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AN: A slight reference to the events of "Angel: After the Fall" here; if you've read it, everything up to Los Angeles's return from Hell is canon, and if not, the relevant details will be explained here later

The Sister on the Door

As he stood in his apartment, staring grimly at the phone that he'd just used to place his request for personal time away from the Bureau for the next couple of weeks- the advantage of not taking a vacation that often; it meant that he had the time available when he really needed it in a situation like this-, Booth wondered if he was making the right choice; it might be keeping the squints safe, but going after somebody who knew about that part of his past without his old abilities and absolutely zero access to Wesley's research skills...

It wasn't like he'd been totally inefficient back when it was just him, Cordelia and Doyle, but then they'd had access to Doyle's contacts in the demon underground, and he'd still had access to some of his books; right now all he had on him were a few of the more generic texts- including one on his own personal history that he'd kept in case he needed it to convince anyone else of the truth- and some weapons he'd kept for sentimentality's sake, including a duplicate of Gunn's old hubcap 'axe', and he wasn't sure how he was ever going to use that in this situation.

Still, on the bright side, he had a car or two in a couple of the vintage garages he sometimes spent time in that he could use to get around it without attracting too much attention to himself, his old jacket and shirts still fit despite the slight weight he'd put on since then- he tried to keep in shape, but there was only so much you could do when dealing with issues like aging-, and he'd even found the old amulet that he and Wesley had used to duplicate his vampire abilities while he was in Hell (Even after Wolfram & Hart themselves had collapsed, there was still a magic shop or two where he could pick this kind of thing up if he knew the right people).

With Cullen aware that he would be incommunicado for the next couple of weeks for personal reasons, and the 'squint squad' having been instructed to do nothing more with Kathy's body- they might not need to do anything now that he'd identified her, but that didn't mean he couldn't make sure-, he should have enough time to track down whatever was behind this before it tried anything more... elaborate... to get his attention.

There were other factors that he needed to sort out at this point, of course- mostly involving how anything from that part of his life had managed to find him after all the 'security' the Powers That Be had established when granting him this new life; he might be suspicious about most of their motives, but he knew that Cordelia would have done everything she could to protect him after giving him the chance to start over-, but none of that mattered right now; based on his past experience at dealing with crimes, once he'd identified who he was up against, everything else should fall into place relatively easily...

The sound of his phone ringing drew his attention back to the present, prompting him to pull out his phone and turn it on (He wondered how his old friends would react to his new attitude to technology; he still wasn't totally comfortable with it, but the last few years as a human at least meant he didn't stick out as much as he had before).

"Yes?" he asked, hoping it wasn't Cullen calling him back in; the situation was far too urgent for him to work on a case, despite his usual commitment to his work.

"Booth, it's me," Bones replied. "I just... well, I thought you'd want to know that Cam's already cleared out a part of her lab for us to keep Kathy's body stored. We'll be moving it there once the rest of the staff get in- I don't want to risk causing any damage by trying to move her without enough people present to keep an eye on everything we'd need-, but-"

"All I need to know, Bones," Booth interjected, cutting that explanation off before it could do further; he might have to deal with the fact that Kathy's corpse was lying in the Jeffersonian, but he didn't have to like it, and he definitely didn't want to think about it any more than he needed to. "Just keep her somewhere safe; I'll get back to you once I've sorted thing out with the relevant people."

"You really don't have to do this; just because we normally have bodies shipped to us doesn't mean-" Bones began.

"She's my sister, Bones; I can handle this," Booth interjected (He hated rejecting what had just been intended as an offer of help so abruptly, but he couldn't risk it; if they learned where Kathy had been buried, it would raise too many questions about his past that he didn't want to answer). "As I said, all I need you to do right now is keep her somewhere safe until I've made the necessary arrangements."

"Booth..." Bones began after a brief pause, her voice hinting at her uncertainty over whatever she was about to say before she continued talking, "I understand that you feel obligated to make sure that your sister rests in peace in death by yourself because you couldn't protect her in life, but-"

"Look, Bones, this is my problem, you got that?" Booth interrupted; even if Bones couldn't know how accurate that last assessment had been- his sister wasn't just dead because he'd failed her, she was dead because he'd killed her-, he didn't want her looking at his motives any more than she had to. "There's nothing you can do, so don't even try to do it; if I'm dealing with what I think I'm dealing with, I don't want any of you getting involved in this mess."

"I'm just trying to help; I'm your partner-" Bones began.

"And this isn't something I need a partner for, OK, Bones?" he countered, inwardly regretting his harsh words already but knowing that they had to be said if he was going to make the right kind of impact on her; whoever was after her might know where he worked, but that didn't mean they knew everything about him, and any chance he had to limit Bones's contact with this side of his world was fine with him. "I can handle this on my own; just get Kathy's body somewhere safe until I can deal with that, all right?"

He knew even as he hung up the phone that he could have chosen a more diplomatic way of putting it, but he couldn't help it; he was not going to lose any more people to this side of his life.

His time dealing with the supernatural side of evil might have provided him with more straightforward ways to eliminate his enemies, but the amount of friends he'd lost in the process also made him reluctant to draw any of his new friends in unless he had to.

