So here's the final chapter, and it's a very short one again. I hope you had as much fun reading this story as I had writing it!

I have observed them often over the years, as I, too, spend a ridiculous amount of time at the Jeffersonian, cataloging my beloved bugs and slime, identifying particulates from before the Industrial Revolution, before the Fall of Rome, before the first hunting and gathering tribes formed the first cities.

They are there too.

Many times I have walked into Dr. B's office, to show her something of interest I found, and I have discovered him there, as well, no matter the lateness (or earliness) of the hour. Sometimes, I will venture in, feeling like the third wheel, to show her what I came for. But more often than not, I just observe. Watch. I have gotten quite good at it, over the years.

I have seen him lean so far over her desk, so far into her personal space, that I was absolutely positive one of them would bridge the distance with a kiss.
I have seen them laughing uproariously over paperwork and Pad Thai, so uninhibited, so free of the limits "just partners" places on them. I have seen tender hugs and gentle caresses. I have seen comfort and anger, laughter and tears. I have seen it all.

And yet, I have not.

I am waiting for one of them to have the courage to bridge that distance, to ignore common sense and rationale and whatever else is keeping them apart. I am waiting for the first step.

I know it will happen. As I said, I am, in reality, an incorrigible optimist. And despite my wife's meddling and the kid shrink's theories and Caroline Julian's comments and the way everyone else seems to be so much more invested in their relationship than I am, and even though the date I entered in the "When will Booth and Brennan finally get together?" office pool has long since passed, it will be I who is the happiest when it happens. When paradoxes and lines and questions and insecurities are shrugged off and forgotten, and when two of the best people I know find their eventually. Together.

Thanks for sticking with me! Reviews are much appreciated!