Author's Note: After the intensity of the previous two chapters, the next couple will be rather...reflective....

I do not own Bones or any of its characters. Sad but true. ;P

Thank you as always to everyone who is reading/following/reviewing this.

TimeWitch16: I think you'll like this chapter for reasons that will become apparent after reading it. ;) And again thank you so much for recommending me to your readers and for your frequent reviews. Both are greatly appreciated. :D

LadyKale1985: Thank you. And once again...we've got a long way to go yet...;)

TearsXsolitude: I figured that you'd see that. While typing those last two chapters up, I decided that it would be for the best to split them. It just would have been too intense otherwise. And thanks again for the review. :)

Cwgirlup: I thought that a lot of people would probably figure it out earlier because of the clues I had left in other chapters. But still, I'm kind of glad that I could surprise you....To me it all goes to the root of Sweets self-esteem issues and tendency for self-blame: "horrible things happened to me from people who were supposed to be nice, so it must be my fault." We'll have to see where he goes from here....

Stephaniew: Even though I've studied about and even wrote papers on these kinds of subjects, yeah, they are rather...intense to write about. Thank you for all your reviews. :D

The Vulcan princess: Welcome aboard! :D Thank you for your compliments, and I hope you will enjoy the rest of the story....

Cobalt6233: It can be a hard habit to unlearn: blaming yourself all the time. Plus, I hate to say it, but it seems like a tinge of that darkness haunts Sweets to this day...thus his current obsessions...

Iconcurvehemently: And welcome to you as well. Thank you for all your kind reviews recently. And yes, guilty as charged about the psych thing. ;) I like to get into the heads of characters and I think it shows in my work. I hope you enjoy future chapters and projects from me. :D

DukeFan1982: I can relate: I just finished my semester and then I've got the summer semester as well in a couple of weeks. As for Sweets getting better...well there may be some bumps along the way.....

Year Seven—Direction—part 1

On a clear fall day, Lance Sweets sat on a tree branch near the top of a tree in his parents' yard. After his fall, he was very wary of trees for a while. But a few months ago, he started climbing the one in his front yard every so often. He found it strangely invigorating to face his fear and climb as high as he could. Soon, the tree top became his favorite place to go when he needed to think, away from the watchful eyes of his parents.

These days, he had a lot to think about.

It had been about three months since he had confronted his past with his father and Doctor Murray, and he was still processing the revelations he had had that evening. He remembered how after the session was over, David had taken him to an all-night diner and the two of them shared a meal together, mostly in silence. It wasn't an awkward silence, just a chance to quietly bond and think things through. Afterwards, they ended up sitting together in the family room all night: Lance leaning against David, who had his arm around him. That was how Carolyn found them the next morning, fast asleep.

Lance shivered a little. He had had more nightmares after that night, but still…he was grateful to his father for being there for him the way he had.

Murray had upped the number of sessions after that evening for a while back to once a week. But recently, there was talk of ending therapy altogether in a few months.

'Lance, you've made tremendous progress over the years that I've been treating you. I think you're ready to handle things on your own.'

Murray seemed confident, and Lance liked to think that he was better, but something still nagged at him. Something that he couldn't quite name. But he didn't bring it up because he wasn't sure if it was anything that could really be fixed in therapy.

'There's some things…some things I'll never shake…no matter how much I go over them,' he thought grimly.

There was school to think about too. Dean Fry had been questioning him a lot recently about what kinds of majors he wanted to consider when he was ready for college. Lance knew it was on a lot of people's minds, but to be honest, he hadn't thought much about it. He had spent a lot of time trying to deal with his past and wanted to enjoy having a real childhood with David and Carolyn. After all, it had really only been in the last year or so that he stopped worrying that his life with them would be yanked away from him for whatever reason. Now, he had people asking him how he planned to build a life without them.

Lance sighed. His classmates tended to be ambitious and competitive about their future careers, but for years he had simply enjoyed the process of learning. And besides, no career seemed to feel like the right thing for him or would even hold his interest very much.

Then there was his social life. Well, at least the social life he tried to have.

