19.
Sorry for the shortness of this chapter but I did promise another update today and for me that's 28 minutes left on 'today'.
Sweets steals a phone from someone at the gas station & calls Brennan. Sweets wants them to get the book but his attitude is failing quickly. Brennan talks him into staying with the phone and the book and he agrees. He finds an abandoned building to hide out in while they locate him because he doesn't know where he is and for the most part, doesn't really care. He finds a dilapidated building that used to be a bakery and places the book inside the old but dry oven so he that there is distance between himself and the book should he be found, which he is, by Carter.
"That's not who I think it is." Hodgins asked from the back seat.
"You bet it is." Carter said into the phone which abruptly lost connection.
"Angela, can you get us to where Sweets was before we lost the connection?" Brennan asked from the passenger seat.
"No, the transmissions were spotty even before them."
"Think people!" Booth demanded.
"He said an old bakery." Cam said. "We know he's in Petersburg."
"Right." Angela said tapping away. "Here! About fifty years ago there was a bakery that was in Petersburg."
"Address Angela!" Booth said as his accelerator met the floor and everyone double checked their seat belts. Booth knew it wasn't important right at the moment but he couldn't help but figure out why Sweets had called Brennan this last time, instead of him.
"Thought you got rid of me huh?" Carter asked as Sweets tried to back track away from him on his back looking up at Carter. "You thought you were some sneaky mother…"
Sweets made a break to turn over and run but Carter pulled on the back of Sweets' already flimsy sweatshirt and pulled him back. He pushed Sweets up against the wall and came close to his face. He held Sweets up mostly by placing Sweets neck in the palm of his ginormous hand.
"You'll never be rid of me kid. Every time you run, I'll be there." Carter warned. "So it's best you stop running isn't it?" Carter punched Sweets in the gut and dropped him to the ground when he hit him twice more in the stomach. Sweets lay on the ground seeing thinness of the floor around him. He realized just how fragile this second floor actually was.
"Those friends of yours are a hoot." Carter said backing up and laughing. "Always a bit to late – every time."
"Carter?" Sweets said in a tired and pleading tone. Carter came closer to listen to the whinny plea.
"Yes?"
"Go to hell." Sweets said pulling back letting Carter take one more step forward on the fragile floor, his leg going thru the floor trapping him in place long enough for Sweets to make a run for it.
Sweets making a run for it was mostly a common phrase more than an accurate description of the action. Sweets hobbled forward but the last of his strength had gone when he sat by the window. He made it to the top of the steps and turned in time to see Carter pulling his leg out of the hole. Sweets' feet gave out as he tumbled down a couple of steps breaking bones that bordered on fractured before. He stopped himself by grabbing the railing with one arm and wrapping an arm around the rest of his broken midsection with the other. Carter ran to the top of the steps but they top section had given way with Sweets fall. Sweets was resting on the middle section which remained.
Sweets tried to put the pain back in the box he had carefully constructed over the last few days to hide it away, he hadn't had time to deal with it. Now however the box belonged to Pandora and the lid wouldn't go on and instead he found himself paralyzed with pain. Carter scuffled along the top steps trying to figure out a way to get down to the bottom, but more so to Sweets.
"You're going to give me that book boy!" Carter shouted from above. "You've got more bones I can break for you to tell me to find it."
Sweets looked at the arm holding his insides tightly together and carefully studied his hand. Carter was curious what Sweets was doing, he ignored his two broken fingers and carefully positioned his middle one and held it out for Carter to see.
"You punk ass…." Carter said when Sweets began to laugh only it proved too painful and he went back to holding his chest in.
"You know I'm going to get you – and you know what I'm going to do with you when I do!" Carter shouted and Sweets decided it was time to maneuver down a few more steps. Carter was angry and decided to take a ballsy move and jumped from the top to the edge where Sweets teetered. Sweets immediately felt the impact as the robust man caused another section of the steps at the bottom to collapse. Carter grabbed Sweets for if he was going down he was taking the psychologist with him. Sweets only option was to lean forward and tumble down a few more intact steps hoping Carter would fall the other way down a steep drop. Instead Carter followed suit and lunged at Sweets, the two stopped close to the edge when Carter began to choke Sweets. The two teetered on the small platform between the two missing sets of steps.
