Dec. 6th: Thorteso chose the word "wax". Just under the wire! EEK! Probably errors, but whatever. I'll re-read tomorrow.

OOOOO

Booth's birthdays had notoriously been low key affairs. He didn't have a lot of family and close friends were hard to come by when you constantly moved every time the Army needed someone killed on the sly. He'd usually get a dinner with Parker, a phone call from Jared and Pops, free pie from the ladies at the diner and then head home.

And then he'd met her.

Before he even knew it was happening, he'd found himself in the middle of a family. Then Cam moved to DC and two stages of his life merged a little closer. Bones met and got to know his son, his brother, his grandfather, and pretty soon, he couldn't tell where one part of his life ended and the other began.

He stared at the long forgotten pile of candles pulled from his cake in haste and left abandoned on the counter to cool and he remembered his mother. She was the one who taught him that each candle held a wish and that by blowing it out, you could release the magic burning inside. But tonight, instead of making a wish, he'd found himself counting his blessings. He'd had a hell of a year, and nearly dying twice left its mark on a man. As he counted all of the things he had to be grateful for, he realized that none of them would have ever been possible without her.

It was Brennan who brought the ragtag group of scientists (and one displaced artist) into his life. She was the reason Cam wanted to work at the Jeffersonian. She even kicked Jared's ass into line and got him to be loyal enough to lose his job in exchange for his brother's life. She was the one who talked Rebecca into letting him spend more time with Parker and she was absolutely the reason he hadn't gambled since the second he laid eyes on her. She was the reason they had caught the Gravedigger, and every other evil person they had locked away since the day they'd first crossed paths. Her voice was the reason he'd woken up from his coma, and the reason he'd wanted to stay in it for so long.

He picked the candles up off the counter and tossed them in the trash, trying not to think about the fact that he was throwing away the remnants of his wishes.

He believed that burning candles could release wishes into the universe and bring magic into your life.

She believed that wax would melt all over the top of your cake if you didn't hurry up and just blow them out already.

He smiled at the new memory as he felt her enter the kitchen.

"Everything okay?" She asked as she threw the last of the paper plates away.

"Yeah, just thinking."

"About what?"

"My mom actually." He saw the flit of surprise dance across Brennan's face. He didn't volunteer a lot of information about her and while it was clear Brennan was curious, she didn't press him for information. He felt his heart swell at the solidarity, and for some reason, he felt safe enough to continue on the subject. "She told me when I was little that each candle held a wish inside it, and that you could wake up the wish by lighting the candle, and then release it when you blew the candle out. I used to watch the smoke fly into the air and pray that my wishes came true." Brennan smiled at the image of a young Booth wishing on candles.

"Our homes were very different." She acknowledged with a small grin. "My father used birthday candles to teach me about oxygen and ignition points." Booth chuckled.

"Aren't you going to ask me what I wished for?"

"Would you tell me?" She asked, knowing he wouldn't.

"No." He grinned. "Then it wouldn't come true."

"And you want it to come true." Brennan stated, but he heard a gentle teasing in her voice.

"More than anything." He said seriously. Brennan stared at him for a moment.

"Birthdays make you even more sentimental than usual." She noted, her teasing tone replaced with an observant one.

"Yeah, I guess they do." He said, knowing she was right. Only the year before, Booth had realized his brother was doing a stellar impersonation of his father. Booth had always wondered if he might have been able to do something different if he hadn't been so small, if he hadn't been just a kid. Maybe he could have helped in some way, gotten help from someone, told someone what was happening. Instead, Booth had been slapped by the realization that even at 40, he'd felt just as helpless and alone as that ten year old kid hiding in the closet.

But he hadn't been alone, he recalled. She was right beside him, offering to sit in sad silence and share a slice of birthday cake, just out of solidarity.

"It's like Christmas for me." She acknowledged quietly. Booth looked up in surprise at her intimate confession. "Holidays can be very difficult for people like us."

"Yeah." He nodded, completely undone by her simple sentence. People like us. She knew exactly what it meant to be so happy and so sad at the same time. She knew what it meant to miss people you wanted to hate more than anything.

She understood.

"Do you want a hug?" She asked, opening her arms. "You always offer to hug me and it usually helps." He smiled at the sincere offer and nodded. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. All at once, his mind settled and there was just her, sunk against his body, holding him close. She pulled away slightly and examined his face.

"Did it help?"

"Immensely." He smiled. "You are an excellent hugger."

"No. What I am is an excellent student, and I learned from the best." She smiled. Booth felt his heart leap into his throat and his body acted on instinct. He pulled her a little closer, placed a hand on her cheek, and kissed her softly. He pulled away again, immediately hoping he could play it off as a friendly kiss but Brennan's eyes had gone dark and he knew that there was no going back from this.

"What are you thinking?" He asked, wanting to just cut to the cost of the liberty he had just taken.

"After your surgery, when you told me that you loved me, you meant it." She realized.

"I did, yes." He managed to reply quietly, despite the fact that his throat was swelling shut out of nerves.

