Booth's Spinal Horror
For a long time, I have been wanting to do a short one-shot dealing with what happened after Bones "cracked" Booth's back at the beginning of the season four episode "The Princess and the Pear". Naturally I am doing this with a humorous bent to it, but also a small nod to the pain and fear that must have been coursing through Booth in such an awkward position when it occurred. Now that health and the real world have aligned to enable me to do some more writing, this is my resulting effort. I hope you all enjoy this one. Gregg
Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Booth was finally going to get some relief. Bones had agreed to crack his back with that twisty motion of hers and he was going to feel so good. Nothing beat Bones when it came to the human skeletal structure! For the past two hours he had been in agony with every small movement, the pain feeling like his spinal column wanted to take a serious detour into the land of the slippery slopes. Only his training in ignoring physical pain was keeping him from screaming like a baby and sucking his thumb for some psychological comfort. But enough about that. It was time to get cracking!
Bones moved her arms and hands into position from behind Booth. She was still unsure about doing this, but the man had stroked her ego just enough that she was willing to do this one last time before insisting he see a specialist. She also could not ignore how good it felt to brush up flush against Booth's back and take in the superior musculature of the man, in addition to the nearly intoxicating masculine scent of him. If only he hadn't drawn that non-sensical line between them! Oh, well. She would live with it and enjoy the rare instances like today to breathe in the richness of the pheromones that exuded from him and turn that into a number of satisfying fantasies to fuel her more intimate personal moments.
Booth was almost giddy as she began to rotate his upper body. He couldn't resist offering a little help with some verbal reassurance for her as the rotation began.
"This is going to be good," he said as the rotation to the left began. He was feeling something odd, but soothing, so he kept up the commentary. "Believe me, I am not going to…forget…ooohhh…! This!" The higher pitched "ooohhh! This!" was accompanied by a couple of odd sounding cracks and then a total flood of pain shooting through him! His eyes had to be bulging right now, and he was sure if he moved a millimeter, he would collapse on the floor screaming in agony.
"There, that should feel better," Bones said as she was about to extricate herself from behind him.
"NO... NO...NO!" Booth shouted as he felt her moving. "Don't move!" he managed to squeak as a wave of spine twisting pain shot through him.
"What's wrong?" Bones inquired instantly. She moved into assessment mode but kept a hold of him.
"Oh, God, Bones!" he yelped. "The pain! I can't move! Don't let go!"
He couldn't believe it! This made the number those sick torture sadists did on his feet feel like a love tap by comparison! He sent up whatever silent prayers he could manage to the Man Upstairs for some serious assistance and relief mucho pronto!
Bones knew this could be very serious. She shouldn't have agreed to this, but she had let her ego be stroked, and had made a poor decision as a result. She would be having a serious conversation with Booth about leaving her ego out of any conversations in the future. For now, though, she needed to get him some medical attention.
"I have to get you laid down so I can get to my phone and call for an ambulance," she said calmly, hoping that steady reasoning would settle him down enough to be able to do what was needed.
"NO!" Booth squealed, quickly losing all sense of reason in the face of the pain. "I can't move! Oh, God it hurts!"
"Booth, I need to call an ambulance," Bones tried again. "I need to get to my phone, so I will need to lay you down on the floor."
"Absolutely not!" Booth shouted almost breathlessly. He was a seriously hurting unit and the pain was escalating with every millimeter of movement. The very idea of even a controlled shift to the floor had him ready to pass out just contemplating how excruciating it would be.
Again, Bones knew she would have to lower the emotional temperature he was reacting to. "If I can't lower you to the floor, then how will we be able to get assistance?" she asked. While she did indeed sympathize with him, as he must be in incredibly serious pain for him to be acting like this, the illogic of his demands were beginning to grate on her logical sensibilities.
The sweat was beginning to run in small rivulets down Booth's face, and he was still getting increasingly irrational. He knew it but was too far into the land of pain and suffering that he was unable to get himself to a place of reason. Hence his next little gem.
