21.

Booth and Brennan take Sweets to the nearest location available, a vet clinic to look at Sweets' injuries. Carter's body is not found in the rubble and Sweets' only connection to reality seems to be thru finding the lost victims in the log book.

Booth looked in the rear view mirror to see Sweets sitting silent, almost content in the back seat, his furry companion sitting closely beside him. Brennan gave him a look that questioned why Booth insisted on taking the dog but the more she thought about it, the little flaw in the logic she found so she kept quiet.

"Is it treated for fleas?" She asked and Booth nodded.

"The doc did that before we left."

"Okay. Good." She said looking back and saw a certain contentment between the dog whose head rested on Sweets' lap and his hand that lay on the dog's side. Both sported bandages and bruises though the dog seemed in better shape.

Brennan's eyes scanned the window, looking in the side view mirror, just about everywhere. She didn't think Carter would really try something but she had been wrong before. She heard a noise and looked back to see Sweets head bounce off the window – he had almost drifted off but his head bounced back up thus hitting the window.

"Sweets you are welcome to rest, it will be some time until we are back in D.C." She informed him.

"No, it's fine." Sweets said looking out the window. He had no recollection of the drive to wherever he was, all of it was still fuzzy and only recently coming more clear. He had to admit he felt better being with Brennan and Booth, even the others he felt minorly comfortable. But around everyone else he eyed them with suspicion and for good reason. "The drive is nice." He said somewhat absent mindedly. Brennan was curious what he meant, Sweets was referring though to how it was nicer to drive in the car than being stuffed in the trunk, which had been his mode of transportation too often lately.

"Sweets, I have to ask, how did you get out of that place?" Booth asked, it had been bothering him, Julie didn't know, she had been taken away before then.

"A truck." Sweets said thinking back but it the memory started to give him chill.

"With the others?" Brennan asked.

"Sort of." Sweets stomach reminded him that he didn't want to talk about it.

"How didn't they see you? And how did you get to that town?" Brennan asked, always inquisitive.

"I was under the truck." Sweets said. "Then I walked to town."

Booth & Brennan exchanged a look, though they didn't have all the details they knew it could not be good. Based on the amount of wear and debris embedded in Sweets' feet Brennan knew the walk must have been lengthy. When Booth tried to imagine where someone would hide on the underside of a truck, he grew angry. Sweets shivered unintentionally and Booth turned the heat up. It was warm enough but maybe not for Sweets.

He decided to take his mind off the memories, the specific memories of his escape and concentrate on what plagued him most, those who weren't in the comfort of a mostly warm car with the protection of friends. He flipped open the pages of the book - he had glanced at it before but now he would take the time to study it. Brennan noticed as he did and she wondered if she should say something.

Sweets heaved a heavy sigh.

"Everything okay Sweets?" Booth asked.

"The book is encoded." He said with a heavy tone.

"I had noticed that as well." Brennan commented.

"Thank you for finding the book Dr. Brennan." Sweets said considering how an already difficult task just became harder regarding the encoded log.

"I was hoping that Angela might be able to help us crack the codes used in the book." Brennan said and Sweets nodded as his head drifted to the side again. The latest news was too much for Sweets mind and it collapsed on itself demanding a recharge and he fell asleep.

"He still looks tired." A male voice in the distance said.

"We can't leave him in the car." The woman said.

"I'm up." Sweets added as the dog buried his nose under Sweets' hand in an effort to engage Sweets in movement.

"I'll get him." Brennan said.

"I'm fine!" Sweets shouted when he hadn't intended to, shocking even himself.

"I meant the dog Sweets, his leg is broken." Brennan reminded him as she scooped the canine up in her arms. Brennan gave Booth a look of concern.

Booth opened the door for Sweets and had planned to help the young psychologist whose feet were badly damaged but after he had barked at his wife Booth decided to let Sweets get his own reminder of why friends were integral.

Sweets feet touched the ground and with a bit of surprise Booth watched as he slowly but on his own walked inside. Walked may have been an exaggeration- one thing Booth could say about Sweets was his walk was always relaxed, sort of like a man breezing thru a park with little care but the sunshine and nice weather – so it stood out today when he walked robotically, surely a sign he was in pain but cared to not admit nor ask for assistance. Instead Booth walked with little distance between them should the doctor fall Booth was ready. He had no idea what was the right and wrong move to make with Sweets – the only person he trusted in asking was Sweets and right now he wasn't talking.

