A/N: I wasn't sure if I was going to continue this because 1) I spent a ton of time away from writing while I was moving to a new apartment these last couple of weeks, and 2) because interest doesn't seem too strong for this story. But I found my notes in a box the other day and got all excited again, so I thought I'd give it another shot. There are plenty more where this came from, and the drama and fluff content will definatly be on the rise :-D
Enjoy!
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"Hey Bones," Booth greeted as he swiped his Jeffersonian ID through the card reader. Gaining access to the forensics area of the lab, he hopped up the steps and waived a manila file folder in the air. "Ready to go?"
Brennan glanced up from the skeleton she was examining and sighed. "Don't call me Bones!"
"Are you ready?" Booth repeated, ignoring her directive.
She frowned, wondering what she had to do to get him to call her by her given name before forcing her mind back to the folder he held. "I'm finished here," she nodded. "Is that the case you called about?"
"Twenty-seven year old school teacher went missing from her home in Annapolis, Maryland six months ago," he summarized. "A badly decomposed body matching her general description washed up along the shore of the Anacostia River this morning, near the construction site for the Nationals' new baseball stadium."
"Okay, let me get my equipment."
Ten minutes later, after leaving instructions for her staff and gathering the tools she needed, Brennan headed out of her office with Booth. He handed her the case file, filling in details and answering her questions as they walked.
"Who found the body?" she asked, reading over the notes in the folder.
"One of the construction workers," he answered. "Took a walk during his lunch break and saw what he thought was a bag of garbage caught on rock near the bank. When he got closer, he discovered an arm sticking out of the bag."
"And the remains are completely skeletonized?"
Booth shook his head. "The first officer on the scene said some tissue was still present, but a lot of it had been eaten away by insects and whatever critters live in the river."
"No prints, then?"
"Nope. No prints, no face, no name. Based on height and clothing, it looks to be the body of the missing teacher, but there's no way to be sure."
Brennan looked up from the file, her eyes filled with anger and sorrow mixed with a sense of duty. "I can be sure."
Booth smiled gently, sharing the emotions she tried so hard to disguise. "That's why I called you."
They moved through the outer doors of the lab in silence, each going over the facts of the case in their minds as they prepared themselves for the crime scene. Outside the building, Booth turned in the direction of the parking space where he'd left his SUV, reaching out and brushing a hand along Brennan's back, steering her toward the vehicle. A few steps more and the hand slid away, digging into his pocket for the keys. He clicked the automated door locks and resisted the urge to open the passenger door for her, an act that had been firmly taught by his father but one that he knew Brennan viewed as an affront to her independence. Instead, he merely walked around the SUV and climbed behind the wheel, inserting his key as she situated herself beside him.
As he listened to the engine turn over, Booth suddenly had a strange thought. What just happened?
You walked out of the lab with Bones, a voice in his mind answered. What's the big deal?
I touched her, he mentally replied to the voice.
So what's so weird about that? You were just steering her toward the car—you've done that before.
Yes, he acknowledged, but I've always been fully aware that I was doing it. This time, I just did it…without thinking.
It wasn't intimate or inappropriate, or unprofessional in any way.
He pressed his lips into a tight line. No, but…
The voice persisted. You've been working with her for a couple of months now. Is it so strange that you would guide your partner toward a vehicle when she didn't know where it was?
That's just it…it wasn't strange.
"Booth?"
Brennan's voice snapped him out of his cerebral conversation. "Ready?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah," she answered, puzzled irritation dripping from her words. "Are you?"
He shifted into gear and stepped on the accelerator, pulling from the parking space and heading into another day of heavy DC traffic. "I'm always ready, Bones," he winked.
The fury rose in her face. "Don't call me Bones!"
He grinned, pleased with himself for sparking the familiar reaction. Not strange at all, he thought. Comfortable.
Brennan huffed in the seat next to him, crossing her arms over her chest and staring straight ahead. When the reached the scene she was all business again, pushing aside her annoyance at the nickname she seemed to have acquired in order to give her full attention to the task at hand. She examined the body quickly, making preliminary estimates as she worked, then helped to collect all traces of evidence from the riverbank.
When she was through, the body was bagged and loaded into a van for transport back to the Jeffersonian. Brennan stood, snapping off the latex gloves she'd been wearing and taking a minute to stretch her stiff muscles, then gathered her equipment and joined Booth back at his SUV. Only then did the not-so-strangeness of Booth's earlier gesture occur to her.
Did he really put his hand on my back? she asked herself as she buckled her seatbelt. Shaking her head a little, her brow furrowed in thought. He's done that before. Always brief, always a light touch, always with a purpose. What was different about this time?
The engine roared to life and Booth pulled away from the crime scene. "Back to the lab?" he asked. "If I know you you'll want to get started as soon as possible."
She nodded. "I do want to get started as soon as possible," she confirmed. "The sooner we find out who this woman is, whether or not she's the missing school teacher, the sooner we can provide some closure for the family and find whoever did this to her."
They were quite the rest of the ride, tired and wrung out from the day's work. Try as she might, though, Brennan couldn't keep her mind off Booth's hand on the small of her back. What was different about this time? she asked herself again.
His words to her as they left the crime scene drifted through her mind. "If I know you…"
That was it. He does know me, at least in part. That's what was different, too. He knows me, has worked with me on numerous occasions. He knew I was reading the case file and not watching where he was walking, and directed me toward his vehicle with his hand. The gesture is a habit now, a sign that we're becoming a team. It's a good thing.
She settled into her seat, a tiny smile forming on her lips as they drove. It's comfortable.