Chapter 1
Three weeks before…
Booth's hands run down her back as their lips are pressed together. Brennan moves her hands from the back of his head down to the bottom of his t-shirt. He doesn't stop her as she begins to pull it off. Soon the FBI Special Agent is doing the same thing. Now both are topless and their hands find each other's pants.
Suddenly, there is a loud beeping noise in the background. At first, both ignore it; continuing on with their tasks. After a few minutes, Booth is pissed and pulls away from Brennan. She objects but he ignores it. The loud beeping must stop. Finally, he finds the offending device, his alarm clock. Quickly, his fist comes down on top of the clock.
At that moment, Brennan disappears and the noise hasn't stopped. Booth rubs his eyes and reaches over to his nightstand. There his fingers find the off switch and the beeping stops.
"Another dream ruined." He mutters to no one in particular. Throwing the covers off, Booth gets up and out of bed. The FBI Agent scratches his muscular chest and walks out of his room toward the bathroom.
Once in the bathroom, he strips off his boxer shorts and hops into the shower. The hot water feels good and he just stands there for a few minutes. Washing his hair and body, Booth finishes up and gets out.
Twenty minutes later, he is in the kitchen making coffee. Now he is clean-shaven and dressed in a nice blue suit. The Mr. Coffee stops percolating and he pours some of the hot liquid into a travel mug.
Leaving his apartment, Booth climbs into the big SUV and heads down toward his office. Traffic is heavy as usual around D.C. and he hopes that he won't be late to work. Cullen has been in no mood lately and the last thing he wants to do is piss him off some more.
Pulling into the parking lot, Booth realizes he has five minutes to spare. Quickly, he picks up the pace and hustles into the building and then the elevator. He makes it into his office and is about to sit down when there is a knock on his door. Cullen barges in before Booth can say anything.
"Here's your next case." His boss says glumly as he practically throws the file at Booth.
"Yes, sir." The agent answers and before he can say anything else Cullen storms out of his office and slams the door. Shaking his head, Booth opens the file. The details are gruesome and he is forced to close the file. He'd seen things like this before but it didn't make it any easier to look at them.
Fifteen minutes later, Booth is back in his SUV and heading toward the Jeffersonian. He looks forward to seeing his partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan. They had talked on the phone last night about their relationship. Since their first kiss, things had been awkward at times and it was getting harder to keep their secret from the rest of the team.
Pulling into the parking lot, Booth found a decent parking spot and hurriedly jumped out of his SUV. Walking into the large museum, he straightened his outfit. He ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath.
Booth opened the doors that led into the lab and walked up to the raised platform. He could see Dr. Jack Hodgins looking into a microscope and Zack Addy asking him some questions. Angela and Brennan stood looking at something on a computer screen. Quickly, he swiped himself in and said,
"Hey Bones." Immediately, Brennan turned away from what she was looking at.
"Booth, I assume you're here to interrupt my Civil War identification." She said.
"Of course. We have a body that is in need of your expertise. The guys at the morgue should be here with it any minute." The FBI Agent smiled.
"Is that the only reason you come here, is to give us more cases?" Angela asked. Both Booth and Brennan knew she suspected something.
"Why else would I come?" He wondered.
"Oh I don't know. Maybe to see a certain…" she didn't get a chance to finish as Booth turned and said,
"Oh look the body is here. Bring it up here boys." The men from the morgue brought the black body bag up to an open examination table.
"Before you open it, you might want to look at the file." Booth said handing the folder Cullen had flung at him to Brennan. She gave him a look and opened it up. The good doctor read it aloud so the rest of the team could hear.
"Female body was found in a shallow grave near a warehouse scheduled to be demolished. There are indications that the victim was tortured before being shot to death." Carefully, she opened the bag and took a look at the victim. The body was partially decomposed but the evidence of torture was obvious. What looked like cigarette burns and ligature marks appeared on what flesh remained.
"Hodgins, I want soil samples and any bug activity taken and analyzed. Zack we'll need the skull completely cleaned so Angela can recreate the face." Brennan picked the skull up slightly to take a look at something.
"The victim is missing all of her teeth so we'll have to identify her a different way. Let's get to work." Brennan reached into her pocket and pulled out a scrunchi. She tied her auburn hair back into a ponytail and looked over the remains.
Booth tried to hide his smile as he watched the squints do what they do best. He watched Brennan's eyes as she concentrated hard on the task in front of her. Even at work she looked beautiful.
"Well are you going to stand there and watch me or are you going to help?" The doctor asked without looking up from the body. Booth's cheeks turned slightly red as he went over and picked up the file.
To Be Continued…