Chapter Two.

3 days ago.

"Remind me why i'm here again." Temperance Brennan asked her partner Special agent Seeley Booth in a frustrated tone of voice. "You said these bodies had flesh. How many more times would you like me to remind you. I don't work with flesh!" she disputed.

Booth held his arms up in defense. "Whoa! Hold your horses there Bones. What I said was, there were three bodies, one with flesh and two very much without. Now follow me and be careful the floor is very slippery."

After Booth had recieved the call that morning, they had wound up in a dilapidated house downtown. The landlord had called it in after he had been at the property chasing the occupants for the monthy rent. Upon arrival at the scene they had found some of the downstairs rooms flooded with at least a couple inches of water.

Brennan pulled out her flashlight and began shining it around the darkened room. There was nothing of interest in the living room. One couch alone in the center of the room along with a tv and some books were strewn over the wet carpet. It was the kitchen in which they found the first body, slumped on the floor.

Booth wrenched as the stench hit him "Hell that is bad!" he said as he covered his nose and mouth with his jacket sleeve. Bones just strolled over to the rotting corpse oblivious to the ghastly smell. "Male, Hispanic origin. Age i'd say is between 40-45 years old. He's been dead approximatley 6-10 days."

"Cause of death?" He then asked.

"Inspecting the remains more closely she finally answered him " Seems to be a gunshot wound to the frontal lobe. From what I can tell could be from a 45 caliber."

"Execution style?" Booth enquired.

"That's what it looks like" she concluded.

"Up here Agent Booth" Came a shout from a fellow agent.

Booth gestured for Brennan to follow "Now watch the stairs Bones" No sooner as she said those words, his foot slipped and he went crashing down on one knee cursing under his breath.

"Thanks for the tip" Brennan replied sarcastically, as she steadily manouvered her way past Booth and continued her way up the stairs.

"Anytime Bones, anytime" the agent silently whispered to himself as he picked himself and scurried up after her.

The water was slightly deeper here and it seemed to be flowing from underneath a closed door at the end of the hall. Brennan guesses that must be the bathroom as she made her way towards it, but not before Booth jumped in front of her his gun at the ready. "Bones what are you doing? Will you never learn."

Brennan rolled her eyes as his alpha male protectiveness again reared its ugly head. "Do you honestly think the person responsible would still be here? let alone be hiding out in the bathroom."

Booth ignored her reasoning as he kicked the door wide open. There in the bathtub lay the body of a young woman. The tap was still running and had caused the bath to overflow and subsequently to spill over the floor. Eventually covering the entire upstairs and partial downstairs.

Brennan pulled out the plug to drain the water and then began her analysis of the body. It was not what she was used to. She hated working with skin. She was after all an anthropologist not a pathologist. "Female, again hispanic descent. Approximate age 18-20 years old. From what I can tell you she's only been dead between eight to twelve hours."

"Can you determine cause of death?" He then asked as he began searching for any other clues around the room.

She closely inspected the body. Apart from some bruising on her upper arms there were no wounds resulting from any kind of weapon, and no signs of blunt force trauma. "No external injuries from what I can see. I'd say she drowned. Bruising here" she pointed out the purplish bruising on her skin. "Indicates she was held down rather forcefully."

"Dr Brennan" the agent from before called out "There is another one in here" He led her down to a bedroom. Half lying on the bed was another decomposing body. Brennan went about her business. She was able to tell it was another hispanic female, between 30-35 years old. Cause of death was again a gunshot wound to the head.

The other agent continued searching the room but stopped when he heard muffled cries which seemed to be coming from a closet in the corner of the room. He approached quietly and slowly opened the door. The first thing he was met by was the terrifying screams of a little girl.

"Hey agent Booth, Dr Brennan over here."

They both walked over to the agent who was now trying his best to calm the child down. "Its okay. I'm not going to hurt you." the agent tried to explain to the frightened child. This only caused the scared girl to retreat further into the closet.

