The Deception by the Duck
A/N: Last night I watched the episode "The Pain in the Heart" in which Zack Addy is injured in service to Gormogon, Booth's faked death and funeral are staged as a covert operation to catch a reclusive criminal, and Sweets' dastardly experimenting with Brennan's emotions is revealed. That decision on his part is the root of my dislike for the character. This story is an attempt to understand his unfeeling subterfuge.
Chapter 1
Dr. Lance Sweets hung up the phone. He had received a call from Dr. Howard Fellenstern, the head of FBI Behavioral Analysis, discussing the list of people Special Agent Booth had requested the FBI notify that his death was a ruse to catch a crime boss from a past case. Because of the sensitive nature of the information, the list was to be couriered to Sweets later that afternoon.
When it arrived an hour later, he signed the delivery notice and tracking log, and thanked the courier. Closing his office door, Sweets opened the manila envelope and perused the list. He could have predicted each of the names: Rebecca, with the discretion left to her how best to inform young Parker, Booth's grandfather Hank, his brother Jared, if he could be contacted at sea, and Dr. Temperance Brennan.
The young psychologist read the list again, then turned to the credenza behind his desk. He glanced at the manuscript proposal of his book, recently returned from his publisher, who contended his case study of the FBI partners needed more in-depth evidence of how they worked together; what made them 'tick' and their partnership so successful. He rested his elbows on his desk and steeped his fingers, lost in thought.
How could he delve deeper into the unique connection he had witnessed between Booth and Brennan; a partnership of two people who'd face danger or death to protect one another, yet stoutly denied that their relationship went beyond the professional work they shared so ardently. The pair guarded their privacy like Dobermans, and the only clues Sweets gleaned were those which slipped out unintentionally or he perceived by pondering their behavior in his office during their FBI- mandated sessions.
Booth was perceptive enough to recognize Sweets' curiosity and skillfully concealed his feelings. Brennan's protective shell of rationality forged during abusive foster experiences was virtually opaque and impenetrable. How could he pierce the unemotional mask she presented to outsiders?
He puzzled and mulled this conundrum the rest of the afternoon and through the evening over his carryout meal of chicken parmigiana. As he washed his few dinner dishes, an idea struck him. What if Brennan didn't know about the FBI's ruse? How would she react to Booth's demise as a result of protecting her?
Would she experience guilt over his taking a bullet Pam Nunan had meant for her? Would her emotions cause a crack in the US Bullion Depository she'd put up around her heart? Or would she continue compartmentalizing this loss as she had her parents' disappearance and brother's abandonment years earlier? Sweets smiled to himself.
The insights he could gain from observing Temperance Brennan might possibly be so profound as to set his book apart from other recently-published psychoanalytic studies. The baby duck yawned, stretched, and headed to bed, pondering his plan as he dozed off.
Chapter 2
The next morning, Sweets unlocked his office door while balancing a cup of coffee and cream cheese bagel. Once seated at his desk, he paused briefly, pondering the ethics of what he planned to do; this experiment involving Dr. Brennan. Was it fair to cause the scientist that unnecessary pain? He considered this, wondering how much grief Temperance Brennan might feel, given her extraordinary talent for compartmentalizing her emotions?
He recalled that night at the Checkerbox Club. Her immediate reaction had been quite distraught, intense, and agonized as she yelled at her injured partner,
"Come on, Booth! You're gonna be fine! Come on, come on Booth!"
Yet, in the space of an instant, she'd had the presence of mind to pick up Booth's gun and fire a clean precise shot straight through Pam Nuna's throat with the coolness of a ninja. At the hospital she had vigorously protested not being allowed to see Booth's body.
But since then, the anthropologist had focused on bone identification in Limbo, showing little emotional response to her partner's absence from the lab. Although she was barred from examining Pam Nunan's bones, she'd interacted with Hodgins and Cam as usual with general suggestions regarding their findings.
The woman's autopsy, conducted at the FBI, was routine. Aside from her obesity, she was young, and the cause of her death was patently obvious to anyone who'd been at the karaoke club that night. The single shot, clean through her neck, had meant instant death. The bullet had been retrieved from the floor, and matched to Agent Booth's FBI standard-issue firearm.
It was a clear case of self-defense, as Ms. Nunan had been aiming at her perceived rival the entire time. Only Brennan's quick reflexes, excellent aim, and cool reaction had prevented her from becoming a second victim, bleeding on the floor beside Booth.
Sweets peppered Brennan with questions about her feelings during the four days following Booth's being shot. He came to her office with the pretense of needing a signature, accosted her in the Lab's lounge getting coffee, and just happened to encounter her in the Jeffersonian's elevator and parking garage. Brennan's responses were measured, low-key, and plain-spoken.
Booth's valor would be missed at the FBI, his fatherly warmth, guidance, and love would be missed by Parker, and his friendship would be missed by their team.
"But what about you, Dr. Brennan? How do you feel about Booth's passing?"
The fourth time Sweets approached her, Brennan looked him straight in the eye, and said tartly,
"Dr. Sweets, I've informed the FBI I don't wish to work with another partner, so my future activities will be focused on bone identification here at the Jeffersonian, study of ancient remains, and participation in anthropological dig expeditions I'm invited to join."
"My partner is dead, because of his misguided attempts to protect me, and my wishing for his return won't restore him to life. That is a fruitless endeavor and a waste of my energy. I will honor his memory best by continuing my work here."
"If Rebecca feels it's appropriate, I may keep in touch with Parker at a later date, and possibly with Booth's grandfather Hank, once their sorrow has eased."
