A/N:This takes place immediately after the gravesite scene in "Hero in the Hold." In my opinion, it's the way the episode should have ended.

Love

Temperance looked across the table at her partner. He seemed more relaxed, more content than she had possibly ever seen him. That intense, penitent look erased from his eyes. "He is truly a handsome man," she thought, watching him intently measuring out the flow of sugar into his coffee. When he had calculated the formulation was correct, he turned the sugar dispenser upright and set it back upon the table. He moved the fork he held in his right hand over to the coffee cup and began stirring the liquid. Her eyes moved to his half-eaten slice of apple pie. "He'll get to it soon enough,"she thought amusedly.

"What?" he said, snapping her back to the present, "What's on your mind?"

Temperance looked at him over the rim of the coffee cup she held in both hands. He was looking at her with amusement in those warm, dark-brown, intelligent eyes. A slight smirk edged the corners of his mouth upward. She smiled, in spite of herself. "Can you tell me the message your 'ghost' had you relay?" she said with just a hint of irony in her voice.

Seeley caught the tone immediately. What kind of investigator would he be if he couldn't read people's body language and vocal tones? He tightened his lips and then quickly relaxed them again. "I'm not sure," he began, "you would think what Corporal Edward Parker had to say would very worthwhile." Temperance sipped her coffee and looked at him. He could see that her eyes reflected genuine curiosity. "It's about Love, Bones." He smiled, "something you really don't believe in."

She set her coffee down, "I believe in Love, Booth," she countered. She continued, "It's the idea of attaching oneself to one person for the rest of your life that I don't believe in."

Seeley subtly shrugged his shoulders and tilted his head towards the side. She could see him working it out in his head. "I don't know, Bones. It's difficult enough trying to convince you about the concept of monogamy, let alone that I saw a ghost and he gave me a message to give to the woman he left behind."

Temperance said, "As a scientist, I require empirical evidence to accept as true the existence of ghosts and Love and the need for monogamist relationships." Seeley rocked from side to side and shook his head almost in exasperation. She continued, "But I realize there is anecdotal evidence for the existence of all of those concepts. I, as a scientist, should keep an open mind and be willing to listen to the differing viewpoints."

Seeley leaned forward, quickly looked out the window and then back at Temperance. Temperance leaned forward towards him. He began, "You know that young woman we saw at the cemetery today?"

Temperance nodded, "The one in the pink coat?"

Seeley nodded, "She was Teddy's girlfriend. Claire. He would tell us all about her. How she would write to him, every day. How she told him she would always wait for him. How she loved him more each day than the next." Seeley stopped.

"Well," Temperance said, "That's what girlfriends do? Right?"

Seeley looked at her and smiled sadly. He nodded, "Yeah. But Teddy never told her he loved her back."

"Why not? Didn't he Love her?"

A pained look spread across his face, "Yeah, he did." Seeley looked into Temperance's eyes. "More than anything in the world."

"Then why didn't he tell her?"

Seeley shrugged and smiled ruefully, "I asked him that. He was 20. He didn't know how. He thought he had time…time to figure out how to say it." Seeley stopped and looked down at his hands. "He asked me 'Have you ever loved someone and didn't tell them?'." He paused a moment, "That's what he wanted me to tell Claire. That he Loves her." Temperance reached out and placed her hand within Seeley's. He clasped it tightly.

Seeley looked into Temperance's eyes. A look passed between them. A look that blurred everything around them. A look that silenced all the other conversations in the diner, all the sounds of cars and people passing by on the street.

"But why would he want her to know now? When there's nothing either of them can do about it?" Temperance asked.

Seeley said softly, "He wanted her to know that even though he never told her, he Loved her. He still Loves her. That he'll always Love her."

"But," Temperance started, only to be interrupted by Seeley.

"Do you think Love ends at death?" he asked. "Do you think your father no longer has your mother's love because Christine Brennan is dead? Do you no longer have a mother's Love because she's gone? Your mother's Love surrounds you every day of your life. You can't see it, or touch it. But can't you feel it?"

Temperance looked into Seeley's eyes. She remembered distant feelings conjured up by the memories of her mother. Fixing bumps and scrapes on her knees, chasing away a snake found in their yard, singing her to sleep. She wasn't sure she was feeling her mother's Love, but she knew that she was feeling his. Here…now. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand.

He returned the smile. Sitting back he said simply, "I saw him again."

Temperance moved to intertwine her fingers with his, "Really, when?"

"Today, at the cemetery," he said. Looking at Temperance's questioning look. "It was just after Claire hugged me. He was standing off to your right. He waved to me, and then I waved back." He smiled at Temperance, "You must have thought I was waving to you because you waved back to me."

Temperance smiled, knowing now that she was not in the 'Twilight Zone'anymore. "You're mistaken, Seeley. I talked to that soldier. When you were talking to Claire, he passed by me. He was just as alive as you or I."

Seeley looked at her, curious, "What did he say?"

Temperance shook her head and smiled, "Nothing much. Just that it was a great day to be alive."

"What did you say?"

Temperance's smile grew, remembering her feelings at the gravesite, "I agreed with him. And then he continued on." She paused a moment, "I thought he had moved farther away, but I guess he just moved out of my line of sight."

Seeley smiled as his fork cut a piece of pie away from the slice and popped it into his mouth. "If you say so, Bones. By the way, have I told you today how striking you look with that blue shirt of yours? Really brings out your eyes."

Temperance smiled back as she raised her coffee cup to her lips; satisfied that the matter had been put to rest.

Temperance lay back onto her pillow. She couldn't get to sleep. She had tossed and turned and tossed again. Something had been sticking in her subconscious, but she just didn't know how to get it out in the open. She turned her head to see the digital numbers on her alarm clock. '2:27.'She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She allowed her mind to rerun the events of the day. Picking up Booth at the hospital. Standing at the gravesite. Talking to the soldier. There was something about him. Her mind searched the bits of information in her mind. Trying to zero in on the source of the feeling. He was young, about 20. He had blond hair, an uneven smile. Her mind took her eyes to his uniform. Not a student of medals or insignia, Temperance didn't know what was correct and what wasn't. Her mind traveled to his right breast pocket where she saw his nametag. She bolted upright, eyes wide, gasping for breath. She read the nametag, 'Parker'.

Thoughts swam in her mind. "It's a coincidence!" "He was another family member!" "It said something else, my mind changed it!" And then finally, "Why would he talk to me?"

Seeley's voice flooded her brain, "Have you ever loved someone and didn't tell them?"Her breathing eased. She felt a rising, serene feeling. She felt as though she could sleep now and lay back down on the pillow. As she drifted off to sleep, she heard a woman's voice singing a lullaby. Unconsciously, she smiled and murmured softly, "Mother."