A/N: Thank you so much for your patience. And a very special thank you to Fear Herself for keeping the number of reviews on the last chapter from being a big ol' goose egg. Thanks!
Chapter 10: Confrontations
Booth despised dirty cops. They had sworn to uphold the law, only to turn their backs if it had become an inconvenience. They were the worst kind of scum and he keenly felt that he had let one in on his investigation. Especially since a dirty cop was a potential threat to his partner. Crooked FBI agents had caused trouble for Brennan before, with attempts on her life from two separate agents involved before. He was determined that there wasn't going to be a third.
He finally found Agent Suarez in the break room on the third floor, talking with some of the agents there. Booth wanted to grab him by the collar and beat the truth out of him, but decided that it would be too messy that way. But it didn't stop him from cornering Suarez at the table and leaning over him menacingly as he drank nasty FBI coffee out of a Capitals mug. He startled the gang task force agent and Suarez jumped.
"Jeez, Booth," he said as he slopped his coffee onto the table. He half-heartedly tried to sop up the spill with the corner of a newspaper, but left it as Booth leaned closer, invading his personal space with growing tension.
"I need to speak with you. Privately," he said with quiet anger, enunciating each word with care. The agents who had been standing around, killing time suddenly found out that they needed to get back to work as they saw Booth's intensity.
"Fine," Suarez replied, standing up as he re-adjusted his rumpled shirt and tie. "My office."
Carlos led the way, trying to make it look like he had called the meeting, rather than being forced into it. The FBI agents who had been in the break room watched in a way they thought was discrete and gossiped about what was happening. In a small corner of his mind, Booth hoped that the guys watching them were better at stakeouts than they were on gathering information about office politics. Their attempts at casual were depressingly obvious. But he spared them only a fraction of a thought as he focused on the traitor in front of him.
Booth glowered at Suarez the entire way to Suarez's office, staring holes into the agent's back. Suarez wasn't as oblivious as he made himself look. He knew Booth was as mad as a wet hen, but not the reason. Agent Suarez's office was smaller than Booth's and didn't have any windows, but it was a very good space for that part of the building. Suarez closed the door and made his way behind his desk, taking comfort in the fact that he was on his home turf.
"What's this about, Booth?" he demanded once he had settled himself standing behind his desk with his fingertips resting on the cluttered surface. Booth slammed down the papers he had taken time to print from the information the lab had sent. He stood with his hands on his hips, deliberately pushing aside his jacket to show his holstered weapon. Suarez browsed through the papers casually, pushing them aside when they didn't immediately offer what he wanted to know. "What is all this?" he asked.
"That's the ballistics report on the bullets in my two murder victims," Booth said with deceptive calmness.
"What's it have to do with me?" Suarez asked belligerently, sticking his chin out in contempt. Booth's dark eyes were dense with violence and his wide hands twitched unnervingly. Despite the expansive, heavy desk in between the two agents, Suarez was afraid that Booth would pounce on him and rip him apart with his bare hands, not even using his famed skills as a marksman. The gang task force agent wondered if this had anything to do with the argument during the interrogation. Before then, Booth was demanding, but civil. After, he turned into a dangerous predator without the veneer of civilization.
"Those bullets were fired from a gun registered to you," Booth stated.
"That's a lie!" Suarez exclaimed once he processed the outrageous statement.
"The report's in front of you," Booth said, gesturing to the papers on the desk. Suarez dove back into the papers, trying his best to read the complex data. His eyes caught on the make of the gun, a standard issue Glock, and scanned down to look for his name. He found it and stared in disbelief.
"Is this some kind of joke?" he asked, looking at his name. It was a damning piece of evidence. Carlos Suarez automatically checked his weapon to make sure he wasn't hallucinating.
"Take your hand away from your holster, Suarez," Booth ordered menacingly, his hand going towards his own weapon.
"Cool it, Booth," Suarez said, moving his hand upwards non-threateningly, showing his empty palms. "Take my gun out of my holster. That is the one registered to me."
Booth did as he suggested, retrieving the weapon. He checked the serial number etched in the metal, but it didn't tell him anything other than the fact the Glock had a different serial number than the one in the IBIS database. It was well taken care of and cleaned, like a weapon should be, and when Booth unloaded it and checked for debris, it didn't show any signs of having been fired recently.
"You may not like me, Booth," Suarez said as Booth inspected the gun. "But I'm a good agent and I would never murder like that. I mean, what's my motive? I didn't even know your victims."
