(After 'The Woman in Limbo')

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I don't own Bones.

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Dr. Goodman was tired of running the Medico-Legal Lab. He was an archaeologist and he hadn't been in the field for over two years. Instead, he has in meetings with the Board of Directors of the Jeffersonian arguing over paperclips and centrifuges. Instead of getting his hands dirty unearthing finds in Egypt or Ethiopia he was wearing suits to meetings in a comfortable boardroom and he so tired of it.

The Lab was the envy of the country and what his team did was important, but he didn't get his doctorate in archaeology just to watch his forensic anthropologist and his other specialists solve murders for the FBI. He was supposed to be solving the mysteries of the past. He didn't care what country he worked in to do that, but he knew that that was what he was meant to do. He wanted to find an ancient site that would add to their knowledge of the ancient Etruscans or perhaps find an abandoned Mesopotamian city. He wanted to be part of revealing the long distant past and his frustration level was growing by the week.

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With the pressure of a looming deadline, Booth was in Brennan's office looking for a report that his partner was supposed to have filled out before she left to go on her dig, but so far that folder was eluding him. His partner was efficient and professional, so he knew there was no way she'd leave without finishing the form, but it hadn't made its way to his office and the Deputy Director was on his case to turn in the paperwork.

Walking by Brennan's office, Goodman noticed Booth in her office rummaging through her desk and wondered what he was up to. "You do know that Dr. Brennan is on a dig and she won't be back for three months?"

Frustrated, Booth turned and leaned on the desk next to his hip. "I'm looking for notes for the McVicar case. Cullen wants me to finish my report and Caroline is breathing down my neck for it too. She's appearing in court against McVicar for the pretrial phase in two weeks and she needs to plan her strategy. The man killed Bones' mom and I want to make sure he pays for that . . . I can't let her down."

Slightly embarrassed, Goodman cleared his throat. "I see . . . I'm afraid I have that file in my office. She signed off on it before she left and I have meant to review it, sign it and send it to you, but I've been busy and I let it slip through the cracks."

"Okay, well can we walk down to your office, you sign it and give it to me?" Booth glanced at his watch. "I can finish what I need to do today and get it to Caroline and Cullen tomorrow morning."

"That seems reasonable." Turning, Goodman walked down the hallway with Booth following him. Once in his office, he rummaged through his 'In Box' sitting on the corner of his desk, found the file, sat down and flipped it open. "I'm thinking of leaving the Lab." He wasn't sure why he said it, but he needed to talk to someone and Booth seemed like the right one. "I'm a trained archaeologist, but for the last two years, all I have done is administration work. This isn't what I trained to do . . . not by a long shot."

Curious, Booth sat down on the chair in front of Goodman's desk. "Then find someone to replace you and leave . . . I didn't mean that to sound flippant, I just meant that if I was doing something that made me unhappy I'd find a way to leave it behind and move on."

"I've been thinking about it." Goodman signed the report, closed the folder and leaned back against his chair. "I think the Medico-Legal Lab could be so much more than it is doing right now . . . Yes, it's the finest forensic lab in the country, but personnel wise, I think we could be a stronger organization. Dr. Brennan is brilliant when it comes to bones, but what we need is a coroner. Whoever that would be could do autopsies and that means we could handle more cases for the FBI. Think about it. Right now, Dr. Brennan deals with bodies that have been reduced to bones. If we had a coroner here, that person could handle bodies that still had flesh on them. They could look for the things that Dr. Brennan can't determine like stab wounds or the myriad of other ways man can find to kill someone. That person could help this lab to grow and I think that would make this lab more profitable. Our contracts could be expanded and that means the Lab could get a bigger budget. I'm sure you can see that the FBI would benefit if we made this change."

"Wow, you really have thought about this." Booth pursed his lips for a moment and decided to help Dr. Goodman. After all, by helping him, he'd be helping Bones and the FBI and that was good for everyone. "I have a friend, she's the coroner for New York. Now, I haven't talked to her for a few months, but she's Chief coroner and she supervises the coroner's office. They handle a lot of bodies there. If you offered her a pay raise and your job here at the Lab, she just might jump at it."

Without thinking about it, Goodman grabbed a pen and a piece of paper. "What's her name?"

"Dr. Camille Saroyan." Booth ripped a piece of paper out of his notebook, wrote Cam's phone number on the paper and handed it to Goodman. "If you're interested . . . She's the best and only the best can work here because you know Bones will only work with the best. She's told me that often enough."

Taking the paper, Goodman placed the note on top of the note he had just written. "I haven't made up my mind yet. I may not leave, so I would rather you didn't tell Dr. Brennan about this . . . or anyone else for that matter."

"Yeah . . . when Bones goes away on one of her digs, she doesn't call me or write to me." Booth found that an irritating fact of life, but he couldn't find a way to get his partner to call him while she was gone and not sound pathetic. "I mean that's fine. She wants to keep that side of her life separate from what we do and I get that. She works hard and those digs are the downtime she needs."

"Yes, of course." That news had surprised him, but he never had figured out the relationship between his forensic anthropologist and Booth. They seemed to be fond of each other, but there were lines they never seemed to cross. Mores the pity.

A quick glance at his watch and Booth knew he needed to get back to his office. Holding out his hand, he stood up and waited for Goodman to give him the file.

"Thank you for telling me about Dr. Saroyan." After he handed the file to Booth, Goodman stood up, walked around the desk and shook Booth's hand. "It's been interesting working with you Agent Booth. I appreciated how you helped Temperance when her mother's body was discovered here at the Lab and I especially appreciate you helping to hunt down Christine Brennan's murderer. Temperance deserves closure and McVicar's trial will give her that."

"You don't need to thank me for that, Sir." Booth was pleased that Goodman appreciated what he had done for Brennan, but he didn't need the thanks. He would have moved heaven and earth to find out who had killed her mother. "If you decide that you want to get back into archaeology, I don't think you could find anyone better than Dr. Saroyan to take over for you."

Once Booth was gone, Goodman sat down and stared at the phone number that the agent had given him. Before he called her, he knew he'd have to talk to his wife, but he knew that he was probably going to make that call in the very near future. If he could get Dr. Saroyan to leave her job and take over his, he could leave with a clear conscious.

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