Congratulations! If you are here, it means that Chapter 1 enthralled you and has called you onto its next chapter! So like we've said in our profile, we try to be as accurate as possible with our stories, and that doesn't just include things about Bones because trust us….we know our Bones, anyway I'm sure once you read chapter 2 you will understand why Google has become our very best friend!
Disclaimer: We do not own Bones or any of its awesome (sexy booth) characters :/
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Something's Up
Once again that stupid, uncomfortable silence filled the room; the couch shook lightly as the two nervous bodies fidgeted. Across from them Dr. Lance Sweets smiled and looked back and forth between his anxious patients. "God…I really, really hate it when you do this," Booth grumbled while looking out of the window. "Actually, it is getting quite annoying," Brennan agreed while looking down at her feet, then her knees, then the psychologist. "You've never minded the silence before Dr. Brennan, perhaps you are a bit anxious today?" the young doctor inquired, making Brennan flinch.
Leaning forward in his chair Sweets laced his fingers together and looked between the two of his uneasy patients, "So what's going on?" Booth turned to the young man, "What are you talking about?" he answered a little too quickly. "Well…." Sweets began, "I've noticed that neither of you have so much as looked at each other since coming in here. And this whole case, I've noticed a strange tension between the two of you, which is odd since you're usually very comfortable with each other and typically do that talking with your eyes thing to try and get me off topic. So-"
Brennan interrupted Sweets logically, "It's actually very impossible to talk with your eyes."
"The point is," Sweets began, again this time a little irritation in his voice, "Something's up…and we need to talk about what it is." Looking to Booth, he continued, "Did something happen?" For the first time since stepping through the door Booth and Brennan looked to each other and despite Brennan's earlier comment, a mutual understanding passed between and them before they both turned back to the young doctor and said in unison, "Nope, nothing." Pointing accusingly at the two, Sweets exclaimed, "There you go again! Right there, doing it again with your eyes! Look this is a truth zone, remember? So whatever is going on, we need to talk about it-"
Interrupting Sweets once more, "But there's nothing to talk about," Brennan said quickly. "Yeah, can we please go now?" Booth grumbled. Putting on a determined face, Sweets said, "No! No you cannot. Not until we discuss-"
The light buzzing of Booth's phone sounded in his pocket and the all too-eager FBI agent quickly pulled out his phone, holding it up proudly for Sweets to see as it vibrated in his hand. "Actually…I can, see?" Sighing, Sweets shook his head irritably, "Booth how many times have I asked you to turn your phone off during-" Booth interrupted Sweets by holding up one finger to the pouting psychiatrist as he flipped open his phone, "Yeah, Booth." A few seconds of silence passed by before Booth closed his phone and said, "Sorry Sweets, I set it on vibrate but that's just not off, is it? Oops." Booth was obviously not hiding his short attitude as he continued, "Bones and I are needed in the interrogation room so I guess we are gonna have to cut this one short."
As Brennan nodded and stood to leave, Sweets protested, "No no no! You guys we really should-"
"See ya Sweets!" both said in unison and as the door closed behind them, Sweets collapsed back into his chair heaving an exasperated sigh before saying, "God, every time!"
Fingers laced together, then unlaced, then laced again in an uncomfortable gesture of both boredom and nervousness. A cute, slender brunette with tan skin and a heart-shaped face fidgeted uneasily in her chair as she sat at the lonely gray table in the interrogation room. When the door opened, she looked up quickly to see the two interrogators enter the room. Pulling out the chairs on the opposite side of the table, the tense duo sat down and looked to the girl.
"Melinda, is it?" Booth inquired flipping open his yellow folder. "Yes," came the sheepish reply. "Do you know why you're here?" Brennan asked, feeling slight sympathy for the nervous girl. After all, she was quite young. "Um….they said something about it having to do with Blake but…they wouldn't tell me much of anything else." Brennan nodded then looked to Booth who watched the girl closely for any signs of guilt or anger or anything else questionable. "Did he do something? Is he in trouble?" she asked.
