10.

If I haven't mentioned it already I don't own Bones. I don't know why the assumption would ever be that I did, but I'll add it just the same.

Sorry there have not been daily updates, hard to feel motivated. Thank you to those who have followed & reviewed.

The team knows and has decided to help secretly while the case will be officially closed.

"Hey Sweets!" Booth said walking in the door with a small white paper bag and two cups of coffee in a cardboard holder.

Sweets eyes opened though he swore he had just closed them. Carter's phone call last night did little to help him get a good night's rest. Instead he felt tired and achy, then he remembered he had good reason to be achy.

"Morning Booth." Sweets said while firmly pressing a hand against the couch to push himself as casually as possible in a sitting position. There was however nothing casual about his pain and thus little he could hide.

Sweets squeezed his eyes shut as his body awakened to the 'next day' pain of achy and sore muscles and bones. He could feel a hand on his shoulder until he was in a sitting position when he opened his eyes but of course he knew it was Booth who now sat beside him on the couch.

"That reminds me." Booth said once Sweets was in a sitting position and reached in his pocket. "Bones wanted me to give you these."

Booth put a small bottle in Sweets hand then said he would be right back. Sweets attempted to read the bottle but he hardly cared having assumed they were some sort of pain killer. While not one to generally take pain killers he was more against the many questions he would mostly likely get as to why he was walking awkwardly.

Once the bottle was finally open he shook them onto his hand but didn't know who many to take. The sight in his hand of something that would remove the agony he was feeling was tempting to take all of them.

"Bones said two." Booth said coming back in with a bottle of water.

Sweets nodded and popped two in and put the rest away. He hoped they were fast acting.

Booth picked up the white paper bag, "I know it's not a big breakfast but…"

"Thank you Booth, I really appreciate everything." Sweets said quickly and sipped on the hot and very welcomed coffee.

"Did you sleep well?" Booth asked.

No. "Yes. Thanks."

"Good I was hoping nothing would bother you." Booth said relaxing.

Just the crazy psycho called me. "No, it was a pretty quiet evening." Lance what the hell is wrong with you? Just last night you were glad you had told everyone and they were in on it. Why lie?

"Good, if that psycho comes at you again I don't care what the plan is he's out." Booth said with his temper starting to rise.

Oh yeah, that's why.

"Yeah, let's just stick to the plan and hope it works." Sweets said inspecting the pastry in the bottom of the bag. It could have been a poop pastry with pee sauce drizzled on it and he wouldn't have cared he was so hungry.

"Of course it will work." Booth said confidently as he watched the psychologist devour the pastry in a two bites. "I guess I should have gotten more of those."

Sweets grinned and changed the subject. "So I'm going to go up and to bosses and close the case, they won't be pleased I'm sure."

"Well they want results." Booth reminded him. "They are based on numbers and they don't like to see that ratio of open cases go up. But here's how we are going to play it. We'll explain we don't want to close the case at this time but there is simply no evidence to continue it. While they hate the term cold case we will tell them that we have many more cases pressing that need our attention and that we are going to focus on them but that this case file will remain on our desks and we will go back to it soon. As far as Carter knows, it's cold in the system. It's all about selling it to the bosses."

"Right." Sweets said knowing his inability to lie well.

"I'll be there to help out." Booth said standing up. "Just get dressed and we'll head up there. The sooner we get this closed the sooner we can get on the case!"

Sweets shook his head at that backwards logic at play. He hoped that Carter bought his line that the case was closed, he had a nagging suspicion that he had not.

"So sir that's why we are closing the case for now." Sweets explained with the best poker face he had mustered. He kept telling himself it was like chess, just play the face that looks like you don't know you're going to win it all.

"That's right sir." Booth chimed in. "We have currently exhausted all leads and there is a case load right now that also demands our attention."

"I know that agent Booth but right now I can't be bringing numbers to the board with his many closed cases that are unsolved."

Sweets felt his stomach tie in knots.

"Sir, we don't have the evidence to lead us anywhere. The Jeffersonian has done a thorough job." Sweets offered.

"Perhaps we should have our people look it over. Why didn't they do that in the first place?" The boss, Skinner asked.

"Overload sir." Booth offered quickly. "No offense to the victims in this case sir but they have no family. We do have other cases where loved ones are actively searching…."

"I understand that Agent Booth." Skinner said looking over the file for the fourth time. Booth could tell that Sweets was getting anxious. Sweets was pretty sure his heavy beating heart was going to bust thru his broken rib cage. If they couldn't close this case then Carter wouldn't get off his back.

"No, I'm not going to do it." Skinner said handing the file back to Sweets who felt the pastry want to rise in his stomach. "You can work actively on other cases as well but this one needs to continue investigation. Search more - find more right?"

