Author's note: Sorry for the delay, I've had to deal with some personal stuff over the past weeks. Anyway, stuff is settled, and I'm back on track. This chapter isn't my usual level but I hope it doesn't disappoint too much.]

Uncharted Lands

11. Jane Doe

'We found her,' Angela called.

It was another week later, and they had identified the girl as a Rumanian immigrant. They had been unable to find any next of kin, comparing DNA to every database they could find, but until now they had been unsuccessful.

'Where?' Brennan asked, hurrying towards her best friend. She had been trying to keep her distance from the case, and she had largely failed, but Booth and everyone at the lab had been keeping a close eye on her on Booth's request, without Brennan knowing. They had taken over some tasks from her, pretending not to know they weren't supposed to, giving her less of a workload. Brennan suspected something but frankly, she was glad. She wanted to do everything, anything she could as fast as she could, and she knew that without the help of her colleagues and friends she probably would have had another breakdown, even if she hated to admit it.

'Right here, in cold storage,' Angela said when her friend was close enough to hear.

'What?' It was the only answer Brennan didn't want.

'Yeah, Jane Doe 453,' Angela said softly. 'Poor family.'

Brennan nodded her thanks at the young mother and holding her phone up she gestured that she was going to inform Booth.

Like every sign only remotely related to Booth, this one too caused a wink and a grin from Angela to reach Brennan. She loved that her best friends were together, finally, after so many long years of dancing around each other. She was over the moon excited about the development, maybe even more about the pregnancy. And all she wanted was to see Temperance Brennan truly happy. Which she had, over the last few days she'd seen more and more of the little spark in Brennan's eyes which had told her she was really truly happy. And in the end, that's what friends want for each other.

Speed dial, Booth's voice. 'Hey,' he greeted her, his voice concerned but trying to hide it. She didn't notice it. 'Hey,' she answered. 'We found the mother.'

'Really, that's great. Where? You want to go and talk to her?'

Brennan swallowed. 'No, we can't. She's dead, Booth. She's been right here in bone storage.'

'Oh,' he just answered, but the simple word meant so much. Oh, that's terrible. That's so unfair, oh. Oh my god. Oh Bones, please don't withdraw, don't blame yourself, don't think it's going to be the same for our child. Oh.

'I'm on my way,' he said then, she nodded and of course he didn't see it but he didn't care, he understood, he knew she needed him and he was already with one foot out the door at the prospect of Brennan needing him any time in the near future.

And not fifteen minutes later he walked into her lab, the place that, of all their places, would always be hers and not theirs. The place where she had felt most at home, except maybe for his apartment in his company, over the last years. The place where she probably felt closest to her mother. The place where her worst fears and nightmares had become reality, and where her dreams and hopes for the future had been formed, almost destroyed, fixed and finally had become reality. It had been here where he had been so uncomfortable at first, knowing it was her domain but not knowing his place in it, feeling it was too clean, too neat and tidy to be anything but fake. A charade. One in which Bones was living, believing every lie it had to offer.

But now, all these years later, he realized it wasn't a charade. It was another reality, one in which the facts could provide comfort, but also the sharp cut of truth was felt every once in a while. A place where the only person to rely on was yourself, the only thing to rely on were facts. And Bones knew that, Booth hadn't at first. Now that he did, he found it to be a reassuring place. It looked like Brennan, everywhere he looked he saw Brennan tidiness, Brennan order and he really loved it. Although the animal in him still yearned to just drive a big tank into the thing, destroy the lab, its meaning and its purpose, just to show her that you didn't really need science. Only now that desire was just that, a desire, no longer a need, because she knew there was more than science. She'd shown him.

Still he knew it was a place she loved and he respected that. He had found his place there, somewhere between acceptance and distance, and it was enough.

'Hey,' a voice greeted him.

'Angela, hey, how are you? You look great, how's the little one?' he said enthusiastically, seeing the young mother back in the lab was both a comfort and a promise for the future.

'He's great, just unbelievable. And I'm great, too. Just dropped in to help Bren with the case. You heard right? Poor thing, her mom has been here all along.'

'Yeah, I heard,' he said.

'You should probably go to her, she's in her office and she hasn't spoken to me since we identified the mother,' Angela warned him. He nodded. 'Thanks, Angela.'

In her office he found her, at her desk, staring at another file.

'Jane Doe?' he whispered, not wanting to startle her.

