Disclaimer: I do not own the television series 'Bones' nor any characters and ideas therein, this work is intended purely as a form of recreation and not for any commercial use.

Note: This work is intended to be an alternate universe there will be changes in the history and personality of primary characters. Please be aware that there will be inconsistences when compared with real world laws, people and events.

I appreciate any constructive criticism you are willing to provide. I would also appreciate an explanation for any complaints or criticism you might have and if you are willing a proposed solution.

Temperance Brennan could only shake her head the scene in front of her, a small smile appearing on her face; 'Angela never changes' she thought to herself. After three weeks digging through mass graves in Guatemala, she couldn't help but stare at her best friend being snubbed at the information desk and watch the drama unfold.

"Hello sir, excuse me you…" Angela began, only for the clerk to raise a finger to silence her. Brennan now could not help but smile broadly anticipating what drastic measure Angela is going to employ. She wasn't disappointed, as almost right on queue Angela pulled open her front and the blank open mouth stare on the clerk's face was all Brennan needed to know.

Taking pity on the poor clerk as regardless of how rude he was, Angela's response was a bit extreme. "Please tell me you said excuse me first" Brennan directed at Angela with a big smile on her face. The response was immediate as Angela spun around "Oh sweetie… yes I did welcome home" walking swiftly over and giving Brennan a hug, before beginning her rapid fire questions. "Are you exhausted? Was Guatemala awful? Was it horribly backward?", the last statement did annoy Brennan somewhat but quickly forgave her friend and gave a quick retort of her own "And yet I was never forced to flash my breasts at someone for information." giving her a small smug smile.

Not even slightly phased Angela responded a little slyly, "Did you flash them for any fun reasons" wiggling her eyebrows suggestively, causing Brennan to look at her in slight irritation. "I was literally neck deep in a mass grave, not romantic in the least… Besides you know that I don't have any interest in a casual relationship." she said with a slightly indignant tone, glancing quickly over her shoulder again out of habit and noticing a tall well-dressed man, the same one she noticed the last two times she glanced back walking behind them rather suspiciously.

Pushing it to the back of her mind for now Brennan and tuning back to her conversation with Angela. "You know sweetie, I never could understand how you managed to survive this long… come on you should have enough pent up sexual energy to power an entire country" Angela spoke with clear exasperation, drawing out a small giggle out of her best friend. "We have been over this Ange" replied Brennan looking back at her friend with clear amusement in her voice "Besides you clearly have enough sex for the both of us and it's not like you have ever been shy in sharing." glancing back again she spots the same man approaching 'alright this has gone for long enough' dropping her bags she turns around to confront him.

"Why are you following us" spoke Brennan in a clear tone, quickly analysing the man in front of her '200cm, approximately 120kg, African American, no visible weapons, two rings on his right hand, tense posture with right arm drawn slightly back indicating dominance' quickly deciding to not to make the first move, not that she had to wait long as the man almost immediately grabbed her just above her left elbow. Reacting immediately she brought up her left arm slightly, hooking his right arm and applying a wrenching motion to his elbow forcing him to bend forward slightly a perfect height for a quick heel thrust to the Brachial Plexus on the side of his neck, quickly rendering him unconscious and dropping to the hard marble floor like a stone.

Angela could only blink at how quickly Bren took care of their attacker, sure she always knew Bren was heavily trained in many forms of martial arts and is a tall well-built woman standing at 6 foot 2 but still the speed in which she took down that guy was a little unnerving. "Wow sweetie, I always knew you kicked ass… what are you doing?" asked Angela as watching her friend pat down their attacker's pockets and pulling out what looked like a thin wallet.

"Ah… Ange I think we might have a little problem" spoke Brennan lifting up a badge, "he's homeland security".

Almost like some magic words were spoken, the security officer that approached them after observing the scuffle instantly drew his weapon "Police, stand back now!" drawing the attention of two other officers who quickly ran over and also drew their weapons all pointing them at Brennan.

"Oh… there just a little misunderstanding here" spoke Angela trying to defuse the officers, as Brennan stood up from her crouched position.

"Put those weapons away, before you shoot someone!" spoke Brennan in a harsh voice as if talking to little children, clearly seeing the inexperience of these officers if the uncertainty in the way they were presenting their sidearm were any indication.

Walking confidently to her dropped bags, not even needing to look back to see that the officers complied with her order, she picked up her belongings and pointing at two of the officers closest to the unconscious homeland security officer "You two, please pick him up" she spoke with authority, then facing the third officer "Can you please lead us to the security office as you no doubt want a statement of this event and he" indicating the homeland security officer "wouldn't be accosting us without at reason, though things would have ended up a lot better if he did identify himself first" the last few words spoke with a small amused smile.

