The Rings in the Heart
Chapter 8 – Poor Wand'ring Humerus!
Disclaimer: Me? Own BONES? ... Nope.
A/N: Thanks for laughing with me (at me?) about the golf ball trauma. The ultimate feedback was from Mendenbar who confirmed that what happened to Brennan in the last chapter actually does happen in tobacco sheds... So I'm squeezing in another chapter prior to the finale & doing the outline for my post-finale piece – talk about multi-tasking!
For this chapter, I must disclose that I've worked with thousands of unconscious, semi-conscious, and rousing patients over the years and they can be unpredictable... :)
Seeley Booth ducked and shouted a warning, but was unable to stop the rack of leaves descending in a swinging arc from more than twenty feet above them. He saw and smelled a mass of brown tobacco leaves as they passed him on a collision course with Brennan. She didn't even have time to turn around. Booth heard the impact that knocked the breath out of her and the impact of her body against a solid object. The fact that he could identify that sound and still remain calm was testament to his time in combat. It seemed that Temperance Brennan wasn't the only one that could compartmentalise at will.
.
The moment he was out of danger, he moved forward into the brightly lit area to get a sitrep, bracing himself physically and mentally as fragments of brown tobacco leaves floated down in a snowflake parody. The silence was deafening. He saw Bones semi-prone on the hard packed ground and as he saw her chest rise and fall, he let out the breath that he had been unconsciously holding, and sound returned as he dropped to his knees beside her.
The FBI team had sprung into action, radioing for their team medic and calling the local cops in to help move the jumble of wooden poles and tangled ropes. The pungent smell of crushed tobacco leaves was overpowering as dozens of boots trampled their way around the pegged off area to follow their team emergency response orders.
.
Booth placed his index finger over where he knew the carotid pulse would be and laid his other hand over her forehead. She was out cold, but Bones managed to communicate that she was still with him as her carotid artery brushed against his finger in a regular and reassuring pulsation.
"Bones?" said Booth as he took his finger from her pulse and gently shook her shoulder to get a response. As he took his hand away from her forehead it was wet with blood from a scalp wound. She gave a low groan and flailed an arm at him to stop him shaking her.
"If you can hear me, Temperance, open your eyes" he said a little more loudly. Those emergency field assessment skills had just kicked in automatically. A tech shoved a torch into his hand as her eyes moved beneath their lids and considered opening. Booth took the torch and checked her pupils; thankfully they were the same size, and they reacted briskly to the light. The observing tech reported the finding to whoever was scribing on the incident form.
"Heart rate regular and sixty. Saturating at 98%" reported another tech who had just arrived with a medic band on his arm. He had attached an oximeter probe to her finger and was busy putting on a blood pressure cuff.
"C'mon Bones! Squeeze my hand if you can hear me" Booth said in a more commanding tone, as he took her hand in his own. He felt the coolness of her mothers' ring press against his thumb as her fingers curled around his hand and gave a half-hearted squeeze.
The medic tech had a field dressing in his hand and announced "You've got a cut on your head here Dr. Brennan. I'm going to put a dressing on it with some pressure to stop the bleeding. I'm sorry, it's gonna hurt."
As the pressure was applied to the scalp above her forehead, her face creased in pain and her eyes popped open. "What the h...owww!" complained Brennan as she started coming around.
"Take it easy Bones. You just got K.O.'d. Nice bump to the head. Just let the team take care of you until you're back with us" soothed Booth.
Brennan closed her eyes and said in a whisper, "I didn't go anywhere, Booth."
"You were unconscious for around two minutes, Dr. Brennan. You need to remain here until we can assess you for other injuries, okay?" reasoned the medic.
She cracked open her eyes and looked blearily at the medic, unable to muster up her signature 'Be gone, mere bystander without a PhD' stare. Brennan merely stated "I concur. My head hurts, and my left scapula."
.
Booth was worried. Bones hadn't uttered a word with over three syllables yet, and the tech hadn't been turned to stone for telling her what to do. He brushed the side of her face gently as her eyes drifted shut, as the medic was checking her over for injuries and secured the dressing over the scalp wound. She was still gripping his hand lightly so he gave it a reassuring squeeze as the medic started asking him for particulars for his incident form. A Deputy informed them that the Sheriff had authorised the opening of the partially flooded road to let an ambulance through, with an ETA of 10 minutes. Bones disliked hospitals even more than he did; she usually requested her discharge against medical advice forms at the admissions desk.
In this case, Booth was wagering that Bones would score an all-expenses paid night in the hospital, and he would get a recliner chair for the night. If he was lucky, Booth would also get all of the pudding allocated to Bones. As a vegetarian she wouldn't eat it because the gelatine in the pudding was made from cow bones, or something like that. As Booth wondered if chocolate pudding came from chocolate cows, Brennan gave his hand a hard squeeze and tried to roll back onto her right side in order to sit herself up.
.
"Hey, hey! Bones you can't sit up yet" exclaimed Booth as she elbowed him out of the way and knocked the medic onto his ass as her leg kicked out.
"Have to...going to...," Brennan pleaded, as she promptly vomited on the boots of the medic.
Booth moved in to support her in a half-sitting position as she gasped following the effort. The medic jumped up disregarding his newly decorated boots and grabbed a wet wipe for Brennan from his kit, proceeding to efficiently wipe her chin.
Tears were now streaming down her face. "That was a mistake" she winced as she was now visibly in agony. "Shoulder dislocated..." whimpered Brennan as her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out from the pain.
"That is one tough lady you have there, Agent Booth. I've had burly FBI veterans pass out with a dislocated pinky," commented the medic as he placed an oxygen mask over her face. "Shall we immobilise that dislocated arm before she comes around?"
Booth nodded and deftly moved the limp left arm against her chest while the medic strapped the injured limb to reduce her pain.
Five hours later, following a trip in an ambulance to Danville, sutures to a scalp laceration, and the relocation of a wandering humeral head under a sedative, Bones was finally resting comfortably. Cam and Hodgins were flying into Danville airport in the next couple of hours, to handle the ongoing squint side of the investigation. Booth put his feet up onto a vacant chair and popped the top off a pudding container.
Brennan opened her eyes groggily, her head was sore, her shoulder felt tight, but definitely where it should be. She heard the sound of a spoon hitting her bedside table, and glanced over to see Booth making a basketball-style shot toward the garbage bin next to the sink with an empty pudding container.
"Pudding thief" she accused.