The first five minutes of the car ride had been filled with awkward glances on Brennan's side and meaningless small talk on Booth's, in an attempt to open her up. But every time Brennan looked at Booth, she blushed and it just wouldn't stop!
"Hey Bones, am I talking to myself here?" He glanced over to her, realizing she hadn't made eye contact with him at all since he picked her up.
"No, I hear you." She replied, her gaze still on the outside world.
He sighed. "What's wrong, Bones?"
"Nothing." She said unconvincingly. She adjusted her sitting position to face forward. "So tell me more about the body. When was it found?"
"About an hour ago by a tramp living in the woods." Booth answered. "He reported it to the local police, but it's FBI jurisdiction now."
"Murder?" She looked to him.
"Looks like, but that's what you're supposed to determine." He smiled and she quickly turned away again.
"Bones, what was that?" He asked, confused by everything about her this morning; her jumpiness around him and her odd behavior being the most obvious differences in attitude.
"Nothing." She lied.
"Do I have something in my teeth or something?" He checked the reflection in his rear view mirror.
"No, you're perf– good." She quickly corrected herself. "You're good."
"So, then what's wrong?" He asked. "I think I've known you long enough to know when you're not acting like yourself."
"Booth, it's a personal thing, so just drop it, ok?" She snapped. Booth was taken aback, stunned to silence. "Sorry," She sighed. "I, um, had problems sleeping last night."
"So Sully wasn't…" He asked, suddenly wondering why that was at all important to him.
"Yeah, he was. I get needed to get out this morning." She confided.
"Well, if you ever need to talk…" He offered.
You're the last person I'd tell this to. "Thanks."
They finally arrived at the forest after what seemed to be an eternity of awkward silence. The body had been taped off, and here were dozens of policemen guarding the crime scene.
"Bones, this is Detective Cliffe, he's the head of the police in this area." Booth introduced her to the tubby, old-aged law enforcer and shook his hand.
"Morning, miss. Terrible circumstances to meet under, but Agent Booth says you're the best." He grinned, giving Booth what Brennan could only call an 'odd look'.
"He does?" She looked at Booth, grinning with false modesty.
"Oh yeah, brags about you all the time. In fact –"
"Hey Cliffe, think we could take a look at the body?" Booth interrupted, pushing Brennan past Cliffe to the red tape.
"Well sure, right this way." Cliffe escorted them through the swarm of police to the corpse. Dr. Brennan put on her plastic gloves and knelt beside the body. It had rotted away quite significantly, facial features had eroded and the skin seemed quite gnawed at.
"Was this body buried?" She asked, examining the soil covering the body.
"Yep, dug it up this morning. The tramp who found the body was digging for something and came across the hand. Uncovered it more and found the whole carcass." Detective Cliffe informed them. "Not what I'd like to wake up to on a Saturday morning."
"Me neither." Booth agreed. "Was the tramp questioned?"
"Did it myself. He seems clean." Cliffe concluded.
"I highly doubt that." Booth joked.
Brennan gave the body a once over, paying no attention to Booth's comment. "Well, I'd say it's male, early twenties and been dead for about a month, maybe 6 weeks." She turned to face Booth. "The torn flesh suggests maggots or worms feasting on his body for a long time."
"Poor Bloke." Booth commented.
"I'll need him taken back to the lab for further examination." She stood up and tore off her gloves. "Was there anything else found with the body?"
"Just this." Cliffe held up a see-through bag with a playing card inside. "It was the only item found with the body. Looks more like the killer's calling card than a personal item."
Booth took a look. "It's the Jack of Hearts."
"What does that mean?" Brennan asked Booth, thinking that maybe his held some secret gambling code, with Booth's delinquent past, who knew?
"I don't know." He examined the back of the card. "But these are expensive cards." He speculated. "You see this emblem," He pointed to the back of the card for his partner to see. "That's a personalized mark. They don't make these for just anyone. Luckily, I know all five people who made them this side of the country." He smiled, happy that his knowledge of gambling would finally be an asset to an assignment.
"Of course you would." Brennan teased, happy that work allowed them to have something to talk about and therefore she could talk to him as she always had. Booth met her remark with a sarcastic look.
"Ok, great, we have leads." Booth said optimistically. "Let's go catch the bad guys. Cliffe, thanks for your help." Booth shook his hand.
"Anytime." And turning to Dr. Brennan. "Lovely to meet you."
She took his hand. "And yo–" Brennan was cut off by the loud ringing of her cell phone. "Sorry." She saw 'Sully' flashing on her screen and answered it. "Hello."
There was a voice on the other end of the line, but it was mostly static, she was unable to hear him clearly. "Can you hear me now?" Brennan was almost shouting. "Good, hi Sully."
"Hey babe, it's almost lunch, can I come pick you up? I'm thinking we need a nice, quiet lunch after this morning." He suggested.
"I'd really like that, but Booth and I are working and it looks like it'll go through lunch." Brennan replied. "Didn't I tell you that?"
"I left a message, but you never called back." He reminded her.
"Right, sorry, I got sidetracked." She apologized, feeling really bad for forgetting about calling her boyfriend back, he didn't deserve that.
He sighed. "I understand. How about dinner?"
"Well, I –" She stared, but Booth stood behind her, interrupting by yelling through the phone to Sully.
"Sorry pal, we gotta go. She'll call you back." He took her phone and hung up for her.
"Hey! I was in the middle of a conversation." She snatched the phone back.
"No, we were in the middle of an investigation." Booth reminded her.
"I happen to be able to do both at the same time, it's called multi-tasking." She retorted.
"Right, what is it about women that they think that they can multi-task and we can't?" Booth asked, annoyed.
"Well, you are the lower species." She replied, wondering how, somehow, they'd always managed to end up arguing.
He scoffed. "Nice. Maybe we should just get on with the investigation."
"Fine by me." She agreed, sharing spiteful glares.
"You two do fight a lot for a couple." Cliffe observed, chuckling away to himself.
"We're not a couple." They said in unison, angry more at each other than Cliffe's comment.
"Really?" He asked, seemingly genuinely surprised. "My mistake."
They stalked off back to the car, both too stubborn to be the first to apologise.