She looked up at his voice, her eyes void of any emotion. 'Yeah,' she just answered, closing the file. 'Nothing here to help us.'

'We'll get there, Bones,' he said, approaching her sofa and sitting down, his presence enough for her, the distance between them equally important to her now. He had felt her mood as he entered her office. She felt vulnerable, too vulnerable, and she didn't need confirmation of that now. She just needed him close, but not too close. He knew those moments, the moments that were hardest on both of them, the distance heartbreaking but necessary. So he gave her that distance, even though it tore his heart apart.

'At least we know we don't have to search for her mother anymore,' Brennan said, no particular tone to her voice. 'Yeah,' he just answered.

'This is going nowhere, Booth,' she said suddenly, her voice hard. 'This just isn't working.'

'What do you mean?' he said, his voice still soft. 'We'll figure it out, you always do.'

'It's made me weaker, less objective,' she said, her eyes clear but closed. He knew she was just telling herself things, but still, it hurt.

'What?' he asked, hoping she wouldn't be able to say it out loud, hoping she would understand that she was talking shit.

'This, us, the baby,' she said, and her voice wavered. 'It's made me weak, Booth.'

'No, no, no, Bones. Hey, it doesn't make you weak. Come on, you know that. We'll catch the bastard, we always do,' he said, no longer able to stay seated so he stood, approaching her desk, looking her in the eye.

She didn't feel intimidated by his form standing over her but she felt as if she should stand anyway, so she did, leveling with him. She didn't know what to say, so she just looked at him.

He held her gaze and suddenly she sobbed, her walls breaking down, no longer able to resist her own emotions. 'What if we can't do this anymore? What if we ruined our partnership with this?' She dropped her eyes to his chest and his arms came around her, his hands on her back, holding her to him, providing her with another safe haven.

'We ruined nothing, Bones. We couldn't. What we have.. It's ours, it works. It still works,' he tried to comfort her. 'We'll solve this case, like we did all our other cases, and I'll prove it to you. We still work.'

After a few minutes she broke from his embrace. Without another word she exited her office, and he followed her onto the lab platform.

'All right everyone, go over every piece of evidence again, and then again. We're missing something here. If you find anything, anything at all, come find me. Or Booth,' she added. Everyone nodded, no one commenting on the fact that they had already gone over everything, and went back to work.

She walked over to the remains and started her work as well, leaving him helpless as ever between all her scientific instruments and squints. 'I'm.. Gonna go work in your office, if that's ok,' he said. She nodded. 'Yeah, sure. Thanks Booth,' and with a nod he left her to work.

Later that day he started to worry again. Had she eaten? Had she even taken any kind of break all day? He knew her squints hadn't, and even though he admired their passion, he needed her to slow down.

'Bones, do you wanna order something? I could get some of the healthier Thai stuff, or salad, or whatever if you want,' he said to her while he approached her working form. She ignored him.

'Bones, you have to eat,' he said, softly so no one else would hear, and maybe, just maybe she'd forgive him.

She looked up and he saw desperation in her eyes. 'I'm close, Booth.'

He just nodded. 'That's fantastic. I knew you could do it,' and he gave her a little more distance by taking a seat at one of the computers along the side of the platform.

'I found some interesting stuff as well, I'll put it up here for you and there's a file on that desk there,' he pointed. 'And I'm ordering food.'

She didn't respond, and again he didn't take it personal because he knew her.

He ordered the healthy stuff, because even though she wouldn't mind eating Thai again, it wasn't nutritious enough and he worried about her. He put it down on the table on the balcony overlooking the lab, the place where they often observed their family at work, the place where they felt at home and where vulnerability wasn't cliché.

He called down, 'Bones!' and she looked up at him. Sighing, she abandoned her work, noting something on her computer before joining him upstairs.

'Thanks, Booth,' she just said when she saw the Greek salads he had ordered, noting the dressing on hers in cups instead of all over her salad like it was on his. 'Yeah, I guessed you might not want that dressing, you know, you always say it's the most unhealthy stuff in the entire thing,' he explained.

'It is,' she said. 'No burger?'

He chuckled. 'I thought I'd suffer with you today.'

She went quiet, and he immediately regretted his words, even though he didn't really see what he'd said wrong. 'Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that I don't like this, it's great.'

She nodded. 'It is, and it's a lot healthier than Thai or French fries and a burger.'

