June 2012
It was Friday, June 1st, a week after Brennan's first visit back to the lab. A few hours after their return home, Booth had left her alone for the first time while he drove to pick up Parker for his weekend with them. They had a lovely weekend together and spent a few hours on Sunday in a local park. Brennan sat in the wheelchair and watched as Booth and Parker played baseball. Booth was teaching him some of the finer points of fielding and hitting.
The three sessions with Michael the following week continued to build up her stamina and her confidence, and she was feeling hopeful on Friday as they headed to the clinic for her follow up appointment with Dr Banks.
Because his office was a long way from the entrance, Booth wheeled her in her wheelchair to the waiting room. The staff let him leave the wheelchair behind the reception desk and she used the walker to walk into the x-ray room. After the full set of x-rays, she and Booth were escorted to an exam room.
As they walked down the hall, Dr Banks was walking toward them. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Well, look at you! On your feet and walking. So glad to see those hours in surgery paid off. I have a couple of patients ahead of you, but I'll be in to see you shortly."
He soon burst into the exam room trailed by a nurse and two medical students and asked her to sit on the edge of the exam table so he could check both legs. He removed the brace and the walking boot - setting them both on the floor in the corner.
He examined both incisions and told the students about her injuries. He then pulled up the x-rays on the laptop and nodded his head as he scrolled through them. "Everything looks great Temperance. I assume you want me to print out the x-rays so you can take them home to study?"
She smiled at him. "Yes, you know I would like that. I want to compare them to the previous sets to see the remodeling." Dr Banks chuckled as he turned to the students. "Dr Brennan is a forensic anthropologist, and when she's working, she's examining bones all day long. Of course she's interested in examining her own."
He sat down on the rolling stool, facing her and patting his knees. "Well, I have good news for you. I'm ready to let you put 100% weight on both legs." She clapped her hands in joy, but he went on to warn her. "Now, you do need to be careful because I'm pretty sure your quad is still weak. Do you remember back in the hospital I told you that this injury can take 12-18 months for full recovery?"
She nodded warily and he continued. "Now, I don't think it will take 18 months in your case because you're young and fit. But the 12 month timeframe is what I'm aiming for. In a few months you are going to feel like you're all the way back. But then you'll want to reevaluate your progress a few months later. And then a few months after that. I'm sure you will see the changes and the strengthening even that far down the road."
He had her lift her left leg so it was straight out. Then she tried her right leg and it only went up about halfway. "See - that's the quad not being at full strength yet. Here. Lie back on the table and let's try another test."
She lay back and he asked her to lift her left leg and point it at the ceiling. After she successfully managed that, he had her try the right leg. She could only get it about 6 inches off the table. He helped her sit back up.
"There you go. That quad needs a lot of work. Michael will work with you, and I have no doubt you will get there in the next few months. Until then, that knee is very unstable. So you need the walker for balance and to keep you upright if your knee buckles on you." He wagged his finger toward her. "So don't get cocky, young lady!"
She had a serious look on her face and he smiled at her. "But I do have more good news for you Temperance." Her face lit up. "You can stash the brace and the walking boot in the back of a closet. Keep them just in case of emergency, but there's no need to wear them now."
She squealed at this news and Booth got up and came over to give her a hug. He had been watching and listening to everything and just trying to take it all in. But this was going to be so good for her. She really hated people looking at her with the contraptions on both legs. He knew this would help make her feel like herself again.
He looked down at her feet. "We only have one sandal." Dr Banks chuckled and walked over to pick up the walking boot. "Well, looks like you'll have to wear this until you get home." He leaned down and strapped the boot on her left leg.
"Keep working with Michael, and unless any issues arise, I will see you in 6 months. Take care - both of you." With that, he and his entourage whooshed out of the room.
After he lifted her into the SUV, he stowed the wheelchair and the walker and jumped into the driver's seat. He turned to her with a big smile. "Big step today Bones! 100% plus bare legs!" She chuckled. "Are you excited because I can get rid of all of the hardware, or because you can ogle my bare legs?" We waggled his eyebrows. "Maybe a little of both?"
When they were stopped at a red light, he turned to her. "Let's go out and celebrate. Are you in the mood for Gregorio's?" Her eyes lit up. "That sounds wonderful Booth. Let's go home so we can change into less casual clothes. And I can get this dang walking boot off!" He laughed and immediately started salivating as he thought about pasta and meatballs and garlic bread. He could eat Italian food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and never complain.
As she walked into the house using the walker, she turned to Booth. "I want to wear a dress to dinner. Can you go upstairs and get my dress with the flowers? The one you brought me to wear home from the rehab center?"
He was so happy that she wanted to dress up a little for the first time since being home. "What shoes do up you want to wear?" She thought for a second. "I think I should stay with the ones I'm used to right now. I'm pretty sure my other sandal is back in the guest bedroom. I'll be comfortable wearing them for the foreseeable future."
