Author's Note: I started writing this story after I wondered how Brennan would react if Booth got amnesia and couldn't remember her. Would he fall in love with her again or would it spell the end for B&B. I know this theme has been explored a lot, particularly following on from 'The End in the Beginning' from season 4. So I decided to go a different route and set the story in season 10 sometime after they get married.

I have tried to make this fic as accurate as possible, but I don't have a lot of experience with head injuries so some of the medicine may not be accurate.

There is a lot of angst in this story. It should have a happy ending though as I don't think I could bear to do anything so tragic to them as to have it end badly!

I have most of the story written with only the last chapter or two to go. I am going to post a chapter every few days or so once I have edited them. It should end up being about 8 chapters long.

Rated T for a little bit of language.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones.

It was just like any other routine visit to a victim's home. They'd found information to suggest that the victim in their latest case had lived with his son. They were there to inform the son of the death of his father and to ask a few questions, see if he knew who might have wanted to hurt him. They'd knocked on the door, announcing themselves as FBI and waited for an answer. As always, exercising caution because there is no way of knowing what could be on the other side of that door. The door had opened but unexpectedly, there was no one on the other side of it. Booth quickly drew his gun.

"FBI, Mr Summers" He said loudly through the open door and cautiously took a step over the threshold.

It all happened in a split second and Booth didn't see it coming. The door was suddenly shoved violently at him, knocking his gun out of his hand. Booth managed to block the door with his arm but as he did, from behind the door, a man with a baseball bat leapt out and struck him on the head. Booth landed in a heap on the floor, knocked out cold.

To Temperance Brennan, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. She saw the man emerge from behind the door but didn't have time to warn Booth. She saw him falling to the floor and it took a second too long to comprehend what had just happened because now the man was coming at her with the baseball bat. She managed to raise her left arm to block the blow which sent the man lurching backwards. The blow had landed on her arm with a crunch and she briefly wondered if it had broken her ulna but at that moment, she had no time to feel the pain because he was coming at her again. She pivoted on one leg and swung her other leg out, sweeping the man's legs out from under him. Just as he was staggering back to his feet, with her right hand, she delivered a swift vicious punch to his jaw, knocking him to the floor and rendering him unconscious.

She dropped to her knees beside Booth. "Booth! Can you hear me? Wake up! Come on Booth!" There was a hint of desperation in her voice as she tapped his face and shouted at him, but he remained unconscious. She quickly checked his pulse. It was erratic, but there. She laid her ear next to his mouth and she could feel his breath on her cheek, but he still wasn't waking up. She pulled her phone from her pocket and dialled 911.

Only five minutes later, several FBI agents arrived at the scene, shortly followed by an ambulance. Brennan cradled her injured arm as she watched Booth being laid on a stretcher and placed in the back of the ambulance. The man who had attacked them had regained consciousness and was being forced into the back of an FBI vehicle in handcuffs. As Brennan watched him, she couldn't understand how he had managed to injure them both so badly. He looked to only be about 16 years old. He was average height, and his musculature was not well developed. She could see now that he was only a boy. Why did he feel it necessary to attack them? She would have to seek the answers to her questions later though as right now the ambulance was ready to leave. So she climbed into the back of the ambulance to accompany her partner and husband to the hospital.

0-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-0

Brennan was sitting in a family room at the hospital. Her stress levels were incredibly high, and she couldn't sit still, her foot tapping out an irregular rhythm on the floor. She knew when they bring you into one of these rooms it is never good news. Angela and Cam were sitting on the one couch in the room and Max was in another of the chairs. No one spoke.

Brennan's father couldn't bear to see his daughter in such distress. He knew what Booth meant to her. Seeley Booth is the only person she had ever truly trusted and let into her life since he and her mother had left her. She was staring at the door and unconsciously rubbing her arm. Max knew that she must be in pain from her injury but was ignoring it.

"Tempe,"

Brennan glanced at him briefly then turned her gaze back to the door.

"Tempe," Max tried again. He rose from his seat and went to sit in the vacant chair next to her. "Sweetheart, you should get your arm looked at. It could be broken."

"No, Dad. I need to be here. I need to know what is happening with Booth. My arm is fine."

Max eyed her doubtfully but didn't press her on the issue. He understood his daughter well enough by now that he knew it was pointless trying to force her to do something she didn't want to do.

The door opened and all four of them turned their eyes to look at the doctor who had just entered the room. Brennan estimated him to be in his mid-40's but stress lines around his eyes made him seem older. He looked weary which wasn't reassuring to her.

