A/N - The idea for this came to me in a dream I had after watching "Mayhem on a Cross" late one night (which was a brilliant episode if you haven't seen it already!). Anyway, it was originally just a one-shot I really wanted to write, but now I think it'll be maybe five chapters long. I really hope you enjoy it!

Reviews are always welcome!

Chapter One - Missing in Action

"You know what, Bones? Sometimes I wish you were just...normal!"

These were the last words Seeley Booth had said to his partner before storming out of her apartment. By the time he was out the door, Temperance Brennan was in tears, wondering what she'd done wrong.

When Booth woke up the following morning, most of their short argument, if you could call it that, was all but forgotten. It was overshadowed by the throbbing in the back of his head, which didn't make sense, because he was pretty certain he hadn't been drinking. He pulled himself out of bed, clambering into the kitchen to get a couple of tylenols to ease the pain. He swallowed two with a glass of water and proceeded to have a shower. Once finished, he dressed himself in his normal suit and walked out to his black Lincoln Navigator.

Before starting the ignition, he pulled out his phone to check if there were any missed calls from Bones or any of the other squints about their current case. He was surprised when the picture of himself and Bones taken when they were in London was no longer his screensaver and instead he was greeted by a picture of a smiling Parker. He didn't remember changing it, but he presumed he must have, and didn't give it any more thought before he set off.

It wasn't long before he arrived at the FBI Headquarters and was making his way up to his office. As he sat down at his desk, he sensed that something was wrong. For one thing, the London policeman bobble-head that had sat on his desk for months was missing. It was strange but again, Booth didn't think too much of it, deciding instead to make a start on the paperwork for their last case. He pulled open his drawer, pulling out the manilla file at the top, which he assumed was the correct file. However, upon opening it, he found it was about an undercover drug-bust which he had no recollection of. It wasn't even something he ever involved himself with, not since teaming up with Bones. He guessed the case file was mixed up with some others, and began to root through the drawer. He went through all of them, and was shocked to find that none of the cases he'd had with Bones were there and that he couldn't remember ever being part of any of those he found. He double-checked that he was in the right office, but found his name on both his desk and the door, along with a photograph of Parker on his desk.

It was all very bizarre, so he decided to call Bones, just to check that he wasn't going insane. He was again confused when he found Bones' number missing from his phone. It didn't matter, as he knew it anyway, but he was completely puzzled regardless. He dialled her cell number and held the phone up to his ear. After a few dial-tones, he heard the familiar voice of his partner at the other end.

"Hello?"

"Bones! Boy am I glad to hear your voice-"

"I'm sorry, who is this?"

"What are you talking about, Bones? It's Booth!"

"Sorry?"

"Booth! Agent Seeley Booth! Who do you think it is, Bones?"

"I'm sorry, I think you have a wrong number. There's no Bones here."

"What? I know it's you! Temperance Brennan?"

"This is Joy Keenan. I don't know any Temperance Brennans, or 'Bones's, and I certainly don't know you."

"What? But you haven't been called Joy Keenan since you were a kid! Your parents changed your name to Temperance!" Booth was desperate at this stage. He was completely confused as to what the hell was going on.

"I'm hanging up now."

"Wait! Could I just ask you a question?"

"Fine, one question."

"What are you? Like, are you still a forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institute?"

"No, and I never was, sir. I don't know where you got that idea. I'm a neurosurgeon."

"A neurosurgeon? As in a doctor?"

"Of course. May I hang up now?" This didn't make sense. Bones would never be a doctor, well, not a medical doctor. She wasn't particularly good with people.

"Wait, just one more question?"

"You're really trying my patience, sir, but go ahead."

"Are you married?"

"What? I'm hanging up!"

"No, please, I just need to know. I'm not a pervert, or anything, I...just need to know."

"Well, if you must know, yes, I am, happily." Booth was silent. "Okay, goodbye now." And before Booth could object again, she hung up. Booth sunk back into his chair, exhaling slowly. What the hell was going on? His Bones wasn't his Bones anymore. She wasn't even Brennan. She was Joy. Joy Keenan. He never thought that name fitted her. It just wasn't...her. Something was seriously wrong, and he had to get to the bottom of it. He opened up his MacBook and google searched "Joy Keenan". Immediately, several facebook pages appeared, and he clicked on the first one, which was clearly hers. Of course, not being her 'friend', he couldn't get much information from it, but it he could see a small photograph of not only 'Joy', but a tall man (who Booth couldn't help but notice looked something like himself), who Booth assumed was her husband. However what was most shocking was what 'Joy' held in her arms: a newborn baby (a girl, judging by the pink all-in-one she was wearing).

Booth honestly couldn't believe what he was seeing. The woman before him in the picture was definitely who he was looking for, but he doubted she was the same person he knew, and loved. 'His' Bones was completely against marriage. She thought it was completely pointless. She also never wanted to have children, as far as Booth was aware. Everything was wrong. Completely and utterly wrong, for no apparent reason. Suddenly, an image of a teary Bones appeared in his head. He wracked his brains, but he just couldn't place it. It confused him, just as everything else around him did and, try as he might, he couldn't remember any other information relating to the image. Had he been the one to make her cry? It was not being able to answer that question that troubled Booth most.

