Title: You're Right

Series: 206 Ways to Say, "I Love You"

Rating: K+

It had taken Booth a few days to discern where his discomfort with the whole pony play gang came from, but once he had, it was blindingly obvious. These people—doctors, lawyers, people who you would think were successful and satisfied with their lives—had to pretend to be something they weren't to get off. It just completely went against the whole concept of what sex was supposed to be.

Of course, Bones with her always open and curious mind couldn't understand why he had such a black and white view on it… so he told her. Now he might have been a little more subtle if she hadn't just ruined his hamburger for him, but for some reason, he gave it to her with both barrels, the words pouring out of his mouth almost before he realized what he was saying.

"Why? I'll tell you why," he said, leaning slightly across the table so he commanded her full attention. "Here we are, all of us, basically alone, separate creatures, just circling each other. All searching for the slightest hint of a real connection." His voice intensified, as his mind drifted to the connection he'd found with the woman sitting across from him, wondering if she would ever accept how he felt about her.

"Some look in the wrong places. Some they just give up hope because in their minds they're thinking, 'Oh, there's nobody out there for me'. But all of us we keep trying over and over again. Why? Because everyone once in a while, every once in a while, two people meet and there's that spark."

The more he talked, the more of his own emotions came out. This was no longer about convincing Bones that pony play was crappy sex. Maybe it had never been about that. Here he was, sitting in a booth in a cheap diner across from the woman he loved, and with everything they'd seen recently, he just couldn't keep from telling her a second longer.

Softly, gently, he delivered the coup de grace. "And yes, Bones, he's handsome and she's beautiful and maybe that's all they see at first, but making love . . .making love—that's when two people become one."

He saw the struggle in her eyes, the pure scientist trying to reconcile what he'd just told her from what she'd believed about sex for so long. "It is scientifically impossible for two objects to occupy the same space."

She was putting up walls again, and he knew if he got frustrated with her, they'd become even thicker. The only way to tear down these walls was with patience. "Yeah, but what's important is we try. And when we do it right, we get close."

Something cleared in her expression. "To what? Breaking the laws of physics?" she challenged.

Now she was just being obtuse, and he rolled his eyes a little. "Yeah, Bones. A miracle," he retorted, allowing a little sarcasm to come through. "Those people, role playing, the fetishes and their little sex games is crappy sex. Well, at least compared to the real thing."

He held his breath after the last sentence. There it was. He'd laid it all on the line for her, if she wanted to understand. But of course she wouldn't, he reminded himself. Bones wasn't ready for anything serious between them.

So wrapped up in his thoughts was he that he almost didn't hear her answer. "You're right."

"Yeah, but…" he started in on his defense automatically, then broke off. "Wait a second. I just won that argument?" She nodded her head fractionally, and he pondered for a moment. Temperance Brennan would only concede an argument if you'd truly convinced her, which meant that somehow, he must have managed to get through to her.

But even if she agreed with him about the difference between sex and making love, that didn't mean she understood what he'd really been talking about, or that she wanted that kind of connection with him. He truly looked at her for the first time since he'd started talking. She was smiling, but it was a different smile than he'd ever seen before. She wasn't hiding anything, anything at all.

Slowly, a matching smile spread across his own face. Somehow, with just two words, Bones had not only told him she knew what he was trying to say, she'd also said that she loved him too. Being right had never felt so good.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bones, its characters, or its cast (more's the pity).