Bones checked on a few of his patients, updated the few who were going into surgery that day, scanned those who had gotten out of surgery; and then made his way back to Mrs. Avery.

"I read about you building a trachea for that little boy, in that medical magazine. I got them to look for your name," Bones heard Mrs. Avery say, pride laced in her voice. "How was that?"

Bones came to stand in the doorway and watched as Ellie sat on the bed beside Mrs. Avery, a look of warmth on her normally emotionless face.

"I took the cartilage from his ribs," Ellie answered. "I stayed in the lab for a month watching it grow and irrigating it. Taking pictures so Marcus, the little boy, could watch it grow too. And then it was incubated in his abdomen; he thought that was the coolest thing." Ellie broke off smiling, a small laugh leaving her lips. "And then we inserted it right here," she said pointing to the lowest part of her throat on her chest.

Mrs. Avery gasped and smiled. "That is just amazing."

"It is isn't it," Ellie said before she laughed lightly, glad to hear Mrs. Avery's praise.

Bones watched as Mrs. Avery smoothed the hair away from her face. "I am so proud of you. And I know your mother would be too."

Ellie nodded, fighting the tears that were knotting her throat. "You're gonna be okay," she said looking at Mrs. Avery. "Where's your chart?"

Bones nearly sighed in relief when she missed him in the doorway as she looked around the room; Mrs. Avery's chart in his hand.

"Ellie, dear," Mrs. Avery said taking her hand. "It's a surgery to remove my tumor, the only thing bad that would happen is if they don't get it all." She smiled comfortingly at Ellie, and even though Ellie was a surgeon who knew better she still smiled back comforted.

Bones, however, knew Mrs. Avery had lied; if they didn't get all of the tumor then Mrs. Avery would die in three weeks. What Ellie did not know was where the cancer was, it was nearly impossible to get all of the tumor without leaving the patient brain dead; but this was Mrs. Avery's last option and so she was risking it.

"It's time to prep you for surgery, Mrs. Avery," Bones said after seeing Ellie's jaw clench and knowing she would cry if she stayed any longer.

He was proven right when he saw the relief in her eyes when she looked up at him. The fact that he had been the one to take a step back from her, the fact that he had ignored her and then been the one to treat her coldly, did not matter. In that moment Ellie was scared and he could offer comfort. "Are you gonna be there?"

Bones nodded and he saw her shoulders drop, realizing how tense she had been. "Jim," he said softly when she turned back to Mrs. Avery. He jerked his head toward the hall and Jim followed him.

"It isn't as simple as Mrs. Avery's making it seem, is it?" Jim asked.

Bones shook his head. "It's inoperable," he explained. "Her brain is deteriorating, her motor functions are weakening. Her prognosis is three weeks. That's how long doctors believe she has before the center of her brain that controls her breathing will deteriorate."

Jim turned away from him, tears gathering in his eyes. "Dammit."

"Jim," Bones said, feeling the utmost sympathy for both Jim and Ellie; even he liked Mrs. Avery, she was kind and caring and held more love than anyone he'd ever met.

"We can't," Jim told him, tears gone from his blue eyes. "We can't lose her. Bones, you don't understand; she was our mother and Mr. Avery was our father and Sarah our sister. They," he trailed off as tears once again gathered in his eyes.

"They were your family," Bones finished for him. "Why didn't Ellie mention her?" Bones asked, remembering Ellie had said Jim was the only one who loved her.

"She doesn't talk about her," Jim told him. "Ever. She can't deal with losing anyone else and so she doesn't talk about her. You didn't see her after the crash, she was unresponsive and uncommunicative. She can't lose her, Bones," Jim said begging.

Bones nodded knowing there was more than an eighty percent chance Mrs. Avery would come out of the surgery brain dead; and Ellie would find him at fault because she hadn't been told the severity of the cancer.

Jim and Ellie sat in the waiting room as Mrs. Avery was taken to surgery, waiting in agony to hear from Bones.

"What is it?" Jim asked when Bones came to give them an update and pulled him away from Ellie.

