Disclaimer: I own neither Angel or anything associated with him, and "Bones" is equally out of my reach control-wise
Feedback: Appreciated
AN: Given how quickly I jump into the main plot of this episode, I feel obligated to clarify that this chapter starts when Booth and Brennan are interviewing two suspects in the death of Maggie Schilling, a drug addict whose body was found in a fridge that Booth brought into the Jeffersonian shortly after Brennan's old forensics professor arrived at the Jeffersonian, currently questioning the ex-office manager
Angel of the Bones
"I didn't give Maggie Schilling those samples, she boosted them herself," Mary Costello said as she and her husband walked around their living room to sit down as the conversation continued, her tone a frustratingly casual manner that put Booth in mind of Darla after they'd left a massacre in a house on a busy street; she knew that she'd just murdered innocent people, but she was so casually confident that she'd get away with it that what they'd done didn't even seem to register to anyone around them. "Barragan just blamed me so he would have an excuse to fire me."
"Why'd he fire you?" Booth asked; he had some suspicions about how the other woman would respond, but he wanted to confirm it before he allowed himself to speculate further.
"Because he's a horn dog," Mary replied dismissively, smiling briefly at her husband- her stance and expression putting Booth briefly in mind of Faith back in her first year in Sunnydale- before she sat down. "I tried to keep things... professional... you know what I mean?"
"Doctor Barragan said that you were closer to Maggie Schilling than any other patient," Bones put in at that point (And God, Booth wished he could stop the brief flash he got of Bones renewing her 'close' relationship with her professor; he had no reason to be thinking like that).
"Did you meet her parents?" Mary asked.
"Yes," Bones replied uncertainly.
"Then you know the poor girl was pretty much on her own," Mary replied, Booth leaving Brennan to handle the questions while he took the opportunity to examine the surrounding apartment in greater detail. "We took her in."
"He said that you went out together, that you took her to clubs," Bones continued.
"We just... felt sorry for her, you know?" Mary's husband Scott added as Booth ran his finger along the kitchen counter, briefly wondering at Scott's distinctive accent before he continued his search. "She was lonely, so we showed her a good time, right?"
As his gaze fell on the refrigerator in the kitchen- a shining silver model where everything else around him seemed to be about as old as the stuff he'd kept in the small kitchen he'd kept in his apartment back in Sunnydale in the event that Buffy came over and wanted breakfast (Just because he hadn't pushed her didn't mean he hadn't thought about it)-, Booth tuned out the Costello's words as he studied the object in front of him, his attention
Taking a quick glance to ensure that they weren't looking at him, he leaned one shoulder against the refrigerator and pushed slightly against it, a grim smile spreading across his face as he took in what his actions had exposed; a rust-brown circular indenture on the floor, in what looked like the exact same shape as the legs of the fridge they'd found Maggie in.
Jackpot, he reflected grimly as he took in what he'd just uncovered.
He had to admit, this case was definitely going in his record books; this had to be the shortest amount of time it had ever taken them to identify the killers (The evidence might be argued to be circumstantial, but in his book you didn't throw out a fridge that turned up with a dead body in it unless you knew what was in there).
"... Maggie to go to meetings," Scott was saying as Book turned around to walk back into the living room area of the apartment. "You know, AA..."
"That's very kind of you," Booth said, keeping his tone level as he looked between them. "Let's talk about your new refrigerator."
"Why?" Mary asked, looking at him with a slight chuckle of confusion.
"Mainly," Booth replied as he stared back at her, "I would like to know what happened to your old one, huh?"
It was the subsequent arrogant smirk she shot at him that reminded him of Darla more than anything right then; his sire had possessed that exact same expression whenever someone had attempted to confront them about what they'd just done when Darla was secure in her knowledge that they couldn't do anything to prove it.
Whether it was because of what they'd done to Maggie, the fact that she and her husband had kept it quiet for a year without ever reporting it, or simply the fact that she reminded him of the Faith he'd once thought existed before that final fight in an alleyway, Booth was definitely going to take serious pleasure in wiping that smirk from her face...
"Well," Booth said, walking over to Brennan an hour later as FBI crime scene techs swarmed through the Costello's apartment, having just finished a brief conversation with one of the techs, "the fridge we found Maggie in is a match with the marks on the Costello's floor."
"They're sadomasochist fetishists," Bones said, her tone suggesting a slight incredulity.
"Yeah," Booth said, picking up a box and moving it to the nearby table for them to better examine its contents. "They turned the basement into a fun room."
