The car ride had been mostly silent with Mulder and Scully in the back and Booth and Brennan up front. None of the agents seemed to know what to say to eachother. Arriving at the crime scene, all piled out of the car and headed towards the officer approaching them.
Booth took the lead, shaking the officers hand and introducing everybody.
"Officer McDonal, this is my partner Doctor Temperance Brennan, and special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully."
"So E.T's this way?" Booth pointed to the crimescene, approached and held the crime scene tape for the others.
"Your Condescending tone is refreshing Agent Booth. Really, I mean that sincerely."
"And hopefully not warranted Mulder. This better not turn out to be an orangutang Mulder. Skinner will kill us."
"Scully, you wound me." Mulder clutched his chest.
Both teams reached the remains with Mulder jogging to get there slightly before the rest. He bent down to examine the remains. Brennans eyes grew wide as she caught up to him and saw what he was doing.
"What do you think you're doing?" Brennan fumed at Mulder.
"I'm examining the remains, looking for..."
"You're contaminating my remains." Brennan deposited herself between Mulder and the remains and hunched down to squint. Booth stood back with his notepad smirking.
"Touchy" Mulder mumbled to Scully.
"So much for your kindred spirit." Scully only half whispered back. Brennan was to absorbed with the remains to notice the banter.
"Female, age 12. I'd say the remains have been here for a while, a spring burial perhaps. Not much insect activity at this point, but we will need samples of the soil surrounding the remains. Trauma is apparent on the parietal in a shatter pattern. The form of the skull could be due to genetic disease."
"So she's human then?"
"This skeleton is identical to a human skeleton congruent with a 12 year old girl. I have never examined extraterrestrial remains agent mulder, but unless they are an exact replica of human remains, this girl was human."
"Lets get this all packed up and back to the Jeffersonian." Booth called out to the forensic teams around him. He began ushering the other agents away.
"I'm not letting that body out of my sight, I'd like to ride with forensics." Mulder stated looking at Booth.
"Suit yourself spooky, have a good ride." He started pushing Bones back towards the car and she glared at him.
"Mulder don't you think your being a little excessive? The skeleton is human. There is a mystery here to be solved, but it's not an X-file." Scully tried to reason with him.
"So the good Doctor says." Mulder stated, implying a falseness to Brennan's finding.
"I may not be a skeletal expert Mulder, but even I can tell that is a very terrestrial being who had some very terrestrial things done to it." Mulder looked between the waiting agents and doctors and the remains behind him and swallowed his misgivings, heading towards the car.
After another silent car ride, the 4 entered the Jeffersonian.
"You're only here to ensure yourself that the body arrived safely. Then you'll go rant your theories elsewhere right?" Booth questioned Mulder hopefully.
"I intend to stay on for the remainder of the case to see where this goes. There are many other possibities to explain the condition of the skeleton whether paranormal or of the occult."
"The occult? Mulder, chances are that this child had a case of Non-Syndromic craniosynostosis, the correct form of which can cause an elongated skull. Genetic tests could verify, but there is no evidence that this is some el chupacabre relative or new age peruvian." Scully responded quickly.
"I would agree, although ancient skull elongation has been found all over the world and is not limited peru. There is also no evidence of trepination on the skull, although reconstruction could turn up evidence." Brennan replied, impressed with Dr Scully's knowledge of the disease. The two continued conversing.
"How long does a reconstruction take Dr Brennan?"
"Since the face can be reconstructed, our facial reconstruction artist will have the chance to determine identity before the rest of the skull is reconstructed. Both should be completed by tomorrow afternoon at the latest, as it is now late afternoon. We'll make sure that you remain informed." Brennan ensured the other agents, looking pointedly at Booth.
Hodgins and Angela entered the lounge at this point, curious who Booth and Brennan had brought to the lab. Hodgins could barely contain his excitement when he recognized the male agent.
"Agent Fox Mulder!" He walked up shaking the mans hand. "You must be Dr Dana Scully."
"Do I know you?" Scully raised an eyebrow.
Hodgins waved it off with a hand.
"I've read several of Agent Mulder's articles and seen a few of his TV debuts."
"You would" Snorted Booth.
"Dude, just cause you choose to trust the government doesn't mean that the rest of us need to fall into that same deluded trap."
"Hey, I am the government, and so is he, and you're calling me deluded Bug Boy? Why don't you go find a conspiracy in the cafeteria." Booth responded defensively. Angela cut in shaking hands.
"I'm Angela, and this is Hodgins, my not so better half at the moment." She directed a warning look in his direction.
"Enough chit chat." Booth started rudely. "They," he pointed at the two agents "are not staying." and "We" He pointed at Hodgins "Are no longer having this conversation. Don't you all have work to do?"
"The evidence isn't unloaded yet so I'm free as a bird." Hodgins smirked at Booth.
"Well, Go spread your wings somewhere else tweety and stop irritating the government."
Hodgins shook his head a bit and stalked off.
"Come on Scully. I think we've been subtley asked to leave. We'll be by tomorrow" Mulder put his hand on her lower back to lead her out.
"Can't Wait." Booth mumbled only half under his breath.
"Well that wasn't rude." Angela looked at Booth, then at the retreating FBI agents.
"What? The guys a crackpot." He looked around for support.
"Fine. I'll play nice. Starting tomorrow." Brennan watched Booth go with a frown on her face.
"Usually I'm the one with bad people skills." She said to Angela.
"There is another male on Booth's turf." Angela watched him leave as well.
"Rudeness is Booth's alpha male way of stating his dominance and keeping his territory." Brennan Nodded as she said it.
"Rude, like he is when he's threatened by other men in your life?" Angela smirked.
"Booth may be rude to the men I date, but I am not Booth's territory Angela."
Angela just smiled and walked towards her office. Brennan stood alone a minute before heading back to her office, wondering how Angela did that.
