The next morning, Booth
found Sweets sitting outside his office door when he arrived to
work.
"What are you doing here? Are you lost, little boy?"
Booth joked.
"Haha, very funny. No, I wanted to ask you something, if you don't mind."
"Sure, Sweets, whatever. Have a seat?"
"Um, okay…wait, what's that?" Sweets saw the copy of Emma on Booth's desk and grabbed it before Booth could.
"Hey, give that back.
That's mine."
"Jane Austen, huh? Ah, takes me back, 12th
grade…you know, I have a copy of Pride and Prejudice on my
bookshelf, and well, let me just say that, a couple of
times…"
"Sweets!" Booth interrupted. "Give me the book
back. Now."
"Ah, not yet, I want to see where you're at."
Sweets opened to a page Booth had earmarked and his eyes were drawn
toward a highlighted section. "Very interesting, Agent
Booth."
"Sweets…I mean it…stop it."
Sweets began to
read the highlighted passage out loud.
"Cautious, very cautious," thought Emma; "he advances inch by inch, and will hazard nothing till he believes himself secure."
"Sweets!" Booth pulled out his gun and rounded his desk, reaching for the book.
"Okay, okay…very revealing, Agent Booth." He placed the book back on the desk.
"It's…I'm
reading it for a case, okay?"
"Yeah, sure…anything I can do
to help on it?"
"Yeah, you can get the hell out of here."
"Oh,
come on, Agent Booth? What's a little teasing between
friends?"
Booth raised one eyebrow.
"Okay…not friends…work peers."
Both eyebrows.
"Okay, maybe not 'peers' exactly, but, I don't know…" Sweets paused at the look on Booth's face… "Okay, um, what's a little teasing between a Special Agent and the guy who's going to wash that agent's SUV?"
Booth nodded. "Yeah,
that sounds about right, Sweets." He tossed him the keys. "Get it
back to me by one. I've got to go to the Jeffersonian to talk to
Bones."
"Can I come too?"
"We'll see, Sweets, we'll
see."