BOAB

CH10C

Wiping the sweat out of her eye with one hand, while still holding onto the squirming calf, Brennan braced her legs and pulled him back down to where he was level and Mal could finish the suture. He wiped the sweat from his own brow and smiled up at her from his position on the ground, "You're doing a great job kid, hang in there," he said through his teeth as he tried to get the needle through the ragged skin of the cow's hide. "Thanks doc," she gasped, wondering why it was she wanted so desperately to go into the field with Booth on that second case. Classic case of what she knew now versus what she knew then in her opinion.

Thankfully it was only another 15 minutes and then he was done stitching up the wayward trench coat. She grabbed the lead on the halter and took the calf into the pen behind the office and watched as he bucked and snorted, kicking his heels up he ran to join his mama who'd been brought in with him. Despite the aching in her shoulders, the mud covering her entire body and the bruise that was sure to develop thanks to a well placed hoof, Brennan smiled at his antics, "Try to stay away from the tractor scythe next time!" she yelled out after him. Turning to go back in, Mal was standing in the doorway wiping his hands off on a towel.

"That's right Roxie, you tell 'em," he chuckled. Brennan smiled and blushed slightly, "Well, it's obvious his mama didn't teach him any sense!" she defended herself and came in to wipe off what she could.

"Hey Roxie," Danni called from the main office.

"Yes Danni?" she responded, wiping her shirt and walking towards the door.

"Do you mind if we change out at your place?"

"Change what?" Brennan said distractedly as she continued to get the grime off of her.

"Our clothes? Remember, ladies night?" Carrie laughed.

"Oh, oh yeah, I'm sorry, I completely forgot about that! No, I don't mind, do you want to follow me out there then?" She asked, looking up once she entered the main waiting room.

"That's great, then we can all just change and go to the 'horn from there, Steff will just meet us there after all. You'll like her, she's pretty cool, she used to ride barrels." Danni said as she filed the patient files for the day. Standing up she stretched and looked at the clock, "Well, I'm ready when you two are." She said.

Carrie clicked a couple of pages off and then shut down the computer and flipped the switch that turned the sign from open to closed, before closing the blinds on the main window. "I'm ready." She said and smiled.

Brennan grinned and said, "Let me just make sure I'm good to go, then I'll meet you both out front." Rolling her eyes Carrie said, "Mal strikes again." Danni laughed and the two of them left through the front door arm in arm. Wondering what she meant by that, Brennan locked the front door and then went into the exam room. Mal was sweeping up the floor and looked like he was almost done. "Need any more help?" She asked.

"No thanks Roxie; you can go on, thank you for all your help today. I was very pleased and I'm glad you were able to start on such short notice. You really know your way around a doctor's office." He stopped sweeping and leaned on the broom, looking at her. Even dirty and disheveled she was still flat out gorgeous. "Well, I still have a lot to learn, but thank you, are you sure you don't want to join us?" She was trying to figure out a way to get him near Booth so that they could ask him some questions, she wasn't at all confident in her interrogation technique, but Booth, well he could ask questions like no other.

"Not tonight, I'm going to go check on Zoe, then head on home, but I'll see you in the morning, we've got some house calls to make."

"Okay then, see you tomorrow." She grabbed her purse from the front filing cabinet and left through the side door. He watched her leave and meet up with the other two girls in the parking lot. "Roxie huh?" he said, recognizing that she wasn't Roxie Morgan and she wasn't a veterinarians assistant. Instead she was Dr. Temperance Brennan and he'd read all of her books. Wondering why she was here and what all she was involved with; he merely watched them get into their trucks and pull out before he finished sweeping and locked up the office for the night.

Carrie and Danni followed Brennan out to her place and parked side by side in front of her barn. Danni was the first out of her truck and said, "Wow, this place is nice Roxie, you're renting this?" she was looking around the place and noticing how neat and clean everything was.

"For now, I'm not sure if I'll end up buying or not, it depends on how this job works out," Brennan shrugged and led the way into the barn. "I've got to shovel the stalls really quickly and then we can walk the fence line, if that's okay?" she wasn't sure how much help the two were willing to be.

"We'll help, it's almost sundown and I don't want to walk a fence line in the dark, turn the horses out and then we can each take a stall." Carrie said grabbing a shovel and handing one to Danni.

"Because I don't shovel enough shit at home?" Danni said sarcastically.

"Apparently not D," Carrie laughed.

Brennan went inside Fury's stall and opened up the outside gate after patting his nose and saying hello, he nickered softly at her and walked outside and stood as he had that morning, just under the awning. Charcoal pushed on her with her delicate nose as she opened her gate. She stepped daintily outside of the stall and then trotted across the open pasture gracefully, her ears flicking in all directions.

