Chapter 2 :

Emotional Ties

A/N: Here is chapter 2. I only made a couple changes from the original. I hope you enjoy it.

~Booth~

I wish I could figure out a way to tell Bones just how much she means to me.

I'm lying here in this hospital bed with doctors and nurses poking and prodding me.

They've hooked me up to what seems like a million beeping machines, their cacophony not in the least bit soothing.

When I saw and then spoke to the nonexistent Stewie in the interagation room, Bones' genuine concern touched me and meant more to me than she could ever possibly know.

I need her by me in that operating room, there is no way I can go through this without her!

Plus this way I know that she will make sure that the doctors take care of me.

I can't leave her again.

I could have killed Sweets for not telling her that I was alive.

Damn that twelve year old's experiments were getting old......fast.

I need to see my Bones before they wheel me away for what could possibly be the last time.

I need to look in those eyes that I have looked in every day for the last four years and feel that she wants me around.

I hate admitting I'm scared, but what is scaring me more than anything else would be laughable to some.

I have been kidnapped, blown up three times, buried alive, shot multiple times, almost lost my kid to a psychopath, tortured, become a prisoner of war, and can even deal with clowns if I am forced, but all of that pales to what I am really afraid of........ not seeing Dr. Temperance Brennan ever again.

Never seeing my Bones again is what scares this Special Agent and former Ranger.

Go Figure.

~Bones~

I don't know if I can do this again.

I can't loose him again.

Rationally I know that it is idiotic to depend on someone else so much, but I thought I lost him once and it nearly killed me.

As I walk back from telling Angela, Hodgins, Cam, and Sweets the latest update on my partner's condition I realize how paltry the word partner is for us.

Seeley Booth is so much more than my partner.

He is my best friend in the world other than Angela.

He understands me more than anyone else, including Angela......sometimes even including myself.

He is my confidant, my moral compass, my walking "non-squint" dictionary, and the only man that I would even consider truly being a father to my future child.

There is a possibility that what Angela and Booth had been telling her for years was possible.

Maybe love really did exist.

She knew without a shadow of a doubt that it did when she was little.

Before her parents disappeared and Russ abandoned her.

Before a string of horrific foster homes and horrendous experiences.

When she was little, her dad would call her "My Girl," and she would feel safe and protected. She felt ........... loved.

When her mom would talk her though a problem with her classmates she felt ............ loved.

When Russ would hold her hand to help her cross the street when she was little she felt............ loved.

But with Booth it was different.

It felt different.

When he put his hand on the small of her back and led her into a room.....

When Booth called her Bones because he loved to watch her get riled up.........

When he gave her the figurine of a pig and called it Jasper........

When he gave her Brainy Smurf and explained why Brainy Smurf was better than Smurfette any day.

These were a different type of love than the type she knew in her youth.

Sure she felt safe and protected like her dad had provided her with ...

She felt the understanding her mom had given her.........

She felt the guidance Russ had effortlessly supplied her with.....

But it went deeper than any of those singularly.

It was all of those combined plus something else .......

It was that something else that made her want to have his child.

What was that something else?

~Booth~

What was taking Bones so long?

I keep looking for her, but all I see is a sea of blue in front of me in the form of rushing scrub clad personnel.

*Bones finally appears at the hospital window*

She has no clue how beautiful she is.

Sure she is stubborn, opinionated, horrible at interacting with normal people, blunt, inappropriate, overly-rational,............. warm-hearted, caring, staggeringly beautiful, and my best friend in the entire world.

I have to ask her to be in that room with me.

I can't go through this without her by my side.

Those two weeks when I couldn't see her, touch her, or rile her up were the worst of my entire life.

I have to find a way to eradicate that line once and for all.

Sweets already notices that I touch her all the time but she rarely touches me except for our "guy hugs."

I encouraged those because it offered the opportunity for me to do what I want to do more than anything else....... hold my Bones.

~Bones~

How do I do this?

Booth wants me in the operating room with him?

Am I strong enough to watch his brain be operated on?

Sure I've watched surgeries before, it was part of my program - we had to watch a surgery at the attached university hospital.

But this hit a little close to home.

This is my Booth we're talking about here.

Well he's not really mine as no human can own another human, but I feel like he's mine.

No Temperance.... this isn't about you and your comfort level, this is about Booth.

The man who a year ago took a bullet for you.

A man who has saved you from having been kidnapped twice.

The man who made sure I ate, and left the lab at a decent hour.

I would do anything for him.

I can't believe how relieved he just looked as I told him.

I'm surprised every time at the effect that his grin has on me.

The doctors are here to wheel him away.

As I cling to his hand I am fully aware this may be the last time I am able to.