March 2012

Booth sat waiting to hear from the doctors, and started to notice the number of people in and around the waiting room of the hospital. Since the moment in the market when he realized what was happening, he had tunnel vision concentrated on the woman who was his whole world. Seeing the chaos in the hospital, he was beginning to understand the scope of the incident. He got up and walked outside so he could call Hacker.

Andrew answered on the first ring. "Hacker!" Booth looked around to make sure there was no one in earshot. "This is Booth. What do we know about the incident at the market?" Andrew was a little surprised because he hadn't made the call to pull Booth into the investigation yet. At this point, he had a crisis team working the scene, and he had planned to start dispatching his best agents in the next few hours.

"We're not ready to begin the investigation process yet - we have a team still combing the wreckage and continuing to find victims needing care. Is there a particular reason you're anxious to jump into this one?"

Booth took a deep breath. "I'm not going to be able to work this one Hacker. Well, not for at least a few days. I was at the market when it happened. I'm a witness. Dr Brennan was badly injured and I'm at the hospital right now waiting to hear from the doctors. She was still unconscious when we arrived."

Andrew gasped. "Have they said anything yet? How was she injured?" Booth went through the description of hearing the car, running toward Brennan, and watching her fly through the air after being struck by the car. He briefly mentioned the shoulder injury he suffered trying to stop the car, but as he fingered the satin sling, he said he was fine. "They haven't told me anything yet Andrew. They said they had to stabilize her and assess her injuries. I'm just waiting to hear from the doctor."

Andrew told him that they knew of five deaths so far, and at least 40 people injured, but they were still working on victims who hadn't been transferred to hospitals yet. "What about the perpetrator? Did we catch him? Have we found him?" Andrew was surprised he didn't know. "He's dead Booth. He crashed into a building and was thrown through the windshield. Died instantly."

Booth let out a relieved breath. "You know, I probably should have known that. Now that I think about it, I heard a loud crash as I was running toward her. That might have been what happened. I was just so focused on getting to her that I wasn't aware of anything else." Andrew nodded to himself. "I would be the same in that situation Booth. Keep me in the loop on her condition, okay?"

Booth ended the call and sat down on a concrete planter box near the entrance. Now that he was coming out of the fog, he realized that he owed a handful of people a phone call. He needed to call Max first. And then Angela. And Cam. Those would be the best people to call because they could relay the message to other family, friends, and co-workers. Oh, and Rebecca. She needed to know, but he thought it best to keep it from Parker until they knew more. In fact, the more he thought about it - he decided to get the initial assessment from the doctors before making any calls.

He looked out toward the entrance to the hospital parking lot and saw a fleet of news trucks gathering. A handful of reporters were getting into position in front of the building and stopping people walking toward the entrance. He decided it was time to get back inside, away from the chaos that was building. He also realized that he needed to be inside in case the doctors came looking for him with an update on her condition, so he got up and hurried back into the lobby. Walking up to the desk, he asked if the doctors had any updates for him, and was told they were still back with her. "You'll be called when the doctor is ready to see you."

After what felt like hours, but was actually only about 30 minutes, he heard his name called. The woman at the desk ushered him down a hallway into a small consultation room and told him the doctor would be with him shortly.

Sitting in the room for a couple of minutes, he realized his hands were shaking. 'Why didn't the doctor come out to the waiting area to talk to him? Does this private room mean he has devastating news to give him?' He was thankful that the wait wasn't long, and looked up to try to gauge the expression on the doctor's face as he entered the room.

The doctor quickly assured him that she was stable, and Booth thought that was the most comforting word he had ever heard. The doctor began. "There are several issues we are dealing with. I'll start out with the reason she is still unconscious. We've determined that she has a severe concussion. Not at all surprising after the jolt that she took. From the initial testing that we were able to do here in the ER, I'm fairly confident that she won't have any lasting effects from the concussion. But we do plan to keep her sedated for 24-48 hours. Waking up to find out why she's in the hospital, and the extent of her injuries, would be very stressful emotionally. We want her brain to rest so that we can manage any swelling."

Booth nodded in understanding and the doctor continued. "The immediate issue is that we've determined that she has some internal bleeding. It doesn't appear severe at the moment, but we need to find the cause and do the repairs. We are getting her into the OR as soon as we can. We think a slot should open up in the next hour, and we will be closely monitoring her to make sure it doesn't get out of hand."

