AN: So, after some some difficulties uploading this, I'm glad to see the kinks were ironed out and people read it! Thanks a million to everyone who sent me messages about the story not working and to everyone who took the time to review this. It means a lot to me but even if people are just reading, I'm a happy camper!

Warning: This is probably my least favorite chapter and it definitely has the things that may push some away: Brennan vs. emotions. I did my best on how I think she may handle them and hopefully it is believable enough for everyone. Other than that, no real warnings. There's a spoiler from Mayhem on a Cross and... I don't think language is a problem. Finally, all mistakes are my own.

This picks up right where the last one left off which was the ambulance driving off with Sweets and Angela.

That is is! Enjoy!

Brennan watched as the ambulance disappeared into the night and subconsciously drew her coat around her tighter.

"Bones," Booth said suddenly as he grabbed her shoulders and made her face him, "Are you okay? Were you hurt at all?"

"No," she replied quickly, "No, I'm fine."

"You were held at gun point," Hodgins interjected, also observing her closely.

Brennan pulled away from Booth's grasp and took a deep breath, "I am well aware of the events that transpired here tonight but I assure you I am fine. I was only held for a matter of seconds before Sweets tackled him."

"Okay," Booth replied, though he continued to observe her almost suspiciously. "Well, let me go talk to the cop then I'll drive us to the hospital," Booth said as he began walking away, clearly in a hurry to get to the hospital.

"Can you believe it?" Hodgins said with a big sigh a moment after Booth walked away, "Sweets. Our little Sweets… A hero…"

"It is pretty amazing," Cam added quietly. "I mean, I've never seen him as a coward... He's just so young and… frail looking."

"On the contrary," Brennan spoke up as she remembered the day she ripped Sweets' shirt off of him, "Dr. Sweets is rather well-built for his small stature."

Brennan noticed both Cam and Hodgins look at her strangely and she briefly wondered why her statement had warranted those looks.

"How do you know that, exactly?" Cam asked slowly.

"I ripped his shirt off," she answered simply, "A man was bleeding out in front of us and I needed a compress. That's also the night I saw the scars on his back," she added, though it suddenly occurred to her that she had never told them about Sweets' scars.

"What scars?" Hodgins asked, but before Brennan could answer, Booth came running over.

"Let's go," he said hurriedly before they all started off towards Booth's car.

The ride to the hospital was a silent one, which permitted Brennan plenty of time to think. Why had she decided to walk to the diner? If she had simply stayed at the Jeffersonian, went with the others when they left or if she had merely driven… none of this would have happened.

She sighed and stared out the window. She did not like feeling this way because it was different than anything she had felt before. Before she realized it, her hand made its way to her stomach where it rested gently.

Was her unborn child the reason for the night's events and her current emotional state? She would have normally tried to fight back in which case Sweets may not have been needed and therefore would have been uninjured. Regardless, she still did not regret that decision to be obedient. However, she was curious whether the pregnancy hormones were making her react differently to this situation than she normally would have…?

Despite her mistrust of psychology, she had always seen Dr. Sweets as a very bright, very capable young man who had, admittedly, provided useful information on several cases. More than that though, he was their baby duck. He was without any family and with Ms. Wick still gone on her month-long tour of Brazil, he currently had no one who was very close to him. And he was so young. Too young to be injured and alone. She found herself wishing that Sweets' adoptive parents could be there for him and nurture him the way he deserved to be. But even that thought seemed foreign to her… Was she already thinking like a typical mother would?

The vehicle soon came to a stop, pulling Brennan from her thoughts and she soon found herself following the others into the busy hospital. She was somewhat aware of Cam and Booth questioning the clerk but it was Hodgins who got all of their attention when he spotted Angela down the hall, looking though a window.

They immediately made their way over to her and Brennan found herself feeling nauseated at the sight of the blood covering Angela's hands and clothes.

"You okay?" Hodgins quickly asked once he reached her.

Brennan found it odd that Hodgins was inquiring about Angela's well being given she was not injured, but as a further surprise, Angela shook her head no.

"He stopped breathing in the ambulance," she replied, her voice shaking with tears but she didn't take them off the scene inside the room. "Apparently the guy punched him in the throat or something because… it was so swollen. I barely noticed it with everything else that was going on but… all of the sudden, he couldn't breathe."

Brennan felt her stomach clench uncomfortably. The bones in the throat were very difficult to damage given their natural protection of size, shape and location but if they were fractured, it could be pretty bad for Sweets.

"But they got him breathing again, right?" Booth asked quickly, his eyes darting between the room and Angela.

