A Wonderful Partnership

Disclaimer: I don't own bones but I wish I did

Chapter 1: Pilot

Angela rushes to the arrival boards looking for the gate of her best friend's flight arrival. "I'm late…" The boards start to malfunction causing Angela to get frustrated even more so than the fact that she was late. "This board is broken. The arrivals board is not working." She looks around for help asking, "Uh, did anybody meet the flight from Guatemala? Aviateca airlines? What gate? Yeah, right. I'm late." She sees the customer service desk and walks up to it.

"Excuse me, uh, you have a computer glitch at the arrivals board." Yet she gets no response. That just makes her even madder. "Hello! Sir, excuse me, yoo-hoo…" The man there had the gull to hold up his finger to her. "Great." Doing the only thing she knows will get this ignorant man's attention, Angela rips open her shirt revealing a rather sexy lacy bustier. Which, of course, does get the man's attention. "Yeah. Hi. The flight from Guatemala?"

In the background you see a woman with brilliant blue eyes and her brown hair up into a ponytail say, "Tell me you tried 'Excuse me' first." She smiles warmly at Angela as she turns around.

Angela recognizes that voice in an instant and runs to engulf her in a hug while saying, "Sweeeeeetie. Yes, I did. Welcome home." They hug for a little longer and then they start walking toward the exit with Angela firing off questions, "Are you exhausted? Was Guatemala awful? Was it horribly backwards?"

Brennan smiles and jokes, "And yet I was never reduced to flashing my boobs for information."

Angela goes right along with it, "Flash them for any fun reasons?"

Of course, Brennan being her literal self says, "I was literally, neck deep in a mass grave, not romantic."

Angela – thinking that Brennan went on her latest adventure due to her ex-boyfriend – says, "You know, diving in a pit of cadavers is no way to handle a messy break up."

Brennan feels a twinge of guilt at deceiving her best friend like this but she lies, "Angela, nothing Pete and I ever did was messy." All the while Brennan can feel the ring around her necklace pressing against her chest.

Angela just laughs, "Then you were not doing the right things."

Brennan doesn't know what that means, however she has noticed a man has been following them. So she suddenly stops and drops her bag to confront this man. She goes right up to him and asks, "Sir, why are you following us?"

The unknown man grabs her arm trying to bring her in, but Brennan knowing martial arts and from other training, moves faster than the man and brings him down to the ground with a few arm swings and knee kicks.

Angela starts to yell, "Attack! Security! Hello! Who runs this airport?" She then starts to hit the man with her own purse and says, "Kick his ass sweetie!"

As all of this is happening the police arrive and raise their weapons. One officer says, "Police! Ma'am, step back now!"

Brennan looks at the cops like they're crazy, "He attacked me!"

The man on the ground yells to her, "I'm Homeland Security!"

Angela seeing the whole mess they were now in says, "Oh, little misunderstanding here."

Since the police still had their guns pointing at Brennan, she raised her arms up and stated with authority, "You can put away your guns."

The officers actually start to lower their weapons, but the man from Homeland Security says while he starts to get up, "What is she in charge now? No. I'll tell you when you can lower your weapons." The police raise their weapons one more time while the Homeland Security man orders Brennan, "Hand over the bag."

Brennan says annoyed, "Oh, is that what this is about?" She reaches down for her bag and hands it over to the agent. The agent opens her bag to only find a human skull nestled within it.

Brennan – already knowing what is in there – says, "Boo." The agent drops the bag as one officer comes up behind Brennan to bring her, with Angela smile all the while.

~BONES~

Brennan is trying to explain to the agent why she has the skull, "I am Doctor Temperance Brennan. I've been in Guatemala for two months identifying victims of genocide including him." She gestures the skull that is sitting on the table.

The agent tries to reason with Brennan, trying to get her to "say" something she shouldn't, "Most people in this situation, what they do is, they sweat it."

Brennan is still unfazed – and actually bored. She just really wants to get home. "Guatemala. Genocide. How are you scary after that?"

The agent just nods his head and says, "You know who doesn't sweat it?" A security guard behind him says, "Sociopaths."

Brennan takes offense to that, "I am not a sociopath, I'm an anthropologist at the Jeffersonian."

The agent then adds, "Who works for the FBI. Which I'd maybe believe if you had an ID that did more than allowed you access to the cafeteria."

While the agent is saying this, a man in a suit enters the room carrying a book with him.

Unfazed by the male, the agent continues, "You were illegally transporting human remains ma'am and you assaulted a Homeland Security agent."

Brennan reaches out to somewhat show her not-wholehearted remorse says, "Look, I'm sorry if I embarrassed you in front of your friends but, next time you should identify yourself before attacking me." She then turns to the man in the suit. She felt his presence immediately but knew she had to keep up the charade. "What are you doing here?"

