When Brennan decided that she wanted to have a baby, she asked Booth if he would be the sperm donor. He agrees to Brennan's request at first, but subsequently struggles with the thought of not being involved in the life of his prospective child. Eventually he tells Brennan he cannot let her have his child if he is not allowed to be a father to it. Soon thereafter, it is discovered that he has a (benign) brain tumour. He has to undergo surgery, and though the surgery is successful, a poor reaction to anesthesia left him in a coma for several days. While in his coma, Brennan reads to him from her new novel, and he has an elaborate dream in which Brennan is his wife and that she is pregnant, and that the staff at the Jeffersonian play the characters in the novel. When he awakens, he initially suffers from amnesia, not recognizing Brennan.