First of all I just want to say that I am SO sorry for abandoning this fic! I totally didn't mean to. To all of those who had reviewed to it and subscribed to it I really DID appreciate it. When I was in the middle of writing this I had just lost some steam and took a very, VERY long hiatus. In fact I haven't touched this since May of... well last year! Eep! I haven't really started writing again till recently. So I have written three more chapters for this story- this one being the first. I am currently in the middle of editing the other two.

When we last left off B&B had a case in Rockton, New Jersey. I'm not sure if small towns in New Jersey have Sheriffs, but this one just so happened to have one. (I'm Canadian, don't hold it against me!) Booth was forced to sit in the back seat of a Mini Cooper- probably not the best vehicle for the type of road that they are driving on, but oh well.

Anyway, moving on here.

Disclaimer: Not mine. The writers probably wouldn't be able to handle my mad skills anyway. ;D

The Hostility in the Hospital

After what seemed like an eternity, all three arrived at the hospital.

"Finally," Booth muttered under his breath. It was a small town. Isn't every place in small towns supposed to be within walking distance? Booth figured that the drive seemed so long because the Sheriff, wanting to talk to Brennan, took the long way to the hospital.

"I wonder if I can arrest him under suspicion of obstructing justice," Booth muttered.

"What was that?" Dunning asked as he pulled into a parking space.

"Oh, nothing. It was nothing," Booth said as he quickly undid his seatbelt. "It probably wouldn't have worked anyway," he grumbled.

Booth needed to get out of this clown car as quickly as possible. His legs were cramping up. Plenty of room, my ass, he thought. As much as he respected Bones, he couldn't help but feel ticked at her for making him sit in the backseat.

The Mini reminded him of the car that he had driven when he and Bones went to England. At least he had been able to sit in the front where there was more leg room. And he hadn't been forced to watch his partner being hit on. At least, in the vehicle he hadn't.

Dunning had barely shifted the car into park, when Booth opened the car door and quickly scrambled out of the vehicle.

Dunning turned off the key in the ignition. The engine stopped.

As Booth waited for his partner and the sheriff to get out of the Cooper, he scanned the parking lot as he stretched his back.

There were a total of maybe ten other vehicles in the parking lot. Not a soul in sight, Booth found the empty parking lot to be kind of eerie.

"Booth, are you all right?" Brennan asked as she stepped out of the car. "I saw you stretching your back. Is it bothering you again? Would you like me to fix it?" She took a step towards him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm fine, Bones. Thanks." Booth, without thinking, placed his hand over hers. Their eyes met. Booth could see in her eyes that she was concerned for him. Any small trace of resentment that he had held against her for making him sit in the backseat of the clown car quickly disappeared.

The electronic beep of the Cooper being locked broke the trance between Booth and Brennan.

Right, got to get back to work, Booth glared at Dunning. "Sheriff," he began. "There are hardly any people around. I'm beginning to think this place is a ghost town." Booth stuck his thumbs in the belt loops of his pants. The stance which Dr. Wyatt had liked to call 'aggressive'.

"Well, I'm afraid, Agent Booth, that many of the townspeople have found out about the murder. It is a small town after all." Dunning said as he headed towards the hospital's main entrance.

"Well, sure, but murder or not, there are usually some people around," Booth placed a hand on the small of Brennan's back once more and they followed Dunning toward the hospital.

"Sheriff Dunning-," Brennan started.

"Please, Dr. Brennan, call me Andrew," Dunning flashed a grin back at her. Booth bristled slightly at the other man.

Looking down at Brennan to see her reaction to the sheriff, Booth was able to catch the flicker of annoyance that had quickly flashed across her features. He had to bite back a shout of gleeful laughter. Yes! She wasn't buying into this guy's act. Booth grinned.

"Actually, I'd prefer not to, Sheriff Dunning. I'd like to keep things professional while we work, if you don't mind," Brennan said. Booth had to stop himself from dancing a small jig right there in the parking lot.

She continued, "Was there anyone else besides the police at the crime scene? Citizens, perhaps?"

"Or a reporter?" Booth added. Whoever had leaked the murder to the town must have had a way of spreading the news around quickly.

