7.

LovelyLancelot - I LOVE your reviews - you and Wesley keep me writing! ;)

Confused? We'll be bringing in the facts here to get everyone up to speed. At this point that's all the clues from the 1948 case - all of which are real from the suitcase to the books, the cypher, the tags missing, the condition of the body, all of it.

"The informant on the case is also the unknown man's daughter." Cam reiterated.

"And we have no idea where she is now." Angela lamented. "So I guess we can't ask her."

"What about the cypher?" Sweets asked desperate for one of their many clues to lead them someplace helpful.

"I've run it thru dozens of software programs." Hodgins informed them while rubbing his head at the headache of it. "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Cam asked surprised at his defeat.

"I know, it has to mean something." Hodgins said looking it over again.

Cam looked at Hodgins, Angela and Arastoo who looked tired but far from quitting. She eyed Sweets who winced each time he put pressure on his one side.

"Angela & Hodgins, how about you guys take a break, long lunch is well earned." Cam suggested.

"But we have more to solve." Angela said and realized Cam must have wanted them away from the lab for a moment, knowing she hadn't asked Sweets to leave she recalled the promise of x-rays.

"Sure. Come on Jack, I'm very hungry." Angela said glad that Jack didn't ask too many questions, his mind was still busy on the cypher puzzle.

"I've got some items to check on in the bone room." Arastoo said taking his own leave.

Cam walked closer to Sweets who continued to pour over the evidence. "Dr. Sweets?"

Sweets looked up to see that everyone was gone.

"If you recall there was a promise of some x-rays." Cam said.

"Oh, I feel fine, really." Sweets said wincing as he looked back down at the evidence.

"If you prefer I can call the FBI director. I'm sure if something happened to you as a result of injuries…"

"Fine!" Sweets said knowing damn well that Cam would call that bluff in.

"Right this way doctor." Cam said motioning him to another room.

"Yes doctor." Sweets mocked.

Once they reached the x-ray room Cam nodded to the table to which Sweets shoulders slumped.

"What did you expect?" Cam asked. "This is different than just doing your hand like yesterday, it's this or we go to the hospital."

Sweets rolled his eyes and climbed on the table opposite Cam so she could not see his face squish at the pain the climb caused.

"Oh wait, shirt off." Cam warned.

"Really?" Sweets complained.

"Yes, that's how x-rays work Dr. Sweets, you should know that."

Too well Sweets thought to himself as he loosened his tie and pulled off his blazer. Cam helped to pull it off and set it nicely on the chair nearby. Cam noticed that Sweets was quite uncomfortable at this process and she sensed it had to do with more than taking a shirt off in front of a friend.

"You can keep your pants on." Cam said at which Sweets gave her a sarcastic 'thanks' look.

"Touchy." Cam said walking over to the machine. Sweets was quick to lie down on the table, his back away from her vision.

Cam moved the machine over Sweets chest and positioned it, noting a controlled breathing on Sweets part, something he was heavily concentrating on.

"Have you had a x-ray before yesterday Dr. Sweets?" She asked.

"A few times." Sweets said under clenched teeth.

As Cam walked away to take the image she realized Sweets almost didn't realize what he said, a few times she repeated in her mind, who has the need for multiple x-rays? As far as she knew Sweets had been shot that once with Agent Perotta but not much more than that in the time she had known him. It was only then that she recalled their quick exam the night before. So much had gone on she had nearly forgotten seeing the small round scars in his chest, most likely left many years before from the cherry end of the cigarette.

She wasn't sure what to say so she snapped the machine a couple of times and then gave the all clear. Sweets moved quickly to slip his shirt back on but he wasn't fast enough in turning around to avoid Cam seeing his back.

"Good Lord Sweets." Cam said walking to him closely as he spun his back away from her and tried to quickly button his shirt. She could still see those small scars between the chest hair that he was quick to hide. Sweets did not look up at her.

"It's a long time ago." Sweets said of the scars she saw.

"What else am I going to see on the x-rays Sweets?" Cam asked. She hadn't wanted to pry but she was genuinely perplexed and concerned at what her so seemingly young and innocent partner had actually endured in his youth.

"There are a few other old breaks." Sweets said answering her question. "You wanted to know about my hand the other day." Sweets pulled his tie back around.

"You don't have to if you don't want to tell me Dr. Sweets, I'm sorry to intrude, I just, I am so surprised."

"I was a kid, five, we went to a birthday party. We didn't go out much but this time it was my foster father's sister's kid." Sweets continued to talk while attempting to tie his tie but his still sore hand from the day before hampered the process. Cam reached forward to which Sweets froze, after a moment he relaxed and she continued and tied it. He continued his story as he slipped on his jacket.

