Picking up the Pieces

A Bones Fanfic

By Amanda

Sequel to Falling to Pieces

Spoilers for all four seasons (I think), but most are vague.

No copyright infringement intended. I only own the story line.

*~BONES~*

AN : I have reposted this with minor grammar and spelling errors fixed. If you have already read it there's no need to read it again. There have been no major changes.

*~BONES~*

When she returned, Brennan still had a devastatingly large smile on her face. She never thought it would make her so happy to hear him call her that stupid name. "So, you didn't tell me, what did you and Parker talk about?" she asked handing Booth his pudding.

"A lot of things. He said you had told him I don't remember anything that's happened since he was three, so he wanted to catch me up on everything that had happened" he laughed. "I don't think I caught half of what he said though. He was just talking far too fast. He told me all about his school and friends and the lab and squints. Apparently the first year I worked with you we were quarantined over Christmas?" he asked unsure if the story was really true.

"Yes. Zach cut into the bones of a man that had been infected with a virus and we were quarantined. You all made the best of it though. Angela, Hodgins and Zach made decorations and you and Dr. Goodman went through 'Careful Lionel's' belongings and found his fiancé. Then, on Christmas morning, you all exchanged gifts that you had made for each other" she filled in the gaps for him.

"Parker said that was a great year. He said he got the coolest toy that year."

"Yes, Zach had made a robot that responded to voice commands and he gave it to you for Parker."

As he sat in the silence that followed, Booth saw a couple still images: His son standing on the other side of a glass door holding his hand up to match his dad's, Brennan wiping tears from her cheek while talking to a dark haired woman, the look of awe on a group of people's (he assumed were the squints)faces as the saw the intricately folded bird, standing by the door of a diner holding his son while Bones waved from the bar with a smile on her face.

Bones watched his face carefully, studiously, like she would a set of remains on her lab table. His eyes held a faraway look and the corners of his mouth were just slightly pulled up in a small smile. At one point the smile dropped from his face though and was replaced with an emotion that she couldn't place. But that was not uncommon for her; she never was really good at reading facial expressions. A short while later Booth seemed to return to the present and requested that she tell him some more stories.

"Where should I start?" Bones asked. Four years was a lot of time to catch up on and so many things had happened in that time for the two of them. But resorting to logic and reason, she decided to start at the beginning of their partnership. Relationship? So she told him about being detained at the airport after coming home from a dig in Guatemala, him arresting her for shooting a murderer in the leg when he threatened to burn all the evidence, Booth refusing to let her get a gun permit, the terrorist they had stopped in the airport between her observations and his skill with a gun, Howard Epps and all the chaos he caused the team over the years from the first 'game' to stay his execution to him escaping and coming after Brennan. She laughed over the time they spent in Washington state and his over protective alpha male behavior towards all of the men in town. She recalled the case of Charlie Saunders and how Booth had helped her keep the promise made to the two foster brothers. For several hours they just sat in his room while she told him about the life he couldn't remember and she could never forget. It felt odd to talk about these things that he was so much a part of while he was unable to contribute anything.

He didn't mention the flashes he recalled, or possibly only constructed, as he heard the stories. He just absorbed them and relished in the small clips or still images that he was able to retrieve. Occasionally he would hear bits of conversations about victims and motives and weapons and bone structure and sports injuries. Usually these came with disjointed pictures of faces that he assumed went with the voice, but most of the time he couldn't place a name to the face. Eventually he decided that for the sake of his sanity, he needed to coordinate names with faces and he got an idea.

*~BONES~*

"Hey Bones, do you have any pictures of the squints?" he asked.

"Not with me why?"

"Well, it would be nice to match faces with names in my mind when you're telling me about all of them" he said simply, deciding not to mention the mental images he was seeing in case they turned out to mean nothing, or at least not what he thought.

"Let me just call Angela. I'm sure she can email some pictures to me" she said as she pulled her phone out of her purse. "Ang?" she asked as she heard the line connect, "Its Bren."

"I know who it is Sweetie. Now what's up? Is everything ok?"

"Everything is fine Ang. I just need you to email me some pictures of the team. Booth thinks it would help if he had faces to match up to the names I am talking about."

"Sure thing Bren. I'll send them now. How is he doing?"

"Well, his visit with Parker seemed to help some. He is going to be just fine though. It is only a matter of time before he remembers everything."

"I don't want to rain on your parade -"

"I don't know what that means" Brennan interrupted.

"That's not important right now. The point is you should be careful; I don't want you to get your hopes up. How do you know he'll get it all back?" Angela asked being the reasonable one for once.

