The Timing in the Relationship

As Brennan's life hangs in the balance, Booth tells Angela & Cam their love story.

"Brennan!" Angela's scream filled the otherwise eerily quiet night.

Jack had to physically restrain her from running toward where Dr. Brennan and Wendell Bray now lay motionless on the stone steps of the Jeffersonian. The shots had rung out from nowhere; Jack had no way to know if it was safe. He struggled physically to keep Angie in his grasp and mentally with if he should try to help his friends. He thought they were both dead, the sniper had yet to miss. Why would he start now? It wasn't logical to risk his own life just to confirm what he already knew. But, then something happened that made up his mind for him. Brennan groaned and tried to sit up.

"Call Booth, Angie, go call Booth, I'm going to get her," he pushed Angie toward the door as he took off in a sprint toward his fallen friends.

Jack acknowledged that he was right as she approached them. He could see that Wendell had been shot in the right side of the head and most of his brain now lay scattered on the concrete. He felt grief strike deep within his gut, but he tried to push it down as he knelt beside Dr. Brennan.

She was mumbling, saying that she needed to help Wendell. Hodgins whispered to her that it was okay, that she was going to be okay, as he scooped her up into his arms and raced back toward the relative safety of the building. Jack had no way of knowing if the sniper was still around, and he needed to get the two of them to safety as quickly as possible. Dr. Saroyan met him at the doorway.

"Where is she hit?"

"Looks like the left side of the back, there's an exit wound too."

"Ribs. The bullet must've broken my ribs. I'm fairly certain that my lung has collapsed as well." Brennan spoke clearly and calmly although it was clear that she was having a difficult time catching her breathe. "I, it's hard to breathe."

Cam worked quickly to press the fabric of her own jacket into Brennan's bleeding wounds. "I know, I know it is, but just keep breathing, okay? Just keep breathing, Brennan; the ambulance is on the way, you're going to be fine. Don't try to talk, okay, you just have to breathe."

"It hurts Cam, so badly, I, I'm cold," Brennan closed her eyes tightly against the pain.

"The ambulance in on its way, Dr. B. Booth will meet you at the hospital; everything's going to be fine." Jack continued to hold her tightly in his arms as Cam kept trying to stop the steady flow of blood coming from Brennan's side.

"It's okay, Booth's busy, don't, don't bother him," Brennan coughed as she tried to speak and the blood that dripped from her mouth wasn't lost on any of them.

Not having seen Brennan move on the sidewalk, let alone heard her pleas not to bother Booth, Angela had ran into the building to call him. He answered the phone on the second ring. Angela's incoherent, frantic ramblings were nearly impossible for him to understand. The only thing Booth made out was, "Sniper, Brennan, Wendell, I think they're both dead."

Before he could ask Angela to clarify, she had already hung up the phone, clearly in shock from whatever horror that she had just witnessed. Booth slammed on the brakes of the Sequoia only realizing what he had done when he heard the horns blaring behind him. He maneuvered the truck off the road and into a U-turn, his previous plans immediately forgotten as he flipped on the siren and raced toward the Jeffersonian. He tried to calm his nerves, but images of him and Bones kept playing in his mind: Bones giving a speech in front of the Egyptian consulate on the night they almost kissed, Bones dressed up as a skeleton performing on that silly kid's show on a night when he had later gone home and had sex with Hannah, Bones crying her eyes out in the seat next to him on the night that she had realized that she had missed her chance, a night when the last person he wanted to be with was Hannah.

"No, no, no, no, no," Booth kept repeating to himself as he blinked away the salty tears that were falling from his eyes, praying to God that he could get to her. Angela had only said that she thought they were dead; she didn't say that they were. Booth knew he was playing with semantics but right now it was all he had. He had to have another chance to talk to Bones, she couldn't die now. He couldn't let her go. No. Not now.

Booth sat beside Brennan's bed, her hand laying limply on his own.

"How is she?" Angela's voice was tentative as she walked into the room, with Cam following slowly behind her.

"Uh, not good. They said that she lost a lot of blood. They repaired what damage they could and have been giving her fluids and blood to try and replace what was lost, but they told me she was still a long way from out of the woods."

Angela closed her eyes against his words as she wiped the hair out of Brennan's eyes. "She's tough Booth, she's going to be fine."

Cam stepped behind Booth, stroking his hand and Brennan's in one touch before pulling him into an embrace. She didn't know what to say but her tear filled eyes and quiet nod were as comforting as Booth could stand at the moment anyway.

"When I was in my coma, Bones, she uh, she read me her book. Remember?"

Booth may have been addressing Angela and Cam, but his eyes never left Brennan's face.

The two women exchanged glances before Cam spoke, "Yea, we remember."

"I can't say that I heard her, but we all know that I processed what she was saying."

