Runs off and hides. Woah, okay, I won't kill Booth off, jeez. Hehe, you all seem pretty opposed to the idea. Anyway, I just thought I'd mention that I have NO medical knowledge whatsoeva. Only using what I know from House and a little bit of Grey's Anatomy.

Oh, and I forgot to disclaim it: I own everything!! NOT!! Come on, I'm 15 years old.


That's the last bullet.

How's he doing?

Vitals are weak, but he looks to be out of danger.

Get him to the ICU.

Someone has to inform his family...

There were some things Temperance Brennan didn't like. Clowns, murderers, processed food, being left by someone she loved, and people who chewed tobacco. She knew she didn't like them and avoided any possible contact with all of these things.

But now Brennan had a new dislike to add to her list.

It now read: clowns, murderers, processed food, being left by someone she loved, people who chewed tobacco and, lastly, being advanced upon by a haggard looking doctor covered in blood.

For some unknown reason, the sight of the doctor waking directly towards her and Jared was terrifying. He was a portly man who looked to be about 40. His glasses were on lopsided and his unruly red hair was sticking up in all directions. It would have been an amusing sight, if it hadn't been for the crimson liquid that coated his surgical gloves.

This was it. The big moment. She would find out if Booth had lived or died. She would find out if he would make it to tomorrow or next week. She would find out if she had to begin to build up the walls around her heart again, because someone else had left her.

She and Jared had been sitting together, holding hands, not speaking for the last hour and a half. Their was no need for words. They were both lost in similar thoughts. Similar, but also different. They were both praying Booth would make it, that he'd pull through. But Brennan was also engulfed in guilt, blaming herself for what had happened. The phone call played in her mind, again and again. It was constantly nagging her, she couldn't forget what the man had said.

"Dr Brennan, Mr Booth," the doctor said, as he reached the pair, who had stood as soon as the man had appeared at the door to the waiting room.

"How is he?" Jared asked, his voice low and surprisingly calm. Brennan knew it was a trait that was shared with his brother. Seeley was also calm in a crisis, realizing that their was nothing he could do to help if he panicked. It was not a trait Brennan had. If Jared hadn't been here, she probably would have grabbed the man by the shoulders and started to shake him until he'd talked.

"We think he's out of danger. The second bullet was removed and I believe the procedure was done carefully enough to ensure that no damage was inflicted on his spinal cord or any major organs," the doctor assured them. "Blood lose was a major problem and he with need transfers for the next few days, but other than that..."

"So he's going to make it?" Brennan asked, as the words actually started to sink in. The look of worry that morphed into a look of elation on Jared's face mirrored her own, as the words began to sink in. "He's going to be fine!" She cried again, as she threw her arms around the man beside her. Her and Jared laughed and cried together for several moments until Brennan released him and turned back to the doctor, who was grinning too, the happiness of the couple infectious. "Thank you. Thank you so much, doctor."

"I have to say," the man started, "it was a tremendous amount of will power on Seeley's part. He really fought. That man wasn't about to give up and go down easily any time soon."

"That's my little brother," said Jared, proudly. "Seeley doesn't give up on anything, even if it is difficult."

Brennan believed that. After all, he hadn't given up on her, had he?

"Where is he now?" Brennan asked, once she regained her voice. The grin on her face still huge. "I have to go berate him for getting himself shot."

"That will have to wait for a couple days, Dr Brennan," the doctor explained. "He is in the ICU. You can sit with him, but the medication we have him on should keep him out of it for several days. He might wake up for a short time but he won't be very coherent."

Brennan's grin faded. "But he'll be okay, right?"

"Yes, I'm sure that, in time, he will make a full recovery," the doctor assured the pair.

"Thank God," Jared said, running his hair through his hair. Brennan was struck by the similarity between him and Booth. It was almost as if she were watching a video or standing next to a clone of her partner. They looked the same, acted the same and said the same things. It was surreal. "Can we...?" Jared asked, softly.

"Yes, I'll take you up to the ICU now," the doctor directed them through the hall and into a lift. "Just between us, I shouldn't really be allowing you to visit him, Dr Brennan, as you're not family."

"She is Seeley's family," Jared said, "Bones, here, may not be blood related but they are family, of a different kind."

"I see. In that case, it should be okay. Just don't tell anyone."

