Chapter Ten

His eyes were open and she rushed to the side of his bed. Immediately, she noticed that his eyes stayed fixed, and there was no focus in them. She took his hand; there was normal warmth to it again. She looked closer into his eyes but her heart realized that there was no sign of alertness. Yet. She went out to the hallway to find a nurse, to tell her about the apparent awakening. The nurse immediately paged Doctor Callaway.

He took only a few minutes to come to the room, where Temperance had already taken Seeley's hand again, and was sitting beside him. His eyes continued to stare, unfocused, on some fixed spot above him. She had tears in her eyes.

Doctor Callaway did a quick examination of his patient, taking his blood pressure, all the vitals. He shone his light in Booth's eyes, and he thought he mumbled under his breath,

"Hmmm."

Temperance heard him.

"What is it? Why are his eyes open, but he doesn't seem awake?" She desperately wanted to hear her partner's voice again, to look into his eyes, to love him physically, though she knew it would be awhile before that was possible. She was addicted to Booth. She needed him.

"Well, this is normal. He still seems to be deep in the coma, but sometimes, there are automatic movements, such as eye opening, or muscle spasms. This is a sign that his brain function is still within a normal parameter for recovery. When I flashed the light in his eyes, there was a slight contraction of the pupils," He looked at Temperance, "I am very confident that your partner here is on the path of improvement. It may take time though. We'll do a full brain scan later to determine the degree of functionality. I am confident that we will be pleased by the results. Keep talking to him. He can hear you."

With that, the Doctor left the two alone; he paused by the door to look back at Brennan. She didn't seem to notice that he was still there. He would never tell her how guilty he felt about this situation. He blamed himself for missing the signs of serious injury when he had first examined Seeley, shortly after he had been knocked unconscious by his father. He had been so busy that day, trying to cover three different wards as the on-call Doctor; he should have seen the signs, done a more in-depth examination. It was too late now. He would do everything in his power to ensure that Seeley made even a partial recovery. He took one last look at Brennan, who had stood up and kissed the unconscious man on the lips, now that they were free of the respirator. He felt the feelings that she had for her partner. Lucky guy, he thought, she was beautiful. Hopefully, Agent Booth could appreciate her again someday. Yes, thought the Doctor, if he could, he would.

Booth's grandfather showed up shortly after the Doctor left, and even though Temperance wanted to spend time alone with Seeley, she was grateful for his company. It was nice to have someone answer her questions. They spoke for hours about Seeley and his childhood, and his life after highschool. His army days and his missions as a sniper. The grandfather happily answered any questions she seemed to have about the man she was in love with. They discussed the birth of Parker, from his perspective, and how it destroyed Seeley when Rebecca wouldn't marry him, and then denied him access to the boy. Brennan had no idea that Booth had been that upset over the situation, she knew Rebecca wouldn't marry him, and why, but she had no idea that it had changed him. The grandfather told her what Booth had told him; that he was afraid to love after that. He was afraid to get his hopes up again, only to have them dashed by some random woman. He saw the look on Brennan's face when he said that, and felt the need to elaborate.

"Seeley told me about a year ago about how he was starting to have serious feelings for a woman that he worked with. I told him to go for it, but he said it was complicated. It was something he had to approach slowly, because he felt that woman was the 'one'. This was the woman for him, but he was afraid of rejection. We talked every week about his progress, but he was no closer to admitting his true feelings for her." The older man looked in her eyes, which were focused on the hand of her partner, being firmly held by hers. Her thumb was gently rubbing his. She looked up into the older brown eyes, sitting across from her; they reflected the warm smile on his face. She smiled back.

"It was you Temperance. He knew you were special, and he never wanted to just have a fling with you. He wanted you for real, forever. He was so happy when I arrived In D.C. the other day, despite the horrible situation that brought me here. He told me that you had expressed your feelings, as had he, and you were on your way," he paused only briefly, "Thank you Temperance for making my grandson so happy, in his time of despair. I'm glad he found you."

The old man now had tears in his eyes as he looked at the younger man on the bed, whose eyes had now closed. Temperance stood up and walked around the bed to hold her partner's grandfather. They both cried; words failed her. Eventually, she went back to the other side, and took Seeley's hand in hers again.

"I love him so much, he has to be okay." She could have sworn that she felt his fingers tighten around hers, ever so slightly, but it happened so fast that she must have imagined it.