As each of the horses left the barn, Danni and Carrie moved in and began to shovel right outside the stall doors where it could all be scooped up with the bobcat. Taking a deep breath Brennan edged into Wrath's stall and stood still. He turned his back to her and flattened his ears. She edged carefully over to the gate and slowly shot the bolt. Hearing it click, he twisted his head to see that he was able to leave. Shooting out again like he'd been blasted out, he ran full bore across the pasture. Carrie and Danni both stopped shoveling and marveled at the large horse as he rocketed around the pasture, "Wow," Carrie breathed, "he is gorgeous, what's his name?"

"Wrath" Brennan replied watching him and envying him his ability to fly at the same time wishing she didn't feel the same hurt that he did. She grabbed a shovel and silently began to clear out his stall. The three of them worked quickly and when they were done with the floors and the oat buckets were full again, Brennan started the bobcat and quickly moved the small piles to behind the barn where they would dry and then be used for fertilizer. They struck out along the fence line, each looking for patches where the horses could get snagged on wayward wires or posts. "So Steff used to ride barrels?" Brennan asked casually as they walked. Danni said, "Yes, she's been riding the circuit since she was a little kid, she was a princess in the court two years ago, when her sister was queen. She stopped riding when she died though, said it wasn't worth it just for some sequins and roses."

"How did her sister die?" Brennan asked, looking up to check where the horses were. Carrie was on the opposite side of the pasture having decided to split up to make it easier. Charcoal was following her at a sedate pace and Brennan smiled, she looked like a giant gold dog.

"In a fire, she and her son, it was a few years ago." Danni answered, "Here, help me twist this bit back up." Brennan helped her tie up a stray piece of barb wire and they continued on.

"That's terrible." Brennan said filing away that bit of information. "Um, just out of curiosity, what happened to the girl that used to work with you?" She said nonchalantly.

"Elizabeth? Oh, she died too. They found her body in a barrel at the rodeo grounds a month or so ago, she'd been missing for a couple of months. We thought that she'd gone back home, she was always telling us how great it was in Texas. She rode the circuit a bit too, but she liked working with Mal too. Aside from how much better Texas was than every other place on the planet, she seemed happy here. She had a boyfriend, and we hung out with her a lot too. One day she just stopped answering her phone and was gone. Her boyfriend didn't hear anything either, then the next thing we know, she's in a barrel. It was pretty gross I heard." She said wrinkling her nose and raising her eyebrows.

"I can imagine." Brennan said, "It sounds gross, do they know who did it?"

"Nope, they asked around, but couldn't find anything. They thought it had to be a drifter, all the people that work the arena have been there forever and none of them would do anything like that. Her boyfriend was devastated. I guess he was going to propose." She shrugged and they kept on walking. They intercepted Carrie and compared notes, there were no holes in the fence or broken posts, so leaving the horses out didn't seem like it would cause any problems. The three of them walked across the field to the barn, Fury and Charcoal flanking them almost like an escort. Wrath had yet to come over to inspect the girls, he was keeping his distance and although it seemed like he was ignoring them he knew exactly where they were with every step they took.

"What's wrong with him?" Carried asked nodding at the big bay horse.

"He was abused before I rescued him. He'd been left to die on an abandoned farm and he's a little skittish. I'm hoping to rehabilitate him, he's got a lot of life left in him." She said watching him out of the corner of her eye. Turning to walk backwards she smiled and held her hands out towards the other two, "These two are just as docile as lambs, I couldn't have asked for better horses."

"Popcorn is like that, he's actually as dumb as a brick but will give you everything he's got" Danni said about her own horse.

Carrie laughed, "Remember that time he stuck his nose into the tree and hit the bee hive?" she started to laugh as she explained he just stood there and kept nosing it, "He was curious about the bees that were stinging him," she wiped her eyes and Danni laughed remembering. Brennan giggled slightly imagining how foolish he must have looked. "That was so funny." Danni said.

"My horse, Sultan, is a pretty good boy, he's a retired heeler, boy he can stop on a dime and give you nine cents change." Carrie said obviously proud of her horse.

"Hey, maybe we can go riding sometime?" Danni said as they reached the barn.

"That sounds like fun, for now though, let's go get ready, I'd like to see if I can get some other kind of riding in tonight!" Carrie said raucously.

The three of them walked inside the cabin and Brennan showed them where they bathrooms were. She would wait until they were done showering and then she'd take a quick one. Laying her clothes out, she hoped she was choosing an appropriate outfit. She heard the water come on in both showers and went into the kitchen to grab something to eat, before she remembered she was currently foodless, having intended to shop after work. Grabbing another granola bar, she tore into it as her phone began to ring.

"Tony hi!" She said, knowing it was him, he was the only one that had the 'hot blooded' theme song as a ring tone.

"Hi Roxie" he said back. "Hows it going so far?"

