(The Sense in the Sacrifice)

I don't own Bones. Not even a little bit.

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It had been a long week or maybe he should think of it as a long two years. Too much pain and sadness and all generated by one man as far as Booth was concerned. His friend, Flynn was dead and so was Pelant. He would mourn for his friend, but not for the monster that Pelant had become. Because of that serial killer, he had almost lost the woman he loved and for that, he could not forgive, he could never forgive.

When Pelant threatened to kill Brennan, he knew it was time to end Pelant's existence. Shooting and killing the man had become personal. Booth needed to end the nightmare created by the sociopathic computer nerd who had only valued his own life and no other. Pelant had tried to force Brennan to be part of his madness. She had rejected him and when Booth had confronted him the mad man had threatened to blow up the building with them in it. With little emotion, Booth had shot the man in the head ending his threats once and for all. He'd made sure that Pelant would not survive.

Once they were at home, Brennan had held their daughter in her arms, telling the child over and over that she loved her. Booth knew that Brennan was thinking about how close Christine had come to becoming an orphan that day. Luckily, his partner seemed to be alright and not suffering from trauma from her experience. Brennan was strong and Booth admired her for that. Most men and women would have folded under the pressure put on them by Pelant, but Brennan was made of sterner stuff. She had confronted the man in his territory, alone and she had been determined to end Pelant's plans. She had been fearless on her mission and Booth knew it.

When he had discovered what his partner was up to, he knew he couldn't let her do that alone and he had followed her. His timing had been perfect and he had protected her when she needed him to. She was his partner and he loved her very much. He didn't want to live in a world that didn't have her in it.

Watching her rock Christine in her arms, Booth knew that his family was safe. The threat against them was gone. He hoped he never had another enemy liked Pelant. The man had done all he could to destroy those that got in his way and the world was a better place without him. I hope he rots in hell.

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Taking a shower, he had soaped the scrapes on his stomach and side to make sure they were clean. He didn't want them to get infected. While he had been searching for Brennan in the abandoned building, trying to find a way to get to her, he'd been forced to squeeze between a wall and some rusty pipes and that had caused the scrapes. They were a minor inconvenience, so he thought little of them.

Once he was showered and in a pair of boxers and a t-shirt he entered the bedroom to find Brennan sitting on the bed looking at him. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yes." Brennan smiled. "Yes, I'm fine now." Suddenly serious, she sighed. "I thought if I confronted Pelant alone, I might be able to stop what he was doing. I knew he was a dangerous man, you only have to remember the way he tortured the bodies of his victims to realize that but I believed I was the only one he'd allow to get close to him. I thought I could reason with him. If I had brought you with me, he would have either killed us both or escaped again. I couldn't let that happen . . . I'm not sure why, but for some reason he wanted me to be part of his plans, but that was never going to happen . . . He'd killed so many people that got in his way. He had to be stopped . . . I failed but you stopped him and for that I'm grateful."

Sitting beside her, Booth picked up her hand from her lap and kissed the back of it. "Hey, we stopped him. It wasn't just me. We stopped him. Okay?"

A smile on her face, Brennan nodded her head. "Yes, we stopped him . . . I am thankful you followed me. I didn't want you to do that, but it turned out to be fortuitous."

"Hey, where you go, I go. It's what partner's do." Releasing her hand, he stood up and pulled her up to stand in his embrace. "Let's stop talking about Pelant. We're getting married, Bones. We're finally getting married."

"Yes, we are." Brennan wrapped her arms around her fiancé and heard him grunt. Standing back, she saw him place his hand over his side and she became worried. "What's wrong?" Grabbing the hem of Booth's t-shirt, she lifted it to see if there was an issue she didn't know about. "Booth."

"Come on, Bones. It's just a few scratches." Booth pulled his shirt back down only to have Brennan lift the hem back up. "Bones, it's just scratches. It's not like I got shot or anything."

Staring at the scrapes on Booth's side and stomach she observed that they were red, but noted they weren't deep wounds. "Except you have a tendency to call gun shots a scratch." Lowering the hem of the shirt she looked at her mate. "You did this following me into the building."

"Yeah, Pelant locked the normal ways in to the building, so I had to be creative." Booth smiled. "There was no way he was going to keep me away from you. Not while I was still alive." Pulling her back into his arms, he sighed. "I don't want to talk about Pelant. I want to talk about us."

Brennan knew that her partner didn't like to dwell on the past and who could blame him? "Alright. What do you want to talk about that involves us?"

After kissing her, Booth released her and sat back down. Once Brennan was sitting next to him, Booth took her hand in his. "Do you want to get married by a Justice of the Peace? I know you don't like religious traditions and that's fine. As long as we get married, I don't care how it's done. I told you that before and I mean it. I would like a honeymoon though. Maybe Europe or South America. Somewhere far away from here. That way there's no chance in hell that we'll be pulled into a murder investigation. I want our honeymoon to be about us."

"Booth, I want to have a church wedding. I know your church and your religious beliefs are important to you so I would like to give you that. I personally don't care where we're married since I have no belief in gods or goddesses, but you do and I want you to be happy."

Surprised, Booth stared at Brennan trying to decide if she was being sincere or not. Since it was Brennan then of course he knew she had to be sincere since she rarely lied about anything, at least nothing important. "Thanks Bones. If you don't care, then yes, I want a church wedding with all the stuff that goes with it. Family and friends witnessing our vows and loads of flowers in the church and a priest performing the wedding . . . all the good stuff that goes with the wedding including a reception. I want a party to celebrate our union. God I'm so happy, Bones. You make me so happy."

Feeling slightly overwhelmed, Brennan swallowed and nodded her head. "Yes, of course. That's fine." And it would be. This was for the man she loved and she would do anything to make him happy. The wedding wasn't important to her, but it was important to him and that was why this was going to happen. She would make sure that he got the wedding he needed. "You make me happy too."

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