A/N: some readers might find this chapter upsetting. However, please trust me...things will improve over the course of the story.

There were sirens coming from somewhere in the distance...

Brennan could hear the sirens getting louder as the emergency vehicles approached, and she wondered if they were coming for her. But no one knows where I am...I wish Booth was still alive...he'd never stop looking for me...but I'm alone now...

Her brain was still foggy from the fall down the stairs, and her body seemed numb for some reason. She couldn't open her eyes, and her nose was swollen shut, making it hard to breathe, but she could hear the sirens. She wanted to call out...to seek help...but she wasn't sure of her assailant's location. Was he still around? I need to be quiet...I don't want to call attention to myself...

Then suddenly a door burst open, and there were several voices jumbled together, talking over each other. She tried to make out what they were saying, but the conversation didn't make sense. "It's okay, ma'am...we're here to help you...easy now...hey, Jake, let's start some saline...you're the guy who found her? I'm Detective Moran...we need to get her ready for transport...Jesus, look at that wrist…it's gotta be broken...loss of blood...concussion...I've got to call her partner...he needs to know...let's immobilize her neck...stay with me, ma'am…hey, Booth..."

She was vaguely aware of being rolled onto a gurney, groaning in pain as they lifted her into the back of the ambulance. She wanted to tell them something...but what was it? Her head was still throbbing...she couldn't remember anything...but she was in an ambulance...going to the ER? Nobody will know where I am...I need someone to call Angela to tell her what's happened. Is my baby okay?

Suddenly she felt a searing pain in her abdomen, but she couldn't move...she couldn't even scream. Then there was a jerk, and she felt the ambulance stop. Everything went black...

The next thing she knew she was semi-conscious, laying on a hospital bed in what appeared to be a small emergency room cubicle. Blurry shapes rushed frantically around her, removing her bloody clothes with scissors before poking and prodding at her wounds and sticking her with IV needles. She struggled to keep her eyes open, but without much success. She felt numb and unbearably cold. Am I in shock? What happened to me? I fell, right? Where am I? Where's Booth?

One of the blurred shapes approached her and gripped the side of the bed. She watched his lips move but it seemed she couldn't hear a word he was saying. He kept gesturing to my thighs, but she couldn't hold her eyes open any longer. I'm so cold...so tired...can't stay awake...please leave me alone...I just need to sleep...

Oooooooooo

Brennan was jolted awake by a bad dream, surprised as she took in her surroundings. Instead of the tiny cubicle with the blurry shapes, she was now in a normal hospital room. The nurses and physicians were much calmer now, appearing almost subdued as they hovered around the bed. An older man in a white lab coat held up a pen light and checked her eyes, murmuring to himself as he examined her.

"Good." He nodded to the nurse standing next to him. "Equal and responsive. Now then, young lady...can you tell me who you are?"

Her brow furrowed as she tried to answer the question. "I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan. I work at the Jeffersonian as a forensic anthropologist." She hesitated, trying to make sense of her surroundings. "I think I remember part of what happened. I was at Arlington National Cemetery, and was accosted from behind. Then I remember waking up in a van, and being in a large room...and I fell down for some reason..."

She moaned as a wave of pain rippled across her lower abdomen. "How severe are my injuries? I think my right wrist is broken." She was becoming frantic as she struggled to regain her sense of normalcy. "Do I also have a serious concussion?"

The doctor tried to calm her down. "Take it easy, Dr. Brennan. I'm Dr. Morrow, the hospitalist who's been assigned to your case. I'll be your physician while you're here at Washington General. And yes, both bones in your right wrist are broken. We've put a temporary cast on it until the orthopedic specialist can look at it, okay? You'll probably need surgery to repair it. It seems you fell down a long flight of stairs, so it's likely you do have a concussion, but as to the severity…well, we don't know yet. There's also the possibility of some bruised or cracked ribs..."

"You needn't patronize me, doctor. As dizzy as I am, I know my concussion must be severe." She pointed to the foot of her bed. "I'm also experiencing hallucinations." She turned her gaze to the physician. "Do hallucinations normally occur with concussions? I did experience a massive blunt force injury to the back of my head, although I suppose the trauma I experienced could be contributing to shock…"

The doctor shook his head in surprise as he listened to his patient. "Hallucinations are not normally symptoms of those complaints…"

"Perhaps not, but because I'm not taking any psychotropic drugs, that must be the only explanation. I can't really be seeing Booth...he's deceased…and because there are no such things as ghosts, there must be some other logical reason for me to be seeing him."

