Author's Note: Next chapter. As I have mentioned elsewhere, for the rest of this month I am participating in NaNoWriMo by attempting to write 50,000 words of fanfic in one month (or in my case a little less since I got a late start). I plan to spread those 50,000 words among updates to on-going projects and to occasional one-shots (like the one I posted yesterday, The Advice of the Shrink). I don't know if I'll make it, but I will certainly try. Wish me luck. :D
I do not own Bones or any of its characters.
Thank you to everyone who is reading/following/reviewing this.
D: I totally agree with you there. We really did not get much into the true implications of what that separation meant for most of the members of the team beyond the most superficial of tidbits (Angela getting pregnant, Cam leaving the lab, etc.). There was little digging done into how this affected each of them as people, and what led to decisions like the one Sweets had to take a sabbatical...I also agree that the Bureau probably does know that Sweets could potentially make far more in private practice, and I suspect that they want to entice him to stay by making the fullest use of his talents along with a competitive pay...As Daisy stands right now, I have to agree with you about her being pretty ill-suited for Sweets. I suppose we can hope that things will change this season, but I just don't know...
Lives in the now: Perhaps, but I do think that it was a little easier for Cam since she had Michelle and Paul to fall back on. Sweets didn't really have any of that. But I don't think he was idle this whole time, as future chapters will illustrate...
Rankor01: I think you have hit on one of the problems that Sweets' faces when interacting with the others. He is so concerned about being the counselor, that it's hard for him to know what to do when he needs that kind of counseling himself. I do think that the absence of almost all of the rest of the team is a big factor into why he went on sabbatical...but I also think it's even more complicated than that and that this whole thing has had consequences that reach further than the beginning of season six...
Peanutmeg: Thanks for the review. I agree that it is very much in character for Sweets to deflect from himself as much as possible, thus why it made sense to me that he didn't go into what was bothering him with Cam. I hope you enjoy this update as well.
Fluffybird: Thank you. I do think that Sweets does have an equally strong and tender heart, if that makes sense. I completely agree though that he is the expressive one of the group as he tends to not hold back in his feelings most of the time, even if he doesn't always share what's inside him...As to what he needs to grow up, I do think that times like this forced him to deal with things on some level, but it might not have been the best way for him to learn, as will soon be shown.
Month One—part 2
Agent Payton Perotta sat on the couch in the waiting area outside of Sweets' office. The psychologist's secretary, Becky, had already informed him that she was here, and Sweets had asked for a few minutes before seeing her.
While she waited, Perotta wondered how Sweets was fairing these days. She had heard about Booth taking some time off from the Bureau to go to Afghanistan at the request of the Army and about how most of the key staff from the Medico-Legal lab were on sabbatical. On every occasion that she had had to work with the Jeffersonian team, the agent had noticed that they were a tight-knit group both professionally and personally. Perotta imagined that Sweets could be missing his co-workers.
She soon put thoughts like that aside and shifted her focus back onto the reason why she was here in the first place. Right now she had a double homicide to solve, one that had made all of the DC newspapers, and she was afraid that she had hit a wall in her investigation. She was hoping, however, that all that was needed was a different perspective, and she knew that Sweets was considered to be one of the best profilers working within the DC branch, if not the entire Bureau.
She was aware though, that getting his assistance on this case might be easier said than done.
Perotta sighed and fiddled with the files in her lap. She had heard from other agents in the office that Sweets was rarely available for profiling assignments these days and almost never assisted in interrogations anymore. The official word was that the psychologist was simply too busy due to his counseling practice and some on-going work he was doing in conjunction with Quantico. A part of her, however, suspected that another factor in all this was the fact that Sweets might prefer to work with the Jeffersonian team and that he did not derive as much satisfaction from working with other agents. Perotta was confident, however, that she could persuade Sweets to work with her since the two of them had meshed well in the past.
Becky's phone rang, and the secretary stopped her typing to answer it. A few seconds later she hung up and turned to Perotta with a smile.
