Yes, I'm finally continuing with this story. For those of you who've started re-reading from Chapter One, skip this. For everyone else who can vaguely remember what happened, here's a refresher;

Started with Howard Epps falling from Booth's grasp. He exchanged angry words with Brennan then left so she went to her old friend/lover/saviour Carlos (fostered out together, he stopped her foster father raping her when she was fifteen, then they went to the same group home). She arrived home to her apartment – and to a waiting Booth - the next morning wearing the same clothes which he noticed. Who says men don't notice what you're wearing? Carlos dropped her phone back, Booth recognised him from the FBI's most wanted, yadda yadda.

They had an argument (Brennan naked, Booth fully clothed, just to let you know) that continued in the lab where Booth told Brennan he was off duty for a while because of Epps' death and that she'd be working with Sully. They don't part on the best terms. Brennan explains her relationship to Carlos to Angela, goes to see some bones with Sully, then goes to explain Carlos to Booth.

Sully calls with a bullet match and Brennan goes to see him. She suggests they dig up the body the other bullet was from to make sure it's a match so the case is stronger since the D.A. declined to prosecute previously (blame that on a muppet cop who forgot to put gloves on. The moral is glove up!).

And that brings us to here, late at night, Brennan (what else) at the lab working and Sully trying to get an order of exhumation to dig up the other body. Damn, how did that take three chapters to write? I could've cut out the adjectives and ended up with this...

Sully had emailed the results directly to her at the Jeffersonian. Brennan pulled them up on the screens in the lab, every keystroke loud in the silent room. She knew the computer programme had calculated the bullets to be a match but she wanted to examine them herself, to be certain. Even if they were a match, they might have been fired by different people. There was always the chance he didn't do it.

"Brennan." Her phone rang as she was rubbing her eyes. She'd stared for almost two hours, trying to find a difference, but it was futile. The bullets were exact enough to have been fired from the same gun; every nuance didn't line up but that was to be expected if there were two years between the bullets being discharged into the victims. She knew the gun may not have been used by the same person, but she thought it had been. She knew what Booth meant now by a gut feeling.

"It's Sully. I've called the DA, told him his case might be able to roll along on your suggestion. He's woken a judge, and I've woken a backhoe operator."

"What?"

"We're heading to the cemetery now, to dig up Leon Guevarro. We'll have him to you just before midnight."

"Who?" She hadn't looked at the name when she'd briefly looked at the file earlier, only absorbed the bullet information, the name of the suspect.

"Leon Guevarro. The crack dealer. His brother was the one that went to jail for killing the kids ... Temperance?" She'd let the silence stretch out before Sully snapped it, brought her back to earth. Casey Guevarro was a man she had put behind bars because of her examination and court testimony on a series of bones found at Jamaica Bay while she was doing a summer residency in Manhattan. His brother, Leon Guevarro, had threatened her outside the courtroom, told her he would hunt her down and kill her.

"I'll come to you. Where is he buried?"

Sully named the local necropolis and Brennan flipped her phone shut and grabbed her jacket.

xXx xXx xXx

Brennan sped towards the cemetery. It wasn't far away and at this time of night the road was almost all hers. She wound her window down during the brief drive and let the night air run its fingers through her hair, hoped the bracing wind would stop the queasy feeling in her stomach. She could feel the net tightening; she did this for a living, she was the one pulling it tighter.

"We're nearly to the coffin. He was buried in winter so it isn't down as far as it should be." Sully walked her over to the widening hole in the ground, the light from the backhoe painting his face a garish orange every time it completed a revolution. She remembered, outside the courthouse, she had been in a dark orange coat and a purple scarf when Guevarro had leant close to her, breath steaming, and told her he was going to slit her throat.

"I'll examine the body in situ first and note my observations before it goes back to the lab. I can complete an examination tonight and have the results to you in the morning." Sully tried to hold her shoulder to help her into the freshly dug pit surrounding the coffin. She shook him off and joined the two deputies who were currently working at the lid with a crowbar. With a creak it broke free from the seal and fell to the side.

