('The Conspiracy in the Corpse' and 'The Lance to the Heart')
I don't own Bones.
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Aubrey had heard the message, 'shots fired' and hurried to the site where an FBI agent was reporting the issue and who was possibly in trouble. He had known that Sweets was at the area and he dreaded what he might find.
First on the scene, he found Dr. Sweets lying on the cement floor of the parking garage near his car and noticed the blood burbling from his mouth. After he'd called for help, he called Booth to let him know he had to come to the garage as soon as possible. Booth would want to know his friend was in trouble.
While he waited for help to arrive, the younger agent knelt next to Sweets and knew he was watching a man die. "Dr. Sweets, the paramedics are on the way. You have to relax . . . What happened? Can you tell me what happened?"
"I don't know." Booth had needed the Sanderson documents to prove that the drug created by his company had been used to kill Howard Cooper. Cooper had been listed on Foster's USB drive and Brennan and the squints thought Cooper had been murdered. The task to get the documents should have been a cake walk and he'd volunteered to get the warrant and serve the notice for the documents. Sweets felt like he couldn't breathe. The blows to his chest had hurt him and he suspected he was going to die before he got any help. He didn't want to die because he had so much to live for, but he knew he'd have no say in what happened to him, none at all. "I was just serving a warrant . . . I didn't need help."
"Yeah, I can see that." Aubrey muttered as he tried to find a way to make Sweets comfortable. Taking off his jacket he folded it and placed it under the doctor's head. "Help is on the way. You have to hold on . . . Booth is coming. Just wait. Don't leave."
Feeling light headed, Sweets nodded his head. "I won't."
Anxious, Aubrey finally heard an engine racing up the ramp and he hoped it was help for Sweets. The man was bleeding profusely and he couldn't stop it.
Booth arrived on the scene with Brennan and was amazed to see he had beat the paramedics to the scene. Running towards Sweets, he realized that his friend hadn't been shot even though the man was bleeding. "I thought you said there were gunshots."
"That was me." Sweets had tried to protect himself and he'd fired a shot at his assailant before the man knocked his gun out of his hand and began to hit him. He heard Aubrey say he was bleeding out and he knew his time had come. "Tell Daisy not to worry. She worries too much." Booth said something, but Sweets didn't hear him. "I fought back. You'd have been proud of me." Booth kept talking, but Sweets needed him to listen. "He got the documents."
"It doesn't matter. You're going to be fine." Booth had seen plenty of men die and he knew his friend was dying before his eyes.
Sweets felt so tired. "You too. The world is a lot better than you think it is . . ."
He felt hot tears sliding down his cheeks and Booth knew his friend was dead. He couldn't stand the pain and refused to believe it. "You can start talking Sweets. Come on."
Sad for the older man, Aubrey placed his hand on Booth's shoulder. "He's gone, Booth. He's gone."
While Brennan checked on Sweets to make sure he was dead, Booth knew it was just a gesture. He didn't want to accept it, at least not yet. "No, no, no, no. Come on Sweets. Hey, hey, hey." Booth knew his pleas were not going to be heard and he had to accept that his friend was gone. He had to let him go. Leaning back against Sweet's car, he placed his hand to cover his face and cried. All that was left was tears.
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Sweets had been the first person besides his mother that Aubrey had ever seen die. His mother had died in her sleep fighting cancer and it had been a peaceful transition with time to prepare, but Sweets had died suddenly and Aubrey knew he'd never forget the man struggling to breathe, his need to talk to Booth while he still could.
He hadn't really known the psychologist, but he still felt like there was an empty spot in his life. Sweets had trusted him to help Booth and he vowed to do it even if Booth couldn't admit he needed the help. He would do it for Sweets.
He'd had a few doubts about Booth when he'd accepted the transfer to the Hoover, but he knew that those doubts were gone now. The agent was trying to solve a murder, clear his name and he'd just lost a friend. Clearly Booth was going to need his help and he'd help the man as best as he could. He wasn't the agent Booth was, but he was damn good at what he did. He had been a rising star in Baltimore and he would shine at the Hoover as well.
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Aubrey had decided that finding Sweets' killer was top priority. It had been satisfying that Booth had felt the same way. Using Booth's knowledge about snipers, they'd found the killer's body on the roof top of a nearby business. Much to the younger man's shock the body they found was Kenneth Emory. Kenneth was a Navy Seal and he had trained at Quantico with Aubrey. The man had been a sleaze when Aubrey had known him. Kenneth had been accused of assaulting a female cadet a couple of months into training. To his disgust, nothing happened to Kenneth. Before the man could be prosecuted the charges were dropped and Kenneth disappeared. Aubrey had suspected important political family ties had gotten the charges dropped, but he never knew for sure.
