A/N: Hi :D This chapter is a little longer again, and it's a little case-centered, sorry if you don't like that, but well, they can't just quit their jobs to do couple-y stuff all day :P I hope you like it!

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They were sitting at one of the tables next to the window, the sunlight streaming onto their plates and faces. Brennan's plate carried a half-eaten pizza with champignons and paprika, while on Booth's there was only one piece left, with what Brennan found a scandalous amount of meat. However, Booth didn't seem to mind, as he took another huge bite out of his last piece. Slightly disgusted, Brennan took a last bite of hers and definitively dropped her fork and knife on her plate. She sipped at her diet coke while Booth shoved down the rest of his pizza.

"We should get back to the lab, Mr. Nigel-Murray is probably almost done with his preliminary exam of the bones by now, and maybe Angela already made a sketch," she suggested.

"Maybe we should wait a while.. I'm not sure I can move after eating that whole thing."

"Then you shouldn't eat so fast."

"I don't, you're just incredibly slow!"

Not wanting to engage in a 'yes you do'-'no I don't' argument, she pushed her chair back, dropped the right amount of bills on the table and yanked at Booth's arm.

"Let's go."

He sighed deeply and seemed to consider resisting for a moment, but finally gave up at another impatient tug at his arm and also stood up.

By the time they got to the lab, Vincent was indeed done with his examination of the bones. He hadn't found a clear cause of dead, and no distinctive anomalies that could help to ID the victim. There was no good news from Hodgins either, since there had been no insect activity. The victim could've died days or decades ago, they had no idea. The bones had been cooked to remove the flesh, and Hodgins was trying to define what kind of water had been used. Hoping for at least some good news, Brennan continued her way to Angela's office.

"Did you find a match in the missing person's database?" She asked as soon as she had set foot in her best friend's office.

"Hi to you too. And no, but the computer is still searching," Angela said, looking slightly offended at her friend's greeting for a few seconds. Then Booth entered her office, and the annoyance was replaced with a smile.

"Where have you two been?"

"Lunch, Angela, just lunch," Brennan said, silencing her friend with an unfriendly look.

"Pizza," Booth added.

Before Angela could ask any more questions, her computer made a beeping sound, indicating the search was finished. She twirled her desk chair around and looked at the results.

"No match."

"So we have nothing?" Booth asked exasperatedly.

"Did you track down the owner of the car yet?"

"The bureau said they'd call me if they did, and I haven't heard anything yet, so I'm guessing not." The last words hadn't left his lips or he felt his cell phone vibrate in his pocket.

"Booth," he picked up.

Brennan could vaguely hear a voice on the other end of the line, but it wasn't understandable, so she sank down on Angela's couch and thought everything through. They had no idea when the victim had died, when, or how. She hoped knowing who owned the car might help, but prepared on staying up all night examining every bone carefully.

Booth clapped his phone shut and hesitated a moment between facing Angela or Brennan, since they were now on opposite sides of the room. He finally settled on Brennan and repeated the information he had just been given.

"The owner of the car is Charlie Nelson, age 82."

Angela snorted. "You think he's the killer?"

"I don't think so." Booth answered.

"Let's not jump to conclusions. So far we only know that the bones were boiled, and I'm pretty sure Mr. Nelson has access to water and heat, so we can't rule him out just because he's elderly," Brennan quickly said.

"Okay, so why don't we go check Gramps out?" Booth said, grinning.

Brennan pushed herself off the couch and followed Booth out of Angela's office.

Angela stared at them for a moment as she watched them making their way out of the building, silently happy that nothing seemed to have changed in their working relationship.

Booth's car pulled up at an old, remote house. It took them two hours to get there, as they constantly took the wrong turn. They walked up to the front door and rang the bell, the sound vaguely echoing through the empty halls behind it. There was no answer for almost two minutes, but just when they were about to head back to the car they heard someone shuffling towards the door. A few seconds later, the door opened and a wrinkled old man appeared.

"Can I help you?" He said, his voice sounding faint.

"Sir, we're here about your car.." Booth started to say when he was interrupted by the suddenly livid man, who was now not looking so fragile anymore.

"Did you finally find the bastard who took it? Did you arrest him? For how long is he going to jail? Did.."

"Sir, calm down, please. Yes, we found your car. May I ask how it was stolen?"

"He took my keys. The bastard took my keys. He broke into my house, and he took them."

"When was it stolen?" Brennan asked, though she was starting to get convinced that this man had nothing to do with the body they'd found.

