Robin watched the doctors in their bulky white suits work around both Barney and Brennan and she couldn't help the mixture of both nervousness and relief. She was thrilled that they knew what it was now, but the doctors themselves had said that they weren't sure how to treat it and that they were just trying something.

But, she was still filled with hope as she watched the doctors hook things up and put different medications into the IV's. In fact, she was so happy that she had to continually fight back the smile that was pushing on her lips at the thought of hearing and seeing Barney again.

"Well it looks like your mood's improved a bit," Shawn observed as he came up to stand by her.

"Yeah, well the situation's improved a bit," she answered, eyes not leaving the room.

"When Barney gets out of the hospital, we're definitely going to have to go out and have the biggest celebration possible at McLaren's," Marshall said, already looking like he was already planning everything out.

"And I'll be the best wingman he could ever have," Ted said, looking a little happy at the thought.

Robin let herself smile this time. The talk made her feel like it was going to work and things would be better.

*Booth watched anxiously as the doctors worked on Brennan. Along with hooking her up to the new medicine they were doing some general things like checking her vitals.

When the doctors turned to each other and started talking he had to restrain himself from pounding on the window and demanding to know what was happening.

They came out about fifteen minutes after they went in and they pulled their helmets off.

"If it's the right treatment we should see results in a few minutes. They probably won't wake up immediately but if it's taking effect then they should in maybe a half hour," the female doctor with brown hair said.

"Thank you so much," Lily said, positively beaming, looking genuinely excited.

"What are you looking forward to the most about having her back?" Ted asked, looking up with curious eyes.

"Ted, come on, don't ask things like that," Robin scolded, eyes still fixed into the two rooms, looking a little on edge.

"Why? The doctors said things will be okay, I just asked what he was looking forward to," Ted defended.

"It's okay. There's a lot that I have to do when she wakes up but I think that the thing I'm looking forward to the most is her intelligence and her correcting everything. In other words I'm just looking forward to having her back," he said distractedly.

*House sat in his office, gazing out the window. The rest of his team had just left, telling him that they'd administered the medication and that they would know for sure its effect after about thirty minutes.

And he was pissed now. He was pissed because he hadn't figured out what it was, some scientist did. Sure it was great that the patients weren't going to die and that it was due to him knowing what the treatment was, but half the fun was figuring out what the disease actually was.

And that's what he was explaining to Wilson at that very moment.

Wilson sat across from him and raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think that's just a little pathetic? You want to solve the puzzle more than you want to save a life," he said.

"Oh really? Why do I continuously risk my career and this hospital's reputation to be able to do something that will help my patient if I only care about the puzzle?"

"Because I think that there's a human somewhere in there."

House scowled but refrained from saying anything. "Now, the other problem. One of the patients is hiding something, something big and I want to know what it is. What you need to help me do is figure out how to get him to spill."

Wilson scoffed. "What do you want me to suggest, truth serum?" he asked jokingly.

House felt his jaw loosen and drop just a little. "Yes, I can't believe I didn't think of it before," he muttered, standing and leaving his office in a rush.

Wilson stared after him and sighed. Nothing good could come of that.

*He was standing at the end of a long table with fierce faces looking down at him. But probably the most terrifying was the big black stallion directly opposite him. There were tears streaming down his face and he was saying something but he couldn't hear himself.

One of the others, Fake Thomas Jefferson, stood up and stalked over to him.

"You've betrayed us all! How could you possibly think we would show you mercy?" he screamed at him.

He flinched a little and was launched into another blinking fit, one he hadn't had for years.

Bad Horse nickered loudly, silencing Fake Thomas Jefferson and the others who'd started to join in on the rebuking.

One of the singing cowboys spoke up. "You're going to have to carry out another assignment to prove your loyalty to the Evil League of Evil."

He looked down at the table, waiting for the information.

"You're going to have to kill someone. Maybe that pretty little brunette that you hang around," the other cowboy said.

His head snapped up and he met the gazes of all the others. Some looked like they were satisfied with this ruling and some of them were still glaring at him.

He didn't know what to do or say or what to make of what he'd just heard.

Barney woke with a jolt, sweating and breathing shallowly. He sat up and realized that he didn't feel as hot as he had before and that he actually felt a little better. He looked beside him and noticed that the IV had been changed. Had they found out what the disease was?

He thought back to his dream, or rather, his nightmare. He felt the familiar ache in his chest when he thought back to those days and what had happened to the woman he'd loved.

And now there was Robin. He'd accepted that he loved her again, if he'd ever even stopped, and that there wasn't much to do about it. He just wondered if it was okay to love someone else after Penny. But who was he kidding? He and Penny had never been anything more than friends, and not even regular friends, just friends who saw each other and talked at the Laundromat that they both went to.

