Disclaimer: The characters you recognize don't belong to me….I just like to let them out to misbehave… ;o)
A/N: Watched a clip of an episode of "World's Scariest Places" on YouTube and was inspired and here's the result.
"No! The remains need to stay in situ! It's a crime scene, don't move anything, we'll be on the next flight out." Booth snapped his phone shut as he sauntered into Temperance Brennan's office. "Start packin' Bones, we've got a case." Tempe looked up from the report she was scribbling furiously on.
"When? Where?" was all she asked.
"Paris, flight leaves at 7:20 this evening so you've got about two hours to pack and find your passport."
"Booth, I don't need a passport for Texas," Tempe shifted her attention back to the papers in front of her.
"No, Bones…Paris, France," Booth corrected as Tempe's head shot up from her work.
"Why are we going to France? The FBI is American."
"The FBI is an elite police force Bones. International police forces sometimes request our unique expertise," Booth told her, a slightly cocky smile on his lips. Brennan rolled her eyes,
"Whatever, Booth. I'm just going to finish this case file and then I'll go pack."
"Sweetie! Booth is taking you to PARIS!?" Angela Montenegro flew into Tempe's office.
"It's for a case Ang," Tempe told her.
"But it's PARIS," Angela kept placing superfluous emphasis on the word 'Paris'. "Honey, it doesn't matter why he's taking you! He's taking you to PARIS!" Tempe rolled her eyes. "Why are you still here? You should be packing…bring something sexy!"
"Okay, okay, I'm going!" Tempe scribbled her name at the end of the file and dropped it into her out box. She gathered her purse and jacket and headed for the door, unable to suppress a smirk when Angela called down the hallway after her, "Have fun sweetie!"
"Booth! Stop hogging the armrest!" Brennan complained, attempting to shove his arm off the shared space.
"Bones, will you relax?" Booth shifted his arm to give her some room. Tempe wiggled her arm onto the small space and turned her head to look out the window as the plane picked up speed, barreling down the runway. She held her breath as the wheels lifted from the pavement, a nervous habit she couldn't seem to shake. She exhaled as they soared gracefully into the air, banking left to head out over the Atlantic. Once the seatbelt sign was turned off Tempe reached beneath the seat in front of her and drew out her laptop. As it powered up she glanced over at Booth who was engrossed in a ridiculous comedy playing on the seatback in front of him. She lowered the tray attached to the seat in front of her and dropped her laptop onto it.
"Bones, are you actually going to do work while we're flying?" Booth asked, pulling off his headphones.
"I'm just doing some writing, I haven't had much time to devote to it recently," she told him, opening up the current chapter she was working on.
"And what is the insurmountable Kathy Reichs up to this time?"
"Three skeletons in buried in the basement of the Château Frontenac in Québec City," she told him as her fingers started to rapidly type. Booth went back to his comedy as his partners eyes became glued to the computer screen in front of her.
About two hours into the flight the battery in Brennan's laptop gave out and she was left staring at a blank screen. She put the laptop away and removed a novel from her carry-on, noting that Booth was now reading her most recently released book. After a few hours of reading Tempe's eyelids began to droop so she shoved her novel into the seat pocket and succumbed to the lure of sleep.
Booth woke when a flight attendant shook him lightly. She informed him that they'd begun their descent into Charles de Gaulle airport and that he and his partner needed to buckle their seatbelts. Booth looked over at Brennan, slumped to one side with hair across her face. She looked so peaceful he hated to wake her but considering the general region of her seatbelt, he wasn't about to buckle it himself.
"Bones," Booth shook her gently, "Hey, sleeping beauty. Wake up." Tempe groaned and slowly opened her eyes, apparently having missed the fact that Booth had called her 'sleeping beauty'.
"What?" she mumbled, still half asleep.
"We're landing, buckle your seatbelt." Tempe looked out the window, seeing the lights of Paris growing brighter with each passing moment. She buckled her belt and kicked her laptop bag completely under the seat in front of her. She hadn't meant to sleep for so long, she'd wanted to ask Booth more about the case they were working. Sensing that his partner was about to ask about the case, Booth cut her off.
"I'll tell you about the case while we wait for our luggage," Booth told her. Brennan nodded and leaned back in her seat as the landing gear clunked into place below the plane. Tempe's hands white knuckled the armrest the entire descent. "What'd the armrest ever do to you?" Booth joked trying to ease the tension. Her fingers did not ease off though she gave him a half-hearted smile. "Bones, we're almost on the ground. I think you can relax."
"Statistically you are most likely to crash while taking off or landing in an aircraft," Tempe informed him. The plane bumped as they touched down, the brakes squealing and the thrusters shifting into full reverse. Once they had slowed to a taxi and were heading towards the terminal, Tempe relaxed.
"See, Bones? No problem."
Booth could tell his partner was impatient to learn the details of the case. She was fidgeting with the strap of her laptop bag as they waited to deplane. Knowing she would never wait until they made it to the baggage collection, Booth started talking.
"The body was found two days ago. It's severely decomposed and almost completely skeletonized. All of the experts they've brought in so far have been unable to determine anything about the fate of the individual and the remains are still in place where they were found."
"And where is that?" Tempe asked.
"The catacombs…" Booth told her. A few seconds later he noticed that his partner was no longer walking beside him. He stopped and turned around to see Tempe glaring at him with her hands on her hips.
"Booth…you made me fly all the way to France because someone found a body in the catacombs? Do you know what happened in eighteenth century Paris?" Not giving him a chance to answer, Tempe ploughed on, "The bones of thousands of people were moved from the cemeteries of Paris and dumped into the catacombs to help combat disease. Thousands of bodies Booth! As anthropologically intriguing as the catacombs are, how do we know this isn't just one of those thousands of displaced bodies?"
"The deceased was discovered clutching a video camera. Since I'm pretty sure they didn't have those in the eighteenth century, I'd say this one is a little more recent."
"Oh…" Tempe caught up with Booth and they continued to the customs and the luggage carousel.