Hello! I'm sorry I've been gone so long, well I prefer just to get on with the story if we please, then that would be best.

Ashley laid out on her bed staring up at the ceiling. She did this most days, thoughts buzzing through her head at a mile a minute. She only came out of the room when it was dinner time, when she needed to pee, and when the family forced her to go out. She sighed, turning over from on her back. She slid down the side of her bed and onto her knees.

This was another thing she did, pray. She hadn't been a very religious person at all in her life before, and she really didn't consider herself a religious person now. She went to church on Sundays with Booth, Brennan didn't always come. Only sometimes when Ashley was having a bad day or something.

"I've been reading up on some bible verses. Man, if my mom could see me now. I can't remember where I read it, but something said something along the lines of not giving up when times get tough. Or maybe that was a country song. I don't know. I'm trying man, I'm really trying. I just don't know how to keep going." Ashley whispered, she didn't like the idea of God listening to her inner monologue let alone anyone else in the house.

"I just want my dad's suffering to end. He's been through much, and whatever happens I have faith you'll do the right thing. Funny, I never thought I had faith. But I guess I've always had faith in people, like Booth and Brennan, and Parker, and Joe. And they're telling me to have faith in a better plan. So, just do what's right for me, please. I don't ask for much." Ashley sighed, turning back over and climbing back on top of her bed.

Ashley had come to visit her father that morning like she normally did on Mondays after dropping Parker off at school. She walked into the hospital room with the small coffee in her hand, nearly dropping it on the floor as she saw her father sat upright in the bed. The color was returning to his face, and he overall looked like he was better. But his eyes said otherwise.

"Daddy!" Ashley said running across the room to meet him, and envelope him in a big hug. "Oh I have to tell Booth, and Brennan, and Joe! Oh Joe will be so excited to see you again!"

Ashley whipped out her phone, texting nearly a mile a minute. Howard looked from her to the nurse and gave the nurse a sad smile. "Mam, will you give us a minute?"

The nurse nodded, and Ashley was still texting by the time she had walked out. After sending a quick iMessage to Sweets, Ashley was shocked as the phone was slowly taken out of her hand and set on the bedside table. Howard took it carefully, not to damage it or scare her, and the thud that came from him setting it on the table was abnormal yet not concerningly loud.

"Dad?" She asked searching his eyes for an answer.

"I have some very important news to tell you." Howard said, slowly and clearly so she understood him. This caught his daughter's attention and he held it for the next few minutes as he broke the news to her.

Booth sat outside in the hall staring at the floor as he listened to Brennan counter-question the doctor's information. The analogy the doctor had made was as if every cell in his body was slowly dying off one at a time. They don't know the cause, or the full extent of the diagnosis but they know they can't give him any more than a year.

Eventually everyone else made their way to the hospital and had to be given the news. And honestly by the end of the day Booth was absolutely sick of hearing the phrases "dying" and "at the most a year". He secretly relished in the idea that Ashley only had to hear it told back once, but he also knew she would have traded places with any of them in a heartbeat. Hell Booth would trade places with her in a heartbeat if he could.

"Booth." A voice Booth rarely heard anymore came from the doorway of Howard's hospital room. Ashley looked like she'd been crying, and she probably had, and her voice squeaked and cracked.

Booth stood and made his way to the door but she held her hand up. She motioned for him to follow her and the two started walking down the hallway. She stopped and turned around and said "He would like to see you all."

Brennan was the first to move towards the door, and then followed by Zack and Hodgins, and Joe. Booth turned his attention back to Ashley who slowly turned her attention back to him. "I asked for it you know."

"Asked for what?" Booth asked, raising one of his eyebrows curiously.

"I asked God to end his suffering. And I guess he actually listened." Ashley said looking off somewhere, not really in that moment there with Booth. He reached over and placed his hand on her shoulder and that's when she threw herself into his arms.

Booth thought she was going to cry, he hoped she would cry. He hadn't seen her cry once really, only out of anger, but she didn't cry. She was heaving, as if she was sobbing but there were no tears and no noise that came from her. He rubbed her hair in an attempt to comfort her, but in reality he didn't have a clue what to do.