Booth gently moved his collegue away, hoping that he would have better luck seeing as he had this kind of experience. "Hey, what ya doing in there? He asked. After recieving no response, he moved his hands into grab her but he didn't seem to be succeeding too well when he let out a yelp. "AHH!" he screamed as the child bit him hard on his hand. "Damn it!"

Brennan rolled her eyes. "For someone who has a child you don't seem to be doing too well in the parenting skills department." she remarked. "Could I try?" She then suggested.

Booth's eyes shot up "YOU!" I don't think you qualify for this kind of interaction Bones" he retorted.

Brennan looked hurt at his sudden change in attitude. Who does he think he is. Without listening to any further comments she pushed her partner out of way and peered into the closet. "Hi, whats your name? The little girl just stared at her with widened eyes."My name is Temperance and i'm an anthropologist" she then went on to tell her.

"Nice going Bones" Booth noted in a sarcastic undertone.

The girl moved closer to Brennan's outstretched welcoming arms. "Come on your safe now" she said, calmly tempting her to come closer "It's okay sweetheart no-ones going to hurt you" Brennan promised her in the best soothing voice she could conjure up.

The girl threw herself into Brennan's arms sobbing wildley. "Ssh everythings going to be okay." She knew though it wasn't. This child may have witnessed the murder of her family. They didn't just up and leave. She would never get the chance to see them again. They were dead. How would she ever get over that.

Booth's face turned red with embarrassment not quite believing that she had managed to succeed where he had failed.

Brennan locked eyes with the little girl "Whats your name then?"

"C-caitlin." she whispered.

"That a really pretty name. Now this is my friend Seeley Booth. He's an FBI agent" The girl buried her head back into her shoulder. "Caitlin, honey. I need for you to go with agent Booth here."

Booth crouched down making another attempt to take hold of Caitlin. Finally warming to him she flung her arms around his neck hugging him tightly. Booth turned his attention to Brennan. "I need answers Bones."

She nodded in acknowledgement "I should be able to give you more answers as soon as I get the bodies back to the lab."

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Two burly looking men stood in the dimly lit room. They were Carlos and Benny and they worked for someone named only as the boss.

"Can't believe the feds showed up" Benny shouted.

"Don't blame me!" Carlos yelled back defensively "I did what was asked of me" he then added.

"You should count yourself lucky no-one saw you, or the boss is going to have your balls served on a plate" Benny snapped.

"You were the one supposed to be keeping watch" Carlos snarled.

"Well how the hell was I supposed to know." Benny shouted back in a angry voice.

They were both interrupted by the booming voice from the opposite side of the room. "I take it everything went smoothly."

"Yes!" The two men spoke in unison.

"So did she give you any trouble Carlos?" Came the gruff voice in the dimly lit room.

"No boss" Carlos answered him.

"I hope that Benny didn't cause any trouble." .

"No! not at all boss." Carlos answered, as he glared at Benny.

"Good! because you know I don't tolerate anyone who betrays me. Hope there is a lesson to be learnt from this."

"Yes sir" Carlos replied in a rather shaky voice.

Boss strolled across to both men. He placed a shoulder around Carlos leading him from the room whilst he barked orders at Benny to get his car ready.

"Now tell me. Did Rosanna scream, struggle, beg for mercy?"

The man described in detail how he had drowned the woman now known as Rosanna. How long it took the her to die and how he had seeked pleasure from watching her struggling for a single breath. He would have hung around longer if it wasn't for the fact that he had been interrupted by someone constantly banging on the door and then the FBI showing up unexpectantly. "I had to make a quick exit though" Carlos explained.

"No-one saw you did they?" Boss asked his voice tinted with a hint of anger.

"Definitley not!. You know you can always count on me boss, but the feds they were swarming all over the place" He decided honesty was the best policy and this wasn't his fault. He was convinced the boss would understand.

"The feds eh?" There was an eerie silence and Carlos started to look worried "Screw the feds they have nothing on us."