AN: Sometimes, you just have to click your heels three times, whisper "I hope this works," cover your eyes and hit publish.
So . . . click, click, click . . . I hope this works.
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Fate had a sense of humor and when Camille Saroyan saw the beautiful blonde approach the hospital at the same time she herself reached the entrance, she knew it was having a good laugh at her expense. Dammit, she thought, even as she offered what she hoped was a bright smile. I knew I should have taken the afternoon and let Angela come this morning. "Hannah! How nice to see you. You're . . . very early." The automatic doors opened with a soft whirr of sound, welcoming the two women into the warmth of the lobby.
Hannah glanced at the black duffel bag she held. "I brought some things for Seeley. I thought, maybe if I got here before anyone else . . ."
"Ahh, yes, well, that was an excellent plan," Cam nodded. She moved a few feet away from the doorway, out of the flow of foot traffic. "I'm sure he'll be glad to see you."
"I've stopped by a couple of times," Hannah said quickly, "but there were always so many people hoping to see Temperance that I never actually got back there to see him . . . her."
"There have certainly been a lot of people here," Cam admitted, her smile firmly fixed. "I've only managed one short visit with Dr. Brennan myself, and that was because I pulled rank. Of course, they were only allowing one person at a time . . . Well, two," she amended without thinking. "But Booth refused to leave so . . ." Her voice trailed away. Well, that was tactful.
There was a brief, awkward pause. "He's very concerned about her." Hannah's lips curved in a tight smile.
"He is!" Cam agreed immediately. "He certainly is." Concerned? Are you really that blind?
"I think he just hates seeing someone he cares about in the hospital," Hannah continued. "When I was shot, I practically had to force him to go home every night."
For a moment, Cam could only stare at the other woman. Really? That's how you remember that? "I know," she said aloud. "He was . . . almost frantic." You're going to hell, Camille. "Why don't we go on up?" she suggested quickly, in a hurried attempt to leave that subject behind. "Since we're here . . . together . . . now . . ."
"Yes!" Hannah nodded eagerly. "Maybe at this hour, it will just be the two of us!"
Dear God, please no. "That would be . . . quite the bit of luck," she managed. When Hannah immediately turned to the elevators along the right wall, Cam reached for her arm. "No, they moved her last night - she's in the south tower now so we need to use those elevators." She pointed to the left.
Hannah followed the direction of Cam's finger. "Oh. I wasn't aware . . ."
"Well, it was the end of the day," Cam rushed to explain. "It was late - a last minute thing, really . . ." Why is she looking at me like that? "She's closer to the nurses' station now, there's a window . . . the room is larger." Why are you babbling? "Honestly, I think they just got tired of stepping on Booth -" See what happens when you babble? "You know . . . he's been sleeping in a chair . . ." Stop. Talking. "But this room has a sofa . . . the arms and the back fold down so . . . it's a bed . . ." Oh, God. Maybe if I call Angela she'll come over right now . . .
Hannah's eyes were wide and bruised. "Well . . . it's nice that he'll be more comfortable."
Why do I feel like I just kicked a puppy? "Yes, he'll . . . rest much easier."
For a moment, the only sound was the echo of their heels tapping against the floor as they crossed together to the elevators.
"So," Hannah finally broke the silence. "Temperance is conscious now? Is that why they moved her?"
Cam shook her head. "No," she sighed. She jabbed roughly at the call button, then crossed her arms tightly across her chest. "No, she hasn't -" She drew in a deep breath. "Not yet."
"Oh!" The elevator arrived, disgorging several passengers, and for a few minutes, conversation lapsed. "That's not a good sign, is it?" Hannah continued once they were on their way up. "I mean, it's been four days."
"Don't let Booth hear you say that," Cam sent a sharp look at her companion. "He'll . . ." Go ballistic. Lose his mind. Threaten to shoot the next person who suggests the possibility. Yell at you to go back to dead bodies since you obviously don't know anything about the living. "He doesn't agree. He says that her mind has temporarily shut down in order to give her body more time to heal."
"Oh." Hannah hesitated for a moment. "What do you think?"
"I . . . don't know." I don't know. "Her pupils react to light, she responds to pain and pressure in her extremities . . ." She shrugged. "He's correct in that sometimes, the body has its own way of healing . . ." It will destroy him if she doesn't survive. "I've made the mistake of underestimating Dr. Brennan before so," Cam plastered what she hoped was a positive expression on her face, "I'm going with Booth on this one."
Hannah nodded. "Well, then," she offered her own bright smile, "I will, too."
The doors opened on their floor, thankfully preventing the need for a reply. Trusting that Hannah would follow, Cam headed down the hallway.
The one time I want to see a full waiting room and this is what I get? Fisher was alone, stretched out over two chairs, casually flipping channels on the room's small TV. He stood up when the two women appeared. "All by yourself this morning, Mr. Fisher?" Cam stated the obvious.
