It became regular routine for Isabelle to turn up at 6am and leave at 7pm from Sweets place on a daily basis. She never felt tired when she arrived or when she left, the day was easier than any day she had done in a hospital. And she didn't mind Sweets for company. He was sweet and didn't care that she made bad jokes.

And they had gotten around the awkwardness of the whole showering situation quickly, Sweets capable of both getting his underwear on but needed help from there on.

For two weeks, everything went smoothly. Hannah called regularly, striking up a friendship with the nurse quickly. When she did come around to the flat, she usually came with Dr Brennan, Gus (Brennan's husband and Hannah's brother) and their or with Angela and her son. Isabelle had quickly become attuned to Sweets needs (which had surprised her but she guessed it had something to do with the fact that it was one on one care) and knew when he needed to rest. And nobody minded when she gave them the boot, everyone could see that Sweets didn't mind it either. Hannah and Angela had both grinned mischievously at each other when they left one day and Isabelle had caught in and frowned as the door closed.

"You have some crazy friends."
"They are the best." Sweets sighed happily as he shuffled around the kitchen table and went down the hall, heading for the bathroom. She tided up the coffee table and checked her timetable. Tomorrow, she would be taking out his stitches.

"I don't feel like sleeping." Sweets said as he came back in and sat down on the couch. Isabelle moved so she was sitting beside him, her leg tucked under her as she watched him turn to face her.

"Then what do you want to do?"
"Let's tell each other fun facts." He stated loudly, happy with his answer. Isabelle narrowed her eyes as she thought.

"Fun facts as in just random facts or fun facts about ourselves?"
"Both. I want to know more about you and also it would be amusing to see what useless information we have stored in our brains." Isabelle laughed.

"Okie dokie, my dude. I'll go first. Fun fact, we kiwis call the bush area people go hiking in, the wop-wops." Sweets pulled a face.

"The wop-wops?" Isabelle couldn't stop a giggle at how strange the words sounded coming from his mouth."

"Yep! Your turn."
"You 'Kiwis' are weird. But okay, fun fact.... Did you know that the day after tomorrow is called overmorrow?"
"Really?" Sweets nodded. "Huh." Isabelle pulled her legs up to her her and rested her head on her chin as she thought.

"Okay so fun fact, the cry of a newborn baby is called a vagitus." The caused a full blown, boyish giggle to erupt from Sweets which was contagious, causing Isabelle to join in.

"Vagitus... Who comes up with these words?" He said through laughs. Isabelle shrugged as she calmed down. "Why can't people name things normally?"
"As we are both medical professionals, we should both know why." Sweets looked at her and they both burst into another fit of laughter.

"Oh boy. Okay, fun fact, I'm really happy that you've been here to help me get better." Sweets grinned and Isabelle rolled her eyes.

"Cheeseball." She laughed. Sweets shrugged, a smile on his face.

Before anyone could say anything else, the sound of a phone ringing interrupted. Isabelle pulled her phone out of her pocket and frowned.

"Mel? What's up?" Sweets watched as Isabelle's face morphed from one of confusion to one of concern. "Wait, hold up... Mel, slow down!" Isabelle gave an exasperated sigh and Sweets watched as she rubbed her temples.

"WHAT?!" Sweets jumped when Isabelle exclaimed that and she hung up.

"Everything okay?"
"I have to go. I won't be long but I need to go pull a knife out of my friends leg." Sweets eyes widened as Isabelle started dialing another number.

"How did she..?"
"I have no idea." She groaned as nobody picked up. Sweets put out a hand and gently stopped her from calling anyone else.

"Go."
"But I need to call-"
"I'm going to have a nap here on the couch. By the time you get back, I'll be ready for you to boss me around again. Which I'll know you do." The sweetness and sincerity on his face went straight to her heart and Isabelle swore she would have kissed him in thanks.

"I won't be long." She said as she wiped the thought. "I'll be back within... Two hours."
"I promise I will be right here." Isabelle bit her lip. "Go!"
"Right!"

Isabelle grabbed her handbag and keys and dashed out the front door. Sweets watched her go and sighed. It was oddly empty without her there.
Grabbing the blanket that was over the edge of the couch, he moved and lay down on his good side and sighed.

**********

"Mel?!" Isabelle burst into her flat she shared with Mel and let the door slam beside her.

"In my room! Bring the first aid kit." Isabelle rushed towards the bathroom and then entered Mel's room, dropping her handbag in the floor at the door as she saw her friend sitting on the floor, her hands pressed to the wound on her upper thigh where the craft knife was sticking out of her leg. Isabelle sat on the floor, almost collapsing her knees under her as she glowered at Mel.

