This chapter, I am sad to say, has very few "moments" between our dynamic duo. Its use is mainly to establish the case. But I am proud of it nonetheless. And I think that this might be a good time to tell you all that this is my first attempt at writing a case and I'm not about to make it overly intricuit or anything. But there will be something freaking awesome coming along. For those of you that know me: I can't keep the guns out for too long in a story like this.

Rating: T for mild language
Disclaimer: Cloans on a loan... Everyone in this story is either from the show or a real person. Even the school is real. If you go to Groveport then please forgive my feeding the flames of our bad reputation but I couldn't use Pickerington because that just isn't realistic. (The damn prudes...) And please note the nod at the marching band's latest victory. Got a one at state. YEAH!!
Summary: Booth, Brennan, and Zack follow a lead to the great OHIO. It doesn't take long to make a connection between said big O to D.C.
Spoilers: None.
Note to the Loyal readers: Just for those of you who wanted to know: Zack was not sent by Camille to prevent anything from happening between Booth and Brennan. She has no clue about what has been going on between them, and neither does Zack. For now.

Shout-outs: Netopia, for one. I love your reviews! And to jaed621, audrey, and caroldpd. You will see Cam get her just desserts. Soon. Just wait. And THANK YOU to goldpiece and siapom for your perfectness in supporting my CBPC response. Just so ya'll know: I GOT FIRST PLACE! (don't mean to brag but that was my first attempt and it turned out great! big hugs all around)

Ok, ok. I'll start the story now. Sheesh...

Chapter Eight: Ohio

"Groveport High School," Brennan sighed as he brought the Mercedes to rest in front of the main doors to the building. It was built with dark brick and was obviously old. The large sign on the grass next to the busy street in front of the school blinked red letters welcoming them to the district and informing them of the marching band's latest victory. Booth turned the car into the parking lot and sat it between a brown Cadillac and a gray Honda.

"Doesn't seem like a very foreboding place, does it?" Booth turned off the car and gave Brennan a small frown.

"Um, Agent Booth," Zack leaned forward to poke his head in between the front seats. "Appearance rarely means anything in such a place as a school."

"Yeah, I know, I know." Booth rolled his eyes to the ceiling and groaned. "Don't judge a book by its cover."

"Booth," Brennan returned his earlier frown. "Zack wasn't talking about a book."

"Whatever." He groaned again and reached for the door handle. "And I thought that having just one annoying, over-analytical Squint was bad. This is about two-hundred times worse." Before either Zack or Brennan could respond he opened the door and slipped out, slamming it behind him. Giving each other an exasperated look, each silently telling the other one not to pay the ignorant any mind, Zack and Brennan turned and opened the car doors to follow Booth up to the black double doors and into the building.

- - -

Booth slid the paper across the wood desk and tapped it. The man sitting opposite him stared down at the picture, a look of consternation slowly tugging at his features. Slowly, he nodded to himself and sat back in his chair. His hand moved to stoke the smoothness of his bald head in distress as his eyes flicked between Brennan, Booth and Zack. "Keiley Darrow," he sighed, confirming the identity. "Where did you find her?"

"About thirty-five hours ago in Washington D.C." Booth mirrored the principal's actions by leaning back against his own chair.

"We estimate that she's been dead for twelve days or so." Brennan said, nodding at the paper.

Principal Beck, a middle-aged man with a pot-belly and thick glasses, stared back across the table at them. "Have you spoken to her mother?"

Booth nodded. They had made a detour on the way to the school and spoken briefly to the mother. As soon as she heard her daughter was dead she'd rolled her eyes to the heavens and said a quite prayer to her god before grabbing her purse and insisting that she needed to go to work but that, by all means, they should do whatever they could to figure out what she did. That was if it wasn't self-inflicted. Booth had spent the half-hour ride to the school listening to the pensive silence emanating from Brennan.

"I wouldn't think that she was at all very helpful." The principal sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he squeezed his eyes shut as if fighting off a migraine.

"No, she wasn't. But if you don't mind I have a few questions to ask you."

"By all means." The principal waved a hand in the air. "Whatever I can do to help you, just ask."

Booth nodded in appreciation. Glancing at the nameplate on the desk to clarify the man's name in his mind, he sorted out the questions that he wanted to ask, always careful not to offend somebody. "Did Keiley have any disciplinary problems?"

The man snorted. "Of course. She was the type of girl who thought herself to be a—what do you call it?—gothic child but in reality I could tell that she was a child starved for attention."

