Hannah and Booth were the only ones at Sweets bedside when things started to change.

"Do you think he'll forgive me? For being in the field when I shouldn't have been?" Hannah asked Booth quietly. Her husband wrapped an arm around her and kissed her forehead.

"Sweets would never hate you, my love. He's probably forgiven you already." Hannah slipped a hand into Sweets one and squeezed.

"I hope you're right because I wouldn't be able to live with myself if he hated me. Or if he died." Booth closed his eyes and pulled Hannah closer to him listened to the beeping of Sweets heart monitor.

"Everythings going to be fine, Han. I know it will. I have faith in that fact that everything will be fine." She nodded and watches Sweets face and chest as the ventilator pushed air into his lungs.

"I hate that thing."
"What?"
"The ventilator." Booth watched it as well and grimaced.

"Doesn't bring back good memories, does it?" Hannah shook her head. She went to pull her hand away from Sweets so that she could rub her swollen belly but was shocked to find that she couldn't.

"Booth."
"Hmm?"
"Sweets is squeezing my hand." There was a pause and a slight shift as Booth leaned forward to look at Sweets hand. It was indeed, tightened around Hannahs. The look of shock ok both their faces was impressive.

"Call the nurse."
"Oh yeah. NURSE!"

****************

She slept for a solid ten hours after talking to her parents. Isabelle had been absolutely knackered and was grateful that when she woke up, the sun was still shining through the window, warming her legs as she stretched.

Sitting up, she blinked sleep from her eyes as she shuffled to the end of her bed so that she could grab a pair of shorts and a singlet from her draws. Dressing herself slowly, she shook some feeling into her legs and yawned before flopping back down on the bed.

Pushing her hair out of her face, Isabelle grabbed her phone and turned the screen on, dimming the light down so that it wasn't too bright. To her surprise, there was a number of missed calls from the hospital that she was not expecting.

But that's the point of missed calls, right? Totally unexpected and unwanted.

With a sigh, Isabelle listened to her voicemail, resting her head on her hand as she listened to it.

"Hey Isabelle, it's Micheal. Just letting you know that your patient, Lance Sweets, is in the process of waking up. The doctors are going to pull him out of the induced coma because he's waking up despite it being in place. Doc Walkin wants to talk to you about your plan etc. so just call back, okay? Thanks." Isabelle's eyes widened. Her phone beeped as it began to play the next message.

"Hi Isabelle, it's Walkin here. I know Michael called you but we really need to discuss with you your plan for this patients care. Please call us back as soon as you can."  That message was timed at three hours ago. It was now five thirty in the evening and the probability of Walkin and co being there were slim. Isabelle went to leave her voicemail but another message started playing.

"Hey Belle, it's Munroe-" Isabelle pressed the button that would immediately delete the message, her tolerance for idiots so late in the afternoon was at an all time low.

"Isabelle, you up?" Mels voice came through the house. Isabelle made a grunting noise loud enough for her to hear and started dialing the hospitals number. Pushing her hair behind her ear, she waved Mel into the room as she dialed the wards extension number.

"Sleep well?"
"10 hours of sleep definitely helped but- Hey Danny, it's Isabelle... Yeah, is Walkin around still? He is? Can you tell him I'm returning his call? Oh you will? Yeah, I won't hang up.... No I swear I won't like last time.... Thanks Danny." Isabelle turned to Mel.

"I still need more sleep, like I need a nap from sleeping." Mel snorted.

"I gotchu girl. Anyway, how was night shift?"
"Average. I learned how to make an origami crane. And Sweets slept through the whole thing, how rude." Isabelle joked. "How was day shift?"
"We had SCU come in with a guy who ended up losing his leg. He had his daughter in the car with him and phewie, he was lucky all the poor thing got was a concussion." The two pulled faces. "Why you waiting for Doc Walkin?"
"Sweets seems to be waking up from his coma preemptively so they want to bring him out. They need my opinion." Mel's eyebrows almost disappeared into her hairline.

"A doctor wanting a nurses opinion? Well may I be struck down and sent to the Cheesecake Factory, I never thought I'd see the day." Isabelle shushed her with a grin as she heard the phone be picked up.

"Doctor Adriaan Walkin here." Walkins gravelly voice came through the speaker.