"People do crazy things out of hate," Booth responded, placing the clip and the Glock on the desk out of Suarez's reach. "You hate shapeshifters as much as you hate gang members. That's motive enough for me."
"You're the one who's crazy, man!" Carlos shouted. "I don't like them, yeah, but that doesn't mean I would go on a killing spree to get rid of them!"
"You've been very interested in this case, Suarez," Booth said, his voice dangerously low, almost a growl. "You came to me about it almost before word had time to get around."
"I told you why, Booth," he protested, "We've been monitoring Rock Creek Park for Mara Muerte activity for months now. And then you come prancing in with that lady scientist of yours and all of a sudden the two bodies that should be the gang task force's jurisdiction is now part of major crimes. That's why I wanted in on the case."
"Or it could be because you killed them and now you've provoked my prime suspect into a dangerous shift and withheld evidence from me," Booth stated, tapping the ballistics report with a knuckle.
"I didn't withhold anything, damn it! I don't know what happened, but that gun isn't mine."
Booth stood across the desk from Suarez and watched the agent. His protective instincts had kicked in the moment he felt that Carlos Suarez could be a threat to Brennan and he felt an overwhelming pressure to make things right. But he also sensed that Suarez was telling the truth when he said that he didn't kill them.
"Then how come it's registered to you?" Booth asked, trying to calm himself. He was on edge—had been all day—and he was afraid that it was affecting his judgment. First from waking up with pain, then from learning about the situation with Daisy and Sweets, then Luis's fight to keep from shifting and finally this last piece of information involving Suarez, all of it was messing with his thoughts and emotions. If he wasn't careful, this fight with Suarez would catapult him into a shift. He forced himself to wait patiently for Suarez to answer.
"I don't know," Suarez said despairingly. He picked up the ballistics report again and studied the gun found in IBIS. There was his name, as clear as day. He couldn't understand it. He owned several firearms, like many of his fellow agents, and all of the ones that he used in the course of his duties were registered in the Integrated Ballistics Identification System as per FBI policy. His service weapon issued by the FBI was the one in Booth's possession, and up to that moment, he had been sure that his weapon was the one in the IBIS.
Booth crossed his arms and tried to relax his spine as Carlos surveyed the paperwork. He tried to think through it logically, pushing aside the feeling of righteous anger to focus on the facts, as he knew them. Right now the only concrete piece of evidence tying him to the murder was the fact that a gun registered to him was the murder weapon. The gang task force agent had a good reputation for getting things done, even when his methods didn't always please the higher-ups in the FBI. He was effective, and the agents who worked under him were loyal—which said something good about the agent when you considered the infighting and backstabbing that was common any organization like the FBI. He had started his career with the ATF in the nineties, and then moved to the FBI in 2000. He had risen quickly through the ranks and held a powerful position as a special agent for two years. Booth didn't think that Suarez would jeopardize the success that he had earned with luck and hard work for the murder of two civilians who were only loosely tied to a gang by Maria's dubious older brother.
Also, the manner in which they were murdered didn't fit what Booth knew of Suarez. They were killed in a way that was ritualistic, like an execution. Both Roberto Martinez and Maria Lopez were stripped naked—or possibly captured while naked, considering Maria had recently shifted before her death and her belongings were folded neatly in the backpack they had found—and their hands bound with duct tape. Then they were executed with a single shot to the back of the neck. Even though their deaths were weeks apart, they had too many similarities to assume that there were two different killers. Unless some evidence came up tying him to the victims, Booth didn't buy that Suarez was the killer.
Hodgins had estimated that Maria had died six days ago. He hoped Suarez had an alibi because he did not want another FBI agent betraying his trust. "Where were you last Friday?" Booth asked, still glowering at the gang task force agent.
"I worked until 5:30 and then I took Karen out to Ceiba for a belated birthday dinner. We've had standing reservations for over a month because we were both busy. We went out to eat, then we went to her place after that and stayed there until Sunday night."
"And she will back up your statement?" Booth asked, his anger easing somewhat at the ready answer.
"Yeah, man," he said, "Just ask her."
"Believe me, I will."
The two agents watched each other across the desk, trying to find out what the other would do. Booth grudgingly admitted to himself that he might have jumped the gun and accused Suarez without all the facts. However, there had been other law enforcement agents that had been accomplices to murder before. Just because Suarez didn't actually kill them didn't mean he wasn't involved with their deaths. He still hadn't explained how the murder weapon was registered in his name.
"So, how do you explain this?" Booth asked, his tone neutral.
