*Guilty face* Hello everyone! I um... sort of forgot to update yesterday. I hope that this chapter will make up for the lateness :)

"Darn Thai food!" she gasped as she sat up, groaning before leaning back against the opposite wall.

"Well maybe if you hadn't eaten my share of the noodles we wouldn't be having this problem," he commented lightly as he rubbed her back from his position crouched on the floor beside her. She offered him a glare in response. "Hey, I'm not sick, and that's the only thing we ate differently, since you gobbled them all down before I had a chance. I'd say it's probably karma."

She was about to retort, but another wave of nausea hit her, and she dove forward and heaved over the toilet bowl. Gentle hands pulled her hair back and continued to rub up and down her back, and when she sat back again he pulled her into his arms.

"Sorry, Bones," he murmured apologetically. "I know that can't be much fun."

"It's not," she answered dryly.

At least dinner the night before had gone remarkably well, and so had the remainder of their evening. While she'd missed Booth in general, she hadn't been so fully aware of how much she missed him in bed until they were hurriedly making their way up the hall, undressing between kisses.

And then, of course, she'd woken up at an ungodly hour and staggered in here to begin retching. Booth had followed shortly, woken up by her struggle to escape the confines of the warm sheets, and hadn't left her side except to fetch her a cup to fill with water, which she had attempted to drink but failed, far too quickly overcome with another wave of the nausea.

"It was your idea to order out Thai, you know," she pointed out as she leaned her head against the cool tile wall, closing her eyes with a soft moan.

"Yeah, but I didn't force you to eat it, now did I. And who burned the Mac n' cheese in the first place?"

She mumbled incoherently until he gently pulled her back into his arms, and then she murmured loud enough for him to understand, "I was trying to make your favorite meal..."

"Shh... I know sweetheart, I know... I was teasing..."

She nodded weakly, her stomach aching. She clumsily pushed him away and leaned over the porcelain again, but nothing came up and she sank weakly down to the ground again.

"There's no way you're going into work like this, Bones. Come on, I'll get you all set up in the bedroom, and make you some soup or something."

"It's too early for soup," she mumbled in complaint, but still got numbly to her feet with his help, and allowed him to help her back into their bedroom. She was never sick; it felt so unusual that she wasn't really sure how to handle it. This wasn't something she could fight, it was something that she had to wait out. And she hated that.

But she supposed the important part was that Booth was there. If she'd gotten sick and they hadn't resolved things between them...

She was just grateful that they had. Having him right there, holding her arm and guiding her onto the soft mattress, tucking her in with infinite care... right now, she felt loved. And that feeling was one she certainly wouldn't get tired of. She smiled lazily at him as he leaned against the doorway, looking back at her.

"You have to call... Cam. Make sure Ange knows... about everything."

She was barely awake enough to see him nod in agreement before she tiredly let her eyelids droop and slid back into comfortable sleep.

When she next opened her eyes, she sat up with much greater ease than she'd been expecting, and blinked around at the room. Slivers of sunlight drifted in through the curtains, intensified by the reflections from the snow that she knew blanketed the ground. She'd heard weather reports the day before, but had forgotten until that moment that they'd been expecting a rather large storm.

Surprisingly, her stomach was grumbling in protest at her lack of food intake. The clock informed her that it was past noon, and clearly she was feeling the effects of a missed breakfast and what was most definitely an empty stomach.

Booth's head appeared around the corner before she could get up or call to him, even though she hadn't planned on the latter, and he grinned as he saw her sitting up and alert.

"Sleeping Beauty awakes at last!" he crowed cheerfully, walking over with a box of crackers and a glass of water. He handed her the drink and then popped open the box, offering it to her after she'd taken several grateful gulps of the cold liquid.

"Mm, thanks," she said as she accepted the offer. "We don't have any peanut butter, do we?"

"Well, you didn't before I started doing the shopping, but thankfully my 'unhealthy attitude' enjoys the 'fattening' product. We've got a big jar of Skippy in their somewhere. Be back in a flash. Need anything else while I'm up?"

"No, that should be good," she said, munching on another cracker.

When he returned, they took turns spreading the gooey peanut butter onto crackers, laughing like they were kids again as crumbs spilled ceaselessly onto the clean bedspread.

"I'm going to have to clean this later," she said with a sigh, but her eyes were still sparkling with laughter, and so were his.

"Eh, I'll help. Not a big deal. Hey, you still up for that soup? I think I might have some, too. I made it earlier, while you were sleeping."

"You didn't have-"

"But I wanted to. Can you make it to the kitchen, or do you want to have it in here?"

"I hardly intend to spend the entire day trapped in this bed. And besides, I feel much better now. Move over so I can get up. You're practically sitting on top of my leg."

