Here's the next chapter guys. Thank you so much for you great reviews! Keep it up. I really hope you like this one.

Disclaimer: if I owned anything then I wouldn't need this disclaimer now would I?

Chapter 2: Of Questions and Answers

When Angela arrived at 9 Temperance was hovering over the examining table where a skeleton was carefully arranged and speaking into her Dictaphone. Angela swiped her card and mounted the steps, moving over to the table.

"Hey Bren, this is a new one." She said cheerfully. Temperance put down the Dictaphone and smiled at her best friend.

"We got it this morning. In fact I'm glad you're here because I need you to reconstruct this face for me."

"Sure Hon, whenever you're finished with it."

"Oh I'm already done." Temperance picked up the skull and handed it to Angela, who looked at her, perplexed.

"Bren honey, how long have you been here?"

"Since five." Temperance replied nonchalantly.

"Five!" Angela spluttered. "What the on earth were you doing here at five in the morning? It still would have been dark. I mean, I know you're a workaholic and all but coming in to work at five when I bet you only left at about nine last night is…"

"Angela!" Temperance cut her off. "It wasn't my intention to come in that early, but Booth got me up at 3:30 to go to the crime scene where these remains were found and by the time we were finished there was no point in going back home, so Booth just dropped me off here so I could start on our victim. Okay?"

Bypassing everything else Temperance had just told her, Angela grinned widely. "Oh so Booth was with you before you got up this morning?"

Temperance looked at her like she was insane. "What? No."

"But you just said that Booth got you up this morning." She said mischievously.

Sighing, Temperance realised what her friend was trying to get at. "No Angela. Booth rang me this morning. From his place. And stop it! Booth and I are partners, alright?"

Angela let out a sigh of her own, although she had no intention of letting this go. At that moment Booth appeared below the platform. "Ooh speak of the devil!" Angela said as he swiped his card and came up the stairs.

Booth mirrored Angela's broad grin. "Talking about me now, are we ladies?"

"No." Temperance said, quickly switching her attention to the bones in front of her. Booth raised an eyebrow at her, still smiling.

"Right well I'm off. I've got work to do." Angela said very seriously, indicating the skull in her hands. She took one step away, then spun back around on her heels. "Oh, and Booth," she said, all innocence. "Just so you know, it's far more polite if you at least sleep with a woman before you drag her out of bed in the wee hours of the morning to look at dead people."

Temperance's head snapped up. "Angela!" But Angela was already off and halfway to her office, a grin spreading from ear to ear.

Booth stood there, now with both eyebrows raised. There was an awkward pause, then he laughed. "Man, she's a piece of work!"

Temperance's face was burning, for once she had actually understood what Angela was insinuating. "No," she glared daggers at Angela's office door, "she's rude. And interfering. And convinced she is right about everything."

Booth laughed and threw an arm round her shoulders. "That seems to have become a bit of a theme around here, don't you think Bones?" The gesture had been casual but suddenly Booth was very aware of how close he was to her. He felt the sudden urge to reach up and brush her hair away from her flushed cheek.

Temperance had been mortified at Angela's comment and had covered her discomfort with anger. When Booth had put his arm around her however, both feelings disappeared. Now she didn't know what to feel. She didn't know what to do. So she reverted back to the one thing she did know about: her work. She took a step away from him, ignoring the unexpected feeling of loss when cold air replaced the warmth of Booth's arm around her.

"The fracture to the left radius is consistent with someone trying to protect themselves. It's most likely that she fell on something hard, like concrete, when her hands were bound in front of her, so instead of putting out her hands to break her fall she had to use her arms. The small markings I mentioned earlier were made by rats eating away the surrounding tissue. I've got Angela working on the face now. How did you go with the photo?"

When she shifted away from him Booth had felt regret, but then he told himself that he was glad she had moved away, before he'd done anything stupid. What had got into him? He must be tired from the ridiculously early start this morning. Yes, that was it. Booth ignored the tiny voice in the back of his mind calling him a horrible liar.

"I couldn't get any ID from the photo, and I ran those dental records you sent through, they didn't come up with a name for us either. So did you work out how she died?" he grimaced, "It wasn't the…the rats. Was it?"

"No. she died before the rats got to her. A knife cut to the throat. Clean across, right through to the vertebrae." Booth nodded, then glanced around the lab.

"Hey, where are your other two squints?"

Temperance frowned. "I honestly have no idea. They're half an hour late. Which is actually an hour late for them because they are normally here half an hour early."

" I bet that toy Hodgins calls a car broke down." Booth said, remembering the last time he had to ride in that death trap with a few busted ribs, a broken arm and a severely bruised body.

"Well if they aren't here soon I'll have to ring them. And they better have a damn good reason for being late."

"I've got the crime scene photos here. Want to have a look?"

"Sure."

Booth spread them out on one of the desks and they both started looking through them, although neither of them gathered much information from their search. Ten minutes later Zach and Hodgins arrived. Temperance glared at them as they approached.

"And where have you been?"

Hodgins didn't even flinch. Zach at least had the decency, or in this case it was probably common sense, to look slightly abashed.

"My car!" Hodgins exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "My car broke down just before we got on the freeway and we had to wait aeons before some incompetent imbecile finally came to tow it. Then we had to catch a cab here. Unbelievable!"

"Hah! I was right!" Booth said loudly, standing next to the table, his chest puffed out. He grinned childishly down at Temperance sitting in her chair. "See, Bones. That just proves my gut can be right. So there!"

"Booth that was a lucky guess and had nothing to do with your gut." But she couldn't help returning his infectious smile, especially when he retorted, "But I was still right!" obviously very proud of himself. Hodgins just glared at the frustratingly cocky agent.

"Right, well now you're here you can start working." Temperance told them, getting up from her chair. "Zach, there's not much left to do on the remains but over here in this evidence box there are some candles collected from the crime scene. They were blown out at 4:50 this morning. Can you give us a time frame?"

"Yes Dr. Brennan." Zach picked up the plastic box and moved off to a clear table.

"What are these?" Temperance turned around to see Hodgins looking at the photos still spread across the desk. Booth answered him. "They're photos of the crime scene. Although we don't know what it's actually meant to be." Hodgins picked up a picture that showed a clear shot of the entire mysterious scene.

"I think I know."

Was that very cruel of me? I'm sorry, but I didn't have time to write up the rest of the chapter and I won't be able to for a couple of days. So it was either give you this much now or make you wait for the whole thing. So what did you think? Reviews make my creative juices flow!