Chapter 2
Booth glanced over at Brennan sound asleep in the passenger seat as she lounged back slightly. Sweets sat quietly in the back seat and yawned. It had been a very long day and now he was sitting in the back seat of the car while they were three hours into the trip and hitting horrible traffic, being forced to sit still waiting for lanes to move. Sweets looked at Booth who was watching Brennan closely.
"She have another problem leaving?" Sweets asked breaking the silence.
"It's none of your business." Booth said looking back at the car in front of him with a frustrated sigh. "Damn Hacker and making us leave tonight." He mumbled.
"Hacker seems to display some frustration, anger and even some pain when he is around you, and it is more obvious when he sees Dr. Brennan with Chrissy and you. He seems to only want to make things difficult for you. Perhaps in retaliation for taking Dr. Brennan from him."
"I didn't take her. Bones isn't something you can just take."
"I know that, but I don't think he completely understands that."
"Who asked you anyway?" Booth shook his head as he laid it back in the headrest waiting for the traffic to start moving again.
"Agent Booth." Sweets said after another hour of traffic making Booth sigh as he rolled his head to look into the back seat at Sweets.
"What, Sweets?"
"Has the relationship you held with Dr. Brennan changed? I mean you two keep as much as you can secret from everyone, but…. Has it changed personally since becoming a couple and having a child?" Booth paused and looked at Brennan still sleeping.
"Why are you asking?" Booth countered as Sweets looked down before back at the agent. "You know how me and Bones are, you know were the same as years ago."
"No, you and her both block everyone out of tender moments and time that you're alone. All anyone knows is the way you act at work or when you're with the others." He paused and Booth waited for Sweets to continue. "It's Daisy-"
"Sweets, there are work things and there are personal things. I'm sure you can work things out with all of that."
"It's just…. she wants to be like you and Dr. Brennan." Booth turned to look at him before facing forward to creep forward. "But… but you know, I don't want things to change between me and her. I just…" He heard Booth give a heavy sigh. Booth knew there was no way to make the man stop until he got what he wanted.
"Sweets…. Look, no matter what, things always change. If you have a good relationship with her things will change smoothly."
"Did it for you and Dr. Brennan?" Booth took a minute glancing over at Brennan. "I mean I know you have stayed the same while working but like when you're alone, just the two of you….. You know?"
"Bones and me…. we keep what's between us, between us. It's ours to know and remember."
"Was it hard to transition from being partners to being a couple with a child?" The car went silent as Booth mused one what to tell the shrink. "I won't use any of this when speaking with you as your therapist." Sweets added after a minute longer.
"It's hard to go from not being able to touch the other or to say what the other means to them. It changes everything when you finally can. It changed how we saw our time together, how we even spent our time together. The pregnancy threw another twist in everything and it was hard to get back on even ground with each other."
"You weren't even?" Sweets wondered as the traffic finally began to pick up.
"You know Bones and her ideas of how to work things. It took a while before we gave in and figured out how to work things. The truth is its always hard in any relationship, you know that. It takes work."
"What work do you and Dr. Brennan need? Everything from what I've observed is nothing different from all the years you've worked together."
"Like I said. What happens between us stays between us."
"So me and Daisy…"
"Nothing is ever easy in relationships. Just always remember what you have." Booth said glancing at Brennan with a small smirk as Sweets nodded taking the advice in.
After another hour of traffic, Booth was fed up and pulled over into a rest stop.
"We'll get up there in the morning. No use in being exhausted and Bones shouldn't be looking at everything with only a little sleep." Sweets nodded in agreement feeling near passing out himself. Booth parked the car at the nearest motel.
"I'll go get the rooms." Sweets said climbing out and walking towards the office. Booth turned to waked Brennan, gently shaking her arm.
"Bones." He said softly. "Bones." He saw her shift, cracking her eyes before closing them again and trying to go back to sleep. Booth sighed and climbed from the driver's seat and walked around to the passenger side, opening the door. "Come on, Bones." He whispered leaning close to her. "You can't pretend to sleep."
"I can attempt to." She whispered making him smirk.
"You can try but I've known you for the last nine years. You really think you can fool me?"
"I guess not. After all you are a special agent as you say." She smiled as she looked at him. "How long was I asleep for?"
