Chapter Five:

"Brennan? Sweetie?" Angela tentatively asked. She and Brennan's father had been sitting by Brennan's bedside for what seemed like hours. They had watched for any sign of movement, and they got it when she had fluttered her eyelids.

"Ange… Dad, is that you? What's going on? I was with Booth. Where is he, dad? Where's Booth?"

There was no response.

"Angela, tell me where Booth is!"

"Sweetie, Booth is in his own room. That beating that he took, it took a lot out of him. Hodgins is waiting for him to wake up, with Booth's family. He has a lot of internal bruising; it'll take a little while to heal. But, he should be totally fine soon. But let's talk about you. Do you remember what happened?"

"Yes! The bastard that captured us tried to rape me, but Booth got to him before he could do anything but take my clothes. Then Booth put me in his shirt. I remember. But I want to see BOOTH! I don't care about any of this – "She started to get out of bed – she didn't get very far.

"Tempe, you have to stay in your own room until the doctor says that you can leave! You are being treated for dehydration, so you've got to take it easy… But you can leave the hospital tomorrow… That's good, right?" Max was totally overly optimistic that Brennan would be pleased with this.

She wasn't. She wanted to talk to this imbecile that called himself 'doctor' and find out why she couldn't see her partner.

About an hour later, Brennan got her wish. A young doctor came into her room and introduced himself as Dr. Lawrence. She wasn't really paying attention as he talked about her degree of dehydration, her minor bruising and how she would make a full and speedy recovery. She didn't even make eye contact with the man. When he asked her if she had any questions, she still wasn't paying attention.

"Miss Brennan? Do you have any questions?"

"Huh?" She looked at him. "It's 'Doctor Brennan' to you, and I don't see why you can't tell me anything about my – "

"'Doctor', huh? MD?"

"PHD; I'm a forensic anthropologist. Now, can you please tell me how my – "

"I'm sorry, Dr. Brennan. I'm being paged and it's urgent. I'll talk to you later."

Brennan didn't even bother finishing her sentence. She knew that to find out what was going on with Booth, she would have to take matters into her own hands.

Booth's entire immediate family, except for Parker, was gathered in his hospital room. His immediate family and Hodgins. Hodgins had given up trying to make conversation an hour before when he realized that anything that came to his mind to talk about were conspiracy theories that pretty much tore apart the Booth family's beliefs. So he decided to stay as invisible as possible, and was as shocked as any of them when there was a knock at the door.

He turned around. "Dr. Brennan?" He asked. His boss looked the same as she had before she had been kidnapped. There were no bruises on her face. But something about the way she carried herself seemed different. She seemed weaker. "Dr. B, do you want to sit down?"

"Yes," she replied quietly. "Yes, I would. Thank you Hodgins." Then she turned and realized that they were not alone in the room. "Oh, hello. You must be Booth's family… Anthropologically speaking, it makes sense that you are here, to comfort the pain of a loved one. However, in my current condition I did not come to that realization before I came here. My name is Dr. Temperance Brennan. I'm your son's partner. Do you mind if I have a moment alone with him… I – I need to talk to him."

They all looked at her. The woman she assumed to be Booth's mother was the first to come forward to give her a loving hug. "Oh sweetie," she said. "You take all the time you need." Then they all filed out of the room.

Brennan felt touched that they accepted her request so quickly, and moved to the side of the hospital bed and sat in one of the chairs.

Taking Booth's hand in her own, she began:

"Booth, it is extremely illogical for me to talk to you right now. You cannot respond, and I'm not sure if you can hear me or not. But, I don't really care about that. I – I can't live without you, Booth. I mean, I know that the death of one human being doesn't directly affect the physical ability to live. If – if you were to die, I should still be able to do the basic things necessary for survival. I should be able to eat, sleep and breathe. But, y'know, when you died, a couple months ago? When they told me, I couldn't do anything. I was stunned. I couldn't cry, I couldn't scream, but what hurt most was that I couldn't turn around and hug you and hear you say that it was all going to be alright."

She took a deep breath. "After I went home from the hospital, I looked in the mirror and realized I was covered in your blood. My first instinct was to get it off, to get clean. But then I realized that this was the only part of you that I could keep with me. So, I kept the clothes. They're in a box, in my house." Another deep breath resounded in the room. "I think I have to tell you this Booth, because I never told you before. I never told you before how much it hurt to have you gone. How much it hurt to turn on the radio and hear those songs we sang." She smiled. "Foreigner… Poco. To want to get a cup of coffee, and when I opened the cupboard I saw the cup that you insisted on using every time I gave you a damn cup of coffee. How much it hurt for you to break your promise to me. You said that you wouldn't ever leave me. That you weren't like everyone else, that you would stay. You said you weren't like my parents, like Russ, and that no matter what, you would always be there.

Even if it wasn't your fault, you left me Booth, you left me. And I need you around. I need you, I need my Paladin1." As she finished, Brennan allowed a single tear to slip down her cheek and, for reasons beyond logic and rationality, laid her head on her partner's chest and said four words: "Come back to me."

Sometime during the middle of her speech, Booth's family had crowded around the door to hear what she had to say. Hodgins had stuck himself in the middle of them, and was on the verge of fainting at his boss's almost out of character show of emotion.

However, what none of them noticed was that, around the time they had all gotten into their positions at the door, one Seeley Booth opened his eyes.

That's why they were all shocked when a small voice came from the bed. It said:

"That's a lot of heart, Bones."

A/N: Paladin: Defender of the faith; Protector. It's from the Season One episdoe 'The Woman in the Car'. I thought it would make a nice addition.