"Doctor Sweets will see you now," she said, her voice chipper. Perotta thanked her and walked into the office to see Sweets rising from a chair near his desk.
"Agent Perotta," he smiled as he held out a hand. "It's good to see you."
"Likewise, Doctor Sweets," she smiled back while shaking his hand. She then sat down on the couch. As she watched the therapist settle into the chair across from her, she noticed that he seemed paler and a little bit thinner than what she remembered from before. But she attributed that to his currently massive workload.
"What can I do for you?" Sweets asked as he leaned back in his chair. Perotta took a deep breath and straightened the files in her hands.
"I could use your help," the agent said. "I'm working on a case. The one with the bodies found along the edge of Arlington."
"I heard about that on the news," Sweets nodded. They said that it was a husband and wife and that they were hanging from a tree. Apparently they owned a thriving investment firm."
"Yeah well, it turns out that the reason it was thriving was because all of their clients were being defrauded in an elaborate Ponzi scheme," Perotta said. "Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Ferris. Word is that the white collar division was thinking about making a move on them soon in light of some bad rumors that had come their way."
"And I take it that now that the owners are dead, it's a case for homicide instead," Sweets said.
"Pretty much," Perotta sighed. "The Bureau wants this one solved ASAP, but there is a problem. Apparently, word had leaked out in the business world about how the Ferrises were duping their clients and it had already made some newspapers right before this murder happened."
"So now your suspect pool includes everyone who was a client of theirs along with any known associates," the psychologist replied.
"Exactly," she said. "It was a small-time operation, but the firm had over fifty clients. Many of them family accounts. What I need is someone who could help me sift through all of these people and narrow down the suspect pool….and you are just the person to do it."
"I appreciate your confidence in me," Sweets said with a wan smile. "But I have a lot of work…."
"Please, Doctor Sweets," the agent insisted. "I know that you are busy right now, but…I've heard Agent Booth mention more than once how you've helped him sort through his cases and get him going on the right direction. I know that there's a lot here, but you're a smarty pants. You'll get to the heart of it in no time."
Sweets sighed and slumped down in his chair while Perotta leaned toward him.
"I know that working with me is not the same as working with Agent Booth, Doctor Brennan or any of the rest of the Jeffersonian staff," she said. "But I'm asking you, personally and professionally, for a favor here."
"All right," Sweets said quietly. "Send me anything you can on the crime scene along with information on the Ferris' clients and associates. I can't really leave my office today, but I should be able to work with you on this in about two days. Just keeping sending any materials to my secretary. Hopefully, I can have at least a skeleton of a profile ready when I meet with you then."
"Thank you," Perotta beamed as she stood up. Sweets did the same, and she handed him the files she had been holding.
"Here is all the stuff from the crime scene and the initial police reports," she said. "I'll be sending you some more stuff about the victims in a couple of hours."
"Ok, I'll check my schedule with Becky and send you an email later about when we can meet," Sweets said.
"Talk to you later then," Perotta said as she walked toward the door. "Oh and thanks again."
Once she was in the hallway, Perotta breathed a sigh of relief. She figured that she would probably be able to solve this murder on her own eventually without Sweets, but knew that it would have been a much longer and more painstaking process. She was glad that she had been able to rope Sweets into the investigation, confident that it would probably go a lot faster and smoother now.
Back in his office, Sweets sat back down and flipped through the files that Perotta had left him. In the back of his mind, he was a little concerned about how he was going to find time to help her with this case, but he soon decided that he would just have to make time. Partially because he did look forward to working with her again.
And partially because he hoped to ease his own recent concerns about his work and its future.
Over the last couple of weeks, Sweets had buried himself deeper and deeper into his practice and into work outside his normal responsibilities at the office. His original project with Quantico had actually ended almost a week ago, but then the psychologist volunteered to do additional work for them which led to more assignments from the Behavioral Analysis unit there. That along with his renewed attentiveness to his practices had given him little time to work on criminal cases with agents at the DC branch of the Bureau, and as a result, he usually passed on requests from agents for his assistance in profiling or interrogations.
