"The victim is an African-American male, in his late 20s to early 30s." Brennan rattled off what she got from her initial assessment as Booth drove her back to the Jeffersonian. "He's either been dead for a few months or some agent was used to speed up decomposition…" She looked over at Booth. His jaw was locked and his eyebrows furrowed in a way that she had never seen before. She quickly glanced down at the steering wheel and saw his hands were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white. "Perhaps he was abducted by aliens and returned in the early hours of the morning."

"Uh huh." Booth nodded.

"You're not listening." If she was capable of whining, she thought to herself, that last statement would have been very annoying. But it wasn't. It was fact.

"Bones," Booth sighed. "I just arrested my sister."

"Your secret sister." She prodded.

"Not a secret." He shook his head. "Just…"

"Disowned?" Brennan tried to finish his thought and he shook his head again. "Run away?"

"She got lost." He tried to explain

"Well I'm sure you did everything in your power to find her." She attempted to comfort him.

"Not that kind of lost… I mean, yeah, I didn't know where she went, but she just…" He shrugged. "I don't want to talk about it. What do you have on the pile of ooze?"

"I already told you." She reminded, not particularly in the mood to repeat herself.

"Right." He nodded.

Brennan sighed and looked out the window. She wasn't going to try anymore. Not for the moment, at least.

*

Brennan slowly opened the door to the interrogation observation room and saw Dr. Lance Sweets there, flipping through a folder. He looked up and smiled as Brennan made her way into the room.

"Did you know about her?" He asked, the direction of his gaze shifted to the diminutive blond now sitting in the interrogation room with her legs pulled in to her chest and her arms protectively holding herself in a ball.

"No." She shook her head. "Is that her file?"

Sweets nodded and handed it over to Brennan and she flipped through it.

"She's in law school." Sweets provided "At The George Washington University. She had a history with drugs." Brennan looked up with surprise, not seeing and prior arrests on her record. "She went to rehab." He explained. When Brennan looked up again, he answered her silent question. "She went to a state run rehabilitative program, not a private one. I secured her medical and psychological profile."

"Booth said she got lost." Brennan said softly as she continued to flip through it.

"I think," Sweets said slowly, "That she didn't get lost so much as Booth had to cut her loose." Brennan looked up from the folder and Sweets continued. "The dates coincide with him coming back from war, starting his career with the FBI… he had his own stuff to deal with. Having a problem child as a little sister was probably more than he could handle."

"Booth would never do that. He wouldn't just cut someone off without a good reason." Brennan defended.

"He did have a good reason." Sweets nodded as the door to the interrogation room opened and Booth walked through. Kelly's position shifted immediately into sitting straight up and she glared at him. "He loved her, that's why."

Brennan looked confused, but heard Booth talking and decided to let it drop until after the questioning.

"You're going to think before you answer." Booth warned. "Think long and hard."

"I hardly think a wayward sister will ruin your career." She sneered

"You aren't thinking." He warned again. "Everything you say can be used against you. I have people sitting in there watching." He pointed at the mirror. "We're going to do this the right way, but I am going to advise you to shut your mouth for once and think."

Kelly's eyes never left his as she nodded, almost imperceptivity.

"What happened this morning between the hours of 2 and 10." He didn't ask, he demanded.

"I closed the bar early. I was home sleeping until about 6am this morning, then I went to class." She responded with a muted tone

"Why did you close early?"

"There was no one there. It was me and my bartender from about 10 to around midnight. When my bartender isn't making tips, I see no point in staying open." She explained.

"Who was the last person to leave the bar?"

"Me." She nodded and he sat back. That wasn't what he wanted to hear. "At midnight I had Cara, my bartender, clean up the bar, count her till, then I sent her home. I sat in the office until about 1am, counting the night's deposit. I locked it in the safe in the office, locked the office door, then I went out the back doorway to the alley and I locked that. I live about two blocks from there, so I walked home, went to bed and woke up, like I said, at 6am for school."

"When you left, to the best of your knowledge, there was no one there at the bar?"

"No one." She confirmed

"Do you see how he's sitting? How he's leaning in?" Sweets whispered to Brennan "It's like he's yearning to cross that invisible boundary that's between them. He's not asking questions to trip her up, he's playing it safe."

"That how you qualify love?" Brennan looked skeptically.

"He raised her. I'd put my money on it. She's about ten years younger, so he was old enough to take an almost paternal role in her life. Knowing Booth the way I do, I'd even say that he blames himself for her drug use."

"He feels guilty for even putting her in this situation." Brennan nodded and Sweets looked at her with surprise. "What? I can't make psychological observations?"

"No, it's just…" Sweets smiled. "I think you're very accurate with your assessment."

"Thank you." Brennan turned her attention back to the interview.

