Agent Seeley Booth stood above the trench, frowning down at his partner who was now carefully unearthing a second body. Zach, who had arrived about half an hour before, was assisting her while Hodgins collected a vast array of soil samples from the area.
The direction of the bitter breeze changed, bringing a familiar scent Booth's way. He felt a tight smile pulling at his lips as he turned.
"Cam…"
She grinned as she stopped in front of him, folding her arms across her chest.
"Good morning, Booth. Slept well I hope."
He glanced around them, always concerned who might be listening to their exchanges.
"You know I didn't."
She arched an eyebrow.
"Just one of life's little lessons"
She moved to walk past him but paused at his side, each of them staring straight ahead. Cam dared a quick glance at the man she now shared her life with, a broad smile across her lips.
"Somehow I can't see you ever being late for dinner again."
Booth couldn't help but grin as she marched past him and towards her work. He turned to watch her as she crouched by the large hole, consulting with Brennan whose head had popped up over the side of the trench.
Sauntering over to them, Booth flashed his partner his brightest charm smile. Brennan just rolled her eyes and turned back to Cam, finishing her explanation of their discoveries.
"Yes, we found a second body. The positioning of the remains is strange."
Cam frowned down in to the trench, her gaze flicking between her star anthropologist and the decomposed bodies behind her.
"How is it strange? They're just lying side by side."
Brennan moved slightly to her left, giving her boss a better view of their discovery.
"Yes, but they were holding hands."
Cam's eyebrows shot up as she turned to Booth.
"So these two were a couple then?"
He nodded slowly, crouching down beside her as he followed her train of thought.
"Of course... Whatever happened to them, they were in love and they went down together. Whoever buried them cared about them and knew that they loved each other."
Brennan sighed heavily.
"That is, as usual, pure conjecture on your part."
She glanced over her shoulder, watching Zach hunched over his work as he bickered with Hodgins about the scientific use of the word 'dirt'. She turned back to the pair in front of her and Booth felt his stomach drop.
"Oh great, Bones, you've got that look again."
"What look?"
"That look that says you've found something that's going to make this case way more complicated than it should be."
Brennan paused, staring her partner straight in the eye.
"There is a somewhat small complication, yes."
Cam rocked on her heels with an exasperated sigh.
"What kind of complication?"
"The second body's bone structure is… Well, I've never seen anything like it. There's a distinct mixture of characteristics and bone markers that don't seem to make any sense. They simply should not exist together. I'm going to need to conduct a thorough examination back at the lab but…"
She tailed off, leaving Cam staring at her for a few moments before she finally broke the silence hanging over them.
"But what?"
Brennan blinked, staring her boss straight in the eye with a severe look of distinct frustration.
"I'm not sure we're ever going to know who this victim was."
oo00oo
Angela strolled through the Jeffersonian, a large sketch pad tucked under her arm as her personally altered lab coat swished around her legs.
Entering her office, she sunk in to her sofa, curling her legs beneath her as she flipped open the pad. Grabbing her favourite set of pencils off the table to her side, she paused as she stared down at her drawing.
The gentle lines and shading of her work made the portrait almost come to life. Her heart skipped a beat as she remembered the real subject of the drawing. Putting pencil to paper, she let the smile brush her lips as she extended the stem of the beautiful white rose.
Nicknamed the Romeo and Juliet, it was the rose Hodgins had given her all those months ago, signalling the start of them admitting how they really felt about each other.
And it could have been the start of something great. If only I wasn't so damn stubborn.
Sighing heavily, Angela ran a frustrated hand through her hair and leaned back against the cushions.
But now I've screwed it up totally and I don't think I can ever go back, the one thing that I told him we should do.
Staring back down at her portrait of the rose he'd given her to show her how he felt, it suddenly looked like a pitifully poor imitation of what it should be. Infuriated, she ripped the page out of the sketch book, screwed it up in to a ball and threw it as hard as she could across the room with a frustrated grunt.
Damn artistic temperament…
The ball of paper landed at the feet of a lab worker she barely recognised. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she smiled broadly at the young man.
"Can I help you?"
The man smiled back at her as he strolled across the room.
"Delivery for you, Miss Montenegro."
He passed her a reasonably large package, turned on his heel and left. Attempting to keep the smile on her face, she opened the padded envelope. But her smile didn't last.
As the package slipped through her fingers to the floor, Angela couldn't help but cry.