(After 'The Pain in the Heart')

A/N: Rate T for language.

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I don't own Bones.

Oooooooooooooooooo

She hadn't meant to tell him, but they were having drinks at the Founding Fathers and Brennan had drunk a little more than she had meant to. Zach's betrayal was weighing heavily on her mind and Booth had thought a few drinks would help them both unwind. She should have gone home and worked on her latest book.

The last few weeks had been very emotional for Brennan and she hoped she never had to deal with such an upheaval in her life ever again. First, she had thought her partner had died. No one had told her that he was alive and that his death was a ruse, so she had mourned for his death like any good friend would. That mourning had included anger. She hated that Booth had stepped in between her and Pam Noonan and taken a bullet meant for her. She hadn't asked him to do that. She would never ask him to do that.

Secondly, during Booth's funeral he had made an appearance and captured a known terrorist with her help. The shock and the anger she felt was very real and almost overwhelming. She thought it outrageous that he hadn't called her to tell her that he was alive. What kind of friend does such a thing? She had felt betrayed by someone she had thought she would always be able to trust and it was hard to forgive that.

Thirdly, Booth had found out that it had been Sweets' responsibility to tell her that he wasn't dead and that angered her further, but not as much as the fact that she knew that he had done that to experiment on her. Sweets had used her like a lab rat and she did not appreciate his obvious lack of ethics.

Then came the real tragedy, Zach had turned out to be Gormogon's apprentice. He had helped a cannibalistic serial killer and Brennan was left wondering what other betrayals were waiting for her in the future.

"Come on Bones, drink up. This has been a shitty month as far as I'm concerned." Booth drank some of his beer and placed the glass back on the table. "I'm sorry that you didn't know about my death, but like I told you that was Sweets' doing. I've made sure that never happens again, believe me."

"He experimented on us." It had slipped out. Normally she was totally in control of the things she said, but the combination of grief, confusion and just plain anger made the words come out. She didn't know if she was trying to punish Booth since it was his idea to let the psychiatrist write a book about them in turn for his profiler services or if she was just too angry with Zach to use caution, but the deed was done and she couldn't take the words back.

It was as if she had dropped a bomb on the table between them. "Experiment? What the hell are you talking about? Who experimented on us . . . Sweets?" He felt his blood pressure starting to rise. "What do you mean?"

"He didn't tell me you'd died because he wanted to observe the way I reacted. He wanted to use that information for his book he is writing about us." The thought that someone would do that to her and too Booth was mind boggling.

Furious, Booth pounded his fist on the table. "Who does something like that?" Filled with rage, he grabbed his wallet from his pants pocket, pulled some bills from it and threw them on the table. "You wait until I get my hands on that little bastard." Standing, Booth placed the wallet back in his pants. "Call a cab, Bones. I have something I have to do."

Alarmed, Brennan stood up and followed Booth from the bar. Once they were outside she grabbed his arm and pulled on it forcing him to stop. "Stop Booth. If you attack Sweets, if you hurt him then they'll kick you out of the FBI. You can't attack him just because he did something you don't like."

"Don't like? What he did was unethical. He needs to lose his job. I'm not a puppet. You're not a toy to be played with. We're human beings and by God no one has the right to use us for some damn book." He was trying to control his anger, but he was barely able to talk he was so angry. "He betrayed us and he needs to pay for that."

She held on to his arm as tightly as possible, unwilling to let him go. "No, Booth. No. You cannot hurt him. They will kick you out of the FBI and our partnership will be severed."

"So, he gets away with what he did?" Booth didn't want to lose the job he loved, the partner he was so proud of, but how much crap was he supposed to take? "He doesn't pay a price for what he did?"

"No, he doesn't. If you hurt him, you will lose your position at the FBI. If you complain, I am sure he will use some psychobabble to excuse what he did and no one will take it further. He won this round, but we can use it against him. You can use his profiler service but we can refuse to allow him to ever interview us again. He will have to write his book without our input." Brennan felt Booth relax, but she judiciously held onto this arm. "I really hate psychology."

