"Look right there, Bones, it says it in bold print!" Booth defended as he smacked a piece of paper on her desk.

Brennan grudgingly picked the paper off of her desk and looked at the evidence Booth had provided.

"See? I told you so!" Booth said as he saw the defeated look on her face.

Bones slammed the paper back down on the desk. "How is it even possible to complete a full Solitaire game in only one minute and eight seconds?"

"Because I am a card shark! Admit it; I am better at something than you are." He smiled cockily and retrieved the score sheet from her desk.

"Only by thirty seconds." Brennan shot back.

The couple looked up from their quarrel as they heard a throat being cleared at the doorway. Brennan stood up from her desk to reveal her swollen stomach.

"Sweets!" Booth greeted. "How have you been?"

Sweets shrugged. "The usual." His eyes went over to Brennan. "Oh my gosh, you've gotten huge!" He then realized what he'd said. "I mean you're stomach is just…" his hands moved out in front of him to explain what he meant. He moaned and slapped a hand to his forehead. "I can't say anything right."

"On the contrary, I completely understand your meaning, Doctor Sweets." Brennan said with a smile.

"That's good." Sweets said with relief.

"So what brings you here?" Booth asked.

"Well I was trying to bargain my way into coming back early, but it turned out the same again." Sweets said. He shuffled his foot slightly.

"Sweets, it's only been three weeks."

"I know." He rushed. "It's just that sitting around all day at my apartment doing nothing except waiting for doctor and physical therapy appointments isn't doing me much good."

Booth held back a sigh. "How about I check around the office and see if there are any spare files that need profiled?"

"You would do that?" Sweets asked excitedly.

"Of course, kid." Booth said.

"That would be awesome, Agent Booth, thank you so much." Sweets smiled widely. He was clad in a blue long sleeve shirt, gray sweatpants, and green sneakers. Booth was always astounded at how young the psychologist looked in casual clothing.

"If I do this you better keep to doctor's orders, alright? No sneaking back to work early."

"You have my word. Scout's honor." He promised and held up his right hand.

"I'll bring them by tomorrow." Booth said.

"Thank you so so much." Sweets said and then turned on his heal to leave. "Bye!" he called over his shoulder.

Booth waved and Brennan just smiled.

"It's good to see he has his energy back." Booth said once Sweets was out of earshot.

"Actually he still has circles under his eyes." Brennan stated as she sat back down in her chair. "And he's still holding his shoulder rather stiffly."

"Way to rain on my parade, Miss Debbie Downer."

Across the lab Hodgins watched the exchange. He sighed as he watched Sweets.

Wendell noticed the change of demeanor and asked, "You alright, Hodgins?"

"Hmm? Oh ya, I'm fine." Hodgins turned back to the goop he had his arms up to the elbows in. Their current victim had somehow ended up being encased in six feet of Jell-O. They still weren't sure how that had happened.

Wendell's brows pulled together. Thirty-six square feet of Jell-O to sort through would usually have Hodgins grinning from ear to ear. And he had been until he'd seen Sweets. "How is Sweets doing?" Wendell asked out of curiosity.

"He's not sleeping." Hodgins said. "I've had a couple late night calls."

"Wouldn't the doctor have prescribed medicine for that?" Wendell questioned as he picked something out of the goop and set it in a silver tray.

"It's not the pain that's keeping him up, smart one." Hodgins replied sarcastically.

Wendell shrugged. "Get him a dog."

Hodgins stopped and gave Wendell a hard stare. "A dog?" He asked incredulously. He thought the undergrad was joking with him.

"Hey, I'd feel better if there was a 100 pound guard system sleeping by my feet."

"You know what? That is a great idea!" Hodgins said excitedly. He pulled his hands out of the goop and stripped off his shoulder length gloves.

"Hey, where are you going?" Wendell asked.

"To find a dog!" Hodgins replied as if it were common knowledge.

"You can't be serious."

"Why wouldn't I be?" He exited the forensic platform and started toward the doors.

"Hey! Who's gonna help me with all this Jell-O?" Wendell called after him.

Hodgins walked backwards through the sliding doors. "You can do it!" The doors hissed shut again and Hodgins was out of sight before Wendell could protest. The undergrad looked at the four three by three feet blocks of Jell-O that was laid out before him. He know had to go through every inch of each block by himself. "Great. Me and my big mouth." He grumbled.

