Disclaimer: I don't own Bones or anything else no copy right infringement intended.

Okay I keep separating this so it is easier to read but for some reason it won't save my spaces the way I am putting them in. The line breaks either. arrrghhh sorry about the spacing.

Berniej: If you have armpit hair then yes your old enough.
Anonymous: I don't know who you are but I'll address your comment. Brennan has a tendency to wear pants to the lab due to the fact that she may have to go to a crime scene. However she would wear a skirt to a lecture or book signing I believe so I put a skirt on her. The skirt is short for Booth's benefit ;-)

"Okay we're going to do this casual like. Deputy Director Cullen set this up so you could get a better feel for how we work together so we'll let you ask the questions and we'll answer them as honestly as our clearance allows. Just to remind you I'm Special Agent Booth, and this here is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan and this is Dr. Lance Sweets. Sweets didn't have anything better to do so he tagged along to follow us. He's probably writing another book about us. So who wants to ask the first question?"

Hands shot up around the room. Booth randomly pointed and an agent asked,
"How long have you two been partners or known each other?"

"We have worked as partners for six years but known each other for eight."

He pointed again and another agent asked,
"Why is there such a large time lapse?"

"Due to personal reasons I went on a dig in Maluku in Indonesia for seven months. In that time, Booth went to Afghanistan to train troops for the military. As well as we worked one case together a year before we became partners. Next question," Brennan answered carefully skirting their personal relationship.

She pointed to another person who asked,
"Exactly how well do you know each other?"

"We know each other very well its part of being a partner. Knowing how they take their coffee, what size clothes to bring to the hospital, where they keep their pens in their desk. Things you would know about your best friend. You need someone who will have your back, no matter what. And whether that person is a technician or another agent," Booth told them as he pointed to another agent.

"So you trust each other implicitly?"

"Absolutely, we are each other's medical proxy. We have no secrets and we keep none from each other," Booth told them. Sweets coughed at that statement the pair turned and looked at him. With a twinkle in his eye,

Booth told them, "Don't mind the twelve year old he probably needs a juice box."
Sweets rolled his eyes, Brennan smiled, and her eyes twinkled with laughter as well.

"Actually these two have had a surrogate relationship for the last four years minimum. This has caused them to be closer as partners than is normal," Sweets said with a smirk.

Brennan turned on him with narrowed eyes. "Dr. Sweets, Booth and I have been best friends for many years. Our romantic involvement has been pure speculation until recently. Psychology is a soft science and should not be used when quantifying our relationship," Brennan stated calmly. The technicians in the audience began to snicker.

She then pointed to another person, who asked Booth and Brennan,
"How do you deal with all of the scientific mumbo jumbo? I feel stupid asking."

Booth thought for a moment and slowly answered,

"There are things that they consider to be common knowledge and you will get weird looks but suck it up and ask. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask. Yes, Bones I know if you don't ask the question it means that there is not a question. You can also do like I do and remind them you don't speak squint. They often hear English please or translation. Althought, after awhile you pick up on things. When I first started working with the squint squad I didn't know what she was saying half the time."

Out of the corner of his mouth he said,
"Still don't half the time."
Chuckles were heard from the front row.

"But as you learn your partner you can see when they don't understand and you break it down to simple vernacular," Brennan told them.

Booth looked around and someone called out from the back,
"What is a squint squad?"

At that moment, Hodgins and Angela walked in the back of the room. They moved forward, climbed the stairs, stepped to the edge of the stage and sat down. Angela sat down and next to Brennan and Hodgins on the other side of Angela.

Hodgins answered the question,
"He calls scientists squints because we squint at things. But over the years it has become a term of respect for our genius."

Booth looked over and introduced them,
"This is Dr. Jack Hodgins and his wife Angela Montenegro-Hodgins. They have joined us as their lectures were empty."

Booth pointed randomly again and was asked,
"What kinds of cases have you guys worked on together?"

"We tend to get the strange ones due to Bones and her brain trust deal with very difficult evidence. So we get difficult and strange cases."

The same agent asked,
"Such as?"