"I was a small kid, the other kids made fun of me calling me scrawny and skinny."

"Malnourished?" Cam asked quickly, too quickly, this wasn't a case, this was Sweets. She couldn't take it back though, it was out there.

Sweets nodded yes, his eyes still downcast as he leaned against the table. "They birthday party was at one of those play places with the big indoor climbing sets, it went really high. The other kids said I was too small to climb to the top. I wanted to prove them wrong."

"You've always been an over achiever then?" Cam said offering a smile but only a tiny corner of Sweets mouth turned upward.

"I started climbing and my foster father came over and told me to stop. I could hear the other kids calling me a wimp, I kept climbing, he began screaming - it became quite the scene. I got to the top and he shouted for me to come down. I knew what would happen when I came down." Sweets said and swallowed hard. "I didn't want to come down, I wanted to live up there. It was then I learned about consequences."

"What happened?" Cam asked a desperate need to know though she knew it was uncomfortable for Sweets.

"I don't know exactly." Sweets said clearing his throat and looking up now. "A lot of those memories get muddled together. I remember him climbing thru that maze, I was at the top, nowhere to go and him pulling me out. I remember looking at the adults, no one would do anything. I was to blame, I shouldn't have pushed his buttons."

"That's not your fault Sweets. It should never have been like that." Cam said taking a step closer. Sweets nodded though he seemed unconvinced. "Thank you for telling me." Cam wanted to hug the young doctor but for the first time she didn't think Sweets wanted her to. Sweets always seemed to welcome a hug but this time he seemed distant, his eyes lost in unpleasant memories.

A machine beeped and Cam went to retrieve x-rays that came out into a tray. She put them in a light box and examined them, trying to ignore the many concerning aged fractures that appeared on the film. She noticed Sweets did not want to look at them. Cam concentrated on anything new but saw nothing that made her worry too much.

"Just a few bruises it looks like." Cam said.

"So all that for nothing then?" Sweets said a slight annoyance.

"If it had been something it would have been." Cam reminded him. "We certainly don't want to lose you Dr. Sweets."

He nodded and headed for the door. "I'd prefer you didn't share…"

"Just between partners." She reminded him.

Sweets and Cam walked out of the office to find Hodgins & Angela returning from lunch. Hodgins was quickly heading to the computer so they knew he must have thought of something.

"How is the patient?" Angela asked eating the rest of the sandwich she apparently had not been able to at the restaurant.

"He'll live I'm happy to say." Cam reported.

"Good, now don't scare us like that again." Angela ordered with a mouth full of food.

Sweets smiled before their attention was turned to Hodgins loud "aha!"

"At lunch he had an epiphany." Angela said chewing the rest of her helping.

"Last night we figured one of the guys was foreign and the other was a US Navy Officer - possibly." Hodgins said clicking away at the computer.

"He told the other guy not to kill me because I was an American." Sweets recalled. "That seemed to really bother him."

"A strange sort of patriot." Cam commented.

Hodgins continued, "Looking at the cypher I noticed what could be a word, "board" buried in the first line."

"Okay so that leaves W-G-B-A." Cam said listing off the remaining letters.

"I thought there might be a connection with any of the navy officers, so I wanted to do a search, BAG -W is one of the slips at the wharf." Hodgins replied, an image appearing on the screen of a mid-sized ship appearing on the screen from a satellite image. "This boat belongs to U.S. Navy Commander Cameron Mahaffey."

"Let's go check it out." Sweets said.

"Don't we need a warrant?" Cam asked.

"Probably not going to get one for a navy officer's private ship." Hodgins offered.

"We can be lost tourists just looking around." Cam suggested and Sweets smiled.

The afternoon became overcast as Sweets and Cam arrived at the wharf and soon located the slip in question.

"Honey, is this the boat we were looking to buy?" Cam asked eyeing the ship.

"No need dear." Sweets said playfully then pointed to a smear of blood on the door frame that flew open in the wind.

"That's a free pass to go inside." Cam said as Sweets drawing his gun as he stepped inside.

The cabin of the mid-sized high end boat was posh but in disarray, a struggle had obviously occurred there earlier. Cam walked to the counter where half a pastry sat on the counter.

"Sweets." She said pointing to it, Sweets looked over and gave a look.

"I guess it's open dibbs but who knows how long it's been sitting out."

Cam rolled her eyes.

"I didn't want a snack!" Cam exhaled heavily. "The contents of the man's stomach, half a pastry." Cam looked for something to bag the pastry with. "If we could match the ingredients specifically to this it might give us a link."

Sweets looked at the table with the items on it mostly now on the floor. He could see that a struggle had occurred but little else was being given away. He was about to move his search elsewhere when something caught his eye under the table he bent down and under the table to retrieve the item.

