A/N: Here is Chapter 11. Only one more chapter to go after that. Enjoy and sorry it is so short.

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The doctor had attempted everything. The monitor had finally picked up a faint and irregular heartbeat and, blaming it on oxygen deprivation, Dr. Lowes had ordered that Brennan was given more oxygen through her mask. Even so, the situation hadn't improved and not wanting Temperance to bare a stillborn, Dr. Lowes had then ordered an emergency c-section.

She was rolled out of the delivery room and sent to the OR while Booth stopped by the waiting room to inform his family of what was going on. He tried to reassure his mother that everything was going to be okay but he could hardly believe it himself. What was wrong with his baby?

He was then brought to another to get ready for the c-section.

"Here, put this on." A nurse told him as she handed him a blue jacket.

Thanks was all Booth was able to reply. His throat had suddenly gone really dry and he wished he could get his hand on a bottle of water. He cursed himself for not getting any water when he had been in the waiting room.

Come on, Seeley, it's not your fault. Just relax, you're stressing for nothing. He mentally told himself.

"She's ready." A surgeon said as he popped his head through the door.

The nurse turned to Booth.

"Are you ready?" she asked him.

Booth nodded and followed the nurse out into the operation room.

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She turned her head towards him as he walked in the operating room. She tried to smile at him but found that she couldn't. She was too tired and didn't have the strength to pretend that she wasn't worried, that this wasn't affecting her. Truth was, this was affecting her and she couldn't pinpoint exactly why.

She had never wanted children before but at the moment, she wanted this child to live more than anything else in the entire world. She wanted to hold it, feed it, protect it and love it the way it deserved. This wasn't fair. It wasn't supposed to be that way.

He saw the fear in her eyes and had this sudden urge to comfort her, to reassure her, to tell her that everything was going to be alright? But how could he when he himself didn't believe it. Anything could happen and he knew it.

He tried his best to look reassuring as he walked up to her and sat down on the stool beside her head. He knew he had failed miserably. He tried to smile at her but found that he couldn't either. This was not supposed to be happening.

"Temperance, you're going to feel a bit of pressure, okay? And if you don't hear the baby crying right away, don't worry." The surgeon told her.

"Easy for him to say." Booth and Brennan both muttered at the same time.

The surgeon cut her open and it didn't take long before she did indeed feel some pressure. She waited anxiously for the doctors to pull her child out of her stomach. She had a feeling this one was going to be a girl and if she would turn out to be one, she wanted to name her Riley. It was her name, she could feel it. As much as she loved the name Lily, it just didn't give her the same feeling Riley did. Booth would just have to deal with it if he didn't like it. Riley was her name and she wasn't going to let go of it.

"Oh my…" They heard the surgeon said after a while. "No wonder the poor thing had trouble breathing."

Booth looked up to see the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around his baby girl's neck, blocking the airways in the process. How she had managed to wrap it so tightly around herself surprised her father. But Booth couldn't stand to look at her too long. He could see his daughter turn almost purple under all the blood that was covering her.

The rest of the procedure happened so quickly that Booth didn't see anything happening. His baby girl was relieved of her neck trap and immediately taken into emergency care. She was hooked on tubes and rushed out to the neonatology ward.

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"How is she?" Angela asked him as he walked in the waiting room.

She sounded really concerned and Booth could tell by her expression that she had been worrying since he had told her about the baby. He was surprised to see that his family had gone back home but he couldn't blame them. They had been here for the past twelve hours and they deserved the rest. He was happy that Angela had stayed despite her fear of hospitals.

"Who? The baby or the mother?" he replied, dropping on a chair.

He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. His head was pounding and all he wanted was to get some rest. The whole labor and delivery had been overwhelming and he just felt the need to sleep it off.

"Both." Angela replied.

"Well Bones is recovering in her room and Riley is tubed up somewhere in the neonatology ward."

"How about the dad?"

"He's holding up but he doesn't know for how long."

Angela smiled sympathetically. They stayed silent for a while until Angela finally felt the need to say something.

"So you two agreed on her name?"

