A/N: The promised chapter of THE CALL… I hope it comes across the way I wanted it to, but with writers, there's always room for improvement. I seemed to have changed BONES' character slightly, sorry. Hope that's not TOO annoying! Enjoy :)

Brennan was tired when she reached for the phone. The day had been long, and it had left her nothing short of exhausted. But her desire for Booth was strong, and heavily outweighed the possibility of immediate sleep. She waited for the dial tone she waited for the man to answer, telling her that her friend was unavailable, and that the game of phone-tag was not over. She was patient today, and without expectation. Disappointment would not flood her, not today.

The familiar click of the phone, made her straighten up, as a voice came through the other end.

"Bones…" it was how she was greeted.

The voice made her knees buckle and she sank to the floor with heavy relief. Tears stung her eyes. It had been FAR too long since she heard that name. Oh, how she'd missed him. She closed her eyes, happy to have heard it once again. She was almost afraid that distance and time would prevent it from being heard, to never be called by to her nickname, had shamefully entered her mind.

"Bones…" his voice pleaded. "Are you there… God, please be there? BONES!"

She hadn't spoken. In the few seconds he had picked up the phone, she hadn't uttered a single word. SPEAK, she urged herself silently, say something, anything…

"Hello, Booth!"

A gasp was heard from his end. A short silence followed.

"God, Bones… is that you? Geez, woman, I've been trying to get you on the phone for a week. It was the longest game of phone-tag, I've ever-"

Brennan frowned. She didn't understand. "Booth, how can you tag a phone?"

Booth's laughed echoed through the receiver, and she smiled. It was nice to hear the familiar sound of happiness. "It's an expression, Bones. I've missed you…"

"Me too, Booth," she confessed thinking back to the agonizing months she had felt trapped in her own emotions. "I've missed you too."

For a moment both were silent, lost for words. It took a moment to break the trance, and she began to tell him about her time in Indonesia, about the bones she had discovered, the people she had met.

"And Daisy… how is she liking it there?" Booth asked politely.

"Yes, she's enjoying the experience."

"Is she getting under your skin?"

Brennan couldn't fathom the idea of getting physically close to Daisy, when she was still working on Cam and Hodgins, to step through the barrier of intimacy. "Booth, we don't get close enough to- oh, another expression?" she realized.

Booth laughed. "I see some things don't change," he said.

"I don't know what that means."

"Never- nevermind," he replied.

"Are you content with your duties in the army, Booth?" she asked changing the subject.

A flash of nightmares flooded his mind, and he took a moment to respond to her question. "Yeah," he lied. "I'm fine. Bones! Are you?"

"Am I fine, Booth? Yes, I'm content with my duties here on the Maluku islands."

"Are you safe?" he whispered. "Using the bug guide that Hodgins gave you… he told me he gave you a-"

"Yes, Booth. I have the guide, and I am cautious of the bugs that crawl in the soil."

"Good," he sighed with relief. "That's good Bones."

"Are you alright Booth, you sound unusually concerned…" she observed.

It was just like her, to notice that his behavior was slightly off. He smiled. He liked that she still knew him well enough, he liked that she was still the same woman, his Bones… "I'm fine, Bones."

"You said that already," she pointed out.

He ran a hand through his hair. He needed a shower. He hadn't had one in over two days. He forgot how dirty it got out here, he forgot that the smell consumed every inch of you after a while. Nothing smelt, quite like war. Blood. Sweat. Rotting flesh. And not the same kind that Bones dealt with in the Lab at the Jeffersonian.

"Just tell me you are okay, Bones… that you are not putting yourself into dangerous-"

She laughed.

"What?" he snapped.

"I'm not in a warzone, Booth, you are. It's me that needs to be asking these questions."

"I'm safe, Bones."

"Good. I'm safe too."

"Good." He contemplated telling her about his nightmares, but they seemed to dim by the sound of her voice, maybe he had finally managed to get them out of his system. Maybe tonight, he would be nightmare free.

An hour had passed before Bones was ordered back to the site where she had been working.

"I have to go…" she sounded hesitant.

He felt sick. He didn't want to stop talking to her. Not yet.

"Are you dating, Bones?" it was the first thing that had come to his mind.

"I don't know what that means."

Patience was hidden this time, underneath the recesses of his mind. "It's a simple question… the guy I spoke to a few days ago, said that you have boyfriends calling you… I didn't know you were dating," he was hurt. He figured that she might at least let on that someone was in her life.

"I'm not, Booth," she assured him. "I don't know what information you've been given, but it's certainly incorrect."

He sighed with relief. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure… I- I have to go, Booth."

"Can I call you again?" he asked desperately. There was no way he could survive another four months of silence.

"I miss you, Booth. I-"

"Bones… please, can I call-"

He heard the dial tone. She had hung up. He reluctantly placed the SAT phone down on the swag and paced the tent. She had said she missed him, so why had she been in such a hurry to hang up? He wracked his brain trying to come up with an answer… in the end; he concluded that her time on the dig had left her missing him less and less. Maybe in their separate corners of the world, she had managed to find a way to accept the change. Booth was still working on it.

ARGHHHHHHHHHH! I love leaving readers on the edge like this. Review, if you want more :)