Give me one reason to stay here, and I'll turn right back around said I don't want to leave you lonely, you've got to make me change my mind.

Baby I got your number and I know you got mine. You know that, I called you oh I called too many times. You can call me baby, you can call me anytime.

Give me one reason to stay here and I'll turn right back around. Said I don't want to leave you lonely you got to make me change my mind.

I don't want no one to squeeze me they might take away my life, I don't want no one to squeeze me they might take away my life…I just want someone to hold me and rock me through the night. This youthful heart can love you and give you what you need, but I'm too old to go chasing around and waste my precious energy.

Give me one reason to stay here and I'll turn right back around. Said I don't want to leave you lonely you've got to make me change my mind.

Baby give me one reason oh give me just one reason why, she said, "I told you that I loved you and there ain't no more to say."

Give Me One Reason by Tracy Chapman

It was still windy as Brennan looked from the ghost ship lost at sea to the contents from the bottle which were now in her hand. It was another white blank page, that is until she opened it and writing appeared per usual.

"Bones, I'm so sorry. I should have stayed with you that night. I should have driven you home. Please come back to us Bones, I need you and Ashley needs you. We miss you Bones and, God I'm terrified. I can't do this, you can't leave. You said you wouldn't let me do this alone. You can't leave me, not like this Bones. I…I…" Booth faltered, silencing himself with a kiss to Brennan's forehead.

Brennan could hear him crying and choking back tears. She wanted to be there to hold him, but at the same time she was cautious. Was Booth in this state of mind only because a tragedy had brought him to his senses? She had told him she still cared. Yet she had yet to hear the words fall from his lips.

Though, did she really want to go back to such pain, not only physically, but deep inside the inner workings of her heart and soul? Did she dare open that wound up for him again? Did she dare become a mother figure for Ashley and crush Ashley's fragile little heart if Booth and she did not work out? No. If she had no sure answer as to weather they would work or not then she decided Ashley would be fine with Angela and Booth was an adult he would make it without her, right?

Brennan looked to her right toward the treasure chest, then left into the windy spray of God knows what? More questions filled with hollow answers. She looked to the ship not far out at sea, couldn't she just go to heaven or hell or wherever the hell she was supposed to go already? This supposed limbo was tiring. She stuck the message back inside the bottle where they disappeared into God knows where?

Then she continued walking down the shore line into the abyss. All the while one question ebbed its way into her mind on repeat. I love him, I care. It seems he cares when I'm in trouble, but does he still love me? Does he love me like we loved each other before Ashley? I told him I cared, he knows what that means. I practically told him I still loved him – showed him at the house.

He knew she still loved him, but he thought it too soon. He wanted to do the right thing. She thought that maybe, maybe leaving is the right thing to do. Maybe Hannah and her mom were wrong. Neither woman knew Booth like she did and neither knew of their relationship. Brennan exhaled sad, but her mind was made up. She shouldn't go back. It would be too painful on everyone, she was fine alone. They would be fine too.

She pressed on away from the chest into the darker side of the beach. She glanced out at sea; watching as the ghost ship followed her into the dark.

Kylie walked into Brennan's room to find Booth's tear stained face asleep on Brennan's arm. She checked her EEG waves and her heart rate. No change. She exhaled as she looked at his Booth's face which had salty tracks running down his cheek bones onto his wife's arm. She assumed it was his wife anyway, he had a ring on and she had seen what she presumed to be their little girl today. She had her mommy's blue eyes - that was for sure, she figured he had blonde hair when he was younger.

She looked at her chart and vitals one more time and let the couple be. She didn't bother to wake him to tell him she had been in and out, there was no reason and he looked comfortable on his wife's arm almost peaceful as she became his pillow.

Kylie left and the automatic doors woke Booth as they shut behind her. He looked around him, looked up to Brennan and sighed, kissed her forehead and didn't move. His hot breathe whispered words onto her forehead, his lips almost touching it. Brennan stopped walking and looked out at the ship and then back to the now full bottle in hand and retrieved another message.

"Bones, wherever you are, whatever you are dreaming however pleasant or unpleasant. It's not real. We need you Bones, and we all love you and need you to wake up baby." Her eyes glanced over his nice words, and they were just that. Pleading words of her return to him.

Though, she had never done anything just because someone said she should. So why should she return if he hadn't told her he loved her? If it was still too soon for him, why go back? She couldn't go back to an empty bottle, no, no that feeling was too painful. She was ready to never be lonely again and if she couldn't have Booth hold her like he used too, not squeeze her out of worry and suffocate her through the night then they had a problem.

