Knowing Love is Real

A/N: This is a missing scene for "Harbingers in a Fountain." Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Warning: Spoilers for Episode 5.01 "Harbingers in a Fountain"

Knowing Love is Real

Booth instantly tensed when he heard the words coming out of his mouth. Did I just call her ‘baby?’ he thought. Even though Bones was currently injured, he wouldn’t put it past her to start lecturing him about ‘alpha-male tendencies’ after she got up and with a bleeding arm still kicked his butt. But after a second with no response except her snuggling her head closer to his chest, right against his heart, which was currently beating a lot faster than normal; he knew he had gotten that one past her. He rested his chin on the crown of her head as he subtlety pulled her closer to him while trying to keep pressure on her wound, just as she instructed him. He kept murmuring to her, hoping the sound of his voice and the vibrations it made through his chest comforted her.

“Booth, I think the scalpel hit the cephalic vein. That’s why there is so much blood,” he heard her say in a soft and shaky voice. He looked down and saw that the wound was still bleeding profusely and instantly tightened his grip, trying to stop the blood from flowing out of her arm and he felt her close her hand more forcefully on his wrist, silently conveying to him the amount of pain she was in. She was still slightly squirming in his grasp so he pulled her closer to him now until she was practically sitting in his lap, trying to make her as comfortable as possible.

“Bones, it’s gonna be okay. I’ve got you, all right? Just take some deep breaths with me and relax,” he said as he tried to steady his breathing to get her to match it. Where is that damn ambulance? He turned his head quickly to look at the door but stopped when he heard her let out a soft whimper as his movement jostled her arm. “Sorry, babe, just looking for the help. You’re gonna be okay, Bones. Trust me, I’ve got you,” he told her softly and he felt her even out her breathing using his as an example. He held her in his arms for a couple more minutes, softly yet firmly, as if she was the most precious thing in the world, which for him was the truth. He wasn’t going to let her fall.

He heard the door open heard the EMTs enter as the wheels of their gurney turned against the tile floor but didn’t turn to look at them, not wanting to hurt her again. He looked down at Bones and saw that if she did hear them, she didn’t open her eyes, her head still settled against his chest. If it weren’t for the slight crease in her brow indicating that she was in pain, he might have thought that she was peacefully sleeping in his arms, a sight which he longed to see someday. He was loath to disturb her but he could still feel her blood running through his fingers as he gripped her arm and knew that she needed help.

“Sir, could you move your hand, please? We need to check out her arm,” the EMT told him. Booth looked up at him, almost forgetting that they had come in the room and nodded as he gently pried his hand away from her wound. Bones had her eyes open now and he looked down at her, their eyes locking for a minute before she looked away to see what the EMT was doing, but not before Booth saw the genuine thanks in her eyes. Booth wasn’t sure if she was thanking him for coming to her aid or holding her and tempering the pain until the ambulance got here but he liked to think it was some of both. She whimpered a bit again as the EMT gently manipulated her arm slightly to assess the damage and Booth glared at him as he tightened his hold on Bones, gently shushing in her ear to try and make her pain go away.

“He’s dead,” he heard the second EMT say in regards to the doctor. Booth saw the EMT, a young woman, take her hand away from the doctor’s carotid artery, where Booth figured she had been trying to feel for a pulse. He closed his eyes and released a shaky breath as he rested his chin more firmly on top of Bones’ head. He hated killing people more than anything else but in this case he would gladly do it again and again and again if it meant protecting Bones. And even though Booth knew that Bones was in a lot of pain, when she heard the EMT’s announcement, he felt her try and comfort him by taking her uninjured arm that was previously gripping his wrist and gently took his hand, intertwining their fingers. He felt her give his hand a slight squeeze and he returned it, grateful for her understanding.

“Ma’am, can you grip my fingers please? As hard as you can,” the EMT that was working with Bones told her. Booth stared down at his partner and saw the intense look of concentration on her face as she completed the task, Booth unconsciously squeezing her hand that was still holding his a little harder at the same time. The EMT nodded and looked at his partner, apparently communicating something. Booth was frustrated that he didn’t know what they were thinking and realized that this was what other people must think when him and Bones were having one of their silent conversations. He looked back and forth between the two paramedics, still sitting on the floor with Bones in his arms.

“Ma’am, we are going to take you to the local hospital for stitches for that wound and also to make sure that you don’t have any nerve damage resulting from this injury,” the EMT told Bones and Booth felt her nodding her head in the affirmative against his chest. Booth was surprised that she hadn’t moved yet but was content to hold her as long as she would let him.

“Sir, you can follow us to the hospital…” Booth shot the EMT a glare and the EMT quickly added, “or you could ride along with us.”

“Booth,” Bones said as he felt her turn her head up to look at him. He glanced down at her, getting lost for a moment in her crystal blue eyes. “Take your own car. That way when I get released, you can take me home,” she told him. Booth chuckled slightly at her, thinking that only Bones could still be rational about 15 minutes after being stabbed with a scalpel. And as much as he wanted to tell her that there was no way that he was going to leave her right now, when she looked up at him with that pleading look in her eyes, he couldn’t refuse her. He nodded at her statement and started to get up as he saw the EMTs start to prepare the gurney they had brought in, propping the head of it up from the flat position it had been in. Booth gently and still holding onto her hand hoisted Bones from their position on the floor. He wasn’t too keen of letting go of her just yet and slung his left arm around her shoulders while his right hand gripped her right elbow and helped her steady her injured limb. Bones didn’t seem quite ready to let go either as booth felt her subtlety lean into his loose embrace. He helped her onto the gurney and walked down to the ambulance with her, maintaining physical contact with her until the last moment possible until the EMTs finally loaded her in the back of the ambulance and shut the doors. Even then, he held her eyes until they drove away, quickly getting in his own car to follow them there.

