A/N: I miss Bones (

Chapter Two.

"Call Zach, I need him to take pictures."

The bones were almost yellow against the pure white snow, laid out on the ground in a complete skeleton, from what Brennan could see.

She walked around the edge of the crime scene tape, looking for any sort of clue. Footprints were pointless, even in their current weather people walked through the grounds by the hundred every day. There was nothing that stood out, and Booth voiced her thoughts after watching her progress.

"You think this was planned?"

"You know I don't like to form conclusions without evidence," she said, giving him a reprimanding look through her lashes.

Zach pushed through all the police officers to Brennan and asked for instructions.

"Take them all around the perimeter from a five meter radius, then get under the tape and get close-up shots of the whole skeleton. Then we'll get her inside."

"Her?" Booth asked.

"Yes, female, probably about seventeen or eighteen," Brennan nodded.

Booth shook his head. Only a kid. Probably not even out of high school.

Brennan was in science-mode, calling orders to the people around her. Booth let her be and went to talk to one of the officers standing around.

"Wilson, what happened here?"

"Agent Booth, nice to see you. A couple of kids walking to school stumbled across the bones placed out on the snow, one of them called us, and here we are. Kids have been questioned, they didn't see anyone, they're not being considered suspects, they're barely in middle school."

"So we're relying on Dr Brennan's analysis of the bones to tell us something?" Booth asked.

"Basically, yes," Wilson looked behind him to see another officer calling him, "Excuse me please, Agent Booth."

Booth went back to his partner, who was supervising the skeleton as it was readied for transporting into the lab.

"The skull is cracked, I haven't had a good look at it yet, but it seems to be glued together."

"Why would someone go through all the trouble to put the skeleton back together again?" Booth asked.

"I don't know. We'll have to find out," she brushed past him, her arms crossed as she followed the bones back into the Jeffersonian.

-

Brennan stood bent over the examination table, studying the skull when Booth swiped his card and walked up the stairs. Her brow was creased and her lips were parted, intensely focused on what she was doing.

"Found out anything?"

"The skull was definitely glued back together. From what I can tell, cause of death was blunt force trauma, right here," she pointed to a heavily glued part of the skull, where a few tiny pieces were missing, fragmented by whatever had been smashed against it.

"Anything else?"

"Booth, I've only been working for twenty minutes. Get Angela out here to set up the tissue markers for the skull. I'll get Zach and tell him he can clean the bones. Then I'll be in my office."

Brennan pulled off her gloves and headed off in the direction of her assistant's room.

Booth meandered over to Angela's office and rapped on her open door.

She looked up and smiled. "Hi, Booth. Is Brennan ready for me now?"

"Yeah." He followed her out, not able to do anything until Brennan wrote up her findings so he could take them back to Cullen.

Angela bent over the skull much in the same way Brennan had done before picking it up in her fingers, turning it gently and murmuring to herself. "Definitely Caucasian," she said. She traced the line of one of the cheekbones. Booth watched her. He knew it was so much harder for her because she got closer to the victims than anyone else, drawing their faces. She sighed, putting the skull back down on the table and picking up her sketchpad.

He heard a phone ringing and saw Brennan rush across the lab and into her office to take the call.

"Brennan," her answer was quick and concise.

Booth only heard Brennan's responses, but he quickly deducted she was talking to David.

"So Bones is still going out with Dick431, then?" he murmured to Angela, his gaze still on Brennan's office and the anthropologist now sitting at her desk.

Angela smirked. "Yep."

"I thought they were only 'sometimes'?" Booth tried not to let any of his jealousy show through his words.

Angela noticed. Damn girl picked up everything. "Apparently 'sometimes' has turned into 'actual relationship'."

Booth's heart sank. "Has she slept with him?" He didn't know where the question had come from, but felt better asking it.

Angela smiled sympathetically and put a hand on Booth's arm. "Sweetie, if you want to know, just ask her. She'll tell you what's going on."

He looked at the artist and she let go of his arm.

"She tells you more than she tells me anymore. She turned back to her sketchpad, tapping the end of her pencil on the paper, a small smile on her face.

"Okay, bye David." The click of the phone settling onto its hook accompanied Brennan's goodbye and Booth saw her pick up a file and begin writing something.

Almost immediately, the phone rang again. Brennan frowned and picked up again.

"David if-" she stopped cold, her annoyance turning into a look of shock.

Booth walked cautiously towards the anthropologist's office and she caught his gaze, her eyes wide. With shaky hands that she tried to conceal, she put the phone back down and sat still.

The last time she had looked like that she'd gotten a message from her father.

"Bones? Who was it?" Booth went around the side of his partner's desk and put a hand on her shoulder.

She fumbled for the right words. "I…I don't know. Male, gruff."

"What did they say?"

"Death threats. The new bones."

She wasn't making very much sense. He prodded for more. "He wants you to stop working the case?"

She just nodded. He squeezed her shoulder and felt it relax slightly.

"You know the last time you didn't do that?"

She looked at him, slightly admonishing.

"We're going to be extremely careful with this one. First off, we're going to trace this call. Then we're going to up security around here and your apartment." Catching the look again, he reciprocated it, "Bones, I'm not letting anything happen to you."

She almost rolled her eyes. Then she really remembered what had happened the last time she'd not listened to her partner and stopped.

"Come on, we'll go to the FBI building and see what we can do."

--

The chapters will get longer as we go on; I still have to set everything up. And figure out what's going to happen. I mean, I know exactly what's going to happen…