Skinner turned his attention back to his files indicating that the conversation was done.

"Sir.." Booth said beginning to argue.

"I believe we are done here, Agent Booth. Investigating to do right?"

Sweets nodded and headed for the door though his complexion had paled considerably. Sweets knew there was no arguing to be had.

The two walked quietly down the hall not sure of who might be listening. Once they reached a quiet hallway the two stopped.

"Sweets I had no idea that would happen." Booth whispered.

"I know Booth." Sweets said rubbing his forehead. The pain pills had worked great and he was able to walk completely free of showing off his excessive pain. Not however he felt like they were wearing off.

"Do you think Skinner could be working for that ass Carter?" Booth asked. "He seemed adamant we keep it open."

Sweets considered it a moment. "That's the point though, if he was working for Carter then he could have closed it for him instead of me. Here's a beaurocrat - not sure which is worse that or the criminal."

"Right." Booth said agreeing. "Okay, well we tell Carter that the boss won't let us close it but that's even better - it can sit open under your name for a long time and then you have control over it."

The look on Sweets face wasn't one of conviction and certainty.

"It'll work." Booth assured him.

"Right." Sweets said heading back to his office.

Sweets knew he needed to continue to work on the case as they planned but he couldn't take his eyes off his cell phone - he waited for it to ring, he knew Carter would call.

The pain killers were making him feel pretty good so he tried to relax and start to work. You can always just live at the office - yeah that won't signal to Carter that anything is wrong. Sweets rubbed his head seeing nothing good coming out of the whole situation. It wasn't even noon and he didn't want to spend the day in brooding and despair so he decided to check in and see if Angela had found anything under her heavy shield of computer trickery.

"Hey Sweets, how are you feeling?" Angela said answering the phone.

"Better, thanks." Sweets said eyeing the pain killer bottle. Yum. Nope, let's not get addicted too. "Are we safe on the phone?"

"So far it looks like he's only able to tap into the computer system to see what searches are brought up on him or on the case so it's not an internal hack on the FBI system so the phones should be safe." Angela relayed. "He's not really a computer genius but he may have people working for him. Either way I've got signals bouncing just about everywhere so we can work undercover."

"Sounds complicated."

"Not for me." Angela said and added a teasing laugh to suggest she was joking. The atmosphere of the conversation though put Sweets at ease almost as much as the drugs. "So far what I found is that Tallie Roberts ran away from home at 16. Her parents didn't file a police report or anything at that time, they finally did a few weeks ago."

"Why would they wait so long?" Sweets mused and hoped Angela had some insight.

"My guess is she was about to turn 18 and it would be their last chance in getting help to find her." Angela reported. "But why wait two years, wait you said you had some notes from McLaughlin?"

"Yeah, he was hired by Tallie's parents - she ran away from home, problem child with drugs and stuff. Apparently about six months after she ran away she would contact them from burner cells to say hello and that she was fine. Seemed that living in the real world gave her a little more perspective on how hard life was. She wasn't ready to go home though because she wouldn't tell them where she was. One day she stopped checking in and that's when they hired McLaughlin and I'm guessing when they stopped hearing from him they filed the police report."

"Any clues on where she was?"

"She was working in a diner where truckers stop in." Sweets said thinking. "I'm going to do some digging there."

Sweets hung up and looked at McLaughlin's notes about the small diner Tallie Roberts worked in. Sweets knew by him finding information Carter wouldn't catch him - it was only when he looked up Carter's information that the psycho had been tipped off. Still the tingling in his side and nightmare of chest burns and cuts kept him from picking up the phone. If you don't find out something you will like this forever, this case has to end. Sweets picked up the phone and called the diner and told him he was a private detective. If anyone at the diner by chance was one of Carter's people, well Sweets wanted to be covered, if McLaughlin was gone he could work under the guise of a new detective on the job. Soon Sweets was connected with the owner of the diner.

"No, we didn't have a Tallie Roberts here, but we did have another detective looking for her." The woman on the phone reported. "I think he was looking for the same gal we had here though, Callie Thompson."

Not only did Sweets figure that if McLaughlin was on the right track, but Tallie probably took the name Callie to sound the same thus, she would easily respond when called upon.

"We haven't seen her in a few months." The lady continued. "She just stopped coming in one day."

"Was there anything strange about that day?" Sweets asked now wondering if Carter had something to do with the disappearance of the young woman as well. Up until now he just figured she was outside the case.

"It's not uncommon for people to work here and leave." She said in a bored tone.

"You didn't have issue with hiring a minor?" Sweets asked.

"Minor what do you mean?"

"Tallie Roberts only recently turned 18." Sweets knew the woman though she had hired an older girl and from the photo Angela had found, Tallie Roberts easily passed for her early twenties. However Sweets got the desired response - the lady was now extremely eager to help.

