Disclaimer: I don't own Bones.

This is set between seasons 10 and 11. What if, what brought Booth and Brennan back to the FBI and the Jeffersonian was not Jared but someone else? A case from their past comes back to haunt them. A case that hits too close to home for comfort.

The quiet of the night was broken by the cry of a hungry five-month old. Little Hank Booth had apparently inherited his father's appetite, and as his cries were carried over the baby monitor to his parent's room. Woken from his sleep, Booth wondered why they even bothered to turn on the monitor. Hank cried so loudly that his wails echoed down the hall from the nursery. If anything he was thankful his little boy had a healthy set of lungs. Groaning Booth rolled onto his side, intending to get out of bed. Brennan's hand on his arm stopped him.

"He's hungry. There's no need for the both of us to get up."

Booth sighed. "It could be something else."

"It's two AM." Brennan yawned. "He gets hungry every morning at this exact time." Brennan was already out of bed, pulling on her robe. "I better feed him before he wakes Christine."

"Thank Bones." Booth mumbled as he drifted off back to sleep.

Four hours later, Booth was up. Gingerly he crept out of bed and entered the nursery. As expected, baby Hank was awake in his crib. Hoping that Brennan could sleep for a little longer, Booth grinned at his son, "Morning Tiger."

He scooped the baby into his arms, rocking him. "I know Tigers are always hungry but let's try to let Mommy sleep in a little today okay?"

Booth didn't have a class to teach at Quantico that day and was hoping to work on the old Mustang he had in the garage. When he had purchased it, it was a dirty looking piece of junk but he had spent his free time working on it. Good ol' American muscle, he intended to restore it to its former glory.

Hank Booth arrived, healthy and screaming at the top of his lungs three weeks after his parents had decided to retire from their jobs. Their first three months after his birth were spent busy with a newborn in the house but Booth soon decided that he would be bored out of his mind, hence the decision to go back to Quantico to teach a few firearms classes each week.

Brennan had her books to write and that kept her sufficiently busy. Now, in his father's arms, little Hank smiled. Booth thought his heart might burst with joy. He loved being a Dad and being a father third time round was no less special than when he had Parker. With Hank still in his arms, Booth made his way to the kitchen, intending to put some coffee on. He knew Hank would be hungry soon and he also wanted to prepare breakfast for the rest of his family.


Sitting in the interrogation room of the maximum security prison, Special Agent James Aubrey felt a little claustrophobic. He moved a hand to tug at his tie.

"Easy there Cherie," beside him Caroline Julian noticed his discomfort.

"I'm not uncomfortable because of who we're meeting today, I just prefer our interrogation room back home at the FBI."

"We're about to meet a vicious killer so I think it's better that we meet her here."

"You sure she's not just trying to request a transfer or some other favor?"

"She's on death row. Maybe she wants to make amends or something."

"Isn't her case still up for appeal?"

"Which makes it hinky that she waits till now to say she has important information on a murder. She's been rottin' in here for the past ten years."

"Make the appeal work in her favor?"

"Let's just hear what she has to say Cher."

"She's not the first crackpot that suddenly has important information to share to save their own skin, what makes you think what she has for us is credible?"

"You just hear for yourself what she has to say before you decide." Caroline nodded her head gravely.

Just then the lock on the thick metal door turned and it slowly creaked open. The prisoner in an orange jumpsuit with handcuffs round her wrists that were linked by a thick belly chain to the shackles round her ankles slowly shuffled in. The prison guard waited for her to take her seat before attaching her handcuffs to the metal bar welded to the table.

There was a moment of silence as the woman eyed Caroline and Aubrey. When the door slammed shut again, leaving the three occupants of the small room alone, Caroline spoke.

"So tell me again why you decided to suddenly grow a conscience?"

The woman laughed, revealing a row of yellow teeth. "The death penalty isn't something I look forward to. I'm hoping perhaps after you hear what I have to say, you can convince a judge that maybe I deserve life instead?"

"I don't think so." Aubrey scoffed.

"Special Agent James Aubrey."

Aubrey was surprised that she knew his name. "Ms Julian said she'd be here with you."

"I know about you too. Abigail Hewitt. Convicted for the murder of your ex-husband, his girlfriend and two of their friends who happened to have the misfortune of being at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"After you hear what I have to say, you'll thank me for what I'm telling you." Hewitt sneered.

"So what do you have that's so valuable you think it's gonna let you plead down from the death penalty?"

"Ms Julian didn't tell you?"

"I thought I'd let you tell Agent Aubrey." Caroline folded her arms across her chest, leaning back in her chair.

"The Gravedigger. Heather Taffet. She's not done."

Aubrey shook his head. "I'm not buying it. She's dead."