"I know because he called me 'Bones'" she replied in the same sure voice she used when Booth had asked a similar question earlier, the same voice she used when pointing out irregularities on the bones she examined.

"Ok Sweetie. I believe you. You should have the pictures by now. Should we come visit later tonight?"

"That should be fine. We'll see you after work. Thank you Ang."

"You're welcome Bren."

"Hey Booth, I have some pictures now."

"Then get over here and show them to me" he joked motioning her over to sit with the computer next to him on the bed.

At first she gave him a dubious look, but quickly gave in and settled in comfortably sitting with him on the bed the computer on their laps. She opened the file attached to the email and watched his face as he took in the pictures.

The first picture that he saw was the brunette woman he had seen with Bones when she was crying at Christmas. He had seen that face several other times too. He thought she might have been an artist because a couple of times he had seen her with sketches. He guessed this was 'Angela' since she was the only other woman Bones had really talked about working with, other than Cam. The next picture was a man with a head of reddish curls. He knew this face too, but did not have a name to put with it. The third was a picture of a kid with a buzzed military hair cut. From what he had heard already, he would guess that this was Bones' assistant 'Zach'. Scrolling down he came across the picture of a dignified looking black man. He had the air of authority around him leading Booth to believe that this was 'Dr. Goodman'. The next picture he was able to pick out as Cam, a little older than what he remembered and her hair was different, but at least he knew the name that belonged with the face. The next to last picture was of another young looking kid. This one was thin with black hair. Maybe this one was 'Zach'? He really didn't know and Bones had yet to say anything. Scrolling down to the last picture, he was surprised to find in it himself and Bones. It had obviously been taken without their knowledge. They were in a deep conversation apparently and both looked a little peeved. Glancing at Bones out of the corner of his eye, he registered that she had not seen this picture before either.

Before saying anything, Bones wanted to measure his reactions to the faces. She was hoping that just seeing their faces would somehow immediately spark memories, but knew that was too much to hope for. What she did see as he looked at the pictures was a mixture of concentration, frustration, and appraisal with just a hint of recognition. The recognition was much stronger as he looked at Cam's picture and Bones had to work hard to school her face not to show the emotions going through her head. She knew already that he remembered Cam, but that didn't make it any easier to see. When he came to the last picture he looked immensely pleased and she tore her eyes away from his face to see what he was looking at. What she saw surprised her. She had never seen this picture before and she couldn't remember when it would have been taken, but them arguing was nothing new and they were both extraordinarily stubborn people. Once the shock wore off she blushed as she realized that Booth was now watching her as intently as she had been watching him earlier.

Clearing her throat she suggested they start from the top and she would name the faces for him. "The first woman is Angela; she's our forensic artist. She gives our victims back their faces and adds a little 'normal' to our group. Next is Hodgins; he's our bug and slime guy as well as the resident conspiracy theorist. Then comes Zach, my assistant. This picture mush have been taken after he returned from Iraq. He is now in a mental hospital." Taking in the curious look on his face, and only contemplating for a moment on the fact that for someone who had very limited interpersonal skills she was able to read her partner extraordinarily well, she continued, "I'll explain later. After that is Dr. Goodman. He used to run the Medico-Legal lab at the Jeffersonian, but he went on sabbatical a couple of years ago. Cam you know," surprisingly she masked the bitterness at those words fairly well. "Then there is Sweets, our psychologist" she finished not seeing a need to explain the very last picture.

"He's our psychologist?! He barely looks old enough to drive."

"Believe it or not, although I do not personally put any stock into psychology, Sweets seems to be pretty good at what he does, except of course when he's trying to analyze us. He has earned several doctorates apparently."

Just then Booth tried unsuccessfully to suppress a yawn. "You are tired Booth. You should rest. It must be extremely taxing trying to remember things. Besides Ang said that they were going to come visit you after work which means they should be here in about three hours."

Booth opened his mouth to argue but changed his mind at the look on her face. He was tired after all and maybe some more pieces of the puzzle would fall into place while he slept. At any rate, he would need the rest to visit with his 'friends'. It felt weird to have to put mental quotes around that word, but at the moment, all he really had was Bones' word that that's what they were. Personally he had some reservations that he would be friends with a group of major nerds and his psychologist.

*~BONES~*

Bones was awoken when the doctor came in to examine Booth about an hour and a half later. She waited quietly as he assessed the printouts monitoring Booth's brain waves. When he had finished, she got up and followed him from the room so as not to bother the sleeping agent. "How does it look doctor?" she asked closing the door.

"So far everything seems to be on track. He's had some elevated brain waves for the past few hours. The kind of activity that the machines recorded are usually associated with memories and remembering" he informed her having come to realize that she wanted the scientific explanations behind his predictions and diagnosis.

