Author's Note: Next chapter. I hope to keep up this momentum for a while. :)
I do not own Bones or any of its characters.
Thank you to everyone who is reading/following/reviewing this. It is always appreciated.
NatesMama: Thank you. This one is definitely going to go into some darker places (although not always overtly), but I hope to keep it interesting...Anyway, I hope you enjoy this update and will be looking forward to your next update on your Rabbit Hole fic. :)
Super Ario: I think that duckeaters tend to think alike. :) But yeah, I'm sure that variations of ideas have been repeated in many a fic on this site. Heck, I even was worried about ripping off another Bones' writer's fic when I wrote The Measure of the Spirit and actually PM'd to apologize in advance. :) So don't worry about it. I'm sure we will have totally different stories anyway...But yeah, things aren't going to be easy for Sweets any time soon...
Seletua: Thank you. Always nice to hear from you once in a while. :) I hope you enjoy the rest of this one.
Gandalf3213: Thank you for that. :) I agree that Sweets is one of the most endearing characters on TV these days and have a great fondness for exploring all of his interactions with the other characters on Bones...especially with B&B. As to what will happen next...well things just don't tend to be straightforward in my fic worlds. :D Anyway, I hope you enjoy the ride in the meantime.
CauseAscene: Thank you for the review. I haven't seen 50/50 although I had heard about it. I'll admit that this one will get pretty heavy at times, but I can also say that it will definitely have some twists and turns at times too...Oh and just so you'll know, there will be more bombshells to come...
D: No. And as you will soon see, it can get worse...
Peanutmeg: Thanks for the review. This one will be a harrowing one at times...and as for what I alluded to in the previous chapter...you will get a glimpse of that here...
The Break in the Ties—Chapter 2
Earlier that week
"It's a simple evaluation, Doctor Sweets," Agent Warner, Sweets' supervisor said as he sat across the psychologist at his desk. "Given our normal Bureau policies in regards to agents fraternizing with consultants and the fact that Doctor Brennan is actually pregnant with Agent Booth's child, I believe it's understandable why there might be concerns about the two of them continuing to work together on federal homicide cases." The agent shuffled some papers about on his desk before handing Sweets a file of forms.
"Since you've worked with them in the past, I decided that you should handle this evaluation of their professional partnership," Warner continued. "This will need to be a thorough job in order to quell those concerns from higher up, and since they seem to trust you, I'm sure that you are the best therapist here for the task."
Warner went over a couple more things with Sweets before he dismissed the psychologist. As Sweets walked down the hall, he finally rolled his eyes and let loose the snort he had been holding back.
'Seems to trust me?' he thought wearily. 'Since when? Booth and Brennan have never trusted me in regards to their partnership. And I know that they are sure to hate this latest evaluation, and that they will be resistant every step of the way.'
Sweets sighed as he approached his office door. Despite his past inquiries and his continued desire to help out however he could, a part of him understood why Booth and Brennan were so tight-lipped.
'I know that I wouldn't want a bunch of details about my relationship with Daisy to be written into a file and scrutinized by members of the FBI,' he pondered. 'But then again I don't work with Daisy in the field. Booth and Brennan have to know that their personal relationship will always have to be considered as long as they work for the Bureau, right? It's logical and not unreasonable for them to expect that the FBI is going to do whatever it takes to avoid the appearance of impropriety when building federal cases, isn't it? And the two of them are reasonable, rational people who will understand why I need to do this, right?'
Sweets' shoulders slumped as he walked into his office. No matter how reasonable these thoughts might be, he knew that Booth and Brennan would not see things that way. Not at all.
The psychologist sat down at his desk, sat the file in his hands down, and stared at the stack of papers and files currently occupying his working space. Even though there hadn't been many cases that involved the Jeffersonian here lately, Sweets had still been nearly overloaded with work due to numerous agents consulting him for profiles as well as seeing him for therapy. The result had been stressful weeks filled with ten to twelve hour work days for over a month.
During that time, Sweets had not seen or heard much from anyone at the Jeffersonian or from Booth. Daisy, who had been busy herself recently with work on her dissertation, had made sure to keep in touch with him by texting him several times a day, but for the most part, Sweets had become isolated in a world of work.
Sweets started to reach over for some papers when a wave of nausea and mild pain hit him. He had been having these sensations here and there for the last two weeks, and it was starting to worry him. Still, he was reluctant to see a doctor about it. He carried too many bad memories from his early childhood about doctors and hospitals, and they did not get much better as he grew into adulthood. Eventually, Sweets was able to rationalize putting of a visit to his physician by reminding himself that his annual physical was coming up later that week.