"Family of Seeley Booth?" He asked.

Brennan shakily got to her feet "Yes, I'm his wife, Dr Temperance Brennan."

The doctor took a step closer to her and lowered his voice "Dr Brennan, I'm afraid the blow to your husband's head has caused a traumatic brain injury. He has a contusion on his right temporal lobe and cerebral edema."

All the breath left Brennan's body and tears welled up in her eyes. She didn't need an explanation from the doctor, she knew what this meant.

"Oh my god." Angela whispered as she exchanged a worried glance with Cam.

"He's in a coma and there is a possibility he may have suffered some permanent brain damage. We will only know more once the swelling has reduced. The next 24 hours are critical. He's being treated with medication now. If that doesn't work, surgery may be necessary. We're doing everything we can, but you need to know that if we can't control the swelling, there's a possibility it could be fatal. I'm sorry."

Brennan's father was at her side in an instant when he saw her begin to shake violently. He wrapped one arm around her waist holding her up as her knees buckled and guided her to sit her back down in a chair.

Brennan was in utter disbelief. How can this be happening? They've only been married for a few months and now there is a possibility she's going to be a widow? No. She wouldn't believe it. He is still alive, there is still a chance he can recover. "Can I see him?" She managed to say in a small shaky voice. She needed to be with him.

"They're moving him to the ICU, you should be able to see him in about 30 minutes."

She nodded her head as the doctor gave her a small sympathetic smile and turned and left the room.

Max sat down next to his daughter and put his arm around her shoulders. She turned and buried her head in his shoulder and sobbed as Angela sat at her other side and took her hand. Even though she had understood everything the doctor had said, Brennan felt like she needed clarification, hoping for the first time ever in her life that she had made a mistake. She lifted her head to look at Cam.

"Cam, is it as bad as he says it is?" She managed to say through her tears.

Cam looked at her colleague and friend in sympathy. The news had shocked her too. Booth was her friend and while she didn't love him in the same way that Dr Brennan did, she still cared for him a great deal. If she was in pain listening to Booth's prognosis, she couldn't imagine the pain Brennan must be feeling. "TBI's can be complicated, Dr Brennan. At the moment it sounds like the swelling is the biggest issue. I'll see if I can get a look at his scans and I know a neurologist who works in another hospital. I'll call him and get his opinion."

Brennan simply nodded as Cam turned and left the room to make her calls. Shortly afterwards, a nurse appeared in the doorway "Mrs Booth?" She asked to the three of them in the room.

Brennan who was too upset to correct her just said "Yes."

"They've moved your husband to the ICU, Mrs Booth. If you'll follow me, I'll take you to him."

0-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-0

Brennan had been sat at Booth's bedside for two hours doing nothing but watching the steady rise and fall of his chest. That and the regular beep of his heart monitor were the only signs he was still alive. He was breathing on his own which she knew was a good sign. The only outward indication that there was anything wrong with him was the egg sized lump on the side of his head. Her tears had finally run dry but that didn't stop the sobs that occasionally escaped from her chest. It seemed to her that she had lost the ability to control her emotional response to the situation.

This is what she had feared all those years ago when she had refused Booth's plea to take a chance on them. She had always feared that he would leave her. The unavoidable fact is his job is dangerous. Something that had been demonstrated to them both many times in the past, and she couldn't help but feel she has almost been waiting for this to happen. Waiting for the incident that would finally take him from her. Everyone always leaves her. She knew it wasn't Booth's choice but the result for her is the same regardless. In opening herself up to him, she has opened herself up to the potential for him to cause her immense pain. Not long into their relationship, she had made peace with the fact that the benefits of being together outweighed the risk of pain if anything happened to him. But now, faced with that possibility, she was finding it more difficult to manage than she anticipated. If he dies, it will just be her and Christine, a thought that made her impossibly sadder than she ever thought she could be.

She didn't move her eyes from watching him when Cam appeared and sat down in the chair on the other side of the bed.

"I've spoken with Dr Hassan my neurologist friend and he's reviewed the scan results for me. He says that if they can reduce the swelling, the outlook is good. While he says there may still be a slight chance of him suffering some permanent effects, he believes that Booth will make a full recovery."

Brennan's body sagged in relief at this news. Despite her possessing extensive knowledge of the human brain and its functions, she felt better knowing Cam's neurologist friend's opinion. However, the 'if' in the 'if they can reduce the swelling' hadn't escaped her. "I'm so worried, Cam. What if they can't reduce the swelling? And what about his previous brain tumour? What if it's too much damage for one individual to sustain?"

