Oh, is that potential fluff I see? Surely not...but no, it is!

Enjoy :)

Chapter 21: Lucky To Have You

Booth was sitting in the standard, hard plastic chair next to the hospital bed where his partner was lying. She had been brought in last night by the ambulance, and had been whisked away by a mass of doctors and nurses before he was even halfway in the door.

They had finally let him in to see her around one in the morning, after they had given her what seemed to him like enough drugs to knock her out for a year. Since then, he hadn't moved from his seat beside her.

At one point a doctor had come in and explained what was wrong with her. She had a fractured kneecap, accompanied by a rather nasty scrape, which no doubt would have become infected if it had been left any longer. She also seemed to have banged her head quite badly. For a while they had been worried about that, but after several scans and a close examination they were pretty sure she would get away with just a bump and a rather cruel headache.

According to the doctor, she had passed out from exhaustion; not just mentally but physically as well, as her body tried to cope with the various injuries, without food, fluids or antibiotics to help it along.

She also had a lot of scrapes and bruises that made it all look a heck of a lot worse than it was. "So overall," the doctor had told him, "she is a very lucky woman."

Booth didn't think it was appropriate to mention just how unlucky she could be sometimes. This situation that got her injured being one of those times.

A few hours later Angela turned up. She was on the other side of the bed in an instant, holding her best friends hand and obviously trying not to cry.

"Oh my god Bren, oh my god."

Booth thought he should reassure her as quickly as he could. "She's going to be alright Ange. The doctors have checked her all out and they said she should be ok." He explained everything that the doctor had told him earlier.

"Oh really? Oh that's good, then." She gave Booth a grateful smile and then turned back to her friend, giving a huge sigh of relief. "Jesus, Bren, you have got to stop doing this to me. Honestly, I don't think I could take any more!" And then she burst into tears.

Booth got up and got a chair for her, then sat back down in his own, leaving her to cry as much as she wanted. He completely understood. The stress and emotions built themselves up to ridiculous levels when they were so afraid for her life and worried about finding her in one piece, and now that it was over, and they knew she would be ok, they both needed to vent. Her way was to cry.

Not too much later, she sorted herself out and looked back at him again.

"Feel better?" he asked.

"Hmm yeah. Thanks." She gave him another smile. "I just…you know."

"Yeah, I know." There was a comfortable pause, where they both just sat there, looking at the battered woman between them.

"So I guess it would be stupid of me to ask who found her." Angela said to him eventually.

"Yeah, well…" Booth didn't really think he deserved the gratitude he could hear in her voice. After all, he had barely made it and it had been blind luck that he had even found out where she was.

"Booth." She paused to make sure she had his attention, and that he understood she was dead serious. "She's lucky to have you. I'm pretty sure she knows that, and you should never doubt it."

Angela watched him think. Eventually he raised his eyes to meet hers, and asked "Do you really think so?" She could see nothing but hope in those eyes.

"Positive." She replied and gave him her best smile.

Booth looked back down at his sleeping partner, thinking about what Angela had said and, for a long time, they both stayed silent.

"You should tell her." Angela said quietly, breaking the silence that filled the room. She had spent the entire time watching the exhausted agent, as he sat and looked at the woman lying next to him, not taking his eyes off her for a second.

Booth didn't look up at Angela's words. He knew what she meant.

He thought back to that morning that felt like a lifetime ago when he had had this very argument with himself. The morning he had gone to pick up Bones from her apartment after dropping her off the night before, because she had been too tired for him to let her drive home by herself.

He had decided that morning that he wouldn't tell her how he felt about her. He wouldn't tell her how much he wished they could be more than partners, more than friends. He had decided then that he couldn't risk the consequences of telling her; having her run away from him, or having her shut him out. He just couldn't risk losing her. He could live with being just friends, if it meant he didn't lose her.

But now…now he almost had lost her, and he wasn't sure he liked that decision anymore. What if she hadn't made it, what if she had died, and he had never told her the truth? Never told her how hopelessly in love with her he was? He hated even the thought of it.

But the real question was; what would she do if he told her? Earlier, he had been convinced that she would never want to see him again, that she wouldn't possibly feel the same. Then he thought back to the one thing she had said to him after he found her, only a few hours ago – "I'm alright Booth. You're here."

Maybe it would be alright. Maybe he should tell her…

"I should tell her." He said, looking over at Angela. He wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement.

She just smiled, stood up from her chair and said, "I think I'll go now."

He listened to her walk towards the door and then stop. "I'll say this one thing Booth." She said to him from the doorway. "Sometimes, people can do the one thing that we don't expect of them. If I've ever met someone who could surprise me when I least expected it, it is Temperance Brennan." And the she was gone.

Booth took a deep breath and looked back for the hundredth time at the woman he loved. He took her small hand in both of his. "What do you say, Bones? Do you think I should tell you? Do you want to know that I love you?"

Temperance didn't feel like opening her eyes. She felt very relaxed, and everything was nice and quiet around her. She wondered why it was so quiet, and she wondered where she was. This was not her bed.

She tried to think of where she had been before. For a while she came up blank, and then an image flashed up in her mind of a man with blood leaking across his face, a bullet hole in his head. She sat bolt upright and opened her eyes, only to close them again when she was met by blindingly bright light.

Suddenly, her head felt like it was going to explode. She instinctively brought her hands up to hold it together…but one hand didn't move. Slowly, she opened her eyes again and looked to her right. There, with his head next to her leg on the bed, and holding her hand tightly in his own, was a sleeping Booth.

She ignored her throbbing head for a moment and just looked at him. She remembered everything now of course. And she remembered him coming to save her, just as she hoped he would.

He was starting to wake up. She wondered if she should move her hand, but decided she really didn't want to; his hand was very warm around hers. As he sat up, blinking the sleep from his eyes, she remembered her mental list of things she had wanted to tell him, when she had been certain she was going to die.

She had wanted to tell him not to be sad, and not blame himself, because none of it was his fault. She had wanted to tell him that he was the only one who could always make her laugh, and that he was the best partner she could ever have. And there had been something else too…but it eluded her, just like it had before.

"Hey Bones." She watched him give her the most wonderful smile in the world, and she suddenly felt her eyes watering. It must be the headache, she thought to herself, or the bright light, making my eyes water.

But she didn't complain when Booth stood up and wrapped his arms around her, letting her curl into him and cry and cry and cry.

Hmm now let's see, should I write the next chapter? Or should I leave it to your imaginations? ;)