Booth and Brennan arrived at the crime scene. They were tired, but eager to get into the new case. They reached the yellow police tape, and Booth lifted it up so Brennan could duck under it.
"Thank you" She muttered, already absorbed by the crimes scene, looking for any trace of the corpse. They reached the edge of the marsh, where they were greeted by a police officer.
"I'm sorry sir this is a private investigation, I'm going to have to ask you to vacate the premises immediately" The officer said, already ushering them away.
Booth pulled out his badge. "Nice try man, I'm agent Seeley Booth, and this is Forensic Anthropologist doctor Temperance Brennan. We're here about the body."
The officer looked at them for a moment, reluctant to accommodate them, but sighed and turned away, indicating that they follow. "We got news of human remains around in this area, but we have only been able to locate clues."
"How did you discover the remains?" Brennan asked, still looking around for said remains.
"A couple of school kids tried to go swimming in here, the first one jumped in and came back up covered in liquefied human parts. He is still over there." The officer pointed to a teenage boy covered in red and blue slime.
"He's showing the early signs of shock" Brennan announced as she rushed over to him. "Aren't you supposed to set up a bio-hazardous shower if a situation like this occurs?"
"We don't have the resources just yet ma'am – and that slime-covered boy may be covered in slimy evidence." Doctor Brennan glared at the cop.
"Any evidence could be easily identified with the remains at this state of decomposure – there is no reason for him not to have been treated by now!" the cop didn't back down, but stared at her for a moment, before calling the bio-hazard team to set up a shower.
Brennan looked over the boy a few more times, and assured him he would be alright, before putting on a pair of latex gloves, and taking a cotton swab from her small kit and taking a sample of the slime, which she put into a bag.
"We will get this scanned once we get back to the lab" she announced. She handed the bag to Booth, who shuddered, and gave it to an assisting agent. He then set out to follow Brennan to the edge of the marsh.
"As you can see, we already have officers looking for the body" The cop said, strolling over to them once more.
"They are looking in the wrong place – the currents in these waters would have carried the body over to the submerged roots of this tree" Brennan pointed to a nearby tree.
Brennan walked over to the nearest bio-hazard tent, found an empty suit and put it on over her clothes.
"Wait, Bones, what are you doing?" Booth asked warily as Brennan pulled up the suit to her shoulders.
"I am getting the body – they might disturb something important – zip me up?" She asked, turning her back to him. He obliged, a little stunned that his partner was just going to go in there and fish out a dead body without much consideration.
"Be careful Bones" He advised as she entered the water.
"What the hell is she doing?" The cop exclaimed as he saw Brennan in the water.
"She is getting the body – I have given her permission to do so on behalf of the FBI" Booth replied curtly. "It would be appreciated if you did not hinder her efforts."
"Found it!" Brennan called as she reached into the water and pulled out a leg. The mussel and sinew was hanging off the bones like slime. "Booth, could you toss me a helmet?" She asked as she put the leg in a large plastic evidence bag.
"Sure Bones" Booth replied as he found one near him and threw it to her. She caught it and put it on, then submerged herself into the water.
"That is disgusting" Booth remarked, as one of the assisting officers retched a few feet away.
Brennan broke the surface a few moments later, carrying a gooey corpse in her arms as though it were just some oversized doll, and not a rotting corpse.
She placed it on the shore before them, and smiled. Booth gave her an uncomfortable look. "What?" She asked, confused.
"Uh, Bones, there's a tear in your suit." Booth commented. Brennan looked down, and there was indeed a large rip in her bio-hazard suit.
"Gross!" She exclaimed as she registered the amount of liquefied human remains that were coating her body. "I need a shower."
"You really do. I am so glad that I'm driving Hodgin's car today." Brennan looked confused.
"What about the bio-hazard shower they have here?"
"I saw them unloading that thing – it'll take at least an hour to put it together. It will be faster to just get back to the Jeffersonian."
"Alright then, I might as well shed this useless garment, although I don't think I can do much about the smell. Have the remains sent to the Jeffersonian, I'll analyse it when we get back."
The cop bid them goodbye with a sneer, and Booth gave him a rude hand gesture from behind his back. Brennan smacked his arm, but grinned none the less.
When they reached the black FBI issued van, Booth turned to Brennan. "Now Bones, don't take this personally or anything, but could you sit in the back on the ride home? The smell is a little…"
"Off-putting?" Brennan offered as she got into the vehicle.
"Yeah, let's go with that." Booth said quietly as her got in the front.
It took an hour and a half to get back to the Jeffersonian. Angela walked over to Brennan as soon as she walked in. "How was the trip?" She asked, keeping up with Brennan's fast paced walk.
