A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, they really warm our hearts. We promised you a fluffy chapter 4; here it is! With some funny –and less funny- parts. We did our best to do research on the medical stuff, and we're sorry if something isn't right. But guess what? One of our readers has got a degree in sports medicine – hooray for IceCube – and if she sees anything that doesn't make sense, she'll tell us and we'll do our best to correct it (like we're planning to correct chapter 3 with her help).

Good reading!

Chapter 4 – Beating hearts

"Give me the control."

"What?"

"Give me the remote control," she repeated, stretching her left arm to reach for it.

Booth chuckled. "No way. My room, my TV, my remote control."

"It's not your room anymore, it's our room now," she retorted.

"Not exactly. This is my room, and you're my guest," he explained.

"You didn't protest when they offered us to add another bed," she said with a pout.

"I thought you wanted to sleep."

"Not anymore." She sighed. "This show is crap, I mean, it's degrading."

"Stop complaining, Bones, play with me."

"Italy's shape is said to resemble which object? A five-year-old would know that." She crossed her arms in front of her chest and Booth glanced bemusedly at her.

"Be patient, it's only the 100 question!" He so wasn't going to tell her how adorable she looked with the blanket over her chest, her arms crossed and strings of hair loosely framing her face. She looked like a bored dark-haired angel. Except for the black eye, that is, although its colour had changed to a yellow-greenish shade now. She looked almost serene surrounded by all this whiteness, complementing her fair skin. God, he was glad to have her back.

Brennan let out another annoyed sigh as the host asked the already sweating candidate the second question. 'What call is customarily given before a fencing match begins? Encore? En garde? En masse? On line?'

"En garde!" Booth let out with a proud grin on his face.

"En garde," Brennan repeated, correcting his French pronunciation.

"Never mind. Yeah! 200."

"It's not like you actually won the money," Brennan pointed out.

"I'm going to give them your name, I bet you'll win the one million dollar," he said with glowing eyes, as if it was the best idea he had never had.

"I don't need that money; besides, I hate being on television."

Booth laughed slightly. "Yeah I remember the first time you were interviewed."

She threw him a deadly glare. "You said I did well for a beginner!"

Booth snorted, adding to his partner's growing annoyance with him. "I know," he laughed.

"You, Special Agent Seeley Booth, are an insufferable man sometimes," she told him with disdain. To her surprise, he only started to laugh harder.

"I can't believe you," she called to him and desperately held her arms in the air before letting them fall to her sides with a muffled thud.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Booth laughed, pressing a hand against his mouth to try and stop his laughter, but all to no avail.

"Are you having an episode of some sort? Because I could call the nurse and ask her to bring you a sedative." Despite her obvious frustration with him Booth continued to laugh. He just couldn't stop himself.

"Don't be so damn funny!" he cried out and started to shake half out of the bed, causing Brennan to finally not put up with his behaviour anymore and throw back the covers furiously. She planted her feet firmly on the cold floor and got dizzy immediately, but she was so fed up with Booth and his ridiculously inappropriate laughter that she ignored her head and threateningly stalked towards his bed.

When she'd reached him she grabbed his ear in a rough manner. Finally his laughter died out.

"Ouch, Bones," he whined indignantly.

"Will you please stop now or at least tell me why you find any of this so amusing?" They stared in each other's eyes for a moment. "I need you to talk to me, Booth! Please!"

Was she begging him?

He slowly brought his hand up to hers and freed his ear from her fingers, then lowered it to his chest, to his heart so she could feel it beating.

"I'm really sorry, Bones. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Can I have my hand back?"

"Look," he said, ignoring her request, "In this situation I can either cry my eyes out and smash things or laugh uncontrollably. I know what you've just been through, and I understand how inappropriate I acted. But you don't have to worry, okay? My heart is beating, and so is yours. Right now that's all that matters."

Finally he let go of her hand and she thoughtfully placed it against her heart, where she indeed felt a steady beat.

"It's all been a little overwhelming, I agree," she admitted and smiled slightly.

"You're a tough nut, Bones."

"I'm not a nut."

"It's an expression."

"Oh." She lowered her hand and hesitated. She needed to lie down but she didn't feel like being in a bed alone. Being alone had meant uncertainty and fear for the past two weeks. She was tense even though Booth was in the room with her. What if he went to sleep? It was hard to let her guard down. As long as this creepy serial killer was on the run she couldn't truly be relieved.