"Hey Dr Walkin, it's Isabelle Montgomery, Lance Sweets nurse. I got the message to call and did so as quickly as possibly could. What can I do you for?" Most of the older doctors, such as Walkin, weren't quite as familiar with Isabelle's casual sense of communication. Coming from New Zealand, the casual sense of talk was something Isabelle was used to and hearing how some of the Americans talk was just as much of a shock to the system as it was for them.

"Ahem, yes. Would you possibly be able to come back in to the unit so we can discuss the cares for Mr Sweets-"
"Doctor."
"Yes?"
"No, he's Dr Sweets, not Mr Sweets." She could've sworn she could hear him roll his eyes through the phone.

"Dr Sweets and also the after cares. He's becoming more responsive to touch, light and sound and after much discussion, I would like to bring him out of the coma within the hour." Isabelle couldn't help the groan. It would take her at least an hour to get to the hospital.

"Is there an issue, Miss Montgomery?"
"No... I can be there in an hour but traffic is going to be an absolute killer."
"Then we will see you when you get here." He hung up.

"You got to be kidding me." She dropped the phone on to the bed. Mel, who had heard most of the conversation through the phone, was already grabbing Isabelle's shoes from the wardrobe.

"This is ludicrous. I just hope he waits for me to get there before waking him up..."
"And that the family is there. They'll be sure glad to see you." Isabelle scooped her hair into a ponytail. "But this is no time for discussion. You gotta go!"

Putting the jandels on, Isabelle grabbed her car keys and made for the door.

"I'll put some food in the microwave for ya, girl. Hope it all goes well."
"You're the best, Mel."
"I know. Now go." With that, Isabelle rushed out, thinking only of what she had to do.

**************

An hour later, Isabelle rushed through the hospital, looking more like a distraught family member than a nurse who had been given no time to turn up in proper attire. Dressed in her shorts, singlet and jandels, she got more judgey looks than a patent girl when she burst into the nursing station in the ICU, her face flushed from running. Walkin and his team of doctors, the physios, an occupational therapist and  three nurses all looked at her in surprise and Danny, the junior nurse who had answered the phone, almost choked on his tongue as her dishevelled looks.

"Look, I know I look like I just fell outta the wop-wops but I assure you, given the time limit I could not have done better." Walkin raised a fluffy white eyebrow but motioned her over.

"This is Nurse Montgomery, the primary nurse for Dr Sweets as requested by the attending friends and family of the patient. She will be here to aid us with both the patient and the family." Isabelle nodded and winked at the two student doctors who were slightly gaping at her. Both of them blushed and turned their attention to Walkin. "Do you have anything you want to say, Miss Montgomery?" She nodded.

"Yeah nah, um, Dr Sweets has always been very responsive in the cares provided to him in the sense that nothing has ever been elevated to a range that is concerning. His vitals have always been a 2 on the warning score due to the need for oxygen on 2 litres but he has otherwise been quite stable post surgery. His chest drains have been draining well and have only been needing the be changed be changed once a day. It's still pulling out blood but its clearing up on his left drain." The younger doctors all scribbled down notes as she talked. Walkin nodded.

"We've come to the conclusion that waking him up would be a suitable option for the moment being. The wound is healing well?"
"Yes. Dressings are being changed once daily with only a little bit of exudate but the stitches are holding nicely. An x-ray done yesterday showed some internal healing so it's coming along pretty good." Walkin nodded.

"So what we are going to do now is prepare the patient and the family for him to be awakened. Sachin, I'll need to you explain to the family what this will look like. Don't mention to much about discharge just yet because we don't know how well this is going to go." The younger doctor nodded.

"I'll go with him to see the family if you'd like. Then I'll come and assist."
"Thank you, Miss Montgomery. If you could get that done now, we will have need of you in ten minutes." She nodded and followed Sachin out of the room.

"Are they nice?"
"Lovely. Some of them may be quite forward with you but just take your time, doc. They know me so it might make it easier." He nodded and took a deep breath. "First time?" He nodded. "You'll do great."

The two of the walked into the room that and been set aside for the people costing Sweets. Isabelle was surprised to see how many people were actually in the room.

"Wow, who gave birth and had all of you?" She said, eliciting a laugh from a majority of the inhabitants.

"These are some of our friends, all here for him." Hannah stood up so that she was looking at Isabelle. Not quite eye level for the blonde woman stood taller but still. "And thats my idiot of a brother standing with my niece in a headlock." Her voice was lighter than the last time Isabelle had seen her. She smiled at Hannah and squeezed her arm before helping her sit down.

