Booth peels his eyes away from Brennan's and stares in the direction she's looking. He leans forward and squeezes Parker's hand. "Parker, buddy, can you hear me?"

Parker squeezes back as his eyes slide open. He squints, adjusting to the fluorescent lights. His eyes fall shut again and he groans.

"Bub, hey." Tears flood Booth's eyes and he swallows hard.

Brennan's quiet. She can't quite believe what she's seeing.

Booth turns to her and pokes her over and over again. "Go find Dr. Brooks. Go find her. Go. He's awake, Bones. He opened his eyes." He nudges her. "Go!"

"Booth, there's a call button for a reason."

Booth nods. "Oh, right, the call button. Yeah." He presses it three times, even though once would have been enough, and then looks at Parker. "Buddy, can you talk?"

Parker's eyes open again and his lips separate, but only a grunt manages to escape. He looks around, his eyes bulging out of his head. He tries to sit up, but Booth quickly coaxes him back down.

"I'm here. Bones is here. Just relax." He pauses. "You were in a car accident and you got pretty banged up, but you're okay."

Brennan touches Booth's arm and sighs. "Booth, his lips, they're slightly blue."

Dr. Brooks strolls in and smiles. "Welcome back, kid." She walks around the bed and looks at the monitor. "His oxygen levels are a little low, but they're not terrible." She grabs the mask and hooks it around Parker's head, snapping it into place around his nose and mouth. "Just breathe in and out for me, Parker." She nods. "Good." She pauses. "Can you tell me your name?"

Parker attempts to speak again, but only manages to say, "Park."

Dr. Brooks nods. "Good, that's good. Now follow my finger." She moves her finger up, down, left, and right across. "Great." She takes out her penlight from her pocket and flashes it across his eyes, gauging his reaction. She smiles and takes his hand. "Can you give me the biggest squeeze you can? Whatever you can do, just do it. Just squeeze my fingers."

Parker squeezes Dr. Brooks' finger and smiles proudly.

Dr. Brooks smiles back and lifts the sheet. "Can you wiggle your toes for me?" She watches closely and lets the sheet cover his feet once she sees a tiny bit of movement. She scribbles her findings in the chart and looks at Booth and Brennan. "Everything looks good. He's got some weakness in his upper and lower extremities, but that could be caused by his lack of mobility for the past month or a sign that his brain is still trying to catch up. It's most likely temporary."

"Most likely?" Booth questions.

"In some cases, the weakness is permanent, but there's no way of knowing right now, so I tell parents not to worry too much about it. Full recovery takes time. Sometimes a couple months, several months, or even more than a year, so just be patient."

Booth nods. "Easy for you to say. This isn't your son," he mutters under his breath.

Brennan hears him and just squeezes his shoulder in response.

Dr. Brooks continues. "In a couple hours, I'll have someone take him up to radiology for another set of scans." She pauses. "He'll have moments of alertness and then he'll fade out and his eyes will close again. It's important that you don't rush or push him."

At this point, Booth has stopped listening. He's staring at Parker intently, waiting for him to open his eyes again.

Brennan nods.

"I'll be back later." Dr. Brooks smiles and leaves the room.

Brennan steps towards the bed a little and touches Parker's knee above the sheet. She looks at Booth and smiles.

Booth senses her eyes and turns his head. "I don't know how I'm gonna tell him about Rebecca," he whispers, so only she can hear.

"You have to tell him, Booth. Tell him the truth. Don't beat around the shrub."

"Bush, Bones. It's don't beat around the bush. Close enough." He pauses. "We'll tell him together as a family. You're better at getting straight to the point in situations like this. You know, the kind of situations where someone doesn't really want to know the truth, but needs to."

"I'm not sure how to take that. Are you saying you admire me for my sense of honesty or are you insulting my subpar people skills?"

"Uh, definitely the first one, yeah, that's what I was going for."

"Somehow I don't believe you, but I'll help you tell Parker about Rebecca regardless of whether you just complimented or insulted me."

He smiles. "Sometimes your unabashed honesty is, um, refreshing, and in this case, he needs to know and I don't think I'll be able to tell him."

"I get it, Booth." She pauses. "Although I strongly believe that the best course of action would be to give him all the details about what happened as soon as possible, I want to wait. He just regained consciousness and I think all of us need some time to adjust and to celebrate so to speak. Not too long, of course. Maybe a week or a couple days, at least."

He nods. "Bones?"

She arches an eyebrow. "What?"

"Did you ever really believe that Parker was gonna be okay? I don't mean recently, I mean, earlier, in the beginning, did you believe what you were saying to me?"

She wants to say no, she really does, because she had no proof, there was not an ounce of evidence there to suggest Parker was going to be fine. She went against her own beliefs just to make her partner feel better, something she rarely ever does, so she wants to tell him no, but she can't. She lets out a breath and nods. "Maybe not the first time, but yeah, I really did believe he was going to be okay. I can't explain it, though."

He blinks. "That wasn't the answer I was expecting."

"I'm a constant surprise." She flashes him a smile and tilts his chin up with a touch of her thumb. She leans down and touches his lips with hers. She rests her hand on his shoulder and softly caresses his neck with her fingers, as she kisses him.

He hooks his arm around her waist and pulls her onto his lap.

She giggles out of surprise and twists her body towards him. She separates her lips ever so slightly and frames his face in her hands, her teeth gnawing at his bottom lip as they continue to kiss.

He pulls back when he hears another forced groan, and turns his head. He swallows and smiles at his son when he opens his eyes again.

Brennan hops off Booth's lap and stands up, running her hand over the front of her shirt, smoothing out the fabric.

Parker squints and then moves a couple of his fingers under the sheet. His eyebrows are furrowed and he's looking around the room again. He groans and wets his lips with his tongue. He coughs and closes his eyes, but only for a couple seconds.

Booth takes his son's hand and sandwiches it between both of his. He smiles and scoots closer to the edge of the chair.

Parker squeezes his father's hand and his lips separate again. He expels a puff of air and then the faintest, whisper escapes, getting muffled by the oxygen mask, "Dad."

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Hope this chapter lifted your spirits a little :)