Surprised but not disppointed by the ending. You left them in the perfect place-together and ready to face whatever happened that way. Lovely story.

Beautiful.

Again you knocked another one out of the proverbial ballpark. Even though I missed Ggw; I understand your vision. Well done

Love the simple reality of this kind of line:

"On mornings when he got up before her, she'd gotten used to his rattlings in the kitchen; the ping of the spoon against the cereal bowl, the opening and closing of the refrigerator, the rustling of the newspaper."

And then, isn't it so sweet that there's this, after Booth's thoughts?

"On mornings when she woke first, she would lay there and just listen to him breathe."

This made me smile for no particular reason:

"His messy scrawl told her he'd pick her up at the lab for lunch..."

And I love Brennan for not only knowing where he was, but remembering everything he says to her:

"You said once that your meetings had bad coffee, so I brought you this."

You really write some beautiful stuff.

Many many goodies in this chapter... here are just a couple I really liked:

"Booth always moved. He shifted in his seat or fiddled with the radio or played with his poker chip. He always tapped his fingers or bounced his leg. At the very least, he talked.

Now he did none of those things. He simply sat and stared out the passenger side window."

Yes- I remember SarahInPrint talking about this long ago about how Booth is always moving and I agree... it is a key bit for his personality. Fascinating, really.

"I'm an addict, just like my dad. An addict who cannot provide for his family." Love how you get to the crux of the matter.

And I also love how Brennan, naturally, is there for him every step of the way... and that she reminds him that HE needs to talk to HER. He is still so guarded.

That was wonderful! Very captivating and full of those million little things that make one's heart swell. His habit to leave notes behind for example. So sad that it's over, I liked those glimpse of them a lot.

I love this as an ending. BOTH of them are doing what they need to do-together-to address that Booth's gambling will always be a lure, especially at the most stressful times. Similarly, and though not acknowledged here overtly, Brennan's fear of abandonment will *always* be there. I love your subtle nod to that in Booth always-ALWAYS-leaving a note. He knows, and just DOES...and doesn't see that she is doing for him with her support in this what he is automatically doing for her with the things that are hardest for her. Really excellent work throughout, and I think the ending is PERFECT: they have a plan, they're in it together, they feel empowered, it's going to work. Kudos to you!

Excellent work. Nice melding of the logic and the emotion...each side now coming from both of them. It means a lot to me to see someone tackle the idea of proportional contributions, and the fact that Booth needs to work on and address his issues with not being "good enough" financially. I like the conversation you gave them about how he is NOT his father...and all the reasons Bren was able to give him about why and how that's true.

I love the easy, quiet way they slide back together; everything is far from 'fixed' but the moment of immediate crisis is behind them and whatever happens next, they can handle it. Because that's just what they do now. Also, note-leaving gets to me every time. I think it appeals to the nerdy girl in me who has never quite got over a love of ink scrawled into paper; the uniqueness of everyone's writing, the impressions made in the sheets that you can feel on the other side... I love it all.

And she's just waiting outside for him when he comes out of his meeting. Heart. Floor. The quiet, simple comforts just tear me apart. Well done, lady.

This whole chapter is just made of awesome. The tension is so thick I had to keep looking away from my screen and waiting for my stomach to stop fluttering before I could continue on. It's dark and fluid and they're so in love and such a mess, and the honesty is killer. I love that they don't do that thing they have such a frustrating habit of doing where they skirt the issue and they argue about things that aren't QUITE in line with their thoughts and feelings. The truth just comes out on Booth's end and it's raw and painful but it gives them room to air things properly.

The fact that it was Angela's catalogue? Oh. Man. It sucks that things came so close to falling apart due to a singular issue that turned out to not even be an issue, but you know somewhere down the line, a similar event would have ocurred and the results would have been the same.

I love how the immediate leaps to one another's aid is such a mutual, instinctual thing that I'm sure Booth and Brennan don't even think about. Also, I felt this little twinge when she went storming into Angela's office and Angela so willingly surrendered her car once she realised how important it was to Brennan. There's a reason we call people like that our best friends, and it's lovely to have people like that in your life.

Brennan's fluctuations between rational thought and near panic just about broke my heart, but I love that she can pull it together for Booth, because helping him is the most important thing. Even when her own heart is breaking because she's suddenly so unsure about so many of the emotional things between them she had JUST begun to become comfortable with.

The Alice in Wonderlandness of it all makes my English fangirl heart sing. It applies to more than one level of the story and brings about my crazygrin.

You also had to know that I'd like the parallels between the whole "breathing" thing. Because, I mean, come on. I did. A lot. Especially since, well... it's totally a Booth thing? Like, I'm not surprised by that in the least, but for Bones to do it... yeah. That's what I really like about it. :)

And then there's the whole idea of the beginning being an ending, which you threw in here.

Lovely story! Great story! One of my favorite stories? Probably, yeah!

-sigh- Sad it's over, to see it go, but it was fantastic and worth it! Thank you!

In honor of my return to reading your fantastic stuff, I give you a long review. Funny, because the last thing I want to do right now is write another paper, yet what you write makes me want to write!

"The silence on the way back to Booth's was deafening; his stillness, heart stopping."

(Yes, I start with the first line). Ahhh. The poetry of this line. The structure, the flow, the sound... Specifically the last clause. -sigh-

"Her toast and tea remained untouched. She gave him her full attention, shifting sideways a bit to face him."

It's not like you go into great detail about her turning and facing him on the couch, but I see it. I see how her weight makes the couch dip, especially under that leg she's got up on the couch a little more because of her position. I see both of them sitting. And, sure, you can go ahead and write it off as my imagination, but I refuse. You know why? You set it up. With all the description you gave before this line, you set the scene, both emotionally and physically (setting wise) and so I can see everything clearly (now the rain has gone, lol). Props to you. Maaddd props.

I imagine you're sitting reading this and thinking "WTH."

So, I not only really liked the title of this chapter (before I figured out how it tied in), but I also really like the titular line. It's a good line, a good image.

And then, I mean, you had to have known I was gonna love this: "In the dim light of the room and from the angle of their hands on the side of her stomach he couldn't see where his fingers ended and hers began.

And somehow that seemed fitting."

Because I did.

Thank you!

NEXT CHAPTER!

Okay, so I've fallen WAY behind on my fanfic reading. But chose this one to be the first one I started with. I'm so glad I did. I really enjoyed the story. While I did think that there might be more I loved how you showed how the two of them were able to work through a problem, especially one as big as this one.

I thought you ended it in a perfect place. With her knowing him and knowing what he'd need and just being there for him... perfect. You couldn't have made it better by continuing (actually, you probably would have been fine, cause it's you... but the sentiment holds). It was a wonderful place to let go. And nothing in life gets a neat red bow. :)