"But you changed your mind, changed your sentence. Why did you do that?" She asked him. He looked at her and decided he had nothing to lose.

"Because I was scared." He said simply. "I was scared of scaring you with my feelings. I was scared you wouldn't feel the same way. I was scared you might." He added. "Look, Bones, in the last eighteen months, I've almost died three times." He informed her. "That sort of risk, it forced me to confront something I had been trying to hide for quite some time." He reached down for her hand. "I was scared that night, terrified actually, but the more I think about it, the more I know that it's okay to be scared, as long as I have you to give me a hug now and then." He said honestly. "So I'm not going to lie to you anymore. You don't have to feel the same way. Nothing has to change, I just…I need you to know how I feel. I love you." He said firmly, despite the fact that his heart was racing and his knees were jelly. Brennan stayed silent for a bit longer, carefully contemplating his words.

"I don't know how I feel." She said simply. "I do know that I care about you, more than I care about myself. I want to protect you, make you happy again, because if you're not okay, then I'm not either." Booth nodded.

"Yes." He agreed. "See? Me too. Good."

"But because I want what's best for you, I can't be with you." She confessed. "I'm not…I'm not a good person for you, Booth. I'll hurt you."

"Why would you hurt me? How could you?" He asked, not believing her for a second.

"I don't even know if I believe in love! You believe that candles hold magic inside them and that Santa Claus and God are both real. You have an open heart that you give freely to anyone who walks by and I can't even trust the person I believe in most." She cried, getting frustrated.

"You have more heart than anyone I've ever met." He said, not buying her excuses. She sighed and turned away, unable to deal with the conversation. "Look, it's as simple as brains and guts, Bones. You taught me to believe in the truth, even if it hurts, even if we don't want to hear it, right?" She nodded, recalling their recent conversation after the JFK case. "So let me teach you about the guts. You know that voice inside your head telling you that you can't do something, that you're not good enough? I have it in spades. You know I do." He informed her and she paused, something registering in her eyes. "Sometimes, the guts just have to tell the brain to go fuck itself." He said bluntly. "You're Dr. Temperance Brennan. You can do anything. You just said it yourself: you're an excellent student." He said, using her previous statement against her. "So learn this." He begged. "At least try. You're already better than you think you are." Booth kept his eyes on her, hoping to read some sign of her verdict before she spoke.

"What happens if it fails?" She asked, their shared concern coming out.

"Then it fails and we tried. Sometimes, experiments go wrong." He acknowledged. "But when I was on that ship, were you thinking about the fights we'd had in the past, or were you thinking about all the things you never said?" He asked her. "Because I sure as hell was wishing I'd had just ten more minutes with you." Brennan looked up into his eyes. "I never want to feel that way again, Bones." Brennan sighed as she took in his request and his eager, desperate eyes.

"Okay." She decided. "If you're willing to take the chance, remove that line between us, then I am as well."

"Really?" He asked, wanting her to be sure. She nodded and he smiled.

"What?" She asked.

"You were my birthday wish, Bones." He admitted. "I wished for you." She got her own sentimental look and shook her head at his ridiculousness.

"You already had me." She confessed quietly before leaning up on her toes to kiss him once again. He swept her up in his arms and kissed her with all that he had. This time, he didn't break the kiss, and neither did she. They stumbled towards the bedroom, never fully separating, yet managing to remove pieces of clothing as they went. When they finally got to where they were going, they undressed frantically, desperate for each other. Booth lay her down on his bed and she wrapped her long pale leg around his waist. It was an invitation that he gladly accepted and as he continued kissing her neck, she sighed and ground into him.

When he finally pushed himself into her, he moved slowly, as if either one of them would break at any moment. It was intense, this thing between them, and he wanted to respect the intimacy of the moment. He clenched his jaw as they moved together in unison, finding their rhythm together. He could feel her silent panting, warm on his cheek, and it sped up as he drove her closer and closer to release. He pulled away just enough to watch in awe as she began to show the signs of her oncoming orgasm. Her eyes fluttered shut and her hand came up to clutch the back of his neck. She pressed her lips together and Booth couldn't resist pulling her a little closer. He gasped as she took him even deeper.

"Booth." She cried as she tried to hold on tighter. He felt his concentration slip at the breathy, moaning way his name fell from her lips in ecstasy. "Yes…yes…" She purred, letting the passion begin to crest between them.

"Bones, oh Bones." He murmured against her neck as she came hard, pulling him into her until he had no choice but to join her and gave into the glorious waves battering his body.

She released him as his lifeless body collapsed next to her but quickly rolled on top of him and laid her head on his chest.

"Happy birthday, Booth." She murmured as she placed a hand lovingly on his chest. His heart skipped a beat at the sentence and he could have sworn he felt her smile against his skin knowingly.

"Thanks, Bones." He replied as he kissed the top of her head and held her tight against his body.

And in the dark, he let himself believe that maybe candles really did hold some magic within them.