because tags for 'verdict in the story' are like noses...

and i have a nose!

wu's is short for wung fu's... a genius slip of the tongue by heatherberry (who's not going to be able to read this for a while since she this ep hasn't aired there yet). sorry for the cheesy title, i couldn't help myself.

in case you weren't sure, this contains spoilers for 'verdict in the story.'

Booth felt a strange sense of deja vu when he opened the door.

Some kind of reverse deja vu, rather, because Bones was standing before him at midnight with an armful of chinese food and a big charming grin.

He'd been at her door the day she'd lost her mother. She was now at his on the day she'd regained her father.

"How'd you know I'd be up?"

"I saw your light from the street and thought you might like some Wung Fu's," she mimicked his line.

"I'm calling bullshit, Bones. You can't see my apartment from the street."

"Yeah, I know, but it was bullshit when you pulled it two years ago too."

Booth raised an eyebrow in acknowledgment.

"I knew you'd be up," she paused, "because I saw your face when you were on the stand today."

He stood back and opened the door to let her in. She smiled at him gently as she entered.

Booth wasn't quite sure how the silence while digging through a plate and a half at his coffee table could have been comfortable after the day they'd had, but somehow it was.

"You're upset," she said finally when he put down his plate.

"Not upset."

"What then?"

"Disturbed."

Brennan simply watched him and waited for him to elaborate.

"It occasionally shocks me just how much heart you do have. I mean, when you fear that you can't love, that you can't feel emotions, it's the most ridiculous thing in the world. Because you have more capacity for love, for emotion than anyone I've ever met, Bones.

"I don't know what you've managed to pick up from me about faith, but you've made me believe in logic. And today logic presented me with a different image of you that goes against everything I know in my gut about you. What's disturbing is that you made it plausible."

Booth's tight lungs let out half of a sigh.

"I saw it, Bones. The way a scenario does when the evidence fits together. It flashed before my eyes the way it does when I'm seeing the truth. It didn't even do that when we put our case together against your father."

She smirked. "Probably because you had the wrong murder weapon."

The side of his mouth twitched upward and he continued, "But I've come to put faith in your reasoning. And today your reasoning and my faith came to blows." His eyes were getting red again.

"I'm sorry, Booth."

"No, you're not."

She spoke gently, "You're right, I'm not sorry that I did it. I'm sorry that it had to affect you so much."

"I know you are. And the odd thing is that it's... it's not too much to ask from me. It's a lot, Bones. A lot to ask. But it's not too much. Because," he exhaled an ironic half chuckle, "because I'd do anything for you. Anything to make you happy."

"Even question yourself."

"And you."

"You're right, Booth. That is a lot," she said in a near whisper.

"I just need some time to sort it out in my head. It's still all very fuzzy."

She acknowledged it with silence. It was several minutes before she spoke again, almost inaudibly.

"But I did have to ask."

Now it was Booth's turn to look a question at her.

"I had to talk to you about it, even though we weren't really, you know, talking about it before I could go through with it. If..." she took an unsteady breath and her unfeigned eyes locked on him, "If I didn't see it in your eyes, I couldn't have done it."

Those eyes now bore into hers, full of more emotions than he could count.

"You mean everything to me too, Booth."

A painful smile crossed his face and he pulled her to him. Their arms wrapped around each other tightly.

"Are we okay?" she asked into his chest.

"We will be." He wove his fingers through her hair and held her head against him tightly. "Just stay."

"Okay."

They remained on his couch, holding each other until faith returned and the birds began calling the dawn.

and that's how i see it.

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