Booth watched impatiently as Brennan finished up with the boys' skeleton and placed a large tarp over it for protection. He watched as she replaced her equipment and followed her when she headed to the sink to wash her hands.

"You don't have to follow me everywhere, Booth," she told him, raising an eyebrow. "I'll meet you out front in a second."

"I wasn't – " he protested weakly as she moved off again towards her office. Sighing, he continued to watch after her until she was out of view and then headed out to the foyer to wait.

Booth stayed in the foyer for several minutes and was just about to give up on Brennan when she appeared by his side, breathless. "Wow, Bones. You look like you just ran the triathlon or something. Is everything okay?" He peered down at her curiously, noticing how flushed she looked. Something was up.

"Sorry," she said apologetically. "There was a phone call from an Officer Reyes? Apparently we have another body coming in within the hour. I should probably stay…" She looked to Booth for approval, smiling gratefully when he nodded.

"Okay, that'll be a rain check on dinner then," he said with a half smile. "Do you want me to hang around for a bit or are you fine here?"

Brennan shrugged. "I'm fine. You go ahead." She paused. "Maybe I'll drop by later if I have time."

"Sure. See you tomorrow then," Booth said with a smile. He patted the anthropologist gently on the shoulder and left.

Brennan watched as he went and sighed. She had really been looking forward to dinner at Wong Fu's and now this new case had come up. Out of all the days it could happen it had to be today, when she had other plans that didn't involve investigating skeletons. Talk about bad timing!

She returned to her office after awhile and slumped into her chair at the desk, losing herself to the countless thoughts that flooded her mind. There was so much going on lately it wasn't funny. Firstly, there was the skeleton of the teenage boy and the unusual conditions that surrounded his death.

Secondly, she had been having nightmares for about 3 nights running and was running on caffeine and not much sleep at all. It was beginning to affect her work, which was never a good sign. She had been planning on going home early to get in some extra sleep, but now she had to stay back for the second skeleton to come in.

Sighing wearily, she closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. She had just gotten comfortable when a sharp knock at her office door startled her back to reality. Glancing up, she saw a tall, blond man wearing a sky-blue police uniform with a couple of merit badges pinned to the shoulder.

He was ruggedly handsome and had the most intense blue eyes that she had ever seen. Definitely cute, she thought absentmindedly. "Officer Daniel Reyes," he introduced himself, walking into the room and extending his hand.

Brennan smiled and stood up, meeting him by the desk and shaking his hand. "Dr. Temperance Brennan," she said, smiling. "Nice to meet you."

"And you," came the reply. Reyes winked at her and then gestured behind him back towards the lab area, suddenly serious. "Anyway, the body was found at 18:00 in the same forest as the last, by…" he flipped open a notebook and scanned the page quickly "…Charles Denison. A homicide, I'd say."

"How do you know?" Brennan asked, intrigued.

Reyes smiled grimly. "I think you'll see how once you've seen the remains."

A/N: So? How am I going with this? Everyone liking it so far?