My Sunflower || Lance Sweets

Chapter Fifteen: Sharkbait Oh Ah Ah

"Okay but really? Finding Nemo?" Sweets was in the kitchen, his hair wet from a shower as Isabelle sat lazily in her armchair, the TV showing the brightly colored fish.

"Look, you wanted something different. And this is something different!"
"I didn't mean listening to my food talk!" He came out with two plates of the home-made fish and chips Isabelle had bought for their lunch and handed her a plate. She grinned cheesily from her seat. Oh how he would miss their daily interactions. And oh how little did he realise she would miss him too.

"Come on, Sweets. Your best mate just had two wee little babies and this movie is a great way to commemorate it!"
"Why? How?! Nemo's dad is left a widower and single father after his wife and how ever many children got murdered!" Isabelle shot him a dirty look as she sprinkled lemon juice on her fish and her chips.

"I mean, it's a kids movie and Hannah and Booth now have kids. Jeez man, you spend too much time around murdery things." She made the words 'murdery things' in a weird voice that made Sweets laugh. His pain meds were working better now and he was remembering to take them, thusly making simple tasks not sore.

Isabelle turned her attention back to the TV and ate her lunch, enjoying the movie as it played. Occasionally, she would look over at Sweets and could see he was intently watching his food as he slowly ate. Isabelle raised her eyebrow and reached for the DVD remote beside her and pressed paused.

"What's up, buttercup? You aren't even watching the movie." Sweets sighed and looked at her and she could see a sad look on his face.

"I'm going to miss you." He said simply and Isabelle's heart almost exploded in her chest. He looked like a sad puppy.

"Aww Sweets. I'm going to miss you too. I mean, I might miss this chair more than anything," she wriggled down into the chair. "But I'm going to miss you."
"Really?"
"Really." The corners of his lips tugged up.

"Well.... We are friends, right?"
"I just hope so. I've seen enough of you to be your friend." Sweets gave her a look and Isabelle grinned. He rolled his eyes.

"Does that mean we can still see each other?"
"Of course! Sweets, that's what friends do. We just won't see each other all the time. Because now I have to find another job."
"And you have Wendell."
"And I have Wendell." A dreamy kind of smile drifted onto her face. She blinked a couple of times and gave Sweets a goofy smile. "But you'll still see me. And trust me, I'll be checking on you. Because we are friends."
"Good." He took a bite of his fish and nodded his approval. "I hate fish." Isabelle laughed.

"Then why are you nodding?!"
"Because the batter tastes good." Isabelle groaned and pressed play on the remote, smiling as she did so.

An hour passed and Sweets took their dishes into the kitchen.

"I can see why you kept saying 'Sharkbait, oh ah ah.'"
"It's an addictive phrase!"
"Like hakuna matata?"
"Exactly! Thank you! Someone who gets it!"
"Ha. You should babysit more. Christine, Brennan and Gus's oldest secretly LOVES The Lion King. Brennan would kill me if she found out I let her watch it every time she was here buuuuut she's a bright kid." Isabelle laughed and Sweets made finger guns from the kitchen. "I learned how to get her to not talk about it to her mother."
"How?"
"Her father comes to pick her up and she talks to him for about forty five minutes."
"Genius!" Isabelle clapped as he walked back in, taking a small bow every few steps. "Okay, your turn to pick a movie and then we need to run through everything before I leave." Sweets nodded but there was a slight pang of sadness and anxiety that rang with those words.

Isabelle settled back into her chair, a pillow across her stomach as she watched Sweets settle on a movie. She wrinkled her nose.

"Dirty Dancing?"
"Got something against it, do ya?" He gave her a pointed look and she didn't say anything else. She just poked her tongue and watched the movie, dancing in her chair with the music.

She made a few comments throughout the film that had Sweets rolling his eyes with exasperation. Two of these was reoccurring. Deep down, he knew she was doing it on purpose but the two comments were hilarious for him to observe.

"Yoooo, that's Emily Gilmore!" She would exclaim again. Followed quickly by,

"I can 100% dance better than that." He always snorted at this.

"You're better than Patrick Swayze?" Silence.

"Probably not. But I mean, I could definitely try." She said after a minute of thinking. Sweets laughed and she shot him a dirty look. "I'll prove it to you one day, mark my words, Lance Sweets. You will rue the day you laughed at me."
"I feel like all I do is laugh at you." He tried to suppress the laughter but it didn't happen.

"Yeah yeah, whatever. When you laugh so hard you float up to the roof, you'll regret it."
"Okay, Mary Poppins." He grinned and she chucked a piece of popcorn at him, which he moved to catch in his mouth.

The movie ended as they had started a game of popcorn throwing. Sweets, surprisingly, had caught almost every piece of popcorn in his mouth. Whereas Isabelle had missed all but one piece of popcorn. The floor around her was covered with bits of stray popcorn.

"Damn, we missed the movie."
"Good, I didn't have to listen to you say 'oh I'm better than him' again." She poked her tongue out as another piece of popcorn came flying at her.

"You're cleaning this up."
"I'd expect nothing less." He looked at his watch. "Especially because it's time for you to go." Isabelle looked her her watch and her eyebrows almost shot into her hairline.

"Yikes." She uncurled her feet from the chair and stood up, stretching. She had to blink a couple of times.

"Oof, stood up too fast." She put her hand to her chest as she blinked. Sweets got up slower as she stood there.

"Are you done recalibrating yet?"
"I think I've had a full system reset, wowie. Time to get my iron levels checked." Sweets laughed. Isabelle shook her head and then her right leg and followed Sweets to the front door, where he handed her her handbag and coat. Isabelle stared at him for a moment before he wrapped his arms around her waist in a hug. She hugged him back tightly, quiet.

"Thank you. For keeping me alive." He said into her hair. He felt her shoulder move as she laughed.

"Just doing my job as your neighborhood friendly genie." He pulled away and gave her a grateful smile.

"I mean it. If you hadn't been my nurse-"
"You'd still be alive. Possibly have a better sense of humor..."
"Stop trying to be funny, Isabelle." He laughed. She shrugged and pulled a face.

"I can't help it. It's in my nature to be funny, second to being an absolute stunner of a nurse." She flipped her hair back and Sweets laughed.

Isabelle hugged him again, initiating the hug this time. She smiled.

"Thank you for becoming my friend." She said back and pulled away.

"Like I had a choice."
"There are always choices, Sweets. And the one you made to save Hannah's life has led to many decisions and choices that has brought us the beginning of a very bright future." Sweets smiled. "But maybe next time, hammer your finger or something, okay? Dying is just too much." They both laughed and Sweets opened the door for her.

"I'll keep that in mind."
"Great. I don't want to get a call from Hannah saying you've been stabbed so many times that we need to hold your stomach-"
"Yeah okay, you can go now." He started closing the door and Isabelle laughed.

"See you around, Sweets."
"Yeah, see you around, Isabelle." He closed the door as she walked away and he turned back to look in to his apartment, feeling very much like it was missing something vital.