The chuckle that she got from the officer next to her, did surprise her somewhat, looking at him with a raised eyebrow, "Sorry ma'am" spoke the officer coughing softly to cover up his slip "he can be a little bit of an ass sometimes."

"Wow, girl this happen often" spoke Angela, clearly in awe of how her best friend managed to go from assaulting an officer from homeland security to walking unrestrained to the security room joking with the police.

"Assaulting homeland security officers?" voiced back Brennan with a teasing tone "no… knocking unconscious men with over inflated ego's… not the first and nowhere near the last". That last comment drew a clear snort out of her best friend, "You know Bren, only you could find something funny out of this situation".

Just before going in to the security office Brennan turned to Angela "Ange this could take a while, I think it's better if you head back to the lab I can hire a taxi back home."

"You sure sweetie" replied Angela concern for her friend evident in her voice "I could wait for you".

"No it's ok" spoke Brennan raising her hand slightly to stop any future protest "I'm pretty sure I can take care of myself."

"Alright, I'll see you at work later on, but I expect you to call the moment you are out of here" Angela's tone broking no argument.

"Sure, Mother" replied Brennan, rolling her eyes at her friend's obvious overprotective nature, not even waiting to hear her response she walked into the office and closed the door gently behind her.

-o-o-o-o-

Quickly looking around the security room she just entered, Brennan spotted the homeland security officer laying across the two seats just left of where she entered, with a very distinct bruise now forming just above his right eye 'most likely caused by his impact on the marble floor… discolouration slight, minimal propagation… no risk of facture on the suborbital process' looking back up noticing, a female officer just finishing her conversation with the officer that escorted her to the security room.

Walking up to the desk, "Hello, my name is Dr. Temperance Brennan I'm a forensic anthropologist working for the Jeffersonian Institute." introducing herself.

"Pleasure honey, I just got the run down from Greg," tilting her head to the hallway leading back, "I don't think you need to worry about someone pressing charges over that incident." waving her hand lazily, "But I think you understand that homeland security, regardless of how pompous they can be don't normally harass people without some kind of reason" she continued.

"I assumed, that would be the case" replied Brennan calmly, "I would however, like to get this over and done with as quickly as possible as I am expected at work in an hour or two".

"Sure, one just has to wakeup sleeping beauty over there… and as good as I am at my job honey, I don't really need a note in my report saying I dumped cold water over an agent of homeland security." the female officer finished with a gentle invitation.

"A quick shock is all that should be needed, which can be provided by a hard slap… I'm willing to try unless of course you object to that course of action." said Brennan in a manner of fact tone, gaining a small chuckle from the desk officer.

"You like playing dangerously honey… I didn't see a thing." The officer replied giving the good doctor a slightly viscous smile.

Turning around, Brennan walked calmly towards the still unconscious agent before performing a hard slap on the uninjured side of his face.

-o-o-o-o-

Special agent Seeley Booth was not having a good morning, having slept in leaving him without enough time to get his morning coffee then being stonewalled for over an hour by a lab assistant at the Jeffersonian. No definitely not a good morning, his only consolation was that he would be passing some of his irritation to good old Dr. Brennan, now that thought did bring a small smile to his face just thinking of her sitting in the security station having her bags open in front of her and being endlessly questioned by agent Gibson who owed him a small favour.

Preparing for his staged rescue, straitening his tie and face 'Professional… yep all professional, Booth 1 – Bones zip', the sight that greeted him when he entered the security room was definitely not what he was expecting.

A clearly amused Bones sitting at the centre table with her bags in front of her, wasn't too out of place, the female officer at the back who Booth could clearly see was failing in trying to cover up her laughter was a bit wearied but so were all women so he ignored it but now a clearly agitated agent Gibson standing on the opposite side of the table with a very visible bruise above his right eye and 'Is that a slap mark' on the other side of his face was definitely an eye opener.

"What are you doing here" asked Bones in a cold voice her face going blank, having spotted him as he entered the room.

Trying to maintain his professional decorum, while walking towards Dr Brennan "FBI, special agent Seeley Booth" said Booth pulling out and displaying his badge and ID as he went, "major crimes and investigation DC, Bones here Identifies bodies for us I'm here to pick her up" all the while maintaining eye contact with agent Gibson or at least the bruise on his face.

"Don't call me Bones!" was the instant reply form Brennan clearly irritated at his choice of names.

