Booth hardly opened his eyes next morning. He woke up all achy, feeling muscle weakness all around his body, and he could barely stand up to reach the bathroom and come back. But he did it, and after this it seemed to him that he felt himself better. Then he laid in bed again and realised forces totally left him, that he needed hours of sleep to stay in his right mind.

But Pelant bothered him. He touched his forehead at first, then his cheeks, checked the most serious injuries, and in the end Booth was watching him, carefully, silently. He looked at the window, noticing that the sky went dark, filled with grey clouds. It was going to rain.

"What time is it?" Seeley whispered, his voice got weak and trembling.

"Oh, you look bad... You know, like after the car accident involving a truck."

Christopher was joking, bad and stupid as always, but he didn't feel excitement. He made more positive prognosis for Booth yesterday.

"No, no, I'm fine. Just need some time for getting over it. So, what time is it?"

"It's almost 5 p.m."

"God... Hey, maybe I'm asking a lot, but could you..."

"Bring you the phone?" Pelant was waiting for this favour because he's already made a little surprise.

"Yes, please."

Recently Booth was fully assured that good sleep would get him back on his feet, but as an unfortunate result illness defeated him, and it was becoming more and more risky to stay in this house. No one knew for how long Christopher's patience could last.

"You're welcome," the criminal gave him the phone, trying not to show his wide smile. It was exactly Seeley's phone, cleaned from dirt after being thrown away right from the car on the move.

"Wow," he could even find enough forces to sit up, and his tired eyes went bright for a while; "Thank you. But how did you get it?"

And then his sudden astonishment vanished, turned into dust and spread out the room without a trace, leaving acute distrust and bitter rejection instead of itself.

"What?" Pelant was confused, and he automatically reached out his hand to touch Booth's forehead again. It was unreasonable this time because he measured his temperature about a quarter of hour ago. But the agent pulled away from him, wide-eyed.

"Where did you get my phone?!" he couldn't cool himself, and after that Pelant finally understood what was wrong and so suspicious: it seemed like Seeley decided Christopher was in collusion with people who've almost killed him, thought they gave him his mobile phone back.

His mind was too hot and melted by fever to compare some facts and come to the conclusion that those guys wouldn't look for his trinkets for him and support him on his way to recovery. And Christopher, Sod's law, didn't find enough worthy arguments for answering. He couldn't declare aloud that he traced the signal of the phone with a computer that he was forbidden to possess, after what sat into the car that he was also prohibited from buying, and drove away from his house where he was placed under the strict home arrest.

"It just... happened," he shrugged, not showing any interest in finding more excuses; "But I don't connect with those men."

"Any guarantees?"

"No, as always," Pelant chuckled; "All or nothing, agent Booth. That's the main principle of our perfect alliance."

"Well. You know what? I don't care," the agent laid back, retreating. He would never achieve the truth from him, but Seeley didn't have a wish for playing his stupid games and bearing his selfish jokes; "I won't ask you anymore. It's not an interrogation."

"Really? And what, you won't even mess with me?" he exclaimed in fake amazement.

"No," Seeley unblocked his phone and found necessary contact; "Okay, it won't be an easy call..."

"Not that I've read your messages..." Pelant looked away, pretending he was truly embarrassed, and then turned back like nothing has changed; "But Temperance texted you this morning about the new case."

"So what?" Booth rapidly got mad to the gnashing of teeth.

It was dumb to expect that Christopher's conscience suddenly appeared from ashes and that he didn't examine his chats inside and out, including his private messages with Brennan.

"In brief, the motorcyclist was shot last night. There wasn't motorbike somewhere next to him, but it was found a few districts from here."

"Where exactly he was killed?"

"Not far from abandoned factory."

Pelant saw everything in his eyes: pain, despair and guilt, and it was a moment he got assured he wasn't wrong in his assumption that murder could be the part of the trouble Seeley got in. It didn't seem like a coincidence.

"Are you okay?"

"Guess, I killed that guy."

He didn't want to add some more details in his words, but he felt his chest morphed into a stone and was about to smash him like tiny pathetic bug. And he couldn't hold everything inside anymore, so he told Christopher the full story of his escape. His willing to save his own skin became a reason of person's dead, and someone innocent was horribly punished for his deeds. This nauseous feeling caused the painful lump stocked in his throat. If only he knew or thought ahead about consequences, while he was driving a stolen motorcycle, he would like to give his own life instead.

"You didn't kill him, you didn't pull the trigger," Pelant was talking like Brennan. He had special skills in activating cold unbreakable rationalism and taking every word literally.

