Chapter Text
“Bren,” Booth spoke groggily, his throat scratchy, “What happened?”
“Your surgery went well, but” Brennan’s voice tightened with emotion, “you had a bad reaction to the anesthesia. You’ve been in a coma for four days.”
Booth looked in confusion at her and she felt the need to escape. She had already pressed the call button when Booth had begun to rouse, “Let me get the doctor.”
She escaped into the hallway. It was illogical. Brennan knew that the nurse could get the doctor just fine, but she needed to move, to breathe outside of that room for just a moment.
“Doctor,” Brennan flagged down the on-call doctor as he exited another room, “Booth is awake.” The doctor hurried ahead of Brennan to the room.
As the doctor entered the room where a nurse was currently taking Booth’s vitals, Brennan stayed outside for a moment. Logically she had known it was likely only a matter of time before Booth had awoken. However, the slightly more illogical part of her had been worried. She felt herself take a deep breath. The tension that had been sitting in her chest since Booth had told her he’d been talking to an animated baby in the interrogation room finally loosened.
She pressed her emotions back down and entered the room as the doctor was speaking. “Agent Booth, what is the last thing you can remember?”
“Agent…what—“Booth looked toward Brennan in confusion for a moment before responding.
“Bren and I were in the office,” he smiled tenderly at her, “She’d just given me some really good news and then…I woke up here.”
“No, that is not accurate, that is a scene from the book I was reading to you.”
“What? So there wasn’t a murder at the club and my brother wasn’t arrested? It was all just a dream?”
Before Brennan could open her mouth to explain, the doctor interrupted her. “Some confusion after a situation like yours is hardly unusual. We’re going to have you sleep some more and once you wake again, we’ll see if we can’t clear up whatever confusion is left.” The doctor turned to Temperance, “May I speak with you outside?”
“Yes, certainly.”
“Bren, you’re coming back right?”
“Of course, Booth.” Brennan was still thrown by this new nickname, but she would never abandon Booth.
“May I ask, what were you reading to Agent Booth?”
“I was working on my newest manuscript and found myself disliking it. Everyone told me to talk to him, that he might be able to hear me, so I began reading parts to him aloud to workshop my thoughts. I had given up and deleted it moments before Booth awoke.”
“And what he described was the accurate last scene in the book?”
“Yes, basically. The characters names were not our names, but…yes.”
“Agent Booth’s brain has suffered severe trauma. Some confusion is not unusual. I would guess it won’t last more than a day or two. Then, he should be right as rain. If he is still confused next time we wake him, we will evaluate where to begin. I will call the hospital psychologist to be on standby should we need him.”
“The FBI has a psychologist that works with us and has treated Booth on a number of occasions.”
“Is Agent Booth prone to delusions or amnesia?”
“No, Dr. Sweets works with us as a profiler and an observer. Dr. Gordon Wyatt might be a good choice as well. He has worked with Booth in the past after he discharged a firearm at an ice cream van.”
The doctor’s face became a bit alarmed.
“Oh, no one was injured or anything," Brennan reassured the doctor.
“If one of those men is available, that would be appreciated.”
Brennan pulled out her phone and began to call Sweets. “Dr. Sweets is supposed to be here in an hour to sit with Booth anyway. Is that soon enough or should he be here earlier?”
“An hour or two should be plenty of time. We’ll need to get his vitals again in a couple of hours and we’ll see how to proceed from there. I would say that for the moment until we have assessed his mental state, don’t correct him on the conditions of his life.”
Brennan relayed the situation to Sweets and then made her way back to Booth’s room. He was still barely awake.
“Hey, babe,” he held a hand out to her. “I know I probably scared you. Sorry,” his words were slurring and his eyes were clearly trying to close, yet he was intent on making sure that Temperance was okay. She smiled and took his hand.
“It’s fine. Get some rest.” A soft smile stole over his face as unconsciousness claimed him. He was going to be fine. He’d wake up and everything would be normal.
Brennan didn’t let his hand go until Sweets entered the room an hour later.