"Seeking sexual gratification through the manipulation of power," Bones reflected, as she picked up some kind of spiked collar and held it on the end of her finger. "Probably the oldest of fetishes; master-slave... it's all about dominance."
"Well," Booth muttered reflectively, "this sort of thing only comes up when the bloom goes off the rose, if you know what I mean."
"I don't know what you mean," Bones replied, the same confused expression on her face that Booth had come to find highly amusing over the last few months.
"You know," Booth said, keeping his voice low as he shrugged. "When the regular stuff... when it gets old, you need to spice it up or it's over. The sex is good, you don't need any help."
"Well, that's for sure," Bones said, smiling slightly at his comment.
"I'm sorry?" Booth said, looking at his partner in surprise; he couldn't even remember the last time he'd heard Bones say something like that to him without it being preceded by an elaborate debate of some kind...
"I was agreeing," Bones replied.
"Yeah, well... don't, OK?" Booth asked, trying to stop his mind asking the question of who Bones had been thinking off to prompt that last smile. "It kind of freaks me out."
"I was just saying that I, myself, feel no inclination towards either pain or dominance when it comes to sex," Bones replied
"Are you sure?" Booth replied, seizing on the opportunity to lighten the mood (He'd always enjoyed this freedom when it came to Booth's personality; without needing to worry about the restrictions on his soul, he could be a lot more relaxed than he'd been in the old days).
"Yeah, I'm sure," Bones replied.
"Because you can be very bossy," Booth responded, ignoring the slight tap of a crop on his shoulder as he turned to pick a pair of fuzzy pink handcuffs- why did people make these stupid things?- with a pen before turning to look at the Costellos as they were escorted out of the apartment.
"Look at him, huh?" he said, waving the handcuffs mocking at Scott Costello (He wished the guy would react; these two were being far too calm when there was this kind of evidence that they'd been involved in a murder. "Look at him, all smiley; I bet he just loves these things..."
Further mocking was cut off as Bones reached over to remove the handcuffs from the pen to look at them more closely.
"These could explain the stress fractures," she said, as she opened one of the cuffs. "Her bones were brittle from the disease; struggling would... cause the cracks we saw."
If he'd still been Angel, Booth was certain he would have punched the nearest Costello for doing something like that to an essentially teenage girl; as it was, he couldn't do anything like that without having them scream 'police brutality' at him, so he'd just have to leave it and trust the system to put them away.
BDSM...
God, he'd just never managed to get the appeal after he'd regained his soul; Angelus might have enjoyed the thrill of dominating another being, but after spending so long with his body under the control of his demon, Angel had never felt comfortable even thinking about doing it again even in his fantasies about Buffy prior to him losing his soul, and the memories he'd been given of Booth's upbringing didn't exactly inspire much interest in that scene either.
Add in what Bones's analysis of the fractures on Maggie's wrists had turned up, and he really didn't like these people; Maggie might have been a drug addict, but nobody deserved to die like that even before you took that brittle bone thing she was suffering from into account...
He was definitely going to feel a certain satisfaction when this case went to trial.
Booth hated to admit it even to himself, but he'd have been lying if he didn't admit that he'd enjoyed the idea of Bones having to go up against her old forensics professor when they learned that he'd been appointed expert witness for the prosecution; the fact that the guy seemed to think that he could just walk into Bones's life like he'd never left and have them pick up an apparently sexual relationship exactly where they left off had really gotten on his nerves...
It was unfortunate that the feeling of satisfaction only lasted until the moment when Bones had to take the stand and explained her findings to the jury- that was the annoying bit about this case compared to their others; this was the first time that they'd actually depended on the analysis to make their points when it could legitimately be challenged, given the lack of fixed forensic identification such as teeth marks or that bruised bone-, and he'd known they were in trouble.
Bones might like to consider herself a fair speaker when dealing with her students, and could make a half-decent argument for her choice of words by claiming that she was trying not to treat the jury like idiots, but she'd been using so many long words that he'd felt like he was dealing with Willow or Fred when they were on a roll with their current theory and didn't really register who was listening all over again.
As much as he hated to admit it, Bones's problem right now was that she went over the jurors' heads; it looked like she was trying to blind them with science to make them agree with her out of uncertainty about her facts.
This 'Stires' guy, on the other hand...
"In my opinion," Stires said as he sat in the stand, looking out at the trial's audience with a casual manner that reminded Booth of Lindsey, "the high levels of hydromorphone are more consistent with recreational use than for pain relief."