Once they made it inside Cam marched forward with large eyes. Brennan flashed her own sea green irises and the visual glance was ended when Sweets hobbled in the door, obviously exhausted but showing no signs a desire to discuss it or attention to be drawn to it.

"Angela is in her office." Booth explained and Sweets headed in that direction. Brennan followed with the dog.

"Seeley….I don't even know where to begin." Cam said her usual by the book attitude in place.

"It's a seeing eye dog Cam." Booth said.

"A seeing eye dog? For a guy who can see? And a dog with a broken leg?"

"Cam, you know deep down this has to happen right?" Booth said. "He can't go to the FBI office with all those people staring at him. It's quiet here. I sure as hell am not sending him home by himself, not with that psycho out there."

"Sweets is not a dog with a broken leg." Cam reminded him.

"Right, he's a psychologist with no family outside of the people here and his list of injuries is a lot worse than a broken leg. Now if you have some suggestions I invite you to let me know what they are."

Cam gave Booth a look and then went back to work. Booth watched as Brennan sat the dog down in a chair while Angela wanted to give Sweets a warm and embracing hug but it turned out to awkward when Sweets kept a distance from her while the exchange took place. Booth worried how long this would all last though he knew Rome wasn't built in a day.

"Brennan texted that you had the book but it was coded." Angela said feeling it was easier just to get back to work. "I've got some programs here, I just need the book." Angela reached for it automatically but Sweets pulled it back.

"I'm sorry Angela, I didn't mean to…" Sweets said but still held the book.

"I know how important it is Sweets. I just want to help." Angela promised him.

"I know, it's just…"

"You just worked really hard to get it." Angela said. "And that's why I'm going to scan it all in, not only will we have a backup but then I can start figuring these all out."

Sweets nodded and handed her the book. Angela noticed how uncomfortable he looked but more so how exhausted he looked.

"You know Sweets this is going to take me awhile, would you like to rest in Dr. Brennan's office? Her sofa is a lot bigger than mine." Angela said.

Sweets considered the option and didn't want it to appear he was looking over Angela's shoulder. He slowly stood up noticing the pain killers were beginning to wear off. The dog tried to jump to attention too but was hindered by his bandage. Angela watched as the two seemed to refuse help from anyone. Sweets waited a second but the dog seemed content in place so Sweets headed to Dr. Brennan's dark office. Angela looked at the dog who started to fall back asleep, happy in his current place.

"You know he needs you a lot more than I do." Angela said to the mutt.

Sweets lay down on the couch, slowly, for he found it hard for his body to do simple tasks. Still, he had no time for self-pity when all he could consider was the worse place the people he had been interred with were going thru. He tried not to let it bother him that the dog preferred Angela's couch though it did and he wasn't sure why. Oh well, Dr. Brennan would not want a dog on her sofa anyway. Little else but exhaustion took over that made him fall asleep because his nerves will still on edge.

A while passed until Sweets finally fell fast and into a hard sleep.

"How long are you going to lay there and sleep?" A voice asked and Sweets thought it in poor humor coming from a friend. He wanted to shake his head but his chest hurt, in fact it hurt to breathe all together.

"You're a piss poor excuse for a man." Sweets eyes flew open at Carter's familiar voice. His neck hurt as Carter's hands wrapped tighter around them. Sweets wanted to scream but instead it just felt like an inevitable end.

Suddenly his face felt wet while his body trembled, his attention brought to present as the dog barked. Sweets woke with a start and pain shot thru every vein and muscle in his body, the dog looked down at him from its position on his chest.

"What's wrong?" Booth asked suddenly at the door with Brennan seconds behind. He had heard the dog's bark and came when he heard it.

Now in the office he could see the pale and pained look on Sweets face. "Sweets are you okay?" He asked coming closer.

"The pain killers must be wearing off, I'll be back." Brennan said and left the room.

Sweets was still somewhat out of it when Booth came closer. "Sweets it's okay." He encouraged but he didn't seem to leave the trance until the dog licked his hand, further bringing Sweets away from the nightmare.

Sweets breathing was still heavy but became more even as he realized where he was, or even more - realized where he wasn't.

"Oh! There he is." Angela said entering to room when she saw Brennan moving quickly across the lab. "The dog was asleep in my office, he must have…hey, what's wrong with Sweets?" Angela took note of Sweets unsteady appearance as he sat up but not without much effort. Brennan reappeared with pills that Sweets swallowed quickly without argument. His head pounded in his hand but he couldn't stay hidden within himself forever as the dog wiggled his way into Sweets face, forcing him to drop his arms and let the room in. Sweets looked down at the dog who wagged his tail and Sweets smiled a tiny grin which they all took as huge progress.

