Angela sighed as she watched dismally her best friend wondering aimlessly around the platform. They weren't working on any case currently, and Booth was having a meeting with one of his superiors. It was blatantly obvious to Angela that her friend was lost without him. Feeling sorry for her friend, Angela walked out of the doorway that she had been standing in and up towards the platform.
"Bren sweetie," she called as she approached, "When's he coming in again then?"
Brennan turned towards Angela and replied, "Who? I'm not sure I know who it is you're referring to."
"Oh come on, you know full well who I'm talking about" Angela was in no mood to be nice and pussy-foot around.
Brennan looked at the clock on the wall and sighed. Sometimes Angela could be just a bit too focused on her life and usually at the worst of times. "He won't be back for a few hours" she finally replied.
"See, that wasn't so hard" Angela cooed.
Brennan opened her mouth to respond when suddenly someone came bursting through the Jeffersonian with a loud ruckus. Well, to be exact, two someone's; Hodgins and Zach had returned. Hodgins had a huge grin on his face and Zach was carrying a rather large plastic box. Brennan smiled, grateful for the chance to slip away to her office, but Angela laughed "Oo, Cam's not going to like this…"
Angela was correct; Cam, indeed, was not going to like this. A fact that they did not have long to wait to find out.
Cam walked into the room looking down at some notes in her hands, but as she looked up to address Brennan, she saw the suspicious pair that had frozen only a few metres from the door they had so recently entered from when she had walked into the room.
"Dr Hodgins, Dr Addy," she said smiling icily "may I ask what exactly it is you have in that box?"
Zach and Hodgins looked at each other with panicked looks before Hodgins tried explaining to Cam, "Um, well, it was, you see, there was this rock and then some dirt and a plant...it's for the sake of science?" Zach nodded his head furiously in agreement; the sight was so comical that Cam lost her grip on the 'controlling ice-queen' facade and burst into hysterics with Angela close behind.
Rather confused about the sudden urge that Cam and Angela seemed to have to burst into laughter, Brennan frowned, alternating her gaze from the blushing pair (a rather strange occurrence in itself) to the laughing pair. "Excuse me," she ventured cautiously, "I don't quite follow where you're going with this?"
Cam looked at Brennan, after calming herself down, and replied, "Don't worry Dr Brennan, it's nothing, but those two have some explaining to do in my office" before turning back to the pair near the entrance who were trying to make a discrete getaway. Zach exchanged a terrified glance with Hodgins who smiled and with only a hint of discomfort replied, "Don't worry buddy, she won't eat you, the worst she can do is fire us."
"That isn't at all reassuring, Hodgins" Zach replied, feeling even more nervous now.
"Come on you two," Cam called from half across the floor; Angela and Brennan watched as the two errant physicists exchanged one last 'we're doomed' glance before departing the platform.
A few moments passed before Angela decided to speak, "Soooo…" but she was interrupted by a second incursion. The ID thingy bleeped loudly as a particularly exuberant, particular FBI agent all but leapt up the steps to join them.
"Hey Bones, Angela. How's it going?" Booth asked the two girls as he reached them on the platform. Brennan, while somewhat ridiculously happy at her partner's return, rather wished he would not use such ridiculous syntax – nothing was going anywhere – however she still replied, merely to keep him happy, "Fine thanks"
Angela laughed before saying, "Hodgins and Zach are having their ears chewed by Cam."
Booth laughed also, "I'm sure they did something deserving to land themselves on the menu?" he asked.
"Hodgins had Zach carry a box of dirt into the lab for who knows what experiments those two had planned."
"Ah, somehow I think I'll sleep a lot sounder knowing she did that"
"What do you mean?" Brennan was confused "Booth…you don't sleep here, how will knowing Zach and Hodgins can't destroy the lab today help you sleep?"
"It's a saying Bones. It wasn't literal…" Booth replied.
"Oh" she responded softly, oops.
"Well, I'm going to leave you do it, love birds. Catch you later" and with a small wave of her hand, Angela retreated to her office.
Brennan and Booth stared after her, neither could really think of anything 'safe' to say.
"Soooo…" Booth started awkwardly unsure of what to say, but luckily for him Brennan interrupted before he could embarrass himself.
"Yes, um, well" she started "What are, I mean, I thought you wouldn't be by until after 2?"
"Ah, well, my meeting was cut short. Something to do with a case one of the guys was working on."
"Oh, so we don't have a case?"
"No, actually, but I was asked to do a favour down at the local zoo. Got to talk to one of the caretakers for the animals about some supposed accident. Thought you'd like to come."
"Sure, it's been quite some time since I've had cause to visit the zoo, well properly anyway, I'll just tell Cam," Brennan was slightly amused at why Booth would be in a position to do a favour for the zoo, but she was up for an excursion anyway "Wait, what kind of accident?"
"Well, I'm not exactly sure. We'll have to speak to Frank when we get there to see."
"Ok, I'll tell Cam, then just let me change my coat and we can go." And with that the pair descended the stairs, leaving the platform.
After getting strange looks from Cam, Hodgins and Zach for their request to go the zoo and Brennan changing her lab coat, Booth and Brennan set out in Booth's car towards the zoo.
"Are you sure you're going the right way?" Brennan asked for the third time.
"Yes Bones, I'm sure I'm going the right way. If we were going the wrong way, we would have passed the library by now…" and as if by some unspoken cue, they drove passed the library.
"See Booth, I told you we were going the wrong way" Brennan was smug, "You turned right by the memorial, you should have turned left. See, a perfectly good reason to let me drive. I, at least, know where I'm going."
Booth just grumbled his breath about distractions and turned the car around, back towards the memorial. "My accident, my favour, my car, my driving"
Brenna was going to comment on the grammatical structuring of his sentence, but decided against it. "You know Booth…" she went with instead, "You're being childish."
"So sue me." he replied as they pulled into the zoo parking lot. The two stepped out of the car and made their way towards the entrance.
Almost as soon as they walked into the entrance, Booth was approached, rather enthusiastically, by a man; his nametag labelling him 'Frank'.
"Agent Booth" exclaimed the man, aka Frank, or so Brennan presumed, "I didn't think you'd be here for ages! Animals aren't at the top of the FBI's to-do list. I'm really glad you could come!"
"It's all good, man, we're here now." Booth said as he shook the man's hand "What do you need us to do?"
"Well, you see, its Bluey…" Frank started "She's, well she's been having some issues lately."
"Bluey?" inquired Brennan.
"Oh, Bluey is a special pet of mine, she's…" Frank's explanation trailed off as he did a double take of Brennan; it seemed as though he hadn't even noticed her presence until she'd spoken.
"She is…?" Brennan persisted; seemingly oblivious to Frank's staring determined to get an answer. This whole zoo thing was getting curiouser and curiouser, but more annoying by the minute.
"Huh? Oh, right, um…Bluey! She's been rather temperamental lately, possibly stomach problems, but I can't figure out what it is that's causing the problem.
"Right" said Booth before Brennan could get another question out, "That's really sad about poor Bluey, but uh I'm afraid Frank I cant really see why it is you called us out here."
"Oh, um, right, well it's just that one of the workers found a few bones in Bluey's enclosure the other day. I think they're finger bones, but I wanted to make sure because Bluey's never harmed anyone before."
"Well, alright Frank, you'd better show us what you've got" Booth said and with Brennan nodding in affirmation, the three set off to meet the mysterious Bluey, or so they hoped.