"You want to bunk with me?" Booth proposed, noticing her hesitation and guessing what was the matter.

"What?"

In reply he patted beside him.

"If you want," he added innocently.

"Yeah. All right," she said and sat beside him. "I'm fine with watching this show by the way."

"Well it's not like you have a choice," he teased. "I have the remote control."

She rolled her eyes and leaned back in the pillows.

"Child," she sighed. Booth pretended not to have heard her.

A smile came to her lips without her really inviting it. And she sighed again, in relief and well-being this time. She rested her head on his shoulder. No more worries for tonight. He was right; their hearts were both still beating. And they were together. Together, they were solid. For now, it was all that mattered.

He always wore a hood. He always spoke in a very low voice on purpose, clearly trying to disguise the quality of it. Either he was afraid that she would be able to just break her ties and flee, or he really intended to let her go once he had obtained what he wanted. In the beginning, it had occurred to her that he could be someone she knew. In the beginning, she had stared into his eyes. She had listened carefully to his voice, looking for the very hint that would betray who he could possibly be. But now, she was too tired, too broken, too weak. At first, the hard, cold ground and her sore body had prevented her from finding any sleep. But quickly, she understood that she had to save her strength; that these moments of light, short sleep were the only moments of escaping she would get.

She muffled a cry and opened her eyes when she suddenly felt an acute pain in her ribs. Without moving, she turned her gaze up to him. He often did that—waking her with some kicks.

"Get up," he ordered simply.

In the beginning, she had wondered if he would have been as confident without this hood over his face. In the beginning, she had resisted. Now, she merely did as he told her, for she knew that defying him would only gain herself more sorrow. She had given up on her dignity.

She placed her hands, palm flattened against the floor, to lean on her arms. She winced in pain while trying to sit up. She knew he was waiting, watching her. She knew that under his hood was a satisfied smirk.

He had to be tired of waiting for her for she had just managed to sit on her knees when he gave her another kick. A hard one, in the stomach, this time.

"I told you to get up!" Either he whispered or he squealed—it was all or nothing.

She let out a moan and pressed her hands to her belly, as though it would help lessen the pain. Tears shot to her now closed eyes and a sob got caught in her throat. She would have cried if she had been able to, but she could barely breathe.

When she opened her eyes, she realised that the floor wasn't so hard; that she didn't feel that cold, for once; that she felt pretty warm, actually. She noted that the silence wasn't terrifying and complete, as it usually was; that somebody was breathing steadily and peacefully close to her; that she could feel his arms around her; that they kept her safe.

So she shut her eyelids, for now she could sleep without dreading the moment she would wake up again.

"When Doctor James asked me to add a bed to this room, I'm pretty sure she thought that somebody was going to use it!" the nurse groaned impatiently.

Brennan moaned and blinked her eyes several times, looking hazily in direction of the voice. Booth had woken up with a start, too, and felt embarrassed. They had been watching television, teasing and laughing in a desperate attempt to chase the former traumatic events out of their minds. And they had ended up falling asleep in Booth's bed, both of them grateful to find comfort in the other's arms.

"Uhm, well, we didn't intend to..."

"Didn't intend to do what? If you want a king sized bed, just tell me and I'll see what I can do," retorted the woman, hands on her hips.

"No, thanks, it's okay, we just..."

"Bones... There are no king sized beds in a hospital..."

Brennan understood that now was the moment she had to shut her mouth.

"Anyway," the impatient nurse said in a firm voice, looking at them as if she was scolding two boisterous kids. "Doctor James will return within a few minutes with Mister Booth's results." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "That's why you, young lady, had better regain your bed," she added, throwing Brennan a deadly glare before stepping out of the room.

Booth chuckled when he decided that the woman could no longer hear them. "Young lady? Where are we, at a boarding school?"

Brennan smiled, but then a thought crossed her mind which made her laughter die out. Booth noticed it and looked at her worryingly.

"Hey... Bones... You all right?"

"Yeah, it's just... You know, she... She's coming with your results..." she said in a small voice.

She avoided his gaze, lowering her eyes. He could feel her heart pounding faster against his own chest and gently rubbed her arm comfortingly with his thumb. "Hey, Bones, look at me."

"I'd better get back into my own bed." Neither of them noticed how much they were acting like teenagers who had just got busted by their parents and were now sent back home and grounded.