So far, none of his superiors had minded the shift in Sweets' work habits since his patients had shown solid progress under his care and because his work with Quantico had garnered a lot of favorable attention within the FBI.
But deep down, Sweets knew that Perotta had been even more right than she could have realized about why he was reluctant to work with other agents now that Booth, Brennan, Angela and Hodgins were gone and Cam was no longer stationed at the Jeffersonian.
The therapist sighed again and sat the folders down onto the coffee table. Ever since he was a child, a part of him had always resisted change when it came to his personal life. His parents had understood it as a by-product of the chaotic and horrifying early childhood he had endured and did everything they could to make his life as stable and secure as possible. He had thrived in the world that they had created for him and it was devastating to Sweets when they both passed away so close together. That and his simultaneous acquisition of a new home and career in DC had caused massive upheaval in his life that had taken almost a year to get under control.
One of the things that had made this transition possible was the introduction of Booth and Brennan into his life and the subsequent relationships he built with Angela, Cam and Hodgins. Now his life had been turned upside down again, but this time, it looked as if there was not going to be any kind of support system for him to fall back on or to build around him while he adjusted.
Sweets swallowed hard, but then worked to square his shoulders as he stood up and gathered the files into his hands.
'This is childish,' he told himself. 'The Bureau hired me to work criminal cases. It's the reason I got a doctorate in behavioral analysis. I can't just stop doing this kind of work just because I miss my frie—the people I am comfortable with. I need to do what Caroline said and grow up so that I can learn to deal with things on my own.'
Determined, Sweets took the files back to his desk and sat down to work. He knew that he would probably have to spend even longer hours at work for the next few days than what he had originally planned in order to be able to get everything he needed to done, but he found that he didn't really mind that at all.
Work gave him purpose. At least enough purpose to keep him going until he found something deeper to anchor his soul to.
Over the next two days, Sweets rarely left his office other than to grab a meal from the Hoover Building's cafeteria or to go home so he could grab a few hours of sleep. Meanwhile Perotta had continued to send him additional information about the Ferrises, their clients and their associates along with any forensic findings that she was able to get.
Communicating through a series of emails, Sweets and Perotta first eliminated suspects who had solid alibis or who were probably not physically capable of performing these vicious attacks. They then constructed a time line for the victims' movements over the last few hours of their lives, after which, Sweets began to work on victimology and on profiling the murderer while Perotta continued to interview people.
When he had first embarked on all of this work, Sweets had initially been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of all of the tasks that he needed to do. But soon he had been able to work up a steady pace and lose himself in his work, making it possible for him to work for hours while losing track of time. During this, he was relieved to discover that his skills and interest in criminal pathology had not abated as he had once feared.
Still, during those brief moments when he would allow his mind to take a break from work, Sweets could not help but feel like something was missing. Some additional spark that had nothing to do with the work itself. Whenever that feeling started to gnaw at him, the psychologist became frustrated. He hated it when he couldn't pinpoint or discern the issues that were bothering him or the emotions he was feeling. It was as if he were blind and stumbling about in the dark, finding nothing and getting nowhere.
These thoughts would always get pushed aside in a few moments, however, when Sweets decided that it was time to get back to work. As much as it pained him to leave questions about his own psyche unanswered, the therapist decided that it was more important to focus on solving the case for now.
Two days later, Sweets and Perotta were sitting in the conference room, eating some Chinese food while going over everything they had learned thus far about the case.
"So…you're saying that Thompson is out?" Perotta asked as she took notes on a yellow legal pad.
"I watched the video of his interrogation," Sweets said. "At one point, one of the agents cut his finger and Thompson fainted. In my opinion, he suffers from hemophobia."
"Which is?" she asked with a slight smirk.
"The fear of blood," the psychologist answered. "It's common for people to suffer from anxieties in relation to blood which can lead to things like fainting spells. Thompson would not have been able to stab the victims multiple times considering the severity of his disorder."