"Almost three months ago. I immediately filed a report, but every time I asked if there was any news about my car you guys kept telling me there was nothing they could do. When do I get my car back?"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple, there was.." Booth started to explain, but was again interrupted, this time by his partner.

"We found a body in the trunk of your car, a female, between 25 and 35 years old. Do you have any idea who this might be?"

The old man fainted.

A few hours later, they were back at the lab. After Charlie Nelson had lost consciousness, they had called 911, asking for an ambulance. It took the paramedics almost an hour to get to them, while all this time Brennan and Booth were trying to resuscitate the man, whose heart had apparently given up. After the paramedics had taken Charlie with them, they decided to just go back to the lab until they got any news.

Brennan was examining the bones one by one, while Booth was in her office checking out the report Charlie had filed when his car had been stolen. The report said pretty much the same as Charlie had told him; his car had been gone one morning, along with his keys. There were no signs of a forced entry into the house, and a note scribbled on the side said it was more likely the old man had forgotten to take his keys out of the lock when he had entered, and someone had just seen a chance and taken it.

Booth was about to see if Brennan had found something on the bones when her phone rang. He hesitated for a moment and then decided to pick it up.

"Dr. Brennan's office."

"Hello. I called to give dr. Brennan or Special Agent Booth information about the man that was brought into the hospital about an hour ago."

"You're talking to Booth."

"Oh, okay. I'm very sorry, but I have to say that Mr. Nelson didn't make it. He had a heart attack, there was nothing we could do. I'm very sorry for your loss."

Booth was silent for a minute.

"Sir?"

"Eh, yes, okay. Thanks for the call."

"Good afternoon."

"Yeah, bye." Booth put the phone back and stared ahead for a moment. The one person that might have any information about the case just died. He wondered if they were ever going to solve the case if they didn't ID the victim soon. After a few minutes he got up out of the chair and walked up to the platform to inform the rest.

"Bones?"

Brennan looked up from the remains in front of her, and carefully put the vertebra she was examining down on the table.

"Did you find anything in the report?" She asked, looking down at the bones again.

"No, but I just got a call from the hospital. Nelson died."

Brennan's head snapped up again. "What?"

"He had a heart attack, they said there was nothing they could do."

"Did they run a tox screen?"
"He had a heart attack, why would they do that?"

"Maybe someone poisoned him. You know, so he wouldn't talk."

"Do you think he knew anything about the victim?"

"It's a possibility. And right now there's nothing else I can find. No bullet entrance or exit wounds, no fractures, no cuts or slash marks anywhere on the remains."

"You think she was poisoned too?"

"Well, she wasn't shot, battered, or strangled, and if she was stabbed, someone was very careful not to hit the bones. And there would be no way we're able to check for any toxins, since there's no soft tissue left." Brennan put down the bone she had picked up again and sighed.

"Hodgins didn't find anything specific in the water used for boiling the remains either, just common tap water. Maybe you should just go back to your office, there's no point in you being here. I'm just going to be examining these bones for the next hours."

Booth considered this for a moment and decided it was probably the best that he didn't distract Brennan, though he was sure there would be nothing interesting to do in his own office.

"Okay, and I'll call the hospital to ask them to run a tox screen, if they haven't already done that," he said, starting to walk towards the exit.

"Thanks," Brennan called after him, not bothering to look up from the table.

"Bye"

It was again around midnight when she finally put down the last bone, certain that there was nothing else she could discover from them. Though 'nothing else' wasn't exactly the right phrasing, since it suggested that she had found anything at all, which she hadn't. She took of her gloves and dumped them in the trash and shrugged off her lab coat. On the way home, she was trying to think of a way to prevent the case from staying unsolved, but couldn't come up with anything. Still lost in thoughts, she didn't notice anything strange when she walked into her apartment. It wasn't until she had put down her bag and hung up her coat when she noticed the chaos. Her whole living room had been turned upside down, and from what she could see, probably the other rooms too. She froze, her heart hammering in her chest. She reached into her pocket and speed-dialed Booth, her eyes constantly looking around, searching for any suspicious movements.

"Bones, why are you calling so late?" A sleepy Booth answered the phone.

"You need to come over. Right now."

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So, I kept my promise to update sooner than usually, y'all can thank me by reviewing :P I probably won't update for more than a week now, since I'm leaving on vacation this weekend.. but I'll try to post a new chapter as soon as I come back :)