"You're going to tell her a story?" Angela didn't see Booth as the fiction writing type.

"I'm not quiet as creative as Bones. Maybe I can just tell you two a story. Bones, she, she already knows, don't you?" He squeezed her hand and smiled as if she were smiling back at him, not laying there with a tube in her throat breathing for her.

"Booth, I think Angela and I already know the story of you two," Cam pulled her chair closer to his and touched his shoulder. Angela leaned closer to Brennan from the other side of the bed.

"You may not know as much as you think you do."

Angela and Cam exchanged confused glances. Anyone within a hundred miles of these two knew how they felt about one another, and they'd personally spent seven years watching the two of them together.

"Sweets, he, uh, he wrote about me and Bones. But, you guys know that part."

"He never published his book, did he?" Cam asked suddenly remembering that the book existed at all.

"No, he didn't. Because Sweets, he didn't know the whole story either." He took his free hand and touched the side of Brennan's mouth. It looked dry and he made a note to ask the nurse for something to moisten her lips with.

"Sweets didn't know about the first case Bones and I worked together. Cam, do you remember that it was really you that introduced us?"

Seeley Booth had a gambling problem. Seeing the bags under his eyes as she ran into him at the Hoover only confirmed to Camille what she already knew; he had fallen off the wagon.

She was here to bring him a new case, one that had long gone cold, one that he had no idea how he was supposed to solve. She remembered an article that she had read about a forensic anthropologist who was doing amazing work identifying ancient remains. The woman was a genius, one of the best in her field. If Booth could stand to be partnered up long enough, she thought that they'd have a much better chance at solving the case.

"Doctor Temperance Brennan."

Cam had no way to know that the instant that the name rolled off of her tongue and into the mind of Seeley Booth that his world would change forever.

Cam smiled at the memory but didn't answer him because she knew he didn't intend for her to.

"Anyway, Bones and I, we kissed during that case. We kissed and we almost slept together, but we didn't. She got into a cab and left me standing in the rain."

"Tequila fumes, I remember."

If there was one thing Angela knew about her best friend, it was that she was always pulled together. When she saw her stumble into the Jeffersonian that morning; wearing dark sunglasses, her trench coat pulled tightly around her, and the distinct fragrance of alcohol on her skin, she knew that something had happened.

When she finally pulled Brennan away from the rest of the group she didn't even try to hold her suspicions back, "You slept with Booth."

"No, Angela, I did not."

"Well, why not? Are you crazy?"

"I was going to but we were both drunk, it didn't feel right."

"What isn't right about that? Over half of all sexual encounters occur solely because of the consumption of too much tequila."

"I have the feeling that you just made that up. But, no, I think I felt something."

"Besides being horny?"

"Yes, besides that. I've never really felt like sex might mess something up before, until tonight."

"Whoa, wait, are you saying that you're falling in love with him? Bren, you've only known him a few days."

"Angela, of course I'm not saying that. It's just, having sex with him last night didn't feel like the right thing to do. I've never really gone with my feelings before and I'm not entirely sure why I did that last night but it's over now. He fired us."

"I fell in love with Bones that night. Looking back, I know that's when it happened. She was just, I can't even explain it, she was perfect," his voice lowered to a whisper and he couldn't keep the emotion out of his voice, "She is perfect."

"She loves you too, Booth; I know she does," Angela tried to reassure him.

Booth ignored her comment and continued, "What happened after that, you guys know. Except Sweets' book. After we read it, we went to talk to him and told him about that first case and Sweets, he told me that I had to take a chance. So I did."

"You did?" Cam looked surprised, Booth was right; they didn't know the whole story.

"Outside his office, I told her. I told her that I wanted to give us a chance. But, she wouldn't, she pushed me away, she told me that she couldn't love me, that she didn't know how. I tried, I tried to make her understand, but she just wasn't ready. It was hard to work together after that, and then she decided to run off to the Mokapopo Islands."

"You left too."

"I only went to Afghanistan because Bones went to Indonesia. I thought that she'd call me, write me. I thought that she'd realize that we were meant to be together. But, seven months, and I never heard a thing. Then I met Hannah, and I, I moved on. Until the moment I saw Bones again when we got back to DC. She jumped into my arms and all those feelings were back. So I did the only thing that I knew to do,"

"You took another chance?"

"No, I told her about Hannah."

"Oh."

"I couldn't tell what she thought. Well, then Hannah came over here too and you guys know that part of the story too."

They remembered that part of the story all too well.

"I was happy with Hannah, and Bones made friends with her, I thought everything was fine. I had both of them, life was good."

"I sense a 'but' coming."

"Yea, well then Bones did something neither of us ever thought she'd do. She realized that I really meant it when I said that I wanted to be with her. She decided to take a chance on me."

