Disclaimer – None of the chars belong to me! I don't own "Bones".
Booth
Booth opened and closed his cell phone for the fifth time in as many minutes. Something nagged at him. Something made him want to call his partner, to make sure she was ok. But it was close to her flight time. If she wasn't already at the airport then she should be headed there, and he didn't want to make her miss her flight.
He missed her.
He shouldn't miss her. At least, not like he did.
He tapped his fingers on his phone as he fought the urge again to call her.
He jumped when his phone rang. Looking at it, he saw Bones' cell number on the caller id. His heart soared for a second, and then he worried she was calling to tell him she'd be staying longer.
He took a deep breath and answered the phone. "Booth," he said simply, somehow managing to sound calm.
Tempe
Dr. Brennan opened her eyes slowly. She blinked, looking at the tile floor, and trying to figure out why she was there. Her body hurt all over and her head was pounding. She slowly pushed herself up to a sitting position, noticing the pool of blood on the tile. She reached up to use the edge of the sink for leverage to stand, and, gasping, fell back down in pain when she tried to push with her right hand.
What happened to me?
She struggled up again, this time using her elbow instead of her hand. She got to her feet and, leaning heavily on the sink, looked into the mirror. Dried blood covered her face, jacket and shirt. She saw the cut on her forehead and another on her lip. Tears filled her eyes as she noticed one of her earrings was ripped right out of her ear lobe. These were her favorite earrings; they had been her mom's. She reached up to her ear, noticing the blood coating her hands of the first time. Bruises were starting to form on her face and right wrist. Still confused, she stumbled into the other room as she heard the phone ring. Slowly, and painfully, she reached for the phone as she sat on the sofa.
"Hello?" She tried to understand what the woman on the other end was saying. "Shuttle? But my flight isn't until Thursday." "Today is Thursday, Ms Brennan." Temperance missed the anything else the woman said. She let the phone hang down as she tried to figure out what had happened to Wednesday. Her head throbbed with the effort. She slowly raised the phone back to her ear, hearing the woman still calling out to her. "Hello?" she said again, quietly, and then continued without waiting for the other woman to respond. "I need an ambulance, please." She hung the phone up and leaned back, closing her eyes for a moment.
Booth.
She fumbled around in her purse that she found on the other end of the sofa, digging out her cell phone. As she pulled it out, the fact that she was injured and had lost a whole day crashed down onto her. Her hands trembled as she turned her phone on. She hit the speed dial and raised the phone to her ear.
Ring. Ring. "Booth."
Booth
There was silence on the other end for the first couple of seconds, increasing Booth's worry threefold. He was about to speak again when her voice came over the line.
"Booth?" Her voice was weak, and trembling.
"Bones! What's wrong?" He froze in his office, listening intently.
"I… something happened, I don't know what. I'm hurt. I can't remember Booth!" She was crying softly.
His heart stopped for a second. Hurt? My Bones is hurt? He grabbed for his shoes, putting them on quickly. "What happened Bones?" he asked, softly.
"I don't know Booth, please, help me," she whispered in reply. He grabbed his jacket, slipping it on and snagging his keys off the counter.
"I'm coming Bones, I'll be there as soon as I can, ok? Bones?" He could hear sirens in the background now, and hoped they were for her. "Bones? Please talk to me," he pleaded.
"Booth, I'm sorry, I over reacted, I'll be ok. The ambulance is coming. You don't really need to come down here, ok?"
He shook his head even though she couldn't see him. "Bones, I'm coming, that's final." He heard banging in the background, and then the sounds of heavy footsteps and a stretcher being rolled across a wood floor. "Bones!"
"Hello?" said a male voice over the phone. "Who is this please?"
"This is Special Agent Booth with the FBI. The woman you have there is my partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan. Is she ok?" He didn't try to hide the fear in his voice.
"Agent Booth, I'm a paramedic with the EMS team that responded to a call for your partner. She is unconscious at the moment, but as far as we can tell she will be just fine. She has a rather nasty bump to the head. We're going to take her to the hospital. Do you want the name and address?"
"Yes, please," Booth replied. He jotted the info down on a piece of scratch paper and stuffed into his pocket before running out the door to his car.
Tempe
When Brennan came to again, she was in the ambulance, en route to the hospital. She let them clean her up some. At the hospital, they tucked her away into a room, gave her a gown, and left her alone for awhile. She called Detective Harding while she waited. When a doctor finally came to see her, she explained the little bit that she knew. The doctor checked her over, did the x-rays, and all the tests that she requested. Including a rape kit.
The doctor rambled a bit as he finished up the exam, putting a bandage over her torn earlobe. Detective Harding came in at that point.
"Detective Harding, I… didn't know who else to call," said Brennan. The detective looked at the doctor and told him she would need blood samples from the clothing, hoping to get lucky and find some blood from Brennan's assailant.