"Why would he be in trouble?" Booth wondered aloud. Shrugging, the girl looked down, "Well the other guys didn't like him much, seeing as he was the new kid and…" she smiled. "Blake was kind of cocky and…confident in his biking skills."
"Obviously that's why you were so attracted to him," Brennan began. "Bones…" Booth murmured. "What? Confidence in a male is very appealing…I mean you're confident in your abilities," Brennan explained and Booth smiled like she had just given him the compliment of the century. "Wait…" Melinda interrupted the two's side conversation, "Did you say…were attracted to him? Like…past tense?" she said worriedly.
Brennan looked to her and said, "Oh, he's dead." Booth covered his face with one hand and groaned, "Bones…"
Before the young 18 year old covered her mouth in shock, "Oh my God…" came from her quivering lips in the form of a shaky voice as her eyes immediately began over flowing with tears.
For the next few minutes, the two sat in silence while they waited for the young girl to calm down enough to answer more questions. The sobs slowly died down enough to where Booth felt it was ok to begin, "I'm sorry. I understand this is hard being his girl friend and all, but we really need you to help us find who did this." She looked up to him in shock, "You mean…he was murdered?" she said with horror in every word. "Yes…evidence indicates that-" Booth raised a hand before Brennan could continue, "Point being, if you can answer our questions, it'll be a big help," he said simply and was glad that Brennan listened to his hand gesture and shut up for once. Melinda nodded, "Of course I'll do whatever I can…" she sobbed, "I…just can't believe he's dead. I mean when he disappeared I thought maybe he just chickened out and went home to Florida." Booth raised his eyebrows, "Without telling you?"
The girl shrugged, "Well he was going through a rough time, a lot of the other competitors weren't being very good sportsmen…I figured he would call me when he got over it. At first I thought it was sort of weird but considering it was only a week before the competition I guess I just thought he gave up." Brennan suddenly made a confused face, "But the competition hasn't even occurred, and evidence shows that Mr. Hutton has been dead for over a month." Melinda nodded, "That's because the competition was delayed; remember that week when it rained hard for like four days straight? Well that messed up the track so they had to reconstruct it and hold off the competition. The race is scheduled for next week."
Booth nodded, "Was there anyone in particular that would make him want to leave in such haste like you thought he did?" He waited patiently while she thought about it. "Asher Morrison," she said finally with certainty in her voice. The two looked at the girl curiously, waiting for more. "He's another competitor, he's won the title for three years in a row, so when Blake showed up from out of nowhere, Asher got angry about his attitude…they were always fighting…" Booth nodded and took a mental note of the name Asher Morrison.
"Ok, well…" he began before the sound of Brennan's vibrating phone stopped him. "Yes? Hi Wendell," she said unaware of Booth's irritated look. Normally he had no problem with her phone going off during interrogation, but there was Booth's short attitude today again. Hanging up, she looked at Booth and blinked, "What?" He sighed, "You're supposed to have your phone off during interrogations..." Brennan shrugged and held her phone out so he could see the 'vibrate' icon. "I put it on vibrate…I thought you said that was the same thing?" Booth rolled his eyes, "It was Sweets, I was being sarcastic, Bones. God."
Standing, he nodded to Melinda. "Thank you for your time; we'll call if we have any more questions." Melinda nodded, her face showing her relief to be able to leave the stressful environment.
An almost perfect skeleton lay across the examining table in the bones room, the body was nearly complete with only a few pieces missing from the puzzle that was the human skeleton. Two gloved hands lifted the skull with great care as the examiner looked closely to the frontonasal suture. So concentrated on his task of deciphering and identifying the many micro fractures on this BMX rider's bones, Wendell didn't even notice Hodgins' entry.
The bug and slime scientist entered the bones room and proceeded to cross his arms and lean back in a sort of "I'm ready" stance. For a long time, the two stood in silence while Hodgins' waited patiently for Wendell to notice his presence. Wendell of course heard Hodgins come in and could feel the other man staring at him; however, he didn't want to lose concentration.
