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taylorsbrennan · 1 year

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my top 10 bones episodes

I watched Bones for the first time last summer and am currently in my third rewatch. I've noticed so many small details I missed the first two times around (thanks to me finishing the show in a month). Each episode is so amazing and has a lot of great moments. I've had a list in my notes of some of my favorite episodes and decided to narrow it down to my top 10. This was a lot harder than I thought because I love each episode for different reasons. Anyway, here's my personal top 10 and reasons why I love them :) (also spoilers obviously)

10. double trouble in the panhandle (season 4, episode 12)

i know undercover eps have mixed opinions, either you love them or you hate them and i love them. the circus one is my favorite of the undercovers and i don't really have a clear reason. i think it's a really fun episode to watch that's so different from the usual setting we see. the costumes were also amazing and Emily looked gorgeous in her final performance outfit (she always looks gorgeous but still). i think it also showed a new layer of how much faith and trust Brennan has in Booth as well as their love for each other that's obvious to everyone but them. this is also Emily's favorite undercover so it made it that much better.

9. the verdict in the story (season 3, episode 13)

first, i love courtroom and legal episodes so this one not only being that but centered around Brennan and Max instantly had me intrigued. it also has such good individual scenes that make me love the episode even more. first, the scene above where Booth and Brennan are talking and Sweets asks about writing a book on them. the way they talk like he's not even there and Brennan's line, "do you likee us?" kills me every time. it also brought the iconic "that's a lot of heart, Bones." when Brennan decides to implicate herself to save Max from prison. even with their complicated relationship, Brennan loves her dad and doesn't want to lose him again. her going this far, proves this and further adds to the layer of her character. the first time i watched this episode, it almost felt like a movie and i couldn't predict whether Max would be found guilty or not. let's not forget about that final hug scene between Brennan and Booth. with Booth being torn between being happy she has her dad but also upset he got away with it, says so much about their relationship as well. and finally, Brennan hugging her dad knowing he's free and they can work on their relationship always makes me cry.

8. aliens in a spaceship (season 2, episode 9)

i know this is a fan-favorite episode and for good reason. it's one of the first times we see members of the Jeffersonian in real danger (minus two bodies in the lab, more on that later) and they're on a time clock. Booth and Brennan are also more comfortable in their relationship at this point so their dynamic in this situation is amazing to see. Hodgins and Brennan having to rely on each other for survival and use their strengths to figure a way out never fails to amaze me. their friendship is also one of my favorites on the show and it's really rooted in their experience in this episode. Hodgins telling Brennan she has faith in Booth is another clear indicator of the deeper feelings she's struggling with. i love seeing them write letters to loved ones (Brennan later revealed to have written to Booth, shows she did love him back in season 2 but just wasn't fully aware or comfortable enough to admit it out loud, yet uses her potentially last, dying words as a confession to him, sobbed the first time i heard it and when rewatching the season with this info) and them saying goodbye to each other when trying to blow themselves out of the car. they know at this point, that either choice of trying or doing nothing will result in their death so they decided to try, and thankfully Booth was there to see. Booth doing his action-hero run down the hill to pull them both out always makes me cry. if it wasn't for both of them being taken together, likely, Booth wouldn't have gotten there to find Brennan alive. it really highlighted each of their strengths and resourcefulness to extend their air supply and fight to escape. i know the gravedigger became a recurring storyline, but i really wish the aftermath of Brennan and Hodgins' coping and healing would have been explored more in the show as i think it really did have a big impact on Brennan no matter how easily she says she can compartmentalize.

7. the man in the fallout shelter (season 1, episode 9)

ahh, the first Christmas episode of bones, i love holiday episodes of shows but this one is especially good. i'll admit on my first watch this one didn't stand out to me a lot but on my second one, i really fell in love with it. this episode is the first time we see the more personal sides of the Jeffersonian team and how they do spending this much time together. we get to see the families of everyone as well as compare their experience to Brennan who she has no one to visit. this is one of the first times we clearly see how isolated and alone Brennan is. the way she wants to spend Christmas is so drastically different than everyone else's. at this time, work really was her entire life and the Jeffersonian was the closest thing she had to family (we obviously know they become her family but this is still season 1 so we'll give it time). i love seeing Booth high and him annoying Brennan because of her persistence in wanting to work on the case. learning that her parents disappeared around Christmas is a new piece in that puzzle and seeing her open the present she held onto all those years is really sweet. i can't remember if this was acknowledged in the show or if i just saw someone point it out online, but after the season 1 finale, we learn Brennan's mom had been in the Jeffersonian the whole time, unidentified. so technically, Brennan did spend Christmas with her mom just in a very different way. sometimes that makes me sad and other times i think it's kinda sweet.

