Author's Note: This little one-shot occured to me after watching The Hole in the Heart and while I was waiting for Season Seven to start. Since it's been rumored that Agent Shaw is going to appear this season, I thought that it'd be interesting to bridge her first appearance with a future one...

I do not own Bones or any of its characters.

Thank you to everyone who reads/favorites/reviews this. It's always appreciated. :D

The Advice of the Shrink

Sweets had not been expecting any visitors on this particular morning.

The therapist had no appointments with patients that day and had planned on spending his work hours catching up on reports and paperwork. Booth and Brennan were involved with a case and had driven over to Georgia to investigate a body that had been found in a deserted factory. Everyone else at the lab was currently busy either cataloging remains or working on projects for the Jeffersonian itself, and Sweets was certain that they would soon become even busier if it turned out that the remains in Georgia turned out to be those of a murder victim.

The psychologist didn't mind the time alone. Recent events like Vincent Nigel-Murray's death, the birth of Angela and Hodgins' baby, and Booth and Brennan's recent revelation to him about their relationship and Brennan's pregnancy had give him a lot to process. Plus, a recent surge in cases, including the Broadsky case, had made it so that he fell behind on the more mundane aspects of his job. Sweets relished the chance to do some relatively mindless work while he sorted through how he felt about all of the changes that were going on in his life and in the lives of those closest to him.

Therefore, he had been surprised to hear a knock on his door after he had just sent his latest batch of reports to his supervisor. After taking a sip of coffee, he swiveled his chair toward the door and invited whoever it was to come in. His surprise only increased when Special Agent Genevieve Shaw walked in.

"Hello, Agent Shaw," Sweets said as he stood up to greet her. "What can I do for you today?"

Shaw paused by the couch and stared at Sweets silently for a few seconds, shuffling back and forth on her heels. While she did this, the psychologist could swear that he could see the wheels turning in her head as she struggled with the decision to stay or leave. Eventually she sat down onto the center of the couch, and Sweets settled into the chair across from her.

"Good morning, Doctor Sweets," she said. "I…I don't want you to think that this is a request for some kind of therapy regimen. I just want to ask for your advice on a work-related issue."

"Fair enough," Sweets nodded. "What is on your mind?"

"I understand that you've worked with Agent Booth on numerous cases," she continued. "From what I could observe during the Broadsky case, he seems to value your opinions and your contributions to the investigations."

Sweets nodded again and managed to keep his expression neutral even though he was struggling to stop himself from grinning and blushing. Ever since he had been drawn into Booth and Brennan's tight-knit group of investigators and make-shift family members, the psychologist had often felt a deep sense of pride and professional satisfaction whenever his work was validated by anyone within the team. This feeling only intensified over the years as he continued to work even closer alongside them and as his friendships deepened with them.

Thus, he was always elated when someone else was able to notice how much his work was valued by any of them, but especially Booth.

"Agent Booth is an excellent field agent with an impressive solve rate," Shaw added. "I feel that anyone could learn a lot by working with him, and…and I would like the chance to do so. I've asked to be assigned to his cases whenever he needs the extra help."

"If so, then I am certain that you will be working with him again soon enough," Sweets said. "I got the impression that Agent Booth found your work to be thorough and very useful during the Broadsky case."

Shaw ended up allowing a hint of a smile to make it to her lips before working to suppress it. Sweets, however, could not stop himself from smiling back at her. It appeared as if he wasn't the only one who was gratified by any praise from Booth, and he found himself relating to her desire to win the agent's approval.

"I appreciate your comments," she said. "But what I would like to know is…what would you say Agent Booth is looking for in a co-worker? Is there some particular approach or trait that makes him choose to work with one person over another?"

Shaw then leaned toward Sweets, her expression earnest, but serious.

"You were able to integrate yourself into Agent Booth's team," she said. "And I was wondering how you went about it. After all, Agent Booth does not seem like the type of person who would normally rely on civilians over fellow agents. No offense to you or your work."

"None taken," the therapist assured her as he sat upright in his chair. "And to answer your questions, Agent Booth tends to seek out people who excel at their work and who are willing to work as diligently as him when solving cases and seeking justice for victims and their loved ones."

