Disclaimer: Bones is not mine and never will be. I'm not making money out of this.

Authors Note: Thank you again for all the reviews you've given me. I'm trying to update fast, but this story needs to be written, you know? If you have questions or think you know what will happen, feel free to mail me or write a review.

---Chapter Three: Sweet dreams---

Washington Memorial, Monday night

Something had woken her. Well no, she hadn't slept in the first place, but her mind had been wandering. She was tired, why was the light shining into her eyes this bright? She tried to roll onto her side to sleep just a moment longer.

Pain shot through her. What the heck was going on?

"Hey, lay still. Dr. Brennan, are you with me?" A friendly, but unknown, voice spoke.

"Shh, Bones, are you awake?" That voice she knew. What were Booth and a strange woman doing in her bedroom?

She finally opened her eyes just a tiny bit, barely enough to peek through. She hadn't redecorated recently, had she? And this was not a hotel room, her nose told her. Antiseptic smell, white wands, unknown as well as known people, pain, was she in a hospital? Hospital! Her eyes opened involuntarily, only to be pressed close again against the bright light.

"Uh, Booth?" Her mouth was dry, but she was able to speak. And the light wasn't so bright after a few more seconds. Brennan opened her eyes slowly. The picture wasn't exactly clear, but she could turn her head. Left. Oh yes, it was a hospital. And she was lying in a hospital bed, with Booth sitting to her left. Her hand, yes it was her hand with an IV line sticking to it. What had happened to her?

"Bones, I'm glad your back." He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Don't call me.." She protested faintly.

"Sorry, Temperance. Habit, eh?"

"Sir, I need to check her over. Please wait outside." The voice she had heard just once before spoke again. Brennan turned her head to her other side, realizing that a nurse was standing there. So she really was in a hospital, this wasn't just a crazy dream after a too long day.

Booth pressed her hand and stood up. He pressed her hand? Well that means that he had hold it in the first place. Why was Booth sitting next to her hospital bed and holding her hand?

"See you later." And he was gone.

She shifted her attention to the nurse.

"Can you explain to me what has happened?" she asked.

"Sorry, ma'am, I don't know. Let me just take your temperature and vitals, Dr. Franklin will come and talk to you soon." Her voice was quite and steady, but with just a tiny hint of steel underneath. She made it absolutely clear that she would not give any information to Brennan.

"If you can't tell me what has happened, can you at least tell me where I am?" Let's try the other 'w'-questions, Brennan thought and her mind started its analysis.

"Washington Memorial, Washington, D.C." The nurse had rounded the bed and pressed her fingers into Brennan's wrist, clearly not trusting the monitor to show a accurate pulse.

"And what time is it?" Washington Memorial was the nearest hospital to the Jeffersonian. Did this mean that something had happened in the lab?

"10 pm, Monday evening. Please, hold you lips closed around the thermometer." Before she could protest, the nurse had put her instrument into Brennan's mouth.

Tempe's brain raced and she tried to put the puzzle together. What could she remember about the day?

She had been in charge of the lab, Camille had phoned in ill. There had been a case... oh yes, the infant from Alexandria. And she herself had felt bad all day, cramps shattering her concentration. But then she had been working late, trying to catch up with the lost hours of the day. There had been blood... yes, she had started her womens time. Listening to her body, she could still detect the cramps, but subdued by whatever pain relief they had given her. Pain relief? Why would she need painkillers? Booth had been there, in the lab, he had annoyed her. And then... The bone...

Brennan gasped. Her eyes flew to her right hand, packed in bandages and sending waves of pain through her body. The medicine hold them down, but they where there.

Beep, beep, beep. The sound of the thermometer being finished broke the path of her thoughts.

"Good, Dr. Brennan, the doctor will be with you in a few minutes." The nurse said and collected her things. She scribbled something into the file and left the room.

Brennan lay still. There were too many questions unanswered, her brain not able to put all pieces of memory together to tell her what had happened. Would Booth come back and tell her? Or could the doctor tell her? She hated it not to know what had happened with her, not trusting her memory and being helpless. A little bit of moisture gathered in her eyes.

But everything was quite around her. She took the time to look around. It was a typical hospital room, three white walls - she couldn't see if the fourth was white too, but she'd bet on it - dimly lit now that her eyes had adjusted and she was alone in it. Next to her bed was a chair, presumably the chair Booth had occupied before.

The sound of a door being opened caught her attention. It was Booth who stuck his head through the crack he had opened.

"Come in", she invited him. The door opened some more and was closed again after the lanky FBI officer had passed it.

"Bones, how are you?" True concern showed on his face and she realized that he was concerned about her.

For once she didn't protest his use of the nick-name he had given her. Hearing his voice and seeing a familiar face with - hopefully - some information about what had happened was worth more than a bit of name calling. And she wondered why it was him here and not Ange or what she would have thought the most common - nobody.

"Other than tired, I feel fine. Whatever they put into me", she wiggled her hand with the IV line, "it helps."

"Great. The nurse wouldn't tell me nothing, only that your doctor should be around soon."

"That was about the only information I could gather, too. But what has happened?" She turned her head to look directly into his face.

"Can't you remember? We were at the lab, you showed me some skeleton and then somehow you'd driven a bone into your palm. I drove you here and the ER team took over. Sorry, can't tell you what happened in there, they wouldn't let me stay." He really looked sorry, but at the same time Brennan was pretty sure that he was hiding something.

"That's it? What happened to the bone?"

"I told them to handle it like evidence. They should have set it up in a vial. But why did you hurt yourself? Normally you aren't so clumsy."

"Don't..." She searched her memory again. Bone, hand, bone, cramp, hand, it had been a really evil cramp! A bit of blood flashed her skin, causing her to blush. She couldn't really tell him that, could she? But he was Booth, perhaps the only person except Angela she could tell. "It was..." she broke off again.

"Yeah?" He took her left hand in his larger one, careful not to interfere with the IV.

Brennan blushed deeper. "It was, I'm having..." Spit it out, she groaned at herself. "My period started and I was having bad cramps." She talked really fast, but then it was out. Tempe let out a breath of relief.

Booth looked sympathetic. "That bad?"

She only nodded. It had been that bad, in fact she could still detect the cramps running havoc in her belly, but the painkillers made them fade out. She realized that they did not only make the pains in her body fade out, they made her whole body relax, especially now that she knew what had happened. Sleep was standing there, ready to claim her.

"Do you need anything?" he asked and let his thumb caress her fingers.

It felt good, it felt right. Like something he could do forever with her. "No", her voice was sleepy and her eyes would not open any more. A moment later Brennan was asleep. She neither noticed the doctor sticking her head in the room to check on her nor the soft kiss Booth planted on her brow before leaving.

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