ASC: Sorry this took a while, it was on a different computer!

Chapter 9.

Booth had gotten Brennan on her feet but by the time they got to his SUV Sweets car was long out of sight. Angela searched for Sweets cell phone signal and found it quickly but as Booth feared it was not quickly enough as nearly twenty minutes had passed.

Booth was further distressed to find that while they were waiting, the car had only been a mile away. He slammed his door shut in anger as he pulled up behind Sweets crashed vehicle.

Brennan held Booth's handkerchief to her head still to stop the bleeding. She knew this was not the best medical method but right now she found herself far more interested in finding Sweets. She found her heart racing and what she knew was panic coming upon her as she approached the vehicle.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit." Booth said under his breath.

"Booth." Brennan said standing next to the opened door.

"What?" He asked and saw Brennan's color fade as she looked in. The words were caught in her throat and she couldn't say them. Booth didn't see this look on her face often so he quickly approached the vehicle to see what she saw, blood, on the airbag.

Sweets had headaches before but this one was a real doosey. No amount of loud death metal could hold a candle to the thumping going on between his ears. Sweets lifted his neck which hurt and was incredibly sore from his head hanging to the side. He was slumped up against a wall, sitting on a cold hard cement floor.

When some of the pounding subsided he tried to open his eyes in what was a mostly dark room with little to see. He went to raise his hands to his face to check, heck, maybe to see if his face was still there. It hurt so bad he wasn't so sure if it had been blown off though he knew that wasn't logical. He assumed the bullet must have grazed against his temple which would account for the blood he could smell on his shirt and jacket.

His arms felt heavy and he noticed they moved together. He pulled his wrists in opposite directions but they moved together and he realized they had been tied together, very tightly with a zip tie. As he moved the plastic cut into his wrists hurting more and cutting off more circulation, in turn making his arms heavier and more useless, his hands near completely numb.

While it was fuzzy he remembered how he had gotten here, and the psycho who had bought him here, and what that psycho was capable of and it was in his professional opinion it was time to go. Unable to put weight on his hands to stand his pushed his back into the wall and getting his legs and feet underneath him he tried to balance enough to push his back up the wall into a standing position.

The room was becoming clearer as he paused to take a breath having been nearly winded from the climb to a standing position. His aching head made all movement increasingly difficult over a normal day. He wanted to rest longer but he knew without a phone or car, or little evidence from previous cases, no one was going to find him, outside of a dumpster.

He saw a window high above, the only source of light with moonlight trickling in. The room looked to be a storage shed with a lot of boxes and storage around him. He was assessing how a no armed assisted climb to the window would work when the metal door creaked open and blinding lights being flicked on. Sweets quickly closed his eyes out of reaction as a pain from the bright florescent lights shot a pain thru his head.

"What the…" Derringer said as he quickly ran towards Sweets. Sweets tried to will his eyes open quickly to prepare but physically his eyes didn't want to. By the time he peeled one open part way it was too late. Derringer punched Sweets in an upper cut on the right side of his ribs with one swing and the same to the left with his other. Unable to prepare for the blow they came as a total surprise to Sweets who immediately collapsed to the floor.

Sweets could vaguely hear Derringer shuffle around and again wanted to push his eyes open to see what he was doing but the chest pain coupled with the head ache made any cognitive task impossible.

"I don't know what to do with you Dr. Sweets." Derringer said pausing from moving something along the ground. "You see you're not my type. Not unless you had a name change."

"Why, what's with that anyway?" Sweets said coughing between words wondering if his insides were coming out because it felt like it. He knew he didn't sound like multi degreed psychologist but he didn't care right now.

"What, with Jane?" Derringer said laughing. "Oh wouldn't you like to know, you shrinks, you're all alike. You want me to talk, tell you my dark secrets."

"No, I'd almost prefer not to know you freak." Sweets said in what he meant to be an internal thought but based on the fact the room was silent and Derringer had stopped what he was doing, he was pretty sure it was out loud.

"Charge a lot for your sessions do you Dr. Sweets?" Derringer said them went back to shuffling around some boxes. "You must be pretty good Dr. Sweets, I mean, who would have found those bodies right? Would have taken that friend of yours months."

Sweets noticed the emphasis he put on the word "friend."

"Agent Booth would have found you." Sweets said trying to shift so he was sitting more upright though moving hurt.

