Wow! I'm overwhelmed by the HUGE amount of alerts and favorites I'm getting! Thank you all so much! Enjoy the next chapter. :D
Two weeks had passed since then and the news was finally starting to become real to both of them. They had decided to wait to tell their friends and respective bosses about both the baby and their new romantic relationship. The possibility of being separated professionally was never discussed. It quickly became the elephant in the room and the two of them did anything to sidestep the discussion. Right now, they were driving toward the Hoover to interrogate a suspect. "Booth?" Brennan called to get his attention. Booth mumbled a 'hm?' to let her know he was listening. "Are you going to ask me to marry you?" Booth glanced over at her with a wide-eyed expression.
"Not today," he joked lightly before refocusing on the road in front of him.
"But you will eventually?" Booth shrugged, not taking his eyes off the road this time.
"Maybe," he admitted. "When I think it's time." Brennan hesitated a moment before speaking again.
"What will you do if I say no?" she asked apprehensively. This time Booth did look at her and offered a reassuring smile.
"Then we'll keep doing what we're doing," he promised.
"But whenever you proposed to other women and they said no, your relationship ended. Why would it be different with me?"
"Because…" He searched for a better way to say this, but realized there was nothing more honest than the next sentence to come out of his mouth. "Because you're Bones." Brennan rolled her eyes at him and he laughed.
"I'm serious, Booth. Are you certain you wouldn't be staying with me because of the baby?" Booth sighed in exasperation. It was her number one fear, and while he tried to respect that she had insecurities, he got tired of having the same argument every single day.
"You know, Bones, when you say things like that it kind of sounds like you don't believe that I love you."
"I do," Brennan promised emphatically.
"Do you?" The words were out before he could stop them, and he instantly regretted it when he saw the look on his partner's face. "Remember, Rebecca and I broke up while she was pregnant with Parker," he offered hopefully and suddenly realized that was a rather odd way to prove his point. "Look, Bones, I get that you don't want to be an obligation. But I don't know what else to say except you're not. I wouldn't do that to you, okay? I don't know what else I'm supposed to do to get you to believe me."
"I believe you, I do," Brennan promised. "It's just… it's hard to explain. I'm happy, I honestly am, and I really need you to be happy too."
"I'm happy, Bones. I'm ecstatic. I'm in love with you and you're having my baby. Nothing in the world could ever make me happier."
"You say that now," Brennan pointed out, "but things are bound to be difficult. We've only been in a relationship for a month and a half. That's hardly enough time to make an informed decision about spending the rest of your life with someone. Our feelings for each other could easily change."
"Bones, we've been partners for six years. You know more about me than I do most of the time. And I know it's the same the other way around. I've been falling in love with you for seven years. We're ready for this. We are. I can't imagine that there's something big about you that I don't already know. We're going to be fine."
"But if we're not…" Booth sighed and Brennan gave him a stern look. "Booth, you can't pretend it isn't a possibility. Relationships that have lasted for decades end all the time. I'm sure most of those people knew everything about their partner and they still failed."
"We aren't going to fail. This is different, Bones. We're different." Booth's tone was determined and Brennan knew she should drop the subject before he became angry with her.
"Just promise me that if one day you find that you're no longer in love with me that you won't stay simply out of an obligation to the baby." Booth gave her a sideways irritated glance.
"Bones…" he warned softly.
"Promise me," Brennan insisted. Booth paused a moment then nodded slowly.
"Yeah. Okay. I promise." Brennan smiled in satisfaction. "But you know what else I promise?" Booth added. "I promise that I'll never have to keep that promise." Brennan gave him a crooked smile and Booth shook his head in disbelief. It was the first time a girlfriend had made him promise to leave her, but because this was Temperance Brennan, he wasn't exactly all that surprised.
I kind of like these shorter chapters for these. It seems to work better. But tell me what you think! Is this length good? Should they be longer? Tell me what you thought of the chapter in general too! Thank you again for all your reviews, alerts, and favorites so far!