Thanks again to all who took the time to read and especially to those who also reviewed - you humble me!
Now we are going to find out how Booth is doing while Brennan and Angela are still asleep...
Chapter 10:
The first thing he sensed, was the a sound that invaded his mind. A constant sound ...beep...beep...beep. The very moment he realised that something was stuffed in his mouth, the intervals between the beeping sounds shortened. Panic rose in him, until he was able to force his eyes open and he took in his surroundings. His eyes needed a moment to adjust to the light, but soon he knew where he was. Hospital. The thing in his mouth was a tube. He hated the feeling, but he relaxed a bit. The rhythm of the beeping sounds steadied along with his heart rate.
He closed his eyes briefly... and a flood of memories hit him... he knew he had been awake before... several times to be exactly. But it all merged into a blur. His gaze wandered over the naked walls of his room, searching for a clock, but there was nothing there for him to help him measure time. He tried to recall what he had seen when he had been awake before. His gaze shifted to one of the infusions near his bed. The last time he had seen it, it had been nearly empty, now it was full again. A nurse must have been in his room to change it and he had not even woken up. Damn medication, blurring his senses. On the other hand he was pretty sure the content of the infusion also dulled the pain. Maybe the medication wasn't that bad.
He reached for more information, more memories...He remembered Agent Sanchez coming in, when he had been more or less awake some time earlier. Sanchez had told him that he had had an eight hour shift outside his room and that Agent Saunders had taken over for the next eight hours. So he had been sleeping for some time...
He also recalled that Sanchez had told him that another Agent was to stay with Bones all the time.
Bones! He knew his partner had been here, his Bones. She had been unhurt – thank God - and had talked to him.
He could picture her sitting on the chair beside his bed, telling him what had happened. He still could not believe she had been praying for him. Bones, praying. A chuckle rose in his throat, but was forced to stay where it was. No way to laugh while being intubated.
The thought remembered him of how much he hated the thing in his mouth. He tentatively tried to move his hand. It worked... There were small wonders in this world!
He reached for the emergency button to call a nurse in. All he wanted, was to get rid of that damned tube, to be able to talk. He pressed it and a minute later a nurse appeared, as if she had been waiting outside the door all the time.
"Oh, Mr. Booth you are awake again?" The nurse asked, causing Booth to roll his eyes lightly. Why question the obvious, especially when the patient was not able to reply? And did emergency buttons have the habit of pressing themselves?
"So, Mr. Booth... how can I help you." The nurse asked, her eyes darting over the screens of the constantly beeping devices.
Booth's eyebrows rose. How on earth was he supposed to show her what he wanted, when she kept her eyes stubbornly fixed on that screens?
He waved his hand to get her attention. Hooray, it worked. She looked at him expectantly.
He mimicked pulling out the tube and caused her to smile. "I can not remove the tube, Mr. Booth, I am sorry. Doctor Chen will come here later and he will tell if you are ready for the removal."
The doctor would tell if he was ready? Hell, he was more than ready to get rid of that thing. Eager for the removal, more likely. But there was no way to argue with the nurse.. He would have sighed, if he could.
Then another thought occurred to him. He pointed to his wrist, where he usually had a watch.
The nurse frowned a bit, then her face lit up suddenly. "Ah, the time? It's..." she glanced at her watch "Almost eight thirty in the morning."
His brain tried to process the information and bring sense into the chaotic mess of memories in his head. But he did not quite succeed... because he had no idea when he had been brought into the room or how long his surgery had taken.
The nurse studied him for a moment and said: "You woke up the first time yesterday in the late afternoon, if that's what you are trying to find out."
Booth gave her a thankful look. So he had been sleeping quite long... not a big surprise.
He was pretty sure the painkillers were responsible for the tiredness and caused his head to feel like it was stuffed with cotton wool. An awful feeling...but he also could recall Dr. Chen talking about removing his spleen and repairing damage to his liver, cracked ribs... All in all, it sounded pretty painful. He decided, that the painkillers were going to be his new, best friends. He glanced at the infusion. 'Hey buddies!'
