(After the Beginning in the End)

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I don't own Bones.

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No one had seen Booth for several days. He'd called in sick one day and then he'd called Cullen and asked for vacation time the day afterwards. He'd explained to the Deputy Director that he was exhausted and he needed to recharge his batteries before coming back to work. Cullen, who'd been aware that Booth had taken the departure of his partner to the Maluku islands hard had approved the vacation time. Cam had been notified and Cullen had arranged to have two of his agents rotate as liaison with the Jeffersonian until Booth got back.

What concerned Cam was the fact that she hadn't seen or talked to her friend for five days and that started to worry her. Arriving at Booth's apartment, she knocked on his door and waited. She could hear music coming from the apartment, so she knew he was home. After a few minutes, Cam started to knock louder, her concern for Booth becoming sharper.

Finally opening the door, Booth greeted Cam in a pair of sweat pants and nothing else. Smiling, Booth asked, "Hey, Cam, what's up?"

Surprised at his appearance and at his happy demeanor, Cam laughed. "I was worried about you. I hadn't heard from you in five days and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Glad to see his old friend, Booth held onto the door frame and grinned. "Oh, I'm fine. Thanks for checking up on me. I'm just taking a few days off to recharge the old batteries. No need to worry about me."

Puzzled about his attitude, Cam tried to figure out why the Agent was happy. He had been a very unhappy man a week ago. "Have you heard from Dr. Brennan?"

Leaning against the wall, blocking her from coming into his apartment, Booth nodded his head. "Oh sure. She's doing okay. In fact, the last time I talked to her, she seemed pretty happy to me."

The vibe coming from Booth was strange and that started to worry her. Slowly, nodding her head, Cam cocked her head to the side. "What's going on?"

Wary of his friend, Booth released the door and clasped his hands in front of his waist. "What makes you think something's going on?"

At that point, Cam new that Booth was trying to hide something. "Gee, I don't know. You suddenly go on vacation. You're wearing just sweatpants at one in the afternoon and you're smiling from ear to ear. It doesn't take a genius to know you're up to something . . ." Suddenly concerned, she placed her hands over her mouth. "You've met someone haven't you? . . . Oh, Seeley, I hope you aren't making a mistake."

Starting to get angry, Booth decided that Cam was crossing a line that she shouldn't. "I'm on vacation. If I want to run around naked in my apartment then that's my business. As for me being happy, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with me being okay?"

Rubbing her eyebrow, Cam shook her head. "I know you were upset when Dr. Brennan left. I just don't want you to jump into a relationship that you might regret later. I worry about you. Booth . . ."

Since the conversation was taking a turn towards a road he didn't want to go down, Booth interrupted the coroner. "Don't worry about me, Cam. I'm happy. I'll be back at work on Monday. You don't need to worry about me . . . please."

Her friend was going to do what he wanted to do no matter what she said and Cam had no intention of alienating his friendship. "Okay, fine. You're a big boy and you can take care of yourself. I get it. I just hope this doesn't explode in your face . . . if it does, remember that I'm your friend and I'm on your side."

Shaking his head, Booth stepped back a step. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Camille." Closing the door in her face, Booth leaned against the door and looked down the hallway. He hadn't want to be rude to Cam, but sometimes she was very interfering. He stood away from the door and walked back into the living room and stopped in front of his entertainment center. Changing out the CD and restarting his music, he walked into the bedroom, removed his sweat pants and climbed into bed.

Brennan held out her arms and smiled. "So where were we?"

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They're searching methodically for her, but they were running out of time. He knows and so do the men that are with him, still they search each room carefully. They know Kenton came into this building with her and they need to find them fast, find her fast.

Cutting across a room with multiple doors he spies keys lying on the floor. He's in too much pain to bend down to pick them up, so he whistles softly drawing the attention of Hodgins and the agents with them. Hodgins picks up the keys and he recognizes that they belong to Brennan. Walking rapidly towards an open doorway, he sees Brennan hanging from her wrists attached to a block and tackle, Kenton on the verge of taking her life. Raising his gun he shoots Kenton. Rushing as fast as his damaged body will allow he moves to her side and removes her gag. He tries to lift her from the hook with his good hand, but his shoulders and chest are on fire and he can't do it. Ducking between her arms, he lifts her off of the hook with his neck and they both fall to their knees. Her arms around his neck, she's shaking like a leaf in a storm. She's so afraid and all he can do is comfort her.

"Oh, it's okay. I'm right here."

She moves a little back to look at his pained filled face. "How'd you'd you get out of the hospital?"

The weight of her arm on his broken clavicle is very painful and he winces. "Hodgins gave me a ride. Maybe . . . maybe you could give me a ride back though, huh?

She hugs him tightly and the pain is so bad he gasps. She's hurting him, but he can't tell her. He won't tell her. He found her and if she needs his comfort then he will give what he can.

A hand shook him very hard which awakened him. Booth opened his eyes and saw Brennan leaning over him. "Booth, you were gasping like you couldn't catch your breath. Is there any thing wrong? Are you in pain?"

He wasn't really in pain and he wanted to assure her he was fine. "No, I'm okay. It was just a bad dream." He reached up and brushed a lock of hair from her cheek and moved it around her ear.

She knew he was plagued with bad dreams and now that she had seen it first hand, she wanted to help him if it was possible. Brennan leaned against Booth and put her arms around his chest. "Would you like to talk about it?"

