Chapter: 2

So you know how in the show Booth and Brennan are always in the car talking away. Yeah… has anyone else realized how much Booth takes his eyes off the road? I mean seriously if it were real they would have been in a lot of car crashes by now.

…just wanted to put that out there…

o.o

Disclaimer: I do not own Bones or Merlin.

The gray stone was cool even through the latex gloves. The skull was a dark tan, almost grayish- brown. It was old, very old. Dr. Temperance Brennan's head twisted to get a better view of the ancient remains.

"Definitely male," she stated to Cam without taking her eyes off the skull. "Late twenties, early 30's."

Cam only nodded, waiting for the good doctor to reveal more. There was no tissue, so there was nothing she could do at the moment that would actually help the anthropologist. So she waited until her colleague could figure out what had put a skull in the ancient statue. The question still was in the air if it was meant to be there.

Brennan continued with her investigation of the bones. There were a great amount of small fractures along the mandible and brow arch, but they seemed to have healed long before the man had died. There were no visible, postmortem markings on the bones though she couldn't get an accurate observation of the back of the skull. Blunt force trauma to the head could still be the cause of death. She made a mental note of this before stepping back to look at the skull from a different view. All emotion drained from her face, in a deep concentration she observed the remains as a whole: statue and skull.

The skull appeared from what would have been the statue's neck. It was anatomically proportional to the stone body. It seemed to fit in with the rest of the statue.

"Perhaps it is," Brennan thought to herself.

"Well Miss Brennan what have you surmised?" Dr. Patrick's thick English accent cut the silence like a machete. She turned to face him. He was sporting a radiant smile. He looked as if he wanted to continue to converse, but she turned back to the bones before he could.

"Doctor," she corrected in a blunt manner. He nodded, losing the smile as he began to feel uneasy around her.

"Yes of course," he grumbled, then turned to Cam.

"Have you found out anything yet?" He had asked Cam, but Brennan was already speaking.

"The victim was male, early 30's late 20's. He has multiple skull fractures, but bone remodeling suggests that they happened before death. I can not accurately discern blunt force trauma as a cause of death until I can see the back of the skull. In order for that I must remove the skull from the stone casing." She told them looking between the two, waiting for a form of response.

"I'm afraid not Mis- Dr. Brennan." Patrick informed her after absorbing all of the information that had just been thrown at him.

"Why," Brennan asked in an irritated tone. She hated being told what she couldn't do, especially in her lab. She examined him like she would remains.

Older man, in his early 60's. He was tall, but not thin, the bulge in his shirt gave that away. His proud, stand-offish posture told her that he was an alpha male, most likely one who gained authority by dismissing others with an assertive growl. His short gray hair was thinning causing his mildly wrinkled face to appear rounder, and more plumb than it really was. His crooked nose was most likely from an old slug to the face, probably from a smart comment he threw someone. He held the same conflicting stance, ready to bounce on her words and dismiss her actions. She stared at the man and almost smirked. He would do no such thing; she could tell he would brake. He was the boss of some, but he wasn't hers.

"Because my dear Dr. Brennan, I have strict orders from my department." The old man stated with a tone of the utmost authority, losing all friendliness.

"Why then would you ask the help of the Jeffersonian, if you won't let us do our job?" Dr. Brennan stated her opinion strongly. The old man only chuckled at her brash response. Her stern look changed the small giggle into a weak smirk.

"That is no concern of you, Miss Brennan." He told her in his hotly voice, ignoring her title.

"Yes it is," she corrected in a similar tone.

"Listen. I just need you to tell me why there are bodies in these statues, when were they put there, and, if possible, who they were." He told her dismissively, but regretted it when a heart wrenching glare reached his brown eyes.

"Bodies," Cam asked in confusion. "You mean as in plural? There's more than the skull?"

Dr. Patrick nodded in return glad to look away from the intimidating woman. She was making him uncomfortable to say the least. Her eyes fell onto him like daggers. He looked down at the skull when he realized Dr. Saroyan's confusion.

"Did you not receive the x- rays I sent to your office?" Dr. Patrick asked after the sudden realization. Cam shook her head, eyes wide with interest.

"Well that's not good," Dr. Patrick thought to himself. He sighed. He knew he shouldn't have trusted his incompetent intern/ assistant. For someone who had the beauty of a ruby, she had the brains of an ox. Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to pass over that young man who had graduated top of his class from Oxford for the girl with large mounds. He might have to take away her internship. But then he'd loose any chance he had with her. Sigh. Life is cruel at times.

"Dr. Patrick?" Cam's worried voice shook him from the thoughts of the incompetent, sexy assistant. She waved shyly as Dr. Patrick eyes refocused on the two women. He shook his head then walked over to the empty corner of the platform and pulled out his new aged, touch phone. The two women shared a concerned look as the man started speaking in harsh, raised voice into the piece of plastic. After he had explained the situation in a blunt but calm voice, he grew aggravated by the response he received from the woman.

"Jamie, I don't want to hear it!...Well you should have told me!...I don't care that you didn't know they didn't send!...Well you should have checked! Are you that incompetent? Do you have a brain in that thick, beauty queen skull of yours?... Oh! Don't you dare say that to me! You know perfectly well that you have no reason to- Oh! Well I like to see you try!"

