A/N: This is it, folks, the last chapter. I hope you enjoyed this story. As hard as it was to write at times, it really helped me process my mom's own battle with cancer and I hope it helped or touched some other people as well. Thanks for all the support you all have given this story. My mom loved reading the comments you wrote along the way and I am very happy to report that she is in remission. And while the battle is not completely over, she won this round. Thanks again and enjoy.

Chapter 11: Remission

Booth sat, bouncing his leg up and down in a constant, fast jabbing motion that drove Brennan crazy, even though she didn't make a move to stop it. He needed some way to release all the nervous energy that was sure to be bottled up inside him.

"Booth, why don't you go and sit on the exam table while we wait for Dr. Liao?" Brennan suggested. When they came into the exam room, Booth immediately sat in one of the chairs that were along the wall of the room instead of his customary spot on the exam table. She didn't say anything about it at first as he gripped her hand as she sat down next to him but thought that with the doctor coming in soon, he should probably move.

"No way, Bones. They already made me put on this stupid gown," he told her, gesturing down to the standard issue hospital gown he had on. Brennan couldn't help but smile though when she realized that he still kept his jeans on.

"Well, not exactly," he sheepishly admitted as he leaned over the armrest of his chair to give her a kiss. "I'm just tired of being a patient, Bones. I'll get up on the table when Dr. Liao gets here but for now, I just want to sit here with my beautiful girlfriend."

She smiled and leaned over to give him a kiss of her own. "Well, at least this should be the last appointment for a while right?" she asked, watching him pale slightly. She knew he was nervous about this appointment.

It was the New Year and what Brennan hoped would be a new start for both of them. Three weeks ago, Booth finished his radiation treatment. It had gone how the doctors hoped it would and besides some slight scarring around the surgical scar on his neck where they had originally removed his lymph nodes and directed the majority of the radiation treatment, he had done really well. Two weeks after the radiation treatment finished, he had his scheduled CAT scan and the doctors were mostly pleased by what they saw. But what worried them was they thought they saw a small mass on the right upper lobe of his lung. After getting some more blood work from Booth and sending the scans off to an expert for an official interpretation, they were back. And Brennan knew Booth had been in hell this last week, wondering about the 'what ifs.' What if the chemo and the radiation didn't work? What if the cancer metastasized to his lungs? What would his future look like?

She could see all of these questions running through his mind right now as she mentioned that maybe this was his last appointment. Because today was the day they would find out if Booth was in remission or not. And if he was, he would just have to come in for follow-up appointments once every six months for the first five years and once a year after that.

Pulling him close, she positioned his head in her shoulder and started running her fingers through his short hair that was more fuzzy than spikey (so much so that he stopped wearing a cap out in public about three weeks ago) as she pressed a kiss to his forehead. The fact that he willingly cuddled into her spoke volumes to her about his worry.

"It's going to be okay, Booth," she told him against his head. "Whatever happens, we will get through this together."

Booth closed his eyes at her statement, so grateful to have her in his life. He buried himself further in her embrace and let her touch soothe him. While physically he felt almost as good as he did before this whole ordeal started, emotionally, he was scared. If the cancer had started to grow in his lungs, he wasn't sure what he was going to do. He honestly didn't know if he could go through the chemo again. It wasn't that he wanted to give up; after all, he had so much to live for. But the chemo was so draining to every part of his body he wasn't sure it was worth it. And he hated thinking that.

But Bones, in her typical Bones way, told him never to jump to conclusions. He was really trying to be positive and it helped that he was able to spend a lot of his time with Bones and Parker. Ever since he started the radiation treatment and he felt better, Rebecca had allowed him to spend more time with Parker, pretty much every weekend actually. He had even resumed work at the FBI as a desk jockey, not able to pass the physical just yet to become an active field agent again. It felt nice to be a functioning member of society again and making at least a portion of the salary he made before his illness, before the cancer.

A knock on the door made them both sit up as Booth got up and perched himself on the edge of the table.

"Yeah," Booth called out when he was situated.

Dr. Liao entered the room and Brennan could feel Booth's apprehension rise. She wished she could go over and be with him but she knew his alpha-male tendencies would not allow that.

"Mr. Booth, let me just take a look at your neck before we get started," Dr. Liao told him and Booth took down the right shoulder of the gown so that the doctor could get a better look.

Dr. Liao spent a couple of minutes looking at the scars there and Booth was trying to get a read on the man using his developed people skills but he couldn't tell what he was thinking. It was driving him absolutely insane.

When Dr. Liao sat back down on the stool provided for him, Booth thought he was going to burst with all the nervous energy that was coursing through his veins. He began to fidget on the table, which was kind of hard considering he didn't have a lot of space.

"Well, Mr. Booth, after looking at your blood work and conferring with the specialist who looked at your Cat scans, I am happy to report that you are officially in remission," Dr. Liao told him, finally looking up from his charting.

Booth was shocked. He felt like his mind went blank, not unlike eight months ago when he first received his diagnosis. But this time, instead of seeing nothing when his mind went blank, he saw himself coaching Parker's All-Star team, saw him and Bones' wedding, saw himself holding that child that she wanted, their child, saw himself at his son's graduation, and saw himself growing old with Bones, surrounded by grandchildren. He didn't see himself riddled with cancer and dying in a hospital bed for the first time in a long time.

In the most impulsive thing she had ever done, Brennan got up and went to him, stepping between his spread legs and wrapping him in the tightest hug she had ever given. He in turn wrapped his arms around her and buried his head in between her neck and her shoulder. She could feel tears streaming down her cheeks and felt her shoulder getting wet as well from his tears, tears she knew he was trying desperately to hide.

"So from here," Dr. Liao continued, smiling as he saw the couple celebrate, "we are going to want to see you in six months. If you are waking up in the middle of the night sweating or if you have an unexplained fever, please go the local emergency department and give my office a call. But other than that, you can resume all of your normal activities."

Booth let go of Brennan for a minute to get and shake he doctor's hand. "Thank you, doctor. I really appreciate it."

"You did all the work, Mr. Booth. We just helped you along the way. Good luck to you both," Dr. Liao told them as he left the room and closed the door behind him.

"Let's get out of here, Bones. I don't want to spend a second more in doctor's offices," Booth said, shedding the gown and pulling his sweater and coat on.

Brennan couldn't help but laugh at his enthusiasm, so happy to see some of the carefree Booth she lost for a bit to the treatment.

"Okay, Booth, let's grab some lunch and spend the day celebrating. I don't feel like going back to work," Brennan told him as they walked out of the building and into the cold weather of Washington D.C. She wrapped her arm around his and tucked herself into his side.

"Bones, you don't want to work? Maybe you should go to the doctor," Booth teased her, kissing her temple as they walked to the car.

"I'll even let you drive my car to the diner," Brennan told him, tossing him the keys to her Sequoia. He laughed with her and opened her car door for her before going to the other side to get in himself.

As he started the car and headed toward the diner, he was excited at the prospect of the next day, which was something that had been absent from his life for a while. Dr. Liao had told him that there was a chance that the cancer could come back, especially within the next five years, but for now, there was not a still cancer cell in his body. He couldn't wait to tell his son and the rest of the squints, but for now, he was happy to spend the afternoon with the love of his life, celebrating the fact that he had won this round, this fight, and now had a life to look forward to living. He had always been a survivor and now, he was a cancer survivor.