"Could you explain?" the defence lawyer asked.
"Well," Stires replied, smiling in a manner that Booth didn't like, "I might not use all the technical language but I'll try to make myself understood."
"Objection, your honour," the prosecution lawyer- Levitt, Booth thought his name was; he hadn't had the chance to talk to the guy on his own yet- said, standing up as the jury smiled at Stires's comment. "The witness is impugning another witness."
"Sustained," the judge said, before indicating Stires with her pen. "Continue."
"I'm sorry; I, uh, I don't do this professionally," Stires said, the apparently genuine apology in his voice at that last comment just increasing Booth's distaste for him as he turned back to address the jury. "People who need to relieve physical pain will stop after the pain disappears. It doesn't take more then an average dose to accomplish that. Drug users are trying to bury emotional pain which means they'll medicate until they feel nothing. This is why they have a tendency to overdose, like Maggie Schilling.
"That's not accurate," Bones whispered to Levitt, leaning forward to address the lawyer. "Sometimes chronic pain does not respond to medication."
"I'll bring it up on cross-examination," Levitt said, Booth reaching over to take hold of Brennan's shoulder and pull her back into her seat.
"What about Dr. Brennan's claim that her pain was somehow connected to the victim being bound for a length of time?" the defence lawyer added.
"Well," Stires continued, "the Costellos have already stipulated to the fact that they bound Miss. Schilling as a part of their rather unorthodox sexual act, and Dr. Brennan agrees that Miss. Schilling had hyperpara…"
He paused briefly before continuing. "Well, if I could simplify, a thyroid condition that can weaken her bones. No need to look for… bondage scenarios.
"That is ridiculous," Brennan whispered to Booth. "He's ignoring all the facts…"
Booth briefly thought about responding in confirmation- he himself had pointed out that binding the legs was hardly indicative of an interest in a sexual act, and the fact that the Costellos had just dumped the body after things had gone wrong did very little to endear them to him- but then Stires continued and Booth had a new issue to focus on.
"With respect to my former student, Doctor Brennan," Stires added, "with findings like these I don't know why she became a Forensic Anthropologist; she seems to have ignored all but her pre-conceived notions about the case."
"Objection," Levitt said, voicing Booth's own impulsive desire to speak before he gave into temptation and found himself in contempt of court; as it was, with Levitt the one voicing it they could at least give the impression of remaining professional in this case (Although Booth still would have preferred Stires to actually meet with some consequences for his last comment).
"Do you disagree with Dr. Brennan's data?" the defence lawyer asked.
"Well, sometimes doctors can use data to confuse a very simple situation," Stires replied with a shrug. "I mean, I'm a doctor and I could hardly follow her."
Booth was ready to hit the guy even then; what he said afterwards- while smiling at the goddamn jury- just made him want to do more than just punch him.
"This case is about people, not incomprehensible technical jargon," Stires continued (Booth couldn't believe the guy could use that argument; did he even care that the 'people' he was defending had killed somebody?) "I don't think that these people should be convicted of murder just because Dr. Brennan sounds smart."
Booth didn't even register Levitt's objection; looking at Stires in that moment, all he could hear were sentences that he'd only ever heard in his memories, even if they'd been spoken with his voice and come from his own lips.
"You got a lot to learn about men, kiddo. Although I guess you proved that last night."
"Which do you think is worse, Wes? Stealing my kid like you did, or banging him, like Cordelia?"
"Darla felt the same way. It made her sick, you squirming inside her. So, she jammed a stake in her own heart, just so she wouldn't have to hear your first whiny breath."
Stires was using his personal knowledge of Bones's personal defects to undermine and belittle her in court, simply to defend people whom he knew were guilty from the evidence she'd provided, for nothing more than a fee…
It was almost worse than the times Angelus had belittled and hurt his friends and family back when he'd been released; at least then he'd had the excuse that Angelus wasn't really him…
"…court with adjourn until 9 a.m. tomorrow," the judge said, drawing Booth's attention back to the present as the jury were led out of the room.
"Listen," he said, leaning over to whisper to Bones before they stood up, "don't worry about a thing, OK?"
He knew that Bones wasn't as cold as Stires was essentially trying to make the jury believe she was; the trick was to figure out the right way to make her reveal that side of herself to the jury…
"He wasn't acting as an objective expert; he was making up a story!" Bones protested once they were out in the hallway with Levitt and Deaver.
