Chapter 1

Dr. Temperance Brennan, head forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institute and best-selling author, was perplexed. There was single, long-stemmed rose lying on top of her table. It was seven o'clock in the morning and she had just arrived at her office. When she opened the lights and walked towards her desk, she just found it there, perched on top of her table, pristine, as if it were picked and placed there only recently. And this was the strange thing, not many people would have had access to her office, especially this early in the morning. And therefore, she logically concluded that this person either worked for the Jeffersonian, who had access to her office or it was the janitor.

She was sure it wasn't the janitor as soon as he exhibited confusion on how a rose could have gotten into her room, as he didn't see anyone aside from the usual early-bird lab technicians. She then proceeded to subtly question those technicians as well, but to no avail. They also had not seen or heard anything from the moment they arrived and swore that they did not have access to Dr. Brennan's office, much less be able to place a rose on top of her desk. So she was sitting in her smooth, leather office chair, twirling the rose in with her fingers, once again coming up with no explanation as to the appearance of the flower on her desk.

It was half past seven already and she was no closer to finding an answer as she was half an hour ago. Therefore she proceeded to just put the rose in her desk drawer, still undecided on whether to take it home with her or place a vase in her office and put it there or just throw it into the garbage bin. She was unsure because of the unknown nature of the sender. It might have been a stalker or a psycho, she didn't know. There was no card or note to indicate even an inkling of where it had come from. It might have been from somebody she knew, and that was why she hadn't chucked it into the garbage bin quite just yet.

It was about an hour later that Booth came into her office and laid down a manila folder in front of her. "We have a case, Bones. A body was found dumped in a creek just a few miles from here. Grab your coat and let's go." Seeley Booth was always somewhat of a puzzle to her. Her fondness and care for him had grown throughout the years of their partnership despite the fact that they had a difference of opinion on a great many things. They disagreed on marriage, children, chivalry, sex and a host of other different things, but in spite of all that, they remained good friends, good partners. They constantly bickered over things, from the mundane to the serious, and she found that she liked that. He was honest and was willing to express his own opinion while, not quite agreeing, but respecting hers.

In reality, she had never met a man quite like him, a good father, one the likes of she had never had. He was a good investigator, willing to go to great lengths to catch the criminals that they had faced. He was a good friend, taking her out to that small diner for lunch or dinner and just talking. He was there for her through the good and the bad, through her worst and her best. And she was thankful, maybe not to God like Booth would be, but she was thankful all the same, that he was part of her life.

"Alright," she replied and she went to grab her coat off the rack near the door and followed her partner down to the parking lot and into the parked black FBI standard-issue SUV. He started up the car and headed on out to the open street and into the main thoroughfare. He was driving through the highway when she had a sudden urge to tell him about the rose she found this morning. She didn't know what the rationale was or how it would help her find where the rose came from, but all the same she, for some inexplicable reason, wanted to tell him.

"This morning, when I entered my office, I found a rose in my office," she stated simply. He stared at her with a questioning look. "Do you know who sent it?" She shook her head, "No, I tried to find out who it was, but the janitor and the lab techs that were here early this morning said that they didn't put the rose on my desk nor did they see or hear anything this morning indicative as to who this mystery person is." She crossed her arms, forcing the growing irritation down. She hated not knowing things, she had always taken pride in her intelligence, and it enabled her to be where she was and to do what she was doing.

"Well, Bones, I'm pretty sure you'll find out eventually, you always do." He said with a little pride mixed in his voice and this warmed her body. It was always sounded better when Booth uttered those words, compared to anybody else. She didn't know why, but his reassurance always made her day, and today was no different. "I hope so," but she wasn't that sure. She didn't even know from which florist the flower was from, or if it even came from a florist.

She stayed silent for the rest of the trip, choosing to look out the window and at the passing scenery. The trees and buildings all sped past as she started to think about her partner again. In the nearly three year time that they have worked together, a lot of things had changed. Even she could admit to herself that she had softened, she wasn't nearly as cold and clinical as she was when she first started working with Booth and she kind of liked it. Although she was still sure she wasn't a "heart" person, as Booth would term it. She was better with people now, than she was back then.

However, she was exponentially better at one thing since she and Booth had worked together, and that was her partner himself. At first, she was just a squint and he was the special agent, no more, no less. Soon it evolved from that to becoming friends and eventually having, "a symbiotic relationship," as Booth usually likes to say. However, there was always something else, hovering in the background. A feeling she would get sometimes, one she couldn't understand and so she tucked it away, far in the back of her mind. She got that feeling when Sully asked her to go away with him to go sailing, she got that feeling when she was trapped underground with Hodgins and felt she was about to die, she got that feeling when they had kissed in Christmas beneath the mistletoe, and she felt it now, when she was thinking about him and what their relationship meant to her.

