Still don't own Bones. I did once own a Saturn.
If Brennan had found Booth's driving disturbing before she made no mention of it now. With sirens blazing they rushed to the hospital. Brennan sat in the back with Sweets with fingers pressed over his neck to make sure there was still a pulse. She was concerned he was not in a seat belt due to their rate of travel but it would hinder her from continually accessing him. She felt this was paramount at the moment as his breathing and pulse continued to slow. They passed a mass of cars stuck in traffic several streets over as they flew down an alley. Briefly she saw the lights of an unmoving ambulance. Brennan felt sure that this transportation was better than waiting for the ambulance.
As they pulled in the hospital emergency circle drive a team came to the vehicle having responded to Booth's updated phone call that they were en route.
"What happened?" One of the doctors asked as a gurney was pulled up to the vehicle. Brennan hardly noticed that she found herself not wanting to let go of Sweets pulse, his arm, anything that she could touch to know he was still there.
"We found him like this in his office." Brennan answered.
"Did he have any symptoms before?"
"No, we…"
"He was coughing earlier." Booth interrupted Breanna. He felt the guilt blossom that he should have checked on Sweets when he had paused outside his door. "I thought it was just like a cold. But he was fine all morning."
"Okay, what about allergies, medical history?" The doctor asked as they passed the hospital doors.
"I think we can get his records." Brennan suggested.
"Well what about family?" The doctor asked as though this would be quicker.
"He has none." Brennan said it as an answer to the question but now she noticed how it hung heavily in the air as a sad statement. "Just, just us." She added though maybe more for hers and Booth's own benefit.
"Okay, wait here." The doctor said nodding to the waiting room.
"His temperature is 104." One of the nurses informed the doctor as they disappeared down the hall. It was the last thing they heard as pair watched as Sweets disappeared down the hall.
"I'll call Cam." Brennan said. Booth felt like Brennan knew something he did not but he thought perhaps he would rather not know, until he could know something concrete.
Cam had just gotten home and into something more comfortable as she came back to find Arastoo asleep on the couch, exhausted from their late night of standing over the exam table staring at ancient remains. Fascinating bones, but old bones. Cam wondered if she should wake him when her cell did it for her.
Cam smiled at Arastoo as she picked up her cell. Seeing who was calling she sighed.
"Dr. Brennan, I promise you the bones will be there in the morning."
"It's Sweets." Brennan said though she found the lump quickly lodging again her throat.
"What about Dr. Sweets?" Cam asked confused. Seeing her facial expression Arastoo stood up and walked closer to Cam.
"We're in the ER Cam." Brennan pushed out. "Sweets he, um, it's bad Cam." The last three words were in a near whisper, Brennan not wanting to spout emotions so openly.
Arastoo was close enough to hear what Brennan had said and saw the stunned look on Cam's face as she stood frozen. He took the phone from her.
"We are on our way."
Cam didn't even notice she had left the house in her casual yoga pants and tee shirt.
Brennan hung up as Booth approached her. He had called Hodgins and they were on their way as well as soon as they dropped Michael off, also with Max who agreed to watch both toddlers.
Together Booth & Brennan paced, unable to sit, awaiting news and the arrival of friends.
Hodgins and Angela approached with Cam and Arastoo who had arrived about the same time in the parking lot. Booth was glad they had come together as now he did not need to repeat what had happened multiple times, once was going to be more than enough.
What he hadn't realized was the look on the pair's face was all the rest of the team needed to know- this was bad. Cam was about to speak when the doctor who was helping Sweets approached them showing no reserve and looked frantic instead.
"Do any of you this man well enough to know anything about him, anything that can help?"
"What do you mean?" Brennan asked not following the question.
"I've not seen anything like this and I've practiced medicine for thirty seven years. Look I'm not going to be as tactful as I should, but your friend is dying. And unless we have some idea of what is going on in his body we won't be able to stop it. So anything you can tell me will help. Does he have any medical conditions, did he take any strange drug combinations? The tox screen is coming up with nothing, but there has to be something for his health to decline so rapidly and so severely. It most likely is something viral, in his lungs, did he…" His voice trailed off as he was being called by another doctor away from the group. He walked to the other doctor standing nearby while the group looked to each other with more questions than answers.
Brennan looked to Booth who she knew had been with him more today than her. Booth shrugged as he hadn't thought of anything. The doctor returned as though he were trying to catch his breath.
"He is stable and by stable I mean he's breathing but little else. Please, did you think of anything?" He asked knowing he was being curt but he had little time for else.
Booth shrugged his shoulders. "We met at the office this morning, went by and interviewed a witness, nothing out of the ordinary. Then we went by the Jeffersonian, then back to the office."
"You said he was coughing earlier, was there anything else odd?" The doctor asked Booth.
Booth thought for a moment. "When we first got back to the office Sweets was sort of out of it, he said he was tired."
"And where did you say he was before that?"
"The Jeffersonian." Brennan said. "It's…"
"Thank you I know what that is." The doctor said not ready for a local history quiz.
"But there is nothing there that would be…." Brennan began but was cut off by Cam.
"Wait, it has to be though." She looked around at everyone though she wasn't comfortable with the quick assumption her lab was a determent to anyone's health. "The time frame you mentioned it must be. You said something about trouble breathing?" Cam asked looking to the doctor. "Do you think it's viral?"
"Yes, I believe he breathed in something."
"Oh God." Hodgins said as the color drained from his face. The group turned to him half pleased that he might have a clue and half angry that he had done something, if even advertently. "I was opening that coffin, some particulates sprayed in Sweets face. But…."
"No 'but's' Dr. Hodgins." Cam said angry.
"It had passed customs, it should have been…"
"That must be it, I don't know what else Sweets would have come in contact with." Brennan deduced.
"What are we talking about here?" The doctor asked wanting in on the conversation.
"It was a crate that was delivered from South America, it contained remains, roughly four hundred years old." Hodgins explained.
"But if you came in contact with this box as well…" The doctor began when Hodgins began shaking his head.
"No, yes but no. I was standing back when I opened the box, the particulates sprayed in Sweets face and be breathed them in. He was coughing. I laughed." Hodgins said now consumed with guilt.
"Where is the box now?" Cam asked concerned that a biohazard was lurking in her lab.
"I covered it and went back to the particulates you needed for Dr. Brennan."
"We need to go back to the lab right now and analyze these particulates. They could be a combination of aged particles that could wreak havoc on a modern body."
"If that's the case then Godspeed." The doctor said practically pushing the group out the door. "I'll need to know anything you find immediately."
"Wait, one of us should stay here to relay information and you know, not leave Sweets alone." Brennan said while she paused.
"I would be in favor of that if one of you could be spared. Dr. Sweets is disoriented. I don't want to sedate him if I don't have to because I don't know how the medications could react with whatever is in his system." The doctor added.
They group looked around as the Jeffersonian team knew they would all have to go.
"I'll stay." Booth said knowing he had little to offer in the lab. Brennan nodded to Booth as they ran out the door for Cam and Angela's car. Booth watched them go and thought of Brennan's comment earlier about wanting to do something to help, the unsettling feeling of sitting by to do nothing. That feeling consumed Booth now.