"The cancer had deteriorated more of the brain than we had thought," Bones explained.

"You can't remove it," Jim said defeated.

Bones sighed shaking his head. "The reason Dr. Sullivan agreed to letting our best neurosurgeon take this case was because Mrs. Avery wanted them to try to remove all of it."

"What are you saying?" Jim asked not understanding. "Is she brain dead?"

"The tumor had eroded into the medulla oblongata, removing it left her unable to breathe. She asked for no extraordinary measures," Bones explained gently. "She's dead Jim."

He watched the shock register on Jim's face, seeing his friend reeling from the loss. "Do you want me to tell her?"

Jim shook his head. "She should hear it from me," he said before walking back to Ellie who looked up at him fearfully, knowing something was wrong. "Come here," he said taking her hand and leading her into a room and shutting the door.

Bones sat in the chair Ellie had been occupying, watching them through the window. Jim opened his mouth once and Bones saw his inability to tell her when he closed his mouth without speaking. But Ellie understood anyway and Bones watched the shock and then the pain spread across her face, seeing her start gasping for breath as the weight of another loss began suffocating her.

Jim reached for her and she pushed him away, her shoulders shaking as she began to cry. Bones watched as she began yelling him, seeing she'd realized Jim had known how serious Mrs. Avery's cancer was. Her hands pushed hard against his chest before she covered her face, and then she dropped her hands and yelled at him again. And Bones watched as Jim stood there and took it as she yelled, and as he held back from reaching for her when she sobbed. Jim waited until Ellie covered her face with her hands weeping before he reached for her, and then he waited until she reached for him before he took her in his arms and held her.

Bones saw more than just their pain, he could see their love; Jim knew her in a way no one ever would, and Ellie loved Jim more than life itself; he wondered if maybe Jim was the only reason she had survived this long. Bones watched her shoulders shake as she cried, and how Jim completely enveloped her in his arms.

...

Ellie continued staying in the hospital for the remaining month before she would leave on the Enterprise, and Jim stayed with her. He would leave during the day to see to his own duties as a captain, but he'd hold her as they slept drawing comfort from all they could. It was a relief to leave Earth, the place where they had lost everyone.

For Ellie it was almost a relief to see Scotty again; with his thick scottish accent, and his ability to make her laugh even if she didn't want to. It was three months after the Enterprise returned to space and Ellie was just starting to find herself again when it happened – something she had never expected to feel, and something that would make it impossible for Bones to be near her.

"Nosebleeds can be caused by anything. If it continues then we can worry. But since this is her first one, I'd say. Hi," she said smiling at the little girl playing with her fingers, feeling her small mouth sucking on her knuckles. "I don't think it's anything to worry too much over," Ellie told the little girl's mother.

Ellie could nearly see the relief in the mother's face as she smiled down at her little girl. "It's my first time back on board since I had Laura. I couldn't leave her for a year," she explained as she watched Dr. Davis playing with her daughter to keep her happy.

Ellie picked the little blonde haired girl and held her on her hip. "I think it's great that you brought her along," Ellie told the mother before she pretended to bite on the Laura's fingers, eliciting a squeal from her.

"You're very good with her. Do you have children?"

"No," Ellie said shaking her head, nor did she want them. Or at least that's what she had thought; holding Laura and seeing her sweet chubby cheeks smiling made her wonder if she could be a mother, liking the feeling of holding a child. Thoughts of her own mother had kept her from ever wanting a child, afraid to leave her daughter in the state she herself was left in.

Bones looked over at the sound of the girl's giggling to see Ellie kissing the girl's cheeks, a rare breathtaking smile on her lips. She was the last person Bones would ever think of to be a mother, but seeing her with the child made him wonder; and then it hit him harder than it ever had – she was going to die.

I tried to show that even though Bones was keeping her at arms length he still cares for her. And yet the knowledge of knowing she's going to die still hits him when he's around her. I hope that translated into my writing, I'm not quite sure if it did. Again, thank you all so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed.