Booth slowly opened his eyes, the bright hospital lights glaring down at him. He peered around, looking from the IV bags by his shoulder to the football game going on the TV above him. He leaned forward to change the channel—"The Packers suck," he muttered. A sudden pain jolted through his shoulder, his body aching as he groaned.

What happened to me?

"Oh, thank GOD." Ah. Now there was a familiar face. Bones gazed down at him, lines of wrinkles and worry stretching across her forehead. "Which I use only as a figure of speech," she smiled.

Booth just stared back into her eyes, unable to conjure a smile from his bruised face. Never had he been so happy to see her in his life. Braving the pain, he tried to sit up again, to talk to her.

She shouldn't see me so weak.

"No, Booth. Don't." She tenderly laid a hand on his chest, nudging him back down. "You've lost a lot of blood. Just rest."

"Bones." He managed a whisper. He stretched out his arm, muscles sore and bruised. He could deal with the pain—but he could not deal without her. He reached for her hand, reached for any glimmer of comfort. She took it, squeezing softly. She started to pull away, but Booth held her delicate hand tight, refusing to let go. He didn't know what had happened to him, how or why he had ended up in this hospital bed. All he knew was that Bones was sitting there next to him. That she was there for him, that for once it was he who needed rescuing, and Bones who was there to save him. He thought of all the times that it was Bones who needed the saving. Of all the times she had nearly been killed, and the lengths the he had gone to in order to keep her safe. To keep her there with him. Moments, pictures, faces raced through his mind, all of them with Bones.

My Bones.

Booth smiled to himself. There were so many times that he had risked his life to save her, and thought nothing of it. So many times that he was there to protect her, to be there for her. He remembered threatening to kill a gang leader who had put out a hit on his partner. He remembered holding her close after she found the truth about her parents. He remembered pulling her from underground, just moments before she would run out of air. He remembered telling Vince McVicker that if he attacked her, he would drill him through the head. He remembered comforting her when her father and brother drove off without her. Again.

He remembered taking care of her after a Voodoo spell was cast upon her in New Orleans. He remembered putting a blanket over her when she fell asleep in her office. He remembered bringing her Chinese food in the middle of the night when she was upset. He remembered bursting into a rundown building, just hours after being blown up, and shooting a man just seconds before he was about to pull the trigger on her. He remembered how her arms felt around his neck, crying into his shoulder after he saved her. He remembered never wanting to leave her alone again after that.

But now the tables had turned. Now it was Bones that was standing over him, Bones that was there for him. It was Bones that was there to protect him. She needed to know; she deserved to know that it meant the world to him. That she meant the world to him. He spoke softly, barely audible. He was not even sure she could hear him, but it was just something he had to say. "I love you."

"Shhh. Sleep. It's okay, I'm right here." She whispered in his ear. As he drifted off, her voice still echoed in his ear as she said words he had so longed to hear from the lips he so longed to kiss. "I love you too."