Season 8 or 9, anything post Daisy.

I do not own Bones, besides my own.


The Title in the Story

"Why can't this case just be over?" Angela asked exasperated as she stood before the large screen in her office. She would have thrown down her tablet if it weren't so expensive.

"Ange, we're going to get this guy." Hodgins tried to calm his wife though he was beginning to wonder to himself if it was possible to catch the guy.

"I don't get it, we've tried everything, it's like when we get close he likes, morphs into some new." She set down the tablet to begin rubbing the temples of her head. Jack tried to smile as he embraced her and began to rub her back.

"It's been what two weeks now and it just, doesn't end!" Angela said again and Hodgins knew this was beginning to take a toll on all of them. The long hours that stretched from night to early morning at times seemed to be purposeful every time they thought they were close and then it would all disappear and they would be back at square one.

"I'm guessing we have nothing new?" Cam asked slowly entering the room. Normally Cam was abnormally professional, distanced even but now even she was showing signs of wear.

"Nothing. It just dead ends." Angela said picking up her tablet again. "Then it gets back on course, and dead ends all over again."

"Maybe we need to step back and reevaluate." Wendell suggested having entered the room with Dr. Brennan.

"Sure, if it would help. The victim was found in a trash dumpster, death from blunt force trauma to the head." Angela narrated while she played the video. "The victim is Jane Foyer, a 32 year old ex-convict recently out on parole. No family, no friends and she worked as a late night delivery driver so she hardly even talked to people." Angela brought up the woman's id on the screen and corresponding x-rays.

"The particulates I found were so general they could literally be found anywhere and everywhere in the D.C. area. There's usually something, but nothing." Jack said rubbing his own eyes and glancing at his watch that showed it was past 8 p.m. "Any time I thought I had something that would lead to something it was just from one of her many drop off points."

"Everything I found in the body pretty much went the same way." Cam took off her designer high heels and tossed them by the door. Like her description, she was too tired to go into detail and her feet were reminding her of it.

"The damage to the bones were primarily caused from a childhood broken arm, most likely a bicycle accident, which isn't uncommon. Then there were additional damages while she was in prison." Brennan reminded them leaving out the jargon they had gone over it he weeks before, leaving it to the brief summary.

"And every lead Booth had led to nothing." Angela said bringing it full circle.

"It's as though this guy randomly killed someone and put her in the trash dumpster." Jack said summing up their thoughts, their efforts done.

"It couldn't have been completely random, like Dr. Sweets suggested. The killer cut her wrists allowing her to slowly bleed to death. When that didn't work he bashed her head in. This doesn't feel random." Wendell reminded them.

"Yes, but what else do we have to go with?" Brennan asked ready to state the obvious, either from the late hour or the lack of more evidence. "I'm afraid this will become a cold case."

The others nodded but almost in disagreement. They knew there were few other options but it didn't feel right.

Slowly the group disbanded and soon left for the night. After a few goodbyes Brennan left to pick up Booth, see if he had any information that was new though she doubted it. She would tell him of the team's understanding that from their side, it would not be solved.


Chapter 2

"There's got to be something else!" Booth shouted.

Sweets threw his arms in the air clearly exasperated. He had surpassed rolling his eyes two days ago and now he was just annoyed.

"I don't know what you want me to tell you agent Booth." Sweets hissed.

"How to find this guy Sweets!" Booth shouted back even though he regretted saying it as he did. He knew that Sweets had been practically living in his office the last two weeks working on profiles and following every lead. Leads that took hours of research to profile on his end, work that would quickly disintegrate quickly as the possible suspects were dismissed.

"Look, I want to find this guy too, most likely he is going to do this again. But I don't know what else I can do. I've…" Sweets stopped as Brennan entered the room.

She quickly saw the exhausted look on Sweets face and the sheepish look on Booth's and wondered what Booth has said to insult Sweets. She realized she would recognize it, it was the one she got every time she in advertently insulted Sweets' soft science profession.

"Hey Bones." Booth said more calm.

"I wanted to come by and let you know that we have come to the conclusion, at the lab, that this case…" Brennan sighed, she didn't want to admit defeat but she was going to have to. "Is considered what I believe you call cold on our end."

Booth watched Sweets sigh and nod his head in agreement. Booth felt somewhat angry the two were giving up though he knew rationally it was their only option, another case was possibly going to be assigned to them soon. The only reason they had been able to work on it as long as they had was not only the recurring possibilities that would eventually run cold, but they had no other cases pending.

Booth reluctantly nodded his head as he knew that this case was holding up other work at the Jeffersonian and that Sweets had ben cancelling with his patients too.

"Yeah, let's go home." Booth said Sweets gave a quick wave over his shoulder as he left.

Brennan looked at Booth and knew something was on his mind but she didn't know how to ask. Booth quickly tidied up and wondered how and if he should apologize to Sweets. He didn't like that he had insinuated that he had not worked hard enough. He decided that tomorrow would do.


Chapter 3.

The next day Booth and Brennan overslept, their bodies craving much needing and previously refused sleep. Without Christine to possibly wake them up, having spent the night with Max, their back up alarm clock had failed.

Showing up to work at 10 a.m. was not something either of them would consider acceptable.

Booth knew he could feign having been following some lead that morning so no one asked where he was. He knew Brennan was probably having a harder time at the Jeffersonian. He grinned at her uncomfortably shifting in front of the staff at her tardiness. They wouldn't dare say anything but they would smile. He loved his wife, but seeing her be, human, was sometimes a delight.

Booth's smile faded as he approached Sweets office. He still hadn't decided what to say but he opened Sweets door and went in anyway. He stopped when he got in the office which was devoid of lights of life. He smiled to himself as he thought Sweets must have overslept as well.

Booth smiled as lunch came quickly, which it naturally would when you get into work late. Now that the case was closed and the new one was yet to be assigned to him he found himself with little to do. Brennan was busy at the lab with some sort of 18th century bones, he wasn't sure. All he heard was she was too busy for lunch and Booth was restless with little to do.

He walked by Sweets office again but still no one was there. Now he started to feel more worried. Booth pulled out his cell and called Sweets cell and when he reached Sweets voicemail a strange though occurred to him, he hadn't heard Sweets voicemail before, he always answered. He was leaving a message when an incoming call interrupted him. He paused to see it was Sweets calling him. That's more like it. He thought to himself.

"Agent Booth?" Sweets said nearly shouting as the location he was at was very loud. "Did you call?"

"Yeah, Sweets where are you?" Booth asked wondering if he needed to shout back.

"Virginia." Sweets answered and began to talk to someone next to him but Booth couldn't hear the conversation. "Booth, we have to take off now, we'll be back to the office in a bit. Do you need something sooner?"

Booth realized the sound he was hearing was a helicopter. "No, I'll just talk to you when you get back."

Sweets continued to talk to someone else in and Booth felt irritated though he was sure Sweets wasn't doing it intentionally. Finally Booth just hung up as Sweets must have thought the conversation was done.

Booth went back to his office. He wasn't hungry anymore. He wondered why Sweets went to Virginia on what was most likely a case. Why wasn't I called in on the case? Booth wondered and left in a direction to find out.