He still had his friend Matt, who he got along with even though he could be strangely clingy at times. While taking some high school classes, he recently made a new friend, Brian Geras. Brian was two years older than Lance and was a freshman in high school. He was smart, just not at Lance's level of intelligence. But the two of them shared a love for sci-fi films, comic books and video games. Plus, they were both social outcasts, so they quickly bonded. During the school day, Lance usually didn't see much of Matt or Brian because of the special classes he took, but they hung out after school, particularly on weekends, when they would take turns going to each others' houses. There they would spend the day playing video games and discussing, mostly complaining, about their days in school.

One thing Lance didn't discuss with Matt and Brian was something else that occupied his mind a lot lately: Sarah Brigham. Sarah was sixteen, blond and…endowed. She also sat in front of Lance in his biology class, and there was many a lecture that he just couldn't keep his focus on as a result. She seemed to have everything, beauty, friends, and talent….well talent for cheerleading, anyway.

Lance closed his eyes and sighed again; he knew that he didn't have a chance with a girl like that, but that just seemed to make her even more enticing. At least he could still dream…

With all this and more swirling in his head, Lance often had to work to calm his mind. These days his thoughts seemed to move at a faster and faster pace, almost like they were trying to outrun something. Even sleeping at night became problematic as it would sometimes take him hours to turn his mind 'off'. Deep down though, he knew what his mind was trying to run from.

Andrew's voice. No matter what he did, he could not escape it.

"Lance…phone."

Lance glanced down to see Carolyn standing at the foot of the tree, looking up.

Carolyn sighed as she watched Lance climb down. Ever since his accident, she hated the sight of her son climbing trees, but she did her best to hide her agitation from Lance. She didn't want to inject her fears into him. Soon, he reached the bottom and jumped down gracefully from the last branch.

"Thanks Mom," he said, and he ran into the house.

Once inside, Lance picked up the phone.

"Hey Lance, are we on for your place this Saturday?" Matt said on the line.

"Sure, Mom and Dad said it was fine."

"They're not going to be hovering around us, are they?"

Lance frowned. Matt and Brian were both in a phase where they wanted nothing to do with their parents and even seemed to despise them a bit. He, on the other hand, still enjoyed spending time with David and Carolyn. But even a social misfit like him knew that it was not cool to be so attached to his parents. At least not in public.

"Nah, Mom said she'd make us some stuff to eat, but then she and Dad were going to read in the study or something," Lance said. "As long as we don't break anything, we should be fine."

"Cool, see you then." Lance hung up the phone and began to think about this upcoming Saturday; after the school week he was having, he was looking forward to blowing off some steam.

"Was that about this weekend?" Carolyn asked. Lance started at her sudden appearance.

"Mom…don't sneak up on me like that," he snapped. "And yes, Matt and Brian are coming over around two."

"All right, sorry I startled you," she said. "And don't worry; your father and I will stay out of your way while your friends are here."

"Thanks Mom," he mumbled and he began to walk away. But Lance felt bad about being so short with his mother. He often found himself being cranky with them like that these days, but they hardly ever said anything about it. He turned back toward her to see her heading for the kitchen.

"Mom?"

Carolyn stopped and turned back toward him. He hesitated for a moment, but then reached over and hugged her. She smiled and held him back, kissing his temple.

"It's ok, baby," she said, seeming to read his mind. "I love you."

"Love you too, Mom," he said quietly. He then let her go and ran upstairs. Carolyn was still smiling as she watched him leave.

'He may be growing up, but he's still our baby,' she thought.

She was just glad that Lance hadn't forgotten that.

Saturday soon came, and Carolyn was sitting a tray of food onto the coffee table in the family room when the doorbell rang. She went to the door and answered it to find Matt and Brian standing outside.

"Hello boys," she smiled. "I have nachos and sodas waiting for you, and Lance will be down in a minute." She then moved aside to let them in.

"Hi, Mrs. Sweets," they both mumbled as they kicked their shoes off by the door and trudged past her. Carolyn started for the kitchen and saw Lance walking down the stairs.

"They're here," she said. He nodded and went to join them. He found them sitting on the floor next to the coffee table, eating nachos.

"I'll say one thing, Lance," Brian said. "Your mom always has the best food. Mine can barely make toast." Lance sat down and Matt moved to sit close on the other side of him.

"Why do you always have to sit next to Lance?" Brian said.

"'Cause he's not always sitting there farting, like you," Matt sneered. Brian narrowed his dark blue eyes at him.

