"You're not supposed to be up."

His voice startles her and once she recovers, she turns to glare at him. Maybe letting him have a key wasn't such a good idea after all (although it had seemed a good idea when he let himself in last weekend and woke her up in a very nice way).

"God, Booth. Startling me like that will only serve to make me injure my other ankle," Brennan replies, annoyed. "I was just looking for something to drink."

He rolls his eyes and moves towards her. "Yeah, yeah. You're not supposed to be up. Back to bed."

She pouts a little. "You know, usually when you say that the idea of going back to bed is much more exciting."

He gives her a knowing little smile and then turns serious again. "You knew I was coming by to check on you, you couldn't wait to get a drink?"

"I broke my ankle, I'm not a complete invalid," she insists, filling a glass with water now that she has made it to the sink anyway. "I was thirsty. I came to get water."

"Okay. I know. I just don't want you to be in pain."

"I'm not in pain." She turns to hobble her way back towards her bedroom, and flinches at the pain that suddenly shoots through her. "I'm fine."

"Clearly. Can I help you?" She watches him for a moment, trying to decide between comfort and her pride. Looking at his face and seeing the concern for her that lies there, and taking note of the fact that he's asking if he can help her before he takes away her independence and her pride, she gives in and nods.

"Okay. Fine." Booth smiles and kisses her on the forehead before lifting her up into his arms. She yelps in surprise – she was thinking something more along the lines of helping her walk to the bedroom, but this works, too.

To her surprise, he doesn't set her down in her bed. Instead her warns her of his intention to put her on her feet so that she will be ready to avoid pressure on her ankle, and she watches him curiously as he moves towards her bed and begins to straighten the sheets and fluff the pillows. She hadn't slept very well last night, and the bed was a disaster, she had to admit. The sheet was crumpled towards the bottom of the mattress, and the comforter was crooked, not even covering the bottom part of the bed. The pillow she prefers had a dent in it and the other pillow had fallen to the floor when she tried to extricate herself from the bed this morning to look for water.

"Jeez, Bones, you really did a number on your bed. What'd it ever do to you?" he teases, and she laughs a little and gives him an appreciative smile. As much as she likes to pretend she's not in pain when she is in order to keep up her independent front, she knows it wouldn't have been easy for her to fix the bed on her own.

When Booth is finished, he lifts her again, despite the fact that she's now two feet away from the bed and settles her down comfortably in the middle of it and pulls the blankets back over her.

"Thank you," she says softly, and they're both a little surprised that she doesn't resist the care he's giving her and insisting that she can pull the covers over her herself.

"Sure," he replies. He leans down and kisses her gently and says softly into her ear, "I love you."

He's said it before, and she's said before, but she knows this is one of the times where she's not required to say it back. It's given her an odd sense of peace to know that every time one of them says it, a response is not expected or required. In some ways it keeps it from losing its meaning, and it keeps her from feeling like it's turned into the definition of love that she doesn't believe in.

"I know," she replies simply, and they share a smile that makes her forget about her ankle for just a minute, even though it is time for another pain pill and she can feel the slight throbbing. Booth seems to realize this, and puts the pill bottle next to the empty pitcher of water on the night table but doesn't do more than that, knowing she can and wants to do it on her own.

"Okay, I've gotta go, but you call me if you need anything," he says, kissing her once again, this time on the nose. "You promise?"

"Booth…"

"No, don't start with the 'I'll be fine,' and 'I can manage on my own,' stuff again. I know you will be, and I know you can. I'm just saying, call me if you need anything. Promise?"

She rolls her eyes. "Okay. Fine. I promise."

"I'll get you another pitcher of water so you don't have to make the journey to the kitchen again." She nods. "Do you have a book?" he calls from the kitchen as he's getting her water.

"Yes, five, actually. That you left here last night. I was too tired from the medication to read." He nods when he returns and sets the pitcher of water on her night table. She had refused to let him stay with her last night, because was supposed to take Parker to school this morning since they had a late start due to the snow, and it was ridiculous for him to get up early, probably waking her up with him, just to have to fight the weather in order get Parker and take him to school. He'd accepted begrudgingly, and had promised her he'd be back in the morning, figuring after the day they had had – chasing down a suspect and breaking her ankle in the process, followed by a long night at the emergency room – she would be exhausted and just sleep anyway. "Will you stay tonight, though?" she asks softly.

Booth's face practically lights up, pleased that she asked and he doesn't have to fight her on it. "You bet."

She nods, and they both realize that this is the first time in their nine weeks of this... relationship... that they will actually sleep together without sleeping together. "And you better call me if anything exciting happens at work."

He laughs, because she's so… Bones, and her face is so serious. "You got it, Babe."

She's long ago stopped fighting his nicknames. She fought Bones for a while and it stuck anyway. She fought 'babe' and 'baby' and 'sweetheart' for a (short) while, too, but Booth is Booth and he calls her them anyway. He knows better than to use these terms of endearment at work or around their friends, so she doesn't mind them so much. In fact, a part of her might even like them, but she doesn't admit that.

She does, however, admit that she realizes her day is made a little better when he calls her to check on her, and again later to tell her a funny story about a witness he talked to. And that her day is made a lot better when Angela brings her a sandwich from the diner for lunch that, despite no one telling her so, she knows was Booth's doing because of the choice, and when he brings her her favorite Thai food for dinner and agrees to watch a special with her about the ancient temple system in Maui. And when he helps her get ready for bed, she doesn't resist because she knows he does it because he cares for her – loves her – so much and she has to admit, it is a lot easier to change her pajama pants with someone's help. So when they get into bed and he softly strokes her arm as he closes his eyes, prepared to drift off to sleep, she turns to kiss him and tells him, "I love you."

He opens his eyes and smiles at her. "I know, Bones. Your ankle feeling okay?"

She nods and closes her eyes, ready to drift off to sleep herself.