"Well, his son came to visit for about an hour and then he remembered my nickname" she confessed with a slight blush. "From that point until about an hour and a half ago I was telling him about things we have done and cases we have worked. We looked at pictures of our friends too. He didn't say anything about remembering any of it though."

"That is not uncommon for amnesia patients. They often don't recall what we would consider full memories. They tend to experience the memories in bits and pieces with large gaps in between. Sometimes the patient is not sure what is real or what their mind has made up to fill the gaps. From what I have heard about agent Booth from you and your friends, I would assume that he is preferring to err on the side of caution and not tell you about the things he remembers in case they are not true. It's as much to protect you from disappointment as himself."

"That does sound like something he would do. He is always trying to protect everybody" Brennan acknowledged nodding her head a couple of times. "How do I get him to tell me?" she asked already trying to form a plan of action in her mind.

"Just keep doing what you're already doing. Tell him about things he should remember and be there for him. Assure him that regardless of what he reveals, you and your friends are there to help him through this."

"Thank you doctor. Our friends are going to be here in about an hour, so if he needs to have any tests done, it would probably be best to get them done soon" she said, some of her old authority and self assurance returning to her tone and stance.

He merely nodded, once again amazed at the woman that she was before turning and continuing on his rounds.

*~BONES~*

The conversation that Booth and Bones, well mostly Bones, were having was interrupted by a knock on the door. At Bones' "come in;" four people scrambled into the room. Angela and Cam made for the bed to hug Booth while Hodgins and Sweets made themselves comfortable in two of the chairs Brennan had had brought to the room for the visit.

"Oh my goodness Sweetie! You had us all so worried about you. First Bren calls us and tells us that you are in the hospital, and then you have a brain tumor, then you were in a coma and I was afraid you were never going to wake up, and then … well then I get this call this morning and I was so excited that you were awake, but then Bren said that you had amnesia! How is that by the way?"

"Ang relax. Take a breath. At least let the rest of us say hi before you start ambushing him with questions" Hodgins said pulling on her hand and leading her over to a nearby chair. Turning back to the man in the bed he said, "Hey man! How're the drugs? Do they still have you on the good stuff for the surgery?"

"No, unfortunately I think the strongest thing I'm on at the moment is aspirin" Booth replied with a ghost of his usual charming smile.

Brennan was content to sit back and watch as Booth interacted with their friends. Fortunately they kept the visit relatively short and there wasn't more than just a hint of awkwardness to the whole hour or so they were there. Everyone shared a few of their favorite team memories with him, and occasionally Bones could see a glimmer of recognition in his eyes. Most of the memories they were reliving were things that had happened outside of work: His frustration of them coming into Wong Fu's and 'taking over' then his proclamation of the table being the 'squint area' and the bar 'his area', following Brennan to New Orleans then returning her ear ring (this from Angela who was the only one outside of the partners to know the significance of that simple act), Cam taking Booth as her 'boyfriend' to her dad's birthday dinner, the time he and Brennan had gone to make pottery with Sweets and his then girlfriend and the following night when they took him bowling because she had dumped him.

When Brennan began to notice how tired Booth was once again getting trying to keep up with all of the stories, she made her way over to Angela and pointed it out to her in an attempt to get the others to leave. "Ok, so I'm starving. I didn't eat before I came. You guys want to grab a bite on the way home?" Ang asked the group.

"I would love to but don't think I can right now" Booth joked and everyone laughed a little before one by one they began to say their goodbyes and leave the room.

"How are you doing Sweetie? I noticed you weren't talking much in there" Angela pried once the two women were out of the room.

"I am fine Ang. It is not about me" she reiterated. "I have just been talking for quite a while before you all got here. Hours really. And its hard to talk about the things we have done together and be the only one who remembers. Then I don't know what all to tell him, because not all of it has been good, and I don't want to be the one to remind him of the bad things that have happened" Brennan confessed.

"Like the fridge bomb and Kenton?" Angela asked softly a look of sympathy on her face.

"Yeah, that is a good example."

"Are you going home tonight? He's awake now" she pointed out needlessly.

"I will think about it. It depends. Have a good night Ang, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Yeah, goodnight Bren. At least get some sleep ok?"

"Deal" Brennan smiled and hugged Angela before waving at the others waiting by the elevator and walking back into Booth's room.

When she entered the room, she found him seemingly deeply in thought. Not wanting to disturb him, she moved as quietly as she could back to her chair and watched. He seemed to be sorting through thoughts, memories maybe, and she was dying to know, but still she remained silent and waited for him to come out of his reverie. Suddenly a bright smile erupted across his face. "Bones, you have a great voice."

