Feel the pressure caving in

Just a prelude to the end

I couldn't stop it if I tried

Happens time and time again

Human nature carries on

We aren't lovers

We are friends.

~Caveman – Dayplayer~

*~*~*

1 Month, 1 Week earlier

"Why does it have to be so cold outside?"

Sammy was currently sitting in Sweets' office chair, spinning around and trying to read as she did so. Sweets, on the other hand, was lying down on his couch, attempting to sleep but failing.

The FBI building was currently the victim of a city-wide power failure, which had resulted when one of the power stations was struck by lightning – Sweets had to wonder what the chances of that were – and failed, therefore causing a cascade failure. In the dead of winter, a city-wide power failure was probably one of the worst things that could happen, and the two had decided that since warm air rises, they should stay in Sweets' office on the top floor of the building instead of venturing to other floors and risking hypothermia.

Unfortunately for them, everyone else had the same idea, and the rest of their floor was buzzing with noise.

The power failure had also caused the cell phones to stop working, along with any phone that relied on built-in caller ID. Several agents had resorted to using phones from earlier decades, but the lack of technology in the building was causing mass chaos.

He wondered how bad it was at the Jeffersonian, and then shuddered at the thought of the squints being subjected to freezing temperatures and no electricity, which meant no security cameras – inevitable mass destruction.

He hoped they would have enough common sense to stay away from the museum this time.

As if they had all read his mind, the various squints and Booth walked into his office at that moment, dressed in winter clothes. He jumped off the couch, trying to figure out what he was going to do with the 7 people who had now claimed his office as their own.

"Well, normally I'd be really mad about all of you marching in here at once, but you know what? I've given up. You people are impossible to deal with. Completamente impossibile." Sweets said, switching to Italian with his last statement.

"We couldn't stay at the Jeffersonian. With the heater not on, the temperatures would have dropped below freezing and everyone would most likely develop some form of hypothermia, which given the fact that the hospitals currently are running on emergency power would just be taxing to them, and since your office is at the top floor of a building still on emergency power, we made a group decision to come here." Brennan stated calmly.

"And you expect this to be any more entertaining than a freezing cold lab filled with dead bodies?"

"Yes."

"I can't help you. If you didn't notice, I was trying to sleep before my office was raided by you people."

"If you were trying to sleep then why is Sammy here?"

"She doesn't like being alone. She can handle not talking, but she can't be alone or else she goes crazy and tries to burn down my kitchen." Sweets said the last part of his statement in a very accusatory tone, directed towards the smiling blonde in the office chair.

"I didn't try to burn it down. Oil is just very flammable." Sammy defended herself, smiling too much to be considered innocent.

"You poured it on the floor!"

"I put out the fire."

"After half the floor was destroyed!"

"I cleaned it up."

"No, you didn't. You hid it with a rug."

"I consider that cleaning."

"Just like you consider getting rid of all the furniture in my living room and moving it to the garage creating storage space for the hundreds of boxes you put there?"

"That was your idea, not mine!"

"I was being sarcastic when I said that we should get rid of the furniture to make space for the boxes!"

"I'm not the one who put a hundred boxes in my house!"

"I told you, I needed them there because I hadn't rented a storage room yet!"

"Why didn't you just rent a storage room first before putting so many boxes in your house?"

"Because I don't know where any are!"

"No, sapere esattamente dove sono, voi idiota!" Sammy retorted, and with that their argument switched languages, their shouting growing increasingly louder, leaving everyone else staring at the two in a mixture of shock and amusement – needless to say who had what expression on their face.

"Okay, this is just hilarious." Angela said, watching as Sammy and Sweets got within inches of each other, with Sammy standing on the chair so that she could be eye level with the psychologist, in order to shout more loudly.

"I don't get it. Why is it hilarious?" Brennan asked, completely confused.

"They're acting like an old married couple, Bones. That's why." Booth explained.

"I was thinking more along the lines of teenagers." Angela added.

"Dating teenagers." Booth added. This snapped the two in question out of their bilingual argument.

"We aren't dating." They said simultaneously.

"Sure." Angela said sarcastically. "What with the way you never shut up about Sweets when we're at home, nobody would think that." The last statement was directed towards Sammy, who turned a deep crimson.

"I think they'd make a cute couple." Booth added. Sammy was turning an even darker crimson, which until seconds ago didn't even seem physically possible.

"She's blushing." Angela stated, smiling.

"I'm not blushing." Sammy retorted.

"Yes you are."

Sammy hid her face, muttering incoherently. Sweets just faced everyone, rocking back and forth on his heels.

