She swallowed hard, and found herself leaning against the table to steady herself. Her vision span for a moment, she felt dizzy.

'Low blood sugar.' she told herself. 'Or shock. Perhaps you've got the flu coming on.'

But it was none of those things.

She should walk away. Let someone else do it. Let someone else sort through these pathetic bones.

"No." she said out loud to herself. "This has to be me. I won't let anyone else touch him."

She switched the tape recorder back on.

"There is a scrap of skin still adhering to the right wrist." she noted clinically. "On it I can make out the remains of a tattoo."

"What does the tattoo mean?" she asked him, standing in the desert, squinting against the sun, waiting for local enforcement to pull their finger out and actually show them the crime scene. Booth had reached up and adjusted his red sunglasses, and she'd spotted the small tattoo on his wrist.

"What?" he asked, dragging his gaze away from the squad cars and down to her. She pointed at his wrist.

"The tattoo. On your wrist. What does it mean?"

He pulled his shirt sleeve down hurriedly, and looked away from her.

"Nothing. It's nothing. You know, just a kid thing. What's taking these guys so long?"

"Let me look." she insisted. And before she could object, she pulled his hand toward her, and ran her fingers, delicately, over the sensitive skin on his wrist. She appeared not to notice his sudden shiver. "Tattoos fascinate me." she told him. "In other cultures they're marks of wealth, or social status, or bravery in battle. Not in our society. In our society, they're perceived as merely decoration. But in actuality, their use runs much deeper than that. Often..."

"Bones..." he interrupted "Not that I'm not enjoying the lecture, but that Sheriff over there thinks we're holding hands."

She looked up suddenly, first at Booth, her eyes wide, then across to the Sheriff and his deputies staring at her.

"Oh, right." she suddenly realised, and dropped his hand like a hot potato. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Hey, you can have a closer look later. I'll tell you the whole sordid story."" he reassured her.

"No, that's okay. I've seen it now." she said,walking away towards the grave site. Behind her she heard Booth say softly

"Damn it."

but she didn't know why. And she was suddenly shy of asking.