She felt maybe a bit bad for everyone such as the team and Angela, but she had so many questions unanswered rattling around in her lonely mind as she wondered and wandered down the shore line. The ghostly ship her only companion through the night.

Booth woke around four am his tears had left dry tracks on his face. As he rubbed at it felt them and inhaled. Then he became angry, "Do you need some sort of reason Bones? Is that what this is about, your logical mind telling you that you have to have reason to wake up? Well I have news for you Bones. There is reason, plenty of reason. You asked if I still cared in the Jeffersonian that night and you caught me off guard. It is soon Bones, but it's not too soon. Hannah use to say better sooner than later. We had a hard time agreeing on a lot of things, but Bones…Don't you understand? Can't you see that we are lost without you?"

Brennan stopped and looked out to sea then upon seeing the bottle filling fast with first one and now another message. She took them out and began to read. Booth was angry.

"And Damn-it Bones! Don't you dare think that we want you back just to show us the way? Yes, I'm a mess without you, I'm lost. We all are, and I don't want you to come back to us Bones, I don't. You said I didn't know how it felt to leave you crying alone in your apartment. And you know, maybe you were right Bones. I'm not you and I don't know how it felt that night, but I do know one thing. I'm so sorry I hurt you and I'm sorry for the pain I put you through. I never meant to do that, and I know that's not the point. Know that I live everyday knowing I hurt you - badly. If I could take your pain away I would. So no Bones, we…I don't want you back."

Brennan was confused as she read the second letter. Did he want her back or didn't he want her to come back? Did he not want her to relive the pain he had put her through? What was he afraid of?

"We don't want you back. We…I NEED you back Bones. I NEED you back in my life and I'm sorry. I'm sorry I had to leave you that night. I loved you Bones, God I loved you and Cam is right, I still love you Bones. I don't want either one of us to walk away from the other anymore. I've had my core punched a lot in this past year, and it hurts Bones. It hurts! What do you want me to say? Do you want my soul, my heart? You already have it! Take it! Angela was right, you have always had it! Always!" Booth broke and found himself in tears resting on her arm again.

Brennan let the paper fall to the earth as she emptied yet another from the bottle, "Bones, I…I really don't know what else to say to make you stay. The ball's in your court now." Booth chuckled through his tears, "Then again hasn't it always been? I love you, you stubborn ass sensitive scientist."

She smiled as she felt a kiss being placed onto her forehead. Her lips were no longer available for kisses. Kylie had reintabated her and the tube went down her throat and helped her to breathe. No more fairy tale kisses for Ashley, Booth and Brennan. Though, Brennan still brought her fingers up to her lips, feeling that his kiss still lingered there.

She looked to the left, then right, and then out to the grey angry ocean at the ghostly ship lost at sea. She didn't walk back toward the treasure chest, and she didn't continue to walk along the shore into an unknown stormy part of the beach. Instead she looked behind her at the old abandoned light house standing behind the sea oats up off the shore. She looked from the ship to the light house and turned away from the sea and started walking toward the light house.

Her mom was right it was time to go stand tall over the seas and spread the light that the ship needed to make it back to shore safely. As she walked up the many stairs, the flame within, grew brighter. She watched as the ship lost at sea, lost in the dark and pelting rain turned toward the flame that was becoming more of a fire the closer she got to the top – the light lit up the sea. Rays from the light crashed into the ocean making a thousand little diamonds sparkle and skitter across the ocean.

The sun may have been lost momentarily, but the light still burned. There were no dark clouds, there was no storm. There was only a light, her light shining for all to see. As she ascended the stairs she grabbed the rail and smiled, because she had found reason too. He still loved her, and she him.

And somehow, someway they were going to make it back to each other. She didn't know when, but just knowing that they were going to find their way back to one another was enough for now. She inhaled and continued her climb, and with each step toward the top, the light grew.

She smiled again and broke into a jog to the top of the light house. She smiled, actually laughed as she jogged up the winding old stairs. He had given her, her reason. Now she understood the cause she was fighting for, and understood the reason for safe harbors. Her only concern was that her cause, the cause she fought for made it safely back home.

And even though she didn't turn around and go back to the chest, she had still turned around and raced in the right direction. With each ascending step she took the light pulsed brighter. She wasn't going to let the light burn out and neither was he. It didn't matter how they found their way back to each other - only that they did.

Kylie walked in to check on Brennan. Booth too if she were to be honest. Though, she quickly ran out of the room, "Dr. Hendrickson!" she yelled as she raced down a corridor alerting another nurse of what she had seen. As Kylie ran down corridors she hoped for Brennan's husband and her little girl's sake that she would be okay. "Dr. Hendrickson!"