(The Psychic in the Soup)

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I really don't own Bones.

Ooooooooooooooooooo

She worried that her husband wasn't sleeping as much as he should. Booth had always been a restless sleeper, but this was more than that, much more. He barely slept five hours a night and Brennan worried about his health, both physical and mental. It wasn't unusual to find him in the living room, lying on the couch watching television in the early hours of the morning. Booth insisted he was getting enough sleep, but the dark smudges under his eyes contradicted his assurances.

"I'm fine." Booth lay where he was and continued to look at the television. "Go back to bed. I'm just going to watch this sports news for a little while."

"Booth, I haven't see you sleep through the night since you returned home." It was obvious to Brennan that Booth was trying to ignore his problem and it wasn't really helping him. "Perhaps you could talk to someone . . . perhaps me."

He knew she was worried about him, but Booth didn't know what to tell her. While he had been in prison, he had had a hard time sleeping. Prisons are very noisy and it was hard to sleep with the shouting, the crying and the chattering voices. More often than not a guard would come by and wake him up on purpose a few times during the night which had added to his sleep problems. Now that he was home, he found it hard to relax. The slightest sound woke him up and forced him to leave his bed. After he checked all of the windows and doors in the house to make sure they were still locked, he usually stayed in the living room so as not to wake Brennan. "I'm all right, Bones. I just need time . . . I just need to get used to being home." He paused and sat up, his attention momentarily diverted by his new surroundings. "This house . . . I need to get used to this house . . . don't get me wrong, Bones. It's a wonderful house, really, but it's . . . it's not the house I left and I just need to . . . "

Truthfully, he didn't know what he needed. His life had been turned upside down. He had been kept from his family for three months. His little girl had cried so much the day he came home that he thought she was going to shake apart. It was hard to forgive the people who had destroyed his daughter's security and when Sweets had been murdered shortly afterward it seemed like his life would never be the same. He did know that if it wasn't for Brennan his life would be over and he was grateful that she was in his corner. She had helped him at great risk to her own freedom and he wanted to be the man she wanted him to be, he just wasn't sure if he knew where that man was. "It's okay, Bones, it really is. I'm home with you and Christine. I have my old job back and I have a new partner . . . I'll adjust. It'll be fine."

As Brennan listened to Booth she knew that he was struggling, but she didn't really know how to help him. "Come back to bed. Perhaps if you close your eyes you can at least rest. Watching television will ensure that you get no rest at all. You're tired Booth."

Since he knew that she wouldn't go back to bed until he did. Booth turned off the television and followed her back into the bedroom. Once he was lying next to her, he stared at the ceiling and watched the shadows move in odd patterns wishing that his life wasn't so messed up.

Lying next to her husband, listening to his quiet breathing, Brennan thought about all of the horrors they had both been through for the last four months and tried to come up with a plan to help Booth. Since Sweets wasn't available to give her some much needed advice, Brennan knew that she would have to find a way to defuse Booth's anxiety, his anger and his distrust. For now, she needed to find a way to get him to go back to church and to his Gambler's Anonymous Meetings. Those organizations had always given him a sense of stability and the rejection of his faith and in his support system made him vulnerable to weaknesses that Booth had so little control over. She feared that if he didn't return to the church, he would lose his connection to his religion and his faith was a big part of who Booth was. His belief in God and redemption helped him with his gambling addiction and his new lack of faith could allow him to gamble again. At the moment, he appeared to have no inclination to go back to gambling, but she was afraid that he might give in to his addiction if he continued to isolate himself. She remembered what had happened to her former intern Zach Addy when he chose isolation and Brennan was afraid that Booth was walking down a path that might lead to disaster, leaving her and their child behind.

Ooooooooooooooooooo

The weeks had gone by and Booth had started to sleep for longer periods of time, but he still managed to be up before the alarm clock rang out every morning. Brennan would awake, find the bed next to her empty and knew that her husband hadn't slept through the night again. After she dressed, she usually found him in the kitchen reading a newspaper, waiting for her and Christine to get up so he could begin to cook pancakes or French toast.

Occasionally, Booth would drive over to the park where Sweets' ashes had been scattered and sat on the picnic table where they had held the young man's wake. He often used that time to ponder about what he could have done to prevent his friend's death. He knew that Sweets had wanted to help him uncover the corruption surrounding them, but Booth blamed himself for putting his friend in harm's way. After an hour or so of silence, Booth usually stood up, faced away from the table and shoved his hands into his pants pockets. "I need a sign, Sweets. Are you okay? Are you happy? Just a little sign . . . please."

Of course, no sign ever came and he left the park, sad and feeling just a little bit empty.

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The case they were currently working on had come at a sad time for both Booth and Brennan. The 30th anniversary of Lance Sweets' birth had arrived and with it the pain of the young man's loss. Both Brennan and Booth missed their young friend and they thought of him often. Oddly, Avalon had made an appearance while they were investigating the death of a purported psychic named Justine Simmons which caused a bit of chaos. Since Brennan didn't believe in psychics, she felt that Avalon was a distraction at best. Booth tried not to believe in Avalon's abilities, but deep down he felt that there was something in what she said that made her somewhat believable. Usually Brennan gave him enough reasons to reject Avalon, but not completely.

When their case came to a close, Angela and Avalon had come to Booth and Brennan's home and presented the couple with a USB drive that had belonged to Sweets and a printed copy of the book that they had found on the drive. They had discovered that their departed friend had written a love story about his friends and both Avalon and Angela told them that Sweets had made sure they had found it.

Brennan had found it to be an odd coincidence that Angela had found the device, but her friend was adamant that it wasn't a coincidence at all. Sweets had sent Avalon messages about his book and with Angela's help they had rescued the USB drive and thus they were able to give Booth and Brennan a copy of the book on Sweets' birthday.

Once they were alone, Booth had started to read the book and with it a sense of peace settled upon him. He realized that his young friend had written about the love Booth and Brennan had for each other in a novel as his way to honor them. Sweets had wanted them to read his love story and he had sent signs to Avalon because she was the only one that could hear him. Though the novel was sweet, Booth knew he would only be able to read it once. He felt too emotional the whole time he read the book, but he felt it was his duty to read it for his friend's sake. To his surprise, he finished reading it in two days. "It's pretty good, Bones. He did a good job."

After she read the book, Brennan knew that with a little editing, she could get it published. She felt honor bound to make sure that Sweets' book was published and read by many people not just the couple he had written about. "It is good. Once he gave up on psychoanalyzing us, he was able to write a cogent story that captures the reader's imagination. It is very well done."

That evening, Brennan was surprised when Booth went to bed early. He slept peacefully during the night and was awakened by the alarm clock the next morning. Something that hadn't happened since the morning he had been attacked in their Mighty Hut. She knew that Booth was still struggling and he wasn't the man he had been before his betrayal, but he was also not the angry man he had become while he suffered in prison. She had hope that he could continue to find the peace he needed and that he would soon find a way to forgive the evil done to him.

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