(The End Critic in the Cabernet)

I don't own Bones.

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Booth had been behaving rather oddly for months, but Brennan put it down to stress. He'd told her about talking with Lucky Luc while playing a little hockey in a dream with the man while he was unconscious, but Brennan knew he had suffered from a concussion while Booth was trying to collect a blood sample from a State Trooper during a hockey game and strong dreams weren't that unusual in cases like that.

He'd been kidnapped by the Gravedigger a week later and when he'd been rescued, Booth had told her that his dead friend Teddy Parker had helped him get to the topside of the ship. Not sure how to take that, Brennan assumed her partner was suffering from the effects of the drugs used to kidnap him along with dehydration and hypothermia. Now she wished she'd paid attention to what he was telling her. Her assumptions had clearly imperiled her partner and she felt that his delay in getting medical care was her fault.

His delusions had included talking to a cartoon baby and that had been the moment that Brennan had realized that her partner was sick. She had rushed him to the hospital and once the tests were done, she knew what was wrong.

He had a tumor, cerebellar pilocytic astrocytoma. She knew that the brain tumor was probably benign, but she was frightened none the less. Her friend was in serious trouble and she couldn't do anything to fix it. She was his backup when they were out on cases and she protected him as much as possible, but this wasn't a case and all she could do was standby while a surgeon operated on her friend.

The world was trying to separate him from his partner and this time it might succeed. Booth was afraid for himself and for Brennan. "Don't be mad at me if I don't make it Bones. It's not like I'm trying to leave you because I'm not. I don't want you to be mad at me for something I don't have any control over." He knew that she was still angry that her father and brother had abandoned her when she was a child and even though Christine Brennan was dead, Booth knew his partner was angry with her mother too. He didn't want her to be mad at him if he died because that just seemed unfair.

Not sure why Booth was worried that she might become angry with him if he died, Brennan shook her head. "Booth, you're not going to die. Dr. Goodrum is confident that he can remove the tumor successfully. Once it's removed, you will have to recover from the surgery, but I am confident you will be fine."

"I just don't want you to be mad at me that's all." Booth stared at his partner and worried about her. "I told you that I'd never walk away from you . . . If I die that's not walking away and I want you to understand that . . . okay?"

It was an odd thing for her friend to be worried about, but she knew he needed assurances. He was going to have surgery soon and he needed to be in a positive mood. "Booth, I will not be angry with you . . . you did make me a promise though and since you are a man of your word, I expect you to keep it. You will have the surgery and it will be successful and we will work on cases again . . . You are not going to leave me."

As long as she wasn't going to be angry with him if things went south, then he was ready for the operation. "Sure, we're the best team on the east coast . . . Bones . . . go tell the surgeon you're going to watch the surgery. I want you in there in case he screws up. I want you to make sure they do everything they're supposed to do."

She wasn't sure Dr. Goodrum would allow it, but she would try. "I'll go talk to him."

Once he was alone, Booth prayed for himself and for Brennan. God she has so few people in this life that can help her when she needs it. Please help me to stay, so I can watch over her. If you decide to take me then . . . well, watch over Bones. She's special and I don't . . . I love her and I don't want her to suffer if I'm gone. Besides Angela and Hodgins, she really doesn't have any real friends, so maybe you can move a few interesting people her way if I'm not around. You know, to make her interested in sticking around. Just make sure it isn't Sully. That jackass had his chance and he screwed up.

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Brennan was afraid but didn't voice her fears. Booth was in a coma and there was no guarantee he would wake up. Dr. Goodrum was certain that her partner was reacting to the anesthesia he'd received during his surgery, but there was nothing they could give him to counter the drug. Only time would fix this.

She had read about comas in the past and she knew that some patients who went through it said they remembered conversations while they slept. A few had sworn that the conversations by their loved ones had helped them to wake up and Brennan was desperate to find a way to help her friend.

It seemed to her that Booth needed something to anchor him to this reality and since they were friends, she felt she could move him away from his dream world and towards her if she talked to him. Since she didn't really know what to talk about that would interest her partner, she decided to write a story for him. She knew he loved to read murder mysteries and that is what she chose to write for him. He would be the main character in her novel and everyone he dealt with on a regular basis would be in the story. While she wrote the story on her laptop, she spoke out loud so that Booth could hear her voice and he could listen to the story as it unfolded.

She wrote for over two days. Not tired, she barely slept while she wrote her novel. Angela, Sweets, Cam and Hodgins visited Booth during that time, but they didn't interfere with what Brennan was doing. They brought her tea and water. They brought her trays filled with food and became concerned that their friend wasn't really eating.

Angela and Cam talked to Hodgins about Brennan's poor appetite, but he felt that Brennan wouldn't appreciate it if anyone stopped her from writing her novel. Hodgins had visited Booth when he could and he'd listened to Brennan while she wrote. He knew that the novel was for Booth and he felt that she was trying to help the agent come back to them. "I think we need to leave Dr. B alone right now. What she's doing she's doing for Booth and a few days of missed meals won't really hurt her. Just leave the tray near her and if she gets hungry she can take something from the tray . . . When we visit Booth, we just need to make sure she's drinking. Missing food is one thing, but we can't let her dehydrate. It'll piss off Booth if he finds out we let her get away with not drinking anything."

Cam knew that was right. "I agree. She took a nap a while ago, but I'm not sure that it's enough either. Booth is going to be angry with us, if we allow Dr. Brennan to become sick . . . you know how he is."

And Angela did know how Booth was when it came to his partner. She stayed in Booth's hospital room when she could and she and Hodgins took turns spending the night in the room with Brennan and Booth. They slept fitfully on a chair and were exhausted when they left the hospital, but they needed to keep an eye on Brennan to make sure she was alright.

Unfortunately, Brennan was alone with Booth when he woke up and Cam regretted that had happened. Booth had said something when he woke up that confused and unsettled Brennan and Cam couldn't find out what he'd said. Sweets got a call from Cam and was told that the Agent was awake and rushed to the hospital to see if he could be of use. He found Brennan in a state of confusion and demanded that she tell him what was going on. They stepped out in the hallway leaving a confused Booth in the hospital room, but Sweets knew this conversation needed to be a private one.

Reluctantly, Brennan had let Sweet know that Booth thought she was his wife or at least it seemed that way. Concerned about Booth's confusion, the younger man asked that Brennan stay away from the hospital while he tried to help Booth navigate through his confusion. "If you have a dig you can go to . . . if you can put some distance between you and Booth, I think that will help. I'll work with him and get him straightened out. I think I can turn this around in a few days. I just need to make sure we don't confuse him further than he is."

Since she didn't know what else to do, Brennan agreed to the plan. When Booth heard that Brennan was going out of the country for a while, he felt that she had abandoned him. The world had found a way to take his partner away from him after all.

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Let me know what you think of my story, I appreciate it.

A/N: Fanfiction notifications was down for over two months and it was very frustrating. I didn't write for a while and when I started again, I began this story. I updated 'Please Stay' and 'Family Affair' on Fanfiction while I was writing this story, but I didn't write any more chapters. I plan to update this story every week and begin writing 'Please Stay' while that is going on. I will update 'Please Stay' when this story is finished. Hopefully Fanfiction doesn't crush my enthusiasm again. I did get some reviews on my stories while Fanfiction was broken, but I think most readers didn't know I had updated my stories. I appreciate all the reviews I received.