"Working hard and being good," Shaw echoed. "Those are things that every agent should strive for anyway. But what about you? Were those qualities all that you needed to become a part of his team?"

The therapist sat back and crossed his leg over the other one, his face becoming thoughtful. It had been a while since he had considered why Booth had allowed him to become a part of his team, which subsequently led to the others including him as well. It was also somewhat of a complicated topic since there had been many times both in the past and currently when Sweets doubted that Booth or any of the others would continue to want to work with him.

Shaw continued to watch him wordlessly, albeit a bit impatiently while the therapist tried to gather his thoughts. Eventually, Sweets was able to come up with a chain of memories which he hoped would best answer the agent's questions.

"Well," Sweets responded, tapping his fingertips on the armrests of his chair. "As you probably already know, I was originally assigned to Agent Booth and Doctor Brennan to evaluate their partnership at the behest of the Bureau. It was mandatory in light of Agent Booth arresting Max Keenan for the murder of Deputy Director Kirby."

"I read about the case," Shaw responded. "All the evidence certainly pointed toward him being the murderer. I am still surprised that Mr. Keenan wasn't convicted."

"As are many others," Sweets admitted. "The point is though that my work with Agent Booth was restricted at first to partner's therapy. But as you also know, I have extensive training in criminology which includes profiling and interrogation techniques. Eventually this came into play when he asked me to write up a profile for a case involving a teenage boy who had been killed and stuffed into a time capsule that was dug up twenty years later. I gave him a profile, and I did not hear much more about it other than the fact that he had managed to arrest the murderer. Then about two weeks later, Agent Booth stopped by my office."

The therapist had been typing up his latest report when he heard a knock on his door which was followed seconds later by Booth bursting into his office, a file in his hand.

"Hey Sweets," he said. "Ok, we've got this guy who is making mummies out of teenage girls. I need you to work your magic and write me up a profile of the type of person we should be looking for ASAP because Bones and her squints are coming up dry right now."

By that point, Sweets had turned around in his chair to stare at him, his mouth slightly open in shock.

"Agent Booth," he said as he slowly stood up. "You can't just show up and demand a profile. You need to….Ok, go ahead and leave the files with Mrs. Sands, my secretary, and she will…."

"Oh, no can do," Booth protested. "This guy is a real sicko. According to Cam's reports, he's torturing these girls with spiders and burying them alive. He needs to be put away, and I need your help to do this." Sweets sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"All right," he said. "I'll go over the case files and see what I can come up with. I'll try to make sure to send you something by tomorrow."

"Great," the agent said, handing him the files. Booth looked like was about to leave when suddenly he hesitated.

"Um, Sweets…just so you'll know…you were right about that other thing."

"Huh?" Sweets asked, puzzled.

"That case with the kid in the time capsule," Booth clarified. "Turns out it was Roger's old friend, Gil Bates who had killed him. They were going to replace the yearbook in the time capsule with a prank one signed with their nicknames 'Gruff and Grim'. Gil…he still put it in there after he killed Roger."

"So he did confess to what he did after all," Sweets said, starting to catch on. "The yearbook was his way of admitting to what he had done."

"You called it," Booth said. "So now I need you to do the same thing with this case, ok?"

"And so it was your work on that case which led to Agent Booth relying on you more often?" Shaw asked. "Because you were right about the killer?"

"At the time, I thought it was," Sweets mused. "It made sense that Agent Booth wanted to work with the best people and thus far I had proven myself as far as skill. And after that point, I made sure that he got all of my best work, thinking that that was the key to our continued working relationship."

"But it wasn't?" Shaw asked, surprise evident in her tone.

"It is important to maintain that high standard of work within Agent Booth's team," he replied. "But there is another element that is equally important. I discovered that for myself a little over a year later. How much have you heard about the Gravedigger case?"

"I studied it extensively while I was at Quantico," she answered. "Agent Booth and Doctor Brennan not only investigated the case, they were both Taffet's victims."

