Chapter 12.

Booth rode the elevator wondering if Sweets wasn't quite so much "cranky Sweets" as he was "recovering Sweets" and how he was going to take this latest bit of information. While he wasn't generally a procrastinator he decided to stop in and check on Angela first.

"Hey Angela, anything new?" Booth asked feeling like a pinball bouncing from office to office to gather not much news.

"Booth, hey, what is it?" She asked immediately seeing the look on his face.

Booth sighed as he didn't realize he had such a tell on his face, he must be getting really tired he decided.

"We've got another body." Booth said and immediately Angela's eyebrows raised. "Sweets mom, his birth mom."

"I didn't realize Sweets as adopted." Angela said after Booth made the distinction.

"Yeah with the foster…" He stopped when he realized Angela didn't know about Sweets past. He decided it wasn't up to him to share. "Yeah, he was."

Angela could tell there was more but that Booth wasn't indulging.

"So did he know her?" Angela asked what would be pertinent to the present.

"No, he was really young, he tried to find her once but she was a carnie."

"And if Pelant found her…" Angela said realizing the implication.

"Yeah." Booth said nodding agreeing.

"What?" The techie said who was listening in but despite his three inch thick glasses, had absorbed very little.

"One of our team, Dr. Sweets, his 'hard to find' birth mother was the most recent victim." She explained. "The previous victim was Dr. Sweets ex-fiancé."

"So?" The kid asked.

"So Pelant is getting smarter, computer Pelant that is, but they're the same. It's weird to think of him as a person."

"Why is this Pelant guy so interested in Dr. Sweets?" The kid asked and the rest listened in as they had only been provided with the most basic of information and just told what to look for on a technical side.

"He's the first one of our team to figure out Pelant's motives. He was a real threat to Pelant." Angela explained.

"And if he got him once, Pelant thinks he will get him again." Booth further explained.

"Yeah, so he's going to try and throw anything in his path to rattle him." Angela said which prompted an idea for Booth.

"Do we tell him? About his mom?" Booth asked and Angela considered it.

"I don't know Booth, I don't think we should keep it from him." Angela said as the two of them moved away from the group to discuss in semi-private. "He should know."

"Yeah, but I don't know how he will take the news. And right now, unless you guys find that server, he's the only one who is able to."

"No pressure on Sweets." Angela said sarcastically. The statement made Booth reflect a moment. Angela noticed.

"We're not always that nice to Sweets." She said and Booth couldn't fail to acknowledge that with a nod. "I mean we made fun of his profession, give him a hard time, even when we know he's right. And he's not that annoying kid anymore. He's kind of grown up."

"He's seen a lot in the last six years." Booth acknowledged. "We were harsh at one time, then critical, sometimes closed off…"

"And Sweets was always willing to help, waiting, just being Sweets." Angela said filled with a sense of guilt. "We care about him though." She said reassuringly.

"Yeah, but I don't think Sweets gets that. And maybe we haven't gone really out of our way to show it." Booth said afraid of getting too much in the emotional realm he did not enjoy touching upon very often.

"I'll leave it up to you Booth. I won't say anything to him until you think we should." Angela said in regards to Sweets' mom.

Booth considered it and didn't like having to figure out the answer. "Let's catch Pelant first. I'll go check and see if Sweets came up with anything." Booth said leaving the room.

"Mrs. Montengro, you'd better take a look at this."

Booth walked towards Sweets office and heard voices being exchanged.

"No, not like that!" One voice said.

"You are such a pain!" The other said as Booth opened the door to see Sweets and Emma sitting on the floor surrounded in papers.

"Do I need to separate you two kids?" He asked clearly amused with their banter.

Sweets issued one of his signature "really?" looks and went back to trying to grab the note pad from Emma who pulled it away. Sweets sighed as the quick movement stung some.

"Gotta be faster than that Sweets." She said and Booth had to grin with how quickly she fit in. She was obviously comfortable as hair was pinned up and heels discarded. Sweets too had shed his dress coat and tie.

