BOAB CH18A

Malcolm looked over at Roxie when she hung up the phone, "friend of yours?" he asked. He could tell that she hadn't wanted to talk in front of him, he could understand, especially if she was hiding from something. "Yes, that was my best friend, she just wanted to make sure that I'd arrived safely and wanted to quiz me on the local 'wildlife'." She answered.

"So, what do you think of the local 'wildlife', as you put it?" he asked a smile hovering around his mouth.

"I think that's a subject I'm going to discuss with her and not you Dr. Reynolds." She told him with laughter in her eyes.

"Touché" he replied. They talked about the clients they'd seen that morning and he was telling her about having to pull a tooth on a less friendly llama when they started to pull into the Chase ranch. Large iron gates met them at the end of the driveway and he pulled up to almost touching them before they slid back silently. Iron arches with intertwined C's topping them intersected with the gates, a matching set of C's set into the gates.

"Wow, that's pretty fancy," Roxie said as they pulled through.

"Cordelia used to be an actress. She was mostly in commercials and small stuff, she did a TV series for a couple of years, but then she met Liam and gave it all up to move here with him. Then his National Guard unit was called up and he died. She's pretty tough I fully expected her and Connor to head back to Hollywood or at least California, but she stayed." His pride in this woman was evident to her, she wondered if he knew how he felt about her.

They pulled up in front of the large house and Roxie saw the woman in question. Brunette hair cut fashionably short, she was tan and beautiful, she was smiling and had her arm around Connor. The two of them got out of the truck and walked towards the house when Cordelia said, "OH MY GOD. You're Temperance Brennan! Mal! You didn't tell me that she was Dr. Brennan!"

Brennan stopped herself from breaking stride; she didn't know how she was going to bluff her way through this. She looked at Mal and said, "How long have you known?"

"Since that first day, I'm a big fan of your books." He told her as Cordelia and Connor came down the steps.

"Oh my God Dr. Brennan, I'm such a fan, I have all of your books, Mal got me hooked on them, are you here researching?" she stuck her hand out, "Oh I'm sorry, forgive my manners, I'm Cordelia Chase and this is my son Connor."

Brennan shook both of their hands and said, "It's nice to meet you, and no, I'm not here doing research. I just needed a break and thought that it would be fun to do something different. Please don't tell anyone, my editor doesn't even know I'm gone yet." She said frantically trying to figure out what she was going to do and if this was going to compromise things.

"I won't say anything Dr. Brennan," Cordelia said.

"Roxie, please, Roxie Morgan Ms. Chase." She told her.

Mal just stood there silently, he didn't know what to say to Roxie, he'd known all along, but now it was just awkward. He wished he'd just told her when he first knew. "Did you know too Mal?" She needed to know if he knew about Booth too.

He nodded yes and said, "I figured you'd tell me when you were ready."

"Mal, Harmony is in the barn, Connor will go with you, Dr. Bren-Roxie, would you like to come inside? I'd love to talk to you, if that's okay?" Cordelia said.

"I don't know, Mal, do you need my help?" She started to say when she was interrupted, "Oh, he's fine, come on in." Cordelia linked her arm in hers and ushered her inside as Mal and Connor turned to go to the barn. "I do love that man," Cordelia said as they stopped on the deck to watch the two guys walk away. Completely taken aback by this declaration, Brennan said nothing.

~Meanwhile~

Booth, Curtis and Chuck finished cleaning out the equipment barn and were heading over to the onsite chuck wagon for lunch when Booth got a call.

"Yeah." He said into the phone.

"Booth?"

"This is Tony."

"You can't talk either?"

"Nope, what do you want?"

"Don't get sassy with me Tony, I just called Brennan and she can't talk either, but I wanted to tell you that whomever killed Elizabeth had access to ether as traces were found around her mouth, so look for some at the arena, I'm sure Brennan will check out the Doc, also Elizabeth was pregnant, we're trying to do a DNA sample but not sure it will work, is there any way you can get a sample from Chuck? I know he's your prime suspect." Angela knew that he and Brennan hadn't talked since she'd last called Brennan, but wanted him to be able to get what he could before they compared notes.