'It's probably just stress,' Sweets told himself. 'I'll just wait and ask the doctor about it when I go in for that physical, and he'll probably end up telling me what I already know. No need to make a big deal out of it.'
Sweets yawned and rubbed his abdomen while he waited for the nausea to go away. He decided to work on the more routine and mundane reports first as a way to clear his mind before tackling the more challenging tasks in front of him.
He had only been at it for an hour when Booth and Brennan barged into his office, breaking Sweets' concentration.
"Sweets, what's all this about an official evaluation?" Booth barked at him. The psychologist turned around in his chair to face them before speaking.
"Given the nature of your relationship with Doctor Brennan and the fact that she is pregnant," Sweets began. "The Bureau feels that it would be prudent to…."
"Why should my being pregnant mean anything?" Brennan asked. "It has no bearing on our partnership or our work."
"No bearing?"Sweets said, incredulous. "The baby you are carrying is Agent Booth's."
"And mine," the anthropologist added. "But again, that has no relevance in regards to our professional partnership. It's not as if we will be taking our baby out to crime scenes."
Sweets sighed and stood up from his chair to face them.
"Doctor Brennan, Agent Booth," he said. "Whether you choose to admit it or not, the two of you cannot deny that a change as monumental as the one you've experienced in your personal relationship has the potential to affect your working relationship as well. Now, the Bureau is willing to be flexible on its policies as long as you agree to…."
"This better not be some sneaky way for you to get us back into therapy with you," Booth scowled. Sweets bristled at the agent's tone.
"My supervisor thought that it would be best if I handled this evaluation simply because I have a history of working with you," the therapist said. "The decision to have this evaluation in the first place was completely out of my hands and came from much higher up."
Booth eyed him suspiciously for a few moments before reaching over and giving Sweets a hard pat to the shoulder.
"Ok, I get it, Sweets," he said, starting to smirk. "You just give us a time to show up, and you'll do some shrinky mojo, write some stuff down, and then Bones and me will be on our way."
"No, it isn't going to work like that, Agent Booth," Sweets protested. "It's my job to give your partnership a thorough and precise evaluation."
"Since psychology is a soft science, filled with inconsistencies and void of any accurate means of comparison, a precise evaluation is inherently impossible," Brennan replied.
"I can schedule you in for our first session later this week," Sweets said, choosing to ignore her. "Will that work for the both of you?" Both Booth and Brennan made a show of rolling their eyes and shaking their heads before Booth let out a gust of air.
"Fine," he said. "We'll be here." They then set up a more exact day and time which Sweets tapped into his Blackberry.
"Ok then," Sweets said as he double-checked the device in his hand. "I will see you soon. We'll start our first session with…."
But by that point, Booth and Brennan were already heading out the door and were closing it behind them. Sweets plopped down onto the chair he normally used for therapy sessions.
'I'm just doing my job,' he thought glumly. 'But even more than that, I just want to help them…to make sure that they get a fair evaluation so that they can keep working together. And…I just want them to be happy. Why do I get so much grief for this time and time again?'
The psychologist sank back into his office chair and sulked. Even though he had tried to let it go, it still stung a little to this day that he had been the very last person to find out about either their relationship or Brennan's pregnancy.
'Even Fisher knew before I did…Fisher….It was all right for him to know, but not me? Besides that, the only reason I found out was because of a misplaced comment of Daisy's and the fact that the Bureau was about to be notified about it anyway…Heck, for all I know, members of the Bureau found out before I did…."
Sweets rubbed his temples. After he had found out about it, he had thought about asking Booth if he would like him to stand up for the agent's baby at his first baptism and become his child's godfather. Sweets figured that Booth's Catholicism would come into play at least that one time and that Brennan would agree to a ceremony for their baby. But now that idea seemed ridiculous to him.
'Pretty stupid of me,' the psychologist chided himself. 'To think that they'd ever consider me for something like that. I'm sure that if they had their way, I wouldn't have found out about the baby until he or she graduated from high school.'
The therapist took a deep breath and shook his head. He was spiraling into a dark place, and he knew it. He also knew that it would only get worse if he didn't stop himself.
'I can't do this to myself…It's all just fear and insecurity….Booth and Brennan are my friends. They are not looking to shut me out of their lives. I'm letting my personal and professional stress cloud my sense of reality.'
'Right?'
And that was the problem….that little seed of doubt. Doubt that, no matter how much he tried to reason it away, remained stubborn and steadfast.
Sweets stood up and left his office, letting his secretary, Becky, know that he was going to lunch on the way out.
'I just need a break,' he told himself. 'I'll get something to eat, spend some time with my friends, and I'll feel better.'
A couple days later, sitting alone in the Diner, Sweets picked at his soup and sandwich for a while before forcing himself to eat them.