"The judge chastised him in front of the jury," Levitt put in. "That will work for us…"
"The hell it will," Deaver said in frustration, her arms folded as she glared at them. "The jury loves Stires. He looks like a regular guy who's not allowed to speak the truth because the stupid rules get in the way."
"The rules of jurist prudence aren't stupid," Bones retorted incredulously (Booth made a mental note to talk with her about when it was a good idea not to talk; showing support for the rules that were screwing them over at this point wasn't going to help).
"Doctor Brennan," Deaver continued, her glare now focused on Bones, "you need to learn the difference between reality and perception. A trial is all about perception."
"Wow, you're the reason civilization is declining," Bones countered (A part of Booth couldn't help but be impressed; even her insults were more developed than normal people's).
"Talk to her," Deaver practically begged him.
"I kind of agree with her," Booth replied briefly.
Staring at them both in frustration for a moment, Deaver turned around and walked away down the corridor, evidently annoyed at their lack of progress in the case.
"Thanks," Bones whispered to him.
"You know, I really don't agree with you," Booth said (It wasn't technically accurate, but explaining that he agreed with her views while disagreeing with her approach wouldn't help Bones change her approach in the time they needed), shaking his head slightly. "I just… I don't like her."
To Bones's credit, she didn't allow the last comment to affect her, simply staring at him for a moment before she turned around to address Levitt once again.
"Put me back on the stand," she said, her arms folded resolutely. "I can rebut everything that Michael said.
"She can do this," Booth put in, hoping this show of support would be enough to make up for his last comment.
"I'll think about it," Levitt said, his tone of voice giving the impression that he was more inclined to do the opposite, before he turned around and walked off down the corridor after Deaver.
"I've never been in this position before, Booth," Bones said, looking at him with an intense urgency. "I need to get back up there."
"Alright," Booth said, nodding briefly at her. "Just… let me talk to him."
He just hoped that what he had in mind would work; if this line of questioning didn't pay off, he'd be in trouble on a professional and personal level for wasting the court's time…
As he sat in the courtroom, staring at Bones as she sat in the witness stand, once again recounting the facts in an excessive amount of scientific detail despite Levitt's best efforts to subtly encourage down to a more 'pedestrian' terminology, Booth wasn't sure what he was more nervous about; the possibility that his idea to get jury sympathy back on their side and away from Professor 'Stirgelus' wouldn't work, or how Bones would react to it if it did.
Using the weaknesses of others to get the reaction he wanted…
He'd never been comfortable doing this kind of thing as Angel- even when he'd been planning to infiltrate the Circle of the Black Thorn he'd only been lying about himself rather than trying to hurt others (Using Fred's memory to get what he was after didn't count; the rest of the team hadn't known he was using her like that and they'd learned his real reasons shortly afterwards anyway)-; he had to wonder if the fact that he was willing to do it as Booth was something that he should be worried about…
"Doctor Brennan, why'd you become a Forensic Anthropologist?" Levitt asked
"I beg your pardon?" Bones asked in confusion.
"There must be some reason you chose this field out of the hundred of other careers someone of your intelligence could have chosen," Levitt elaborated. "Was there some… emotional reason, perhaps?"
"Objection," the defence lawyer said. "Relevance, you honor?"
"I don't see how this pertains to the case-" Bones began, evidently uncomfortable at the new topic.
"Doctor Brennan is cold, distant, and alienating, your honour," Levitt said by way of explanation even as he continued to look at Bones.
"Hey!" Bones yelled.
"I need the jury to understand why she's so cold," Levitt continued, turning to address the judge, "so that they might be willing to accept her testimony."
"Her personality issues are not relevant to this case-" the defence lawyer interjected.
"They opened up this line of questioning, your honor," Levitt continued (Booth was glad to know that he was accurate in that detail; legal issues like that had never been his strong point, but he'd evidently picked up more from Gunn than he'd thought at the time), indicating the defence team. "When Doctor Stires was on the stand, he wondered why Doctor Brennan became a forensic anthropologist, so the defense must have thought it had some relevance then."
"Sorry, Mr. Meredith," the judge said, looking at him with a slight smile in her eyes, "you did raise the issue. Overruled; you may continue, Mr. Levitt."
"Doctor Brennan," Levitt said, his attention once again focused on Bones, "your parents disappeared when you were fifteen and no one's ever found out whatever happened to them. Is that correct?
