Booth had closed the case he had been working on earlier in the week, so he tried to finish off the piles of paperwork sitting on his desk. Even the "easy" cases swamped him with evidence to review and reports to write. It was the less glamorous side of his job. It was hard for him to concentrate when he knew his partner was in the hospital, possibly getting even worse news than they expected. Within an hour the words had started to melt together and he couldn't keep track of what he was reading.

He rubbed his temples and leant forward onto his desk, grimacing as the ache in his head got a little worse.

"Ahem."

Doctor Lance Sweets was standing in the doorway to his office, with a disappointed expression on his face. "Miss something?"

"What do you want, Sweets?" asked Booth, leaning back into his chair. "I'm pretty busy here."

Sweets looked around at the disorganized stacks of files strewn across his desk, and the few that had managed to make their way onto the floor. "I can see that."

Booth threw him a "get to the point or leave me alone" kind of look. He wasn't in the mood for a chat.

"You and Doctor Brennan missed your session this morning," said Sweets. "Any reason for that?"

"Oh, yeah, um…" said Booth, leaning forward and rubbing his unshaven chin, not sure of how much he should say. "We'll need to reschedule that."

Sweets sat in the chair opposite him. Booth sighed and closed his eyes in frustration; he had just missed the opportunity to get him out of there without a drawn-out conversation. He didn't say anything, just clenched and unclenched his jaw a few times. It didn't go unnoticed by Sweets.

After a few moments, Sweets broke the uncomfortable silence. "I'm still waiting, Agent Booth."

"For what?" said Booth, raising his eyebrows.

"For an explanation," said Sweets. "These sessions are important, and I have other agents to see."

"If you have other agents to see, then why are you still here?" asked Booth, becoming more hostile by the second.

"I'm sensing hostility from you, Agent Booth," said Sweets. "Did you and Doctor Brennan have a fight?"

"No, we did not have a fight, we're fine," growled Booth.

"Then why did you miss our session?" said Sweets.

"Because," said Booth, gritting his teeth. "We have other... stuff going on."

"What kind of 'other stuff'? I haven't been able to reach Doctor Brennan on her cell, do you know where she is?" asked Sweets. "She's usually reliable when it comes to appointments."

Booth clenched his jaw again. "She had another appointment to go to, and that's her business, alright?"

Sweets sighed. He usually found it difficult to get anything out of Booth without the presence of Doctor Brennan, and he was genuinely concerned about her, missing an appointment was indeed uncharacteristic.

Sweets stood up and closed the door, and then sat back down. Booth was now glaring at him. He didn't want to talk but Sweets felt there was something that was getting to him.

"What's going on?" asked Sweets. "There's obviously something that's bothering you, and it has something to do with Doctor Brennan. Whatever you tell me is confidential."

"Oh, yeah, Sweets, that's right, whatever I tell you is confidential," said Booth, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the word 'confidential'. "Except if you need to use it to break up our partnership."

"I have no intention of breaking up your partnership, Agent Booth. You and Doctor Brennan work extremely well together… well, most of the time… but anyway, unless your relationship has changed, crossed a line so to speak, there would be no danger of breaking up your partnership," replied Sweets.

Booth swallowed hard. They had, quite certainly, crossed that line, but right at that moment that wasn't his major concern. Right then all he was concerned about was her health, her life.

"You haven't crossed that line, have you?" asked Sweets, frowning.

"No," lied Booth. "We just… she has this thing she had to go to. At the hospital…"

That last part came out unintentionally. He regretted it as soon as he said it.

Sweets sat up straighter in his chair. "What? Is she okay? Is she ill?"

Booth shrugged, and leaned onto his desk, his running his hands through his hair. He couldn't really go back now.

"She, um," muttered Booth. "She has Hodgkin's Lymphoma."

"What? Are you serious?" asked Sweets. He knew that meant cancer.

"No, Sweets, I'm joking," said Booth sarcastically. "Of course I'm serious."

"Oh my god," said Sweets, looking shocked. "How's she taking it?"

"Okay, I guess," said Booth. "I don't know, you know what Bones is like. But you can see that your session, not really important in the scheme of things right now?"

"Yeah," said Sweets. "I'm really sorry man. Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't know, she's seeing her Oncologist today, at the hospital. Angela went with her this time," said Booth.

"This time?" Sweets was confused at the inflection he had placed on that part.

"I went with her to her first appointment," said Booth.

"You? You went with her to see an Oncologist for the first time?" asked Sweets.

"Yeah," said Booth. "And I don't like your tone."

Sweets raised his eyebrows, and Booth began glaring at him again. "That's a really personal, I mean, really personal situation for you to be a part of in Doctor Brennan's life. You must be closer to each other than I thought."

"We're tight," said Booth, his tone short. He leaned forward, trying to intimidate the young psychologist. "What are you insinuating, Sweets?"

Sweets put his hands up in surrender. "Nothing, just an observation."

"You can't tell her I told you, she wouldn't like it," said Booth. "She hasn't even told her family yet."

"Well, it's quite normal for a cancer patient to be anxious about telling the people in their lives. It's a hard thing to do, to know you're hurting your loved ones," said Sweets.

Booth found it hard to hear his Bones described as a cancer patient, but unfortunately he had to admit that that was the way it was. "Um, yeah," said Booth, not really knowing what to say.

"It must be killing you to be here and not with Doctor Brennan today, considering the depth of your feelings for her," said Sweets, knowing he was likely to get a strong reaction. He wasn't disappointed.

"I want to be with her," said Booth, clenching his jaw and pointing his pen at Sweets. "To support her."

"Well, I'm sure she has support, Agent Booth," said Sweets, swallowing hard. As much as he tried not to be intimidated by the older agent, his size and demeanour often made that difficult. "From her friends at the lab, from her father, her brother."

"But most of them don't know yet," said Booth, still hostile. "It's just me and Angela at the moment."

Sweets clenched his jaw this time, trying to think of the right way to phrase what he needed to say next. "You know we have to pull her field clearance, right? And I mean now. If Doctor Brennan is sick, then she can't be in the field. Like, at all."

Booth tapped his pen on his desk and shrugged his shoulders, looking at Sweets from beneath his creased forehead. "Not an issue yet."

"I'm sorry, Agent Booth. You know I can't knowingly let her out in the field if I'm aware of this kind of medical situation, and neither can you," said Sweets, standing up. "I have to pull her field clearance. I'm sorry."

"Just give her a little more time, okay Sweets? She hasn't started treatment yet. I'll make sure she doesn't go out in the field. I just need to be the one to tell her, when the time is right," said Booth leaning forward.

Sweets weighed up his options. His butt would be on the line if Doctor Brennan did go out in the field and got hurt because he hadn't pulled her clearance. On the other hand, Booth was likely to hurt him badly if he did pull her clearance before he got a chance to talk to her. He hated to admit it to himself, but he was more afraid of Special Agent Seeley Booth than his bosses at the FBI combined.

"Okay, Agent Booth," said Sweets, walking to the door. "I'll let you worry about that for now. I trust your judgement. You know where I am if you want to talk."

"Yeah, thanks," said Booth quietly, nodding at him. He pulled another file from the top of the stack. Sweets gave him a pitying glance before heading for the elevator.

There'll be more B/B next chapter, I wrote this one to set stuff up for later... Plus I think we need to see how Booth handles all this when he's not with Brennan.

As always, please review, it makes me happy :) :) :)