When had this change occurred, she wondered. It seemed to be a gradual process. From all the small gestures to the late-night takeouts to the lunches and dinners to the cases that they had solved, their partnership had become more than the typical one, but into something that she could not pin down. It was baffling truly, because the emotions that were churning inside of her were something that was foreign. She had never felt anything like it before and since she had no point of reference to compare it to, she didn't know what it was.

Throughout the many men she had had a relationship with, she had felt varying levels of emotion with them. She might have constantly reiterated to Booth that sex was a biological component of life, but she didn't altogether dismiss the emotional part of the relationship. With her professor, it was more like admiration, a sense of adoration that eventually fuelled that physical relationship with him. With Sully, she felt a fondness and care for him. She felt a genuine attachment, something beyond the physical that was beneath the surface of their relationship and she might have been able to open up to him, if he had not quit the FBI and gone off on his sailing escapade.

But this was different. She had no physical relationship with Booth. In fact, she had no relationship at all with him aside from being partners. And yet, that by itself, felt irrevocably hollow to her mind. This was something more, she thought and yet less at the same time. Their actions spoke louder than words. Through their actions, they have shown care for each other that transcend the care that two partners have for each other. She didn't know how Booth felt about it, but her care for him rivaled the care that she had for her father and brother, her only family. But instead of being disconcerted, she was actually warmed by that fact. It made her smile, and Booth noticed this and pressed her upon it.

"Why are you smiling like that, Bones?" He asked. "Smiling like… what?" She tilted her head to the side, as if waiting for his answer. "You know… like how you smile when you see your father or when you see Russ and the girls." She was unsure of how to reply. They had always told each other the truth and laid out their feelings to bare, but she felt that this wasn't the right time nor the right place for such a discussion.

"Nothing much, as you said, I was thinking about my father and brother." She hoped that that would get him off her case. She was wrong. "No, it's something different. I just have this feeling that you were thinking of something… or someone." It was strange to her how he could always tell what she was thinking, how much in tune he was to her. Sometimes it scared her, but most of the time, it comforted her, that there was someone who could understand her, why she needed to be what she was and why she was that way. "It's nothing, Booth. I was just thinking… it doesn't mean anything." Booth opened his mouth, as if to say something, but immediately closed it and nodded his assent. He would not pry if she wasn't going to tell and Brennan was grateful for that.

Booth eventually exited the main highway and drove along the main streets. She surmised that it wouldn't be long before they would reach their destination. She decided that she would ask Booth whether or not he had also seen and felt the changes that were going on around them. "Booth, have you noticed… the changes that have occurred around us since we began working as partners?" He briefly glanced at her and then turned his head back to the road, staying silent for a few moments before answering. "Of course things have changed Bones. Zach wears a suit now, Angela and Hodgins are together, Cam came on board and we're both seeing a shrink. I think that should show you how much has changed." She nodded and agreed with him on all those points. All of them had changed, but she didn't get the answer that she was looking for, the answer that she wanted to hear and so she pressed on.

"Sure, all of them have changed. It's natural that they would. Anthropologically speaking, people are always changing throughout time, even their bones do. But what I mean is, did you notice the changes that happened… are happening to… us." That threw him up in a loop and he was surprised as he stared at her, whilst watching the road at the same time with fleeting glances. His eyes conveyed surprise… and a little fear. "Us…Bones? What do you mean by us?" She gave him a look, the look that conveyed the utter obviousness of the question and why he was trying to evade answering it. He sighed and raked his free hand over his hair. "Of course I've noticed the changes in us, Bones. I'm not blind or stupid. We spend a lot more time together, we've opened up to each other more and we are part of each other's lives more. And it's not just that, you've changed. You aren't the same Temperance Brennan whom I first met. You're a little more… human now, more like a person, you know? And you don't mind me calling you Bones anymore."

She smiled at that last statement. He was right. She didn't mind him calling her that once atrocious nickname anymore. In fact, she found it quite endearing, as he was the only one who called her, "Bones". What he had stated were all very valid points and she was glad that he noticed the changes in them as well. And he was also correct in that they were more and more part of each other's lives than when they had first met. In fact, when she first started her partnership with Booth, she couldn't imagine that they would be in this kind of situation. She thought that they would solve cases and stay out of each other's personal lives. She found it heartening how things had changed, and if she might add, for the better.

"Why'd you ask so suddenly, Bones? Something wrong, something to do with that something that you were thinking about a while ago?" She didn't know what to reply. Why had she asked him and why was she thinking about it herself? The truth was she didn't know. It just popped into her mind all of sudden, maybe because of that rose she received this morning. But she knew that she needed to give him an answer. "I just thought it would be good to reflect on the changes in our lives. It's like an anthropological study, trying to determine the changes in the lives of a people, a society and determining what factors affected those changed and how. It just seemed to me the right time. We've been partners for almost three years Booth, and it just seems the right time to look back."

