He gets the call at midnight.

"Booth." he answers, stiffling a yawn. "Hey. Did I wake you?" Angela asks, but doesn't wait for an answer. "You need to come to the hospital. Brennan.." she starts, but stops herself. At the mention of his partner's name, Booth sits up straight, suddenly wide awake. "Just hurry, Booth. I'll explain everything when you get here." The line clicks and leaves Booth confused and worried. Within twenty minutes, he's showered and dressed and another fifteen minutes later he arrives at the hospital.

Angela is standing at the main entrance, waiting for him. "What happened?" Booth asks while they walk into the building and towards the elevators. Angela sighs, presses a button and turns to look at her friend.

"Brennan was working late. Later than usual, actually. She was apparently still there, when the security guards changed shift, but left shortly after that." A soft 'ding' sound comes from the elevator and they step in. The artist presses another button and the doors close. "She was on her way to her car. They must've waited for her there." She continues and bites her lower lip. "How bad is it?" Booth asks after a moment of silence. Angela opens her mouth to explain what she knows, when another soft 'ding' sounds and the elevator doors open.

The ICU is quiet at this time of night, but not empty. A handful of nurses are making their rounds, checking on their sleeping patients or doing paperwork at the nurses station. A short, blonde woman in her fourties smiles at Booth and Angela as they pass the nurses station and walk around a corner. Everyone is here already and greets him with a quiet not and a grim look on their faces. "You can see her if you want." Angela says from somewhere behind him and he nods slowly. "She's alseep now." the artist adds and Booth feels relief wash over him.

If she's in any pain, he's glad she can't feel it.

He opens the door slowly, steps in and closes it behind himself again. Then he turns to look at her and every bit of colour leaves his face. For a second, he can't move or breathe. Then the beeping of the heart monitor next to her bed pulls him out of his thoughts and he moves. Four, five steps are all it takes him to get to the bed and when he's there, he can't decide if he wants to just sit by her side for the remainder of the night or if he wants to climb into the bed , lie down next to her and hold her in his arms forever.

He decides to sit down on the side of her bed for now, but carefully takes her hand in his and holds it, placing a small, soft kiss on its back. He can't talk, can't find the right words to say anything, so he just sits there in silence, holding her hand, praying that she wakes up soon.

"Booth..?"

He thinks he must be hallucinating, because he could've sworn she just said his name. When he hears her voice a second time, calling for him, he lifts his head and hopes he's not hallucinating.

He isn't, it turns out. Temperance Brennan is awake. Booth smiles, relieved that she's fine for the monent. "Hi." she says, her voice sounding like she hasn't used it in weeks. "Hi." he says back and softly squeezes her hand. "How are you feeling?" he asks, standing up and carefully sitting down on the edge of the bed. She groans softly and closes her eyes for a second. "I don't know how to describe it." she then replies, opening her eyes again. Booth chuckles and nods. "I'll go get Ange." he tells her. "She knows what happened." He stands up and goes to walk towards the door, but stops when he feels a slight tug on his hand. Brennan is still holding on to him and even though she's too tired to speak, he knows that she's asking him to stay.

So he does.

He stays and holds on to her hand as if both of their lives depend on it.

Brennan smiles at him groggily and for a second it looks as if she wants to speak up, but then decides against it. Booth strokes the back of her hand and even though he's been here for at least an hour and has occaisionally updated the rest of the Gang on her status, he hasn't looked at her properly. She's pale and looks like she's been locking herself into her office for the past month. The eye that isn't bruised, is bloodshot and a cut goes along her right eyebrow.

While she slowly drifts back into a hopefully nightmare free sleep, Booth looks at the hand he's holding and realises only now, that it is wrapped up in thick, white bandages that wrap themselves around her wrist and half of her forearm. Anger wells up in his stomach and he has to breathe in and out deeply, once, twice, three times, to not storm out and find the son of a bitch that dared to hurt his partner that bad.

A soft knock from the door pulls Booth out of his angry thoughts. „Who is it?" he asks, trying not to wake his sleeping partner. The door opens and Angela sticks her head through the crack of the door. „Hey G-man. How're you holdin' up?" she asks and quietly steps into the room. Booth lets out a slightly shaky breath, carefully lets go of Brennan's hand and stands up. „She was awake for a bit. I wanted to go and get you, but she wouldn't let me." The artist smiles and pats Booths arm. „Get yourself some coffee. I'll stay here until you're back." She says and sits down on the chair that was occupied by her friend less than ten seconds ago.

Booth nods thankfully, stretches and slips out of the room and into the hallway, where Hodgins, Cam, Arastoo and Sweets are waiting. Jack is asleep on the floor, propped up against a wall and slightly snorring. Cam is sitting on a bench right next to him, sharing it with a very tired looking Lance Sweets. She's the first to notice that he's outside of Brennan's room, so she stands up while trying not to wake up Sweets or Hodgins. „You alright?" she asks, stretching a little after having been sitting on that bench for way too long. Booth wants to answer, but finds that he doesn't actually know, if he's alright or not. „Dunno." he replies, sighing tiredly. „Think they'd let me stay over night?" he then asks and Cam can't help but smile at that. „I'll talk to the head nurse in a bit. Lets get you some coffee first though." she offers and Booth smiles. Coffee is the one thing he needs other than Brennan to be okay again.

While they walk towards the nearest vending machine, neither of them speaks, each too busy with their own thoughts. Booth barely notices them arriving at the vending machine and jumps slightly, when Cam pushes a steaming plastic cup of coffee into his hand, but gives her a thankful nod. The pathologist gets four more plastic cups full of the hot liquid and together, they make their way back to the bench. Sweets has woken up when they get back, and smiles tiredly at the two of them, when Booth hands him one of the cups. Can softly nudges Jack and hands him a cup, when he finally opens his eyes and focuses on his surroundings.

For a few minutes, none of them do anything other than drink their coffees, but then the door to Brennans room opens again and Angelas steps out. She looks as tired as Booth feels and once he's emptied his cup and dropped it into the nearest bin, he quietly thanks them all for being here and promises to call them as soon as he hears any news. They hug him as tightly as they can and then drag their feet towards the elevator. Cam keeps her promise and has a quick word with the head nurse of the night shift and three minutes later, Booth is sitting on a camping bed, that's been used far too many times.

Before he finally goes to sleep for the second time, he sits next to Brennans bed, holds her hand and does nothing but look at her. „I'll find him, Bones." he says, his voice baely more than a whisper. „I promise." He stands up, carefully places her hand next to her thigh and drops a small kiss on her forehead. „Goodnight Bones." he says, after lying down on the bed.

„Goodnight Booth." comes a barely audible whisper from her bed. He smiles, closes his eyes and falls asleep for the second time of the night.