The Body in the Building

By SnitchCatcher

Chapter 1

The Discovery

Most people loved the decorations, the carolers, and the gift exchange; all the joyful parts of the holidays. But Temperance Brennan's absolute favorite part of the winter holiday was today, the two weeks after the holiday when everyone came back to work.

No more carolers on street corners, or co-workers humming Christmas songs at work. And definitely no more people getting excited for New Year's Eve and whatever party they were going to.

I honestly don't see the attraction. She thought about the event of gathering around a tv watching a ball drop slowly down for twenty seconds. And then there's the awkward New Year's kiss thing, because you're really going to be with that person for the rest of the year.

Brennan was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even realize that someone was at her office door.

"Geez Bones, what's got you in such a good mood?" She didn't need to look up to know who it was, after all, he was the only person who called her that.

"Nothing." She replied, looking back at her computer screen trying to remember what she had been doing when she got sidetracked.

"You're happy to be back at work, aren't you?"

"No, I've been here all week." She said as she checked her inbox. She was expecting an e-mail from her publisher about her next chapters that were due.

"You're joking! It was Christmas Bones and you were working?" He couldn't believe her. Well, maybe he could, but he'd figured she would take some time off.

He had had a great Christmas. Rebecca had let him have Parker on Christmas Eve and morning. It had been his first Christmas with Parker and he couldn't have been happier about it. And then there was New Years Eve, which he had spent with Cam. Although they weren't actually dating, they had decided to spend the night together, and hey, he wasn't complaining.

Brennan on the other hand, he knew probably had spent Christmas alone and wondering why she had been abandoned yet again. Probably blaming herself thinking she wasn't good enough.

"I'm not catholic, so I don't celebrate Christmas. Therefore I had no need for any time off." She simply ignored his reaction as she finished going through all of her mail. "Was there a reason you came down here Booth?"

Thrown off guard by the change of topic, Booth didn't have time to reply before she picked up talking again.

"Because I have a bunch of remains to examine and identify. So if you don't have anything important, I need to get back to work." She got up from her chair, put on her lab coat, and headed towards a set of remains that were laid out on the platform.

Scanning her ID, Temperance walked up the steps and picked up a clipboard. Quickly followed by a flustered Booth who was at this point just trying to keep up with her. Brennan, unaware that Booth had even followed, started mumbling something to Zach Addy, newly Dr. Addy.

Booth turned to Angela who was leaning against a table waiting to be of any service. "So, what's with Bones?"

Angela glanced at Booth before responding. "Come on, Christmas is over. Basically the worst time of the year for Brennan and to top it all off, right before her brother and her father abandoned her. Again."

"Yea, so shouldn't she be upset." Booth was confused, but then again to him anything involving Brennan confused him.

"She's spent the past week practically alone, and I think that she's glad that there will be people around. Less likely to be distracted by any straying thoughts." Seeing Brennan look up quickly at Booth, he being completely oblivious, Angela added, "Family or otherwise."

Booth was about to question Angela's last comment when Brennan finished conversing with Zack and walked over to Booth. Causing him to forget what he was going to say.

"So, do we have another case?"

"Uhhh…Yes."

"Okay, I'll grab my coat."She said, still completely engrossed in the papers she was reading and unaware of Booth's reaction.

I am about ready to beat them over the head if they don't figure this out soon! How can they be so oblivious, especially with how he was just looking at her.

The pair walked out into the fresh air of the day and climbed into Booth's car. Brennan's lack of caring who drove slightly worried Booth but only for a second before she looked over and asked about their new case.

"So, what's the case?"

"Some demolition workers were doing a standard check of a building that they were about to blow up, you know, to make sure there weren't any kids playing inside or anything. They had smelled something 'extremely nasty' and decided to check it out. Long story short, they found a body."

"That was supposed to be short?" She smiled slightly as she glanced at Booth and turned back to looking out the window.

"Well, I didn't want to be criticized leaving anything out." Booth replied accusingly, then noticed the smile on her face. Lately he had started to notice things like this. Like right now, how her smile was so beautiful and almost carefree.

Brennan looked up to notice that Booth was staring at her. A blush began to creep across her face and she quickly tried to cover the fact. "Are you ever going to learn to actually watch where your driving?" she said in hopes of him not seeing her blush.

"Actually, We're here."

Brennan looked out the window at the scene. It was an old decrepit building that looked, in her opinion, which it would fall down soon if they didn't demolish it soon.

As they approached the building a man walked over to the pair. "Agent Booth, nice to see you."

"Agent Boyd," Booth replied shaking the man's hand. "What brings you here?"

"The government had bought the property, expanding or something, and they put me on the case." Agent Boyd glanced net to Booth noticing Dr. Brennan. "And who's this?" he asked with a smile.

"Dr. Temperance Brennan." She held out her hand as she noticed that he had the same smile as Booth, the charm smile, as she liked to call it. But other than that, they didn't have much in common. Boyd had sandy-blonde hair with the clearest green eyes that she had ever seen. Having trouble tearing her eyes away from his, she went on, "I'm Booth's partner."

"Bones here identifies mutilated bodies."

"I've told you before, don't call me that." Brennan said as she ducked under the police tape that Agent Boyd held up for her. "So, where's the body?"

"Your going to love this Bones." Booth said as he slightly emphasized the last word.

"Zack, I want you to take pictures of the body before we remove it. Then Hodgins, you can take samples from the body and the washer and compare. Angela, I want you to give us a face as soon as you can."

"That is so cool." Hodgins looked at the body inside the washing machine.

Brennan glared at him. "There is nothing cool about a dead human being shoved into a washer."

"What I mean is that it's an ingenious way to get rid of a body. I mean, a washer in an old abandoned building. Who would ever think to look for someone there?"

Brennan just looked over at Angela with a 'why in the world are you dating him' look. With only a shrug in response, Brennan started for her office where two FBI agents were waiting for her.