"I think I know what happened," Suarez said, a glimmer of understanding dawning on his face. "Back when I was a rookie with the ATF, a collection of pistols went missing, including some of the ones assigned to agents. A couple were found in the possession of a couple of meth heads who said they picked them up in a dumpster. Those were the only two that were tracked down. Another was used in a drive by, but was never recovered. All this was back before the ATF and the FBI combined their ballistics systems into the IBIS. Maybe something was screwed up in the transfer."
"You're saying this could be a system's glitch," Booth said skeptically.
"Yeah, could be," Suarez agreed. "I wasn't on the case at the time, but I know that the ATF was working on some illegal weapons deals based here in DC when those guns were taken. It was kept quiet, but there was a major investigation of some of the guys I worked with. Evidence would disappear from storage and maybe turn up again in the hands of criminals, you know what I mean? Mostly small arms confiscated from criminals, but there were rifles and shotguns that went missing as well as a handful of weapons stored in the ATF lockers."
"I want the names on that case," Booth ordered. "Everyone who was working on it, all the people suspected, every weapon that turned up missing, anything you remember. Everything."
"You got it," Suarez said, relaxing from being moved from suspect to potential ally.
"But I don't want you in on my case," Booth said firmly. His entire manner told the gang task force agent that it was non-negotiable. "Not until we get this cleared up."
"That's fair," Suarez said grudgingly, knowing that if the situations were reversed, he wouldn't want Booth possibly messing up his investigation.
Booth felt his phone vibrate before he heard it ring. He excused himself, moving out of the office and ignoring the stares he received. He flipped open his phone and answered it professionally without looking at the caller id, "Booth."
"Luis Lopez is stable for the moment," Brennan said without preamble. "The doctor was able to give him antiviral drugs that halted the production of the shifter virus, but his condition is considered borderline. The shifting proteins are actually at critical levels, but with the antivirals, Luis was able to postpone a shift. Right now, he is heavily sedated and being fed intravenously. The doctor was under the assumption that I was his Alpha, so he gave me more information than would normally be available."
"Were you able to get any more information from him?" he asked as he made his way back to his office.
"If you are talking about information about the deaths of Maria and Roberto, then no, he was not able to tell me any more about their deaths. But I was able to gain some medical information that confirms that he was in animal form on the day that his sister died. I was not able to either confirm or deny his involvement with Roberto's death," Brennan said. Booth paused for a moment, concentrating on the sounds he was hearing on the other end of the line. It didn't sound much like a hospital. He heard a deep bass beat coming from her line, but it soon faded away, replaced with the shriek of a siren.
"Where are you?" he finally asked, "Are you still at the hospital?"
"I am in the waiting area outside the hospital," she answered. "In a moment I will call a taxi to take me back to the lab. Luis is so heavily sedated that we will not likely be able to talk to him for several days, so I'll be of more use at the lab."
"Don't call a cab," Booth said, planning to drive to get her after he told some of his people about Suarez. "I can come pick you up. I meant to meet you at the hospital, but I was side-tracked."
"There's no need to drive over here just to give me a ride, Booth," she responded. "You won't be able to talk to Luis, and the doctor is not here. You shouldn't waste gas simply to drive me to the lab."
"Nah, Bones," Booth said, thinking of ways to persuade her from getting in a car with a stranger. "I'll pick you up and we can exchange information while I take you to the lab."
"That seems a little out of your way," she said. Booth could hear that she was wavering and smiled to himself.
"It's okay, Bones. We need to confer," he said, throwing out the scientific-sounding word to make her want to agree.
"Very well," she said, disconnecting the call. Booth took some time to inform Charlie to watch Suarez and assign someone to confirm his alibi for Friday. He felt like he was back in the Cold War, with Reagan and Gorbachev and the old slogan, "Trust, but verify." His gut said that the gang task force agent didn't kill those kids, but until he knew without a doubt that Carlos wasn't involved, he would cover all his bases. With that taken care of, Booth smiled widely as he jumped into his SUV. More time with his partner was time well spent.
Brennan was waiting impatiently when Booth finally drove up. She quickly hopped in, pulling the door shut behind her. "I have apprised you of Luis's condition. What new information have you learned about the case? I assume that was what 'side-tracked' you."
"The lab identified the gun that fired the bullets that killed Roberto and Maria," Booth told her. He continued with the explanation, telling her about confronting Carlos Suarez and his decision to keep him out of the case. He shifted uncomfortably halfway through his account, his back pain flaring from his sitting position. Brennan noticed, as she always did.