Despite her protests, he insisted on helping her out of the bed, and then rested a hand lightly on her back even though it was a ridiculously short journey down the hallway and through the door to the kitchen. She climbed easily onto the bar stool at the counter, and Booth wasted no time in ladling the soup into bowls and sliding them into the microwave to reheat. As the old appliance buzzed cheerfully in the background, he leaned forward over the counter and grinned at her.

"So, I'm assuming that now you're going to insist that you are perfectly capable of going to work tomorrow? Just a minor case of food poisoning?"

"Yes, that is correct. I could probably still make it in today, to be honest, and I just-"

The ringing phone cut her off, and she reached for it before Booth could.

"Brennan."

"Sweetie! Thank goodness. Cam told me you were sick, and I've been trying your phone all morning to no avail, and Cam said something about Booth being the one to call it in for you, so I just wanted to make sure I was right and things went well last night... and of course I wanted to give you time to sleep in since you were so sick..."

She rolled her eyes, even though her friend couldn't see her. "Ange, you know very well that I don't fake illnesses to stay in bed all day." Booth was grinning across at her, and she offered a playful smile in return as she continued. "No matter how tempting that might normally sound."

There was a pause. "Okay, so what I'm getting here is that things went really well... but you somehow ended up too sick to come in today?"

Before she could object, Booth had slid the phone skillfully out of her hand and pressed it up to his ear. "Hey, Ange. Bones tried to burn down her place making Mac n' cheese for yours truly, and apparently the Thai place is no longer trustworthy for safe food."

"Booth!" she protested, reaching to grab it back.

"Well hello, Booth," Ange said cheerfully. Brennan could still hear her friend's voice, and realized that Booth had probably heard both sides of her conversation as well. "Nice to see things worked out well last night. Bren is alright, isn't she?"

"I threw up this morning and I feel fine now," she said, loudly enough that she knew her friend would pick up on it. "Booth doesn't want to let me come in tomorrow either."

"Good for him. You two have a lot of catching up to do, I'm sure."

"That also happens to be none of your business," Booth said lightly, a teasing note in his voice as his eyes sparkled mischievously across at her. "So I don't expect you to be popping by unexpectedly. I'm sure me and Bones can entertain ourselves just fine. Besides, I heard the roads were murder this morning."

"They were. Hodgins wanted to make us stay home, too, but Cam called and told us that you and Bren weren't coming in at all, and that she'd need someone to do work. I hope Brennan's alright, though. I know you'll take good care of her, of course. Hodgins has been going practically crazy since I started in with the morning sickness a while back, so I know you can't be much better when Bren's not feeling at the top of her game, but I-"

His eyes were suddenly locked with hers, his mouth slightly open. Ange was still talking, but it was clear he wasn't listening.

"Hey, Ange?" she stopped short in surprise, "I have to go. See you tomorrow. Maybe." He hung up without waiting for an answer, and then set the phone delicately on the counter. Her mouth had gone dry, having heard everything that was said and having realized the same thing as him the moment it was out of Angela's mouth. If her friend hadn't figured it out by now, with her ability to understand people, she would within in a few minutes. Brennan just hoped she wouldn't call back. She suddenly didn't feel like talking.

Unless it was with him, and clearly, at the moment, he felt exactly the same way.

"Bones, you don't think that-"

"I don't know," she cut him off. In her mind, she was trying to count days, but she kept getting lost, and as she closed her eyes to think more clearly, she knew that it wasn't going to be successful. Since when did she lose track of anything? How had she not noticed? "I... it is a very... likely scenario," she phrased carefully.

Age old fears crept to the front of her mind. Her eyes were still closed, not daring to look at him and see his expression. They had never gone in depth about this topic before. It had been one of those things that she had seen in the future, and she'd assumed he felt the same way. For it to happen so soon... it left her breathless, and she couldn't imagine him doing much better. What would he think? How were they going to do this? Surely, he hadn't planned on-

And suddenly warm arms were around her and she gasped as her eyes flew open, seeing only the fabric of his light shirt. She pressed herself more fully against him, sighing out in relief as she let the tension leave her shoulders.

"We don't know for sure," he murmured comfortingly, but his words had the opposite effect. Almost immediately, she felt the panic return in a raging flood of emotion, and she slipped away from him. He regarded her with concern as she swiped quickly at her eyes, ashamed of the tears that welled so easily up in them. "Hey, shh... it's okay," he said gently as he stepped towards her again, but this time she backed several steps away, effectively stopping him in his tracks. His arms fell at his sides. "Bones, talk to me," he pleaded, "What's wrong? I mean... obviously we weren't expecting this, but unless we know that we're right, we can't really take the next step at all, can we?"

