12.
I certainly don't want anyone to get tired of me. I like to try and get the story all done in a reasonable about of time, otherwise I'll forget where I was going with it. I try and include the bold follow up so that in case I am remiss in getting a timely update then you can figure out pretty quickly where we left off. J
Booth takes Sweets to get a prescription and Brennan identifies it as a very strong pain killer. Sweets reacts strangely from highly agitated to being completely carefree. He isn't eating due to the side effects of the pain killer. He goes back to work so people will leave him alone. Booth is glad Sweets is back at work so now he can keep an eye on him. Sweets is bored with work, deleting emails instead of reading them and doodling (poorly) instead of listening to patients. He trips on a curb and smashes his knee only for him to barely notice which causes Booth to become greatly alarmed. He goes to lunch with the group who also notice his lack of interest in cases as well as his own health. Booth realizes that Sweets may bolt due to his apathy but he doesn't want to see that happen.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Angela asked upon approach.
The two men continued locking eyes.
Booth's eyes narrowed. "We're going to the Jeffersonian, take a look at that case. All of us."
Sweets rolled his eyes but then shrugged.
"Sure." He added figuring it beat being bored in his office.
"Oh, we need to pay for lunch." Booth said reaching for his wallet. Now having his own Sweets reached for his as well. The rest had already paid and if Booth wasn't so pissed he would have offered to pay for Sweets but he had an experiment on his mind. He had seen Sweets wallet when they brought the evidence in and knew he had no cash in it.
The two went to the counter while the rest followed outside. Booth moved to let Sweets pay first and waited. Sweets handed over his card and waited as she handed him the receipt. Sweets got nervous.
"Booth, how about I get yours and meet you at the car?" Sweets offered.
"Nah, can't let you do that buddy." Booth said waiting closely.
Sweets looked back at the paper to sign it and wrapped his fingers awkwardly around the pen. Booth made no move to back up any. Instead of signing his name Sweets scribbled a line.
"Wow, your signature's really gone downhill Sweets, it used to be very, legible." Booth noticed handing over cash so he had no reason not to follow Sweets closely out the door.
"Yeah, well it's my new style." Sweets said opening the door, picking up the pace to walk to the group. "Hey Angela, how about I ride back with you and Hodgins, catch up and all?"
Brennan and Cam joined Booth and all exchanged a look of "what now?"
"So what's new Angela? Any new paintings?" Sweets asked trying to keep an alliance with at least one person.
Angela looked back at Sweets, equally trying to keep a communication line open. If Sweets finally wanted to talk about something she wanted there to be someone he could feel like he could talk to. She did notice however that he was rubbing his knee.
"Uh, yeah, I was working on a new piece actually. I can show it to you as soon as we get there." She said offering a smile.
"Hey Sweets you know that night, that uh, everything happened?" Hodgins began awkwardly. "Well, I found this infestation, a larva in the grooves of your shoes. You don't know where you could have come in contact with lice do you?"
Sweets found himself growingly agitated as he continued to rub his knee which was starting to hurt, a lot. He wondered why and idly remembered tripping out of Booth's SUV. His back was starting to hurt as well as a stinging in his chest and he knew the pills we wearing off. He was surprised since he had taken 4 just before lunch hoping that would see him thru. The doctor he was repressing within was shouting that this was a problem but he promptly ignored him.
"Sweets?" Hodgins asked since Sweets had been silent so long. "Lice?"
"Uh yeah Hodgins, no, I'm pretty sure I don't live in filth." Sweets said in a not so sweet tone.
"Well, no I know that, I just didn't know if you had been in someplace where there were, it's a unique strain and I ask because…."
"Shit Hodgins I don't know okay?" Sweets shouted now giving himself a headache. The two in the front seat had eyes as wide as they would go. They couldn't remember a time when Sweets had yelled or cussed. "How far is the damn Jeffersonian anyway?"
Angela & Hodgins looked at each other, yeah, Booth has valid concerns they thought to themselves as they arrived.
As they walked in the Jeffersonian Sweets knew he had blown his cool with Angela & Hodgins but as he searched for the bathroom he didn't care.
"Dr. Sweets, the platform is this way." Cam said as he walked the opposite way.
The fact he wasn't joining them didn't bother Cam nearly as much as the fact that she could tell he could hear her, but he totally blew her off from acknowledging her.
The five of them stood around the body on the platform with only one thing on their minds.
"Does he really think we don't notice?" Cam asked.
"It's like he doesn't even care." Angela said, obvious heart break in her voice.
"Well what do we do?" Hodgins asked at a loss for an answer of his own.
"Well I'd say we'd go to our resident shrink but he seems a bit broken." Booth said. "I don't know, maybe Gordon Wyatt? He's retired but he's the only one that I trust with Sweets."
While it was a simple statement that Booth made while thinking aloud it was obvious to the rest of them how high of regard Booth felt about Sweets friendship and making sure he got better.