Booth sighed looking into her eyes he questioned and she looked thoughtful and slowly nodded to him. The agents watched as they had a discussion but no words were spoken.

"You will have to excuse them as they discuss which cases to discuss. As you will notice they do not have to say a thing but we are used to it," Angela told them with a smile.

Booth didn't hear her statement and then said,
"Excuse us; we had to decide which ones to mention as some of them are hard to talk about. So we will tell you about some but not discuss it in depth. Bones will tell you the first few which are not open to discussion these cases are the ones we still have nightmares about five years later."

Brennan looked up and straightened her spine,
"We solved a cannibal case known as the Gormagon case."

Hodgins reached for Angela's hand, and then Angela reached for Brennan's hand. Angela squeezed Brennan's hand, she in turn reached to Booth's hand and squeezed. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"We solved the Heather Taffet case otherwise known as the grave digger case."

She heard a collective gasp from the auditorium. Their hands squeezed again and she continued,

"Booth can tell you about the others."
Brennan looked over at Booth, who said,

"We solved the Howard Epps murders and escape. We solved the murder of Deputy Director Kirby. We solved the serial killings of a man who cut the victims eyes out with keys. At the same time discovered a dirty agent by the name of Kenton. These are just a few of the more well known ones. However every case we work is important."

Another voice called from the left,
"Why are forensic technicians important anyway? Cases are solved by pounding the streets, asking questions by cops not scientists."

He received angry stares from around him including five from the stage. Brennan looked at Booth and raised her eyebrow and asked him,
"Do you remember this conversation?"

Booth nodded at her question and stated,
"Homicides they're not solved by scientists, they're solved by guys like me asking a thousand questions a thousand times, catching people telling lies every time."

Hearing the gasps Brennan continued,
"Cleo Eller was killed on a cement floor sprinkled with diatomaceous earth. Traces of her blood will still be in that cement floor. This conversation has already been discussed between us. However, we are both right in a way. You need the forensic technicians to tell you who the victim is, the how and point you in the right direction. You need the agent to arrest them, to do speculation which is something that we as scientist do not do as well."

Booth questioned the crowd,
"How many of you can reconstruct as skull?" Half of the technicians raised their hands.

He nodded thoughtfully and continued,
"We would have never known who Cleo Eller's was if it were not for Bones. She took a skull busted into a million pieces."

"129," she corrected and the agents laughed at her correction.

Booth laughingly told them,
"She rebuilt Cleo Eller's skull and Angela here put a face on her. You should really attend Angela's facial reconstructing lecture. If for nothing else to see what the angelator can do, but she can draw them as well. Without my squints, we would have never known who she was. Without Hodgins, we would not have known the where. He provided us with diatomaceous earth that led to the scene. Which Bones figured out which of the suspects that I was dealing with had the diatomaceous earth at his home. You need both Agents and Technicians to solve a case."

A female voice asked from the front row,
"Why do you call her Bones?"

"It started out because that is what she works with, bones. It annoyed her at first which made it just plain fun," Booth grinned out and she elbowed him, "since then it has become a nickname like calling the squints squints," he finished.

"Why would a forensic technician even want or need to be in the field?"

Brennan thought about it for a minute before replying,
"As scientists working with death we have a tendency to step back and compartmentalize our emotions. We think of the victims as remains or evidence. This makes us appear to be cold heartless. Angela our forensic artist she helps to make it so that we see the face. However, going out to meet the friends and family of the victim grounds you. As well as when we go to speak with suspects, I have seen evidence where an agent would not. As a trained forensic anthropologist I see weapons where an agent would see a common place object."

The agents nodded and the forensic technicians shifted uncomfortably.

"By getting to know the victim and grounding yourself it gives you a reason to work harder. To find that piece of evidence that will lead to the murderer. That satisfaction of putting a murderer behind bars drives you to keep doing it. It makes it more than a pay check, more than the search for knowledge," she explained carefully.

"Wow Dr. Brennan that was very insightful," Sweet told her with a smile.

She glared at Sweets and tossed out,
"No comments from the cashew gallery."
The agents laughed and she shrugged knowing she had gotten it wrong.

