Chapter 2
Booth had returned from going out for coffee for the fifth time that morning and set one down next to her. Brennan had pulled another all-nighter examining the bones. She was just about to give up when her eyes caught something. She picked up the hyoid bone and stuck it under a magnifier to study it closer. After a few minutes, her face broke into a giant grin.
"I found cause of death!" she shouted.
"Jeez, Bones I'm right here. No need to shout," Booth quipped.
"Sorry, I'm used to having to shout to gather the squints," Brennan explained.
Booth smiled and approached her. "Did I ever tell you how much I love it when you call your highly intelligent scientific group of employees, squints?"
Brennan held the small bone up to Booth's face. "The hyoid bone has a fracture. It is a very fine fracture, but it indicates strangulation. I almost missed it due to the fact that this was one of the shattered bones I had glued together," Brennan informed him, ignoring his question. "I need to tell Cam."
She turned away from him and hit a few buttons on the laptop to interlink with the Jeffersonian.
Booth walked right up to her, pressing his chest lightly against her back. He bent his head and whispered. "Go ahead and pretend you didn't hear me but I know you did."
She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as his words tickled her ear. The heat from his body against her back was causing a warming sensation deep within her. She found herself choking on the words she wanted to spat back at him but before she could truly panic, Booth stepped away from her to go retrieve his coffee. She took an unnecessary lungful of breath and released it slowly. Booth didn't miss it and he smiled into his coffee cup. He knew it was only a matter of time that she came to terms with what he already knew to be true. He just had to be strong and continue to chip away at her wall until it came crashing down.
Before either of them spoke, Cam popped up on the screen. "You find something, Dr. Brennan?"
"Yes, I found cause of death. It was strangulation," Brennan informed Cam as she held up the hyoid bone. "Her hyoid was fractured."
"Are you okay? You look a little flushed," Cam observed.
Booth coughed to hide a chuckle as Brennan looked down. "I'm fine Dr. Saroyan."
Cam looked between the two partners and was about to say something when Angela approached.
"This is my rendering of the victim," Angela said as she walked into view with a sketch of a woman's face in her hands. "I ran it through the database and got a hit. Her name is Macie Johnson."
Booth scribbled the name down then pulled out his cell phone to call FBI headquarters. After jotting a few things down and a mumbled, "Thanks Charlie," he hung up and walked over to stand by Brennan.
"She was reported missing three weeks ago by close friends, Sabrina and Jesse Matthews. She was the bartender at their nightclub Artemis in Burlington, Vermont," Booth informed everyone.
"I will have the remains shipped out in the next hour," Brennan stated. Cam nodded and the screen went blank.
She turned around and almost slammed into Booth. She cocked her head to the side and glared at him. "Is there a reason you are invading my personal space?"
Booth's eyes twinkled as he crossed his arms. "You can play dumb with me all you want but I know you know what I already know and one of these days you will admit it to me, out loud."
Brennan straightened and stuck her nose up at him. "I have no idea what you are talking about and you" Brennan jabbed a finger in Booth's chest, "should know by now that I am not dumb. I am a genius." Brennan walked around him and started to wrap the bones for shipping.
Booth rubbed his chest where she poked him then turned on his heel and faced her. "That is my whole point Bones, you are far from dumb. That goes for not only book smarts but people skills too, thanks to me, because I am rubbing off on you," Booth clarified.
"What? No, that is ludicrous. A person cannot physically rub off onto someone else unless you are referring to the shedding of epithelial…," Brennan paused as she took in Booth's expression. "Oh, I'm being too literal again, aren't I? "
Booth sighed dramatically. "Yes, Bones."
"Then my answer would have to be yes. I have found myself behaving in a less literal and scientific way outside the work environment and embraced a more societal way to express human emotions in the past few years."
"Thanks Bones. I thought you were going to be difficult for a minute there."
"Why are you thanking me?"
Booth walked up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Because you just complimented me in your own words."
Brennan tilted her head as she thought about this. "You are correct. I did compliment you and you're welcome."
"Let's get this body shipped out and get the hell outta this little town," Booth said as she returned to the task of wrapping the bones.