"How so?"

"She would wear all black, noisily blanching from the mention of the color pink—I know this because she was sent down to my office because she very rudely refused to wear the color at the Choral contest—and nearly once a week I would receive her headphones from one of the teachers because she was blaring Korn too loudly during a test. Basically she showed all the signs of a wannabe-gothic student." A thin smile tugged wearily at the corner of his lips. "I know that that sounds injudiciously bad of me to say—probably something that only one of the students should say—but that is precisely the vibe I got from her. You see, I know a bit more about her home life than she knew. One of her closest friends often confided in me about her and a few things were said that I have never spoken to another living person."

"And what kinds of things do you mean?" Brennan leaned forward in her chair, casting a glance at Zack to make sure he was OK.

"Well, a couple of years ago she was taken to court a couple of years ago by her parents. They were seeking to no longer have custody over her and consequently she missed a lot of school because of it. As you can obviously tell they did not succeed in their endeavor but I believe that, from what her friend has told me, that was the last straw. After that Keiley began going out to one of the elementary schools and drinking. Her friend was terribly concerned that something terrible would happen while she was intoxicated and it soon did."

"What sort of things?" Booth was the one to interject the question this time.

"One time she woke up in her bed with no recollection of how she got there and yet she could tell that something had happened…if you catch my drift." He waited for Booth's nod before continuing. "And another time she granted favors for a guy that she knew. Something that she told her friend she never would have done if she were sober. And yet another time she got into a fight with some of the girls." He sighed, his hand moving back to stroke his bald spot. "Her friend was terrified for her but no matter what she did to try and convince her friend to stop—she tried pleading, scare tactics, and anger—it never worked and Keiley just blocked it out. I acted optimistic in front of this friend but I knew that something bad was going to happen sooner or later." He heaved another sigh. "I just wish I could have done something more for her." His eyes darkened as something hit him. "What am I going to tell her friend?"

"You can leave that to us, Mr. Beck if you like. We are going to need to talk to this girl anyway." Booth pulled out a small pad of paper and a pen and slid it across the desk. "Can you write down her name and her classroom number for us?"

The man hesitated only briefly before nodding. "I'm going to have to call her parents and inform them that you are speaking to her."

Booth nodded in return. "But please remind them that it is not a formal interrogation. We just need to ask her a few questions about Keiley."

Making a small noise of acknowledgement in the back of his throat, Mr. Beck turned to his computer and struck a few keys on the keyboard, waiting for a moment while a schedule flashed onto the screen. When he had the information he turned back to them and wrote the girl's name and a classroom number down on the paper. "Do you need any help finding your way around?"

Booth glanced at the room number and shook his head. "No. I think we can find it pretty easily."

"Come and tell me if you need anything. I would come with you myself if I didn't have to make some phone calls to the girl's mother and to Keiley's father." He sighed again, giving his hands a morose look. Booth nodded to Brennan and she in turn nodded to Zack and together they rose from their seats and filed out of the office and made their way through the main office. When they were in the hallway, Booth handed Brennan the paper.

"How are we going to be able to find her?" Zack asked, poking his head in between the two of them, staring at the paper.

"Because that is the room number right across the hall." Booth pointed at the door on the other side of the hallway almost directly opposite the office.

Zack looked up and his lips formed a small "o" of realization. "How did you know that?"

"I didn't." Booth sighed as he tucked the paper back into his jacket pocket and turned to Brennan. "Do you want to get her or should I?"

Brennan pursed her lips before giving Booth a cursory glance. "Me."

"Okay." Booth watched her eyes darken as she pulled out the picture of Keiley from her pocket and stared at it for a long minute. He tried not to reach out and touch her hair. He'd sensed from the moment that the principal had suggested that the girl's parents hadn't wanted her a cloud of animosity toward them cover her. Before he could forget that Zack was standing there awkwardly watching and pull her into an embrace, she tucked the photo away and turned to the door. Quickly, she strode across the hall and knocked sharply.

"Come in." A woman's voice beckoned Brennan and she turned the handle. It was an art room. Her eyes scanned the students as she tried to guess which of the girls' lives she was about to destroy.

"Can I speak to Jamie Spader?" she asked the teacher, an older woman with a paint-stained shirt and slacks. The woman pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and frowned.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan here to speak to Ms. Spader." She raised an eyebrow. "I've just come from the principal's office." She watched as the woman nodded slowly and pointed at a small girl in the front row. The girl looked up from the drawing on her desk and stared at Brennan hesitantly before sliding out of her seat and standing up. Silently she followed Brennan out into the hallway. When the door closed behind her she looked up at Booth and Zack, a look of bewilderment crossing her features.

