The Woman In The Court
Chapter One – The Man On The Plane
This is the normal time that they played tennis. They were always the first on the court and they only left when the people started arriving. Mainly it was because neither of them was really good at the sport and making fools of themselves in front of the other students was not high on the list of priorities. They began to play, as they normally did and neither of them thought any differently about the game at hand. Until one dove right and tripped over a skeletal hand that was poking out from under the fake green grass. Tennis took a suddenly very sinister turn.
Temperance Brennan was in peaceful state just before her phone rang. She was in that nice area of limbo, where one case had finished and another yet to begin. She was enjoying a coffee and cookies that Angela had baked last night. She was happy and relaxed. Then her phone rang. With a sigh, she picked it up and flipped it open.
"Brennan"
"Temperance, its Dr. Sean Asquith"
"Sean, how are you?"
"Fine Temperance and yourself?"
"Fine, thank you. I presume you called for a reason"
"Sadly, yes"
Temperance sat back and listened to her older colleague explain the situation. Sean Asquith was an old professor that she had met many times in her excursions to old burial sites and war ruins.
"There was a body found here in the tennis courts."
"Here being?"
"New Zealand. At Victoria University"
"Oh I see. Foul play?"
"It appears that way. I need your help in identifying these bones."
"Sean, surely there is some other person-"
"Not one that I trust. Are you able to come?"
"Let me see what I can do. I'll call you back as soon as I can"
Temperance hung up the phone and looked around her office. She knew that the Jeffersonian would not mind leasing her out, the question was, would Booth mind coming on an overseas adventure?
"Absolutely not"
Seeley Booth ignored her attempts to convince him and resumed looking at the current case file in his hands.
"Come on Booth, you owe me"
"What do you mean?"
"You make me go places I don't want to all the time. An old friend of mine needs my help and I need you"
Booth paused and gave her a smile.
"You need me?"
Temperance paused, realizing her mistake.
"Not in that sense. I need your help"
"Why? You would be fine by yourself"
"Maybe but a body found on a University campus could spell trouble. I need you to ease the way a little"
Booth sighed and put the file down.
"The Jeffersonian is willing to pay for this?"
"For both of us. Please?"
"How long will we be gone?"
"A week at most."
Booth sighed again, making a drama of drawing it out. Truth be told, he had already decided to go but there was no need to let Bones off the hook so easily.
"Fine, I'll come with you. When do we leave?"
"Tonight"
Bones was gone before he could offer any kind of protest. He was hardly surprised, he would have changed his mind if he had known just how soon they were leaving. He pulled out his phone and prepared himself for the yelling that would soon ring out when his boss found out why he was going to be out of action for a week.
Bags packed and waiting to board their flight, Booth had another tug of regret. He had forgotten just how much he hated flying. Short flights he could deal with but this trip would be long.
"Want something to eat Booth?"
Bones pushed a tuna salad under his nose and his stomach almost betrayed him.
"No thanks Bones. I'll eat when we land"
"Long trip Booth. You may want to eat"
He shook his head but before he could offer any more of an argument, the voice of God announced the boarding of their flight. He followed her up the boarding passage after they had handed off their tickets and tried to ignore the pull in his stomach. He hated flying. He was surprised when they were led to the first class area of the plane by the polite air hostess.
"Hey Bones, do you always travel first class?"
"Yes. The institute insists, though I have no idea why"
Booth nodded and tried to make himself comfortable but it was failing. All he could feel was the sickening tug in his stomach, the promise that whatever food he had eaten in the last twelve hours was going to visit him again.
"Are you ok Booth?"
Bones looked concerned as she fastened her seatbelt and pulled out her latest manuscript. She would not let him read it and every time he had tried to sneak a peak at the lab, she would snap it closed or put something on top of it.
"I'm fine Bones. When are you going to let me read the draft for the first novel?"
"When it's on the book shelf. You look a little green"
"I don't like flying. Lets just leave it at that, shall we. What do we know about this case?"
Bones pulled out a file and opened it on the table in front of her.
"Not much. The skeleton was found at a tennis court and there wasn't much left of it, I'm afraid"
She passed Booth pictures and it did nothing to help his stomach. There was still a little flesh stuck to the bones of their victim and he prayed that whoever was sitting behind them didn't pick that moment to look up.
"Tasty. So why does this Dr. Askwith need our help?"
"It's Dr. Asquith and he needs me because this is not his area of expertise. He identifies bones, where they came from and the aging that helps him date them. But he does not have the training to do a complete ID like I do."
"And you've worked with this guy before?"
"Many times. He is a very nice, very respected man."
"Did you sleep with him too?"
"He wasn't my professor"
"Oh, very selective."
Bones narrowed her eyes at him before angling her body away from him and opening her manuscript, red pen poised. Booth tried everything to distract himself from the impending take off. Counting the hairs on top of the balding man's head that sat in front of him, counting the tiny dots on the back of the seat. Anything to get his mind off the journey to come. Nothing worked. All to soon they were taking off and all too soon, his stomach was twisted in knots and the vomit clawed at his throat. He scrambled to find the vomit bag before releasing a torrent of partially digested food.
"Booth, are you ok?"