6. the woman in white (season 9, episode 6)

i think this one is pretty obvious why it's in my top 10. Booth and Brennan's relationship build-up is the main reason i watched the show and loved it. they did such a good job with this ep and it's everything i could've ever wanted. Brennan's dress was gorgeous, them only caring that the other was happy, Emily's husband's cameo, and of course the vows. Brennan and Booth's vows were honestly what made the whole episode. their wedding scenes were, of course, gorgeous but the vows were not only true to character, but so sweet, had so many callbacks to early seasons, and really made the 9 seasons wait worth it. starting with Booth's, him remembering that the spot they're getting married at is where she chased him during their first (technically second) case and she called herself a duck. then saying "chasing you is the smartest thing i've done in my life and being chased by you has been my greatest joy" what more could you ask for. it's so true to their character's relationships and the early dynamics of the show. if i heard that on my wedding day i think i'd simply melt. and if you thought it couldn't get any better, then there are Brennan's vows. i always hoped what she wrote in that letter would be revealed but i never thought it would be at her wedding and i'm so glad it was. i was already crying at Booth's vows but hearing hers made me sob like a baby. the full weight of Booth knowing that Brennan was reading what could have been her last words and that they were addressed to him? her being able to acknowledge how happy being with and looking at him makes her and that he "makes her life messy and confusing and unfocused and rational and wonderful" 7 years ago, all the way back in season 2. and the knowledge that since Brennan was rescued she knew she had to find a time to admit those feelings to him. this episode just perfectly connects their relationship over the show and seems like it was made with fans in mind. i love every part of it and it always makes me cry happy tears for them.

5. the doctor in the photo (season 6, episode 9)

wow, this episode. Temperance Brennan is my favorite tv character of all time and i think one of the most complex. this episode proves that with it being so Brennan-centric. it reveals so much about her inner thoughts, how her brain works, and what she really came back hoping for after Maluku. she came back willing to take the risk and be with Booth, but he came back with Hannah. she spent the first 8 episodes trying to convince herself she was fine and it didn't matter, but this case brought everything to surface and she was forced to confront the fact that she had to try. she didn't want any regrets and she knew Booth was who she wanted to be with. Brennan opened herself up to him and let down all her walls in a way she never had before, in the hopes he would reciprocate and want to try. Booth being the guy he is keeps his loyalty to Hannah (as much as this hurts Brennan and viewers, this was the best decision at the time. they still had so much to work through, and the later elevator episode made so much more sense for them) and turns her down. Brennan's reaction, in my opinion, is the rawest and most unfiltered emotion we've ever seen from her. because all her walls were down, she couldn't compartmentalize that rejection as quickly or come to terms with the fact that she missed her chance to be with him. i do wish Booth would have done more here to comfort her but i believe he was also struggling with wanting to be with her but also not wanting to be unfair to Hannah. i do think Booth loved Hannah, but he could never in the same way he loves Brennan and he knew that. now Booth is also aware of Brennan's feelings and that if he were to try again, she wouldn't reject him. Brennan then recovering and saying "i can adjust." always hurts me because she deserved so much more. you can see her again retreating to her old self of never letting anyone in and not trusting anyone. this episode was just so well done and Emily played it beautifully. it's such a big episode for Brennan's character growth, as well as setting up for what happens in episode 16, the blackout in the blizzard. i don't think this episode will never not crush me and it reveals so much about who Brennan is and how she handles situations.

4. the parts of the sum of the whole (season 5, episode 16)