The hallucination looked frantic and disheveled, with wild, bloodshot eyes. Finally, it spoke to her in a soft voice. "Hiya, Bones. How ya doin' there?"

Brennan had never personally experienced hallucinations, but from what she'd read she knew they could seem incredibly real, and thus be very deceiving. However, the details in the minute inflections in the voice, the concerned crease on the brow, the hands jammed in the pockets...they were painfully realistic. She stared in shock as the hallucination began to speak again.

"Listen, I know you're surprised to see me, but I can explain…"

"No. You're not here." Frantically she turned to the doctor and tried to drown out the sound of her dead partner's voice. "I must be hallucinating, Dr. Morrow. You don't understand...this man can't be here. Agent Booth is dead…I saw his grave..."

When all she got from the doctor was a blank stare, she stared at the hallucination in disbelief. "Sweets told me you'd died from an embolism…" Her breathing became erratic and her next statement was hardly more than a panicked, breathy whisper. "You died, Booth. You're dead. You must be dead. You can't be standing there..."

The room began to spin as she fought to get her breathing under control. She could hear her heartbeat roaring in her ears as the doctor moved to block her view of the 'hallucination'.

"Dr. Brennan, look at me." The physician spoke quietly, hoping to calm his patient. "You're hyperventilating, and I need you to concentrate on your breathing, alright? Breathe slowly. In deeply and out slowly. Count to five...then in and out again. Good. Count to five. In and out. There we go. Are you feeling better?"

"I think so…" Gradually she managed to get her respiration into a more normal rhythm, but the hallucination was still standing there. "Please help me, Dr. Morrow. I need to have more tests run...perhaps an EEG or an MRI. I may have a subdural hematoma..." She pointed to the end of her bed. "He's dead. I'm looking at my dead partner."

The physician gestured at the image. "This man isn't dead, Dr. Brennan. He's very much alive, and I see him, too. He's standing right here next to me. You're not hallucinating."

Booth moved towards her bed, taking her hand in his. "I'm not dead, Bones." He held her hand up to his cheek, and she felt the warmth of his face spreading through her palm. "See? I'm alive."

"Booth…" All she could manage was a strangled whisper as she remembered the look on Sweet's face when he'd told her that her partner was dead. She pulled her hand back as if she'd been stung, shaking with anger as she addressed him. "Booth? What the FUCKING HELL?! You lied to me? You promised! You said you'd never do this to me again!"

He shrank back, the hurt and surprise evident in his face. Clenching her jaw to keep from screaming at him, she turned back to the doctor. "Get him out. I don't want him here; get him out. NOW!"

Dr. Morrow nodded to a nurse, who walked over to the side of Brennan's bed. "It's alright...we'll have him leave..."

Sobbing, Brennan closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to look at her visitor. He was shouting something, but she ignored him.

Once he'd been escorted from the room, she opened her eyes and let out a deep breath, wiping away her tears. "Dr. Morrow, I'd like to go over my injuries again, please.."

He rattled off the various traumas she'd suffered, using extensive detail to explain the effect each had inflicted on her body. Eventually, he quieted and paused, clearing his throat. "Also…um...you've lost a lot of blood..."

Brennan studied her hands for a few seconds before meeting the doctor's eyes. "I remember there was a lot of blood on my jeans...more blood than could've conceivably been lost from the rest of my injuries. I'm approximately 6 weeks pregnant. Did I miscarry?"

"I don't know for sure." Sighing softly, Dr. Morrow shook his head. "We had no reason to suspect you were pregnant, and we also haven't had a chance to do many other scans yet, let alone a fetal ultrasound. We had just brought you up from the ER when you woke up. Now that you're awake, I'll order the test." He smiled sadly. "We can get someone to come in with you while we do the scan, if you'd like."

Tears bit at the corners of Brennan's eyes as she thought over the doctor's question. Her first instinct was to have Angela come sit with her, but she knew that Booth deserved to be there as well. One way or the other, he deserved to know. However, white hot anger still coursed through her body.

Booth hadn't bothered to tell her he was alive. He'd had weeks to text or send an email or even to call her, but he had chosen to do nothing. Instead, he'd let Sweets tell her that he was dead. He'd let her believe that lie for more than a month, and she was so angry...

