A/N: I didn't know how aloof Sweets could be until I wrote this. Poor kid.

Seeley Booth was not a man who panicked. It just didn't jive with his personality to freak out over much. He was more level headed than that, stressing inwardly, but remaining calm, cool and collected outside. It was something he and Brennan had in common. They always looked at situations for a while before committing to a feeling about it.

But despite that personality trait, Booth was now completely panicked. Parker and Bones were at the hospital. The nurse who called him hadn't given him very much information, just told him to get to the hospital as soon as he could. Of course what this nurse didn't realize was that he had sirens on his car and "as soon as you can" translated to "as fast as you can" which translated to "85 miles an hour through DC."

He arrived at the hospital, parked in a spot that may or may not have been reserved for doctors, and ran into the emergency room. The desk clerk looked somewhat frightened at his loud entrance, but she quickly regained her composure.

"I'm looking for my son, Parker Booth. He was brought in with my partner Temperance Brennan."

"Your son is in the waiting room and-"

He didn't hear the rest of what she said because he turned around and ran down the hallway to the waiting room. Parker was sitting on a chair, dangling his feet while tears dripped down his cheeks.

"Parker."

His head snapped up and he launched off the chair, running across the room faster than Booth could kneel down to pick him up.

"Daddy! Where's Bones? Is she okay?" he asked, his voice cracking.

"I don't know, buddy. What happened?"

"She pulled the car over and told me to call 911. Then she went to sleep and she wouldn't wake up. They didn't let me go with her upstairs."

"Why did they take her upstairs?"

"For surgery. But no one told me why. They just said to wait here for you."

"Okay buddy, we'll go find her."

He held his son tightly as they made their way to the elevators. His heart was still pounding, but the cold sweat had stopped. Parker was okay, save for the tear tracks on his cheeks.

"Is she dead, daddy?" he whispered with a sniffle.

"She's probably fine, Park. Let's just go find out."

The elevator spit them out on the 8th floor and they walked to the reception desk, slightly calmer than Booth had entered the emergency room. They were told that Brennan was in surgery and to the doctor would come and find them in the waiting room. They resigned themselves to two chairs in the corner, and Booth called Cam to let her know what was going on.

"Daddy, is Bones dead?"

"She's in surgery."

"But is she gonna die?"

"Parker, I don't know."

"I don't want her to die. She's my best friend," he said, wiping his tears with his sleeve.

"I know, buddy. She's mine too."

They sat quietly, together, but apart. That's how the team found them when they got to the hospital several minutes later.

"Have you heard anything yet?" Angela asked, sitting down next to Booth. He just shook his head and continued to stare at the floor.

"Seeley?" Cam said, crouching down in front of him. "Has Parker eaten?"

"No."

"Do you want me to go and get him something?"

"How can you think about food right now, Cam?"

"I'm not thinking about food, I'm thinking about Parker."

He was quiet and she patted his hand, then stood up.

"Hey Park, are you hungry?"

"Not really," he said with a little shrug. She held her hand out and he took it, standing from his chair.

"Let's go for a walk down to the cafeteria. You could at least have some chocolate milk."

He nodded and followed her. Cam had been a part of his life for as long as he could remember, and while his bond with her wasn't that deep, her presence was comforting. They slipped out the door and down the hallway and the room was quiet again. Hodgins paced back and forth slowly, like a kid with no friend, wandering around at recess time. Sweets was standing by the door, his eyes trained on Booth, not able to stop the psychoanalyzing that was so automatic for him.

"She'll be fine," Hodgins said finally, nodding as if the statement brought her healing as it spilled from his mouth.

"She might not be," Booth argued.

"Don't think like that, man."

"I'm not going to pussy-foot around this. We don't even know what's wrong with her. She could have an aneurysm or a tumor or something they can't even figure out."

"She doesn't need your negativity, Booth," Angela said quietly.

"I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"Booth."

"Just stop, okay?"

"He's using a defense mechanism, Angela," Sweets said finally. "Don't take it personally."

"Dude…" Hodgins started.

"What? He's preparing himself for what he feels is going to be a separation from one of the most important people in his life. It's a classical-"

Booth jumped up from his chair and pushed Sweets into the wall, pressing his arm dangerously close to the younger man's throat.

"That is Bones in there, not some case study. Get that through your head or get out."

Sweets just nodded and Booth let him go, crossing the nearly empty room and sitting down in a new chair.

Parker and Cam returned several minutes later, their arms full of bottles of juice, cookies and bags of chips. Parker looked slightly better as he opened a bag of jungle animal shaped fruit snacks and laid them out on the table. He proceeded to set them up just so, then acted out scenes from The Lion King. Angela reached over and began to play too, doing voices for some of the characters. Parker smiled and they played together for a while before he sighed and ate the fruit snacks one by one, his head resting in his hand. Angela rubbed his back gently and he gave her a little half smile.

The door to the waiting room creaked open and a doctor entered.

"Family of Temperance Brennan?"

Booth shot to his feet and stood in front of the doctor, not sure what to say.

"Are you the family?"

"I have power of attorney. What happened?"

"Her appendix ruptured. We think that she had a slow leak for a while and today in the car it finally burst. We managed to get it out, but she's septic."

"Can we see her?"

"In a while. She's been unconscious since she was brought in and she's very weak. She's not necessarily out of the woods yet. Once we get her situated you'll be able to go in one at a time."

Booth nodded and Cam pulled the doctor aside, asking him more specific questions about Brennan's condition, while everyone else just sat in relief. It wasn't a tumor, cancer, an unknown ailment. It was a freak event. Something that could be fixed. She'd be okay.

"Dad, I want to see Bones," Parker said, tugging on Booth's hand.

"I know, son. We'll go in a while."

"She's better, right?"

"She's getting there, buddy."

It was over an hour before they were let into her room. At first the doctors said Parker wouldn't be allowed in, but after some persuasion from Cam, they said he could visit her for ten minutes. Booth took him inside, reminding him to be quiet, and Parker stood by the side of the bed, his expression pensive. Slowly he reached out and took her hand.

"The lady on the phone told me to hold Bones' hand. I didn't let go until they made me," he said softly. "Do you think she thinks I left her?"

"No, buddy."

"I want her to wake up."

"Me too."

"Can I talk to her?"

"I think she'd like that."

Parker nodded and stared at her for a few minutes before he spoke.

"I want you to get better Bones. So you can take me and dad to that museum. Remember you said you would take us someday when you didn't have to work. So we can go as soon as you get better. And after that we'll get ice-cream because you and me like Rocky Road the best."

He rested his head next to her arm for a moment.

"Time to go, buddy," Booth said, crouching down next to him.

"I want to stay here."

"I know, but rules are rules. We're going to get some sleep and then come back in the morning."

"Will anyone stay with her?"

"Angela is going to stay tonight. Bones will be just fine."

"Okay. Goodnight Bones. I love you."

He gave her hand a squeeze and turned to walk out of the room. Booth leaned down and kissed Brennan's cheek.

"You've got to wake up, Bones. We need you."

He brushed her cheek with his fingers and wished he could look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry we fought, Temperance. Seems stupid now. Seemed stupid at the time too. I wish I could take it back. But we can talk about that later. I love you, Bones."

He kissed her cheek again and slipped from the room, longing to say those words to her sometime when she was conscious. Whether she rolled her eyes or not, he was going to say them. He couldn't let her go another day without knowing it.