Last chap, sorry to keep all of you waiting so long. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I'd name you off but that would be quite a few, so you know who you are and YOU ROCK!!

Brennen sat numbly in the hospital waiting room, the events of the past few hours playing in her head like an unwanted home movie she just couldn't turn off. When she closed her eyes she could still hear the sirens from the ambulance and all the commotion outside the station when they loaded Booth in the back. She was completely aware of her eyes that were undoubtedly still red from crying. She could feel her heart still thumping loudly in her chest, pushing aside her lungs and making it hard to breathe.

She hadn't let go of Booth's hand the whole ride there. She was sitting near his head as he drifted in and out of consciousness in the ambulance. Her voice kept whispering 'don't leave me.' but she coudn't feel herself saying it. She was begging him, she never thought she'd beg anyone for anything.

Brennen heard her name being called and brought her head out of her hands. There, down the hall Angela, Cam, Hodgins and Zack were coming toward her.

Angela's pupils dilated when she saw the blood all over Brennen's hands and face. She was terrified her friend was hurt.

"Sweetie? Bren are you okay?" She knelt beside the anthropologist who stared at her with hollow eyes. "Are you hurt?" She examined Brennen's hands and saw that all the blood was superficial. God, did Booth bleed that much? she wondered to herself.

Angela stood and pulled Brennen to stand beside her.

"Jack, Zack, you guys stay here in case the doctors come out, I'm going to take Brennen and help her get cleaned up."

The boys just nodded, not sure whom they were more concerned about. Booth, who they knew had very serious injuries and had been in surgery for at least an hour. Or Dr. Brennen, the woman who was always so unshakablely strong, but was now staring vacantly as Angela lead her down the hall to a bathroom.

Cam, on the other hand, was already harassing the nurses for information on Booth's condition. It was a good thing Brennen was too out-of-it to notice, because this would have really gotten on her nerves. As if Brennen hadn't already tried scaring the stuffing out of the doctors to get them to tell her something about Booth's condition.

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Brennen watched the water turn brown as it went down the drain, she felt Angela's eyes on her as she gently wiped the blood from her friends hands and face, concerned that she looked so distant. She'd tried to bait her into conversations twice already, both times she was met with no reply, so she settled to just making sure she wouldn't be horribly traumatized the next time she looked in the mirror from all the blood on her skin.

When she'd gotten the last of the blood off Brennen's face she threw away the paper towel and sat on the sink facing her friend.

"Sweetie? Are you there?"

Angela was surprised to see Brennen nod her head slightly.

"Are you okay?" She tried.

For the first time Brennen lifted her head and looked into Angela's face. "I've been beaten and detained by Salvadorian gangs."

Angela was taken aback by her friend's sudden revelation. "I know Sweetie."

"And I've woken up in the middle of the night knowing I was completely alone in the world."

"I know."

"But I have never been so terrified, as when I thought Booth was going to die." Suddenly Brennen's eyes were tearing up again. Angela squeezed her hands.

"When my parents disappeared…" Brennen dropped her gaze to the floor, "and I lost my brother, it almost killed me. I swore I'd never be in that position again. I'd never let anyone get that close to me again." She started to shake her head. "But if I lost Booth…if I lost Booth…" Her voice dissolved in sobs and her shoulders shook with the depth of emotion overwhelming her.

Angela snatched her friend up with a tight hug, barely able to keep her own tears from falling.

"It's okay sweetie. It's okay, he's going to be fine."

She rubbed Brennen's back, not letting go even though Brennen didn't hug her back. After a few minutes her breathing returned to normal and she pulled away from Angela's embrace.

"Thanks Ange." She sniffed.

"Bren…" Angela held Brennen by the shoulders and looked her in the face, "Are you going to tell him?"

Angela took the horror that passes over Brennen's features as a 'no'.

Tell him? Tell him ny world would end if he...Tell him just so he can be taken away from me like everyone else?

"Okay Sweetie, okay. Nevermind." She hugged her one last time, before leading her out of the bathroom to see if anything had changed in Booth's condition.

The others were waiting for the them when they returned.

"The nurse said he's out of surgery. We can go see him when he's awake." Jack said when they were closer.

The Squints busied themselves for the next two hours calling Booth's family and making sure everyone knew he was okay. Angela had an especially hard time when talking to Parker who insisted he needed to talk to Bones.

"Please Angela? Can I please talk to Bones?"

"Well, Sweetie, she's…very tired. But I'll tell her you said 'hi' okay?"

"Yeah…okay I guess."

Angela's heart sank at knowing she'd disappointed poor Parker, she didn't like the thought of his cute little face looking dejected and sad. But she knew he would have felt a lot worse than that talking to Brennen, who couldn't have mustered an encouraging word for Parker if her life depended on it.

Angela was a little relived, however, to see her friend no longer had that vacant look on her face. instead she now looked to be concentrating hard, as if trying to make a decision.

Finally the nurse said they could go visit Booth. When they arrived in his room, he was still groggy from the medications. The squints crowded into the room around their fallen comrade. Zack trying his best to be ignored by Booth for their bonding, and Angela kept touching his arm, trying to keep things normal by making him blush.

After calling him 'Agent Hot Stuff' for the third time she succeeded and told Booth she and the boys would be back tomorrow to see how he was doing. She then took Zack with one hand and Hodgins, who was trying to steal pudding off one of Booth's nearby trays, with the other and led them out the door.