"That she is, but she's not done."

"Wait are you saying there're more of her victims out there that we never found?"

Hewitt laughed. "What I'm saying is… she had an accomplice, a protégé."

"C'mon, you can't expect me to believe that. How did you find this out anyway? Wasn't Heather Taffet the reason why you're in here? She's the prosecutor who put you away."

"You are correct. I hated her at first. But then she got caught. And she came here."

"There was no way. She was kept in solitary confinement. No way your paths would've crossed."

"We were scheduled to appear in court on the same day. You'd be surprised how a couple of hours traveling in an armoured vehicle lets you in on someone's deepest darkest secrets."

"Oh and you expect me to believe that in that few hours, you guys became best friends and she just told you all of her deep, dark secrets? Why would she do that?"

"That's what's been bugging me Cher." Caroline nodded at Aubrey.

"She found out we were in fact of kindred spirit. If you didn't believe me, you wouldn't have come all this way would you?" Hewitt sneered.

Aubrey paused. He knew that with a tip like this he would have to investigate.

"Let's say I do believe you." Aubrey said, sitting up, leaning towards the convicted killer. "What can you tell me about this accomplice?"

"I can tell you it's a man. I can tell you he's still out there, doing what Taffet did."

"We would've figured it out."

"Would you?"

"Look if this is all you're gonna give us, that's not good enough."

"I'll give you the location of one of his victims. Then you can decide for yourself if you believe me or not."


On the long drive back to DC, Aubrey and Caroline were uncharacteristically quiet, both lost in their own thoughts until Aubrey spoke.

"Heather Taffet, aka the Gravedigger. Kidnapped and buried her victims alive for ransom. Her victims included Booth, Dr Brennan and Dr Hodgins. I read all their files. She was eventually arrested but was taken out by Jacob Broadsky. Bullet to the head."

"So you know your Gravedigger."

"The case was personal. It affected the man who is now my mentor and friend, not to mention his family."

Caroline nodded. The case was indeed personal.

"So we're really gonna do this?" Aubrey asked.

"We have to."

"Are we telling Booth?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. First we check that lead, then we decide if we wanna tell Seeley Booth."


The junkyard was filled with cars waiting to be turned to scrap. Under the watchful eye of Jack Hodgins, the crushed cars were moved one by one by an FBI tech who was sitting in the cab of a crane. One by one, the crane lifted and moved crushed car by car, until it revealed the one they were there for.

"Let's pop the trunk." Hodgins lifted the crowbar in his gloved hand. "If this turns out to be credible, I wanna be the one who helped catch this guy."

"You sure you should be here Dr Hodgins? I know how personal this is for you." Aubrey asked.

"That's exactly why I should be here Aubrey."

Hodgins pried the trunk open and everyone held their collective breaths, each hoping that Abigail Hewitt was wrong. There was a moment of silence, each processing what the open trunk revealed. Arastoo was the first to react. He stepped forward, his gloved fingers examining the decomposed remains.

"Male, in his late teens. Some of the bones are crushed, possibly under all the weight of the cars. It's going to take some time reconstructing the skull."

"Just like Hewitt said." Cam breathed. "Decomp looks about right for someone who has been dead for four years. Dr Hodgins?"

"Damn it." Hodgins muttered under his breath. He took in a shaky breath. "You're right about the estimate for time of death, I'll have a more precise time once we get everything back to the lab."

"Hewitt wasn't bluffing." Caroline spoke up.

"What else did she say?" Hodgins asked.

"Nothing. We weren't sure if we should believe her." Caroline replied.

"I'm no profiler but this is the wrong MO. The Gravedigger buried people alive. This person was stuffed into the trunk of a car under more cars." Hodgins pointed out.

"We'll determine cause of death. It's possible this was a body dump. Someone else's handiwork. Nothing to do with Taffet at all." Cam suggested. "For now we can't even determine if this was murder."

"Cam, c'mon, the body is in the trunk of a car." Hodgins shook his head. "He didn't just crawl in there and die."

"Dr Brennan wouldn't want us jumping to conclusions, that is, if she was here." Aubrey said.

"So what now?" Arastoo asked, choosing to ignore the fact that Aubrey had mentioned his mentor.

"Sorry, nothing personal. I was just over for dinner with her and Booth on Sunday." The Agent quickly added. "She was talking about some murder on the news… never mind."

Cam waved it off. She addressed Arastoo. "We do what we always do. We find the truth."

"And… I need to talk to Abigail Hewitt again." Aubrey said, hands on his hips.

I've always wanted to write on this and Jenny1701 brought it up again. It was always a possibility in my opinion. Always glad to hear everyone's thoughts on this first chapter!