and she could clearly see that it was important to him. She needed to find a way to show him that she believed him without giving up her own beliefs. Research, she needed to do research.

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Their road had been a long one with a lot of missteps along the way. He considered Sweets' betrayal to be the beginning of their setbacks. Booth had trusted the FBI to notify Brennan that he was alive when Pam Noonan had shot him, but Sweets had betrayed them both and Booth was certain that Brennan had seen what had happened as cause not to trust him. Over time, they had started to move slowly forward in their relationship, but they had hit another speed bump when he had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Brennan had done what she could to help him get the surgery he needed then she had fled to a dig after he woke up. He knew she had done that because she had tried to protect herself. He had changed after the surgery and she didn't handle change very well. She didn't trust change, so in a way she didn't trust him. It had been a rough year.

He had come to realize that he had loved her and he had hoped that she loved him, but she had turned him down in front of the Hoover and he had lost trust in their future together. She hadn't wanted to take the chance with him and he was left wondering what was so bad about him that she couldn't say yes.

Their friendship had wavered a bit, but Booth knew that they both tried very hard to keep their partnership together and yet they both ended up in foreign lands doing jobs they didn't need to do.

Not sure if his partnership or his friendship with Brennan was going to survive the long distance he had felt confused, lonely and miserable. He had met Hannah and for a short while his world seemed to right itself. She was beautiful, funny and she liked him. She liked him enough to move to Washington D.C. and give up reporting in war zones. That meant something didn't it? Hannah was a strong independent woman who cared about him enough to change jobs. It had to mean something.

He had tried so hard to maintain his friendship with Brennan and still move on with his life. He wanted to be the boyfriend that Hannah wanted and he thought she had loved him. He had trusted her with his heart and when he asked her to marry him, she had crushed it by saying no.

Trusting no one at that point, he just went through the motions. He did his job, he saw Parker when he could and he kept everyone that he knew at a safe distance. Not interested in moving forward again with his life, he lived his life separated from everyone else and he assumed that no one would care or notice. He was wrong.

Brennan stood by him through his initial anger towards the world. She kept the partnership intact and worked with him on several cases. She didn't let him disappear from the world and gradually Booth noticed. His anger cooled and with it a certain peace seemed to settle on him. It was an uneasy peace, but it helped him to stop blaming the world for his problems and to focus on what he wanted in life.

He wanted Brennan, but he didn't think he trusted her or himself. The Blackout in Washington D.C. had trapped him with Brennan in a confined space and they had finally talked. Later that night, after they had solved their case they had talked again. They had talked about things that they should have talked about the year before. They listened and they made plans.

But there was the matter of trust to deal with. Could Booth trust Brennan not to hurt him again? He needed to see signs of trust and that was when he spoke of the Yeti. He was asking her to trust him, but he wasn't sure she could do it. If she couldn't trust him, then how could he trust her? That was the question that needed an answer if there was any chance that they could make a life together.

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Dealing with Booth for the last two years had been a minefield for Brennan. After his brain tumor he had awoken from his coma and thought they were married. She had panicked. She would never admit that to anyone else, but she knew that she had panicked. She loved Booth as a friend. That was all she could give and she was afraid that his delusion was going to ruin their friendship. She had fled to a dig to think and to give Booth time to remember that they were just partners, just friends.

When she had returned, she found that her partner no longer believed they were married, but he seemed to have changed and she worried about those changes. Was he in love with her? Had the brain tumor affected his memories? Sometimes she caught him looking at her in a strange manner and she didn't know how to interpret those looks. Her biggest fear was that the changes in Booth would precipitate a change in their friendship and it came true when he had asked her to take a chance on them in front of the Hoover.

It had broken her heart to say no, but she didn't trust the new Booth. She was afraid the love he felt for her was temporary and that it would fade with time. Trying to protect not only her, but him, she had turned him down and that had started a chain reaction she had not counted on.

After his tumor scare, she realized that working with Booth put her in a situation she had never wanted to be in. Over the years she had grown to love him, but that love wasn't something she could act upon. She didn't trust love and she could not allow that emotion to endanger her future. Then there was the added dilemma that it was possible that someday she would lose Booth, either from a bullet or some other means she had no control over and when she did it would be a devastating loss. She didn't want to go through that and soon she found herself in Maluku while Booth went to Afghanistan. Eagerly she had begun her work at the dig, but she soon realized that she was looking for a panacea. Brennan had thought distance would protect her from what she felt for Booth, but she found that a false hope.

Did she really love Booth? She thought she did, but did she trust him with her future and that would be what she was doing if she had a relationship with him. He would have control over her emotional well-being and she didn't know if she was strong enough to allow that to happen.

Hannah had been eye opener. With Booth's girlfriend in the picture, Brennan could see what life would be like without Booth in her life. He was still her friend, but he kept a distance between them that seemed insurmountable. It was likely that he would never ask her again to take a chance on a relationship and that made her sad. She had missed her chance and she was certain there would be no more.

Except, Fate, a thing she didn't really believe in, stepped in and she found that she had not missed her chance after all. Booth had asked Hannah to marry him and she had turned him down. He hadn't taken that well and he grew angry with everyone in his life. Well, not his son, but Booth valued his son's life more than his own.

It seemed that Booth had tried to disappear from everyone's life. True he worked with her and their partnership was intact, but he had withdrawn from close contact with everyone he knew and Brennan would not let that stand. She stood by him through his anger and his indifference. She insisted upon drinks and lunches together. They did paper work together and she didn't let him become lost in his own misery. She had watched him gradually move away from that anger and towards a sense of peace.

They slowly regained their footing with each other and the blackout in the District allowed them to do the one thing they had avoided in the past. They had talked. They had talked about them and Brennan knew that there was a possibility that someday there might be a change in their relationship. They both needed to work through some issues and one of those issues was trust.

Her partner and friend had declared that he had seen a Yeti and when she had called him on it, he had accused her of having a closed mind. He wanted her to trust him and she knew that this might be their final test.

She did a lot of research the next few days about wild life that could be found in Nepal and she had found a way to believe Booth after all.

"What you saw was Ursus Arctos Isabellinus. They're usually red or sandy in color, but the one you saw was covered in ice." She held up a picture of the Nepalese bear and waited for Booth to react.

"A seven foot bear covered in ice." Was Brennan really trying to believe him? Was the bear her way of saying that she trusted him?

She placed the picture down on her lap. "Yes, Ursus Arctos makes a sound much like a human being grunting."

Booth was impressed and for some reason, happy. "You did a lot of work on this."

"Yes, I believe you saw exactly what you say you saw. You're simply calling it by the wrong name."

She trusted him and that was what he had been looking for. If she trusted him then surely he could trust her. "Ah . . . thank you, Bones. I appreciate you . . . you know, giving me the benefit of the doubt."

Happy that he was happy, Brennan felt that they were finally moving forward in a positive direction. "You're welcome." Was it as simple as that? Apparently it was. This had been a test for both of them and they had both passed.

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