"Look, I don't want any trouble - I didn't know that." The lady said adamantly.

"Well look, I'm interested in finding the girl, her parents are looking for her. They might be a little upset to know…"

"I wanna help. I do!" The lady was now far more attentive to the conversation. "I hadn't thought nothing of it but the day she disappeared she took a ride from one of the truckers that stopped in."

Sweets spidey senses stood on end. "What can you tell me about him?"

"I don't know names or nothing but young guy, regular, bum leg from a bunch of Harey Carey stuff."

"Thank you, you've been very helpful." Sweets said hanging up to call Booth.

"Booth here."

"Booth!" Sweets said excitedly. "Tallie Roberts was last seen leaving the diner with Carl Sager."

"Presumably Sager gets pulled over by Carter." Booth said thinking along.

"So what did Carter do with Tallie Roberts…" Sweets said leading Booth into the next question.

"Do we have another body?" Booth wondered.

"I don't think so, call it a gut feeling."

"That's my boy!" Booth said. "So what are you thinking?"

"They aren't good thoughts."

"What about the evidence they pulled from the truck?" Booth asked.

"I'm going to find out now." Sweets said turning his attention to calling Cam at the Jeffersonian.

"Cam, have you gone thru any of the evidence found at the truck?" Sweets asked, his adrenaline mounting.

"No." She said but sensed his interest was important. "I can get Hodgins on it. Am I looking for anything in particular?" Cam asked heading towards Hodgins.

"Tallie Roberts, the missing girl McLaughlin was looking for - was in the truck with him, at least that's what it sounds like may have happened. I'd like to see if anything found could verify it."

"It was found in a swamp right?" Cam asked.

"Yes but they did collect samples." Sweets said.

"We're on it." Cam said hanging up.

Sweets let out a breath, he felt like he was finally getting somewhere. Then he glanced at his phone blinking red. Missed call. He had been so busy on the phone he hadn't heard it ring and had the volume turned down since his meeting that morning with the boss. Sweets tried to keep his hand from trembling as he picked it up. Same phone number as that morning, Carter. Do I call it back? He wondered what the protocol of the psycho was. As though reading his mind the phone rang again.

"Hello." Sweets said in as even of a tone as he could muster.

"Busy doing something agent?" Carter's icy tone asked. Sweets decided that was in reference to his missing the call and not still working on the case.

"Yes, I was talking to the boss." Sweets said.

"Yes, I see that your promise of the case being dropped has not been fulfilled." Sweets remembered that Carter could see the open case access.

"I know, as I said I was in a long meeting with the boss. He wants to keep it open." Sweets knew he couldn't lie so he didn't try.

"That is not…"

"It's better." Sweets said interrupting Carter. "As an open case it will be assigned to me for a time, I can control where the investigation goes. I can be sure it goes nowhere near you."

There was silence on the other end of the phone. Sweets got a new idea, one that allowed himself more freedom.

"They refused to close the case - they want their numbers to look good and closed/unsolved cases don't help." Sweets was trying to keep calm, he was building his pitch. "Which is good for us."

"Pray tell." Carter said, menace in his tone.

"Because I plan to close it." Sweets said feeling a certain boldness that came from inside a heavily secure building. He did intend to close it and put Carter behind bars, but he wanted more than to win the battle and lose the war in a pissing match with Carter at the moment. "I've got to do some more work on the case but I've already got a patsy."

"What are you saying?" Carter asked and Sweets could sense the tight line he was walking. It was at that moment that Booth chose to walk in the door. Sweets put his finger to his lips and Booth quickly obliged at saying nothing.

"The best way to get this done and gone away is to arrest someone for it." Sweets explained. The bosses will be happy and you will be happy as it will not be you behind bars." Sweets explained. "I've got a guy in mind, I just need a little time to frame him for it, get the evidence placed on him. He's a drug addict, he doesn't know what he's done half the time anyway."

The phone was silent for a moment and Sweets waited impatiently for an answer while avoiding Booth's scowling brow. Finally Carter let out a chuckle.

"You're not half bad at this kid. Maybe I got the wrong impression of you. Maybe I should be hiring you instead of beating you into submission. Here I took you for a straight and narrow sort of guy."

"Oh you never know what I'm up to." Sweets said.

"You've got 24 hours kid." Carter said and hung up upon which Sweets dropped the phone and let out a heavy sigh he had been holding in. While he had been giving the impression of a calm and collected person he was shaking at the prospect of Carter not buying into it. He rubbed his eyes and when he opened them he recalled Booth was there, only now he was next to him at his desk with his phone in his hand.

"What are you…" Sweets began to say as Booth looked at the number.

"Looks like this isn't the first call from Carter you got today."

Crap.

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