Brennan was thankful and grateful that Jared had said such a thing. If the hospital staff had kept her from seeing Booth she probably would have flipped and seriously hurt someone.

The threesome started down a corridor. It was filled with yelling doctors and interns and painful screams, as accident victims were wheeled in and attended to. Brennan couldn't help but remember what Booth had looked like after he'd been shot. The blood covering everything in sight. The gapping holes in his stomach. The convulsions as the pain started to set in. The paramedics pressing gauze to his abdomen in an attempt to halt the flow of blood.

Brennan found her thoughts wondering to the abstract. That was design fault with human beings, she thought. Blood automatically traveled to the site of an injury. It would be better if the blood just stayed were is was and minded it's own business. Then Booth wouldn't have lost so much of it. Damn blood.

Suddenly, all the noise and commotion stopped. They'd turned into the relative silence of the ICU. Nurse bustled around and Brennan could hear the sobbing of someone in a room not far away, but, in comparison to the paralyzing sounds that filled the emergency room, this place was deadly silent.

Jared took her hand and squeezed it gently, as the doctor opened the door to the room, giving her strength.

Brennan was glad he had, because the sight before her almost caused her to fall to her knees.

Booth was a force of nature. He was the strongest person she'd ever met. But now, lying in the hospital bed, he looked weak and vulnerable.

She didn't know what she'd expected, but it defiantly wasn't this. The man before looked nothing like he usually did. He was so pale, paler then usual. Walking to the bed, she grasped his hand, avoiding the IV drip, and felt how cold and clammy he was.

That was another thing about her partner. He was always warm. Even during the middle of winter, when Brennan would find herself engulfed in a "guy hug," Booth would be warm and cuddly. Not that she would ever be caught dead admitting that, of course.

A faint beeping caught Brennan's attention. She noticed that the heart monitor connected to his chest was informing them that his pulse was above normal, and he had a temperature. She also noticed that one of the machines connected was pumping blood into him.

It was strange to see him so dependent, even if it was on machines.

Gently, Brennan reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from his face.

"Seeley, I'm so sorry," she whispered. "You know that apologies aren't my thing and that I usually run away from something I can't handle but..." she paused to take a deep breath. "I have to tell you how sorry I am."

"You love him, don't you?" asked Jared. Brennan had all but forgotten the older Booth sibling, who was sitting on a chair on the other side of the bed, studying his sleeping brother.

"I don't know what I feel, with regards to Seeley Booth," she replied, with a wane smile. "But I'm worried that he won't feel the same as whatever it is I'm feeling." Thinking about this was going to give her a headache.

"For one, I know he has the hots for you, if that's what you mean," Brennan blushed. "He talks about you all the time."

Both of them turned to look at the man in the bed again. His face was relax and he would have appeared to be sleeping peacefully, if it wasn't for the nasal cannula he was wearing and the pallor of his skin.

"Wait, you talk about me?" Brennan asked, incredulous, as his words began to sink in.

"All the time," Jared laughed quietly at the look on her face. "If it's not a story about Parker then it's a story about you."

"Your really close, aren't you? You and Seeley?"

"Yes," Jared looked down at his brother. "When our parents died, he, Katie and I became inseparable."

"Wait," Brennan looked stunned. "Your parents are dead? And who's Katie?"

"Katie's our sister," he smiled at her, "Seeley doesn't tell many people about his siblings for fear we'd get hurt because of what he does for a living."

"Makes sense," Brennan said. She knew it was a practical way to kept his family safe from getting used against him, but she couldn't help but wish that Booth had trusted her enough to tell her about them.

"Yeah. I wish he didn't work for the FBI."

"Why?" Brennan was clueless as to why he'd want that. Booth's job was high risk, sure, but he enjoyed doing it because he got the satisfaction of putting murderers behind bars and making the world a safer place. Wouldn't his brother want to see him happy, doing something he enjoyed?

"Because ... he's my little brother," Jared looked down at Booth. "I hate seeing him get hurt and, when we were little, I'd try to protect him as much as I could."

"Somehow, I can't see Seeley enjoying being protected," Brennan laughed.

"No, he hated it," Jared looked off into the distance, reminiscing. "But I was his big brother so I had too. Him and Katie are the only legit family I've got."

