Prologue
It was a rainy Monday morning in Washington D.C.. No one wanted to go to work, but the scientists of the Jeffersonian Institution were already on their way to work early this morning. The famous investigator-crew, who worked alongside the FBI solving murder cases, wasn't an exception either. Dr. Temperance Brennan was the first to enter the huge dark hall of the Jeffersonian Institution through the glass door with a cup of coffee in her right hand, and a pile of papers in the other. There was no one in yet, except her and the guards, who were guarding the evidence and the remains stored in the Institution day and night. She silently yawned and turned on the central switch, which not only gave electricity to the lamps, but to the special machines as well. Since the economical crisis in the USA, the head of the Jeffersonian Institution forced the workers to turn off the computers, and scientific machines during the night, and leave the lab before 10.30pm. If someone did not obey these rules, they were suspended for at least a week. None of the scientists who got suspended took it well, so everyone started to go home earlier then usual, and the lab was nearly empty by 10.15pm. The first person allowed to enter the building could come at 7.30am. Brennan tried to argue that because of this they will lose fresh evidence when a body is found at night, but the head of the Institution instructed them to take whatever they find after 10.30pm to one of the FBI labs and have the evidence and the body transported back into the Jeffersonian after 7.30am on the next day. Brennan was not the only one who found this ridiculous but they were powerless against the rich politician who owned the Jeffersonian.
This morning, Brennan came in at 7.31am. As soon as every lamp was on, she started to go towards her office. She opened her door with a little grey key, skillfully balancing the coffee and the papers. Then she left her door wide open as she did every single day. She turned on her computer while she put down her coffee on the table next to the pile of papers. She hung up her coat, then picked up the files and the coffee she just put down on the table and sat down on her couch. She drank her coffee slowly, sip by sip, while she read the files. She was reading the last paper, when she heard her cell starting to ring inside her coat's pocket. She stood up, dropped the empty coffe cup into the bin next to her desk, and then went to her coat and pulled out her phone from its pocket. She smiled as she saw the familiar name on the screen. She answered it.
"Dr. Brennan."
"Bones, I've got good news. Tourists found a skeleton at the Rock Creek Park. Are you ready for a new case?"
"Booth, I'm already at the lab, could you come here to pick me up?"
"Already outside in the parking lot. Just grab your gear and we can go." they hung up, then Brennan took her coat, logged out from her computer, noticing that she had a bunch of unread e-mails. She picked up her kit from behind her desk and went straight to the locker room. After quickly changing her clothes, she took her kit and went out to the parking lot. She noticed the familiar black SUV and started going towards it. She put her bag into the trunk, then sat beside her very handsome FBI agent partner, Seeley Booth.
"Morning, Bones." Booth smiled then started the engine.
"Don't call me that and how did you know, that I will be in the lab this early today?" asked Brennan.
"C'mon Bones, you're always in early." the agent smiled while they went through the NW 14th Street. It was early in the morning, but in Washington D.C. the traffic was hell. There were parts of the town where you couldn't move an inch within 15 minutes, but there were parts where you could just fly through the city. The egress part of the NW 14th street at the moment was the second one. As the road ended, Booth took a left turn, and after a good 15-20 minutes of travel they arrived at their crime scene.
"I called Cam, while you were coming out to the parking lot. She must be around here somewhere."
"Why do we need Cam, if they found a skeleton?" asked Brennan "That is my area of expertise."
They got out at the same time. Brennan took out her kit from the trunk, pulled out a glove from her pocket, then followed her partner into the woods, where a railed off space could be seen. There was a completely clear skeleton on the ground. Brennan stepped closer to the remains.
"You don't need me here." Brennan heard her boss', Dr. Camille Saroyan's voice from behind her.
"Yes, we don't." Brennan agreed "It doesn't have any flesh." she turned her attention to the skull, then to the pelvis.
"So, what do we have Bones?" asked Booth standing beside her.