He'd kept them away from the supernatural side of the street so far; the fact that something had tried to drag them into that part of his life by leaving Kathy on the Jeffersonian's doorstep didn't change that.

Right now, his only priorities were to keep them out of the way and find out any information that might lead him back to the person responsible for desecrating the grave of the only person who'd ever had faith in him when he was originally alive; he'd apologise to Bones once this mess was over.

As she studied the body lying on her examination table, Brennan wondered if it was a good or bad thing that she was so relatively unconcerned about her ignorance of what had happened to this girl; Booth may have provided them with the essential details about her death earlier, but she still didn't really know what had happened...

Then again, maybe that was the reason she wasn't looking into it any further. Booth knew what had happened, and she knew enough about him to know that he would have asked them for help if he thought that there was anything they could do; they'd proven that back when they'd helped him confirm Howard Epps' guilt (Even if they'd set out to investigate the possibility that Epps was innocent, they'd still settled their original goal of eliminating any doubt).

She was still hurt that Booth hadn't asked for her help, but she liked to think that she'd developed enough not to take that as a personal insult; if he thought she could contribute anything, he would have asked for her help.

Right now, all she had to do was make sure that the remains of his sister- no matter how surprised she was that none of them had heard about her earlier, she could understand why it wouldn't have come up before now; as she knew from experience, talking about a loss like that was never easy- stayed safe until the people he wanted to contact- most likely an old army contact of his or something like that- came to collect the body; it wasn't as active a role as she normally liked to play in the investigations, but at least she was helping him.

"Whoa..." Hodgins's voice suddenly said, prompting Brennan to turn around and watch as the entomologist walked up the steps to the main lab area, his gaze fixed on the body. "I got the call, but I don't think I really believed it; someone actually gave us a body?"

"We're still not clear on why they did it, but you're essentially correct, yes," Brennan said, nodding briefly at him.

"Well, at least whoever did this saved us having to ship it ourselves," Hodgins said, smiling slightly as he studied the body on the table. "Not much insect-wise, but I should be able to find something-"

"NO!" Brennan yelled, spinning around to look sharply at Hodgins, only to look embarrassed almost automatically as she took in her friend's confused expression; she was almost surprised at how easily she'd forgotten to tell him straight away why they didn't need to do anything to this body.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Hodgins," she said, shaking her head slightly as she looked apologetically at him. "It's just... Booth asked that we not do anything to the body until he can make arrangements to send her back to her grave; we just haven't found somewhere else to put her until he's ready to ship her back yet..."

"Hold on; Booth doesn't want us looking at the body?" Hodgins repeated, looking at his boss in confusion. "Why would-?"

"It's his sister, Jack," Angela cut in, walking up behind Hodgins to look at him with a very pointed stare as he turned around to face her. "Someone went and dug up the body of Booth's sister- who, from what he said, was murdered right in front of him when he was younger- and stuck it on our doorstep to send him some kind of freaky message that was serious enough for him to head straight off to deal with it and not tell us anything about whatever the message was..."

She shook her head as she noticed that her former fiancé was looking at her in a manner that suggested he had no idea what to make of her. "The point is, he specifically informed us that he already knows everything he wants to know about how she died and everything else like that, so we're to just leave it alone until he can sort out getting her sent back to her grave so that her body doesn't have to go through anything it doesn't have to go through; got that?"

"S... sure thing..." Hodgins said, nodding slightly weakly at Angela as he turned to study the body on the table once again, his expression now contemplative rather than critical. "That's Booth's sister? Damn..."

Then he processed the rest of what Angela had just said, and looked over at her in surprise. "We don't know why someone left the body here? Why would-?"

"Jack," Angela said, the solemn expression on her face as she looked at him telling him almost as much as she was about to say, "we don't know that, but Booth apparently does... and he made it fairly clear that he doesn't want us doing anything else with this particular case."

"I know that it's a bit... well, unusual, but what else are we supposed to do?" Brennan asked, as Hodgins opened his mouth to protest. "Everything I've found from a cursory examination supports Booth's story about how she died, Angela's picture provided us with enough visual information to confirm her identity, and it's not like we have the authority to carry out our own investigation without Booth; he said that he wants to deal with this on his own, we can't exactly stop him."

"Point..." Hodgins muttered, studying the body with a slightly frustrated sigh before he looked back at Brennan. "Well, as long as I'm here, I'll just... see what I can do about cleaning her clothes, huh?"

"It's as good a way to use your time here as anything," Brennan responded with an uncertain shrug; as long as Kathy was here, they might as well clean her up before they returned her body to the grave.

In all honesty, she wasn't sure why she was spending so long studying this body herself, really; what she could do without conducting a more in-depth analysis was limited, and what she'd seen so far tied in with Booth's identification of the body as that of his sister, but there was just something about it that didn't quite fit...

