Twisting her red hair into a tight bun was more of a mission than Isabelle Montgomery had ever remembered. Whether it was because she hadn't bothered to tie if up the night before or it was just in a bad mood, it took longer than expected to get it tied up and out of her face.

"I'm telling you, Mel. This is getting ridiculous." She yelled to her flatmate, Mel, who was busy pouring their coffees into thermos's so that they could head to work.

"I did tell you, Belle. Munroe doesn't listen to anyone but his own dickish opinions. Just be glad that you got that opportunity to not be around him." Mel came down the hall and passed Isabelle her coffee just as she managed to get it into a messy bun, frustration written on her face. She took the coffee gratefully though and sipped it carefully, her features relaxing as the caffeine hit her tongue.

"You make good coffee."
"I know. Now come on. We have to go." Isabelle took one last look in the mirror, checking for smears of her makeup and to ensure that her hair was going to stay in place. Following Mel to the car, the young woman made sure they door of their flat was locked before plopping herself in the passengers seat and sighed.

"I'm so happy that Munroe will FINALLY be out of my hair." Isabelle commented as Mel started the car. Her best friend snorted.

"I don't think Munroe ever wanted to leave." Isabelle growled. They were talking about her ex, one of the doctors who had recently been transferred to the emergency room. After they had broken up. And now, where ever Isabelle turned, he was there. Flirting with a nurse, flirting with a doctor, flirting with the damn water cooler...

"Can we just not talk about Munroe until AFTER he tries to hit on Mabel?" Mabel was the charge nurse and in her late sixties. She was a terrifying woman who had a soft spot for ONLY the nurses on her ward. The doctors found her to be a force to be reckoned with and no one had tried quiet yet to tempt the storm.

"Fine. Lets talk about that patient that came in just as you came on shift." Mel turned onto the highway and Isabelle sighed.

"Gun shot to the abdomen. It's an actual wonder he's alive, aye. His family is worried sick. I was really worried that the blonde girl was going to go into labour, she was so stressed."
"Mhmm. Fortunately she didn't." Isabelle nodded and sipped her coffee, thinking about the day before when she had talked to her patients family. She had recognized them, at least three of them, from the papers and the news.

Doctor Temperance Brennan, Agent Seeley Booth and his wife Agent Hannah Booth, nee Price. Famous for the cases they had solved the trouble they had gotten into, Isabelle was surprised she hadn't seen them at the  hospital since arriving to America three years ago.

Originally from New Zealand, the twenty nine year old nurse had come to explore the world and meet new people. She had graduated from her studies and worked hard and worked well, saving her pennies, paying of her loans and getting out of her home town.

"Belle? Isaaaaabeeeelle. Earth to Izzy." Mel, who Isabelle hadn't realised was talking, nudged her arm for attention. "Did you even hear me?"
"Sorry, I was thinking."
"No kidding." Mel snorted. "Like I was saying before I realised you were in lala land, we really need to arrange a girl's night." Isabelle perked at the sound of that.

"100 percent. Yes please. Me, you, Danika, Macy, Lyds and Chris Hemsworth." Mel laughed.

"I was thinking Channing Tatum." Isabelle pulled a face. "What is it that you have against the Tatum?!"
"The fact that you call him 'The Tatum' is one thing." Mel groaned and it was Isabelle's turn to laugh.

Mel was good like that. Distracting Isabelle from her thoughts which were often known to spiral. Isabelle didn't see it as spiraling, she just thought of it as thinking really fast but Mel had adapted to her friends thought patterns. They were quite a pair.

*********

"Yo, don't forget to clock in this time." Mel reminded Isabelle in the locker rooms. Isabelle chuckled as she grabbed her pens to line around her pocket nicely and she folded her stethoscope nicely into her other pocket.

"What would I do without you, Mel?"
"Probably not get paid." Isabelle pulled a face as she pressed her thumb to the machine that registered her print and let her clock in.  With one final check in the mirror to ensure her hairs safety in its bun, she followed Mel out into the ER and into the nurses station. Inside, nurses were a buzz with handover and Mabel was in her office, finishing up for the day.

"Izzy! I gotta hand over Doctor Lance Sweets to you." Danika Camille flagged Isabelle down.

"Cool cool cool. Who else do I... Why am I only assigned to Sweets?" She was checking over the board for her name, seeing which patients were assigned to her. L Sweets was the only name hers was written beside and in brackets next to their names was (ICU Transfer).

"The family, or more specifically, Mr and Mrs Booth have requested you take care of him. They took a real shine to ya last night." Isabelles eyebrows almost disappeared into her forehead.

"And why is he still in ER? He should've fine to ICU after-"
"Emergency surgery? Ya, I know that. Mabel knows that. Heck, even ya boy Munroe knows that but after that surgery, ICU called and said they'd only have a space tonight. Now, will ya let me hand him over to ya so that I can leave?" The look on Danikas face was so serious that Isabelle gave a light laugh and nodded, preparing her own to write down the notes beside Sweets name.

When Dankia finsihed the hand over, Isabelle looked almost like she had run a mile. Which she hadn't done. Since primary school.

She wasn't an athlete.

"That poor man, good grief."
"I know, right. And Mrs Booth... Hannah, that's what we need to call her, is looking a bit peaky herself so I been making sure she eats something. Her hubby tried to make her go home but man, maybe we should arrange some counselling for her? I dunno. You're call. They like you for some reason." Isabelle nodded and her spirits lifted a little. If she could help her patient and help his friends, the better the care provided.