when i first watched this, i was in shock. the revelation that not only had they worked a full case before the pilot, but they were directly flirty, kissed, and had a huge fight? Sweets was me and i was Sweets hearing all of that. i love flashback episodes and this one was full of them. seeing the way they originally interacted with each other and what ended up happening, makes their attitudes in the pilot make so much more sense. that kiss outside the pool house and the implication that she was what stopped Booth from gambling again always kill me. i loved seeing their initial interactions even their argument, because would it really be b&b without a little intensity? now let's talk about what happened outside on the steps. i do love Booth's speech but he should've known her better than to ambush her like that. when i first watched, i thought this is where they finally get together and she takes the risk. watching back, her saying she can't take the risk because she's a scientist is so in character. Brennan obviously has trust and abandonment issues and swore off the idea of traditional relationships and marriage because she never thought she could trust someone in that way or have someone love her that way. Booth has slowly over the years broken all of the walls down, and although she does love him and wants to try, the idea of doing that and it not working out terrifies her. she'd rather have him always as her partner than risk a romantic relationship then it not working out, and end up losing him completely. Booth knows this about her and knows especially with feelings like that, it's important to take it slow and give her time to process. there were better ways he could have slowly introduced the idea to her that would have allowed her to gather the evidence she needed and consider the idea of actually being together. the hurt on each of their faces always gets me because neither is really happy but Brennan is just so scared of losing him. when she asks if they can still be partners, i've seen some people take this as her being selfish. in my mind, it's again because she was terrified of losing him. she turned him down because of that fear but now she's worried that by doing that she's lost him anyway. no matter how much it hurts him, he could never say no either because on some level he does understand her thoughts and reasoning. again this episode is so well done and perfect for the hundredth. the flashbacks were so cute and the ending leaves the question of where their partnership goes next and how they'll move on. it's also so clear how familiar the writers and actors were with the characters because everything was so true to them even if it hurt us as viewers to watch.

a note about my top 3: these episodes are ones that when I first watched them, I could not stop thinking about after. the day after i first watched these i ended up rewatching all of these episodes because of how much they were stuck in my head. even now, i think about them at least twice a week. they altered my brain chemistry at this point and are my most watched episodes (5 times each)

3. the past in the present/ the future in the past (season 7, episode 13/season 8, episode 1)

okay, i know this is technically 2 episodes, but since they are connected and are direct continuations of each other, i'm counting it as 1. i don't think i've ever been more emotionally distraught or stressed watching an episode of Bones as i was the first time i watched these. Pelant took it too far framing Brennan for murder. i don't think we talk enough about how Brennan basically had to abandon Booth, something she swore she would never do, in order to save herself from jail. she also had to rely heavily on her father to keep her and Christine safe from the cops. because if Brennan had been caught, there's no way they would have been able to prove her innocence. She really had to put a lot of trust in Max, something she's had trouble doing since he reentered her life but I think this situation really cements and reestablishes their relationship. Booth having to watch the love of his life drive away with his kid not knowing where they're going or how to keep them safe is so hard because that's how he views his entire role for them. Brennan also having to leave him behind with the same thoughts on top of the risk of jail is devastating. let me also just say, when i started the season 8 episode, i was expecting a mini time jump of a few weeks. when i saw 3 months later flash on the screen, i had to pause and take a moment because i was sobbing. but that reunion scene was everything i could've wanted and more. her also finally being able to come home and have her name cleared was so sweet. seeing everyone, embrace her being back even before she was cleared and their need to protect her fits their found family so well. i was also so thankful to see her brown hair come back haha. i do wish we could have seen a little more of what her life looked like on the run, however, i believe these episodes and storyline are perfect and really had such an impact on Brennan and Booth. this is the best season finale i've seen and i genuinely didn't know how they were going to wrap it up, and still feel the same anxiety each time i watch. i loved it and the effect it has on Brennans character in season 8.

2. two bodies in the lab (season 1, episode 15)

this is the episode that officially had me hooked on Bones so i have a soft spot for it in my heart. after this, I knew i would be watching every episode after and loving it. there are so many good moments in this episode and the entire thing is 10/10. hot-blooded being b&b's song is introduced in this and them dancing together is always so sweet to watch. we also really see Booth's protectiveness over Brennan come out by not letting her out of his site and breaking out of the hospital to save her. backtracking a little, i love when he's trying to interrogate Brennan's date but she is just not having it and is acting like he's not even there. the explosion scene was so unexpected and i always think about what would've happened if it had been Brennan or if Booth hadn't even been there, to begin with. it's also always so tense seeing each of them slowly figure out that it's Kenton and that Brennan is in danger. it's one of the few times i feel like we see Brennan genuinely scared because her and Booth's partnership was so new, she didn't have the faith and trust in him yet as she does in later seasons, for example, aliens in a spaceship. she also had no reason to believe Kenton was dangerous prior so why would Booth even be worried about her or looking for her, not to mention he was also in the hospital. Booth realizing and convincing Hodgins to break him out of the hospital and ignoring all the serious injuries he has just to save her, really sets the groundwork for their whole partnership. her genuine fear combined with him getting there just in time always makes me emotional. and then him comforting her and the way she just falls into his embrace (first time we see them hug ahhh). then when she realizes he's still hurt, her concern is immediately on him. i think the ending scene was also perfect for the episode with her finding a reason to cancel her date in order to spend more time with him in the hospital. overall, this episode is so good for early b&b and sets the tone for their relationship growth.

