A/N: This is a shorter chapter than usual, but it heads towards the climax of this story. Thanks for the warm words of encouragement. If you leave a review and I don't get back to you right away, I am so sorry. Been crazy of late.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones but being the middle of a DB and TJT sandwich would be cool

Christopher Pelant was finishing a phone call with a project in front of him. "Yes, one dozen marigolds. Yeah please put in on my credit card when you are ready." He waited for a moment. "Okay, it's a Visa card. Numbers are 4652….6582….5710….7273. Name is Zane Reynolds….I will be there shortly to write a card to put in with the flowers. Great. Thank you."

He hung up the phone and dialed again. "Hello, may I speak to Colonel Pelant? He left? Where did he go? Washington! Wow…no message. He's coming to my area so I will talk to him then. Thanks." He hung up the phone with a smile. "This is so awesome! Dad was able to make time for me after all!" He wheeled his chair over to a drawer. "Time is the essence, so I should get everything together for Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan, and their brats."

He shuffled over to a cupboard and pulled out various items. "Let's see…sodium thiopental, syringes, Number 11 blade, Number 18 blade, and where's my….ah, here it is."

Pelant looks at a picture of Ares. "Ares, God of War. Yes, I think in your, or should I say, your children's tree house would be appropo for you, Agent Booth. I will let you live long enough to feel the pain, but I won't give you the coup de grâce until you see what will happen to your family. Then there will no one blocking me from finally having my father's affections."

He put the picture down and looked at a small one of his father on the desk. "My father wants as a son a patriot with courage. I have the courage to go against the people who are trying to destroy the United States. It's why I went after those FBI agents who murdered those people in West Virginia. It was the icing on the cake for when I tried to get rid of that half-Chinese bitch, her bug husband, and their brat for trying to wreck my plans for the Jeffersonian people. It's why I tried to rid this country of that disgusting Arab who worked at the Jeffersonian. The fact that their supervisor fucks him is just disgusting. Doesn't she remember 9-11!?"

Pelant turned to a picture of Booth and Brennan on the wall. "But you stopped me! That was bad enough, but then I always had to hear about you the last few years!"

He shuffled closer to the picture. "Master Sergeant Booth this and Master Sergeant that! When you became a Sergeant Major in Afghanistan, that's all I heard about…..your courage with those pieces of shit. When you refused to go back into the Army when you returned, Dad was soooo pissed. 'Wasted potential' he said. Whenever I tried to make him proud of me all I heard was 'Why can't you be like Booth? Why can't you be as brave as Booth?' I'm smarter than you! You're stupid compared to me you son of a bitch, BUT IT DIDN'T MATTER! It was always you….my father can't fully love and accept me because of you!"

He turned to Brennan. "Then, you got her. She's so lovely, but she can chase circles around people with her intelligence and it just makes her more beautiful. I hated that I had to frame her for murder but I needed her out of the way. Not only was she working against me, but she could keep me from getting to you. Of course, you all kept her from going where I needed her to, in the system where you, Agent Booth would never see her again."

Pelant moved his hand down to his groin area and began to knead himself. "After she had your brat she was still stunning. That brain, that body…..why the hell did she settle for a broken jock like you?"

Pelant continued to self-gratify himself. "I told him not to marry Temperance and she couldn't know why, but he disobeyed me. I don't want you to die, Temperance. I will touch you and taste you first, but then you have to die for your husband breaking the rules and for him taking away my father's love."

Booth and Sweets were at the diner at ten o'clock finishing their coffee before returning to the Hoover. "Sweets, thanks for clearing your schedule for my meeting with Col. Pelant. I need your shrinky brain in there. Sorry to do that on your first day back."

The psychologist finished his coffee. "It was just a meeting with Hacker. I was glad to reschedule."

"So what did Hacker want to whine to you about this time? Was it Bones again?"

Sweets laughed. "Nice try, but you know I can't tell you that."

"It was worth a shot, wasn't it?" Booth replied with a fake smile.

Sweets saw the older man begin to have sewing machine leg and caught on to his nervousness. "Is it Pelant?"

Booth looked guilty. "Huh?"

"The fact that you could bore a hole through the diner floor with your leg makes me suspect Pelant is on your mind."

Booth finished his cup and nodded an affirmative when Hilda came along and poured him another cup and along with Sweets. "When isn't he?"

Sweets let Hilda pour another cup of coffee and waited for her to leave. "So what makes you think this Col. Pelant is related to Christopher Pelant?"

Booth took another sip of his coffee. "Both of them had the thing where they were born with an extra toe."

"Polydactyly. Was it from the same genetic disorder?"

"Not sure with Col. Pelant, but when I demanded he come here, he didn't deny he knew that pissant, so somehow they are related."

Sweets nodded. "Let me know if there is anything else that I can do to help get that bastard Pelant. He deserves what's coming to him after what he did to Olivia."

Booth welcomed the change of subject he had planned for their trip to the diner. "How are you doing, Sweets?"

Shrugging, he took another sip of his coffee. "Fine, ready to get back into the game."

"Don't bullshit me, Sweets. You lost the woman you love almost two weeks ago. You stayed a few nights with us on and off. How are you doing, really?"

He sighed as he realized what his friend was up to. "This is why you wanted to get a cup of coffee away from the Hoover, isn't it?"

Booth nodded. "Part of it was to discuss strategy for when the Colonel gets here. He's a major asshole."

"Didn't like him much did you?"

Booth added some sugar to his coffee. "I knew him from Desert Storm. He also brought me the letter that asked me to go back to Afghanistan a few years ago. When I came back early from there to help Cam, he tried to get me to re-enlist to go back. I told him no and it pissed him off. He even tried to recruit me again when Bones and Christine were on the run. Pelant is a fuck stick but the Colonel is the King of the Fuck Sticks. He's arrogant and a career kiss ass."

"Sounds like he will be a real treat when he gets here."

"Yeah….nice job changing the subject, Sweets. Now, tell me how you are really doing?"

Sweets knew when he was beat. "It's hard, but last night I actually got six hours in before I woke up. I think about her a lot. Does it every go away, Booth? Do you ever feel better? I tell patients that the pain will eventually subside, but I have to wonder if that's just crap I feed to a patient."

"I went through that the first time Cam and I broke up. It was while we were in college. We had been together for a couple of years but it became obvious we had different plans in life. I wanted a family and the white picket fence and she didn't. It hurt when we broke up, but it was the right thing to do. The same with Rebecca." Booth inhaled. "I wish I could say I felt the same way with Hannah, but I didn't. When she followed me back to Washington, for a while it was good and I was able to think I had fallen out of love with Bones, but our breakup was not good. I feel like a shit for saying this, but when I got over the shock of her turning down my proposal, it was almost relief that she was gone."

"It's the same with Daisy. Breaking up with her hurt, but it wasn't as bad as I feel now."

Booth reached across the table and put his hand on the younger man's shoulders. "It's okay to feel that way, Sweets. It means that you cared a great deal for Olivia. Someday, you will get yourself out there again, but for now, you need to feel. Just try to remember the good times, okay? It helps a lot."

"You mean like when she shot me?" Sweets said with a smile.

"Yeah, Sweets, like that." Booth roared with laughter before his phone buzzed across the table. Grabbing it before it fell to the floor, he answered quickly. "Booth…..already? Okay we are on our way down." Hanging up the phone, he smiled at his friend. "Guess who has arrived at the Hoover early?"

Sweets got up from his chair. "Would it be our esteemed Colonel Pelant?"

"The one and only. I'm curious to hear what he has to say." Booth threw a few bills down before both men grabbed their suit jackets and walked over to the Hoover.