A/N: Apparently, end of season 4, beginning of 5 is my muse's playground this month and I'm climbing all sorts of metaphoric monkey bars.

OOOOO

Dec. 8th: Laffers18 chose the word "gun".

OOOOO

Brennan didn't hear him behind her until she set down her gun. With her disarmed, Booth took the liberty of touching her shoulder gently. She still jumped a little, even though she knew it was him immediately by his touch. She turned around and took off her ear muffs.

"Sorry." He winced. "I tried calling your name, but…" He pointed to his own ears.

"It's okay."

"What are you doing here?" He asked, probably already knowing. Booth did that: asked questions that he already knew the answers to. He wanted to hear her tell him, wanted her to open up. Today, she didn't want to do that.

"Just practicing." She said stiffly as she reloaded her gun.

"For what?" He asked.

So I can protect myself on the off-chance you die again.

"I was in the mood to shoot things." She said instead.

"That I understand." He said as he pulled the chart in to examine it. "You know, sometimes I forget what a good shot you are for a civilian." She rolled her eyes at the distinction. "I'm serious! But can I give you some tips?" He offered. She hesitated at his offer, hating to give up control. Still, this was his domain, and if she were in the lab, she would want control there.

"You're the expert." She said as she handed him the gun. He looked at it and ran his hand over the handle longingly.

"I'm not allowed to shoot this yet." He said as he handed it back to her. Brennan eyed him carefully. Rules wouldn't have stopped him if he wanted to do something, which mean that this was a self-imposed rule. He didn't trust himself to hold a gun and it frightened her.

"Okay, then teach away." She compromised.

"You've got a good stance." He told her. "Just, shift a bit." He slid his hands over her hips and turned her ever so slightly. "And you're too tense in the shoulders, relax." He requested as he moved his hands to her neck. "You need this to be loose." He smiled as he wiggled her head around by the back of her neck.

"I got it." She said, knowing he was just messing with her at that point.

"And your arms, out like this." He said as he brushed his hands down her shoulders to her hands, enveloping her. Her heart began to race and she cleared her throat. "Okay, now time your breathing." He said as he placed the ear muffs back on her head and stepped away. Brennan was frozen but she took a deep breath and fired off a shot, aiming for the center of the target. It was definitely better than the previous ones. She took off her ear muffs.

"Perfect." He said with a smile. "Hell, right now, you're a better shot than I am."

"If that were true then I wouldn't need your help achieving this result." She said, furrowing her eyebrows at his logic. Booth smiled sadly.

"I guess you're right." He conceded, but he looked like he didn't believe her. "Anyway, I shouldn't be here. It's like putting you in a lab and telling you everything is off limits." He smiled grimly. "It's too tempting. I'll see you around, Bones." He waved as he began to walk away.

"Booth?" She requested as he stopped. "This probably isn't the best time to be asking this, but do you remember the first time you found me here?" She asked, the memory suddenly overwhelming her. "The Cleo Eller case?" Booth frowned, trying to remember. "I barely knew you, I had never seen you fire a weapon, but I knew your history. You picked up my gun and you shot very poorly."

"On purpose." Booth added, reclaiming a small piece of his memory.

"You do that, hide pieces of the puzzle, make people underestimate you. You think it gives you an advantage, and maybe in the interrogation room, it does. But in the real world, you don't have to hide all the facts. You can trust me, if you want to talk about it." He stared at her, and Brennan wished that she could read what he was thinking.

"Bones, right now? A lot of this?" He said as he motioned to his head. "It revolves around you: around my dream and my memories, trying to sort out what's real and what's clearly not." He sounded almost angry at the fact that some of it wasn't real, like she was the one who had lied to him instead of his own brain. Then again, she had created the story so maybe it was her fault. "The last time I asked you who you were to me, you burst into tears. I don't think you want to be in on this mess." She winced, even weeks later, but she steeled herself with resolve. This wasn't about her. This was about him and his memory. He needed her to be strong.

"If it's about me then I'm the only person who can help you sort it out." She said as she closed the space between them. "I'm the one person on this planet who will never lie to you, Booth. Let me help." He sighed as he looked down at her hand on his arm. She knew it was a step too far, too close, too intimate for trying to re-establish their boundaries but she didn't move her hand. "Please?" She added.

