Again, great amounts of thank-you's are due to the lovely Angel-of-the-silence, my idea-bouncer. You keep me so motivated in writing this: and that's a very important thing in writing a story like this.
Angela Montenegro stretched luxuriously, loving the feel of the sun on her closed eyelids and exposed skin. She was not usually a morning person, but today...today felt like it was going to be a good day. The only thing that could have made it better, she mused as she slipped from between the covers to hurry into the shower, would have been waking up next to Hodgins. A strange thought, especially for the Wild Child herself, but she let it pass—she just...really liked Jack. Really liked him. She smiled faintly all through that morning, despite the gridlock on her way to work and the fact that it was so damn early. On her way to the office, she passed a body bag in a stretcher heading straight for the platform. Even that wasn't going to get her down. It was an awesome day. She dropped her purse onto her desk and pulled the labcoat on. Even though she wasn't really a scientist, didn't really fit in most of the time around the lab, the lab coat always made her feel just a little bit smarter.
Someone knocked on her door, and she spun around. It was Hodgins. "Hey, Ange," he said, and the smile on his face was probably identical to hers. "Missed you last night." He grinned a little wider and came closer, to rest his hands on her hips. "When are you finally going to give in and spend more than one night in a row? This is cruel torture." Angela had to laugh.
"Cruel torture would be me inflicting my entire shoe collection on you," she corrected, and caught his lips. "I promise, I'm doing this for you."
"Please, don't you two ever stop?" Cam's voice came, exasperated as always, from the doorway. "Hodgins, Dr. Brennan needs you. A body came in, and she wants you to try to get particulates, do your slime-and-bug thing, whatever."
Hodgins gave a long-suffering sigh and seemed about to launch into some sort of lecture about what, exactly, his job entailed. Instead, Angela gave him a quick kiss, hoping to silence his indignance. It seemed to work: he turned around and all but sauntered through the door. Angela and Cam exchanged a look of amusement before following him out.
"This is definitely a young female, around fourteen, judging from the pubis bones. Estimated date of death several months ago—four, at the most, though the water probably accelerated decomposition so it's probably closer to three. Zack, what can you tell me so far about the cause of death?" Brennan looked up from the remains on the table, over at her lab assistant.
"Not much, at the moment. Due to the accelerated decomposition, it's not easy to determine which of these wounds are from fish or insects, and which are from the actual attack. It should be easier to see once the flesh is removed from the bones." He glanced at Brennan, almost as though expecting her to scold him or something, but she merely nodded.
"Before you guys do...that, I'd appreciate it if I could do an autopsy," Cam murmured, ducking closer to the body. She prodded gently at the body, manipulating limbs and examining the surface of the skin. "I see some ligature marks around the neck and some traces of bruising here at the wrists, and more at the legs."
Booth, who was standing next to a somewhat lightheaded Angela, shifted his weight from foot to foot. Even without looking, Angela could sense the sheer power emanating from him. Sometimes he was like some sort of large cat: even when he was perfectly still, the power in his coiled muscles was obvious. Also obvious was the tension between her best friend and her partner—obvious, that is, to everyone except the aforementioned pair. "So, what, she was raped? Fourteen years old and she was raped?"
Angela's knees buckled slightly, but luckily she caught herself before she ended up face-first on the floor. "She was only fourteen years old? Consider my day officially ruined." She murmured, and wished her voice sounded stronger. As she approached the remains on that slab, she heard Brennan's voice—probably explaining, in very scientific terms, how there wasn't any precise way to tell exactly how old the girl was with the current knowledge—but she didn't really pay attention. Without tissue markers, it was hard to place a real, human face on this...well, on the body, but Angela couldn't keep herself from trying. She didn't realize how tightly she was gripping the cold steel until she felt a gentle touch at the small of her back, and heard Hodgin's voice.
"Ange, are you okay?" He kept his voice low—maybe no one else had noticed her reaction. The spell was broken. Angela took one step back and nodded slightly. "Bren, I'll be in my office waiting for...her skull, okay?" She wanted to be anywhere but here. Brennan just nodded again, enthralled once more with the small body on the table.
Jack followed her back to her office, as though he were afraid she'd pass out on the way. The idea was oddly funny to her: maybe Zack would trip over her body and Cam would immediately begin an autopsy or something. "Look, do you need some fresh air or something? What's wrong?" Angela sank into her desk chair and turned on the monitors. Might as well get everything booted up and ready, for when she finished the sketch. Hodgins sat in the chair next to her: like always. The familiarity was comforting, but she knew it meant he expected an answer.
"She was just so young, Jack, that's all," Angela mumbled, somewhat unconvincingly. "And then for her to be raped and dumped into some lake somewhere...what kind of a person does that?" She shuddered quietly.
"Angela, we've gotten kids in here before, and you've been fine. I mean, I thought you were gonna pass out for a minute there. Did you skip breakfast or something?" Angela knew that his intentions were good. She knew that, and yet, she found herself growing irritated with him. Drawing in a deep breath to try to keep herself under control, she turned to him.
"Like I said, Hodgins, I'm fine now. She looked really little on the table, so it...threw me for a minute. You can go: I want to start searching the missing person reports, to maybe get a head start." She turned towards the computer screens once more, sending a pretty clear message: get out. Hodgins didn't miss it, though he did hesitate a moment. When he left, he left without a word, and still all Angela could feel was relief. Well, that and a faint queasiness.