Brennan carefully cleared the dirt away from around the skull. While the bones would have been thoroughly cleaned, and particulates taken by the forensic examiner twelve years ago, she made sure anything she brushed off landed safely inside the coffin. Impatient to get to the angle and size of the bullet hole, she dusted quickly.

"Diameter of the entry wound at the top of the skull is consistent with a .357." Sully was hovering at the top of the hole and he nodded, wrote a note.

"The angle?"

"I'd prefer to measure it with lasers at the lab, but it does look consistent with the degree of the previous body." Brennan stood, said the words she had hoped wouldn't be true.

"Even from a cursory examination, it is extremely likely that this MO will match the previous body."

"Great." Sully turned to call at the other deputies and lab assistants who were waiting for Brennan to finish. "Guys, let's get the body back to the lab."

"I'll meet them there." Brennan pulled her gloves off and put them into her kit. She wanted to arrive before the body. She had some research to do.

xXx xXx xXx

Back at the lab, all was quiet. No one was due at work for another seven hours at least. Night security was wandering around, routinely checking things, but other than that she was all alone. Guevarro's body was yet to be delivered.

Accessing the national database the FBI had grudgingly allowed them permission to use, Brennen keyed in a name she hadn't thought of in ten years – until recent events had dredged up the memories.

Roy Jeffries had disappeared ten years ago. A missing person report had been filed by his wife, but nothing had been turned up. He had been driving home from a painting job when he had disappeared. His painting van had been found halfway across the city, off his usual route. No fingerprints were found in the van, no witnesses came forward, no signs of a struggle were apparent. He had simply vanished. Until, ten years later, when he was found by an unassuming fisherman who reeled in a bone along with the fish he was trying to catch.

Brennan downloaded the dental records and sent them to Angela to compare in the morning although this was merely a formality. She knew already the body she had on the table was Roy Jeffries.

Noises from the lab area made Brennan turn the screen of her computer off and walk out. The FBI had arrived with the exhumed body. Instructing them to lay it out on one of the stainless steel tables and leave the coffin for Hodgins, Brennan waited until they had left before carefully taking the skull to examine. This, too, was a formality. She knew the angle would match closely, that the method of death was the same. It was a signature kill, perpetrated by a man who had, she knew, believed he was doing the right thing.

xXx xXx xXx

Somehow, Angela was the first to arrive at the lab the next morning. She checked her inter-mail, noted the request to compare the attached dental records to the latest body.

"3.10am? There are far better things to do at 3.10am, sweetie." Angela muttered under her breath as she started the comparison software running. It was strange Dr Brennan wasn't in the office now – even if she'd only just gone home at 5am, Bren would still be the first one in that morning. But her office was dark, the computer off, not a forensic anthropologist in sight.

"Have you seen Dr Brennan this morning?" Cam asked as she walked in. Angela shook her head, otherwise occupied; her attention on the latest online shoe catalogue that had landed in her inbox overnight as well.

"She was here earlier though – I got a request to match some dental records to the new victim at three am."

"There's a new skeleton on the table as well. That's what I wanted to see her about."

"You might want to see me about that." Sully stood in the doorway, looking slightly wired, as if he'd had too much coffee. His hair had been the victim of his hands running through it too many times.

"Agent Sullivan, Sully. I'm here until Booth is back." Angela turned, raised an eyebrow. She hadn't really looked at him yesterday. He was a little short but otherwise he wasn't bad looking. There could be potential for Brennan there, if she decided to get into a relationship that didn't involve mob boss mafia men who saved her life.

"That skeleton is yours?" Cam asked, her arms crossed. She didn't like Dr Brennan's habit of surprising her with new bodies, or new FBI agents.

"It's related to the current case you're working on. We've got a suspect but need the case to be as rock solid as possible. Temperance suggested we dig up a body that matched the previous MO to tie the gun and victims together, which was an idea the D.A. is definitely going to love her for. She emailed me through the laser testing she did last night – the angle and trajectory of the wounds match. Now we just need to put together the identity of the current victim that was found in the water, give the D.A. a convincing motive and our careers will be made." He frowned. "Much as I like what this will do for me, I feel bad it wasn't Booth that caught this case."

"What do you mean our careers will be made?" Cam asked.

