Brennan stands in front of her closet, trying to decide which of her clothes are appropriate for a stay at the hospital. She's staring at rows of professional dresses and blouses, and lines of carefully folded and ironed dress pants. She owns pajamas, but she would feel silly wearing those in public, even if that public is the hospital.

She closes her closet and walks over to her dresses, digging below bras and folded tank tops. She finally pulls up a pair of soft gray joggers she forgot she had, as well as a few folded T-shirts she got for attending various scientific conferences. She pulls out the worn-out overnight bag that she's used for years and shoves the soft items into it. She tops the bag off with staple toiletries: a new toothbrush, deodorant, and travel-sized tubes of different soaps and creams.

Exhausted, she zips the bag closed and falls back onto her bed, wincing when she feels the corner of her phone dig into her back. She digs the technology out and looks at the screen, noticing a new text from Booth:

"Still good for me to pick u up at 7:30 tomorrow?"

She responds to confirm the plans, and only seconds later her phone pings with another text from him.

"Do you need anything tonight? Chinese food, beer, company?"

She smiles at his offer. Before Booth, she was used to being alone. She never thought about if she wanted to be around people or not because her given status was always the latter. Now, she will find herself craving company in a way she never had before. When Booth is out of town for long stretches, whether for FBI trainings or vacations with Parker, she finds herself looking forward to the day he gets back. She didn't think that she was a person that needed others, but he's made her rethink that part of herself.

Tonight, though, she just wants to take a long, hot shower and a melatonin and sleep.

"Not tonight, just going to sleep," She responds. His response pops up on her phone instantly.

"Sleep well. Don't worry too much. Everything is going to be OK."

With that, she plugs in her phone for the night and heads to the bathroom for a shower.

Booth arrives outside her apartment right when he says he will, and finds Brennan waiting outside her building. She looks so vulnerable to him, bundled up in her white coat and gripping her bags.

She slides quietly into his passenger seat and looks up from buckling herself in to find him offering her a warm to-go cup from their favorite coffee cart.

"I got you a tea," he says. "Thought coffee might be hard on your stomach today."

She smiles gratefully, wrapping her hands around the cup to warm them. She knows he must've planned to get up early and go out of his way to the coffee cart before backtracking to her apartment. The effort he's expended just to make her smile is not lost on her.

They take the short drive to the hospital in comfortable silence. He knows how nervous she is, even if she would never admit it. She's used to being on the other side of things: the examiner, not the examined. This whole situation has taken control out of her hands, pushing her out of her comfortable bubble and into the hands of doctors and nurses and chemo treatments. It's entirely foreign, which is a large part of the reason he insisted on being with her at the hospital. He wants to be the one familiar thing she can hold onto.

That, and he's in love with her. Just completely overtaken by thoughts of her, missing her when she's not around, and holding on to every word she says when they are together. He's still holding his breath for an answer from her, in a way. He understands that her illness has made things feel complicated in her head, but the door to the potential relationship does not feel fully shut, and he is not going to give up yet. This whole thing has been years in the making, and when he thinks back over his memories with her he kicks himself for not seeing it before. He loved her when he first worked with her on the Gemma Harrington case. He loved her even after they fought, and she claimed she would never collaborate with him again. He loved her when he tried to stage a rescue at the airport so she would agree to work with him again, and when he rescued her from Agent Kenton and the gravedigger. He's also loved her in their late nights at the lab or their apartments, and the early mornings on cases or at the dinner. He's loved every little moment of her, even when he's gotten so frustrated with her he wanted to explode. For Booth, it's Bones. It's always been Bones.

He tries to shake away his thoughts when he pulls up to the main entrance of the hospital. "I'll drop you here to get checked in, and meet up with you again once I've parked," he reassures her.

"Okay," Brennan nods. She reaches for the door handle quickly, but Booth notices her hands are shaking.

He reaches over, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Bones," he says softly. "You alright?"

She turns to him, unable to hide the fear on her face. "I will be," she says, and slips out of the car. "I'll see you soon."

He thought the process would be quick: she arrived, they stuck an IV in her arm, and she was started on chemo. The reality was much slower and involved much more waiting.

