The Games We Play

by mychakk

Seeing Booth's lost look after he wakes up confused from his coma, Brennan impulsively sustain one delusion from his dream. And no, it's not about them owning a nightclub. But what will Booth do, when his memory returns? AU post season 4.

1. Part One

Title: The Games We Play
Characters/Pairings: all/canon couples
Genre: Romance/ Humor/tiny bit of Drama/Angst?
Warnings: spoilers for ALL AIRED episodes
Episode: 4x26 The End in the Beginning
Rating: T
Chapters: 1/10
Status: WIP

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones nor the characters. Just playing with them

Summary: Seeing Booth's lost look after he wakes up confused from his coma, Brennan impulsively sustain one delusion from his dream. And no, it's not about them owning a nightclub. But what will Booth do, when his memory returns? AU post season 4.

AN: Before FaithinBones had started posting her story Soul Mates I've come with an idea for a what-if scenario post-season 4 finale. There might be some similarities but they are unintentional and a pure coincidence. I've written over 8000 words last year, then put the story away to focus more on Someone To Live For. I decided to pick it up and post for all of you. It should be around 10 chapters long max. I'll be updating it every two weeks.

Dedication: To every person who has reviewed my story Someone To Live For, especially to those who posted their thoughts on chapter 21st. THANK YOU ALL!

Now, enjoy!

Xxx

Part One

In Which He Wakes Up

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Temperance Brennan was sitting in the hospital room, working on her laptop. It's been four days since that awful, terrifying afternoon when Booth started talking to an imagined cartoon character. The diagnosis of his brain tumor made her insides chill. This was not happening! was running through her head over and over again, as she tried to stay calm for him and their friends.

The hours she has spent in the operating room were the longest and scariest moments of her life. She could have lost him. She could have really lost him. But thankfully, the operation has been a success. Everything went fine, the tumor was removed without any additional complications, and Booth was put in the recovery room, while they have waited for him to wake up.

But he had not.

Not that first day, neither the next one, nor the third. And all she could do was sit in the room with him, waiting, everything else in the world be damned. He needed her. And nothing, nothing, would take her from his bedside.

To make the time pass more quickly, Brennan had plotted a story. She turned on her laptop and started writing it while telling it to Booth aloud. It was a different kind of story than her usual one about Kathy and Andy. This one was about them: her and Booth as club owners, with all their friends, with all their support net… with all their love.

Their love.

She made herself and Booth in love with each other; and married. Happily.

A fuzzy feeling swirled in her stomach as she wrote the scenes of love-making, kisses and pure joy at spending time together. For the first time she allowed herself to dream openly of the what-if. She didn't care for who might hear it as she has been describing aloud. And no one really did, only Booth who was there with her, but she did want to tell him this story.

She was just finishing the last part. The one where she revealed to her husband that she was pregnant; the part when he basked in the pure joy of becoming a father, the part when she was as happy as he.

It was in that moment that she has heard his groan.

Looking up startled, she saved the story, and put away her laptop, stepping closer to Booth's bedside.

"Such a weird dream." Booth mumbled, his eyes fluttering.

Brennan leaned over him, a hopeful look on her face. "Booth? Booth! You're awake!" she said happily.

But Booth didn't seem to hear her, still lost in the last whims of his dream. "So real." He said, dreamily.

All Brennan could feel was relief. He was awake! His eyes were open and he was talking to her! She babbled to him, not really paying attention to what she was saying. "Your operation was a success, but you reacted poorly to the anesthesia." Tears filled the corners of her eyes. "You've been in a coma for the past four days. What took you so long to wake up?" she asked him, her fear and relief mixing together.

But Booth was still not exactly there with her. "It felt so real." He repeated.

Finally Brennan heard what he was saying. "It wasn't real." She told him soothingly.

Booth, as if noticing her for the first time, looked back at her, his eyes confused. "Who are you?"

Taken aback, Brennan's face crumbled. What? No… no, no, no, no, no! This was not happening.

"What do you mean, who am I?" she asked him, her voice trembling. "Don't you remember me?"

"I…" he closed his eyes then looked back at her. "Bren?"

Brennan sucked breath in. "I-" she stopped, as the story she has been telling him for the past four days flashed in her mind.

"What time is it?" Booth asked, looking around him. "Where am I? The nightclub…?" he mumbled, as if trying to comprehend what was happening.

Brennan took a deep breath, her hand going to his. "Booth." She told him firmly. "We don't own a nightclub." She stared deeply into his eyes.

This has caught his attention and he focused on her. "What? Don't be silly, we do." He told her as firmly as she did a moment before.

She shook her head. "No, you are not a club owner, you are an FBI Agent." She explained.

Booth denied, shaking his head, his voice a little panicky. "No, you're wrong. You and me own a nightclub called The Lab." He insisted.

Brennan barely stopped a sigh. "No, Booth, I work at the Lab, at the Medico-Legal Lab of the Jeffersonian, I'm a Forensic Anthropologist." She told him. "And you are an FBI Agent. My partner. We work together."

Booth's face crumbled. "We- we're not club owners?" he asked in a small voice that made Brennan's heart clench. Suddenly his hand grabbed hers in return, his grip tight, as he looked back at her. "But, Bren. Bren, you are my wife, right? You are? And you are pregnant, right?"

Brennan paled, flinching. "I'm not pregnant." She whispered with her voice choking.

"You… you're not…" The pure disappointment and hurt she saw on his face and in his eyes crushed her heart. She felt his hand squeeze hers even more tightly, the desperation clearly visible in his eyes as he looked at her, pleadingly; clinging to the last rope of his sanity. "But you are my wife, right? Bren, you are?"

And as she opened her mouth to deny him the last part of his dreamed up world – the one she wrote about and told him about – her eyes focused one more time on his. She paused, staring into his wide, hurt – and, oh, so familiar and dear – pools of brown. Transfixed – and despite her ealrler resolve – all she could say to him was nothing else, but the quiet, whispered: "Yes."

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End of Part One

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AN 2: Let me know if you can see Brennan doing it this way. Are you curious how it all plays out? I hope so, as want to invite you all in two weeks for ext update: Part Two in Which She Is Swept of Her Feet.

Reviews make my day! *hint hint* :)