He nodded into the bag and felt Bones put a hand on his back as the muscles tensed and he threw up all over again. Once that had evened out a little more in the air, he felt safe enough to hand the now full bag to a passing air hostess, requesting a glass of water. Bones handed him her own air-sickness bag and a small pill.
"Take this."
"What is it?"
"It will stop you throwing up and help you get some sleep."
He took the pill, chasing it with the glass of water that had been placed in front of him. He curled up on the large seat and kicked off his shoes. Bones threw a blanket over him and he let the soft murmur of the engines put him to sleep.
Temperance was far to critical of her own writing, her publisher had pointed that out to her in their first meeting. She had a tendency to chop it up so much that it wasn't even a novel anymore, more like a short story then anything else. So they had come up with a compromise of sorts. Temperance would mark with red pen what she liked or disliked and then her publisher would go through it again, deciding if the choice was the right or the wrong one. Perhaps that was why she never really let anyone read them before they were published. She would have hated to hear the comments and what they thought was right or wrong. She had tried once to get Angela to read it but after the first chapter she had stopped her. It was too hard to let others see that small, private part of herself. She would rather wait for the whole world to see it at the same time. She glanced at Booth, who was sleeping like a baby beneath the harsh plane blanket. She felt a little guilty about dragging him through this flight. If she had known the reaction that he would have to air travel, she would have never made the suggestion in the first place. She was the one who had the idea and she was the one who had wanted him with her in the first place. Perhaps she was developing a dependency on him. She knew that as much as he drove her crazy, she liked having him around. She also knew that arriving in a strange country was that much easier if there was a friendly face there with you. Truth be told, plain and simple, she felt safer with him there. He had saved her life so many times that he was like her own personal body guard. If he went with her, she knew that she would be safe, regardless of whatever stupid thing she decided to do. She made sure that he was tucked in properly before returning to her manuscript.
Temperance was surprised that Booth had slept the entire trip. They had crossed at least three time zones and he was still sleeping soundly. She considered waking him up before the landing but then re-thought the idea. He may be sick again and she didn't feel the need to see that for a second time. So she pulled his seat belt over him before doing up her own, waiting for the slight bump that indicated their safe arrival.
"Booth"
He stirred slightly and she pushed him again.
"Booth, wake up"
He opened his eyes slightly and frowned at her.
"What?"
"We're here."
He sat up and stretched, rubbing his hands over his face.
"We're here already?"
"You slept the entire way. I'll give you another pill when we head home. For now, we need to get off the plane."
He nodded and have stumbled after her, still half asleep.
"Who's meeting us?"
"One of Sean's associates, Maggie Frasier."
"So the good Dr. himself is not going to be here?"
"He has to stay with the bones. If this is a murder investigation, they need to be protected."
She led him out of the plane and to the area where they needed to collect their luggage before heading to the front gates, where their ride was meant to be waiting for them.
"Dr. Temperance Brennan?"
Maggie Frasier was younger then Temperance had expected her to be. She wasn't very tall and had long brown hair that was pulled back in a serious pony tail. She doubted that the girl had even finished her degree.
"That's me. You must be Maggie Frasier."
The girl smiled and Temperance could see the slight blush that was moving over the girl's cheeks.
"Yes I am. It's an honor to meet you ma'am"
"Please call me Brennan, everybody else does. This is my associate and partner, Special Agent Seeley Booth"
Maggie nodded at him before turning her attention back to Temperance.
"So when is your next book coming out?"
"It's still going through the editing phase I'm afraid."
"That's a shame. Well, welcome to New Zealand. Let's get you to the hotel and settled, shall we?"
Maggie led them to the car that sat out front waiting for them and they climbed in, Temperance eager to get to the bones, Booth eager to get to a bed of some sort. He drifted in and out of sleep as the two women chatted and the trip felt extremely short. The pulled up in front of the hotel and Maggie handed them their key.
"I'll be picking you up tomorrow morning at nine. Anything that you want or need, just tell them to charge it to the university account."
Temperance and Booth took the elevator to their room, Temperance pausing at the door, cursing under her breath.
"What's wrong Bones?"
"When I said I was bringing my partner, I think that they took it literally"
She pointed to the room that sat just off the main entrance and to the king size bed that sat in the center. Booth gave her a lazy smile as he leaned over and picked up the phone.
"Hi, could I please have a cot delivered to room 9A? Thanks."
He hung up the phone and picked up her bags, placing them in the room before he picked up his own and placed them near the sofa.
"Problem solved. Can we get something to eat? I am starving"
"That's because you threw everything up on the plane."
"Please do not remind me. So, what do you feel like? Room service or a nice restaurant?"
"We really should have room service Booth. I don't feel right charging a dinner at a restaurant to the university."
Booth opened one of the menus on the table.
"They deliver to the hotel. We won't have to go out to enjoy the food"
"Fine"
"So what do you feel like?"
"Pizza."
"Pizza it is."
Within an hour they were sitting in front of the TV watching a funny New Zealand cartoon and enjoying their first mean in a new country. Temperance was a little disappointed that she didn't get to see the bones as soon as she thought she would be able to but she knew that they could wait for one more day at least. Her stomach however, could not.