She made an attempt to escape his grip but he held her back, squeezing her arm slightly. "Look at me."

She rested her head back in the pillow. When their eyes met again, he realised that their noses were almost touching; and for an instant, he wondered what would happen if he crossed the space between them and pressed his lips against hers.

"It's going to be just fine, Bones," he whispered, as reassuringly as he was able to. "We're together, right? You're here with me... I couldn't ask for anything better..."

He knew that he had spoken too much. He had not been able to hold these words back. And when she closed her eyes, he was not able to prevent his heartbeat from speeding up.

"Good morning," a soft and pleasant voice said.

Both partners startled and Brennan abruptly sat straight up in the bed. "Doctor James..." she greeted, feeling pretty uncomfortable, before sheepishly regaining her bed.

The woman gave them both a warm but slightly amused smile, yet she knew what was expected from her, and as two anxious pairs of eyes were fixed on her, her expression became more serious and professional.

"Agent Booth, you are aware that I'm here to talk to you about the results of the exams you underwent yesterday. I've got good news, and bad."

She paused and observed their reactions, but didn't wait too long to continue, for she was perfectly aware that they were both holding their breath.

"The bad news, is that there is nothing we can do for now." She lifted her hand which was holding a sheet and held it against the light so Booth had a clear view of his spine. He studied his bones for a moment, then decided there wasn't really anything that stood out to him, so he glanced over at his partner, whose eyes were widened a bit and fixed on him. So obviously she had seen something. He tried to extract something from her gaze, information, good or bad, but got nothing. Therefore he turned to Doctor James.

"I'm going to need some subtitles," he gave her his charm smile to look confident, although inside he was growing more nervous with each second that passed.

"All right, Agent Booth. What you're looking at right here, is a picture the scan made of your lumbar vertebrae. This is where your nerves are," she pointed out with her index finger, "and these are fluids. It's the swelling on your back. Now these nerves right here are swollen, which is why you're paralysed. The swelling can cause changes in virtually every system in the body. I'm afraid there's nothing we can do about that. Unfortunately only a very small fraction of people sustaining SCI recover all functioning."

"SCI?"

"Spinal Cord Injury," Brennan quickly provided, like a geek student in class calling out the right answer before granting anyone else the chance to.

"I hope that was the bad news, then," Booth sighed and glanced at Brennan once more, to find her gaze fixed on Doctor James, taking in every word that left her lips with interest. Yep, that's my Bones right there. Always trying to learn. She never got a B, and she never will.

"That and something else," Doctor James continued and Booth's jaw clenched. What more? "You may experience no control over your bowel or bladder."

"Oh, that's just great," Booth exclaimed desperately and dropped his head back in the pillows. "Pissing through a tube…" Both Brennan and Doctor James decided to forgive him this language.

"What's the good news?" Brennan asked quickly, eagerly, and stole a glance at her partner, lying back in the pillows, shaking his head disbelievingly. Why did she still feel guilty about all of this?

"Yes, I was just getting to that. The good news, however, is that after days or weeks, the swelling will begin to go down. Moreover, I'll give you methylprednisolone, a steroid drug that reduces swelling. Furthermore, while I examined you it appeared that you had some sensation in your left foot. This means you have incomplete injury."

"It feels pretty complete though," Booth mumbled sarcastically.

Doctor James understood this man's attitude. She'd seen men break down and cry at this news, others become angry, and some didn't react at all but were diagnosed with heavy depressions later. One patient had even laughed because, as he later explained, it was either laughing or committing suicide at that moment.

"It means that you have better chances of recovery. For the moment, all you need is some rest. And you're going to be paralysed for a while. I can't tell you for how long. The good news is that it won't be permanent," she emphasised.

"Okay. And what about… you know," Booth all but whispered in hopes of his partner not being able to hear from the other side of the room. Doctor James took a step closer; she hadn't heard him correctly.

"I beg your pardon?"

Booth's eyes briefly shifted to his partner, found her looking straight at him and grew a little more embarrassed.

"Will everything be okay? I mean, everything. Every thing." He really wasn't going to be more specific with his partner in the room.

"Oh," Doctor James finally understood. "If you rest well and the swelling will go down accordingly, your sexual functions should be okay, although they might be disrupted after all. Time will tell."