"I'll look into it, thanks." He hung up.

Back in Washington DC Angela looked at the now disconnected phone in her hand and said aloud, "This hanging up on me thing is getting old, I'm going to have to have a talk with those two when they get back."

Back at the arena, Booth was mentally processing what Angela had just passed along. The only one that had access to ether that he was aware of that was involved with both victims was the good doctor. The doctor that was currently side by side with his partner. He quickly dialed Brennan's phone number; it rang once and went straight to voicemail. He looked at the display and hung up and dialed her number again.

Hearing 'Hot Blooded' began to blare from her pocket; Brennan reached down and pulled the phone out of her pocket, sending the call to voicemail. Booth would leave her a message she reasoned and she'd get it later. She and Cordelia were in the house and she'd agreed to sign her latest book for her, "Thanks for keeping my secret-Temperance Brennan"

Before she could put the phone back in her pocket the song began again, knowing that he wouldn't give up after all, she excused herself and pushed talk. "Yes?"

"Bones, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine; I'm at our last stop for the day, why? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just talked to Angela and she said whoever killed Elizabeth had access to ether and the only person that had that and was involved with both witnesses was the doctor, so I was checking up on you."

She paused before answering. She'd thought the same thing, and although her gut didn't talk to her like Booth's did, she didn't think the doctor was at fault for anything. "Yes, I'd heard that too, listen can I talk to you later?"

"Call me when you get to the cabin, I'm coming over." He told her.

"I don't think that's a good idea." She said, thinking that it was best that he not come over because one, she didn't know if either of them would be able to stop the morning from happening again, and two they had just 'met'.

"I really don't care what you think; I'll be over later tonight. I'll park behind the barn. I'll bring dinner. Be safe Bones." He hung up rather than arguing with her. He knew that they needed to limit their interaction, but he was reasonably sure that no one realized they knew each other, and he wanted to get her impressions of the people they'd met so far.

She tucked the phone back into her pocket and Cordelia said, "Man trouble?"

"Why would you think that?" Brennan responded as she came back into the room.

"Hot Blooded ring tone, tense conversation, I'm no expert, but I'd say it was man trouble."

"Well, yeah, a little, we just can't seem to let things go, it's complicated." She told her.

"I understand complicated, believe me, I've been trying to get Malcolm interested for years and although he comes over for dinner and helps out around the house, he's as skittish as a newborn colt. I blame that trashy girl he was dating when he first moved here. She scared him off."

"Well, I know that Faith Price thinks that he and you should be together, she was teasing him about it before we came over here." She smiled at the pretty single mom.

"Hell, half the town thinks we should be together, it's just convincing him!" Cordelia laughed. "Speaking of which, here he comes."

Malcolm and Connor came inside, "Harmony looks like she's healing okay, keep walking her and put her into the pool a couple times a day and I think she'll be just fine in a couple of weeks. She just needs to get through the bruising." He told her reaching into the cookie jar and grabbing a handful of oatmeal cookies like he lived there.

"Pool?" Brennan said.

"Oh, yeah, Cordelia runs rehabilitation for kids and horses and she had an exercise pool for the horses, she also has riding for kids with disabilities and stuff." Malcolm told her.

"I do indeed, I love it. I don't think anyone should be deprived the ability to ride so it's open to everyone. In fact, I think Minnie is bringing Clay over later today Connor, will you make sure that Scoot's stall is cleaned out in case he ends up staying later?" Connor nodded and grabbed a cookie of his own before heading back outside.

"Isn't Clay Stefanie's' nephew?" she asked.

"Yeah, it was so sad what happened to his mama and brother. What makes it worse is that Connor was supposed to be there at that birthday party too. I thank God every day his stomach was sour and he couldn't go. I feel so sorry for Minnie and Stefanie, and that poor boy, although, he is just the happiest kid." Cordelia had gotten up and was starting to empty the dishwasher.

"What happened?" Brennan was hoping for a break in this case.

Malcolm looked at Cordelia and then at Brennan, "Tell you what; I'll fill you in on the way back into town okay? I need to get back to the office, I got a call from Danni while I was at the barn, there's a doe on her way in, looks like she was hit by a car and although I don't normally treat wildlife, I leave it to the rangers, the guy that hit her said she had two fawns."

