Author's Note: Next chapter. This will be kind of a short one, so I may try to get another one up some time this weekend...although the holiday might make that problematic. We will see...
I do not own Bones or any of its characters.
Thank you again to everyone who is reading/following/reviewing this.
Whirlwind421: I kind of picture Hodgela as sort of watching the group for issues (that is when Sweets isn't doing it too :D) and thus, it made sense to me that they would notice this sort of thing. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
Dance is a sport: Sadly, I agree with you on both counts. Fortunately there are far more Sweets stories now than there were when I first joined this site, but it's still not a very big number. And yes, I do wonder why that is since Sweets himself is a fascinatingly complex character who provides almost endless fodder for fic writing. Ah well, such is the way of fandoms. :) Glad that you enjoyed my spin on the characters and hope that you will enjoy this update.
Lives in the now: Thank you. I do think that Daisy has her positive qualities and wanted to find a way to show how they appealed to Sweets in this fic and how the two of them worked as a couple...I have to admit that there were times when I preferred the light touch of Hodgela moments in this last season to the more intense or convoluted B&B moments this last season, so I find that it's fun to write Angela and Hodgins as a couple and explore their dynamic. :) Again, thank you for the continued support and lovely reviews.
Seletua: Well I can say that while this chapter won't answer your question, the answer will be coming before long...And don't worry, I completely understand your desire to up the angst in this by having a positive prognosis. :) I guess this is just a quirk that serious Sweets fans have...Thank you for your comments on Daisy and Angela. I have often thought that Angela can be a little abrasive on her own and that she shines best when she is interacting with the people that she cares about, thus why I love to have scenes with her and Hodgins. They play off each other so well. I hope you enjoy this (short) update.
Em's Pride: Actually, I think you have a very good point. At times it does seem like the writers have put a negative spin on some of Daisy's characteristics for the sake of humor. I do think though that they are trying to move in a slightly different direction like in recent episodes like The Family in the Feud where again her determined attitude was used to better effect. I know that I, myself, had found certain aspects of her grating at times, but for this fic I wanted to show her as more multifaceted...I will admit that a part of me was a little nervous about doing this storyline partially for the reason you said: the cancer storyline has been done a lot in fanfic. Plus, there was a lot of agonizing over what way I wanted it to go. But I do not think it's too much of a spoiler to say that this story will be just as much about Sweets' relationships with the people closest to him as it is about him possibly having cancer and thus why I went ahead with it. I am glad that it is not feeling too cliched for you. :)...The chance to interact with my readers was part of the reason I joined this site and so it's fun for me to respond to reviews. :) I just hope that I can continue to keep things interesting in this and other fics of mine.
D: I have had my ups and downs with Daisy myself. I did really like her in season four but had serious issues with her at the end of season five and going into season six. I do think the writers are trying harder to turn things around in season seven, but I think more progress is needed. In the meantime, I decided to take what I had seen of recent in canon (both on-screen and in those iPad apps) to the next logical step in her character (at least logical to me)...Hmmm, I think you will find a very complicating twist in this chapter as far as Sweets' relationship with everyone else goes...
Peanutmeg: Thank you for the review. I agree that Hodgela would be among the first to see that something is wrong in this situation, but as this chapter will show things will not be moving so easily...Also, as much as I have mentioned the angst before, I think it's safe to say that Sweets will be facing many hard truths in this fic. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.
The Break in the Ties—Chapter 9
Booth scowled as he closed yet another file and placed it on top of a stack of others before leaning back in his chair.
It had only been a couple of days since Ellis' suspension of his partnership with Brennan, but the situation was already beginning to chafe at his nerves. Other than helping out a junior agent with a case, Booth hadn't been involved in any active homicides and was spending most of his time at the office going through a mounting stack of paperwork that he had been putting off.
Booth picked up his mug and took a sip of his coffee. The liquid had cooled and was bitter. He had made a lot of progress, but was also starting to feel that days spent only on paperwork were almost as bad for his mood as the suspension itself.
'I wouldn't be stuck behind this desk if it weren't for this suspension,' he mused.
The agent took another gulp from his mug and inwardly cursed Ellis for the umpteenth time that day. Hanging around the Hoover Building, sitting behind a desk, and shuffling papers about was an abhorrent routine for him, and he longed for some way to break up the monotony.
