Bones 100th Fanfic Entry

What do the 100 episodes of Bones mean to me?
As answered by the cast

“Wow….that is really weird,” Booth murmured to himself.

“What is?”

“Huh? Oh….Sweet’s book release….it lines up with our 100th case…you think he planned that?” Booth asked looking off into the distance and frowning.

“I don’t see how he could have,” replied Brennan, “he didn’t even know us for the first…45 cases,” she said after a bit of quick calculation.

“How do you even know that?” Booth asked incredulously.

“What, I -” she stopped herself before finishing that sentence as planned, “nothing,” she said shaking her head and smiling. She saw in his eyes that he wasn’t quite ready to just let it go so she quickly changed the topic of discussion by saying, “Look! There’s Angela. Do you think she knows we’re 100? Let’s ask her. Hey! Angela!” she called and waved her arms for good measure.

“Trying to land a plane there, Bren?” Angela asked with a laugh at the overly exuberant greeting she was receiving as her friend waved her arms in unnecessarily large circles to attract her attention.

“No, I was just trying to get your attention so I could ask you a question,” Brennan said in explanation.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Then why did you – oh,” Brennan said as she comprehended Angela’s figure of speech.

“Yeah,” Angela said chuckling, “so what did you want to ask me?”

“Bones wants to know if you know we’ve hit 100 cases…..I want to know if you think Sweets’ book release date is coincidence or carefully orchestrated tactical manuever?” he asked in a knowing tone.

“Okay, Hodgins,” she said with a smirk and a shake of her head. “Oh, and I’m pretty sure Sweets is genetically incapable of maneuvering anything. Orchestrated or otherwise.”

Brennan was about to correct her calling Booth ‘Hodgins’, when she realized it was an intended slip to draw attention to Booth’s highly suspicious question.

Booth glared for a moment before he realized how conspiracy theorist he did sound. He shuddered and said, “If I start talking dirt, bugs or slime….just shoot me.”

“You got it,” Ange said like the true friend she was.

“So come on Bones,” Booth said getting back to the original topic, “don’t think I didn’t notice your little diversion…how did you know how many cases we worked before Sweets?”

“How do you know I’m right?” she stalled.

“You’re always right,” he said proudly.

She smiled. Then, realizing she could answer him without giving anything away if she stuck to the literal she responded, “It’s a matter of public record. Well, okay, maybe not public, but it’s no secret how many cases we solved before Sweets joined us.”

“Okay Miss Literal,” Booth said rolling his eyes, “now that you’ve answered my question, how’s about answering my question.”

Pursing her lips in irritation at his ability to read her intentions she gave the next vague answer that came to mind, “Genius,” she said with a shrug.

Booth shook his head at just how deep her devotion to the literal ran and gave her a look she was quite familiar with.

“Well,” Angela said interrupting their little stare fest, “I think that this calls for a celebration! So I,” she said pulling out her phone and dialing, “am calling for Hodgins and take out.” When she saw Booth’s quizzical look she asked, “What? You want to get to the bottom of this conspiracy theory and celebrate the achievement don’t you? Besides, he just left. I’d call Cam for the celebrating, but she’s going out with Michelle and Zach’s….otherwise engaged and Sweets, well, he’s kinda the topic of conversation so, you know.”

Within seconds, Hodgins was rushing through the door, “Hey, I got your message. What’s up? New case?”

“How close were you?” Booth asked in surprise at his speedy return.

“Oh, yeah, I’d just left when I remembered I needed to complete one more step on the modular setup for the Trask experiment so I was already at the door when I got Ange’s text.”

Angela took over the conversation and said, “No new case Hodgins, but funny you should mention, we were just discussing how we’re at 100.”

“Cases?” he asked in surprise, “Wow…this calls for a celebration!” he said excitedly.

“What do you think we’re doing?” Brennan asked.

“No, I mean a proper celebration…dressing up, the whole nine yards.”

“I’ve never understood that expression,” said Brennan.

“You know what expression I’ve never understood? Pennies from heaven,” Booth mused more to himself than the others. When he noticed their confused expressions he sat up taller and said, “But hey, celebration, I like the way you think Hodgins!” The bug man smiled at the praise. Then Booth asked him, “Hey, how many cases did we work before Sweets joined us?"