"Not here." He said reluctantly as he looked around. "My place?"

"I'll drive." She offered.

OOOOO

"Where do you want to start?" Brennan asked as she sat down on the other side of the couch and tucked her legs underneath her.

"I don't know." He said honestly. "Where do you start when your brain has been scrambled?" She sighed.

"You're doing fine, Booth. You've healed remarkably in such a short amount of time." She said, impressed. "There have only been a few changes to your behavior. I was expecting more."

"More than this?" He asked in concern.

"Well, the temporoparietal junction is known for being the cause of both amnesia and schizophrenia. That's why you were hallucinating as a symptom." He groaned at himself. "But now you have almost all of your memories, and the things that you've forgotten are pretty trivial, food preferences and clothing tastes." She pointed out. "Your physical movements have adjusted to compensate for the missing pathways in your brain. You're more left handed than you were before."

"I am?" He said as he glanced down at his hands. "How do you even know that?"

"I'm a kinesiologist. I'm very observant of people's movement. Plus I'm with you almost every day. I'd notice even if I wasn't looking for symptoms." She pointed out.

"And you are? Looking for symptoms?" He asked.

"You forgot me." She reminded him. He conceded her point before rubbing the bridge of his nose. "It's okay, Booth." She comforted him.

"I didn't forget you, exactly. I mean, when I woke up, I knew that it had been a dream, you know? I knew that I didn't really own a night club. I was in a hospital bed. I knew about the brain tumor. But when I looked at you, those feelings I felt in that dream? They didn't go away; reality never set in. All I knew was that you were important to me, and judging by your concern, I was obviously important to you."

"You logically concluded I was your wife." She said, not blaming him for the confusion at all. "Your brain was trying to make sense of what you had just experienced."

"When I asked you who you were, you cried." He remembered. "I felt so guilty, so terrible, for having to ask."

"I cried because I thought that you had lost your memory. I thought there was lasting damage from the surgery." She said. "And then you called me Bren…" She paused, wanting to gather herself.

"That's what I called you in my dream." He explained.

"And I knew that I must be in there, somewhere."

"You did a good job of explaining the situation clearly." He offered, still feeling guilty. "Logically, I understood, I remembered your role in my life."

"But?" Brennan asked, knowing that it was coming.

"But it didn't explain the feeling."

"What feeling?"

"That I was in love with you. My heart knew it, as strong as I'd ever felt anything." Brennan couldn't hide the fear at his statement. "I remembered our first case, I knew that even though we'd never…" He paused. "I had feelings for you before, Bones. I think, I hope," he corrected, "we both knew that, but when I woke up, everything was different."

"Your brain got put into neutral." She said quietly, reliving a memory or two herself.

"What?"

"Your brain got put into neutral and your heart popped into overdrive." She said a bit louder. "You took your own advice." They both got quiet. "Did those feelings ever go away?" She asked curiously. He shook his head slowly. "You're in love with me right now?" He nodded, unable to say it out loud. "Booth…" She lamented. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Sure, and how would that conversation have gone? 'Hey Bones, I know we're partners and all but I had a piece of my brain removed and now I'm in love with you. Just thought you should know?'" He shook his head. "I don't think so."

"You think that's the reason that you're in love with me?"

"Bones, I apparently can't even pick out my own socks in the morning, how the hell am I supposed to know what's going on up there?" He said, completely exasperated and wanting to give up. She analyzed him for a moment.

"We experiment." She said simply. He threw a completely confused look her way. "Here." She reached out her hand for his.

"What are you doing?" He asked as he lurched away, totally unsure of what was happening.

"Trust me. Come here." She said as she met him halfway on the couch. He sighed and moved forward a bit. "Kiss me and then tell me what happens, how you feel."

"Bones…"

"I'm serious, Booth. We've kissed before, it's not a big deal. If you don't feel anything, you don't feel anything and we know the answer."

"And if I do?" He asked.

"Then we know that too. Come on." She said as she motioned for him to move towards her. He sighed once more, clearly feeling ridiculous, but he moved forward and kissed her. She let him lead but she felt him give against her lips and he deepened the kiss. Brennan's heart was racing again as she felt his hands move to gently hold her face. She wrapped her arms around his neck and let herself get lost in the kiss. Booth finally pulled away and looked into her eyes.

