Chapter 1

I watched Bones while she worked in Limbo, partly to keep her company, but mostly to avoid the pile of paperwork drowning my desk. I love the way she examines each of the dried up dead bones as if it were a work of art, looking but not touching unless she has to. Today she's identifying a set of little bones – a kid. Somebody's kid died and his bones ended up here. Sure the remains were found fifty years ago, but that doesn't make it any less tragic. Bones likes to say that she can compartmentalize, but I see how hard it is on her, especially with children. It helps me remember what a fantastic woman she is under all the science mumbo jumbo. It makes me love her more. That is if I do love her – there's a little confusion over whether I actually love her or whether my bruised brain only thinks I do. I know I'm confused.

She glanced at her watch, and then frowned at me. God, even her frown is beautiful. "You know, Booth," she said, looking at me over the pelvis she was examining – yes, I know what a pelvis is, thank you very much – "I'm not sure the bureau would appreciate your lack of productivity. I don't need you here."

"I'm keeping you company, Bones! That's what friends do," I said, giving her my charm smile. When I give her that smile, she always smiles back brightly. It breaks my heart every time, but I just can't stop doing it. I can't help but want to make her smile.

"It's not what productive FBI agents do, Booth." She set the bone down on the table carefully.

I laughed, "Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"Yes!"

"Why?"

"Because I'm trying to work and you're distracting me."

I was distracting her? Sweet! "You find me distracting, Bones?" I couldn't keep the innuendo from my voice, but it sailed right over her head. Damn.

"Yes! You keep talking to me while I'm trying to work, which is very disruptive. And when you're not talking, your leg bounces and makes your shoe squeak against the floor. You could not be more disruptive unless you threw a processional. "

Huh? Oh, Bones speak. "It's 'threw a parade,' Bones. And alright, alright, I'll leave you alone. Alone with your bones," I intoned as I got up and walked away.

As I reached the stairs out of Limbo, Bones called over to me, "Booth!" I turned back, of course. She could change her mind on me a million times and I'd still come back to her. How could this be fake love?

"Yeah, Bones?"

"You'll let me know if we get a case?"

It was always work with her. "Sure, Bones. You bet."

I gave her one last look as I climbed the stairs to the main lab, finding her absorbed in her work. I looked at my watch, noticing it was lunch time. Maybe I should have dragged her to the diner for some food. She forgot to eat more often than not unless Angela or I forced her. Ah, not today. Bones was already annoyed with me, and as much as I love annoying her, I just wasn't in the mood to torture myself through another meal with her. Maybe I needed to talk to Sweets again, get him to fix me somehow.

I didn't stop up on the platform on my way out, not really feeling up to talking to the squints. However, I did notice a new face – a man talking to the security boys at the foot of the platform stairs. I may not know everyone's name here at the Medico-Legal lab, but I know every face. And his wasn't one of them. He was slightly shorter than me, probably younger by a few years – early thirties I guessed. Blonde hair, blue eyes, long narrow face, smug smile on his lips as he spoke. I wanted to punch him before I heard him say Bones' name. Afterward, I wanted to shoot him, but Sweet's would've made a big deal out of it if I followed through with that impulse.

I walked up to the two, nodding at the security guard, "Hey, Larry."

"Agent Booth," he acknowledged, backing away from the stranger to let me do my thing.

I pulled out my badge and ID holder, flipping it open. "Agent Seeley Booth," I introduced myself, "and you are?"

"Will Cooper," he said, holding out his hand to shake mine. I didn't take it, instead pocketing my ID and setting my hands on my hips under my jacket, not so subtly exposing my gun in its holster. The man's eyes flashed to my gun and very briefly my 'Cocky' belt buckle.

"What do you want with Dr. Brennan?" Cooper didn't seem intimidated in the least. Crap.

"I'm supposed to meet her here. She's expecting me."

"You here on business?"

"The dead bodies thing? Oh, no." He laughed, as if I were stupid. I may not be as smart as Bones, or most of the people here, but I'm not dumb, goddammit. I really wanted to shoot him.

"Well?"