"What's this about?"

Booth folded his arms over his chest. "We need to talk to you about Keiley Darrow. We were told that you know her."

Jamie's eyes closed and she covered her mouth with her hands while nodding. "Have you found her?"

"About forty hours ago," Brennan said softly. She looked at Booth who nodded, getting the message. He turned around and walked into the office, spoke a few words to the secretary, and came back out.

"Why don't we go talk in the cafeteria?" he suggested, frowning at the girl. Jamie opened her eyes and wiped a tear away.

"Okay," she whispered, following Booth and Brennan down the hallway to the empty cafeteria doors. When they were seated at one of the long tables—Jamie on one side next to Brennan with Booth sitting directly opposite her next to Zack—Booth pulled out his paper and pen.

"My name is Special Agent Seeley Booth and this," he pointed at Zack, "is Dr. Zack Addy." He extended it across the table and Jamie took it in a surprisingly firm grip. When they released, Brennan turned in her seat to look at her.

"And I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan, Forensic Anthropologist for the Jeffersonian Institution."

Jamie's eyes widened ever so slightly at the title and a small gleam came into her eyes. "You're Temperance Brennan? The author?"

Brennan nodded slowly. "You know my books?"

"Know them?" Jamie gasped. "I love them!" She turned back to Booth. "And you—you're the guy mentioned at the beginning of the book! Keiley and I…" she trailed off, her face fell, and the gleam faded. "She loved your books."

It was silent for a long minute as a tear trickled down Jamie's face. Then, wiping the tear away almost angrily, she looked up at Brennan again. "Where did you find her?"

"We found her in a warehouse in D.C. It seems that she was there for about a week and a half. Do you know when she went missing?"

Jamie nodded sullenly. "Three weeks ago. I was the one that filed the missing persons report. After four days of not returning my calls and not coming to school I went over to her house and her parents said that they thought she'd run off to someone's house. They said she'd be back soon because she'd left her CD's there." She chuckled grimly. "Keiley never could go long without her music."

"Do you have any idea why she was in D.C.?" Brennan asked, frowning at the mention of Keiley's parents.

Jamie shrugged. "Sure. But it doesn't mean any of them are likely."

"Can you give me a few that might be?" Brennan looked up at Booth and he nodded for her to keep going at it.

"There's the idea that she just got tired of her parents and chose Washington because she guessed that there wouldn't be too many questions of a teenage girl wandering around—tourism, you know. But she would have told me if that was the case. It could also be that she was on her way to New York to see her aunt for the same reasons but D.C. is a far cry from the big apple. No." She shook her head and squinted her eyes in thought. "If she was in D.C. without telling me it was because of Jake."

"Jake?" Booth and Brennan's eyes met across the table. "Who's Jake?"

"Jake is…" Jamie sighed. "Jake was everything to Keiley. He was her first love and he was my replacement. Technically she wasn't allowed to date so they saw each other in secret, telling her parents that she was at my place while I had to sit at home with the phone in my lap in case her mom called. Jack wasn't necessarily what you would call faithful and when he tried to kiss me I told Keiley to cut it off or she was going to get hurt. She confronted Jack about it and he, of course, said that he had no feelings for me and 'of course' he didn't try to kiss me. She believed him over me. So what could I do? We didn't talk except in monosyllables at lunch but when she stopped showing up for school I called her again." She shrugged again. "Then Thanksgiving break came up and when she didn't answer my calls I got worried. They did a preliminary investigation but when her parents mentioned that they'd caught her getting drunk and running off with boys the investigation wound down." She laughed bitterly. "No one really cares about a girl like that now, do they?"

"What about Jake? Is he here at school?" Brennan was looking once again at Jamie.

"Yeah. He's in my next class, in fact."

"Was he here after or before break?"

"He left about three days early for his uncles and returned a few days after. He kept bragging about his uncle and his connections in whatever city he lives in." She frowned and another tear slipped from the corner of her eye. "Now that I think about it it's really obvious, isn't it?"

"What is Jake's last name?"

Jamie shook her head and thought for a second. "Leewood, maybe? Leward? I don't know, it's something like that."