"I thought you liked this place?" Brennan asked.
"I did until I realized they had no diner. What kind of town has no diner?"
Brennan shook her head and chuckled. "Only you would be concerned about that factor. Help me finish this and we can leave that much sooner. I am assuming we are headed to Vermont after this?"
He nodded. "You would assume correctly. I just hope they have a diner."
Brennan rolled her eyes and chuckled.
After shipping out the remains to the Jeffersonian, they had made their way to Vermont. Booth was very happy to see that Burlington was far from a ghost town and that there were in fact, a few diners.
Brennan was unpacking in her hotel room with Angela on her laptop screen.
"So you and Agent Studly aren't sharing a room?" Angela asked.
Brennan gave her an exhausted glare. "Ang, we've been over this several times…"
"I know, I know," Angela interrupted, "strictly professional between you two. I just hope you know what you are doing Bren, before it's too late. That man did something very difficult and got the response he most feared."
Brennan slumped down at the desk and faced her best friend. "I'm not good for him. He deserves better, someone who can give him a lifetime of happiness. I can't change."
"Bren, sweetie, he doesn't want better. He wants you and only you, exactly as you are. The whole 'I can't change' line is a load of crap and you know that it is. Sweetie, the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched. They must be felt with the heart," Angela explained.
Brennan looked down. "I don't know what that means."
Angela crossed her arms. "Yes, you do."
Brennan got up from the desk and quickly turned her back to the laptop. She stepped out of the screen's view and wiped the offending tears that had fallen from her eyes. She took a deep breath then came back into view and proceeded to unpack her suitcase.
"So tell me Ang, has the weapon been discovered yet?"
Angela sighed at her friends 'back to business attitude' but knew it was her way of dealing with emotions. "Yeah, the weapon used was an aluminum baseball bat and..."
A knock on Brennan's door followed by the sound of a key card swiping had both turning to see Booth enter her room. "Hey Booth, Angela was just informing me of the weapon."
Angela smiled at Booth as she raised one eyebrow. "So, you have a key to Brennan's room. Interesting, very interesting."
"The weapon Angela," Booth ordered.
"Oh alright. Some of the damage was caused by an aluminum baseball bat and the rest was done by bare hands, including the strangulation. I just finished the simulation program for you and Brennan to view. I warn you though, it's violent."
Brennan sat at the desk and Booth leaned on it to hover over the laptop. Angela hit a couple buttons and her window shrank to the corner while another window popped up. The program started and they watched as the victim was attacked, her arms trying to protect herself as a bat swung over and over, breaking her arms and right knee. After a final blow with the bat to the chest, causing the sternum to crack, the victim is seen being continuously struck over and over on the face with bare hands. The killer then placed both hands around the victim's throat, strangling her until she dies.
Booth and Brennan sat quiet for a moment as the simulation ended. They are appalled by the brutality of the crime. Angela brought her window back up to fill the laptop screen. She is the first to speak. "All that you saw in the simulation occurred over a period of six days before she was murdered. The actions are in chronological order as they occurred."
"She either pissed someone off or broke some psycho's heart," Booth commented.
Cam appeared next to Angela and nodded in agreement. "I'm with you on that, this looks like a classic crime of passion. They are usually the most violent."
"Hopefully tomorrow we'll get some insight from her friends. Looks like we're going clubbin' tomorrow, Bones," Booth cracked, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"What? No, we are going to a nightclub to investigate," Brennan stopped when Booth gave her his charm smile. "Oh, you were giving a colloquialism of a nightclub genre, I get it."
Booth shook his head and chuckled as Cam and Angela chuckled with him.
"Are you still working on what was used to break her bones into several pieces?" Brennan asked bringing them back to business.
Cam shook her head. "Not sure yet. There are no markings and of course no particulates where the bones were broken. Hodgins and Wendell are testing the only theory that seems to fit which is breaking all of them without any tools."
"Let me know when you get an answer."
"Always do," Cam commented and smiled before the screen went blank.
The next day the partners were driving along the road in yet another rented Nissan Xterra, except this one was black.
"How come you didn't get the yellow one? I thought yellow was a cool color," Brennan asked.
