(The Grief in the Girl)

A/N: This chapter is rated T because of language.

I don't own Bones.

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James Aubrey was driving along the coastal road explaining that the beef jerky he'd bought was the best jerky he'd ever eaten and he had bought quite a bit to take back home.

"I hate to burst your bubble, but I don't think customs will allow you to bring jerky into the United States." Booth had read a brochure about what was acceptable products that could come into the country and he seemed to remember that meat was forbidden. "I think it has to do with mad cow disease or something like that."

Appalled, Aubrey kept his eyes on the road as he tried to figure out what to do with his jerky. "That doesn't seem fair. It's sealed and I'm pretty sure we'd have heard about mad cow disease from Dr. Brennan before we came up here . . . wouldn't we?" He glanced at Booth then back at the road.

Booth shrugged his shoulders. "She's not very talkative right now, at least not to me . . . I guess you need to eat as much of it as you can before we go back."

Struggling to decide what to do with his packages of dried meat, Aubrey didn't notice he had a little visitor until it was staring him in the eyes. Shocked, the Agent noticed a spider dangling from a silk thread almost touching his nose and that was a terrifying thought. As quickly as he could he slammed on the truck brakes, causing it to skid off the wet road and into a stand of trees on the side of the road.

Since he was staring out at the ocean while Aubrey drove, Booth wasn't aware there was impending disaster until the truck decelerated and started to skid into some trees. Not sure what was going on, he leaned back and hoped his seat belt held him in place.

The truck bucked on the grass and finally hit a small tree, stopping its progress. Airbags deployed, both men were prevented from being hurled into the windshield. Steam abruptly boiled up from the radiator and formed an acrid cloud over the front of the truck.

After he managed to get the passenger side door open, Booth jerked his seat belt off, pushed the deflated air bag towards the dashboard and fell out of the truck. Landing on his hand and knees he felt a sharp pain in his left kneecap which added to the bruises he already had. Struggling to stand, he staggered around the truck, pulled the driver's side door open, unbuckled his partner's seat belt and pulled the disoriented man from his seat to the ground. Squatting next to Aubrey, Booth patted the man's cheek. "Come out of it Aubrey."

Coughing, Aubrey focused on Booth and noticed some blood on the Agent's lips and chin. "Are you okay?"

Booth nodded his head. "Yeah, I bit my tongue . . . are you okay? Can you move?"

Feeling like someone had beat him with a two by four, Aubrey gritted his teeth and sat up. "My chest hurts . . . damn airbags." As he rubbed his chest, he decided that nothing felt like it was broken. At least he hoped so. "Help me up."

His hands under his friend's arms, Booth lifted the younger man with a grunt. Once Aubrey was standing, Booth took out his phone from his jacket pocket and dialed 911. After his call was answered, Booth told the emergency operator about the accident and where they were. "Okay, they're sending someone." While they waited, Booth walked around the front of the truck and tried to look between the tree and the front of the truck. "I'd say it's totaled."

"Damn it." Aubrey pulled his wallet from his pants pocket and searched for his driver's license and his insurance card. "My rates are probably going to go up. Shit!" He already considered his car insurance rate to be ridiculous and an accident was going to make it worse.

While they waited for help to arrive, Booth sat on the tail gate of the truck, pulled up his left pant leg and tried to find out why his knee was throbbing. Since he had been wearing black pants, he didn't discover he was bleeding until the pant leg was clear of the knee cap. "Damn it, I must have landed on a rock or something." The skin was torn and blood was oozing from the wound. Pulling a handkerchief from his pants pocket he pressed it against the wound until he could get help.

Feeling guilty for causing the accident, Aubrey tried to find a first aid kit in the truck, but couldn't find one. His chest still hurting, he rubbed his hand in slow circles on it while he watched Booth's hand start to stain from the blood soaking his handkerchief. Pulling a handkerchief from his pants pocket, he handed it to Booth. "Don't worry, I haven't used it. No snot."

Reluctantly, Booth took it from his friend's hand, stared at it for a few seconds and placed it on top of the soaked handkerchief. "I hope someone gets here soon."

He had just spoken when Officer Nate Bunting pulled up in his truck. Hopping out of the driver's seat, he opened the back of his truck, found his first aid kit and carried it over to where Booth was sitting. "I came as soon as I could . . . Besides the knee are you two alright?"

Booth nodded his head. "Aubrey says his chest hurts. I'm fine except for my knee."

"Well that's not true sir. Your chin has blood on it." He leaned forward to see why.

Since it was just his tongue, Booth shook his head. "I bit my tongue. My knee is the problem."

Understanding the situation, Officer Bunting pointed at the ground and spoke to Aubrey. "Sir, an ambulance is on the way. Please sit down until they arrive. I'd rather you not move around too much just in case you have a broken rib or two."

"Shit!" Aubrey carefully sat down and exhaled deeply causing pain to shoot through his chest along his ribs.

His hands now covered in latex gloves, Bunting moved Booth's hand away, removed the soggy bright red handkerchiefs from the knee, looked closely at it and pursed his lips. Placing some thick gauze over it, he taped it in place. "This will hold for a bit." Stepping back, he removed his gloves from his hands and placed them in a plastic bag where he had stuffed the bloody handkerchiefs. Walking back to his truck, he asked for an eta on the ambulance and once he was assured it was on the way, he moved back to the truck with a notepad in his hand. "Okay who was driving?"