"Um, if I could interrupt," Cam rushed to interrupt the awkward, one- sided conversation. Her arms swung in front of her, as she walked up to the older doctor, and clasped into a two- handed clasp which she held in front of her chest, praying the man would stop. Her lips curled in from the fake smile when his hand shot up signaling her to be quite. She looked back at Dr. Brennan who was just shaking her head with disgust. The previous sign of confusion in Cam's eyes turned into annoyance.

"Excuse me," she stated with more authority as she tapped him on the shoulder. Her arms crossed in front of her and an aggravated grin formed on her face. He looked at her with angry eyes, which cause the corners of her lips to point downward. He turned around and yelled into the phone.

"Just send them before you cause the world's average IQ levels to drop below thirty...Yes of course! Where else would you send them?" He shouted into the phone, and then touched the screen twice, ending the call.

"Idiot," he muttered as he put the phone in his jacket pocket. Sexy idiot, a voice in his head reminded him. A fake cough caused him to turn to Cam, her annoyed smile returning to her lips as he faced her. She hated working with people like him, pompous snobs.

"Yes," he said in an annoyed tone. Cam pursed her lips, reminding herself that she was the person in charge and therefore could not swear at visitors, no matter how much of a pompous grouch they might be.

"Well," Dr. Brennan coaxed impatiently. She was not amused by his attitude in the slightest.

"My assistant told me she is sending the x- rays to Dr. Saroyan's computer at this moment. They should be arriving soon. I must see that the last of the statues have been carried in, if you will excuse me," he grunted as he pushed passed Cam and walked down the steps.

Once he was out of the lab, Cam looked towards Dr. Brennan with a very exasperated look. Her friend just shook her head and returned to examining the skull. A few minutes later a beeping came from the computer monitor. The two doctors stood in front of it as Cam brought the x- rays up on the screen.

The first that came up was obviously of the statue with the visible skull. The skull had no stone covering it, but the rest of the statue held the rest of the remains. Underneath the stone was an entire skeletal system, indicating that the skull had been in the stone before the statue had been sculpted. Dr. Brennan had been expecting as such. She stared at the bones intently, and saw bone remolding throughout the skeleton.

"How old would you say these bones are?" Cam asked. She took her eyes off the screen to see that Cam's were not wavering from it.

"I can not be sure without running some tests, but just by looking at them I would say between one thousand to two thousand years old," She responded nonchalantly.

"Are you sure?" Cam asked, eyes still glued to the screen.

"Yes, why?" Dr. Brennan asked curiously. She stared at the bones but could not see what was so peculiarly bizarre about them. They were old, yes, and there was a significant amount of remodeling, but that was the most intriguing thing about them.

Cam looked shock as she turned towards Dr. Brennan. Dr. Brennan was puzzled by her friend's strange expression. Until Cam looked back at the screen, this time she followed the gaze. She saw what was so troubling. She had only been looking at the images of the statue with the skull. She hadn't notice that Cam had pulled the other eight up on the right side of the monitor.

"Is there any way that the other statues are from a different time period?" Brennan asked, neither of their eyes moved from the images on the screen. Dr. Hodgins decided to make his entrance followed by Booth.

"Hey, did you sign-off on the… what's going on," he cautiously drawled out the question when he noticed the intensity in their faces.

"No Dr. Patrick told me they were all found at the same level of rock, the ground hadn't been disturbed for centuries." Cam answered the previous question ignoring Hodgins' entrance. "Is there anyway the bodies were once mummified? Maybe someone tampered with the statues before they were brought here?"

"Bones? Cam?" Booth tried a turn at getting their attention, but his failed as well.

"It does not appear so." Brennan answered Cam, ignoring Booth. "Did anyone give you any warning about this?"

"No, they didn't. How is this possible?" Cam asked. Hodgins, sick of being out of the loop, decided to get a better view of the computer screen. If there was every anything interesting going on he wanted to know about it. His mouth dropped open when he saw what was on the screen.

"Aren't these slabs suppose to be old, as in thousands of years old?" He asked, his eyes wide. Cam only nodded.

"Would someone please tell me what is going on," Booth grouched behind the three squints, but there was no response. He could see the images but he didn't see what was so interesting about the x- rays. Brennan looked back at the eight slabs laying on the table then back at the screen. It wasn't possible.

"Bones," Booth cried in annoyance. She turned to look at him. "What is going on?"

"The statues, they all contain remains," Cam responded. Booth still looked confused. Wasn't that the reason they were looking at the slabs in the first place?

"They're not just bones though," Brennan answered. She pointed to the x-rays of the other eight statues. "Some how all of the human tissue and organs remained intact for a thousand or more years, it isn't possible."

Booth took a closer look at the images and saw what the others were so amazed about. In each of the x- rays he could see organs and skin, what amazed him the most was the fact that all the bodies still had their eyes.

"I take it thousand year old dead people shouldn't have eyeballs?" He asked the three squints, and all three shook their heads in fascination.