On the Essence of Family (джен)

The first time Booth sits down before Sweets, he does his best to physically intimidate the kid. He’s not proud of it but Sweets has power in this room and Bones is right there. She’s tough but people have broken her down enough, dissected her emotions and tried to put them in a box.
He’s seen enough of that evidence, enough to be ready to intimidate some kid to keep her safe. It makes him a little sick of himself, but well, he’s strong. He can handle that, he tells himself.
“And it’s working,” Sweets will tell him because he believes in telling patients when they’re succeeding in what they’re trying to do. He tells him because Lance had spent years teaching himself to be vulnerable here, to make this room a safe zone. And it only takes him a second to spot Booth’s almost imperceptible wince, and how Booth’s twitching in front of Brenen. He can’t ask somebody to be open when he can’t, so he peels a layer off and tells Booth that it’s working, that Booth can make him nervous.