"We're supposed to have lunch. Can you tell me where to find her?" The jerk tried to step around me, but I put a hand in front of his chest. I really hoped I wouldn't have to actually touch him.

"Why don't we wait right here?" I looked around behind me and saw Wendell up on the platform. "Hey Wendell," I called. When he looked up I asked, "Could you bring Dr. Brennan up from Limbo?"

He left the platform, stripping off his gloves and joining us. "How do I get her to leave? Last time I tried, she almost broke my wrist."

I chuckled, "Yeah. She doesn't like to be touched." I emphasized these last few words for Will Cooper's benefit. "Tell her that her lunch appointment is here."

The intern nodded and stalked off toward the stairs. I stood staring at Cooper as he looked around the lab, taking everything in.

"So you don't do the whole 'dead body' thing," I said, getting his attention. "What do you do?"

"I'm a partner at Helmsley and Walters."

"Law firm?"

"Architecture, actually," he smirked. Fuck. I had a lot more connections to the legal system. I would have to use the database to check up on this guy. And then Sweets would find out about it and give me a hard time about it. Double fuck.

"Hmm," I nodded, looking him over again. His suit and shoes were both expensive, but he wasn't wearing a tie. He had an air about him, maybe in the way he spoke carefully and in the way he held himself upright, that screamed old money. East Coast royalty, probably. Cooper. Too common a name to pin down to any one family without going into the database. Haven't I warned Bones about rich people about a million times?

"Where are you two going?"

Cooper leaned closer and spoke quietly, "Why do you need to know, Agent Booth?" It sounded like a threat and I almost growled at him. This was definitely no business lunch. Nor was it the first time he'd seen her, if he was pushing back this hard.

"Bones is my partner. I'm responsible for her safety."

"I assure you," he said in his quiet voice, face relaxed and smug, "she'll be perfectly safe with me."

I was trying to think of a reply that didn't involve breaking his nose when I heard Hodgins' voice from behind me. "Will?"

"Hey!" Cooper looked around me, smile brightening. He held his hand out to Hodgins, "Jack! How are ya?"

"Not too bad," Hodgins smiled. I felt deeply, deeply betrayed. Sweets would probably want to know the homicidal feelings I was having toward Hodgins, wouldn't he? Yeah, he would. "And how are you doin', Cooper my man?"

"Excellent. I made partner last year."

"Good for you!"

"You ever finish all those degrees you were working on?"

"Yeah, all three of them. Really impresses the ladies." Hodgins looked toward Angela's office while I stifled a chuckle.

"Speaking of," Cooper said. "Do you know where I could find Temperance?"

"Oh, no," I said. "We're waiting right here. Wendell is getting her."

Hodgins smiled at me, turning to his friend and saying, "You'd better wait. Booth likes to shoot things."

"Geez. You shoot one ice cream truck – one – and no one will let it go!"

Cooper laughed and my whole body tensed. "You shot an ice cream truck?"

"That clown was asking for it," I steamed, frowning at Hodgins. It made me a little better that the squint lost his smile and cleared his throat. At least someone around here is still intimidated by me.

I swear I felt it when Bones got close enough, because I turned just in time to see her clearing the stairwell and looking around for me. Or maybe she was looking for Cooper. Fuck, again.

As Brennan increased her pace toward us, Hodgins held his hand out to his friend, who took it easily. "Good to see you, Will."

"Likewise."

Hodgins made his escape before Bones reached us. Good call on his part.

"Booth," Bones greeted me icily. "I see you've met William."

"Yeah, sure," I said, pulling her to the side by the elbow. "Is he why you were trying to get rid of me?"

"Yes." I hate it when she says these things so simply, shamelessly. But it's one of the reasons Bones is Bones. It's one of the reasons I loved her.

"Why?"

"You tend to become overprotective when I go out with men, Booth. I wanted to spare you the trouble."

"Fine. Whatever, Bones." I sighed, releasing her arm. "Will you at least tell me where you'll be if we get a case?"