Cam soon followed suit, feeling awkward there between Booth and Brennen, two people she was painfully aware needed to be alone together.

"Bye Seeley." She said, and left quickly.

This left Brennen and Booth alone. She stood awkwardly at the foot of his bed, her arms folded around herself.

"Hey." Booth said to her, smiling as he was much more alert now that his medication had subsided, he couldn't help it. He was glad she was there.

Brennen nodded, then finally gave him a small smile.

"I'm glad you're okay. I was really worried about you." She didn't mean them to, but her words sounded cold and distant.

Booth looked away, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have lost my temper." He cringed thinking back to the interrogation room and made a mental note to find out who'd frisked Stark when he came in and rip them a new one when he found out.

Brennen started to take a step toward Booth and then stepped back again. She dropped her gaze to the floor. "Goodbye Booth." She said softly and started to walk toward the door.

"Hey! Where're you going?"

"Oh, I uh…" Brennen stammered, "I have some work back at the lab I should go do so...you know." She shrugged and tried not to look at Booth so he wouldn't see the uncertainly in her face.

He saw it. He knew she was holding something back.

"And? What else?" He said expectantly.

Finally she looked at him. "Booth. I'm, um...going to request a new partner from the FBI."

Booth's face immediately betrayed his hurt feelings.

"What do you mean? Why?" He studied Brennen, who stayed across the room at the door. His heart got weak when he realized she was tearing up.

"It's just," she sighed, "Our jobs are dangerous. We deal with death everyday and both of us have our fair share of enemies. I know that. But, I just…if something happened to you…like today I…I just couldn't…" She broke off. Every time she tried to tell him her mind stopped her and she went at it from a different direction. But she couldn't get the words out.

Booth studied his covers for a moment. "No." He said finally.

"What?" Brennen stepped toward him, not sure she'd heard correctly.

"No. You don't get to walk away." He studied her face, watched the tenderness and defiance struggle with each other in her features. "We've been through too much together. I've told you things...things I've never told anyone. We're more than partners. We're friends and you don't get to just walk out on everything we've been through."

Booth worked hard to keep his voice steady as Bones walked toward him as he spoke. She was taking in what he was saying.

She shook her head, "But Booth…"

"Sorry Bones, you're stuck with me."

Brennen put her hands on her hips, she was at Booth's bedside now. "Are you trying to tell me what to do?" Annoyance tinged her voice.

Booth shrugged, glancing away and then giving her a small version of his charm smile, "No, I'm just telling you how it is." Then, all teasing gone from his voice he reached out and took her hand, "I'm not going anywhere Temperance."

Immediately her face softened and Booth was surprised at the vulnerability in her eyes. She unconsciously interlaced her fingers with his and sat on the side of the bed.

Can he really say that? Is it really possible that if I let him in, this time will be different?

"You promise?" She asked softly.

Booth took his hand from hers, as it hurt to move his other arm, and he lifted her chin to meet his gaze.

"I promise."

Temperance looked into his eyes and was overwhelmed with the tenderness and truth that lie within them. Before she had time to think she leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his lips.

Booth was at first surprised and then reached up with his good hand and placed it on the back of her head, unable to control the intense desire to show her all the passion he'd been holding back for months. After a few indulgent seconds Temperance broke the kiss, pulling away, flushed red in her cheeks.

"Sorry," Booth wiped his mouth, "If, uh, that was too…"

"No, no, don't apologize." Brennen smiled widely. "You have nothing to apologize for."

Their fingers danced with each other on the bed for a while until she started to get up.

"Where are you going now?" Booth almost whined.

"Well," she smiled shyly, "I really do have some work back at the lab…"

Booth grabbed her hand. "Stay for a while? Please?"

Brennen was about to refuse when Booth flashed his full on charm smile. She surrendered and sat back down in a chair next to the bed, knowing she'd been beat.

Booth picked up the black object at his side.

"So you see Bones. This clever little thing here is a 'remote'. It's used to control that black box there on the wall which will display moving pictures of varying degrees of entertainment value."

Brennen smacked him lightly on his good arm. "You know I know what a TV is Booth."

Booth chuckled and began to channel surf until he found a show he thought Brennen would enjoy.

"You ever heard of 'Star Trek' Bones?"

"Heard of it 'yes', watched it, 'no'."

"It should interest you, it's about a crew of people hundreds of years in the future who spend their whole lives searching out new cultures and species and studying them. Kind of like what you do."

Brennen was immediately engrossed in the "unique warrior culture of Klingons who equate violence with honor and death in battle as the ultimate achievement". Booth smiled at her childlike naivety as she systematically disected every scene, and drifted to sleep to the sound of her voice. The most beautiful sound in the world.

Brennen finally noticed he'd drifted off when he started to snore softly and she interlaced her fingers with his once again. She was surprised the sinking terror had not returned to her chest at finally revealing to Booth her true feelings. She realized that she instead felt something much more soothing and welcome.

She felt safe. Safe in the arms of the one she loved, knowing he would always be there to catch her if she began to fall. She knew he would always challenge her and that he would never hurt her.

She reached up and caressed his sleeping face.

"I'll see you tomorrow Seeley." She kissed him one last time and silently left the room.

"I'll be here Temperance."

THE END

So...what did you think of the ending? I have a bunch more fics I'm planning to post if people like what they read.