In the midst of NaNoWriMo, I got derailed by a serious case of writer's block, and decided to write something for fan fiction instead to get back on track. Basically, this is the silly little fic that is the result. Hopefully you all enjoy!



December 26, 2008. The day after Christmas, and he was already on his way to a crime scene. He never seemed to have a break from the evils of this world.

At least it was snowing.

The little white flakes continued to flutter to the ground as Booth pulled to the side of the road, and his tires slid slightly before the truck actually came to a full stop. After climbing out of the truck, he spotted his partner's silhouette, which was bent over the cause of the call out. The body was deep in the woods, and as he got closer to it, he saw fallen trees scattered about the area. He didn't know any details yet, besides the fact that the victim was fully skeletal, and he would need to talk to Bones to find out the cause of death.

"What have you got so far, Bones?" he asked.

"Female victim, very young. The suturing of the skull indicates that she was probably five or six when she was killed, but she's been dead for over two years. The only sign of trauma is a fracture of the three upper thoracic vertebrae, which most likely severed the spinal cord, but, otherwise, the skeleton is relatively intact. Some of the phalanges and the right radius and ulna are missing, most likely due to animal activity. At first glance, I would say that this death was an accident," Bones answered, her tone cold.

He didn't say anything. Hell, he couldn't say anything. He was staring at the bones of a child who had just barely begun to live when she died, and had spent two years in the woods decaying, a daily meal to the scavengers that made a home of these damn trees.

"Are you sure?" He didn't want anyone to be responsible for this, but, at the same time, he wanted to think that there was a reason this body hadn't been found sooner.

"Well, I can't be positive until I do an analysis in the lab, but that's what my findings are telling me at the moment." Her expression was purely professional, and she showed no remorse.

He couldn't help but wonder how a human could be so emotionless when examining the body of a child. Even Bones, who had shown emotion at odd moments before, could show emotion for this.

Couldn't she?

What made this worse was the weather. As tough as he looked on the outside, it wasn't hard to get to Booth's soft side. The snow, white, powdery, light, it was the physical incarnation of childhood innocence. At least that was how he saw it. To find a child's body in it just made him sick. She should be bounding through it, tossing snowballs at her parents, or the brothers and sisters she may have had, not crushed under a rotted tree.

He rubbed his eyes viciously out of view of the rest of the crime scene techs, and especially Bones. He would not let himself cry in front of other people. He would wait until he was alone like he always did. Even if Bones couldn't show her emotions, he did it enough for the both of them when he was locked in his office after a long shift.

And this was definitely going to be one of those shifts. This victim was a few years younger than Parker when she died, but it still made him think of the years this child was never going to see.

He knew, though, that this child would have closure. Angela would give her a face, and they would plaster it on every news station until somebody called. Every missing persons file for young girls ages four to eight would be stacked on his desk as he searched for the face Ange created.

She may not have had a long life, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let her death go unnoticed longer.

-Fin-