"So you can show up halfway through?" she chuckled. "No, I don't think so, Booth. Look." She took her phone out of her pocket, pushing it in my face. "I have my phone; just call me if something critical comes up in the next hour."

"Don't think I won't," I warned, wagging a finger at her. She laughed and I almost smiled. Instead, I kept fuming just to keep Mr. Cooper over there on his toes.

"William?" Bones called, holding out her hand to take the jerk's arm. "Come with me to my office, so I can get my things?"

"Of course," he said politely, giving me a particularly smug grin as he passed me. I saw him lean toward her and speak softly as they walked.

"Why does everyone always think that?" she asked him loudly. He must have asked if we'd had a relationship. They think that because it's obvious to everyone but you, Bones, how much I love you. It might be time to go to the shooting range, if only to make sure I only take my frustration out on paper targets.

When I turned to leave, a group of half a dozen people, wheeling one cart with a body bag on it, came through the sliding glass doors into the lab. I pegged the man and woman leading the group as law enforcement, and maybe a few of the others. The man was tall and lean, with a square jaw and a nose slightly too big for his face. He was younger than middle aged, but he was no rookie. The woman looked even younger, but even more sure of herself. Her hair was long and a rich auburn brown, her face heart-shaped and her eyes large. In short, she was a knock-out. They were both wearing suits and I tried not to stare at the low-cut camisole under the woman's jacket. Seeley Booth is a gentleman, thank you very much. I took my badge back out and flashed it at them. "Special Agent Seeley Booth. What have we got here?"

The man took his badge out in response, his FBI ID familiar. Hey, another Fed! "I'm Special Agent Paul Ballard, and this is my partner, Special Agent Samantha Ellis. We're from the LA field office." I shook hands with both of them, smiling at the woman involuntarily. Just because I'm in love with Bones doesn't mean I don't look at anyone else. I'm only human. Ballard frowned at my smile, and I recognized that protective attitude he had toward Agent Ellis, backing off instantly. I gave him a friendly non-threatening smile, which seemed to placate him a little

She spoke up next, "We've got some remains that we need identified right away. AUSA Caroline Julian sent us here, to Dr. Brennan." Awesome! An important case that Brennan would cancel her lunch to work. I looked beyond the two agents to the body bag and the four men surrounding it. Now that the whole group was closer, those four in back looked more like guards than agents. Protecting the remains, but from what?

"I see you brought the remains here…"

"Isn't this where she works?" Ballard asked, brow furrowed. With four guards on a body, you definitely didn't want to dick around with getting it where it needed to go. Particularly since that many guards usually means you expect trouble.

"Yeah, this is it," I gestured back to the platform. "She just likes to get to the remains before they're moved from the scene."

"Too bad, Bucko," said Agent Ellis. "There was a slight fire issue. We had to move the remains so they wouldn't be destroyed."

"I'm just warning you what to expect."

"You're the liaison to the Jeffersonian, right Agent Booth?" asked Ballard. I liked his loose professionalism and I wondered who he'd trained under at Quantico. He reeked of Eddie's particular brand of training.

"Official Unofficial Liaison," I said proudly.

"Then you'll be working this case with us," he said, handing me a file. I flipped it open, skimming the forms and reports.

My stomach turned when I came to the line listing the suspected crimes. "Human trafficking?"

"Unfortunately," said Ellis. "We've been following these three brothers cross country from LA."

"So who's the stiff? One of the victims?"

"No," said Ballard, simply but intriguingly. "Where is Dr. Brennan?"

"Go ahead and load the body up on the platform. Wendell will help you." I pointed out the intern. "I'll go get Dr. Brennan. You should probably talk to Cam – Dr. Saroyan – too." I jogged around the platform to Bones' office.

"Bones!" I yelled. "We've got a case!"

She was just stepping out of her office with (ugh) Cooper, coat on and purse in hand. "But I didn't even get to have lunch!"

"Top priority," I said, taking her purse and slipping her coat from her shoulders. "You'll have to take a rain check on this one, Cooper."

"I'm so sorry, Will," Bones apologized as I stood there, with her coat and purse in hand, trying to corral her up onto the platform. "I'll call you later."