Brennan thought about that for a moment and felt overwhelming guilt. She reached out to touch Booth's hair softly but caught herself and clenched her fist, pulling back. "It's my fault he's lying here," she said. For some reason, she wanted to cry again but, instead, she found her voice raising in anger. "Those bullets were meant for me. I was meant to suffer though this, not him."

"Bones..." Jared started, sounding so much like his injured brother. "It's okay."

"No," her voice rose more. It was filled with self-flagellation "No. Your brother might die, because of me, so don't try and tell me it's okay."

"There was nothing you could do ..."

"I should have left. Ran away, like I usually do," she said coolly. "But now I can't because the sadistic asshole who is after me wants Seeley dead, to watch me suffer. I have to make sure that doesn't happen."

"I don't understand what you just said, but I promise I'll help you, okay?" Jared said, he pulled her into a hug. "I've been watching over my little brother for years, so this will be like ... studying something at college, then going out in the real world to perfect it."

At that moment, her phone rang. Glancing at the ID Brennan realized it was an unknown number. The words stalker immediately popped into her mind. Everyone who knew the number to her cell was in it's phone book. But, of course, she didn't have her 'run-of-the-mill-psychopathic-stalker-who-planned-to-kill-her-as-per-usual' programmed into the phone.

"What?" she asked, her voice icy but retaining a hit of nervousness.

"So, your little knight-in-shinning-FBI-issue-body-armor pulled through, did he?"

"How do you know that phrase?" Brennan asked, her voice raising again. Angela had told her that years ago. She'd never said it again, after that.

"I know everything about you, Temperance," he said, with a chuckle. "So, do you think Agent Booth would prefer to die quickly or have a vain chance of escape? Because I could organize either, precious."

"You won't be coming anywhere near him, or me," Brennan vowed into the phone.

"You think? Look under Agent Booth's pillow." The phone disconnected.

Dropping the cell, Brennan rushed to her partner's side. Gently as she could, she placed a hand under his pillow and felt her hand come into contact with something cold and metal. Slowly, she started to withdraw her hand, until Booth stirred slightly, moving his head to the side and muttering one, unintelligible word. He didn't move anymore but still Brennan stopped moving and gently placed a hand on the side of his face.

"Shhh, Seeley. It's okay." She knew she was stalling. She really didn't want to remove the object under the pillow. She could already guess what it was and it terrified her.

Finally, she summoned up all her courage and pulled it out. It was what she'd expected.

A gun, with a note attached. Trembling, she picked it up, and unfolded the paper. It was typed in all capitals and bold print:

TICK TOCK TICK TOCK

TIME IS RUNNING OUT, PRECIOUS

How the hell had he done that? Booth had been in this room less than 20 minutes. Brennan felt her blood begin to boil. She struggled to breathe deeply, as her hands started to shake. Dropping the letter and gun, she stumbled backwards. Strong hands caught her and helped her into a chair. She leaned over and placed her head in her hands.

Brennen could see Jared pick up what she had found and read the note. He looked terrified and confused, glancing to his brother, he turned to her and started to demand to know what it was about.

"What is this, Temperance?" he asked, scanning over the paper again. "Is this what you were talking about?"

"Yes, this it what I meant before," she reached over the Booth and straightened his sheet. "He's going to die, because of me. The sadistic son-of-a-bitch could have killed him before we even got here. He could be dead already." She knew he was tormenting her, pushing her as far as he could, causing her as much pain as possible. "It's my fault."

"Shh, it's okay," Jared pulled her into a hug. "It's okay."

She sobbed into his chest for the longest moment. Holding onto her tightly, Jared rubbed slow circles into her back and whispered comforting words.

Suddenly, a quiet, weak voice broke through the silence. It was so soft, almost unintelligible, but it rung in Brennan's ears.

"Bones?" Booth's voice was slurred slightly but Brennan could still hear the hurt in it. "Who's that?"


Okay, I was reading back through the story and I realized that Brennan and Jared seemed very affectionate towards each other. Maybe, I should make them fall for each other ... tell me, yes or no. It's a pretty evil idea isn't? But I can fix it if enough people review with an 'anti-Booth's brother and Bones shacking up together' feeling. ;)

Btw: Jared was facing away from Booth so it could just look like Brennan is hugging a tall, dark and handsome other man to a morphine-induced mind.

Also: Your reviews equal totally awesomness! They make me high,I swear. Like the oxygen I breathe ...