It was barely 6am when Isabelle was gently knocking on the door of Lance Sweets apartment. She had barely slept because she was excited and grateful to have a job.
Fortunately, her earliness had worked well for Hannah who had been an early waker since becoming pregnant with her twins. She unlocked the door quietly and grinned at Isabelle and ushered her inside and out of the cold.
"Thank you for being so early." She said in a hushed voice. Both Sweets and Booth were asleep in the lounge. Hannah led the way into the kitchen and offered Isabelle a mug of coffee, which she took gratefully.
"It's no problem. I... I needed this." She peered over the counter to look at the back of Sweets head.
"When we got back from the doctors appointment yesterday with all the additional stuff from the hospital, Booth and I were slightly overwhelmed. And it's not like we or our friends can be here when we have a killer to catch. But don't get me wrong. We all want to be here." Hannah absentmindedly rubbed her stomach.
"I get it. But you need to rest and a job needs to be done."
"And you know his cares better than anyone." Hannah grinned as she sipped her cup of tea.
Someone snored loudly from the lounge, causing both woman to jump suddenly. Isabelle shook her head.
"Okay, so where have you put everything? Meds? Extra drainage bags? Catheter bags?" Hannah pointed behind her to the dining table and Isabelle took note of the things on it and gave a low whistle.
"You don't realise how much a person needs until it's all laid out."
"Indeed. Booth and I tried to get it sorted but we were too tired. Sweets didn't take any sleeping pills last night either, by the way. He just went to sleep." Isabelle nodded.
"I'll sort it out." They kept talking, their voices low for about an hour when Booth gave a low sigh and stretched. He yawned and saw Hannah sitting in the dining room with the red-headed woman and he grinned. Finally.
"Morning." He kissed his wife on the forehead. "Hi, Isabelle. Thanks for actually turning up."
"What, scared I was going to run for the hills?" Booth pulled a face and Isabelle grinned. "I would never. I hate running." That earned a chuckle.
"Have you seen the contract? Are you happy with it?" Booth asked and she nodded and Hannah handed him the signed copy.
"Absolutely happy. You guys are going to be great employers." Isabelle stated. Booth snorted and almost jumped when his phone started buzzing in his pocket.
"It's Bones." He answered. "Bones! Give me some good news." He moved away from the lounge so that he wouldn't have to whisper.
In the lounge, Sweets himself was slowly coming too. The pain in his side and inside him was agonizingly painful. He tried to stifle a groan. As he was walking, he could hear voices and one that sounded awfully familiar. A scraping of chairs was heard and then someone appeared in front of him, causing shadow over his closed eyes.
"Hey, Sweets. It's me, Isabelle." He let his eyes open as a cool hand touched his forehead and saw the smiling, gentle face of Isabelle looking directly at him. She was sitting on the edge of his coffee table.
"Hi." He said simply, a faint smile on his lips but the pain was too much. "Ow."
"Pain?"
"Lots."
"Scale of 1 to 10?"
"9." He murmured. Isabelle nodded and he heard someone talking and Isabelle said something in return. The rustle of plastic gave way to Isabelle sitting down and shuffling through a bag full of pills and creams until she found what she was looking for. Sweets opened his eyes more and grinned.
"You're back."
"Sometimes I just can't help myself. You ain't never had a friend like me, Dr Sweets." Hannah appeared and passed Isabelle a glass of water with a straw in it.
"What are you, a genie or a nurse?" He mumbled as Isabelle prepared the pills for him to take.
"Take your pick. I'm good for both." Sweets opened his mouth, allowing Isabelle to pop the small pills in and then she placed the straw between his lips and he took a drink, the cool water moistening his mouth and throat.
"You aren't blue so how can you be a genie." He said sleepily and Isabelle shook her head. Sweets watched Isabelle as she placed the glass down in the table and moved the blanket.
"I'm just going to take a look at your bandages, okay?"
"Mmkay." He felt her cold fingers lift up his shirt and prod gently around the sore and tender areas. Hannah was watching from the side and looked up when Booth walked into the room.
"We gotta go. You feel up to a stop by the Jeffersonian?"
"Always." Hannah nodded and Isabelle lowered the shirt and moved so that Booth and Hannah could talk to their friend.
Isabelle moved to the kitchen table and saw a pad and a pen and started writing a to do list, keeping herself busy so she didn't listen in to what they were saying. She was used to be the intruder in conversations because patients and their families didn't always pay attention to the nurses who were just apart of the background noise in the hospitals.
