Since I've been having this idea in my head I decided to just get it out right now and break my promise of updating my other stories before starting this one. Slightly different from the one I wrote in my journal, it has the same overall idea of The Blonde In The Game, but I've decided to turn it into a series of fics (each fic should be about three to four chapters) we'll see how this turns out. This story is just basically to introduce OCs and the main plot. I think some characters are a little OOC but hey, it's been 15 years since TDI!

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The Sexist In The Tree

"Hurry up Will! Or we'll be late for class!" shouted a boy in a red uniform to another boy behind him. They were running to make sure they would not be late for their classes at the DaVinci Academy. However, who cares? They're just extras in the story.

"Can we…just…rest for a…moment…please!" Will, a slightly round stomached boy asked. He had just eaten lunch out in the private fields and forest of the Academy.

"Alright, but don't blame me if we get detention." The other boy huffed. Will, greatly relieved, sat down under the shade of the tree and looked up at the bright green leaves, but noticed something strange.

"Say, what's that thing up there?"

'What thing?"

"That lump caught between a few branches. Think we should climb to see what's up there."

"Sure, not like there's anything better to do, like maybe, I don't know, getting to class?!"

"Come on, we're already late, let's just see what's up there.

"Fine," the two boys proceeded to climb and after a few moments their screams were heard all the way back in the classrooms.

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"All I'm saying is that you've seemed to, I don't know, forgot all the good times we had back on TDI," thirty one year old Special Agent Geoff Murdock said as he trudged up the small grassy hill. Despite fifteen more years of growing since TDI, Geoff didn't look all too different: same blonde hairstyle, same muscular build, and same cowboy hat. He was taller though, and was wearing an unbuttoned black suit with a pink shirt and no tie. "I mean, don't you remember when we used to make out in the hot tub?"

"Vividly," Dr. Bridgette Dodson replied dismissively. Now, thirty one years old, Bridgette still retained a healthy lifestyle and thus, a fit body, which currently was covered with a blue jumpsuit 

like…clothing with a yellow biohazard warning sticker on it. Although she occasionally wore her hair down now, she would put it in a ponytail whenever she worked, which was a lot. "It's not that I don't like you Geoff, it's just that it's been fifteen years and things change," she explained for probably the hundredth time that month, "maybe after we get more used to our work partnership we'll see." With that, she continued walking, while putting on latex gloves.

"It's been 3 years since the FBI teamed me up with you to solve cases," Geoff pointed out.

Behind them, Peyton O'Riley listened to their bickering with a smile. A slightly obese man, (not as much as Owen but not regular sized either) Peyton was Bridgette's best friend at the Jeffersonian, the place where skeletal remains are shipped to be identified for museums, public displays, and homicidal cases. Wearing the same blue biohazard jumpsuit that Bridgette wore, he was slightly unconventional in the ways he accessorized, seeing as he couldn't wear any clothes that could channel his eccentricity at work. He had one ear pierced with a small gold hoop, almost like a gold ring and constantly wore rectangular, yellow tinted work goggles.

He ran his hand through his light brown hair that was styled in what some people might say like a turf of grass and thought back. Indeed, it had been three years since Geoff was partnered with famed forensic anthropologist, Bridgette, and has since been trying to play cupid and hook her up with her old island boyfriend. guess it's time to step up my game he thought. But before he could think of any evil, but romantic, schemes he stopped at a yellow crime scene taped area with a few other people already there.

"Time to get to work," Peyton said he ducked under the tape and flashed the police officers his id which was clipped to the suit. Bridgette and Geoff did the same thing, although not before Geoff quickly added, to Bridgette, "we'll continue our conversation later," getting an eye roll from her.

"So…where's the body?" Geoff asked looking around. An officer in black, simply pointed up and three pairs of eyes followed.

"No way, it's up a tree?" Peyton asked, amazed.

"Uh, yes. We've already taken some pictures of it at all angles, so do we take it down now?"

"I think that would be nice, unless you want me to do my job in a tree," replied Bridgette rather bluntly, causing the man to blush and Geoff to start chuckling. "Just make sure you take it down carefully and as close to it's shape in the tree as possible and send the photos to the Jeffersonian."

A few minutes and close calls later…

"Bones structure indicates that our victim was male, late twenties or early thirties…" started Peyton as he eyed the bloody skeleton critically. There were still bits of flesh on it, and a couple of maggots and other things.



"The abnormal thinness of the bones shows that this person had a lack of outdoor activities, most likely a recluse, and given the rate of flesh deterioration, I'll say he's been up the tree or at least dead for a few weeks. Peyton, take a sample of the maggots and see if its growth matches the presumed length of decomposition." Bridgette said in an all business, slightly detached tone to not only Peyton but to Geoff who was at the side watching carefully. Although he wasn't so much as interested in watching the body as he was with Bridgette. He had to admit, she looked stunning even in something as plain as a blue jumpsuit, but flirting beside a rotting dead corpse would be a bit too weird, he decided to wait until they got back to the lab.