"You should shift soon," Brennan said, her normally detached voice sounding worried. "I can smell the change in your scent. You were very close to beginning a shift today in the interrogation room."
"I'm fine, Bones," he responded, brushing her off. It hadn't been that close. And Brennan didn't need to know about the episode with Suarez and how close to beginning a shift he had been without her.
"Speaking as to your health, we should still plan to take our leave this weekend so that we can shift," Brennan argued.
"It's not going to happen, Bones," Booth said, shaking his head. "We can't leave the case unfinished."
"We've solved cases quickly before," she said doubtfully. She was continuing their argument more for the sake of protesting than any real feeling that she was right. She and her partner shared the burden of seeing a case to its completion. Neither would compromise a case by leaving before it was entirely wrapped up.
"Just because the case is solved doesn't mean it's finished," he stated quietly. "We can't leave before then." It summed up both their feelings very well, but Brennan was still anxious. She had seen the pain that he tried to hide, and she found that it hurt her as well, as irrational as that idea was. She filed the feeling away for further examination at a later date.
At the lab Brennan and Booth split up at Brennan's office. Brennan took her lab coat off the coat rack in her office and exchanged it for her jacket, then made her way to the platform to resume looking at the bones. Booth tore himself away from his partner and made his way to Angela's office, to update her on Suarez's story and gather information. Cam met him on the way, a worried look in her eye.
"How'd it go?" she asked, her arms crossed under her breasts. Booth shook his head negatively.
"He denies all involvement," he told her.
"Of course he does, Seeley," she said. "You know how this goes."
"I believe him, Cam," he said reluctantly. "Something hinky is going on here."
"Tell me you arrested him, though," she said, expecting an affirmative. One look at his face told her differently. "You didn't arrest him?"
"I'm not going to ruin a good FBI agent without concrete proof," Booth stated decisively. "I've asked some of my people to watch him. If his story doesn't check out, or if he runs, then I'll arrest him. Not before."
"Fine," she sighed, "What do you need from us?" They walked into Angela's office, catching her with her feet up on the couch eating straight out of what Booth recognized as Brennan's private stash of pistachios. She quickly sat up and began brushing pistachio shells off her lap, most of them missing the trashcan and landing on the floor. She hid the container of pistachios behind a cushion on the couch and kicked the stray shells underneath the dust ruffle.
"Hey, Angela," Booth said. He decided that as grumpy as she looked, she could use a dose of the Booth charm. "Pregnancy agrees with you. You look better every day. You just glow…"
"Knock it off, Booth," Angela said irritably, "And if you tell Brennan that I took her pistachios, I'll stomp on you someplace very tender with my swollen, pregnant lady feet."
"Not a word," Booth promised, trying not to think of pain in any of his tender parts. Cam tried to hide a smile, but Booth saw it anyways and tried his best to ignore it to keep some sense of pride.
"Did you come here to give me compliments or do you want me to do something," Angela said. She was fed up with being pregnant, and she let everyone know it when her mood swung that way.
"Can't I do both?" Booth asked with a last ditch effort at a charm smile. It only took one look from Angela to bring him back down to reality. He quickly launched into what he came for. "I need more info on that gun. Suarez claims that it was stolen from the ATF in the mid-nineties when he was still a rookie agent with ATF, along with several other weapons. He claims that two were found and another was used in a drive-by."
"And you believed him?" Angela said incredulously. Booth smiled to himself, thinking that even though Angela was the most normal one of the bunch, she was still a squint at heart. She followed the evidence to its conclusion.
"Yes," Booth stated. Angela looked at him as if he had grown another head, but stood up, going over to the Angelatron.
"Alright," she sighed melodramatically. "I'll work through the records during that time period. The IBIS was originally an ATF database in the nineties while the FBI was using Drugfire. I suppose something could have been lost when the two systems merged. I'll see what I can find."
Angela looked at Booth when his phone beeped, informing him that he had received a message. It was from Suarez, and attached was the preliminary information about the stolen weapons. It was pitifully little information, but it was a starting place. Booth forwarded it to Angela. He also saw a message from Charlie, time stamped a few minutes before. He opened it and let out a small breath that he didn't realize he had been holding.
"Suarez's alibi checks out for Friday," he told Cam and Angela. He was proud that his gut had been proven right yet again. "He clocked out at 5:30 and the hostess at Ceiba says that he and his girlfriend arrived at 7 for their dinner reservation. Karen confirms that he was with her all night."
