only_more_love

THAT is fantastic...the word choices, the bit about the monsters, the plastic and glass, the image of the "familiar sour smell as it rolled off Jared"...this is powerful and gripping.

Thanks very much for letting me know which bits stood out for you. I really do appreciate your doing that!

This is very touching. Nice work.

Thank you very much for your generous comment; I appreciate it.

This fic made me the good kind of woobie.

*g* Then I'm happy. Thanks for taking a sec to let me know that.

Thank you for de-lurking; I'm pretty harmless. ;) Welcome!

wow awesome. Just awesome. You caught him well.

Thanks. Glad you thought this did conjure a bit of Seeley Booth.

Then again, maybe it’s the monsters that patiently sit inside you, waiting for the moment when you can’t outrun them, that you have to watch out for.

This is my Booth. He has dark shadows inside him, little corners where light from Parker and Brennan can't touch no matter how much he tries. The one who has his own monsters inside him that he faces and that are scarier than any bad guy with a gun.

Great work!

Thanks very much! Like Booth says, people can be more than one thing. I absolutely agree that he has dark shadows and monsters inside him. We all do...

Thank you again for the thoughtful comment; I so appreciate it.

Wow. This hurts.

People say to write what you know and I wonder how much you know.

Gorgeous.

Sometimes I have to wonder why being so much like Brennan, I empathize with Booth so much. You just put it up in black and white for me. That neverending fear.

Maybe it’s all the same: plastic and glass, fathers and sons.


That right there? That's exactly how I feel. Thank you.

Thanks for sharing a bit of yourself with me; I appreciate it and am happy that this moved you in some way.

Lovely. A tiny, elegant gem should not be buried by a florid review.

Thank you so much, FM. I'm touched by your comment.

This is the Booth I love. A man constantly striving to be better, who knows his own limitations and tries to overcome them. Great work.

Thanks very much! I'm so pleased you thought this seemed like Booth to you. He really is a fascinating character, especially because he appears to be such an open book...Only he's not. ;)

Another perfect example that you don't need 1000 words to make me feel a character's struggle. I've always loved your take on Booth and this was perfect.

Thanks for sharing!

Thank YOU for reading and commenting. I really appreciate your taking the time to let me know what you thought of this. Sometimes you need 1000 words to tell a story, and sometimes you don't. :)

Thanks again. ♥

I struggle sometimes with things that have not remained consistent character-wise on this show (especially lately), but one thing that seems to remain a constant is Booth's beautiful relationship with his son. No matter what, we are always able to see just how much he loves Parker, and how much it means to him to be a good father. I really enjoy that.

I mention that because I think with this story you have captured wonderfully just how important it is for Booth to be a good father, and how deeply that hits him, every time he looks at his son or thinks about his son. And with Con Man in the Meth Lab, we now see an even bigger reason why it's important for Booth to be a good father: he doesn't want to follow the patterns established by his own father and brother (and in a way, by Booth himself, who may not have an alcohol addiction, but sadly -- perhaps in overcompensating to make sure he didn't turn to alcohol like his father -- he found his own addiction in gambling). I love how you took these new revelations about Booth's character and from them wrote an aching yet sweet story about Booth's relationship to his own son, and about fathers and sons in general. It's terrific.

>He’s never hit Parker. He never will. It’s one of those things he promised himself and God ...

I love this opening. It immediately grabs my attention, and the intent of it is very much Booth. And the 'one of those things he promised himself and God' is pitch-perfect. I believe Booth would talk to God and swear up and down that he will not repeat the behaviors of his father before him. I believe he'd probably also silently beg for God's help with that, to ensure it never happens.

>Sure, there are promises he’s broken, and he’ll spend the rest of his life on his knees if that’s what it takes.

Great line.

>But his son won’t ever watch him fall into a longneck and drown; won’t learn at his hand that sometimes the scariest monsters don’t lurk in the shadows or under the bed and aren’t monsters at all – just flawed people who saw too much and never really made it back to themselves.

Interesting. First off, I love that part about how he won't ever 'fall into a longneck and drown' -- that's a stand-out line. But I love the quiet honesty and revelation that comes in the rest of the sentence. It makes me wonder what Booth's dad 'saw' that caused him to lose himself. And it makes me wonder about Booth's own past (knowing some of it, but certainly not all), and how he has come to understand what that means as well (for his father and himself). Also, I find myself pondering just what it is that keeps Booth from making the same mistakes. Is he a stronger man than his father? Does he have a support system his father didn't? These are some questions that your lovely wording stirs up for me.

I also love the realization that comes from reading the part about the 'familiar sour smell' because I suddently 'get' that he's seeing his father's illness in his own brother now, and that's got to be terrifying and saddening and upsetting.

>Then again, maybe it’s the monsters that patiently sit inside you, waiting for the moment when you can’t outrun them, that you have to watch out for.

Hmmm... fascinating statement!

>It’s a lesson he desperately hopes his son never has to learn.

*clutches heart* I hope not. And I love that Booth worries about it; it's a sign that he'll do everything in his power to prevent it, if he can. At the same time, you've laid out the concern for the reader, because we know based on your words that perhaps there may be nothing he can do to stop it. Sometimes you can't outrun it. :'(

Still, I have hope in my heart that Booth will persevere. And you capture his character so well with so few words. Excellent job, only_more_love.

This was beautiful, and so right for this episode. I think that this was my favorite sentence:

But his son won’t ever watch him fall into a longneck and drown; won’t learn at his hand that sometimes the scariest monsters don’t lurk in the shadows or under the bed and aren’t monsters at all – just flawed people who saw too much and never really made it back to themselves.

Thank you so much for letting me know how this felt to you. It always, always means the world to me. ♥

I adore this. You have such a fantastic grasp on Booth's character. I wish they would address these parallels on the show; his father's drinking, his own gambling, how he desperately wants Parker to have better than that.

Beautiful!

Thank you Lerdo. And I second bite_or_avoid's comment.