Chapter 46 Wonder
No ownership of Bones was used in creating this story.
Booth was in a silly mood this April Fool's Day. He and Christine had arisen early to make breakfast for Bones- with a twist. They tinted her scrambled eggs green, the butter for her toast pink, and her applesauce blue. The inspiration for their prank was Christine's current favorite book Green Eggs and Ham. Their little girl pointed out to her mother that they could have been more accurate if she would eat ham, but they all knew that was never going to happen. Fortunately for Booth, Brennan had accepted her breakfast in the spirit of good fun. His wife would never berate their daughter for the joke, but he'd worried a bit about what fallout it might cause for him.
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Booth was seated at his desk, coffee in hand, staring at a stack of cold case files he needed to review. He and Brennan were developing a training program to increase the solve rate of other investigative teams within the FBI Major Crimes Unit. While important, this paperwork part of his job was a 'bummer' to quote Parker. He was an action kind of guy. So for a moment, Booth turned his thoughts to another aspect of their program. He and Bones shared a passion for finding the truth. He needed to evoke this in their trainees.
They needed curiosity and a sense of wonder. Two unrelated ideas, you might say? Not really. Scientists and cops are both curious people. What makes an atom work? How does the human body function? How do insects speed decomposition? What are particulates? What makes a criminal's mind tick? What are their motives? What prompts them to do terrible things without remorse until facing a jail sentence? The curiosity sparks a dedicated search for clues, answers, and truth.
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Booth remembered his days of sniper training. He'd been impressed with the power of his rifle, fascinated by the accuracy of its scope, soberly aware that his assignments involved killing people. But he was also in awe. The incredible combination of science, engineering, machining, and craftsmanship which made long-range precision shots possible astounded him. In addition to superb training and skill, Booth possessed a sharp intellect, and a sensitive conscience. He felt the burden of responsibility thrust upon him with each shot he took. Realizing the gravity of his actions was part of what made him a top-notch sniper. No one in his job could afford to 'go off half-cocked.' A sense of wonder at the power of his weapon was essential.
The other vital ingredient for successful agents was respect for the skill of scientists, both at the Jeffersonian and in the FBI crime labs, thought Booth. And here his mind turned to his partner…. He held Bones in awe from the first day they met. He never lost his sense of wonder where she was concerned. He and Bones held diametric views of existence and life. His embraced the spiritual, hers denied it. Metaphorically they should never have connected. But they did—and deeply.
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Temperance Brennan was doing something else unusual this spring. She had agreed to teach an anthropology class at Christine's high school. It was a zero hour special offering from 7:00 to 8:30 am twice weekly during the semester. It was open to adults and students alike. It meant that she arrived at the Jeffersonian a little later those mornings, but she felt it was worthwhile. It had been proposed as an extension of the Jeffersonian's wildly popular children's after-school program in which Parker had participated.
Brennan was pleased to offer her love and knowledge of science to others. Thrilled to share her passion with her daughter in an academic setting. And Christine was beyond excited at the prospect of attending her mother's new class. Her mother was already somewhat famous at the school for two reasons. First for being a world-renowned scientist and accomplished crime novelist, and second, for being the most persnickety parent ever to attend a Back to School Night or Parent Teacher Conference in the history of the world. Christine had heard stories from Angela of her mother's interactions with the Jeffersonian day-care staff, and Brennan's expectations of perfection from anyone working with her children had never wavered or decreased.
The school faculty appreciated Dr. Brennan's contributions to their enrichment program, but not necessarily her opinion of their competence. Finally, Christine thought, people could experience her mom close up and realize how special she was.
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Brennan also sat in her office this morning. Her tongue stained a variety of colors from the unique and whimsical breakfast she'd been served. It was fortunate Booth and Christine surprised her in the kitchen or their 600-threadcount bedsheets might be looking like her tongue about now. As she finalized her syllabus for the course which started next week, Brennan was distracted by amused affectionate thoughts of her husband. Booth was her favorite puzzle; part brave man; part starry-eyed little boy. She never got over wondering how she'd been so lucky to cross paths with him. He had displaced science as her first love. She held them both in awe.
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Brennan remembered vividly her first encounter with bones. She had always been fascinated by science, prompted by her father in elementary school. Max had supplemented her science classes at home. He did simple experiments with her, introduced her to star-gazing, taught her the constellations, gave her a telescope. He'd showed her backyard plant and animal life, changes in weather, the fun of chemisty. Parker wasn't the only one who loved exploding bottles of soda pop reaching the sky. (Her mother had strictly forbidden this experiment anywhere in the house.)
Later on, as a lonely mistreated teenager, she lost herself in science classes, a sole pleasant link to her past. The complex symphony of chemistry within the human body enthralled her. Education was the key to escaping her misery. Paying for college on her own meant lean years of odd jobs, scanty meals, and shoddy apartments.
Yet the deeper she probed into science, the greater her awe. Anatomy, physiology, morphology; she relished each class. But dissecting was what got her 'hooked on science.' She'd endured the muck of muscle, fat, and skin. Necessary but messy. The bones, however, were pristine and solid. Something she could metaphorically hold on to.
Anthropology linked science to history. The mix of social mores and physical existence was riveting to her. Temperance Brennan's sense of wonder was triggered by dusty bones. First in college museum display cases, later in excavated trenches.
She loved going on digs. Forensic anthropology was a prism into the past of her human race. How did they live? How did they die? What happened to them? What events occurred along their way through life? Cataclysmic loss or fortuitous survival? Temperance Brennan could not have predicted her nickname, but she knew she'd found her calling in the bones she studied assiduously.
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Having encountered the physically handsome, verbally effusive, abdominally-prompted FBI Agent, Brennan had been flummoxed. Did she believe in Fate, he'd asked? Of course not, ludicrous! He surprised her, irritated her, attracted her, annoyed her. He was a conundrum of everything she scoffed at. But his spiritual, emotional, gut-driven approach worked for him as well as her analytical scientific rational method did for her. She tried to ignore, forget, bypass, avoid him. It wasn't possible. His persistence and her exasperated fascination wouldn't let her.
He was so different from her, but he was intense, honest, dedicated—all attributes she admired. And required of those around her. Most people didn't measure up. But he did. His truth wasn't her truth. But she saw that he sought it as passionately as she did. They shouldn't have clicked but they did. Synchronized; well- not always—but They worked. She was in awe of him; he evoked her sense of wonder repeatedly, though she tried to deny it and it took her years to admit it.
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And so it was that their silent duet of mutual admiration finally led them to the same truth; they were better together than apart, that somehow their strange partnership worked-on multiple levels, professional and personal. They completed each other. They were led to a single truth: that two had become one, physics had to be denied, they were in love. And that was the deepest reason for their success.