But still she didn't seem like herself. She was quieter, preoccupied, he couldn't exactly put his finger on it. He had seen her like this before, he realized now. And it had been during the Eames case. Back then he had egotistically put it down to him, his rejection of her, but it had been her fear of the reality she had come face to face with.

'That we weren't.. Together, then, didn't mean you weren't loved,' he said softly after a few minutes of silence.

She knew exactly what he was talking about. 'I felt alone,' she confessed.

'I know,' he said. 'I missed you back then.'

'Yeah,' she said. 'I missed you too.'

'I just didn't know what to do, Bones,' he said, and this time she didn't know what he was talking about, but she didn't really care. There were a number of times in their past to which he could be referring, and she didn't need apologies for any of them. Most of them were her fault anyway.

'I'm exhausted,' he said after they finished their salads. 'You want to continue to work a little longer?' He wasn't really that tired, but he had to try to get her to come home with him.

'Does your back hurt?' she asked him, knowing he had been sitting in her chair most of the day hunched over her desk.

'A little,' he confessed, and there wasn't a lie in that. His back felt tense, nothing that wouldn't fix itself, but still it was uncomfortable.

'I'll come home with you, help you with your back,' she said. 'Maybe you should visit a doctor for it.'

'No, it's fine,' he said. 'Just a pain in the ass sometimes. Let's go Bones, please? I'm really tired.'

He sounded like a whining child, and she had to smile. 'All right, come on,' she said, her mood softened by him. She had been hard on him today, she knew that. But time and time again he seemed to forgive her without a thought, knowing it was her, that sometimes words had been her only protection against getting hurt by others, and it would take time for her inner rationalist to fully learn that with him, she didn't need that protection. Unconditionally, that's how he loved her, and how she loved him right back.

She drove them home, to her place, because home meant where whoever was driving wanted to go. She didn't even give it a thought, they just ended up on her couch, tired and in need of some inner peace.

Suddenly, a thought popped into Booth's head while he was caressing her silken hair, which seemed softer than before.

'Do you want to think about names yet?'

She frowned. 'Names? Already? Booth, I think we should wait with that until I'm at least in my second trimester.'

He nodded. 'Yeah, ok. Sure, you're right.'

'Why,' she asked, 'do you have an idea?'

'Not really, I just want to think about that miracle, you know, enjoy everything without worrying.'

She bowed her head a little. 'I'm sorry I worry so much, about us.'

'Come on, Bones, don't apologize for being a good mom,' he said, poking her shoulder with his finger. 'Don't apologize for being you.'

She smiled because again, he understood.

'So, what about the names?' she asked.

'Now you do want to think about it?' he said, a smile on his face, his arms coming around her to pull her closer.

'Yes,' she just answered. She wanted to think about names. After all, it couldn't hurt and it would be fun, and she could use some fun after today.

'I have a few names I love, yes, but you'll hate them,' he said, a smirk on his face.

'Why? I love Parker as a name,' she said.

'Yeah, but he's named after someone,' Booth countered. 'That wasn't much of a choice.'

'So.. This is kind of new to you as well?' she asked, her voice soft and wavering.

And then realization hit him once more. She needed something of this to be new for him as well. The feeling of being new to this while he knew it all, had seen it all before, made her incredibly insecure.

'You know this isn't anything like it was with Parker, don't you?' he whispered to her, and she turned her head. 'Why?'

'Because with Parker, everything was different. It wasn't planned, but the rest was different. Rebecca and me.. We weren't made for each other. I wanted to marry her, but it wasn't.. It was love, but it was different,' he tried to explain. 'It wouldn't have lasted and I knew that.'

'Why?' she asked again.

'Because, you know, we were young. We would have married for the wrong reasons. Parker was what I loved most about our family. Now, that's you. It has been you for a long time. I love Parker equally, but you know, he's family. You weren't, that wasn't a given, that feeling. You always love you kid, you can't not love them.'

Brennan nodded. 'So this is different.'

'Yeah,' he said, slightly tightening his hold on her. 'It's completely different. I love you like crazy, and I'll love our child like crazy. But I'll always love you. I can't explain it.'

'You know many people say that and don't mean it,' she said softly. 'My dad said I love you a lot, and so did my mother, but in the end they didn't love me enough.'

She stayed strong, for him and for herself, holding back the sob that threatened to escape her. 'They abandoned me.'