"Peanut Bones peanut gallery," Booth corrected.

"What is the best, worse, weirdest thing that has happened while you all have been working together?"

Booth looked at Brennan she stared back a minute, she turned to Angela and Hodgins who looked back and nodded.

"I hate it when they do this. They are having a conversation and you can't hear it. It drives me nuts!" Sweets blurted out and the audience laughed.
Brennan and Booth smirked at each other. Then all of them turned and glared at Sweets.

Booth looked up and saw Cam enter he swept his hand towards the stage,
"Join us Cam." Cam walked up, sat on the other side of the Sweets, and crossed her legs.

Booth started speaking first knowing Brennan was compartmentalizing.
"The worst falls technically under not wanting to talk about it but we will in bits and pieces. The worst was knowing that they were buried alive and running out air. The best is working with my team, they started as annoying but have become like family. The weirdest was being treated as evidence," Booth told the audience. They heard the gasps followed by laughter. Brennan smiled and she rolled her eyes.

"That was an experiment I was all about doing, but Bren wouldn't let me," Angela said while laughing.
The audience roared in laughter. Angela glanced at Brennan, who had an intense look on her face, so she leaned forward and told them,
"The best for me was when we found my friend Danni in the desert. My boyfriend had been murdered, so Brennan and Booth came to help,"

Booth reached across behind Brennan and squeezed her shoulder and she smiled at him, "we found my friend and guide alive that was the best. The weirdest was the Carly Victor case. Her skeleton glowed in a weird blue color. They were like a light stick glowing. The scariest was having my family buried by the grave digger, again not discussing it any more than that."

Giving Brennan more time Hodgins started, "The best is seeing that my conspiracy theories are sometimes right," he heard the group chuckle "The weirdest was Justin Dateson; his skeleton was stolen by a death metal band, crucified then taken to Norway. The scariest," he took a deep breath.

Brennan knowing what he was going to say let go of Booth's hand, reached across Angela's lap, and squeezed their hands.
He looked up at the audience and said, "Was being buried alive with Dr. Brennan." He let out a sigh and rolled his neck. Angela leaned over and whispered in his ear.

Cam glanced at Brennan whose eyes had clouded over and started,
"The best thing is working with this team, we laugh, we grieve, and we share. The weirdest was the Alex Newcomb case, his bones foamed as he started to decompose on our examination table. The scariest was when at separate times Booth, Dr. Brennan and Dr. Hodgins were buried alive," she said with sheen of tears in her eyes. Booth reached behind Sweets and put out his hand. She dropped her hand in his and he squeezed.

He looked at Brennan and she nodded. She took a deep breath, straightened her back and said,
"The best is at the finish of each case we put a killer behind bars we," she paused and glanced at Booth, "we put the cosmic balance sheet back in the positive one case at a time. The worst," her eyes glazed over with unshed tears and Booth dropped his arm around her shoulder "was the day that Booth took a bullet that was intended for me. He died in the hospital or so I was told. That was the worst. The scariest was the grave digger and that is all I'm going to say about that."

"So have you always been this close. I've never seen a group of scientists this close with an agent," came a voice from the front.

"This team's dynamic functions like a family. A dysfunctional family, but they are a family nonetheless. They have known each other so long what they do comes natural. I suspect it was not always this way. There had to be a turning point but they won't tell me what," Sweet answered.

Brennan and Booth turned glares on him. Then they each turned and looked up and down the line at each other.

"Christine Brennan," they said in unison. Sweets head jerked around at them.

"We found my mother's remains in the modular bone storage. This was the turning point. Booth became more a friend rather than partner and I realized that my co-workers were more than just friends. My friends worked around the clock to find my mother's killer. Dr. Saroyan had not yet joined the team at that point and did rock the boat a little when she joined. However we settled our differences and became that much stronger for it," Brennan said.

"There is also the knowing what each of us does best. I wouldn't ask Cam about bugs and slime that's Hodgins thing. I wouldn't ask Angela about DNA that's Cam's area of expertise. You need to know your team's strengths and weaknesses. By doing so you grow closer by getting to know more about them," Booth said smoothly.

