A/N: Hello all! Sorry for the delay in getting this up, but this was, by far, the hardest chapter to write. Now I know why the writers don't put them together...it's too hard to write.

A/N 2: I want to thank you all for your fantastic reviews. I'm so disappointed the email system is down because I want to respond to all the reviews individually and I will do that as soon as the emails go back up. But I just wanted to say a collective 'thank you' now because you guys are too much. Really and truly, I appreciate all of you! Alright, done with the mush, on with the story.

Not possible. No way.

Booth feels his heart hammering in his chest as his mouth falls open, trying to think of some sort of response.

Please let her say it again. Just one more time so I can be sure.

"Hmm?" It's all he can manage to squeak out with the deafening sound of blood rushing in his ears, and he immediately regrets it. Very suave.

She rolls her eyes and gives a little sigh. "You're actually going to make me say it again? I said 'I love you too'."

He straightens in his seat, pulling the bended leg on the couch closer to his body, willing his heart to calm. "But you don't believe in love," he tells her. "You're always telling me that love is only a chemical reaction in your brain."

"Why are you trying to convince me that I don't love you?" Her eyes twinkle with amusement.

"I don't understand."

She seems so calm. How can she be so calm?!

"I'm just doing what you told me to do. You said to use my heart. And while technically, feelings and emotions originate in the brain, I can understand the idea of using your heart. And my 'heart' seems to be saying that, you know—". She shrugs her shoulders and blushes and he can't contain the grin that spreads across his face.

"That doesn't make what you said about how different we are any less significant, Booth…"

The grin immediately disappears as his heart sinks low in his chest.

This is worse. She loves me but she doesn't think we can make it. She doesn't want to risk it. Convince her, Seeley.

"Bones, we should—". He tries to say as a nauseous feeling invades his stomach.

She holds up her hand. "Can we just have one conversation where we're adults and don't interrupt each other? Allow me to finish my sentence and you can say whatever you want, okay?" He nods cautiously, terrified of what she might say.

"Now, what I was going to say was that 'love' does not eliminate the differences between us or brand them any less significant or absolute. They're pretty hard to ignore, Booth. Besides all of what you said, you want marriage and kids and some sort of fence that I really don't understand, and I don't. Your religion plays a large part in your life and I don't believe in any of it. These differences can't just be disregarded because we love each other."

Remain calm. You're very convincing. You can convince her that these differences can be overcome. Love shall overcome.

"However, I suspect that 'love' can attenuate their impact and make them more tolerable," she says in her usual no-nonsense tone of voice.

Underneath all the big words and techno-babble, Booth realizes what she's trying to say.

She believes in us.

"Booth?" He hears her ask while his mind begins to celebrate.

"Hmm?" He mentally slaps himself in the forehead.

How about a two syllable word next time, you idiot?

"It's your turn."

He tilts his head to look at her, his heart still pounding, and her eyes catch his. "Hmm?"

Say 'Hmm' again, Seeley Booth, and I'll make you run twenty miles tomorrow.

"We're taking turns, remember? I speak, then you speak, and hopefully, when you do, it'll be polysyllabic."

She noticed, putz.

His forehead creases as he gives her an apologetic smile. He opens his mouth but quickly shuts it.

She rolls her eyes at him, but scoots closer, pressing her leg against his from knee to ankle. "I'll help you," she says with a smile. "You said, 'Bones, we should'. Now, you take it from there."

He takes in a deep breath, ready to say everything that's been circling through his head all night and all day long, but he pauses. He watches her, watching him, her blue eyes all lit up like when they solve a case, head tilted, waiting for him to say his peace, and he can't remember why he was so nervous.

Her face contorts into the familiar expression she holds when she starts to get impatient with him and he smiles.

"We should…" She says, rolling her hand in the air, urging him to finish his sentence.

He has no idea what he was going to say when he started that sentence, but he has only one thing on his mind now.

"Kiss." He grabs her wrist out of the air, gently tugging her toward him, and brushes his lips against hers. Her eyes slip shut almost immediately and it spurs him to action. He slides his other hand in her hair, pulling her face more firmly against his own. He sucks her lower lip into his mouth and is thoroughly delighted when he feels her place her free hand on the back of his neck and tug him closer, deepening the kiss. For a few moments, he's completely lost, reveling in the feel of her mouth against his. He slides his hand from her wrist to her palm, intertwining their fingers and giving a gentle squeeze.

Wow.