"Well, I've learned some things that may be pertinent, but still trying to get a little background, what about you?"

He knew if she was using words like pertinent she was able to speak freely. "I've got zilch-although, I do know that I never want to do this kind of case again," he told her a little bit about how he spent his day. "Any of them make you feel like they may be cold blooded killers?" she asked finishing the granola bar.

"Not yet, of course I didn't get to interact with them all yet, just the two 'pro's' and the other new guy. What are you doing tonight?" he asked wishing he could blow off the guys and meet up with her. No matter where they were or what case they were working on, he found that he missed her more and more. Knowing that his balls were in her purse when it came to telling her how he felt he cringed a little at his own cowardice, but knew that she'd just explain it all away as chemicals or something anyway.

"I'm going out with some girls I met at work"-she stopped speaking as she heard Carrie moving around in the guest bedroom right outside the kitchen, "in fact I've got to go, maybe I'll talk to you later?"

"Where are you going with them, we're going to the l"-she cut him off.

"I'll call you okay? I've got to go; it was good to hear from you." She hung up the phone just as Carrie walked in. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt." She said.

Brennan tucked her phone into her pocket and said, "No worries, it was just an old friend checking to make sure I made it here okay."

Danni walked in, a towel wrapped around her, her assets straining the top portion of the towel, "Okay Roxie, you can have your own room back, I'm going to get changed in here." She said following Carrie back into the guest room. Brennan said, "Okay-thanks" and headed to her own room. She showered quickly and then wrapped her hair up into a towel as she got dressed; she pulled on a short denim skirt and a tight white tank top. Pulling her hair out of the towel, she blow dried it and then pulled it up into a reverse pony tail. Pulling strands out to hang around her face, she put on her makeup and then slid into a denim cropped jacket. She put a couple of large necklaces on and as her last addition to her costume, strung her belt through the loops on the skirt and fastened it with the 'cocky' belt buckle Booth had given her. She pulled on her cowboy boots and looked in the mirror. The skirt hit her mid thigh and although it was much more skin than she usually exposed, she felt pretty comfortable.

She went into the kitchen where Danni and Carrie were waiting for her. They were dressed similarly and she mentally blew a sigh of relief. "Wow, I wish I had legs that went all the way to my chin," Carrie said with a smile, Brennan started to explain that a person's legs couldn't reach to their chin but stopped herself, "I'm just lucky I guess."

The three of them headed to the trucks parked outside, "Do you all want to ride with me?" She asked.

"No, we can all drive, that way if one of us gets lucky or strikes out, we can leave without having to wait for the others" Danni said.

"Okay, well then I'll follow you, I don't know where I'm going." She said.

"Sounds good." Each of them got into their trucks and pulled out in a line. Brennan clicked her GPS on so that she would be able to find her way home should something go down this evening. Although she was here for a case, she was actually enjoying herself, she loved the ability to just…do something with girls her own age and she wondered if this is what Angela had been trying to tell her about all this time.

They arrived at the bar and parked in the gravel parking lot. Neon illuminated their way inside, Brennan spared a glance at the sign, a giant Longhorn steer blinking in bright neon was mounted to the roof of the low slung building. Walking inside her senses were assaulted with the smells of peanuts, beer and cologne or perfume from the hundred or so people in the bar. The band was playing a cover of a Toby Keith song and although she didn't recognize it, she did like the driving beat. Carrie and Danni were greeted loudly and often as they made their way to the bar, heads all turned as Brennan made her way through the throng with them. Women wondered about the competition and men wondered if her rack was real and where she'd been all their lives.

"CARRIE!" A woman squealed across the bar, just as the three of them made it to the counter.

"STEFF" She hollered back and laughed as Steff launched herself across the bar.

Brennan stood behind Danni as the blonde came over to them; she was medium built and slender, tan and very blonde. She came over and Danni introduced her to Brennan, "Steff, this is Roxie, she took Elizabeth's position at the office, she started today."

"It's nice to meet you" Steff said shaking her hand and smiling. She had a delightful accent, she sounded Swiss to Brennan's ear and she said, "I love your accent, where are you from?"

Steff smiled and said, "Originally Switzerland, but I moved her a few years ago, and thank you, now, who's ready to get their drink on?" she asked, "First round is on me, and OH MY GOD you have to see the new guy that started at the arena, he's here with the rest of the boneheads that work out there." She said signaling to the bartender to bring them a round.

Once they had their drinks, they made their way back to the table that she'd scored, near enough that they could see the band, get to the bathrooms and watch the mechanical bull, but far enough away that they could pursue their favorite topic, men. How to get them, what to do with them when they had them, which ones to get and which ones to avoid, they sat down and Danni said, "Where's the new guy?" they were all looking towards the table that Steff had indicated.