Isabelle introduced herself and Sachin to the newcomers who in return, introduced themselves. There was Angela and Jack with their child, Michael-Vincent, the man with his daughter in a headlock was Gus, Dr Brennan's husband and their  daughter was Christine. Beside Dr Brennan was their other child, a sweet little boy called Jacob who had the cutest little curls on his head.

Beside them was Booth and Hannah, and the head of the Jeffersonian, Cam. Cam looked tired and had her ear to her phone, quietly talking to someone but from what Isabelle could tell, it was an urgent plea for someone to come. And then leaning against the wall, was Agent Aubrey, munching on a chocolate bar. She remembered him from the first day, only he hadn't been eating then.

"First off, what's with the slacks? I didn't realise nurses got causal Thursday." Booth joked. Isabelle pulled a face

"I was called here. With very little time to get changed so please, enjoy the pasty white view of my legs." She did a pose that got everyone smiling. "Now, Dr Sachin is going to explain everything that is going through everything for you guys. I'm going to be assisting in waking up Dr Sweets so if you have ANY questions, do not hesitate to ask Sachin. He's very capable." Brennan raised an eyebrow that Booth saw and shook his head. She deflated slightly but looked just as ready as ever to pounce with an unanswerable question. Patting him on the arm, Isabelle made to leave but was stopped by Hannah, who grabbed her hand gently.

"Thank you." She said quietly. She let Isabelle go with a gentle squeeze and Isabelle felt her heart tighten in her chest.

As she left, she murmured a small prayer under her breath, hoping that whatever they did next, would be good.

***************

There was movement around him. He didn't know what it was but there was something moving around him. And through his blanket wrapped brain, he could hear muffled voices taking over him. He wanted to open his eyes and see what was happening but it was like someone had cemented his eyes together.

Everything was so foggy. He didn't know what was happening. He wanted to know where he was, what was going on, where his friends were... Where that nice voice with the funny accent had gone. He wanted to be free.

Just as suddenly as he had thought that, he felt something slip into his hand and squeeze his fingers. The hand that squeezed his was funny feeling, like it was wearing a glove....

Glove. Who wears gloves? Brennan wears gloves. Booth does too. Hannah hasn't worn a glove in a while because she couldn't bend down far enough. So who was it?

Then the voice came again. The safe one. The one with the funny accent.

"Hey doc, it's me. I dunno if you can hear me but I reckon you can. It's time to wake up soon, okay? You're gonna feel weird and you're gonna feel less than a million bucks but trust me, you're gonna be fine. There are heaps of people who want to see you." Calm. He felt calm. She was calm. Her weird accent made things sound funny but it had a funny lilt to it that made it sound safe.

"It's going to take a few minutes before the doctors bring you up and out of the coma but I promise you, I'm not going anywhere." She squeezed his hand and he wanted to squeeze it back but he didn't know if he had the energy to do it.

He suddenly felt tired. So tired. He couldn't remember a time when he had felt so exhausted.

But at the same time as the tiredness hit, he had a surge of energy and then it felt like he was riding an elevator. It was slow at first but with every passing second, the feeling of going up got faster and faster until he felt like he was flying.

Isabelle continued to hold Sweets hand as the doctors did their jobs. She monitored his heart rate as all this was happening, making sure that the meds were making things worse.

As Sweets heart rate rocketed up to 150 beats per minute, Isabelle looked down in time to see his eyelids flutter, as though trying to open. Squeezing his hand again, she looked up to see his heart rate begin to decrease, another doctor also noting how his eyes were fighting to open.

"Dr Sweets, can you hear me?" Walkin was leaning over Sweets. Isabelle waited, watching. And then, a squeeze. Light, but firm. A smile jumped to her lips.

"He squeezed my hand, doc." Walkin nodded and smiled.

"Dr Sweets, I need you to open your eyes okay? Take your time." Almost as he said that, Sweets opened his eyes for the first time and Isabelle couldn't contain the grin that spread across her face.

Authors Note:

HI!
IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME!

how are we all? I'm so sorry for not updating but life got crazy and now we are here!

How are you all coping with the lockdowns? How are you feeling? Do you need a nap? Because I need a nap.

Ah, it's good to be back and with a long chapter too! I'll aim for a long next chapter and hopefully, fingers crossed, we'll get heaps of time together while my country is in a four week shut down with me having no classes, no lectures, no assignments.... I promise to treat y'all!

Please comment how y'all are doing because I love hearing from you!

Bree xx