Disclaimer: Bones originally belongs to Kathy Reichs, but is currently under the great care of Fox, Hart, Deschanel, and Boreanaz.

Reviews? Please?

I'll write without 'em but just thought I'd ask : )

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"Sweetie!" Angela called, taking in the sight of her friend. "You've got a glow."

"I don't know what that means." Brennan said, sweeping past Angela and heading towards her office.

"It means that you had well-deserved fun last night." Angela grinned. "I always say that you work too hard." She gave Brennan a conspiratorial wink. "So, who was the lucky guy?"

"No one." Brennan said tersely, hoping to end the discussion. She reached over to turn on her computer.

"Well," Angela pondered. "That means it was definitely someone because generally you have no problem spilling the details."

Brennan shook her head. "This isn't pertinent to work."

Angela laughed. "We don't have a case yet."

"Exactly," Brennan pulled on her lab coat. "Which means I have the time to catch up on identifying some old remains." She stated, tying her hair back.

"Haven't you ever heard of taking a break, sweetie? Taking time to catch your breath, maybe smell the roses." Angela sighed like she was daydreaming.

"I don't see the point." Brennan brushed past Angela on her way out of her office.

"Of course you don't." Angela shook her head, following her friend onto the platform.

And of course, at that exact perfectly timed moment, Booth bursts in through the lab door and says, "Hey! Bones! We've got a case." And the smile he gives her may be lost on its intended recipient, but it certainly isn't lost on her nearly-clairvoyant-about-sexual-relationships friend.

Angela's jaw drops, and she glances between Booth and Brennan.

"No... Way..." Her awe of course isn't lost on Booth, but neither he nor Brennan feel like taking on that topic at this particular moment.

Booth instantly looks away from his partner, and Brennan is obliviously as always.

"Alright." Brennan heads down the stairs of the platform.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Angela rushes after her. "Sweetie..."

Confused as ever, Brennan turns to her friend. "See you later, Ange."

Leaving a stunned Angela on the platform, Brennan follows Booth out the doors of the lab.

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Booth and Brennan are led by a man in a yellow-hardhat into a dilapidated basement.

"Owner says they were cleaning out the basement, getting ready to sell the house and they found this in the vent behind a set of boxes."

There was a body stuffed into the vent. Brennan bent down with her flashlight and examined the remains.

"What can you tell me, Bones?" Booth asks.

"Woman between the ages of 24 and 28. From the looks of it I'd say she's been dead at least six weeks." Brennan squints at the remains, gloved hands touching the bones. "Both wrists have distal fractures consistent with being hung, like this, for hours." Brennan gestures being hung by the wrists, by holding her arms straight up over her head.

Booth makes a face, grimacing the way he does whenever the deaths are particularly gruesome. "So, someone tortured the victim?"

Brennan nodded and stood, done with her initial survey of the bones. "It would appear so."

This is the part of the episode where Booth would say something quippy and it would go right over Brennan's head. But since the shift in their partnership, instead Booth caught Brennan's eye and she looked away quickly before she could get lost in its depths.

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A/N: Cue Song.

Details of "that night" didn't quite make it into this chapter, what with the case and all, but don't fret, it will work its way into the next installment.

Sorry for the tense changing, I'll be more careful with that next time.