Chapter Seven
Booth saw his brother and soon to be sister-in-law out the door with a promise to call in the morning to let them know how Brennan was. After closing and locking the door, he returned to her room. He stopped at the doorway, crossed his arms over his chest, and leaned against the door.
Brennan was curled up beneath the blankets, hugging her pillow in a death grip. She was still shivering and panting slightly, she appeared to have relaxed since Padme helped her change and get comfortable. A familiar ache appeared in his chest, and spread quickly throughout his body. Booth closed his eyes and swallowed hard, forcing the sense of wanting, and raw love back down to a deep dark corner. Having gained control over himself, Booth turned and once again picked up the phone; this time to order delivery from Sid's. while he waiting for the delivery to arrive he ran out to his car to remove the pail from the hospital, and tossed it out in a trashcan outside of the complex.
He reentered the apartment to be greeted by the sound of retching. Cursing, he followed the sound to the bathroom where Brennan kneeled, painfully emptying her stomach into the toilet. Booth dropped to his knees beside her, and gently brushed her hair back from her sweat-soaked cheeks and forehead. He grabbed a clean towel from the rack and wet it in the sink. He held her hair back, and dabbed at the back of her neck with the cool damp towel. She had emptied all of the contents of her stomach, leaving her to spite up some bile and dry heave. Booth wrapped the towel over the back of her neck and lightly rubbed soothing circles over her shoulder blades. Finally she was able to stop heaving; she slumped back against Booth's chest panting and exhausted.
Booth adjusted his body so he was sitting with his legs bent at the knee. He wrapped his arms lightly across Brennan's chest and gently pulled her back so she was nestled between his legs flushed against his chest.
"I got ya Bones," he murmured into her hair, gently rubbing her arms.
The sound to the doorbell surprised Booth causing him to jerk slightly dragging Brennan from the light slumber she'd fallen into. Gently, Booth lifted her up and carried her into the living room. After safely depositing her on the couch and he to the door, paid the delivery boy who looked about 50 years too old for his job, and returned to the living room food in tow. He pulled the coffee table close to the couch and removed a container of pasts, a container of veggie soup (heavy on the broth, light on the veggies) and some red jello. He grabbed some silver ware from the kitchen as well as two glasses of water. When he returned, Brennan was sitting upright in the corner of the couch, using both the back and arm as support. She watched silently as Booth distributed the containers, silverware, and water. He sat next to her with as sigh, and turned on her new television. She claimed she'd bought it to watch documentaires and study common interactions between average civilians, but Booth knew for a fact she nearly never used it if he wasn't there. With practiced ease he flipped quickly through the channels before settling on Dirty Jobs.
"C'mon Bones, try and eat a little." He urged her as Mike Rowe introduced them to some ostrich farmers. Brennan remained silent, looking at him almost helplessly. "Here look, Side made you some veggie soup with extra broth." He held out the open container for her to examine. Not bothering to look at it, she shook her head and pushed his hand away.
"No Booth. I don't want to vomit again." she said watching the television with false concentration.
"Bones, you have the stomach flu! That means you going to throw up every once in a while, food or no food. At least drink some of the broth so you can take your medicine." Booth tried reasoning with her. Brennan was about to protest again when Booth took a spoonful of the broth, gently blew on it, and held it to her lips. "C'mon, just a little?" he pleaded with her casting her a deadly combination of a low grade charm smile and very intense puppy dog eyes.
Brennan furrowed her brow and finally parted her lips allowing Booth to slip the spoon through them. As she swallowed a warmth spread through her insides causing her to become aware of the chill that swept across her skin. Booth continued to give her small spoonfuls of broth and occasionally slipped in a veggie or two. With every spoonful Brennan felt a moment of warmth followed by an increasingly strong chill. She finally snapped when Booth lowered the spoon into the now half full container and began to shiver wildly. Without thinking about it she lunged her body forward and made solid contact with Booth's chest. Immediately her mind registered muscle, warmth and a feeling of rightness she wanted to clutch on to her all her might.
Booth let out a surprised grunt when Brennan landed against him. He quickly recovered and wrapped his arms around her shivering form. A ridiculous rush of joy flooded him. He felt like a man deprived of water who had just been given a lake of fresh, cool water. He rested his cheek on her head, where he was met by searing heat. Alarm replaced his joy, but his intense Ranger training allowed him to keep from panicking. Doing his best to jolt Brennan as little as possible he reached to the table and grabbed the bottle of pills the doctor had prescribed and her glass of water.
"Bones," he softly called her attention and placed a pill in her hand. "Take this." she complied, then buried herself back into his arms craving the warmth they had to offer,
Gently he maneuvered himself so his legs were up on the couch on either side of Brennan and he was leaning back on the arm rest. He held Brennan close as she curled up and tried to snuggle even closer to him. He began to plan out how he was going to take care of her for the rest of the week when he was interrupted by gently nibbling at his neck.
"Bones!" he croaked out in surprise.
Review Please! or i will be forced to shave booth bald!