Then again, it was his child, too, and he deserved to be there for the ultrasound. He deserved to receive the news first hand.

And he deserved a chance to tell his side of the story.

Biting her lip, she turned back to the doctor. "Please get Angela Montenegro and Seeley Booth."

Oooooooooo

For Booth, it was probably the strangest feeling he'd ever experienced. His heart was pounding like crazy as he jogged through the emergency room doors to meet the ambulance that might be carrying Bones, but his mind was completely numb, like he was sleepwalking. Glancing at his surroundings, he wasn't even sure how he'd managed to get himself there in one piece, but there he was, standing in the middle of the reception area, trying to figure out what to do next.

Fortunately, his friend Mike waved at him and came striding quickly over. "Booth…I'm positive it's her. They just brought her in. She's in room 2."

He pulled Booth down the hall until they found the right cubicle, but the ER staff were buzzing like crazed bees around the tiny room and they wouldn't let the visitors in, sending the men instead to the nearby waiting room. Booth sat there quietly, fidgeting with his phone as he tried to listen to what Mike was saying, but he couldn't really process what the detective was telling him.

"...the building's custodian found Dr. Brennan at the bottom of a long flight of stairs and called 911. He asked for an ambulance, saying he thought the woman he'd found was dying. A patrol car met the ambulance at the scene, and one of the cops recognized Dr. Brennan from the cover of a book she was reading, so they called for a detective to join them out there. I was the one who took the call. I knew you'd want to know what was going on, Booth...seeing how you feel about her, right?" Detective Moran glanced at his friend, shaking his head in sympathy. "I'd want to know if it was Charlotte they'd found like that...I'd want to hear the news from a friend instead of just some random cop…"

"Yeah." Booth's mind was racing as he tried to grasp what Mike was telling him. Dying? Bones was dying? He knew the detective was telling him something else, but all Booth could hear was that Bones was dying, and that was all it took to set him off. He had to see her right away. He had to be with her...he couldn't let her suffer alone. As he tried to bolt from his chair, Mike grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Wait a minute, Booth...we can't go in there yet. Come on...have a seat..."

Groaning softly, Booth glared at his friend. "You don't get it, do you? I have to see her…"

One look at his friend told Booth it wasn't going to happen that way. Mike was always so goddamn calm. It made him a good cop, but Booth didn't have time for good cops, and he really hated how calm Mike was right then. "Goddammit! I can't just sit here and do nothing…"

"Listen, Seeley...I know what she means to you, but we gotta play by the rules on this one, okay? They're working on her and trying to preserve evidence of her assault at the same time. I know it sucks, but we gotta wait for the doctor to come talk to us. No worries, though...I'm not going anywhere until we know what's going on...I'm staying right here with you...you're not alone in this, okay?"

Running his hand down his face, Booth nodded. "Yeah, okay. Thanks, Mike. I appreciate that." He glanced anxiously down the hall. "But what's taking them so long? What did the EMTs say, Mike? I thought you said she wasn't hurt that bad...did you lie to me? What the hell is going on? This doesn't sound like it was just some little bump on the head..."

"It's probably taking so long because, like I said, they're looking for evidence of assault. There's a distinct possibility that she was pushed down those stairs." Mike shook his head as he pulled some papers from his jacket pocket. "Since she was semi-conscious when they got to the scene, the paramedics assumed she probably does have a bad concussion. She definitely has a broken wrist and most likely some broken ribs. They're also concerned about other internal injuries because of the position of some of the bruises on her body." Suddenly upset, Detective Moran paused as he looked away from his papers.

Booth's gut suddenly kicked in as he watched his friend's reaction. Mike was trying to avoid telling him something...he acted like it was something he was embarrassed about...

"Spill it, Mike. I gotta know the whole truth…" He braced himself mentally, wondering what the detective was trying to hide. It's gotta be bad...Mike's a straightforward guy...

"There was a lot of blood on the crotch of her jeans, Booth...all down the inseams, too. The paramedics kept trying to ask her if she was menstruating, but she wasn't responsive enough to tell them." Mike swallowed hard before he looked over at his friend. "They're worried because she's lost so much blood…and if she wasn't on her period…I'm sorry, buddy...but they think it's possible that if she was pregnant, she suffered a miscarriage from the fall...of course, they could be wrong, you know? There's probably another explanation, and maybe it's nothing to worry about. Maybe she cut herself somehow...I mean, the edges of those concrete stair treads are real rough..."