Booth shrugged. "You didn't seem to like the yellow so I went with black."
Booth felt her staring at him so he turned to her. They locked eyes but the intensity of it had both of them looking away at the same time. Brennan stared out her window as she spoke.
"You could've got the yellow, Booth. It kind of grew on me."
He rolled his eyes. "Now you tell me."
Brennan whipped her head in his direction. "Well, how was I supposed to know that you were going to get a different color based on me?"
"I did it out of courtesy because you complained about the yellow the whole time we drove it in New Hampshire!" Booth shouted.
Both partners went silent for a few minutes as they stewed. Booth looked over at her staring out the window and fought to keep the smile off his face. He could tell by her body language that she was no longer angry either. As if on cue, she turned and looked at him, giving a weak smile.
"Do you have any leads or gut feelings about the murderer?" Brennan asked.
"According to the original missing persons report, her friends insisted on the victim's ex-girlfriend, Paula Fredd, as being the main suspect. Paula is bipolar and had dated Macie prior to moving to Vermont when Macie broke it off. Ms. Fredd had caught up to her recently and hit her in a heated argument. Over a dozen people witnessed it being that it occurred at the nightclub. She was kicked out and given a defiant trespass. She was also charged with assault and battery but served no jail time. This incident happened four days before Macie went missing. Investigators questioned Paula for hours but she never gave any indication that she was involved with Macie's disappearance. Without a body and no evidence, they had to let her go." Booth looked over at Brennan with a smirk. "You do know this is a gay nightclub that we are going to, right?"
Brennan scoffed. "Yes Booth, I am well aware of that. We have had cases involving homosexuals before. I thought by now we have accepted the fact that it bothers neither of us. I do recall you telling me that you had a lesbian aunt who was, as you put it, your favorite aunt."
"Aunt Ruth. Yeah, I miss her," Booth smiled. "The nightclub should be just around the corner."
Booth turned onto a street and a large brick building with blue shutters came into view. The top of the building was bordered in blue paint with yellow blocked-lettering, spelling 'Artemis' repetitiously around it. A blue canopy covered the entrance way.
Booth stared up at the building with a quizzical expression as he parked on the street.
"Booth, are you okay?" Brennan asked.
"Yeah, I'm just having a sense of déjà vu right now."
"Booth, there is no scientific proof that déjà vu even exists. A physiological explanation of déjà vu is that the optical and neural paths from the two…" Booth cupped his hand over Brennan's mouth before she could continue and leaned in close to her.
"Let it go, Bones, I'm not in the mood for some squint factor of how déjà vu is nothing but the neurons in our brain firing at the optical lenses to envision what our brain wants us to believe that we have seen but haven't seen before," Booth ranted.
Brennan burst out laughing into his hand and he quickly removed it, wiping it on his jacket while glaring at her.
"That makes absolutely no sense!" Brennan shouted through hysterics.
He brushed her off and exited the vehicle. He couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen this place before. He quickly walked to Brennan's side as she exited the truck and guided her to the main doors. As soon as they entered the nightclub, Booth froze. Brennan continued walking ahead, not even noticing his absence from her side.
"This place is almost symmetrical to the Jeffersonian lab, wouldn't you agree?"
When she got no answer, she turned around and found Booth still in the entrance way. She tilted her head in typical Brennan fashion as she made her way back to his side. "Booth, is something wrong?"
Booth didn't answer her as he stared blankly at his surroundings.
The bar top was illuminated in white lights while ominous yellow lighting glowed on the bar wall where various liquors were stored. Blue lights illuminated the raised dance floor located in the center and also under the overhang of the bar top, giving the white linen-covered seats a bluish hue. The entire place had a grey steel look with a catwalk around the top.
Booth remained trapped in place as he started to have an out of body experience. He could literally see himself and Bren leaning on the rails of the catwalk, staring down at the stage below. Even though he was quite a distance away, the wedding band on Bren's finger shimmered boldly in the dim club lights. He continued to stare at the happy couple, watching the scene unfold in the glow of the blue and yellow neon lights of the Artemis logo sign.
I know I'm evil to end it like that...hehehe. Please review!
