Authors' Note: Next chapter. Again, sorry for the delay. Both of us have had crazy schedules this month.
We do not own Bones or any of its characters.
Thank you to everyone who is reading/following/reviewing this. Both of us are very grateful for the support. :)
-Lessthansign3: Actually we had read that interview with Michael Terry, and yes, it was one of the things that planted the seed for this fic. But we had also started planning this fic not long after the Season Five finale, so there was a lot that was unknown about Sweets' and Daisy's future at that point. As for the seriousness of Swaisy's relationship, even with our theories, we actually do think that their relationship was serious. We are certain that Sweets was very serious when he proposed, but we also believe that he sensed potential issues and was trying to ignore them instead of face them. Much like Angela and Hodgins did at one point. And as for Daisy...we think she was as serious as she could be at that point in her life, but the fact remains that she was clearly more focused on her career than on Sweets. But again we are going to take a wait-and-see approach for now. Thanks for coming along for the ride into our little AU world. :D -D: Haha. :D We do always love your reviews. But as this chapter shows, things are just starting to get complicated...
-Super Ario: Rotten? Perhaps. But is it human nature? Very much so from our experiences. We think that this time where the team separated brought forth all kinds of unexpected results in how everyone acts and feels. It certainly seems to be true on the actual show, and we think it shows up here in our fic. And unfortunately as we mentioned previously, things are only going to get more complex from here... -Peanutmeg: Thanks for the review as always. Both of us love to write from inside Sweets' mind, so it's fun for us to work in so much internal dialogue for him. We hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
The Shade in the Heart—Chapter 10
Sweets knew that something was wrong, but, as he often did these past few months, he chose to ignore it.
The psychologist had noticed that Wendell was acting increasingly distant and awkward around him for the last two weeks, but he hadn't put much consideration into at first. Over time it became harder to ignore, and Sweets found himself contemplating the situation when he had a few moments of spare time in his office.
In the back of his mind, Sweets knew that he hadn't been the same ever since Daisy came back. The therapist had done everything he could to brace himself for her return, but it had proved to be futile. He felt like he had to start from square one in his quest to move on from his feelings from her.
Sweets suspected that the gloom and introspection that was his usual demeanor these days had finally gotten to his roommate.
'I can't blame Wendell for wanting to avoid all this,' he thought to himself. 'It's depressing and it involves people he has to work with. Who would want to step into that kind of mess?'
The thought that his inability to get over his feelings could be alienating Wendell frustrated Sweets. As a psychologist, he had been trained to look beyond the surface of emotions and thought patters and to go deeper to find the root of dysfunctional behaviors. And this issue with Daisy certainly qualified as dysfunctional behavior.
But every time he tried to find a therapeutic answer to his problems, Sweets found himself stymied, unable to get around the same tired obstacles of insecurities and doubts that had plagued him for pretty much his entire life.
Realizing that he was making no headway in his personal life, Sweets decided instead to focus on work and on the return of his friends. Both presented their own challenges.
Earlier that week, Brennan was able to make a breakthrough on the case of the body at the bottom of the cliff. With Brennan returning to the Jeffersonian, fresh insights were quickly being made. While spending an entire night examining the bones in the ooky room, the anthropologist had made an important discovery.
"This break at the mid-point of the left femur is much older than the other fractures," she said. "The remodeling indicates that it happened when the victim was about ten or twelve years old…In fact if you look closely, you can see where a surgical pin was embedded in the bone at one point."
The other interns had been disappointed that they hadn't found that themselves, but Brennan admitted that it was not an easy find.
"The pin is missing, which is why it did not show up on any X-rays," she explained. "When the body hit the rocks and was subsequently tossed about by the tides, the pin must have been dislodged and then it fell out through another crack in the femur and was lost."
Even without the pin though, Cam was able to rule out the missing son of the senator who had been giving her so many headaches.
'At least this gives Cam one less thing to worry about,' Sweets had thought to himself.
A couple days later, Angela had examined the pottery shard in evidence in an attempt to digitally re-create some possible objects that it could have come from when she made a discovery of her own.
"This piece is not just Japanese," Angela said. "I'm positive that it's a shard from a piece that was probably made in the early 1600s in the same style as Nonomura Ninsei."
"How can you be so exact with just one shard?" Cam asked her.