As he walked into one of Washington's few demon bars- the amount of law enforcement offices and agencies in the area meant that few demons actually tried anything in this city even if there was still a slight demonic presence; it was one reason he'd settled down here as it limited the chances of running into anyone who'd known him in the past-, Booth forced himself to remember to think like Angel for this scenario; Booth could afford to relax slightly in these kind of situations because of his professional connections making it more likely that he'd be found if he was abducted or lost, but Angel only had himself to rely on in these kind of situations, so he had to remain particularly alert.

The amulet might make it easier for him to blend in to the crowd, but that would only apply so long as nobody really paid attention; it generated enough of a mystical presence to fool most casual observers into perceiving him as a vampire, and gave him some degree of the physical attributes he'd possess if he was still Angel, but it couldn't totally compensate for what he'd lost when he became human...

Still, as he was permitted direct access to the club by the alert vampire bouncer on the door of the club, a quick glance around him confirmed that he'd chosen the right place; a few demons and vampires hanging around, mingling and drinking a variety of drinks with a minimal of combat, giving the general impression of the usual crowd at Willy's rather than the more relaxed atmosphere of Caritas.

Heading up to the main bar, Booth ignored the stares he was attracting- he wanted attention right now; the more people who knew that 'Angel' was in town the more likely his unknown adversary would focus on him rather than the Jeffersonian staff- as he sat down at the bar, looking pointedly at the bartender.

"What'll it be?" the man asked; he looked mostly human, but there was something about the way he stood that suggested to Booth that he was only about as human as Doyle had been (One of the few vampire abilities this amulet couldn't duplicate were his old enhanced senses).

"Information," Booth replied, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the other man, allowing the old intensity of his experiences as his vampiric alter-ego to dominate his gaze in a manner that he'd long ago tried to suppress. "I've heard reports of something... out of the ordinary... going down in this area; wanted to see if anyone here knew anything more specific."

"Maybe we do, and maybe we don't," a demon with light blue skin and two long horns that lay against the head while stretching down almost to its neck said, looking over at Booth from its position alongside him. "What's it to you?"

"A lot," Booth replied, turning his gaze slightly to study the other demon; possibly tough, but not overly muscular if it came to a fight. "Why?"

"Let's just say that things are going to get... interesting... round here in the next couple of days," the demon replied, smirking slightly as it looked at him. "Might not be the best place for a vamp to try and muscle himself into a place where he gets some more authority..."

The part of Booth that would also be Angel rolled his eyes at that comment; one thing he hadn't missed about the demon world was the fact that everyone newly-arrived in a particular territory had to 'prove' their right to remain there.

"Maybe you haven't heard of me," Booth said, mentally crossing his fingers as he prepared to say the words that would effectively end the mystical 'silence' surrounding his fate after the Fall of Los Angeles. "I'm Angel."

The silence that suddenly fell on the bar around him was all Booth needed to know that it was time for him to react; as the first couple of eager vampires charged him, his already-sharp human reflexes had him slipping a couple of stakes from his wrist-launchers into his hands, following the move by spinning around to plunge the stakes into the vampire's hearts.

"I'm just passing through," he said, taking a careful look around the bar to make sure everyone understood what he was saying; it was unlikely he'd run into anyone here once he'd dealt with this current situation and didn't have to pretend that he was still Angel any more, but there was no harm in making sure nobody felt inclined to look for him later. "As I said, I'm only looking for information; first one who wants to make this difficult... well, I think we've already established what happens in that scenario."

"Uh... right," the bartender said, looking awkwardly around at the other demons before he looked back at the FBI agent/vampire, who was even now re-taking his seat, his earlier seating partner having practically scurried off to a seat further down the bar. "Look, I haven't heard anything definite, but there are a few rumours about some... stuff... going down somewhere; guy came here last night to pick up some talent for something he's trying to do in this area sometime next week, something about old grudges they want to settle..."

"Anything else?" Booth asked, leaning over to look more pointedly at the demon.

"Uh... no, that's it," the bartender said, looking apprehensively at him (Booth hated to admit it, but that was the part of being Angel he'd particularly missed; the ability to inspire fear in another person just by being himself, without the need to flash his badge or pull out his gun...). "He wasn't exactly chatty; once he'd picked up a couple of people who were willing to help out with security- mostly vamps, actually-, he moved on; didn't say anything about where or when..."

The bartender trailed off as Booth sat in silence, contemplatively taking in the man before him, before the former Scourge of Europe came to a decision.

"For your sake, that had better be everything you know," he said, standing up and fixing the man in front of him with an intense stare; he wasn't going to say anything more about the current situation, and there were other bars he had to check out before he could be sure of forming a clear picture of the current situation. "Because if I find out you kept something from me on purpose..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but as he walked out of the bar he knew that he'd made his point.

He might not have anything definite, but the reference to someone looking for additional forces to help settle old grudges sounded like it was related to what had happened last night; it was something to build on, at least.

He just hoped that it wouldn't take him long to find someone who could tell him what he was looking for; claiming that he needed a leave of absence was just about plausible given some of the things he'd seen when he was working with Bones, but if Cullen or anyone else at the FBI found out that Seeley Booth was spending his 'vacation' wandering around Washington, he'd definitely attract too many questions...

AN 2: Next chapter's going to be a bit slower, but it will reveal a VERY particular twist