Booth felt a little alarm. "Is this a serious issue?" The doctor assured him that, in most cases, they are able to find and alleviate the bleeding. But there was the disclaimer that any such surgery carried risks. "We won't really know what we're dealing with until we get in there. But our team has a lot of experience with these types of injuries, so I'm confident we will be able to resolve her issues."

Booth was feeling a little more confidence now. "What about her legs? It looked like serious injuries to both of them." The doctor nodded. "Yes. That's the last issue we will be addressing. I'm sure she will be needing surgery on both legs, but our orthopedic surgeons have been dealing with a lot of the wounded during this emergency, so they haven't been able to examine her yet. My assessment is that she has one or more broken bones in her left ankle, and some type of injury to her right knee. Possibly in the tendons or ligaments."

Booth spoke up. "Like an ACL or MCL tear?" The doctor nodded. "Very possibly. We really need to have the specialists assess her. And we haven't been able to get any x-rays yet because we really need to concentrate on her other injuries. There's a possibility we can get the orthopedic surgeon into the OR while we have her under anesthesia and he can assess and set the ankle externally. I have a strong suspicion that he will need to get in and place some hardware, but getting the bones aligned now will prevent problems down the road."

Booth was nodding his head. "Remodeling." The doctor smiled. "Exactly. Do you have medical training?" Both let out a little chuckle. "No, but she does. She can look at an x-ray and tell you that an elderly person broke their wrist when they were 7 years old." The doctor's eyebrows raised. "Well, I can't wait to hear more about her. You'll have to fill me in when things settle down and we have time to chat. Let me take you to her and you can sit with her until transport comes to take her to the surgical suite. Before we go back, do you need that arm looked at?" Booth looked down at the sling holding his arm. "No, I'm fine. This is nothing. I'm fine."

He couldn't wait to see her. To touch her. To hold her hand. To reassure her, whether she could hear him or not. Walking into the curtained area, he breathed a sigh of relief just to see her. He looked back at the doctor. "Is it okay to touch her?" The doctor nodded. "Just don't jostle her or disturb her IV. Oh, and one more thing. Under the circumstances, we're asking families not to come to the hospital for at least another 24 hours. We just need to get past this emergency. Anyone who arrived with a patient is welcome to stay, but we just don't have the capacity to have additional family members arriving." Booth nodded his understanding.

He gently took her free hand and leaned over to give her a soft kiss on the lips, and then one on her forehead. He lovingly smoothed her hair back from her face and began talking softly to her. He looked around and saw that the doctor had left the room, so he pulled a chair over and sat right next to the bed, never letting go of her hand.

He no longer had to keep his fingers on her pulse, because the machines were providing the visual confirmation of the life giving blood pumping through her veins. But, for just a few seconds, he moved his fingers to the pulse point on her wrist, just to satisfy himself that he could feel her lifeblood.

As he sat there, he talked softly to her. He gave her encouragement. Told her he loved her. And, in between, he talked to God. Thanked him for sparing her. Asked him to continue to watch over her through her recovery. Most of the time his head was bowed with his forehead resting on her hand, still held lovingly in his.

He was startled when the curtain was pulled back and the employee charged with transporting her walked into the cubicle. He looked at the clipboard in his hand and verified it to the ID bracelet on her wrist. "You can come with us up to the 2nd floor and I'll direct you to the surgical waiting room."

He continued to hold her hand as they entered the elevator, and then exited it on the surgical floor. The porter pointed out the location of the waiting room, and just before wheeling her into the surgical suite, he stopped and let Booth say a few words to her and give her a soft kiss. Booth stood there feeling a sense of loss as the doors closed behind them, and he immediately started his quiet prayers for a successful surgery.

He entered the waiting room and, under the circumstances, wasn't surprised to see the room at almost capacity. He stopped at the desk to register his name, and asked if there was anywhere with some privacy so he could make some phone calls to family. He was grateful when she directed him to one of the small consultation rooms.

