He wasn't there when she arrived.
At first, she didn't think anything of it.
They hadn't exactly specified a time to meet up, in those last new moments before her plane to Indonesia.
So there she was, at the coffee cart. At the reflecting pool, on the mall, right by the coffee cart.
And he wasn't there.
~BB~
It was noon when she started to feel antsy
She checked her phone, but only found a text from Angela, updating her about her and Hodgin's flight plans back from Paris.
It was 2pm when she started to feel nervous.
And that was when she saw him.
Across the pool, there was a man in dress uniform.
But it wasn't Booth.
She watched him as he walked the distance around the reflecting.
He was a Corporal, according to his insignia; A Corporal in the US Army Rangers.
She felt her heart stop, then resuming beating harder than it had before.
~BB~
She must have had a look of terrible pain on her face, for the first thing the young Corporal said when he finally approached was "He's not dead".
She let out the breath she'd been holding, but she couldn't control the tears she'd been trying to keep at bay.
"Take me to him."
~BB~
He was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and it was a tense 30 minute ride from the National Mall.
She learned that her escort was Corporal Nathanial Penn, and that he'd been serving under Booth in Afghanistan.
He'd been there for the incident.
When she asked what happened, he'd been silent. Even she could read the hesitation on his face.
She asked again, this time using the same voice she used when disciplining a student.
"He was being a hero."
That was all he was willing to tell her, so she sat in silence for the remainder of the drive.
When they arrived at the medical center, she was out of the military SUV and through the security at Heaton Pavilion before she had any more time to think, Corporal Penn hot on her heels.
The SUV was left abandoned in front of the building.
~BB~
He was asleep when she arrived, his chest moving up and down in a rhythmic state.
"He was fighting the anesthesia when they took him to surgery. He had just enough time to tell me about your meeting."
She grabbed the medical chart from the end of his bed and began flipping through the pages.
She barely heard the door close when the Corporal left.
~BB~
He'd been blown up.
Again.
Three fractured ribs and a broken right ulna.
A gash on his forehead had been closed with nine stitches.
The doctors had put in a temporary metal plate to help the ulna heal properly.
She grabbed the chair and set it next to the left side of his bed.
The bruises on his face and chest were yellow, in the process of healing.
The stitches could be taken out in a few days.
He was healing.
For the second time that day, she let the tears fall.
~BB~
She fell asleep after crying, her head resting on the open space of his hospital bed.
She woke up to the feeling fingers moving the hair away from her eyes.
She opened her eyes to see Booth looking at her, wearing a soft smile as he stroked the skin of her cheek.
She grasped his hand, holding it to her face.
His thumb rubbed under her eye, wiping away the tears that began to fall.
~BB~
She never cried this much.
Not since her parents had left.
Not since the night after she buried her mother.
But here she was, crying for the third time in day.
She was crying for Booth.
She was crying for all the pain that he'd suffered.
For everything he'd done while in Army, all in the name of serving his country.
She cried because she'd missed him while in Indonesia.
But most of all, she cried because she loved him.
And she finally told him so.
~fin~
AN: This little ficlet has been festering in my brain for the past few days, and I since I was feeling a little melancholy while watching older BONES episodes, I decided to finally write it out. This has been unedited, so all mistakes are my own. And for a little interesting fact, the Walter Reed Army Medical Center is north of the city, approximately a 24 minute drive from the National Mall. Truth be told, I never realized how small DC is until I was looking at a map of it writing this fic.
Disclaimer: BONES is not mine. It would have to be aired on HBO, because of all the sex, if it was.