As the kiss comes to its natural conclusion, he slowly pulls back and watches as her eyes flutter open. "Wow," she whispers and he chuckles, knowing that she's voicing what he's thinking.

"Your turn," he says taking a breath, his fingers still wrapped in her hair.

She looks taken aback as she releases his neck and quirks her eyebrows.

He laughs inwardly, wondering what she thinks he meant by that. "It's your turn to talk, Bones."

"Hmm?"

He can't hold back the loud bark of laughter that falls out. She gives him a glare and he has the urge to kiss it away. "Remember? You speak, I speak? Poly syllogism or whatever?" He patronizes her.

She rolls her eyes. "Polysyllabic, Booth."

"Whatever, Bones. You got something to say or not?" He teases her.

"I did, but I can't remember now." She bites her lip in concentration and he decides not to fight the impulse this time. Leaning forward, he pulls her lip from her teeth with his own. Massaging the lip between his for a second, he releases it and sits back.

"Stop that," he says in a husky tone.

"You're not helping. I have something to say," she tells him petulantly.

He throws his hands up in mock surrender. "By all means."

She scoots back from him, pressing her back into the arm of the couch, eliminating all contact between them. She stares at her hands in her lap for a moment before she looks at him in defeat. "I can't remember."

I kissed her reservations out of her. I'm that good.

"Would you mind if I took your turn, then?" He asks her. She shakes her head, leaning toward him, clearly expecting him to kiss her again.

I'm the man.

A large grin spreads across his face as he hops up off the couch. "I have gifts for you." He hides the chuckle that threatens to erupt after seeing the look of shock on his partner's face and strides over to the bookcase, pulling two neatly wrapped boxes from the very top.

He moves back to the couch and settles down almost directly on top of her, leaving absolutely no space between the two of them. Wordlessly, he hands her the first gift, a rectangular shaped present wrapped in shiny blue paper.

She takes it from him with a small smile. "Booth, you didn't have to."

He rolls his eyes at her and lets out a sigh. "Oh come on, Bones. Don't be so cliché."

"What? I don't participate in this whole gift-giving thing," she explains, turning her body to sit forward on the couch, and beginning to unwrap the gift.

"Says the woman who bought my child no less than twenty five presents," he says incredulously.

She shakes her head. "You know what I mean. I don't do this whole Christmas thing," she tells him, fingers halting on the wrapping paper. "I don't deserve a present."

"Everybody deserves a present, Bones," he says softly.

"Even me?" She asks looking at him with a hopeful expression.

He gives her his charm smile. "Especially you." She smiles shyly at him as she turns her attention back to the present in her lap.

She pulls the paper away from the present and gawks. "Booth."

He begins to laugh, putting his arm around her on the back of the couch, and she glares at him. "Oh come on, Bones. Now when you don't have a clue what people are talking about, you can look it up! Besides, you love to read!"

"'Abba to Zoom: A Pop Culture Encyclopedia of the Late 20th Century'? Is this a joke?"

"No. My suggestion is you carry it around in your purse." She smacks him in the chest. "Hey, at least, it's a paperback." He receives another smack. "You don't like it?" He whines, putting on a pout.

"Oh, stop it," she says, nudging his side with her elbow. "I like it just fine. I just didn't expect it, that's all."

"Well, you're not suppose to know what you're getting, Bones. That would take all the fun out of it." He looks down at the book and recalls their conversation from earlier and suddenly feels like an idiot. "I hope this doesn't make you feel…you know, self-conscious or anything. It doesn't mean anything," he tells her.

"What? No, Booth. This is great. If anything, this'll help make me less self conscious. It's a thoughtful gift, thank you."

He smiles widely at her, wondering when she got so good at comforting people. "Eh, it was nothing."

She shakes her head with a smile and begins to thumb through the book. "Not now, Bones. I got another one for you," he tells her, removing the book from her hands and placing the other gift in her lap.

She grins at him as she begins to tear at the shiny green paper, uncovering the white rectangular box beneath.

Please let her like this. Please God.

Lifting the lid, she unfolds the tissue paper to find a double picture frame. The grin immediately disappears from her face and she pales.

"Angela picked out the frame," he admits in soft voice, suddenly becoming extremely uncomfortable about his 'serious gift'. He watches her stare down at the frame and wonders if this was a good idea.

She sits with one hand on the frame and the other at her side for a good minute before she speaks. "Where did you get this?" she asks him in a voice barely above a whisper.

"The file," he responds. "Your parents' file had a family photo. I had it, uh, I had it reprinted."