Finally when he was done, Wendell carefully set down the skull and turned to his colleague with a smile, "Hey Hodgins. What's up?" Hodgins shrugged, "Nothing much," he said simply and Wendell nodded before turning back to the bones. After another moment of Wendell feeling Hodgins' eyes on him, the young intern turned to the scientist once again, "Did you find something?" Again, Hodgins shrugged, "Nothing worth reporting quite yet," came the simple reply. Wendell nodded again and turned back to his work.
When he still didn't feel Hodgins' eyes leave him, he turned and said, "Do you need one of the bones?" The young intern was trying desperately not to be rude by saying 'What do you want? Ask or stop staring at me!' Hodgins shook his head, "Nope." Wendell's expression turned confused as he finally brought all his attention away from the bones. Something was up… perhaps a test from Dr. Brennan? "Then…what uh…what is it?"
Hodgins looked down at his feet and moved a little closer to Wendell, "I, uh…was just coming by to see how you were, you know, seeing as we've both been busy with our own things…me with the slime, you with the bones…Angela," he muttered the last part.
Blinking, Wendell cocked his head to the side, "Um…did you say Angela just now, Hodgins?" His worried tone made Hodgins smile a little. "Yea, you know how is everything going with her?" Hodgins inquired as if asking himself more than Wendell. The blond man shrugged, "Um…ok, I guess. I mean, we've been pretty busy so there hasn't been much time for going out." Hodgins nodded with a look on his face that said 'interesting' and egged at Wendell a little, though he couldn't understand why. There was an awkward silence and to Wendell's relief, Brennan walked into the room, pulling on her white gloves. Hodgins smiled and left as Wendell began his explanation on his findings to his mentor. With a curious look on her face, Brennan asked her bright intern,
"What are the new developments you found?" Wendell walked over to the examination table, leading Dr. Brennan toward the skull. Brennan lifted the skull from the table and examined it closely. "Good job with the reconstruction, Mr. Bray." Wendell nodded proudly at Dr. Brennan's praise, momentarily forgetting all about Hodgins. Moving back over to the other bones, Wendell swept his hand over the table in a gesture meaning 'all the bones' before explaining, "I have been able to determine so far what injuries occurred before and after death. You can probably guess that many of his injuries are just from his BMX riding background, however I did find a few injuries that occurred around the estimated time of death," pointing to the lower part of the body.
Wendell explained, "Major fractures to the femur and pelvis indicate that something was either lodged or pushed against his upper leg and torso with great force." Brennan nodded, "Very great in order to cause this amount of damage…" she murmured more to herself then to the young intern. After thinking for a moment, she looked to Wendell before saying, "What would have had to been happening in order for this to happen…"
Both scientists were silent as they contemplated this fact. As if on cue, Cam appeared in the doorway, looking in curiously to see how things were going, "Got anything?" Brennan nodded, "Very possibly, cause of death." Cam's face lit up, "Oh great, what is it?" Pointing to the bones, Brennan began, "Something was lodged into him or was pushed onto him with great force and caused the femur and pelvis to nearly break apart." Cam thought for a moment before saying, "That would have punctured the external iliac artery, and he would have died of blood loss within minutes," she said looking at fractured bones. "Still, we don't know exactly what could have caused these fractures," Wendell commented.
"I can bring our findings to Angela and see what scenarios she can come up with that may have ended the victim's life," suggested Brennan before turning to leave while removing her gloves. "Uh wait! Dr. Brennan before I forget, I have a question for Booth, where is he?" Cam called out as Brennan tossed her gloves in the trash. "He's talking to one of the suspects down at the BMX track where they've moved all activities to due to our investigation," she said simply, something in her tone of voice saying she didn't really want to talk about Booth.
Cam got the hint and nodded, "Ok. I'll just give him a call then. Let me know what Angela helps you find out," she said simply as Brennan left the room.
