TITLE: I Should Tell You
CHAPTER 2 of 2
SUMMARY, AUTHOR'S NOTES, etc.: See chapter one.

"Guys, meet me out at the car..." Angela breezed into the autopsy bay, spotting Zack and Hodgins in the corner, racing beetles.

"What? Why?" Hodgins glanced up only briefly before looking down at the beetles and exclaiming, "Okay, that was SO cheating!"

"Filbert won, fair and square -- pay up." Zack patiently held out his hand, awaiting his payment.

"Pat has a lame left leg! It wasn't fair!"

"Which left leg? And he ran fine, just not fast enough. Pay up."

"Guys!"

They turned to see Angela looking impatiently at them, her hands on her hips as she worried her bottom lip with her teeth. Zack frowned. "Why do we have to meet you out at the car?"

"Because we're going to the hospital. Brennan just called in tears -- Booth was shot."

The beetles were then forgotten as the 'Squint Squad' rushed toward the parking lot.

"We were able to successfully retrieve the bullet from Agent Booth's abdomen..."

"He's lucky to be alive..."

"Looks like a .22-calibur..."

"We're keeping him a few days for observation..."

"If it had struck so much as one more millimeter south..."

"Is there someone you can call to let them know..."

"He's been sedated, but you can go in and see him if you'd like..."

"Normally just family is allowed in, but since you're his partner..."

"Miss? We're going to have to check his heart monitor. Excuse me just a moment..."

"You're all bandaged up. You were lucky, it looks like something just grazed your forehead..."

"Let's clean all that blood off your hands..."

"You were both very lucky..."

Voices ebbed and flowed through Temperance Brennan's stream of consciousness, though she heard only ambient background noise. Her eyes, the entire time, had been focused on her partner through the window, laid up in a hospital bed with tubes in his nose and needles in his arms. She only vaguely remembered a nurse bandaging her forehead and cleaning her hands before she was sent in to Booth's room.

Now she sat, in a hard, uncomfortable plastic chair, at his bedside... her hand gripping his for dear life while she let her eyes wash over him. She didn't even notice when the door opened behind her and someone stepped in. "Sweetie..."

She turned slowly, with puffy, tear-filled eyes, to see Angela... who then rushed toward her and wrapped her arms tight around her. "How did you get in here?" Brennan asked, still dazed.

Angela shrugged, the barest hint of a sly smirk playing at her lips. "I flirted with one of the male nurses and he let me right in. Zack and Hodgins weren't as successful with the female nurses, though, so they're outside." She then sobered and touched her friend's shoulder. "How are you doing, Sweetie?" Her eyes flitted to the white butterfly bandages on her forehead. "What happened to you?"

Brennan touched her forehead absently. "I don't know, exactly. They say something grazed my forehead on the way down, but I don't know what it was."

"No, I mean... what happened? To both you guys. What went on that resulted in Booth getting shot through the stomach?"

Brennan's mouth opened and closed several times in succession as she inwardly relived the moment, tears brimming her eyes and spilling over onto her cheeks as she finally broke down... "It's all my fault!"

"Honey..." Angela wrapped her arms around her again, hugging her tight. It wasn't often she saw Temperance Brennan cry -- only in times of extreme duress, or in times of trauma.

"He told me to stay back, but I wanted to look at the scene. I wanted to see for myself this guy we've been tracking." One hand still clung to Booth's, needing the physical connection, while she wept on Angela's shoulder. "He told me to stay back, Ange, but I didn't listen! I looked, and... Booth caught me. Before I knew what was happening, Cullen had said the guy was aiming his gun at me and was going to shoot. Booth grabbed me and threw me down... I think he flipped us on the way so I wouldn't hit the street, and when I pushed off him, I s--" She faltered, "I saw..." and then broke down in heart-wrenching sobs again.

"Oh God, Sweetie..." Angela rocked her best friend back and forth, as if comforting a child waking from a nightmare. She'd never seen her cry this hard -- it stunned her a little. Even when she was re-telling the story of her parents' disappearance, she didn't cry this hard.