"What about that word that was spelled out in the victims' blood?" Perotta asked. "Akeldama?"
"Field of blood," Sweets replied. "It's the place where Judas was said to have committed suicide in the Bible. It also explains the method that was used to murder the victims since some translations say that he was hung and that he gutted himself. I believe that someone was acting out of what they thought was righteous vengeance."
"Or maybe they were just delusional," Perotta said as she reached for a wonton.
"It's not uncommon for those two things to go hand-in-hand," Sweets shrugged as he started to eat from the carton of fried rice.
"I suppose it isn't," she said. The agent then read through some more paperwork and took additional notes while Sweets continued to eat. A few minutes later, she turned her pad of paper toward him.
"So I was thinking of focusing on this set of suspects," Perotta said, tapping her finger onto a list of names. The therapist scanned the list.
"I agree that these people would be your best bet," Sweets replied. "They all meet the physical requirements to carry out the crime, and all of them do seem to possess the right level of rage and self-importance necessary to execute it the way it was done."
"All right," she said as she rose from her chair. "I'm going to do a little more digging on them and then start bringing them in tomorrow for questioning. You up for helping out with this?"
"I don't have very many appointments tomorrow," Sweets said hesitantly. "I suppose I could move thing around so that I could help out."
"Great," Perotta said as she gathered up her paperwork and files. She then put her share of the food into the plastic bag that it came in and started to walk out of the conference room.
"I'm just going to finish this in my office while I get some paperwork done," she said. "I'll see you at your office tomorrow morning. Make sure to let me know when you will be available."
"I will," Sweets nodded. "See you then." After she left, Sweets turned his chair toward the table so that he could finish up his meal. Biting into an egg roll, Sweets pondered the fact that he was now eating his takeout meal alone when a thought suddenly occurred to him.
'Booth and I always finished our meals together. Unless something urgent came up on the case. We'd even work on the paperwork together so that we could talk over the case…or anything else on our minds….'
Sweets gulped down the rest of his egg roll, the taste no longer appealing to him. He realized what he had been missing during this whole case with Perotta: the moments in-between the work. Shared meals of takeout while finishing paperwork, breakfasts spent going over plans for the day, car rides that often led to conversations both on the case and on more personal topics, trips to the lab to catch up on the latest information as well as to catch up on the latest events among the team.
The therapist picked at his food with his chopsticks. When he had first started working at the Bureau, Sweets had assured himself that the work was all that he needed. Having recently lost his parents, he had been reluctant to form any new relationships beyond the most casual ones. But over time he let himself open up enough to form close friendships with Booth, Brennan, Hodgins, Cam and Angela and had even put his heart out there enough build not one, but two different romantic relationships during this interval.
Even as he formed all of these new bonds, Sweets continued to tell himself that if it came down to it, all he needed to sustain himself was his work.
Now that he was actually facing that very prospect, Sweets was scared to discover that there was a possibility that he had been wrong all along.
The next three days were busy ones for Sweets as he tried to keep all of his appointments with his patients while still finding time to help Perotta. It was a grueling pace, but soon they were rewarded by the apprehension and arrest of the Ferrises' murderer.
"He kept saying how he had do to the "Lord's work"", Perotta told Sweets after she had made the arrest. "And about how he needed to send a message to all of the other devils who dared to prey on the innocents. The fact that he lost over two million dollars to their bogus firm probably didn't help matters."
"Certainly fits the profile of enraged and vengeful," the psychologist replied.
"Well at least we've got him in custody," she sighed. "And speaking of that, thank you, Doctor Sweets for your help." Perotta smiled and shook his hand.
"You're welcome Agent Perotta," he grinned back. "Glad I could help."
"I should get back to work," she said as she backed away. "I bet you need to too. Anyway, maybe I'll see you around again some time."
The agent walked away and as Sweets watched her leave, one thought continued to echo inside his mind.
'I may be here…but is that going to be enough?'