This part of the story Cam could recall in vivid detail.

Cam had gotten the phone call from Booth shortly before midnight. He had been vague in his reasoning, but the tone of his voice told Cam that this was serious. Cam had said that she'd go check on Brennan and she tried to ask him why, to find out what was wrong, but he refused to tell her.

When she made it to Brennan's door, the sight that she saw just left her with more questions. Brennan stood in front of her, her hair matted to her head, wet and wavy, her clothes soaked with rain water, her eyes red with tears.

"Dr. Brennan?"

"Cam, what are you doing here?" There was a lack of emotion in her voice.

"Booth called me."

Brennan sighed as she pulled the door open farther to let Cam into her apartment. "I wish he hadn't done that. What did he tell you?"

"He just said that he didn't want you to be alone tonight and that as much as he wanted to, he couldn't be the one who stayed with you."

Brennan sat down on her couch, wrapping her legs underneath her.

"I told Booth that I got his signal."

"What signal?"

"That he wants to be with me."

"Oh, Brennan," Cam could see the pain in the other woman's eyes. She knew Seeley well enough to know how he would've responded.

"He said that he loves Hannah, that she's not a consolation prize." Brennan's tears started again, "I'm sorry; I thought that I was done crying."

"It's okay to be sad, Brennan."

"I don't like being sad. But, I suppose it's better than not feeling anything at all."

Cam moved to sit on the arm of Brennan's chair and wrap a friendly arm around her shoulders, "Are you okay?"

Brennan leaned into Cam's arms and sobbed. Cam closed her eyes, not at all sure what she was supposed to do about this. Damn him. How long had he been in love with Brennan? Four years, five? Cam knew, even when she was with him, that his heart belonged to his Bones. She also knew that he wasn't going to be able to deal with this. Booth was going to do one of two things, he'd run away with Hannah and never look back at the pain he had caused, or he'd sabotage his relationship with Hannah unable to look at Brennan without knowing what they could have. Either way, someone was going to get hurt.

"Come on, go take a hot shower and get out of these wet clothes, you're going to get sick."

Brennan sighed as she looked up at her boss, "Okay." Her voiced sounded timid, like a little girl being scolded for playing in mud puddles on the way home from school.

As Brennan showered and changed, Cam fixed her toast and hot tea, which Brennan simply picked at, not speaking. Cam tried to find the words to make this right, but nothing sounded right and finally she decided that Brennan needed her presence more than her misguided words of wisdom so she simply sat in silence as she watched her friend try to keep her tears at bay.

"Come on, let's get you in bed. You look like you haven't slept in days."

"Three days. I haven't slept in three days."

Cam walked Brennan into her bedroom and tucked her in. "Go to sleep, okay?"

"Okay." Brennan rolled over and began to cry all over again.

Hours passed with Cam sitting in the living room, absent-mindedly flipping through a novel and trying to pretend that she couldn't hear Brennan's sobs coming from the other side of the wall. Finally, she gave up and decided that she had to do something. Searching through Brennan's cabinets, she found some cold medicine which promised to induce drowsiness.

She walked into Brennan's bedroom to find her laying on her back staring up at the ceiling, not even trying to stop the tears from flowing down her face. Cam handed her a tissue and the medicine.

"I don't have a cold, Cam."

"I know, but you've got your nose all stuffed up from crying, and this will help you rest."

Brennan started to protest but decided that drug-induced sleep was better than no sleep at all and thanked Cam.

"Now come on, lay back down and rest." Brennan rolled over on her side and Cam sat down behind her, slowly using her fingernails to scratch Brennan's back, trying to lull her to sleep. They didn't talk, Cam didn't know what to say and Brennan had already said too much tonight as it was. A half hour later, Cam could tell that Brennan's sobs had finally subsided and she had lost herself in merciful sleep. Cam made her way back to the living room and made a bed on the couch. Deep down she knew that Booth was hurting as badly as Brennan tonight, but she didn't know how to make Brennan understand that.

"Man, do the two of you have bad timing," Cam said sadly as she kept her gaze on Booth and Brennan's joined hands. It's a sight that she'd been waiting to see for years, but not like this, not while Brennan's skin was two shades paler than she'd ever seen it and there were monitors attached to her fingers and IV lines snaking from her veins and around her hand.

Angela dried her own tears as she rubbed her thumb along the side of Brennan's other hand, "I'm not sure this story is going to do much to help her wake up."

"It's okay Angela, it gets better. Doesn't it, Bones?"

"Bones what are you doing here?"

She wasn't entirely sure herself. She only knew that after months of watching him create a life for himself outside of her, going so far as to buy a ring with the intention of asking Hannah to be his wife, he had almost instantly morphed back into old Booth when he and Hannah had decided to break up. Temperance Brennan was confused and Seeley Booth had a lot of explaining to do.

