Thanks so much for all of the alerts and the reviews.

I don't own Bones.

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The next week, a fisherman named Charles Manspeaker, who had been fishing up stream of Everett, Pennsylvania on the Juniata River, felt his boat hit what turned out to be two barrels tied together with heavy wire. The water in the river was higher and muddier than normal, so Charles wasn't surprised that he didn't see them before he hit them with his boat.

As soon as he could, Charles had used his IPhone and reported finding the barrels to the Bedford County Sheriff's office. Two deputies were sent out in a boat to where Charles agreed to wait for them. Once the deputies saw that the barrels were just under the surface they decided to bring them to shore. They tied a rope to the wire holding the barrels together and towed them behind their boat. Once they had got in near shore, they had a very hard time getting the barrels up onto the river bank because the barrels were very heavy. Deputy Gabriel Finch didn't like the looks of the barrels and decided to pull rank and have his partner Todd Sipes open up one of the barrels while he and Charles stood a good ways up on the river bank.

Outraged, Deputy Sipes complained very loudly. "I never believed that you would stoop this low, Gabe. There can't be anything good in these barrels and you know it. Why don't we call out hazmat for them. They might contain poison or something."

Gabe didn't want to call out anyone else until they'd had a look inside the barrels. "Nah, their just oil barrels . . . Don't be a girl, Todd. Just open the damn thing so we can go back to the station. It's chilly out here this morning."

Wishing he had passed the Sergeant's exam the last time he took it, Todd held his breath and opened one of the barrels. It didn't help. The second the lid was off, Todd was overwhelmed with the foulest odor he had ever smelled. He immediately lost the breakfast his bride of three years had made for him. "Damn it, Gabe. I told you this was a bad idea." Wretching, Todd felt like he was going to pass out.

Gabe, who could smell the contents of the barrel from his perch atop of the river bank, pointed to the barrel. "What's inside the barrel, Todd? You haven't looked yet."

"Why don't you come down and look for yourself, you selfish mother fucker." Holding his stomach, Todd really didn't want to look.

"Now, now, Todd, you've already made a mess of your uniform and the Sheriff doesn't like us to use that kind of language." Glancing at Charles, Gabe smiled and turned his attention back to his partner. "Since you're already standing next to the barrels, why would I want to do that too? Just look in the barrel and tell me what you see?"

Angry, Todd picked up a stick and poked it in the barrel. He wasn't happy when he pulled up a skull. "Ah, hell, now we're going to have to spend all morning filling out paper work. Thanks a lot Gabe."

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The coroner for Bedford County took one look at the contents in the barrels and decided that he wouldn't be able to identify the remains. He didn't have the resources that big cities had so he told the sheriff that he needed to contact the FBI and hand the two body soups over to them. The sheriff really disliked doing that, but if his coroner couldn't identify the bodies then he needed to turn them over to someone who could.

The FBI was contacted and ultimately, the case was handed over to Booth who had the barrels shipped to the Jeffersonian.

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The bodies arrived at the Jeffersonian two days later. Wendell and Fisher were given the jobs of fishing through the two barrels and pulling out all of the bones they could find. Once that was done, the barrels were given to Hodgins. He needed to go through the left over human soup and find anything that may have been dropped in the barrel besides the bodies. He also took the opportunity to analyze the soup to determine it's exact contents and see if it was possible to extract DNA for identification purposes.

Brennan looked over the skeletons after Wendell and Fisher had cleaned them up and had laid them out on two tables on the platform. She found the cause of death as soon as she looked at the skulls. Both victims had been shot in the base of their skulls, what Booth liked to classify as execution style. Brennan let Hodgins know that he should be looking for projectiles in the soup he was looking through. After talking to Hodgins, Brennan contacted Booth.

"Booth."

"Hi," Always pleased to hear his voice, Brennan smiled. "I thought I would let you know that I have determined the cause of death for both victims that were found in the barrels. They died of gunshot wounds to the base of their skulls."

"Wow, Bones, quick work. Did you find the bullets yet?"

Her gaze on the skeletons, Brennan shook her head. "No, the shots weren't through and through so the projectiles are probably in the barrels. I let Hodgins know and he said he will let me know if he finds them. I have determined that one of the victims was a Caucasian male, approximately 30 to 35 years of age. The other victim is a Caucasian female, approximately 25 to 30 years of age. The male has had numerous fractures in the past. It's possible he was in a motorcycle accident. I'm still studying the bones, but I should have a report ready for you by tomorrow afternoon."

"Good. How's it going Bones? Are you doing ok?" Booth knew she didn't like him to constantly ask her that, but he couldn't help it. He did worry. Brennan didn't sleep though the night anymore. Christine had the habit of waking up every three hours wanting something. Booth had tried to get up a few times, to take care of their baby, but Brennan had become angry at him for losing sleep. She told him that she didn't want him to be too tired because he might make a mistake while on the job and get killed. It didn't matter if she was tired because she could always take a nap during the day at the Lab. It wasn't as if she would get into trouble for it.

"I'm fine, Booth." She knew he meant well, but it still annoyed her. "I took a nap a little while ago. You need to quit worrying about me. It isn't necessary."

"Yeah, I know. Just let me be me, Bones. If I didn't worry about you then I would worry about something else. I do promise to keep the worry down to a minimum though. How about we go out on a date this evening? You choose the place and we'll go after work. It's early days in our new case, so we have the time. We can go after we put Christine to bed and have Pops and Parker watch her while we're gone. Come on, we would be gone for only a couple of hours . . . I'm paying."

Amused, Brennan laughed. "Well, if Hank doesn't mind and if you're paying then how can I turn that offer down?"

"Good, I'll pick you at around 6 p.m. We can decide where we want to go on the way home."

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You know, I wouldn't have opened the barrels, but heck, that's just me. Reviews would be appreciated. Thanks.