"I think we have an answer." He informed her. She nodded and kissed him softly once to share her consensus. "Now what?" He asked her, his low voice sounding rough and sending a chill down her spine.

"Now my head is spinning." She confessed. "But I like it." She added and Booth chuckled. He moved back in for another kiss, pressing her back against the couch as he laid her out. With him on top of her, she could feel his erection grow against her thigh and she rubbed her hand against it. He growled against her mouth, knowing exactly what she was doing. "Behave." He hissed.

"Why?" She asked, pushing his buttons. "I want you, Booth." She purred. He groaned in frustration as he touched his forehead to hers.

"Now, even like this?" He asked.

"Always." She said honestly. "I always want you." She saw the words affect him more than he wanted. She moved his head lower and kissed his forehead lovingly to prove it. He kissed the crook of her neck and she ran her hands through his hair, feeling his fresh scar just under her fingertips. He paused as the reminder of his fragility was brought to her attention. "Booth, I'm not going anywhere. If you want to wait…" He sat up.

"What I want is to bury myself inside you." He informed her bluntly. "It's taking everything I have not to." She closed her eyes in agony at that information. "Every time I think about it, I flash back to my dream." He confessed. "I know how it feels to slip inside you, to feel your warm, wet heat all around me, except that's not real. That never happened."

"Booth…" She cut him off as she sat up again. "You know how it feels because I wrote it. Me." She emphasized. "Those were my fantasies; I just let you in." He stared at her. "But now, it's not a fantasy. It's us." Booth contemplated only a second before pulling her against him once more.

"And you're sure?"

"Very sure." She promised. "This isn't just you. I want this." He nodded, trusting her. He kissed her once more before standing up and leading her into his bedroom. They undressed each other between kisses until Brennan pulled away and lay down in Booth's bed, sprawling out before him.

"Is something wrong?" She asked.

"No." He shook his head. "You're just…stunning." He said as he climbed over top of her. He let his hands run over her skin and cup a breast, his thumb brushing over her nipple and watching it pearl. "Stunning." He repeated in awe. She was so desperate for him that she spread her legs for him wantonly. She took his hand and moved it encouragingly between her thighs.

"Warm, wet heat?" She repeated as he gladly slipped his fingers into her. His sharp inhalation of breath was her reward for the brave move. His erection strained against her in envy as his fingers began to massage her smooth walls. Now it was her turn to gasp as she clutched at his wrist, moving with him as he led. Just the knowledge that he was touching her alone would have sent her over the edge but he stroked her into oblivion, until her vision exploded with white light.

Apparently, that was all it took for his confidence to come roaring back. He pulled his fingers out of her and sucked them clean and Brennan thought it was the most erotic thing she had ever seen.

"You taste like heaven." He informed her. "I'm going to have you that way soon." He promised. "But first," he adjusted her hips, "I have to be inside you."

"Yes." She agreed as he let the tip of his erection slide through her folds and into her molten core. "Yes." She hummed again as he filled her slowly. Her hands clutched his shoulder blades tightly as he began to move. His hips thrust into her and she cried out in pleasure. He cursed in her ear, unable to restrain himself. "Take me, Booth." She begged, feeling the fluttering of another orgasm beginning inside her. "Deeper." She begged as he thrust entirely into her.

"Bones!" Booth called as they sped up, moaning wildly in bliss. "Oh, God, baby. Yes. Yes!" He cried as she felt herself getting impossibly close to her release. She was pulled apart at the seams as she came again, this time with him. They were battered with sensations, like waves crashing over them until there was nothing left but the stark silence of peace.

"You most definitely haven't forgotten that." She promised him with a sly smirk as she turned on her side to face him. He chuckled as he stared at the ceiling.

"I keep waiting for my brain to explode from too much exertion or something."

"Your brain is fine." She promised him. "The bad parts are over and you're getting healthier every day, which is good because I definitely have plans for you." She said wickedly. He raised his eyebrow.

"Oh yeah?" He asked as he rolled over top of her again.

"Mmhm." She smiled as he kissed her. "Now that you're in the know, I've got a few more fantasies to let you in on. If you're up to it, of course; I wouldn't want your head to explode."

"If we keep this up, I make no promises." He grinned.