"Bad dream?" Booth asked not very loud.

"Yeah, I'm afraid so." Sweets said patting the dog's head, at least more content than before.

"Maybe…." Brennan said but Sweets interrupted her.

"Maybe they'll go away when we get Carter." Sweets said.

"Well I might be able to help with that." Angela said. "At least I think I have a solid start."

Sweets wasted little time in getting up and following Angela to her office, the dog in his arms.

"You should name him." Booth said as he walked by Sweets.

"Oh, yeah." Sweets said but at the moment only unpleasant names came to mind.

"So here is what I have so far." Angela began. "I have this listing here, it appears he assigned each person a number as well as a letter behind it, A or B."

"Flip to the last page." Sweets suggested and Angela did so.

"A is for male, B is for female." Sweets said having recognized the sequence of the last people who came in.

"The next column is a 1-2-3." Angela said.

"He's rating people for service." Sweets added giving them great information, though it was difficult to hear. "I remember him…giving them…numbers….when I had to…choose."

They wanted to say something, do something but Sweets sat with the dog on his lap staring at the screen and patting the faithful friend's head. They left him be, his mind was busy working as his tired and red but impatient eyes scanned the screen.

He cleared his throat. "I think the next column is the cell he assigned them to. That's why they are used again and again and are crossed out."

"Okay so we know where they are, but where did they go?" Brennan asked.

"The last few columns are grouped together and written what appears pretty quickly. It seems to be three, maybe four groupings." Angela pointed out.

"That's probably when he loaded people on the trucks to get them out." Sweets considered something. "He's got them in another location. We have to find that location quickly or we won't find them at all." Then a worse consideration fell on him. "He may have already moved them."

"Let's work on that code before we lose that hope." Booth suggested quickly hoping to stunt the young man's hopes from fading too fast.

"I've checked these last series of numbers." Angela said skipping two columns and going to the end. "They are not coordinates, they're not GPS locates, nothing."

Sweets stared at the sequences. "The middle numbers I think are people he assigned them to. The last columns don't have them because he shipped them at one time." He knew they would have to break those codes in order to find the others but now he needed to find those trucks of people.

"Hey what about that girl, Julie, does she have any ideas?" Angela asked.

Booth shook his head. "No, she said she never got that close to the book."

"How is she?" Sweets asked still staring at the enlarged screen.

"Recovering, protective custody." Booth said.

"They symbol is which truck they left in." Sweets said starting to see a pattern. "The asterisk is one truck, the pound another, the percent another and the dollar sign is the last one. There's only four symbols used, that's the trucks."

"Okay so we can group them together, yeah there's about twenty five people per truck so that makes sense." Angela said grouping them on the computer. "They have a few different numbers next to them."

"Do you think that the different symbols suggest different outlets for them?" Brennan asked. "The dollar sign could be his high dollar people?"

"Sure but where does he take them, out of that 25 there's four different numbers below them." Booth said pointing.

"He's broken them down to smaller shipments." Sweets said. "Probably placed them in smaller vans." He felt the time was running out much faster and hated that he had stopped to take a nap, it was a waste of time.

"Dammit, these numbers mean nothing." Angela said frustrated.

"To Carter it all means something." Sweets said looking them over again then got an idea. "The first number is the state, 2 for District of Columbia, the start of the zip code. He's not using the whole code! He's then skipped the rest of the zip code….only…." Sweets expression changed and they knew he had come up with the solution. "He's added the plus four section of the zip code."

"If that's the case that could narrow down specific neighborhoods or even a city block." Brennan said in case no one knew what Sweets was talking about.

"I'm running these now." Angela said. "What's 9?"

"Hawaii, Oregon, California…" Brennan began to list

"Marshall Islands, Alaska…." Booth continued.

"Planning a vacation?" Hodgins came in and asked.

"Tracking down those people." Booth said. "We've got the one digit beginning zip code and the four digit add on." Hodgins understood.

"Okay they would have to leave from a port." Angela said. "Okay, let's go with the first one in the D.C. area, this four digit add on points to this industrial area."

"I'm on it." Hodgins said immediately moving to the computer. "You go on to the next one."

"Okay next is 1, could be Delaware, New York or Pennsylvania." Angela said. "The last four are these possible hits." Several came to the screen.

"The next section could be an address, there's just no street number." Brennan noticed. "Can you cross reference these?"

"Yes, it's just going to take me some time." Angela said sensing they were all growing impatient.

"What's that number? It only has a line after the A5432, C14." Brennan said. "Why doesn't it have a go to location?"