"They say he's lucky to be alive," she whimpered, snuffling against Angela's shoulder. "One more millimeter south, and he'd be--he would be--"

"You don't have to say it, Honey." Angela pulled away and ran her fingers through Brennan's hair comfortingly, tears in her own eyes as she wiped her friend's saturated cheeks. "It's scary to even think it, I know."

"He almost died for me, Angela! For me!"

She nodded knowingly. "Yeah, I know." As Brennan rose to her feet to stand beside her, one hand still hanging on to her partner's, Angela swept a hand through her hair again. She watched the look that came over her friend's face as she studied the unconscious FBI agent in the bed. "He would do it again, too. You know he would." She sighed and rubbed Brennan's back, her voice soft. "He loves you, Sweetie. Booth loves you."

Brennan shook her head and dashed at her tears, folding her free arm across her midsection protectively. "No. No, I'm just his partner. He'd do the same thing for anybody else."

"I know you're in a lot of pain right now, Brenn, which is why I'm not going to start a big ruckus over this... because God knows we've talked it over enough times. Booth, Honey? He loves you. It has nothing to do with you being his partner, or with him wanting to look out for an innocent bystander. Seeley Booth is in love with you." She gave her a little nudge, leaning close to her. "And you love him. I know you do."

She brushed the hair back that had fallen into her friend's face. "That's why you're so broken up about this. It was a traumatic experience, absolutely. It would be for anybody. But for someone you love to be shot..." She boldly pushed forward, knowing her words would shock, "To see them dying in front of you -- that person that you love -- to watch the life fade out of them before your eyes..." She trailed off and shook her head.

Brennan was silently weeping now, fat tears scudding down her cheeks as she stared at Booth. Her hand still clung to his for dear life. "He kept saying, 'I should tell you'--"

"That he loves you," Angela finished.

"I wouldn't let him. I kept telling him he needed his strength. I was so scared, but I wanted to tell him too..."

"It's not too late, Sweetie."

"I asked him to stay."

"Then he will. If it's you asking Booth to stay, Sweetie, then he will without a second thought. He'll stay with you... and you'll get a chance to tell him what you should tell him."

Brennan gasped as she felt his hand shift inside her own, and Angela, too, seemed to spring to attention. Both leaned slightly over the bed as they watched his closed eyelids flutter with activity. His grip on her hand strengthened, and two brown eyes popped open.

When they did, they immediately settled on the teary blue gaze of Temperance Brennan. She chuckled at the sight of him, the sound emerging as a sob, while a joyous smile lit her features. "Booth..."

"Temperance..." Her first name spilled forth from his lips as a prayer to some unknown deity... a prayer for bringing him back to his own deity. He squeezed her hand, eyelids still heavy. "You okay?"

Brennan chuckled another sob, and swiped at her tears with her free hand. "Yes."

He noticed Angela at Brennan's side for the first time, and smiled weakly at her. She smiled back and patted her best friend on the shoulder. "I'll leave you two alone," she sighed, and gestured over her shoulder with her thumb. "Zack and Hodgins are probably going stir-crazy in that waiting room, anyway." With that, she kissed Brennan's cheek, smiled at Booth, and made her exit, shutting the door behind her.

"How are you feeling?" Brennan asked once they were alone.

He gave a slight grunt of pain as he tried to shift himself to the left on his bed, leaving room for her. "I've definitely felt better," he replied, "but I'm alive, at least."

She nodded emphatically. "Yes, you are."

He patted the space on the bed beside him. "Have a seat, partner."

"I don't want to hurt you."

Booth chuckled, painfully. "Just don't sit on my stomach and I'll be fine." He tugged on her hand and drew her toward him, smiling as she sat beside him on the bed, tucking one leg up beside her while the other remained on the floor.

She stared into his eyes, searching them while her own misted over again. "You're really here..." she whispered, voice awed.