"Oh… thank God you're here, She is all yours" announced agent Gibson, throwing his hands up slightly in mock surrender before continuing, "If this is what you call a small favour Booth, just you wait until you owe me a big one." He finished darkly before walking towards the hallway leading further into the security station, passing now the openly laughing female officer.

Brennan now looked up furiously at agent Booth "Favour! You set me up… of all the FBI agents in DC why is it that I get stuck with one who blatantly misuses his authority." she growled at him, standing up giving him a sharp poke at his chest. "Well… you said that you are here to pick me up so grab my bags and let's get going you have already waisted half an hour of my morning" she finished before turning sharply to the door.

"See ya honey, you comeback round every now and again I haven't laughed that hard in a long time" called out to Brennan as she was opening the door. "No offence, but I really hope that I don't come back here any time soon… Have a good day Marilyn" replied Brennan exiting the room, leaving Booth behind staring back and forth between the two women.

"You keep her safe now you here" said Marilyn now looking at Booth, "I don't know what it was that you did to ruffle her feathers but that one has a heart of gold, you better fix it soon or you will end up worse than poor old Gibson down back" thrusting her thumb to her side, her tone patronising.

Quickly grabbing both of Bones' bags Booth, exited the room with as much dignity that still remained rubbing the spot that Bones poked 'that is definitely going to leave a bruise… thank God she doesn't have nails' he finished that though with a slight shudder, before rushing towards Bones who was quickly making her way out of the terminal towards the parking lot.

-o-o-o-o-

"Was that really necessary" spoke Brennan her irritation ebbing slightly, now inside Booths' car, "calling in a favour from homeland security to stage a fake rescue… to what, get back in my good graces" her tone clearly voicing her opinion of his justification.

"Well, at least I picked you up from the airport…" started Booth with a cheeky grin, "look I went through the appropriate channels, but your assistant stonewalled me.

"Good… he is a good assistant. After the last assignment I was under the impression that you no longer want our assistance, so I told him to make sure you never to put you through." Replied Brennan, in a manner of fact tone; "You can drop me off anywhere along here."

"Alright listen, a decomposed corpse was found in Arlington national cemetery." Booth started.

'Wow that statement was completely void of useful information' thought Brennan, taking Booths' pause as an invitation, "Arlington national cemetery is full of decomposed corpses… it's a cemetery." Finished Brennan.

Taking Brennan's statement in stride, "This one is different; it's your type of corpse it wasn't in a casket" said Booth thinking that would be the end of it.

"You have given me, no information beyond that there is a decomposed corpse in a cemetery that is not in a casket…" said Brennan, her irritation at Booth growing again. Noticing a heavily populated park out of her window she turned towards Booth with a slightly viscous smile, "If you drive one more block, I will yell kidnap out the window."

Booth instantly turned to face her and noticing her face, he had no doubt that she would do it. "Look Bones, I'm just trying to mend bridges here." He said trying to avoid a potentially embarrassing situation.

Knowing that she had won, "Pull over" she said simply smiling knowing that he will comply, turning to pull her bags out of the back set as the car swerved to the side of the street.

Exiting the vehicle, "I'm going home." announced Brennan, as she knew that Booth had gotten out of the vehicle and is running to catch up to her.

"Look can we skip the drama, I'm trying to start over." said Booth with authority, walking quickly just behind Brennan.

"I find you extremely condescending… and if you are trying to skip all the drama, what was that stunt at the airport for… huh." said Brennan turning around to face Booth with a raised eyebrow.

'oh… she's still getting me back for that' he though in exasperation, "Condescending, I'm not the one who speaks as thou I am smarter than everybody else." started Booth slightly incredulous, rising to her challenge.

'so he does want to play' though Brennan in amusement, "But Booth, I only speak that way to you… and we both know that I am smarter" Brennan said smugly with a small smile, before turning to walk away again.

Reaching the end of his patience Booth replied "But I am the one with the badge and the gun… look it's not like you are the only forensic anthropologist in town" trying to stop her from walking away.

'oh, now this is just hilarious' she thought, "Unfortunately for you it seems, I am the only anthropologist in town, the nearest is in Montréal, Parlez-vous français" said Brennan clearly laughing at the end.

"Ok, I give up. What will it take." said Booth, clearly frustrated.

Stopping, Brennan turned around with serious expression on her face. "Full participation in the case." she said seriously.

"Fine…" stated Booth quickly. Too quickly for Brennan "Not just lab work, everything." she said with a finality in her tone.