Booth momentarily wished that he'd never brought this line of inquiry up when Bones glared at him, but forced himself to simply sit there and not register it; any sign of discomfort at this point could jeopardize their already-fragile defence…
"Please answer the question, Doctor Brennan," the judge gently prompted.
"That's correct," Bones said after a momentary further pause.
"It must be very painful," Levitt continued. "Is it fair to say that you've been trying to solve the mystery of their loss your whole life?"
"Do I want answers?" Bones replied. "Yes. As to how that is affecting my behavior- which I assume is what you are trolling for-, I don't put much stock in Psychology."
"Is that why you wrap yourself up in techno-speak?" Levitt continued, walking away from the stand to address his question to the jury. "So you don't have to feel how these victims remind you of your parents?"
"How I feel doesn't matter," Bones countered. "My job doesn't depend on it-"
"But it's informed by it," Levitt neatly retaliated. "Are you as cold and unfeeling as you seem?"
For a moment silence dominated the courtroom as Levitt stared at Bones, the beautiful anthropologist unable to do more than look back at him as her own inner conflict waged inside her, until she finally spoke.
"I see a face on every skull," she said, a slight tremor of her lip the only sign of just how distressed she was by what had just been brought out in public. "I can look at their bones and tell you how they walked, where they hurt. Maggie Schilling is real to me."
Booth briefly noted that Bones had turned her head slightly so that she was now addressing Stires, but put that factor aside to focus more on his partner's words themselves (Just so long as Stires understood what an asshole he'd been, how the guy was reacting to this didn't matter to Booth as much as seeing how Bones was coping with it).
"The pain she suffered was real," Bones continued, her statement drawing increased attention from the jury as she spoke. "Her hip was being eaten away by infection from lying on her side. Sure, like Doctor Stires said, the disease could contribute to that if you take it out of context, but you can't break Maggie Schilling down into little pieces. She was a whole person who fought to free herself. Her wrists were broken from struggling against the handcuffs. The bones in her ankles were ground together because her feet were tied, and her side, her hip, and her shoulder were being eaten away by infection, and the more she struggled, the more pain she was in so they gave her those drugs to keep her quiet. They gave her so much it killed her."
As Bones turned to address the jury directly, Booth was almost tempted to give her a brief smile of approval if it wasn't for the risk of it being taken the wrong way; the last thing he wanted was for her to think he was amused at the idea of her in emotional pain like this.
"These facts can't be ignored or dismissed because you think I'm… boring or obnoxious because I don't matter," Bones said, the emotion on her face at the current topic obvious to everyone. "What I feel doesn't matter. Only she matters… only Maggie."
Jackpot, Booth thought to himself.
After a plea like that, based on emotion rather than casual jokes, you'd need to be made of stone to want to let the Costellos off.
The only problem was how he'd patch things up with Bones after what he'd just done…
As far as scenes for apologies went, Booth wondered what it said about his relationship with Bones where he was attempting to apologise to her while standing on scaffolding around the half-way point of the Washington monument; why was it that he could never choose- or manage- a good location for the really difficult conversations with the women in his life?
Still, the fact that she was here in the first place at least leant weight to the hope that she'd be willing to listen to his apology; Stires had clearly burnt every last one of his bridges with her, given that the last news he'd heard about the guy had Stires heading back to his old university after recent events had affected his reputation when applying for the position here…
"The victim is an adult male, thirty-five to forty years old," Bones said as she studied the burned body tied to the scaffolding before them. "From the pattern of the burning, I would say an accelerant was used; could you hand me my bag?
"Yeah, sure," Booth said, picking up the bag in question and handing it over to her. "Hey, listen; you want my coat or something? It's cold up here."
"If I did, I'd ask for it," Bones retorted, neatly cutting off that potential line of apology.
"Yeah, sorry…" Booth said
Then again, it was probably for the best; Bones wasn't really someone who appreciated- or sometimes even understood- subtlety…
"And… um… I'm sorry," he said again, hoping that she understood where the second 'sorry' was coming from.
It was an inadequate means of apologizing for the way he'd used her past without her permission in the manner that he had, but he didn't have anything else that he could say to make his point; putting away the Costellos didn't change how he'd hurt her…
After a moment's silence as Bones contemplated what she'd just heard, she
"You had something to accomplish, and you found a logical way of getting what you needed," she said, shrugging briefly at him before she allowed him a brief nod. "I probably would have done the same thing."
Booth couldn't help but smile slightly at that.
The fact that she understood why he'd done it didn't make up for hurting her like that, but at least she was willing to move on from the incident…