"Male, approximately 20-25 years old, I can see several fractures on the ribs." she leaned closer "And some kind of weapon damaged the C5 vertebra. Angela will be able to tell what it was. "
"Great. Then the skeleton along with soil samples goes back to the Jeffersonian, and the FBI investigators can start searching the area, right?" Booth looked at Brennan, smiling.
Brennan nodded. She took a sample from the soil around the skeleton for Hodgins, placed it into her bag, then took off her gloves and stood up. Booth nodded smiling as she started to go back towards his car. As Brennan placed her kit back into the trunk and sat back in her seat, Booth talked to one of the investigators then went back to his car. As soon as Booth started the engine Brennan looked at him.
"Booth, I've always wanted to ask…" she started, Booth looked at her immediately "What if we find a marine? That does not count into FBI jurisdiction, right? "
"Nope, Bones, it doesn't. Then comes the good old agency-cooperation. But don't talk of the devil, let's get back to the Jeffersonian, so Hodgins can tell us more about that soil sample you took, until the bones arrive."
Brennan just nodded. She was unusually silent, Booth noted it to himself, and decided that it wouldn't be a great idea to ask what's bothering her, at least not right then.
They got back to the Jeffersonian slower than they planned. At this time of the day there was a lot of cars on the roads going into D.C. When Booth stopped the car at the parking lot, Brennan hopped out immediately, took her bag from the trunk and added,
"I'll call you when we have anything to start with." then she said goodbye and went inside. Booth nodded, mainly to himself because Brennan wasn't paying attention, she was already halfway towards the lab. So Booth took off and went straight to the Hoover building to sit in his office filling out the few usual forms and waiting for Brennan's call.
Brennan first went to the locker room, changed her clothes back and took on her blue lab coat. She dropped by Hodgins' office and gave him the soil samples. She then went back to the forensic platform and took a step closer to the skeleton. Dr. Saroyan and Wendell Bray, one of Brennan's best interns, were already standing around the table, waiting for Brennan.
"Have you found anything special so far?" asked Brennan putting on her gloves.
"No, we just started it." said Camille as Brennan stood next to Bray.
"What do you see, Wendell?"
"Multiple fractures on the ribs, traces of trauma on the upper arm, and a damage on the C5 vertebra caused by some kind of weapon."
Wendell carefully picked up the mentioned vertebra and took a closer look.
"Looks like a bullet could have caused it, I'll take some pictures and Angela can tell us what kind of weapon we are talking about."
"Great, Mr. Bray." Brennan nodded. That was when Angela Montenegro arrived in her blue lab coat next to Brennan.
"Happy Monday morning everyone. What do we have?" she asked smiling.
"A brand new skeleton." smiled Saroyan and pointed to the table.
"And a not so happy morning for this fellow." Wendell noted.
"In case you don't need the skull, I would take it so I could start the identification."
"How long does the scanning take, Angie?" Brennan looked at her.
"The skull is intact so I'd say 3 to 5 minutes." Angela smiled at her best friend.
"You can have it, we already have samples which Hodgins can work on." Camille pointed to the small bags next to her on a small table.
"Got it." Angela said, then put her gloves on and took the skull from the cold table into her office. She placed the skull carefully onto a small table, turned on her scanner and scanned every inch of the skull. While the programme was copying every picture onto the main computer, Angela brought the skull back to the forensic platform to Brennan. She went back to her office, sat down at her laptop and started her facial reconstruction software. When Angela was done with the face, she copied the picture into one of her search engines and started a search in the missing persons database. The search was done within a few minutes. No matches.
"Weird. Might find something in the next one." Angela said thinking aloud. The next database was the FBI wanted list, no hit again. The next one was the armed persons' database. She was about to start writing one of her latest case reports to kill time till the search ran, when the laptop registered a match. She opened the case file.
"Corporal James Wayhne. A marine." she read the data "Booth is definitely not going to like this." she shook her head and went straight to Brennan. She was still on the forensic platform investigating the bones.
"I have identified our victim." she said.
"That was really fast, Angela." said Dr. Saroyan looking up from one of the ribs.
"I've got a match in the armed persons' database. Our victim is Corporal James Wayhne. "
"A marine? So the FBI has no jurisdiction to continue the investigation." Brennan looked up placing down one of the fractured ribs from her hand.
