A/N see? I did actually get one up quickly. I actually finished this one a few hours after chapter 9, but wanted to wait a little bit to post it (people are less likely to comment on older chapters, and I am very interested in any advice so that I can improve on later chapters and future stories. Please R&R. Bones is not mine :(. Sorry for any typos, I don't mind beta-ing for someone else, but having to read my own work and finding fault in every sentence is just too much. Enjoy.

Brennan froze, mentally begging that Angela hadn't told Booth anything about the previous night. "Something new with the case?" She asked, trying hard to hide her nervousness, don't want to make him think there is something wrong if he doesn't know.

"Nope, wish I could say so, but there was no hit in the missing persons database. My field agents are going door to door in the area looking for any leads." An uncomfortable silence fell between them. Booth did know how to bring the nightmares up, and Brennan was praying that that wasn't what the talk he wanted to have.

He decided to start neutrally. "So did you and Angela have fun last night? You both look pretty tired, must have had some wicked pillow fights," he flashed her a glowing charm smile.

"Booth, we did not have pillow fights. That is a very immature activity, we're adults. We watched some comedies and had ice cream, if you must know."

"Ah-ha." So much for hoping she would accidentally mention something I could question about it.

"You're agitated. What is it that you wanted to talk to me about? I am sure you don't really care what me and Angela did last night."

"Well, actually, Ange told me." He looked carefully for her reaction. He saw a flash of fear? Anger? Or something in her eyes, but it was gone in an instant, replaced by a completely closed expression.

Play dumb, that is your best bet, maybe he will think it was all a misunderstanding. Even as she thought it, she knew that it would never work, but she had to try. "Did she tell you we had pillow fights? Because if so, she made it up."

"Bones," he said, almost forcing her to make eye contact.

Fantastic, he didn't buy it. Oh well, might as well take it all the way. She held his eye contact, forcing her features into a somewhat confused expression. "What?"

He sighed inwardly. Why is she so difficult!?. "Angela told me you had a nasty nightmare. And that it's not the first one she has seen."

"She 's wrong. They are not nightmares they are just dreams that my body has an overly strong adrenaline reaction to. I don't even remember them when I wake up," she tried explaining it away as the same thing she told Ange.

As he was about to respond his phone rang. "Dammit." He flipped the phone open with more force than necessary, "Booth," he barked.

"Yes....okay. Alright, I'll be there in a half hour. No, thank you," Booth was beaming when he hung up the phone. But his smile dimmed a bit when he looked back at Bones.

"Listen, Rebbecca is sick again and wants me to take Parker for the rest of the afternoon, until his bed time, so that she can get some rest. I gotta go pick him up now. "

She nodded and he turned to walk out of her office and she quietly sighed in relief. He got a few steps out and turned back to her, "This conversation isn't over."

Brennan looked at the clock, 3:00pm. Cam had told her that they would have the DNA results tomorrow, and with Booth's people having no leads, there was nothing that could be done with the case. She decided that she would at least get one body from limbo identified before going home.

Since this whole nightmare began, she actually found solace in limbo, away from the eyes of her co-workers. She didn't want people to notice how tired she was. It is interesting, she thought bitterly, I can stay up 2 days working, and not look nearly half as tired I do now, when I am getting some sleep. Her nightmares were exhausting her. It was enough having both Angela and Booth somewhat aware of her current issue, she did not need her other friends worrying.

Her limbo case was interesting. At first it seemed the person had just died of some natural cause that wasn't found in the bones, but then she noticed a small nick in a rib bone, and quickly wrapped up the case. Looking at her watch she was it was 8:00pm. Good, leaving now doesn't seem early for me.

She locked up and headed back to her apartment. She was too tired to go to the diner for food, what ever she had in her pantry would have to do.

What Brennan made it up to her apartment, she quickly found that she had very little food. I order out with Booth so much, I hardly ever go grocery shopping. She grabbed a box of pasta from her nearly empty pantry, and put water on the stove to boil. Waiting for the water to boil she sat down on her couch to read the newest Jeffersonian magazine. Three pages in she fell asleep. And entered into the worst and most realistic nightmare she had ever had.

She was in apartment, but it was different. She wasn't sure how it had changed, but it just kind of, off. She shook the feeling off, chalking it up to just being tired. She was waiting for water to boil to make her late supper, and was straightening things up around her apartment. She walked back to her kitchen and poured the pasta into her now rapidly boiling water, and set the timer for 11 minutes at the box instructed.

She went back to cleaning up her apartment, continuing into her bedroom. As she was making her bed she noticed a shoe box sitting on her nightstand. She couldn't remember taking the box down from the top shelf of her closet, but again, chalked it up to her exhaustion. It was the box that contained everything important to her from childhood. She smiled sadly at it, brought it over to the bed to begin to look through the contents as she waited for the timer to announce her food being ready.

