Taking Care of Brennan

The water had finally cooled to the point that Brennan could feel it through his numbed mind. To the point that he was shivering. He sighed and reluctantly turned off the spray, resting just a minuet before stepping into the bathroom and reality.

Emma had stopped banging on the door sometime ago, but Brennan had just noticed. In the back of his mind he wondered and some mixture of words came to mind spoken by a familiar yet strange voice. But Brennan didn't give a damn as he set to work vigorously drying himself off then brushing his teeth. A bottle of mouthwash latter he emerged from the bathroom into his empty and dark room.

Brennan quickly dressed in his favorite pair of jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt. He knew that Adam was going to be waiting for him in the med lab but he didn't want to leave his room. He didn't want to be questioned by well meaning friend, examined by an anxious mentor, watched like a hawk by an overprotective feral, or to see how bad Jesse was.

'God Jess….' Brennan thought as he flopped down onto his bed. Part of Brennan wanted to blame this all on Jess, wanted to hate the younger man for being so driven to find this psycho. For putting himself in danger, and thus everyone else. But he couldn't bring himself to. He just couldn't, because he knew without question that if he were in Jesse's shoes he would have done the same thing. Hell, he would have gone off alone and wound up dead. As much as he wanted to blame this all on someone, he knew that, that was impossible.

There was a knock on his door and Brennan chocked back a sobbing laugh. Why couldn't they just leave him alone?

"Brennan, it's Sam, are you hungry?" came a strong but kind voice.

It took Brennan a moment to remember who Sam was, and even as he did he only thing that stuck out was that he was Jesse's friend. That alone was enough to get Brennan's stiff body moving towards the door. Opening the door, Brennan was expecting Sam to be halfway inside even though Brennan was blocking the way, just like Shal and Em would. Instead he found Sam waiting patiently across the hall.

Sam had a small smile for Brennan and blank eyes. He was tired, Brennan could sense that, and somewhere in his memories of the night he pulled out that Sam had been bitten too. "Hungry? Emma said something about eggs in the fridge," Sam repeated.

Brennan frowned, he was a bit hungry if he had to be honest, "Yeah, I guess."

"Good, cause I hate eating breakfast by myself," was the reply as Sam started to head for the kitchen without a backward glance to see if Brennan would follow.

Half an hour later and Sam was finishing up his plate of scrambled eggs while Brennan was picking at his.

"I know I'm a limited cook, but I do cook pretty good eggs," Sam said as he watched Brennan out of the coroner of his eye. He noted how the bigger man looked tired and deflated, like he was being crushed by the world's biggest weight on his shoulders.

"Wha -? oh, sorry. Guess I'm not all that hungry," Brennan said pushing the barely eaten food away. Wordlessly, Sam took the plates and deposited them into the sink.

"You up to see Adam? Or do you want to try to get some sleep?" Sam finally broke the silence about two minuets later.

"Are you my baby sitter now?" Brennan growled, a warning in his voice.

Sam ignored it, "Pretty much. Adam or bed?"

"I don't need a check u, I'm fine," Brennan hissed.

"Sure you are, but Adam still wants to see you. He wants to make sure you weren't-"

Brennan despised the soothing tone of Sam's voice more then anything at the moment and he could feel himself losing his temper. "I wasn't…." he began, unable to finish.

"No one is saying you were," Sam replied evenly, knowing what the rest of the sentence was. "But he did bite you and there is the matter of the venom in your system.

"You were bitten and you're doing fine," Brennan snapped.

"Actually I feel like shit and as soon as I get you to Adam I'm going to crawl into bed. So please, stop fighting me and go and see him?" Sam begged, allowing, for the first time, his voice to betray just how bad he felt.

Brennan looked up at the stranger who was quickly becoming enduring. Out of everyone in Sanctuary, Brennan sensed that Sam was the only one who wasn't going to bullshit him. That Sam was going to tell him the truth and that was a precious thing to him at the moment.

"Fine, I'll go see Adam, but I don't need an escort," Brennan said, eyes daring Sam to push it.

Sam just nodded, "He's in the observation room."

Line

True to Sam's words, Adam was in the observation room. Upon seeing him there, Brennan almost turned around, but before he cold Adam had called his name and beckoned him inside.

"How you feeling Brennan?" Adam asked, pointing to a chair in the back of the room.

Brennan took it, and went numb when he realized that he could see fully into the med lab. Jesse was laying on one of the bio beds, the red lasers passing over him with monitors attacked to just about every part of him. Shalimar was there holding his hand, head resting next to his and Brennan knew that she would be the first to know if anything went wrong. Even the monitors wouldn't be able to tell as quickly as her.

"How bad is he?" Brennan asked as Adam rummaged through a cabinet.

The scientist froze for a second, sparing a glance into the med lab at Jesse. "He'll be fine, just needs some time to the venom out of his system."

"He was bitten more then once, right Adam?" Brennan asked as his mentor approached.

"Yes. I need to take a blood sample from you to see if you need another dose of anti-venom."

"Jesse's a molecular, doesn't that make the venom worse?" Brennan asked as Adam drew his blood.

"Yes, normally it does but Jesse had been exposed to this venom before," Adam assured as he took the blood sample to a computer for analysis.

"Was he…did…?"

"Jesse was assaulted, he wasn't raped," Adam said softly, looking up at Brennan.

"Assaulted…fine line isn't?" Brennan whispered as he approached the window.

Adam watched him, his critical eyes scanning the man in front of him, "Brennan, what happened?"

There it was, the dreaded question. 'What happened?' Like Brennan could say. Like Brennan wanted to say. But he knew this game, knew that Adam was only the first. Soon the others would join in, pressuring him to talk about it and to tell them. They would promise they could help, that they understand, and Brennan would give in. But in the end, it would all be lies.

"Not now Adam," Brennan said, a firmness in his voice he didn't think he had.

"Alright Brennan," Adam sighed, willing to give up for the night. "The venom is pretty much out of your system, I don't think you'll need another injection. Why don't you go and get some sleep?"

"Yeah," Brennan sighed roughly, to numb inside to appreciate the good news. He stood, watching the rise and fall of Jesse's chest, Adam's suggestion of getting some sleep ignored.

Adam wisely said nothing.