honorable mentions: the harbringers in the fountain, wannabe in the weeds, blackout in the blizzard, man in the morgue, recluse in the recliner, end in the beginning

1. the shot in the dark (season 8, episode 15)

my all-time favorite episode of bones <3. personally, i think this episode is directly connected to Brennan proposing to Booth in the season 8 finale. first, of course, we had to start with some angst and have Booth and Brennan get into an argument. leading Brennan to go to the lab (her old safe space) and end up being shot. Booth decides he has to see her because he misses her, and finds her passed out and bleeding. his panic and worry for her always gets me and the way it lasts until she wakes up. i love all the soft moments between them of him constantly holding her hand or all the forehead kisses (see above). to me, those are small moments that really show the love he holds for her and that he is her home. now onto Brennan's dream or near-death reality where she has conversations with her mom. i absolutely loved this and think it really explains so much about Brennan's character from the beginning of the series until now. i also loved seeing the mother-daughter interaction. it's revealed that the last words Brennan ever heard from her mom before her disappearance was "use your head. be rational. don’t let your heart lead you. use your brain." Brennan of course held onto that like a lifeline because that's all she had. it leads to her hyper-logical and rational persona. it also meant she kept her distance from deeper relationships with others and lead with her brain over her heart, compartmentalizing over feeling emotions. her mom then gives her new advice, again the last thing before Brennan wakes up from her final surgery. she says "it’s time for you to find some of that little girl that you locked away so deep inside yourself. because, it’s not about surviving anymore. it’s about flourishing. it’s about living a full life.” and i believe, this let Brennan let go of that remaining distance, hesitancy, and fear of all the things little Brennan wanted. she now feels safe to open herself up to marriage and relying on other people instead of her hyper independence. this is what i think leads to Brennan proposing to Booth, something she swore she wouldn't do as recently as the same season. having that interaction with Christine healed the still open wounds from her 15-year-old self and enabled her to take that step. overall, this episode adds a lot to Brennan's character development and is an intense but such good episode to watch. i wish i had a specific reason why it's my favorite, but i just love it so much and think that it's a masterpiece and beautifully told and shown.

that's my ranking :) thanks for reading this far, i know it's long. i would love to hear others thought and opinions on favorite episodes! i have so many list and ranking posts i'd love to do too so if you want more let me know <3

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maybe-itll-be-someday · 9 months

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The Promise in the Vow

Death could come today, or tomorrow, or 10 years from now, or 50 like he promised.

She wants every day, every moment that she’s still here, with him.

An in-depth look into the events of between the Season 8 finale and Season 9.

A/N: I wrote this because there's so much to unpack about Brennan finally being convinced to get married. It makes for good fluff and great angst and I aim to deliver. It'll be two parts and I hope you enjoy!

Read on AO3

Brennan can’t pinpoint the exact moment when her stance on marriage begun to change.

Maybe it had begun on Booth’s bed, on the night that Vincent Nigel-Murray’s life slipped out from in between her fingers. That night, after the adrenaline and chaos had settled, had brought her dangerously close to the memories of Booth in the same situation; bringing back snippets she had tucked away in the farthest reaches of her subconscious. She remembers the two weeks when she was convinced that he was dead, years before when she was still an impervious substance and not a strong one. The sleepless nights that followed, an emotion she didn’t have the strength to name constantly creeping up on her no matter how hard she tried to banish it.

It was different now, she was different now. She would never be able to escape the grief, the pain of loss, had she lost him to Broadsky. Booth was now etched into the foundations of her life and losing him would leave a gaping chasm where he would be.

Booth had cracked her open, had shown her that family could be chosen, could be stitched together from the ashes of ruined homes she grew up in. Families could be composed of FBI agents and scientists and even a psychologist. Families could be born from death, created from the night that had been so wrought with grief and regrets; she fell into his bed that night, a keen awareness of Booth’s fluttering heartbeat under her fingertips.

It had almost been him. A second sooner, a different decision could have erased all the potential that they had been working towards the past 6 years. The realization was startling, almost frightening, that there was even a chance they would never make it to the dates they burned during that blizzard.

