A/N: Thank you all for the kind words and amazing reviews. This chapter might be a little OCC but cancer is such a game-changer I feel it could be within the realm of possibilities. I just finished my finals and am officially on spring break so updates should be pretty frequent. Thanks again.

Chapter 2: The Plan

By the time Dr. Liao, Booth's oncologist, had walked into the room an hour and a half later, the news of Booth's cancer still had not completely sunk in yet. The fact that something was killing him from the inside out made him angry and betrayed; angry that he couldn't do anything externally to fight it and betrayed that his body, his cells, was doing this to him. Brennan had been quiet since wrapping him in her arms; she just didn't let go, which he was eternally grateful for. He didn't know if he could answer or face any questions right now. She just climbed on his bed while letting him keep his head on her shoulder and she just kept on stroking the back of his neck, running her nails lightly over the skin there. He curled into her side, hating that he was being this vulnerable but needing her affection and support. And that was how Dr. Liao found them when he walked into the room, curled around each other on the narrow hospital bed. As they noticed his approach, Brennan began to disengage and move toward the chair sitting beside the bed but Booth stopped her with a hand on her arm and a subtle pleading look in his eyes. She nodded at him and sat back down on the bed, but instead of returning to her previous position, she simply grasped Booth's hand as he sat up against the elevated head of the bed. Nodding at her that this was okay, they both turned their attention to the doctor who was now standing at the foot of the bed. He marveled at their silent communication and had a hard time believing what the chart said about their relationship. There was no way they were "just partners."

"Mr. Booth, Dr, Brennan, my name is Dr. Liao and I am the oncologist that will be coordinating Mr. Booth's care from this point on," he started, watching the expressions on their faces. Noting that it looked as though they were anxiously waiting, he continued. "How much were you told, Mr. Booth?" he asked, needing to know how much his new patient knew and understood about his disease.

Booth felt Brennan squeeze his hand as he began to speak. "Well, I was told that my brain tumor was successfully removed but that before they got it out, it spread and now I have…cancer," Booth finished, almost tripping over the last word. He sat in a stunned silence after finally saying his diagnosis out loud. It was like it had not seemed real but now it hung in the air, the word sounding foreign coming off of his tongue but he realized that this was probably going to be the first of many times he would be saying that word as it related to him. Brennan looked at her partner, wanting so badly to help him but she didn't know what more she could do.

"That is essentially correct, Mr. Booth. I am going to tell you some more about your condition and then discuss some treatment options, okay?" Dr. Liao said. Booth and Brennan both nodded at him and he began to speak again. "Now, Mr. Booth, Dr. Jergen told you that they had to remove your right cervical lymph node during the procedure," Dr. Liao paused as he saw Booth raise his free hand up to the surgical stitches on the right side of his neck. "When we performed a biopsy on the tissue, we discovered that you had a micro-metastasis, which means that some of the cancer cells from your original tumor had spread to other parts of the body but that it is too small to be picked up on a screening test. That is why we didn't see that your tumor was malignant on the blood work we performed before you went into surgery. While you were sedated, we did a CAT scan and luckily, you do not have any more masses in your body, which means that even though the cancer cells are spreading throughout your body, they have not yet begun growing on another tissue." Dr. Liao paused once again, letting his patient absorb this information. He was very grateful to have someone with Dr. Brennan's intelligence in the room. He knew of her work and had no doubt that if there was something Mr. Booth did not understand after he left; Dr. Brennan would be able to explain it to him. That was the unfortunate part about his job; so often the news that the patient had cancer understandably put them into a haze so thick that anything Dr. Liao tried to tell them about their disease and their treatment did not sink in.

And this was what was happening to Booth right now. He had never considered himself stupid (well, except maybe when he was around the squints) but he could not comprehend a single word that Dr. Liao was saying to him right now. He looked over at Brennan, hoping that her genius brain was catching all of this and could tell him about it later when he was not imagining the cancer cells like little Pacmans swirling around in his bloodstream and eating up all of his healthy, normal cells. Brennan looked at him and their eyes connected with Booth drawing on the strength and fortitude he saw in her eyes. She was determined to be strong for him and guide him through this, using whatever resources she had at her disposal to make sure that he got the best treatment and care that was currently available.

"So, Dr. Liao, what kind of treatment were you thinking about?" Brennan asked him, knowing that Booth was incapable of thinking beyond his diagnosis at this point and wanting to find out what needed to be done for her partner. He felt Booth squeeze in her hand looked up to see gratitude and fear warring to a spot on his face.

