(The Lost in the Found)

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Oooooooooooooooo

Unwilling to let Sweets' surprise visit to his home go without further explanation, Booth tracked down the younger man the next day and found him in his office. Entering the room, Booth slammed the door shut behind him causing Sweets to spring to his feet and face his friend. "Booth!"

"What makes you think I'm gambling? I want to know where you heard that." Angry, Booth stood in front of the door with his hands clenched by his side. "Tell me now."

Afraid, Sweets swallowed hard and tried to remain calm. He had seen Booth angry before, but not at him and he was worried what the agent would do. "It was just a guess, Booth. That's all. I didn't hear it anywhere . . . It was logical. You went undercover as a gambler. You're an addict and you shouldn't have done it, but you did it anyway. I hadn't seen you for days and whenever I looked for you, you were gone. You were displaying signs that you were hiding something. I know you would never cheat on Brennan so an affair was out. That just meant that the problem was probably gambling. I didn't know if you were gambling or if you were just going to a lot of GA meetings. It could have been either one . . . I asked Aubrey if you were okay, but he refused to tell me one way or another. It's like he was hiding what you were doing . . . I'm your friend, Booth. I was concerned about you . . . Okay? There aren't any rumors about you gambling that I know about. This was just me being concerned about my friend."

Good at reading body language, Booth knew that Sweets was afraid of him. The slight tremor in his voice, the way he held his body so rigid, the nervous tick in his cheek let Booth know that he was scaring the hell out of his young friend. "I'm not going to hurt you Sweets. No matter what you think is going on, I'm not a bully. I don't beat up my friends because they're acting like jerks."

"Not a jerk, Booth. I went to your house so no one would overhear our conversation. Not a jerk, but a friend." Cautiously, Sweets sat down and tried to appear relaxed. He understood that he was making the situation worse by appearing to be afraid. He knew that Booth hated for anyone to be afraid of him, well accept criminals. "I needed to make sure you weren't in trouble. If you were, I wanted to help you."

His anger suddenly gone Booth relaxed his posture. He had been afraid that Sweets had heard a rumor about him and if he had he needed to know what it was. "I might be promoted next year and any rumors that I'm gambling could ruin my chances . . . I want that promotion. I deserve that promotion and I won't let some gossips blow that out of the water."

"I understand." And he did. Sweets agreed that Booth deserved a promotion, but there was still the matter of Booth's urge to gamble. He wouldn't betray Daisy and tell his friend that she had overheard Brennan talking about him, but he still wanted to help. "You're going to more meetings." He stated it as a fact, not a question. "Can I help you? It would just be between you and me. You're not my patient. This would be a friend thing."

Although he considered Sweets to be a friend, he couldn't trust him when it came to his job. Sweets was a psychologist in the employ of the FBI. He couldn't forget that. "I'm going to more meetings. Bones and I are talking. I'm not hiding anything from her. My sponsor has my back. Aubrey is taking on additional work for me to allow me to go the meetings at noon. I've got this covered . . . thanks for the offer, but I don't need any more help. I just need to work with the program. It works . . . you're a good guy, Sweets, but I can't let you help me."

"Alright . . . If you need to talk to someone, not about gambling, but anything else, anything at all, Booth . . . I'm your guy." Hesitating for a moment, Sweets cleared his throat. "I would never betray you. Never."

Slowly nodding his head, Booth knew that he could count on Sweets. "Yeah, I know that." After he turned to open the door, he paused before leaving. "I'm alright. I'm in control of the situation and I'm not going to do anything to lose Bones and Christine. They're the reason I'm not gambling."

"Got it, Booth." Once the agent was gone, Sweets leaned back against his chair and held his hand against his chest. "Shit!"

Ooooooooooooooooo

While he was working on their latest case with Brennan, Booth noticed that she was acting oddly. His wife seemed to be in denial about how pregnant she was and that confused him. Brennan was a scientist and she understood how the human body worked, what a pregnancy did to a woman's body. She had to know that she was six months into her pregnancy, but she denied it and claimed to be a lot less pregnant. It worried him, but he didn't know how to move her past whatever was going on.

