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Nervously standing outside the front door of his apartment, Booth fumbled with his keys. Brennan, aware of the the hesitation from Booth to open the door, pulled the keys from his hand and smiled at him. "Let me."

Booth let her unlock the door and then watched her step in to the apartment. Following her in to the apartment, Booth closed the door firmly behind him and tried to take measured breaths. Determined to show no weakness, he pulled his shoulders back and tried to give off a cocky attitude.

Slowly moving in to the living room, Booth sat down on the couch and smiled. "See . . . I don't give a tinker's damn about being shot here. Sweets is full of shit."

The smile on Booth's face encouraging, Brennan walked into the kitchen, opened the fridge and pulled out two bottles of beer. Carrying them into the living room, she handed one of them to her boyfriend. "These are the last two bottles of beer in the fridge."

Shrugging his shoulders, Booth opened the beer and took a long drink. "I'm glad I'm done with the pain meds. Water and tea were getting old."

Her gaze taking in the crowded room, Brennan sat down next to him on the couch, twisted the cap off of the bottle, but didn't drink. "Do you want to move back here?"

Not sure what the right answer was, he held the bottle in his hands and stared at the label. "Do you want me to?"

Leaning against him, Brennan shook her head. "No, I'm used to you being with me. I've thought about it and I want you to move in with me. My apartment is bigger and since we're in a relationship now, I don't see why we can't live together."

Surprised, Booth smiled and looked at Brennan. "Really? I thought for sure you'd want me to keep my place . . . I mean, I know you like your independence."

Taking a sip of beer, Brennan let her eyes rove over Booth's living room. "I do, but if we want our relationship to be successful I feel we should live together."

Happy, Booth took a sip of his beer. "That's great. I was thinking that maybe in a few months, when I'm well and I'm back in the field and stuff, maybe we can look for a house for the two of us . . . You know we could have our own place and well . . . We're a family now and I want us to have the things we didn't have when we were kids, a house with a big back yard and maybe a pool and a barbeque pit . . . I want us to have the normal stuff that we missed out on. What do you think?"

Placing her head on his shoulder, Brennan sighed. "I think it sounds very nice. I do like my apartment, but you're right. We are a family and we deserve to have a place of our own."

His hand on her thigh, Booth placed his bottle down on the coffee table. "I don't want you to take this wrong, but I've got to say it, you've changed. I mean really changed."

Frowning, Brennan pulled her head away from his shoulder. "I don't know what you mean."

His hand gently moving up and down her thigh, Booth tried to explain. "Well, I mean in a good way of course. You want me to move in with you, you think it's a good idea for us to buy a house together . . . It's just . . . You're letting me share my life with you and . . . well, I think it's great, but I thought I'd have to persuade you to make changes like that, about us."

Leaning towards the coffee table, Brennan placed her bottle of beer down and then turned towards Booth. Pulling his arm towards her she wrapped her arm around his arm."I almost lost you Booth. It was a very near thing. If I had waited to come and see you, you'd have bled out before I got here. As it was, you came very close to dying . . . Waiting to hear if you were going to live or die, I realized that I love you. I knew that I wanted you in my life and I decided that I've been denying how I felt about you for a long time. It was mostly out of fear. I was afraid to risk changing our relationship. I was afraid that if we failed, if we found out that we really didn't love each other, that I'd lose you, but Booth, I almost lost you anyway. I've decided that risk or not, I want you and now I have you. I will do everything I can to make this work and that includes giving up some of my independence. Do you understand?"

Booth was so grateful that Brennan was willing to give them a chance. He knew he loved her and he wanted what she wanted. Booth reach his free hand over toward Brennan's face and gently held her chin. "You bet I understand and I want you to know I'll fight to make this work too. We're both kind of stubborn so I won't guarantee that we won't argue, but I can guarantee you I will not walk away from you, Bones. There is no way I'm ever going to leave you now that we're together."

Leaning over, Brennan kissed her boyfriend. Feeling her lips press hard against his lips, he opened his mouth and deepened the kiss. Finally satisfied that she'd made her point, Brennan pulled away. "Good. I may have changed, but so have you."

Puzzled, Booth laughed. "Oh yeah? How have I changed?"

Studying his handsome face, Brennan chuckled. "Allowing me to drive you everywhere, agreeing to move in with me, those are not things I would have ever expected from you. You're very independent yourself."

Booth reached out and stroked her thigh again. "I want you, Bones. I want us to be together and if that means moving in with you then that's what I'll do. I do want to buy a house though. Once I'm well and working full time then we can start looking . . . In the mean time, I'll move most of my crap into storage and let this apartment go. I can save towards a down payment for a house."

Standing, Brennan looked around at the clutter. "We could start today by packing up your clothes and taking them back to my place. We can also forward your mail and then get some of our friends to help up pack up your possessions to move to storage."

Booth picked up his beer, finished it and stood up. "Okay, let's go see what clothes I can pack today and take with us."

Entering the bedroom, Brennan walked over to the closet and opened it, looking at the suits hanging on their hangers. Turning to ask him where he kept his luggage, she found Booth frozen in place at the doorway staring at the carpet on the right side of the room. Moving her gaze to where Booth's eyes were locked, she saw the large bloody stain on the carpet where he had lain as he bled from his gunshot wounds.

Rapidly moving over to where Booth was standing, Brennan tried to get his attention, to bring him back from where ever he had gone. "Booth? . . . Booth?"

Paralyzed, Booth's mind was elsewhere. The blood a focal point, it drew him to a different time and a different place. Laying on a dirty cement floor, his blood splattered around him. His feet broken, his back, torso and arms full of bruises and cuts. Shaking, he smelled the odor of his own blood and suddenly grew fearful that he was still back in that cell. That his rescue and the life he'd been leading were all a dream, his way of escaping his tormentors. Swallowing convulsively, he started to shake his head. Moaning the word no, he started to repeat it as a mantra, over and over again.

Afraid for her partner, Brennan stepped between him and the bloody carpet and and talked soothingly to him. "Booth, it's alright. I don't know what you're seeing, but you're in your apartment. You're in D.C. Booth. You're alright . . . Booth come back . . . Booth, I love you. I'm right here."

Brennan's voice breaking into his nightmare, Booth realized that Brennan was standing in front of him, that he was in his apartment and that his wild flight to that nightmare cell was just that, a nightmare. A waking nightmare but a nightmare none the less. It wasn't real. This was real. She was real. Putting his hand on her shoulder, he licked his lips and croaked, "Bones, no. . . no, it's okay. I . . . "

Daring to touch him, she gathered his hand in hers. Refusing to look at the bloody carpet, Booth stared into his partner's crystal blue eyes. The trembling of his body starting to subside, he kept his focus on her beautiful face. "I'm . . . I'm okay."

She knew that he'd flashed to something horrifying and she needed him to leave the room. Nodding her head, Brennan pulled him slowly from the room and back into the living room. Leading him over to the couch, she helped him sit down and then lie down. Placing a throw over him, she knelt next to him and placed her arm across his chest. Brushing his hair back from his forehead, she smiled at him. "Close your eyes and rest Booth, just rest."

Swallowing, Booth stared at the ceiling. "I can't close my eyes, Bones. Not yet . . . I can't do that."

Understanding he was afraid, she leaned her head against his. "Then keep them open Booth. I love you."

The sight of the bloody carpet in his mind's eye, Booth complained, "Sweets is such a smart ass."

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