Booth was relieved when Brennan followed Angela out of the hospital room. He wanted her to rest and relax, and he needed her to be gone a while so that she wouldn't accidentally see what Hodgins was going to bring to him.
"You let Brennan go with Angela?" asked Cam a moment later.
"I did. I want her to relax for the day. Is that a problem?" Booth said.
"No... I'm just surprised that she went and that you let her go at the moment, that's all."
"I'm fine. I can be away from Bones, you know."
"Booth?" came a tentative voice from the door.
"Aubrey! Why are you standing in the doorway?" asked Booth. "It's not like the room is full."
"Are you okay?" Aubrey asked, still in the doorway.
"I'm fine. Come in here already, I can't see you very well from this bed."
"Are your eyes a problem?"
"No, you're hidden by a wall! Aubrey, come here!" Booth exclaimed.
A minute passed, then Aubrey finally stepped closer to the bed. "Are you going to get better?"
"Of course I will. I still have a lot to teach you!" grinned Booth.
"You don't need to teach me..."
"Oh, I do!" Booth laughed, then he sobered up. "Thank you for finding me, Aubrey."
"Always, Booth. You're my friend."
"And thank you for looking out for Bones as well. I know that couldn't have been easy."
"Actually, Dr Brennan was surprisingly helpful. She found some letters that might help me work out who it was that did this to you. Unless you want to tell me, that is?"
"He's just been released from prison. I don't remember his name."
"No problem. I think I know who it is. I need to go through my notes when I go back to work."
"Okay. Until then, however, let's just hang out. We haven't done that for a while."
"No, we haven't."
"You know, you don't need an invitation to come over, right?"
Aubrey smiled. "I'm waiting for the one printed on golden paper, actually."
"Oh... you might be waiting a while for that one. I don't think it's been made yet."
Aubrey laughed, and with that, the tension in the atmosphere was gone. Booth was relieved to see that Aubrey was happy- he had been worried about his friend for a few minutes.
"Hey, did you forget about me?" Cam asked once the room was as quiet as it could be with Booth still attached to the monitors.
"No-one could ever forget you, Camille," said Booth cheekily.
"Gee, thanks," said Cam, her voice oozing sarcasm.
"You were here last night, weren't you?"
"Yes. Why?"
"I just remember talking to you, though it feels kind of fuzzy and disjointed."
"You had a lot of pain-killers in your system last night, plus the anesthetic as well. That's a normal feeling."
"Where was Bones?"
"She wanted to go for a walk. I think that she really just wanted to cry without you knowing. She was okay, though."
"Thank you for being there for her, Cam."
"It's funny. You two seem to think along the same lines. Brennan thanked me for being there for you last night."
"Well, you know what they say. Great minds think alike," grinned Booth just as Aubrey's phone rang.
"Hello?" asked Aubrey. "Yeah, sure. Give me a second, Hodgins." Aubrey handed the phone to Booth. "It's for you."
"Hodgins? What's wrong?" Booth asked.
"What? Nothing's wrong. I just wanted to check something with you."
Booth let out a breath. "Okay."
"All I found in that drawer was a small gift bag. There's something hard in it."
"That's the one. I don't need the bag, you can just get the box out from it."
"Okay. Do you want anything else while I'm here?"
Booth almost said no, then thought of something. "Actually, there's a bag in the closet. It belongs to Bones. Can you bring that with you?"
"Of course. I'll see you soon."
"Thank you, Hodgins." Booth handed the phone back to Aubrey.
"What did he find?" asked Cam.
"If you stay long enough, you'll get to find out. Could you call Angela and see if she can bring Bones back here?"
"Sure." Cam stepped out of the room.
"Aubrey?"
"Yeah, Booth?"
"I need you to help me with something before Bones gets here."
"Just tell me what you need."
"I need some proper food, not this hospital crap. Like, maybe a pizza or burgers, or something along those lines. If everyone wants to stay, that's fine, but I just need to make this as romantic as I can since I'll be stuck in bed for quite a while."
"I can do that. I can be back in fifteen minutes if I go now."
"Go." Booth smiled. "Thanks, James. I really appreciate this."
"I know you do. I'll see you soon."