Add to that the victim in their case had been ostracized by her classmates and had killed herself because she hadn't seen that there was a future for herself. Molly Delson hadn't fit in. She was intelligent and socially awkward and her classmates' bullying had made her life a living hell. Booth could see that the case was affecting Brennan since Molly reminded her of her own terrible childhood and the hurt she had received from her classmates once she was in foster care. Luckily for everyone that loved Brennan, she hadn't felt the need to kill herself but to move on, graduate from school and make what life she could even if it was to be a sad one.

The victim had set up some of her classmates to make it appear that they had murdered her. She had done it for revenge. Molly had bought every technical book that Brennan had ever written and had used the knowledge she had gained from those books to create the perfect murder or so she had hoped. Molly had done a very good job of setting up her classmates, but a few incongruities had added up to a different story about what had happened to her and that story was a lonely, depressed young woman who had killed herself because she couldn't see any way out of her lonely situation.

Though she could see herself in Molly, Brennan could also see that Molly hadn't had the courage she needed to move on with her life. She had allowed the bullying to affect her. "I was bullied, called Morticia . . . it hurt because it was callous . . . hateful, but I had a goal in life. I made a vow that I was going to graduate from high school, enter university, get my doctorate and to become the best forensic anthropologist in the country, if not the world. I dared to dream of better things for myself, a better life, but Molly couldn't see that far into the future. She had dwelled on the present and that is what killed her."

They were at home, their case solved and both Booth and Brennan were determined to move away from the case as soon as possible. "Yeah, she almost got away with setting up her classmates. Molly was . . . she was very smart . . . Bones, I know you were a little upset reliving some of the crap your high school classmates had put you through by seeing what Molly went through, but you were stronger and more determined and I think your life turned out pretty good."

"It did, Booth." Thinking over her behavior for the last few weeks, Brennan knew that she needed to talk to Booth about it, to help him see what had been happening. "I denied I was six months pregnant because I was afraid."

"Afraid?' Worried, Booth shifted on the couch to get a better look at Brennan. "Afraid of what? I don't understand."

She had known this was going to be a complicated conversation, but they needed to talk. "When I found out I was pregnant, I was happy. I want this baby, Booth. I want him just as much as I wanted Christine, but a lot of things have happened in the last couple of years and . . . and I suppose I was worried about what could happen in the future . . . You were attacked in our home. You could have died but Danny and his friends were here to help you, but that made me think about how fragile life really is. I convinced myself that I wasn't as pregnant as I am because the more our family grows, the more we have to lose."

He didn't want to make light of what Brennan was saying. She had a point, but he thought she was dwelling on the negatives. "Yeah, but on the flip side, we have more to gain. In a few months, we're going to be the parents of a little boy. We always said that Christine needed a brother or sister and now she's going to have one. I know Parker is her brother, but she rarely sees him, we rarely see him, but having a brother in the house will make her less lonely. I was an only child for five years and I remember being lonely and not having anyone to play with on rainy days, on snow days . . . Having a brother made me feel lest alone when things were going bad. I had someone to share the good times with, although there weren't a lot of those until we moved in with Pops. My point is she's not going to be alone. When we die, she's going to have Parker and her little brother in her life to keep her from being lonely . . . I hope so anyways."

"Yes, that's important." Brennan smiled, shifted on the couch to sit closer to her husband. "How are you feeling Booth? Are the meetings helping you? Do you want to talk about what's going on? I'm a good listener."

"I know you are." Booth placed his arm around her shoulders. "The meetings are helping . . . I've talked to Gavin and the urge is starting to quiet down a little. I haven't called any bookies. I refused to join a baseball pool this morning. That could just be a gateway to gambling . . . Whenever I feel like calling someone and placing a bet, I think of you and Christine and our baby and I know I can't screw up. I can't make that call . . . I love my life, Bones. I don't want to mess it up. Not now."

Comfortable sitting next to Booth, Brennan knew that her husband would win his fight. "I'm glad you talked to me about this. I'm on your side, Booth . . . You're strong. You've been through this before and you know what to expect, what to do, but if you feel the drum in your chest start to beat loudly, if you can't ignore it, call me or come to me. I will help you muffle that drum, Booth. We're in this together."

"Thanks, Bones. You don't know how important it is to me that I can count on you. I'm going to beat this. I won't destroy what I have."

Ooooooooooooooo

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