"Sweets!" A pair of voices called out from the first floor but Sweets was busy teetering on the edge of the precipice. The mangled steps lay about leaving Brennan and Booth little options to get to them. Booth pulled his gun and aimed it at Carter.
"Let him go!" Booth shouted.
"Better listen." Sweets tried to say. "He's a sniper."
Carter pulled his face closer to Sweets making it harder for Booth to shoot him without hitting Sweets.
"Where's my book?!" Carter shouted but let some pressure off Sweets neck so he could speak.
"Wrong answer." Carter placed pressure on his neck again while Brennan ran to get help from the others who were searching nearby buildings if they were to have gone in the wrong one. She ran in the direction of the back door when she passed a large oven with curiosity.
"Let's try again." Carter said.
"Don't you get it, I'm never going to tell you." Sweets said gasping for air while he could, hearing distant sounds of Booth trying to construct something to get to him.
"If that's the case…" Carter said and let go of Sweets neck but pushed his broken body over the edge. Carter pushed Sweets over so that only his arms were on the surface, his legs dangled over the edge, his broken chest pressing against the jagged floor.
"Sweets!" Booth shouted seeing the man dangle from above.
"Last chance." Carter said but Sweets dark chocolate eyes laced in red held their steely resolve. "Fine." Carter said letting go but Sweets fingers dug into a hole in the floor holding on.
Carter shook his head. "You always find a loop hole don't you? You need to just give up." Carter stepped forward to crush Sweets fingers making him fall the lengthy drop to his sure death when the floor shifted following with a missed gun shot, one that would have hit Carter should the floor have not begun to give way.
"That's my exit." Carter announced and turned towards the crumbling floor above. "Your choice agent Booth, him or me." Carter jumped catching a section of the floor above.
Booth went to fire again but Sweets was losing his grip fast. Booth put his gun away and quickly went back to assembling a scaffold from before. He looked back up and Carter was gone from sight but he could hear him above. He's got nowhere to go, I'll get him later but first Sweets.
"Booth, the book, it's…" Sweets said nearing what he perceived as his end.
"Hang on Sweets you can get it yourself." Booth climbed his first layer of scaffolding though the psychologist was still farther above him. "Dammit." He said looking for more wood.
"Booth, the book, I …." Sweets tried to say again but he couldn't speak nor hold on. Booth watched as Sweets grip began to loosen and quickly picked up a long board and threw it in place in time for the psychologist to slide down it like a slide and towards Booth. The momentum was too fast with Booth barely able to grab him in time for them to both fall off the scaffold to the floor. Booth scowled in pain of landing on his back but hadn't had the wind knocked out of him. He coughed as he looked up and saw that the fall wasn't great but wasn't near the drop Sweets would have faced otherwise and he was grateful. He turned to see Sweets on the ground next to him, laying in an awkward position, motionless.
"Sweets?" Booth asked when footsteps ran closer to him and he jumped up, his back a poor reminder of his recent fall.
"Oh Bones you scared me…" Booth said.
"We need to get out of here now." Brennan said but the building's creaking and groaning was doing the talking for her. "Oh God, Sweets." She said hovering over him. "We shouldn't move him." She said studying his position but Booth looked up into the shifting beams.
"No choice." Booth said collecting part of the man while Brennan flung the other arm over her shoulder as they headed out the front door where the others were waiting.
Carter found no way out of the second floor and made a jump back for the platform. He was lucky to find a slide and made his way down it and onto a scaffold that soon collapsed as he headed to the back door, opposite the direction of the others who hadn't seen him yet. He passed by the oven and recalled Sweets talking on the phone, something's in the oven he flipped down the lid and saw nothing. The ceiling collapsed above.