"No, no. Just the couple who had stumbled across the body. It was a couple of teenagers looking out for a make-out spot." Dunning shrugged. "We told them to not tell anyone about the murder until we officially released the story."

The automatic doors swished open as they stepped into the lobby of the hospital. Booth was relieved to see a couple of nurses standing across the lobby talking to one another. Good, at least I know that there's someone in this town besides Dunning.

"Have you told the local newspaper anything?" Brennan asked.

"No, we were waiting for you two to show up before we did anything press related. This hasn't been my first murder case, you know." Dunning glared at Booth.

"Right. Well, I'm gonna need those kids' names." Booth pulled out his notepad from his back pocket.

"Sure, it's Danny Glassen and Wendy Shannon." Booth jotted them down quickly. Sure Dunning had told them to stay quiet, but they were teenagers. Chances are the boy would want to impress his friends with the murder and the girl probably had told her friends or at the very least, her mother -who would most likely have a phone tree.

And Booth thought that Dunning wasn't all that intimidating; any order given to a teenager about keeping quiet would no doubt be ignored.

"If you'd just follow me, I'll take you to the morgue." Dunning led them toward the elevator.

"You said that no one has reported anyone missing?" Brennan asked as they waited for the car to arrive.

"No, which is why we're figuring they're not from this town. With a town this small someone would have definitely reported something by now."

The elevator car arrived. Booth realized that all three of them were about to be within very close proximity to one another for the next minute. Booth did not want Dunning standing next to Brennan, breathing on her, so he made sure he stood between the two of them as they all piled into the elevator.

"Hi," he tried to smile at Dunning, which probably came out more as a grimace. Guys should never be forced to stand this close to one another in an elevator, Booth thought. Plus, he kinda smells.

Finally, they reached the lowest level of the building.

Booth and Brennan followed Dunning down the hall. Dunning pushed open the swinging door on the right. "Here we are."

"Thank you, Sheriff Dunning. We appreciate the help you've given us." Brennan said as she looked at Dunning. Dunning smiled at her.

Booth clenched his jaw.

"No, problem, Dr. Brennan. The faster this case is solved the better. This is the worst murder that I have ever dealt with. I'd just really like to get it behind me."

"Is the coroner around?" Brennan asked. "I'd like to get started as quickly as possible."

"Right, he should be around here somewhere. Hey, Kenny!" Dunning shouted, right into Booth's ear. Booth winced.

"Yeah?" There was a faint shout from the back room.

"The FBI's here!" Dunning yelled again. Booth groaned inwardly. I am never going to be able to hear out of my ear ever again.

A man in a white lab coat entered the room. Upon seeing Brennan his face lit up.

"Ah, Dr. Brennan. I'm so glad I'm able to finally meet you. I'm Dr. Linfield. It's really too bad we meet under such unfortunate circumstances." The coroner was of medium height and build with short brown hair and glasses. He looked to be about twenty-six.

"Well, considering both of our professions, if we were to meet it would be after a murder, Dr. Linfield," Brennan corrected him. "This is my partner, Agent Seeley Booth." The two men nodded to one another in acknowledgement.

Brennan continued, "Would you mind showing me the body?"

Her question sounded more like an order. "R-right," Dr. Linfield stuttered. He snapped on a pair of rubber gloves. Dr. Brennan opened her kit and followed suit. "It's just over here on this trolley. Though I have to warn you, this corpse is pretty bad."

"I'm sure it's something that Bones can handle. She's seen some pretty bad ones in her time," Booth commented.

Dr. Linfield lifted the white sheet that had been covering the trolley. Sure, Bones could handle this corpse, but could he? Booth's gag reflexes activated as the stench of the decomposing body hit him.

No, Booth stopped himself from vomiting on the floor. There was no way he was going to throw up in front of the sheriff. Booth looked over at Dunning and noted with some satisfaction that the other officer was looking a bit green. Then Booth looked at the corpse. The body had bits of flesh still stuck to it. However, the strangest part to it was that the head was on completely backward. What was left of it, anyway. Pieces of the skull were missing.