"About four and a half hours. I figured instead of all us being tired we'd stop for the night and get to work in the morning."
"That was a very good idea. Sweets is getting the rooms?" She asked as she turned in the seat to have her legs hang out of the door as Booth moved to lean against them lightly.
"Yep. Let's grab the bag and go in." She gave a small nod before Booth leaned in giving her a soft kiss, before she leaned into him and the kiss deepened. Booth put his hand on the back of her head as she reached out grabbing his shirt and pulling him towards her. They broke the kiss and leaned their foreheads together. "God, Bones…" He trailed off making her smile
"Yes Booth?" She asked. She had learned a thing or two in all the time she spent with Booth, sarcasm was something she was just beginning to pick up on. She watched as he smiled and leaned in for another passionate kiss. "You realize that Sweets will not take a long time getting the rooms and coming back for us." She said as they pulled back again.
"I don't even know why we brought him along."
"You said it was because he knew the other psychologist before we left your office."
"yeah, well I'm kicking myself now." He smirked as he stared at her before giving her another kiss. Brennan smiled as she pushed him back with a soft giggle as she climbed from her seat and closed the door. "You are a real tease. You know that Bones?" He said as he followed her to the back of the car with a smile watching her open the back and pause to look at him.
"I don't know what that means." She said and then turned back to getting the bags with a small smile as she heard Booth chuckle. He walked behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist making her shift to look up at him. "Sweets should be back any moment with the keys to the rooms."
"Fine." He sighed kissing her cheek before grabbing Sweets' bag while she pulled theirs from the back, closing it and starting to walk up to the office where Sweets was still trying to argue with the manager to get two rooms. "What's going on Sweets? Can't even get a couple of rooms?" Sweets looked at him not amused.
"He says he's closed." Sweets said as Booth and Brennan walked closer and looked at the man enthralled with a book.
"Hey, FBI." Booth said and the man only turned lifting the book making both men look at Brennan. She looked at them confused. "Bones…" Booth said making her look at him before the man. Sighing she walked up in front of the two men.
"Excuse me. I would like two rooms please." She said making the man do a double take looking at her. He flipped the book looking at the picture on the back and then at Brennan. "May I have two of your rooms for the night?" She asked again as the man stared at her.
"Hey, you want to get those rooms for us and stop ogling my partner." Booth's voice switched to work mode making Brennan's lips twitch as she watched the man blink but still didn't close his mouth or look away from her. "Yo!" Booth called. Brennan could tell he was becoming upset with the man's reaction to seeing her.
"Booth, he's just shocked that I am here." Brennan said calming him for a bit. "Excuse me I would really appreciate if you would give me two rooms. You see I'm very tired and would like to get some sleep before I need to leave with my Partner and our friend here in the morning." The man nodded turning slowly to grab to keys from the wall.
"Can you sign my book?" He asked like a child talking to the president.
"Yeah, Bones. Sign his book."' Booth said taking the keys. He handed one to Sweets before grabbing the bag from the ground and turning to go to the rooms while Brennan signed the book. She quickly caught up to Booth and Sweets talking about the case as they walked to the rooms and wrapped her arm around Booth's.
"I'll send Dr. Huang a message to let him know we'll be there in the morning." Sweets said unlocking his room as Booth unlocked his and Brennan's and they walked in. Booth dropped the bag by the door and put the key on the table before looking at the room.
"We can survive one night in this place." He said with a smirk glancing at Brennan as she nodded. "You okay?" He asked seeing the off in space look on her face.
"Yes, just worn out from all of the remains I've been asked to look over." She said as he wrapped his arms around her. She sighed leaning against him.
"It's been a busy few days and I don't think it's going to get any better." He said softly kissing her head. "Let's get some sleep." She nodded and the two separated to get ready for bed.
The next morning the three stood in the elevator waiting for the doors to open on the fifth floor. Booth watched as Brennan leaned against the metal wall crossing her arms over her chest, standing straight and dropping her arms as the doors opened. The three walked into the squad room looking around for where to go.
"Can I help you?" asked Cragen as he walked over to the three.
"Yeah, I'm special agent Seeley Booth, this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan and this is Dr. Lance Sweets. We're supposed to be helping with a case."
