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Disclaimer: I've not done one for a few chapters so here's one now - Bones and the characters are not my property and I will not be making any monet from them. They belong to Kathy Reichs, Fox and various other institutions that I have no idea about!

Chapter 6

"I've managed to reconstruct the faces oftwo of the later victims, and we have pulled up the missing persons lists for the time that they disappeared," Angela said as soon as she saw them enter the lab. "So did you two have a nice night together? I hope he took you somewhere good to eat."

Bones rolled her eyes and ignored Angela's latter comment. "Have we managed to give them an identity?" She asked.

Angela proceeded to go over everything that they had uncovered about two of the more recent victims, and Brennan checked it over, pleased with her colleague's work.

"We have a positive identity on Michele Moorwood and Deena Offerton," she glanced up at the tall FBI agent beside her. "Both are down here as being known prostitutes. Michele was from thirty miles south of here and Deena was known in Bridgiton as a small time hooker. She was reported missing by her sister," Brennan concluded.

"Was it looked into by the sheriff there?" Booth asked.

Angela shook her head. "Deena had a history of mental illness and depression. They figured she just took off after a row about what she was doing."

"You've been pretty thorough," Booth narrowed his eyes at the pretty woman before him, wondering how she had managed to get this information.

"I may have taken a few liberties," she confessed. "So how many rooms did you have where you stayed last night?" Neither replied.

Brennan discovered that her team had worked hard in her absence and pieced together parts of the jigsaw so that it was now beginning to make sense. She had watched with some sadness as Booth had returned to his office, having a list of things to go through involving warrants, interviews and tracing Roger Charlesworth. Theories had flown and she had stayed completely with the facts as usual, refusing to become carried away in Booth's imagining of details. Angela had been happy to speculate, and confirmed Booth's 'gut' feeling, much to Brennan's disgust.

"You're supposed to be employed as someone who is scientific! You can't just go speculating on ideas that may turn out to hamper the investigation!" Brennan had called as she looked over one of the new bodies that had just been brought in.

"I keep telling you, sweetie, that I am an artist. And artists have imaginations. Beside I think Booth is right and Uncle Will maybe trained his nephew in his ways. Uncle Will dies and then after a short while Dean carries on the family tradition. What gets me though is why Dean wouldn't be revolted by what his uncle was doing," Angela screwed up her nose.

"It may not have been 'Uncle Will'," Brennan bit back.

"But what about the idea of Dean being revolted. I haven't had this idea before of a killer being trained by a family member, although in murdering pairs there is always one who is more dominant. In England, for example, they had Myra Hindley and Ian Brady who were working together and Rose and Fred West. The men were the dominant ones in the partnerships, although the women were hardly bullied into it," Booth said, sitting down on a chair and swinging round on it like a child who had not yet gotten over the novelty of it.

"I would assume that if it is Uncle Will who is the main perpetrator then Dean was exposed to what he did from a young age which gave it a sense of normality for him. If Charlesworth was also around then that may have developed a community feel about what they were doing, and Dean would have found it both acceptable and normal," Brennan explained, noting the teeth like marks on the femur.

Booth saw the attention she was paying to the body. "Same again?" He asked.

Brennan nodded. "I think eating part of the flesh was a ritual for them. It's only on one part, the same on each body."

"Can you tell if it's the same pair of teeth?" Booth questioned, standing up and looking over her shoulder.

Brennan shook her head. "I can just about ascertain that they're teeth marks, but they're too haphazard to work out whose. If I had to say I would suggest that it may be the teeth marks of more than one set of teeth."

"Interesting," Booth said, sitting back down.

"I think you mean gross," Angela informed him. "I think I will now go and continue my work with skulls." She left the room, leaving a smile on Booth's face.

Brennan felt Booth watching her for a few minutes and wondered at the self conscious feelings it brought. She had never paid much attention to when anyone else was in the room, usually being too absorbed in what she was doing, but she found herself aware of every move, even eyelid flicker that Booth made.

He stood up and edged closer to her. "I need to get to my office," he whispered, moving closer. She turned to him and removed the gloves she always wore when carrying out such investigations. Looking at him she noticed something in his eyes that she had seen before over the past couple of days and didn't quite understand.

"I'll see you later," he said softly again. "I'll come by after six to see how things are going, unless I find an excuse to call here before."

"Why would you need an excuse? We have a serial killer on out hands, I would have thought that what went on here would have been one of your priorities," she said, not comprehending his meaning.

He laughed and she wasn't sure why. "Anyway, Bones. I will wait with you here until you decide to leave to go home."

"I told you before, I don't need protection. I'm capable of handling myself!" She flared.

"You had someone in here two nights ago rummaging round for things to do with this case. That person is bound to know of the scale of what we're working on and I would imagine they would come back," he argued, stepping closer to her.

"But I will be fine. They're not going to hurt me. You don't need to waste your time being my body guard!" She retorted.