He nodded, then shrugged one shoulder. "Well, sure." He smiled. "You asked me to stay. So I stayed."

Brennan laughed tearfully and grasped his hand with both of her own, toying with his fingers. His played right back. "Your doctors said you were very lucky. If the bullet had hit you any lower..."

"Yeah, I can imagine."

"Our suspect is dead. As soon as he shot at us, one of the SWAT guys took him down."

"That's good, I guess. Since I probably would've shot him myself, once I got out of here, for ever going after you."

They locked in a stare again, and Booth's heart broke when he saw the tears slipping down her cheeks again. "I was so scared, Booth."

He nodded, vaguely remembering the look of panic on her face as she hovered over him. "So was I." He reached up to her face, just as he had earlier, and began to wipe the tears from her cheeks, smiling when she held on to his wrist.

"You almost died," she whimpered. "You almost died trying to save me."

His expression was solemn, intense, as he nodded slowly. "And I would do it again in a heartbeat."

She held his gaze. "Why?"

"Why?" he chuckled, then shook his head. "Oh, Bones, if you even have to ask... then you're not as smart as you think you are."

Brennan glared facetiously and reached out to swat his arm, but he caught her hand with his and brought it to his lips, their eyes catching as he gently kissed her knuckles. He mumbled against them, "I should tell you..."

She smiled and shook her head. "I should tell you."

A nurse bustled inside and interrupted their moment, "Excuse me, dears, but I need to check on Mr. Booth, here, and give him some more pain medication." She turned to Brennan, "and I'm sorry, hon, but visiting hours are over for tonight. We're unfortunately going to have to boot you outta here."

Booth simply shook his head. "No."

Both Brennan and the nurse looked to him in shock. The nurse raised her eyebrows. "Well, I'm sorry, but the rules are 'family only' after visiting hours."

He nodded. "I know, and," he gestured to Brennan using their joined hands, "this is my fiancee, Temperance. I'd like her to stay."

"Oh!" The nurse nodded profusely after readjusting his IV bag. "Of course, Mr. Booth. Of course she can stay. I apologize for the misunderstanding."

"No problem at all." He gave Brennan a winning smile, which she chuckled and rolled her eyes at.

"Now, I just need to give you a little more morphine, and you'll be off to dreamland in no time!"

Brennan smiled at this, then both of them watched as the nurse gathered up her things and left. She turned back to Booth with a quirked brow. "Fiancee, huh?"

He shrugged, his eyelids already drooping as he teased, "Well, unless you'd like to be thrown out of here, in which case I can just hit the call button..." He pretended to reach for it, and she grabbed his hand.

"Don't even think about it."

He sighed and closed his eyes, a dreamy smile playing at his lips. "Come sit on my other side," he beckoned, and she obeyed, moving around the bed to settle in on his uninjured side.

"Why?"

"Because..." He drew her against him, and she went willingly. "You're going to act as my teddy bear."

She laughed. "So does this mean you still sleep with stuffed animals?"

"That, Bones, is none of your business."

"But we're getting married. As your future bride, I think I have a right to know."

He barked a laugh right back. "Maybe after the wedding, I'll tell you." He paused, running his fingers through her hair as her head settled on his chest. "I never got to tell you..."

"And I really need to tell you..."

"But I should say it first."

"You need to know that--"

"I should tell you..."

When his voice trailed off and his breathing deepened, Brennan smiled against his chest. "I already know," she whispered to his slumbering form, snuggling into his side. "And I love you too."

There was nothing more to tell.

FINIS
Some more Author's Notes: Okay, I TOTALLY wasn't planning on having this part finished so quickly, but it just spewed out of me (that sounds sort of gross, but you know what I mean!). I also wasn't planning on posting this so quickly, either, but you guys and all your nice reviews have just turned me into a great big mushball. I had to spoil you, since you've been so kind. I love you all, and Arianna? I do believe I will have my cookie now. (:giggles, holds out hand for cookie:)

More Bonesfics on the way, guys, I promise! I've got tons of ideas.