"Okay, thanks Doctor," Booth nodded his head and glanced over at Brennan. "What are you looking at me for?"

"It's perfectly normal to be worried about the functioning of your sexual organs, Booth."

"Listen, I know that, okay?"

She shrugged in reply and turned to Doctor James.

"Is that everything you can tell for now?"

"Well, almost. The last good news is that if Agent Booth has got someone who can take care of him, he is allowed to go back home tomorrow. So are you, Doctor Brennan."

She gazed ahead thoughtfully for a moment. Going home. Alone. Leaving Booth at the hospital. Not going to happen.

"I'll take care of him," she blurted out. Booth's head shot up and turned in her direction. "For as long as he needs it," Brennan added calmly.

"Bones, you don't have to-"

"Oh but you don't have to decide yet. How about I'll leave you two to discuss it and come back later?" Doctor James offered. "There is so much more I should tell you about paraplegia, but I will get to that later. If you have any questions please make sure to write them down so you won't forget."

With that and a slight nod to the both of them, Doctor James buried her hands in the pockets of her white coat and left the room with a quick pace, off to her next patient.

It was quiet in the room for a moment and Brennan heard the rhythm of Booth's breathing had changed. She knew he was scared to death. He could lose his independence forever. He could lose his job, his hobbies, his time alone with Parker… he could lose his life.

"You're an L4. That's good you know. Considering, I mean," she broke the silence and Booth met her guilty gaze. He didn't ask what 'an L4' was because he knew it was one of the vertebrae in the lower back. Oh yes, he did pay attention to her ramblings sometimes and the word 'vertebrae', like 'cranium' and 'occipital bone', was like her mantra when she spoke about remains.

"Bones," he spoke in a low voice, "I am serious about this, okay? This is not your fault and you don't owe me anything. You should not feel obliged to do anything for me. Well except bringing me a fruit basket and keeping me posted on what's going on at the lab but other than that-"

"Stop!" she cut him. "Booth, I really want to do this, but only if it's okay with you. I… I don't want to be alone now anyway and you… you need help, Booth. And it would be the logical thing to do because we're partners. You saved my life. Again. This is the least I can do or I'll feel like I owe you for the rest of my life. Please just let me restore the balance."

Another moment of silence in which they battled with their eyes. You don't have to do this. I want to do it. You shouldn't feel obliged. I mean it. I can't ask this from you. And I'm going to do it. I'm not your burden to bear. My mind is set. That means I can do nothing but comply. Good thinking. Thank you.

A small smile spread across their lips.

"All right then. But I have to warn you: My mom used to tell me I was a real pain in the butt when I was sick and she had to take care of me."

"I can handle you."

"Until now, yeah."

"You'll have to put up with me as well, you know."

"Ah," he said dismissively, "I can handle you."

"Until now."

"Don't repeat other people's jokes Bones, it's not funny."

"I think it is," she shrugged.

"Anyway, let's just see how it goes then."

"Okay."

"Bones?"

"Yes?"

"Can I get one more hug?" he pleaded with puppy eyes.

"You really need one now, I suppose," she agreed and climbed out of her bed again, not feeling so dizzy this time and getting more and more successful at ignoring the nagging pain of her ribs.

Booth's smile grew wider as she approached him, her long athletic legs and bare feet carrying her to his bed and pushing her upwards so she could hop onto it and open her arms to him.

"Come here, then." He obeyed and wrapped his arms around her waist, careful not to hurt her ribs, making a mental note to feed her until she can't eat anymore without getting sick and rested his head against her soft chest, picking up on the sound of her heartbeat. She held him to her and wrapped one arm around his back, stroking it in a soothing manner.

"I'm still really sorry, Booth. For all of this."

"Me, too. But you know, it's in the past now and what we're going to do next is getting our lives back to normal, right?"

"Agreed," she answered and held him a little tighter, for she could hardly believe she had survived the past two weeks. She could hardly believe she wasn't hungry or thirsty or cold or in pain or afraid anymore.

Both of them wondered why all the sudden they needed to be so close the entire time. Perhaps because Brennan felt safe with him, after all he was the one who rescued her, and because Booth just wanted her back, his dearest friend, his partner.

And as for the position they now found themselves in, they decided on a variation on a very popular line:

What happens in this hospital room stays in this hospital room.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please tell us what you think about this chapter, it'll make our day!