-break-

Sweets had driven himself back to his apartment, which he really wasn't supposed to be doing, and walked in silently. He made sure the door was locked behind him which had been a habit as of late. He hated that he was paranoid. He hated that he couldn't feel safe in his own apartment. He sighed as he took in the sight of his apartment again. When Taffet had been here he'd destroyed some furniture and dumped his belongings everywhere. While he had been in the hospital and at Booth's place Angela had been in and redone it. He wasn't saying that she didn't do a good job! It was just the fact that it was different. He wanted to return to normal and his apartment was different.

He sighed and walked over to his couch. He sat down and flicked the TV on. He picked at his sling. It had become his nervous habit lately. He had a string worked loose and was currently pulling it out. After a few restless minutes he sighed and leaned his head back against the couch. He ran through the possible list of things to do except sit here and let his mind wander.

One: Read a book. He walked over to his bookshelf and glanced over the spines of his collection. He grimaced as he realized he read all of them. Two: Watch a movie. Nope. It was just as bad as sitting and letting his mind wander. Three: Exercise? That was a no too. The physical therapist didn't want him using his shoulder more than he had to. Video games were a no too. He only had one hand. You can't hold or operate a controller with only one hand.

He found himself back on the same spot on the couch with his head back. He had turned on some music so it wasn't as quiet. It was an old metal CD he had found when going through his stuff the other day. He groaned. Sweets found that he didn't deal with boredom very well.

A couple hours later Sweets heard a knock on his door. He quickly jumped up from his couch and padded over to the door. He looked through the peephole and a smile spread over his face. He unlocked the door and threw it open. "Hey, Hodgins, Angela!" he greeted.

"Hey, Sweets!" The two greeted.

"What brings you guys here?" Sweets asked. He motioned for them to come in.

"Actually, we just came to drop this off." Hodgins said. In his arms was a rather large box. Holes had been poked into the top.

Sweets sensed something was up. "What is that?" he asked warily.

"Open it!" Angela urged as Hodgins held the box forward.

Sweets gingerly flipped open the box lid. He looked from the contents of the box to the couple standing before him. "Is this a joke?" he asked.

Angela laughed. "No!" She reached into the box and pulled out an adorable German Shepherd puppy. "Isn't he adorable? Just wook at his wittle face." She cooed at the puppy.

"We thought you could use some company, Sweets." Hodgins said. "And don't say you can't take it because we paid no money whatsoever for him."

Angela held the puppy up next her face and made a sad puppy face. "Look how sad he is. We found him at the pound."

"Guys, I can't-"

"We even bought you dog food, a water dish, chewy toys, a crate, and a leash." Hodgins interrupted.

"He came with the name Bacon." Angela pressed. "But you could probably change it."

Sweets glanced between Hodgins and Angela and then at the dog. The puppy was wagging its tail happily.

"He's potty trained." Hodgins said in a sing song voice.

A small smile passed over Sweets' face. "Fine." he gave in.

"Here." Angela laughed and handed the puppy to Sweets. Sweets had to cradle the dog with his arm that wasn't in a sling. He had to admit. The puppy wascute.

"I'll go get the rest of the stuff." Hodgins said excitedly and ran back to their car.

Around thirty minutes later Sweets was sitting on the couch with the puppy in his lap. "What am I going to do with you?" he asked the bundle of energy.

The puppy stopped and sneezed.

"Hey, I'm the one that's allergic to you, not the other way around." Sweets said indignantly.

The puppy sat down and yawned then. Sweets yawned too then. "How 'bout we go to bed then, Bacon?" He picked the puppy up and moved to his bedroom. He put the dog in his crate so that he could get a shower without having to worry about him. As soon as Sweets was out of sight the dog started to whine and cry. Sweets winced at the sound. Grumbling while he did so, but he brought the dog into the bathroom with him. Bacon didn't whine one time while Sweets got a shower. Sweets then brought the puppy with him to bed. He laid out and put the puppy beside him. The puppy refused to stay in this position. It crawled up onto Sweets' chest. Sweets sighed. He was going to have to stock up on Zertec.

"Night, Bacon." Sweets told the puppy as he gave the puppy a scratch behind the ears. Sweets soon found himself soundly asleep.

Hodgins received no late night phone calls that night.

A/N: And here be the epilogue! I hope you guys enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thanks to all of those who reviewed and favorited!

Also, to answer The Girl's questions: Yes, I do plan on writing a sequel to this fic. And I will be writing 50,000 words. (1,667 a day! D: So many.) And it's not the YWP. I was originally in the YWP, but I was peer pressured into the full 50,000. XD

To Joanne: Yes, my NaNoWriMo will be posted on here! :D Glad you're excited!