Huge apologies for this chapter being so long in coming. I promise the next one won't take this long. Also, many thanks to absolutely everyone who reviewed. Each one was greatly appreciated. Hope you survived the cliffhanger and made it back for this chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Trust me, if I owned them, I'd be doing something better with my time.

Ch. 4 – Changing Contexts

Brennan's eyes quickly scanned the hillside attempting to determine the approximate route that the stones would take down the slope. After only the briefest of pauses, she dashed to the left, pulling at Jamie's arm and dragging him along after her. Reaching one of the larger trees that was only a few feet away from where she'd unearthed the first set of remains, she sat down roughly on the hard earth, pulling her knees towards her chest as she did so. The uneven bark of the tree dug into her spine and as the rocks moved ever closer, she ducked her head down, covering it with her arms so that her head was protected from any debris.

The sound of the rocks as they tumbled at a gravity-induced speed was similar to that of driving down a gravel road. Tilting her head to the side, she watched in awe as the largest of the boulders rolled over the spot where she could still see the imprints from her hiking boots. As the rocks rolled past and then further down the slope, she finally dared to lift her head. Her eyes connected with Jamie's, who stared at her wide-eyed. She turned to assure herself that Luke had survived unscathed and met the same shocked look in his eyes. Her shock at how sudden the slide had been quickly dissipated as her thoughts immediately turned to more vital matters.

"The bones!" she exclaimed more to herself than to her companions.

She quickly ran back to the remains she had just about finished extricating from the earth and began to assess the damage. She breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of no breaks in the bones. The woman's cheekbone had been chipped slightly, but nothing that would be detrimental to her identification. The skull next to the latest skeleton's shoulder was also unharmed. She turned with a wide smile to her companions.

"It's ok. They're fine. The slide didn't harm the bones."

The pair of captains did not seem nearly as thrilled as she was at the news. In fact, they still seemed to be shocked and appalled at what had happened. Studying their expressions, however, it slowly dawned on the forensic anthropologist that it wasn't the slide that had sent them into this strange state of inarticulacy.

"What? What is it?" she asked, annoyance beginning to sneak into her voice at being clueless once again.

Luke swallowed hard and then managed to get out, "Dr. Brennan, it's… you… you're bleeding."

Booth glanced at his watch as he sipped the glass of water the waitress had placed before him a few minutes before. It had taken him most of the afternoon yesterday to manage to track down Admiral Merrick and set up a meeting with the man today. Bones' note had started him off in the right direction and after talking to a few old buddies who'd ended up at the DoD he'd finally managed to convince Merrick's secretary that he wasn't crazy and that this meeting was not below his notice. He'd also managed to keep this whole investigation off of Cullen's radar so far. He didn't want to have to explain to his boss how he was investigating just where his partner had gone for a week. He had a feeling he'd be told that it was a misuse of his time and FBI resources. But his gut said otherwise.

"Agent Booth?" a man in a dark green uniform asked as he approached the table.

Booth stood and greeted the other man, "Admiral Merrick. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir."

"You as well. After my secretary informed me of just how much effort you put into getting this meeting I looked you up. You have a very impressive service record."

"Thank you, sir."

The two men sat down and the waitress quickly returned to take their orders. They then made small talk during their meal, discussing the sudden cold snap that was unusual for early September, the nightmare that was D.C. traffic, and the intriguing programs that could be found on the Discovery channel.

Pushing back his mostly empty plate, the admiral wiped his mouth and then said, "Well, Booth, how about we get down to the real reason that you asked for this meeting?"

Mirroring the admiral's actions, Booth replied, "Yes, sir."

"If your interested in returning to the military, I have a few connections who would be more than willing to offer you a position at the DoD and even within the Pentagon."

"That's very kind of you, sir, and although I am very proud of the time that I spent in the service, I don't have any intention of returning to it."

"Then why did you arrange this meeting?"

"Well, I discovered that you had a meeting with Dr. Temperance Brennan last week. She's my partner and we frequently work together on cases for the FBI. I assume that you recruited her to work on a case for you and I was wondering if you could tell me exactly where she is."

The admiral raised an eyebrow at the Bones' name and a small smile creased his face as he listened to Booth's request.

"That's an intriguing request, Agent Booth. Unfortunately, I can't grant it. I can confirm that Dr. Brennan is unearthing and identifying some remains for us but unfortunately I can't tell you where. That information is need to know and I left it to Dr. Brennan's discretion to inform whomever she felt was necessary of her location. Apparently, she did not feel that you required that information."

