"Well that sure as hell isn't Walter Fitzpatrick," Booth snortled out; he wasn't sure if he was hoping that it was the former FBI agent on the Cost-Mart surveillance tape or if he was relieved that it wasn't, but either way the person on the video was definitely far too young to be either Walter Fitzpatrick or a military trained sharpshooter.
"Well that's your guy," Angela gestured towards the computer screen where she'd isolated the image that matched the time stamp and register that the disposable cell phone had been purchased at. The resolution was still pretty grainy and she hoped to clean it up a little more, or at least utilize the Angelator to recreate what the face looked like based on the bone structure.
"It's not unusual for teenagers to buy a disposable cell phone like that is it?" Brennan considered that someone that young might be purchasing it for themselves, especially if they had parents that didn't want to pay the bill; those pay as you go phones were made for something just like that.
"Or maybe he's buying it for someone else; someone who didn't want to be on camera." Booth's mind was hurtling along at a kazillion miles an hour as he considered all of the scenarios that he'd encountered over the course of his career that had used someone under age to keep themselves from getting caught. Bastards like that knew that a kid didn't serve much time at all if they got caught and in this case, the boy had done nothing illegal in purchasing the phone. Or course they were going to have to see if they could find out who he was so they could ask him some very pointed questions about how that particular phone had been used to place calls to threaten a federal agent.
"I should have something a little clearer to look at after I run it through the Angelator," Of course her timescale on that was undefined but she was going to make it happen as soon as humanly possible.
"Thanks, Angela," Booth was genuinely grateful for her efforts so far; he might work for the FBI, but the Jeffersonian still had more technologically advanced equipment in some areas and her Angelator was one of a kind.
"Sorry I had to break you two out of your lip lock," Angela's face was adorned with a rather indulgent smile and she didn't bother to look over at either Booth or Brennan; the fact that both Hodgins and Zach were standing right there and had doubted her story that Dr. Brennan and Agent hot stuff had finally found a way to combust themselves was about to earn her a little extra cash because of their need to see hard core evidence. Why the boys had doubted her in the first place was rather amusing, but Zach's little empiricist heart wouldn't believe until he'd seen evidence of it and she got the impression that Hodgins just wanted a reason to pick a fight so they could spend some quality time making up later.
Booth cleared his throat; he really didn't like his love life to be the center of the squints' attention, and really he should have prepared himself for this, but somehow now that he was there it was far more intimidating than facing Cullen after screwing up.
"So it's true then," Zach registered a hint of disbelief as he looked at Booth first and then Dr. Brennan, "Angela said that you were sleeping together." He hadn't witnessed a kiss between them himself, but given the physiological responses to Angela's comment in each of their faces and no vehement denial that said kiss had actually occurred, he concluded that she was in fact correct about the change in their relationship.
"Thanks, Angela," Booth didn't sound very grateful, but then again he knew that it was bound to happen. He glanced over at Bones and smiled at her; she didn't look uncomfortable at all and maybe because of that he felt himself relaxing and a satisfied smile spreading across his face. Yes, she was his Bones and he was her whatever she wanted to call him; she had no desire to hide the fact that they were together and suddenly it made him want to kiss her all over again. However, he was going to have to practice some restraint because he was still an FBI agent hot on the trail, well, hopefully hot on the trail of a serial killer and she was his favorite forensic anthropologist.
"So, dude, either of you going to tell us how this happened?" Hodgins glanced at both of them and immediately registered from the looks he got in return that any details he was going to hear about were going to come from what Angela had managed to extract out of Dr. Brennan.
"I'm not sure why you're surprised, according to Angela, Booth and I have been dancing around each other for over two years...apparently she thinks it was only a matter of time," Brennan wasn't sure she could see how Angela could make the case for her wanting to be with Booth for that long; she could barely stand him when they'd first started working together. Somehow though he'd managed to work his way under her skin until she felt like she really couldn't get along without him; that was probably the real reason she hadn't sailed off into the sunset with Sully.
"It was only a matter of time, and you two weren't just dancing, you were doing freaking acrobatics around each other; you really should get some sort of medal for it...if it wasn't so ridiculous that is," Angela was clearly glad that her favorite non-couple had finally become a real couple.
"We weren't dancing around each other...we were just..." Booth's words failed him as he fumbled for a response.
"Admit it, Seeley, you wanted Bren from the moment you saw her," Angela reasoned that as long as all of them were stupid enough to stand there and watch her work, she was going to take full advantage of it and put on a full court press to get more information.
"Booth was seeing Tessa when we started working together; obviously, Angela, he didn't want me then," Brennan didn't see Angela's line of thinking as being rational at all. She had felt something when she'd first met Booth, but as soon as she learned about Tessa, she concluded that she'd misread him and had instead decided that he was just very good with people.
Booth looked uncomfortable; if he was being honest with himself and everyone else staring at him just then he'd have to admit that Angela was completely correct. There had just been something about Bones that had unsettled him from the get go. Maybe it was because she hadn't immediately responded to his wit and his devastatingly good looks the way other women did. She was a sort of enigma and the more he'd gotten to know her the more he valued the friendship that they'd forged and he didn't want to do anything to screw it up. Now though, they'd stepped over that line he was so freaking glad that they had. His lips twitched into a smile, "Its all water under the bridge now; Bones and I are together." He leveled his best stern FBI gaze at all of the squints, "And if any of you even think about spying on us for some cheap thrill, I'll shoot you."
Both Zach and Hodgins took a step back. Angela tried to stifle a laugh with a smile.
Brennan crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Booth with a stern look of her own, "I'm sure there won't be any spying so there won't be any reason to shoot anyone." She was slightly tempted to lean over and kiss him, but the sight of Cam coming their direction caused her to hesitate.
"What do we have people?," Cam had gotten a call from Cullen himself letting her know that he was personally going to be reviewing the personnel files of everyone who had touched any piece of evidence in their current case because of a breach of information that he and Booth were trying to stop up and it wasn't making her happy at all.
"Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth are sleeping together," Zach said the first thing that came to his mind; Dr. Saroyan had a way of making him nervous despite the fact that he'd worked with her for over a year since she'd taken over the reigns of the forensics department at the Jeffersonian.
Surprise registered on Cam's face for just a moment, "About the case." She really shouldn't have been surprised at all, when she and Seeley had been seeing each other she got the very clear impression that any woman was always going to come in second place to Dr. Brennan whether Booth wanted to admit it or not.
"A face," Angela responded to Cam's question, "I'm just trying to get clarification so we can make an ID."
"Well what is everyone else standing around for?" Cam wanted answers and as long as people were standing around, it was going to be very difficult to get them. And with the FBI breathing down her neck now she was even more anxious than usual.