"Do you..." she closed her eyes, taking in a few slow and controlled breaths of cool air. "I need to know what you think of this, Booth," she said softly. Her eyes flicked to his and then away again.

She could see him soften even though she only had a view from the corner of her eye.

"Oh, Bones," he whispered. This time, when he pulled her into his arms she didn't fight him. "Of course I want this," he said in her ear, his breath tickling her skin. "Bones, baby, I've been dreaming about this for years. I just want to make sure this is what you want. Because we're in this together, and don't you dare think anything else."

She let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding, and the wrapped her arms tightly around him and held him to her, tears sliding freely down her face. She wasn't even sure where the emotion was coming from, and at that moment she didn't care. She chose to ignore the endearment he had labeled her with.

"We need to know," she said immediately as she loosened her hold on him. He allowed her to slip away, but kept his arms rested loosely around her. His lopsided grin slid across his face, making her smile in response, and then he kissed her lips warmly.

"Yeah, Bones, we need to know. And if we are pregnant..."

"If I am pregnant," she corrected.

"We, Bones, it's always a we," he reminded her gently, his eyes twinkling. "If we are going to have a baby... well then, I'll be the happiest man in the world. And I really hope, more than anything, that you'll feel the same way."

She laughed, "I was more worried that you wouldn't," she informed him.

He stared at her incredulously. "Bones, why on earth wouldn't I love the idea of having a family with you? A little version of you and me scampering around... trying to set the house on fire with some chemistry set or other..."

She laughed again, this time at the image he presented in her head, and then lifted her hand up to bring his lips down to hers once again. "We should go and... buy a test," she suggested as they broke apart, foreheads leaned together and both sets of eyes sparkling brightly.

He nodded quickly, and then grabbed the keys, speaking before she could protest. "You, Bones, were already sick this morning, and you might very well have a little life growing in there," he added as he playfully poked her stomach. "I'm driving."

She rolled her eyes, but didn't argue.

"We shouldn't stare at it, Booth," she said as they both stood beside the counter, the little stick rested on the side of the sink. "It won't make it indicate in either direction any quicker. And it might drive us both crazy."

He nodded reluctantly, but didn't seem willing to leave the room. Instead, he turned to face her, his eyes filled with warmth, but a few flickers of doubt creeping at the edges.

"If it's positive, Bones-"

"Then we'll figure out where we go from there," she said firmly, restating what he'd told her earlier.

"No, Bones, that wasn't what I was going to say. I need you to know that this is all going to work out. That we will have a beautiful little son or daughter, and we'll figure out that whole parenting thing together, through the challenges that it's sure to present."

"You have a son," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but I wasn't there at two in the morning. Rebecca didn't want me to be there, and I wasn't. This is going to be entirely new to me, just like it will be to you."

"You have some experience," she insisted.

"Changing diapers, yeah, Bones. And feeding... all the typical stuff. But there's a lot of this that we're going to have to learn together. And I'm not going to miss one minute of it."

She didn't hesitate this time with her answer. "We're going to do this," she agreed with a firm nod. "If, of course, I'm actually pregnant." She nodded toward the test, which was still yet to change colors.

She knew already, though, that she was. Could tell without having to have it confirmed... and that was a strange feeling for her. But one that seemed completely rational, which, truly, was irrational. But she wasn't going to get herself lost in that mind twist.

She was also quite aware of that fear that filtered along the outer edges of her thoughts. The unknown was always something she was concerned over. All her experiences in life, everything that she set out to do, had warded off uncertainty for such a long time that this large and mysterious happening was not something she was ready to easily adjust to. Booth telling her that he didn't know everything was at first concerning, because she had been expecting that he would be able to tell her what to do, and help her learn the necessary skills, but then she'd realized that he wanted it to be like that. The way his eyes shone when he said those things to her... he wanted this to be the first time he made the journey. He wanted it to be with her. And that had the power to wipe away almost all of her doubts and fears entirely.

As she had been lost in thought, Booth's eyes had strayed back to the test, and her eyes snapped to him as he snatched it up and held it out to her.

"Who gets to tell Angela?" he said, his eyes sparkling and his smile spreading further across his face than she'd ever seen it. And then she was so tightly engulfed in his embrace that she didn't feel the need to think anymore... only to feel, and to revel in the wonder of what the future might present to them now. Together once more.

Okay, show of hands... how many of you were expecting that? And exactly how obvious was the 'food poisoning' scenario?

Oh, and a quick note: I'm either going to end up doing a lot of research about babies and pregnancy... or we're going to skip a great deal of the next... seven or so months. And I haven't decided yet exactly when she got pregnant, but I'm going to go with it probably being around late November/December-ish.