Booth came over to Isabelle and surprised her with a hug. Startled, she gave him a quick squeeze and he pulled away, holding her at arm's length.
"Thank you for being here." Isabelle shrugged with a smile.
"It's my purpose. And he's actually nice so I don't have any qualms with being here." Booth laughed.
"We have to go." Hannah was at the front door, hand on her back as she waved to Isabelle.
"Call us if you need anything. I'm sure you won't because you're a boss nurse but please call me." Isabelle laughed and made a shoo motion with her hands.
"I will. Now go. I've got this." The door clicked shut as they left and it was just the two of them.
************
Sweets had fallen asleep soon after Booth and Hannah had left but when he woke up again, Isabelle was sitting in an arm chair, humming to herself as she waited for him to wake up. He could see she was writing something down, not paying him any attention.
The sun was shining in her face and Sweets was able to watch her now that she wasn't under the harsh white lights of hospital lights. Her red hair took on a coppery glint in the sun and although her hair was tied into a pony tail, it fell over her shoulders in loose curls. She did have a gentle face. A pretty face. He liked her face.
Sweets was glad she was here.
He grunted as he moved, trying to push himself into a more comfortable, sitting up position and that caused Isabelle to look at him and smile.
"Morning. Again." She put the pad of paper down and went over to him and helped him move to sit more comfortably. Isabelle moved his legs carefully and then wrapped her arm under his left arm so that he was pulled comfortably up. He let out a breath he had been holding on to and was relieved to feel that how he was sitting was less painful than laying down.
"Hows your pain?" Isabelle asked and Sweets gave a faint smile.
"It's okay. Those painkillers you gave me are doing greeeeat." Isabelle laughed.
"Good. It's nice to see you not in a hospital." Sweets gave her a dopey grin.
"It's nice to see you not in scrubs. You look nice when not in scrubs." Isabelle raised an eyebrow. "I mean, not that you didn't look good in scrubs because you did but you look better in not scrubs and now I'm just digging myself an embarrassing hole." Sweets rubbed his eyes and Isabelle looked away and up at a clock, her cheeks bright red.
"Okay so moving on." Isabelle started and Sweets lowered his hands to see her grabbing her notepad and sitting on his coffee table in front of him, their knees gently touching as she smiled. "I think we need to have a daily list of things that need doing. And I had a look through your doctors notes and I've written down a schedule of sorts for today." Sweets nodded, fascinated by how fast she was to get down to business.
"How comfortable would you be with having a shower?"
"I don't mind the idea of being clean." Sweets said, the idea of a shower sounding fantastic.
"I'm going to need to help you." She said carefully and Sweets realised where this was going and it was his turn to turn a bright shade of red. "Of course if you have some togs, it'll work and I can help you with everything else."
"Togs?" That word caught him off guard. What the hell are togs? Isabelle blinked a couple of times as her brain tried to click.
"Wha- oh sorry. Swimming trunks? Swimsuit? But shorts?" Sweets clicked what she was trying to say.
"Right! Yes. Togs are what you New Zealanders call a swimsuit! That's really weird."
"It's not weird. It's just what they are."
"But how does the word 'togs' correlate with swimming?" Isabelle opened her mouth to say something but stopped and her brow furrowed as she thought of something to say back. Sweets watched her face morph from one expression to another.
"I... I decline to answer that. For secret reasons." A smile formed on his face and he laughed at Isabelle's face, morphed into an expression of pure indignation and cheekiness. "I can however tell you that the dot over the letter j and i is called a tittle?" She grinned as he laughed more but was clutching his side in pain briefly after.
"No more, please. It hurts." He gasped. Isabelle looked at her watch and grabbed a glass of water a a little container tht had pain relief in it, as well as some other pills. He took them willingly and allowed the straw to be placed in his mouth for him to swallow.
"That was some antibiotics as well." She said as she took the glass back and sat back down. Sweets grimaced and sighed.
"Right, okay so after shower, what do we need to do?" Isabelle went straight back to her list and rattled things off. Sweets listened and nodded. "But, food first, right?" Isabelle smiled.
"Of course. But it's liquids only so I'll go make some soup up for you. Hannah got some for you." She pushed herself up and made her way to the kitchen, pushing her hair over her shoulder and busied herself with making up something for him to eat