"We found the body, I helped a traumatised boy, and my bio-hazard suit ripped and I got human sludge in un-desirable places" Brennan rattled off, not slowing her pace toward the showers.
"That would explain the smell…" Angela said as she waved away the air around her nose. She jogged upwind of Brennan and continued.
"I finished the reconstructions you asked for- I sent you an e-mail with the link attached."
"Thanks Ange. I'm going to take a shower."
"Uh, sweetie – what are you going to wear after your shower?" Brennan sighed and rubbed her forehead. Angela smiled. "Don't worry Bren; I'll pick you up something to wear. There's nothing to do around here anyway."
"Thank you Angela. I would hug you, but I smell like rotting human remains."
Angela smiled again and left Brennan to her walk towards the showers. She entered one of the cubicles, which was equipped with soap, shampoo and conditioner. She shed her clothes, which she immediately placed in one of the provided bins.
A half hour later, she heard a knock on the cubicle. "Angela, is that you?"
"No it's Cam – Angela had to step out for something. I have your clothes though."
"Thank you Cam, just pass them over the door please." Brennan turned off the water, satisfied that this was as clean as she would get. She took the clothes hanging over the door and went over them. She was confused – she couldn't own these herself, she didn't wear anything of the sort.
There was a rather revealing blouse, hot pink in colour, and a transparent black cardigan to wear over it. There was a short black skirt, shorter than she would have picked out for herself, and black panty-hose that matched the cardigan. The outfit was completed with a pair of glossy black heels.
"What do you think?" Cam asked from the other side of the door, clearly stifling a giggle.
"Well it's not what I would have picked out for myself, but I think Angela has a rather different interpretation of what suits me in the style department."
"Clearly – well the remains arrived, and they're sitting on your lab table for when you're ready."
"I'll be out in just a minute."
"Oh, and here" Cam said as she passed a small bottle of perfume over the door. "For the dead body smell"
"Thanks Cam, I don't think that standard FBI soap quite eradicates the odour."
Brennan felt a little uncomfortable. No matter how often she attempted to pull the skirt down to an acceptable level, it just went right back up. She decided to ignore it and go on as usual.
She went to her office where she kept her blue lab coat, only to find that it wasn't there. She heard footsteps coming towards her office. She turned to see Booth, attention immersed in paperwork, as he breezed through the door.
"Hey Bones, we've got a couple of leads on the…" he trailed off as he looked up at her.
"Leads on the case?" Brennan prompted.
Booth nodded absent mindedly, as stunned as he was for words. She looked beautiful, that much was obvious – he had never seen her in such a way. It was always blue lab coat or casual dignified clothes, but this… this was a whole new Bones.
"Booth, you have been staring at me for a few moments now" Brennan interrupted his reverie.
"Oh, yeah… sorry… Bones, you look… different…" Booth managed.
"Well since my clothes were covered with human remains, I asked Angela to fetch me new attire, and thus I stand before you like this." She spread her arms.
"Well, you look… good" he stammered.
'What, did I not look good before?" She questioned. Now she was just teasing him.
"Well there was… Anyway the leads, uh right, well the clothes on the victim were torn, therefore there was a struggle, and the clothes were some type of standard issue uniform, but we're still running checks on what the uniform represented."
"There will most likely be more leads once I have gone over the remains, I just can't seem to find my lab coat…" At that moment Angela came through the door.
"Hey Bren, I see Cam gave you the clothes. Doesn't she look great Booth?" She said casually as ever.
"Yes, she does…" Booth said automatically. They looked at him for a moment until Brennan broke the silence.
"Angela why did you give me these clothes, they are nothing like what I would normally wear."
"Oh, then I did a good job. Sweetie you look great, why not reflect that with what you wear?"
"Was it you who took my lab coat?"
"I wouldn't dream of it – however I found a replacement." She handed Brennan a transparent lab coat. Brennan sighed and pulled it on, then brushed past Booth and headed towards the lab.
She swiped her card to de-activate the alarms as she walked to her table, and Zack, Hodgins and Sweets looked up at her entry.
"Where are my Bones?" She asked, but received no answer. Hodgins was staring open mouthed, Zach's eyes had gone very wide, and sweets' head was drifting slowly to one side.
"Angela, I don't think I will ever forgive you for this one" Brennan muttered.
Sweets was the first to speak. "Uh, Doctor Brennan, you look… wow."
Brennan raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"
Zach then found his voice. "I think he means you look sexually arousing to all the males in the room."
Hodgins nudged Zack with his elbow. "Been reading up on that book I gave you huh?"