So he made the calls that he had been dreading. Of course, everyone was shocked that Booth and Brennan had been caught up in the middle of the casualty event that had been covered nonstop on television networks all afternoon. Max was very agitated and kept insisting that he needed to see his baby girl. Booth finally convinced him that he needed to stay away from the chaos for a day or two. She wouldn't be conscious for at least 24 hours, so it didn't make sense to have the older man sitting in an uncomfortable chair just waiting.

Booth told him to call Russ and tell him what happened. He persuaded him to sit tight, and when they got the okay to come, to fly up to Washington with Russ instead of making the long drive. "You can take a cab to the house, and you can stay there as long as necessary. Angela has a house key, so we can arrange to have her open the house. And then you can take Temperance's car and use it as long as you're in town."

That seemed to settle Max down. At least they had a plan now, and he was more comfortable with a plan. He would call Russ as soon as he got off the call with Booth. "Now, make sure you call me as soon as she's out of surgery. I need to know that it was successful and that she's going to be okay." Booth assured him that he would be the first call, and then ended the call to move on to Angela.

Angela, of course, was beside herself with worry over the injuries to her best friend. When she heard about the incident, she had tried calling Brennan several times, but it just went to voice mail. "I'm sorry I didn't call you sooner Angela. But I really didn't know how badly she was injured and wanted to wait until the doctors stabilized her."

Angela agreed that it was probably for the best, but received assurances that he would call her as soon as Brennan was out of surgery. As he disconnected the call, he wondered what had happened to Bones' phone. It had been in her pocket earlier, and he had to assume that it was now lost in the rubble. He tucked it in the back of his mind to ask the police agencies covering the incident if they had recovered it. He knew she would want her phone once she was conscious and confined to bed. He considered that he might need to stop by the phone store to pick up a new one.

On his call to Cam, he was able to gain more understanding about the injuries. In their friend group, Cam was their "medical whisperer". She knew how to take the confusing terminology from the medical staff and translate it into English for the civilians. The last call was to Rebecca. They both agreed not to say anything to Parker until they knew more about her prognosis.

He was relieved to have that over with, and walked back into the waiting area. He grabbed a seat in the corner and let his head fall back against the wall. He was grateful for the sling supporting his arm and keeping his shoulder still. He kept his eyes closed and tried to zone out, but he heard the calling out of every name as the staff provided updates about their loved ones.

He had been sitting there for close to two hours when he finally heard his name. He was instructed to wait in one of the consulting rooms and the doctor would be in to see him shortly.

The doctor walked in, still in his scrubs, with the mask hanging from his neck. "We've stabilized her Mr Booth." Booth let out the breath he had been holding. "We did have to remove her spleen, which is not uncommon with these types of injuries. There were a couple of other organs involved, but we were able to do the minor repairs and she should have no lasting issues."

The doctor picked up her chart to read a few notes. "We were able to have the orthopedic specialist come in and evaluate the injuries to her legs. As I suspected, her left ankle is broken in three places. He set the ankle so it's in the correct position, but he needs to go in to stabilize it with plates and screws. The right leg is a trickier issue. He determined that she tore the patellar tendon - it's the tendon that ties the kneecap to the lower leg, the tibia. He won't know how extensive the tear is until he gets in. It's a tough injury to rehab, but Dr Banks is confident that she can make a full recovery due to her age and her level of fitness."

Booth's mind was reeling at all of the new information. "Is it going to be an issue during recovery that both legs will have been surgically repaired?" The doctor nodded. "Yes, she will be bed bound for awhile. I would estimate 6-8 weeks. Neither of the injuries will allow weight bearing, so crutches, a walker, really anything, is out of the question. This will require a stay in a rehab center with 24 hour care."

Booth nodded. "Okay. We'll deal with whatever we have to. I feel like I'm lucky to still have her - she could have easily been one of the people who didn't make it out of that market."

The doctor agreed. "Yes. She's very lucky that she didn't end up under the wheels of the vehicle like some of the victims. Being hit and thrown to the side was the best thing to happen to her under the circumstances." He looked back down at the chart. "It looks like we're going to try to get her into surgery Monday morning. So we'll keep her sedated all day tomorrow while her body begins to heal. Within a few hours of her return from surgery on Monday we'll start reducing the sedation."

The doctor set the chart aside and put his hands on his knees. "The last thing I need to tell you is that Temperance suffered a miscarriage. Since you haven't brought it up, I'm assuming that you weren't aware that she was pregnant."