He decided that he had to find someone else who he might still know. The first person who came to mind was Sweets, because although he only knew him because of his sessions with Bones, Sweets worked for the FBI, in the same building, rather than at the Jeffersonian, to which Booth was connected by Bones, who he obviously didn't know anymore. He got up from his chair and walked out of the office towards the elevator. When he reached Sweets' floor, he walked down the corridor, eventually coming to the office labelled "Dr. Lance Sweets". He knocked on it, slightly hesitantly.

"Come in." Came a familiar voice from behind the door. Booth pushed down the handle and entered, relieved to see Sweets' face. "Oh, hello Agent Booth." He greeted him. Well, thank God he knew who he was. Sweets' brow furrowed at the sight of Booth's distressed appearance. "Is something wrong?" Booth nodded.

"Yeah, Sweets, something is wrong. Bones, she isn't...Bones anymore, and I think I might be part of the drugs unit and-" Sweets interrupted.

"Firstly, sit down, secondly, slow down. Start from the beginning. You mentioned something about some bones?"

"No, Sweets, not some bones, my Bones. As in my partner!"

"Your partner's bones?"

"No, my partner! Her name is Bones!"

"Do you mean your sexual partner?"

"No, Sweets, God no! I'm talking about Temperance Brennan, my scientist partner."

"I'm sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about, Agent Booth." Booth exhaled slowly again. It figured.

"Look, just forget it, Sweets, you're no help to me."

"No, Agent Booth, I'm sure there's some way I can help. Please, just explain what's happening."

"Okay, but to be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure myself what's going on." Booth began. "When I woke up this morning, everything was...different."

"How so?"

"Well, you see, you don't know this, but I work with this fantastic woman, a scientist, named Dr. Temperance Brennan, but I call her Bones. She's a...forensic anthropologist, and she solves murders with me. To be honest though, we're kind of more than partners, we're friends...maybe more. But, I think something might have happened last night, because when I woke up this morning, the whole evening was missing from my memory, but what was weirder was that Bones was gone."

"Like, missing?"

"No, she's present and accounted for, Sweets, but she's not...she's a different person. you see, when Bones was a kid, her name was changed from Joy Keenan. Now, for some reason, that's her name again, and she's a neurosurgeon, and she's married and has a baby and she doesn't know me anymore." Booth's voice began to crack a little towards the end of the sentence.

"I don't understand, Agent Booth."

"Neither do I, but every trace of the Bones I knew is gone. It's not just as if I never met her, but she seems to be an entirely different person. For one thing, Bones was never good with people, but now she's a doctor. She was also completely and utterly against marriage, but now she's 'happily married'. I don't know what's going on, Sweets."

"I don't know either, Agent Booth. I honestly don't. But, I do believe the answer may lie in what happened last night, between yourself and your partner."

"But I don't even know if I was with her last night." Booth protested.

"Can you be sure that you weren't?"

"No. But I can't remember anything about what happened! And nobody else will either, because everything is different!" Then, Booth remembered the image of Bones crying. "Wait, I think I remember something."

"What is it?" Sweets asked, intrigued.

"I remembered it earlier, but I couldn't place the memory. It was Bones, I think it was in her apartment, and she was crying a little. It must have been last night."

"Can you remember anything else?" Booth sighed, shaking his head.

"It's so frustrating. I don't know if it was me who was making her cry or not." Then, just as suddenly as the first image appeared, another memory became vivid in his mind. However, this one was not an image, it was a feeling. It felt like...anger...frustration. Maybe he was frustrated with Bones, and made her cry. But what could he have said to make her so upset? Bones didn't cry for just anything. Booth sunk back into his chair, hopelessly confused, sighing. "I think it was me who made her cry. I remember being angry and frustrated. It had to be me."

"You don't have any idea as to what might have made you angry?"

"No. Nothing I ever said before made Bones cry." Sweets remained silent for a moment, thinking.

"If you don't mind me asking, Agent Booth, but was there ever a sexual component to your relationship with 'Bones'?"

"What? No. Well, not really. We kissed once, but that was because Caroline Julian made us."

"She was puckish, wasn't she?"

"How'd you know that?"

"You don't want to know, Agent Booth."

"Anyway, what me and Bones had...it was complicated. Like I said, she was never really a people person. She was abandoned by her parents as a kid and was abused in the foster system, so she wasn't great with expressing her emotions. She was a genius, but she could never open up to anyone."

"But did you have feelings for her?" Booth remained silent. Sweets nodded, knowingly. "Do you think she had feelings for you?"

"I honestly don't know, Sweets. I think...maybe...maybe she did."

"Do you think this might be related to what happened last night?"

"It...could have. There's no reason why it couldn't have."

"Such an issue could cause even those with the most difficulty expressing their emotions to become upset. It's likely that you could have had an argument about it." Booth sighed. It was more than likely. Recently he'd been more attracted to Bones than ever. It seemed like every time he looked at her, she was more beautiful. She had also been surprising him more now than she ever had before. She'd become more open with her feelings, though not hugely. She was changing, for the better. He thought that, finally, she was getting better at communicating and relating to people. And he had an awful, sickening feeling that he might have spoilt that in a single evening.

What had happened?