"Still hazy on the details?" asked the Detective, concerned.
"Not hazy on the details," answered Brennan. "I don't remember anything."
"Nothing?" Brennan could sense the Detective's frustration. If she couldn't remember anything, then Harding would have a hard time figuring out what happened to her. Booth would be better at this, she thought.
"I requested a rape kit," said Brennan.
"No sign of sexual activity," said the doctor. Brennan had been more than relieved at that fact.
Suddenly they heard a commotion outside the door. The door opened, revealing Agent Booth chased by a nurse. "Sir, sir, you can't go in there!"
"Bones! Are you ok?"
Booth
By some miracle, Booth had managed to get a flight directly to New Orleans just minutes after arriving at the airport. As soon as his plane landed, he found a taxi and went straight to the hospital. His badge got him past the front desk, and got him the location of his partner. A nurse chased after him as he headed towards her exam room, pleading with him to stop. "Sir, sir, you can't go in there!" He spared the nurse one glance as he opened the door.
Bones was sitting on the exam table, a doctor and a detective in the room with her. He didn't pay either of them any mind. His heart soared to see her there, and then rage filled his veins. If I get my hands on whoever did this to her, he thought.
"Bones! Are you ok?"
Tempe
"Booth, I told you not to come," she said. But she didn't really mean it. What she really wanted was for Booth to wrap his arms around her and make it all go away.
"Who's this?" asked Harding.
"He's FBI, we're sort of partners," she replied. She felt Booth's eyes on her, looking her over. He hovered next to her, protectively, and she was reassured by his presence.
"Guy flies down from DC?" said Harding. "You're more than sort of partners." Harding's voice was teasing.
"Yea, that's great," Booth jumped in. "Do you remember anything?" he asked Bones. She told him about the last thing she remembered, a tray of instruments falling in the morgue.
"Why can't she remember anything?" Booth asked the doctor, worried.
"Well, could be the head injury," the doctor replied. Bones turned to Booth and quickly listed the worse of her injuries.
"I lost one of my favorite earrings," she said, as she took the other one out.
"You're worried about an earring?" he asked. "Cause you really should be worried about losing a whole day."
"I know, it's stupid, but these earrings were my mother's." She sighed, looking sadly at the remaining earring in her hand.
Booth
Booth looked at the earring in Brennan's hand. He knew how much anything of her mother's was important to her.
The doctor explained the possible effects of head injury, including amnesia before and after the injury.
"Ok, we'll just wait for a tox screen," said Booth, truly hoping it was something simple that had caused Bones' memory loss.
"It's going to be at least twenty four hours," said the doctor.
Booth barely heard the doctor explaining why the delay and the detective comment to not worry, that they'd find out what happened. He turned his attention back to Bones. He moved in front of her a bit more, reaching up to gently put his knuckles on her chin, turning her back to face him so he could see the extent of her injuries. He sensed rather than heard the detective and the doctor slip out of the room as he began his catalog of Bones' injuries.
His eyes travelled over her face, noting the bandage on her right ear, bruising on her right cheek, the nasty gash and bruise on her temple, the split in her lower lip, and other tiny cuts and bruises. I should have been here the whole time, he thought.
"Booth…." Her voice was soft.
He traced his fingers lightly down her right cheek, his eyes on her injuries. "You're not going anywhere alone again Bones."
"Booth…" she said again, her voice still soft but demanding. He turned his eyes to hers, noting the unshed tears. "Thank you," she said, holding his gaze.
Tempe
Brennan suppressed a shiver as Booth's fingers touched her chin. She obediently turned her head slightly as he inspected her injuries.
She should have been mad at him for flying down. She always prided herself on her independence.
But right now, she needed him. She is hurt and she is scared. And he is her best friend. "Booth…" she said softly.
His fingers moved upwards, to run lightly over her cheek. She couldn't suppress the shiver then.
"You're not going anywhere alone again Bones."
For some irrational reason, his protectiveness made her heart soar.
"Booth…" she tried again. He finally met her eyes. The tears in her eyes threatened to overflow. "Thank you," she said. The words were simple, but she knew he'd understand the depth of them.
Booth
Booth stared into her eyes and knew she meant more than a simple thank you.
She blinked, and the tears overflowed. "Hey," he said softly, reaching his thumb over to brush the tears away. "We'll figure this out, ok?" She gave a slight nod at the same time as a sob escaped her. "Shhh, c'mere," he said, pulling her into his arms. She sobbed softly into his shoulder as he held her tight. He felt her trembling. "It's ok, everything's going to be ok," he said softly into her ear. He closed his eyes and rested his head atop hers, holding her close.
Harding
Detective Harding watched through a crack in the door.
"Definitely more than partners," she whispered to herself, smiling as she turned to walk away.