Disclaimer: I don't own Bones. I need coffee.
Thank you all for the awesome reviews! I hope this is up to your expectations.
"KING OF THE LAB BABY!"
"What do you have Hodgins?" Booth asked.
Hodgins strolled in and looked around at the techs and agents.
"I am the king of the lab and you are all my serfs," he said with a smirk.
The agents laughed and the techs looked mutinous.
"I found Cyperus Laevigatus spores in the particulates."
"And that means what?"
"That these people were recently in the Central Mexican region," Hodgins told him.
Booth nodded and pulled out a pen and his notebook jotting it down.
"Thanks Hodgins."
Hodgins grinned and strolled out with his hands in his pockets.
"Can you call Angela and I will put on tissue markers." Brennan asked Booth.
She looked around and the technicians who had been looking tired suddenly looked interested. She set a table in the middle with one to her right. She lined the skulls up on the table. Getting a box of tissue markers, she sat down. While she waited for them to get situation on stools, she called Wendell.
"Wendell I need twenty crates sent to Dallas please. Send the crates next day."
"Sure thing Dr. Brennan I will do that right now."
She hung up the phone. Walking to her bag, she told the technicians.
"I need to concentrate so I will not be speaking. You can video or whatever you want but I will not answer any questions."
She pulled her iPod out of her bag and sat back down. Setting the iPod on the table, she put in the ear buds and began to work. A few minutes later Angela walked in with her sketchpad. Sitting on a stool on the other side of Brennan she waited while she put the markers on the first skull. Pulling a table behind her Angela took the skull when Brennan was done with it. Booth whispered to the agents and they looked on in interest.
Ten minutes later when they were starting to shift restlessly Angela turned her sketchpad towards them and showed them the drawing. Setting the skull on top of the picture, she began to start the next one. An hour later, they were finished with the skulls and most of the agents had wandered off with their technicians. Booth sat and watched as Angela and Brennan gave the remains a face to go with the boxes to be identified in Mexico.
Brennan sorted the bones onto tables and placed the pictures with remains. A technician stood behind her and watched.
"That is sad and a little bit creepy to have the faces staring at you while you're working."
"We use them to remind us that we aren't just looking for evidence but justice for these victims," Angela explained. The technician nodded in understanding.
"I think that my lab should start doing that. You have a dedication and passion for your job that is unlike anything I have seen."
Brennan gave the technician a look and replied, "I have been in a place of looking for answers and having none. I give them the answers they are waiting for. It may not be the answer they want but it still is an answer." The technician nodded and walked off. As she was finishing up placing the skulls with the remains, Booth knocked on the door.
"What can you tell me Bones?" Agents and technicians started squeezing into the room.
"We saw the dead body what else can she tell us that we need to know?" Booth lifted his finger and Brennan began speaking.
"Female, Coronal suture indicates 18-25 which we already knew. She has never given birth. Molested with some foreign object that left scarring on the pelvic bone. Suffered from long-term malnutrition both growing up and to the present. Which would confirm Hodgins information of location of Central Mexico? She was forced into a squatting or folded position for an extended period. And there are markings on the first molar on the left side that shows there was something tied there."
Booth thought for a moment, "So they were drug mules brought in from Mexico by Los Zetas?"
"That would be the logical conclusion to draw," she agreed.
Booth turned to the agents, "Listening to your forensic team is important because now we know that they are using women to bring drugs into the country and are torturing them either before or during transport. Now we have to figure out how they are coming into the country." Brennan pulled out a measuring tape and began measuring.
She took several moments, looked at the markings, looked up at Booth, and whispered, "The victims were put in foot locker trunks, or something of a similar shape and size."
Booth winced but nodded he looked down the hall and waved someone forward.
"Cullen had these flown in today instead of mailing them," Booth said gently.
Technicians started walking in carrying the cases from the Jeffersonian. She nodded and showed them where to set them. She picked up a piece of paper and walked to the first set of remains. She wrote the age, weight, height, sex, hair color and eye color on the sheet. Placing each bone carefully in the crate, she placed the picture and the sheet on top of the bones. Taking a small card, she put the sex and age on the card and slid it on the front of the case.
One by one, she placed the remains in the cases and closed them.
"We should keep them here until the case is finished in case we need to re-examine the remains." Booth nodded and looked at his watch.
"Come on let's go back to the hotel."
B&B
Arriving at the hotel Brennan called down to her friends rooms and invited them up to the room. A minute later a knock sounded. She let her friends in and hugged them as they came in.
"Okay guys let me introduce you to my partner." They whistled and cat called at Booth.
