"Miss, you need to wake up. I'm sorry but you have to wake up now."
A nurse shook Brennan awake. There were several doctors and nurses quietly hovering around Booth's room.
"Oh, I assume you're here to take Booth to surgery?" The nurse nodded. Brennan nodded back and sat up. She hadn't meant to fall asleep in his bed.
"Bren?" Booth was awake but barely. He looked like hell and his ankle wasn't any smaller than it was the night before. The bruise was darker and his foot was swelling a bit now. She winced just looking at it.
"I'm here, Booth. I'll be here after your surgery too." She grabbed his hand once more and squeezed gently before the doctors wheeled him off.
The bare hospital room now felt empty without him. The TV was still on from last night, the sports shows still playing replays of Booth's injury on occasion. She turned it off. Brennan didn't want his injury to be the first thing he saw when he woke up. She called Maggie and asked her to bring a change of clothes and then called Hank and Jared's hotel to let them know Booth was in surgery.
She began to pace. She hated hospitals. They made her think of her past. She was in the hospital quite a bit once she entered the foster care system. Feeling a panic attack coming on, Brennan began to focus on Booth, and she began to calm down.
Brennan sat back down in her chair from the night before and stared out the window. She could see the stadium lights in the distance and replayed the play where Booth was injured over and over again. She was trying to figure out a way she could've stopped it.
Brennan knew in her mind there was no way she could've stopped Booth from getting hurt but it made her feel just a bit better knowing she would've if she could've.
"Temperance?" Maggie was in the doorway holding a drawstring bag. "Hi, how is he?"
Brennan shrugged. "He's in surgery now but he's not too happy about what these sports experts are saying. He's in a very bad mood about it."
"Well, I'd be in a bad mood too if I needed surgery. Anyway, I brought you some jeans, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt. I just grabbed the one off your chair. I hope that's okay. And, I put a few granola bars in there in case you hadn't eaten yet."
Brennan smiled at her roommate. It was Booth's sweatshirt that had been hanging off the back of her chair. She knew it would smell like him and that made Brennan feel slightly better about the whole situation. "Thank you, Maggie. I haven't eaten yet but I'm sure I wouldn't want to eat hospital food. Booth says it's disgusting."
"Oh, and there's a graded test in there too. Some guy dropped it off for you yesterday. He said you requested that he grade it first and give it to you," Maggie added. It was Booth's graded Intro to Anthropology test. She yanked it out of the bag and stared at the circled red grade.
A-
She smiled. Booth was going to be so excited, but that was the least of his worries. She wanted him to get better quickly. Just like Hank said, football is his life.
"Bren! Did you stay here all night?" Booth's friend, Adam said as he and several members of the football team walked in.
They all started talking and the room sounded as loud as the crowd at the game the day before. Brennan snuck off to change and when she came out of the small bathroom that was attached to Booth's hospital room, Hank and Jared were walking in. The room was more crowded than ever before as more football players began showing up. If Booth came back in, there'd be no room for him and his bed.
Not long after, a nurse came in and reprimanded everyone and said only family members could stay for now. The team, coaches and Maggie all said they'd stay out in the waiting room. Soon, Booth was wheeled back in and he was still out. The doctor came in and told them he'd be out of it for a while longer and that the surgery was a success. With proper physical therapy and assuming his recovery would go smoothly, he'd be able to play in whatever post season game the Wildcats are selected for.
A few hours later, Jared and Hank were both dozing uncomfortably in the stiff chairs next to Booth's bed and Brennan was pacing at the foot of it. Booth moaned and she whipped her head around to look at him. She wiggled her way past Jared, who was now drooling on himself.
"Booth? Are you awake?" Brennan took his hand and squeezed gently to let him know she was there. He gripped her hand and gave a tired squeeze back.
"You can push that button now, Bren. My ankle hurts like a sonuvabitch." He lazily grinned at her as she pushed the button to let the drugs flow. Soon, he breathed a little easier and was in and out of sleep for the rest of the day, with some of the football players and coaches visiting whenever he woke up.
Hank and Jared left for the airport not long after Booth had woken up for the first time.
"Take care of him, Bren. He trusts you more than you realize. He needs you." Hank looked deep into her eyes and she saw some sort of pain there. Hank wanted to be there for Booth but with Jared still in high school, he had to stay with his younger grandson and leave Booth in the capable hands of the Anthropology student that Hank knew was the one for Booth.
Jared looked at her as he followed his grandfather out of the room. "Be good to my big brother."
Brennan nodded and waved goodbye.
"Bren? You still here?" Booth was awake again and it seemed like he was relatively coherent.
"I'm here, Booth. Guess what?"
"I can go home?" he asked, hopefully.
She shook her head. "No, tomorrow afternoon probably if you can handle the pain. But I got-"
"Oh I can handle the pain, baby. This is Seeley Booth you're talkin' to. I can handle anything"
"I have your anthropology test. And don't call me baby."
Booth just stared at her, waiting for her to say something.
"Come on, Bren, don't leave me hangin'! What'd I get?"
"An A-, just like I told you. I knew you'd be fine. I guess you don't really need me anymore."
She tossed his graded test on his lap. Brennan looked somewhat remorseful that he wouldn't need her help anymore. She promised Hank she'd take care of him but she wasn't sure he'd let her help.
"Of course I need you, Bren! Hey, I buy, you fly? I'm starving."
"Humans can't fly, Booth. You should know that."
He rolled his eyes. "Bren, it means if I pay the bill, will you go get the food?"
"Why can't we order in? That way, you buy and they metaphorically fly."
He laughed. "Chinese?"
"Thai," she bargained. Brennan walked over to his good side so she wouldn't hit his ankle or knee and nudged him to scoot over. Booth gladly followed her instructions as he called the Thai place.
The food arrived and they ate in his bed together. They talked about their pasts and they both exposed a bit more of the trouble they had been though and it was soon close to midnight. She was surprised at herself for opening up to Booth. But she was learning to trust. Hank said he trusted her so she needed to do the same. Brennan debated going back to her room to sleep. She only had two lectures on Mondays and she had decided she felt comfortable enough with the course material to skip in order to help Booth adjusting to crutches and making sure he took his pain medication.
"Hey! I just realized," Booth said, staring at her, "you're wearing my sweatshirt!"
Brennan blushed. "Maggie brought it to me earlier. It's comfortable and smells like you. I'd like to hang onto it for a while if it's okay you."
Booth just nodded. He wanted to know where this relationship was going. But, just from the little he knew about her past, Booth wasn't sure how Brennan would react to taking the next step and going on a few real dates.
After trying to convince Booth to let Brennan push the little button to release more painkillers, she gave up and lay back down next to him. They both fell asleep quickly, him being all she needed to make her forget about everything that happened in her past, and she being his painkiller.
