Important AN: I have to tell you that I am not a fan of crossovers. That said you will see that this chapter contains characters from another TV show though. This has happened for practical reasons only. I needed characters like this for this story so I borrowed them from another show because it was easier than making them up. If you don't know or don't like the show it's no problem, because once this chapter is over they won't have an important role in this story, if they play one at all. That's also why I didn't label this as "crossover". If you like the show that will make an appaearance though, I hope you'll find said characters written in character. Either way I hope you like the chapter.
Same warning as last time: Please don't eat while reading. Except you're as used to "that kind of thing" as me, then you can even watch "said show" while eating without any problems.
Thanks again to Grizzly for beta reading.
Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter. I am glad "my readers" are still out there. As for the updates on the other stories: I can't promise anything, but I will try to finish the stories eventually.
Chapter 2: Man in black, woman in blue
"People, step aside! Please, step aside and let the car through," a police officer yelled and tried to get the crowd that had gathered in front of the yellow FBI tape to move aside so the black SUV could pass. Slowly the car made its way through the crowd and stopped not too far away from the lake and the dead body. While people hurried back to their "front row seats" at the tape, the doors of the SUV opened and a man and a woman stepped out.
"What a hunk," Patty exclaimed when she saw him, and Babette nodded in agreement. He wore a black coat that he left open, a black suit, a white dress shirt, a tie with Looney Tunes characters on it, black Chucks, had brown hair and was very well built. While he looked around, inspecting the crime scene and talked to some officers the woman that had arrived with him put on white latex gloves and pulled her auburn hair into a loose pony tail. She wore blue one piece coveralls and black rubber boots that allowed her to step into the water.
"Who are they?" Babette whispered to Patty while she squinted to see what the script on the back of the lady's coveralls said, but they couldn't read it, she was too far away. Patty, never shy to get the information she wanted, waved in the direction of the man in the suit and signaled him to come over.
"Man in black, can you tell us who you are and what exactly is going on here?" she asked in a flirty tone and he stepped back a bit when she tried to touch him oh so innocently with her index finger.
"I am Special agent Seeley Booth from the FBI, over there is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan of the Jeffersonian Institute and we are leading the investigation," he informed them.
"Why is the FBI investigating this?" Taylor asked from behind, clearly annoyed that no one was asking him for permission and he was just as clueless about what was going on as the rest of the crowd.
"Because this lake and the park that goes with it are federal property and this makes it an FBI case, Sir," Booth replied.
"This is the Stars Hollow lake and the Stars Hollow park belonging to the community," Taylor protested clearly outraged.
"Can you read this?" the agent asked and presented Taylor his badge, clearly annoyed now.
"Of course I can read this," Taylor replied and looked to Patty and Babette for back up but they watched the argument with amusement.
"Then you can see that it says FBI, right here," Booth said and pointed to the letters on his badge. "And that means that this area here is federal property, otherwise I wouldn't have come down here from Washington D.C," he informed him.
"Washington? Why did you have to come from Washington?" Taylor asked but just then the woman in the one piece suit called.
"Booth! Can you bring me my bag? I left it in the car," she asked, never taking her eyes off the dead woman in front of her. Immediately he hurried to the car and brought her a brown leather bag.
"I need a pair of tweezers and a plastic cup. Could you?" she asked him and held her hands up, the gloves now covered with something that looked like blood, mud and some kind of goo.
"Here you go Bones," he smiled and handed her what she had asked for. While the crowd erupted in sounds of disgust he only flinched slightly when she pulled a maggot out of the woman's mouth and put the white insect into the transparent plastic cup. Next she grabbed another plastic cup and took a water sample and with yet another cup a soil sample.
"Can you send them to the Jeffersonian? I am not sure how long it will take to get her out of here safely and that way at least Hodgins can start working," she requested and handed him the cups.
"Sure Bones," he nodded and handed the cups to a police officer and gave him instructions before he turned back to her and pulled a white notepad and a pen out of his jacket pocket. "Now tell me, what have we got?" he asked.
"Well, from what I can see and that is not too much, I'd say female, twenty to forty years old, Caucasian. I'll be able to narrow down the age and the rest as soon we got her out of the lake and I can see the rest of her body," she informed him and he scribbled the information down on his notepad.
