(The Future in the Past)

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She was finally back home and things were tense in the Booth and Brennan household. Booth felt that even though Brennan was back in his life she was constantly pushing him away. He didn't know why and he didn't know how to stop it. He had tried to make sure she understood that he didn't blame her for running away and leaving him behind, but she didn't seem to believe him, or at least that was the way it seemed. It made conversations between them strained and filled with doubt.

Brennan was trying to assimilate back into a normal lifestyle with Booth and she was finding it hard to do. During the months she had been away, she had become used to being independent and having to include Booth in the decision-making process for anything was proving harder than she had expected. Before Christine had been born, she had had a challenging time when she had started living with her partner. She had balked when she realized that she would have to give up her independence, but eventually she had learned that sharing responsibilities and compromise was part of what it took to be in a monogamous relationship. Now that she had lived independently for several months she was having difficulty relearning that lesson again and tempers were on edge.

After a difficult week, Brennan had talked to Dr. Sweets and realized that part of her problem was that she was having a difficult time accepting that her happiness was contingent upon Booth's happiness. When Booth had been seriously hurt in the bombing and had been in a coma, she had been frantic to be with him. After she had heard that he had awakened and was recovering, she had felt both relief and anger. She loved Booth so much, but that love made her vulnerable. What if he had died? What if he had stayed in a coma and never woke up? She knew that those two scenarios would have made her very sad, very unhappy and she wasn't so sure she would have ever been happy again.

On the other hand, Booth being in her life made her happy and she felt wanted. Until she had met Booth, her life had been serious with little joy. Her partner's role in her life had changed a solitary life in to a life filled with love and companionship. Brennan knew she would have to accept that being with Booth had its risks, but they were worth it. They had to be. Because of Booth she was the mother of a beautiful baby girl and that child made her feel a connection to the world she had never really felt before. Christine gave her unconditional love and showed her a future that used to seem all but impossible.

Letting herself love Booth had proved to be both complicated and scary, but she knew she could never give him up. The future would have to take care of itself. She couldn't live in fear of what might be.

That evening, the tension between the couple was gone. In its place was a calmness and a certain amount of anticipation. Though they had made love several times since Brennan's return that love making had been almost frantic as if they feared that one of them would suddenly be whisked away from the other.

Booth lay in bed and while he waited for Brennan to join him, he watched her comb her damp hair. He loved the methodical way she moved the comb through her hair. No motion was wasted and soon her hair was straight and free of the tangles that usually formed when she washed her hair.

As she placed her comb down on the dresser, Brennan looked at Booth in the mirror and saw the intense look he was giving her. "What?"

"I love watching you get ready for bed, that's all." The fact that it was their bed that she was preparing to enter was the point he was trying to make, but he knew that she would think he was just being possessive if he told her that. It had been a long summer and the fact that he could have died and never held her in his arms again made him feel that it was important to show her just how much he loved her. "I love the everyday routine. Brushing your hair, dressing for bed, it's the normalness I missed this summer. I missed the little things as much as the big things."

She knew what he meant and she agreed. Moving over to the bed, she laid down next to him, then rolled over onto her side. Moving her hand over his left arm, she felt the scar that had replaced the wound on his upper arm. For the first time since she had returned home, she allowed herself to really look at Booth's body. She knew he had suffered the wound on his arm and that he had suffered a scalp wound as well. Now that they were more in tune with each other, she now felt it was alright to inspect his body to make sure nothing was being hidden from her. "I think the scar on your arm will fade with time. The surgeon did an excellent job." She sat up, placed her hand on his head and felt for the scars that she knew were there. He kept his hair cut a little longer where his scar was that had been created when he had had brain surgery and since she wasn't sure where his scalp had been torn, she moved her fingers slowly through his hair seeking it out.

Booth was aware of what Brennan was looking for and he let her look. He knew she needed to inspect his scars and make sure that he was alright. Sometimes at night, when they were in bed, she moved her hands over the scar on his chest and the one on his hip. She would then move her hands over the rest of his chest and arms as if she was making sure nothing else had changed since the last time she had seen him. Sometimes her search included his back, his legs and his hips. It was almost a ritual and one she did at least once a week. It was who she was and it made Booth feel loved. No one had ever cared for him like Brennan did. She knew every scar on his body and they didn't bother her. She had once told him they told his story for him. He was a warrior and the scars were his medals of honor.

She found the new scar and inspected it closely. "Again, the surgeon did an excellent job. I think this one will fade with time too. It's too close to your other scar for comfort, but no permanent harm was done."

"Just a lot of bleeding." Booth was amused. He was sure he had been quite a sight with blood trickling down his face and neck. Alice had tried to mop the blood from his face after she had wrapped his head in strips of Marvin's shirt, but he knew she had just smeared the blood. "Head wounds always look nastier than they really are."

Satisfied that her search hadn't revealed anything that she hadn't known about, Brennan moved to lay down and face her lover. "I came to see you in the hospital, but I could only stay for ten minutes. I wish I could have stayed with you, but it wasn't possible. I need to get back to Christine."

She sounded so sad and that made Booth sad too. Rolling onto his side, he faced her and moved his hand so that it rested on her hip. "I knew you had come . . . Cam didn't believe me when I told her that you had come to me, but I knew . . . you told me to wake up and I knew that I had to and I did it. I woke up for you."

Tears moved down her cheeks as Brennan realized that her visit in the hospital had not been in vain. "I knew I had to speak to you. I didn't want you to think I had forgot about you. I needed to remind you that I needed you and you had to wake up not just for me, but for Christine."

"Thank you." Booth leaned towards her and kissed her. "I would do anything for you, Bones, anything."

Her tears stopped and she wiped them away with her hand. "I know. You have told me before you would die for me, but I would rather you lived for me instead."

Her words ignited a passion between them and soon they were joined together finally making love to each other instead of just having sex. Once more they were united and their love was just as strong as it had ever been. Their bodies moved together as one and they continued to break the laws of physics.

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