Chapter 13 – Forever

Brennan entered their dark apartment and slid her shoes off. It was quiet but she knew Booth would still be awake. He never went to sleep, unless she was safely in the bed tucked in next to him. When she got to six months, he protested more and more about her going out without him, but she was stubborn and still wanted to hold on to some of the independence she had left. The negotiation included her texting him when she was on the way home so he knew exactly when to expect her, and could immediately send a search party out.

She looked across the room at the sliver of light coming from the bedroom, and gathered her thoughts. It was important to her that she did this right. She took a deep breath and waddled to the door. When she opened it, she saw Booth in the light of the TV curled up on one side.

"Hey…" He said turning to lie on his back and look at her.

He was beautiful to her. Every curve of his chest and contour of his face was perfect. Sometimes, she even found herself forgetting to breathe when he looked at her with such love. She couldn't figure out exactly how she ended up being so lucky.

"Hey…" She walked to the closet, pulled her clothes off and put on her pajamas. Then, she walked over to kiss him. "What have you been doing all night?"

"Oh… a little of this, a little of that, " he said as a crooked smile creeped up his face. "Did you have fun with Angela?"

"I did. Michael is such a little handful," she smiled, sat down on the bed and ran her hand across her torso. "I hope you're ready."

"Can't wait," he reached out and slid his fingers through hers.

"Can I talk to you about something?"

"Anything," he said sitting up so he could lean back on the headboard.

"First, I feel like I need to tell you something that I'm not sure you really know," she began reaching out to run her hand across his cheek. She scooted closer and looked deep into his eyes. "I love you. It's real. It's solid. And it's not going anywhere. I needed to tell you that because I know I haven't said it."

Booth smiled, lightly grabbed the hand on his cheek and kissed her palm, "As I do you, but you know I…"

"Wait. I'm not finished yet," she put her finger across his lips to silence him. "I know your presence in my life has given me more gifts than I can count including this one that is sitting on my bladder at the moment."

Booth chuckled, but remained silent.

She continued, "I've never wanted to spend my life with someone. It's foreign to me. I wasn't raised in a world that included long term relationships. I trained myself not to get attached as a foster kid, and as a scientist, I trained myself to never get attached to a hypothesis. Depending on how the facts presented themselves, the end result could always change."

"I know, Bones…" he said rubbing his thumb across her hand.

"Booth, you have immeasurable patience. Any other man would have given up. You waited until I finally came around. And you're still waiting now. "

Booth looked at her with confusion, but again remained silent, he was sure she would clear things up soon.

"Marry me," she said looking into his eyes. "…I want to spend my life with you."

Booth's face lit up and huge grin spread across it, "Are you serious?"

"Yes. Angela helped me see something today. The root of my fear of marriage was about me losing myself. I know now that I lost myself when I met you. You improved the original… if you know what I mean. I'm better with you, than I ever was without you."

Booth jumped to his knees in the bed and leaned down to kiss her slowly.

"You're really serious. You'll marry me?"

"Absolutely. With no hesitation," she said holding on to his face.

"Hold on…" Booth put his feet on the floor and hurried into the closet. About two minutes later, he appeared with a velvet box in his hand. "This is going to sound funny, but I've wanted to do this since the first day I met you in that lecture hall."

Brennan chuckled, "You didn't even know me then…"

"Yeah, but I told you this before… I knew…"

A quick wave of sadness hit Brennan as she remembered that night outside of the office. She wasn't ready to hear him then. And she'd hurt him so badly.

Booth read her face, "Stop it. That's over. We're here now. We might have even needed that to happen to get here. Happy thoughts…"

She nodded in agreement and re-focused her attention on the present. Booth moved in front of her and she automatically reached for the box.

"Umm no," he playfully pulled it away. "You know me. I have to do this right." He squatted down to get on one knee. "Man…I'm old…" he said as he heard a pop. Brennan smiled.

"Temperance Brennan, love of my life, will you marry me?" He said opening the box to reveal a gorgeous diamond ring circled by small emeralds. Brennan sat still and didn't move. He immediately worried she'd changed her mind in the two minutes it took for him to actually find the ring he'd been holding on to. He was 0 and 2 in marriage proposal acceptances at this point, so it wasn't hard to believe that he might get another rejection, even though he wasn't expecting it.

A tear rolled down her cheek and she took a deep breath, "Yes…. wow… " she paused as she realized the importance of the moment. "I'd love to be your wife."

Booth froze for a moment. The words hit him like a ton of bricks. She said yes. He tried to fight a wave of emotion as his eyes moistened. He carefully slid the ring out of the box and gently took her hand. When the ring was in place, he looked at it and blinked away disbelief. His ring was definitely on her finger. This feisty, beautiful, stubborn, brilliant, unique woman had agreed to be his forever. He kissed her hand, lifted her from the bed into his arms, and placed kisses all over her face.

Brennan laughed with joy, and kissed him back. He stopped suddenly and stared at her.

"What?" she said searching his face.

"I can't believe you said yes…" A slow smile spread across his face again and he bent to kiss her lips.

"Believe it…" she replied softly as she nuzzled into his neck. "I don't know why it took me so long."

"Let's do it tomorrow."

"No wedding? That's not like you…"

"I don't care about any of it. I just want to call you Mrs. Booth." He slowly turned and guided her into the bed. She carefully crawled in first and grabbed her body pillow. When they were both in, he threw the covers over them and curled his body around her.

"Do you really want to do it tomorrow?" she said after a long silence.

"I will if that's what you want."

"I think I want the wedding." She said turning slightly to look up into his eyes. "Is it ok with you to wait until the little one is born?" she rubbed her stomach.

"Of course, I just don't want to wait much longer than that. I can't wait to be your husband."

She smiled again, and snuggled into him.

"By the way," he whispered as they both drifted to sleep. "Remember when I said you'd marry me eventually? Guess my dreams have come true…"

THE END