Considering the dream, Booth sighed in frustration. "I don't know. It might be a memory dream and if it was, it was bad. I don't want to upset you. If it's just something else, it still might bother you. Let's just ignore it."

His urge to protect her irritated her sometimes. If he needed help then she wanted to be the one to do it, but he needed to talk to her. "Talk to me Booth. You need to let me know what's going on."

The concern in her voice made him love her even more. She was so giving to those she was loyal to. He placed his arm around her and told her about his dream. Once he was done he waited to see how Brennan would respond. After awhile when she remained silent, he started to worry. "I'm sorry, Bones. I knew I shouldn't have . . . "

Interrupting Booth, Brennan spoke quietly. "No, Booth. You were right to tell me. That was something that really happened. It was the first year we became partners. The man you shot was an FBI agent."

He had known that, he had just been unsure if the dream was true or not. "Yeah, I recognized him. I just . . . why did he do that? Why was he trying to kill you? I don't remember that case and I sure don't remember seeing that case file. I . . . I tried to read them all, but we've had so many cases and I just didn't have time to read them all, I . . ."

Rubbing his chest, Brennan interrupted him once more. "No, I know you haven't had a chance to read about every case we've worked on. Since you've been back at work, your time is taken up with the work we have now, you don't have time to go back and look any more. That's alright."

The fact that someone he considered a friend had tried to kill Brennan made Booth feel guilty. He wasn't sure why he did, but he did. "Why did Kenton try to kill you? How did he kidnap you? I mean I can't have been doing my job if I let him kidnap you." You . . ."

Shaking her head, Brennan answered him calmly and with an assuring voice. "You didn't let Kenton kidnap me. You were in the hospital. You'd been in an explosion in my apartment. Kenton had rigged my refrigerator with an explosive and when you opened it you were seriously hurt. Kenton was working on a case with us and he took advantage of that and kidnapped me. He was involved with the mob and had murdered someone per their request. He tried to kill me making it look like a serial killer did it to protect himself. You figured out that Kenton was dirty while you were lying in the hospital and you had Hodgins get you out of there. Once you were out, you had the FBI search for me and you found me and rescued me even though you were in a lot of pain and should never left the hospital."

Booth thought back to a dream he had had in the past. A very vivid dream. "I had a dream about opening a refrigerator door a while back and it blew up. I just thought it was one of those dumb nightmares people have sometimes. I didn't know that was real."

Sad that Booth had had to relive such a nightmare, Brennan sighed. "Oh, yes it was very real." She placed her ear over his chest and listened to his heart beat.

Hugging her tightly, Booth tried to wrap his mind about what had happened, blown up by a booby-trapped fridge, betrayed by an old friend. "How do we get into messes like that? It seems, I don't know . . . weird."

Raising herself up on her hand, she looked down at his confused face. "We have a very dangerous job and we come into contact with a lot of very dangerous people. Sometimes those dangerous people turn their wrath upon us."

Booth smiled at his partner. "I'll do my best to protect you, Bones. I don't want to lose you." And he didn't. He was a man in love. He would protect her with his life if he had to.

Kissing him, Brennan placed her hand over the scar on his chest. "You always have protected me Booth. It's who you are."

Licking his lips, Booth stared into his lover's sparkling blue eyes. "Bones, why did you change your mind about Maluku? Why did you come back? I was willing to wait for a year or even longer."

Careful with her words, Brennan didn't want him to misunderstand her what she was about to say. "I know you would have waited, Booth, but I couldn't. I realized that I was playing with our future happiness and it wasn't right to do that to you. You've been telling me for months that you love me. At first, I just assumed you meant as a friend and then we started dating and I realized that wasn't what you meant at all."

Surprised, Booth looked in wonder at his lover. "You knew they were real dates?"

Brennan kissed him and then answered his question. "Yes, of course. You said they were dates and then you tried to hide their importance to you, but I soon realized that they were very important to you. I finally understood just how important when you didn't show any interest in Catherine Bryar. I started to think about how you'd changed since your operation and how your were more open about your feelings for me. I've always sensed that we had a connection, but I couldn't really tell how much of one. After the operation and once you realized that we were partners and friends, I could see that you were interested in me. You know I'm terrible at reading people and yet suddenly you were like an open book to me."

Puzzled, Booth shook his head. "Why didn't you say anything?'

Closing her eyes, she laid her head on his chest, her ear over his heart. "I was afraid to. I was afraid that your memory problem was influencing how you felt about me. I was afraid it was temporary, but weeks went by and if anything your feelings for me became more intense. Still I was afraid to acknowledge it then Angela pointed out that you were in love with me and I just couldn't ignore it anymore. I had to decide what to do about it and that's almost all I thought about until I took that assignment in Maluku. I thought I would use the space and the time to really find out if I had the courage to allow you in to my life." Sighing, Brennan opened her eyes and pulled herself up to stare at Booth. "Then you kissed me in the airport. That kiss Booth. That kiss was all I could think about on the plane ride and once I got to Maluku I started to realize that I couldn't let you stay here by yourself and not know how I felt about you. You've been through so much since the tumor and I didn't want you to feel like . . . well, I I love you Booth. I love you and I don't want you to be alone."

His throat tight with emotion, Booth swallowed. "I love you Bones."

Nodding her head, she smiled at him. "Yes, I know." And she loved him too.

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