"I'll make some arrangements. I'll call Kelsey and see if she has any space to come see her." She made an additional note about that then turned to Danika. "But now you can go home." Danika smiled and hugged her friend.

"Have a good shift! Try not to kill anyone."
"No promises!"
"Byeee!" Wheeling herself across the room to an open computer, Isabelle logged in and clicked the link that directed her to Sweets observations. Marking them down, she steadied herself for a long shift, knowing her transfer to ICU was not going to be taken well by some of the nurses up there. But what a high profile patients family (friends) want, they get. Especially when they are the law.

Making her way to the patients room, Isabelle stopped just outside the door to sanitise her hands and pull some gloves on. Knocking with an ungloved hand, she smiled as she pushed the door open with her hip.

"Hiya." Booth and Hannah were sitting quietly, side by side when Isabelle walked in. Hannah was absent mindedly stroking her belly and Booth was staring at his friends tubes. They both looked at her and Hannah faintly smiled.

"Isabelle. Hi." Isabelle swelled with pride when Hannah greeted her by name.

"How are we all doing today?" The emphasis on all left no room for them to not answer. Hannah shrugged.

"We're alright. How are you? How is he?" Booth asked, his voice etched with concern and exhaustion. Upon closer examination, Isabelle could see the dark rings under his eyes. Hannah looked a little less exhausted but she was still tired looking.

"I'm fine, thank you. And your friend here, is still stable, which is good." Isabelle knelt to check on one of the drains and pulled a face when she saw how full it was. The fact that a lot of fluid was draining from his lungs was to be expected but from Danikas handover, the drain had been changed three hours ago and looked like it needing to be changed again.

"That's good. Stable is good." Isabelle nodded as she stood up and grabbed the seat behind her and gently pulled it forward so that she was sitting by Sweets and face to face with the Booths. She pulled off her gloves and put them in the bin before pulling out a pen and smiled gently.

"Now. I've been informed that you've requested me as his regular nurse." This was a statement that Booth nodded to. Hannah was listening but showed no plans in responding. Isabelle took this as a sign to continue.

"Because of this, and I'm perfectly happy to do so, I have a couple of things I want to discuss with you. In terms of both of Doctor Sweets's care and your care." Hannah and Booth both looked at Isabelle like she had talked out of her ear.

"Our care?"
"Mrs Boot- Hannah, how pregnant are you?"
"I'm eight months." Isabelle nodded.

"I don't know the full story behind all of this," she motioned towards the tubes and comatose patient, "But it's taken a toll on you. I have a friend here in the hospital who deals in PTSD and stress. She's a qualified midwife as well and, if you're willing, I think you would really benefit from talking to her." Hannah looked at her husband who raised an eyebrow back, the two of them having some sort of mental conversation. The blonde looked at Sweets and nodded.

"That... That would be nice, thank you." Isabelle nodded and made a note on her paper.

"I can arrange for her to come see you after we transfer Doctor Sweets to ICU. The next thing you both need to do is go home and get some sleep." Booth chuckled.

"I'm not sure thats possible."
"It'll have to be. You can't care for your friend if you aren't caring for yourself, Agent Booth. I learned that the hard way." He smiled and nodded.

"So, in terms of Sweets' care..?"
"Ah yes, it's going to be a long process." Isabelle began to explain the process of what would have to happen, basing it off the notes she had been given.

*********

Munroe Darling was standing outside the woman's bathroom door when Isabelle came out, her heart leaping into her throat as she jumped in fright.

"Don't do that, Munroe. You don't know what reflexes I have stored in the deep recesses of my muscles memory." Munroe snorted and leaned against the wall, hands on his pockets as he shook his head at her.

Man, he was one mighty fine looking guy. Unfortunately, beauty was only skin deep and he was more of an ass than some of the backsides Isabelle had cleaned.
Sharp blue eyes, hint of the 5 o'clock stubble, dark blonde hair that seemed to do the superman curl all on its own, tall (so tall)... Isabelle was glad that she had gotten him out of her system.

"Just wanted to check in with you, Belle. Haven't spoken to you in a while." He followed her, speeding up so that he was walking beside the shorter woman, ignoring the fact that she was trying to speed up to get away from him.

"There's a pretty good reason for that, Munroe. I've been busy."
"And you're avoiding me."
"I can't avoid you when you're following me, can I?" She shot back as she turned into the nursing station. He grabbed her arm just before she could swipe her card to get in.

"You can't avoid me for ever, Isabelle."
"I'm not avoiding you. I'm just strategically working in areas you are not." She smiled and pulled her arm free and let herself into the safety of her office area. Mel was already sitting in there, retying her blonde hair into a braid, waiting for Isabelle to come in so that they could prepare Sweets and her transfer down to ICU.

"You okay? Want me to punch him? You a nurse in distress?" Isabelle scoffed.

"I'm a nurse, I'm in distress, I've got it under control."
"Whatever, Megara. I'll still punch him."
"Excuse me, my hips aren't pointy." Mel laughed as Isabelle put her hands on her hips and purposefully tried to lean to oneside, her hip sticking out an awkward angle.

"You watch waaaay too much Disney, girl."
"You let me." Mel poked her tongue out at Isabelle before pushing a chair over to her and motioning towards the work that needed to be done.