"Dr. Brennan's father and her brother just went down to the cafeteria to get some breakfast," he explained. "I volunteered to stay here, in case anything happened. I find hospital Muzak relaxing."
Of course you do. "That was . . . very accommodating of you." She turned back to Hannah. "Well, clearly we don't have to wait for anyone else, if you'd like to see Dr. Brennan now?"
She led the way to Brennan's room, taking the opportunity as they walked to prepare Hannah for her appearance. "She actually looks a bit worse now, if you can believe it, because the superficial injuries are starting to heal - her bruises are darkening, the cuts and scrapes are scabbing over, etc. So just . . . be prepared," Cam warned. She came to a halt as a nurse in floral patterned scrubs stepped out of a room. Cam looked over the woman's shoulders to the privacy curtains that shielded the bed inside from view. "Would it be okay if we went in? We were hoping to see Dr. Brennan."
"Sure," the nurse answered. "Just give them a few minutes, if you don't mind. They're cleaning her up a bit, it won't take much longer." She reached over the counter behind them for a metal backed chart.
"Oh, in that case, maybe I could just find Seeley," Hannah suggested to Cam. "Do you know where he went?" she asked the nurse. "The guy who has been staying with Dr. Brennan?"
"I know who he is," the woman answered with a smile. "He's still in there with her," she added as she flipped a page and began to write. "He's helping."
"Helping?"
"He's helping?"
Cam and Hannah spoke at once.
"mmmm hmmm." The nurse looked amused at their surprise. "Hey, stick around long enough and we'll put you to work, too," she laughed. "Actually," she continued, as she let the chart fall closed and leaned casually against the desk, "he really has been helpful. With him here, it only takes one of us to change her bedding, give her a bath, that kind of thing. We're always short-staffed so it's nice to free up a pair of hands." The nurse gestured to the observation window that made up one wall. "See? I told you it wouldn't be long. They're almost done."
The curtains were swept open with a screech of metal against metal as the nurse inside the room bunched the fabric in her hands and pushed them back along the ceiling track from which they hung. Booth stood beside the bed, Brennan cradled protectively in his arms.
Oh, shit.
The nurse's scrubs were as bright as the cheerful prattle of conversation she kept up while she circled the narrow hospital bed, her movements sharp and efficient as she quickly stripped it bare and remade it. Occasionally, the low murmur of Booth's voice responding to a remark or question reached the women watching outside.
Cam heard a sharp intake of breath and forced herself not to look at Hannah.
"It's so beautiful," their talkative companion murmured when Booth touched Brennan's forehead with his lips then tenderly rested his cheek in the same spot for several minutes while he swayed slowly back and forth. "Not that she's in here, of course," she added quickly, "but that kind of devotion. I've been married three times and I don't think all my husbands put together loved me as much as he loves her." She hugged the chart she held to her chest and sighed happily as she watched Booth's gentle handling of the woman in his arms. "Gives you hope, you know?" Then she wandered off, unaware of the carnage she left in her wake.
Cam closed her eyes in dismay. I've got to say something, I can't just . . .
"I didn't know." Hannah's softly spoken whisper was barely audible. Her face was white, her eyes locked on the window. "About them," she continued, her voice trembling. "I knew there had been someone but I didn't know . . . I wouldn't have followed him . . ."
Goddammit.
"Hannah, they didn't know." Cam tried to offer what comfort she could, even as she knew it wasn't enough. "They didn't, not in any way that either of them ever acknowledged." What can I say to a woman whose only mistake was in not being the right woman? "There was nothing - there was never anything." How do I explain a relationship that never was and at the same time, was always so much more? "There was a time, a couple of years ago, I thought maybe they would . . . I don't know, that something would . . . but nothing ever happened. Nothing ever happened."
Hannah continued to watch Booth and Brennan. Her eyes were bright with unshed tears.
"You made him happy, Hannah." Cam touched the other woman's arm with a gentle hand. "You did. He was happy with you," she repeated. "And he loved you," she insisted. "He did. You have to believe that. He loved you."
"But not like that."
Cam followed Hannah's gaze to see Booth and the nurse working together to resettle Brennan in bed. While the nurse checked the IVs and other tubes, Booth cupped Brennan's cheek delicately and leaned in close to whisper words only he heard.
Cam's shoulders sagged in defeat. "I don't think two people out of a hundred find love like that." She allowed herself a moment to compare her own life with the image in front of her and then deliberately set it aside. "But that doesn't mean he didn't -"
The space beside her was empty, except for a black duffel bag on the floor.
Inside the hospital room, Booth drew the nurse's attention to the bandage on Brennan's head.
Cam watched for a minute longer. "Wake up, Brennan," she said aloud. "Wake up. And this time, you two get it right."
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And now I await the judgment of history . . . or in this case, reviewers.
