10.

While games were exercising Sweets small motor skills and drawing his mind out slowly he was still not being, as the team saw it, fairly accessed by the hospital's psychiatrist. Thought if they were completely honest with themselves they knew that Sweets still could not disseminate between reality and dreams at times.

"Hey Sweets." Booth said tapping Sweets shoulder to wake him. It was the middle of the afternoon and they were near worry that the young doctor was sleeping too much. There was a fine line between rest and becoming lethargic.

Sweets cleared his throat as he sat up and coughed. Booth noticed the cough was not nearly as bad sounding as it was. That meant they would be pushing to transfer him sooner. Normally he would have been happy to hear that but he didn't want to give reason for Sweets to get transferred unless it was home.

"Let's go for a walk." Booth said stepping back so Sweets could get up. Booth knew the therapists has been walking with him but he didn't want to play games with Sweets.

Sweets was pretty sure Booth was real, he had tapped his shoulder, or had he dreamed it. If he went for a walk on his own would be in trouble. Either way it would get him out of the room so he got up.

At first their walk was quiet. Sweets was moderately aware that this could be a hallucination and if he was talking to himself in the halls, well, he didn't even want to think about where they would send him.

The walk wasn't fast and Booth found it painfully dull. He slowly increased his speed which also caused Sweets to step faster. A few times Sweets steps faltered and Booth tensed at resisting the urge to help him. Booth noticed the faster he walked the harder Sweets tried and the faster he became.

Booth hadn't noticed how far they had walked because he had diverted his attention so heavily at watching Sweets, but making it so he didn't notice he was watching him. At the turn of the hall Booth looked to see Sweets wasn't next to him but was leaning against the wall heaving deep breaths.

"You okay?" Booth asked.

Booth turned in worry and put a hand on Sweets' shoulder. Sweets eyes looked to him in surprise.

"Booth?" Sweets asked as though he had just gotten there. It concerned Booth until Sweets seemed relaxed that he was there.

"Yeah buddy, tired, want to go back?" Booth asked.

Sweets nodded as he realized that Booth was there the whole time.

"Yeah." Sweets said and Booth felt a surge of excitement for some reason.

When they got back Cam sat waiting with the Jenga set up. Booth said goodbye as Sweets and Cam began to play.

The tower teetered and Cam noticed that Sweets hands barely shook anymore. He was concentrating very hard as he laid the piece on the top. The tower didn't fall and he smiled. Cam tried to hold back a sad grin as per their promise if Sweets won she wouldn't come back.

Though it teetered, Cam's piece did not fall. It was Sweets turn and he chose a difficult piece and removed it. He was proud of himself but looked at Cam, recalling their promise. He went to set it on top and as started to let his fingers go he saw he had done it flawlessly. Before letting go completely he tapped the puzzle and it fell.

They both smiled and Sweets shrugged his shoulder as though "oh well." Cam put the puzzle away having not noticed at first what Sweets had purposefully done.

"Till tomorrow Dr. Soroyan." Sweets said and Cam paused. She nodded and left because she didn't want him to see the tears of joy in her eyes.

"It's my turn now." Angela said walking Sweets room. Sweets looked up and sat his book aside. She was surprised he was reading this one much slower as he had had it a few days now, the first one he flew through. Sweets now devoted all of his attention to her.

She put a large 11x14 drawing pad in his lap and laid out some color pencils between the two of them. Angela placed her drawing pad in her lap and began to draw.

"Whatever comes to mind Sweetie." She said looking at the paper. "You seem to be doing pretty well but there's still something knocking around in that brain of yours. They say art is very therapeutic right?"

That sounded right Sweets though and he picked up a gray pencil and looked at the paper. He wasn't sure what to draw and he started to think about the philosophy or drawing and the release of one's psyche thru it. He picked up a red pencil and continued to draw. He'd learned about that from college, he recalled college, a sad and lonely teenage existence though the knowledge was fascinating.

He picked up a darker gray pencil and thought about his adoptive parents and how caring they were. That thought automatically led him back to his foster parents. He picked up the black pencil.

Last night he thought his foster father stopped in for a visit. He told him to go away, he should have been twenty years older than the image so Sweets knew he wasn't real. He stayed however though this time he didn't say anything. Sweets wanted him to go but he couldn't say so.

"Hey Sweetie, what are doing?" Angela asked as she saw Sweets drawing large heavy lines in near tears. He stared at the page so Angela looked at it too, the image was well drawn, much better than she would have guessed Sweets could draw, a conversation for another time, but the image was dark and moody. A small boy in gray crouched in a corner with red pencil over him that seemed to indicate blood. A man was in the foreground, a man who looked more like a monster.

Angela looked at Sweets who continued to stare at the image. Before she could ask a single tear tipped the edge of his eyelid.

"Sweetie." Angela said taking the pad away and turning it face down. She put her arms around Sweets and felt a wet drop hit her arm followed by another. She felt his arms return the embrace and stayed that way for a moment.

Angela felt Sweets break away and was sad for a moment when she felt him fall away but was relaxed when she saw his expression was more relaxed. Angela sat down in the chair but help her hand in Sweets.

"My foster father was very abusive." Sweets said reaching for the pad of paper with his free hand. He slowly turned it around. "His punishments were severe and extreme."

Angela worried as he seemed to be thinking back to them. Sweets turned the paper over again.