Deflated, Booth placed his hand on his partner's hand. "This is my fault. I should have never let him write his book. It was a mistake. I'm sorry."

"It's been a long day, Booth. Go home, take a hot bath, listen to music, but don't smoke a cigar. That is not a healthy habit."

Patting her hand, Booth smiled. "Okay . . . I should have called you. I'm sorry that I didn't. Protocol or not, relying on someone else to do the right thing didn't work out for either of us . . . Go home and don't worry. I plan to keep away from Sweets for a while. If I don't I might slug him and we both don't want that to happen."

As she watched him walk away, Brennan hoped her partner kept his word. The last two weeks had been miserable and the thought of Booth losing his job just made her sadder. She liked Booth. Besides Angela, he was the best friend she had ever had. She wanted to continue that friendship, but she knew it would be jeopardized if Booth lost his job. She would never trust Sweets for what he had done. He had cracked the trust she had between her and Booth and that was unforgivable.

Oooooooooooooooooooooo

The next week proved to be a trial for Dr. Lance Sweets. Whenever he called Booth, the agent would hang up on him. If he tried to corner the older man in his office, Booth would leave the room without speaking a word. He had sent emails and text messages and they had all been ignored. He knew that Booth was angry with him about his failure to inform Brennan that his death had been a ruse, but he had thought Booth would be an adult about the situation. After all the Agent had given him permission to write the book about him and Brennan and that required a few experiments. Didn't it? Plus, it had been a matter of national security.

Frustrated, Sweets called Brennan to see if she would intervene for him with Booth only to be told he had made his berth and now he had to slumber in it. Not sure what else to do, he decided to stay away from Booth for the time being. He hoped that time would take care of the Agent's anger.

In the meantime, fate intervened in the form of Dr. Gordon Wyatt. The man was working on a special assignment in Europe but was in town to visit his sister. Popping into Sweet's office to say hello, he was confronted with a very sad psychologist. "Dr. Sweets, how are things?"

Glad to see Gordon, Sweets stood up and invited the man into his office. "Can I talk to you, Dr. Wyatt?"

"Of course, I have a few minutes." Curious, Gordon sat down and waited to see what the younger man wanted from him.

Nervously clearing his throat, Sweets wondered if he was making a mistake. Deciding to be truthful, he told Gordon the entire story about Booth's undercover assignment after being shot by an obsessive woman. He didn't omit the fact that he didn't tell Brennan that Booth was alive but gave the excuse that it had been done for national security reasons, the fewer that knew about the Agent's mission, the better.

Silently listening to the story, Gordon was appalled with the younger man's decisions. After the story was told, Gordon twisted his lips momentarily and wondered how he should handle the situation. "So, has Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan forgiven you for your rather misguided decision?"

"No, Agent Booth won't talk to me and neither will Dr. Brennan." Sweets sighed. "I'm writing a book about them with their permission of course and I can't continue if they won't talk to me . . . I know that I should have told Dr. Brennan, but it was a matter of national security."

"Are you sure it wasn't to experiment on Dr. Brennan?" Gordon suspected Sweet's motives and he didn't like the thought that he had been this unethical with the woman's mental well being.

His cheeks a bright red, Sweets leaned back against his chair. "Dr. Brennan accused me of that too, but it wasn't an experiment."

"I see." Gordon didn't believe Sweets, but motives are hard to prove. "Would you like me to talk to Agent Booth?"

"Would you, that would be awesome." Sweets was desperate to get back into Booth's good graces. "Thank you."

Standing, Gordon stared down at the young psychologist. "I'm not sure what good it will do. He may not wish to talk to me either." Turning he left the room leaving behind a man who wished he had a time machine and could undo what he had done.

Oooooooooooooooooo

Surprised, to see Gordon, Booth invited him into his office. "Gordon Gordon, nice to see you."

"I was passing by and I thought I'd pop in and see how you're doing." Gordon sat down and studied the Agent. "I heard that you were shot and that your 'death' was used to capture an international terrorist. Good show."