Booth steps forward, showing his badge, and says, "FBI. Special Agent Seeley Booth, Major Crime Investigation, D.C. Bones identifies bodies for us."

Brennan loving that little nickname he gave her but won't admit it says, "Don't call me Bones." She then turns to the agent and says, "And I do more than identify."

Booth holds up the book and slides it across the table to the agent. "She also writes books."

The agent looks down at the book and examines it for a few seconds, all the while Brennan is wondering why Booth was there to "bail" her out. The agent finally speaks, "Fine. She's all yours."

Booth trying to get out of there as fast as possible says, "Great. Let's grab your skull and let's vamoose."

Brennan not believing any of this jumps up from her seat and says indignantly, "What! That's it? She's all yours? Why did you stop me?"

Booth trying his hardest to get her off the topic reaches for the bag the agent put on the table and says, "Why does it matter? You're free to go. Let's just grab your bags, click, click, clang, clang."

Brennan finally seeing all the pieces to the puzzle says to Booth, "You set me up." Turning to the agent she states, "You got a hold for questioning request from the FBI didn't you?"

The agent just looks at Booth. Brennan turns toward Booth not believing what he risked. And Booth knows that they were so going to have another little spat about this.

The agent looks back to Brennan and says, "I love this book." And he hands it back to her.

Brennan – who is ultimately pissed – grabs the book and then the skull. She walks past Booth telling him, "Come on."

~BONES~

Brennan is seated next to him in his SUV and says, "That's the best you can do?"

Booth playing dumb says, "What?"

Brennan knowing what he's doing goes along with it because she wants to have just a little fun with him says, "Getting Homeland Security to snatch me so that you can stage a fake rescue."

Booth looking lovingly toward Brennan says, "Well, at least I picked you up at the airport huh?" He then sent her that smile he knew she couldn't resist.

She only smiled at him slightly, "You shouldn't have done that."

Booth sighed, "Hey, come on. I went through the appropriate channels but your assistant there, he stonewalled me!"

Brennan grabbed the ring hanging around her neck and played with it while saying, "Yeah, well after the last case I told Zach to never, ever to put you through. He's a good assistant. And you know why I had to tell him that."

Booth looked at his wife and smiled at her, "I know and I love you too."

Brennan not liking that her husband sort of won this one said, "You can let me out anywhere along here."

Booth knowing that he should just get straight to the reason why he almost blew their secret, said, "Alright, listen. A decomposed corpse was found this morning at Arlington National Cemetery down..."

Temperance not really wanting to hear the reasons why says, "Arlington National Cemetery is full of decomposed corpses, it's a cemetery."

Booth tried to clarify it for her, "Yeah, but this one is your type of corpse. It wasn't in a casket."

Brennan seeing what he was saying – she had a case with him – told him, "If you drive one more block, I'm screaming 'kidnap' out the window. I just got back from looking at hundreds of dead people Booth. Let's just go home."

Booth would love to do that exact thing and a few other things, but he just couldn't stop in the middle of a case to do what he wanted. There was a murderer out there. "I know that, and I would love to go home to but Bones…"

Brennan didn't want to hear it, "Pull over."

Booth not really wanting to argue while driving does just that. Unfortunately his beautiful, yet stubborn wife, gets out of the SUV and starts walking away saying, "I'm going home. Either you come with me or I'll see you later tonight."

Booth just wanted to get this over with so he could be with his wife tonight said exasperatingly while following her, "Great! Could we… Look, could we just skip this part?"

Brennan couldn't believe that he thought he would win this one too, "I find you very condescending right now."

Booth didn't want to but he couldn't resist saying, "Me! I'm condescending. I'm not the one who's got to mention that she's got a Doctorate every five minutes."

Brennan turned toward, walking backwards and says, "I am the one with the Doctorate."

Booth did not want to fight about this, "Yeah, well you know what? I'm the one with the badge and the gun huh. You know, you're not the only forensic anthropologist in town." Even though he knew that was a lie.

Brennan just laughed at her husband's words, "Yes I am. The next nearest is in Montreal. Parlez-vous francais?"

Booth knew he was going to have to compromise in some way gave up this offer, "What's it going to take?"

Brennan – happy to see that her husband was finally giving in – says, "Full participation in the case."

Booth just said, "Fine." Even though he already hates the risk involved.

Brennan clarified for her husband so he didn't try to work his way out of this deal, "Not just lab work. Everything."

Booth knew what his wife meant and was getting frustrated that they weren't already at the cemetery, "What? Do you want me to spit in my hand? We're Scully and Mulder."

Brennan had no clue what her husband was talking about, "I don't know what that means."

Booth chuckling inside at his wife's lack of pop culture knowledge, says, "It's an olive branch, just get back in the car."

Brennan smiles at him and starts to walk toward the car holding hands with her husband. "Thank you Booth."

Right before she enters the car Booth spins her around and places his hands by the side of her head. "Anything for you Bones."

