A/N: Hey everybody! This is by far not my first fanfic, but it is my first Bones fanfic, and it's the first time I'm trying a WIP in a long time (I mostly write oneshots). So any advice/concrit (but not flames, those suck :P but if you feel the need...I suppose it's a free country...but I'm not going to stop writing for you...) is welcome!
I'm also not sure any of the medical stuff is right...I tried to do research, but I'm bad at research for medical things...
Disclaimer: I own nada. Though not for lack of wishing.
Seeley Booth sat in the hospital waiting room, his head in his hands. He could not believe how overwhelmed he felt at this point. Cam, Angela, Hodgins, Sweets, and Wendell were all in the waiting room with him, all feeling varying degrees of the same, but Booth felt almost as if he'd be crushed by the weight of it all before the doctor came back out to update them on Bones' condition. He stood up and began to pace, the events of that morning playing back through his mind in terrifying clarity.
It should have been so routine. They were just going to question a witness, just talking and laughing, Bones driving for once. Stopped at a red light, just discussing anything and everything under the sun. Light changed, they began to drive through the intersection, Booth's eyes on Bones as always. But the truck barreling through the red light of the other direction, he didn't even notice until it was too late – the world exploded, everything shattered, and the only thing in his mind was "Bones cannot be hurt, not this time, not now…"
He'd blacked out for some time, he didn't know how long…but he'd come to and been pushed back in his chair, his airbag fluttered out over his legs. He could hear sirens in the background, knew someone had called 911, knew he'd be okay, but that didn't matter. What did matter was that Bones was slumped over the steering wheel, no airbag fluttered out over her legs, and she wasn't stirring at all.
"Bones," he said, softly. No response. He tried again, more urgently. "Bones."
He reached for her, searing pain shooting through his wrist at the movement, but he didn't care, he had to wake her up. The ever-closer sirens stopped moving and he could hear voices as the paramedics approached the cars. One shouted, "Can anybody hear me?" Booth reached out his other arm through the mangled, broken window and shouted back.
"In hear! We need help!" Someone was near him in a second, prying open his door and asking questions quickly. He shook his head in response, pointing with his left hand despite the pain, back toward the driver's side.
"Not me! Not me! My partner, the driver, she's unconscious, she needs help…"
He snapped back from the horrible reverie as a doctor entered the waiting room again. The whole team jumped up as one and clustered around him, Angela clutching Hodgins' hand like a lifeline. The doctor looked slightly taken aback, but he took it in stride.
"She had some bleeding in her brain, we think due to her head striking the steering wheel in response to the faulty airbag not expanding properly. She's through surgery, but she hasn't woken up yet, some people come out of anesthesia badly. Someone will come and get you when you are free to see her." The doctor stepped calmly from the room, leaving the dumbfounded team staring at one another blankly.
"What does that mean, she's not awake yet, she might come through anesthesia badly?" Angela asked worriedly. Hodgins squeezed her hand as Booth answered.
"That's what happened to me, when I was in the coma…I came out of the anesthesia badly and was out for four days," he said quietly. Cam nodded her agreement, but Angela didn't look at all relieved. To be sure, Booth didn't feel relieved at all either – the thought of Bones in a coma made his heart drop with a sickening feeling in his chest.
The whole team sat back down again, but Booth stood up almost immediately and resumed his pacing. After about five minutes of this, Cam stood up and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Come with me," she said quietly, indicating a corner of the waiting room slightly removed from the others. He followed her silently, adrenaline still coursing through his body.
"Booth, I know you're worried about Dr. Brennan, we all are," Cam started off slowly, "but you've got to hold it together, for her, and out there for Angela. Once they let us see her I know you're going to ask to stay with her, just like she did with you. We'll support you, you know we will…just do what you think is right." She walked away, back to her seat, and crossed her legs, her extended foot jiggling nervously in a very un-Cam-like manner.
Booth stood stock-still for a second, taken aback by Cam's sudden statement. His muddled brain worked double-time to try and focus on what she's saying and what he's feeling at the same time. It's Bones, he thought, we're just partners. But that's not true, not anymore. It hasn't been for quite some time.