"Yep." Angela nodded.
"I'll call Booth." Brennan said, then took off her gloves and dropped it into the bin next to the table. She quickly went into her office, picked up her phone and dialed Booth's FBI office's number. After a few minutes of silence she heard his familiar voice.
"Special Agent Seeley Booth."
"I have an update for our newest case." she said quickly.
"That's good news Bones! What did you find?"
"Well the bad news is that Angela identified our victim as…"
"But that is good news Bones." Booth said interrupting her.
"The fact about who the victim is, isn't so good. Corporal Jame Wayhne, a marine. "
"Are you kidding me?"
"You know that I take my job very seriously. I hope you also know that since the victim is a marine, the FBI has no jurisdiction to carry out an investigation, so we will have to do your 'teamwork between the offices' theory…"
"Agency cooperation, Bones, and it's not a theory. I am on my way to the Jeffersonian, I'll call the NCIS from the car, tell them we have a DB that belongs to them." with that they hung up. Brennan couldn't do anything but wait for Booth's arrival along with the NCIS. They couldn't start any examination, because that could tear the case apart in court.
15 minutes later Booth appeared in the hallway, alone. He used his card in the reader and stood next to Brennan on the forensic platform. He took a moment to look at the remains.
"Booth. Where's the NCIS?" Brennan looked at him. Booth turned to face her.
"On their way, I got here earlier. They are sending two agents, they will look over the evidence and decide if they leave the whole investigation to us, or if they want to cooperate…"
"Or we might not get the case at all. Remember, we have no jurisdiction…"
"A little optimism, Bones, that's all I'm asking. Maybe the Jeffersonian Institution can cooperate with them, and I am your partner, so they can't say no to me. I know the FBI agent who works with the NCIS on some cases. I don't think this cooperation is a question at all. "
Before Brennan could answer they heard Camille Saroyan's happy voice from the background along with two unfamiliar voices. Brennan and Booth turned to the entrance at the same time. Cam entered the institution with two strangers. One, a young woman, possibly in her early thirties, and the other, a middle aged man. They were both smiling. Booth immediately recognized the shining gold badges on their belt. It was the NCIS badge.
"Our agents." Booth whispered to Brennan, then left Bren at the table and went towards the agents, smiling, slightly pulling his suit to his side so his FBI badge was in clear view.
"Welcome to the Jeffersonian Institution!" Booth smiled and shook hands with the man "Special Agent Seeley Booth, FBI. "
"Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, NCIS." the man said, then the FBI agent shook hands with the woman.
"Special Agent Elleanor Bishop, NCIS." the woman smiled. Booth returned the smile.
"Could we see the body you were talking about?" asked DiNozzo smiling. Brennan left the platform and stood in front of the two agents with a cold look on her face.
"Dr. Temperance Brennan." she said, shaking hands with the agents who also introduced themselves.
"So, where's the corporal?" Bishop asked Booth slightly smiling. Brennan was irritated by the woman's happiness, she felt like the agent was not taking her job seriously enough.
"We only have the skeleton. There is no flesh on the remains, but since we identified him as a marine, we couldn't touch the body until you arrived." said Brennan in a calm tone, then led the agents up to the table onto the forensic platform.
"Nicely destroyed by Mother nature." Tony added.
"It is far from being certain whether nature or somebody else did this." Brennan answered "It could have easily happened that somebody burned off the flesh or ate it."
"Ate the flesh from a body?" Bishop asked disgusted.
"We have worked on cannibalistic cases before, it is possible." Brennan nodded.
"But hopefully this has nothing to do with cannibals, or flesh-burning-eating people, and only Mother nature decomposed the corporal." added Booth.
"You know what? I've read that you are really big experts on cases relating to bones." Bishop said turning to Brennan, then to Booth smiling "So I have no problem sharing the investigation. I want to catch that bastard who did this to Wayhne. "
"I don't consider this whole thing as a very clever idea because of our boss… but I don't want to be the one who stops the investigation." Tony nodded.
