Author’s Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing and alerting, people, you’re great! This is my favorite chapter so far, I just loved writing it.

Setting: The spring and summer of season 4.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Just stating the obvious here.

6. I Know Who I Am

Maternal instinct returns with a vengeance a couple of days later.

It is a moment of acute – almost painful – clarity, such as she rarely experiences outside the lab. She does not know what caused it. Perhaps it is the clear spring day that provides her with a vantage point – if she were on a mountain, she would be able to see miles away. Perhaps it is that she is unusually aware of the people around her – she forgot her ipod at home before her morning jog in the park. Whatever it is, it makes everything feel infinitely closer and brighter.

She runs until her lungs can no longer keep up, until her legs threaten to cramp. Having thus forced her body back into obedience, her analytical spirit prompts an examination of possible solutions to the problem. On the one hand, dating is out of the question, at least for a while. On the other hand, she needs some sort of activity in order to release energy with maximum efficiency.

The solution presents itself naturally.

“Bones, what are you doing here? Everything okay?”

Taking absolutely no heed of Booth’s somewhat sleepy protests (“Hey, it’s 7 o’clock in the morning! On a Saturday! Saturday, Bones – day of rest, remember?” – “I thought that was Sunday.”), she drags him out to her car, informing him that he can catch a couple of hours’ sleep, because this is how long she approximates it would take them to get to their destination. They spend the allocated time drinking coffee and bickering over their preferred radio channels.

“I warned you to get some rest so that you'd be prepared for strenuous physical activity,” she says when she sees the look on his face once they’ve arrived.

“You’re kidding, right? It’s a goddamn mountain!”

“I estimate that it will take us three to four hours to get to the top. Based on this amount of time, I would say that the word ‘hill’ fits the description much better.”

“That’s not the point! Come on, Bones, you can’t spring this on a man with an empty stomach!”

“This trail should present no difficulty for a male of your age and stamina,” she replies, handing him an energy bar.

Having successfully silenced her partner by appealing to his masculine prowess, she extracts a backpack from the trunk. After much going back and forth (“But it will be lighter on the way back, with all the food gone.” – “Are you implying that I should carry less weight because I’m a woman?”), they reach a compromise: she will carry it on the way up and he will take it on the way down (“Fine!” – “Fine!”) .

They chase each other uphill until they find a rhythm that suits both of them, discussing holidays (Brennan recounts her time in North Carolina with Russ, Booth a weekend trip with Parker), the benefits of yoga versus hockey (they eventually have to “agree to disagree”, as Booth puts it), and – she does not remember exactly how they got there - the sacrificial rituals of ancient Aztecs (“Yuck”, says Booth when she launches into some of the gorier details).

“Wow, this is amazing!” he exclaims when they finally reach the clearing on the top. He plops down on the ground, legs stretched out before him, and looks up at her smiling.

“Thanks, Bones, this was a great idea.”

Wisely squashing an “I told you so”, an unaccountably pleased Brennan sits down as well, digging out sandwiches and water. They eat in companionable silence, punctuated by questions from Booth about whether she’s been here before (she has) and when (a really long time ago; she does not say “with my parents” and he does not press for details).

A little while later, uncharacteristic silence from Booth prompts her to look at him and discover that even alpha males can occasionally succumb to exhaustion. He appears to have fallen asleep.

Resisting the temptation to indulge in idle contemplation of her partner (after all, what if he wakes up and asks what she’s doing, or worse, tells her to quit staring at him), she half-turns away from him, taking in the slope of valleys and the ridge of mountains in the distance, the blues and greens mixing with the warm color of the earth.

The feeling creeps upon her, invading every cell by stealth. Here she is, at the very center of her world, cradled by the smell of fresh grass and the open sky.

“Care to share?” her partner’s voice asks softly.

She probes around the feeling slowly, cautiously, as if it is about to disintegrate. She smiles.

“I think... I think I’m happy.”

There is a spring in his step all the way down.

Hands up everyone who thought that the dance would be followed by our favorite couple sleeping together! Well, you know what they say about the course of true love – it never did run smooth. And when did Brennan do anything the easy way, anyway?

So... some more coming up on a channel near you pretty soon.

Please let me know what you think!t I absolutely loved writing this chapter – and I’d love to hear from you.