Note: Sorry for the lack of update last week. I could blame the cold I'm just now getting over, but the fact is I just couldn't get the story to work. And then I got sick.
What if: Booth faked his death after his brain surgery, instead of after he was shot?
AU? Yes
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Day 1
It was a bright, sunny morning, and she could hear the birds chirping outside her window.
Her first thought was that Booth would probably expect her to rearrange her day so that he could drag her out to eat lunch on a patio somewhere.
Then she remembered – the days she spent at Booth's bedside, the cardboard hospital food she ate in the dreary cafeteria, the pitying looks from the nurses when she returned to find an empty room.
She sat up and swung her legs over the bed, her head still fuzzy from the tears she'd cried the night before. A moment later, she was in the bathroom, letting the warm shower wash the tear stains from her cheeks.
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Day 2
He woke in a clean hospital room, his boss at his side. He waited impatiently as the nurse arrived, then the doctor. When he was finally detached from the various machines that had been monitoring him in his coma, Cullen cleared the medical personnel from the room and began to explain.
When Cullen left an hour later, he carried a list:
Bones
Parker (Rebecca)
Jared
Pops
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Day 4
It was almost dawn when she pulled into the Jeffersonian parking structure. She'd been disconcerted when she woke up crying – somehow, she'd never really believed that was possible. There was no chance that she'd be able to go back to sleep, so she'd gotten ready for the day, throwing on jeans and a t-shirt, hair up in a pony tail.
After all, she had no reason to dress up.
She didn't even glance at the security guard as she swiped her badge. All of her energy was focused on getting to work, to the place where she felt most at home.
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Day 5
If Bones didn't call soon, he was going to lose his mind.
It was all mixed up in his head – was she his wife or his partner? Did they work together or were they having a child together or both?
He was pretty sure he didn't actually own a nightclub. If he did, Cullen's appearance make no sense at all.
He'd talked with Parker, reassured him that his dad was OK. He'd talked to Pops, promised to come for a visit once he was out of the hospital.
But he really, really needed to talk to Bones.
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Day 8
As had become her custom, she got in early and checked over her schedule for the day. A meeting with Dr. Goodman at 10, a archeology consult at 1, and …. She'd forgotten that she'd booked that appointment at the fertility doctor for 4:30. When Booth had changed his mind, she'd meant to call and cancel, but after his surgery, it had been the last thing on her mind.
And he'd wanted her to go ahead if he didn't make it.
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Day 10
He couldn't take much more of this – stuck in the hospital, with people he loved, people who loved him, thinking he was dead.
He was working on getting his strength back, with physio twice a day and Sweets doing his shrink thing every afternoon. Parker had come for a visit, and had pronounced his scar 'cool'. He'd reassured Rebecca that he wasn't going anywhere, that it would take more than a brain tumor to kill him.
And Bones still hadn't called.
If he wasn't so weak that the two cops at his hospital room door could easily kick his ass, he'd hunt her down and make her talk to him, ongoing investigation be damned.
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Day 13
The lab was buzzing with talk of the funeral, which had finally been scheduled. The Medico-Legal lab was effectively shutting down in the morning. Everyone – Cam, Angela, Hodgins, Sweets, the squinterns – was going to the funeral.
Except her. She had an appointment at the fertility clinic.It seemed a more fitting way to honor Booth's life than spending the time in an old church or a barren graveyard.
She saw Angela bearing down on her and ducked around the corner. Angela seemed determined to make her attend the funeral, but she had more important things to do than spend her morning standing around a hole in the ground.
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Day 14
He'd convinced Cullen to let him wait in the van with the surveillance team. Dr. Jursic probably wouldn't approve, but he couldn't wait to get back to his normal life - to spar with Cam, to get caught up in one of Hodgins's weird experiments, to hang out and watch the game with Wendell.
Most of all, he couldn't wait to see Bones.
He pushed his way closer to the monitors so that he could watch the graveside service. He could see Cam, and Hodgins, with his arm around Angela. Wendell, that mopey squint, and that British kid who never shut up stood together, and Daisy stood beside Sweets, whispering in his ear.
Bones wasn't there.
The surveillance team pulled up the view from the other camera, and he saw some guys from his hockey team and Father Joe from church, but still no Bones.
Where was she?
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Day 15
They'd been angry with each other before, but neither of them could remember ever being that angry.
Of course, the anger masked the pain – that he hadn't told her he was alive, that she hadn't gone to his funeral, that their relationship was off balance and neither of them knew how to get it back.
They retreated to their figurative corners and tried to catch their breath. He went home and spent five hours resting on the couch before he could summon the energy to think of food. Almost everything in the fridge had gone bad, but he managed to pull together an omelet. He'd have to get Jared to take him grocery shopping in the morning.
She went back to the lab, blocking out the celebratory atmosphere as much as possible, focusing instead on identifying remains whose families had long since given up hope. She didn't call – didn't even consider it. She'd learned a long time ago that it was better not to care.
She wouldn't forget again.
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Day 17
She still wasn't answering his calls.
It wasn't his fault – he'd put her on the list, told Cullen that she was one of the people who had to know he was alive. He'd thought she'd been told, that she was just busy or angry or trying to keep the secret – she'd never been a good actor, after all. God, for all he'd known, she could have been dating another loser or on some dig in the middle of nowhere.
It hadn't crossed his mind that she might have thought he was dead.
He'd make that clear to her, apologize for the mix-up, too – if she ever answered the phone.
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Day 23
Cam had visited Booth.
So had Hodgins and Angela, who seemed to be together again. The squinterns had gone en masse, and rumor was that it was a good thing Booth's weapon had been locked away until he recovered.
She was the only one who hadn't gone.
She was still angry, still hurt, but she missed him, and she'd thought she'd never see him again, so she stopped by the diner to pick up some soup and a slice of pie and made the trip to his apartment.
It was weird and awkward at first, but soon they forgot themselves and started acting like the old friends they were.
She left happier than she'd been in weeks.
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Day 27
They were going to be OK. They were back to phone calls and texts, take-out food and bickering over whose turn it was to pay.
Sure, he had a while to go before he'd be cleared to go back to work, but that didn't matter – it had been a long time since their partnership had been only about work, anyway.
The important thing was that they were back, and everything was going to be fine.
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Day 32
She sat on the tile floor, back to the wall, staring blindly at the pregnancy test in her hand.
When she'd decided to go ahead, she'd thought she was honoring Booth's last wish. He'd changed his mind, told her he wanted her to try to conceive his child, even though he wouldn't be around to act as the child's father.
It had given her comfort to think that she'd have Booth's child to love, a little piece of him that survived death.
But his agreement had been contingent on his death, and he was alive.
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Day 35
She was avoiding him.
Again.
It had been four days since she'd stopped by, and she never had time to talk anymore. Sure, she replied to his texts and answered the phone, but she was always busy with work or vague plans or something, so they could never talk long.
He considered giving Angela a call to see if Bones was dating someone. He could play the invalid card to get one of the guys to run a name through the system for him ….
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Day 42
She missed him.
Again.
He hadn't called in 45 hours – probably because he was tired to talking to someone who made increasingly bizarre excuses not to talk. He probably thought she was still mad at him, not realizing that the truth was that she was still too panicked to talk to him.
But that had to end. She had to tell him.
She walked up the stairs and knocked on his apartment door.
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I'm not super sure this format worked, but I am very, very glad it's finally done.
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