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Still amazed at the mess of bones bits, Ducky stared at the small pieces of remains lying on the table before him and continued with his briefing of Dr. Temperance Brennan and Cam Saroyan. "Of course we ran a toxicology screening. It came back negative for illicit drugs and poisons. The only drug our forensic technician Abby Sciuto found in the victim's remains was caffeine and there seemed to be a lot of that."

Finished with her initial examination of the body bits, Brennan rendered an opinion. "Once the flesh has been removed from the bones, I believe I should be able to reconstruct the skeleton. The pieces are small, but not so small that I can't put them back together. I know you told me that you ran DNA and were unsuccessful, but I believe that if I am able to reconstruct the skull, Angela should be able to do a facial reconstruction. If I am able to reconstruct the rest of the bones we may be able to determine cause of death."

Removing her latex gloves, Brennan glanced at Daisy and then back at Ducky. "Ms. Wick will remove the flesh and I should be able to start my reconstruction tomorrow. I will contact you when we've determined the identity of the victim."

Admiring her confidence, Ducky smiled. "You seem very confident that you'll be able to reconstruct the bones, Dr. Brennan."

Nodding her head, Brennan tossed her gloves in the bio-hazzard box. "Yes, I am. I'm the best anthropologist in the country. It's what I do. It's what we do here at the Jeffersonian."

Gibbs standing over near the staircase, smiled at Dr. Brennan's conviction and apparent lack of modesty. He liked competent people and from the way she was treated by her co-workers and the information he'd received from Director Vance before they came over, it was obvious that Dr. Temperance Brennan was very competent indeed.

Turning towards Cam, Brennan advised her. "Booth will want to be kept apprised of our findings."

Aware that this was a delicate situation, Cam glanced at Gibbs and then back at Brennan. "I'll make sure he's CCd when I send out emails."

Clearing his throat, Gibbs stepped closer to the exam table. "This victim was found at Naval Station Norfolk. This investigation is a matter for NCIS, not the FBI."

Certain that she didn't care what Gibbs thought of the matter, Brennan chose to be honest with him. "Booth is my partner. If I am involved in this case then so is he. If that's a problem for you then I will have to decline my services. It's up to you."

Her forthrightness refreshing, Gibbs smiled and met her direct gaze. "Fair enough. This is still a NCIS case, but if you think Agent Booth would like to be involved in the investigation then I won't object. It won't be the first time we've worked with the FBI."

Nodding her head, Brennan walked across the platform and down the stair case. Gibbs watched as she moved down the hallway and into the office Agent Booth had entered earlier. Turning to Cam, Gibbs pointed at Angela's office. "I noticed that Agent Booth had a child in his arms earlier when he first entered. Are Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan married?"

Relieved that this wasn't going to be a contest, Cam smiled in appreciation. "They live together."

Thoughtfully staring at the office door, Gibbs nodded his head and turned to Ducky. "Ready to go?"

Picking up his jacket and hat from the chair where he had placed them, Ducky gestured toward the stairs. "After you, Jethro. After you."

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Entering into Angela's office, Brennan found Booth sitting on the couch holding Christine and talking to Angela.

Booth stood up as Brennan entered the room. "So, are you ready to go?"

Pleased as always to see her man and child together, Brennan smiled warmly at them. "Let me go to my office to get my purse and coat and I'll be ready."

Turning towards Angela, Booth gave her one of his charm smiles. "Thanks for keeping me company Angela. I appreciate it."

As he followed Brennan out of the room, Booth abruptly stopped and watched Gibbs and Ducky as they walked toward the main exit.

Feeling eyes on him, Gibbs turned to see the clearly hostile agent glowering at him. Confidently, he smiled, gave Booth a mock salute and kept walking. Booth squinted his eyes and watched the two men as they exited through the main entrance. Unaware of the small drama between the two agents, Brennan walked out of her office and observed the look on Booth's face.

"Is there something wrong Booth?"

Turning to look at her, Booth smiled at her and shook his head. "No. Nothing's wrong."

"Are you going to tell me how you're related to Agent Gibbs?

His eyes flicking towards the empty entranceway, Booth shifted Christine in his arms. "Yeah, let's wait until we get home."

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Christine was in bed and Booth and Brennan were relaxing on the couch in the living room.

Staring at the darkened TV on the wall, Booth sighed and began. "Agent Gibbs is my father's first cousin. You've never met him, but Pops has a twin brother named Jackson Gibbs . . . It's kind of complicated. Pops and Jackson's parents had only been married for a few months when they got divorced. Even though my great-grandmother was pregnant, apparently they had discovered pretty quickly that they really couldn't stand each other, so they just got divorced. It was really very unusual for the times. When the pregnancy resulted in twins, Jackson stayed with great-grandma, Mona Gibbs and Pops went with their father, Joseph Hank Booth. Mona moved back to Stillwell, Pennsylvania to be near her family and Joseph Booth stayed in Philadelphia close to his family. Even though it was the late 1920's and they'd found they couldn't be married to each other, they seemed to be rather progressive in the divorce. Pops told me that Mona and Joseph wanted to make sure that their sons stayed in touch with each other, so Jackson and Hank would visit each other during the summer and share some holidays. They got along fairly well when they were kids. Pops said it was fun to introduce Jackson Gibbs as his brother and see the confusion on people's faces. He said the fun part was not explaining." Booth laughed and shook his head.

