"I don't want to be an obligation," Brennan announced out of the blue as Booth drove her home. The drive so far had been silent, neither quite sure what they should say to the other. Booth glanced at her with his eyebrows knit together.
"What?" Brennan took a deep breath and repeated herself.
"I don't want to be an obligation. I will not be in a relationship that only exists out of a sense of duty. I can do this by myself. You will always be part of this child's life but…" Tears began welling in her eyes and Booth immediately pulled over.
"Bones… Bones, look at me," Booth demanded gently. She did, blinking back the tears desperately. "Do you not want this? Us? I thought…. I thought since we've been sleeping together for the last month that we were, you know, 'official' now." Brennan didn't answer right away and Booth ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Okay, Bones, here's the deal. We need to stop this dancing around the subject, teenager crap, okay? We're going to be having a baby." His stomach flipped as he voiced the words for the first time. Him and Bones. A baby. He wondered how long it would take before the news really sunk in. Probably until their kid's graduation. "Starting right now, we say how we feel. No more avoiding talking about this. We're going to be responsible for another human being in a few months. We owe it to our kid to have our act together." Brennan nodded and wiped an errant tear away.
"I'm sorry," she told him with a small smile. Booth returned it and took her hand in his.
"I'll go first, okay?" Brennan chuckled lightly and he squeezed her hand a little tighter. "You are not an obligation. I love you. We both know we wanted this, we both knew we were going to get here soon. Maybe it's not the way we planned it, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I always wanted this to work. Baby or no baby." Brennan smiled.
"I knew that," she admitted. "I just… I didn't want to trap you in something you didn't really want."
"Bones, I've never wanted anything more than to be with you. To have a family with you. Sure, we're sort of doing it all at once, but since when do we do things by the book?" Brennan laughed and he smiled to see her face light up. "It'll work. We've invested too much in this and been through too much together to fail. It'll be hard, sure. But we'll get through it. Together." Brennan hesitated a moment before speaking again.
"Since we're being honest with each other, I'd like to ask you a question."
"Shoot."
"What do you expect out of this relationship?" She didn't have to say anything more. Booth knew exactly what she was asking. He leaned back on his headrest and sighed.
"I'm starting to hate my own rule."
"You want to get married," Brennan deduced.
"Yeah," he confirmed, looking back over at her. "I do. Not because it's all or nothing or anything like that. But… I've been through this before, you know? Rebecca just takes Parker whenever she pleases, and I can't do a damn thing about it. I'm not planning on breaking up, but if we ever did… I just don't want to be a weekend father again. Plus… I'd want to marry you anyway." He grinned sheepishly.
"Booth, you know how I feel about marriage. There are legal papers we could sign that would give you full paternal rights regardless of our relationship. If we ever separated, you would be legally protected. I would never want to rob this child of the opportunity to spend as much time as possible with its wonderful father." Booth grinned at her assessment of him as a 'wonderful father.' "I will do anything to ensure your peace of mind regarding the baby. And I certainly want to be with you. But I don't know if I want to marry you." Booth saw the guilt written all over her face and rushed to reassure her.
"Hey, this isn't a proposal, okay? And I'm not leaving just because you don't want to get married. This is different than Rebecca. Than Hannah. I want to be with you, in any way I can. Just… just think about it, alright?"
"I will," Brennan promised with a smile that Booth returned.
"Come on, let's go back to my place. It's getting late and you must be exhausted. It's been a long day. We can talk more about this in the morning." Booth restarted the engine and drove off, feeling nothing short of invincible.