She had thought of the 30, 40, 50 years that he wanted from her on the steps of the Hoover. Brennan didn’t know how to promise him forever, but it looked different, sounded almost appealing on the precipice of losing him tomorrow. That same morning, Booth had rolled out from under the sheets with a mission of capturing Broadsky the only thing on his to-do list for the day. The soft morning light slanted through the cracked blinds unto his sheets, the remaining imprints of their indiscretion only the satisfied ache between her thighs and the strewn clothes on the floor.

She watched him, counted the notches of his spine as he pulled on his slacks, listed out the distal, middle, and proximal phalanges as he buttoned up his dress shirt. She knew the names to the bones under his sinew and skin, of the scars that were etched into each, but now knew the feel of them as well.

It couldn’t be just this, a singular moment they should have had years ago. He couldn’t walk out of his apartment, into Broadsky’s line of fire, and she would just have to wait for a phone call from his superiors to know that her world was not about to be tilted on its axis.

“Booth.” She had whispered, when he glanced at his watch with a heavy sigh. He needed to leave, but both seemed just as unwillingly to let each other go. But his gaze met hers, something in it she had seen before but felt utterly new entirely. “Come back to me.” She said, with a hand pressed against his heartbeat, willing it to keep going. He looked down at her, eyes wide and unbelieving, as if desperately committing a mirage into his memory. Brennan wanted a promise, a vow, that this night wouldn’t be their last. She held his gaze and silently promised that there would be no one else, no other choice to make, if he came back to her. She would be strong, finally give them their moment to catch.

Now, she would only permit death to take her away from him.

Till death do us part.

Maybe it had begun in her bathroom, weeks later after this unnamed thing between them had blossomed into a positive pregnancy test sitting on her counter. She knew that nausea was a common side-effect in early fetal development as her estrogen rose, but she did not expect the combination of fatigue, nausea, and an aching pain in her breasts that never seemed to cease would make her as miserable as it did. She and Booth were tentatively exploring the personal part of their partnership, their nights now evenly split between his place and hers. He had come home to hers after an afternoon at the shooting range, only to find her hunched over her toilet in misery.

“I’m sorry, Bones.” He muttered his apologies over and over, a hand holding her hair back as she was emptied of the little food that didn’t make her nauseous. She had tried to swat him away at first, had tried to insist that she was fine, but he shushed her and traced soothing patterns between her scapula. When the vomiting had ceased, he corralled her into the bedroom and tucked her under the sheets with ginger ale and more saltines left on the nightstand.

“I don’t know who came up with the moniker ‘morning sickness’, but I find that I would like to punch them in the face for the unrealistic expectations.” She muttered, pulling her duvet high around her as Booth just laughed and dragged another kiss across her temple. He had settled beside her, refusing to leave until she felt well enough to ingest more than just plain crackers.

Brennan had insisted that she would be okay, that he could go teach the tactical shooting course he was planning to at the Bureau later that evening, but he had steadfastly refused.

“In sickness and in health, baby.” He said, continuing to push more water in her direction. She had flustered then, telling him that they weren’t married anyway so the vows were meaningless in their situation. Booth had just smiled, the kind of smile that later on she’d learn was an indicator that he didn’t believe her but put on the outwardly appearance that she convinced him otherwise.

In sickness and in health.

But her stance on marriage had definitely softened by the time that Booth’s mother had come back into his life. It had been a few years since their partnership carried itself beyond the confines of their time together at the FBI. Now it was every day and every night, shared between them in a home they built together.

Her days were filled with a simple kind of happiness that a younger her would scoff at if she knew. She had always thought that the heart was just a muscle, love simply a toxic combination of hormones and coincidences. But Brennan had no way of explaining the warmth that unfolds within her at Christine’s gummy smile, at the emotion that she can now describe as happiness when Booth’s arm is wrapped around her waist, being crooned at with love songs he proudly proclaimed were messages to her.

She had considered marriage more than once over the course of their relationship. Booth had kept true to his promise - no proposals came from his direction, no conversations to try and convince her that they should be married. He had left the choice up to her and entirely up to her; she knew he would have already tried if she had permitted it.

No marriage proposals came - only reassurances that what they had was enough for him.

But she had seen him at Marianne’s wedding - saw the proud way he stood at his mother’s side, back straight and hands clasped in reverence. His eyes brightened when she catches his gaze after the bouquet is thrown perfectly into her her grasp, followed by a soft shrug in his shoulders and an outstretched hand as he swept her away into a simple waltz next to Marianne and Reggie. Asides from the actual ceremony, she never found his touch or gaze far away from her. He thread his fingers through hers, a gesture he didn’t often engage in unless they were alone, and muttered soft affections more than once.

