Story: Cage

Disclaimer: I happen to own… NOTHING! Everyone belongs to FOX…. Damn. I have no claim to the lyrics for "Learning to Fall" by the highly esteemed and super talented Martina McBride. Love this song. Anyways, all other neighbors, victims, murderer dude and other people are mine. I have spent much time creating bios for them and thinking of what gruesome way they died, so they are mine.

Spoilers: None, me thinks

Pairing: BoothxBrennan, still hehe

Chapters: I'm thinking eleven with a possible epilogue.

Summary: It's hard to find relief in the world, and people can be so cold. Their latest case has affected Temperance more than she would have liked, and she finally sees how lucky she really is to have a man like Seeley Booth at her side to guide her through the darkness and show her the light of human nature.

Chapter 11: Learning to Fall

Note: This started as a pure fluff fic, just for some BrennanAngstBoothComfort type thing, but I turned it into a case file for the last few chapters, so stick around after the fluff to find action, violence, and more fluff! Review please! -Ash

Thank you to: those who have remained my loyal reviewers through my one-shots while I guiltily ignored this story... but hey, I'm BACK WITH IT!!

IT'S BACK!! -cue 'Back in Black'- Alright so it took long enough but I heard a new song from watching a Bones video on YouTube called "Learning to Fall" by bccalling. The other video inspiration that I saw first and prompted me to really get this going was "Used To" by Katie7390. That is the single most amazing video ever. I recommend watching it after you REVIEW this and read lol.

Please review for me! I really would like to break the 200 mark, but after leaving this for so long, I can understand if I lost some people along the way.

Super note!!: This is a highly reflective chapter with emotions and lovely stuff like that in it, so be prepared for analogies and metaphors and Brennan thinking and Booth watching. Yep yep.

CHAPTER RATING: K+ just because

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"I was alone in the dark,

Never let down my guard.

Closed the curtain on my heart

So the world could not see

All the demons in me.

Told myself I was free."

The drive home from the hospital had passed in companionable silence until the two had reached Brennan's home. Booth won the argument over who cooked dinner, and Brennan was secretly glad she didn't have to do anything. Although she would never in a million years admit it, she was in pain. A lot of it. And that was with her pain medication, too. She didn't even want to imagine what it felt like cold turkey.

Brennan stood at the doorway to the main room, watching Booth in the kitchen. She held a small smile on her face as she silently laughed at Booth tossing this and that into a boiling pot of something or another. She couldn't suppress the slight giggle that escaped her lips when he flipped a small container of oregano into the air from behind his back and caught it above the pot, the spice sprinkling itself into the mix as he whistled and shook it a bit.

He looked back over his shoulder and smiled when he heard her twinkling laugh. She was standing at the doorway, but even at that distance, he could see the purple and blue on her face and the ring circling her delicate neck. Her right arm rested in a sling the doctor gave her so the stitched on that arm would not break. He also said that by immobilizing her right side, the wound to her shoulder blade could heal faster and some strain would be taken off of her neck. She still had difficulty turning her head.

Her smile stretched up the left side of her face, the right still stitched up. Brennan's hair was still damp from her shower and she pushed off the wall and stepped into the room, her heart melting as his eyes locked on hers.

"Smells good," she commented as she drew closer to the bubbling pan.

"It better." Booth was all smiles. "Homemade spaghetti is one of my specialties."

"So you have specialties now?" Brennan returned his beaming grin with a small one of her own. He nodded and winked as he handed her a glass of wine.

"Now go relax until I'm finished with this sauce." Brennan took the glass and walked to the living room, not realizing how tired she was until she sank down into the couch. Booth was still whistling in the kitchen and she couldn't help but think about just how right this felt. Him cooking in the kitchen while she rested with a glass of wine in the living room, waiting for him to come out and say, "Dinner's ready!" It was such foreign yet familiar scene. She saw her mother holding a pan of grilled chicken as she stood in the kitchen door, telling her father that dinner was ready and to get the kids to wash their hands. It was such a domestic scene, one Brennan knew she wouldn't mind getting used to…

Brennan always thought she had everything figured out; it was all covered and categorized according to her knowledge and observations. She thought she was fine alone with her work, so she shut off her heart with her own version of the Great Wall. A wall forged with the strongest stone and the hardiest mortar: seemingly impenetrable. And for awhile, it was. Angela had her own little spot stationed halfway up the wall, a little peephole between brick, but it took her forever to achieve that spot and drill her way through just enough to catch a glimpse of what hid behind the wall. Brennan didn't want to open up to anyone or show how she really felt. And it worked for a time.

She thought she was free from the hindrance of emotion as she perceived it when really she was a prisoner to her own rationality and mind. Booth showed her the truth, though.

"Then you showed me how wrong I could be."

He came along and she could finally see what she could have: what she should have. He wanted to show her what she should have with him, and though she resisted, his persistence was slowly chipping away at her resolve; at her wall.

"Now I'm standing on a mountain of rubble

That once was a wall.

Took years to build around me

And you came along

And you tore it down

Like it was nothing at all.

Now it's a little scary

Learning to fall."

It had been an accident, really. None of it was supposed to happen. It took her years to build and fortify her defenses, but it only took him a minute to make that first crack in the stone. And she let him.

