Bonding Over Bones (Dr Temperance "Bones" Brennan x fem!reader book)

Ch 11: The Passage of Time

Once we were officially dating, the time flew by. We worked together, we went on dates together, we did... other things together.

Life was great, or so it appeared. On the outside, I looked like the happiest girl in the world (And I really was. Brennan was everything I could've dreamed of.).

Yet, there was something eating me up from the inside. It was gnawing at me, clawing at my heart, stealing all of the joy that Temperance had given me over the last few weeks.

I knew that if I kept this seed of discomfort bottled up inside, it would grow and grow until it utterly destroyed the beautiful relationship that Brennan and I had labored so hard to build.

The uncomfortable thought was this: Coming out. At some point the both of us would have to come out as a couple, and that thought terrified me.

It's not that I was embarrassed of being with Temperance. On the contrary, I wanted the whole world to know she was mine. It was the thought of coming out as gay that terrified me.

Yet, I wasn't embarrassed that I was gay, either. I was just scared; Scared of how people would react. Scared of how they'd look at me once they knew. Scared of losing friends and family.

Nobody knew except Bones and Angela, and they only knew because they were queer, too.

How would Jack and Zack react (They already knew I was gay, but would they be able to process Temperance being my girlfriend)? And Goodman? Would he look down on me? What about Booth? It was no secret that he had the hots for Brennan. What if he resented me because of it? Not to mention my family. How was I supposed to tell my parents???

These thoughts swirled through my head so often that I eventually became paranoid.

What if someone were to find out? What if they got the wrong idea? What if they thought I was sleeping with Brennan because she's my boss? Oh shit, she's my boss. People are bound to misinterpret that.

This paranoia was getting to me, giving me a hell of a lot of anxiety.

After a while, it began to show. I was messing up my reconstructions, putting bone fragments in the wrong places, only to be promptly corrected by Zack. I was nervous about everything, and the slightest mishap ticked me off. I took Hodgins' jokes too seriously, using him as a scapegoat for my distress.

The guys realized something was wrong, and gave me some space. Angela noticed too, but when she tried to bring it up, I instantly deflected.

Temperance knew something was going on, but she also knew me well enough to know that I didn't want to talk about it. She knew that I would come to her when I was ready, and I knew it, too.

I knew that we would have to talk about it eventually, but my anxiety kept me from actually starting the conversation.

Regardless, the conflict needed to be resolved. Thus, with a deep breath and a bundle of nerves around my heart, I decided to invite her over for dinner, and we'd talk about it then.