"Yeah, we got him." Debating with himself for a moment, Booth leaned forward on his desk. "Sweets was given the responsibility of telling Dr. Brennan that I wasn't dead. He didn't do it and now she's mad at me . . . it wasn't my fault that Sweets didn't tell her, but you know how she is. She thinks I should have ignored protocol and told her anyway . . . She uh . . . she thinks Sweets experimented on us. He wanted to see how Bones would handle my death." He didn't say anything else. He needed to see how Gordon would react to what he had said.

Aware that Booth was studying him intensely, Gordon was careful to keep his face neutral. "Do you think that's true? You do know that if you think he's done something unethical you can file a complaint . . . of course, ultimately he could lose his job and his license to practice if you do."

Leaning back against his chair, Boot folded his arms against his chest and stared at his former psychiatrist. "I gave him permission to write a book about me and Bones . . . I shouldn't have done that. I think his book is more important to him than it should be. Bones is really mad about this whole situation. She thought I was dead and when I showed up at the funeral it just blew up. She blames me for not calling her even though she was on my list and I wasn't supposed to contact anyone . . . I should have called her anyway. I'll never make that mistake again."

"Would you like me to talk to her?" Gordon was sure that Booth was more worried about Brennan's anger than Sweets' betrayal.

"No, she's going to forgive me . . . I think." Booth sighed. "She's all about trust. She thinks I betrayed her by not calling her and she thinks Sweets used her as a guinea pig in some damn experiment. This is all fucked up . . . it doesn't help that her intern turned out to be a serial killer's apprentice. She's really upset about that and I've tried to help her out dealing with that, but it's going to take some time . . . The people she thought she could trust betrayed her. She'll deal with it because she's strong, but she shouldn't have had to deal with any of this crap. She didn't deserve anything that happened to her in the last few weeks."

A little shocked, Gordon realized that there was a lot more to the story than Sweets had said. "Her intern was in league with a serial killer? That's terrible . . . I hope she doesn't blame herself."

"She does a little, but she's more upset that Zach betrayed her beliefs. She's a scientist and she uses her ninja mind skills to get justice for victims of crimes . . . To find out that someone she worked with worked for a serial killer was pretty devastating . . . it shook up her world. She's going to get over me being shot and faking my death a lot sooner that Zach's betrayal . . . He was more than a colleague to her, he was like a little brother. They were pretty close. I just hate that we found this out right after my fake death and Sweets not telling her it was fake. It's like fate just piled up on her."

"I see." Gordon understood and hoped it all worked out. "Are you going to forgive Dr. Sweets? I think he wishes he could redo what he did. He seemed regretful when I talked to him a while ago . . . Are you going to file a complaint?"

Booth shook his head. "No, what would be the point? He screwed up and he needs his ass kicked, but I don't want to ruin his life over some half-baked shit he tried to pull. If I hadn't given him permission to write the book none of this would have happened. Well, the Zach thing would have happened, but none of the rest would have . . . I'm just going to make Sweets sweat for a couple of weeks that's all. Make him think twice about using people in experiments . . . I figure that's how long Bones will be mad at me then we'll be good again. She needs time and so do I."

"Alright." Gordon hoped that Booth was correct and that all would be well in the end. "Well, if you ever need to talk to me, please feel free to call me. I'm only a phone call away."

"Thanks, Doc." Booth stood and shook the man's hand. "Life is never easy at least not for me and Bones. We're used to it."

Gordon shook the agent's hand and released it. "Yes, but some lives are harder than others. I'll see myself out."

After Gordon was gone, Booth made a phone call. "Hey, Bones want to grab lunch at the diner with me?"

Yes, I am hungry. I'll meet you there in thirty minutes.

"Right, thirty minutes." The call ended, Booth leaned back against his chair and closed his eyes. The last few weeks had been crazy, but if Brennan was eating lunch with him then he felt that their relationship was on the mend.

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