Brennan pulled out a tape recorder and began to speak into it. "Victim was female, about twenty-four years of age, Caucasian. Time of death appears to be about four to seven days ago according to the rate of decomposition. Possibly less due to animal activity. The head appears to have been turned completely around on the skeleton." She took a closer look at the base of the skull. "It appears that the murderer used some sort of glue to hold the skull to the vertebrates." Brennan pointed a gloved hand at the spot and looked up at Booth. "I'm going to collect samples to send to the Jeffersonian; perhaps Cam and Hodgins may discover something and give us a closer time of death."

"Sure, all the help we can get." Booth nodded to Brennan. He turned to Dunning, "So how's the mail service around here? We're gonna need the samples shipped through express."

Dunning nodded weakly. He opened his mouth to answer but immediately ran for the door instead.

"Okay," Booth muttered. He went into the hallway and found the sheriff vomiting into a garbage can.

Dunning stood up and wiped his mouth. Booth approached him, hands in pockets.

"I've seen dead bodies before. And I've had a couple cases where the victims were in pretty bad shape; missing limbs and all that due to animals. But never something like this." Dunning leaned back against the wall. "I mean who would want to do this to another human being?"

Booth shook his head, "That's why we're here."

"I can't believe that you and Dr. Brennan deal with this all of the time." Dunning shook his head in disbelief.

"Yeah, the dead body part of the job isn't the greatest. The satisfaction of catching the scumbag murderers definitely makes the rotting corpses worth it, though."

Dunning looked at Booth. "So, what are you guys? Are you together?"

"What? Me and Bones?" Booth set his jaw. "No," he forced out. "Just partners."

"Really?" Dunning crossed his arms. "'Cause I definitely got a 'more-than-partners' vibe coming from you two.

"Aha, yeah. Well, you're wrong. We are 'just partners'." Booth said as he headed back toward the swinging door of the morgue. "Platonic feelings. Nothing more, nothing le-"

Booth turned his head to find the door meeting his face.

"Argh!" Booth staggered backward, clutching his nose in pain.

"Oh, uh, Agent Booth," It was Dr. Linfield, the coroner. "Dr. Brennan wanted me to come and get you."

Booth could hear Dunning snickering a couple of feet behind him. "Yeah, I was just coming in to see how things were going." Booth said, his reply muffled by his hands. He then checked them for blood. Nope, they were clean. Well, at least the door hadn't hit him that hard.

Dunning was still laughing behind him. Booth shot a look back at him, which caused Dunning to clear his throat. Dr. Linfield stood to the side and held the door open as Booth and Dunning walked past.

"You really need to either put a sign up or get a new door," Booth said to Linfield as he went by. "Somebody could get seriously hurt." Linfield swallowed nervously. "Ah, I'm sorry about that," the younger man said quietly.

As Booth walked into the main area of the morgue, he could see that Brennan was packing up her kit. "Fragments of the skull are missing," Brennan reported. "We're going to have to back to the crime scene so that I might be able to recover some of them."

"Don't you think Angela would be able to get a face with the skull you already have?" Booth asked coming closer to get a better look at the skull. A piece of the skull, right above the left eye socket was missing.

Brennan snapped the kit shut. "Angela's good, but the more I can give her, the more accurate the sketch will be that she puts into the facial recognition program." She peeled off her rubber gloves.

"Right," Booth turned to Dunning. "We're gonna need a lift to the crime scene, Sheriff."

Booth and Brennan followed Dunning to the elevator. Dunning pushed the button to call the elevator car.

"Agent Booth," Dunning began. "Why is it that the FBI's involved in this case?"

"Well, it is an unusual murder. I mean how often is it that you find a corpse with its head on backward?" Booth glanced at Dunning.

"Sure, but usually murders in general would fall under the jurisdiction of the county the murder took place; not the FBI." Dunning crossed his arms and waited for an answer.

"There was a murder about a year ago in Ohio. The victim also had its head on backward. Two unsolved murders in different states and victims with similar circumstances. It's FBI territory." Booth said firmly. Booth turned to Brennan "I'll get Cam to pull up the file from that murder."

The elevator doors opened and all three stepped inside; Booth was in the middle once more. Sure, it was awkward, but it was better than giving Dunning a chance to talk to Brennan.

Hoped you liked it!

Once again I ask your forgiveness on this. I would even understand if you didn't review.

But I would sure like it if you did! *Hopeful face*

Heck! Just scold me for leaving it for so long!

Please and Thank you!