"Have you considered that I want to do it? That if I leave you here I will be worried sick about whether you get home alright, that you remember to eat?" He seemed to stop himself from continuing.

"I know, I'm your partner, you have an interest in me. Come by then, if it makes you feel better," she conceded. He sighed. She wondered if there was something she hadn't got.

"I will," he put his hands on her shoulders and bent down, gently kissing the side of her cheek. Her hand automatically went to the place his lips had grazed and she looked at him warily.

"Did you do that with all your partners?" She asked curiously.

Booth laughed. "Only the ones without stubbly cheeks!" She smiled, still puzzled.

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Booth left the room feeling a little dazed. Too many thoughts ran through his head. He had known that working with Bones was going to cause a problem at some point. She had been part of the reason that Tessa had left him, and now she was distracting him from being focused on the case. He took deep breaths and went to leave the building, keeping an eye open for passing squints. Unfortunately he almost bumped in Angela who was on her way back from one of the other floors.

"Hello, Agent Booth," she said in her usual manner. "So, are you going to fill me in one what's happening between you and Tempe or am I going to continue to suffer?"

He managed a smile. "Nothing is going on," he replied, a little sorrowfully.

Angela cocked her head to one side. "You've spent the past night together…"

"Two nights – I stayed at her place the night before… On the couch!" He added, noticing the look that appeared on Angela's face. He looked at the expression on the artist's face and read it accurately. "I don't think she's interested."

"Now, sweetie, that's not true. She's told me she likes you. Okay, never in a direct way, but she hasn't denied it," Angela smiled. "You know you're better off being a skeleton for her to analyse, you know. She'll never know that you're interested unless you are direct about it."

Booth laughed a little wryly. "But if I find some way to show her I'm scared of what her reaction might be."

Angela looked at him as a school teacher might a naughty child. "You, big FBI man, scared? Of Tempe? Don't be so ridiculous!"

Booth sighed. He had no idea why he was discussing this with Angela. He had never contradicted her when she had announced to him that she thought he had feeling for her friend but he had never confirmed it either.

"You know what she's like. If I went to kiss her she'd probably try and grab my gun and shoot me," he said dejectedly.

Angela laughed. "Keep giving her little hints. She does feel a lot more for you than just friendship, Booth, she just doesn't understand how to deal with it or act on it."

"She's had relationships before," he said.

Angela shrugged. "Yeah, she's had lovers, but no serious relationship where I guess she's been in love. She's scientific. Feelings like love can't be explained by her text books so she has no idea how to handle them. Plus she has been emotionally hurt with losing her parents. Likely she's put up a defensive barrier to stop it happening again."

Booth nodded. "Do you talk about me?" He asked, half looking at her.

"Yeah, sometimes. She'll say how annoying you are and then list everything you've done in the smallest detail. She'd only notice that if she was interested," Angela smiled.

Booth nodded. "I'd best get back to the office. Bones has taken up enough of my thoughts as it is."

Angela laughed and walked off, passing a few more words of encouragement. He knew he had to do something soon else this was going to eat away at him.

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Angela headed straight for where she knew that Tempe would be, engrossed in her work as usual. It surprised her when her friend looked straight up at her as she entered her proximity.

"Are you okay?" Angela asked, looking at Brennan with amusement. She seemed flustered.

"No, not really," she replied, looking directly at Angela with a frustrated look on her face. "Booth has just been in, being all concerned about me here on my own tonight and saying he'll stop by and I don't understand."

Angela smiled. "Maybe he's looking for an excuse to spend some time with you."

Brennan shook her head. "He spends lots of time with me. We're partners."

Angela squeezed her lips together to stop a smiled from erupting. "Maybe he wants to spend more time with you, honey, out of work."

Brennan looked at her puzzled.

"Don't you want to see more of him?" Angela pushed. "You look for him sometimes when it gets to lunchtime and he's not called in."

"I do not!"

Angela looked up, half rolling her eyes, refusing to be drawn into this argument. " Tempe, I think he likes you a lot."

She was amused to see her friend blush a slight shade of red.

"Do you like him? Now, don't be all coy and shy about this, this is normal. He's an attractive guy, an extremely attractive, intelligent guy, but do you like him," she saw Brennan struggle for words as she thought.

"He's, he's… got strong pectorals," Brennan spat out, looking bemused with herself.

It was now Angela's turn to be puzzled.

"I saw him with just a towel wrapped round his middle last night – my shower wasn't working so I went to use his," Brennan explained.

Angela nodded. "Again, that's a normal reaction. Booth has a good physique." She gave Tempe some space to think.

"Is this normal, Ange, to not be able to concentrate as well?"

"Perfectly normal. It's also quite a usual reaction to feel slightly woozy whenever he touches you, and to notice every thing about him and to listen attentively to everything he says," Angela explained.

"I think I might have feelings for Booth."

"You don't say."

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