She was just starting to say, "Don't call me Bones." When finally her husband kissed her. All of their pent up frustration and passion went into that kiss. Brennan dropped her bag to lace her fingers through Booth's hair, tugging him even closer. Before long, Booth had her pinned against the door wanting to do a lot more to his wife than just kiss her. Without even thinking about it, Brennan wrapped her legs around his waist – feeling his evident arousal. She moaned inside his mouth, which snapped Booth – unfortunately – out of their public display.

He rested his forehead against her own, panting heavily. "Bones, we need to get to the cemetery."

Brennan pouted slightly, "You started it. I've been gone for two months Booth…"

Booth said under his breath, "Don't I know it."

However she continued as if he hadn't said anything, "I've missed you and I want to show you how much I've missed you." She provocatively circled her hips, causing friction against his arousal. Involuntarily Booth bucked forward.

"That is not nice babe." He said breathlessly. God what he would do for a private room right about now.

Brennan smiled wickedly at him, "Well, we could go home like I said we should." She then leaned forward to whisper into her husband's ear, like she had a secret, "I can't tell you how aroused I am just by being around you."

Booth leaned his fore head against the SUV's door, reciting the saints in his head. "Babe, we need to go to the cemetery." He heard his wife sigh of frustration. "But I promise you, we will continue this when we get home." With that he gave her one more searing kiss and gently brought her feet back down to the ground.

Brennan watched her husband walking around the SUV, with a little difficulty trying to hide his arousal and smirked as she grabbed her forgotten bag and opened the door. Angela would be so proud.

~BONES~

As they pulled up to the cemetery Booth regained control over his body – which was rather easy since on the drive there his wife told him what she had witnessed while in Guatemala – and they were both in work mode and their façade was up once again: An annoyed anthropologist working for an even more annoyed FBI Agent.

Brennan asked, "What's the context of the find?"

Booth hurried to catch up with his wife as they walked down to the pond, "Routine landscaping dropped a load in the local pond, one of the workmen thought he saw something."

Brenna walks up to the pond to find her assistant, Zach Addy, is already there getting ready for her, "Hi Zach."

Zach smiles at his mentor, "This eco-warrior look works for you."

Brennan smiles at him, "Thanks."

Zach continues to compliment her, "Very action oriented."

Brennan – almost forgetting that this is only suppose to be her second time working with Booth – states, "Agent Booth, you remember my assistant Zach Addy?"

Booth, not really having to pretend his feelings for his wife's assistant, says, "Oh yeah…"

Zach looks to Brennan and asks about her trip, "How was Guatemala? Dig up lots of massacred victims? Learn a thing or two about machete strikes?"

Brennan finds that she doesn't like to mix work with – well technically that was work as well but she really wants to get home – so she tells her assistant, "Zach, I need water samples and temperature readings from the pond."

Zach ready to find approval from his professor says, "Right away Dr. Brennan."

Booth, once again let's his wife know what he thinks of Zach, "He's got no sense of discretion that kid. Typical Squint."

Brennan can hear, 1. Booth's sexual frustration and 2. His overall frustration at the socially inept assistant, in his voice and tries to placate him a little, "Booth…"

Booth sighs quietly, "I know, I know. It's just when cops get stuck, we bring in people like you. You know? Squints. You know, you squint at things."

Brennan just rolls her eyes and says jokingly, "Oh, you mean people with very high IQ's and basic reasoning skills."

Booth smiles candidly at his wife, "Yeah."

She hands off her bag to him as they get ready to go in the boat.

~BONES~

Booth readies the camera, as he slowly lowers it into the pond. Brennan can't help her curiosity, "What exactly am I supposed to be squinting at?"

Booth smirks at her and says, "Oh you know, it's like pornography, you'll know it when you see it." He then caresses her hip slightly.

Brennan smiles gently but the smile soon goes away as she sees the skeleton, "Yeah okay. This is a crime scene."

~BONES~

Brennan is looking at the remains that have been taken out of the pond while Zach is taking pictures of them. "Remains are wrapped in four-milled, flat poly-construction sheeting."

Zach adds his observations, "PVC coated chicken wire."

Brennan makes note of that and continues, "Weighted. That's why the body didn't surface during decomposition. The skeleton is complete but the skull is in fragments."

Booth comes up to the group. He really, really, really just wants to go home with his wife and… "What can you tell me?"

Brennan is frustrated at herself. She has nothing which means she won't be able to go home yet. She sighs quietly, "Not much. She was a young woman, probably between 18 and 22, approximately 5'3", race unknown, delicate features."

Booth almost whines – the operative word being almost – and says, "That's all?"

Brennan smiles gently at her husband's behavior and offers him, "Tennis player."

He still is amazed at what his wife can do and asks, "How do you get a pretty tennis player out of that yuck?"

Zach, unaware of the really meaning behind all of their words, answers, "Epiphyses fusion gives age, pelvic bone shape gives sex."

