Chapter 21: Love

"Booth?"

Booth blinked awake and glanced at the clock on the table. 2:14. Dark outside the window, so it must be the middle of the night.

"Booth?"

He jerked upright and immediately regretted the action. Sleeping in the chair in Bones' room for so many nights and the fight with Scott earlier in the day had really taken a toll on his back. He groaned and tried to stretch to ease his aching muscles.

When he could move a bit more easily, he reached over to take Bones' hand. "Bones, is everything okay? It's the middle of the night."

"I know. Sorry. It's just that I fell asleep in the middle of the day. I must have had a bad dream or something. I can't remember now, but I started awake a few minutes ago with my heart pounding. I didn't mean to wake you up, I just wanted to see if you were there. It's very dark in here."

Booth pushed a button to turn on one of the low side lamps. "Better?"

"Yes, thank you."

A comfortable silence followed.

Then, "Booth?"

"Yes, Bones."

"Why are you here?"

Long pause. "You're hurt, Bones. I want to make sure you are well taken care of."

"There are nurses for that. And, there's no longer any danger. Besides, Hannah just got back today. Why aren't you at home with her?"

Remembering Hannah's words about how painful it must be for Brennan to be so supportive of their relationship, Booth listened carefully for any hint of unhappiness. He didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. She sounded genuinely concerned. Bones always did assert she was very good at compartmentalizing.

"Bones, Hannah and I aren't together anymore. It didn't work out." For some reason, the lateness of the hour and the quiet all around them made it seem a good time for confessions.

"Oh, Booth, I'm so sorry. Would it help if I talked to Hannah?"

Booth nearly choked. "No Bones, that would definitely not help." He softened his tone, "Thanks for the offer though."

"Sure."

A few minutes passed.

"Booth?"

"Yes, Bones"

"Why did you and Hannah break up?" The tone was unusually hesitant, as if she actually feared the answer.

Booth peered through the dim light and captured her gaze with his. "Because I'm in love with you, Temperance Brennan. Always will be it seems."

Bones stared back at him for a long time. "Oh," she said.

Again, silence.

Finally, Booth could take it no longer. "Is that all you have to say? 'Oh'? Look if you don't want to put yourself on the line again…don't want to have a relationship, I have decided that I will just have to live with that. I guess I've learned that I can't ever really move on, no matter how hard I try. It's been you since the day we met and it will be you for the future too. So I'll just be here, waiting, on the off chance that you -"

"Booth?" she interrupted

"Yes, Bones."

"I love you too." She squeezed his hand. "I'm not sure I said those words when I told you I'd made a mistake. Of course, you didn't say them either when you said you wanted to give our relationship a try." She gazed at him with pure adoration in her eyes. "But I do love you. I actually decided that while I was in the Maluku Islands, but of course couldn't tell you when I returned. You seemed so happy with Hannah, so I was happy for you."

"You decided?" He said, incredulous. "How does one decide they are in love?"

Missing the disbelief in his tone, Bones replied matter-of-factly. "Well, once I was settled at the dig, I realized that I missed you a lot and I kept dreaming about you. It was logical to conclude that I must be in love with you."

He shook his head in disbelief. All that long year before his confession to Bones, when he had so wanted her to acknowledge that she loved him, he had never thought of resorting to logic. He was all about emotion. He had to restrain himself from slapping his head and shouting "DUH!" Instead, he replied, "Yes, very logical."

Bones cast him a mischievous smile. "I'll have to tell you about those dreams sometime."

Booth took a deep breath to steady his heart and shifted in his chair. The back spasm that greeted this movement caused him to grit his teeth.

After a moment, he said, "If I could get out of this chair, I'd come kiss you right now."

Bones' face lit with happiness. "If I could move without intense pain, I'd kiss you right back."

They laughed.

"We are quite the pair," Bones said.

"Always have been and always will be."

THE END

AN: Hope you liked it! Sorry to end without even a kiss, but that's the condition the characters ended up in at the time of their declarations of love. I thought it rather sweet. They have the rest of their lives together for everything else. So, I'll leave that to your imagination. Or until the next fanfic…..

Special thanks to Cocoa Girl2 for her suggestions, especially about the declarations of love.