Booth was carrying her leg brace and motioned for her to sit on one of the dining table chairs so he could take off her walking boot. As he removed it, he ran his hands up and down both of her legs and smiled up at her. "Let's hope that's the last time you have to wear either of these contraptions. It will be so nice to see your legs again all the time."
She chuckled, knowing how much Booth had always loved when she wore dresses or shorts. He once told her that she had the best "gams" in DC. He took both of the items and stashed them in the bottom of the closet in the downstairs den.
She said that she wanted to freshen up, so he insisted on walking with her as she walked back to the guest bedroom. "This is your first time walking without the boot. I just want to make sure you're okay."
He had taken the remaining sandal off her foot and held it as they walked to the back of the house. It was a little strange for her now, walking on two bare feet, so she was secretly glad that he was being so fussy. But it also felt really good. She liked the sensation of feeling the floor with her feet, and decided that she would go barefoot in the house until she was more comfortable with walking.
When Booth left to go upstairs, she stripped down to her underwear and walked across the hall to the bathroom. She was finishing off her sponge bath when he walked in with her clothes. He had changed into black dress pants and one of his crisp white shirts, with the sleeves neatly rolled up to his elbows. As much as she loved him in a suit, Booth in a white dress shirt with an open collar was sexy as hell.
He had her dress, but he had also gone into her lingerie drawer and chose a white lace bra and panty set. "I know how wearing pretty undergarments makes you feel, so I thought you should have all the feels today." She looked at him with a crooked smile and was so touched that she didn't know what to say. So she leaned over the front of the walker and gave him a long kiss.
He waited in the living room while she dressed in the guest room and felt like he was a teenager waiting for his date. When she walked out of the room, he stood up and fell in love with her all over again.
It took him a few seconds to find the right words as he walked over to her. "You know, Bones. I always tell you how beautiful you are. But right now, in that dress, standing in your walker, you look so pretty. And such a warrior. I love 'pretty', I respect a warrior, and I adore you. He took both of her hands and kissed her.
"Now, let's go - I can't wait to start in on the garlic bread!" That broke the serious mood and made her laugh. As they walked together toward the front door, he told her that he had deliberately left the wheelchair in the SUV just in case they had to park very far from the restaurant.
As it turned out, they didn't need it because he was able to snag a handicap space very close to the restaurant entrance. He held the door for her and was buoyed watching how expertly she could now navigate a threshold. He asked if they could have one of the tables along the front window and was pleased that one was available.
They walked behind the maitre d, and Booth assisted her into her chair. He turned his back to her and folded the walker, saying something quietly to the maitre d while he pulled a bill from his pocket and put it, and the walker into his hand.
He turned back and sat down while Brennan watched her walker disappear around the corner. She looked at him in confusion. "Where is he going with my walker?" Booth looked at her softly. "I wanted you to have an hour where you could just forget about what you've been through, what you are still going through. The hardware is off your legs. The walker is out of sight. It's just me and the woman I love, looking so pretty in her flower dress, having a romantic date night out."
She was overcome with love for this man and reached across the table to take both of his hands in hers. "I love you so much Booth. There's no one in the world who could have taken better care of me than you have. I'm so lucky to have you." He pulled her hands to him and kissed them, just as the waiter came and asked if they were ready to order drinks.
After a little discussion, they decided to order a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate her milestones. They spent the next hour enjoying the bubbly drinks, the authentic Italian fare, and each other. When it was time to leave, he reluctantly asked for the return of the walker, and they slipped back into the reality of her convalescence.
But it was an altered reality. They both now had the sense of moving forward. They could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Booth's little experiment of moving the walker out of their line of sight for awhile was wildly successful. So he decided that he would do the same at home whenever possible - move the walker behind the sofa or behind a chair. No longer would it be sitting right in front of them all evening, reminding them both of her current disability. He would try to help her feel whole as much as possible - until the day she was truly whole.
Driving home they were both in a bubble of positivity and love. She was thinking about how, earlier in the evening, he told her that he adored her. As much as she loved hearing him say that he loved her, adoring her was a different level and it made her giddy. At that same moment, he was thinking about how he planned to undress her and make wild, passionate love to her. Then he started to wonder if he could talk her into leaving the dress on. He loved her in that dress.
They both had the night of their dreams. He convinced her to leave the dress on and he burrowed his head under the skirt to bring her to satisfaction. Then sat up and entered her - bringing her to satisfaction once again, while she was still wearing the beautiful dress. She smiled at the thought that the dress could bring him such satisfaction as he slowly removed it from her body. Once they were skin on skin, he adored and worshiped her body. It was the longest night of intimacy since her accident, and it was late the next morning before they awoke to start the new chapter in her recovery.
Sunday morning, Booth decided to go out and get a breakfast carry out for the two of them. It was so nice that he could now leave her alone in the house for short periods, but worried about her the whole time he was gone.
As he unlocked the front door and walked in with the bag containing their food, he heard the stereo playing unusually loudly. He immediately recognized the 1970s era tune "Mr Blue Sky" - a favorite of his. As he entered the kitchen area, he stopped dead in his tracks and a huge smile broke across his face.