As Brennan sat and watched Booth dumping spaghetti into black pot of boiling water on her stove, she wondered just how he had managed to do it so quickly. There had been other men before him, sure. She even thought she had feelings for some of those men, but they never even got close to what Seeley Booth could do. Sometimes she felt like clay in his hands; a mere tool he could use any way he wanted to if he tried hard enough, but he never did. He let her have her independence and he let her stand on her own two feet. And then Brennan knew why he had crumbled the prison around her.

All along, she had been helping him. She gave him the tools of her past and of her true compassion to give him easier passage through. She comforted him when the going got tough, and he never rested. Even while she slept, Seeley Booth was hard at work making sure every little piece of the high walls was crushed beneath his love and strength. And when she was awake, he weakened the foundation with every look, every smile, every touch. And she let him.

"Bones?" Booth waved an oven mitt-clad hand in front of her face as she tore her mind away from the barrage of thoughts towards the men those thoughts centered around, though he was oblivious to that.

"Yes?"

"Dinnertime." He smiled at her and held out the plate of rolls he had just pulled from the oven, thus the red oven mitts with reindeer all over them.

"Nice mitts, by the way." Booth commented with a chuckle as he tossed them onto the counter.

"Angela gave them to me last Christmas. She said I would have more use for them than her." Brennan stated. Booth studied her face for a second, and once again Brennan felt ashamed of the marks that littered her skin.

"Are you okay, Bones?" His face was concerned as he watched her eyes. She tried to say she was fine, but the words caught in her throat. What was ready to jump out of her mouth was that no, she wasn't fine. His task of breaking her down was nearly complete and she was scared. Brennan was standing on a mountain of crumbled stone, and he was waiting for her at the bottom. All that was left for her to do was to come down to him. She had to learn to trust him with not only her life, but her love. She had to learn to look past strength and independence to the weakness he could support. She wasn't ready for that, and that was what scared her most of all.

His rich chocolate eyes were locked on her tormented cerulean eyes, a conundrum of thoughts and feelings forming a mangled maelstrom of confusion just past the surface of her gaze. She'd like to think that Booth couldn't see past what she tried to show, but she knew him better than that. He could look past fear, bravado, shows of courage, and imperfections. He always had; he could always see her, and only her. He could see the love she hid so well, she was sure of that. She could see the same thing reflected in his eyes, a shining beacon.

Love was real to Seeley Booth, and that was enough for her.

"When you looked in my eyes,

Past the fear and false pride,

You saw the goodness inside.

I can't believe how I feel,

I believe love is real

And I'm ready to heal.

You show me how right I can be."

Before, Brennan thought the last few crumbling stones were from their latest case, but no. It had been Seeley Booth all along, patiently and diligently pushing his way through to where she sat broken in the center, waiting for something she thought would never come. But it finally came in the form of her knight in shining FBI-issued body armor. Brennan could finally believe in the intangible, and she found that she wanted to. It was another step in healing her heart and soul. Booth showed her how right she could be, and now she wanted to be that person.

Brennan's breath came short and quick, and Booth never lifted his eyes from her own. He could see a battle taking place beneath an otherwise calm exterior, his only clue being her wide eyes. The shadow of fear settled over his favorite shade of blue, his favorite color, and he sat down next to her with his hands over hers as he patiently waited. Patience had gotten him this far, after all.

She was scared: so scared. All she wanted to do was to collapse into his arms and tell him how much she loved him, but she wasn't ready yet. Brennan opened her mouth, but no words came out. She tried again, but Booth silenced her with a finger to her trembling lips.

"Shh, Temperance. I can wait. If you're not ready, I will wait." He spoke softly and with understanding. "Don't force it. I love you, Temperance, and I can wait until you're ready." Booth removed the finger from her lips and his hand found its way to the side of her head. He stroked the auburn hair back behind her ear, his eyes compassionate as he gazed into hers. He would wait for her, no matter how long it took. He understood, and he loved her despite insecurities and imperfections. She loved him for loving her.

After holding onto sorrows, grudges, false happiness, and clinging to the cliff of reason, Brennan finally felt ready to let go. And she fell. It was scary, the fall, but she knew that when she reached the ground, she would fall right into Seeley Booth's waiting arms, and everything would be okay. She could finally leap off her mountain of broken barriers, and she could finally be free. A world of promise waited for her in him, and now she was ready.

"I love you, too."

"I was holding on, now I'm letting go."

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What'd you think of the ending?? I'm posting this without edit so you guys can get to the reading but when I wake up tomorrow morning I'll go back and proof it. Give me reviews not only because I love reviews and I really want to surpass the 200 mark, but also let me know if this needs an epilogue or if anything went unanswered. I tried to get everything in, but I went in a completely different direction than where I first thought I was going to go with the ending of this.

Anyways, I hope you all really liked this story!! It's been fun writing it and FINALLY finishing!! Love you all, lovely reviewers and readers alike, and I happily send personalized boxes of chocolate Booths to each and every virtual door belonging to those that review!!!!

-As always, Ash.

Look for: New song fics and one-shots from me!! I have no big fics planned at the moment, just lots of fluff and angst ficlets floating around in my head.