Sweets looked far more nervous when she and Booth rejoined him in the living room, but she took her seat with her head held high, and appraised him calmly, just waiting for him to dare and comment on her swift disappearance a few moments ago.

He cleared his throat.

"Um... alright, so, I'll... continue?"

"Go ahead," she said with a nod. If there was more to this 'profile'he was coming up with, they might as well here it sooner rather than later. While she still hated psychology, if it might help at all in this situation... well, she would listen to it. She wasn't going to admit it, but this whole situation where their enemy was unknown and watching... it panicked her and if a shrink could tell her more, and it made sense... well then, for once she was going to be all for it. But just this once.

"We were just talking about... how our suspect might have been involved in your abduction and assault." He was watching her for reaction, probably worried she might get up and run off again, and she stared back until he flicked his eyes away and cleared his throat again. "Knowing that, we can, uh... predict his future behavior."

At that, she stiffened, but kept her expression neutral. Booth, sitting close beside her, felt the shift and tightened his grip around her shoulders. She would have offered him a grateful smile, but her eyes were still locked on Sweets, waiting for him to continue.

"Already, we know that he's starting to... plan. The camera in your hallway is proof of that. The fact that there weren't any cameras inside your apartment, though, tells us something else about him. Initially, I thought of two reasons why that might be. First off, he might simply lack the skills to break in unnoticed and make the plant. I have reason to think that it's my second theory, though. I believe he doesn't want to know what your life is like inside of your apartment. Seeing you enter and leave... that would satisfy his urge to control you, because he knows where you are. I wouldn't have been surprised if he had planted a tracking device on your car, but those were searched as well and didn't turn anything up. You see, if he had put cameras within these walls," he gestured around them, "Then he would be seeing you as the happy couple that he doesn't want to see. He wants you to be horrible together. He thinks that he is the perfect match for you, Dr. Brennan, and he won't stand anything else. Which leads to my next theory.

"His involvement in your abduction would have been minimal. He feeds off the need to control, and..." he met her eyes seriously, "Rape is a very powerful form of control."

She didn't say anything, and Booth seemed to take this as his opportunity to speak. "So what does he want with her, then?" the question and the last statement by Sweets were a dangerous combination, and she fought to keep herself calm. She didn't know if she'd be able to handle it if Sweets told her that this stalker wanted to 'control' her the way that Roberts and Gados had. If there was one things she knew better than anything, it was that she would not survive if she had to go through it again. She just... wouldn't.

And what about the baby?

"I don't believe that this man has plans to sexually assault Dr. Brennan." The breath of relief that she let out was loud enough that Sweets paused before hurriedly plowing on as if to pretend he hadn't noticed. "However, I do think that he wants to control her in his own way." The fact that he was speaking to Booth now rather than her was frustrating, and she leaned forward in an attempt to insert herself in the conversation. On instinct, Sweets eyes flicked to meet hers, and he carried on, "He may try to abduct you, and make you some sort of... companion to him. See, he thinks you are in love." He tapped the emails. "That's why he sees you 'ignoring' him as this huge betrayal, and he can't handle it. I don't doubt, though, that he might... resort to certain extremes if he met with resistance."

"Such as?" she questioned.

"If the situation were to arise where you held captive by this man—If, Booth, I didn't say when—then it is super important that you play along with whatever he wants. If you resisted him, or insulted him in any way... he might very well resort to the same form of control that he learned was... effective."

A shudder passed through her, and Booth's hand rubbing up and down her back was the only thing that kept her grounded as he went onwards yet again.

"When you were first abducted, you received a phone call. I believe that there is every chance some sort of bug was placed in the Jeffersonian to monitor whether or not you spoke with anyone before leaving. Most likely, it was audio based rather than visual, but it could have been both. It might even still be in place, which is why having the Jeffersonian swept is a very good idea. Placing this bug and monitoring it would probably have been the suspect's main contribution. I don't think he was anywhere near the house you were brought to."

She nodded, not trusting her voice at all. Here she had thought that it was over, and she could focus on moving on, focus on being with Booth, focus on having this child... and instead the past was coming up all over again. Just like it always seemed to do with her. She didn't know how much more of her past she could handle. Why didn't it ever leave her alone?

"I'm going to have a protection detail set up," Booth said firmly. "You're staying with Angela and Hodgins anyways, until this is over, but they'll be following you everywhere no matter what."

"I don't think that's a very good idea, Booth."

"Why not?" he snapped at the psychologist, eyes blazing.