Angela nodded and wiped her eyes, careful not to transfer the blood from her hands to her face. "They tried to put a tube down his throat but… it was too swollen and he wasn't breathing so they almost had to cut a hole…" she finished as her hand touched the base of her own neck.

"Tracheotomy," Cam clarified as she took an unsteady breath.

"What is that?" Booth asked, his attention now fully on Cam.

She sighed and shook her head. "They cut a hole in the trachea, below the swollen area, which enables him to breathe," she answered slowly as she used her hand to motion where the tracheotomy most likely had been placed. "It sounds a lot worse than it is."

"But they didn't do it, right?" Hodgins asked, staring expectantly at Angela. "You said they almost did…"

Angela nodded, "They had the knife and everything but then the one guy got the tube down his throat…"

Before any of the had time to comment further, Angela was pushing them aside to make way for the medial personnel now passing by them with Sweets on the gurney. Brennan tried to get a look at him but wasn't able to see much other than the fact that Sweet's shirt had been removed, allowing them a brief glimpse of the discolored and bloody skin on his chest and abdomen.

"How is he?" Booth asked a man who appeared to be a doctor, "Where are they taking him?"

"Up to surgery," the doctor answered simply, "We were able to stabilize him but the surgeons will need to explore the abdomen to see what all damage was done by the bullet and possibly the blunt force trauma from the fight."

Cam then cleared her throat and stepped forward slightly to say ,"Your preliminary findings?"

"It's hard to say," the man replied as he rubbed his head, "The abdomen is rather complicated, however, I do not think anything major was hit. Also, given the hasty medical attention, I'd say he has a good fighting chance but don't quote me on that."

Brennan took a deep breath and found herself feeling some relief at the doctor's words. She remembered Cam saying it was unlikely the bullet hit anything major as there wasn't too much blood produced from the wound so this doctor repeating that thought certainly helped sooth her.

"As for the numerous other injuries," he continued, "The x-rays will tell us more but I certainly expect a few fractures throughout his body."

"I would like a copy of those x-rays, please," Brennan said suddenly as she felt the overwhelming need to make sure nothing was missed.

The doctor frowned and began to say, "I'm sorry but…"

"Your patient is a psychologist for the FBI and this is Dr. Temperance Brennan, the world-renowned forensic anthropologist," Booth interrupted sternly as he took out his own FBI badge, "She analyses bones for a living. Look her up if you need to, but she's more qualified to examine those x-rays than anyone here, I can guarantee you that. "

The doctor did not speak right away but eventually nodded. "I will get you a copy of them."

"Thank you," Cam answered on everyone's behalf. Brennan found herself feeling very thankful to Booth for standing up for her, though she wish she didn't need to explain herself.

"In the mean time," the doctor continued, "your friend was taken upstairs. They will be able to help you from now on."

After the doctor walked away, the rest of them made their way to the elevator and up to the second floor, which housed the hospital's surgical department. After being directed to the waiting room, Brennan found herself wanting to be alone all of the sudden.

"I have to go to the bathroom," Angela said before she sat down. Brennan glanced at her and saw her observing her clothing and hands with a nauseated look on her face.

"Do you want me to take you home?" Hodgins asked as he stood up and grabbed her forearms.

Angela shook her head in response, "No, we can't leave now. We need to know if he's okay…"

Hodgins nodded and broke away from her. He searched his surroundings for a moment and eventually walked over to a passing nurse.

"Excuse me," he said softly, "Is there any way you can get her a… scrub shirt or something? She's covered in our friend's blood."

"Absolutely," the young nurse replied. A few moments later, she returned with some folded, pale green garments which Angela accepted greatly and left for the restroom.

Brennan, on the other hand, took the time to realize she was the only one who didn't have Sweet's blood on her. Cam had very little but she did have proof of being present during the whole ordeal, but Brennan did not. For some reason, that seemed wrong.

Brennan sighed and tried to get a hold of herself.

She knew she was usually not one to be clouded by emotion so she could logically assume the chemical instability in her body caused by her pregnancy was to blame for the sudden onset of these strong feelings. That being said, she could not quite pinpoint what was bothering her the most. Was it that young Dr. Sweets was severely injured while rescuing her? Was it the fact that, given her distrust of his chosen profession, she was worried that he could die before she was able to tell him she actually cared for him?

But really, it came down to her unborn child. Her regrettable decision to walk to the diner not only put Sweets in danger of losing his life, it had also put her unborn child and herself in a great deal of danger as well. She suddenly remembered how the man held the tip of his gun against her stomach, directly over where her child was.

She had risked so much tonight.

