TDL Season 2 Chapter One: "The reunion of the Jeffersonian team"
One year ago tomorrow, the Jeffersonian team parted their separate ways. Some to dig holes, have babies, shoot criminals, and ruin laboratory reputations. Things will definitely not be the same tomorrow, but you'll see whether or not those changes are good or Cam…
The Maluku airfield…
Bones and the interns are boarding the plane. Their clothes are all dirty and torn. Chris and Duncan collapse immediately in their seats, Izzy pulls out a book called "A thousand random stories", and Owen grabs the whole food cart from the waitress. Bones sits down and sighs. Their trip was pretty Cam, they didn't really find anything relating to early man.
Meanwhile, in an Afghanistan airport…
Booth is heading for the plane. A tall, blonde woman runs up behind him in handcuffs. Two officers come up and grab her, but Booth tells them to wait a second.
"Sorry, but I couldn't let you leave without my good-bye." The woman says.
"It's fine." Booth says and smiles. He kisses her.
The arresting officers drag the woman back. Booth turns and boards the plane quickly.
Meanwhile, in Hodgins' house…
Hodgins and Angela are watching their six month old son sleep in his crib. Michael Hodgins twists a little bit and wakes up. Angela picks him up and rocks him. Hodgins prepares the bottle for him.
Meanwhile, at the Jeffersonian….
Cam is in her office filling out some paper work. The paper she's filling out is her application to work as a cop. Next to it is an injunction by the FBI to shut down the lab for lack of credibility with murder investigations. The phone rings and Cam picks it up.
"Dr. Camille Saroyan of the Jeffersonian." She says.
The next day, at the Jeffersonian lab…
Hodgins walks up to the empty lab table. He hears something and looks at the door to his left. Bones and Owen walk in and meet with Hodgins. They all hug and say how much they missed each other.
"So Dr. Brennan, have you talked to Booth yet?" Hodgins asks.
"No, I'm not going to. But, I'm eager to see Angela. Is she here today?" Bones asks.
"No, she's watching Michael today. She'll be in later when Michael's with her dad. So, is Cam here? I noticed that everyone is gone. I hope she didn't ruin the lab like we all thought."
Booth walks in and heads over to the gang. Bones forces herself to hug him. Hodgins and Owen pat him on the shoulder.
"So, has anyone seen Cam? This place is pretty empty." Booth says.
Owen sniffs the air. "Do you guys smell ocean water and hair spray, or is it just me?" Owen asks.
Cam walks in the door and is surprised to see them all there.
"When did you all get back?" she asks and walks to them.
"Not too long ago." Bones says.
"Oh, well, I'm proud to tell you all that I did not ruin the lab, despite your complete faith in my abilities. By the way, there's been a murder. Gwen is wheeling in the body now. Now, degree of scavenging suggests the victim was murdered over a year ago. Also, the types of scavenging varied from wolf jaws to seagulls. This person was killed and then set to sea to drift until found."
"Wow, great job Owen!" Hodgins slaps Owens arm.
"Yes, I find Owen's olfactory acuity to be very impressive." Bones adds on. "But, why is Gwen helping you?"
"Well, I was a little short staffed. Harold took over Dr. Hodgins position, and Gwen was the only qualified forensic scientist and forensic artist in the area. She took over for Dr. Brennan's and Angela's jobs. It was the only thing I could do."
Gwen walks in with the body. There's pretty much just bones left. Most of the flesh is stripped away.
"Hey, guys. Glad to see you again." Gwen says and places the body on the table with Owens help.
"Gwen, nice hair spray." He says.
"I don't use hair spray." Gwen says and her and Owen look at the body.
"Dr. B!" They both exclaim. Bones walks over to them.
"What have you found out?"
"The wounds have hair spray embedded in them." Owen says.
"I'll take samples and check for what type of hair spray." Hodgins does that and heads to his office.
"I'll start on the facial reconstruction." Gwen grabs a pencil and paper.
"Owen, let's assess and catalog the damages." Bones says.
"Bones, don't you want to investigate the murder scene with me?" Booth asks.
"No, I have work to do here. Take Cam, she's earned a trip to the field."
"Thank you, Dr. Brennan." Cam says confused and looks at Booth. Booth shrugs his shoulders and leaves. Cam follows after him.
Meanwhile, in Hodgins' lab…
Hodgins put the swab sample into the mass spectrometer. Sweets walks in quietly and tries to surprise Hodgins. He gets right behind him.
"Hey, Sweets." Hodgins turns to him.
"Forget that happened. Anyway, how was Paris?" Sweets asks.
"It was nice. We had to leave early because of Angela's pregnancy. She insisted on having the baby here, so we did."
"Congratulations!" Sweets laughs and pats Hodgins' arm.
Meanwhile, at the crime scene…
Booth and Cam are at the beach where the body was found. They board the boat.
"Ok, Booth, this was probably some sort of ritual murder, so look for certain markers. Candles, altars, painted symbols, you get the picture." Booth gives her a weird look. "While you all were gone, we had at least five ritualistic deaths to deal with. This seems like one of them." Booth shrugs and Cam takes the lead.
Cam looks into the first room to the right. She opens the door and rats run out. She squeals and jumps back. Booth heads past the rats and into the room. He shines a flashlight on and he covers his mouth. Cam peeks in and flinches.
"Well, does this count as a ritual murder?" Booth says and shines the light on the other three victims on the floor of the room.
Meanwhile, at the lab table…
Bones and Owen have just finished cataloging the injuries. Gwen announces she's done with the sketch and heads to get a hit off of missing persons. Hodgins walks past her excited.
"Guys, you won't believe this!" he exclaims. "The victim was cut with a hair spray coated blade. The blade was just sharp enough to break the skin, but not to slice it open. The killer wanted the chemicals in the spray to be introduced to the bloodstream, but not to be washed out by a flow of blood from a severe cut. Whoever this guy is, he's good."
"But why would the killer want hair spray to be in the victim's bloodstream?" Bones asks.
"It was a plastic-based hair spray which contains copolymers with vinyl acetate and maleic anhydride, which sometimes repels snakes. I'm sure we'll learn why he did that, I'm sure."
Booth and Cam walk up with an FBI team wheeling the other three bodies behind them.
"Maybe it was because the rats were relaxed with no snakes around. The rats on the boat ate the other victims alive. The hemorrhagic staining shows they tried to fight off the rats for several hours before it was too much." Cam says.
"We sent a text of their skulls to Gwen already so she can give us identity. In the mean time, we need you brainiacs to figure out if these victims have the same wounds as her there." Booth points to the body on the lab table.
"Great, this killer is smart and annoying." Hodgins says.
To be continued….