"Mr. Booth, you're parents arrived here around midnight. You've been asleep at that time. They wanted to be informed as soon as you are awake. Shall I call them?"
'My parents,... oh God. Mum's going to make a hell of a fuss... ah, well. Can't help that now.' He thought and blinked at the nurse, hoping she would understand that he meant it as agreement.
"Okay. They should be here soon, they are staying at a hotel near the hospital. Anything else I can do for you?" The nurse asked.
'Yeah, remove the tube!' Booth thought, but slowly closed his eyes to show the nurse there was nothing else.
For now. Sleepily he wondered if they still had that delicious pudding.
Closing his eyes had let him drift off into a dozing state and when the door opened again and his parents came in it seemed as if no time had passed at all.
'Mhm... maybe I can skip the "Oh, my poor boy!" – part by blinking again' He thought sarcastically.
He slowly closed his eyes, when his mother hurried towards the bed.
"Oh, my poor little boy!" She exclaimed. 'Nope, did not work.' He thought and opened his eyes. 'Little boy...phew'
He watched his father coming closer reluctantly, while his mother was already petting his hand, murmuring incomprehensible things. He did not have to look at her face to tell that she was crying. He kept his gaze fixed on his father, who finally reached his bed. "Oh, Seeley." Was all he said, when he took his son's hand in his, giving it a hard squeeze. "Why do you always have to get yourself in trouble?" Robert Booth looked down at his son's face sternly.
'As if I CHOSE to get blown up.' Booth thought and gave his father an ironical look. Then he moved his head a bit to look at his mother. As he had expected, tears were already streaming down her face and the sight of this made his heart ache. He could not stand to see a woman cry, especially not a woman he cared about so much.
He squeezed his mother's hand in - what he hoped was – a reassuring way.
Sure, he was hurt and it had been serious, but he had been in worse shape when he had been sent home by the Army once. The memories briefly occupied his mind. Oh yes... definitely worse shape, especially if you think of his mental state back then... war, not being able to protect his friend, all those dead people...
No, he did not want to think back.
He looked at his mother's face again and he wanted to tell her, that it wasn't that bad, that he was going to be alright. But all he could do, was to look at her, hoping his steady gaze and the gentle squeeze of his hand was going to tell her what he could not voice. He briefly looked at his father and the two Booths understood each without words. Robert Booth moved around the bed to place a hand on his wife's shoulder and said:
"Don't cry. Look at him, darling. He's strong, he is going to be alright, he always is. "
Mary Booth nodded, still sobbing a bit. With relief Booth noticed, that at least the tears had stopped rolling down her cheeks.
"I have to agree with you, regarding the fact, that he is strong." Dr. Chen's voice came from the doorway.
"Good to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Booth." He nodded towards them.
"And Agent Booth, I have to say that you surprise us with your quick recovery."
"Booth stubbornness" Mary Booth commented, her voice still thick with tears. "All men in this family are simply too stubborn to stay in bed for more than three days."
Robert Booth snorted. "What?" His wife asked. "It's true!"
Dr. Chen grinned. "Well, I fear it will of course take more time than three days until Agent Booth will be able to leave the bed, but what I can say so far is, he recovers better than expected. The nurse tells me you are quite eager to get your tube removed, Agent Booth?"
Booths eyes widened and he managed a tiny nod.
"Good. When your visitors have left, we will do so. You should rest after the removal. It may take a few hours until you are able to speak afterwards and your throat will feel sore for a few days. As your partner requested, your son may visit you if you wish, maybe this evening. But no more visitors today... you may have extraordinary good healing, but you still need your rest. If your condition stays stable you will be moved to normal room tomorrow morning. Any questions?"
His parents shook their heads and he too managed a small movement of his head. He was looking forward to seeing Parker. He hoped Rebecca would not make a drama out of everything.
He looked at his father and mimicked talking into a phone. "We should call Rebecca?" His father guessed. Seeley's thumbs up confirmed he had interpreted the gesture right.
"Anybody else we should call?" Robert Booth asked. Booth frowned. How to tell his parents they should call Bones and tell her that he was recovering and going to be moved to another room soon?
He nodded, or at least tried to do so, still thinking. "Okay, son... Who?" His father asked.