"That's great, so the Jeffersonian squints can work on the evidence without any problems." Booth smiled at Brennan and the two agents.
"That's correct. We just want copies of everyting." Tony added "My boss is a little bit, how should I say…uhm… sensitive to these things. Not to mention, that the FBI is not his favourite agency. No offense Agent Booth."
"None taken. Besides, come on, the cooperation between agencies will never be perfect, we all know that."
Brennan wanted to say something else, but Bishop's cellphone's ringing interrupted her.
"Sorry, it's our boss. I think it's time for us to go. "
They said goodbye and the two NCIS agents left the Jeffersonian.
"Booth. Are we going to have any trouble with NCIS?" Brennan turned back to the table.
"Possibly." Booth nodded and looked at Brennan "I'll make some copies of the papers we have right now. I'll come back after that, maybe you or the squintsquad will have something by then."
Not long after Booth left Dr. Jack Hodgins and Dr. Lance Sweets came up to the forensic platform.
"Dr. Sweets, there's no one here who needs a psychotest." Brennan added.
"Dr. Brennan, it's always nice to see you." Sweets smiled at her, he was a psychologist with the FBI
"Where's Agent Booth?"
"Went back to the FBI to copy some papers. You just missed him."
"Copy some papers? Booth wouldn't do that." Hodgins noted. Dr. Jack Hodgins was an entomologist in the Jeffersonian Institution. One of his area of expertise was entomology, which meant that he dealt with different bugs and insects, however he analyzed the several mineral remains as well as the soil samples that were brought ina s evidence in the cases.
"He has to do it. The NCIS needs the papers. "
"NCIS? What is NCIS?" Sweets looked up from the skeleton.
"Sweets, I tought that when you work for the FBI you know all the abbreviations." Hodgins laughed.
"NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigation Service." Brennan added while she was picking up the C5 vertebra.
"Do you guys know where Wendell is? I need the pictures from the bone fractures." Angela arrived with a bunch of papers in her hands.
"Took a coffee break. We met him at the entrance." Sweets said turning to Angela.
"Oh great, I thought I could finally start the wound reconstruction." Angela sighed.
"Dr. Sweets, since you have nothing to do here, please, could you call Mr. Bray here?" Brennan looked up from examining the bones.
"Sure Dr. Brennan, I never have anything to do." Sweets nodded with a sour smile on his face and left to get Wendell. In a few minutes, Wendell was standing next to Hodgins, Brennan and Angela on the forensic platform.
"I'm sorry, I didn't drink my coffee this morning and I had to drink one now."
"Next time don't do it in the middle of a case. Drink one in the morning." Brennan said then looked back at the remains "Have you found anything special on the remains, Mr. Bray?"
"I didn't really have time to examine it yet. We didn't have the clearance, that's why I took my coffee break because we had to wait for…"
"The NCIS agreed to a joint investigation."
"Then let's start it." Wendell said, pulled on a pair of gloves then leaned closer to the bones "I see numerous fractures on the ribs. There are some longitudinal cutes here." Wendell pointed at the ribs "Looks like they were caused by a knife." he took some pictures.
"However those are different fractures on the ribs from the right side." Brennan pointed out. Wendell took a closer look.
"Yes, these were caused by blunt force trauma. Maybe somebody hit him on the ribs, that can hurt like hell, and can paralyze the victim for a short time." Newer pictures were taken.
Meanwhile Angela waited patiently for the pictures, so she could run them through her Angela-tron to figure out the weapon that caused the damage on the bones.
"There's also something on the C5 vertebra." said Wendell, carefully picking up the bone to take a closer look "Seems like the damage was made by some sort of bullet."
"Angie, could you scan the surface of the bones? Maybe you could tell us if the corporal was really shot at or not."
"Of course, that shouldn't be a problem. Just finish the preliminary examinations and then I'll take the pictures and the vertebra." Angela nodded slightly smiling.
"And I will take samples from the bones to figure out where our marine lived." said Hodgins as he stepped up onto the forensic platform pulling gloves onto his hands.
"I think we will be ready in a few minutes, right Dr. Brennan?" Wendell looked up from the table.