"Yes," Sweets said, his face grim as memories of his encounter with Taffet invaded his mind. "I was not involved with the earlier investigations, but I did contribute to the case that led to her capture: the kidnapping of Agent Booth. After that affair was over, he and I had a brief discussion."

The psychologist was sitting at the bar in the Founding Fathers, nursing a scotch. Earlier that day, he had spent hours in meetings with both his supervisors and with people who were in even higher positions within the Bureau. The topic of all the meetings with them had been about one thing: his role in the unofficial investigation and apprehension of Heather Taffet. Even though Sweets had not technically done anything illegal or completely outside the rules of the FBI, his knowledge, presence, and unspoken support of the "questionable" activities involved with the Gravedigger's arrest had placed him in a difficult position.

After they were all finished with him, the psychologist was informed that he would be informed if there would be any punitive action taken against him in a couple of days. Until a decision was made, he was to take some "personal days" off from work.

Sweets sighed and took another swallow of his drink. This compulsory time off was not an official suspension; nothing would be going into his record. But that didn't stop him from being depressed about it or from worrying about the outcome of all this.

The psychologist sat his glass down at stared at the liquid inside. He had worked hard to get to where he was now and he was afraid that he had thrown it all away by his recent actions. Still, he knew that he would have made the same decisions if given the chance to do things over again, so he knew in the long run that he would have no regrets.

All of the sudden he was startled to see Booth walking over to sit down next to him.

"Hey Sweets," Booth nodded before ordering himself a drink. The therapist nodded back as a reply and the two of them were silent while the agent waited for his drink and until Booth took a sip. Sweets figured that Booth knew what was on his mind since the agent probably spent time with his own superiors earlier that day.

"So it looks like I'm going to get sent to you again before I can go back into the field," Booth said. "Just do me a favor and hold back a little on the shrinky stuff this time. No talking about my dad or any of that. Just stick to the stuff in the present."

"I can do that," Sweets responded with a half-hearted smirk. "That is…if I still have a job by then."

Sweets then looked up to see Booth staring at him with a serious, but softened expression.

"Don't worry about that," the agent told him. "I have a hunch that nothing is going to happen to any of us over this whole thing. Believe me, the Gravedigger case has been a black eye for the FBI for too long. They're happy that it's over. Just remember what I asked you to do during your evaluations. Keep the focus on what's going on now. Understand?"

"I understand," the psychologist said before turning his gaze back toward the bar. He appreciated Booth's reassurance even though he didn't entirely share the agent's confidence in everything working out.

Sweets then felt Booth reach over and clasp his shoulder.

"You did good…during this whole thing," Booth said, his voice solemn. "No matter what happens, don't forget that or…how grateful everyone is for what you did."

"I won't forget," Sweets said, making sure to look Booth in the eye. The agent patted his shoulder and then the two of them went back to drinking, eventually allowing themselves to talk about recent cases and other more casual topics for the rest of the evening.

"So the reason that Agent Booth valued your presence there was…?"

"Was because he knew that he could rely on me as a person and a teammate as well as a psychologist," Sweets responded. "Doing my job well is important, and obviously, adhering to the policies of the Bureau should have priority. But…being part of this team, being one of Agent Booth's people also means placing a priority on the team itself and on everyone in it."

The psychologist then leaned toward Shaw, his eyes intense.

"Being great at your job will get you noticed," he said. "But showing that kind of loyalty both to the Bureau and to the team…that is what will secure you a place within Agent's Booth circle."

Shaw sat back against the couch and contemplated what was said, her eyes flicking back and forth a little. After a couple of minutes of quiet, she stood up and held out her hand.

"Thank you for your time, Doctor Sweets," she said. "I will give your advice some additional thought."

Sweets stood up and the two of them shook hands before Shaw left his office. Sweets then sat back down in his chair. Recently, he had grappled with a lot of anxiety in relation to his place on the team, but somehow helping Shaw with this question managed to raise his spirits a little.

Sweets smiled wistfully for a moment before returning to his desk for some more typing. He was thinking about heading over to the lab later to see if anyone could join him for lunch at the Royal Diner.

And this time, he was determined to make sure that Angela and Hodgins did not just have him babysit Michael during his visit….well, at the very least not for more than an hour anyway….