"Well, I guess you're right, Bones. We've been partners for a long time. It's just strange that you would ask me, here and now." He was right. She could have asked him later tonight or some other time. However, she had asked him now and it was because of an intense desire, an extreme want, to know what his response would be. "I just wanted to know and I wanted to get the answer as soon as possible, it makes no sense for me to wait. It's just a question." She sounded a little too defensive for her liking, but Booth decided not to press her further on the issue, at least for now since they had already arrived at the crime scene.

"Alright, Bones. You're getting off easy now because we're already here. But I'll wheedle an answer out of you later." Then he smiled. He smiled that smile that he always gave her when she was being evasive or defensive. The sort of smile that made her smile at him back and then they would both look like smiling idiots to anyone that can see them. But in the smiles that they frequently exchanged, there came a hidden communication. One that said that everything is alright, that everything would be alright in the future no matter what happens.

They both exited the vehicle and walked out to the creek. Booth flashed his badge at a nearby police officer, signaling him to allow them passage through the yellow police line. They were approached by a wizened old man with white tufts of hair at either side of his head and bald on top. He wore a wrinkled suit and unpolished shoes and had a notebook out and seemed to be scribbling something as he walked towards them.

"I'm detective Carson Smith, D.C. Police. And you are?" He glanced up from his notes as he was introducing himself, but soon craned his head down to continue to scribble something on his notepad. Booth flashed him his FBI identification and answered, "I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth and this is my partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan. We're from the FBI." At the sound of the word, "FBI", detective Smith raised his head and looked at a little puzzled. "FBI, when did this become a federal case?" Booth replied, "When the body is unidentifiable from the onset. The FBI will handle this and should this fall into the jurisdiction of a state or local P.D. then we will to hand it over to you. But for now, we will take care of it, until we come to a determination."

The detective looked a little irritated at this. But he nodded his head and led them to the creek's embankment. "The body… or what's left of it anyway, was found here near the embankment. A jogger found it a few hours ago and called the police. Our boys don't know what to make of it yet…" Booth interjected, "That's why we have Dr. Brennan here, she can take a look at the remains and ship them out to a lab here in D.C. called the Jeffersonian and she can find out what to make of it, detective." The detective glanced at her and nodded and gestured to follow him, "Right this way, Dr. Brennan."

The skeleton looked washed up ashore on the embankment. Brennan retrieved her latex gloves from her bag and slowly put them on. "Did you or the jogger touch the body or move anything in the crime scene in anyway?" The detective looked at her strangely. "Of course not, we're professionals, doctor, and we follow proper procedure. The crime scene has been in no way contaminated and the body is exactly the way the jogger found it." She nodded and began her examination of the body. There was still some excess tissue and some organs in the body, but for the most part, it was sufficiently decomposed for her area of expertise to be of use.

"The victim is female, approximately twenty-four to thirty-two years of age. She has four cracked ribs and her spinal cord is broken." Booth removed his notepad from his coat pocket and began jotting the details that she was reciting. "What's the cause of death?" She examined the skeleton again, trying to look for any signs of an external force. "It seems that her back was severely beaten, probably by a blunt object. The ribs are broken from behind by blunt-force trauma. The assailant beat the victim so hard that the victim's spine snapped as her back was being beaten." Booth wrote all that she said on his notebook and nodded. "Alright, so this is a homicide. Bag and tag the entire skeleton and ship it out to the Jeffersonian. Right, Bones?" She nodded, "Also have the agents comb draw a sample of the water and collect some soil samples. It might help us see if she was dumped here or somewhere else, maybe even some other evidence leading us to the killer." Booth called over an officer and proceeded to relay her instructions to the officer. "Alright, Bones. We've done what we can here. I'll question the jogger tomorrow. It's getting late, let's head back and get something to eat before I take you back to the Jeffersonian, huh?"

"Alright," she replied with a nod. She was feeling hungry as well. She hadn't eaten in, she checked her watch: 10 o'clock, nearly 12 hours. She felt that a quick bite to eat would make her feel more ready to face the day and try and solve this case that they had. She walked with Booth back to the car and entered the passenger side. They both buckled in their seat belts and as Booth started the engine, he asked her a question. "Did you ever find out who gave you that rose, Bones?" The vehicle pulled out of the side road leading to the embankment and headed towards the main road and onto the highway. She thought it was a good question, she still hadn't. But she knew she'd figure it out. As Booth had said earlier, she always did.