"I will go through the skeleton one more time and then he is all yours." Brennan nodded then started examining the bones again. She picked up one of the ribs which had two types of fractures on it. She placed it under the Macro Cam, which magnified the bone's surface and put up the picture to the monitors on the platform.
"You see something, Dr. Brennan, right?" Wendell asked, he worried about what he might have missed. Dr. Brennan really didn't take it well when her interns missed out on some details, especially during the premilinary examination.
"Do you see this cut here?" Brennan pointed out one of the longitudinal cuts "The upper part of the knife left a jagged cut on the bone, but the lower part is clean cut. "
"And what does that mean exactly?" Angela asked.
"Only one type of knife leaves marks like these." said Hodgins stepping closer to the skeleton "Marine knives."
"Exactly." Brennan nodded.
"That narrows down our suspects." added Wendell.
"Yeah, from the estimated 4,5-5 billion people who would commit murder to approximately 320 thousand. Booth will be so happy to hear about it." Hodgins added mockingly.
Meanwhile Booth was sitting in his office, waiting for the papers to come from the guy who was sent down to copy them. He couldn't help but think about the pretty NCIS agent, Ellie Bishop. Booth was fighting a cruel wars with himself every single day. He really, really liked his partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan, but he didn't want to risk their relationship with a date. He knew Brennan would say no. She would be too afraid to risk their partnership, because the FBI wouldn't let them work together anymore. Neither of them wanted that. However, Ellie Bishop was only his colleague for this case, this way the FBI rules didn't apply to them. But he didn't want to hurt Brennan either. Every single day he had to go through this, and he couldn't come to a conclusion yet. Sweets interrupted his thoughts.
"Agent Booth. Agent Lamorse said in the hall, that I should give these papers to you." said Sweets as he stepped into Booth's office, showing the pile of papers in his hand "I assume these are the copies of the papers from the Wayhne-case." Sweets added smiling, putting down the papers on the desk in front of Booth.
"Thanks Sweets. I've been waiting for Lamorse to copy those few pages for like an hour now. If I knew that it would take this long…"
"You would have copied them yourself?"
"No way Sweets, I would have held my gun to his head." Booth said laughing. Of course he was joking, but he always loved to see Sweets' shocked face.
"Actually, I have a free appointment this week, and I thought, you could come in with Dr. Brennan. Just the usual observation session we agreed to."
"I'll talk to Bones." Booth nodded, but he already knew the answer. Brennan never really liked these therapy sessions, not to mention that they were in the middle of a case "I have to meet with an NCIS agent, Sweets. I need to give her these files." Booth said, leaving Sweets standing alone in the office. As soon as Booth got to the elevator, he took out his phone and dialled the number of the NCIS office.
"NCIS. How can I help you?" he heard a female voice while he got out of the elevator and walked towards his car.
"I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth from the FBI. I would like to talk to Special Agent Eleanor Bishop about an important case."
"Just a moment, sir." the woman said as Booth got into his car. While he waited for the switch to Bishop's line, the phone was playing the American anthem to Booth's surprise. Then he heard a small click and the familiar voice of the agent.
"Special Agent Eleanor Bishop, NCIS. Who is it?"
"Seeley Booth. Remember me? FBI guy…"
"Of course I remember." Bishop said smiling "How can I help you, Agent Booth?"
"I have something you might need." Booth said smiling. With Brennan he couldn't play a game like this, she was far too rational for that.
"I'll go out on a limb and say: It's brown, made of paper and contains papers?" Bishop asked, not exactly amused.
"You are so smart." Booth laughed "Yes, the files from the Wayhne case. I got the copies, and the preliminary reports will also arrive soon. What do you say, we talk about this during lunch sometime?"
"Lunch? Sounds great." Bishop nodded to herself, since Booth couldn't see her obviously. They fixed the place really quickly. They were going to meet at the Royal Dinner which was Booth, Brennan and their squintsquad's favourite place. Booth dropped his phone into the seat next to him along with the files then started the engine and left the garage of the FBI's Hoover building.