Disclaimer: See initial chapter; bibliography follows (sorry that the links don't show up; if you want the link, let me know and I'll send it in a PM).

Epilogue

Booth strode purposefully down the hallway, their little girl in his arms, giggling and talking about something that Brennan couldn't hear. They'd picked her up for their appointment with Dr. Sweets. Though, really, it was just an excuse to visit the younger man now that he was back at work, and they'd brought Christine because she missed spending the day with her, Uncle Sweets.

Brennan followed the pair at a far more subdued pace, trying not to recall the last time she and Booth had made the trek down to Sweets' office and the life changing events that had followed. Sweets had almost died, quite literally in her arms. She shuddered as she followed after Booth, her mind replaying the last nine months of their lives.

Initially, Sweets had been reticent to accept the invitation that Booth and she had extended for him to live in their home until he was able to live on his own, until the doctors had given him an ultimatum that it was either their place or an assisted living facility. He'd conceded under protest, which Brennan had taken as a good thing, because it was better than the quiet acceptance that he'd sometimes displayed during the two and a half months he'd spent at the hospital.

It had been difficult for all of them at first, but, once boundaries had been set and routines established, they'd become a kind of family unit. The hardest thing for Brennan to remember was that Sweets didn't always need her help, and that it was okay for him to struggle with something – she didn't need to step or intervene as often as she wanted to. It was hard for her to watch him struggle to do some of the simplest things – things he'd been able to do before he was shot.

Sweets' ups and downs were hardest for the young psychologist to deal with, and, unsurprisingly (at least to her), Booth had been the most helpful with aiding Sweets in making it through his bouts of anger, depression and lethargy. He kept the younger man active, both in body and in mind.

And then there was Christine. Her little girl. She'd been instrumental in helping to break Sweets out of his depressive funk. Interacting with her seemed to help Sweets in ways that Booth and she couldn't seem to reach him. It was like one of those miracles that Brennan had heard Booth and others talk about, except it was one that she could see, and vouch for. Her daughter had worked a real miracle.

The little girl squealed and clapped her hands when she saw Sweets, and Booth relinquished her to the equally ecstatic psychologist. Brennan watched Sweets as he played with Christine, wheeling the little girl around the obstacles of coffee table and couches etc., pretending to be a train. Sweets and Christine seemed to be in their own little world, unaware of her and Booth as they choo-chooed their way through Sweets' office, giggling and mimicking the sounds of a turn of the century steam engine.

Sweets had come a long way in the past six months since he'd been living with them – he was less despondent, was a pro at getting in and out of his wheelchair on his own, and had returned to work. Though he was just working half-days, it seemed to be an ego boost for him.

She and Booth and Christine had come a long way too.

They were a family, one that Brennan had never envisioned having. There were still some days where she wondered what would have happened had she not had that terrible, sleep-stealing dream, and worried that the dream was somehow to blame for Sweets losing his ability to walk.

But, then there were days like this, where she was grateful for the dream, and that she'd acted on it. Without the dream warning her, she, and Booth and Christine, would have lost Sweets. And, the fact that they would have lost something they'd never actually had before any of this didn't make the thought any less sobering or real to her.

"Hey, Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth," Sweets' voice jarred her from her reverie, and she blinked back tears that she didn't realize were there.

"Thank you," his voice sounded like he had a cold, but Brennan knew that he was more than likely staving off tears, as she was. "Thank you for this."

"You don't have to thank us, Sweets," Booth said. There was a look on his face that Brennan had a hard time reading, but she knew that Sweets understood it. He always did.

"Yeah, Sweets," Brennan said, and she cleared her throat when it sounded like she too had a head cold. "We're family, and you don't have to thank family."

Works Cited

Eckerle, Jeff. "Redemption." Law & Order: SVU. Dir. Ted Kotcheff. NBCUniversal Media, LLC. NBC, New York, New York, 2 Nov. 2001. Television.

Hanson, Hart, Stephen Nathan, Ian Toynton, and Barry Josephson, prods. Bones. Far Field Productions and Josephson Entertainment in Association with 20th Century Fox Television. FOX, n.d. Television.

Hubbard, James, MD, M.P.H. "How to Treat 4 Types of Gunshot Wounds (From One Shot?)." The Survival Doctor. Hubbard Publishing, LLC, 26 July 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.

Skorucak, Anton, MS. " ." . Science , n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.

"Spinal Cord Injuries." SCI Injuries. , n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.