A/N: I'm taking some creative liberties here with Brennan's past. It's always morphing on the show and I wish they would show more of it sometimes. This will probably not follow what has been written in the show exactly, but that's kind of the point.

"I want to use one of my freebies!"

"Absolutely not, Doctor Brennan."

"If you do not use one of your freebie declines, then I want Mister Bray to remove the flesh immediately."

"I'm using one of my freebie declines. Doctor Brennan, please take a step back from the body. Now."

Poor Wendell and Angela were stuck in the middle of the autopsy and in the middle of one of Brennan and Cam's debates over flesh removal.

Brennan did as she was told. She had lost this fight and she wasn't used to it. She moved back and away from the body. She stood in the back of the room in the corner, where she could watch and observe Cam's work while staying out of the way. Flesh was meaningless in this case and to her, Cam was being stubborn. She needed to get to the bone. The sooner she found any evidence, the better. Cam should've known this by now. It was basic investigating skills and she was wasting time.

While Wendell helped Cam, Angela joined her best friend in the corner.

"Sorry about this one, Sweetie. You know Cam can be just as stubborn as you," Angela whispered as she took her friend's side.

Brennan kept quiet and watched her intern work with the pesky flesh. Angela wanted to say something to cheer Brennan up but couldn't think of anything that wouldn't annoy her.

But when she saw a delicious looking man wandering around the base of the forensic platform in a suit and it wasn't Booth, she had to point him out.

"Bren, did the Bureau assign Booth to desk duty or something?"

"Not that I am aware of. Why?" Brennan didn't take her eyes off of her grad student, who should've been defleshing the body, not examining it.

"Mister Bray, are you thinking of changing your thesis?" Brennan asked, not at all caring about the man Angela was ogling. He was on his way to the autopsy room, seeming to have found exactly what he was looking for.

"Uh…no, Doctor Brennan, I just like to learn," he mumbled nervously.

She accepted his answer and continued to watch her boss and grad student study the flesh for clues while attempting to hide her frustration by flipping through the preliminary case file.

"Seriously, Sweetie, this guy is a hunk, who is he?"

"I don't know, Angela. Why don't you go ask?" Brennan suggested as she watched Cam begin to remove the liver.

Angela was beginning to wear on Brennan's nerves. She wanted to get at the bones, find the evidence and catch the bad guy. She had received several texts from an anxious Booth who was waiting for leads from his Squints. She watched as Cam took samples of everything for all sorts of tests, observing if only to make sure she didn't harm the bones. She knew Cam was more than competent enough to ensure the bones would be defleshed in a timely manner as soon as she was done with them. Brennan was more annoyed than anything. She felt useless at this point. The pre-exam x-rays were no use to her and she needed to work with the actual bone.

She heard someone click their tongue and sigh loudly. Brennan earned an elbow in the rib from Angela and she finally looked up.

"'Nobody puts Baby in a corner,'" the man said. A sly smile spread across Brennan's face and she shoved the case file into Angela's hands as she ran over to him. He held out his arms and she warmly accepted the bear hug. Cam, Wendell and Angela all watched the exchange curiously. They stopped the autopsy to watch their awkward anthropologist reunite with some hunk they had never seen before.

"Joshua, what you doing here?" Brennan asked as she pulled away from the hug.

"I'm here to see you! Come on, Baby. We're going out to lunch."

She pulled away from him. "I'm working."

"Go," Cam told her, "I'm doing the autopsy now and when I'm done, Wendell can take care of the flesh."

"That's it, Baby. Come on," Joshua took her by the hand and pulled her out of the lab.

"Oh…my God," Angela muttered. She turned to look at her colleagues, both of whom had the same look of awe that she did.

"Was he calling her 'Baby'?" Cam asked. Angela nodded and smiled.

"I never thought I'd live to see the day where a man called Temperance Brennan 'Baby'," Cam confessed.

"Dead man walking," Wendell confirmed.

"Josh, I really don't have time to go out to eat. I have work to do. You-ˮ

"-Should've called, I know. I'm sorry, Baby, but I missed you!"

"Whoa! Am I interrupting something?" Booth said as he strode into the lab.

Brennan and Josh were standing in the entryway to the lab, she dodging the mystery man's attempts to take her to lunch and he doing everything but throw her over his shoulder and carry her out the door.

"No," she answered before Josh could say anything. Brennan, recognizing a social cue, introduced the two men.

"Josh, this is my partner, Special Agent Seeley Booth. Booth, this is Josh Marshall. He's, for lack of a better term, my brother."

Booth stared down the man. This was not Bones' brother. He knew Russ. This wasn't Russ.

"Be kind, rewind," Booth said.

"I don't know what that means," she told him.

Josh laughed, obviously understanding the agent's confusion. "Baby and I were in the system together."

"Yes," Brennan said, "Josh is my foster brother."