8.

Sweets tongue felt funny. It was the first thing he noticed as he came to. It tasted metallic so he knew it must have been some sort of pain killer or something. He went to touch his head but his arm wouldn't move.

He moved with a jolt, recalling the last time he woke with an immobile arm he was trapped.

"Hey, Sweets it's okay." Booth said in a calm and yet regular every day sounding voice.

Sweets found his other arm moved quite well and rubbed his eyes. The lights were bright and caused Sweets a headache.

"Can we turn those off?" Sweets asked continuing to rub his eyes.

"I could but I can't get to them." Booth said.

Sweets squeaked an eye open far enough to look in the direction that Booth's voice was coming from. He turned to his left and saw a figure next to him.

As his eyes focused he wasn't so sure if he was seeing things again because he was pretty sure that Booth was in a hospital bed next to him.

"What?" Sweets said. He wasn't even sure how to formulate the many questions he had.

"How are you feeling?" Booth asked setting down whatever it was he was reading.

"Terrible." Sweets said leaning back against the elevated bed. "Wait, why are you here, why am I here? What…"

"Explosion." Booth said and after a moment Sweets nodded his head.

"I remember, some things." Sweets said trying to piece it all together.

"Yeah, well you got trapped in the elevator car. But we got you out." Booth said with a smile. He hoped Sweets didn't remember how, meaning via the body bag. He couldn't tell if he remembered or not.

Sweets touched his head and felt a bump and what felt like a few stitches.

"Don't worry, Bones made them do multiple CAT scans. She was there for them all. They came back fine, some something but they fixed it. I didn't hear the whole thing. And your arm is fractured and some ribs. But you'll recover. The team is on it. I think that's one reason they put us in the same room. The squints were driving them crazy. Cam was the worst, next to Bones of course."

"Well sure, you're her husband why wouldn't she be?" Sweets said while timidly touching his side which felt like it was on fire.

"It wasn't just me Sweets." Booth said with a grin meaning Brennan was worried for Sweets too. Booth picked up his comic book and continued to read.

Sweets decided not to elaborate on the sentiment any and leave it as it was, a nice and affectionate sentiment.

"What are you reading?" Sweets asked.

"Oh Hodgins brought you some comics." Booth said and Sweets noticed the stack Booth was hoarding. "But you were asleep so I decided to read them all, twice. Bones will only bring me novels." Booth said with a sigh.

"So why are you here?" Sweets asked thinking back to his original question.

"Infection." Booth said pointing to his leg which was heavily wrapped. "Got a cut but it got worse."

"Why didn't you get it treated?" Sweets asked thinking that didn't seem like Booth.

"I was a little busy." Booth said hiding behind the Superman comic. "Say where is Smallville?"

Sweets knew this was Booth's way of changing the conversation for which he had no energy to do anything but change along with it.

"Well, it's generally accepted that Smallville is in Kansas." Sweets explained as the two continued to banter back and forth. Brennan smiled as she watched, having been undetected from by the door.

"Hey Booth." Brennan said in a whisper waking him.

"Hey Bones. What's going on?" Booth said sitting up. He looked over at Sweets who was still sound asleep.

"I came to tell you that you can go home now. The doctors are satisfied that the infection and fever have gone down so they are releasing you today." Brennan explained.

"Oh, already?" Booth asked.

"Well it's been three days Booth." Brennan said surprised. "I'm surprised, you usually don't want to be in hospitals."

"I don't, it's just that, uh…" Booth stammered for a moment. "What about Sweets, when does he leave?"

"Not for a couple of more days." Brennan said. "They are still a bit concerned with his breathing and if he breathed in any asbestos."

"Oh." Booth said thinking. "Did I breathe in any?"

"Your exposure would not have been the same as Dr. Sweets, wait, what are you getting at Booth? You never want to stay in hospitals."

"No I don't, I just don't want to leave Sweets here by himself. He's alone enough as it is." Booth said fiddling with the multi-hundred page novel Brennan had left him. Sweets read it. Booth had to smile as he remembered yesterday when Sweets tried to explain the novel to Booth so he could pretend like he had read it to Brennan but it was no use.

"It is possible that you could have been exposed to some chemicals." Brennan said with a smirk. "It would be best to check it out." She added heading out of the room. "And I'll get an update on Dr. Sweets condition as well."

"No, no, no…" a murmur came from Sweets side of the room.

"Sweets, what's up?" Booth said but Sweets was still deep in sleep and increasingly upset about something.

"No, no, don't, I'm still alive, I'm still here…." Sweets said moving more to the point Booth was afraid he might reinjure his ribs.

Booth scurried out of bed and limped over towards Sweets. He gently shook Sweets awake. Sweets eyes flew open as he reached for something that wasn't there and stopped once he realized he was awake.

"Sweets, you okay?" Booth said, filled with concern.

"Yeah." Sweets said clearing his throat trying to regain his composure. "Sorry, I, uh, it's nothing." Sweets said but Booth saw his hands still had a tremor, a post traumatic stress indicator.

"Well, if it's nothing tell me about it." Booth said.

"Nothing, just a bad dream is all." Sweets said.

"You know it's not uncommon Sweets, I'm sure you've seen PTSD cases a lot of time, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

"I remember Booth, I remember the bag." Sweets said resting his head back against the pillow and not looking at Booth.

"Oh." Booth said stepping back.

"It's okay Booth, I don't blame you." Sweets said clearing it up. "I just haven't quite gotten past it yet." Sweets said and looked at Booth. "But I will."

Booth hoped so but he couldn't quite imagine now that he had time to reflect what it would be like, with a head injury to find your friend zipping you into a body bag.

"Good news!" Brennan said. "Booth, what are you doing up?" She asked heading to help him back to bed.

"I was helping Sweets, he dropped the uh, remote." Booth said and Booth knew it was a terrible lie since the remote was attached to the bed with a cord. She nodded anyway choosing to not make a topic out of it.

"Good news, both you AND Dr. Sweets are being released tomorrow." She added with a smile. "Booth you can go back to work the following day but Sweets has to stay home and rest."

"You sure that's best?" Booth asked, now a little more concerned than he was before.

"Yeah I think it is." Sweets said. "It's quiet at home, I always hated how noisy hospitals are."

Booth wondered why Sweets referred to hospitals as though he had been in them often. He briefly remembered a moment years back with Gordon Gordon and a revelation to a not so sweet childhood for the young psychologist. It seemed a bit darker now than what he had briefly imagined previously.

Sweets yawned and Booth figured Sweets would be happier at home and Booth knew he would be happier back with Brennan and Christine.

"Hey, what about the case, did you guys find who did it?" Sweets asked.

"Homeland security took over the case and they had a lead on the guy." Booth explained. Sweets nodded and fell back asleep. Booth wondered how that case was going after all and was suddenly anxious to get back to work.