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Chapter 36

Sweets watched as the apartment door shut behind the partners, leaving him alone in the entryway holding the baby. He supposed Parker and Sidney must still be holed up in their room together. Deciding to give Elsie a little one-on-one time before he did what he had secretly come to do, the psychologist walked to the baby's room. He let Elsie down, setting her in front of a small chest of toys.

"What do you wanna play with, Elsie?" he asked, not really expecting an answer.

Hearing her name, the baby looked up, her eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

Sweets repeated his question, leveling his eyes with her playfully. "What toy do you want to play with?"

Surprising the psychologist, Elsie got to her feet and instead of going to the toy chest, she toddled over to a small fire-truck shaped push car. She climbed onto the seat on top and struggled to propel the car forward, her legs were just a tad too short to reach the ground fully.

The truck finally made it a few feet forward and Sweets could tell the baby was becoming increasingly frustrated. Scooting forward, Sweets went to help Elsie, only to be rewarded with a loud protest.

"No!" Elsie shouted when his hands came near enough to push. "Nuhnuhnuhno..." she mumbled before continuing on babbling what sounded possibly like more protests.

Obviously she doesn't want help, Sweets thought. And after all, it would be impossible not to have a stubborn streak with who her parents are. As he leaned back, he put his hands up to show her he wouldn't touch the truck, which stopped her mumbling. The psychologist eyed her warily, she was entirely too good at reading and reacting to him.

She still continued struggling, grunting, and rocking, trying to propel the car forward towards the door. She was definitely smart enough to know what would get the thing moving, she was just too small to do it.

Sneaking up from behind, Sweets stuck a single pointer finger to the truck, pushing just enough for Elsie's feet to skim the ground and get the idea of pushing it herself. She gripped the steering wheel tight as she 'steered' the car.

As they reached the hall, Sweets asked, "You wanna go see your brothers, Elsie?"

The little girl's head snapped around quickly, surprised that the man was directly behind her and forgetting that she was independent, she bobbed her head up and down several times.

Sweets turned the truck down the hall and pushed on slowly.

In the boys' room, Sidney and Parker were, as usual, reading. Each boy was perched on their respective beds, mirroring each other's positions of lying on their stomachs, propped up by their elbows. For minutes they had read silently, each engrossed in the worlds of their books.

Parker disrupted the silence, voicing the question that had been bumping around his head since the night before.

"Are you happy that the baby is a girl?"

The question took Sidney by surprise and he looked down at his bed. "I guess." He tried to sound nonchalant, like he didn't care one way or another, which was for the most part true. "I-I think I would have been happy either way. I m-mean I'm not unhappy it's not a boy, I'm m-more neutral. I'm just happy that Booth and Brennan are happy, and that everything is okay. You know what I mean?"

Parker did know what he meant. "Yeah, me too. I'm just glad they're having a baby. They've been in love for like... seven years or something like that, since I was four. It took them long enough to do something about it. Can you believe they've only been together for like five months?"

Wow..." Sidney was amazed - his new parents had been in love for so long before getting together? He'd just kind of assumed that they had been dating for a long time, but he'd never really asked. He didn't want to pry, his aunt and uncle used to hate it when he asked questions. Still, Sidney couldn't believe that they'd only been with each other for that short of time? "How come they finally did it? Get together, I mean." He blushed at the way he'd phrased it.

"I don't really know," the blond boy answered. "I think it had to do with the fact that they finally had sex and got pregnant... but they didn't really explain that part to me, just that they were together. Though, I bet Bones would have told me if I'd asked. She likes telling the truth."

"Probably," the dark haired boy answered. "No wonder everybody at the lab was so excited about the baby being healthy and stuff when they announced it, it took them so long to get to this point," he mused aloud.

Parker laughed, imagining the squints when they were informed. "Was Angela super psyched all day yesterday? I bet she was. I'm surprised she didn't call the Post and get the story on the front page."

"S-She'd calmed down by Friday, but she was all wild on Wednesday, when Booth and Brennan announced it." Parker's book slid to the floor with a thump, and Sidney got a bad feeling which he tried to mask it with more details. "She was even crazy before she knew, yelling real loud in the lab. I thought Cam was going to kill her. Of course she didn't, but she's sure got a really scary face sometimes."

Against Parker's control, tears welled in his eyes. He'd been the last to be told. Those words taunted him, repeating in his mind over and over and over again.

He'd been the last to be told.

Had he been undeserving of a simple phone call to inform him of his soon-to-be baby sister? A simple text could have done the job. But no...

He'd been the last to be told, everyone else knew but him.

Then another thought occurred to him, why had his best friend and brother not said anything about it?