"Why can't we get her out of the lake?" he asked her then.
"Because she has lain exactly this way for a while now and the rate of decomposition in water is different than outside causing a possible fracturing of the lumbar spine if we pull her out. "
"What?" Coop who stood nearby, asked, looking really green in the face.
"She's saying that the body's back would break in half if we move her out too fast," Agent Booth translated for the small town sheriff who stepped farther away from the body and shuddered in disgust.
"Bones it's freezing out here. Tell me what you need to get the body out," he said and she thought for only a second.
"A large tarpaulin and a diver should do," she shrugged. Agent Booth closed his eyes for a second asking himself where he would get a diver out here in this small town. He decided that Hartford was close and that they had to have police divers. When he opened his eyes again he walked to one of the police officers and told him what to order and where to get it.
~*~
"Oh my god, I can see a leg bone," Kirk said four hours later when the police was hauling the body out of the lake and he nearly fainted. Under Dr. Brennan's instructions and with the help of a police diver they had spread a tarpaulin under the body and were now pulling it out. Kirk, like the rest of the people watching, was hit by a new wave of smell that made them nauseous and one person actually started to gag.
"Why are these people standing here if they are only going to get sick and stand in our way?" Dr. Brennan asked her partner before she crouched down beside the body and looked at the lower half of it. Booth, who had once again pulled out his notepad, was writing down what she told him, leaning against one of the spotlights that the FBI techs had set up.
"As I said female, pubic symphysis suggests 30 to 35 years, Caucasian, dead for approximately four to six weeks. According to her pelvic bone she has already given birth."
"She can tell all that from- that?!" Lulu asked with raised eyebrows while she pressed her nose closed with two fingers.
"I don't understand how such a sweet looking little thing can do such a job," Patty shook her head sadly.
"I am not a sweet looking little thing. I am Dr. Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist at the Jeffersonian Institute and I am 5'8 which means that statistically I am tall for a woman," Brennan told Patty in a haughty tone when she overheard the comment and actually looked up from the remains.
"Touchy," Lulu muttered while Patty looked offended.
"The cranial vault sutures are ruptured which caused a fast decomposition of the brain mass and the right parietal bone shattered," the anthropologist said while she lifted the head from the ground, turned it as far as she could to inspect the injuries. Most of the spectators looked away in disgust as it was obvious that there was a large hole on the back of the head of the woman. Then she set it back down and looked at the hands. "The triquetrals on both wrists are broken as well as several phalanges and the…"
"Bones!" Booth interrupted her with a sigh. "English please. I lost you at cranial… whatever".
"Someone hit her on the head so hard that the membrane that surrounds the brain ruptured. Her wrists and some fingers are broken and from what I can see her face is covered in bruises. You know I don't assume but I'd say I am 90% sure she was bound, beaten and then her head was bashed in," she summed it up so that he could understand.
"Rape?" he asked.
"I don't know but there should be enough tissue left for Cam to use SPM and find possible hematoma on her vaginal wall."
"Alright, is it ok if I talk to the two who found the body while you keep squinting?" Booth asked her and smiled charmingly at his partner.
"Just a second, I'm done here, I only have to change. Then let's get this whole canoodle back to the Jeffersonian."
"Caboodle. This whole caboodle," he grinned, she shrugged and then he walked over to Coop.
"Can you tell me where I can find," he looked down to his notepad and flipped some pages, "Luke Danes and Lorelai Gilmore?"
"They went back to Luke's diner after they showed the body to the police. They are both pretty shocked- as we all are," Coop replied and glanced to the body that now lay on the grass.
"I can see that," Booth said with one raised eyebrow and looked over to the crowd that still stood by and watched their every move.
"Something like this has never happened here before," Coop tried to justify the curiosity.
"Hopefully it never will again," Booth said quietly and turned around to Dr. Brennan who was just taking off the overalls and changing her shoes. "Come on Bones, let's boogie," he shouted and grinned when he saw the confused look on her face.
~*~
"Mr. Danes, I'm special agent Seeley Booth, this is Dr. Temperance Brennan. I understand you found the body?" a tall man in a dark suit and a black jacket said when he walked towards the counter and showed him his badge a second later.