There was a prolonged silence from the audience and then they heard,
"Have you ever had embarrassing situations between the two of you? Being as close as you are I'd think there would be."

Brennan started laughing wiping the tears from her lashes that had not fallen. She imagined Booth naked in a beer hat but she wasn't going to mention that for him.
Booth replied with a laugh,
"Well one of embarrassing situations was also the weirdest time I mentioned earlier. I had a Santa Claus blow up all over me and I had menudiblum all over me."

"Manubrium Booth," Cam and Brennan corrected.

He continued,
"Anyway, I was evidence and had to be processed as such. My options were to let one of the squints or my partner process me. I went with Bones, she took tweezers and pulled stuff off my jacket and what do you know it was on my shirt, my tie, my belt buckle, and my pants and in my hair. So as you can see she had to pull pieces of clothing off me one at a time, bag it and label it. So while she did this we discussed Christmas plans. She invited me to dinner at her house for Christmas then I spent some time naming saints. Then to top it all off, I got pushed through the lab on an examination table so she could get the stuff from my hair without cutting it. So the entire lab got to see me pretty much naked."

The auditorium rang with laughter Sweets looked up and grinned,
"What about the time she busted in on you in the bathtub?"

The auditorium and people on the stage roared in laughter.
"Shut up Sweets, that was non case related. She was pissed at me for dying and not telling her I wasn't dead," Booth told him and the laughing just got louder.

"The most embarrassing for me was when he interrogated and ran a background check on a guy I was dating at the time. I had met a man online and we decided to meet," Brennan heard a groan from the audience and Booth gave her an I told you so look,
"So while walking to meet him someone decided to try to kill me. So Booth had him hauled in and interrogated," she told them.

Sweets leaned over to look at Booth who grinned at the comment and shrugged. The group on the stage cleared their throats and looked around not daring to mention some of the other situations between the two.

Sweets felt the need to explain,
"There are other things that normal people would find embarrassing but between these two there's not much."

Booth cut him off before he could say more,
"Okay almost lunchtime any other quick questions?"

One of the technicians called out,
"Exactly how smart are you Dr. Brennan? And have any of you ever done page 187?"

Booth burst into laughter at the questions and looked at Brennan knowing that they had done page 187 recently. Everyone on the stage leaned over and looked at Hodgins.

Hodgins got that look on his face and said,
"What that was MY move. It is not my fault Angela told you to put it in the book!"

The audience started laughing again when Brennan answered the original question,
"My IQ is two points below Albert Einstein so I am a genius. And yes I have done page 187 and yes I liked it." She said with and ornery grin and a twinkle in her eyes.

Booth burst into laughter and clapped his hands,
"Okay time for lunch guys." The agents and techs began to shuffle out for lunch.

Sweets walked up to Brennan and Booth and said,
"Do you two realize that you just revealed more to these complete strangers in three hours than you have over the years of coming to my sessions."
They shrugged and headed off for lunch.

After lunch, they went to their separate lectures.

Brennan teaching a back to basics on evidence gathering and skeletal reading and defleshing.
Booth had lecture about the importance of application of evidence in a case.

Sweets sat with Booth on his lecture, adding in his psychological input.
Cam had a lecture on proper analysis of DNA.

Angela was lecturing on the break down of sound file and comparison using the angelator to show the wave lengths of sound.
Hodgins was lecturing on particulates and the importance of using the mass spectrometer.

Their lectures wrapped up around five and everyone met in the lobby and stepped out in the dusk. As they were striding out the door, a low slung black car with tinted windows rolled slowly by.

The window cracked and a spray of gunfire went across the group of FBI agents. Booth pushed down Brennan and fell beside her.

The agents hit the ground and were on their feet the second the gunfire stopped. Booth pulled out his sig and shot the back tire. The car slowed but didn't stop. Agents began chasing the car on foot.
Angela had jumped to her feet camera coming out of her purse and she began snapping photos.

Angela then noticed Brennan lying on the cement blood seeping from her shoulder.

Keep the reviews coming. As pathetic as it is they make my day!