"Scream! Let loose like you never have!" he demanded, doing his damnedest to not shift anything in the process.
"You mean like scream rape?" she questioned. "That will bring some assistance, but not the kind we need."
She had deliberately said such a ridiculous thing to possibly nudge him back to sanity, though she was sure it wouldn't work.
"I need a hospital!" he shouted. "Not a prison cell waiting for me after those sadists from Metro PD get done working me over!"
He could just see those morons storming in and taking him down with some seriously extreme prejudice convinced that he was actually attacking Bones, never mind the fact that she was physically holding him up! In reality he knew that he was way over the top in how he was reacting to all of this, and that Bones was working hard to get him back to reality, but he was in too much pain to control the more logical parts of his brain. He just wanted this nightmare to be over with. What had been a mere minute or two since his "cracking" was beginning to seem like hours. He was in pain and scared. He was a trained special forces soldier and should have handled this level of pain much better, but he wasn't. He'd never had back pain like this.
Bones now realized she would simply have to act on her own and hoped that Booth did not physically resist and injure himself more than he already was. Her wildly out of bounds question should have jolted him back to reality, but instead he had thought she was serious about screaming rape. She mentally calculated that there was enough room behind her to manage a controlled fall backwards, cushioning Booth so he would then be on the floor and on a flat surface offering his back some solid support until the EMT's could arrive.
Taking some deep, calming breaths, Bones worked to get prepared. Pressing herself more firmly against his back and strengthening her grip on him to keep his back as straight as possible, she quickly, but steadily shifted herself down to the floor, ignoring Booth's yelp of surprise and horror. She carefully slid herself from under him and pressed him to the floor on his back. She took in his look and saw for the first time how painful this really was for him. There were any number of injuries that she could think of that would be causing this level of back pain, but she could also see his breathing calming down. His pain level must be evening out.
Reaching her bag, she got her cell phone and quickly called George Washington General Hospital requesting an ambulance with the necessary implements to deal with a back injury. She added in a few details about her suspicions of what the injuries were. Ending the call she returned her attention to Booth.
"The ambulance will be here in five minutes, Booth," she told him. "I need you to stay on your back, flat on the floor. It will help relieve some of the pressure."
The muted groan was the only reply she got from him, but it told her he was in much better shape than he had been a moment before. As he wasn't acting like before, she could tell that reality had reestablished itself in his mind once more. She was greatly relieved at that as she had despised thinking in terms of psychology to deal with his pain induced antics. Psychology was a soft science, after all.
It was then that she remembered that they had a case. She called the lab and informed them to send a team to the crime scene, as she would be with Booth until he had been checked over at the hospital, and then she looked at the list of available FBI agents that were allotted to fill in when Booth was unavailable for a case. She grimaced when she saw that only one was available that day. Perotta! Granted, the woman knew their procedures and was a competent agent, but Bones had a flash of jealousy run through her, which she had to work hard to suppress. She would have to live with it, and possibly begin working on forcing Booth to realize how ridiculous his line had become.
Ten minutes later she was in the back of the ambulance with Booth heading for the hospital. The entire way she observed the EMT's like a hawk, ready to interject when she saw something improper or display of incompetence. She was already mentally composing the lecture she would be giving Booth about the need to have his back looked at professionally from now on, and that stroking her ego, which was nice in itself, was not the best of ways to stay healthy. His newly injured back should be proof enough of that.
As for Booth, he was in misery. The back board and being strapped down was making the pain recede to a more manageable level, but the slight jostling as the ambulance drove along provided plenty of reminders of how much of a hurting unit he really was. He mentally cursed his couch, as he just knew that Bones was going to be an absolute dictator when it came to his full recovery. For now, though, he was going to live with it and go to La La Land when the pain meds took hold. As the ambulance arrived at the hospital, he wondered who was going to work the case with the Squints. He only hoped it wasn't Perotta. He knew Bones was not a fan of the agent.
A/N: Well, there is my take on that missing scene. A little over the top, but fun and I hope fitting. It was fun to write this one and I hope you all enjoy it. Gregg