I DON'T OWN BONES
Prologue
"Look at this résumé! Dr Oakley has two, almost three, degrees and she is only 22, and has had four papers published in the Journal of Forensic Anthropology! The squinterns are good but she is much better. And it would mean that I wouldn't have to hide my relationship with Arastoo any longer. It's a win-win situation!" Cam exclaimed happily.
"I don't know, she may not have been trained as well as the others and I may not like her." Dr Brennan said, quite matter-of-factly.
"Then we call her in for an interview, you can see if you like her and if she would work well here." Cam suggested. Brennan sat there thoughtfully and then nodded slowly.
"I'll call her." She said decidedly, picking up her phone and dialling a number.
"Hello?" answered a young woman with a British accent. "This is Dr Oakley, can I help you?"
"This is Dr Brennan, from the Jeffersonian, and I have been given your résumé and I believe that you would be a great addition to our team. You degree in forensics means that you would be much better than the FBI forensics team and would be very useful. Also you could assist me with examining skeletons, and I would be happy to offer you a chance to interview here to see if this could work out." Brennan told Dr Oakley.
"That would be great; can we do the interview next week? I'm currently helping out the FBI, and that will be the only time I'm available." She replied happily.
"Next week will suffice." Brennan said before hanging up.
The young woman sat at the desk in the bare basement of some old building. There was only the desk, an old chair and a state of the art laptop in the room with her. Outside the door were at least two agents from the FBI, there to protect her from Pelant. The basement smelt bad, but she ignored it, knowing that the programme she was working on was much more important.
"Only 15 more minutes, and then I can stop Pelant. Come on!" She muttered under her breath, whilst slamming her fists on the keyboard, which wasn't working properly.
"Hey!" yelled a masculine voice from outside the basement, which was suddenly cut off when the door was forcefully ripped open by a man with a horrifically disfigured face. It could only be one person. Pelant. And in his hand was some sort of firework, or maybe a firecracker? The man grinned sinisterly and threw it towards the lights and walked out of the room. The firework exploded and sent sparks everywhere. And then, for the young woman, the world went black…
At the lab, there was another awkward silence. Things had been tense between everyone since Booth turned down Brennan's proposal. Brennan had broken up with Booth although the two still worked closely together. As soon as Booth had arrived at the lab that day, Hodgins hid in his office to work on some plant. Cam supposedly had an autopsy to complete and Angela excused herself to visit her son Michael. The squinterns were nowhere to be found. So Booth and Brennan sat awkwardly in her office. Finally, Booth's cell phone rang. Brennan sighed in relief and turned away from him as he picked it up.
"Booth." He grunted into the phone. Brennan could hear shouting from whoever was calling him and sirens too. Her mind immediately turned to the thought that Christine or Parker was injured.
"Wait, what happened to Spencer? Is she okay?" Booth questioned loudly, sounding slightly upset. Brennan felt calmer, but was confused about who Spencer was. Maybe a fellow agent?
"What happened to the programme? I'll be there soon, okay?" He told whoever was on the other end of the phone and rushed out of the office.