"That's me." Sweets said seeing his fate on the screen before him. "Carter wasn't planning on me going anywhere.

"I've got a hit on the first one, it's a shipping yard." Hodgins said, his interruption welcomed by Sweets.

Booth looked at Sweets. "Let's go."

Booth was moving from the room considerably quicker than Sweets and he slowed his pace so that the other man could catch up.

"Booth maybe you should just go." Sweets said solemnly.

"No Sweets we started this thing together, I think we should finish it together."

Sweets nodded and gave a small grin and Booth saw a semblance of the man he once knew.

"We'll keep Fido here." Angela said.

"Fido?" Sweets asked.

"Hey if you don't give him a name I will."

"Not Fido." Sweets said turning to leave.

"Okay, Cujo."

"Not funny."

"Do you think he means we can't name the dog Funny?"

Two hours later and four SWAT teams on the scene having swooped in and secured the scene first, Booth and Sweets walked in once it was secure and found what they were looking for people.

"How many?" Booth asked.

"Twelve." One of the men answered.

"It's a start." Sweets said trying to stay positive.

"It's a good start." Booth reminded him but sensed two things in Sweets, a sense of accomplishment but also a sense of fear once they were around the groups of people. This caused Booth to want to stay close to Sweets who while he said nothing relaxed slightly while his eyes darted around, looking for Carter, or any of his people.

Angela worked on the code and locations while Booth & Sweets left the scene for Sweets place. Sweets hit the shower while Booth couldn't help but see a few drops of old dried blood on the floor. Sweets shower seemed rather quick and Booth wondered if it were because he wanted to get back to work or it were because he didn't like being in such a vulnerable place as a shower.

Sweets soon emerged, now dressed like Booth in a suit but it was one that was now too large. Booth did notice however that some of the bruising had begun to rescind, the cuts were not as fresh and after popping a handful of pills Booth began to work up the idea to say something about his concerns.

Only the phone rang.

"Booth." He answered. "Yeah, okay, I'll call it in, we're on our way."

"She's got more?" Sweets asked trying not to wince as he put his shoes on.

"Yeah. Hey, uh…" But Booth didn't know how to voice his concerns. He wanted Sweets to go along, he wanted him to see this to the end because he saw the good it did for him but he felt like Sweets was pushing himself too far. Only he didn't know how to say it so he went for a more mundane conversation. "We should uh, get you a new phone."

"Yeah, mine is long gone I'm sure." Sweets said thinking of how Carter had his badge, ID, phone. Everything about Carter seemed creepy and that just added to it.

"Hey Sweets, I…." Booth said. "Never mind."

"No Booth, something is on your mind." Booth noticed how Sweets sounded defensive when he said it.

"Why did you call Brennan when you were…there…You know what, it doesn't matter." Booth said feeling silly for bringing it up.

"I did." Sweets said. "You didn't answer."

Sweets headed for the door but Booth didn't buy it. He looked down at his phone and went thru his missed calls from the day before, an eternity ago when they didn't know if Sweets was dead or alive. Sure enough there was a missed call from an unknown number. For whatever reason it didn't make Booth feel any better that he had failed to help Sweets the first go around again.

Quickly the pair were on their way to the scene.

"I wonder if the dog is okay." Sweets said.

"I'm sure he's being treated like a king." Booth said thinking of the company he was in.

"Yeah if Cam hasn't given him three flea baths."

"Nah, she'd put him to work with security first." Booth kidded and he was glad to see Sweets smile. "I'm glad we found him, the dog, you know. He helped with your dream, uh, nightmare."

"Yeah." Sweets said uncomfortably. "I'm glad he woke me when he did."

Booth wasn't sure what else to say as Sweets expression grew dark. They arrived at the scene of the storage container so the conversation came to a natural end.

"We're going to let SWAT go in again." Booth said.

"That's fine with me." Sweets said feeling the ache in his body return, he took some pills out of his pocket but doing the math he reluctantly put them away. Booth was glad he had but he also worried if Sweets was still pushing himself too far. From what he had recently been thru, he was sure he was.

SWAT secured the area and called Booth & Sweets in where they had found four more people. Sweets stepped forward quickly when he saw one man, the man he had fought for food, the same man who helped him out.

"You came back." The man said who looked starved, again.

"We're going to help." Sweets promised taking the man's dirty hand that Sweets paid no mind to.

"Thank you." The man said taking it as Sweets helped him up.

Sweets nodded but it seemed as though his answer meant it just wasn't enough.