Brennan points out, "Bursitis in the shoulder. Somebody this young, must be an athletic injury."

Wanting to get this done with tonight asks, "When did she die?"

Brennan knows Booth knows she doesn't like to guess, so she says, "Ehhhh…..

Booth rolls his eyes inside and mocks, "Ehhhh… What does that even mean?"

Zach chimes in, "It means wait until our bug and slime guy takes a look."

Brennan points out another fact, "No clothing."

Booth hates that being said, "You know, in my line of work, no clothes usually means a sex crime."

Brennan tries to reason with her husband, "In my line of work, it could also mean the victim favored natural fibers."

Zach, while still take pictures, tells Booth, "Your suit, for example, will outlast your bones by decades."

Brennan finally feeling satisfied with the work accomplished tells Zach, "Collect silt, 3 meters radius, to a depth of 10 cm." She turns toward her husband and smiles sadly at him knowing she won't be going home tonight, "Your FBI forensics team can take the plastic and the chicken wire, we'll take the rest."

Booth sighs. Great now he'd have to wait even longer to be with his wife.

~BONES~

Brennan looks down at all the skull fragments and begins the whole process. Everything fades away. Before long she finds herself waking up to the smell of coffee. She looks around and decides that she needs to go home to sleep for just a while. Maybe her husband will show up…

~BONES~

Cullen couldn't believe what he just heard, "So, you guaranteed a squint a field role in an active murder investigation."

Booth knew his boss didn't like this one bit, "Yes sir."

Cullen sighed, "The one that wrote the book."

Booth nodded one more time, "Yes sir."

Cullen sighed again, "I thought you said that she wouldn't work with you anymore."

Booth looked down at his lap, "Well, the last case we worked she provided a description of the murder weapon and the murderer but I didn't give her much credence."

Cullen wanted to hear this, "Why not?"

Booth couldn't give his boss the real reason behind that first case, the real argument, so he lied to his boss, "Because she did it by looking at the victim's autopsy x-rays."

Cullen snorted, now that he could believe, "Well I wouldn't give it much credence either."

Booth, feeling proud of what his wife does and couldn't help but boast about her, "Turns out she was right on both plus the pond victim, Brennan gives me the victim's age, sex and favourite sport."

Cullen couldn't believe it, "Which is?"

Booth smirked slightly at the memory, "Tennis."

Cullen definitely couldn't believe it now, "She's good."

Booth, saying so much more than what his boss thought, said, "Oh, she's amazing. If the only way I can get her back to my side is to bring her out in the field, I'm willing."

Cullen thought it over for a few seconds, "Fine. She's on you. Take a squint out in the field, she's your responsibility."

Booth smiled inwardly as he said, "Thank you sir."

~BONES~

Booth walks into their apartment and throws his keys on the counter. He sees his wife's bag on the floor and smiles widely. He walks quietly into their room to find his wife sleeping with only her camisole and her rather sexy lacy underpants. He walks up to her and gently climbs on top of her until his face is mere centimeters away from hers. He gently kisses her lips.

Brennan starts to wake up to the most wonderful wake-up call in two months. Her husband's lips are softly kissing hers and she responds immediately. Without even opening her eyes, she wraps her arms around his neck to bring him closer and wraps her legs around his waist.

Booth loves that his wife responds so eagerly to him and they were back to where they were earlier the day before up against his SUV. Brennan skillfully gets rid of her husband's tie, shirt, suit jacket and his belt all within a couple of minutes. She starts to unbutton his pants as he moves away from her lips to his favorite (and her favorite) spot on her neck. He sucks gently there, eliciting moans from his beautiful wife. The pants – along with his boxers – are finally taken off and somewhere along the way Booth took off Brennan's camisole and undergarments.

Booth stares down at his wife for a few seconds in awe at her beauty. He still can't believe that she's his wife. "God, I love you babe."

Brennan smiles at him softly, "I love you too." With that he places a passionate kiss on her lips and begins the ride to a blissful end. After only a few minutes Booth can already feel his wife's climax impending. He feels her walls starting to contract and it's like heaven for him. Unfortunately, their phone rings.

Even while feeling the best she's felt in a while Brennan can see it's the lab calling. Panting out, "Booth." Her husband already knows what's going to happen, and he'll have none of it. So he lifts her hips up slightly and rocks forward, bringing her even closer to the edge. She moans loudly but still gets out, "The lab is calling."

Booth just wants to shoot that damn phone, but instead he dares her in his sexy, husky voice, "Answer it then."

Brennan always up for a challenge – and hopefully she won't lose at this one – reaches for the phone all the while still making love with her husband. She unintentionally snaps, "What?" in a breathless voice as her husband brings her even closer.

Angela takes the phone away from her ear and looks at it, unsure of what she can hear in the background – but she's pretty sure it sounds like her best friend is… "Sweetie, I made the facial reconstruction."

