Title: Deductive Reasoning

Author: Cardiogod

Rating: PG

Word Count: About 850

Pairing: Booth/Brennan

Spoilers: In my head, it's set after "Cinderella in the Cardboard," but there's no specific reference to it.

Summary: "What's it like, Booth?" "What's what like, Bones?" "Being in love."

Disclaimer: Bones belongs to Hart Hanson and his people at Fox. I'm just borrowing them for entertainment value.

Author's note: I decided I wanted to break off from my normal prose-centered style a little bit and write some dialogue. Somehow "some dialogue" turned into this.

-----

"What's it like, Booth?"

"What's what like, Bones?"

"Being in love."

"Weren't you in love with Sully?"

"I felt an emotional attachment to Sully brought on by chemical reactions in my brain, and yes, we were extremely sexually compatible. The sexual component of our relationship did release an excess of endorphins and when he-"

"Okay, Bones. Got that part."

"I was just saying that when he-"

"Got it, Bones."

"Anyway, I don't think I was in love with Sully, in spite of our sexual connection."

"Look, you love Angela, right?"

"I'm not in love with Angela, Booth. While it is perfectly normal to imagine her and me in a sexual situation to aid in masturbatory fantasy-

"Bones!"

"- I must say that I am not inclined towards lesbianism."

"That's not what I said. I asked if you loved Angela. Like a friend. No sex. And please, can we leave phrases like 'masturbatory fantasy' out of this conversation?"

"Why, Booth? Masturbation is a perfectly normal activity that human beings have been engaging in for centuries, extending all the way back to Ancient Egypt and the god, Atum, who is said to have created the first Adam and Eve type mythical humans by ejaculating into-"

"Fascinating as that is, Bones, can we change the subject?"

"Fine. Although you really are going to have to get over all that Catholic guilt, Booth. It's unhealthy."

"My point is- you love Angela. She's your friend. Being in love is kind of like that, only… different."

"I don't know what that means."

"It's like… I can't describe it. It's like you're with your best friend and you're drinking a beer and suddenly they look different, like you're seeing a whole new person."

"It is physically impossible for a person to significantly alter his appearance in a manner that would lead you to believe they were another human being in a matter of seconds."

"Just go with me, okay Bones? You look at them and you see something different, something that you didn't see before and then you know that you want to spend the rest of your life with them. You feel more strongly for them than you ever have for anyone and you just know."

"I'm not comfortable with that response. You have no proof."

"No, you don't. You have faith."

"So you look at your best friend you have faith that you're in love with them despite all rational and logical facts that would prove otherwise?"

"Something like that, Bones."

"But I think Sweets is your best friend, even though you pretend not to like him in an assertion of male dominance, and you're not in love with him. Or, I don't think-"

"Bones! I am not in love with Sweets. Sweets is not my best friend, you are."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh. God, Bones, Sweets? Where the heck did you come up with that?"

"I know that the socially sanction and expected response is for me to tell you that you're my best friend too, but that would not be accurate."

"It wouldn't?"

"No, Angela is my best friend. And we've already established that I am not in love with her. You are my partner."

"I know I'm your partner, Bones."

"Then why do I feel, as you said, more strongly for you than I do for anyone else, if that feeling is supposed to be reserved for best friends?"

…

"Booth?"

"Yeah, Bones?"

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

"…Is this your way of saying that you're in love with me?"

"I never said that, Booth. I am merely trying to ascertain what love feels like in order to understand how to qualify my feelings for you without empirical, scientific evidence because, as you've said in the past, sometimes love tramps logic."

"Trumps, Bones. Love trumps logic."

"That's what I said. So we've established that you are in love with me-"

"Wait, what? We established that? We didn't establish that. When did we establish that?"

"You said that Sweets isn't your best friend and that you're not in love with him. Then you said that I am your best friend, but you didn't say that you aren't in love with me. It, follows, then, that you omitted the last part of the equation because it isn't true, because you do love me."

"That's psychology, Bones."

"That's deductive reasoning, Booth. And you're still not denying it."

"And that doesn't bother you? You're okay with that?"

"After some careful self-analysis, I'd have to conclude that I have no issue with you being in love with me."

"Why not?"

"Because it would be hypocritical of me to expect you not to feel that way about me when I feel the same way about you."

"You feel the same way about me?"

"I believe so, yes."

"Oh."

"I'm going to kiss you now, Booth."

"Okay, Bones."

And she did, and he smiled.