She nods solemnly, continuing to gaze at the frame.

A perfect day ruined by your brilliant idea, Seeley. Why don't you remind her that her dad and brother abandoned her AGAIN? That'll just be the icing on the cake.

He shakes his head as if to physically remove his negative thoughts as he decides to explain himself.

"This was your family then," he tells her, pointing to the black and white family photo of the Brennans, where Bones was no more than ten. He remembers coming across the photo in the file and thinking what a beautiful child she was. She seemed happy and his heart broke thinking about how everything would change when she was fifteen.

Pointing to the photo directly beneath the Brennans, he says, "and this is your family now." He indicates the black and white picture of him and the squints at Wong Foo's. It had been a random moment when they were all celebrating a case, and he deigned to sit with them because they had done so well. They were all happy and all smiles and Sid caught a picture.

She looks up at him, eyes filled with unshed tears and he can't tell if she likes the gift or not.

"You don't have any pictures," he blurts out and she draws up her eyebrows. "In your apartment. You have artifacts and trinkets from all over the world but you don't have any pictures. I thought you might like one of your families." He removes his arm from her shoulders and places his hands in his lap.

"Thank you, Booth," he hears her whisper in his ear, before placing a kiss on his cheek.

And thank you, God.

He turns his face to look at her, and finds hers only inches from his own. "I just want you to know who your family is. No matter what happens, these people are your family," he tells her, pointing to the squints.

Tell her now. You may never get another chance. Tell her everything.

"You and I. We're family. I mean, you're my partner and my best friend and I love you. I've always loved you and I will always love you, and nothing could change that. Even if for some reason, we can't get this," he gestures between them, "to work out, though I have a 'forever' kind of feeling about us, I will still be here for you. I just need you to understand that. Okay?"

She nods her head, biting her lip, placing the frame and box on the side table next to her. "Okay."

He places his hand on the side of her face, running his thumb over her lips. "I told you to stop that."

She smiles but shrugs. "How can you have a 'forever' kind of feeling about us? We haven't even started."

He shakes his head. "Bones, we started the day we met. There's just been no kissing, no dating, and no –". He pauses.

"Sex," she answers. "Really, Booth, you're an adult. You can say the word."

"I don't think sex is the appropriate word," he mutters out.

"It's a biological term, Booth. It's perfectly appropriate," she responds, giving him a condescending look.

"Not for us. When you love someone, it's not sex." He's emphatic.

"Of course it's sex, Booth. What else would it be?" She laughs at him.

He gives a frustrated sigh. "You told me once that sex was a biological urge. Love is not an urge, Bones. So, its not sex when you're in love," he says in an annoyed tone.

She has to understand what I'm trying to say.

She sits forward, furrowing her brow, and staring at him. "This is one of those things we're going to have to work through. You're a romantic and I'm a pragmatist."

He sighs. He knew that when he fell for her. He smiles, tugging her back to him, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his chest. "You'll change your mind, trust me," he says into her hair, placing a kiss on her temple.

He hears her release a deep, probably long awaited sigh, and feels her body relax against his own. She tentatively places her head on his shoulder. "That sounds like a challenge."

"Oh baby, that was a promise." He doesn't even have to look at her to know she's rolling her eyes at him. "I'm gonna prove you wrong, Bones. I'm gonna prove you wrong about everything," he says in a soft voice.

She lifts her head to look at him, hesitantly placing her hand on his chest. "I'm interested in seeing that." He gives her a broad grin and places a chaste kiss on her lips. "I'm not wrong though," she tells him, returning her head to his shoulder.

He chuckles, grasping the hand on his chest in his. "Of course you're not, Bones. You never are."

They sit for a moment in complete silence and Booth revels in it.

I never imagined the night going so well. I could do this forever.

"Booth?"

"Hmm?"

"Do I have cooties now?"

He tilts her face back with his hand and smiles. "Yes. Definitely. Lots and lots of cooties," he says, his lips meeting hers in a passionate kiss.

The best Christmas ever.

A.) I know. The photo thing's been done. I couldn't help it!

B.) More liberties with characters? You know it. But I mean, do we really know how they would react? No. So, this is my version of it and, by the way, my least favorite chapter. The angst is more fun to write, I have to admit. I understand the 'Bones' writers now...doesn't mean I'm on their side...but I understand them.

C.) Hope you all had a safe and Happy New Year!! I'm thinking one more chapter and perhaps an epilogue. Or not. I'm not entirely certain. We'll see.