"What do you want, spit in the hand… we are Scully and Mulder" replied Booth, only to see Brennan's blank expression.

"I don't understand what you mean." replied Brennan, confusion clear in her tone.

"It's an olive branch, can we please get back in the car." Booth said, wanting to get to the crime scene.

"Fine." replied Brennan, reaching inside her bag for her cell phone, entering the speed dial for her assistant.

-o-o-o-o-

Brennan walked along the grass towards the crime scene looking at the tombstones in front of her almost wistfully, before clearing her face and turning to Booth, "What is the context of the find." she asked.

"Routine landscaping… one of the workman dropped a level in the pond, thought he saw something." came Booth's quick reply, as they started to draw near the large black truck.

Seeing her assistant stepping out of the truck, "hello Zack" Brennan greeted with a small smile. "Oh, hello Dr. Brennan" Zack replied "that eco-warrior looks good on you…"

"Thankyou… So agent Booth, do you remember my assistant Zack Addy." Said Brennan looking at Booth as he gave a non-committal grunt in reply, clearly not looking at her assistant.

"So how was your trip to Guatemala" Zack continued rapidly firing off questions, "dig up a lot of massacre victims, learn anything new about machete strikes".

Seeing that his presence was agitating Booth, Brennan decided to get him to work. "Zack please, can you get started in collecting some water samples and temperature readings from the pond. After you have finished that take some soil samples starting one meter in from the water line to a depth of 15 cm."

"Right away Dr. Brennan." Responded Zack, knowing when he was dismissed, walking away.

Once Zack was out of earshot, Booth began "No discretion that kid… typical squint" in a clearly patronising tone.

"What is that supposed to mean" spoke Brennan sharply, while not understanding Booth's word his tone was anything but complementary.

"Cops get stuck working with people like you. You know squints… You know you squint at things." Booth replied a slight edge still in his voice.

Stopping abruptly and facing Booth, with clear venom in her voice. "Oh you mean people who are more intelligent than you, and possess basic reasoning skills… for your information special agent Seeley Booth, my assistant was merely curious and while you might find his words inappropriate, he was speaking to me not you." throwing her bag hard into Booth's chest, forcing most of the air out of his lungs before turning around and walking quickly to the boat waiting for them.

-o-o-o-o-

Brennan started to unpack the equipment in silence still angry at Booth from his inappropriate comment.

Now watching the screen as Booth lowered the probe, into the pond she decided to break the silence. "So what am supposed to be squinting at" she shot at Booth still angry.

Before Booth could open his mouth, Brennan continued "If anything inappropriate comes out of that mouth of yours I will steer this boat back to shore and you can continue the rest of this investigation without me." turning to look at Booth, who simply shut his mouth with an audible click.

"Thought so…" said Brennan quietly just as a human skeleton started to appear on the monitor, "Ok... this is a crime scene."

-o-o-o-o-

It had taken approximately one and a half hours for the dive team to retrieve the submerged body, before Brennan could get to work analysing it and the sunlight was starting to wane.

"Alright Zack, can you please start with photographing the placement of the skull fragments before beginning the rest of the body." said Brennan, interpreting the camera flash as his acknowledgement, she started to focus more intently at the almost completely decomposed skeleton in front of her.

Switching on her recorder she began cataloguing her observations, "the remains are wrapped in 4mm flat construction sheeting, surrounded and weighted using rocks strapped on with Pvc coated hexagonal wire netting, which is why the body didn't surface during decomposition. The skeleton is complete but the skull is in fragments." looking up at Booth after hearing his approach.

"Alright what can you tell me?" said Booth, taking out his notepad.

"Not much at the moment… the victim is a young woman age ranging from 18 to 22" she started pulling out a measuring device, "she is approximately 5 foot 3, weighing anywhere between 110 to a 130 pounds, race unknown, delicate features, Bursitis in the shoulder… Tennis player."

"You got a pretty tennis player out of this yuck…" replied Booth a little incredulous, "Ok… when did she die."

"If you want an accurate answer you will have to wait until our entomologist looks at the remains." replied Brennan.

"Give me a ballpark will you Bones." said Booth

"Fine, based on the minimal amount of flesh on the bones, fact that this pond is warm, contains fish which also suggests above average microbial activity due to low current… supported by the visually high algae content of the water. I can't give you a time of death but if the body was dumped into the pond the same day she died. She could have been in the water anywhere from one and a half to two years." answered Brennan, voicing her thoughts out loud. "No visible traces of clothing."

"You know in my line of work no clothes usually means a sex crime." voiced Booth.

