Just Be

Summary: (SEERANCE) Temperance had another visit from her father and calls Booth immediately after. Together they talk about his visit, what he told her to look for, and his parting words...together they come to an interesting and surprising conclusion.

Notes: I wrote this one shot a long time ago and never thought to post it until now. This is the very first BONES fic I've ever written and I apololgize if any of the characters are not written correctly. Bones might be a little out of character, but she is so logical and difficult to merge with. I hope you enjoy my first attempt and please go easy on me.

Disclaimer: I do not own BONES...

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He was there when she arrived at her apartment. It seemed like he was popping up unexpectedly more and more these days. The first two times she kicked him out of her apartment because she felt betrayed by him. He had left her behind, left without a word; she thought that he was dead. To find out that he was a criminal and not what she thought, that her whole life was a lie; that was too much for her to handle. She liked everything to have an explanation, and having to stretch her mind around what her father had done just didn't make sense. Her mind was jumbled, and all she could think of was the logical thing to do and that was to send her father to jail.

Her dad had told her so many things that she still couldn't comprehend. Now she knew that they were always on the run from not only enemies, but also people who were once friends. In the end, her family had found out that those so-called "friends," weren't really friends at all. They were in hiding, they all were. She didn't want to go by the name that they had picked out for her, that name was dead to her. The name she is known by now is all she had ever known.

It was a tale of lies, deception, grief, pity, feelings, and tragedies. There were just too many emotions. Emotions that her life was always full of, emotions that she didn't want to feel anymore. That's why she had better relationships with bones than people. Bones couldn't hurt your feelings, bones couldn't tell lies, bones couldn't talk back...there were so many things that bones couldn't cause that people could. One thing that bones couldn't cause that she was thankful for was heartache. The heartache she felt every time that her father visited and talked to her; every time her brother showed up and then had to leave. Heartache was an emotion she was quite familiar with. Her criminal father, however, caused only part of the heartache she felt.

She did, in a logical sense, understand why her father did certain things. He did them out of love and to protect his family, but even though he did things for the right reasons, it didn't make the actions right. She knew her father loved her, she knew that both of her parents loved her, but it didn't make the feelings of betrayal go away, that knowledge didn't make those feelings disappear or be less active. The way things were didn't make her life any easier.

The one good, constant thing in her life anymore was Booth. The more he was around, the more comfortable she felt. It was now that she understood what her father meant when he told her to hold on to someone who cared. She knew that Booth cared, and in a strange way she felt so many things for Booth other than friendship. More than friendship. Temperance loved the way he smiled, the way he laughed, the way his eyes twinkled when he had an idea or when he was right about something.

It was Booth whom she had called right after this encounter, and it was Booth whom she was waiting on. She needed someone to talk to, and even though Angela was her best friend, she just wanted to talk to him because he had helped her find her family. He had helped her every step of the way and she appreciated that so much. She could find no words to describe her appreciation.

Finally there was a knock at her door and her mind started racing with thoughts of the encounter with her father and she began to feel how emotionally drained it had left her. As she stood in front of the closed door, with Booth waiting on the other side, she started debating with herself about answering it and talking about her feelings- something she always found difficult to do because she hated psychology.

"Bones, you there?"

She then stood back and answered as if she was coming towards the door and not just standing there. "Coming!"

After a few moments she took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and then opened the door to see Booth standing before her in a black tee shirt and some jeans. Very tight jeans, she noted, for just a social visit.

"Hey, you rang?" He said with a smile and a wink.

"Yeah, come on in." She smiled and stepped back to allow him entry. "Would you like a beer?"

"No thanks, Bones." Was his reply as he took a seat on the couch. "What's up?"

Bones was never one to beat around the bush, so she simply up and came out with it. "My father came to visit me again."

"And you didn't detain him, distract him?" He asked with a frown.

"I wasn't thinking, Booth! Nothing makes sense when he's around, I can't, I won't...I don't know anymore." She sighed and started pacing. "I just never asked for any of this. I just want a normal life, I want a family instead of loneliness, I want everything to be right in my life...but nothing is."

Booth watched her as she paced. "No, nothing ever is right. I understand."

She just nodded. "I don't want to feel this way! I don't want to be dependant on other people, I don't want to be void...but I can't help being like this."

"It's okay to need to talk to someone. There are things in the world that no one can explain; there are things that no one can understand, not even you or me. We're only human, Bones." Booth stated watching her pace. "Would 'ya sit down?"

Her eyes filled with uncertainty as she slowly took a seat next to him, but left some space in between. She looked up at him as her eyes started to tear up. When her father finally showed up in her life, everything that she had kept bottled up, kept secret, finally started to surface. Things that she didn't want to feel anymore...things she hid in the background of her mind behind her studies and her work. All the things that she wanted to keep forgotten.

It was at this very moment that she questioned why she ever gave Booth any of the information that would help him find her parents. She wondered why she even wanted to find them. Then she remembered it was because she wanted to understand; she wanted to know why she was where she was, what actually happened. Temperance Brennan wanted closure. Closure for everything that went wrong in her life; she wanted her life to be explained. But as with everything, her life wasn't that simple. Her parents were criminals and nothing like what she was told.

She didn't even realize she was crying until she felt his fingers wipe the tears that were falling down her cheeks, because her mind was so scattered. Her thoughts ended up floating around every time that her father visited her.

"I just want to feel like I belong somewhere."

"You do belong somewhere." He smiled at her and put a hand on her back, rubbing gently. "You belong right here, with me."

It was with those words that their eyes connected and she could see the twinkle in his, completely in his, and it made her feel good and scared at the same time. I couldn't have heard what I just heard; it must have been all in my head. Those were her thoughts; she didn't need to believe that Booth would ever think she belonged with him, at least not as anything more than a partner, as a friend. He had Parker, and his ex Rebecca. Her place was in the lab with science and basic human chemical and physical needs.

"Booth."

"No, Temperance. Not this time, you're not going to run away from this and neither am I." He sighed and lifted her head up with his finger under her chin. "I can't ignore this anymore. I know that you feel it too, you've got to feel it."

"I don't know exactly what it is I'm supposed to be feeling, Booth. Am I just clinging to you because I asked you for help?" She sighed and turned her face away from his. "I'm not very good at this. You were right about me, I'm better with bones than with people."

"No, I wasn't right about that. I was trying to compete with you and I realized there shouldn't be a competition. We're partners, Temperance. Good partners, good friends, and maybe, if you'd let us, we could be more." He sighed. "I've been ready for a change for quite some time. I feel the energy that flows between us; that rush that I get when we're together. That connection that we share."

"Booth..."

"Don't say it, just don't. Don't look at the logical side of things. Don't say that this isn't possible for us because we work together. Forget I even said it. There are things that just can't be explained; sometimes you just have to go with the flow. You said that you wanted to belong somewhere; I'm telling you that your place is with me, by my side as my place is with you."

"I guess that makes sense considering that we spend so much time together."

"Yes, but what I'm talking about isn't about facts or logic. When it comes to matters of emotions and feelings, you just have to go with what your heart tells you, because if you don't then you're going to be in the dark and that's not a good place to be. The heart knows what the heart wants."

"But the heart is just an organ, it doesn't have any feelings...it just pumps blood to other parts of your body."

"It was an expression, Bones."

She leaned closer and looked into his smooth brown eyes. "I'm not very good at this."

"I know, you said that already. But guess what? Neither am I. Maybe we could teach each other."

"I'd like that."

In that moment their lips met and all Temperance could think was that she was in the exact place that she wanted to be. She was where she belonged.

-End-