Here's the opening chapter to the sequel for He's Special. I wanted to do two stories. One was primarily from Bones' perspective of Booth's surgery and direct aftermath. The second would be primarily from Booth's as he comes home and is appreciating all that Bones' means to him, despite his amnesia. I'm not sure how well this one will be received, as it's different, but I hope everyone enjoys it. Gregg.
Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Seeley Booth walked into the apartment that he'd just been informed was his. He was accompanied by the woman he'd spent a great deal of time with at the hospital, Dr. Temperance Brennan, or Bones as she said that he calls her. For some unknown reason, he felt very comfortable around her, and was glad that she had told him that she would be helping him until his memory returned.
Looking around, he could see that while neat, the apartment was cluttered with a lot of nick knacks, including a large hanging model airplane in the living room. The color scheme was a bit on the darker side, but that wasn't bad. The only bothersome aspect was he couldn't recognize anything, except, of course, the picture of Bones. After several days in the hospital with her, he knew her and trusted her implicitly.
"Does anything look familiar?" Bones asked him.
He turned to look at her. "Only the picture of you," he replied honestly. He avoided shaking his head in frustration, as the headaches from the surgery were still there. The Doctors told him to expect that, and to keep sudden movements to a minimum for some time as the bone mended, and the incision as well.
Bones didn't comment on that, though she did feel warm and good about his answer regarding here, even though she knew that part of his answer was the amount of time she'd been spending with him in the hospital. Her heart constricted a bit as he had to have seen the picture of Parker, who she now knew he only recognized as a tiny baby just having been born. She hoped that Parker would be able to understand what happening was adequately so that he would not be hurt by all this.
After about ten minutes of looking around with no real recognition, he was drawn back to the mantle where some photos were displayed. He felt his tension and frustration levels rising alarmingly, and his back and shoulders tensed.
"Booth?" Bones asked when she noticed the decided change in his stance and bearing.
"I don't recognize anyone on those pictures except you," he said angrily. He rubbed his eyes. "I should know these people!"
His anger didn't phase her at all. She was expecting this. Now she had to try and dissipate that anger.
"Booth," she said and it got his attention as her tone was commanding. "You had someone open your skull and do complicated surgery on your brain. There was some damage to surrounding tissue from the tumor, and some form of memory block or loss is reasonable. It's not your fault, or anyone else's."
Booth sighed in deep frustration, all the while recognizing the truth of what she was saying. The gauze wrapping on his head was proof of all of it. But why had he been so readily comfortable with her from the first second? How had God played such a cruel trick on him by letting him feel safe with this one person, yet not even know his own son, outside of him being an infant? He took a seat on the couch, and before he could even think, an image flashed in his head of her standing behind him with her hands under his arms and on either side of his head. Then the image left him.
"You saw something?" Bones asked hopefully.
He focused his gaze straight ahead. "I think so. Was there ever a time when you were behind me and holding onto either side of my head?" he asked.
Bones grimaced. Of all the things to remember, he had to remember when she almost tore the hell out of his back, though it turned out it wasn't her fault. She'd felt horrible at the time, and she also had the lousy memory of Agent Perrota making moves on her Booth! Wait a minute. Did she just use a possessive in thinking of Booth? She would kick Booth's ass, or any other man's, if that was ever done with respect to her, yet she was now thinking of Booth in terms of being hers. There was no time to dwell on that now, though. She would later as she had some alone time.
"Yes," she admitted. "You had a very sore back and asked me to rotate it."
"Did it work?" he asked curiously.
"No," she replied. "You were on pain killers and bed rest for over a week."
"Ugh," he said in clear displeasure of the idea of being basically down for a week.
Bones smiled at his reaction, as she knew what he was thinking of. As an active person herself, the idea of being prisoner in her own apartment was not something pleasant to consider. "You survived," she assured him. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Tired," he reluctantly admitted. He'd not wanted to say anything, but his fatigue from just the ride from the hospital and the short tour of what was obviously his apartment, had taken a lot out of him. His thoughts kept coming back to the woman who was in front of him. He remembered a dream where they were married and owned a club, but that was a dream. The real thing was at the same time worse because they weren't married, but better since they had some genuine purpose to everything, if her rendition of their jobs was anything to go by.
"How about you lie down for a while and then we can have dinner and talk some more later?" she suggested.
"I guess," he shrugged, not really wanting to sleep, but recognizing how tired and run down he was feeling. He followed her to the bedroom, where he laid down on the bed and without any real effort, was asleep in minutes.
His sleep was restless as he dreamed. At least he thought it was a dream. He kept seeing images that disturbed him. One was on a dock with Bones looking out at a sail boat moving off in the distance. He couldn't fathom why he felt such relief with that image. Another was one where he was at a quarry of some sort running towards something, but the image was interrupted by another image of him in a ships hold. Both images left him feeling extremely agitated and anxious. The final image was of Bones sitting across from him in this very apartment having a debate about something being "worth it". He couldn't figure out what was being discussed, but a warm feeling suffused him as his image said that "it" was.
That was when he woke up and looked around. The window looking outside was open a bit and he could see that it was dark outside now. He must have been asleep a lot longer than he thought he was. It had been early afternoon when he'd laid down. Getting up, he made his way out of the bedroom and into the living room where he found Bones sitting on the couch with her laptop perched across her thighs. She appeared to be diligently working on something.
"Anything interesting?" he asked.
Bones looked up and smiled. She'd began getting worried about an hour before when he hadn't woken up yet, and had been just about to check on him when he asked her that question.
"Just another chapter for my new novel," she told him.
"Can I read it?" he asked. He couldn't understand when she started to chuckled. "What's so funny?" he asked.
"Nothing really," she told him. "It's just that you always ask that question and I always tell you that you'll have to wait until it's available for everyone else."
"Oh," he said with a slight disappointment. He liked to read, and she was an interesting woman.
Bones got up and went to the bookcase. She pulled off three books and handed them to him. "Here's the three that I've had published so far," she explained.
He looked at the three hardcover editions and then read the handwritten inscription in each of them. "Thanks," he told her. "I'll read these tomorrow since you have to go into work for a bit."
Bones grimaced. "Yeah," she told him. Cam had called her that morning and explained that she was needed to set out some parameters for Fisher and Hodgins as they began to work on a new case. "Are you hungry?" she asked.
"Starved," he told her.
"I'll call for some takeout from Wong Fu's," she said as she pulled out her cell phone.
"Bones?" he said when she got off the cell phone.
"Hmm?" she murmured as she began shutting down her laptop.
"Thanks for everything these last few days," he told her.
Bones looked up at him with a very serious look. "You'd do the same for me if the situation was reversed, Booth," she said evenly, though she was sure that the probing eyes that were searching her every expression and reaction could tell that her words held a deep and strong conviction behind them.
Booth, for some reason, was sure that what she said was absolutely true. He was also sure that he would do much, much more for her without a seconds hesitation. That feeling that he'd had upon seeing her when he woke up a few days before was as strong as ever. Bones was special. Very special. Now he just had to get his memory back so that he wouldn't inadvertently hurt the obviously fragile person who hid behind the strong, aloof persona that Bones presented to the world.
A/N: I'm not sure if this story is going to work, but here's the start of it. I want to have it be about four or five chapters long and work on the ins and outs of their relationship, yet have the added dimension of Booth having serious glimpses into his lost memory. Let me know if it works. All the best, Gregg.
