Here we go, you wonderful readers! I know that the 'condition' is advancing more rapidly than it actually would in real life; however to save you all from a 50-chapter story about brennan going "who am I? where did this coffee cup come from?", I'm speeding things along a lil' bit.

I do not own bones or the characters represented therein. This is not intended as copyright infringement. Everything belongs to Fox & the creators of the show...I'm just admiring a little :)

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Booth picked her up at 8:00 sharp, driving off as she attempted to brace herself for whatever she might—or might not—recall whi

Booth picked her up at 8:00 sharp, driving off as she attempted to brace herself for whatever she might—or might not—recall while at the lab.

She had been up for most of the night thinking about all the parts of her "new" life she was trying to reconcile. One thing she couldn't get past was the man sitting next to her. She was apparently so close to him before her accident—close to the point of being on the verge of a non-professional relationship, according to Angela. From the way the other woman spoke, Brennan had gotten the idea that she and this man had been in love, yet she didn't even know him now. Maybe if he told her, she'd remember.

"Um, Booth? Can I ask you a question?"

He stopped at the light and looked at her. "Did you seriously just ask me that? Temperance Brennan never, never asks me that question."

"Ah. I see. Duly noted," she said, smiling. "Um, basically…well…that woman, Angela, the one who was…is…my friend…she said that, well, we, you and I…"

"I know what she said, Bones."

"Oh. Well, then, how did it happen? I mean, if we worked all that time together professionally, then began, um, associating nonprofessionally, how did it happen?"

Booth looked over at her and sighed.

"It didn't."

"What? But she—"

"I know, I know. It didn't happen. She wanted it to, and she thought that if she told you it did, something would happen now, since you didn't remember beforehand."

"Why would she lie to me like that? She said she was my friend—"

"I know you don't remember, Bones, but that's how Angela is. She didn't see it as lying to you, she saw it as doing her duty as your friend."

"Oh…"

"So try not to be mad at her, okay? She was just trying to do what she thought was best for you."

Brennan smiled, remembering one of the first things Angela had said to her during her reintroduction period in the hospital.

I do what you say, then I try to drag you out and get you to live it up a little bit!"

Looking out the window, she decided that her situation could be far worse. If you were going to wake up from a coma with amnesia, you might as well have people who cared, even if they were the meddling sort.

--

Inside the lab, Brennan walked up onto the platform, instinctively moving to her workstation. She paused, once again wondering where this feeling came from, but shook her head once more and kept going. The other anthropologist—Zach, she thought his name was—worked on a case nearby, as she simply reexamined finished cases in an attempt to conjure up some memories.

After a few hours of that, she sighed in exasperation and wandered over to the other table, where young Dr. Addy was bent over a recent set of bones. She quietly watched him work. He paused, staring at a piece of bone—and without thinking twice, Brennan leaned over, taking the bone from him. Her hand seemed to move automatically to the correct spot on the table, and she laid the piece down. The young man looked up at her with surprise on his features, and she could do little more than smile and shrug at him.

"I guess it's like riding a bike," she said with a small smile. "I still remember how to do that…I guess there's some things you really don't forget—you just always know them somewhere inside of you."

She continued to watch Zach, interrupting and placing the bones herself when something came to her.

She was so absorbed in watching and occasionally helping that she almost missed Booth striding out of her office, where he had been watching through the windows for the past few hours.

"Come on, Zach," he yelled toward the platform. "We've got a new one."

"Where are you going?" she asked, looking up. "Is there a case?"

"Yep," he said, striding toward the doors. "Some sewer workers fixing a water main break downtown just found a body."

"Booth?"

He paused at the doors, turning to face her once again.

"Can I come?"

He furrowed his brow and thought about what the doctor had said, all those patterns of reintegration she was supposed to go though—and then he noticed the way her eyes lit up, just like the Brennan he had known before the amnesia.

And he knew that if his Bones was starting to find her way back, she would argue her way into any situation she felt she should be in. The thought made him smile slightly, and against his better judgment he heard himself giving her permission to come.

Who was he kidding, anyway? He couldn't be without her for very long, amnesia or not.

"C'mon then, Bones, we've got a case to solve."

--

Booth stopped at the top of the manhole cover, pulling off his sunglasses as he crouched down and looked inside. Before he could say anything, Brennan had already shimmied down the ladder and was looking at the body. Zach, who had been covering cases since she lapsed into a coma, quickly followed her.

She tilted her head, looking quizzically at the bones lit up by the flashlight. She allowed the light to dance down the body, suddenly coming in contact with the torso and pelvic area.

"Female. Around 18." Brennan was slightly less surprised at the words coming out of her mouth this time.

"What, Dr. Brennan?" Zach looked up at the sound of her voice.

"She's female, around 18 years old, probably of an Asian descent…" she trailed off as she reached down to whisk some dirt away from the ulna. "Her arm shows signs of stress—not quite a fracture, but close to it…somebody dragged her full weight around by this arm before dropping her in the sewer."

Zach leaned over and looked at the arm bones as Brennan moved toward the skull.

"Her shattered patellas down there indicate that she was dropped from the street level…but that wasn't what killed her, since she didn't land on her head..." Brennan brushed bits of sewer debris off of the woman's skull. "Something was done to her head, I think…I just don't know what, exactly."

"It's okay, Dr. Brennan, I'll take over from here again," Zach said, gently moving a shattered femur to one side. "You're right, though, about the things you pointed out."

She may not have known what the death was a result of, but it was a start, at least…she finally knew something, even if it wasn't her going to help her uncover her own identity.

She related this thought to Booth as she climbed out of the manhole.

"But that is part of your identity, Bones," he said, taking her by her hand and pulling her the rest of the way out. "this is part of you."

"Thanks, Booth," she said, smiling slightly. "I do know one thing about myself, though…I'm really, really hungry. Diner?"

Booth blinked.

"You remember the diner?"

Brennan furrowed her brow.

"I don't know how, but…yeah, sort of. I don't remember IT, but I know we went there. It's just a sense I have…that whole source amnesia thing, I guess. It's unlike anything I've ever felt."

"Come on, Bones," Booth said. "Let's just go get you some food."

Brennan nodded and walked alongside him, once again marveling at how safe she felt with this man, who for all purposes, she barely knew anymore.

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read & review, mes amis. Merci beaucoup; J'amie vous!