Chapter 2: A Sense of Purpose
"This is very good steak, baby." The man nodded in acknowledgment at the scrumptious dinner his wife had provided. "I know you don't do this often but, damn, woman your cooking skills are incredible. If I didn't know any better I would have thought you had something up your sleeve." Carefully eying his wife once more the man briefly smiled before shoveling more food into his mouth. "Naw," The man finally conceded, "I can read you like a book. If you were up to something I would have known."
"That is true." The woman smiled a knowing smile, "I am sure if I had something planned you would be aware of it before I even spoke a word. Some days I wonder how you exactly got in my head, but then I realize the absurdity of it and feel safe in the notion you could not physically reside in my cranial space."
"Yes, that may be true technically," The man thrust his fork at his wife for emphasis, "But you know what they said at the wedding. You can deny it all you want and use your scientific vocabulary to cover it up but you know the truth, that night surrounded by God and all of our friends and family we became one. We were not just two people anymore. We became one entity bound to each other for eternity."
"But... but.. I don't believe in the pinnacle of a higher being so your assumptions are invalid." The woman said confidently but the sly smile jumping across her partner's lips spoke more then words could ever express. She had lost.
"Yes, but I do." The man smiled, "And you love me enough to do that for me. In a small ceremony at the courthouse or a huge bashed with everyone we ever knew, you gave me the great honor of being your husband. In that small space we shared that night there was love and where there is love there is God. You don't need to believe for me to be correct. You just need to love me, eternally."
And in that moment, the woman knew if there was a God or not was irrelevant. All that mattered was the love the three of them shared. A love that would last for eternity and beyond. It had to, for in him she had found a purpose above all other.
Love.
Four years, nine months earlier...
"Hello, Dr. Brennan." A man ten years her junior greeted the once world known anthropologist. "I assume you are here for the orientation?"
With a slight nod the slightly grey woman acknowledged the young man. It had taken her years to become the greatest in her field but only a mere month to fall into the depths of oblivion. Years prior anyone who knew anything about anthropology wanted to work with the great and daunting Temperance Brennan but that was useless now. Never in a million years did she believe that leaving her post at the Jeffersonian would not only be something that she had chosen to do but something she had to do, not for herself but to save the countless interns that waited at her beck and call. They deserved much better then the poor, helpless woman before them could provide. They deserved an instructor, not just a washed up forensic anthropologist with no real sense of family or identity.
"Doctor Brennan..." The high-pitched eagerness of the young man pulled Brennan back to reality, "As I was saying, if you would please take your name badge and sit with the other former professors I am sure someone will find you when we are ready for your interview. Please know we are very busy and will do our best to accommodate all promising faculty but as of last night there is only one vacancy. It seems Dr. Richards has returned to his post with the university. The position for his research partner is still open though."
As the young man slid the laminated piece of paper forward the pit in Brennan's stomach began to grow. Waking up this morning Brennan was sure she would not have gotten looked over for the teaching position but as she sat there the daunting realization that they had not even considered her for the position became abundantly clear. She had more experience then everyone in the room and had even trained most of them. But the fact that she had failed at the only thing she had ever truly loved was like a hard slap in the face. Her first and only true love had been the pursuit of science and truth.
That was until he walked into her life and changed all that she had known. She found herself caring more about what her partner thought of her then the purity of science. Bit by bit he was stealing her heart and stealing her soul. Paying the price for a deed she had not done was not something she deserved. She may have killed and cried in the name of love but that love was nameless now. She was no longer a woman with a burning flame for a man but only science remained now. She had become a cold, broken, nameless being. A being without regret and shame. Only science knew her true heart now.
So she ran, as far and fast as her frail feet would take her. Sure, she was at her end of her rope but after all she had given up in the name of love she knew she deserved more. Working at a bargain basement university for the man that had destroyed her whole world piece by piece was something she could not accept. Even though she had nowhere else to turn, she knew her purpose would not be found among men filled with deceit and greed. Her purpose was found within, within the hearts and minds of the people she had once turned her back on.