"Who had access to your keys." Booth demanded. Somewhere along the line of questioning, Kelly had become agitated and was pacing around behind the table.

"No one. Me. They were in my purse." She shrugged.

"I need your keys for testing." Booth said slowly

"Fine." She paused and looked at him. "Wait, why?"

"There are marks on the bones, on the arms." He explained. "The squints said it looked like defensive wounds made with keys or some other small, serrated metal object."

"I didn't kill anyone." She said defiantly.

"I know." Booth softly nodded.

"You know?" Kelly's laugh hid a touch of hysteria. "No you don't! We wouldn't be here if you were certain. But as far as you know, I'm still high. You think that me and my meth could have done it. There's suspicion all over your face! You don't know how, not yet, but you're going to find out! You think I did it! You're not 100% committed to that theory, but there's part of you that's questioning me…. Me!"

"Enough!" Booth stood up so forcefully that he sent his chair flying backwards. Brennan and Sweets jumped a little bit when they heard the tone of his voice. "Sit down." He commanded.

"You can't tell me what to do!" She said defiantly. "You're not my father."

"Kelly Ann," Booth barked, "You sit your ass down, right now."

They held each other's stare for what seemed to Brennan as an eternity. Kelly's eyes never left his as she sank into the waiting chair, her arms still crossed in rebellion.

"Again, I'm going to remind you that everything you say is on the record. People are watching." Booth started more calmly. "I can't hold you. But I'm going to warn you, don't do anything stupid." He whipped his body around and quickly started towards the door. When he reached for the handle, he softly told her, "Being mad at me isn't going to solve anything." And with that, he exited the room.

Brennan and Sweets waited for him to come into the observation room, but when he didn't, Brennan looked at the woman in the other room and suddenly saw a very scared little girl.

"I'm going to try something." She murmured to Sweets and left the room. Tentatively, she made her way into the interrogation room and Kelly looked up in surprise. "Hi, Kelly, I'm Doctor Temperance Brennan, I'm-"

"The Forensic Anthropologist." She nodded "We've studied some of your work in my Forensic Law class."

"What year are you in law school?" She asked, taking the seat Booth had been occupying

"Just started my third." Kelly told her

"You work until 2am most nights and then wake up at 6am?" Brennan looked honestly amazed and Kelly smiled sarcastically

"What else are you supposed to do when your family cuts you off?"

"I admire your commitment." Brennan said candidly

"Thank you."

"Are you as committed to your regulars as you are to your paycheck?" She asked suspiciously and Kelly raised an eyebrow.

"I know every single one. I know who's cheating on their wives and who owes money to the IRS." Kelly nodded, accepting Brennan's challenge.

"Have any been missing lately?"

"You mean, you think the victim is a regular?" She laughed. "Now that is the ultimate irony."

"Think, Kelly." Brennan encouraged.

"No, everyone has been…" She trailed off. "Omar."

"Who?" Brennan sat forward and tried to look encouraging.

"Omar Johnson. He was in my study group and he started coming to the bar. He was struggling with classes… When we weren't busy, I'd take a little study break with him. He didn't show up for classes on the first day this past year… I thought he just dropped out." Kelly shook her head. "But I couldn't imagine him not telling me…"

"This Omar, did he have any identifying markers? A limp? Anything?" Brennan asked

"He, uh…" Kelly pointed to her upper lip. "What's that called again… a cleft pallet? He had it fixed when he was a kid."

"Thank you, Kelly." Brennan nodded and stood up. "You've been very helpful."

"Can I go?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. Brennan had been missing the familial link between Booth and Kelly until she caught a slight glimmer of amusement behind her eyes, something that had been missing from Booth's eyes since the surgery.

"I'll double check." Brennan nodded

*

"You interrogated my sister?" Booth chased after Brennan as she made her way up to the platform at the Jeffersonian.

"You have a sister?" Hodgins perked up as the two scrambled onto the platform.

"She holds a lot of valuable information that you were overlooking." Brennan shrugged and looked at her newest assistant. "Any signs of a cleft pallet?"

"A cleft pallet?" Booth crinkled his eyes "What does that have to do with my sister?"

"What is Kelly doing in town?" Cam came up behind them

"You knew about his sister?" Brennan looked at Cam and she nodded.

"You have a sister?" Angela, who had been standing across the lab, made her way up to the platform.

"Yes, I have a sister. Half sister. Whole pain in the ass." Booth threw his hands out to stop the questions. "Why did you question her?" He looked at Brennan

"Because you wouldn't." Brennan turned back to her assistant to and looked at him expectantly.

"There is evidence of surgery." The assistant held up the freshly cleaned skull

"A cleft pallet." Brennan took the skull between her hands. "Your sister, the one you refused to interrogate, just identified the victim."