Disclaimer: I don't own Bones or anything associated with the TV show, I'm just playing with them.

Author's Note: Thank you, reviewers! I'm pretty sure you'll like this chapter better, it's a lot about our favorite couple (well, they aren't a couple... yet). Some questions will be answered, but be sure to keep some sympathy for Brennan at your desk :-)

---Chapter Nine: Credulity---

Washington Memorial, Wednesday Evening

With the fading daylight came the clouds. Seeley Booth was on his way from his office in the J. Edgar Hoover Building to the Washington Memorial when clouds started to darken the sky. A few last sun beams colored everything they could reach in a glowing red light, but otherwise the scenery was creepy. Together with the darkening sky a cold wind had started and blown the streets free of pedestrians. Everyone was hiding, not wanting the coming storm to reach him.

Seeley hoped that he would reach the hospital's entrance before the thunderstorm would start. He had no desire to get his suit or the fruit basket momentarily sitting on his passenger seat wet.

Angela had called him in the afternoon, informing him that Hodgins wanted to stop by at Brennan after work. In that moment Seeley had decided to visit her late, to have time with her without one of her colleagues interrupting them. Perhaps she'd like to watch another movie or play some card game with him. He'd even packed the game card holder he had bought Parker to make it easier for her with her injured hand.

Large drops started to wet his windshield, leaving dark circles on the street. The hospital was just around the corner, if he would hurry and find a parking slot really fast, he could stay dry. Booth rushed around the last corner, entered the lot while a first thunderbolt struck the sky. Parking the SUV, he counted in his subconscious, waiting for the thunder. ...twenty-eight, twenty-nine... boom!

It was still away, but to Seeley it seemed as if the clouds had waited for this signal until they let their load drop. Suddenly a heavy shower filled the air around the vehicle, shielding everything from his eyes. "Pooh!", he breathed a sigh of relief. He was save and dry, his car standing and he had still some candy bar in his mid-console to wait out the storm. Flipping on the radio, Booth ripped his candy bar open and tried to relax until the weather allowed him to leave the SUV.

Half an hour later the lightning and thunder had stopped. It was still raining, but the shower had ended in a drizzle. Collecting his things, the FBI agent mentally prepared himself to run towards the entrance. "Three, two, one, go!" he muttered and opened the door. 'Out, take the fruits, close the door and off you go!' he told himself.

His suit only sprinkled with some rain, his hair not even damp he rushed inside the hospital. By now he knew the way to Bones's room well. Taking the elevator, Booth wondered if Hodgins would still be there. He liked it that her colleagues cared for her, but he wanted to have time alone with her, too. He knew that she was someone special for him, a person only next to Parker when it came to his caring. And a part of him hoped that she might realize it and answer one day.

Walking down the corridor toward room 51, a young nurse appeared apparently out of nowhere. "Sorry, Sir, you can't go in at the moment. The doctor is with Dr. Brennan."

"Good, I'll wait." He gestured toward the waiting area at the end of the corridor.

"You may, Sir. But you really should cheer your wife up. There's no need for her to cry all day. Her hand is healing well and the baby's fine, too. She'll get better a lot more easily if she isn't crying all day."

The girl babbled a bit more, while Booth starred at her. Had she said what he thought he'd understood? Wife, baby, she clearly was talking about someone else, not his Bones, was she?

"Sir? Are you okay, Sir?" Concern showed in her lovely face while she started to collect the fruits he'd dropped.

Booth shook his head, but bent down to help her. It took only a minute until all apples, bananas and other fruits were back in their basket. The nurse pushed the basket back in his hands. He could only mumble something, before Booth walked back the way he'd come.

The young nurse starred at his back. Had she told him something wrong?

The agent went down and tried to leave the hospital, but the drizzle had intensified again. Like he was on auto-pilot his feet carried him to the cafeteria. There he sat down, ordered a coffee and starred into nothingness, his mind blank like a brand new notebook.

Burning his mouth at the hot liquid brought him back. Why was he in a hospital's cafeteria? And for whom did he carry a fruit basket? Bones, Temperance, his Bones, yes, she was a patient here. But why was he not in her room but down here, sipping hot black liquid?

He agonized his brain to give him the details. It had rained like it still was. A young nurse had told him what? About his wife and baby? Booth looked down at his hands. No ring. She had to be wrong, he wasn't married. Not that he would not like to have Bones as something more than just a work partner, but as much as he tried to remember, there was nothing beyond friendship between them.

So the nurse had to be wrong about the wife part. He took another gulp of his coffee. Good, he hadn't completely lost his mind then. And if she was wrong about one thing she could be wrong about the baby-part as well, couldn't she?

He relaxed a bit. Should he just go upstairs and ask Bones? But what if the nurse was right? She had been a bit out of character for the last weeks and especially yesterday. Hadn't she been paler than usual and a lot more tired? He could remember that Rebecca had been tired a lot, too, when she'd been pregnant with Parker.

But why hadn't she talked to him? Why was she crying alone instead of speaking with him? "She does not trust me", he spoke quietly. Looking down into his empty coffee cup, he decided to get a refill.

Booth tried to wash the lump in his throat down with the fresh hot liquid. Sully had been the last man he knew about, so it had to be his. Was she no longer sure about letting him sail away? Was she missing his former colleague? Drowning the rest of his coffee, he stood up and left the cafeteria.

At about the same time, only two floors above the FBI agent, the woman his thought were twisting about was lying exhausted in her hospital bed. She had cried some more after Angela had left her. It was like all the tears she hadn't dared to shed throughout the years were now flowing out of her eyes. In some strange, twisted way it felt good to let it all out. She was no longer shedding tears about the fact that she was pregnant, some times she even forgot about this while she mourned for all the time she hadn't allowed herself to be human.

Some part of her longed for her mother, for the woman she now knew had loved her. Some tears were for her grandparents, the real ones and the old man who'd pretended to be her grandfather to rescue her. Her heart ached for that first child, the baby that never had a chance. And a lot of the time her sobs were for herself. Somewhere along this hard way of sorrow she realized that she herself had made her life miserable for a long time.

By the time the young nurse had brought her some dinner, her rid-rimmed eyes were dry again. Exhaustion had stopped the flood of tears and Hodgins as visitor had been able to bring a small smile back to her face. But it had fled soon after Hodgins departure.

Somehow the sky had picked up her mood and was now providing her with a pour her eyes could no longer produce. Watching the rain relaxed her. It was getting late, perhaps Booth had had too much work to stop by at the hospital? But no, he would at least phone her if a visit was not possible.

Brennan waited. A few times her eyes started to close but she wouldn't want to miss him. Keeping herself awake wasn't as easy as usual, her mind too occupied with everything that had happened and that she'd learned to concentrate on reading. Hodgins had brought her a 'great educational book' - as he'd called it - but she wasn't in the mood to start 'It's not what you think it is - The Truth behind our Government'.

It got later and later, but Booth didn't show up. Tempe began to realize that her partner, her friend, the man she was willing to trust with most of her secrets, wouldn't be there today. Small tears began to gather in her eyes when she lost the fight to stay awake. Carefully hidden below the sheets was a clown resting against her belly.

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