She knew then, observing the dilation of his pupils and soft smile that tilts the corner of his lips as he glances down at her, Marianne and Reggie’s song to each other echoing in the background, that he had never given up on his desire to marry.

Brennan knew that her happiness was so closely tied to Booth’s, to Christine’s, that she made considerations and took compromises to ensure their happiness as much as her own. She knew that religion had saved Booth from the effects of war, that the unwavering faith he had had rubbed off on her more times than she’d ever admit - tracing back to a time underneath dirt and gravel, counting down the minutes until either life or what was most probable, death. Religion helped make Booth who he is and she wouldn’t strip him of that to satisfy her own beliefs.

But her outlook on marriage, or rather the absence of one, was the one things she was still steadfast in.

The only happy marriage she had ever witnessed were her parents, but those memories were buried under the massive weight of wondering what became of the parents that ran out on her, scared nights spent being shuffled from foster home to foster home, more broken relationships than she’s ever seen while working cases with the FBI. She had no semblance of a family for fifteen years. She was content with the idea that she would build her home with scientific accolades and recognition. Everyone always told her that she was brilliant, exceptional. She possessed an uncanny ability to assess patterns and retain information - it made her a menace, a consumer and applier of history and knowledge to the highest degree. Dr. Temperance Brennan would be immortalized in papers and discoveries, not by a grieving family at her headstone.

But the paradigm had started to shift, led by Booth’s love and continued by Christine’s existence.

—

She’s startled out of her thoughts by a woman to her right, reaching for one of the bags of jerky that Brennan had been reading the nutritional facts of and huffing in disappointment when she saw just how much sodium and preservatives went into Booth’s favorite snack. An ounce of jerky had over four hundred milligrams of sodium and with Booth’s abhorrent diet, he would need to forgo the extra sodium if he wanted to be around long enough to see Christine graduate from high school.

The woman seems to notice her displeased expression and chuckles, glancing into her groceries to see a bottle of men’s shaving cream, diapers, and Booth’s favorite beer piled on top of produce and baked goods she had procured for the week. She offers Brennan a friendly smile as she tosses the jerky into her own pile of groceries with similar contents.

“My husband loves this stuff, but I don't get it. All it is is dried meat with a lot of salt.”

“Jerky can be traced back to Native Americans, where they taught settlers to make pemmican or dried meat mixed with melted fat and dried berries. It was used on long journeys and to keep on hand when food was scarce, not as snack to be consumed in one sitting while watching hockey.” She rambles and the woman simply laughs. Brennan isn’t sure what’s so funny about what she says, but the stranger seems to voice her own assent.

“You’re absolutely right. But they love it and we love them, unfortunately.” Brennan isn’t so sure what is unfortunate about the whole situation since it was just easy to tell Booth that they were out of jerky at the store. She could spare his feelings and his health. The woman just gives her a small smile, just as a man with a ring made in the same metal as to the one on the woman’s hand, rounds the corner.

“Hell yeah. Jerky?” He seems to perk up when he sees his wife, who grins before shoving the bag of dried meat into his arms. She rolls her eyes in jest.

“It’s pretty much all salt, honey.”

“But you buy it for me anyway.” He teases, bending down to smack a kiss on the woman’s lips. “I knew I married you for a reason.” He glances briefly at Brennan and shoots her a friendly smile as he takes his wife’s hand and tugs her down the aisle and out of view.

She doesn’t think about the interaction again until she comes home from the store, arms full of their food for the week and Booth’s attention grabbed by the gaudy lamp that possibly desecrated the Hawaiian pantheon of gods that his mother and Reggie had sent over from Hawaii. There’s a picture at the bottom of the box that the lamp arrives in. It was a simple shot encased in a wooden frame, of Reggie and Marianne embracing each other with a gorgeous Hawaiian sunset in the background.

“They look really happy.” She says, her thoughts flitting back to the couple at the store. The wife, who despite the vocal disdain for her husband’s choices, still acquiesced. How she looked genuinely happy to let her husband consume so much sodium with disregard on the affect of his health.

But she had seen the husband’s smile - it was similar to one Booth gave her on more occasions than she could quantify. Even before there was a them, that damn smile already edged on the corner of her subconscious. Now, she sought it; that smile, the accompanying opinions that would sometimes ruffle her rational sensibilities, him.

