A/N - This is my tag on "The End in the Beginning." PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN THE EPISODE!! I do not want to be responsible for spoiling it for anyone.

Thanks to MickeyBoggs for checking over what will probably be the first of many one-shots based on the season finale. Because I'm a little worked up right now. Okay, okay, a lot. I'm pretty much climbing the walls. *takes calming breath*. Anyhow I'd love to hear your comments on the episode, so feel free to pm me or Twitter me (at) gailbarton.

Disclaimer – They aren't mine. I would never be so cruel.

Enjoy.

"Here, let me help you with that."

Temperance Brennan took the pudding carton from his fumbling hands and carefully peeled back the lid. She picked up the spoon and scooped up a hearty mouthful, before carefully reaching towards his lips.

"S'okay. I can manage," he administered, the words sounding harsher than he had planned.

"Oh." She handed his pudding back reluctantly, and returned to the chair that had been her home for the past four days.

Four days of waiting, doing nothing. And now she remained.

Waiting.

Doing nothing.

The nurses had told her to go home. Get some rest. Now he was awake she'd be able to sleep finally.

They were wrong.

He was awake, yes, but that wasn't enough. He didn't remember her. How could she walk away now? Not when she'd realized how much she...

"You've been here all the time?" He spoke directly at her, breaking from the quiet contemplation that had dominated the hours since he'd woken.

She stood slowly and walked to his bedside, fixing her gaze on his no longer warm brown eyes. "Yes."

"The doctor said that you were in the O.R. with me."

"That is correct," she confirmed. "You requested, prior to the operation, that I remain with you."

"Are you a doctor?"

"I have several doctorates."

"In medicine." It was an obvious assumption.

"No. My primary field is Anthropology, specifically the human skeletal system."

"And yet you watched them mess with my head. I must really love you to want you so close." He chuckled softly. "Either that or I really hate you to put you through observing brain surgery."

"I... I don't think you hate me."

He swallowed, wincing at the scratching in his throat. "I don't think I hate you either."

"Good. That's good." She nodded her head with a sense of slight relief.

"I assume we aren't married," he continued. "Or engaged for that matter. I mean, you're not wearing a ring."

"No." She was silent for a moment. "We are... partners."

"How long?"

"Four years."

"That's a long time. You do know I'm Catholic right?" he joked.

"Yes." Her brow furrowed. "I don't understand why that's relevant right now. Did you want a priest?"

He shook his head, regretting it immediately as the pain blurred everything. "Temperance."

"That sounds a little strange," she added with a weak smile.

"It is your name though, right?"

"Yes, but..."

"I call you something else?"

She nodded, chewing her lip nervously.

"Makes sense. I've always given girls pet names. So what do I usually call you? Babe? Honey? Sugar?"

"Certainly not," she replied with mock indignance.

"So what do you want me to call you?"

Her head twitched slightly as she considered four years of lost memories.

"Bones. You should call me Bones."