Suddenly a man in a dark coat emerged from the back bedroom. He ran from the back and out the door. His appearance made Cam jump and drop the pastry while Sweets rose up and banged his head on the underside of the table. Sweets scrambled from out under the table and took off after the man, angry at himself for not searching the cabin completely.

He put the thoughts behind him as he chased the man in black pants and black overcoat and balding white head as it was a good distance from him. The man turned at the end of the row and now that he was out of sight Sweets paused and pulled his gun. Before he could take another step he heard Cam shout his name, he spun to see the man jumping from a boat above down on him. Sweets half wondered how the man had gotten there so fast but the thought was abandoned as he was on the wood planks of the boat decking rolling with the attacker. Sweets looked up for a brief second to see Cam running after him with her high heels in her hand.

Sweets and the man rolled once more and Sweets was surprised when the man let go but Sweets soon found why as he was rolling off the dock. He quickly grabbed the rope netting next to him to keep from falling into the waters very far below. His sore hand was making it hard to hold on and his chest ached from banging into the side after falling over it. Knowing he could swim but questioning the contents of the polluted water below be preferred not to fall. As his only useful hand was losing it's grip Cam appeared at the side and grabbed the injured hand past the hand on the wrist and pulled. The height upward gave Sweets enough distance to insert his shoes in the rope net and hoist himself up further.

"No!" Sweets shouted suddenly remembering the guy and worrying Cam was in trouble. "The guy…"

"He ran off." Cam said pulling once more on Sweets' coat to help him the rest of the way to the dock's surface.

Sweets was relieved to be back on the surface again and soon the two were on their feet looking around.

"That guy was fast!" Sweets said seeing no one in sight.

"I saw him turn and get on that boat, ready to get the jump on you." Cam explained. "And he was fast."

"Yeah." Sweets said still a little out of breath. "Thanks."

"You okay?" She asked noticing his heavy breathing.

"Yeah, I could have done without that." He said motioning to the edge while holding his side. "Just another day investigating I guess."

"This case is getting too dangerous." Cam said thinking of the recent slew of events.

"No, we no I need to be more careful." Sweets chastised himself as they walked back towards the boat. "I should have checked the entire boat."

"It's …." Cam didn't get to finish her sentence because the boat exploded before them. Sweets grabbed Cam and pulled her away, his back to the falling debris around them.

Once a few second passed and their ears stopped ringing they looked back at the flaming boat. Cam looked to Sweets who looked dejected at the lost evidence but felt assured with his as a partner. A second ago he was worried he had messed up by not checking the boat first but when push came to shove he was a true partner, instinctively shielding her from the debris. Cam held a small smile feeling confident at her partner's abilities.

"I don't know what you're smiling about." He said taking out his phone to call emergency services. "I'm looking at a lot of paper work and lost evidence."

Cam looked at Sweets who saw his lips moving but heard nothing. A man rounded the corner who had been at the far end fishing. He came upon the pair - the woman without shoes on and the man with the dusty jacket where a debris board had hit him on the back. He watched as the pair shouted to each other like a hard hearing old married couple.

"What?!" Cam shouted. Sweets looked to Cam whose lips were moving and he could read that she was asking 'what'? They realized the blast had temporarily impaired their hearing but they still kept trying to communicate.

"Evidence!" Sweets shouted and Cam read his lips.

"My pastry! The blood!" Cam shouted recalling the evidence being lost.

The man in the distance stood in horror at the last sentence being exchanged. "What the…." He said aloud.

"Did anyone answer?" Sweets shouted into the phone, he couldn't tell if anyone had answered his call or not yet. "I need to report an explosion, a fire." Sweets looked down at the phone to see if he was still connected. Cam tapped his arm to get his attention and pointed to the man at the end.

"Sir!" Sweets shouted though the man looked nervous at the pair and their last statement about blood and pastries. "Can you tell them where we are, I can't hear!" Sweets shouted so loud that the man took a step back. "We're with the FBI and the Jeffersonian."

The man cautiously took the phone from the man with the mangled hand, split lip and dirty coat and nodded. He was definitely hoping someone would come, he wasn't so sure about these two.

Sweets and Cam looked back at the flaming ship still above water for now.

"It's all gone!" Cam said.

Sweets turned to face her. "What?" He asked not hearing what she said.

"It's all gone!" She shouted louder and the pedestrian walked away to hear the 911 operator. "All that evidence is gone!" Cam's lips read to Sweets.

Sweets tapped Cam on the shoulder so she could look back at him and away from the maritime disaster. He smiled and reached in his pocket for the item he retrieved from under the table of the boat.

Cam looked down at his hand where he held a cuff link, a matching cufflink to the unknown man.