"Maybe, maybe after a few more bodies. But you, you're a smart one. I get that he doesn't appreciate you very much." Derringer said continuing work that Sweets couldn't see.

Sweets wasn't in the mood to discuss his friendship with Booth that even he did not understand himself at times.

"I mean, you seemed to offer yourself up fast. Either you're extremely brave….or you knew he wasn't going to pick you. Saving you and he the embarrassment of that."

"Well you've got me there Mr. Derringer, I'm extremely brave." Sweets said sarcastically trying to block out the nagging thoughts the alternative brought to his mind.

"We'll see about that kid." Derringer said with a small laugh full of acid and hate.

"What about you, you see yourself as a brave man? One who murders people when they are incapacitated?"

"I think you know why I do it Dr. Sweets." Derringer said and this time Sweets realized Derringer was close as his voice grew louder.

"You're a vigilante. Seeking justice when justice failed."

"See, the FBI is really going to suffer without you there. Think of all the lives you could have saved, I hope Booth picked the right one, oh wait, you, I hope you picked the right one. You know if you had given him a chance he would have picked himself."

Sweets stayed silent and Derringer laughed. "But you knew that didn't you. Wow, you are good. Let's see you value his life more than your own."

"And you see yourself as a god. You make them pay for their crimes but you don't let them suffer in your mind, so you bash their head in for a 'sweet surrender' as it is." Sweets eyes were almost half way open now as he watched Derringer stand up and he knew he was right.

"I'm not a god, Dr. Sweets. That would suggest I am one of many. I am not. I am a 'just god', I pick up where justice left off, and put things back in order. I lead them to the slumber they should have, just like Emily over there."

Sweets looked to his right and saw the dead eyes of a young woman looking back at him, blood streaming from her arms.

"I was keeping tabs on her but she bled out before I could get back her to finish her the right way. Do you feel guilty about that? She suffered longer than she should have, because of you."

"And what was her crime?" Sweets asked unable to unlock his half opened eyes from the corpse's eternal stare.

"She was stealing from my company." Derringer said as though the answer were as plain as day. Sweets recalled the empty receptionist desk and the Emily name plate sitting on the desk. He very much doubted Emily had done such a thing. From his profile so far, most of Derringer's victims had committed minor crimes if any. Sweets felt his stomach turn as he knew this guy was really nuts, he was making up crimes to fit his victims. He was far from reality and therefore justifying anything he did was acceptable to him.

Derringer stuffed Emily in the bag the rest of the way and loaded her into a rolling trash cart. Sweets wanted to throw up at the sight but he tensed as Derringer came back to him.

"You know Dr. Sweets, you psychologists are always trying to get in our heads, connect with us. You can't get in my head, no, no, no, shrinks have been trying since I was a kid. But all the Janes, you should know them, connect with them." Derringer said slowly as he pulled a long knife off the table.

"Feel what they feel." Derringer said rolling up Sweets sleeves that were too heavy for him to protest. Derringer couldn't get the fabric to roll very far. "Oh well, good thing the knife is sharp." Derringer said with a creepy smile as he cut Sweets arm above his elbow leaving a three inch gash. He did it to the other arm and again above his wrist. Derringer brought the knife to Sweets neck and looked angry. Sweets breathing was heavy but he clenched his jaw determined not to scream as Derringer no doubt wanted him to.

"Nothing to say Dr. Sweets?"

Sweets spit in his eye. He figured he was going to die anyway so he was going down swinging. He had never done that before and while juvenile he found it enormously satisfying.

Derringer's face turned red instantly and Sweets mentally prepared to be taking his exit when Derringer breathed a long sigh.

"Dr. Sweets I am a patient man. And you obviously need to suffer a little more." Derringer ran the blade along each side of Sweets abdomen leaving two very long marks. Sweets light blue shirt instantly began to soak up blood.

"You see, I'm not a smart man like you, I don't know where those arteries are that matter so much. So how about we just start here and there and see which ones make you bleed out. Maybe it will be hours, maybe days. Won't it be interesting to know?"

Derringer looked like he was genuinely curious. "But I don't think you will be getting the sweet surrender treatment as you call it." Derringer said wiping Sweets spit off his face. "Not after that."

Derringer turned and headed for the door and turned off the lights. Sweets sat in the dark feeling dizzy now and wondered who long this would last, how long he would last, and lastly, what he was holding on to last for.