"Just for that, you're going down," Brian smirked. "Pity really…I was thinking of going a little easy on you today."

They then booted up their video game of choice these days: a first-person shooter. Brian and Matt were playing first with Lance watching while he waited for his turn. Not only was Brian clearly toying with Matt, he seemed to get a particular pleasure out of it.

"Pow," Brian whispered as another zombie was blown to bits on the TV screen. "And pow." Matt soon dropped his controller to the floor in frustration.

"Damn it Brian, you always win," Matt whined. "The only person who can beat you is Lance." Brian smirked.

"That's because most people aren't as awesome as me," he said. He then looked back at the screen with what could only be called a look of longing. Matt stood up.

"I gotta take a piss," he said and then he ran from the room. Once he was gone, Lance sat down on the floor next to Brian.

"My turn now," Lance smiled, picking up the discarded controller. "You won't get off so easily this time." But Brian was still staring at the screen.

"Hey Lance…do you…do you ever wish it was real?" he swallowed. "This game, I mean."

"Nah," Lance said, shaking his head. "I don't want to wake up to a world of zombies. Having to see Brad Pronger at school every day is bad enough."

"No," Brian whispered. He turned his head slightly to look sideways at Lance. "I mean, do you ever wish you could take people out like this? People like Brad?" Brian went back to staring at the screen.

"I mean, don't you ever get sick of it?" he continued. "Those idiots at school…they think they know everything, but they're just morons. And they've got all their moron friends there to support them and laugh at their stupid jokes." Brian finally turned to look at Lance and Lance noticed the faraway look in Brian's eyes.

"You know how it is," Brian said. "They pick on you too. Just because you're smarter than any of them. Don't you wish that you could just shut them up for once?"

"I...guess," Lance said, shivering a bit inwardly. Brian nodded and looked back at the screen.

"I do too," he said. "I really wish I could."

Just then Matt re-entered the room and sat down again close to Lance.

"Hey Lance, time for you to teach him a lesson," Matt grinned.

"Yeah, sure," Lance mumbled and they started the latest round of their game. Lance did indeed teach Brian a lesson in that round, but his mind kept drifting back to what Brian said while he played.

How many times had he wished Brad Pronger would just disappear? How many times had he wished that the people who would sneak up behind in the hallway to knock him down to the ground or yank his backpack off his back would be the ones who were hurt for a change? How many times did he fantasize about watching his classmates becoming the ones who were upset and humiliated instead of him?

'But…would I really do any of that?' Lance wondered. 'Would I actually…shoot them?'

He thought again about Brian as he watched him play another round with Matt. While Lance knew he didn't fit in because he was so much younger than his classmates, Brian seemed to wear his social awkwardness like a badge of honor. He almost willfully refused to fit in.

'It's tough…being different.'

Often Lance wished that he did blend in more. But a large part of him wondered if he really wanted the kind of lifestyle his classmates seemed to lead. Many of them seemed content to coast through life with a thought no deeper than wondering if their favorite TV show was about to be canceled. That is when they weren't thinking about sex.

Lance wanted some of that, but he didn't want to lose his unique viewpoint of the world either.

After a couple more hours, Matt left because his parents called the Sweets' house for him to come home for dinner. Brian stayed for a little longer, but soon decided to call it a day as well.

"That's four wins for each of us," Brian said as he jammed his feet into his sneakers. "Next time, when you come to my house, I'll be sure to break that tie."

"We'll see about that," Lance snorted. After getting his shoes on, Brian started to walk out the door, but then Lance put a hand on his arm.

"Hey…Brian," he said, hesitantly. "Don't worry about those morons at school. They…they just have an underdeveloped frontal lobe, so they can't help but be stupid." Brian just stared at him for a moment, but then he laughed and mussed up Lance's hair.

"You've been reading those psych books again," he teased. But then his face grew appreciative.

"Thanks Lance," he whispered. "You're…you're really smart…smarter than they give you credit for." Lance was sad to see that while Brian was smiling at him, his eyes were full of pain.

"I'll see you later," Brian said as he walked out the door. Lance stood in the doorway and watched him leave.

He hated to see his friend hurt so much and wished he could do something.

'But what?' he asked himself.

'What can I do to help him?'