(Season 10)

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Officer Benson drove up to the storage unit located at Affordable Self Storage, parked near the man standing next to the unit and exited his car. "Sir are you Marvin Coleman?"

"I am." The short pudgy man was leaning against the side of the unit. "The door is open, help yourself."

Not sure what he was there for, the officer approached the unit, spotted the large plastic wrapped cooler in the center of the room and stopped. "Why exactly did you call the police?"

Amused, Marvin snorted. "It's pretty obvious what's in that box. This is a police matter. Now that you're here you open it and do what you're supposed to do."

His eyes glittering with hate, Officer Benson shook his head. "I'm just a patrolman. I'll get the proper authorities out here to take care of it."

Since he had done his civic duty, Marvin walked away. "You guys let me know when you're done."

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Detective Woodside waited patiently for Special Agent James Aubrey to park his SUV next to his car. Once the agent was out of his truck, the detective pointed at the opened storage unit. "It's in there."

"What's in there?" Aubrey had been told that a federal crime had been committed and that an agent was needed at a storage facility in Thurmont, Maryland. Not sure why the Thurmont Police Department was handing a call off to the FBI, Aubrey was a little suspicious.

His face unemotional, Woodside folded his arms against his chest. "We got a call from the owner of this place and when we checked into it we found evidence that a violent crime might have occurred. Now our city is a small one and we don't have the resources to handle something like this and we invited the FBI to take care of it. When I called the Baltimore office they sent out an agent, he took one look at it and said I should call the Hoover. You guys have a contract with a forensic anthropologist named Dr. Brennan and he said that she needed to take care of this."

Now in front of the opening, Aubrey stared at the plastic wrapped cooler, noticed it was probably a 150-quart ice chest and knew that he was not going to open it under any circumstances. "Shit, you have got to be kidding me?"

Woodside shook his head. "We rely on the FBI when it comes to cases like this. Thank you for your service by the way."

Not amused, Aubrey glared at the detective and growled. "Thanks." His response was dripping with sarcasm which seemed to amuse the detective. Pulling his phone from his jacket pocket, Aubrey called his supervisor.

Booth.

"Yeah, this is Aubrey. I'm in Thurmont and I have a case for Dr. Brennan." Aubrey saw the detective smile and he wanted to punch the guys smug face, but he knew it would ruin the cool image of the FBI and probably piss off Booth.

Are you sure?

"God, yes I'm sure." He loved being an FBI agent, but Aubrey knew there were times when his job sucked. "You'll understand when you see it."

Fine. I'll let Cam and Bones know. We'll be there in about an hour and a half.

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Impatient, Brennan pulled on some latex gloves and stared at the large red ice cooler. "Why am I here?"

Astonished, Booth gestured at the ice box. "Are you kidding me? Look at it. A large ice chest wrapped in plastic and duct tape sitting in the middle of a storage unit. It's obvious."

"Well, it's not obvious to me." Brennan sighed and glanced at Cam. "It is it obvious to you?"

Cam nodded her head. "Oh yeah." The coroner turned to face Hodgins. "Let us open it first. If it really is what I think it is then you'll be needed to collect particulates."

"It could be a bomb." Brennan studied the ice chest. "If it is a bomb, the bomber might have been hoping to kill as many policemen as possible, by setting this up to look suspicious."

He hated to admit it, but his wife might be right. "Cam, just for safety sake, let's call the bomb squad. Baltimore is a little closer, so I'll get them to send someone. Better safe than sorry."

Cam checked her watch. "If you want to waste your time, go ahead. Hodgins and I are going to get lunch. We'll be back in an hour."

"Right." Booth shook his head. "Aubrey, you can go pick up lunch for me and Bones and bring it back. Someone has to stay here and watch the box."

His stomach rumbling, Aubrey saluted Booth. "Will do . . . you don't really think that's a bomb, do you?"

Booth shook his head. "Nope, I know what it is and you know what it is, but there's a small chance Bones is right, so we'll play it safe."

Removing her gloves, Brennan walked over to the back of Booth's SUV and started to inventory her kit. She was certain that she knew what the ice chest held, but caution had forced her to point out the possibilities to her husband. Her children didn't deserve to become orphans because her parents had been too trusting.

