File folders were strewn all over the bed in Brennan's hotel room and even more had ended up on the floor after they'd been summarily ruled out as having any relevancy to their case. She and Booth had been going through each one of the files to see if there was any piece of information that was compelling enough to check the DNA that had been collected from the remains against any that might have been submitted by the families of those who had reported these people missing in the first place. The height of the stack was daunting, but they'd managed to get through about half of it.
"What do you think, Bones." Booth leaned back against the headboard and gestured to the file in his hand. "This one could fit the profile, don't you think?" His black Ramones t-shirt and faded blue jeans made him look like he was ready to kick back and watch a football game instead of pouring through files for a murder investigation.
She glanced over at it and then shook her head. "Too tall. Our victim was at least three inches shorter than this girl." They'd looked through a disturbingly large number of files - not all of them local missing persons, but then again, missing people weren't always found anywhere close to home. She was glad for the comfort of the hotel room and for the jeans and t-shirt she'd changed into after a long day of crouching over an autopsy table in an unfamiliar lab.
Booth yawned. "It would be a lot easier if we had a face to go on." With each missing persons report there was a picture of a smiling face that spoke of happier times than the circumstances the victim that had been found near the strawberry field ended up in. So far though, it seemed that they hadn't found anyone in any of these files that was even a leading candidate and he wondered to himself whether every missing persons report in the region wasn't sitting right there in front of them.
"I was unable to place tissue markers on the skull due to the amount of remaining flesh." She hoped that Mr. Nigel-Murray would be be able to accurately place the markers once the skull was available. Once that was done, Angela would be able to use the Angelator to simulate a face. For now, they had to rely on shoe rubber and continue to sift through the file folders.
He frowned and picked up another file. "You know if we were in DC, this is the kind of thing that I'd have some rookie doing." They would have given them some critical criteria and then they would have only had to review the most pertinent files rather than the enormous stack that the local field office had provided, clearly assembled before they'd even made the determination about whether the victim was a man or a woman.
She couldn't help but smirk at him. "We're not in DC, so you're going to just have to sip it up and deal with it."
He smirked right back. "It's suck it up, Bones, not sip it up." And he did need to do that because they were it and the more they could narrow down this pile before morning the better off they were going to be. Of course he wasn't complaining about getting to spend some quality time alone with Bones.
"We could probably narrow things down further if we knew which of these missing women were in the habit of wearing neoprene." It was logical to conclude that the neoprene was used for SCUBA diving, but asking if someone was a certified diver wasn't exactly a standard question when filing a missing persons report.
"If the victim was last seen SCUBA diving, then that might be in one of these files." Booth gestured towards the files that they'd discarded and slouched down on the bed, grabbing one of the pillows and stuffing it behind his head.
"What are you doing?" Brennan looked at him curiously as she reached for yet another file. It wasn't that late on the West Coast, the fact that their bodies were still essentially functioning on East Coast time aside, they still had several more hours before turning in for the night was generally acceptable.
"Just resting my eyes for a few minutes." A tiny bit of shut eye and he'd be as good as new. And since he was right here, he'd be able to pick up a file and start working again as soon as his eyes had gotten sufficient rest.
"Do you need your medication?" Perhaps she should just press forward and let Booth go back to his room and get some sleep. She wasn't at all tired yet herself, but she also hadn't had brain surgery.
"Nope, no drugs here. Just getting my second wind." He intended to flash a smile in her direction and ended up yawning instead. "Right after I take a short little nap." He shifted a little and let his head sink into the pillow. This was all just so nice - taking a little nap right here next to Bones.
She wanted to point out that this was her bed in her hotel room, but since his intent wasn't to go to sleep for the entire night, but simply rest for a few minutes, she shook her head with an amused smile on her face and turned her attention back to the files.
She didn't really notice when he fell asleep, but she couldn't help but study him from time to time as she continued to sift through the files. His features were decidedly masculine and symmetrical and even in his relaxed state it was obvious that he was very strong. There was something very attractive about the way he looked just then and it caused the corners of her mouth to pull upwards into a smile.
Several hours had gone by and Booth was still asleep. Brennan supposed that he was probably out for the night. With quite a few more files to go, she deemed that perhaps taking a short break of her own was in order and she found herself slinking down and pulling the other pillow on the bed underneath her head. Just a few minutes of rest and she would go back to the stack of files - Booth would be impressed that she had finished going through all of them so they could get a head start on things in the morning.
It didn't take long at all and Brennan was fast asleep herself, files still strewn between she and Booth.
Author's Note: I had hoped to post the chapters at a faster rate, however, real life seems to keep rearing it's mojo killing head. Thank you for reading and I hope to have the next chapter up much faster than this last one.