Before Aubrey could say anything, Booth pointed at Aubrey. "Dale Earnhardt was driving."

"Well, Mr. Earnhardt, I need to see your driving's license and proof of insurance."

Glaring at his friend, Aubrey shook his head while he removed the items from his jacket pocket where he had deposited of them earlier. "The name is James Aubrey. Agent Booth thinks he's funny."

His face as serious as it could be, the officer nodded his head and noted the Agent's name. Taking the cards from Aubrey, he entered the information in his notebook and returned them. "Now Sir, please explain how this accident happened."

Embarrassed, Aubrey placed his closed fist against his mouth and coughed. He debated lying about what had happened, but he couldn't think of a plausible lie and he was in a foreign country. He didn't think it was a good idea to lie to foreign policemen even if they were Canadian. "Well, um . . . well . . . um . . ."

"Is there a problem Sir?" The officer didn't smell alcohol on the two men and he hadn't see any signs of inebriation.

Aubrey glanced at Booth and dreaded how his partner would react. "No . . . no problem . . . Okay, well . . . do you know who we are?"

"Of course, Sir." Ned Bunting knew everything he needed to know that happened on his island. "You're the two FBI agents helping Officer Sandling looking into the murder of the American girl, Sarah Abbott."

"Yeah, that's us." Aubrey knew he couldn't put it off any longer. "We were driving back from the Andreassen property and . . . well a spider almost landed on my nose and I hate spiders, they're such disgusting creatures and I hit my breaks because I was going to stop my truck and let the spider have the truck and well it skidded and." He paused to catch his breath. He knew he was speaking too fast, but this whole thing was humiliating. "The road is damp and the truck skidded off the road and it hit a tree. I don't know where the spider is."

His eyes wide with disbelief, Booth stared down at the agent and wondered if he could get away with killing Aubrey. Maybe he could ask Bones to help him? "You almost killed me over a damned spider? A fucking spider?"

Aubrey's defenses up, the younger agent glared at Booth. "Well you're afraid of clowns."

"And I'll never have to worry about a clown dropping from the ceiling of my truck and landing on my nose." Booth was furious. "You could have killed us all over something that probably weighs less than two grams, for God's sake."

"Since when do you know metrics?" Aubrey was now a little suspicious of his partner. The man seemed to be a little ignorant of science and here he was using grams.

Annoyed, Booth glared at his friend. "I do have a college education." He glanced at the RCMP officer and noticed the man was on the verge of laughing. "You think this is funny?"

"Of course, Sir." As far as Bunting was concerned this was making his day. Wait until he went back to the station and told everyone about this one. "I hear the ambulance coming." Turning he moved over to the verge next to the road and waited for the ambulance to arrive.

Aubrey was now annoyed with his friend. "If you know the metric system then why do you always ask Hodgins to speak English when he uses it?"

His knee throbbing, Booth noticed that the gauze was now red. "Because I don't want to have to convert that shit in my head. He can do it faster than I can . . . A damn spider. I don't think I'll ever let you drive again, at least not with me in the car. A fucking spider."

The EMT's arrived and took over the scene much to Aubrey's relief. He was tired of Booth's bitching about spiders. He didn't care how little they were, they were Satan's spawn as far as he was concerned and it pissed him off that Booth didn't understand that.

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He was back home and he tried not to limp around Brennan, but of course she noticed and when he changed clothes for bed, she insisted that he show her his knee. "It's no big deal. I fell down and landed on a rock."

Fell down? "That doesn't sound like you. You are much more graceful than that. Why did you fall down?"

Booth pulled up his the left leg of his sweat pants and showed her the bandaged knee. "Aubrey lost control of the truck he was driving and he hit a tree. The truck was totaled . . . I was a little stunned by the airbag and when I got out of the truck I fell and landed on a rock. I didn't break anything, but the skin is torn and some of the meat was cut."

Brennan carefully pealed back the gauze and stared at the wound. It was starting to scab over, but it did cover a large portion of his knee cap. After she placed the gauze back, she helped pull her husband's pant leg back down. "How did Aubrey lose control of his truck?"

His eyes glittering with anger, Booth sat down and huffed. "A spider came down from the roof of the truck and almost landed on his nose. He freaked out . . . a fucking spider."

Although it was a serious matter, Brennan smiled. "You are afraid of clowns."

"And you're afraid of snakes. So what?" Booth was not going to let Aubrey off the hook. "No clown is going to fall on me inside my truck and I'm sure you'd notice a snake hanging out on the ceiling of your car."

"You have a valid point." Brennan shook her head. "I think it would be wise if you didn't let Aubrey drive you anywhere. I wouldn't want to lose you over something as ridiculous as a spider being present in the vehicle with Aubrey."

Booth took Brennan's hand and held on to it. "I'm not going anywhere, Bones. You don't have to worry about that. You told me I can't die and I'm trying my damdest to make sure that doesn't happen. Besides, how embarrassing would it be to have been through all the shit I've been through and the cause of my death was a spider? Boy that would be too embarrassing and Pops would laugh his ass off when I got to heaven."

"Yes, that would be a rather silly reason to die." Brennan sat down next to her husband. "We're burying Max tomorrow. I'm glad you're home."

Glad to be home, Booth placed his arm around her shoulders. "I'm glad to be home, Bones."

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