(no subject)

[dr_temperance]

If there is one thing that Brennan excels at, it's compartmentalization. It's a useful skill, especially during otherwise hectic times.

Next week, she and her father are flying out to Ohio, to participate in their first official family Christmas in over fifteen years. Brennan is looking forward to it, but it does leave her with a lot to get done.

On a number of fronts.

She started out this evening in the bar with work from the lab--a shattered skull in need of reconstruction. The skull is now pieced together, resting on a stand while the glue sets.

Its eyeless sockets are watching Brennan as she moves on to her next task--wrapping her nieces Christmas presents.

Brennan measures out a precise square of red and green paper (just enough to wrap a crystal-growing kit from the Jeffersonian gift shop) and sheers her scissors neatly through.

Comments

[cutting_edgex23]

X shrugs, quick and one-shouldered.

"Some people are afraid of me."

Beat.

"It is okay."

[dr_temperance]

"Why?"

Brennan ponders this a moment.

"Because you have committed violent acts in the past?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"I have killed many people."

Beat.

"I still do. At home."

This pause is longer.

"When they hurt people."

[dr_temperance]

"You're a soldier?" Brennan asks, curiously.

Conjecture. But a fairly safe conjecture, Brennan thinks.

[cutting_edgex23]

"No. I am a weapon."

Beat.

"And an X-man. We protect people."

[dr_temperance]

"My partner is an FBI agent. And was formerly a military sniper. He's killed many times in order to protect others."

There is killing for profit or out of passion. Or because of psychosis. And there is killing that is socially sanctioned. To preserve order. They two cannot be judged equally.

"I've killed," Brennan adds after a moment.

"It didn't bother me as much as I thought it would."

[cutting_edgex23]

X's expression shifts, just slightly.

It's still pretty blank.

"Oh."

Beat.

"That is good."

What's better is that Brennan did not like it. X doesn't, either. It's just what she does.

[dr_temperance]

"It was necessary. The man was trying to kill my partner."

Brennan feels that she ought to explain that much, at least.

And no, she hadn't liked it. Had even spent a couple of hours allowing herself to be upset over it.

But she would do it again if the circumstances were to repeat themselves.

[cutting_edgex23]

"It is good you did not let him."

It's not hard to tell that X means this. Utterly.

[dr_temperance]

Brennan smiles.

"I think so. I'm fairly certain my partner thinks so as well."

"The fact that we have committed violent acts doesn't necessarily warrant fear. It doesn't make us bad people. It depends on the surrounding circumstances."

There is always grey area, of course. Like the time Brennan had lured Epps into a trap for the express purpose of killing him. (She had been interrupted by Booth before she could carry out the plan.)

But even then, Epps had been trying to kill her loved ones.

[cutting_edgex23]

X considers this.

Carefully.

And then--

"You have not seen me work."

[dr_temperance]

"No. I have not."

Brennan raises a questioning eyebrow.

"Is that relevant?"

[cutting_edgex23]

X considers this.

"I do not know."

Beat.

"Sometimes it is."

[dr_temperance]

"Because of the method of killing?"

Brennan nods to X's hands.

"My assumption is that the claws are employed?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"Yes."

Beat.

"Some of the time. If it is in the mission parameters."

Sometimes explosives are more useful. Or guns.

[dr_temperance]

Brennan nods.

"Killing with one's hands is different than killing with weapons, from a distance."

[cutting_edgex23]

"The techniques are very different," X agrees.

The rest of it--not so much. Not for her, anyway.

[dr_temperance]

"They would be."

"Do you enjoy the work?" Brennan asks.

She will not be surprised if she is told that enjoyment is not relevant.

[cutting_edgex23]

"It is useful," X says.

This is her idea of an answer.

"But I do not like killing."

Beat.

"Some people do."

[dr_temperance]

"The people who enjoy it are worrisome. If not outright threats to society."

"I've encountered some of them. And seen the handiwork of several others."

It's astounding what some human beings are capable of doing to other human beings.

[cutting_edgex23]

"Yes," X says.

"We have fought some of them, too."

[dr_temperance]

"I'm glad to hear that."

It does not trouble Brennan in the slightest that some people--people like Epps, who love killing for the sake of killing--could be...permanently removed.

[cutting_edgex23]

X looks--faintly startled, if only for a moment.

"Oh."

Beat.

"Good."

[dr_temperance]

Brennan nods.

Understanding.

It's a beautiful thing.