"Well, this is awkward." He finally said, just as the power kicked back on, effectively getting rid of the unwelcome visitors. Sighing, he walked back over to his couch and lay down. He probably would have fallen asleep if it weren't for Sammy suddenly asking, "Was I really blushing?"

"Yes. Now let me sleep." He said, before rolling over. Just before he was about to finally fall asleep, something Angela had said earlier finally clicked in his mind.

"Wait a second, Sammy, you talk about me with Angela?" He shot up, looking completely dumbfounded.

"Well…"

There was an awkward silence as he stared at the blonde, who was turning crimson again.

"Sammy." The shock in his voice was evident.

"Hey, I'm a teenage girl. What am I supposed to talk about, fluffy bunnies and quantum physics?"

"Those two things aren't even remotely related."

"I'm fully aware of that."

"Why do you talk about me?"

"Because I hang out with you all the time and Angela asked me if we were dating so I was explaining to her that we weren't dating and it ended up in a 30 minute long conversation."

Sweets just stared.

"Granted the fact that I was the one doing most of the talking."

More staring.

"Did I tell you that tomorrow's my birthday?"

"Nice change of subject."

"Really? Thanks."

"I have to go do… important stuff now. Stay here and don't mess with anything."

"Okay."

With that, Sweets walked out of his office, making sure he remembered to grab his jacket before leaving.

*~*~*

"Angela, what do you get a psychopath for their birthday?" Sweets asked, not bothering to greet anyone as he walked onto the forensics platform.

"I detest that phrase." Zack said from where he was sitting in the corner, reading a huge textbook.

"You aren't a psychopath, though."

"Are you forgetting the fact that I was very recently released from a mental institution?"

"I'm not forgetting that anytime soon, considering that I'm one of the people who busted you out of there."

"You're being metaphoric, correct?"

"Yes. Angela, you haven't answered my question yet."

"Okay. First off, who is the psychopath we're talking about?" Angela asked.

"I still detest that phrase!"

"We know, Zack."

"I'm talking about Sammy."

Angela couldn't help herself; she started laughing, eventually falling onto her knees and clutching her stomach as she struggled to breathe, and failing, fell backwards so that she was lying on her back, laughing harder than anyone would have thought possible.

"Oh God… you…Sammy…psycho….birthday…I can't…breathe." Angela struggled to say, her voice cracking as she continued to laugh.

"Are you alright?" Zack remained completely oblivious as to why Angela was laughing so hard. His time in the institution had made him even more oblivious, if anything.

"You two…complete idiots!" Angela managed to gasp, still on her back laughing.

"You still haven't told me what to get Sammy for her birthday!" Sweets protested.

Several minutes later, Angela finally managed to calm herself down and stood up, dusting off her jeans before looking Sweets in the eye.

"Buy her jewelry and ask her out." She said, managing to remain dead serious despite how hard she had been laughing earlier.

"But…"

"Do it."

"Why?"

"Because you two are almost as perfect for each other as Booth and Brennan, and none of you realize it, so you have to ask her out or else I'll find some horrible way to blackmail you, which may or may not require other people helping me. Am I understood?"

"But-"

"Am I understood?!"

"Yes." With that, Sweets disappeared. The moment he left, Angela lost it again and fell over laughing. Zack just raised an eyebrow before going back to reading his book – The Human Skeletal Structure – and deciding that nothing made sense anymore.

*~*~*

The Next Day

*~*~*

He should have expected her to be in his office when he got to work the next morning, smiling mischievously.

"Happy 18th birthday."

"Thanks. I hope you got me a better present than Angela." Sammy jumped off the desk, which she had been sitting on, and walked up to him. "She got me a pack of cigarettes, a lottery ticket, and a condom, and said that I should enjoy my 18th birthday the right way."

"I should have warned you."

"She also told me what she told you yesterday." Oh shit, he thought to himself..

"What all did she say?" He asked, almost scared to know what the artist had said.

"She told me that she told you to ask me out."

He cursed mentally, gulping nervously. "And?"

"I accept."

He smiled, then handed her the present before rushing off to beg for Booth's help and to yell at a certain blackmailing artist.

*~*~*

A/N: And so continues my psychotic ramblings. As stated earlier, Sammy's character is a combination of my own and my friend Samantha's personalities, while she mainly has Samantha's demeanor and looks. Anyway, since I'm only… (double checks) 6 chapters away from finishing, and since I've managed to write 4 chapters in the past 3 days, I not only deserve reviews, but I think you should know that I'm planning on writing A SEQUEL. These words have terrified many a seasoned author, but I am a very stubborn Irish-Scottish author currently residing in Florida, which was colder than DC this morning, and I refuse to step down from such a challenge! I mean, I'm writing this, aren't I? Review.