Dr. Liao simply nodded at them before continuing. "So, the good news is that even though you have stage 2 cancer, it is treatable at this stage and e caught it just in time. Normally if one of my patients came in with this condition, I would start them one high dose chemotherapy right away but since you are recovering from surgery, I want to wait about a month or so before starting. For you, Mr. Booth, I am recommending six rounds of high dose chemotherapy to try and nip this in the bud right now before it becomes a bigger problem."

Booth started to zone out again once he heard the word "chemotherapy." He didn't know what he thought the doctor was going to say about treatment; he knew that chemotherapy was the standard treatment for cancer but again; he still had trouble of thinking of himself as a cancer patient. In his mind, he was still Special Agent Seeley Booth of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, who had a beautiful son that he loved and an amazing partner that he was in love with. But now, all he could think of was that he had a disease; he had transformed from a person to a patient.

"What kind of schedule were you thinking of for the treatments?" Brennan asked, her voice bringing him back to reality. He knew that fear was written plainly across his face and tried to use all the Ranger training he remembered to convince Dr. Liao and Brennan that he was okay. But he was failing, miserably.

"I want to do the six treatments, three weeks apart. You will be given a combination of chemotherapy drugs during an infusion session, primarily anthracyclines and topoisomerase inhibitors. I am not going to lie to you Mr. Booth this will not be easy. The first week after treatment is usually the worst of it; most patients experience nausea, vomiting, and fatigue. The second week of treatment is when your immune system is the weakest and you will not be able to go out in public or be around other people who might be sick. The third week will be the best out of the three; you will feel less fatigue and can begin to resume normal activities. Assuming this course of action is successful, patients have a 76-85% survival rate after five years," Dr. Liao finished, watching Booth's eyes widen at the quoted rate he gave him. He paused, considering how to phrase his next statement so it was the most delicate. "Mr. Booth, there is no cure for cancer, but with these treatments, we can hopefully delay it's progression to the point to where you can lead a normal life for the remainder of your life."

Silence filled the room as each person was left to their own thoughts. Brennan was thinking one step ahead, as always. She was thinking about where Booth was going to live during the five or months his treatment would take. It was obvious to her after listening to Dr. Liao's description of his treatment that he would need a lot of support, both physically and emotionally. And while she knew that she could provide the physical support, she was unsure on the best way to provide the emotional support. But she knew that for some reason Booth found her presence comforting, as evidenced by the grip he currently had on her hand. While Brennan was already making plans to move into Booth's spare room in his apartment, where she knew he would be more comfortable, Booth was also thinking about how he was going to get through this treatment. Even though Brennan told him she would be there every step of the way, he didn't want to assume anything. One of the things he loved about her was that she was fiercely independent and he didn't want her to think that she was forced to be there with him. He let out a breath that brought everyone back to the present.

"So, Mr. Booth, what do you think? Do you want to go through with the treatment?" Dr. Liao asked him, reminding Booth that he had a choice to not go through with the treatment as well. Booth looked at Brennan, locking his eyes with her, wanting to really communicate to her his will to live.

"I want to do the treatments. I am going to fight this."

He spoke the words with a confidence he did not feel but wanted to convey. He saw a sheen of tears form in her eyes as he said the words and she gave him a shaky nod as she squeezed his hand.

Dr. Liao nodded. "All right, then. I will leave word with my secretary to make an appointment with you when you are discharged. Between now and then I am going to recommend that you both attend a class about what to expect during chemotherapy about a week before we start treatment," Dr. Liao reached his hand out to shake Booth's hand and then turned around to leave the room after shaking Brennan's hand as well and giving her his card.

As soon as Dr. Liao left the room, an awkward silence descended upon the pair, each unsure how to handle the emotions they were currently experiencing. Until Brennan decided to break the ice in a big way.

"I want to move in with you," she stated in her usual blunt fashion. She almost laughed as she saw Booth's head whip around and give her what she had heard described as a woodland animal in the headlights. At the same time though, she saw what she assumed was love shining brightly in his eyes. She never told anyone but she had only seen Booth give her this look, not Agent Perotta not Cam, only her. And it gave her a feeling of satisfaction and belonging that she had never felt before.

She assumed that he would question her decision, try to talk her out of it, or use his typical alpha-male tendencies to convince her that he would be just fine. But when he simply reached his out his other hand and rested it on her cheek, pulling their foreheads together, she knew the depth of his trust in her, that this intensely private man was willing to let her help him through the battle of his life. And she fell in love with him even more.

"Thank you, Bones. I am not going to be able to do this without you," he admitted to her softly, as if saying it louder would make him less of a man. He was scared and he knew that he needed her. He felt her other hand mirror his position on his cheek and her thumb started to softly stroke the side of his face.

"Don't worry, Booth. You won't have to."