"In my line of work it could also mean the victim favoured natural fibres." Brennan quickly stated.

"For example your suit will outlast your bones by decades agent Booth" commented Zack facing Booth who gave no indication that he heard him.

Standing up, Brennan now facing Booth "We're done here; your FBI forensics team can take the plastic and the chicken wire. We'll take the rest."

-o-o-o-o-

The following morning at the Washington FBI field office Booth was giving his report to the deputy director of the FBI.

"So… you guaranteed a squint a field roll in an active murder investigation?" questioned Cullen his tone slightly incredulous but willing to listen to his subordinate's explanation.

"Yes sir" replied Booth, with confidence.

" The one that wrote the book?" asked Cullen wanting clarification.

" Yes sir" replied Booth again

"I thought you said she wouldn't work with you anymore?" Cullen asked, in slight confusion.

"Well the last case we worked she provided a description of the murder weapon and the murderer but I didn't give her much credence." replied Booth, a little hesitance in his voice.

"Why not?" asked Cullen, interested in what Booth could have done to anger Dr Brennan

"Because she did it by looking at the victim's autopsy x-rays." replied Booth.

"Well I wouldn't have given it much credence either." Cullen said chucking slightly.

"Turns out she was right on both plus the pond victim," started Booth, standing and hands a file to Cullen "Brennan gives me the victims' age, sex, height, weight, approximate time she was in the pond and favourite sport… tennis."

"She's good." Commented Cullen clearly impressed.

"No, she's amazing. I've entered the information into missing persons" said Booth, giving Cullen another file "only one person turned up" gesturing towards the now open file, "Cleo Louise Eller"

"Isn't that your case" interrupted Cullen, receiving a nod from Booth before he continued.

"Brennan was spot on, age, height, weight, the time that she disappeared… hell let her stare at the bones long enough, I wouldn't be surprised if she could find out the race, hair and eye colour and make the full set… I'm still waiting for a positive identification but my gut tells me that this is our victim and if I am right then she just did in 20 minutes what would have taken our techs at least a day" continued Booth, with clear respect in his voice "If the only way I can get her back on my side is to bring her out in the field I'm willing"

"There is something you aren't telling me agent Booth, as I doubt that ignoring her findings will cause her to refuse working with you?" questioned Cullen, watching Booth shift in his chair in discomfort.

"Uh… well sir when we parted I sort of said something along the lines of her looking in her pulling shit out of her crystal ball." replied Booth, wincing slightly at the trouble his mouth get him at times.

Cullen just whistled softly at Booth's admission able to read in between the lines "You dug yourself this hole; I leave it up to you to dig yourself out"

"Yes sir" replied Booth

"Alright, however before I make my decision I want to see her file, I don't need a person that will get my people killed out in the field or god forbid give aid to a murderer." said Cullen, his demeanour displaying the importance of this information on his decision.

"I thought that you might," started Booth handing over the last file in his possession, "Born August 30 1975, parents disappeared on 1990, entered the foster system at the age of 15. 4.0 student though high school graduating at the age of 17… now this is where it gets interesting she was enlisted into the military after she graduated I assume to help pay for college, she scored 99 in the ASVAB" now that got a small whistle from Cullen "there is surprisingly little information during her time in the military, not even discharge papers yet there is no record of her currently being in active service… the only real thing of note is her marksmanship scores and attached targets, which is frankly astounding" indicating the three attached photographs of paper targets. "Pistol target, twelve out of twelve shots, two and a half inch grouping at 180 yards in 8.73 seconds. Rifle target, twenty out of twenty shots, 400 yards, three and a half inch grouping. And finally sniper rifles, five out of five, 2400 yards, one inch grouping." Booth had to shake his head at the last one. "She got a forty out of forty for her qualifications… there might not be any official statements in here but she is an expert marksman in my book, with five degrees to boot. Sir I just think we have landed ourselves the golden goose."

Cullen just silently for a few moments absorbing everything that Booth presented to him, before he started chuckling shaking his head slowly "I would have said you are shitting me if it weren't staring back at me, I don't like how we know next to nothing about her stint in the military but I must agree with you we definitely have landed ourselves the golden goose... Alright, she's on you. However regardless of her credentials she is still a squint, out in the field I am holding you responsible for her… You hear me!"

"Yes sir"

Happy New Year! to all of you.

This is Part 1 of Chapter 1. Thought it might be nice to give you all something for the new year.

Edited(05-01-2011): A few spelling corrections, missing words.

Thank you to everyone who left comments supporting this story as you are the ones who encourage me to write.