Mid August. 10 months since THAT Wednesday

Rebecca had just closed a file on her desk and started thinking about getting out for lunch soon. Just then her cell phone rang. She recognized the number as a line from the FBI and quickly answered. He introduced himself as Andrew Hacker, Seeley's boss. A concerned look crossed her face. "Is this Rebecca Stinson? I'm sorry to bother you, but I see that Agent Booth has you as his emergency contact. Is that correct?" Her concern started to rise. "Yes, that probably is correct. I'm the mother of his son." "Ah! That makes sense. I'm sorry to have to make this this call, but I'm afraid Agent Booth has been wounded in the course of an investigation. He's currently being transferred to the trauma center at George Washington University Hospital." Rebecca started to panic. "Oh no! Is he okay? How bad is it?" Hacker debated how much to tell her over the phone. "We don't really know much yet. Just that he was shot in the abdomen and was unconscious when he was loaded into the ambulance." She tried to get her panic under control because Seeley needed her right now. "Thank you. I'll be in touch with his family and will get right to the hospital." She set her phone back on the desk. 'Oh no, this sounds bad. Parker! My little boy can't lose the father he loves so much. Maybe it's not as bad as it sounds.' She took a deep breath. 'Okay, first things first. I have to keep this from Parker until we know what we're dealing with. Mom. I'll call mom and have her pick him up from school this afternoon.' As she picked up the phone to call her mom, she cleared her voice hoping to hide the panic she was feeling. Her mom was not good at hiding her feelings, and while it wasn't unusual to request her help with the school run, she had never lied to her before about the reason for the request. "Hi mom! Something's come up that requires my attention and I know I won't be finished by 3:00 when Parker finishes school. Would you be able to get him today? No, I'm fine. I'll tell you about it later, but I'm in a rush right now. If necessary, would you be able to feed him dinner? That's great. Thank you mom, I love you. I'll talk to you a little later." She put down the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. 'Okay, next. Who do I have to contact? Pops. Jared. I can't think of anyone else. Any of his friends in the FBI will know through their channels.' She was worried about telling Pops, but decided to tell him the bare minimum - that Seeley was in the hospital and she didn't have any details. She could be honest with Jared, but she had no idea where he was living now - luckily she had his cell phone number. Both calls went as well as they could have, Pops was playing cards with his friend at the Assisted Living Center where they both lived, and the friend immediately offered to drive him to the hospital. She was relieved that Jared was only about an hour's drive away, so he was heading right to Washington. She turned off her computer, locked her files away, stopped to tell her boss that she had an emergency, and was on her way.

When she arrived at the emergency center, she went right to the desk to see if she could get back to see for herself how he was. She was really hoping to find him sitting up and telling her that everything was fine and that it was just a graze. The clerk looked at the computer and dashed her hopes by telling her that he was in surgery and that she could go up to the surgical waiting room on the 2nd floor. When she arrived in the waiting room there were only a handful of people. She felt unsure about what to do when a man walked up to her and asked, "Are you by any chance Rebecca Stinson?" Hacker was glad to have someone from Booth's family there and Rebecca explained that his grandfather and brother were on their way.

It became a long and tense afternoon. Pops, his friend, and Jared all joined them and there was nothing to do but wait. The wait stretched past the four hour mark and everyone was feeling wrung out when the surgeon finally walked into the room. They all gathered around him as he told them some of the details of the surgery. Several of his major organs had been hit and they spent a lot of time doing the repairs. He had also lost a lot of blood. The surgeon informed them that his prognosis was going to be touch and go for the next 48 hours, but if they could get him through this critical stage, he had a good chance to make a full recovery. They all looked at each other in disbelief that it was possible they might lose him. And Rebecca was feeling it even more because she knew that she was going to have to break this news to Parker. Now that they knew where he stood, she couldn't hold that information from him.

Hacker offered whatever help the FBI could provide them and left to go home. Jared decided to stay at the hospital while Pop and his friend went home for the night. Rebecca drove to her mom's house to tell both her mom and Parker about Seeley's injuries. She made sure not to scare her son, so she told him that he had been shot, had an operation, and is very sick, but that they hoped he would get better soon. Parker wanted to go immediately to the hospital to see his dad, but Rebecca explained that he would be sleeping and that they couldn't wake him up because sleep would help him to heal. That wasn't enough for the little boy, so she finally relented because he insisted he needed to see his dad. Before going into his room, she explained that there would be lots of machines and tubes and lights and sounds, but they were normal, and they were necessary to help him get better. Parker entered the room very stoically, but as soon as he saw his dad lying in the bed, silent tears started coursing down his face. Rebecca held onto his shoulders as they walked to the bed and he looked up at her and asked if he could hold his dad's hand. "Of course you can honey. Even though dad is sleeping, I'll bet he will know it's your hand." Parker hesitantly put his hand into his dad's hand and squeezed gently. He turned around again. "Do you think if I talk to him he will hear me?" Rebecca's heart was shattering. "I'm sure he will honey." Parker proceeded to tell his dad how much he loved him, how he would pray for him, and how much he wanted him to wake up. He scrunched up his face trying to think about what else his dad would want to hear, and then proceeded to tell him all about the baseball practice from yesterday afternoon and how coach said he had the strongest arm on the team. He looked back at his mom. "I'll bet that will make him want to wake up so he can come to my next practice!" Rebecca patted his shoulder and tried to hide her teary eyes. "I'm sure he will honey." She finally convinced him to go home and promised she would bring him back the next day after school. On the way home, Parker insisted that they had to stop at a church and pray for his dad and light a candle for him. He said that he and dad did that all the time for people they knew who were sick - even ones who didn't have to be sleeping to get better. Rebecca marveled at what an amazing father he turned out to be for their son. Parker MUST NOT lose his father. Of course she would find a church.