"Yeah, get lost, Will. She'll call you later." The man frowned at me angrily, but he left. Up on the platform, two of the guards were helping Wendell move the body onto one of the exam tables, while Agents Ballard and Ellis looked on.

"Aw," pouted Bones when she saw the body bag. "They moved the remains!"

"I already yelled at them for you, Bones."

"Good. I'm glad at least one of you understands how important it is not to compromise the remains."

Cam joined us and I made the introductions. "Dr. Brennan, Dr. Saroyan, these are Agents Ellis and Ballard from the LA field office."

Nods and handshakes were exchanged all around.

"Why don't we talk upstairs?" I asked, pointing to the conference table up there. I didn't want to spend any more time next to the remains than I had to. They smelled like burned meat (roast pork – thank you so much for that image, Bones) and burned rubber. I let Bones lead the way, following protectively close behind her until Cam hit my arm and gave me a harsh look. That woman knows me entirely to well. Upstairs we all sat around the table.

"What have we got here, people?" asked Cam, getting right down to business.

"For the past two months, we've been investigating a human trafficking ring," said Ellis, flipping open and sharing the file with Cam and Bones. I smiled at Ballard, finding it funny that we were both somewhat excluded by these three intense women. He seemed to get the joke and smiled back at me.

Ellis continued, "We believe it to be run by these three brothers," she pointed to a series of photos, spreading them out on the table. "Nathan, Brian, and Joseph Washington, though we're fairly certain those aren't their real names."

"Okay," said Bones, pushing the pictures in my direction. "Maybe it's because I lack the ability to distinguish subtle facial features, but these all look like the same man to me."

I took a look at the photos. In it was the same man, with three different styles of dress, three different haircuts, all were clean shaven. "It's not you, Bones."

"Here," said Ballard, pulling a picture from the bottom of the stack. In this one, all three of the men were sitting at an outdoor café, eating a meal. I passed the photo to Bones.

"Ohh," she said, smiling at me. God, I love it when she smiles at me. "Monozygotic triplets! This is very rare," she told Agent Ballard.

"Who's got mono?" I asked, not following the terminology,

Cam helped me out, "Identical triplets, Booth."

Suddenly I understood why these two agents had come to Bones with this set of remains. But I didn't want to guess too early and have to eat my words, so I hung back.

"Anyway," continued Ellis. "We think they're bringing people, especially young women, from Eastern Europe. We're working with Interpol, but the route seems to be from Greece to DC by ship, and then overland to LA and other North American cities."

"How awful," said Cam, using her sympathetic voice. "How can we help?"

"Last week in Baltimore," said Ballard, "we were undercover with the Washington brothers and Ellis got made by one of them. Ellis here winged him," he looked at her proudly, but without smiling. "The injured brother didn't die on the scene, but he didn't get medical attention either."

"What is your evidence? How could you know what he did or didn't get?" Bones and I are working on the concepts of supposition and conjecture.

"We found his body in our safe house," explained Ellis. "And his brothers, those fuckers, tried to burn the house down with all three of us in there." I kinda like a woman who's not afraid to swear, but Ballard was a guy I didn't want to cross if I didn't have to. I saw him looking at Ellis the same way I used to look at Bones, infatuated, intrigued, and protective. He wasn't in love with her, yet. But he would be very soon. Best not to poke the bear. Cam was used to cop talk and rolled with the profanity, but Bones shot me a look. She didn't appreciate this woman's lack of professionalism. I patted her arm in sympathy, and because I like having any excuse to touch her.

"So the body down there," asked Cam, trying to move on, "is the dead Washington brother."

Ellis nodded. Hah! I was right.

"If you know who he is, why do you need me?" Bones had a good point, but I chimed in with the answer.

"Because they don't know which brother they have."

"Exactly, Agent Booth. The whole time we were undercover, we failed to work out which brother was which. They like to confuse newcomers to their operation about who's who. Anyway, we think the last two brothers have split up somewhere in the DC metro area, and the contacts we'll need to use will be different depending on which Washington is lying on that table. Also, we only have evidence directly implicating Nathan Washington, which could affect our ability to get warrants if he's the one on that table."