There was his Bones, standing in the living room area, facing away from him. She was dancing - DANCING! - in her walker and looked like she was having the time of her life. He immediately thought of the phrase, "Dance like no one is watching". That's what she was doing. She hadn't heard him come in. Just then the song started to fade into the ending. She had the remote in her hand and pushed a button. "Do-do-do-do Sun is shining in the sky…"
He quietly laughed because he very often did that with that particular song. It was so sad when it was over that he had to play it two or three times in a row. He watched her glee for another minute or so until she turned slightly and spotted him. He could see that she was embarrassed and quickly shut the music off.
He set the bag on the counter and quickly walked over to her. "No Bones, don't turn it off. You know how much I love that song. Let's dance together." He took the remote from her, pressed "play", stuck it in his back pocket and took both of her hands - moving her walker over to the side. She looked worriedly at it, but he shook his head. "I'll be your walker."
So they danced together to the upbeat, joyful song. He played it a second time and pulled her closer to him and they found a way to do a slow dance/salsa to the beat.
It was their second day of learning the things that had become easier for her and were both feeling good about her progress. But later Sunday afternoon she had a little incident.
She had gone into the bedroom to get a magazine while Booth was in the kitchen preparing dinner. All of a sudden she called out to him. He dropped what he was doing and ran back to the bedroom and found her collapsed on the walker. She hadn't hit the ground, but it looked like she had started to fall, and saved herself by draping her upper body over the top of the walker.
He grabbed her under the arms and pulled her upright until she was standing. They were both grateful to see that her legs were holding her weight, but she was a little shaky from the scare. He helped her over to the bed and they both sat down on the end of the bed while she caught her breath.
He took her hands in his. "What happened honey?" She shook her head. "I don't know. I went to take a step and my knee just collapsed under me. I started to go down, but I was able to fall over the top of the walker. But then I couldn't push myself up - my knee just didn't want to work. It was the strangest feeling Booth."
He made small talk with her for a few minutes until she was breathing normally again. "I think we need to call Michael and see if it's anything to worry about." He pulled his phone out of his pocket and clicked on Michael's name in the directory.
Michael wasn't at all worried about the incident. He had seen the summary of her visit with Dr Banks on Friday and told them that this incident was not at all unusual because of the instability of the knee. "That's one of the reasons you will still need the walker until we get that quad stronger. When I see you tomorrow, we'll talk about it and about ways to avoid it."
They were both relieved to find out that it wasn't anything serious, so they were able to enjoy the rest of the weekend. But Booth stuck a little closer to her the rest of the afternoon and evening, and was anxious to hear what Michael would say the following day.
When Michael arrived Monday morning, he sat and talked to them both about where they were in the recovery and set expectations for the next couple of months. They talked about her incident the previous afternoon and he described the mechanics in the knee that could cause the collapse she had experienced. They discussed ways to avoid it in the future, but also what to do if she experienced it again. He told them that, if all went well, he was hoping to have her move from the walker to a cane within the next month.
Brennan grabbed Booth's hand when he said that, and they turned to each other with hopeful smiles. Michael reached into the sports bag he always carried and pulled out a folding cane. As he unfolded it, he explained that he was going to work with her on stairs, and that she would be using the cane to navigate the stairs.
They began her session with the usual exercises, and he upped the reps and the difficulty so that she would be giving her quads a more intense workout. When she finished the exercises, he led her over to the staircase. "We're going to practice going up 4 steps and then back down 4 steps. It's probably going to be a little bit scary for you, but Booth and I will be right here and you are completely safe."
He showed her a technique where she locked her bad knee to keep that leg straight. He handed her the cane to use in her left hand, with her right hand on the handrail. He put his hands around her waist and positioned Booth right next to him in case she had any difficulties. "Okay, now lock that right knee, push down on the cane, and lift your left leg up to the first step."
Before she realized what was happening, she had both feet firmly on the first step. "Okay! Let's do it again. Lock your right leg, push down on the cane, and raise your left leg to the next step." In pretty quick order, she had negotiated 4 steps.
When it was time to go back down, Michael told her that, for the time being, he was going to have her go down the stairs backwards. "For right now it's the safer and less scary way to descend stairs." Going down, she started with the bad leg going to the step below and following with the good leg. Again, before she knew it, she was back on the solid ground of the floor at the base of the staircase.
He sat them down and explained the mechanics. By locking the leg, it would prevent a knee collapse until she had the quad working at full capacity. He told them to always remember "up with the good, down with the bad". Doing this meant the good leg always took the brunt of the weight going up and down the stairs.
As he left, he told them that they could do some practicing on the stairs if they felt confident, but no more than 4 stairs at a time. He planned to try it on the porch stairs when he returned on Wednesday, weather permitting. He also decided that he was going to set her up to begin outpatient appointments at his Physical Therapy location starting on Friday.
They spent the rest of the day feeling giddy. So much progress in the last few days. They really could see that light at the end of the tunnel - and it was NOT a train!