It was the same kind of smile on Reggie’s printed face, a proud arm wrapped around his new wife’s shoulders.

The thought only has a split second to exist until Booth calls out her constantly softening stance on marriage like an open book he’s read many times before. She’s as annoyed as she is amazed that he could dissect her with the precision she often gave to analyzing bones. Brennan would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about it, or imagined it, but the science said different.

The statistics showed unparalleled rates of domestic violence, divorce, and children from problematic homes. She and Booth had interviewed all varieties of people and their spouses - more often than not, she saw how marriage resulted in bitterness and heartache followed by legions of problems like splitting assets and custody arrangements. Studies show that attraction changes and often fades as the relationship continues to mature, as children get older, and she couldn’t promise Booth a forever she didn’t believe in. She couldn’t even promise him that she’d still be attracted to him in the next ten years, not when the science said otherwise.

“So, you don’t know how you’re gonna feel about me in 10 years? Really?” He places the equally terrible lampshade on his head and she makes a note to maybe toss Kalo the Hula Goddess in a box in the garage. She can’t help but let a smile turn up at the corners of her expression, his childlike wonder something that has always brought lightness to the often dire situations they encountered.

“Research suggests that cycles of attraction run as few as four years - just long enough to raise a child through infancy.” She parrots a paper she read recently, putting away their sustenance for the week. He brings up that damned bouquet that she swears was thrown at the perfect angle to land within her hands, that it was more reflexive rather than an unconscious desire to marry.

He smiles that smile again and throws her a rogue orange she had no hope of catching.

She did have reflexes.

But who said they were the best?

—-

Pelant makes his presence known again through a string of dead FBI agents. It’s a scramble; agents are falling and being found faster than they can come up with evidence. There are altered medical records, an uncanny similarity to Sweets’ unpublished work - a seemingly linked series of events further giving them proof that it’s Pelant.

Booth seeks her out in the lab, finding her as she’s rushing back to her office to fetch the medical files for the new body on the platform.

“Hey Bones, can we talk for a sec?”

“Is it an update on the case? You can tell me on the way to my office - I need to grab some files for Cam.” They needed to stay off their computers as much as they could - now, information was sourced from old Jeffersonian folders and whatever documentation was sent over by the FBI.

“Look, you know those dog bites on Jeff Stone and Friedlander? They were caused by their guard dogs at the Crystal Creek compound when it was raided. It’s stripped from official record and they moved the files to a secure location.” Brennan frowns in confusion.

“If it was stripped from the record, then how did you…?” It clicks an instant later. “You were there?”

There was a commonality, but the string that links them all connects to Booth as well.

“I was there and-” He takes a deep breath in the middle of his sentence, a nervous tick of his. “And Pelant called me at the crime scene.”

He had returned from the crime scene almost two hours ago, had come to see her at the lab before he went off to meet with Caroline and hadn’t informed her of any of it.

Suddenly, her stride was filled with an added anger on top of her haste.

Her temper was steadily building on top of a fear that was now beginning to claw at her. These men were highly trained special agents and didn’t stand a chance. It landed them on dead on her platform, a gunshot wound to the top of their spines and multiple more embedded within their flesh. Booth must sense her quickly rising anger because he tries to comfort her with logic, rationality.

His logic makes sense. Pelant has never killed anyone associated with them, had enjoyed being game master for the better half of two years. They were playing chess, him on one side and them on the other. He wouldn’t let the game simply end to kill her or Booth.

But men were dying. Men like the one she loved, the one she built her life around. She needed to spare him the same fate, for her daughter’s sake, so she could grow up with a father. For Parker’s sake, so they could see each other again. For her, so she wouldn’t have to grieve him.

She kisses him, tries to seal her affection for him on his lips. He’s here, trying to make her feel better with dramatizations of how she was the most intelligent. He’s here, the soft fabric of his suit bathed in his warmth.

He’s here, alive.

She wants a promise, a vow. Instead, she frames it as a command because he is a soldier and he would not fail her. He never has before.

“You are not allowed to die.” She says, her gaze steady on his. There’s a beat of silence and she watches his eyes soften as he grasps the magnitude of her words.

She would not permit death to take him.

—

But death lingers too close when Booth calls with the news that he needs to go undercover to catch Pelant’s surrogate.