"Yes, Captain Don Cragen. Come into my office and I'll have my detectives fill you in." They followed him to the office as he called out into the room. "Detectives." In a matter of seconds, the four detectives walked in. "Elliot Stabler, Olivia Benson, John Munch, and Fin Tutuola." Cragen introduced.
"Special agent Seeley Booth." Booth said. "My partner Temperance Brennan and that's Dr. Lance Sweets. Sweets brought a case to us and said you guys needed some help with some ids." Cragen handed him a file as Brennan moved closer to look at the photos and notes.
"We found the place when we were arresting a rapist. We worked through the rooms and found 29 bodies and two kids." Stabler started.
"The kids alive?"
"The boy was pretty freaked out, he hasn't say a word since we found him, the girl is still in the pediatric ICU, they're going to call when she wakes up."
"You know how old the kids are?"
"The boy won't talk at all but the doctors think he's about 8 or 9 and they say the girl is still pretty young, 2 or 3. 4 at the oldest." Brennan's eyes flicked up at Booth before she took the photos from the file. "We haven't had any luck tracking down the old owners of the building so we're left with the victims." Booth nodded as he continue reading.
"We hear you're the best at finding ids for bodies." Olivia said as Brennan nodded.
"Could I please look at the remains?" She asked looking around.
"Yeah, sure, I'll take you." Brennan handed the pictures back to Booth and following Olivia.
"So, you taking the case?" Stabler asked making Booth look up.
"No, it doesn't look like there's any need for me to take over the investigation. Looks like you guys are doing pretty well; I'm here to just lend a hand and get this solved faster." Booth shrugged closing the file.
"Would it be alright is I spoke with the boy you found?" Sweets asked.
"Yeah, Huang is keeping an eye on him." Stabler said before he lead Booth and Sweets to the child room. "He was pleasant enough to take up sot the girl when we found him, but he won't interact at all now. Huang think it's the stress and fear of being somewhere he's not familiar with."
"That would definitely cause a child to retreat into himself." Sweets agreed looking through the window at Huang trying to talk to the boy. He looked up and excused himself.
"Dr. Sweets. I'm glad you could make it." Huang said shaking Sweets' hand with a bright smile.
"Hi Dr. Huang." Sweets smiled and turned to look at Booth. "This is the Agent I was telling you about. Agent Booth this is Dr. Huang." Booth shook the doctor's hand. "Have you been able to get anything working with the boy?"
"No, he will not make eye contact, interact in any way. We don't even have a name for him." Booth stood looking through the window at the boy.
"Let me try." The others looked at him. "Parker acts like that." Sweets nodded as Booth walked in and everyone watched wondering if Booth could get something that, they couldn't.
"Parker?" Fin asked.
"Yeah, he has a son about the same age. Agent Booth is very good at what he does." They turned their attention back to the window.
"Hey." Booth said as he walked over slowly. "My name is Seeley; I just wanted to chat for a bit. Can I sit?" He waited but the boy didn't move. Booth walked over and crouched in front of the boy making him look a him. "Can you tell me your name?" Again no response. "You're not in trouble; we want to make sure your safe." The boy turned his head to look at him and the others watched shocked that the boy was starting to respond. "Can you tell me your name?" The boy looked at him for a minute, and Booth thought he was going to have to continue the one sided conversation.
"Enregistrer ma petite soeur!" He yelled grabbing Booth's hands. "Enregistrer ma petite soeur! S'il vous plait!" He cried. Booth glanced at the window then back at the boy.
"Okay." Booth paused. "Okay, hold on. Okay?" The boy looked at Booth a minute and nodded. Booth stood up and walked out to the others. "Anyone know French?" He asked as everyone shook their heads.
"Dr. Brennan does." Sweets said.
"I know." Booth sighed as he pushed his speed dial.
"Brennan."
"Hey, Bones I think you might want to come back before you start making the dead talk."
"What? Why? What's wrong Booth?"
"The kid, I got him to talk but it's French."
"What did he say?"
"I don't know, Bones, I don't speak French." He heard her sigh.
"Okay, we'll be there in a few minutes." Booth hung up and looked back at the boy.