A/N: B/B established relationship. This one's sad-ish, too, but it's got a happy-ish ending. Brennan might be considered OOC, but given the context I don't think it's unrealistic.

And thanks SD for the super-fast turnaround!

Give Up

He sauntered into the lab, whistling to himself. It had been a good day. Well, pretty good. He'd had to spend it in court, but today had been the big one: a conviction. Now he was looking for Bones, so they could go out and celebrate, even though she hadn't had anything to do with this particular case. She, however, was nowhere to be found.

He popped into Cam's office, "Hey Cam? You seen Bones?"

"Not since this morning. She left at about 9:30, said she wasn't feeling well. I assume she went home." She glanced up at him, "Any particular reason you wouldn't know this already, Seeley?"

"Court today, Camille. She didn't call or leave a message."

"Ah, that'd do it. Sorry, Booth, but I haven't heard from her since she left. Your best bet's her apartment."

"Hmm. Thanks, Cam." He left, slightly preoccupied. Bones never left early, at least not without leaving him a message first. Figuring that Cam was right about her destination, he headed over to her apartment.

Upon entering, he noticed that there was only one light on. Maybe she was in bed? It was pretty early though. "Bones?" he called. Walking farther inside he saw her sitting on the couch hugging her knees. "Hey, Bones. Cam said you weren't feeling well this morning? Did you get sick after I left?"

She lifted her head to look at him and he saw, quite clearly, that she had been crying. He also noticed that she was clutching a plain white envelope in her hand.

"Bones? You okay? What happened?" He sat down next to her and she crawled carefully into his lap. These weren't good signs, the crawling or the carefully.

She took a shaky breath and started to speak, but was cut off by a sob. The one sob turned into several, but she managed to choke out "P-please don't be m-mad at me. Please," before being rendered incoherent.

"Bones, baby, what's wrong? Of course I'm not mad at you, you haven't done anything." She continued to cry, though, and he couldn't figure out what she could possibly have done to make her think that he'd be angry with her or to make her cry this hard. Completely bewildered he just held her and kissed her hair.

After a few minutes she calmed enough to hand him the envelope and repeat her plea. When he took it she tucked her head under his chin, still crying softly. He could feel her tears soaking his shirt.

When he opened the envelope he nearly dropped it in shock. Sonograms. That's what was inside. Sonograms, with her name on them, dated a few weeks earlier.

"Bones…" he whispered.

"I'm s-so s-sorry. I want…I want…I wanted to…" she started sobbing again, unable to finish.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, Bones. It's okay." He held her tighter, growing slightly worried. He was concerned at how much she was crying, and he was concerned for why she was apologizing. Was she upset because she was pregnant? Or maybe because she decided to get an abortion and was afraid of telling him? These weren't happy tears, so she clearly wasn't excited about being pregnant. He hoped she was just nervous, that she hadn't decided to terminate the pregnancy. He'd support her decision, but would have liked to talk about it first.

"I w-wanted to k-keep it. I real—" she swallowed thickly, "I really did. I was going to tell you in t-two weeks. At three months."

Oh. Oh. Oh no. "Oh, Bones. Sweetheart, I'm so sorry." She shook her head. "What happened?"

"I…I started bleeding at work. I looked it up and, and it didn't sound n-normal." She was trying so hard to be clinical, but he knew from Rebecca that her hormones at 10 weeks were crazy anyway and after miscarrying…no wonder she was crying so hard. "I called my doctor and sh-she said to go to the h-hospital. So I did. And they told me…they told me that I lost the baby." He barely heard the last part, but he already knew what it would be.

He pulled back to look at her, "You went by yourself? Angela didn't go with you?"

"She doesn't know. I didn't tell anyone." She wouldn't meet his eyes, "This just adds to the evidence of why I shouldn't be a mother."

He closed his eyes briefly. Sometimes she was beyond ridiculous. "Bones, Temperance," he chided gently, "You should have told someone. You shouldn't have had to do that alone. I can guarantee that anyone would have dropped everything to help you." She tried so hard to be strong, he knew, but there were some things that you just shouldn't do alone.

She shook her head again. "Please don't be mad at me. I'm sorry I didn't tell you." She sounded so small that his heart almost broke.

"Bones, look at me." He lifted her head and waited until she opened her eyes. "I am absolutely not mad at you." She tried to turn away, but Booth angled her head back toward his. "I mean it. I'm not. I'm just so sorry that you thought you had to do this alone. And that you think this is only one more reason why you should give up on being a mother."

"You're not mad that I didn't tell you?" His heart did break, then. She looked afraid, and so hopeful that he wouldn't be angry with her.

"Oh, sweetheart, of course not. You had your reasons for not telling me, though I hope you'll tell me what they were. And you said that you were going to tell me soon. And, to be honest, I think I would have noticed eventually if you'd tried to keep it a secret." She smiled tremulously at that. "I'm sad that we lost the baby, but I'm certainly not angry at you. You didn't do anything wrong." He tucked her head under his chin again and began rubbing her back.

After a few minutes of silence she started talking again, "I was scared, when I found out I was pregnant. And I didn't know what to do. After a while, though, I decided that I was happy, that I wanted to have a baby. But I still wanted to keep it a secret. It's irrational, but I liked being the only one who knew. And today you were in court, and you didn't know, and I didn't want you to get mad that I told Angela first. And I didn't want Angela to get mad that I didn't want to tell her first."

He chuckled, "I wondered when 'irrational' would make it into the conversation. And I really don't think Angela would have been mad at you for wanting to tell me first. I think she'd understand. It's okay, though, Bones, that you wanted it to be a secret. As long as you didn't think you'd actually be able to keep that secret for much longer." He squeezed her tightly.

"No. I was going to tell people in two weeks."

They sat quietly again for a few minutes before Booth spoke, "Why don't I call Angela and see if she'll bring us over some ice cream. Sound good?"

"Yeah. She called me a couple of times today, but I didn't answer. She doesn't like it when I don't call her back." She's not the only one, he thought.

"She'll understand, Bones, I promise." He kissed the top of her head again, and pulled out his cellphone. "Hey Ange…Yes, I'm at her apartment with her…I know…No, she's…Well, no, not exactly…It's under contr…Ange, Angela, why don't you grab some ice cream and come over. We'll all watch a movie or something…I will. When you get here I will…I promise…Okay, see you soon. Bye." He hung up.

"It's irrational for me to be worried that she'll be angry with me."

"Well, yes and no, Bones. It is a little bit irrational, but you've had a rough day, so I think a little bit of irrationality can be forgiven. Plus your body is totally whacked out right now. I do hope, though, that this doesn't totally make you give up. I mean, I know that we hadn't exactly planned on getting pregnant, but if you decide that you want to try again…I wouldn't mind. But if you don't want to, that's okay, too," he added hastily.

"Thanks, Booth." She raised her head and kissed him softly. "I love you."

"I love you, too."