"This is my partner Special Agent Booth. Booth this is Craig and Jeanie Whitt, Darin and Janice Kholer, Jesse and Carol Addison, Trey and Meghan Reynolds, Josh Malloy, Chris Woodall, Alec Gale."
He shook their hands as they were introduced.
"So you've ridden with Bones?"
"Bones?"
"His nickname for me," Brennan told him and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah we rode from Connecticut to Washington D.C together for Rolling Thunder. She rode with us every year up until a few years ago. Then for some reason she stopped coming. She always stopped by to see us when we got to D.C though," Craig told him.
"Come in, you guys hungry?" They nodded and she picked up the phone and ordered them all dinner. They were sitting around eating when Alec pointed to the bag he brought in.
" Your stuff is over there we brought everything you asked. That place you work at is weird, smelled really weird as well."
She laughed and said, "I told you I worked with the FBI. Wendell does as well, he and James are working on a case."
"I didn't think kids should be running around there but there was one," Alec pointed out.
Brennan laughed out, "It would seem Wendell is babysitting Parker again," Brennan told Booth with a smile.
"Bones wait you let him in your house? You wouldn't let me in for like a year and it was two before I got a key," Booth said with a raised brow.
"I had the landlord let him in Booth," she sighed out at his outrage. Booth glared at Alec but nodded.
"Tempe has some trust issues but I would say we are friends right?"
"I mean there's nothing like going down a highway at sixty miles an hour with a beautiful, smart woman pressed up against your back," Alec teased. Booth scowled at Alec who started snickering.
"Jealous or protective Booth?" Alec asked him.
"Both and if I don't like you I will shoot you and you won't see it coming," Booth promised. Alec laughed at Booth.
"What do you think you're a sniper or something?" Alec paused at the dead silence that greeted his question.
"Oh shit you are aren't you," Alec swallowed.
"Army Ranger," Booth said quietly.
"Well nice to meet you Ranger. I'm a Squid, and they are Airhead, Jarhead, Flyboy, Bubblehead, Dog face, and Twidget respectively." Alec said pointing to them one by one starting with himself.
Booth nodded feeling a little better about them going with them. Booth was briefing them on what was going on and what they were doing. The guys started high fiving each other.
"There's going to be one more person going with us. You don't ask how we know him and don't make a big deal out of it. I know a couple of you will know who he is. Okay?" Brennan said taking a bite of her sandwich.
They nodded in agreement when the door to the room opened and Charlie walked in with Angela and Hodgins following behind him. Chris eyed Angela looked at Brennan and then looked again.
"Is that Angela?" Brennan nodded and Booth introduced everyone. They moved into the living room and sat down.
"We buried Rowan last year," Craig said thickly. The silence stretched across the living room.
"I know. I sent him home in a crate," Brennan whispered her eyes glazed in pain. Booth pulled her close and squeezed her in a hug.
"Why didn't you say anything Bones?" She just shrugged and shook her head.
"We didn't see you at the funeral," Chris prodded.
She shook her head and said, "I was there."
"The lily, you left the Easter lily. I should have known," Alec said thoughtfully. She nodded and tried to swallow the lump in her throat.
"So when is this thing going down? Tonight?" Craig asked changing the subject.
"No tomorrow night," Booth said. They nodded and Josh tossed her a jar of dragon balm. She nodded her thanks.
"So mind telling me why you were pressed up against Alec here for over 400 miles?" Booth casually asked.
"I didn't have a bike my first two rides so I rode bitch with Alec," she said with a smile. Angela laughed at her slang and she shot her a look.
"G-man the other rider wants to talk to you." She raised her eyebrows at Booth who grinned. Hodgins looked at Booth and shook his head.
"You need to be scared very scared," he said in a very serious tone.
Booth just grinned again.
"He has nothing to worry about you guys know that," Booth protested.
"But you have to convince him of that," Angela told him with a smile.
"No matter what you think Bones your heart is open enough to collect a lot of people who care about you," Booth said smiling at her.
"Thank you for bringing up that particularly painful statement Booth."
Booth kissed her temple and the guys glared at him. She waved her hands and stood up. Picking up her bag, she carried it upstairs Angela followed her wanting to see the shirt they had been talking about.
Minutes later, they heard a high-pitched scream. Booth sighed and rubbed his head.
Hodgins laughed at Booth and told the others, "My wife only makes that sound when she's really excited about something. My guess that shirt you guys brought Dr. B."
The group looked at Booth and burst into laughter. Janice looked at Booth and grinned.
"I would suggest looser jeans," she teased him.
Booth groaned and flopped back on the couch.
OH I did reseearch and found out that non comercial flights can reach a destination faster. So yes the boxes made it to Dallas that quickly =P
What oh what could Brennan be going to wear that would make Angela squeal and Booth groan?
Review to find out!