Finally another doctor entered the room, asking for the friends of Dr. Temperance Brennan. They all jumped up again, all waiting for his news. He shook his head slightly before speaking. "She still hasn't woken up yet – I'm sorry. She can have some visitors now though, only one or two at a time for just a few minutes. Who would like to go first?"
Everyone looked at Booth, then at Cam, then back at Booth. He waved Angela and Hodgins forward, stepping back just slightly, suddenly unsure of what he would say or do when in the room with his comatose partner.
Angela and Hodgins left with the doctor, Angela shooting Booth a grateful look as they passed through the doors. Sweets tapped his fingers on his crossed knees, looking ever so much like an agitated schoolboy. Wendell stood, leaning against the wall next to Sweets' chair, but neither spoke to the other. Booth resumed his pacing, and Cam didn't move for a moment as she looked from the doors swinging after the departure of the doctor to Booth and back again, in a replay of the others. Finally she sat back down, still unsure.
Booth's mind was a-whirl. When he was in his coma, she read to him – read her book to him. He doesn't write. He doesn't have a book to read to her. He doesn't know how he's going to act once he is alone with her.
Angela and Hodgins came back, indicating that two more people could go in to see Brennan. Without looking up, Booth waved Sweets and Wendell through, earning himself strange looks from the team but not particularly caring. A teary-eyed Angela came to stand in front of him, blocking his path, a truly sympathetic look on her face.
"Booth, she'll be all right," Angela said bravely. Booth shook his head, hard.
"You can't know that, Angela!" he burst out. The woman was taken aback by his Brennan-esque factual outburst, but she kept on speaking.
"But it's true. I'm scared too, but it's Brennan, she's always all right. She has us. She has you. And you're going to go in there and you're going to know exactly what to say, even if you totally have no idea what you're saying as you say it."
Without ceremony, Booth stepped deliberately around Angela and resumed his pacing, which replaced her taken-aback-yet-determined look with one of almost pity and a touch of annoyance. But she didn't press the issue any longer, instead going back to sit by Hodgins and Cam across the room.
Sweets and Wendell were not in the room very long, but each came back with a look of deep disturbance on their face – their strong, sure, confident, take-no-prisoners Brennan was lying in a hospital bed, completely unresponsive. It was unnerving.
Cam went over to Booth one last time, gently placing her hand just above his elbow, and guided him slightly towards the door that led away from the waiting room and towards Dr. Brennan. He allowed her to guide him for a moment, almost as if in a trance, but he broke away quickly and walked into Brennan's room of his own accord.
He nearly burst out into tears just walking in. The wires and tubes attached to his beautiful partner's body, the bandages covering so much of her soft skin, the dark circles under her eyes shut tight – it was all virtually overwhelming. Glancing at the speechless man with her, Cam spoke first.
"We're not sure if you can hear us, Dr. Brennan…but it's Cam. Cam and Booth. We're here just to say hi…and that we want you to get better as quick as you can. The doctors said your surgery was all right, and we all want you back to be telling the doctors exactly where they went wrong in how they treated you. But right now I'm going to leave, and it's just going to be Booth…we're all out there in the waiting room, we're all pulling for you. Just…just get better, Dr. Brennan."
She exited quietly, quickly, leaving Booth staring after her with a look of desperation on his face. But she did not look back, and finally he looked down to Bones, lying so still in that impersonal hospital bed. Swiping furiously at his eyes, he opened his mouth.
"H-hi, Bones," he choked out, nearly inaudible, his voice cracking. He glowered inwardly for a second: that had not happened since the tenth grade. But the out-of-context high school memory made him chuckle, which suddenly put him much more at ease.
"Oh, Bones," he began, "I've been pacing and worried and I have no idea what to say to you. And just now…seeing you…it breaks my heart. I'm supposed to protect you!" His voice rises.
"Always! I don't know what to do about this – it's painful, excruciatingly, to see you lying there so helpless. And I know you read your book to me when I was in my coma…but I don't have a book to read. I just have me. So I'm just going to talk. And we'll see how that turns out in the end."