"Yeah." Booth sighed, opening his eyes. "And we named the boy Lukas. Temperance is very fond of that name. I just thought I'd give her at least that if I couldn't give her a healthy baby girl."

His voice cracked and he fought the tears that were threatening to fall.

"Hey… don't forget that you just gave her a gorgeous little boy."

"I know but…"

Booth stopped in mid-sentence and sighed. This was painful and childbirth wasn't supposed to be painful, not emotionally anyway. He was supposed to feel joy, happiness, certainly not distress and sadness.

"What if she dies, Angela? I've only seen her two minutes but I already love her to death."

"I know." Angela replied, putting her hand on her friend's. "But just…"

She herself was now fighting tears and she couldn't believe she was getting this emotional.

"Just remember that she's Brennan's daughter and that says something. She'll fight. She won't give up on life so easily."

Booth turned to his friend and managed a small smile. He truly wished she was right.

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He walked in the room and saw that her eyes were closed. He was about to walk back out when she called him back. He gladly walked back inside the room and went to sit down beside the bed.

"How is she?" Brennan asked him, weakly.

She was tired, all she wanted to do was sleep but she was afraid to close her eyes. Whenever she did, images of Riley filled her mind. She could easily imagine her baby girl wrapped in her umbilical cord.

"She's holding on."

"And how does she look?"

"She's gorgeous, just like her mother."

Brennan blushed and looked away. Tears fell down her cheeks before she even had a chance to stop them. She cursed herself for being so weak but somehow she couldn't find the strength to stop them. So she just let them fall. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to face him, the love of her life, the man who had just given her two beautiful children, the man who knew her better than she knew herself. She saw that he looked worried and tired. He had dark circles under his eyes from the lack of sleep. She also saw that he was asking her the same question she desperately wanted to ask. He needed the same reassurance that she needed but she knew that neither of them could provide it.

"What did the doctors say?" She asked him instead.

She had seen him talking to a surgeon as they brought her back to her room after the c-section.

"Well, they said that it was a miracle that she was still alive. The umbilical cord cut off her oxygen for a long period of time, they just don't know how long. The chances are that, if she does survive, she'll have scars."

"What kind of scars?"

"They say it's too early to tell at the moment but it's most likely going to be some sort of brain damage. Anyway they're getting the head pediatrician to take a look at her when he comes back from his vacation in two days. They said that he'd have more to say to us."

Brennan nodded.

"Booth, what -- what if she doesn't survive? What are we going to do?"

More tears threatened to fall but he was going to keep fighting them. Temperance needed him to be strong for the two of them right now, he couldn't let himself become weak.

Man, now I sound just like her.

"Ssh. Don't think about it right now. Just remember this, Tempe. Riley's your daughter and if she's anything like you, she'll make it through just fine."

"And if she's not like me?"

Her voice cracked and sent shivers down Booth's spine. She was hurting as much as him. This was truly not the way he had expected things to happen.

"Then she'll be stubborn just like her dad and she'll make it through just as fine."

His comment made her laugh through her tears.

"Come on, you need to rest." Booth said, getting up.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going back home to sleep. I really need it. I'll be back in a couple of hours, I promise. You try to get some sleep." He replied as he tucked her in.

Bending over her, he kissed her lightly on the lips. She responded as lightly.

He turned off the light and walked out of the room. He slowly made his way through the quiet halls of the hospital and all the way to the neonatology ward.

He looked through the window at his daughter. She was so small, weighing barely 4 pounds while Lukas weighed close to 7 pounds. He looked at her, asleep, with tubes in her nose, an IV in her arm and electrodes on her chest. She seemed to be drowning in a pool of tubes and wires.

As he looked at her, he prayed silently for Angela's words to be true. He stared a few more seconds at her before walking away, a single tear trailing down his face.

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For my "metric" readers, 4 pounds is equal to 1.8 kg and 7 pounds is 3.1 kg. Just thought I'd mention it.

And I'm not quite satisfied with the chapter so please review and tell me you liked it. It would be make me feel so much better:-) (And no, this isn't just a way of getting you guys to review, I'm really not satisfied with this chapter).