"Without him though, I suppose I wouldn't be who I am today." He said though too far away in a bad place for Angela's comfort.

"Sweetie, you are who you are despite him, not because of him. I know your psycho- babble would disagree but I think you would have always been a thoughtful, adorable, intelligent and exceptional human being. Because that's just who you are."

Sweets looked down to see Angela was still touching his hand. She was real, this was real. He nodded his head. He looked at the picture he drew and while he still drew a reverence of sadness from the memories, he no longer feared them.

"Thank you Angela." He said and she hugged him again, he hugged her back.

Booth looked in, unnoticed and breathed a deep breath of relief

"So what do you think?" Booth asked Gordon in the waiting area.

"He's improved remarkably. However they still have reservations." Gordon said and it was obvious he did not agree with said doctors.

"You've got to be kidding me." Booth said not noticing Hodgins stroll by with a large something under his arms. "After all the progress he's made?"

"Think of it this way Agent Booth, his mind is like loose thread. It's woven but it's not pulled back tight so that's it's working properly. There are still gaps between the stitches."

"So how do we bring back the stitches? Can't we work on them like, outside here?"

"I see it yes, but ask yourself this Agent Booth, how would you feel knowing Dr. Sweets was at home by himself if he left today."

Booth didn't feel comfortable with that idea though he didn't want to admit it out loud. "Well what if he went home with us."

"And felt like a child needing a babysitter?" Gordon asked. "Dr. Sweets needs to return to his life, and one that while he can have help from friends, but he can't have guardians. This isn't about the physical, it's about the mental state. His physical state is improving quite well."

"And he's only got one more day." Booth said rubbing his head as though willing the answer out.

"Hey Sweets." Hodgins said and once more Sweets set his book aside to give Hodgins his undivided attention. He shut the door behind him and Sweets was curious at what Hodgins had planned.

"You know my thing is more experiments right?" He said pulling the table close and putting an object on it. It was covered with a cloth. "This is one of the few things I could actually transport out of the lab."

Sweets scooted closer to the covered object and sat close. Hodgins noticed Sweets hadn't been coughing and was getting around well. His hands weren't even shaking anymore.

"How where is an outlet?" Hodgins asked and began crawling around on the floor. Sweets uncovered the large sphere sitting on a base. He touched the large clear glass ball. Booth was walking in the room and was curious about the big fishbowl Sweets was touching.

With his fingers still on the glass the ball sparked to life in a bright glow. In what Booth saw as electric current flashing around it he would have sworn his heart stopped beating at the thought of Sweets being exposed to electro shock, or anything that reminded him of it.

"There we are." Hodgins said standing up.

"Hodgins!" Booth shouted making both men look up at him. He lowered his voice as Hodgins came closer. "What are you doing!?"

Hodgins finally made the connection between his electric experiment and Sweets recent brushes with electricity. He panicked to turn if off when Booth touched Hodgins shoulder to halt him. They both looked at Sweets who continued to touch the ball and watch it's reactions. He glanced up at Booth whom he just noticed.

"Hey Booth, this is pretty cool, have you tried it?" Sweets asked.

Booth approached as it was the most words he's heard Sweets say since before the incident.

"No, I haven't." Booth reached up to touch it and saw the electric line follow his finger.

"It's called a plasma ball. Nikola Tesla invented it though more modern versions have come out since."

"Telsa, he did the direct current right?" Booth knew that was wrong but he was testing Sweets.

"No, alternating current. Interesting guy. People thought he was crazy too." Sweets said still mesmerized by the ball.

"You're not crazy Sweets." Booth said momentarily glancing away from the ball to Sweets but they both looked back at it. "This is electricity right?" Booth asked.

"They are noble gases with a high-voltage electrode in the middle. Plasma filaments extend from the inner electrode to the outer glass insulator giving the appearance of the beams of colored light." Hodgins explained as they both looked at Sweets who wasn't bothered at all by the electricity.

Gordon stood at the door watching and then went for the doctor.

"So what happens now?" Sweets asked as he and Gordon sat alone in Sweets room.

"We will see what the doctor says." Gordon said watching Sweets carefully. Unlike the Sweets he had been before who had little interest in his surroundings he now took it all in with a restlessness.

Gordon was about to ask him how he was feeling but decided on a different way to gauge the man's state of mind.

"Did you finish the book?" Gordon asked seeing it on the table.

"I read it four times." Sweets answered.

"Why so many?"

"I don't know." Sweets said.

"Yes you do, you knew I would ask you what character you saw yourself as. So how about it Dr. Sweets, who do you see yourself as?"

"I don't really get the point of this exercise." Sweets said.

"Oh it's not an exercise, I'm not a physiatrist anymore remember? This is just fun."

Sweets narrowed his eyes as he disseminated the question over the lie and the truth.

"Who would you be?" Sweets asked Gordon.

Gordon smiled, "Scout." He said simply then added. "Young, idealistic with much to learn. And you?"

"I think it's pretty obvious, I've turned into Boo Radley."

Gordon laughed, "on the one hand you would be the hero, saving the girl you know. But your assumption there is much too on the surface. Isn't there a slightly more idealistic character who looks to save the downtrodden?"

"Dr. Lance Sweets?" A voice asked interrupting them. "I'm Dr. Clarence Lee. I've come to evaluate you.