Chapter 16

Jeffersonian 8 a.m. Monday: Two weeks later.

On her first day back to work Brennan walked into the Lab. She didn't see anyone on the platform so she went looking for Cam. She wasn't in her office either. When Brennan came out of Cam's office she heard someone calling her name. "Sweetie, we're up here." Brennan looked up and saw Angela waving at her up on the upper platform where they usually took their breaks. Angela met Brennan at the top of the stairs and even though she had just seen her this morning she gave her a hug.

Angela put her arm around Brennan's and led her over to where the rest were. She found Cam, Hodgins and Wendell over at the seating area along with coffee cakes and coffee.

"Welcome back Dr. Brennan." Everyone yelled.

"Thank you everyone. It's good to be back. I was starting to go stir crazy. Do we have anything to work on right now?"

"No not right now. I have a ton of paperwork to work on and you have some papers to fill out for personnel. Since we didn't have anything pressing to do I thought we could take a few minutes to welcome you back." Cam told her after she grabbed a coffee cake to have with her coffee.

Everyone else sat down and had some coffee cake also.

"Have you heard when the trial is supposed to take place Dr. Brennan?" Wendell asked.

"In two weeks." Brennan answered.

"That is sure fast. Usually they take months before the trial is even given a date." Wendell commented.

"Booth said it's because we all work with the FBI and the justice system in general and also since I am a well known author it helps to push everything along. He said, and I quote, "We take care of our own", unquote." Brennan said with a smile as she took a bite of her coffeecake.

After talking about what had gone on during Brennans absence Cam stood and announced that it was time to go back to work now.

After filling out paper work for personnel Brennan and Wendell went into the Bone Yard to pull out some old bones that they would try to identify. By 1p.m. their backs were hurting them after standing over the table and trying to sort out the bones and looking for any possible marks that would tell them how the person had died.

"If you don't mind Dr. Brennan I am going to take a lunch break now." Wendell said as he stood up and stretched his arms and back.

Brennan stood up and stretched also. After more than 4 weeks of doing nothing she was no longer used to the long hours in the Bone Yard also.

Angela came in just as Wendell left. "Let's go to lunch Sweetie. You've been working over these bones long enough."

"Okay, that sounds good. I'm hungry and I heard they just killed all of the oldest lab rats yesterday and you know what that means, 'Surprise Stew'." Brennan said with a smile.

"Ewww! That sounds terrible. I don't know why but Jack thinks that's funny also. Besides, you're a vegetarian so I don't know why you think it's so funny."

"Come on Angela, we can order Caesar Salads." Brennan walked to her office to get her purse. When they arrived at the cafeteria they found a long line of people waiting to get their food.

"Let's go to the Diner Brennan, well get lunch faster."

"I can't go out Angela. In fact Booth doesn't want either of us to go out to the diner until after the trial. He doesn't want to take any chances with any gang members trying to shoot us before the trial. He said that the first time was a warning but the next time they just might aim better."

"Okay, I guess it's Caesar Salads." Angela gave in reluctantly and patiently waited in line without complaining any more. As they got closer to the grill she decided to get back at Brennan for the crack about the rats. "I think I'll have a nice big juicy cheeseburger with a ton of French Fries."

Brennan was a quick thinker and came back with "Ewww, watch out for the Rats tails. Sometimes they don't grind up as well as the bodies because they slip through the holes in the grinder." She smiled when she saw Angela and several other people turn slightly green.

"You're an evil person, you know that. You've been hanging around Jack and Booth too much." As Angela came up to the counter she ordered a Caesar salad.

Two hours later Booth came through the doors of the Medico-Lab. The first person he saw was Hodgins. "Hodgins, we have a new case and I think Brennan will need you to come along."

"Okay I'll get my things and join you over here in just a few minutes." Hodgins said as he ran over to his office to get his satchel that he kept well stocked with everything he would need to take samples.

Booth didn't see Brennan on the platform so he went to her office where he found her typing away at her computer. "Bones, we have a case, Chop-Chop."

Brennan closed her computer down and stood up. "Why do you say that to me all of the time when you know that I always get my things together as fast as I can?"

Booth just looked at her and pointing to himself with his thumbs said, "It's my thing, you know, you say things like 'I don't know what that means' and I say we have a case, Chop-Chop." He smiled at her as he helped her with her jacket.

"You know, you're a hopeless case. When are you going to grow up?" She said as she pulled her jacket on and smiled at him.

"Don't you know Bones that when a man has a son that he enjoys he delays the growing up process. A man gets to play like a kid again as his son gets into that age group that loves to be with his father. Because before you know it they're striking out on their own and they prefer the company of their friends. So please understand when sometimes I may allow my inner child to leak out and invade our adult lives."