His mood had not improved much since being told about the upcoming evaluation that he had to do with Booth and Brennan. One thing that Sweets was sure was not helping was the fact that he was eating his lunch alone…something he had been doing all week.
"Sorry Doctor Sweets, but I already made plans with Michelle….Maybe next time…"
"Oooo, sorry Sweets, but Hodgins and I are taking Michael to the park. Maybe some other time…."
"Sorry, gotta run Sweets…Bones and I are in the middle of something right now. How about a rain check?"
The reasons would be different each time and the wording might change, but the end result was the same: they simply did not have time for him anymore.
'We're all busy people,' he tried telling himself. 'It's not strange that sometimes we don't have time to see each other. There are days when Daisy and I only get to spend breakfast and a couple of hours at night together before we go to sleep. Doesn't mean that we don't enjoy being around each other anymore.'
Sweets chewed on his sandwich as he watched the people walking around outside the restaurant. Despite his best efforts to remain positive, the psychologist knew what was bothering him about these failed attempts to spend time with his friends.
He was worried of being left behind again.
The therapist stuffed the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and swallowed it with one hard gulp. He thought back to the time when most everyone on the team had left DC for their own pursuits, leaving him alone. It had been one of the darkest times in Sweets' life as he struggled with the anger, sorrow, confusion and loneliness that had came about as a result. He had ended up running from his position and practice at the Bureau in a desperate attempt to find any sort of meaning to a life that had been turned upside down and gutted.
And he had been more grateful than he could ever express when they all came back.
Now, however, he was scared that it was happening again, albeit in a more subtle way.
'They've got their own lives and families now,' he mused. 'And I should be happy for them instead of worrying about me…Besides things change. Situations change. People move on and they leave things behind.'
'Not all friendships are built to last….'
The psychologist rubbed his eyes and let out yet another yawn. For the past two months he had been grappling with insomnia, and was often only able to go to sleep due to sheer exhaustion, and even then for only a few hours at a time. He had thought about taking sleeping pills for it, but was too worried about dependency to actually go through with it.
Sweets turned his attention from the window to his bowl of soup and pulled out his Blackberry as a way to get his mind focused on something else. A reminder popped up about his appointment for his annual physical the next day, and Sweets groaned.
'So much for brightening my day,' he thought bitterly.
After looking through his appointment book, the therapist shoved the device back into his pocket and stood up. He then left a tip at the table, picked up his bill, and paid at the register before walking out.
'It's just a routine physical,' he told himself as he walked toward his car. 'It'll be over in a couple of hours and then I don't have to think about it for another year.'
'For now, I might as well focus on work instead.'
Present time
Sweets parked his car in the Hoover Building's garage and decided to call the fact that he hadn't gotten into a major traffic accident on the way back here a minor victory. Instead of getting out after turning off the ignition, Sweets stayed where he sat.
He tried to list and sort out all of the tasks that he had left to do that day as a way to center his thoughts. There were some routine reports that needed to be turned in, a profile to finish for Agent Peterson for that bank robbery case and two…no three patients who had therapy sessions scheduled that afternoon.
Sweets hung his head and took deep breaths. Even if he used every ounce of his will to maintain control over his emotions, he was certain that there was no way that he could give his patients the care and attention they needed. Not now. Not until this…situation was resolved.
'I need to cancel my sessions today and make arrangements to have my patients transferred to other therapists,' he thought. 'Pretty much all of my current patients are in mandatory sessions, so it shouldn't be too much of an ordeal for them to be transferred.' Sweets then began to run through the list of patients he had left to see that day with one name giving him pause: Special Agent Gerald Thompson.
Thompson had been sent had been sent to therapy sessions with him almost six weeks ago via a mandate from the Bureau. His partner had been killed during what was supposed to be a routine follow-up on one of a series of jewelry store heists that had spanned three states. Thompson had been able to arrest three of the men involved without a scratch while his partner had taken five bullets and had been killed instantly.
Even though he had refused to acknowledge it so far, it was clear to everyone around him that Thompson had taken the death of his partner, a man he had worked with for seven years, very hard, thus his need for therapy. It had been difficult at first, but over time, Sweets had started to gain Thompson's trust and the psychologist was confident that he was finally getting close to a breakthrough with him.
'But it will all be for nothing if I just ship him off to another therapist,' Sweets told himself. 'This has been eating at him for so long now…I'm not sure how much longer he can take this… and who knows how long it would take him to build a trusting relationship with another therapist.'
Sweets sniffed hard and scrubbed his eyes. Despite his own inner turmoil, he did not want to abandon Thompson and was determined to keep his appointment with him at all costs.
'I'll keep treating him…for however long I can….'