"I will need as much medical information as you have," Bones demanded. I could tell her mind was already down there with the body. When she's got a good puzzle to work on, she tends to forget the niceties of polite conversation.

Ellis took another file from the stack in front of her. "Here you go. We'd also like any clues you can give us that might point to where the brother was between when I shot him and when he ended up at our house."

"Dr. Hodgins is very good at analyzing trace particulates. Your case is in good hands, Agent Ellis," Cam assured her, picking up the medical files. "Shall we begin the examination, Dr. Brennan?"

Bones nodded almost eagerly and followed Cam down the stairs, leaving me with the two other agents.

"So, Agent Booth?" asked Ballard. "Your primary assignment is Major Crimes – Homicide? Right?"

"Yeah?" I had to wonder where he was going with this.

"We haven't had any confirmed homicides, but I'm sure they're out there, if that makes you feel any better about taking this case with us."

"You'd be surprised at the variety of cases Bones and take on."

"Paul?" said Agent Ellis, and he turned toward her. "I'm gonna go give the doctors some of the information we have that isn't in those files."

"No problem, Echo." I noticed the nickname and wondered if it was a term of endearment, or a warriors-in-arms tag. It was the military phonetic designator for her last initial.

We watched Ellis stalk down the stairs and over to the exam table, convincing Hodgins to let her up onto the platform.

"Say," I said, turning to Ballard. "I've been meaning to ask you, did you train with Eddie Morales at Quantico?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I did. Were you there at the same time? I'm sorry I don't remember you…"

"Nah," I assured him. "Eddie and I just go way back. I'd recognize his stamp on any of us."

Ballard laughed. "Yeah, Morales was quite a character."

"Did he ever do that…?

"With the beer bottles?"

"Yeah!" We both laughed. "He loves that prank."

"So you've been working K and R?"

"Organized Crime, actually. Investigation just led to the kidnapping and trafficking ring."

"Have you found any survivors?" I leaned back in my chair, putting my hands behind my head. Ballard frowned.

"Not as of yet. But our intel is solid. We've had undercover ops in LA and a trustworthy CI here in DC." He paused, looking down at his hands and licking his lips quickly. "We haven't been in the area very long, and we're having trouble tracking down the leads we need. I'd really appreciate some help on this, Booth."

"Yeah, sure. I worked OC for two years before I got transferred to Major Crimes. I think I've still got some contacts that might pan out. If not, I can ask around."

"Thanks." He sighed, letting his gaze drift down to the ladies on the forensics platform. "Word around the bureau is that Dr. Brennan's your partner."

"Yeah. So?"

"She does field work?"

"Heh," I laughed. "Usually I don't even bother trying to leave her here anymore. It never works."

"She strikes me as intensely curious," he said, watching her work.

"Intense might be too mild a word," I deadpanned. Ballard laughed.

"You call her Bones?"

"It used to piss her off," I smiled. "You called Ellis 'Echo'," I pointed out.

"I did?" I nodded. "Hmm," he said. "It's just a stupid call sign she likes to use on occasion. I guess I got used to it."

"Now, Ellis – she seems intense," I observed.

"She's been a lot of things," he muttered, cryptically.

"How's LA?" I asked, remembering the case Bones and I worked out there – the girl with all the plastic surgery. Such a waste of a pretty girl's life.

"Sunny," he said. "Complicated."

I laughed. "Complicated?"

"Sometimes I think LA is more political than DC."

"I wouldn't be surprised."

"Should we go over the rest of the file, so I can get a handle on what our next move is gonna be, once Bones figures out which brother you've got?"

"You really think she can figure it out? The body's pretty damaged."

"I've seen Bones get critical information out of three little bone chips that had gone through a chipper. We solved that case; we'll try to solve this case."

He looked me in the eyes for a moment, thinking before he spoke. "Okay," he said, like he was making a final judgment on me and Bones, and it was favorable. "Let's get into the details."