Brennan holds back a moan, "Thanks, I'll see you soon." But before she can hang up Angela is positive she hears a male grunt of pleasure. And she just smirks.

However Brennan is completely unaware of that as finally, after two months of being away from her husband the break the laws of physics. And become one. Again.

~BONES~

Booth made sure that he came into the lab first. They didn't want the team to think that they were together when they were, in fact, together. Booth couldn't wipe that stupid 'I just made love to my wife' smile off of his face. And then he looked up at Angela's painting. "This is interesting, Angela."

Brennan enters the room, try conceal her own 'after sex glow' from her team, especially Angella. "Good morning. Does Booth know how this works?"

Angela explains what is about to be seen, "This computer program, which I designed, patent pending, accepts a full array of digital input, processes it and then projects it as a three dimensional holographic image."

Booth just looked at the team, "Okay."

Brennan trying to get into Dr. Temperance Brennan mode asked, "You get that?"

Booth could see that she was still trying to get her ground from their love making (which boosted his own inner ego, of course he would never say that out loud). So he tried to help her out, "Yeah, that and the patent pending part."

Angela explained even more to Booth, "Brennan reassembled the skull and applied tissue markers."

Brennan walked up to the Angelator with everyone else and said, "Her skull was badly damaged, but racial indicators, cheekbone dimensions, nasal arch, occipital measurements suggest African American."

Angela put in all of the details and stated, "And…. We have our victim."

Booth brings his fingers through the hologram, amazed. "Whoa. Have to admit, that's pretty cool."

Brennan gently brings down her husband's arm, trying to put the pieces together, without even thinking about it. "Ange, rerun the program substituting Caucasian values."

Angela does as requested and an new image comes up. Brennan couldn't put her finger on it but the victim looked familiar, "Does she look familiar to anyone?"

Booth thought he recognized her, but still said, "No."

Brennan couldn't shake the feeling though and told Angela, "Split the difference, mixed race."

Angela wanted to know how mixed, "Lenny Kravitz or Vanessa Williams?"

Brennan being, of course, naïve to pop culture, says, "I don't know what that means." Angela makes the changes and Booth can't believe what he sees. Brennan says, "Angela, reduce tissue depth over the cheekbones to the jaw line." Angela makes the changes. "Does anyone recognize her?"

Zach shakes his head, "Not me."

Angela isn't so sure anymore, "Wait, is that who I think it is?"

Zach starts to make the connections, "The girl who had the affair with the Senator?"

Booth can't believe it. "Her name is Cleo Louise Eller. Only daughter to Ted and Sharon Eller. Last seen approximately 9pm, April 6, 2003 leaving the Cardio Deluxe Gym on K Street, she didn't even make it to her car. "

Brennan knows what this case means to Booth, but she can't very well comfort him in front of everyone. "Pretty good memory."

Booth looks at his wife and sends her a silent message of pain, "Yeah well, it's my job to find her."

Hodgins – unbeknownst to the silent conversation going on – says, "Well, in that case, congratulations on your success."

Booth breaks eye contact with his wife and says, "This isn't exactly the way I wanted it to end."

~BONES~

Booth still doesn't like that this case has come to this, "Cleo Eller is not just some missing girl."

Hodgins says without thought of how Booth feels, "Yeah, she's a senate intern who was boinking Senator Allen Bethlehem."

A little pissed off now, Booth says, "I was secondary in the investigation to the disappearance of that girl and we couldn't confirm that." Booth turns to his wife and asks, "How did you recognize her before she even had her own face?"

Brennan wanted to reach out and comfort Booth, but with everyone around she had to settle with the facts, "I recognized the underlying architecture of her features, the rest is just window dressing."

Zach talks to Brennan and asks, "I'm not an expert but, shouldn't he be happier?"

Booth answers for Brennan, "Oh no, believe me, I'm happy."

Hodgins tries to explain it to Zach a little bit more, "He's not happy because Senator Bethlehem chairs the Senate Committee overseeing the FBI."

Angela states, "You seem happy to me."

Booth looks at all three squints and says seriously, "I need this kept quiet."

Hodgins looked like a kid in a candy store, "Ha! Cover up!"

Booth did not want to deal with this right now, so he started walking away with Brennan right behind him. He yelled back though, "Paranoid conspiracy theory."

Hodgins yelled back, "Is it paranoia that Monica Lewinsky was a KGB trained sex agent mole?"

Brennan runs up to walk in p ace with her husband, "So what do you do first, confront the Senator?"

Booth sighs. His wife was not going to like what he was going to say. "Listen, Bones, I know…"

Brennan interrupts him, "Booth, don't call me Bones."

Booth smiles lightly and continues, hoping for the best, "I know we talked about you coming out in the field and all…"

Brennan couldn't believe what her husband was saying, "Ugh. You Rat Bastard!" She also slapped his arm for emphasis.