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The bomb tech cautiously cut the tape and plastic from the lid of the cooler. Once that was accomplished checked his meter to see if there were any signals coming from the box. The inactivity was a good sign and the tech was now dreading opening the box. Swallowing twice, he placed his gloved hands on the lid, said a prayer to St. Michael and hoped it wasn't as awful as he expected it to be,

As soon as the lid was cracked the putrid smell wafted over the tech and the stench made him gag. Angry that he had to expose himself to the contents, he flipped the lid over and fell back to the concrete floor. The sight of the putrid body was overwhelming and he scrambled out of the unit. "It's not a bomb." Hurriedly removing his protective head covering, he leaned over and vomited. "My God, that's bad."

The rancid smell from the cooler now filled the storage unit and the alley where the FBI agents and the Jeffersonian scientists were standing. Detective Woodside had wisely retreated to his car and ran his air conditioner. He had known what was coming.

"Oh my God." Booth grabbed a handkerchief from his pants pocket and slapped it over his nose and mouth. "I'm pretty sure it isn't a bomb, Bones."

The ripe odor of decaying flesh was all Brennan needed to know that she had been wrong. "Yes, I see that. It isn't very clever to rent a storage unit and leave a body in it. Surely the perpetrator expects to be caught."

"No kidding." Booth refused to enter the unit. His stomach was rumbling and he now regretted eating that cheeseburger and fries for lunch. "Aubrey, you can assist Dr. Brennan and Cam."

Startled, Aubrey stared at the cooler and swallowed convulsively. "I don't think I should get in their way. I'll just take notes from here." The hotdogs with extra onions and cheese that he had eaten earlier were threatening to come up.

Cam agreed. "I'd rather he stayed out here. If he throws up in the unit he'll contaminate the crime scene."

"I don't want my crime scene contaminated." Brennan abhorred it when her crime scenes were mismanaged. "Aubrey may stand inside the doorway and take notes from there." She didn't comment on the fact that Booth wasn't going in either. He was the supervisor and he was delegating like all good managers do.

Swallowing, Aubrey removed his notebook from his jacket pocket, moved to stand inside the unit and prayed he didn't embarrass himself. He was the new guy and he wanted to make a good impression. "Okay, Dr. B. cause of death?"

Cam snorted. "It's a box of human soup, Aubrey. We're going to have to take it back to the Lab to determine cause of death."

"I agree." Brennan studied the contents of the box. "This reminds me of the body we found wrapped in plastic on the beach two years ago. The gasses from the decomposing body caused the plastic to expand and the heat coupled with the bacteria and lipids combined to create a catalyst which hardened the plastic into a pod container. It was a fascinating case. Hodgins enjoyed it. This cooler being wrapped in plastic and stored in a hot storage unit accomplished the same thing causing the body to melt into a gelatinous stew."

"Yummy." Aubrey didn't appreciate human remains being compared to stew or anything else he happened to like to eat. "So, we'll just take it to the Lab and you can do your thing there." He was so glad that he wasn't going to have to witness the autopsy of a soupy body. "So, you've seen goopy bodies before?" He glanced at Booth who was watching Brennan and Cam leaning over the putrid box.

Booth pursed his lips and nodded his head. "Ha, we've seen everything that you can do to a body and soup bodies aren't that rare. You should have seen the body that looked like chili."

Alarmed, Aubrey shook his head. "Don't do that. You'll ruin chili for me."

Amused, Booth smirked at the younger agent. "We had to deal with a cannibal once. He gnawed on human bones like they were turkey legs."

"Oh my God." Aubrey shook his head.

Feeling sorry for Aubrey, Hodgins patted the agent's shoulder as he walked past him towards the Jeffersonian van. "Don't worry about it. You'll get used to it."

"I hope not." Aubrey never wanted to get used to disgusting bodies.

Booth was growing bored. "Bones, let's get this cooler back to the Lab. It's getting hotter and it's going to just make this worse." He checked his weather app on his phone. "86 degrees."

"I think the body has cooked as much as it's going to Booth." Hodgins came back with a gurney and moved it into the building with a young intern following closely behind him. "I think the body has been here for quite a while."

Letting Hodgins and the intern handle the cooler, Cam and Brennan moved back into the alley. As they watched the cooler being lifted onto the gurney, Brennan smiled. "I am looking forward to examining the remains. Perhaps I can work this into my new novel."

"There you go." Booth smiled at his wife. "You always put a positive light on everything."

Amused Cam shook her head and walked over to the Jeffersonian van. The man had been married for over a year and he still behaved like a newlywed. She was happy for Booth and Brennan. Things could have turned out so badly if Durant had accomplished his attack on Booth and her friend had died or if Brennan hadn't found a way to get him out of prison. She hoped Durant rotted in hell, the bastard.

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