"Seriously? Today? Really?!"
"Well I didn't mean to stab myself. It was a pure accident." Mel's dark face was unusually pale, the blood drained from her face. The carpet below her leg was soaked with blood but the bleeding had appeared to stop. Isabelle opened up the first aid kit and pulled on a pair of gloves and shook her head.

"Why didn't you call an ambulance?"
"I am NOT paying for that fee. Are you crazy?" Isabelle snorted and grabbed the tourniquet from the kit and shuffled closer to Mel and slipped her hands around her leg and tied off the tourniquet. Mel moved her hands and then wiped her hands on her bloodied top so that she could help Isabelle.

"Okay, I'm going to pull the knife out and you're going to put the gauze on it until I can press down for you." Mel nodded and took the gauze from her.

"Ready?"
"Don't count to three, okay? Just say three." Isabelle's eyes were bright, reflecting her worry at the idea of causing her friend more pain.

"Okay. Three!" She pulled the knife out and Mel pressed down the gauze onto the wound and groaned in pain. Isabelle took over applying pressure and Mel let go and lay back, hands over her face as she whimpered at the pain.

"Well, the good news is I have stitches here." Isabelle said, somewhere through Mel's pain.
"The bad news is that I need to take you to the doctors so you can get a tetanus injection." She lifted the gauze to see that the bleeding had slowed. Replacing it, she carefully, with one hand, undid the tourniquet. She knew she was causing Mel more pain with the pressure she was applying but she hadn't exactly had time to give her pain meds.

"Is it over yet?" Mel asked behind her hands.

"Almost. I'm going to clean it with some alcohol and then I'm going to stitch it up." Mel nodded. "Do you want some pain relief?"
"Nope, just get it done."
"Yes ma'am." Isabelle rolled her eyes and lifted the gauze again, relieved that Mel's leg wasn't bleeding profusely. Swapping out her gloves, she got to work cleaning and stitching  the wound. Mel's leg was tense as she did so but she managed to keep from crying too much as the needle went in and out of her skin.

"Aaaand done. Good grief woman, what where you doing?!" Mel sat up and Isabelle could see her gritting her teeth and her eyes were glittering with tears.

"I was trying to make that shoe box holder thing out of banana boxes." She pointed to behind Isabelle and she turned and sighed, having completely missed the boxes.

"You're an egg."
"I know. Thanks for coming home so quickly, by the way." Isabelle shucked off the gloves and squeezed her friends hand.

"No problem."
"I really appreciate you leaving your Mr Cute patient for me." Isabelle shot daggers at Mel, who managed a pain grin. "What? He is cute. And he's your patient."
"And that's what we call a misuse of power." Isabelle rolled her eyes and gently moved her Mel's leg and got up and pulled the rubbish together to put it in the bin.

"Well, I'm just glad you're not sulking around here anymore!" Mel yelled as Isabelle dumped the stuff in the bathroom bin. She came back into the room and saw Mel sitting on the bed with her phone to her ear.

"Hey Mabel, it's Mel. Just letting you know I won't be in today.... Yeah... Okay cool... Nah, I just managed to stab myself in the leg with a craft knife... Izzy did it up... Yeah I will. Thanks Mabel, I'll see you next week." She hung up and sighed. She grabbed some painkillers from her bedside table and downed them and looked at Isabelle.

"Do I have to go to the doctors?"
"Yep." Isabelle packed away the first aid kit. She looked at her watch and knew she had about half an hour before Sweets would need more painkillers. Mel saw the small movement and smiled. Isabelle's inner clock was pretty tuned to what her patients needed. It was a shame Munroe had gotten her fired. Mel would sure like to stick a first hot poker somewhere real-

"I'll call Danika and get her to take me. You go back to work. If you can even call it that." She was already pressing on Danika's name in her phone when Isabelle went to argue.

"I'll see you when you get home." She sung, a pained grin on her face again. Isabelle rolled her eyes and got up from her kneeling position. She wrapped her arms around Mel's shoulders and squeezed.

"Hey Danika! I need a favor." She waved Isabelle off and she obeyed, picking up her handbag as she left.

********

Sweets was fast asleep when Isabelle arrived back at his flat and she smiled as he snored softly. She closed the door behind her and walked over to him, placed a hand on his forehead and was relieved to feel that he was burning up, something she worried about regularly with the amount of wounds he had healing.

Sighing happily, she turned around and went into the kitchen and started making coffee. Taking her coffee back to the lounge she sat down and turned to see Sweets looking at her, half awake and with a faint smile on his face.

"Go back to sleep." She whispered. He nodded and yawned, his eyes closing again.

"Thanks for coming back." He said before he fell back into sleep.