Brennan smiled back at his amused response.

Booth continued, "Pops said he was sure that it created some scandalous stories that went around about them, but Pops and Jackson didn't care. They liked to upset the apple cart."

Puzzled, Brennan interrupted Booth narrative. "Why would they upset an apple cart?"

Amused, Booth placed his right arm around Brennan's shoulders and laughed. "It's a saying. It means they liked to defy convention."

So a colloquialism. Brennan smiled at Booth's never ending use of them. "Why didn't you just say that?"

Shaking his head, Booth continued his story. "Okay . . . When Pops and Jackson were sixteen years old they went on a fishing trip with their Dad. While they were out on the boat, Joseph let Jackson drive the boat. I'm not really clear on what exactly happened, but from what I can gather from Pops, Jackson ran over an underwater obstruction and it holed the boat. Pops was knocked unconscious and when he woke up he found he was in the water with a life vest on and his head being held above the water by Jackson. Their father was missing. Jackson told Pops that their father had drowned. There were only two life vests on the boat and their father had grabbed the vests before the boat sank. He insisted that Jackson put on one and then they put the other one on Pops. Joseph treaded water for hours, but I guess he became exhausted and after awhile he couldn't do it anymore. Jackson had fallen asleep holding Pops and he didn't notice their father was missing until it was too late. Pops told me that he and Jackson were rescued by a passing fisherman. Pops ended up in the hospital with hypothermia and a broken leg and Jackson was hospitalized for hypothermia and exhaustion."

Nothing was ever easy for the Booths, that's for sure. Booth hugged Brennan closer to his body. "Pops said he refused to talk to Jackson after that. He blamed Jackson for their father's death. As far as Pops was concerned, Jackson killed their father. Pops refused to go live with his mother, so his uncle Henry took him in."

"Is that why you don't like Agent Gibbs?"

Slowly shaking his head, Booth sighed. "Nope. I don't like Gibbs because he's an asshole . . . Hey, it's getting late. Let's go to bed. If you have to put that human jigsaw puzzle back together you're going to need your rest."

Not pleased that Booth was keeping a secret from her, Brennan frowned. "Won't you tell me why you dislike Gibbs?"

Shaking his head, Booth stood up and held his hand towards her. "Maybe someday, but I don't want to talk about it right now. Okay?"

Her hand in his hand, Brennan stood up. "You know you can tell me anything."

Sighing, Booth pulled her towards him and wrapped his arms around her. "Yeah, I know. It's just . . . I don't want to talk about it right now . . . maybe later."

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Driving back to NCIS headquarters to pick up Ducky's car, Gibbs told Ducky about the boating accident. "What was weird was the fact that even though Hank Booth blamed my Dad for their father's death, when the Coast Guard interviewed him about the accident, Hank swore that their father was driving the boat and not my Dad. Dad tried to take the blame, but Hank swore that Jackson was just feeling guilty that there were only two life vests on the boat and that their father drowned. The Coast Guard believed Hank and they closed the case."

Ducky found the whole thing quite fascinating. "That's strange. Hank blamed your father for their father's death and yet he lied to the Coast Guard to protect his brother."

Shrugging his shoulders, Gibbs didn't have an explanation. "People do unexpected things."

"Why does Agent Booth hate you? It's patently obvious that he can't stand the sight of you."

After he came to a stop at a red light, Gibbs glanced at Ducky. "I tried to mend fences between Dad and Hank after I entered the Marines. I was tired of the crap, so I thought maybe I could fix it. When Hank Booth refused to see me, I tracked down his son, Joseph. I was stationed at Naval Station Philadelphia for awhile, so I took the opportunity to find him while I was there."

The light changeed to green and Gibbs continued their trip. "That guy turned out to be a real piece of work. He'd been a pilot in the Air Force and he was shot down over Vietnam. He was hurt so badly that his career as a pilot was over. When I met him he was working at his uncle's barber shop in Philadelphia. I visited with him for a few weeks and we seemed to get along pretty good, but the guy was a drunk and it wasn't too long before I found out that he was a wife beater. It pissed me off. One day I was over at his house and he was drunk as hell. His wife did something and I really don't know what it was, but he reached out and slapped her hard . . . hard enough to draw blood. I lost it and I beat the shit out of him. I told him that if he ever laid a hand on her or their sons again I'd kill his sorry ass."

Flicking his eyes at Ducky, Gibbs finished his story. "I was transferred over seas a few months later, so I couldn't keep an eye on him. Maybe his son blames me for the continued abuse, I don't know."

"Ah, the son is Agent Booth?"

Filled with regret, Gibbs grimaced. "Yep."

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