Booth knew she was going to be pissed, and pissed she was. Great. "A case this big and the Director is going to create a special investigation and if I line all my ducks up in a row I could maybe… maybe I can head it up."

Brennan looked at her husband confused, "I don't know what that means but I think I could be a duck. "

Booth could have laughed at that cute face she was making, but opted out on that one since it would probably mean bodily harm for him. "You're not a duck ok! On this one we stick to the book. Cops on the street, squints in the lab."

Brennan heard him say "on this one" but she didn't care. She was not going to back down now. "Well in that case, the Jeffersonian will be issuing a press release identifying the girl in the pond."

Booth knew what she was playing at and he didn't like it. "You do that, I'm a dead duck. What are you trying to do?"

Brennan smirked, "Blackmail you."

Booth was half proud and half mad at what his wife was doing, "Blackmail a Federal Agent?"

Brennan's smirk turned into a full on smile, "Yes."

Booth looked directly into his wife's eyes and couldn't help the smirk that came across his face, "I don't like it."

Brennan's smiled into a more seductive one, "I'm fairly certain you're not supposed to."

Booth sighed, "Fine. You're in. Just remember babe, you are so going to pay for this later."

Brennan wanted to grab onto his arm and rest her head against his shoulder, but settled for, "I'm looking forward to that."

~BONES~

After talking with Cullen about the most recent findings, the duo was now driving to Cleo's parents' place. Brennan was now telling Booth what the newest findings were, "Hodgins identified the particulates embedded in Cleo Eller's skull as rolled steel most likely from a sledge typed hammer also there's concrete and diatomaceous earth."

Booth looked at the bottle briefly and asked, "What's that?" While taking it from his wife.

Brennan explained, "Looks like that. It's made up of prehistoric sea creatures, it's used as an insecticide, filtering agent, cleaning abrasive, ceramics… It's very common."

Booth smiled, happy to be working with his wife again. "Diatomaceous earth. Common or not, it's a clue."

~BONES~

After talking with the Eller's the team starts to walk back to the SUV. Brennan however was thinking about what Booth said. "Those people deserved the truth."

Booth knows that his wife's policy is to tell them the facts no matter what, but… "Babe, their daughter was murdered. They deserve the kindness of a lie."

Brennan tried to reason with him though, "There'll be an inquest report."

Booth looked at her and smiled softly, "Which they won't read because they don't want to, especially because toward the end, Cleo and her parents weren't even speaking."

Brennan looked at him in disbelief again at how he got this information, "They told you that?"

Booth almost forgot where they were, for he was about to come up to her and swipe the piece of hair out of her face. Thankfully he caught himself and just said, "You know, getting information out of live people is a lot different than getting information out of a pile of bones. You have to offer up something of yourself first."

Brennan – ever fascinated with her husband's past – says, "What exactly did you do in the military? What did they teach you?"

Booth chuckles, "See? See what you did right there Bones? You asked a personal question without offering anything personal in return and since I'm not a skeleton, you gotta offer up something first babe."

Without even thinking about it Brennan steps up to Booth and gently straightens his tie, "I am one of the luckiest women on this planet because I am married to a wonderfully kind gentleman."

Booth smiles lovingly down at his wife, "Oh really, would I happen to know this wonderfully kind gentleman?"

Brennan smiled sweetly at him and patted his chest lightly, "I expect an answer to my question Booth. Tonight. In bed."

Booth barked out a laugh shaking his head slightly. His wife was going to be the death of him. And thank god for that.

~BONES~

After having his ass handed to him on a plate by his boss, both Booth and Brennan left his office together and Booth immediately asked his wife, "You okay?"

Brennan couldn't believe what she just did. "Don't be nice to me after I got you in trouble."

Booth smiled warmly at her. Yeah he was mad, but it wasn't the end of the world. "Your heart was in the right place."

Brennan shook her head, still kicking herself – of course figuratively – for what just happened. "No, I'm not a heart person, you're a heart person, I'm a brain person. You vouched for me."

He really didn't want to talk with his wife right outside his boss' office. "Forget it…"

Brennan couldn't let Booth do something like that and not try and help him in return. "No, I won't. You think it was the Senator?"

Booth sighed knowing she wasn't going to give this one up. "Look, the Senator has had sex with a dozen of these interns and he hasn't killed any of them, our best bet is still the stalker."

Brennan smiled. She had her Booth back. "You want to check him out, we can, I don't, what do you call it, roost him?"

Booth smirked at her attempt at the phrase. "It's 'rouse' babe."

Brennan smiled at his whispered 'babe'. "Fine rouse. Well the murderer snatched a Bronze Star from Cleo's neck so."

Booth couldn't believe that his wife was now his support system to continue with this case. God, he loved her. "I've got twelve hours before this case is over and I'm off it so, let's go rouse."