Booth turned to Zack and whispered instructions to him. Nodding, Zack stood and excused himself and walked out of the cafeteria towards the office. Booth turned back to Jamie. "We're going to have to speak to Jake but could you stay available in case we need to ask you a few more questions?"

Jamie swallowed hard and nodded. Tears were flowing freely now and Booth could tell that reality was smacking her in the face even as they sat there.

"Dr. Brennan is going to stay with here with you, all right?" He looked up at Brennan and asked her with his eyes. Together, Jamie and Brennan nodded. Sighing, Booth stood. "When does the next class start?"

Jamie sniffed and wiped at her eyes, glancing quickly at her watch. "Any minute now."

"Okay. Thank you, Jamie. And I am sorry for your loss."

Jamie nodded and Booth turned around and walked away. Zack was standing in the hallway, a slip of pink paper in his hand, and just as the door began to close a sob escaped Jamie's throat followed by a cry of sorrow. Turning to Zack, Booth frowned. "This job never gets easy, Squint. Remember that."

Zack only nodded and followed Booth mutely through the hallway to the boy's classroom.

- - -

"Excuse me, do you have a Jake Leeward here?" Booth's eyes scanned the classroom, a frown on his face. They'd already made a connection with somebody here in the victim's school to D.C. and then from there to a personal link to the victim.

The teacher, a squat woman with tight curly brown hair and a frown on her face, looked up at him from her desk over the rim of her glasses. "Who's asking?" she asked in a nasally voice.

Booth rose an eyebrow and hesitated for only a moment before walking over to her and discreetly flashing her his badge. She stared at him for a long moment before nodding and standing up from her chair and pointing to a boy in the back of the room. Booth crooked a finger at him and then turned to point at the door. "Will you please come with me?"

The boy scowled up from the book that he was holding in his hands. He seemed to consider refusing but eventually closed his book and stood up, following Booth's finger out to the hallway where Zack was waiting. Closing the door, Booth turned and silently began walking down the hallway to the glass doors at the end. Opening them, he gestured for Jake to step outside, followed by Zack. When they were standing on the wooden walkway leading into the modular, Booth pulled out his badge and showed it to the boy.

"My name's Special Agent Seeley Booth. Are you Jacob Leeward?"

"Jake," the boy corrected, his scowl still in place. "What do you want?"

"I'm here to ask about your girlfriend Keiley Darrow. When was the last time that you saw her?" Booth put his badge away and replaced it with the girl's last school photo. Jake took a moment to appraise the picture before answering. Booth didn't have to look at the photo to see the girl's pale face framed with frizzy, shoulder-length brown-almost-black hair and upturned nose. She was by no means gorgeous but there was something in her dark eyes that gave her an air of dark beauty. Instead, Booth looked at the boy standing in front of him. Jacob Leeward: An eighteen-year-old, eleventh-grade boy whose father owned a tire company just down the street from the school. He was a baseball player with obvious upper-body strength and messy blonde hair. And there was something daunting in the blank stare that he gave the picture.

Handing the picture back to Booth, Jake shrugged. "Haven't seen her in a few weeks. Who's this guy?" He pointed at Zack.

"A doctor. What exactly was your relationship with Keiley?" Booth shot Zack a look that told him to keep quiet.

Jake shrugged again. "We went out a few times. Nothing serious."

"Did your relationship extend to physical intimacy?"

"A few times. Like I said: Nothing all that serious. Why are you asking me about Keiley? She isn't in any trouble, is she?"

"She's dead, Jake." Booth stared intently at the boy, gauging his reaction. He couldn't catch a look of surprise in the boy's face and something clicked in his head, telling him something was off.

"Where did you find her?"

"In Washington D.C. in an abandoned building. You don't look all that surprised, Jake. Do you know something?"

Once again the boy shrugged. "Only that she was a girl looking for a way out of her problems. She probably just went to D.C. with some guy and he sold her off to a buddy of his for a little dough. It isn't that unheard of, you know? Not even in Ohio."

"But it happened to your girlfriend. Aren't you the least bit upset?"

Shrug. "Sure, but why are you questioning me like this? Shouldn't you be in Washington looking for the creep who did this to her instead of dicking around in Ohio?"

Booth saw Zack's eyebrows rise into his hairline at the explicit. "We're just following a lead, Jake. What better place to start than her hometown. Is it true that you have an Uncle in D.C.?"

"Well, you're not going to get any DNA from me if that's what you're after. I'm not hiding anything so you can just go away." The boy's voice was rising several decibels by the minute and Booth watched his hands flex into fists.

