Fate is kind she brings to those who love the sweet fulfillment of their secret longing. I guess fate isn't being kind to me today because I still don't own, or profit from, any of the Bones characters.

Chapter 10 Expanding Love

SLAM! Went his door. That woman is so infuriating. Why is Cullen making me her whipping boy? All I ever try and do is help; all she ever does is tell me how stupid I am. How I contaminate the crime scene. Good Lord after working with her for three years you would think she would know I understand what she wants and how she wants a crime scene to be processed. But noooooooooooooooo she has to tell everyone within one ndred miles that she has told me before and she is tired of telling me not to contaminate her evidence. As if it was not my case too and the evidence was just as much mine as hers.

By now he was sitting on his couch with a glass of scotch in his hand. Taking another slug he continued his rant. Just because she had helped him solve cases before didn't mean he had to have her all the time. Why there had been that rape case... no he had needed the type of weapon used to rape the victim that had ultimately caused her death. OK there was the guy they found in the shooting alley... no he had been sure that guy died of an over dose, but she had seen the minute hole in his sternum that had been used to penetrate his heart causing his death. Then what about the guy they found dead in the strippers apartment no... he thought the guy had died of a heart attack, she had proved the stripper had killed the guy with a slim pick stuck into the base of his skull.

OK he told himself so had hadn't solved any cases without her since they had become partners. Did that mean she had to treat him like dirt? His eye fell onto the newspaper he had left discarded on the coffee table this morning as he rushed off to pick her up. Oh yeah that was another thing, and he was off again. He was always rushing around to pick her up. Rushing to get her coffee in the morning. Rushing to get to her office by 1:00pm to make sure she ate lunch. Rushing to get to her office again by 9:00pm at night to make sure she had dinner and got home at a decent hour to get some rest. Since when did he become her personal assistant? His eyes returned to the paper when it fell on the thought for the day

Today, see if you can stretch your heart and expand your love so that it touches not only those to whom you can give it easily, but also those who need it so much.

-- Daphne Rose Kingma

He read it again and then again. That was when. That was why. In a sudden moment of clarity he knew why he did what he did for her. He loved her and she needed his love. He knew her past and he knew he was so hopelessly in love with her he would never get over it. He put down his scotch and grabbed his coat.

Once he arrived at her door he wondered if this was a mistake. No, he thought she had to know. She had to know that at the end of the day someone loved her for what she was and no matter what and would never leave her.

She opened the door "Booth," she said in a confused voice "what are you doing here?"

He walked in and as he passed her he said "I have something to tell you I think you need to know."

He told her he loved her, she accepted his words, but continued for two more years to tell him she didn't believe in love. He continued to show her every day in every way he could think of he loved her. They had their ups and downs, their rocky roads. They days and weeks were each thought his love was not enough. One day he came into her office and she took his hand and told how grateful she was he had waited for her heart to catch up to her brain because in things of the heart she was the dumb one. That was the day she told him she loved him too and not in a atta-a-boy kinda way.

This quote arrived in my inbox today and they chapter just seemed to write it's self. Sometimes it has felt as if it was Booth's love for her that has been the glue that held them together. I hope you liked it.

Nyre