Thanks for all the reviews so far. And now we get to the body...

The Body

Brennan pulled up on a dirt track road just off the main road into town. It was already occupied by several vehicles, including two police cars and a truck. She picked up her bag of equipment and began walking over to where she could see the familiar yellow crime scene tape cordoning off an area by a digger, on the far side of a churned up building site. She was greeted by a middle aged man wearing a scruffy blue suit and a scowl. He held his arm up to block her way. "No sightseers."

Brennan smiled at him and showed her ID. "Dr Temperance Brennan, of the Jeffersonian Institute. You called me in to look at a body."

The man looked down at the hand she held out, but made no move to take it. "Oh," he said. "I'm Ted Harvey, it's my investigation." He turned back to the crime scene. "This way."

"Thank you." She walked with him to a pit in the ground. It looked like they'd been digging foundations for another of the houses she could see all around in various embryonic states. A digger stood nearby, its bucket raised up as if to take another bite from the earth.

She ducked under the tape and jumped down into the pit, placing her bag on the ground beside her and pulling on latex gloves. Various builders and a couple more police officers were standing around staring downwards, and as she moved across the pit she saw what they were looking at. About a foot below the original ground level, sticking out of the side of the pit, was what she immediately recognised as a severed human femur. Next to it, embedded in the side of the pit, was another human leg. A pile of dirt nearby soon yielded the lower part of the severed leg, while at Brennan's instructions the top layer of dirt was removed from where the rest of the body lay. "A shallow grave," she commented. "The body would have remained hidden for years, if not for this development."

Harvey, standing beside her, nodded his surly agreement. "There was a lot of protest over this site," he commented. He worked quietly and efficiently, helping Brennan recover the body. She carefully took soil samples for Hodgins, then arranged for the body to be taken to the nearby hospital morgue.

"Any ideas?" Harvey asked.

She shook her head. "It's a boy, around 8-9 years old, Caucasian, and I estimate he's been dead around two years," she told him. "Anything more will have to wait until I've had a chance to look at the body more thoroughly at the morgue. I'll send it back to the lab for the others to finish the job thoroughly, but I'd like the first look myself."

Harvey climbed back out of the pit, and Brennan heard him ordering his officers to clear the builders from the area and send them home. One man, who was wearing a hard hat and looked like he was in charge of the site, was protesting loudly, but Harvey would brook no argument. He turned his back on the man and held his hand out to Brennan. She took it gratefully, climbing up the steep sides of the pit. "Good job it's been dry for the last few days," she commented. He just grunted.

"I'd like to talk to whoever first discovered the body," Brennan told him.

Harvey shook his head. "Sorry, that's out of the question." He turned away.

Brennan caught his arm. "I'm sorry?" Seeing his frown, she continued, "It's important for me to talk to him about what he first saw, how he was working, I need to find out whether the femur was broken before the digger went through it, for example."

"I'm sorry, Ms Brennan, but that's our job. Yours is just to look at the body and give us an identity." He turned and strode away, leaving Brennan spluttering with indignation.

Just as she was about to approach him again, he turned back to her. "I've arranged a room at the Emperion Hotel in town," he told her. "It ought to be up to your standards." He looked her up and down. Suddenly Brennan had had enough of him.

"I'll make my own arrangements, thank you," she snapped. She looked back along the main road. Not far away was a rather seedy looking motel. "I'll stay there."

He looked surprised, then sneered slightly. "If that's what you'd prefer," he said curtly.

Brennan turned away, carried her things back to the car and got in. She drove off without a word.

By the time she had pulled into the forecourt of the motel she was beginning to have second thoughts; the weeds around the edges of the parking lot and the grime on the windows of the buildings made her think longingly of the comfort of a hotel, but the idea of retreating after her stand against Harvey was anathema to her. She resolutely marched over to the office.

"Hello," beamed the chubby man behind the desk. "What can I do for you, ma'am?"

Brennan smiled, feeling a little more at ease. She explained to the man that she wanted a room for the night, and he cheerfully handed over a key to her, and offered to carry any bags she had.

"Don't worry, I can manage," she assured him. As he watched her write her name in the registration book, his eyes lit up. "Dr Brennan? Dr Temperance Brennan?"

"That's right." Brennan was amused that he seemed to recognise her name. He reached under the desk and pulled out a well-thumbed copy of Bred in the Bone. "I love your book, Dr Brennan. I wonder, could I ask you to...?"

She nodded. "Of course. What do you want me to write?"

"To Charlie, please." He seemed genuinely excited to have met her.

"There you go, Charlie," she said, scribbling a message in the book. "I'm glad you enjoy it."

"When are you writing another one?" he asked.

"I'm working on it at the moment," she said. "Well, between cases."

"Oh yes, the body at the building site." Charlie's face fell for a moment. "Awful shame, isn't it?"

She nodded and left him admiring his newly signed book, while she made her way to her room. She left her bag of clothes on the bed, then headed back to the car to find the hospital morgue.

Two hours later she was back at the motel, after a good session on the body. She'd pulled as much information as she could with limited resources, enough for Harvey to start working to identify the victim. Surly as the police officer was, she had to admit that he seemed efficient at arranging for the retrieval of the body and use of the morgue facilities.

She had arranged for the body to be sent back to the lab, where the rest of the squint squad could make use of the better facilities. She intended to do some writing, get some sleep, then spend the morning carrying out a more thorough investigation of the site where the body was found, before heading back to the lab herself.

But as she sat cross-legged on the bed with her laptop, she found the words would not come. As hard as she tried to write the next chapter of her novel, she found the action and adventure she was meant to write kept coming out too slushy. All she could think of was Booth, and how it had felt to sit on top of him, and have him at her mercy. She grinned to herself as she thought of the expression on his face when she had begun tickling him. What had begun as an argument about who would win in a fight between them had turned into a fun session together, until it was interrupted.

With a sigh, she closed her laptop and gazed across the room. She idly picked up the tv remote and started flicking channels. When she came across one channel, she recognised the name of the program about to start. Booth had mentioned it a few times. She settled back on her bed to watch it, wondering if he was doing the same back in Washington. She leaned back against the headboard, pulling the hard pillows around to make herself comfortable, and absentmindedly picked one up and hugged it to herself. Some time later, she woke to find her back was stiff, and dragged herself up to get undressed and into bed properly.

As always, reviews are very welcome! Constructive criticism, conjecture, suggestions...