Barney put his head in his hands, figuring that he was going crazy.

Then he noticed that there was a man standing outside of his room, staring in at him, the same one as before. This time he didn't look away though and he held the gaze.

Slowly the man approached and he slid the glass door open.

"What the-?" he asked but was cut off.

"I'm Doctor House, the one in charge of your case. Be nice because I can kill you. All I'm doing is administering another dose of your new medicine."

"What is it?" Barney asked suspiciously. He would know because he had general knowledge of medicine. He was a scientist for God's sake.

"Oh you wouldn't know, too long and confusing. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing," the doctor said, taking a syringe out of his pocket and inserting it into the IV line.

"Try me," he challenged but the doctor only shook his head.

"I don't want to make you think too hard right now as you're just beginning to recover. You should actually go back to sleep, aren't you getting tired?"

Now that he thought about it, his eyes were a little heavier. The doctor smiled and left.

He rested back on the pillow and closed his eyes, drifting off into another nightmare.

*House watched the patient fall asleep and he slipped back into the room to hear what the blond man was saying. The point of the drug he'd injected was to put him to sleep and get him to remember things and speak them.

"Bad Horse…Penny…no, I'm not like that….I can't…NO…It's not what I thought it was, Moist…It's not right…I'm going back home…," then it fell into incomprehensible mumbling about singing cowboys and a man named something 'Hammer'.

House shook his head. It was a dream, he was hearing a dream, that was it. And obviously the dream had nothing to do with the secret.

He left the room, teeth clenched, wondering what else he could try.

*Booth woke with a start and he looked into Brennan's room on instinct. He did a double take when he saw her eyes open and her head held a little higher.

He stood and rushed to the glass, tapping a little to get her attention.

When her gaze turned on him he couldn't prevent the rush of joy, the clenching of his heart when he saw her beautiful eyes and her slight smile.

"Booth!" he heard her voice say happily, muffled from behind the thick glass.

"I'm here Brennan," he whispered. "Right here."

She motioned a little for him to come into the room with her. He wondered if he should then figured that he didn't really care.

Booth pushed the door aside and went into the room, closing the door softly behind him so that the others didn't wake up.

The two of them, one standing, one sitting, just looked at each other. There was nothing else that they could do. They stood there and looked at each other with smiles on their faces.

"Did they find out what it is? Is that why I feel better?"

"Yeah, Hodgins figured it out and called me. Are you feeling better?" he asked, hoping that Hodgins was right.

"Much better. What is it?"

"Well I don't know the name but he said that the disease is from a rare bacteria found on the bones. When you handled them at the crime scene you were infected."

"And what does this bacteria do?" Brennan asked, looking interested.

"It burrows into your skin and bones, feeding off of you," Booth recalled.

"Hmmm, it doesn't sound like something I know," she mused, looking a little troubled. Not knowing things did tend to irritate her.

"Well, Hodgins said that it's found in Indonesia and that our victim was definitely not familiar with the surroundings if she got infected with it," he answered.

Brennan nodded. "Okay, that makes sense. Have you gotten anything else?" she asked.

"Not much, I talked a little bit to the victim's mother and sister and we have a suspect that I still need to go out and question."

"Why haven't you yet? Or, you can go now," she said, looking confused and she was right to, he usually never took much time to go and question a suspect.

"You've been unconscious and I've been here to make sure that you're okay," he answered.

"You didn't have to, the others would keep an eye on me and they could call you and tell you if something bad happened," she said with that confused look that she always had when they were talking about things like this, meaning that she didn't understand his concern.

"That's not the point. I needed to be here myself," he tried to explain. "You know, sometimes it's not enough to have someone tell you what's happening, sometimes you have to see it and be there yourself."

"So, you were here because you needed to know everything yourself," she clarified.

"Well yeah. And, details get left out when it's a second-hand account."

She looked down at the sheets, a very un-Bones thing to do. Then she looked up at him in the eyes. "What would you do if I told you that I loved you?"

He was dumbstruck. Sure he'd known because of that one night when he was still with Hannah but Bones had never said it out loud, and neither had he.

"What would you do," he asked, "if I said the same thing?"

She put one hand on his cheek and leaned in to kiss him. It was mind-blowing. It was something that he'd dreamed about. And sure they'd kissed before but every single dream took those feelings and amplified them until he was sure that it was impossible for a simple kiss to feel that way. But of course, Bones had to prove him wrong and knock every single one of those dream kisses out of the way with the real feeling that was so much more.

The kiss didn't last long, no matter how it felt, and they were looking at each other again, faces closer, both with surprised expressions on their faces.

"Funny how we would do the same thing," he whispered with a smile that got wider when she returned it.