"You gonna come back out for dinner tonight Mal?" Cordelia asked hopefully.

"Maybe not tonight Cord, rain check?"

"Sure, no problem, it was nice to meet you Dr. Brennan, Roxie. Don't worry I won't say anything; I understand needing to get away from it all. When Liam brought me here I thought I'd go crazy being away from California, but something about this place grabbed a hold of me and even when I need to get away, I never go further than my back pasture, it's just that relaxing." Her eyes were wistful when she thought of her husband, but then snapped a smile back on and shook Brennan's hand again.

She walked them to the door and watched as they got in the truck to head into town. Driving down the driveway, Mal looked over at Brennan and said, "I don't need to know why you are here Dr. Brennan, if you need anything just let me know okay?"

"All I need is for you to call me Roxie, treat me like your new assistant and don't ask questions Mal, that's all I want."

"I can do that," He smiled, "I'm going to have to postpone the show and tell around town, I don't know how bad this deer is mangled."

"That's quite alright; I'm just going to go to the store and then head on home. Maybe later this week if we're not too busy we can explore the town a little. So, what happened to Clay's brother?"

"Stella, that's Stefanie's sister invited a bunch of kids over to her mom's hotel for a birthday party for Clay and Jax a few years ago. They were going to play in the pool and then camp out in the barn overnight. So they get done in the pool and had dinner, cake and ice cream, presents, you know typical birthday party stuff. Stella and Stefanie had set up the sleeping bags and made sure they all had flashlights and things and got the boys all settled into sleep. Most of the horses were in the pasture, it was a mellow night out, so it was just the kids and Leo in there. Leo is Clay's dog. So around two or so in the morning Stella hears horses screaming and she looks outside and the back of the barn is on fire, she and Stefanie go running to the barn, and all the kids but Clay and Jax were outside. Stefanie took the kids away from the fire and Stella ran in to the barn to get her son's. Leo was pulling Clay out of the barn, he was unconscious and on fire, but luckily being dragged put the fire out. Stella and Jax never made it out."

He stopped speaking and looked over at her, "Oh my, that's so horrible. Do they know how the fire started?" She said softly.

"They asked the boys, and they all said the same thing, they were all mostly asleep and all of a sudden Leo started barking and then the next thing they knew there was a huge explosion and the barn was on fire. They said the fire burned so hot that they were never able to find out how it started. Clay got out with burns and because of all the skin grafts, he walks with a limp, but other than that he's fine. Jax was the only boy that died."

Brennan catalogued all that he'd told her and wondered whether the barn fire was really an accident or not, she would see if Booth could pull some strings and get the fire report. She was glad to have the back story on the fire, and death of Stefanie's sister, but she also would like to know more about the relationship between Chuck and Stella.

"I bet Chuck and Stefanie were devastated." She said.

"Stefanie was inconsolable at first, but she's a tough girl. She doesn't really share a lot, she likes to keep it all inside and deal with it in her own way. I know that she and Clay spend every Sunday together and go riding or they play games or something. She didn't ask for custody of him instead let her mom take him, she wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility. She and Stella never really saw eye to eye on things, they weren't really close. For twins they sure didn't have a lot in common. Chuck really didn't react at all. Things were going south with him and Stella by then anyway. That's why they were at the hotel; she'd moved out with the boys and was trying to make it on her own."

"I think if I lost my son and my girlfriend in a fire, I'd be devastated." She said, trying to get more out of him.

"Me too, but I guess we're different people." He told her, they'd driven all the way back to her place, he pulled in and said, "I'll see you tomorrow, sorry to drop and run. Thank you for all your help today."

"No problem Mal, see you in the morning." She grabbed her bag and got out his truck, she went inside and pulled her shirt off tossing it on a chair; she took Booth's t-shirt out of her bag and slid it over her head and then went back to her truck. She was going straight to town to get groceries without any distractions. She didn't know what kind of food Booth was planning on bringing over, but she was not going to be able to handle another morning without coffee.

*Tony/Roxie interaction next chapter…*