"That only proves that the government will do anything to cover for their instruments," Hodgins said as he came into Angela's office. He kissed his wife on the cheek lovingly before turning to face Booth and Cam. Booth rolled his eyes.
"That…" Booth responded, pointing at Hodgins, "…proves that the Jeffersonian will hire anything as long as it has a doctorate."
"Three doctorates!" Hodgins said cheerfully.
"What do you have for us, Hodgins?" Cam said, intervening before the playground argument could escalate.
"Results on the swab of the bite mark on Roberto's finger," he said cheerfully. He turned to Angela and gestured to her equipment. "May I?" he asked politely.
"If you break it, you're never touching me again," Angela warned blackly. Hodgins didn't let his smile dim. He gave his wife another kiss on the cheek and grabbed the remote to the Angelatron. After a little maneuvering through the system, the screen was a replica of the monitor at his station. The results zigzagged across the screen in an almost incomprehensible pattern.
"You see?" he said proudly. All three of the others stood staring blankly. Hodgins realized he was going to have to explain and pointed to a purple peak on the graph almost hidden by multiple intersecting lines. "This protein here is the enzyme amylase. It's found in saliva. There are also multiple electrolytes and antibacterial compounds in this sample, all of which are also found in saliva. But here's the fun part…" he said, switching to a different screen shot with more incomprehensible science babble. "This is the virus protein capsule from SSV1, the shapeshifter virus. Not only was there saliva in the bite wound, but it came from a shapeshifter. Now who's King of the Lab? That's right, baby. Me." He leaned over his wife's pregnant belly and whispered, "King of the Lab, baby," as he kissed the baby bump.
"As touching as this is," Booth drawled, his hands propped on his hips. "I still don't know what that means for the case."
"Maria bit Roberto on his left index finger," Brennan announced as she wandered into Angela's office, Daisy trailing behind.
"Way to steal my thunder," Hodgins complained. Brennan glanced at her colleague curiously, wondering at his phrasing. She put it out of her mind, concentrating on the case.
"How did you come to that conclusion?" Cam asked.
"The dental impressions on Roberto's index finger had the same angled slant as her lupine teeth," Brennan explained. Daisy jumped in, bouncing on her toes slightly.
"Her dental x-rays confirm that Maria was the one who left the imprint on his finger," she said eagerly. Booth could see caked makeup covering the bruises and knew it wasn't fooling anyone but Daisy. But the makeup helped her feel like everything was normal. That, along with Brennan's business-as-usual attitude, had restored her to her cheerful, bouncy self.
"So…what?" Booth asked, thinking it through in his mind, "You think Roberto was attacking her? Maybe he put his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet and she bit him."
"No, the placement of the bite is wrong for that," Brennan said. She pulled Booth's hand toward her and wrapped his arm around her body, putting his hand directly over her mouth as if he had attacked her from behind. Booth rolled his eyes at being included in another ridiculous little experiment, but he was shocked as she bit down on the meaty part of his finger.
"Ouch, Bones," he said petulantly. "I don't see why this is necessary."
Brennan ignored him and took his hand away from her mouth, her breath caressing his fingers. She examined the faint prints and held out his hand to show the others.
"See how the imprints curve toward the palm of Booth's hand with the imprint of the maxillary lateral incisors on the ventral surface of the hand?" she said, pointing to the indentations nearest to the palm. She lightly touched the mark as it faded. Her quick, soulful look at his face made his annoyances melt away as she watched to see if he was still okay with what she was doing.
"The marks made on Roberto's finger have a different orientation than these marks on Booth's finger," she explained as she turned back to Booth's hand. She took her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment, expressing her hesitation at what she was about to do, and Booth could practically see the gears turning in her mind as she glanced at him from over her shoulder. Her back nestled into his front and he became very aware of that fact as she pointed at the fading marks. He forced himself to pay attention to her science, not only her body, as she turned slightly, still with his arm partially wrapped around her and one hand lightly gripping her hip. His hand slid from her hip to the small of her back in a light caress as she turned completely to face him.
Her intention escaped him until she lifted his hand to her mouth again. Booth couldn't have concentrated on anything else even if he wanted to as he watched Brennan take his index finger into her mouth, the pad of his finger resting lightly on her tongue. He could barely breathe. Time stood still for one glorious moment as she bit down just above his knuckle, marking him temporarily. He swore that he could feel the tip of her tongue faintly tickle the pad of his finger as she slowly removed it from her mouth, though the feeling was so light that it could have been his imagination. Time rushed forward again, hitting him in the stomach with its suddenness as she licked her lips.
