Mrs. Booth
Dr. Brennan stared at the remains on the exam table before her while her intern and the rest of her team were busy around her. "Mr. Bray, begin." she spoke firmly as Dr. Saroyan gingerly placed the liver into a metal pan and Dr. Hodgins dictated details about the larvae growth on the remains. She would never admit out loud to feeling jet-lagged following her honeymoon, but she could absolutely use the opportunity to have her intern run point, for his education, of course.
"Oh… okay. Yes, Dr. Brennan." Wendell said, nodding and clearing his throat. Hodgins smiled at him encouragingly when the intern looked at him briefly before turning his eyes back to the body in front of them. "I make this to be a female." he said with a less than confident lilt to his voice.
"Why?" Brennan asked almost before he had finished speaking. "What indicators did you use to determine that?" she quizzed him, and his Adam's apple bobbed, as he swallowed nervously.
"Well—" he started when another voice from below the platform interrupted him.
"I have a delivery." a gravelly voice spoke. All but Dr. Brennan turned their attention toward the courier standing at the foot of the steps leading up to the forensics platform where Brennan was engrossed in examining an ulnar. Dr. Saroyan was the first to speak up, directing the man to the mailroom where deliveries were meant to be left for proper screening and inspection. It was important that every artifact was properly catalogued before being sent to a specific exhibit. Plus, given the nature of their work, it wouldn't be the first time a piece of a person was sent to them in the mail. "Oh, I was told to deliver this directly to Mrs. Booth. Any chance you can direct me to her office?" the courier asked, looking at the faces with varying degrees of amusement and shock looking back at him.
"Are you sure that doesn't say Mr. Booth, or Agent Booth?" Wendell asked with a chuckle.
"There is something in this wound on the ulnae." Brennan muttered, picking up a pair of forceps and removing what appeared to be a splinter of wood. She placed it in the Petri dish next to her.
Shaking his head, the courier cleared his throat. "No, this definitely says Mrs. Booth. I was given very strict instructions- walk this package through the sliding double doors at the Medico-Legal Lab and hand this package directly to Mrs. Booth. Do not pass go. Do not collect two-hundred dollars. Do not give it to a… something called a 'squintern'. This package goes to Mrs. Booth and only Mrs. Booth." he said again, and Brennan could hear him shifting the package around behind her.
"Sweetie, I think he means you." Angela murmured to the distracted doctor, and Brennan finally began registering what was being said around her. "Mrs. Booth." Angela said with a little smirk as Brennan looked up, pursing her lips in deep thought as she replayed the conversation that had just transpired around her.
Clearing her throat and snapping her gloves off, Brennan turned and slowly walked toward the stairs, assessing the box in the delivery man's hands. "That package is for Mrs. Booth?" she asked quietly, tilting her head to the side and weighing the words in her head. She vaguely heard her team speaking behind her as she walked down the steps and approached the man.
"You Mrs. Booth?" he asked, holding the package away from her reach for a moment. She nodded once firmly, her brow furrowing deep in thought, and he relented, handing her a clipboard and a pen. "Need you to sign here, Mrs. Booth." he indicated, pointing to a line at the bottom of the page.
"I have twenty that says she demands he bring the package back to the sender and have them
readdress it before bringing it back." Cam said quietly from the forensics platform.
"Fifty says she makes Booth change his name, and have the newly minted Mr. Brennan, shoot the sender between the eyes as retribution." Hodgins muttered.
"I'll see your fifty and say she slaps Agent Booth the next time she sees him. No warning. No explanation. Just one swift five across the eyes." Wendell laughed.
"I'm putting a solid hundred down that Bren thinks it's hot as hell and wants to march over to the Hoover right now, grab her sexy new hubby by his standard issue FBI tie, throw him down on the nearest flat surface, and make him scream 'Mrs. Booth' until he's hoarse." Angela crooned at them quietly.
"Thank you." Brennan said to the delivery man, handing him back his clipboard and accepting the package. She stared for a long moment at the address label, letting the words 'Mrs. Booth' roll around in her brain. "Excuse me." she said with a brief glance over her shoulder at her colleagues on the platform before striding toward her office with the box.
Placing the package on her desk, she peeled back the tape and gingerly removed the lid, setting it aside. The contents of the box was concealed by white tissue paper and a small folded note card sat on top of it. She smiled at the familiar script across the front of the card that simply read 'Bones'. Her stomach fluttered as she flipped open the card.
'Wife - wishing we were still on our honeymoon. Saw this and couldn't stop thinking about how you'd look in it.'
Brennan glanced at her open door and, satisfied that nobody was lurking nearby, moved the tissue paper away to reveal the black lacy number in the box. Booth had good taste, she'd give him that. Taking a deep breath, she placed the note card inside the box and folded the tissue paper back over the garment. This would have to wait until tonight. As she pressed the lid down firmly on the cardboard box, the address sticker caught her eye again.
'Mrs. Booth' she ran her finger tips over the lettering.
Rising from her chair slowly, she walked back out of her office and toward the platform.
'Mrs. Booth.' the name rolled silently through her head on repeat.
Absently, she swiped her access card and ascended the steps toward the exam table.
'Mrs. Booth.' the words seemed to repeat in the sound of her heels clicking against the platform floor.
She could sense her colleagues' eyes on her as she donned her gloves.
'Mrs. Booth.'
She looked at the ulnae she had been examining before the interruption and turned it over in her hand, contemplating the injury.
"Mrs. Booth." She murmured wistfully to herself, the corners of her mouth tugging as she attempted to stifle a grin. It was a new and interesting sensation. Anthropologically speaking, the tradition of women taking their husband's name had ties to the transfer of property; however, she knew neither she nor Booth saw their nuptials as him claiming ownership of her. She had also made it perfectly clear that she would not be changing her name due to her well established reputation and hard-earned credentials, but there was still that… something, fluttering in her stomach at the thought of officially being Mrs. Seeley Booth. Glancing up from the ulnae when a silence seemed to stretch around her, she found the grinning faces of her friends and coworkers, staring at her. "What?" She asked defensively, feeling a heated blush creep up her cheeks.
"Nothing." Hodgins said, his impish grin saying otherwise as he shook his head and reached into the body cavity to retrieve an insect. "Nothing at all, Mrs. Booth."
"Mr. Bray, continue your initial findings." She said, speaking with a firm tone that she hoped indicated the time for teasing was officially over as she reached for the stack of cash sitting on the tray next to the exam table and handed it to Angela, her eyes staying fixed on the remains.
"Yes, Dr. Brennan." Wendell replied, and she could hear the smile in his voice before he began dictating his findings to her.