"Are you always this angry, Jake, or is it just my charm?" Booth crossed his arms over his chest and smiled mockingly at the boy.

"Why you son of a—"

"What? I'm a son of a what, Jake? Are you really going to stand here and cuss an FBI agent out? Not too bright."

"Shut your mouth!" Jake yelled, waving his fist in the air.

"All I want you to do is answer a few simple questions. It's not that hard, is it?"

"I am going to hit you so hard…"

"Booth, you might want to stop," Zack said softly, his voice filled with tension.

"Shut up, you stupid…" Jake finished his sentence by whirling around and hitting Zack square in the jaw. Swiftly, Booth pulled out his gun and pointed it at the boy.

"Get down on the ground, Jake." He reached down with one hand to pull his handcuffs out of his pocket but the boy continued to rain down on Zack with a flurry of punches and kicks. Zack was curled up in a fetal position on the ground, having met a corner when he tried to back away. Booth was ready to holster his gun and pull the guy away himself when the glass doors swung open and Brennan stormed out of the modular, flinging her body at the boy and whirling around to pin him against the wall.

"That was a big mistake," she snarled in his ear as she gestured behind her at Booth for the handcuffs without moving her face. The kid whimpered as Brennan slapped the cuffs on, not checking beforehand to make sure that they were loose enough. Students were poking their heads of their classes by now and some of the bolder ones had actually stepped up to the glass doors.

Booth waved his hand at them in a gesture that told them to buzz off. "Nothing more to see here," he said, loud enough for them to hear through the doors. Reluctantly, they slipped back into their classrooms one by one. Turning to Zack, Booth knelt down on the ground and searched for his eyes. "Are you OK?"

Zack shuddered before nodding and looking up. His cheek was already swelling and his lip was split but to Booth's eye he seemed to be no worse for wear. Booth tried not to smile as he reached out and wiped away a tendril of blood. "Don't worry, Squint. Not only did you just help provide valuable information pertaining to the case but you just got your first dose of REAL field experience." He extended his arm and Zack reached up. Gripping his forearm, Booth heaved Zack up and onto his feet. Brennan was still pinning the kid to the wall when she turned her head to look Zack up and down.

"Are you all right, Zack? Is anything broken?" Her voice still had an underlying hint of rage in it but her tone, along with her face, held concern for her young protégé. Only when Zack nodded and moved his arms and legs as a demonstration did she turn back to the kid pinned to the wall. "You should be aware that you just made a huge mistake," she reiterated in hushed tones. The principle and two police officers were sprinting out of the building and Booth smiled as he watched her get all of her threats out before they got there. He hadn't ever heard her use so many explicative terms at one time and some of the combinations he had never expected to hear from her ever. All in all, he was smiling in amusement by the time that the principal arrived, heaving great puffs of air as he glared at Jake.

"What happened?" he asked gruffly.

"That guy assaulted me!" Jake cried, moving his head to gesture at Booth. "He was attacking me."

The principal raised his eyebrow in doubt as he looked at Booth who stood unscathed. Then his eyes moved to Zack who's face had swelled to nearly twice its size. "Then how did the other one get hurt?"

"They provoked me! I did nothing wrong, except for stand up for myself and last I checked that wasn't a crime!"

Booth shook his head. "No, but attacking someone is." He turned to one of the police officers. "I'm going to need to follow you down to the station. This whole thing kind of interrupted a line of interrogation on a murder case." He took out his badge and showed it to the officer who nodded.

"The squad cars should be here any minute now." And sure enough, the telltale sounds of sirens approaching permeated the air around them. Booth settled back against the wooden beam of the staircase as he watched Brennan's hair spin around her, taking even this moment to wonder at her beauty. And at the same time he mourned for the stupid soul who tried to attack any of the Squints.

Lionesses were among the most beautiful of creatures but touch its offspring and it'll come right back at'cha, beautiful or not, and rip your face off.

And probably do it with a smile.

No one messes with the Squints and gets away with it. Thanks to Jamie, Kelsey, and Julie for letting me borrow your names, lives, and other personal aspects that I am using. I did ask permission so please don't yell at me if I broached upon certin things that you didn't want touched. But I personally think that this problem needs addressed and what better way to do it than in my story? Sorry, Keiley. (You know who you are.)

Press the button. Please. Don't make me beg. O.O If I get lots of reviews I might put a shirtless Booth in soon. Maybe even less...