Chapter Seven:

Secondary Disclaimer: Cheerios is a registered trademark of the General Mills Co. Please don't sue me.

A/N: In case you all haven't noticed, I LOVE MAX KEENAN. He rocks. It is so much fun to write him, because he is so awesome. Okay, back to the story now…

Booth hadn't seen her in a couple of days, and he was worried. His mom and dad had stayed with him, but his brother had had to leave. They were driving him crazy because his dad was being… well himself, and his mom was being super caring. His worry about his partner increased when one Max Keenan came into his hospital room. "Max! Is Bones alright?"

"Bones… that's what you call your partner, right son?" his father asked. "That is no way to talk to a woman, especially when her father is in the room. What did you arrest him for anyway?" Booth shot him an incredulous look. It translated roughly to, what the hell?

Max rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes she's fine. Don't worry about her. She's in her lab, doing whatever she does. Can I… talk to you for a minute, Booth?"

The senior Booth was about to object, when Booth's mom cut him off, "Well, if you're Dr. Brennan's father, I don't see why not. Come on, love, let's get some coffee." With that she dragged Booth's father out of the room.

Max smirked at the control the woman had of her husband. It reminded him of his own wife. "That's nice, y'know?" he said, looking at Booth. "Having a woman drag you out of rooms, tell you what to do. You don't think it's nice, until you've found someone who does it. Then you can't imagine your life with out her." Max's eyes narrowed. "Then you end up in a hospital bed, talking to her old man because you couldn't imagine seeing anything bad happen to her." Max walked to the foot of the bed and looked the FBI Agent directly in the eye. "You love my daughter. And I don't want you to forget that."

Booth blinked. He didn't think anyone had figured it out yet. He, of course, had figured it out a long time ago. Sometime around the Kenton/Fridge-blowing-up incident. But, he thought he'd been careful. The glances, small favors, 'guy hugs', he thought they were innocent. Apparently he was wrong. "Max." He stated. "Why are you here?"

"I went to a doctor the other day. I think it had something to do with being in a hospital, but something reminded me that I hadn't been in a while. I mean, I couldn't go after Ruth and I left Tempe and Russ; someone could've found us that way. Then I was still on the run; I didn't even get a check up until you arrested me and they did a physical at the prison. They had said my blood-pressure was a little high. I didn't think anything of it, then, but – "

"Max, get to the point."

"I have what looks like the beginning of heart disease. I'm getting old, Booth. I'm not going to be around forever. Whenever I go, Russ won't be good with it. He'll be too busy taking care of himself," Max sighed. "That he won't be able to take care of Temperance. I'm not saying that it'll be soon – the doctors say that we caught it early, and that I just have to watch my diet, something about cholesterol and Cheerios? Anyway, I want you to promise me, that you'll take care of her. She needs you even if she doesn't want to admit it to anyone. She needs you, Booth."

"I know. And I promise; I'll take care of her." Max nodded and turned to leave. "Hey, Max?"

"Yeah, Booth?"

"You are going to tell her about the heart thing right? Because, that's something you have to do all on your own."

"Yeah. I'm going to go do that now."

Booth watched the man leave. He watched the room's clock as seconds turned to minutes, minutes to hours until it finally was 5 PM.

A nurse came in and handed him the discharge forms. His father and mother walked with him out of the hospital, dropped him off at his apartment, said their good-byes and continued down the road, on their way home.

He walked into his home, placing the small duffel bag of random necessities his mother had brought him in the entry way, and continued into the kitchen. Everything was as he left it. Everything was the same.

He walked to his family room, and relaxed his body onto the sofa. He then began to think. It took him about 15 minutes to come to a decision, 10 minutes to find his car keys, and half a second to realize what he was doing was right.

Her conversation with Angela had gone no where. Angela could not explain the feeling of love without mentioning some ridiculously personal thing that she and Hodgins had done (things that Brennan really didn't need to know about), or saying something that was completely irrational. On her way home, Brennan considered going to see Booth at the hospital. Tomorrow, she thought. I'll see him tomorrow.

Do I love him? She wondered. She kept thinking that one thought all the way to her apartment door, until she saw her father standing there.

"Sweetheart, "he said. "We need to talk."

They went into her apartment. She offered him a drink; he said no. He told her about the heart disease. She asked questions; he answered all he could. She gave him a hug and told him that she wanted him to be alright. He told her about the Cheerios; she laughed. He left. She watched the door close behind him.

She cried. She couldn't keep it all inside anymore. She barely heard the small knock at the door. She got up and answered it without looking through the peep hole.

Booth looked at her disheveled appearance and red eyes and instantly took her in his arms.

I love him. She thought.

A/N: In case you were wondering… The Cheerios thing that I brought up twice (I think) is in reference to those commercials in reference to, 'Eat Cheerios; Lower Cholesterol; be healthier'. I always wondered if that includes Frosted Cheerios, because those are seriously amazing.