Booth's head was swimming as he tried to understand what Mike was telling him. First Angela had told him about Brennan being pregnant, and now Mike was telling him maybe she'd lost the baby, assuming that the agent was the father. He didn't know what to think, because he knew he wasn't the father of her child...he couldn't be. Booth started to explain things to Mike when someone came into the waiting room.

"Family of Temperance Brennan?" The doctor looked expectantly around the room.

"That's me!" Booth jumped out of the chair like he'd been shot from a cannon. "Can I see her now?"

"Yes, but…" Sighing audibly, the doctor nodded as he led the agent down the hall to the cubicle. "...she may not know who you are right now, so try not to be upset with her. She's not going to be very coherent after the massive blow to the head that she's suffered…" The doctor pushed the door open and motioned for Booth to enter in front of him. "Dr. Brennan? You have a visitor…"

"Hiya, Bones. How are you?" Booth smiled at her as he entered the room. "Listen, I know you're surprised to see me, but I can explain…"

"No...you're not here." Obviously frightened, she turned to the doctor. "I must be hallucinating, Dr. Morrow. This man can't be here. Agent Booth is dead. Sweets told me you died…you had an embolism..."

And at that moment, he felt as if he had actually died.

In his panic...in his rush to see his Bones after receiving word of her injuries, he'd forgotten that she didn't know that Sweets had lied to her about his death, just like the kid had lied to him about her staying out of the country for a couple of years. He grabbed her hand and put it up to his cheek. "No, look...look, Bones, it's really me. I'm really alive…"

And that's when the proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan. She started screaming at the doctor, saying that the man standing before her had to leave...she couldn't stand the sight of him. Booth tried to explain, yelling so he could be heard above all the noise, but she wouldn't listen. He was horrified, having never seen her act that way….

But then he remembered all she'd been through in her life, and he understood. Bones had been abandoned many times by people she'd trusted and relied on, so, of course, she'd see this whole pretending to be dead thing as just another example of why she didn't want anybody in her life. After all, according to her, everybody left her eventually, and in this case it would be hard to prove that this whole fucked up shit storm wasn't his idea...at least until they could get her calmed down long enough to get the truth from Sweets.

She'd asked him to leave, and there was nothing he could do about it. She didn't want to see him at all, so he went back to the waiting room and slumped into a chair, vowing to himself that he was gonna kill Sweets next time he saw him. He couldn't believe that rotten little bastard had deliberately told her that her partner had died, knowing how she'd react to the news. He must've known she'd take it hard...how she'd feel…

And how did she react? She'd gotten herself pregnant. Feeling like the wind had been knocked out of him, Booth concentrated on slowing his heart rate. The news was just...devastating. That was the only word he could think of to explain what he was feeling. It's like getting kicked in the balls. The woman I'd loved for years thought I was dead and she responded by getting pregnant. Unbelievable.

To make matters worse, Angela had shown up at the hospital, wanting to know how Brennan was. She'd been crying, asking if there had been any news about the baby, but Booth didn't really know what to say. He was about to ask her who the father of Bones' baby was, but their conversation was interrupted when the doctor came back out to the waiting room.

"Is there a Ms. Montenegro present?" Angela meekly raised her hand. "Dr. Brennan would like you and Agent Booth to accompany me back to her room now."

Angela and Booth looked at each other in surprise before following the doctor back to the room. Bones was sitting upright on the bed, looking pale and fragile as she pointed at the equipment the technicians were bringing into the room. "They're going to perform an ultrasound to see if I've miscarried." Her voice was strained as if she was choking on her tears. "Given the information about the amount of blood they found on my pants, I'm afraid there's a high probability of that being the case."

"Oh, Sweetie…" Angela moved to embrace her best friend. "I'm so sorry…"

Booth stared at his toes, wondering why Bones had wanted him there. They were close, but it just felt wrong for him to be present for something so personal. Finally, he couldn't stand it any longer, so he moved toward the door. He had to leave soon, or he was gonna throw up. "I'm sorry, Bones, I really am...but I don't think I belong here right now…"

She swallowed hard as she held out her hand to him. "Yes, you do belong here, Booth. The baby is…" Tears began to trail down her face as she began to weep. "The baby...was...yours."