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"Come on, just maybe a cup of coffee at the diner, something small like that," Geoff tried reasoning with Bridgette for a "date" date ever since they reached his car. (Peyton took a shorter route with the truck that transported the body, which he was creepily fine with.)

"We always go out for a cup of coffee at the diner," Bridgette said as the two walked up the majestic and large varnished wooden stairs leading into the metallic, scientific looking lab.

"Yes, but as friends on off time or when we're taking a break while solving a case, but not as a real, 'let's take our relationship further and see if it still has that spark it had on TDI' date." Geoff was walking, or rather running behind her as they entered the lab, a huge and, uh, lab-like, area. Bridgette had changed out of her "crime scene" outfit and was currently pulling her hair out of her ponytail, letting it cascade down to her shoulders, all curly and full of volume, while walking and throwing on her loose fitting blue lab coat over her usual white shirt, black blazer and pants.

"It's been fifteen years, Geoff, things…change." she replied stiffly as she ran her id card across a slit. A loud beep was heard and she walked up a raised platform containing examination tables, one or two computers and other tools.

Despite trying his best, he rolled his eyes at her comment. Honestly, if she was on a TV show that would so be her catchphrase. He quickly ran his id and waited for the beep. There were a few times before where he forgot to do that, needless to say, at least the alarms got tested.

"Body's here," a young Asian woman (AN: imagine an Asian Phoebe from Friends) in her late twenties said in perky tone.

"That has been Maurecia, with the obvious," Peyton said jokingly, earning a glare from Maurecia Lee, "by the way, what took you guys so long?"

"Traffic," Bridgette replied quickly, "so did you have time to analyze the body and find a face?"

Everyone immediately quieted, and Geoff swore he heard crickets. It turns out that someone was doing a cricket experiment in the lab but never mind that. Bridgette and Geoff continued to look 

confused and irritated at the sudden silence. Peyton and Maurecia quickly went into panic override.

"Well…" Geoff said, hoping to get more of a response. Everyone turned to face Peyton.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't look at me, Mauricia's our resident face drawer and missing person finder." Everyone looked at her.

"Gee, way to put up a united front," she muttered. She paused as she figured out how she was going to word it.

"Okay, Bridgette, Geoff, you know how you guys were on that reality show when you were teens? Well, okay before I say anything, let me remind you that our jobs are…hard. I mean, yes, it's a fact of life that we all die, but still it's hard for us emotionally to be so close to death. And it's even harder with a loved one or someone we know and…oh screw it. It's Ezekiel Paxton! He's the dead guy on the table." With that she pointed not so subtly to the dead body and started frantically typing into a nearby computer. "I reconstructed the face based on the skull structure, and I checked the missing person files. He's been missing for a few weeks. So there! He was first to get eliminated and now he was the first to die." She huffed as the shock was being absorbed by the good doctor and FBI agent.

Peyton quickly whispered to Maurecia, "Whatever happened to taking it slowly and subtly?"

"I figured I'll go with the peeling off a band aid technique."

"I see," he replied, not really getting it, "Wow, you know I always thought fate would put everyone from TDI back together…" Peyton continued, trying to lighten the mood with a little humour.

"If that's the case, then fate has a dark sense of humour," Bridgette commented, looking at the rotting corpse. Suddenly an intern in a blue lab coat, (well that's descriptive) came up.

"Uh, Dr. Dodson, there's a woman in your office, waiting. She wants to see you, says it's an emergency."

Bridgette looked at the young intern and then at Geoff and the two walked down the platform towards her office, "Peyton, Maurecia, check to see if you can identify how good ole' Zeke died." As the two walked towards the glass walled office in an uncomfortable silence, Geoff took a glance at her.

"Bridge, you okay?" he asked, concern easily detectable in his question.

"I'm fine, really, it's just that I've always been so used to those bodies on that examination table to be strangers, you know…" Before she could continue, they heard music coming from her office, "someone turned the radio on."



And you still don't have the right look, and you don't have the right friends, nothing changes but the faces, the names, and the trends, high school never ends…

The music continued as Geoff and Bridgette got closer to her office, and although the walls were made of glass, Geoff still couldn't see who was in there, seeing as the person was in Bridgette's swivel chair and the back of it was facing the door, and because of the couch that was in there was obstructing the view. I should really ask her why she was a couch in her office,Geoff thought.

As soon as they entered the door the radio was turned off and the chair turned.

"You know, I just really love that song, reminds me of my life," the unknown figure said as she turned the chair around to face them. She proceeded to tilt backwards slightly and lay her feet on the edge of the desk.

Although Bridgette felt slightly annoyed that the person was in her office without her consent she couldn't help but grin, "Nice to see you too, Beth."

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Read And Review please! Oh, and brownie points for those who know the song!