Thanks to everyone who put the story on their favorites or alerts list and to those who reviewed… Here's your reaction from Tutti and her handler… hope you like… let me know what you think…
Tutti and her handler
They were in the woods looking for a second body. It was one of their first cases back after their honeymoon and it was already proving to be a pain for them. They knew now that there was another body somewhere in these woods but they had no clue as to where.
Which is why Booth was currently being followed by Tutti and her handler. They were hoping that she'd be able to sniff out the body.
Her nose kept coming up from the ground though to nudge and sniff at Booth's hand. She would follow it with one of her whine sounds that she would normally make once she found something. Booth thought it was a little strange and thought it was even more strange that Brennan was telling the dog to 'shush' every time she did it.
"Ugh," Booth spoke as he wiped the slobber that was all over his hand again. "Will you quit slobbering all over my hand?" he asked the dog, glaring at her. She nudged his hand again, leaving more slobber. Finally, the handler spoke.
"Well maybe if you washed your hand every once in a while she wouldn't be getting a smell associated with death and decaying from it."
"I just washed my hands shortly before coming here. My hand isn't decaying."
"I also said smells associated with death. It can include smells other than decaying material like fecal matter, vomit, urine…"
"Ok, ok… I get it… still, I washed my hands. She shouldn't be getting any of those smells from me."
"Yes, Tutti must be picking up on something else on his hand because there is no reason for her to be picking up on anything else on his hand," Brennan said as she started to move in front of Booth and started to walk a little quicker and away from him.
Now Booth was even more suspicious with the 'shushing' since she was now moving quickly away from him and she hates going through crime scenes quickly instead of thoroughly and slowly.
"Freeze, Bones," he told her. She stopped in her tracks, but didn't turn to face him. He walked around in front of her.
"I thought you would appreciate moving more quickly so that we can cover more ground today and hopefully find the other body."
"Sure. We all know though that it doesn't matter what I like when processing the scene but what you like and you like going slowly. What's going on, Bones?"
"I thought I could try it your way for once." Booth just looked at her, now positive she was hiding something.
"What are you hiding, Bones?" he asked her, somewhat afraid of her answer.
"Absolutely nothing," she told him, not sounding convincing at all.
"Lousy liar."
"Good use of alliteration."
"Don't try to change the subject. What are you hiding?" he asked again, leaning closer into her personal space.
"I told you, nothing."
"You know how you like to keep things professional at work?" he asked her, smiling.
"Yes…" she said hesitating, not sure where he was going with that question.
"Well, that's about to go right out the window unless you tell me what your hiding," Booth told her. They hadn't noticed they were drawing attention to themselves.
"Isn't that a little backwards?" the handler asked. "Aren't you supposed to bribe a person with something like that to get the information you want?"
Booth looked briefly to her, but quickly looked back to Brennan before answering. "Well, Bones here likes to keep things professional at work so at work it's the opposite." He then addressed Brennan again. "So, Bones, what's it gonna be: professional and tell me your little secret or unprofessional and keep your little secret?" He was leaning in closer to her, figuring that she was going to decide to keep the secret.
"Fine," she said, knowing that they both may regret it, but that he would regret asking more. "Christine was playing with your wedding ring this morning when you were in the shower and it fell down the drain in the guest bathroom. I called the plumber so that you wouldn't find out, but he couldn't get there until this afternoon to get it out, so I scheduled him for this afternoon. Then I called Angela to see what I should do and see if she could come by our house to let him in this afternoon. She said that you wouldn't notice if I just put your engagement ring where you had left the wedding ring. I told her that you were very observant and would notice the difference. She said that men were oblivious to detail and bet that you wouldn't. Apparently I was wrong and that you are as oblivious as most men. We'll be watching Michael one night this weekend so that they can have a 'date night'." Booth was losing his smile as she was speaking and was just blinking at her by the end of her words. She walked around him. It took him a couple of moments but he eventually turned around to face the direction she was walking in. He watched her walking away from him.
"Wait so I'm wearing that engagement ring that… Bones…" he whined, while following her. "That's just… ew… can you hand me an evidence bag?" he asked as he slid it off his finger.
"Just put it in your pocket."
"That is just so wrong… It should still be sealed in its bag at home, not loose in my pocket." Brennan turned around and rolled her eyes while handing him a small evidence bag she had in one of the pockets of the jump suit.
"Happy now?" she asked as he put the ring in the bag, sealed it tightly and put it in his pocket.
"Actually, you wouldn't happen to have some hand sanitizer in one of those pockets, would you?" She rolled her eyes and didn't even bother to respond as she turned around and started walking slowly through the woods again.
"I thought you were trying it my way for a change?" he asked her.
"I find that I have no need to hurry things along again and searching the area should be done properly." Booth fell silent as he walked behind her with Tutti and her handler following behind him. Even with the ring off Tutti was still nudging him every once in a while but now she was going for his pants. He was really praying that they would find the body soon.
"What am I missing? What's so bad about wearing your engagement ring?" the handler asked.
"I baked it into a pie to propose. He ate the ring."
"Ah that explains Tutti's fascination with it." Booth could see that she was trying to hold back a laugh.
"Don't, just don't," he warned her. "And you, get back to sniffing the ground, not me," he told the dog. Tutti continued to sniff at the pocket but was getting much closer to his crotch. He jumped back. "Hey, watch it!" The handler did laugh now.
"You both are so backward… Are you sure you're the pants wearer?" she asked Booth. He just glared at her. Tutti was back to nudging him, making him jump back again.
"Tutti seems to think so and not care," he said dryly. "I'm going to the SUV so Tutti stops attacking my crotch and hopefully there's a bottle of water in it to rinse off my hand. Call me if Tutti finds something."
He started walking in the direction they came from. He hadn't made it too far away from them when his cell phone started ringing. It was Brennan. He picked up and she instantly started speaking.
"Tutti found something. We need you back here." She hung up. He turned back around and started heading back to them without getting to the SUV.
Yeah, this was definitely going to be a long day.
So that was the reaction from Tutti and her handler... Let me know what you thought!... Can we get 9 reviews for an early chapter?