Sweets wet his lips nervously with his tongue, and then answered in as firm a voice as he could probably muster, "Because, whoever this is has a quick temper. If he found every access to her blocked, he would lose it. You work for the FBI the same as I do, and I know you don't have to be a psychologist to understand how a stalker profiler works."

Booth continued to glare, and she reached out to hesitantly touch his arm. "Booth?" He sighed, but didn't answer the unspoken question. "What does that mean?" she asked, worry starting to creep into her voice.

"It's classic stalker behavior; I've seen it far too often. It's how they operate... they invest themselves in their target... make themselves believe that they'll have this... perfect life with them. And when it doesn't work out the way they want..." He trailed off, and she frowned. If Booth knew all this, why did they need Sweets? And why hadn't he spoken up sooner?

But Sweets answered that question for her with his next words.

"If it doesn't work out the way they want, then the only thing the stalker feels they can do is kill their target."

"I'm not going to get shot," she snapped irritably as he eyed the surrounding buildings carefully as they drove towards Hodgins' neighborhood. He'd been acting suspicious of everyone they saw, and had practically pulled his gun on a guy that was looking for directions.

"Yeah, well, I'm not ready to take the risk of letting my guard down, Bones."

"Out of curiosity," she said suddenly, switching the topic on him, "Why didn't we tell Sweets that I'm pregnant?"

"Because it's none of his business," Booth answered tersely.

"Wouldn't it help his profile, though? I mean... Booth, he seems to understand stalker behavior fairly well. If... if whoever this was did know that I was pregnant... it might change how he..." she shook her head, trying to fight off the fears but failing. "Booth, I don't want to lose this child," she whispered.

He pulled to a stop in the driveway, putting the vehicle in park and giving her his full attention, his eyes soft and reassuring. "Bones, I already told you that I wasn't going to let him hurt you, or our baby."

"And how do you propose to protect our child from a bullet?" she snapped back.

"Oh, so now you think you're going to get shot?"

She glared at him furiously, sputtering but not coming up with a good response, and then she yanked the door open and slammed it shut behind her, grabbing her bag of belongings from the back and storming up towards the house.

"Bones! Bones!" She heard him shouting, heard his door slam and his pounding footsteps, but she didn't slow her long strides down in the slightest. She was stressed enough as it was. She didn't need this right now on top of everything else.

He grabbed her arm and spun her around to face him.

"I love you," he murmured seriously. "Bones, I love you so much that sometimes it terrifies me. And right now, I'm pretty goddamn terrified, because I can't lose you and live through it."

"And I can't lose you!" she shot back. "So stop trying to protect me, because I swear to God, Seeley Booth, if you get yourself killed saving my life, I will bring you back from the dead and kill you again for leaving me."

Her words, laced with so much venom, froze him in place, eyes wide with shock.

"Is that what this is about? Is that why you're so upset with me?"

"Why do you think I'm upset? You already died once on me, for God's sake! And here you are, promising over and over and over that you won't let anything hurt me. Well if you get hurt it will hurt me. And you just can't seem to understand that because you are a controlling alpha male and you think you're the only one in this relationship that's allowed to be worried about the other."

He was still staring at her, dumbstruck, when she spun on her heel and started towards the door again. By now, she was sure Angela and Hodgins were observing from one of their many windows, but she really didn't care.

"Bones, stop!"

"What?" she shouted, turning around again with her eyes blazing and barely concealing the tears that were starting to form. Stupid uncontrollable emotions.

"I won't leave you, baby," he murmured, stepping forward and reaching for her hand. He took it in his and squeezed gently. "I swear to you, Bones, I won't do anything... overly rash or crazy. I'll do absolutely everything I can to keep this family together, do you understand?"

"Then don't go running around tonight looking for whoever this is."

He opened his mouth and then closed it again.

"I'm not an idiot. You said you were going back to your apartment so you wouldn't intrude on Hodgins and Angela, but you have no problem dropping me off here. Don't lie to me."

He sighed. "I just want this bastard behind bars. That's all I want, Bones, so that we can go back to... normal. Or whatever it is that we usually are."

She managed a sad little smile at his attempted humor, but then glanced towards the house. "Please, Booth. Just stay here with me. Let me be your partner on this, not your helpless charge that needs to be kept locked up while you run around and fight the bad guys off."

"Alright, Bones, you win," he said softly, and then he pressed his lips to hers just as the front door opened.

"Are you two coming in, or are you going to sleep outside tonight?" Hodgins called, grinning widely from next to Angela.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say they listened to our whole conversation," Booth murmured in her ear as they turned to go to the door together.

"I wouldn't doubt that for a minute," she answered.