Booth shook his head, and his eyes went blank, choking, soaking into self-loathing.

"I don't think I could help you with this," Christopher said; "But that guy didn't suffer before his death, and it's much better than fatal bleeding from carotid artery, for instance, or something like this."

"You couldn't help me because you're incapable feeling compassion?"

"That's my way of thinking. Have you ever mused about where sympathy comes from? No, I bet. It all appears from the ability of one person to swift they feelings to another person. But I don't see a sense. It doesn't correspond to science because it's impossible to know or feel the other people. Simple psychology and nothing more."

"Well. But have you ever mused about why compassion is necessary?" Seeley narrowed his eyes, ready to quarrel with somebody who was far away from humanity; "Sometimes it's hard to evaluate your own actions, so it may be useful to put yourself in someone else's shoes for a while and imagine how your deeds look from the side. Just an abstract thinking, you know."

"I know. And I don't believe that..." Pelant got irritated, lit up like a match out of nowhere. He wasn't shouting, but every his word was filled with disdain; "I... I do not believe people can be sincere even before dying. But I have some "right" principles too. One of them made me save your life without any regrets, for example. Not a such monster as people are used to call me, huh."

"You burned this stigma with your own hands," Booth faked an askew smile.

He didn't want to prolong their conversation, because it could end in someone's blood. Christopher has got his special philosophy, cruel and incomprehensible, so it was reckless at least to change his mind.

Seeley made a call, and Brennan answered almost immediately; her voice sounded tired and jumpy. Without letting him say a word, she started to interrogate him about where has he been. Booth could barely speak fast enough to keep up with her questions, thinking of different feeble excuses. He was repeating and promising that he will explain everything to her later, privately. And then Christopher reached out his hand with a mute asking for giving him a phone just for a minute. Booth wished to ignore it, but he wasn't in a position to make demands.

"Good evening, Temperance," he said, and it became silent on the other end of the line.

"Pelant. What..." she was petrified, feeling shivers down her back. Of course she decided that Booth got trapped; "What have you done with..."

"Oh, I'm assuming agent Booth will tell you this unbelievable story by himself," he continued, staying bloody calm, and his calm terrified Brennan to speechlessness; "Can you come here as soon as possible? You know my address. And please, let's do this without police or S.W.A.T, okay? While I'm still in a good mood and asking you politely."

"I got it, I... I'll come alone. Please, don't touch him."

Seeley heard this awful sense of Pelant's humour and was going to interrupt him, but Christopher dared to threat him with his fist, smirking with some kind of sick satisfaction. It was the moment when the federal agent sweared the God he would put this fist back into Pelant as deep as he could after recovering.

"Brings some new clothes for agent Booth if you can. There are only shreds left from the old one."

Temperance was occupied with horror, but she agreed, having accepted all his conditions, and told that she would arrive in an hour. Seeley finally got his mobile back and added that he was absolutely fine, that everything was okay, but she didn't believe him at all.

"Are you happy now?" Booth couldn't help to snarl. He sat, putting his legs down from the bed, and then groaned, silently but exhaustedly.

"Absolutely."

"And what, there is no catch in your words, deeds and motive?"

"You want me to mean a catch? I'm always ready," Pelant laughed; "But, seriously speaking, my plans about you are clean as a baby's tear. Today only."

He didn't admit aloud that something snapped inside him when Seeley appeared on his doorstep, looking for help. And he would never ever think about that "something" again.

"But watch your back, agent Booth. If we'll meet each other, I don't know, two weeks later, I won't be so kind with you."

Seeley restrained himself from laughing.

"You're not a monster," he said, watching Christopher's surprise. It was extremely strange to see true confusion in his eyes with a hint of hope. But Booth didn't know what he was hoping for. And he never would know it, thankfully; "You're a person who messed up one day and getting deeper and deeper into mistakes since then. The system rejected you when you relayed on it, so you was left alone with the situation you couldn't handle. You may get angry at me and my point of view, I don't care. You're a human, Pelant, and you proved that yesterday."

"It sounds from you like something bad. Is it my disadvantage, in your opinion?"

"No, no way! It's your nature you can't deny. And... If you'll ever get into a trouble, like me last night, and if you'll ask me for help, I'll do everything I can, I owe you."

"Okay," Christopher answered quickly, but emotionlessly, dropping his eyes, so Seeley wondered: he was waiting for something daring and pretentious.

"But it doesn't mean you can use me whenever you want," the agent threatened jokingly. His sight was shining.