"We need to talk, Booth." He moved over to give her room to enter his apartment.

"What's wrong?" The last couple of months, since Hannah left, he was starting to heal his relationship with Bones. They had both realized their feelings for each other, and now instead of dancing around them, they were facing them head on. Nothing had happened yet but they were getting more and more comfortable with the idea, and Booth woke up every morning with an undeniable need to see her.

Apparently, Brennan wasn't quite as comfortable with their new feelings as Booth originally thought, "You said that you knew that I was the person who you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. Did you mean that?" Brennan was desperately searching his eyes for an answer.

"Of course I meant that, Bones. How could you even ask me that?"

"Because, because after you told me that, you fell in love with Hannah. You forgot about me."

"No. You pushed me away! You said no." His voice was too loud. He was letting his emotions get the better of him.

"I know, I know what I said, that was my fault, I know that, but that's not the point. I need to know how you could love her if you loved me. You say that love is eternal, is forever but do you really believe that if you could just forget about me?"

"I never forgot about you," Booth grabbed her a little too roughly by the wrist.

She didn't try to pull away. "It sure seemed like it when I was sobbing in your car and all you could say was that Hannah wasn't a consolation prize."

"What did you want me to say, Bones? I mean, come on."

"How could you love both of us?"

"I love lots of people Bones. I love Pops. I love Parker. I love you," he boldly punctuated you.

"But what about Hannah, did you love her like you love me? You were ready to marry her Booth. I just, I can't understand that. You were ready to marry her and then it just, it was over. What if I trust you, will you just leave me one day?" Her voice was raised several octaves by this point and her eyes were dilated with anger.

"I didn't break up with Hannah, the two of us together decided that it wasn't working, that we weren't going to be together forever."

"Booth, that doesn't make any sense to me. I don't understand." Tears were freely falling down her face.

"It doesn't always make sense, Bones. Hannah was beautiful, she was smart, she was fun, she was perfect except for one thing," he leaned closer to her face as he spoke softly, "She wasn't you."

"You pushed me away. We weren't us anymore when Hannah was here. And as soon as she was gone, you tried to get us back. You forgot her just as quickly as you had forgotten me. What happens the next time you meet someone like Hannah? Will you just push me away again?"

"Of course we weren't, Bones. Don't you get it? We couldn't be us, because if we were us, I wouldn't have been able to be with Hannah. I had to distance myself from you to make it work with her. But I couldn't, as much as I could try to keep myself away from you physically, I already have too much of you in here." He pointed toward his heart.

"I don't know what that means."

"It means I never got over you, Bones. I couldn't. I will never be able to get over you. If that means dying old and alone, then that's what's going to happen, because no one will ever replace you in my heart. "No one." He gritted his teeth and retightened his grip on her wrist.

"You say that now, but you were going to propose to her, you could've been happy spending the rest of your life with Hannah."

"If you had never told me that you got my signal, if I had never seen what I did in your eyes that night, yeah, I could've. But Bones, once I knew, once I knew that you loved me, I wouldn't have been happy with Hannah. But if I had never met you, she would've been the one."

"What if there's someone else out there, someone you haven't met yet. What if she's the one, how do you know?" Brennan's heart was spinning in a million directions, her stomach sick with fear.

"Damn it, Bones, you're not making any sense." He dropped her wrist and turned away from her, not knowing what else he could say.

"Do you still believe in fate?" Her voice, previously loud and bold was now shy and quiet.

He turned back toward her and met her gaze, "I do. I always believed that you were the one I was meant to be with. But I have no idea how to make you believe that. Tell me what you want me to say. Tell me." He was pleading with her, desperate that this time she wasn't going to run away.

"I don't know."

"Bones you told me that you got my signal, I saw it in your eyes that night, you love me. Isn't that enough? There aren't a million Hannah's in the world that could come into my life and take me away from you. I don't want to do this again; I don't want to keep fighting with you."

"I do, you know."

"Do what?" She leaned into his embrace and captured his lips with her own. "Love you. I'm so scared Booth but I love you."

He returned the kiss, and whispered softly, "I know, baby. I love you too."

"After that, we made love."

Cam stared at him with her mouth slightly open, not sure what to say. Angela had stopped trying to wipe away the tears from her face halfway through his story.

"When did this happen, Booth? Right after Hannah left?"

"If the two of you have been seeing each other and none of us knew," Angela wasn't really upset. She didn't care that she didn't know as long as they were together.

Booth chuckled, fate sure was a funny thing, "No, that happened last night."

He looked down at Brennan's still, lifeless body, so tiny in the huge bed with wires and tubes tangled in every direction, "I guess we still have pretty rotten timing."

The End