***

Booth was sitting on one of the most uncomfortable chairs that he had ever been in. He had been sitting out here in the waiting room for about an hour now and he had no word on Bones. The nurse told him that when she was ready to go they would bring her to him but they didn’t have any information on what was taking so long. He was sitting with his face in his hands when he heard his cell phone ringing. Not even bothering to look at the caller ID, he flipped it open and answered.

“Booth.”

“Agent Booth? It’s Dr. Sweets. I have a preliminary profile for you on the leader of this Harbinger group.”

“Thanks, Sweets. I’ll pick it up when I come back to the Hoover,” Booth told him tiredly. It had been a long day, heck: a long couple of weeks.

“Are you okay, Agent Booth? You sound really tired. Are you with Dr. Brennan?”

Booth felt his irritation rise at the questions from the young psychologist. “No, Sweets. Bones got stabbed by that doctor from the group so I’m waiting for her at the hospital,” he spit out, hoping that his irritation would be noticeable on the other side of the line.

“Is she going to be okay?”

Booth instantly felt bad for getting mad at Sweets when he heard the concern in the young man’s voice. “Yeah, she should be just fine. Just waiting for her to get some stitches,” he said. He thought for a minute as he stared down the hallway of the emergency room and then said, “And you were wrong, Sweets.”

“Um, I was wrong about what, Agent Booth.”

“You were wrong when you said that my feelings for Bones were going to disappear after I completely healed from my surgery,” Booth told him as he took a deep breath before continuing. “After she was stabbed and we were waiting for the ambulance to come, all I could think about is how I would do anything in the world to keep her from experiencing pain. I killed that doctor for attacking her and I would do it again if it meant keeping her safe. And even though she was in pain, when she was in my arms, it was the happiest I have been since I woke up from that coma. Even before the surgery, she was the first thing I thought of in the morning when I woke up and the last thing I thought about at night before I went to sleep. And that hasn’t changed at all, no matter what other personality changes I went through after the surgery. I don’t care what parts of my brain are lighting up on a PET scan; maybe my brain finally figured out what my heart has been telling me for two years now. I am in love with her, Sweets and not just for now, for forever. I know that this love is real because otherwise, sitting in this waiting room wondering if she is still in any pain wouldn’t hurt this much. She and Parker are the two most important people in the world to me and I love them both, so much,” Booth finished, suddenly exhausted.

There was a long pause at the other end of the line and Booth was beginning to wonder if Sweets was still there. “Well Agent Booth, as much as I am thrilled to hear that, please still approach this with caution. Both of you are still emotionally reeling for the past couple of months and I would hate to see one of you rushing into this and then both getting hurt.”

Booth nodded, even though he knew Sweets couldn’t hear him. As he looked up, he saw Bones walking down the hall talking with a nurse and holding a bag in her hand. “Gotta go, Sweets, Bones is ready. I’ll pick up the profile in a bit,” he said, not waiting for an answer before hanging up. He stood up and nervously waited until Bones was done talking with the nurse. When she scanned the waiting room, apparently looking for him, he waved her down and felt his heart rate increase when she smiled a soft smile at him and walked over to where he was standing.

“You ready to go home, Bones?” he asked.

“Yes. The doctor said that there wasn’t any nerve damage that he could see but to come back next week for a follow-up appointment and to get the stitches out. He gave me some pain medication but I just really want to go home,” she told him. Booth could see the tiredness in her eyes and realized that his were probably reflecting the same thing. He nodded at her and put his hand on the familiar spot on the small of her back as they walked toward the car.

***

The car ride to Bones’ apartment was completed in silence. Booth was thinking about what Sweets had told him and in a way he agreed that he should hold off telling her about his feelings. He remembered during the Gormogon case how he had told Sweets that you have to take it slow with Bones and Booth decided that maybe this was a good time to follow his own advice. As he pulled up to Bones’ building, he felt sad that they would be splitting apart. Ever since she got back from her dig, he found himself drawn to her, wanting to spend every moment he could with his partner.

“Do you want to come up?” Bones asked him, breaking him out of his thoughts. He looked at her as if memorizing her features, his eyes raking over her face.

“Thanks, Bones, but I gotta get back to the Hoover. Sweets has a profile for me and something in my gut is telling me that this case is far from over,” he told her, noticing the slight look of disappointment in her eyes when he told her his plans. He smiled softly, thinking about how she hopefully felt the same way he did about parting for the time being. As she went for the door handle though, Booth saw that she hesitated and looked back over at him again. Booth leaned towards her slightly over the center console to try and get a better look at her face in the dimness of the streetlight. What she did next surprised him. She took her left hand and cupped the back of his neck, swiftly drawing his head toward her and gave him a sweet kiss on the forehead. She sat back and looked slightly embarrassed afterward at his surprised glance.

“Thanks for today, Booth. It’s good to have you back with me,” she told him and before he could respond, she opened the door and got out, going into her building. Booth sat back in his seat after he made sure she got in safely and smiled, thinking that he finally knows that this love is real.

That was really sweet that she finally gave him that kiss on the forehead she'd teased about earlier. I love stories that fill in some of the gaps for us. Thanks, anteater.