"Well, when I did my computer re-productions based off its shape and the design, most of the possibilities looked like pieces that were attributed to him," the artist answered. "I sort of dated a guy who was obsessed with Ninsei and Edo period ceramics. Trust me, the only way I could have learned more about this kind of art is if I worked in a Japanese museum."
"I'll bet that this was one relationship that didn't last very long," the pathologist smiled.
"Yeah but…let's just say that there was more to him at times than pottery," Angela grinned back. "Especially after some sake…Ah, memories."
The combination of Edo period pottery and the broken leg in childhood made it so that they were able to narrow down the possibilities from the missing persons' database. It turned out that the victim was a man named Chase Farber, who was pursuing a masters degree in archeology with a minor in art history at a university close to DC. At first, everyone was elated to have finally identified the victim.
That is until Brennan reminded everyone that a cause of death had still not been found, and after Booth started looking into the victim's personal life.
The day after they had identified the victim, Booth had burst into Sweets' office with a stack of small, spiral notebooks in his hands.
"Look at this, Sweets," Booth huffed as he sat down on the couch. "When I searched the victim's apartment, I found not one, not two, but three 'little black books'. The guy was a relentless player."
The psychologist took one of the books from Booth's hands and started to flip through it. The cover was worn from heavy use and every line in the address book was filled with women's names, phone numbers, addresses and even email addresses. Toward the end of each entry were some symbols along with letters and numbers that seemed to be some kind of code.
"So…we could possibly be looking at dozen of suspects," Sweets mumbled as he read through the names.
"Exactly," the agent sighed. "And this doesn't even include friends, classmates, family…."
"Well…I can try to sort through this while you work on those other leads," Sweets offered. "I'll just need a copy of the victim's phone records if at all possible."
"No problem…and hey, thanks Sweets," Booth grinned as he patted his back. "Call me if you find anything useful."
The task turned out to be a formidable one, but Sweets relished the distraction and ended up spending most of his spare time sifting through the address books for anything that stood out along with trying to crack the victim's code. Once in a while, he thought again about the situation with Wendell and his feelings for Daisy, but Sweets tried to attribute his anxiety to his nagging concerns for Booth and the rest of the Jeffersonian team.
Not that that was much comfort.
Ever since the team returned from their various forms of sabbatical, Sweets had noted that there was a lack of cohesion within the group.
Cam was still stressed over the many transitions the lab had undergone during that year and was still making adjustments since Brennan, Hodgins, and Angela had returned to the Jeffersonian. Between that and spending more time with Paul and Michelle, the pathologist did not seem as interested in re-connecting with the rest of her team.
Angela and Hodgins were solid in the bliss of their matrimonial state, especially with the recent discovery of the artist's pregnancy. But they were often too preoccupied with each other to pay much attention to the others around them.
And at the core of it all was the strained, awkward relationship that had developed between Brennan and Booth.
They still managed to work together as an effective, functional unit on cases, and once in a while, Sweets observed them launching into one of their colorful, "bickering" talks again. But then a word would be out of place, or a glance lasted too long, and the conversation would immediately shut down.
'They can work together…but none of them really are together,' Sweets pondered. 'That spark…that deeply rooted camaraderie…it's not there anymore.'
When he wasn't hard at work on the Farber case, Sweets was consumed with his search to find ways to ease the malaise that had invested the Jeffersonian. The combination of the two tasks made it possible for the psychologist to put his personal problems on the back burner for the most part. It helped….even it if didn't really resolve anything.
After almost a week of work, Sweets had finally managed to come up with a plausible key to the code that the victim used and had compiled a list of names which had stood out in his examination.
Sweets finished up with his appointments for the day and decided to swing by the Jeffersonian with his results. He knew that Booth would be stopping by there, so he figured that he could confer with him there. Plus, the psychologist was curious to see how the case was progressing on the forensic end.
In the end though, Sweets knew that part of the reason he wanted to go was so that he could visit with everyone in the lab. Even with their unaddressed issues, the therapist found that he was happiest when he was surrounded by his friends.
As he walked into the Medico-Legal lab, Sweets spotted Cam signing some forms the lab techs had given her.
"Good evening, Dr. Saroyan," he grinned at her. "Any progress on the Farber case?" Cam smiled back and walked over to him after she finished with the forms.