"What?" she asked startled by both the seeming randomness of the comment and the fact that she had been unaware he even knew she was there.

"I said you have a great voice. You know, singing voice. You really did sound great."

The brief smile that crossed her face at the realization that he was in fact remembering, and her own memories of the freeness she felt belting out 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' was quickly replaced by another expression though. The second held a mix of anger, fear, and heartbreak. The same emotions in the same measure of fear she felt when Pam had pulled that trigger and Booth had fallen, the pain she felt when she thought he was dead, followed by the anger of learning about the lie.

Booth did not fail to notice the look on her face. "What did I say?" he questioned silently wondering if he had imagined the impromptu concert.

"Nothing" she quickly covered schooling her features and bracing herself for the next part of this discussion. She really wished she didn't have to tell him this. It would be so much easier for both of them, she was sure, if he remembered on his own. Taking a deep breath she dared to ask, "What do you remember from that night?"

Booth was quiet for a moment organizing his thoughts and subconsciously rubbing his shoulder. "We had just solved a case and I managed to convince you to sing for us. You had a great voice and we were all having so much fun. But you never got to finish the song, I don't think. I don't remember you finishing it anyway."

"Anything else?" she asked almost desperate for it to come back to him. She knew he knew somewhere because he hadn't stopped worrying the shoulder that had taken the shot.

"Not really why?"

"Booth, do you feel that scar on your shoulder?" At his small nod she continued in as clinical a detachment as she could. "During that case, a woman named Pam became obsessed with you. She thought that I was the reason you were not with her." Another deep breath and a shifting of her eyes from his told him to prepare for something hard to hear. "Well, her solution was to kill me, shoot me. She called out to you and you saw and took the bullet for me. I killed her then put pressure to the wound until the paramedics arrived." She stopped abruptly, figuring that was enough for now. He didn't need to hear about his 'death' at the moment.

Booth watched her face and knew she was holding back. There was more to the story than that. He remembered the last time she had stopped herself and changed course so abruptly. It was when talking about the last time he had been in the hospital. That slip of the tongue had caused the same haunted look to shadow her eyes for a couple of minutes. In the silence more images sprang to his head. His friends standing around a flag covered casket, Bones' stoic face and blank eyes, him gripping a riffle while dressed in military blues, the fallen casket and the dummy strewn across the ground, Bones slugging him before storming away, the two of them arguing at the lab still dressed in the same clothes, her barging in on him in the bath with a comic and cigar tears in her eyes and disbelief mixed with betrayal on her face. The images themselves were muddled and fleeting, far to brief to follow with any coherency. Finally he asked, "Bones, what happened?"

"I told you. You were shot protecting me. I shot the would be killer. End of story."

"You left something out. A big something that happened after I was shot" he practically whispered. Her head shot up and she once again established eye contact a question in her eyes. "I see flashes, pictures sometimes clips; sometimes quiet sometimes with bits of sound. I know you are holding something back. I know there was a funeral and I hurt you somehow and you busted in on my bath, but I don't know details."

She nodded once acknowledging his admission before quietly connecting the dots for him. "When you were shot, the FBI took the opportunity to fake your death to draw out a criminal. Apparently I was supposed to be informed along with your family, but Sweets thought it best not to tell me -"

"That son of a -" he interrupted.

She figured it best if he didn't know why she had not been told and continued as if she had not heard him. "At your funeral, the man showed up and you fought him, but he pulled a gun, so I knocked him out. Then I …" she trailed off self-consciously.

"Slugged me" he finished for her with a small smile.

"Yes. Afterwards we fought over why I had not been told and how I thought you should have informed me personally that you were in fact alive. I showed up at your house, and we argued some more, but we worked it out" she finished with a small smile of her own. After a few moments of silence she voiced the question that had been weighing on her mind since talking to the doctor. "Booth was that the first time the memories appeared or has it been happening all day?"

"They have been happening on and off since Parker's visit, after I called you Bones. I would get flashes while you were telling me stories, when we were looking at the pictures, when the squints were here" he admitted sheepishly.

"That's great Booth. If you want to later, you can tell me what you are seeing and hearing and I can help you fill in the gaps. I think it will make for a more interesting conversation at least."

*~BONES~*

Author's Note: That's it for now. I plan to do at least one more installment of this series. I hope you liked it and it lived up to expectations. As for the spoilers, I figure most of the people who are reading this have already seen them and it's a nice stroll down memory lane. For those who haven't seen them, well, I figure its good enough to make them want to watch and vague enough not to ruin anything.