'There wouldn't even be a suspension in the first place if Sweets were the one doing this evaluation.'
Booth sat his mug at the edge of his desk, his scowl deepening. Before now, he hadn't thought all that much about how Sweets handled his patients and his practice in general. He had been seeing Sweets in one capacity or another for so long; he had simply grown accustomed to how the psychologist approached things and had come to accept it as the norm. Sessions like the one he had recently had with Ellis served as a stark reminder of just how unique Sweets was in his work.
The agent stacked up the rest of the loose papers on his desk into a pile and sat them off to the side with the intent of tackling them later. He then went back to finishing the rest of his coffee. For the last few days, Booth had been trying to keep Sweets out of his thoughts, but now he couldn't help but think about him.
At first, it he had avoided thinking about Sweets as a way to quell his anger over the evaluation and the argument he had had with the therapist. Eventually though, it became a way to ease the guilt he felt over how his confrontation with Sweets had unfolded and how he had allowed things to fester between them.
'Why wouldn't he just tell me what was going on?' he asked himself. 'Why was he being so secretive?'
Booth's frowned again after letting out a sigh. After only a moment of consideration, he knew that he had the answers to his own questions and all of them boiled down to what he knew about Sweets' nature. Ever since he had known the psychologist, Booth had noticed that Sweets was often secretive and evasive in regards to himself even as Sweets frequently tried to get the people close to him to open up about themselves. Over time, however, Booth watched as Sweets slowly became less guarded and more willing to trust his close circle of friends. There was, however, still a sense of reserve surrounding Sweets, a lingering need to remain vigilant over his heart and soul.
'Just in case someone breaks that trust,' Booth mused. 'In case someone turns out not to be the friend they claim to be.'
'Just in case someone decides to hurt him…like I did.'
Booth gave some of the objects on his desk a hard shove, pushing them close to the edge. No matter how he looked at it, he knew that he screwed up, both with the argument itself and how he decided to handle the aftermath. He was sure that Sweets was deliberately avoiding him and the agent knew that setting things right now would be even harder than it would have been before. When he thought about what had happened and the obstacles facing him, Booth found himself at a loss about how to proceed.
He also found that he was uncertain if Sweets would be willing to forgive.
"Booth?"
Booth looked up to see Brennan walking into his office. The agent started to straighten his desk up and grabbed at some papers.
"Right, lunch," he said, suddenly realizing what time it was. "Just give me a couple of minutes to finish up and then we will go, ok?"
Brennan nodded and sat down on a chair across from him. Booth worked quickly to get things in order while she let her gaze drift about the room. She eventually settled on watching him while he quietly sorted through the things on his desk. About five minutes later, Booth pushed his chair away and stood up.
"All right, all set," he said. "Now, did you want to go to the Diner for lunch this time or did you want to try something different? Some of the guys here at the office have been telling me about this new Chinese place that opened up a month ago where the food is…."
"Booth, when I came in you appeared to be preoccupied with something," Brennan interrupted. "Are you thinking about Doctor Ellis and this suspension again?" Booth slumped down and plopped back onto his chair.
"Yeah, some of it was that," he confessed. "I mean, who does this guy think he is: making so we can't work together just because we didn't feel like playing one of his shrinky games?"
"Then there is the fact that his decision was based solely on his own personal judgment instead of a critical assessment drawn from the empirical facts from our work histories," Brennan sulked. "This is why I hate psychology."
"I tried talking to Hacker," Booth said. "He said that there's no way out of this evaluation and there's little chance of us getting a different therapist either. So we are stuck with this guy."
"What can we do?" the anthropologist asked. "Should I try talking to someone? Perhaps I could reiterate my decision to not work with other agents."
"Nice try, Bones," Booth said with a weak smile. "But unfortunately, I think we are just going to have to play ball with this guy."
"How will sports alleviate the situation?" Brennan asked. "Unless you are thinking of using access to sporting events as a way to enhance our bargaining position. I happen to know some people who could supply us with…."
"I mean we are going to have to play along with him," Booth cut in. "You know, do his little dance, answer those annoying questions, and go through with those shrinky exercises."
"Is there no other way?" Brennan said, wrinkling her nose.