"Well if Gordon says not then what? And what changed? I mean he seemed to be doing fine in rehab and at the hospital. Would they release him if he wasn't doing okay?" Angela said.
"The doctor suggested that he thought Sweets may have manipulated the system, getting an early release." Brennan said.
"So, he really shouldn't be out and working?" Cam asked.
"I'm not entirely sure he should even be out of the hospital." Brennan said, a small waver audible in her voice. "The injuries that Dr. Sweets sustained in that beating were incredibly severe. It's surprising he is even alive."
"And for him to be walking and going back to work in four weeks is…." Angela began.
"Something we all should have paid closer attention to." Booth finished for her.
The cold water was welcome over Sweets face. He took a look in the mirror at his thin face and baggy jacket. He didn't think he had ever not worn at tie at work. The doctor in him was shouting again reminding him that it was a problem and that in no way was he actually hiding it, not matter how much he fooled himself. He had taken more pills, three, maybe four, it was getting confusing and he was so tired. Losing his lunch he knew was inevitable but he ignored the doctor voice and ate it and threw it up anyway.
He wanted to make them feel better and not worry on the one hand and then minutes later he didn't care what they thought. He tried to figure out a way to deal with that, not actually solve it but manipulate it to work. He was so tired though, too tired to think and everything hurt, despite the pills. He popped one more for good measure knowing they were waiting on him.
Sweets spied them all on the platform and tried to remember why they came here. To keep an eye on him he figured but there was some other reason. Oh yeah, a victim, a girl maybe? Sweets tried to remember, he used to be pretty good at remembering. He spotted something on a table in Hodgins area and eager to avoid conversation with the group he headed towards it.
On it he found clothes that seemed all too familiar, including the Converse he had been looking for. Well one of them, the other was poised in a stand under a magnifying glass and a case around all of it. He recalled Hodgins asking about bugs. It was strange to see his clothes on display like they were, little markers placed on them.
He looked at marker 9 and saw the spot with it. His mind flashed back to four weeks ago and someone spitting on him. He looked to marker 8 by the shirt's shoulder, a ring, slightly greasy was on it. He touched the same spot on his shoulder and could feel the pipe being thrust at him open ended. The memory made him feel like it was happening all over again. He looked to marker 31 on the shin area of the jeans, a partial footprint. He couldn't have guessed what foot it belonged to, they kicked him for so long it was a blur.
Rapidly blinking his eyes Sweets left the memory and backed into a table making a noise. Not wanting to alert anyone he quickly left the room and found himself in Angela's office. He stood inside and waited to see if anyone noticed. He saw them all still on the platform talking and exhaled a relief. Yes, running from your friends is healthy the sarcastic doctor called to himself.
He rolled his eyes though at whom he wasn't sure. He noticed the piles of papers in Angela's office and figured they were from the case they were working on. He thought he would go ahead and scan thru them, that way when they inevitably asked him for input they would immediately discard and then revisit later, a habit he found exhausting and irritating. He picked up the files but instead of learning the victim's name he found his own.
At first he was angry that Angela would have his old medical records, filled with the secrets of his past but then he saw the dates were all from the last month. He thought of how the one thing in Hodgins office was Sweets clothes, the one thing in Angela's office was his records. He was their case, and even after a month they were still working on it. He wondered why, just to catch the gang? It has to be more than that, sure they have that Mounty like attitude of catching their man, but this is more than that. Sweets pondered why and recalled the police by his door when the realization hit him, they're not the only one who wants to get their man.
The thought caused him to want to sit down a moment and as he did he tapped Angela's tablet causing her screen to leave its sleep mode. There was a video on the screen in the pause position. Sweets looked over his shoulder to see them all talking still so he decided to push the pause button.
There was a computer generated man standing on a sidewalk. He watched as the man was approached by a group of men. For the next two minutes he watched as the man was beaten. Sweets noticed his heart rate increase as he watched it. It was strange to see it from this perspective. It didn't surprise him, Angela did this sort of rendition often, but he had never been the victim in one before.
It didn't take long, Sweets remembered it seeming like an eternity. He cautiously pressed play again, and again, and each time now he relived the incident clearer each time, blow by blow that felt incredibly real.
"So what about this case?" Booth asked.
"Your mind really on the case?" Cam asked and Booth nodded 'no.' "Because I can't seem to get my mind off Sweets long enough to concentrate on it.
It wasn't like Cam to not feel professional but after their lunch no one could blame her.
"Hodgins, what about that bug thing you found in Sweets shoe, anything on that yet? I'd like to see those guys in jail. Besides the way Sweets is acting, those guys aren't helping." Angela added.
"Well I'm literally waiting to 'get the bug out'." Hodgins said adding a grin and then stopping. "If I'm right about this infestation nest they've built then it's a very rare form of larvae. We can tie one or maybe multiple members to the scene if they brought that bug with them to the scene and it implanted in Sweets shoe when they were kicking him."
"Where is he anyway?" Angela asked looking around and saw the soft glow of the screen coming from her office.
Hope you like updates. It's looking like an update kind of day.