"Why didn't you say anything before? You knew all day at school, two days even, and you didn't tell me." He scolded Sidney, voice heavy as he fought the tears.

Noticing that Parker was getting even more upset, Sidney's mind switched into a frantic overdrive. They were going to send him back, or away, or somewhere that was not here. He fought back his own tears, being more successful at it than the other boy. He had more practice.

"I-I th-thought that y-you knew. You d-didn't say anything and I-I di-didn't want t-to bring it up. I th-thought that you wanted another brother, and maybe you were dis-disappointed." His stutter returning full force brought anger towards himself.

Parker ignored what he said, too angry and depressed at the situation to listen. Jumbled thoughts ran though his head at lightning fast speeds and he couldn't make sense of anything. He stumbled to his feet dizzily and made his way to the door, ignoring Sidney's calls to him. Opening the door he was met with an oblivious Sweets and Elsie, who knew nothing of the conversation that had just taken place.

The boy rushed by the baby and psychologist and made for his Dad and Bones' room. He wanted to be alone.

To say Sweets had been surprised when Parker had barreled past him with tears streaming down his face was a complete and utter understatement. Looking to Sidney for some kind of explanation, Sweets saw that the dark haired boy looked upset as well. But it wasn't near how much Parker seemed to be, and Sweets debated which kid to attend to first. Sure, he had been sent here to get some insight into Sidney, but that didn't mean he could ignore Parker's obvious current emotional needs.

Making up his mind, he asked Sidney, "Will you watch Elsie for me? I need to..." he motioned towards the direction Parker had run off to.

"O-of co-co-course," he replied as he climbed down from his bed and pushed Elsie into the room, ignoring her cries as she once again grew indignant with someone helping her with her toy.

Thanking him, the psychologist set off to the living room. Parker wasn't in plain sight and checking in the kitchen and laundry room, he decided that the boy must be in the master bedroom.

The door was shut and before he opened it, he knocked, not expecting a reply. As he swung the door open he was met with the sight of Parker's trembling shoulders as he sat on the bed, facing away from the door.

For a moment, Sweets debated calling Booth and Brennan for help. Something was very wrong with Parker and he didn't know if he was equipped to handle it, as he was not actually a trained child psychologist. Deciding against it, he walked into the room, taking a seat next to the boy.

For a long while, Parker sat silently next to Sweets on the bed. The trembling stopped first, followed closely by the tears as well. Dried trails where they had run were noticeable on his cheeks.

Finally Parker spoke. "Did Dad and Bones tell you the baby was a girl on Wednesday, too?" he asked, his tone flat, lacking any emotion.

Taken aback by the question, expecting something else, Sweets sputtered, "Well, umm... I mean... yeah. Yes, your Dad and Brennan announced it to everyone on Wednesday."

The boy sniffed, looking down. "Oh," he said finally.

"Parker, what's going on? You know you can talk to me."

Avoiding the psychologist's eyes and looking straight at the black screen of his Dad's TV he said quietly, "Not me."

Sweets was confused. What was the boy talking about?

"What do you mean, 'not you'?" he asked.

"I mean they didn't tell me. Dad and Bones didn't tell me about it the day they found out I was gonna have another sister. Dad finally told me last night. Everyone else found out on Wednesday too." The tears made their way back to his eyes as he spoke, his voice once again heavy with emotion. "What took them so long to tell me?"

Later, Sweets would kick himself for not realizing firsthand that Parker was going through just as much as his new brother. While his siblings had been rescued from a bad situation, Parker had been taken from a relatively good situation and thrown into a messy one.

And Sweets also understood that Booth was hoping for some magic 'psychological mumbo-jumbo' that would fix everything. The agent would need to have a talk, with both sons, because like it or not, Sweets himself was merely a band-aid. And for now he had to cover Parker's scrape.

"Listen Parker," he started, trying to come up with something to say. "You know that your Dad and Brennan didn't mean to hurt you right? They were only doing what they thought was best."

Slowly he nodded - he did know that, but it still hurt. "But I'm their kid too! Sidney got to know with everyone else. They didn't even call me."

Jealousy is expected, the psychologist thought as he listened and continued. "You're right Parker, you and Sidney should have probably been informed first. But I don't think they saw it that way. I'll bet that your Dad thought it best he tell you in person, that's how he is, and with your living arrangement and his busy schedule, that was not possible until yesterday. He never meant to exclude you. You are his son, nothing will ever change that."

Parker mulled that over for a bit, coming to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, he had overreacted a bit. He'd had an irrational bout of panic. But before he could say anything, Sweets started talking again.

