A/N: SPOILERS FOR 8X23! After Arastoo's near encounter with death, how does Cam deal with their return to normalcy?

Gushy. Gushy remains were splattered all over the table, and Cam hummed softly as she held the brain carefully to get it measured on the scale. Poor girl... apparent hit and run, with a slight, and yet horrifying twist: she had been gagged, tied up and drugged as the car hit her twice. With an apologetic frown, she placed the bloody brain on the cold surface of the scale.

"Sorry about this."

Someone knocked on the door, and she turned around to see Hodgins smiling.

"Talking to the brains, now?"

"Eh, figured some smart talk wouldn't hurt me."

"It never does." Hodgins laughed and handed her the lab results. "I already told Dr. Brennan, and she thought I oughtta check with you. The glass found all over the body was from a Black Chevy truck, and I also found that there were traces of Rohypnol on her blood. Poor girl never even knew what was happening to her."

"Downright disgusting, if you ask me." Cam murmured, focused on the last page of the report. "Did you manage to narrow down the specifics of the car?"

"Not yet, but workin' on it." He nodded at the urgency in her tone, and started walking towards the door, and then stopped suddenly. "Arastoo comes back today! Man, he must have been climbing up the walls at home, what with nothing to do." He grinned broadly.

Cam smiled back. "Yes, one more day and he would have gone crazy."

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then." Hodgins gestured to the remains and then walked away with enthusiasm.

Arastoo had been met with excitement. An anxious crowd had spread, not that subtly, around the lab, and each squint showed their fondness for the intern in their own terms. Hodgins, for example, offered him the goggles as he briefed him on the new experiment he intended to conduct. Angela, on the other hand, went for a coffee with him on his break and talked about gossip he was secretly glad to hear – some not-so-serious talk was nice for a change. Brennan and Daisy told him all about the cases he had missed – perhaps unbeknownst to the fact that it really was not what Arastoo wanted to hear. Booth and Sweets had offered their regards over videoconference, and at the end of the day, Arastoo Vaziri was very glad he was back on the lab.

He knocked on Cam's door, despite the fact it was wide open.

"May I come in?"

Cam looked up from the stack of papers on her desk. "Sure. Are you finished already?" She smiled.

"I am." He checked the clock. "And it's late. What about you finish those tomorrow?"

Cam frowned. "I'd love to, but I really should finish them now. Tomorrow is a whole new day." Her words trailed off as she refocused on the reports.

Arastoo walked slowly and silently to her desk, squatting beside her chair. He placed a hand on her arm. "Do you wish to talk about it?"

Cam frowned slightly, but never glanced up. "About what?"

"About what is upsetting you." He murmured. "You are not yourself today. There's a sad look on your face." He squeezed her arm. "I like it better when you smile." He confessed, smiling.

"I smile, Arastoo." She told him, somewhat patronizing. "I'm fine, honey, really. It's just all this paperwork is messing with my good spirits."

Arastoo sighed, and after pausing for a moment, he spun her chair so that she was facing him. Some papers fell on the floor, and she eyed him, confused.

"Talk to me, Cam."

Their gaze met – really, really met - , and the confidence she wore crumbled before his honest concern. She closed her eyes, her lips tight, and breathed in.

"I don't like it that you're back." She whispered in a small voice.

Arastoo's bewildered face was met with a gentle squeeze of his hand. "I was this close to losing you. When you were here. And when you were home, when I could take care of you... I don't like knowing you're back. Because you being back means I'll maybe lose you again."

She ended her tirade and sighed, refusing to look him in the eye. Her hands were shaking, and the more she thought about it, the thought of him dying haunted her increasingly more.

Arastoo cleared his throat. "You never lost me, Cam. You do know that, right?"

Cam suddenly sobbed and turned away her face, embarrassed. "It did not seem like it. It really... you know, when the minutes you have with someone are counted, you find that not all the time in the world would be enough to tell them what you needed them to hear. I thought of everything I..." She sobbed. "Everything I wanted to do with you, and everything we would never get to do. It seemed... unfair. I was feeling wronged, and didn't know who to blame."

He wiped her tears with his fingers, still at a loss for words. Somehow, all the things he wished to tell her, to reassure to her, seemed far from enough. Words were failing him.

"I honestly don't know what to say to make it better." He brushed her cheek. "I know you wouldn't believe me if I told you everything would be alright, but maybe you'll believe someone else." He smiled. "You do believe in the wisdom of writers, am I correct?"

She nodded, half-curious, half-soothed by his calm tone.

"Well, one writer once said: Time heals everything. The question is: how much time?" He allowed her time to process his words. "My time is yours. All of it. You are not okay now, but in time you will be. And we will be, too."

Cam smiled at him and stood up, helping him in the process. She proceeded to kiss him softly, taking her time, and let herself be wrapped in a tight embrace. "I love you." She whispered against his shirt. "But if you die before me, I will kill you. Painfully."

Arastoo grinned, amused. "Yes, dear."

A/N: Fluff for the latest pairing I uncovered! They are so friggin' cuteeeee! Fluff, fluff, and more unashamed fluff. I don't care. I need to read fluff, and I need to write fluff.

Read and review, if only as if to show your support to a fellow fluff lover :DD

Kisses,

Amy