"But, sir, you don't understand. I have this feeling and I…"

"I understand the gut instincts of an FBI agent are very powerful and usually very accurate but unfortunately I can't help you. I do wish you luck though, Agent Booth. I'm sure that with your impressive investigative prowess that you'll eventually figure out where you're partner is," the admiral said with finality and then stood up. He shook Booth's hand and then walked away shaking his head. Partners. So that was what they were calling it these days.

Temperance gave a cursory glance to the white bandage swathing her right bicep and gave a nod of approval. The cut had been shallow and after the initial shock of seeing blood, she had realized it was mostly superficial. A glass bottle that she had brought up with her had been shattered during the slide and a small piece had ricocheted off the rock and embedded itself in her arm. Although the cut now stung and was throbbing dully, she had been entirely unaware of it in the first few moments after the slide.

"Maybe we should head back, Dr. Brennan," Luke said, eyeing the hill above them uneasily.

"No. I want to finish unearthing these remains and pack them up before we head back to camp."

Luke and Jamie exchanged glances that she didn't understand and then nodded that she could continue with her excavation.

Several hours later, she had placed the remains of the pregnant woman and her fetus in separate recovery bags. She had also entirely uncovered the remains of a small girl, no more than six years old and set them into an evidence bag of their own. Next to the girl's shoulder had been another skull. The thought of having to spend another day on this mountain digging up remains was not pleasant in any way. Rolling her shoulders and hearing her neck pop she stood up and stretched. She eyed the distance between the sun and horizon and knew that it would begin to drop rapidly in about an hour.

From her bag she removed several wooden pegs and placed them around the skull that had been uncovered. She then stretched a plastic sheet over top in an effort to protect any evidence that was possibly buried with the remains from the elements, most particularly rain.

"Ready to go then, Dr. Brennan?" Jamie asked, the eagerness evident in his voice.

"Yes, Jamie. Just help me place these remains on the stretcher and we can get out of here."

He smiled in relief and removing the pack from his back, pulled out the folding stretcher that he carried with him. Unfolding the metal poles and stretching the canvas between them, he then watched as Brennan laid the three black bags on it. He then grabbed one end of the stretcher, she grasped the other and Luke brought up the rear, his eyes watching for anything suspicious.

Although Dr. Brennan and Jamie had attributed the rockslide to just a natural occurrence, Luke had found it strange that the slide had been aimed directly for the forensic anthropologist. It had been too much of a coincidence for him and for the rest of the afternoon he had been unable to shake the feeling that they were being watched. He looked over his shoulder one last time before the scene disappeared from view. It was more than the seemingly never ending sets of remains that Dr. Brennan continued to find that made the place so spooky. There was something else going on here. He knew it. His gut was never wrong.

Brennan smiled as she strode into the section of the school that made up the women's wing. Dinner with Jamie and Luke had been entertaining as usual and she was grateful for their humor and vivacity as it helped to take her mind off of the increasingly disturbing nature of the case. Usually, Booth would have eased her mind about such things but without him here…

Brennan frowned at the thought. She had been able to handle disturbing cases before, without Booth's help. She'd excavated mass graves, examined the remains of genocide victims, worked on serial rape and murder cases without Booth and she'd dealt with them. Why was it that now she suddenly wished that she had Booth around to make this case easier to handle? A voice in the back of her mind that sounded suspiciously like Booth offered the idea that she hadn't really handled those cases at all. She had studied them in her detached scientific manner but somehow this case could not be foisted off by detachment. Perhaps it was the notion that these remains could have easily have been Booth's that kept her from being able to maintain a level of detachment. Which made her wonder why it was suddenly impossible for her to achieve detachment concerning Booth. And why was it that she was spending so much time thinking about Booth anyway?

Shaking her head in an effort to remove all thoughts of her partner and the image of his smugly grinning face if he ever learned that she'd spent so much time thinking about him, she strode further down the hall and entered the former classroom where several sets of bunks were set up. She set her pack down on the floor next to the foot of her bed and slipped off her long-sleeved shirt, goose bumps rising on her arms in the cool air of the room. Sliding her hand under her pillow to retrieve her pajamas, her hands brushed against something that emitted the familiar sound of crackling paper. Lifting her pillow now, her eyes widened at the sight of the plain, white sheet of paper that had words boldly scrawled across it in blood-red ink. After the initial shock of finding the message, she read it over.

Apparently all those PhDs don't make you so

smart after all. Take a hint. Leave now.

Those remains are no concern of yours and if you

keep playing with them, a bunch of big rocks and

a bomb are going to be the least of your problems.

Regards,

The One who "rock"ed your world

"This is not good," she breathed aloud.

My apologies for this chapter being so short. I promise the ones coming up will be much longer. But what did you think of this one? A little on the bland side? Not enough plot progression? Or you like it just the way it is? You know what button to push to let me know.