"Booth, don't do that to me. It makes me nervous when you pass out that way." Booth looked up into the concerned face of Bren as he struggled to sit up. His head hurt as though he'd had a portion of it cut off. Never had it hurt so much. That fall off of the bed must have been harder than he thought.
"What do you know about Bones," he asked once he had his wits about him again. Bren looked at him and folded her hands delicately into her lap.
"That's who you go to see when you're not here with me, isn't it? What is this pull that she has to take you away from me?"
"Baby, I've never been unfaithful to you. Bones, she's just a friend. I swear that's all we are to each other." The pregnant woman smiled sadly and shook her head as she looked at her husband.
"I'm not worried that you'll be unfaithful to me. That's not the type of man that you are. What I want to know is what you didn't answer. What is this pull that she has over you?"
"That's not something that I can answer. I love you and I'm happy that we're together and having a baby," he said, reaching out to caress her stomach. She placed her hands over his, guiding him until he felt a tiny flutter under his palm. "Was that a kick?"
"I've been hoping you'd be able to feel her." Booth looked to Bren's face and smiled.
"We're having a girl?" When she nodded, he pulled her into him and kissed her tenderly, his mouth working over hers as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
"You love me, right?" she asked when their lips parted. He looked into her eyes and caressed the side of her face. He smiled a bit as she leaned into his gentle touch.
"You want me to show you how much?" He kissed her again, his hands slipping beneath the hem of her shirt to caress the skin of her rounded abdomen. As his hands wandered farther, the shirt pushed up as well until he was tugging it over her head. He took a moment to just look at her, the woman who called herself his wife. She was beautiful, smart, and compassionate, but as they explored each other's bodies as they made love, something gnawed at Booth that his life with her was wrong somehow.
XxXxX
Temperance Brennan prided herself on being able to compartmentalize everything, but as she sat on the final leg of her twenty hour trip back to Washington DC, she found that ability to be crumbling around her. She'd been on the verge of tears for hours, and try as she might, she could neither calm down nor sleep. Booth would need her to be there and be strong, but instead she was an emotional mess.
She looked out the window of the air liner, watching the land far below pass out of view as they crossed closer to Washington. Her thoughts sped through her mind just as fast, thoughts surfacing as she recalled Booth asking her to give them a try. Temperance sighed and looked away from the window. Being around Daisy Wick for a month had been enlightening to say the least. The overly enthusiastic girl quoted movies constantly and now one quote stood out more than the others. 'Do or do not, there is no try' seemed pertinent now. She chose not to pursue a relationship with Booth on nothing more than a fear response.
"Honey, I don't mean to interrupt, but you look like you're doing some serious thinking there. It might help if you talk about it." Temperance glanced over at the old man sitting next to her in the first class section of the flight. He had kind eyes and looked a bit wispy somehow. She paused and weighed her options for a moment before letting out a sigh.
"My partner, he had a brain tumor removed last year but it seems to have returned. He's already been through the surgery, but I'm not sure of his condition currently."
"Have you said any prayers for his condition? I've seen the miraculous happen with just a few simple words said for someone. Why they've even done studies that show that the power of prayer works." The little old man looked at her expectantly and she almost felt a bit guilty for not believing in a higher power.
"I appreciate your words, but I'm an empiricist and don't believe that there's any higher power at work in the universe. What happens in life happens, and our lives end when we die That's it."
"Oh, that's such a terrible way to believe. To me, it almost sounds as if you have no real hope. Something happened to make you believe that way, didn't it?" Temperance looked at the little man a bit in shock. It was true that her atheism stemmed from her parents' disappearance, but now seemed to be confirmed through science.
"I don't honestly see how someone can believe that there's an all powerful being out there watching over our lives, but not preventing bad things from happening. Why would a benevolent power allow children to be murdered or good people to die horribly painful deaths... It just doesn't make any sense at all."
"Well I think it's a shame that you have that point of view, but I'd like to offer a prayer for your partner regardless. I'm sure the Lord is looking out for him. Is he a good Christian man?"
"He is quite devout in his beliefs, yes."
"Well then, I know he'll appreciate having someone ask for his healing. What's his name?" Brennan paused for a moment, wondering if she should give out such personal information to a complete stranger, but this man didn't seem like he meant any harm to Booth at all.
"His name is Seeley Booth."
"Seeley Booth? He wouldn't happen to be Hank Booth's grandson now, would he?"
"Well, his grandfather is named Hank."
"Ha, Jiminy Cricket. I watched those two boys grow up. You tell them that Darryl Jacobs says hello, and I'll be praying extra hard that Seeley recover from this tumor. The good Lord will take care of him, don't you worry. He'll be back to you in no time."
"Thank you for the consideration Darryl. I appreciate it. Booth is a good man, and my best friend. I'm not sure I could handle his death."
"I felt the same way about my Gwen. We were married for fifty years before the Lord saw fit to take her to Heaven. She was my best friend, and I've found that in relationships that survive the longest the couple were always best friends before lovers. You can like someone and not love them, just like you can love them but not like them very much, but if you have both... that's a rare thing and something to hold onto." Darryl reached over and patted Temperance's hand.
His words sat heavy on her heart as the plane came down for its landing. Booth said that he knew from the moment they met that she was the one for him. Truthfully, his confession of a gambling problem scared her a bit because she did like him so much. It scared her because he was ready for much more than she was and she cared enough about him to not sleep with him that first night.
Their year separation and subsequent reunion led to one of the most important relationships she'd ever had. Booth may be somewhat acerbic at times, but never did he judge her or find her lacking. He'd shown her more patience than even Angela, and slowly over the course of their first year as partners he'd become her best friend.
Her thoughts stayed with her after the plane had landed and docked. She followed the other passengers to the baggage claim, preoccupied with what Booth meant to her. He was more than a friend, more than her best friend. He was her everything and only now was she realizing that fact.
The tears she'd been holding back for so long finally broke through her barriers, and as she collapsed to the ground in a crying heap of human, she felt a pair of arms gently circle around her and offer support as she cried.