She picked up a picture she had looked at a thousand times. It was a beautiful sunny spring day, she and her mom were sitting on a blanket in their back yard, laughing freely and something she can no longer remember. She noticed something in the background that she had never seen before, it was a tall man, Brennan gasped and dropped the photo to the floor. How had she never seen that before? McVickor watching them, half hidden by the trees that started just beyond the edge of their backyard. The beeping of the microwave shook her out of her thoughts, and she hastily picked up the photo but couldn't bring herself to put her favorite picture back with her favorite things. She dropped the picture on her bed and went to finish her dinner. As she was draining the pasta she heard a series of loud thumps, as if someone was walking heavily behind her. She turned around and came face to face with a pig gun. She froze, the colander dropping from her shaking hands. She glanced from the gun to the man's face. It was, as she expected, McVickor. She glanced back between them again.

"I know, my M.O. has always been a tire-iron, but I found that that can be a hassle. I mean, having to swing it hard enough, and in just the right place to guarantee the kill. This is much cleaner. A shot between the eyes, " he moved the gun to her forehead. "Or through the heart," he moved the gun over the left side of her chest. "Or, my favorite, the back of the head."

He pushed her down roughly, turning her around, and shoved the gun to the back of her head. He laughed, "You know, I have dreamed of this day. I couldn't kill your father, and it seems very unlikely that I will, but this way I can get revenge, by killing the most important person to him." He laughed again maliciously and steadied the gun on her head. "Any last words, Joy Keenan? Something I can tell your father, perhaps, if I ever do get to run across him?"

She was quietly pleading him to stop, to let her go, that she didn't mean anything to her father, after all, he had abandoned her at 15. But it didn't seem to matter. She heard a few more sharp bangs, and knew that she was dead. He laughed, banging his hand on the counter, enjoying every moment of her torment. "You know what? You are a beautiful women, there is something I want to do before I kill you." He grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her. "Bones...Bones...!"

At the sound of her nickname, the dream lost its strong grip on her and she stirred. "Bones. WAKE UP! " Booth commanded. "Bones!" he shook her a bit more forcefully. "Temperance!" At the sound of her first name, her eyes popped open, looking wildly around.

"Booth," she whispered. She wasn't sure if she was dead, still dreaming, or awake. But she decided she didn't care and flung herself into the arms of a very concerned Booth. She clung tightly to him. He felt real, she could smell his cologne, feel his chest rise and fall, and hear his heartbeat. She took a few calming breaths the dream came back to her, and she sprang loose and ran to her bedroom.

In a panic she grabbed a shoe box off the top of her closet and began quickly searching through it. She grabbed the picture she was looking for, and stared at it for a long moment. Booth, stood in the doorway watching her with a mix of worry and curiosity.

"Oh, thank god," she sighed. The picture did not contain McVickor. As if following the dream sequence she remembered she had left water boiling on the stove. She brushed past Booth quickly (he wasn't even sure she saw him) and rushed to the stove. Her water was almost boiled away. It had been so real. The box, the cooking, the intruder. She suddenly realized that the banging she heard must have been Booth knocking.

Booth observed her from behind. She was leaning heavily on the counter gripping it was white knuckles. As if suddenly remembering he was there she said, "I was making pasta, but I must have fallen asleep before the water boiled. Since you are here now, want me to make some extra?"

Her voice had been steady, but he noticed she had not turned around. Trying to lighten the mood he said brightly, "No need, Bones, I brought Thai." When she didn't respond he walked over the counter where she was standing. "Hey, " he said quietly, "talk to me." He put his hand on her shoulder gently, she flinched, remembering the dream, but didn't pull away. Stop being stupid, Temperance, she berated herself, it was just a dream, none of it was real, and this is just Booth. I wish he would go away. As she thought that, she instantly knew that it was not true. She needed him, more than ever, but she would never admit that, not even to herself.

Booth tried to turn her towards him, but she held tightly to the counter and resisted the motion. "Bones, look at me, " he asked gently. When she didn't he tried again, "Bones, you know you can trust me. Don't shut me out please," he paused again, and when she still didn't respond, "Temperance, please - " he started. At the sound of her name, she turned into him, without making eye contact and let him pull her in close to him. "Temperance, please look at me," he said gently, using her first name again. He pushed her slightly away from him, without letting go, so he could see her eyes. She met his eyes for a second, before dropping her again, ashamed of her reaction to the dream, and her emotional display. The second was long enough for Booth to see the pain, fear, shame, and the tears that filled them. "Hey, it's okay, come here, " he pulled her close again. "It's okay to be afraid, sometimes, even if it is irrational. Nothing to be ashamed of, " he said, hoping to at least remove the shame from her eyes.

After few moments she seemed to regain her composure, and pulled away. "I 'm starving, " she said with a smile that Booth saw through, but didn't push. "Let's have that Thai."

As they ate they talked about what Booth had done with Parker, and what classes Parker was taking at school. By the end of dinner Brennan seemed to be herself. Almost. She looked exhausted and vulnerable, but if he didn't know her so well, he never would have noticed.

After they had cleaned up dinner, Booth grabbed two beers from the fridge and joined Brennan on the couch. "So..." he started, "want to talk about it?"

"No."

"Why not?" he asked gently, though he figured he knew the answer.

"Because, I don't remember. It is as I explained earlier. They are basically night-terrors, that as soon as I am awoken I instantly forget. There are no lasting memories. I believe I just had the emotional response before from being tired, and the adrenalin from the dream." she lied effortlessly. She was proud of herself, Angela definitely would have believed that.

Not Booth. "Bull shit."