"Okay, I guess I'll let it go then." Brennan grabbed her bag that was always stocked with the needed supplies. Booth took it from her shoulder and threw it over his own shoulder. He noticed that she didn't say anything when he did that. He gave her a big grin which signaled his approval.

"Where is the crime scene?" Brennan asked.

"About an hour's drive south of Washington, two bodies were found in the woods by Mechanicsville." Booth answered.

"Do you think we'll need Hodgins?" Brennan asked.

"Yeah, I saw him as I came in and told him that we had a new case and he needed to come with us. I promised that he would be in bug heaven."

Hodgins was waiting for them at the main doors to the Medico-Lab. They all climbed into Booth's SUV and he took off and headed for I-95 going south. It only took him 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there. The hardest part was finding the location. When they arrived they counted at least 6 police cars and one county coroner's car. Booth drove up to the first officer that seemed to be guiding cars in and keeping a few curious people beyond the yellow crime scene tape.

Booth pulled out his ID and said "FBI from Washington DC, we received a call from your Sheriff saying that they discovered two unidentifiable bodies."

"Pull over to the coroner's vehicle sir. The Sheriff in charge is over there." The officer answered.

"I hope they haven't touched them." Brennan said as Booth pulled over next to the coroner's vehicle. They all got out of the SUV and went over to the man that everyone seemed to be asking questions of. Booth was the first to speak.

"Sheriff Mathews?"

"Yes I'm Sheriff Mathews, and you are?"

"I am Special Agent Seeley Booth and this is my partner Dr. Temperance Brennan of the Jeffersonian and her associate Dr. Jack Hodgins. We've been sent by FBI Headquarters in Washington DC to take over the bodies that we've been told you found this morning." The Sheriff shook everyone's hand then started walking over to where they presumed the bodies were found.

"I hope no one disturbed the bodies or their surroundings Sheriff Mathews." Brennan said. She noticed a lot of the people that had been standing around were following them and they were all men. She didn't want to think about it so she tried to keep her mind on the path in front of her.

"Except for the preliminary digging of the dirt around the bodies by the people that found them they haven't been touched. The two men that found them were going to go fishing in the river that is just over this hill. As they were walking through here they noticed a significant amount of worms on top of the dirt so they decided to pick up some bait right here. They didn't have any shovels to dig with so they just used their hands and some dried bark to try and go down further. That's when they found the skull."

Brennan kneeled down by the first skeleton and pulled out a small gardening shovel that would permit her to move small amounts of dirt without damaging the skeleton or any surrounding material. While she did this Hodgins was busy picking up some of the insects that were on top of the dirt and inserting them into plastic evidence bags along with some of the dirt.

Booth was talking to Sheriff Mathews while Brennan and Hodgins were busy. "Are the men that found the bodies still here?"

"Yes, they're over here by the officer and the two men that are by the fallen log." The sheriff answered as he walked over to the two men sitting on the log.

"Special Agent Booth, this is Mr. Tom White and his son Patrick White." The two men just nodded at Booth.

Booth reached out and shook the two men's offered hands. "Hi, Sheriff Mathews has told me that you found the bodies."

"Well I wouldn't really call them bodies since all there seems to be is skeletons." Mr. White said.

"Until Dr. Brennan uncovers the bodies completely I think it would be best to refer to them as bodies. After all they were living, breathing people at one time. Can you tell me the approximate time that you discovered the bodies?"

"We got here early at a little after 6:30 a.m. this morning. The sun was just coming up over the hills. As we were walking over to the river that's on the other side of the next hill we saw all of the worms wiggling around on top of this here dirt and we thought we would load up on some bait. We looked around for something to contain them in and found this here discarded coffee can and started to load up. We each found some fair size pieces of bark to use as shovels and carefully started pushing the dirt to the side to see if we could find a pocket full of them. When my son put his hand in the dirt to pick a bunch of them up we found the eye socket of the skeleton. Whoever buried these people didn't bother to go very deep because when my son stepped back we heard a crunching sound and that's why we think there are two skeletons there . I told Patrick to drop everything and back up. We picked up our stuff and I pulled out my cell phone and called the Sheriff right away."

"You did very good Mr. White. Don't go away yet because one of the people working on the grave may want to talk to you." Booth said after taking down all of the information from them.

He looked over towards where Brennan and Hodgens were and noticed there was a lot of people standing around them. He also noticed that they were all men. "Oh shit!" Booth said as he quickly walked back to the grave site.

TBC…