Bones: Fanfic: More than skin deep

[m_findlow]

Title: More than skin deep
Fandom: Bones
Characters: Brennan, Booth
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 510 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for yeomanrand's prompt "Bones, Brennan, Bones were never a mystery. People, on the other hand..." at fic_promptly
Summary: Brennan has a lot to learn about people.

Brennan watched her coworkers from a distance: Hodgkins, Zach and Angela. They were all laughing and smiling with Booth. She didn't know how he did it, making them feel totally at ease. He'd been here a whole five minutes. Just from they way the flesh covering their cheekbones moved, she could tell that their laughter was genuine and not contrived. They weren't like her. What had Booth called it? Giving up something of yourself? Her job didn't require her to give up anything of herself. She came in, examined the bones, asked questions and made her conclusions. Nothing required her to get personal about the job. She worked with evidence and hard facts. How someone died was more important than why. Psychology wasn't her thing.

That's where she and Booth were different. He wanted to understand what motivated people to do things. She could tell him what the bones said. She knew when the victim had put up a fight, and when they'd been unconscious. She knew if in those last few moments of their life they'd been deathly afraid, or whether they'd had no idea what was coming. For some reason that wasn't nearly as important as knowing why they'd been there in the first place. What did it really matter why they were there? She could figure out the who and the how. Why was immaterial. Why was Booth so fixated on the why? She expected someone who'd been in the military would be more of a rule follower. Instead he tried to make jokes and wore silly belt buckles.

People were too complicated. They didn't act in predictable ways that could be observed and modelled. Yes, there were cultural norms and religious ideals, basic principles which most races and religions abided by, but the rest was a complete mystery. What made one person want to grow a beard or get their face covered in piercings or tattoos? What made them dog people or cat people? Why did some people refuse to eat meat? None of it made any sense, but neither did it change what the bones told her.

'Bones! You coming with us or what?' Booth called out. When she didn't make a move, he came over to her.

'Come on, a successful murder has been solved and it's my round at the bar. You do drink, don't you?'

'I drink,' she said, getting her back up.

'Oh, that's right,' he said, smiling. 'You were drinking the night you shot that guy in the leg.'

'He was going to destroy evidence,' she argued. 'My blood alcohol level had nothing to do with my decision to shoot him.'

'You know it's okay to drink and have a little fun, don't you?'

'I do lots of things that are fun. I once base-jumped off a cliff in Guatemala.'

'That's what you do for fun?' Booth laughed. 'You are full of surprises, Bones.'

Brennan looked at him with curiosity. 'Okay, so what does an ex-Army Ranger do for fun?'

'Come out with us and maybe you'll find out.'