Booth rolled his eyes, then his gaze fixed on his father again. He mimicked writing.
"Mary, do you have a pen?" Robert Booth asked his wife.
"I don't know... maybe." She gave back vaguely, opened her purse and started to rummage in it. She took several items out and placed them on the nightstand while searching for a pen.
"God, Mary. What else have you stuffed in there?" Robert exclaimed.
Father and son exchanged a look of disbelief. Women were full of mysteries and somewhere in the top ten ranked 'a woman's purse and it's content'.
"Only what I need." Mary Booth gave back. "Uh-uh" Robert Booth watched her .
"What no sleeping bag?" He asked sarcastically when she finally had gone through all the items in her purse and presented a pen and a notepad.
"Very funny. YOU did not have a pen, did you?" Mary Booth shot back. "What would you be doing without me, anyway?"
Seeley Booth watched his parents' bickering with great amusement. All his childhood he had spent with those arguments, that were no real arguments. That's just how his parents were.
He remembered that once, when he had been a little boy, he had asked his mother, why they were always bickering and if they did not love each other and she had laughed at him, ruffled his hair and said: "You know, what, my boy? The more you tease, the more you please. I love your Dad very much, and that's why I enjoy having those little arguments with him."
His father's response brought him back to reality. "Without you? Hmmmm. I don't know, let's see: Never shave again? Never ever plant ivy next to my house?"
"Why does it always end up with the ivy? It looks pretty..." Mary Booth retorted.
"It looks like we are living in Hobbingen!" Her husband growled back.
Booth rolled his eyes and flicked his fingers to get their attention. To their credit it worked. They immediately turned towards him.
"Oh, Bob! Our poor boy is lying here, hurt all over and we argue about ivy." Mary chided softly.
'Poor boy' rolled with his eyes again.
Robert Booth handed him the pen and the notepad and grinned apologetically "Sorry, son... I got carried away."
Booth mentally shrugged. He knew how it was to get carried away in an argument. It happened to him with Bones all the time... Oh, his mother had been so right. The more you tease...
He took the pen and the notepad and scribbled something down. It felt awkward to write without being able to look at it, but with the tube in his mouth he could move his head enough. He lifted the notepad and looked at the words he had written. Written? Holy crap, he could only hope his parents still remembered his handwriting when he had been a 6-year-old... it sure looked similar.
He stared at the words "Call Bones, tell her that I get moved." At least that was, what he had intended to write.
He handed the note over to his father. "Oh, dear heavens. Mary, can you read that?" Robert Booth murmured and handed the note over to his wife.
After a look she stated "I'll need my glasses." And started to rummage in her purse again.
"Oh, no... not again." Booth's father murmured, which earned him a death glare from his wife.
"I found them already." She said. "Only because they are bigger than a pen." He gave back, grinning.
After putting on her glasses she studied the note for a moment, then nodded. "We should inform his work partner that he is going to be moved to another room."
Another thumbs-up from the bed. Booth should have known his mother would understand.
"What? You can read that? This scribbling is worse than what he did in primary school. What does that mean?" Robert Booth pointed towards the word 'Bones'.
"Bones! That's his work partner. You know the doctor who writes the books? Bones is a nickname!" Mary explained to him.
"Huh? How do you know?" Robert asked, stunned.
"He is my SON, he tells me THINGS." Mary gave back and smiled at her son. "Don't you worry, Seeley, we'll take care of it. You should rest now."
Booth did not argue because of two reasons. Number one: arguing would not have been easy with the tube in his mouth. Number two: He loved his parents, but just being in the SAME ROOM with them was strenuous, let alone disagree with them.
"Take care, son. We'll see you tomorrow. And our grandson too, I hope." His father briefly squeezed his hand and Mary Booth ruffled his hair as she had done when he had been a little boy. She knew very well he hated it, but could he object? No. He only rolled his eyes and waved them good-bye.
When they finally closed the door behind them he squeezed his eyes shut and his last coherent thought before drifting off to sleep was: 'Silence is golden.'
Please let me know what you think, reviews make me happy!!! How did you like my version of Booth's parents?