"He was just there a minute ago, he's wearing black jeans and a lavender shirt."

"Lavender?" Brennan said incredulously. She knew that Booth had eclectic taste, but didn't think that it ran to lavender. Of course, it may not even be Booth they were talking about. Except it was, like they had some sort of invisible tie to one another, she saw him just as he felt that he was being watched. He turned and saw her familiar profile. Taking the pitcher back to his table, he tried not to smile. This is where the UC part of the operation got difficult.

"Oh, you are right" Carrie said, "He is hot…wow, white hot, I may have to check that out. Unless someone else is interested?" she looked around the table and they all smiled.

"I think we are all interested," Brennan said with a grin.

"Is Chuck here?" Danni asked, twirling her half empty glass in her hand and looking around.

"What is it with you and Chuck?" Steff said in exasperation.

"Yeah Danni, let him go, high school was a long time ago, and I'm sorry but with his track record, you'd be better off without him."

Danni scowled at them and continued to search. She didn't care, she'd loved him since she was a freshman in high school and even though he broke up with her a long time ago, she still carried a torch for him, even though his two most recent romances ended tragically.

"What's with his track record?" Brennan asked.

"Chuck was seeing my sister before she died and he was dating Elizabeth when she died." Steff said matter of factly.

Brennan raised her eyebrows and hid her mouth behind her drink, that was definitely something Booth would want to know. "There he is" Danni said her face lighting up. Turning to look in the direction that she was looking, she saw the muscular man come into view, followed by a red head and a couple of other guys. All of which were dressed much the same as Booth had been, tight jeans, button down shirts and cowboy hats. Standing up and smoothing her skirt, Danni grabbed her beer and said, "See you girls, I'm off to get into some trouble."

She got up and walked across the bar to the table where they were all sitting. "Watch out Tony, it's already starting man, here comes the initial contact. You see, when there's fresh meat, they'll send out a reconnaissance girl who will check the situation out; she will count the rings, that sort of thing, then report back. Once they have a little talk amongst themselves, they'll send the big guns out. Usually it's the one that's fearless, or the one that's had the most to drink. Get ready…set…go." Jake said.

"Hi boys, who's your friends?" she said nodding to Curtis and Booth.

Curtis stood up and stuck his hand out, "I'm Curtis Conway ma'am," he said his face a little flushed. Danni was packing some serious heat, short skirt, cropped top, boobs spilling over the top of the tiny shirt, she wasn't a stick and the curves she sported promised many things as she walked. The others at the table snickered; most newbies were enamored of Danni and her 'girls'. "Well, it's nice to meet you Curtis Conway," She smiled and licked her bottom lip, she nodded to Booth and said, "And you are?"

"Tony Scallion," he said also extending his hand. She shook it and let her hand linger in his an extra second. "So, where you boys from?"

Curtis answered first, "I'm from Oregon."

"I'm from Canada." Booth said taking a sip of his beer and looking past her to the other table.

"Hey Danni," Chuck said, "Why don't you invite your girls to come on over, I'm sure we could make plenty of room, right guys?"

They all agreed and started grabbing chairs from nearby tables, "Okay, I'll see. Oh, hey, Curtis, Tony, either of you ride bulls?"

"What's a matter Danni?" Jake asked, "Can't find someone to go the distance?" he smirked.

She smiled coyly and said, "I'm always looking for someone that can go longer than 8 seconds Jake, you know that, or at least you should." She turned quickly and walked back to the table.

"Okay, the dark haired one in the purple shirt…" She started.

"Lavender" Carrie said, her hand propping up her chin as she took in the lavender shirt and what was under it.

"Whatever, his name is Tony and he's from Canada. He's got the strongest hands I've ever touched too" she fanned herself and then continued, "The other one, with the dark brown hair, his name is Curtis and he's from Oregon, he's also got the prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen." She stopped to take a drink of her beer, "They want us to come sit with them, so grab your drinks, and let's go."

"I don't know, should we?" Brennan said, wondering how this was going to play out.

"Of course we should, you want to be with these guys honey," Steff said, "Well, all except Chuck, but he's Danni's cross to bear."

"Shut up Stefanie." Danni said, "I like him okay, that's it."

"You just keep telling yourself that sister" Carrie said, standing up and grabbing the pitcher and her glass, "I don't know about you three chickies but I'm gonna go see if they new guy can handle himself."

Laughing, they followed her to the guys table, Brennan took a deep breath and thought to herself, you can do this Temperance, just pretend you don't know anything about him, don't look into his eyes and hope he doesn't want to sit by you. As good as he was looking tonight, mixed with the music, smoke and UC assignment, she wasn't sure she wanted to sit too close to him after all. She might just give in this time.

***stay tuned…here comes the Tony and Roxie moment***