"Yes, I found the body. Actually, we found the body," Luke said and pointed to Lorelai who sat on her usual stool at the counter, her head hanging over a large cup of coffee. Her fourth one after they had come back from showing the police where to find the dead woman.
"I'm Lorelai Gilmore," she said and looked up at the agent and his partner.
"Can we sit down and talk somewhere?" the agent asked and looked around the empty diner.
"Just sit down at any table you want nobody will stop by now, they are all still out there watching," Lorelai replied.
"Stupid gossip addicts. No respect for the dead," Luke muttered as he made his way around the counter to follow the other three to a table in the middle of the room.
"Can you tell us how you found the body?" Booth asked and poised his pen to take notes.
"Luke walked me home because I was afraid of the Armbrusters," Lorelai started and was interrupted by Booth.
"The Armbrusters?"
"A duck family that lives by the lake," Luke said.
"Why would you be afraid of a duck family?" Brennan asked and stared at Lorelai.
"They sometimes attack innocent people who walk past them," Lorelai shrugged.
"I think the rational thing to do is to check them for rabies," the doctor said and both Booth and Lorelai looked at her questioningly.
"Canine madness," Luke and Brennan said at the same time and earned themselves another round of questioning looks.
"Hunter," Brennan shrugged nonchalantly.
"Angler," Luke said in the same tone.
"Ok, let's get back on topic. The body," Booth led them back to what was important.
"Yes, we walked by the lake because that's the fastest way to my house and we were talking about the Armbr… the ducks and then suddenly there was this smell," Lorelai recounted but had to stop when she felt tears forming in her eyes and her bottom lip started quivering. Luke placed his hand over hers on the table to soothe her and went on.
"I looked down, actually looking for the ducks and then I saw her lying half in the snow and half in the water. We immediately turned around, went back to the diner and called the police," Luke said leaving out the detail that Lorelai had thrown up, knowing that she wasn't the only one doing that since the body showed up in their lake.
The agent took some notes and then asked "Do you have any idea who this woman could be?"
"No, I don't… it's pretty hard to tell," Luke said quietly, referring to the bad shape the body was in and Lorelai placed her hand on top of his.
"I think that's it for tonight, it's pretty late now anyway. If we have more questions we will contact you," Booth said and then turned to his partner. "What do you say Bones, we eat something here and then head back?"
"Sure, good idea," she nodded as enthusiastically and took the menu that lay on the table beside them.
"You can eat after seeing this? I apparently have an iron stomach and I can't eat," Lorelai said still with a queasy feeling.
"It is anatomically impossible to have an iron stomach. Even if there were a surgery, which there isn't, during which they could implant an iron stomach the weight of it would crush the urinary bladder, the gastrointestinal tract and possibly your kidneys. You wouldn't survive it," the doctor said immediately and then fixed her water blue eyes back on the menu.
"Is she for real?" Lorelai asked the two men and while Luke looked just as confused as she did, the agent just shrugged it off and grabbed another menu.
~*~
Much to Luke's and Lorelai's surprise, the agent and the anthropologist ate both dinner and dessert, before leaving. Their departure left Luke and Lorelai alone in the diner. Luke had long closed and cleaned up and still they were sitting side by side on the chairs and stared into the empty room.
"I can't forget her eyes staring at us," Lorelai said quietly without looking at Luke.
"Me neither. And I still see that fly crawling out of her ear," Luke added and closed his eyes only to open them quickly again when the pictures all came back.
"And that smell. I've never smelled anything like that," Lorelai said and sniffed, tears rolling slowly over her cheeks. Luke turned his head and looked at her before he wrapped his right hand around her shoulders and pulled her to him in a hug which she gladly accepted.
"I am afraid to go home and be alone in my house. I don't want to be alone," Lorelai admitted while she sniffed into Luke's chest.
"You can stay here tonight. I can take the couch again, we've done that before," he said and allowed himself to stroke her hair.
"Thank you Luke," she said and pulled back from the embrace.
"You want another cup of coffee before we go up?" he asked her.
"Do you really have to ask?" she asked and gave him a small smile.
TBC