They'd searched Kenneth's body and didn't find the documents on the dead man and Booth was furious. He needed those documents and they didn't have a clue where they were.
Afterward, he'd watched Booth corner Sanderson at one of his work sites and saw how ruthless Booth could be. He'd accused the man of murder and didn't flinch when Sanderson threatened him. Nerves of steel. But then again, he doesn't have a lot to lose right now.
After parting ways for the day, Aubrey decided that Howard Cooper's death really was the key to what was going on. With a warrant from Ms. Julian he went to Bethesda Presbyterian Hospital and retrieved visitor's logs on the day that Cooper died as well as security tapes. He was surprised they still existed since Cooper had died 16 years ago, but the documents and the tapes were still available and he was going to use them to find a killer. He suspected Dr. Durant was up to his neck in this, but he needed proof. Cooper, Durant, Norsky and Sanderson were all on Foster's USB drive and they were there for a reason.
Booth had found him in a conference room on the fourth floor of the Hoover and nodded his head in approval. The older agent pointed out that Jerold Norsky had mentioned that Director Hoover was involved in whatever was going on, so whatever Cooper had been involved in had been going on for longer than 16 years. Norsky was the link between Cooper and Hoover and Cooper was the link to Wesley Foster's murder. The domino action from investigating Wesley's death to Booth being attacked in his home and being arrested for the murder of three FBI agents had been ultimately caused by Wesley stumbling upon something very bad going on in the country. Wesley was a conspiracy theorist and he'd delved into Howard Cooper's death which had led to his own murder. Booth was on the right track and Aubrey wanted to help solve this problem. Whatever it was, a lot of important people were involved and it made the hair on Aubrey's neck stand up.
He'd promised Sweets that he would back Booth's play and doing so might get him killed, but he was a man of his word and he couldn't let Sweets' murder go unanswered. He hated the idea, but what he was seeing looked like treason and there was no way he could walk away from that.
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Angela had come up with a complicated diagram using Wesley Foster's data on his USB drive and the graph showed Cooper linked to Dr. Durant when that doctor falsified Cooper's medical records and altered the cause of death and Sanderson was linked to Cooper because of the drug used to kill the man. Norsky had been head of security at the hospital where Cooper was killed and Norsky told Booth about Hoover being involved before Sweets had died.
Aubrey now believed that Hoover was another key and so did Booth. It was a crazy path and once Director Hoover had been mentioned, Aubrey could see how powerful people might be involved in trying to shut down the investigation. Hoover had blackmailed a lot of powerful people to do his bidding and it seemed like the same people were being blackmailed by someone else. They just needed to find out who that was. Yeah, that's all we have to do.
"Whoever Hoover passed his personal records to has been adding to them over the years." That explained Congressman Hadley's hatchet job on Booth during his congressional hearing. Someone had supplied Hadley with information in Booth's Army jacket about an operation involving an American and he'd accused Booth of murder at the hearing. Hadley had been blackmailed that was certain and everything pointed to whoever had Hoover's files.
A light seemed to come on for Aubrey. He was a history buff and he knew that Desmond Wilson had been Hoover's aide. The man had died 16 years ago, the same year that Cooper died. "No way that is a coincidence, Booth."
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From there it was easy to follow the clues. Wilson had kept Hoover's files in a fallout shelter where he was living. Wilson had a stepson and that stepson was Glen Durant.
Booth and his partner, Brennan had confronted Durant and he'd made tacit statements that implied he was involved in what was going on. Booth had hit him to get blood from Durant to use in a DNA test. That test was used against DNA found in the wound site on Howard Cooper's body and that confirmed that Durant was the killer.
Hoover's files were found at the Hoover display at the Jeffersonian in plain sight. Visitors assumed they were props but Booth and Brennan had figured out that they were real. What better place to keep dangerous material like Hoover's files? It was perfect and now that the files were no longer under the control of Durant, he couldn't blackmail his way out of murder charges as well has a lot of other charges that would either have him executed for treason or imprisoned for a life time
Aubrey had never worked on a case that had been this complicated and he was pleased that he had kept up and been part of the solution. It gave him a lot of confidence in himself and he knew he was on the right career path. He'd given Booth the benefit of the doubt and he'd been right to do so. It would probably take time to get Booth to accept him as a partner, but he had time. He was assigned to the Hoover and he wasn't leaving. Sweets had given him the benefit of the doubt and that had been all he had ever asked for.
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This story is complete. Let me know what you think of it. Thanks.