"Bones, you okay in there?" Booth asked, glancing through the crack in the bathroom door.

"Yes" she hissed, leaning back out of his view but keeping her close proximity to the porcelain bowl that had become her saving grace. "My answer is the same it was ten minutes ago!"

Man, her emotions tended to change real quick he thought as he leaned in becoming flush with the door. He wasn't sure if it was the pitiful little girl voice she was using or the fact that he could hear the muffled groans of anguish following shortly after each heave but his heart was breaking with every passing puke filled second. A healthy woman who was in her prime had been belittle down to a feeble child in a matter of minutes… by her own body!

"Well you have been in there for half an hour puking up your guts. That doesn't seem fine to me." He tried to keep his voice as level as he could but his fear pushed its way through anyway, "I'm worried about you." He finally relented in brutal, broken honesty.

"Just because it is not fine to you, doesn't mean it isn't fine to me. You did not ask whether I was fine in your eyes but how I felt. And I feel peachy. Expelling bodily fluids has become my new favorite activity!" She sarcastically snapped. She knew it was unfair to unleash her wraith on him when it wasn't really his fault but she was growing quite sick of his constant need for updates. She was a little queasy, that was all. If he got this worked up over her having an unsettled stomach she couldn't even imagine how bad he was going to be when Maggie got the flu.

"Bones…" He lightly whispered against the door, unable to keep the failure from hitting him in wave after wave. He was a protector, her protector, but he was left to do nothing but watch and wait. How could he be expected to protect his family when he couldn't do anything other than watch her body assault her for no other reason then it wanted to. Failure, thy name be Seeley Booth.

"I'm fine. I really am…" As soon as the words started flowing from her lips the dry heaving began once more, "I… I blame this on you…" She choked out over gasping coughs.

"Me?" His voice squeaked in surprise at her playful tone. Of course she would blame it on him; even he was blaming it on himself.

"You just had to order pizza last night." She muttered to no one in particular, "Double cheese with olives."

"Your favorite." He grinned widely, even after all these years there are some things you just don't forget about your partner. "Your nasty, healthy favorite."

"You ate it too!" She laughed in conquest. "I went back and there was only one slice left. I doubt Maggie had the capabilities to eat half a large pizza herself."

"I… well… are you sure it wasn't the pancakes that made you feel sick?" He quickly changed the subject, trying to give her as little leverage in the vegetable department as possible. He was a carnivore not a rabbit.

"Booth… I can taste it. It is the pizza."

"Oh."

Hovering his hand over the door he knew in every other situation he would have barged through that door so fast she wouldn't have had any time to object. But there he stood, silently pleading for just a chance to just push the door open. Sure he had been practically spending every waking second at her apartment but it was still hers and only hers. He was just a guest, a guest with a parking pass and a key but still a guest none the less.

She wasn't officially his girlfriend, his wife or even the woman he was living with. She was his partner, the mother of his child and his best friend. The thought that, that could be all they ever would be would was slowly eating him up inside. He had pushed it aside for months, hoping she would come to the same love defying all logic conclusion herself but if this situation was any indication she was far from ever knowing exactly how important she was to him.

"Bones, I know this is going to sound sort of silly but…" He slowly began; not sure what direction or even what he was ultimately going to say.

"Booth, I am sure anything you have to say while I am in this predicament will count as silly."

"Thanks for ruining my moment, Bones." He lightly jabbed with a chuckle.

"Well, the tone of your voice indicated a serious moment and projectile vomit does not rank as a pleasantry." She coldly explained, unsure why the words left a bitter taste in her mouth.

"I meant… well… I guess… never mind." He fumbled, hoping he could once again get the courage to profess his deep, darkest secret. Marry me.

Silence soon filled the few feet separating the couple… or would be couple… damnit she was his. She had to be. He wasn't sure when it had changed but sometime between finding out he was a father again and now he had concluded she was his. She was more than his; she would one day be his wife… if he had proven himself to at least be enough of a man that she would at least try with. She loved him, he loved her, and they were a family. Even if it was only in his mind it had to have some validity to it… right? You don't just almost marry a man, have his child then not love him but then again it was Bones he was talking about, she could rationally conclude her way out of her own name.

"You know I love you and Maggie, right?" He wistfully reminded her with a determined emphasis, "There is nothing I wouldn't do for her. You know that… don't you?" He humbly admitted, placing his head against the door and pushing it open accidently.

To his surprise the second his eyes opened they met the largest grin he could remember spread across her face. It was as if she didn't know, didn't realize how much he cared for his women and him professing it somehow pacified some deep, dark need.

"Geeze Bones, you look horrible." He cringed at the clammy, pale glow her skin had taken.

"Thanks Booth. Just make me feel…"

"No!" He threw his hands toward her face in soothing circles to stop her lips, "I didn't mean you weren't beautiful… you are stunning… I just meant you look sick… drool inducing hot but sick…" He rambled on trying to keep himself from looking like more of a fool but ending up making it worse.

"Are you done now?" Her eyes darted toward the bumbling idiot before her, "Or are you ready to catalogue my symptoms?"

Symptoms? What other symptoms could she be referring to? Before today, well before her nap she had acted perfectly normal. Tired and puking… oh shit. Shit, shit, shit, fuck. How could he not see it?

"I know this isn't my place but…" He hesitantly spoke, trying to put the pieces together in his mind, "do you think the tiredness you have felt and your puking could be signs of…"

"No!" Her defiant scream stopped all discussion on the subject, "Do not even say the word."

"But we did have unprotected sex. It is a possibility." He tried to coax her into rationally thinking about it but the way her eyes flared back at him he knew she was too far off the emotional deep end to be saved.

"Once." She countered. She knew it was irrational to not even think of it as a possibility but the thought of her going through it all again alone was too much to even think about. He had said he would be there for Maggie and that fact she never doubted. But she was still a single mother with a baby daddy, not a boyfriend or husband but a father for her child. A biological father and that was all. His name wasn't even on the birth certificate; all he had to go by was that she told him it was his. Legally he had to reason to even stick around as long as he had. She knew the statistics which just perpetuated her fear. She had done it once and it had about killed her. Now that he was back in her life she knew how fragile their relationship was and a pregnancy could just be the one thing that would do them in for good.

The truth was once was all it took. Maggie was the proof of that. Between their busy schedules they hadn't had sex in weeks before that night, the night that changed everything. Once was all it took, in that moment, the first time they were together that night something inside her snapped and she knew it was different. It wasn't just making love that night. It was so much more. She felt it.

This time was in the throes of passion and desire not love and certainly not emotional ties. It was a hot, hormone induced biological release. It couldn't happen again; it just couldn't… or could it? Was history doomed to repeat itself just because she had to have one more kiss?