"Suspect walked on a previous murder thanks to a reluctant D.A. and a detective who forgot to glove up. Now he's so high up in... Well, no one's sure exactly what, he's so diverse in his operations. We do know he's running a lot of operations with guns, drugs, possibly people... Let's just say he's high on the FBI's to-do list. I made some calls overnight, letting my superiors know how the case is going. I've got as many team members as I need to take him out and they can be ready within an hour."

"We've got part one of your plan." Angela reported as the computer blinked a success message to her.

"The dental records Dr Brennan sent to you?" Cam asked.

"Yes. Roy Jeffries, semi-retired painter. Reported missing ten years ago. Brennan sent through everything she found on him. I've emailed it to you." Angela said to Sully. He nodded as his phone beeped from his pocket.

"Thanks."

"Did you get a DNA match, Cam? Where did Bren get the information on the victim?" Cam shook her head.

"I thought it would take longer than this, thought it would rely on your reconstruction because DNA came up with nothing. He wasn't in the national database."

"Where is Temperance? She said she'd meet me here this morning. I've called her a few times but she's not answering." Sully checked his phone again but it had only Angela's email waiting for him.

"I haven't heard from her since yesterday." Cam said.

"We exhumed the body at about midnight, then she came back here to check it. She got back to me around 4am, letting me know the killer was the same – gun, angle and bullet hole match. It's too coincidental to be anyone different. Unfortunately there were no witnesses so we need to tie the perp to the victim before the D.A. will move on this. They've been burned before."

Angela had been reading through the case notes on Roy Jeffries and she paused at a block of text that had been highlighted by Brennan before she'd sent it through. She read it out to Cam and Sully.

"While not convicted of sexual assault, Roy Jeffries was blacklisted by the Child Protection Agency of America after six female foster children complained of sexual abuse. His wife stood as his witness in a pretrial hearing but conviction was impossible after all six females were lost from the system shortly after their eighteenth birthdays."

"So he wasn't the nicest guy," Sully said as an understatement. Angela paused, remembering what Brennan had told her yesterday. It couldn't be...

"Sully, what was the name of the suspect?"

"Carlos. Carlos Manos. Why, do you know him?" Sully asked. He'd been asking that question too much lately.

"No but... I think Brennan might."

"What?" said Cam and Sully simultaneously.

"I think that's how Roy Jeffries and Carlos Manos are linked – through Bren." Angela said grimly.

"The D.A. is going to love this." Sully said. "Tell me what you know." Angela looked uncomfortable.

"It was something I don't think she'd want everyone knowing-"

"I think she'd want us to catch him, Angela. She highlighted that passage and sent you the dental information to confirm. She knew you'd put it together." What Cam said made sense but Angela still didn't like it. Reluctantly, she told them what she knew.

"She was in a foster home, presumably with Roy Jeffries. She told me she had a foster father who tried to rape her. Carlos was in the same foster house and stopped it happening. They were moved to the same group home and I assume they've kept in touch since Booth said she... She spent the night with him on Friday."

Zach wandered into their shocked silence, oblivious.

"Cam? I've finished checking the bullet hole on the new skeleton like Dr Brennan requested but she isn't around to hear my results. They're a match – body weight, gun and body positioning of the shooter were the same in both victims."

"She requested you do that?" Cam asked. Zach nodded. Cam shook her head. "She's a step ahead – she's already removed herself from the case."

"What, sending me the information, and getting Zach to double check the results she got?" Angela asked. Cam nodded.

"I just don't know why she would do that. Dr Brennan can compartmentalise better than anyone I know. And she believes in justice."

"She... I think this is something more important to her." Angela looked worried. It was in everyone's thoughts – where was she now?

"We can't risk her getting to him before we do. I'm putting out an APB on her car and getting the team together. We've got to move on this now." Sully voice was controlled anger as he left the office, his phone already out. Angela was picking up her own cell and speed dialling a familiar number.

"Booth, it's Angela. I know you're not meant to be working right now, but I think Brennan needs your help."

xXx xXx xXx

The suspense! Hope you're enjoying it so far. Thanks for reading – and please let me know what you think of Carlos? Good guy? Bad guy? Do you love him or hate him?