"I can write." Sweets whined as he continued to eye the notepad.

"Yeah, but I'll retire by time you get it all written down." Emma said with a grin that Sweets couldn't get mad at. Booth wondered for a moment why she could get away with so much and he couldn't but really, he knew.

"I think I may have something here." Sweets said as Emma wrote down the last of what they were discussing before Booth came in.

Booth felt hopeful that not only did they have some info but that Sweets was back in action.

"Pelant is all about revenge. When Hodgins nearly strangled him to death, he went over Hodgins money. You were going to marry Dr. Brennan and he stepped in. He's an extremely jealous and vindictive person."

"How does this help me Sweets?" Booth asked not wanting to pressure Sweets who had little to no sleep but Booth really wanted to keep everyone alive.

"Well, first of all it shows that is what his motive is, he's definintely coming back after us…"

"You." Emma said and they both turned to look at her. "It seems like he's targeting you specificially." She said in a tone that she was guessing.

"I would concur." Booth said and Sweets looked at Booth for several seconds.

"There's another body isn't there?" Sweets asked with a sense of anxiety.

Booth hated that Sweets could always tell when a person was hiding something. It worked well in the interrogation room but sucked as a friend. He wondered if a friend trying to hide something though was a friend at all.

"If he's targeting me," which Sweets said with a certain amount of disbelief "who else could be get, I don't know many people." Sweets said the last part much softer with a sense of embarrassment and sadness.

"Your uh, birth mother." Booth said bracing himself for what was to come. He realized he should have known he couldn't keep it from Sweets, not that he would have normally wanted to. "I just found out, Sweets."

"It's okay Booth, I would have second guessed telling me too." Sweets said devoid of emotion.

Emma put a hand on Sweets nearby knee and he looked up at her quickly.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"Um yeah." Sweets said shaking the thought away. "I didn't really know her, it's a long story." He said and Emma took her hand away. "Thank you though." He said smiling at her concern. "Seems weird to say but I guess it's not so bad my parents, adoptive parents that is, had passed so that…"

"Sweets, I'm sorry. What about like your real dad, foster parents do you know…"

"If Pelant wants to kill him then that's fine by me." Sweets said with a darkness in his tone that left Emma and Booth both a bit stunned.

Sweets blinked his dark brown eyes as the violence left them. "But let's get back to the case." Sweets said in a lighter tone.

"As I was saying, he's vindictive. We know that, but last time he wanted attention drawn to his crimes. He put the victims on display." Sweets continued looking at the files.

"But this time he didn't really." Booth mentioned confused.

"Only because he wasn't able to, he couldn't do it personally or have a way to do it thru a computer, at least not yet." Sweets cleared up.

"Angela did mention the computer, Pelant, is getting smarter. Like it's improving upon its previous sequences something." Booth said trying to remember what Angela had told him a slew of tech terms.

"So my point is that Pelant will want for people to notice him. He will escalate for more attention. He craves attention, he demanded it from us before and we gave it to him."

"So we should ignore him like an unruly toddler?" Booth asked with skepticism.

"Oh no, not at all." Sweets said emphatically. "That will only cause his rage to increase and probably very drastically. What I'm saying is his ego is so large he will eventually slip up. If we can force him out into the open he might unknowingly expose himself."

"Any ideas on how to do that?" Booth asked.

"One." Sweets said but he say that with a great deal of conviction which caused Booth to arch an eyebrow. "Pelant was infatuated with Dr. Brennan."

"Yeah and I'm sure when I killed him he realized that wasn't going to be reciprocated."

"Yes, but Pelant died not knowing that." Sweets said as the idea sunk in. "He uploaded himself, essentially, prior to that incident at the abandoned power plant. As far as Pelant knows, he still has a chance with Brennan."

"So you want to use Brennan as bait?" Booth asked with a relatively low amount of enthusiasm.

"No." Sweets said shaking his head. "I want to use Emma."

Emma and Booth's eyes widened as they wondered if the good doctor had gone mad.