Brennan’s mouth dropped open at the way he’d, as usual, put everyone at ease, then gone just for the bit of information he wanted. This man, her partner, always got what he wanted. Maybe she should just save him the trouble and tell him what he wanted to know. He was going to find out sooner or later.

Hodgins thought for a moment and then shrugged and said, “30?”

“Ha!” Booth’s mocking laugh was not what he was expecting and he jumped.

“He’s a genius and he couldn’t do it. So come on Bones, spill,” Booth said while clapping Hodgins on the shoulder in apology for scaring him.

She took a deep breath, her decision made. She would tell him what he wanted to know. “I know because….because….because I’ve been keeping track.”

“Oh, why didn’t you just say so?” asked Booth, “I’ve kept track too…I just don’t have your steel trap of a mind,” he said tapping the side of his head, “and the ability to pull out from it whatever I want at a moment’s notice.”

“No,” she said shaking her head, “I keep track….because you keep track.”

“Checking my math there Bones?” he asked with a chuckle.

“No,” she said with a frown as he continued to tease her and miss her meaning.

He sobered at her look of dismay and asked, “What does it mean to you Bones? 100 cases….keeping count.”

She stopped frowning, she saw that he understood. This was important to her for reasons yet unknown to him and he wanted to know her. All of her. So she told him, truthfully, from the heart, “Means we’ve almost doubled our goal.”

“We had a quota?” Hodgins asked in surprise.

Brennan had almost forgotten the others were there and said, “Booth did. I just……wanted to help him,” she explained as she glanced back to her partner.

Booth shook his head in wonder. He’d known from the start, from that very first case they had something special between them. And then when he tracked her down and she bribed him and he told her the reason…his reason…his mission...well, when he’d told her she’d laughed. And then almost immediately she’d wanted in, to be a part. To work toward a common goal and now here they stood, 100 cases later. Who’d known they’d ever make it this far. There’d been no guarantees. Who knew how far they yet had to go. Rather than dwell on the uncertainty though, Booth decided to focus on what he did know and what he knew right now had to do with his partner so he asked, “Know what it means to me?” He could see he’d caught her attention with that question as she cocked her head to the side in anticipation of what he might say.

“Means I’m the luckiest guy……and that I….have the best partner,” he said shaking his head in wonder at her commitment to something she’d once seen as a nothing more than a cosmic joke. If he’d ever doubted, he could clearly see in her eyes how truly important their work together and he, in particular, was to her.

“I don’t really know what it means to me,” Hodgins mused to himself.

“I know what it meant to Zach,” Angela said as everyone turned to her in expectation, “that we’re crime fighting superheroes.”

Sad smiles were shared as they thought of their fallen comrade. For all the mysteries they’d solved, perhaps the biggest one they shared remained clouded in disbelief and confusion. How could Zach have done what he had done, become what he had become. Shaking away the melancholy, Angela said with a mischievous glint, “I know what it means to me.”

They turned to look at her. “It means drama, love, pain and joy….family.”

They smiled at each other as they took a moment to think about what they’d been creating and how much more they still had to do. And then despite the gambler in him or maybe because of it, Booth couldn’t resist throwing a little something on the table as his thoughts drifted to how much longer they had at this magic they were working. His smile was irresistible as he leaned in and said, “What do ya say Bones, should we go for double or nothing?”

First time poster. I am obviously posting challenged. Thought I was posting to the 100th Fanfic Entry thread, but apparently not. Not sure if I should try to fix it or if that would just make it worse.

knox wrote:First time poster. I am obviously posting challenged. Thought I was posting to the 100th Fanfic Entry thread, but apparently not. Not sure if I should try to fix it or if that would just make it worse.

Knox! I believe you're our first entrant into the contest!! Welcome to theABY!

You can go ahead and move it. Just click your "Edit" button on that post, then copy the WHOLE thing. Then go into the thread you wanted and click "POST REPLY". Paste it all into the textbox. You can even name your story in the "Subject" field if you want.

If you have trouble I can help you, or just about anyone you can tag on the shoulder. After you get it moved I'll come back here and delete this thread. I won't delete this until I see you've gotten it moved.

And GOOD LUCK in the contest!