I have to do one of these sometime. A somewhat abstract, yet optimistic post-ep to End in the Beginning. More chapters to come soon! Big thank you to all reviewers, I really appreciate it, please keep it up!

Words: 529
Spoilers: End in the Beginning
Time: Right after End in the the Beginning
Genre: Angst

Cold, white lights shine upon them, glaring off the blank walls and empty windows of the hospital room. The moment that he looks at her, she can tell that there is something different. She sees no bright warmth in his eyes that she has grown accustomed to, no smile, no worry, no concern for her well-being. But she ignores that sliver of a thought at first, instead speaking to him, listening to the voice that she thought she would never hear again. But he is awake, alive, speaking. He'd had a dream. She tells him what really happened, that the surgery went fine, but that he'd not reacted well to the drugs that the doctors had used.

She doesn't tell him of the paralyzing fear that had lived deep inside her heart for the four days that he was unconscious – what felt like the longest four days of her life. Her hair is limp with four days without washing, her eyes are dark from three nights of little sleep, and her body is tense and sore from spending too many hours in the tiny chair at Booth's bedside. She's sure that he will notice all this. He always does. Perhaps he will smile, tell her that she didn't have to stay, and not realize that there was no way she could have left.

But instead, his eyes remain empty. Alive and aware, but no spark of recognition or familiar warmth lights in them when he looks at her. He speaks again, and Brennan hadn't known before that it was possible for one's heart to stop so suddenly and entirely out of nothing more than fear instead of adrenaline.

Who are you?

For all she knows, it may have been hours before either of them spoke again. Hours in which the world had frozen along with her heart and mind, even though she knows that it is impossible for either of those things to actually occur. Time cannot stop moving. But in those few moments, she swears that it does, and she doesn't even question it.

I'm your partner.

The words are choked out, and she hears them as if they were spoken by someone else. How can she speak if time has frozen?

Bren?

Yes. Brennan, I'm Temperance Brennan, but you – you always call me –

For some reason, she can't say it. Her life's work, a simple word, and it won't escape her lips. But then he says it for her.

Bones.

And as quickly as it had stopped, time starts again, flying and spinning along with her reawakening heart and mind tight in its grip. Time cannot go faster – but again, she accepts something that she had never previously thought possible as she sees the recognition and the laughter reappearing in his eyes. He smiles, and despite the discomfort that the chair has given her, she falls back into it and holds his hand. She isn't able to stop the smile that spreads across her face, too. She usually likes to be in control of her actions.

But it doesn't matter anymore. All she sees is him, smiling when she'd wondered so many times if she'd ever feel so warm again.