They initially got her height and weight, noted her vitals, and then sent her back out into the waiting room. He learned that each dose of chemo has to be carefully calculated based on her exact weight, so things can't be prepared in advance. After a long period of waiting, they brought her back to her room but wouldn't allow him to come back with her until after the nurses got her prepped.

He found himself pacing in the waiting room, regretting the large cup of coffee he had drank that morning. The caffeine only ramped up his nerves, making him feel jittery and unsettled. When they do call back for him, they take his temperature and ask him about any current symptoms to rule out illnesses. Then they give him a surgical mask and ensure it's placed properly over his nose and mouth.

When they finally let him back, he found her sitting cross-legged on the bed, already hooked up to monitors and with an IV taped onto her hand.

"How are you feeling?" He asks quickly, rushing over as if it will make up for the time he wasn't there.

"I'm fine. They haven't started the medication yet," she holds up the IV cord, which isn't hooked up to anything yet. "The doctor should be by soon."

"Good," he breathes a sigh of relief. "Do you need anything?"

"No," she shakes her head. "Just be here with me?"

"Bad TV?" He asks, smiling and eyeing the small, boxy television mounted in the corner of the room.

"Yeah," she gives him a small smile, and he clicks on the TV. They are pulled into a cheesy nineties romance movie. She's so distracted by his funny comments on the abominable acting that she hardly feels nervous when the doctor arrives and connects the bag of medicine to her IV. By the time the movie is over, though, she realizes she's starting to feel nauseous. She uncrosses her legs and lies back on the bed, breathing deeply to attempt to control her stomach.

"Doing okay?" Booth asks, looking over at her with concern.

"I am now feeling the side effects of the medication," she says, and he hears the separation in her voice. She's building up her walls, trying to separate herself from her emotions.

He comes over to the bed, slipping off his shoes before sliding in next to her. He gently pulls her closer until her head rests on his chest.

"Booth," she protests weakly, but he shakes his head.

"It doesn't have to mean anything," he says. "I'm just here to hold you. As a partner."

She almost smiles, but a wave of sickness comes over her, and she feels her throat lurch. Booth quickly grabs the kidney-shaped basin from the side table and holds it in front of her. She empties her stomach into it, her eyes tearing up automatically. When she's done, he walks into the bathroom and she hears the water running, him flushing out the basin before bringing it back to her, now clean.

"I'm so sorry," she says quietly, but he shakes his head and falls back into the bed next to her, pulling her close again.

"This is what I'm here for," he whispers close to her ear. "You don't ever have to apologize to me."

"But I'm a mess," she says. "You shouldn't see me like this, I can't be professional right now."

"Temperance, you're my best friend. We haven't been strictly professional with each other for a long time, and I think you know that. Regardless of anything else that's going on, we are friends first. I am here to support you now as your friend and partner."

She nods against her chest, hearing his words but feeling too weak to respond. He lets her just rest, holding her against his chest and stroking her hair. When she needs to vomit, he holds the basin for her. When she's done, he hands her water to drink and rinses out the basin without ever saying a word.

And Brennan, though she's too tired to process it, finds her trust for him growing even more.

When the medicine bag has run empty, Brennan is exhausted. The nurses connect a hydration bag to her IV and give her medicine to help her sleep. As much as it kills him to leave her, Booth realizes that he's starving and needs to get some dinner.

He wanders downstairs to the cafeteria, absentmindedly picking up a sandwich and potato salad. He eats the food at a corner table alone before finding himself wandering the hospital halls. His mind is distracted with all the things he wants to say to her but can't right now. He wants her to understand that this illness‒that seeing her be sick‒hasn't changed how he thinks about her at all. She's still the same Brennan to him, and it's not like she hasn't seen him be vulnerable before. She literally stood next to him while doctors cut a tumor out of his brain. She saw him in a coma for three days before waking up confused as to who he was. She saw him in the hospital after being blown up by the bomb that was planted in her refrigerator; she looked at the year's worth of trauma mapped across his x-rays.

The vulnerability and strength he saw in her today only made him love her more.

He decides, standing there in a random hallway of the hospital, that when she's ready he will tell her this.