A/N: Sometimes, I very much admire what I imagine to be Brennan's take on relationships, even though it often seems to be such a hindrance to her. This is why.

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She didn't believe in two becoming one. She didn't need any one person in her life to complete her. This wasn't denial, or some sort of rationalization; it was one hundred percent true, and necessarily so. If she would have needed her parents, she would have crumbled upon their disappearance. If she would have needed her brother, she would have been devastated by his abandonment. And if she would have needed any of the lovers she had had in her lifetime, she'd of not been able to go on after the inevitable dissolution of those relationships. Perhaps it had once been an option for her to believe she needed others, but if she would have chosen this, she would be nowhere near as successful and satisfied with her life as she was. Fear of loneliness would never plague her; she was immune to it. There was no staying in bad relationships because of an inability to imagine her life without the other. Independence was her blessing.

Some believed that she sacrificed true intimacy to maintain her autonomy. They may have been right. Having something desirable almost always meant sacrifice, and perhaps this was hers. It was unfortunate, but given the choice, she would pick self-preservation over the warm fuzziness of romance any day. It was only logical. But many of her friends and even casual observers would tsk their disapproval at her acknowledgement of this, and remark about what a shame it was that she would never find that other half that would make her whole, because of her stubborn insistence on always putting herself first.

What those people failed to realize was that, despite how it looked on the surface, she was in no way adverse to having someone accompany her on the journey of her life. She was very much capable of love and intimacy, although she displayed this rarely. And why would she hold back from pursuing this one thing that everybody else in the world seemed to want? Because instead of spending her time looking for the person who was to be her missing half, she was concentrating on making herself a whole person, all on her own. She would work on herself, confront her problems, become better. And when that process was complete, maybe she would be ready for the kind of relationship she wanted. She was not half of a person; she did not want to be with someone who was half of a person, depending on her to make him whole.

So she would wait. She would wait until she brought herself to a good place. And then, if she found someone who was in his own good place, perhaps they could be there together. Free from the encumbrances of having to complete one another, they would be able to share their worlds, without being forced to take up permanent residence in the other's universe. She didn't believe in two becoming one. But maybe, two could become two, together. Two, whole people, joined to create something larger than either of them alone. And when that happened…it would be worth the wait.