Spoilers: Not as of yet.

Disclaimer: Not mine, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Author's Note: Hmm, another chapter story in the making, I think. Think I should continue? This one should be better than the last. It actually has a plot! Well, not yet, but it will. This one actually involves a case...

"Angela, I wan- Wait, where did she go?" Brennan turned in a full circle, searching the upper and lower platforms for her friend.

"I think she and Hodgins just went to Angela's office," Zach said, without looking up from his chart, completely oblivious to the innuendo in his statement.

Brennan was equally oblivious, however, and shot a quick glance at Zach, before rushing down the steps to find Angela. Booth wanted the picture of the dead boy as soon as possible, and she did, too.

She rounded the corner to Angela's office, stopping in her tracks when she saw Angela in a very compromising position with Hodgins. She hid a smile, and left as if she hadn't seen anything. It was unethical, and completely inappropriate for the workplace, but she liked that Angela was finally with someone who loved her, someone stable. All too stable apparently.

She was still stifling a smile, lost in thought, when she smacked right into someone, knocking her back a few steps. The man who had knocked her over reacted immediately, grabbing her by her waist, so she didn't fall over completely, pulling her against him. He smiled.

She muttered in thanks, and pulled herself away from him as if nothing had happened, walking away dignifiedly. His face fell.

Across the lab, Booth stood on the platform, wondering where Brennan was. Figuring she'd gone to see Angela, he leaned a haunch against one of the cold, metal tables and waited. Finally, he saw Bones round the corner, and he smiled in anticipation.

Then smack, she ran into a man, nearly falling flat. That is, until he grabbed her waist. Booth stood up straight, arms tensely at his sides. He saw the desire in the man's eyes, and he clenched his jaw, just about ready to show the man some serious violence. When he saw her pull away hastily from the man's chest and walk away unaffected, he relaxed, and smiled smugly, resting back onto the table.

She's mine, Buddy, he thought.

"Booth, what are you doing here so early? I though you were-" she noticed his expression. "Why are you grinning? You do know you look like an imbecile, grinning at nothing."

"I'm not grinning at 'nothing', Bones," he retorted teasingly.

So he was playing that game. "Fine, Booth, I give up, why are you grinning?" She sighed and put one hand on her hip, distracting him ever so slightly.

"I'm just happy to see you, is all, Bones. Can't a man be happy to see his partner?" He feigned innocence, looking as happy as he could. He'd won this time.

Realizing her situation, she decided to end the game before he won by too much, and walked down the platform to the remains that Booth was there to enquire about.

"So far, I've only had time to look over the skull. I did that first, so I could give it to Angela," she explained. "These are the remains of a male Caucasoid. The skull shows serious signs of brutality. Other than that, as far as the skull goes, there are no other distinguishing markers to help us."

"So: White male," he said. "That's all you got. White male?"

She looked at him sternly. "Yes, Booth, definitively, that's all I have. I've only had the remains for twelve hours, and it took ten just to put the skull back together." She looked at him more harshly this time.

"Okay, I'm sorry! It's just that I've got Cullen and the press riding me about this one, Bones. It isn't every day that you find a set of human remains buried in a kindergarten playground, you know."

He looked at her, bracing himself. "How old?"

"Judging by the size of the femur, he was three foot four. About five years old." Just older than Parker, she thought, though she didn't dare say it. She knew Booth would be forcing himself not to think of Parker on this case, and she certainly didn't want to be the one to bring it up.

She didn't want to think of Parker either. She'd grown to adore that little boy. Whether it was the fact that he was a living, breathing window into the world of Booth, or that she simply liked spending time with him, she didn't know.

But she knew that both she and Booth would undo if they connected this case to Parker in any way. They probably wouldn't even mention him until the case was solved and closed and the little boy's body put to rest.

"Brennan? You in there?" Snapping out of her reverie, she spun to meet the worried, curious eyes of Angela and Booth.

"Yes, Angela, I'm fine," she lied flatly, as she had done so many times.

Angela decided to ignore Brennan's lie, knowing she wouldn't get anywhere by pushing. "Do you have the skull for me?"

Brennan lifted the skull off the lab table, handing it gently to Angela. "It's so small," Angela stated miserably, frowning slightly then leaving the platform.

Booth winced slightly. Of course he'd noticed how small it was, it was impossible not to, but Angela had said it. Saying it made it real; made it so he couldn't tell himself that it was only him seeing the all-too-tiny face on top of that skull.

He looked at Bones. She was studying the third rib, giving it close consideration. He wondered if she was thinking like he was, studying this body. This baby boy. He doubted it. He knew it affected her as much. But he knew that because of this, she wasn't thinking about this child like he was. She couldn't.

This had annoyed him at first. She'd seem distant, and unfeeling while studying bones, and this had aggravated the hell out of him. How could she be so composed when inside he was fuming, seething?

He soon learned, though, that this was why she was so good at her job. She cared too much about these people to let her emotions get the better of her. He was still contemplating this when she turned to him with a terrifying warning in her look that he knew all too well.

Oh, God, here it comes, he thought.