Booth felt the blood drain from his face. "Pregnant? She was pregnant?" The doctor nodded. "During surgery, one of the nurses noticed blood on the table around her legs. We weren't working in that area, so she did a quick examination and told me her suspicions that it was a miscarriage. We called an Obstetrician into the OR and he confirmed. We ran a quick blood test and he did an examination and determined that it was a very early pregnancy - probably about 4 weeks. He said that it was possible she didn't know that she was pregnant."

Booth sat back in his chair in shock. "We have been trying for a baby for the last couple of months. She went off the pill in January and said that her cycle hadn't stabilized yet, so she thought it might take several more months before it would happen."

The doctor put his hand on Booth's knee. "I'm very sorry Mr Booth. But such an early pregnancy would be very difficult to sustain with the trauma she suffered. Because she was under anesthesia, the Obstetrician took the opportunity to check on her reproductive organs, and he didn't see any injuries. He felt it might be comforting for you both to know that there was no observable reason why she couldn't conceive again in the future."

Booth sat there stunned. The thought that was running through his mind came out of his mouth before he could stop it. "Will we? Will we have a baby to bury? A Catholic funeral?" The doctor sadly shook his head. "I'm sorry, but a one month old pregnancy is only a very small collection of cells. About the size of a poppy seed. I know losing a baby at any stage is very difficult to accept, and especially on top of all the other issues you will be dealing with now. Perhaps your priest can help you to navigate all of this?"

Booth sat there nodding his head. "I think I won't want to tell her about this right away. When she wakes up, she will have a lot to deal with finding out about her injuries. Do you think it would be best to wait a day or two to break the news to her?"

The doctor nodded. "I think that could be for the best. Waking up to find out she's been in this horrific incident will take a toll on her emotions. And then she'll find out she's lost her mobility for a few months. Adding the miscarriage news might be too much for her to handle."

Now Booth was having second thoughts. "If anyone can handle it, she can. Maybe it's best not to keep it from her. I think maybe I should just hold back for a few hours. Once she's absorbed the rest of the news." The doctor gave him a half smile. "Well, I suspect you know her best. I'll let you decide when to tell her."

The doctor stood up, patted Booth's shoulder, and told him he needed to get back to work. "I'm sorry, but I really have to get back to help in the ER. Temperance is still in the recovery room, but I'm sure she will be admitted to a room upstairs soon. You'll be able to go up and see her then."

Booth asked if it was possible for her to have a private room, or if that wasn't possible due to the emergency situation. The doctor suggested he go downstairs to the admitting office and see if they could handle the request.

Booth spent the next hour in the admitting office while they waited for her to be released from recovery. They told him that they did have private rooms available if he would agree to pay the additional cost that insurance didn't cover. The only caveat was that they might be forced to bring a second patient into the room if they were running out of space. Booth was happy to agree, so they assigned her a room and he was able to head upstairs.

He walked into her room just as the nurse finished setting up all of the monitors. She turned and smiled at him. "Are you her husband?" He gave a little smirk. "Partner. We're not married." The nurse smiled again. "Ah! Well, this poor lady has been through a lot today. But we're going to take good care of her. I'll check back in a bit." She left the room and closed the door on her way out.

She looked so small lying in the bed. The head of the bed was slightly elevated, and he could see that there was bulk around both of her legs under the blanket. He gently pulled the blanket back and saw an air cast on her left leg, from her toes to just below the knee. On her right leg was a full leg brace. It went from the top of her thigh to her ankle. "Oh Bones. We'll get through this, I promise. I will be with you every step of the way."

He rearranged the white blanket back over her legs and pulled a chair over to the bedside. He took her hand in his and started talking to her softly. After a few minutes he realized that he needed to make his second set of calls with the new updates. "I'll be back in a few minutes sweetheart. I just need to call Max and Angela and let them know how you're doing. I love you Temperance." He kissed her hand and quietly left the room.

He stopped at the nurses station to inquire about a private place to make calls to family, and was directed to a small waiting room at the end of the hall. As he walked into the room, he ran the planned conversations through his head. The surgery, the spleen, the concussion, the injuries to her legs, the expected stay in rehab. Everything but the baby. That would remain between the two of them until she was ready to share.