~BONES~

Booth had been listening to everything the squints had been saying since he got there. But when Hodgins said, "Sound like any conniving, son-of-bitch senators you know?" he couldn't let that go by without them knowing the repercussions. "You expect me to declare war on a United States Senator based on your little holographic crystal ball."

Brennan didn't like that her husband doubted their logic. He never did that before. "It's not magic. It's a logical recreation of events based on evidence."

Booth didn't see the hurt in her eyes when he said, "No more valid than my gut."

Zach stated the fact, "A good hypothesis withstands testing that's what makes it a good hypothesis."

Booth – who couldn't stand this squint in particular – said without thinking, "It's not a hypothesis, you have a dead girl and a United States Senator. This is exactly why squints belong in the lab, you guys don't know anything about the real world." Once he said it though, he regretted it.

Brennan couldn't believe her ears. Glaring at Booth she said, "Come on, we're done here."

Seeing that he wasn't alone, kept up the charade, "Wow. Touchy."

Angela turned off the Angelator and said, "You must know about her family. Both parents vanish when she's fifteen? Probably counts as the real world."

Booth was already trying to figure out a way to tell his wife he was sorry, "Yeah. I know the story, read the file, cops never found out anything."

Angela tried to help Booth see what more was there. "Yeah, Brennan figures that if maybe somebody like her had been there…"

However Booth couldn't help to say this, "For someone who hates psychology, she sure has a lot of it."

~BONES~

Booth knew exactly where to find her. She always had an odd fascination with guns. "Thought I'd find you here. You know, you being a good shot and doing martial arts, it's all your way of dealing. Who knows better than you how fragile life can be?"

Brennan couldn't help but jab at him. She was, after all, still mad at her husband, "Maybe an Army Ranger sniper who became an FBI homicide investigator?"

Booth smirked, "Ah, you looked me up, huh?" He steps forward and places his hand on the small of her back, "I'm sorry Bones. I wasn't thinking when I said those things. I know how much you've been through." He looked down at the gun and asked, "Do you mind?"

Brennan's heart melted a little at Booth's words. "Be my guest."

Booth brought his hand to her hip and squeezed it gently, "Thank You." Booth picks up the gun and purposely misses.

Brennan, knowing how good of a shot he really is, chuckles and jokes, "Were you any good at being a sniper"

Booth smiles at the fact that this almost argument has now been dissipated. "A sniper gets to know a little something about killers. Senator Bethlehem, he's no killer."

Brennan still didn't know how her husband went with his gut on some things said, "Oh, and Oliver Laurier is?"

Booth backed his wife up against the wall and was mere inches from her face when he said, "The way I read Laurier, he's unhinged. That makes him dangerous." Which was meant both as a warning to her to be careful around Oliver.

Brennan couldn't help but jab one more time, "That'd be your gut telling you that, correct?"

Booth smirked at what she said, "You know, homicides, they're not solved by just scientists. They're solved by guys like me asking a thousand questions a thousand times, catching people telling lies every time. You're great at what you do, Bones, but you don't solve murders alone, cops do as well."

Brennan knew exactly what she needed to say to get her husband off of his butt and do his job. So she challenged him, "Cleo Eller was killed on a cement floor sprinkled with diatomaceous earth. Traces of her blood will still be in that cement. One of us is wrong, maybe both of us. But if Bethlehem wasn't a Senator, you'd be right there in his basement looking for that killing floor. You're afraid of him. Your hypothesis is that squints don't solve murders and cops do, prove it. Be a cop." Smirking, she patted his chest and sashayed away from him. Booth grabs his gun and fires two quick perfect kill shots. He hated it when his wife made so much sense sometimes.

~BONES~

Booth had gone back to his office. Brennan now stood at the door knocking on it and stepping in clearing her throat. Without looking up Booth states, "They look pretty happy, don't they. Otherwise they wouldn't turn on the camera I guess."

Brennan can see the pain in Booth's eyes and gets right to the point, "Zach said you wanted to see me?" Booth hands Brennan a piece of paper. Brennan opens it and looks at it. "You got a warrant to search Bethlehem's place?"

Booth sighs heavily. This case was getting to him and he didn't like it one bit. "You were right. If Bethlehem wasn't a Senator, I'd be in that basement, looking for that killing floor. But you're wrong, I was never afraid of that guy and I'm not doing this because you're a genius babe, I'm doing this for Cleo. You ready partner?"

Brennan looked at him with her lopsided smile, "Since when are we partners?"

Booth smirks at his wife, "I apologize for the assumption."

~BONES~

Brennan calls out to Booth as he walks up to her, "At least we got the hammer."

Booth is upset. It isn't enough. "Yeah but that's all we got Bones."

Brennan doesn't believe it. What about the floor? "The cement floor in the basement?"

Booth shakes his head. "Yeah, no blood or diatomaceous earth. We needed a trifecta Bones. Physical evidence, murder weapon, crime scene. Come on let's go home. I'll hand over the case to Cullen tomorrow and this will all be over with."

