The Man In The Mirror by LAndrews

Summary: Not all addictions are created equal.

Spoilers: The Man In The SUV, Season One.

After his first bourbon or second beer, Sid always brings him coffee or milk with a meal or apple pie. He only eats apple, which is convenient, since Sid only serves apple. Booth suspects if someone ever needed blueberry or rhubarb, that Sid would somehow manage. And if pie and Chinese seem an odd combination, Booth keeps that to himself.

He keeps a lot to himself, like the reason Sid's is his hangout and he owns four lavender shirts, but just one black belt. Routine keeps him on the straight and narrow. And if routine is an addiction, well, it's just one more to him. At the very least, it means when he opens his eyes each day his heart is still beating, and his lungs still breathe, and he has another day to get it right.

So when Bones drops into the seat next to him, he just takes another bite of pie and then turns his glass, watching the milk slosh up in cloudy loops.

Sid slides a cocktail in front of her and Booth can see how tentative she is as she sips it. Trust issues. He gets that. The drink's to her liking. When she sets it down, there's a healthy amount missing. He smiles and looks at her.

She's looking back, and then away, at the people reflecting in the mirror. He takes another bite, looking at her in the mirror until she meets his eyes.

"Interesting day?" he says to mirror Bones.

"Every day is interesting," she says.

"Uh-huh."

"What does that mean?"

Booth holds his hands up in surrender. "My day wasn't, that's all."

She finally turns, and now she's with him, sitting with him and not just beside him, and his mood lifts, enough so that he smiles for real. Enough so that he notices it's a feeling he likes, but not a feeling he wants to examine.

"What was it?"

He spins his glass. "Frustrating, annoying, maybe even boring if you consider the thirty-eight minutes I spent on hold with the Library of..."

"But emotions are interesting in and of themselves. They tell us things we should be paying attention to. In some cultures, boring isn't even..."

Booth smiles and lets her talk. Maybe overcoming addiction simply means picking the ones that keep you among the living.

End.

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