"If there is, I don't see it," Booth said. "Every option that comes to mind is potentially worse than this one."
Brennan nodded again and shifted about in her chair, her eyes directed at the floor. Booth stood back up and put on his suit jacket. He then noticed that she was still staring at the carpet.
"Bones?"
"I hate this," she said quietly. "I hate all of this intrusion into our lives. I do not understand why it makes much of a difference, but somehow it seems worse that the person who is doing this is simply following orders and knows nothing about us beyond what he has read in a collection of files."
Brennan took a breath and looked back up at the agent.
"Also, I find him to be overly stubborn and beholden to the subjective guidelines of his field," she added. "Hardly the type of person who can appreciate our partnership."
"I'm sorry Bones," Booth said gently. "I wish I could do something about this. I really do."
"If this had to be done, I wish it could have been Sweets doing this," Brennan replied.
Booth couldn't help but be surprised at that. It was true that he had been thinking the same thing ever since his first session with Ellis, but he hadn't expected her to express that idea so openly.
"Yeah, me too," he sighed. He hadn't told Brennan much about his argument with Sweets, but hearing her vocalize what he had been thinking managed to fill Booth with yet another wave of guilt over the situation.
"Why is he doing this?" Brennan asked. "Why did Sweets ask to not perform this evaluation?"
"I don't know," Booth answered. "Word is around the office that Sweets isn't seeing any patients right now and none of the other agents are able to get him to work up any profiles. I have no idea what is going on."
"I suppose that disproves my original theory about him performing another experiment in regards to our partnership," Brennan said. "If Sweets is mostly detached from his professional life these days, it's unlikely that he is spending his times on things like this."
"Wait, what?" Booth spluttered. "What do you mean 'another experiment'? When was there one before?" Brennan shook her head, instantly regretting speaking her mind aloud.
"It's nothing," she insisted. "It happened years ago, so there is no need to go over it now."
"No, I want to hear this," Booth said brusquely. "Are you saying that Sweets had performed some kind of experiment on us before? Or that he has been toying with us this entire time?"
Brennan sighed and proceeded to tell Booth about the aftermath of Pam Nunan's attempt to kill her along with the conversation she had had with Sweets in regards to his decision not to tell her that the agent had survived. By the end of her narrative, Booth's eyes were stony and his face had tinges of red.
"So all that talk about national security and making a rational decision based off his study of us was just a hoax to cover up the truth?" he growled. "That he had been manipulating us all along?"
"I do not know if that was his sole motivation, but it does appear as if he was dishonest with us, yes," Brennan responded. Booth continued to fume as she said that, rage starting to register on his features.
'I can't believe that I was actually feeling guilty about that argument I had with him,' he thought to himself. 'He's been playing us from the very beginning, and I was a fool to trust him. He better hope that I don't see him around here again any time soon…because the next time I do, he's getting a piece of my mind.'
"Booth?" Brennan said, concerned over the expression on the agent's face.
"You know what, Bones, we're going to be just fine," Booth told her. "The last person we need around right now is Sweets. We are not going to be his lab rats anymore. We're just going to have to suck it up and give Ellis whatever he wants. Then we can move on with our lives."
"You're upset," Brennan said.
"Damn right I am," Booth snapped. "He had no right to do that to you, to us. And he needs to pay for what he did."
"Booth, please, please don't," she pleaded. "He made a mistake, and I believe that he learned from it. Please don't hurt him now."
The agent watched her for a long, silent minute before finally softening his features and relaxing his posture.
"All right Bones, all right," he said. "I won't do any serious damage to Sweets…even though he deserves it. But I am also not going to waste anymore time wishing that he could do this evaluation or worrying about what is going on inside his head. As far as I'm concerned, Sweets doesn't even exist."
"Thank you," she said. "Although I don't know how you can deny the fact of Sweets' existence." Booth responded by giving her a half-hearted smirk.
"Let's just drop it and go to lunch," he replied.
The two of them left his office and walked down the hallway toward the elevator. There was a soft 'ding' and the doors opened. They walked inside and were pleased to see that they would be alone. Once the doors closed, Booth wrapped his arms around her from behind and his hands drifted onto the growing bulge in her midsection. A smile returned to his lips.
"Besides," he murmured into her ear. "We've got far more important things to think about right now than Sweets and his games."