The core of her being, bared in front of his eyes, her heart, naked on a platter for him to do with as he pleased. That's what he saw when he met her eyes, when he had intended to just whisper his love to her. But he just couldn't. He couldn't say those words if she believed he was lying.

'I'm not lying,' he just said, and his eyes bore the truth of his words. 'I'm not lying, Bones. I'll stay with you for as long as I can, and for as long as you'll have me. And even if you want me to go, I won't. I couldn't.'

Their conversation had turned serious again, like it had a thousand times over the past days and she didn't care. In the past, serious conversation had had her nervous, seeing things in his eyes she didn't want to see, she wanted to run away from. But now, she truly believed him. He wasn't his father, nor was he hers. His place had been at her side for the past seven years, and it would continue to be for a lot longer.

'Melody,' he whispered after a while. 'Melody Joy Brennan, or Booth, or both.'

Her heart froze. He felt her tense. Did she hate it?

'Melody,' she whispered.

'Bones, something wrong? You don't like it? Ok, we'll pick something else,' he said.

'No, no..' She seemed lost to him, disconnected from him for a few seconds. Then he had her back, and she turned towards him.

'It's a beautiful name.'

'But?' he asked, knowing there was more. 'Tell me, Bones.'

'It's just.. I had a doll named Melody, a long time ago.'

'Oh..' He didn't know what else to say. There were probably memories attached to that doll, to that name, because he had felt her tensing up immediately after he mentioned the name.

'It's ok, Booth,' she said, her hand coming to cover his on her stomach. 'I had her with me when I was locked in that car trunk, after I broke a dish. She got me through that.'

'I.. I didn't know you had dolls,' Booth said, it was all he could think of.

'A few, yes,' she answered seriously. 'Melody looked like a friend of mine. That's why I kept her. I was a teenager, but that doll just.. She kept me going, you know, when things got bad.'

Booth nodded. 'Yeah, I get it.. I'm sorry for picking that name.'

'No, actually, it's beautiful,' she said, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. 'It just reminds me of some bad times, that's all.'

'Yeah, but we can replace those memories,' Booth said into her hair. 'You know, make new ones, good ones with our baby.'

'It will always remind me of those days,' she said, her voice sad.

'Ok, then we'll find another beautiful name,' he said.

'Booth, it's a wonderful name. And it'll just remind me how lucky I am, and to have a little.. Faith in life, I suppose. If we have a girl, I would love to call her that.'

We. She'd said, if we have a little girl. Not if I have a little girl, no, we. His heart ached.

'We'll have a little girl, Bones. I know it. A beautiful, sweet, tiny little baby girl.' She smiled up at him, her eyes calmer than before. 'A baby, Booth.'

'I know,' he whispered back, and their lips met in a sweet, soft, reassuring and loving kiss that meant so much to both of them that they didn't need words anymore. The love was there, right there on his lips, in her breath, between their hands softly clasping each other, sealing their fate once more.

The next morning found them in her bed, where they had moved to later in the evening, where she had magically fixed his back once more, where he had very, very slowly driven her crazy to show his gratitude. For everything.

When she awoke, she knew he was still asleep. Her body was close to his, lying on her side with her hand on his abdomen she felt his even breaths hit the skin of her cheek. He was lying on his back, face turned towards her, his grip on her loosened in his sleep but his body still very much aware of her presence, his arm under her head and his other hand covering hers on his belly. Lying there, she felt peaceful. In those moments, those precious moments where she didn't have to talk to him, explain her feelings, she felt even more lucky and grateful for their situation. Of course she knew talking about her inner conflicts was important and it was just a way of him trying to help her when he asked her to talk about stuff, but she wasn't comfortable with her own explanatory skills to make sure she wouldn't hurt his feelings. That's why those moments, when she was awake but he was still far away, in a deep sleep, were so very beautiful to her. She could laugh, cry, mourn, celebrate and hope without hurting his feelings, without him even knowing.

But soon her mind called for him to join her in her train of thoughts. She needed him awake, needed him to talk to her, explain, rationalize even. A few days ago she had feared the loss of her individuality to this need, the need for him, but soon she had realized she hadn't lost anything. She had always needed his input, wanted his opinion. She was still her, even more so with him as close to her as possible.

And as the sun rose, its rays found their way into her home and onto their faces, and as they hit Booth's lids he opened them and he was immediately lost in her eyes, her faith, her promises.

The sun rises, two plus two equals four. And life is good again. Life is very good.