Brennan looks at her husband. She thinks to herself, He needs to get this guy. So instead of doing what she's wanted to do ever since this morning, she shakes her head, "No, you go on. I still have some things I need to take care of at the lab."

~BONES~

Zach couldn't believe it, "They won't even arrest him?"

Hodgins was confident though that justice would prevail, "Don't worry, if that's the hammer used on Cleo Eller, he'll get arrested. A toast to getting this bastard."

Brennan just shook her head. "The hammer's not enough. He's gonna get away with it. And maybe Booth is right, maybe outside the lab I'm useless."

Hodgins holds up the little saint book and says cheerfully, "Let's take guidance from the lives of the Saints."

Angela reads who the saint is, "Albertus Magnus, Patron Saint of Scientists."

Zach ponders that and thinks about what he knows about saints, "I thought Magnus was the Patron Saint of fish mongers?"

Hodgins expounds on his friends knowledge. "Two separate entities. Albertus Magnus was a 13th century philosopher, the fish monger saint was a …"

However Brennan starts thinking of what Zach just said and something clicks. She yells, "Fish!" All three of the squints look at Brennan like she's gone mad. Brennan continues, "You said that diatomaceous earth could be used as a filtering agent."

Hodgins nods slowly, "Yeah, for swimming pools, water filters…"

Brennan let's them in on her thought process, "Or tropical fish. Oliver Laurier said that Ken Thompson kept fish." Brennan jumps up and starts to run out of the lab.

Angela – still not fully grasping the big deal – asks, "What's your hurry?"

Brennan turns back to them and explains, "Thompson read the warrant. He knows we're looking for diatomaceous earth. Get in touch with Booth; tell him where I'm going, okay?" Then Brennan starts to run to get to her car.

Angela turns to Hodgins and says, "She didn't actually say where she was going, did she?"

~BONES~

After yet again a very long night of no sleep, due to the fact that Brennan had to give her statement and had been arrested by her own husband (!) she stood in front of the funeral for Cleo with the rest of her team.

Angela asks quietly, "Is the FBI going to lay charges against Brennan?"

Hodgins looks at Booth and states, "She only shot him in the leg. Once."

Booth hated that he had to arrest his wife. He was actually real proud of how his wife figured everything out. She caught the killer. He tried to explain, "She didn't give him a warning. She just shot him, with alcohol on her breath." Brennan starts to walk away from the funeral at that.

Goodman tries to reason with Booth, "It was her first shooting, you can't expect it to be perfect right out of the gate."

Zach – without yet again any forethought of how his words affected people – says, "How much warning did you give people before you sniped them?"

Booth gives Zach his best glare and then jogs to catch up with his wife. Brennan looks up at Booth to see a smug smile on his face. She can't help but laugh a little and ask, "What?"

Booth looks down at her still smiling, "Told you it wasn't the Senator."

Brennan just smiles and shakes her head. "And I told you who it was, so we're even."

Booth brings up the fact of something he saw about his wife that morning. "Except we work on the same cases and you end up on the New York Times Best Sellers list."

Brennan is shocked to hear that, "I didn't know that!"

Booth smiles proudly at her, "Number Three, with a bullet."

Brennan smiles brightly at him. "That's good, right? The New York Times with a bullet…"

Booth slightly pushes her with his shoulder. "It means you're rich, call your accountant."

Brennan just laughs at that, "You know I don't have an accountant."

Booth smiles at her again, "Well, we should get one then." He then winks at her.

Brennan looks up at him expectantly, "Okay, how does that work?"

He just rolls his eyes heavenward. "Ugh, you need to get out of the lab. You know: watch TV, turn on the radio, anything! Pick up the phone and…" However he opted out of finishing that sentence and turns around to watch the Eller's say goodbye to their daughter. With pride in his voice Booth tells his wife, "You know, if it weren't for you, those people would never have known what happened to their daughter. That's got to be worse than the truth."

Brennan smiles sadly, "I know exactly how the Eller's felt about Cleo. With my parents disappearance and nobody knowing what exactly happened to them." Booth discreetly squeezes her hand reassuringly.

Booth smiles at her warmly and says, "I know babe." Then taking in a deep breath he says, "You know, being a sniper I took, a lot of lives. What I'd like to do before I'm done is try and catch at least that many murderers."

Brennan smiles up at her husband and squeezes his hand right back, "I'd like to help you with that."

Booth smirks at his wife and shrugs his shoulders like he could care less, "Ehhhh…" Brennan just laughs and smacks his arms lightly. Booth really wants to show his gratitude for everything Brennan did for him these past few days. So he whispers in her ear, "Come let's go home. I still have to answer that question of yours." Brennan's eyes beam brilliantly at the idea of what was to come.

So begins their wonderfully, secretive, chaotic life together as partners.

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