"Do you see the difference?" she asked, her voice breathy with excitement and something more.
"Oh, I see the difference," Angela said suggestively. Cam looked a little shell shocked at the display, Hodgins was grinning at his wife, and Daisy looked very pleased to see the two alphas acting as a mated pair. Booth struggled mightily to keep his arousal under his control, but Brennan was oblivious to her co-workers' reactions as she studied Booth's finger again.
"In this scenario, only the maxillary central incisors have imprinted on the dorsal surface of the phalange, and the concavity of the lingual fossa is distal, rather than ventral," she explained. "This is a match for the placement of the bite on Roberto's finger." As she spoke, Booth couldn't help but inhale her unique scent. She smelled divine. Her hair stirred lightly as she moved and it released a cloud of her breath-taking scent of rainforest mixed with the light spray of a waterfall on an isolated, rock-strewn pool. Booth heard her words, but they meant nothing to him as he watched her bite marks fade, and he had to force his thoughts away from the idea of her marking him more intimately and of him returning the favor. He wondered if he still had a voice after the little stunt his partner had pulled.
"I still don't know what that means, Bones," he rumbled. His voice was slightly deeper and more intimate than usual, and it affected Brennan on a primal level. She locked down on a shiver, but Booth felt the beginning of it before she clamped down on her emotions, and his eyes suddenly were heavy lidded with desire, knowing that that he wasn't imagining the way that little scenario had affected her like it had affected him.
"The placement of the bite, combined with SSV1 in the saliva, would suggest that Maria most likely bit Roberto prior to her shift intending to infect him with the shapeshifter virus," she explained.
"That's illegal!" Daisy exclaimed in horror.
It was a felony to knowingly infect a person with a potentially deadly virus, even when the person was a willing participant. Shapeshifters were warned long before their first shift to isolate themselves before shifting to avoid spreading the virus. It was a cultural taboo among shapeshifter communities to "create" shapeshifters as well as prohibited by law. According to the law, it was considered a class one felony, punishable by life in prison or even the death penalty in some states. The death penalty hadn't been enforced on this point since the fifties, but the punishment was still on the books. The wording of the law made it difficult for the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt that a shapeshifter "knowingly" infected another person, so the cases usually ended with fines rather than death, but the risk was still high.
"It is a serious accusation, Bones," Booth said, his voice still low and secret in her ear. They hadn't yet moved away from each other, but they were realizing their position. Partners were able to act out a scene—even one that tested the boundaries of flirtation—and still be just partners. But "just partners" didn't stand in each other's arms gazing fondly at one another after the fact. Neither wanted to make the effort to step away, but Brennan forced herself to move out of Booth's arms. They both felt empty as they put some distance between each other. She pulled her composure around her like a cloak and Booth tried to do the same.
"It's only a theory," she murmured.
"But it's a sound theory," Hodgins chimed in. "That was the conclusion that I came to when I compiled this information."
"It's more common than you would think for a shapeshifter to infect their significant other with the virus so that they could join a pack as full members and so their children would be shapeshifters. But there are also people—both shapeshifters and non-shapeshifters—that are very strongly against it. That could very well be our killer's motive," Booth said firmly, switching into cop mode. "A member of a fanatic anti-shapeshifter group would be dedicated enough to capture and kill Roberto and hunt Maria for weeks before killing her the same way. I'll tell Sweets to check for any group who would fit the profile."
Angela sighed as Booth and Brennan moved even further apart. "I'll get started on the information about the missing weapons," she said resignedly, knowing that the moment was over between her favorite non-couple and it was unlikely to begin again with her hovering.
"And I'll…go to my office," Cam said, following through on her words, eager to leave the awkwardness of the situation.
"I'd better go to the Hoover," Booth said for Brennan's ears alone. Brennan nodded, letting her arms hang by her side although her hands itched to touch Booth again.
"I'll study the skeletons again and see if I can give you more information on the attacker or attackers," Brennan said with finality. Temporary separation would help them regain their ability to compartmentalize.
"And I'll fashion a crown out of pipettes to symbolize my status of King of the Lab," Hodgins said with a grin, breaking the tension between the partners with a snap. Booth scoffed, then clapped the bug man on the shoulder.
"You do that, then," Booth said mockingly. He spared a fleeting glance at Brennan, wanting to say something more, but he failed to find the words he wanted to say.
"I'll see you later, Booth," she said.
"Later, Bones," he responded, and moved out of the office, then out of the Jeffersonian.
A/N: I love hearing your opinions. Thank you for reviewing!