"I can see that you're maybe feeling foolish for acting the way you did, but don't okay? It was a normal response, I assure you."

"Do you promise?" the boy asked, childishly.

"I promise," Sweets replied, leaving no room in his voice for doubt. "Now I'm going to tell you something, and I'm going to tell Sidney as well, along with your Dad and Brennan, but you have to promise me that you'll make sure they actually do it, okay?"

Parker frowned. "What is it?" he asked skeptically.

"Nothing bad. This weekend, either tonight or sometime tomorrow, before you go back to your Mom's, you all are going to sit down and have a... family meeting, I suppose you could call it. I'm not going to tell them about this incident. I want you to do it, alright?"

Unsure, Parker told him, "I guess."

"It'll help, you've got to get your feelings out there or you risk having them never be known. Or keeping them inside you until you explode."

"Okay, okay - fine."

"Now..." Sweets decided to get ready for his next task, one he had not planned on being so forthright with when he originally agreed to this. "Did you upset Sidney? He looked shaken when I left him."

Reluctantly the boy nodded. "Maybe."

The psychologist bummed shoulders with him, giving him a nudge. "Will you go apologize, please? And when you're finished take your sister to the living room for a while? I want to talk to your brother as well."

Silently, Parker agreed before getting to his feet, and leaving the bedroom.

It wasn't long before Parker arrived in the living room with Elsie, after apologizing to his brother. After all, boys will be boys, Sweets thought, remembering Booth's simple apology to him that day he and Brennan were stuck in that elevator. He chuckled to himself, thinking about it, and missing those days when they were closer.

Parker returned, announcing that the psychologist could talk to Sidney now, before he plopped down on the floor to play with Elsie.

Sweets took his leave to talk to Sidney. He knocked on the door and heard the boy say, "Come in."

His head poked around the door first, the rest of his body following, and then seeing that Sidney was on the computer, he wheeled the chair with the boy in it, over to the bed, where he sat in front of him.

Sweets could see that Sidney had cried, or at least been close to tears, his eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot.

"You're not in trouble, you know that right?" Sweets started, gently.

Sidney merely shrugged, not making eye contact as he nervously picked at a hangnail.

"Well, did you do anything wrong?"

He was hesitant to answer, but did anyways. "I... I upset Parker," he told the psychologist quietly.

Sweets wanted to reason with him, have the boy come to his own conclusions. "Well... that happens with brothers sometimes. You and Parker, you're brothers now."

"I guess, but he's the real kid... I'm not."

Sweets understood what Sidney was getting at, he knew what it was like to be a foster kid. But somehow Sweets had to make him understand that his situation was good now, that he was so lucky to have met Booth and Brennan. The boy had to have witnessed the kind of individuals they were by now, he was simply scared and his defense mechanism was to retreat into himself. If he pretended he was just a foster kid than he wouldn't get hurt when this 'fantasy' was over. He and Brennan made a good pair.

"Have Booth and Brennan ever treated you or Elsie different than Parker?" He finally asked.

The boy shook his head 'no'.

"Do you believe that one day they will?"

This time he shrugged.

"Why do you think that, Sidney?"

He was hesitant. "Because it happened before," he whispered. "At first they were fine... but they changed."

Sweets paused, trying to follow the boy's train of thought. Then the light sparked on. "Your aunt and uncle?"

"Yes. After I came, they had their own baby, and they were different. And it was all my fault."

"What makes you believe that you caused them to change? Couldn't it have been something else? Something entirely unrelated to you?"

"No! I... I was the only thing that changed for them. They had wanted theirbaby and their pets and their stuff, but they never really wanted me. I needed food and clothes and... other things too. I cost them money, that caused them stress, and the stress made them mean. I was the problem. It was my fault." It was said with such certainty that Sweets felt himself tear up.

Fiercely, he tried to make the boy understand. "You're wrong, Sidney. That was not your fault, you didn't cause your parents to pass away, and it was an incredibly unfortunate accident, that you had no power in creating or preventing. Your aunt and uncle didn't deserve to have a boy like you, you're a good person. They were the bad ones in your situation. And now you are here, with Booth and Brennan and they are going to take care of you, no matter what. Can you see that?"

The tears came quickly and Sidney didn't even have time to try and stop them from pouring out. He heard a noise, a disturbing sound like a cat being strangled, and it was then that he realized it was himself. His shoulders heaved as the sobs came and he tried to catch his breath. He felt as if he were suffocating on his own anguish and he could not catch a breath. Sometimes, it was just all too much.

He felt himself being pulled forward into the psychologist's arms and he let it happen, he let himself be comforted.

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