Bikes and guys in t-shirts, baggy shorts, and DC skater shoes surrounded Booth who felt very out of place as he looked out to the many hills of dirt and bikers riding on them. Normally Booth wouldn't mind the wait, but seeing as he was having another irritable day, he sighed impatiently while he waited for one of the kids he had asked to go and find Asher Morrison. He wasn't surprised that he didn't have to explain who Asher was or show any pictures. It was obvious that he was quite well known. And feared, Booth noted. Looking around, bored, Booth watched some riders do flips and turn their front wheels, while they laughed at those who messed up and cheered for those who stuck the landing.
His eyes ventured off the track toward some boys surrounding their bikes. They were either greasing their chains, changing grips on handle bars, testing brakes, or checking the tire pressure. "That's weird," Booth thought to himself, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man helping another kid tighten a bolt on his bike. The man was wearing faded blue jeans, a bright green helmet, and a dark blue t-shirt shirt that said "Construction" across the back. "Why is a construction worker helping these kids work on their bikes?"
Before Booth could take a moment to ponder the thought, a voice broke his concentration. "Agent Booth!" called the kid he had recruited to find Asher. The young man waved his hand to Booth as he headed towards him with another older man trailing behind him with two of his buddies at his heels. Booth smirked and contemplated, "Probably trying to scare me into thinking he can stick his dogs on me if I make him mad." The thought amused him greatly.
Asher smiled and took Booth's hand, "Agent Booth, I'm Asher Morrison. I'm sure you've heard of me before," he said smugly. Shaking his head, Booth said in a matter-of-fact way, "Actually, no. Not until this morning when your name came up during my investigation." Asher was taken aback by Booth's comment and Booth wasn't sure if he was shocked about the investigation or the never hearing about him part. "Investigation of what?" Asher asked curiously.
His not-caring tone made Booth a little mad as he said, "The murder investigation of a Mr. Blake Hutton. It's my understanding that you two didn't stand too well with each other." Asher looked at him shocked, "Blake's DEAD?" he said putting emphasis on the work dead, "And you think I had something to do with it?" The young man then laughed, "Look, it's not a crime to be happy that someone is dead. However, I didn't kill the guy." Waving his hand he turned away, Booth took a step forward and reached out, "Well I just need to ask-"
He was cut off when Asher's two buddies who had been standing in the background quietly, instinctively lunged forward at Booth. The two men were built like wrestlers and they held Booth's arms behind his back, or rather they tried. As soon as they lunged forward, Booth's instincts kicked in and one of the men receive a blow to the gut that sent him to his knees while the other was tossed to the side like a piece of trash. Asher turned around with the smuggest, most arrogant look on his face that Booth had ever seen. For a moment, when Asher saw that his body guards weren't holding Booth like he thought they were, the young man looked worried but quickly covered it up.
Moving in closer to the FBI agent, as to create intimidation he said, "I didn't kill Blake. You got no proof and I got an alibi. So you better not come around here again."
Booth growled, "Is that a threat?" Asher said nothing. Smart boy. Instead Asher simply smirked and pointed to something behind Booth. Quickly, Booth turned around, but not quick enough to dodge the 14 mm wrench that was swung by one of the body guards who had quickly recovered. Booth fell to the ground; his cheek burst with pain as he felt blood run along his jaw. Now Booth was mad.
Using his foot, he tripped his attacker. The man was big but had poor reflexes and he fell down like a ton of bricks. Asher, who saw the fire in Booth's now-furious eyes, tried to turn and run away, but Booth was already up and on him like piranhas after a skinny dipping missionary.
Slamming Asher into the wall, Booth growled into his ear, "Even if I can't get you for murder, I've got you and your goons for assaulting a federal agent!"
See what I mean by Google was our very best friend? I think that if someone monitored Google, they would be watching us and going "WTF?" Because we went from searching "Bone Diagrams" to "BMX Bikes" to "Artery diagrams" to "BMX accidents" to "maintence uniforms," etc. It took us a while to write this one, but in the end…we've never been more proud….ha ha yea so anyways we really hoped you enjoyed it please please please R&R!