"Dr. Brennan is still working on cause of death," the pathologist said. "She's not entirely convinced that the fall is what killed him. Wendell is looking over the remains right now in the ooky room….Is that for Booth?"
"Yes," Sweets said, holding up his file along with the address books. "I went over Farber's…um….social network and found some people Booth might want to talk to."
"Well he should be here any minute," Cam said. "But right now, I need to go over some stuff that Hodgins sent me…."
"Oh, of course," Sweets said. "I will talk to you later." He watched as Cam walked off and looked up toward the balcony over the forensic platform.
'Maybe I'll just grab some coffee while I wait for Booth…'
Meanwhile Angela was walking with Hodgins to talk to Brennan. The entomologist had found some particulates that were of interest on Farber's skull and was going to go over his results with her. Angela ended up walking with him simply because she enjoyed having a reason to spend a little extra time with him and because they had nothing else to do.
As they approached Brennan's office, the anthropologist was walking out.
"Hey Dr. B, got some results for you from the mass spec," Hodgins said. He started to explain that he found some traces of minerals in the samples he had taken from the skull as all three of them walked toward the ooky room. As they reached the doorway though, all of them were startled by a distinctive high-pitched laugh and voice.
The three of them walked in to see Daisy planting a giant kiss on an only slightly reluctant Wendell.
"Oh…my…" Hodgins started.
"Oh God…awkward, awkward, very awkward," Angela began to chant.
"Miss Wick, what are you doing here?" Brennan asked. "You are not scheduled to work this week."
"Dr. Brennan!" Daisy gasped, whirling around.
"Dr. Brennan…um Daisy was stopping by to remind me about…uh," Wendell spluttered.
"Dinner…tonight," Daisy finished for him. "And we sort of…um got carried away."
"Well…I need the results from your exams," Brennan continued, seemingly unaffected by what she had just seen. Hodgins and Angela, having been stunned into silence, quickly took off.
"Um…I left the file in Hodgins' office," Wendell mumbled as he edged out of the room. "I'll…I'll just go and get it."
"And I should be going too," Daisy said, backing out of the room.
Brennan nodded and watched them leave for a moment before turning her attention back to the bones that had been laid out.
As they walked, Wendell was still trying to regain his composure from the events that just occurred.
"Sorry," Daisy said. "I know that that wasn't really the best way for everyone to find out about us."
"It's ok, Daisy," Wendell assured her, putting his arms back around her. "They would have found out eventually anyway. I suppose we were just delaying the inevitable….But, I think we should keep things professional here at work."
"You're so right," she beamed, leaning in to kiss him again.
They were so wrapped up in their kiss they didn't hear Booth and Cam walk up to them.
"What the…?" Cam stuttered.
They also did not hear Sweets approach from the opposite direction…until it was too late.
At first, Sweets was frozen in place. He just could not comprehend what he was seeing in front of him. As soon as the initial shock wore off, though, a variety of feelings slammed into him…none of them good.
'This…this is why he's…he's been…'
'Daisy…she's moved on…with Wendell…with my roommate…'
'How long…how long have they been…?'
Unable to cope with the scene anymore, Sweets dropped the things he was carrying and sprinted off. Everyone was silent and still, not knowing what to do.
Everyone except Booth. He swiftly scooped up Sweets' things and ran after the psychologist, stopping for only a second to scowl at Wendell and Daisy. He ran out toward the parking lot and managed to catch up with Sweets, who was fumbling with the keys to his car. Startled by the agent's approach, Sweets dropped the keys to the ground and leaned against the car.
"Booth…I…I can't," Sweets gasped, teetering closer and closer to losing control. Booth sat the file and address books down onto the hood of Sweets' car and took the therapist by the shoulders, forcing him to face him.
"All right, listen to me…You're going to get through this, ok?" Booth said. "You're going to get into my car. I'm going to take you to the Founding Fathers and get you a tall, stiff drink. If you don't want to talk, we can go over the stuff you've got for me from the case."
Sweets shook his head wordlessly, tears brimming in his eyes, but Booth just tightened his grip on the psychologist's shoulders.
"No, this is not optional, Sweets," Booth told him. "You're coming with me right now, you got that? Do you understand?"
"I understand," Sweets said, his voice wobbly. Booth released him and patted his arms.
"Ok, now let's go," the agent said. "We'll start with that drink because I think it's what you need the most right now."