All of the sudden, she felt trapped. She felt as though she were drowning and yet she didn't want anyone to come near her. She wanted nothing more than to get out of the hospital and go home.

No longer able to mask her current anxieties, she stood up but just as she did, she heard her name being called. She turned around to see a young female nurse walking towards her.

"Dr. Brophy wanted me to give these to you," the young nurse said as she handed Brennan a large envelope. "Inside are the x-rays of Mr. Sweets."

She looked at the envelope carefully for a moment before quietly saying, "Thank you."

"You going to take a look at them?" Booth asked from his chair, at which point Brennan realized they were all looking at her.

She considered his question for a moment before answering, "No, I would rather do this at home."

Booth frowned and she found herself wishing he wouldn't press the matter.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly after standing up and getting closer to her.

"I told you, I'm fine…"

He shook his head, "I can see you're upset. You have every right to be… what happened tonight was…"

But she didn't want to hear it and she didn't want to sit here and wait, constantly worrying that a doctor would walk out and say Sweets was dead. If that was going to happen, she'd rather be in her own home, hearing it from Booth or perhaps Angela. Not here, not like this.

"No, Booth," she said, interrupting him and pulling away, "I just want to go home…"

"I will take you home right after the doctor tells us how Sweets is," Booth replied, grabbing onto her arms again. "You do want to know, right?"

Brennan snatched her arms away once again as a sudden, but brief, bout of anger shot through her. "Of course I want to know," she said a bit louder than she had expected.

"Family of Lance Sweets," came a voice, interrupting their conversation. Everyone else, who had, no doubt, been listening to their conversation, stood up and quickly approached the doctor.

"How is he?" Angela asked first as they all huddled around the older man. Brennan, though still wanting to escape from the hospital as soon as possible, knew it was best to listen to the doctor first but she found the anticipation to be physically painful.

"He's alive," the man replied quickly, which allowed Brennan's stomach to ease slightly. "Mr. Sweets was very lucky as the bullet quite literally took one of the best possible trajectories through his abdomen and only nicked a few important things in there."

"Thank God," Brennan heard Angela whisper and while she couldn't quite agree with Angela's choice of expression, Brennan certainly shared the relief.

"We will be keeping him for a little while to monitor the healing and make sure we got everything as well as to keep an eye on his concussion, though I think all of those were pretty well squared away," the man continued as he took a deep breath and placed his hands on his hips. "As for the smaller injuries, he received two broken ribs - neither of which pose any threat to any organs – broken ankle and clavicle and his fair share of bumps and bruises."

"But you expect a full recovery?" Cam pressed, a question Brennan was also interested in.

"I do," the doctor replied. "As I said, we will be monitoring him for a bit, just to be certain, but I fully expect a full recovery as long as he follows all of the rules his doctor gives him and has supportive friends and family."

"Good," Booth said, nodding his head as he exhaled, "Very good news, doc, thanks."

"Yes, thank you," Angela added.

"Can we see him?" Hodgins then asked as he placed an arm around Angela's waist.

"Not tonight," the man answered simply. "It's late, far past our visiting hours, and he's going to be out all night anyway. But feel free to come back starting at eight tomorrow morning. Any other questions?"

"No," Cam answered first, "Thank you."

Once the doctor left, Cam began speaking again right away.

"We can meet at seven tomorrow for breakfast at the diner, be here by eight and after seeing him, we can try to work out some sort of rotation so that he won't be alone all day," she spoke swiftly, as though she knew Brennan wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. "Agreed?"

Everyone nodded and then, after Cam and the others insisted on catching a cab back to the lab to get their own cars, Booth finally escorted Bones to his car.

"I know you're not okay," he said once they were on their way back to her place, "And you don't have to talk to me about it but… please just try to focus on the fact that you and our baby were not injured and Sweets is going to be alright, okay?"

Brennan nodded, though it was mostly to appease Booth. She knew very well that, given the situation, the outcomes were fairly favorable. It was the cause of the situation that had her upset. The cause, being her unfortunate decision to walk herself to the diner.

She closed her eyes tried to center her attention instead on something she knew was productive: the case she had been working on.

And, as they pulled into the drive, she decided that her time and concentration would be far better served back in the lab.

TBC

EN: This is definitely ending up more in depth on Brennan than I originally expected but I'm finding it fun to toy with her when she's pregnant: allows more interaction with those emotions she so desperately avoids.

Again, I hope it was still believable for everyone and that you come back for more. As for the next chapter, we will be changing the point of view to someone else, though the focus will remain the same (I like to change things up!) Thanks so much for reading and hope you come back for more!