She spirals in the emptiness of the bone room, unusually aware of the tick of the clock on the wall. The seconds dwindle by, the silence suffocating without knowing how he was doing. Booth had told him that she couldn’t come, that it was a FBI tactical squad he was leading undercover. It would be radio silence until he called to say he was fine, or until his superiors called to pull her worst nightmare into fruition.

She’s suddenly back to the night it all started and the day that followed. Instead of Leishenger’s skull, it’s two FBI agent’s bones and she’s still waiting to see if her world turns upside down today.

But it’s different now - it’s infinitely scarier, more nerve-racking than the night that Vincent died. She wasn’t just going to lose Booth, lose more than her partner and the potential of a personal relationship.

She would lose the father to her child, the other person who would lay their life and everything in it to ensure Christine’s safety and happiness. She would lose her sounding board, the arms that anchored her when she felt adrift. She would lose the meals he dragged and forced on her on long days, the blankets draped over her on the couch when she falls asleep after reviewing too many case files.

She knew that would lose herself in the process, if she lost him.

She’s always prided herself on her independence, on her years spent relying on no one. It was only in the past few years, especially after Christine was born, that she realized that no one survived alone.

She startles out of her long train of thoughts by a crash somewhere in the distance, outside of the bone room. The clock had only barely moved its hands and she was already too impatient to know the outcome of today. They would call her, that much she knew, because Booth was her partner.

But they would only call her to inform him that he had died, no expectations outside of that because they weren’t married. Technically, Jared and Hank were Booth’s next of kin. She would have no responsibility in what happens next, even if they share a child, even if they live together.

She is not his next of kin and he isn’t hers.

Her jaw tightens at the thought - she had thought that the logistics of not being married would be easier if something happened but with the threats of his demise still nipping at his heels, it would be anything but.

Marriage isn’t forever, it only stands until death keeps them apart. She had forgotten that death was a constant companion, the threat of it following them from crime scene to crime scene. They had brushed against it too many times.

Death could come today, or tomorrow, or 10 years from now, or 50 like he promised.

She wants every day, every moment that she’s still here, with him. She would have never admitted it back then on the steps of the pool house, or the steps on the Hoover. She wants a symbol on his left finger to mark her territory against other mates, wants the world to know that she is his and he is hers.

She wants to marry him.

She’s always wanted to marry him, maybe since the moment she had fallen into his arms in grief, but was just too scared to let herself believe it would work out.

She hated it when Sweets was right.

—

Brennan decides that they’ve waited too long, that she’s wasted so much time. Booth must sense the urgency, the panic in her tone because the threat of Pelant still hung over their heads like a noose. It wasn’t over, far from it, but she didn’t want to waste another second.

Proposals were supposed to be romantic and she sorely lacked experience in that area. She doesn’t know how to ask him the biggest question of her life in a way that would make him happy, but beef jerky makes him happy and that’s all she has to work with right now.

Booth rushes to her, the panic and confusion clear on his expression.

“Bones, woah, are you okay?” He’s frantically scanning their surroundings, as if Pelant would appear from the behind rose bushes in the garden. She shoves the bag of beef jerky that she had purchased at the convenience store down the street into his arms.

“Jerky?” He asks, his brow furrowing in confusion.

“I should have bought it for you before.” She admits, remembering the couple from the store, the woman’s words echoing in her thoughts.

But they love it and we love them.

And she does. She loves their life, loves how he takes care of her, loves the proud father that he is, loves him.

She’s been too afraid, too stubborn, for too long. He could die, so could she, and no one would know how happy he made her, how much they meant to each other. So she asks him to marry her and she thinks that watching that smile bloom on his face and the clear happiness that follows, is more than worth it.

He says of course, like there was never going to be another answer.

—

Except there is another answer.

When she really settles into the idea, lets the excitement bubble within her after a long day and an even longer case while bristling through an old magazine Angela had procured from her office, he comes to her with a nervous expression and tells her that she was right.

They had rushed, he should’ve given it more thought, there were extenuating circumstances and they were already happy. They didn't need to get married, even if she wants it, because this is enough.

He was following her ever rational lead and she hates the disappointment that opens in the pit of her stomach. But she plays along, tells him that she’s happy he’s come around to understand her perspective even when she feels nausea start to roil within her.

He tries to push past it, tries to carry on with their night, but there is something in her that shifts.

All she knows is he’s always wanted to marry her, and now she does, and he suddenly doesn’t.

To be continued

#Seeley Booth #temperence brennan #booth and bones #bones and booth #bones tv #semperence #bones fanfiction

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