"I would appreciate it if you would stop pestering me with repeated questions about my state of mind. Death is the permanent cessation of life; there is nothing beyond it, and no reason to dwell on the past. Now, if you will excuse me, I have bones to examine."
As she drew a deep breath and turned abruptly, he noticed dark smudges under her eyes, and her shoulders slumped slightly with a look of fatigue. Brennan walked resolutely past him and unceremoniously closed the door to her office.
Lance Sweets stared at the closed door in surprise. She had never dismissed him like that. A voice behind him interrupted his thoughts. Cam had quietly observed their exchange.
"Dr. Sweets, leave Dr. Brennan be. Why do you keep bothering her?"
"Uh, I'm not, Dr. Saroyan, just concerned that she might want to talk." How did the woman slip up behind him in her high heels so soundlessly? he wondered. That was a wicked effective ninja skill!
Cam's dismissal of him was definite and pointed.
"Lance, I think Dr. Brennan has made it abundantly clear that she doesn't wish to discuss Booth's death any further with you. We are all sad, but you poking at us accomplishes nothing! Why don't you go check on the FBI's progress on Pam Nunan's autopsy blood work results and email the results to me and Dr. Hodgins? We can't work on the case, but I'd like to know if she had ingested any drugs before confronting Brennan at the Checkerbox."
Chapter 3
The morning of Booth's funeral dawned sunny and warm. Brennan resolved to stay in the lab since she had no use for empty ceremonies conducted near a hole in the ground. She'd been talking to Booth in her head, despite her awareness that he no longer existed, though she'd never have admitted as much to any of her friends. She came up from Modular Bone Storage to refill her coffee cup, and encountered the entire contingent of her lab team, dressed and ready to depart for Arlington National Cemetery's chapel. Even Zack was wearing a tie. Their entreaties for her to accompany them fell on deaf ears. She had NO intention of wasting her day listening to useless blubbering and empty platitudes. Until….
Angela gently drew her aside and begged for her companionship at the funeral.
"I have to go to this, and I can't go alone! I need my best friend!" the artist declared, with tears in her eyes.
Remembering Angela's stark sorrow at losing her boyfriend Kirk in the desert, Brennan couldn't refuse her gentle-spirited, artistic soul, and relented with a deep sigh.
Once Caroline Julian stepped forward, briefly eulogizing Booth as she laid a rose on his casket, Brennan could not resist.
"I'd have been glad to take that bullet instead of Booth!" she fumed to Angela.
A man approached from behind the mourners, a rose in his hand as well.
The sergeant at arms crisply announced the rifle volley to honor Booth, the military team raised their weapons in unison to fire the first shot, and then chaos broke loose. One of the soldiers dove for the intruder, who wrestled with him rolling over the grass, bumping the flag-draped casket. It toppled off its stand, and fell open as it hit the ground, revealing a weighted dummy inside. As the stranger gained an advantage over the soldier, his cover fell off, revealing Seeley Booth.
Simultaneously frightened for her partner's safety and angered at his deception, Temperance Brennan picked up the dummy's leg, decked the assailant with one precise swing, then turned and socked Booth in the jaw; before stalking away from the gravesite in utter disgust.
Later at the lab, Booth demanded to know why she was so angry with him, and stared in disbelief at her incensed declaration that she had been told NOTHING about his death being staged. Over his protests that she had been on the list of people to be told of the covert operation, Brennan descended the steps into Bone Storage and closed the exam room door.
Chapter 4
The next morning, found Booth and Brennan still arguing about his responsibility to let her know he was alive. Their unexpected encounter in Booth's bathroom had been sufficiently heated that neither embarrassment nor apology had entered the conversation. Booth confronted Sweets regarding the catastrophic lapse in communications. The younger man declared he knew Dr. Brennan could compartmentalize, and it was rational to limit the number of people aware of the FBI ruse. He had therefore decided not to inform Brennan that Booth was alive. Dragging his young associate to her office, Booth demanded he explain to Brennan. The scientist accepted Sweets' explanation, and assured Booth it made total sense.
However…..
In the wake of Zack's and Hodgin's experiment gone wrong, and the intern's horrific injuries, Cam strode into Brennan's office, with a worried expression, in the midst of her conversation with Booth and Sweets. The Jeffersonian supervisor's serious countenance silenced them all.
"I think you need to come see something in the vault,"
The trio followed her down the stairs, Booth in the lead. As he descended out of earshot, Brennan paused on the landing, stopping Sweets in his tracks. She grabbed his lapels and nailed him with a no-holds-barred stare that could freeze boiling water in an instant. Her expression and tone of voice deadly serious, she issued a crystal clear ultimatum of warning to him in no uncertain terms.
"I know what you've been doing with us, and you better back off. We agreed to meet with you, for your book, but not to your experiments. Our relationship is ours, not yours to toy with. If it happens again, I will tell Booth, and he will beat you up! So stop it!"
Lance Sweets blanched, gulped in spite of himself, and held his breath until Brennan turned abruptly to follow Booth.
"Dr. Brennan is NOT a safe person to have mad at you!" he told himself. "Talk about an enraged lioness! Nothing escapes her notice. I guess I've overstepped my bounds. I will have to rethink my whole approach to this book."
Later that night, he opened the safe in his office, placed the book manuscript inside, and relocked the little vault. "I stepped on thin ice today; very thin ice, perhaps nearly broke my professional code of conduct." he muttered to himself. "I'm not even sure it's ethical to publish my theories on why they work so well together."