Cam shook her head. "The tumour was on the other side of his brain. This contusion is only small so it should heal just fine, and there's no reason to believe he won't respond to the treatment, Dr Brennan."

"Then why would they tell me he's going to die? Or that he might have permanent damage?" Brennan's brief sense of relief had vanished as she recalled the doctor's words in the family waiting room.

Cam had learnt over the years not to sugar coat anything for Dr Brennan. She appreciates people being as direct with her as she is with them. "Because it is still a possibility. But the probability is lower than they initially believed."

Cam noticed that Brennan still appeared to be in discomfort with her arm. "You should really let someone look at your arm, Dr Brennan."

Brennan glanced at Cam but said nothing. She knew from the pain she was in that her ulna was most likely fractured but she couldn't leave Booth. She knew that she needed an x-ray on her arm and that she should probably go home to her daughter. Max had gone to collect Christine from day care and took her home. Even though she is only 2 years old, she is probably wondering where her mommy and daddy are, but Brennan couldn't leave. It felt like the invisible force that had always drawn her and Booth together was keeping her here by his side. She couldn't leave even if she wanted to because at that moment, that force was stronger than gravity.

0-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-0

Two days. Two days she had been sat here by his bedside. She had only left for a few hours twice. Once to get an x-ray on her arm at Dr Saroyan's insistence and the second time to go home to shower and change. She did indeed have a fracture to her ulna, but it was tiny. The doctor had tried to insist she have a cast put on her arm, but she had seen the x-ray and told the doctor that she knows bones better than he did and that a cast wasn't necessary and a protective brace would suffice. In truth, she knew that a cast would have been more suitable, but it would have taken a long time to apply, time she didn't want to spend away from Booth. Consequently, she knew she was going to have to be extra careful with her arm for the next few weeks. Not that she cared about that or anything else for that matter. All she cared about was that her husband – almost her entire reason for existing, was still in a coma.

He'd had another scan and the signs were good. He was healing and it should only be a matter of time before he awoke. The similarities between the situation now and when he had his brain tumour were not lost on her. She was determined not to make the same mistakes she did when he was in a coma last time. She refused to speak to him at all this time, afraid that anything she said would only confuse him when he did wake up. She knew that it was probably wrong and that if he could hear her voice it might give him comfort, but all she could remember was the pain she felt when he woke after his brain surgery and he didn't know who she was. She realises now that she had caused his confusion by reading a story to him as she wrote it while he was unconscious. A story about them as a couple when in reality they were still 'just partners'. She had been in denial then about her feelings for him and about his feelings for her, refusing to accept that it would ever work with them as a couple. His brain tumour had forced her to confront those feelings. She wouldn't leave his bedside that time either and to distract herself from the situation, she had found herself writing a story about a fantasy life where they could be together, a life where she wasn't afraid. When he had awoken, his confusion had terrified her to her core and that fantasy life she had created had seemed so much further away from reality than ever before. So, she had done what she always did when a situation overwhelmed her; she ran.

Brennan felt tears in her eyes as she thought about what might have happened if she had just had enough courage to stay. Had enough courage to just try. If she knew then what she knows now, she wouldn't have hesitated. So much time together they missed. She had never regretted that before because she believed that all the things that happened prior to them becoming a couple had led them to where they are now. Each thing that kept them apart, each thing that caused her more pain than she had known she was capable of feeling, had been a lesson to her, teaching her that despite it being the opposite of how she had always lived her life, that she needed him and that she couldn't live without him. A lesson that was now painfully obvious as she was sat by his hospital bedside once again wondering what the future will now hold for them.

She was so deep in thought that she didn't notice his eyelids flutter open. The first thing she noticed was his hand twitching in hers as she held it. She looked at his face in disbelief to see his eyes watching her.

"Booth!" She said in joy and relief. He was finally awake.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. It felt like Brennan's heart had plummeted to her stomach as he said the words. He didn't say them in a surprised, joyful way. He said them as if he was less than pleased to see her.

"Where else would I be, Booth?" She said hesitantly, unable to work out what was potentially going on in his mind.

She didn't anticipate his next words and when she heard them, impossibly, she felt her heart shatter into a thousand pieces.

"Nowhere. I don't want you here and I think you should leave."

A/N: Sorry to leave it on a cliff hanger! I will post the next chapter soon. Please review and let me know what you think!