"As long as he's got you to come back to, he'll be back." The Grandfather spoke with confidence.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

The next weeks passed slowly for Temperance. She continued her bedside vigil for her partner, while trying to catch up on her work at the Jeffersonian. She trusted her co-workers to cover for her, and they did so without complaint. The story of her and Booth's situation had travelled like wild fire through both the Jeffersonian, and the FBI. Agent Perotta in particular, did not seem surprised that they had taken their relationship to the next level. It was as if she had known already that something was up. Perotta did most of the field work by herself, with the case that had been given to them prior to Booth's incapacitation, and solved the murder in a few days, with a full confession from the guilty party. She felt it wasn't fair to involve Brennan further, when her mind was clearly somewhere else.

Brennan did her best to avoid Sweets, but he trapped her in her office one day when she was catching up on some emails. He tried desperately to get her to discuss her feelings. She would not cooperate. They were interrupted by Cam, and Brennan had never been so happy to see her boss. Cam asked if they could show her something, a scenario they had created on the Angelator.

As the approached the other side of the lab, she noticed the two FBI agents named Smith were already waiting for them with Angela. They were still trying to find a way to charge Booth's father with a crime.

Cam and Angela showed the others the simulation of the exact punch that they had felt delivered the trauma that had started the bleed in Booth's brain. It had been during their first confrontation, and the second shot that Booth's father had landed on his son's face. It had caused his brain to shake back and forth in his head, and dislodged the tiny clot that had caused all the trouble.

The FBI agents whooped with excitement. They had him.

Brennan shook her head, and added,

"There's no point in charging him. In that particular moment of the incident, his father was threatening me, and Booth threw the first punch. He'll be able to claim self-defence. We will never convict him." Her eyes were sad. The rest of the room quieted down and everyone hung their heads. They weren't used to failure. Angela was the first to break the silence,

"There has to be something we can do? This sucks. Booth's father should pay for what he did." Everyone agreed, but no one had any suggestions. Something finally came to Brennan.

"Does anyone remember that case we had a while ago, where we found the body in the mud pit out in the country? The case with the motorcycle racers?" Everyone but the FBI agents nodded their heads and waited for her to continue.

"Well, in the end, it turned out we didn't have enough evidence to convict, but Booth suggested that we charge the guilty person anyway, not to convict, but so everyone would know what she had done. Can't we do that here?" The frowns of everyone in the rooms changed to smiles.

"That works for me!" Agent Smith was already heading for the door. He turned back to Brennan, "Would you like to come with us?" She was already half way to the door.

The found Booth's father passed out in his hotel room. There were liquor bottles everywhere. His inebriation made the arrest easy, but as they led him out to the car, he looked at Brennan with a sneer, and said,

"I hope you're happy."

She walked up to him and slapped him soundly on the face.

"Why didn't you punch him, we wouldn't have stopped you." Agent Smith told her with a smile. She smiled back,

"Because an open handed contact won't leave a mark." The Agent's respect for her grew tenfold right then.

She went back to the hospital to tell Booth about what had happened. He still wasn't conscious, but he was constantly showing signs of improvement. They had determined by brain scan that he was experiencing certain times of sleep, and awakedness. His movements had increased and were not quite so spastic. A physiotherapist was working with him every day to prevent atrophy of his muscles. His head was now unwrapped and free of any tubes. He looked almost normal again, except that he still hadn't spoken.

She told him all about the day, as it had transpired so far, when Booth's grandfather came into the room and asked if he could speak to her in private. She kissed Seeley gently on the cheek. His eyes were open again. What she didn't notice was that as she left the room, his eyes followed her to the door, and his hand rose slightly towards her.

When they were in the hallway, the Grandfather told her with a heavy heart that he had to go home to Philadelphia. He had originally only planned on staying for two weeks, and that he had already extended his time there, but he had to return home to take care of some legalities. She explained what had transpired with his son that day, and she half expected him to be mad, but he wasn't. He understood. He replied,

"It's about time he took responsibilities for his actions. The time in jail will do him good." He hugged Brennan and kissed her cheek. "Take care of my Grandson. He needs you, and he deserves you. You are one hell of a woman."

She had tears in her eyes when she agreed to his request. She promised to phone him every day and let him know what was going on. She followed him out of the hospital without going back into Seeley's room. She headed for home trying to deal with the emotions that plagued her.

She had taken a long, hot bath and was settling down to sleep when her phone rang. She checked the caller ID and her heart stopped when she recognized the number. It was the hospital. She found her voice and answered the phone,

"Hello?"

"Bones?" The voice was weak and scratchy, but familiar.

"Oh my GOD! Booth?" She nearly dropped the phone. She waited for the voice to continue,

"Bones, I promised you once that I would let you know if I ever died again, well, I think I did, but I'm back now. I'd like to tell you about it in person!" It took him longer than usual to get the words out, but when he finally did, she felt elation and warmth in her heart that shocked her.

She finally dropped the phone. Shock encompassed her and she fainted. She had never done that before.