7CHAPTER SEVEN

((Thanks to all who subscribed and added it to their favorites!

Kudleycraze12321- Thank you so much for your kind words. I like Zack too and I promise everyone will be seeing him in this fanfic, and soon.

XeniaNoel- I'm really glad that you like the humor and that I'm doing a decent job with keeping them in character. It's something that I'm having a lot of fun with.

BondJane- I'm glad you like Vincent. He's one of my top three favorite new interns. I'm also glad Krys is growing on people. I kind of adore her because she's just, as Brennan said: "unorthodox".

Cassiopeia823- No worries. I bet you're amongst fellow Bones fans here. I promise the plot will all join into one in the next few chapters and mass chaos will ensue!))

"The ends of his phalanges are burned...As are other portions of his body." Doctor Temperance Brennan announced as she spread the fingers apart, examining them. Vincent Nigel Murray currently occupied at her left with holding various objects people handed him because they apparently didn't trust him with a body. "Torture." She concluded with a nod, looking up to her two female friends Angela and Cam.

"Either that or to conceal the identity by burning off the fingerprints." Cam announced as her own blue gloves traced over the body. She had remembered this being mentioned by one of the many interns they went through: a very impressionable Mister Wendell Brey... Gray.. Something or other. "Which will make this boy--"

"Victim." Bones corrected with narrowed eyes. She constantly had to remind everyone not to be partial and to be able to separate themselves from the case. It had become second nature by this point.

"Victim." Cam sighed. There was no use in arguing with the Forensic Anthropologist. She had learned that much in her almost three years at the Institute. That and other things. "–More difficult to identify." Glancing over her shoulder she looked to Angela whom had separated herself as far as she could from the body, standing beside Sweets who looked tired with his boyish bed head and untucked appearance, and yet very intrigued. A strong opposite to the artist beside him. "Angela I'll need you to put what we know through the missing children's database. Someone missing within the last two days."

"Right. Perfect." Angela nodded before making a note on her clipboard. Sweets made no attempt to mask that he was peeking at whatever she was writing. Angela glared at him, as though they were two school children taking a test and pressed the clipboard protectively into her breast.

"Same acid marks around the mouth.." Temperance continued inserting her gloved fingers into the mouth and Vincent immediately fumbled for a pen flashlight, holding it into the darkened hole. "And they continue down into the throat. "

"Same as the other bodies." Cam frowned. She wasn't liking what all of this was adding up to. It was almost obvious by this point.

"Same killer." Leave it to Doctor Sweets to speak the obvious. And if that weren't enough, he kept going with his psychology mumbo jumbo. "And what's even more messed up is that he lacks a pattern. There is no type that he has stuck to. Not hair color, height, or even gender." Sweets shook his head and determinedly walked toward the body, approaching the two women and one shy intern as he explained. "Serial killers often have a method of choosing their victims. This man's method is that there is no method. He picks his victims at random. Killers often have a message they want to convey. Whether if it's to show that they want a change or they just plain don't like you. But this person has no set mission."

His eyes studied the boy's face. He was so young. He wasn't small but he still looked like, well, a kid. Sweets could admit that he was relatively young himself. This could be anyone. This boy could have been ANYONE. The dead boy lying there with closed eyes and still very young features and he felt his voice drop into a softer volume. "His mission it seems... Is just to inflict pain." Blinking he looked back up, dropping the weight that he felt and pulled a Doctor Brennan and detached himself. "Aw man. We are totally screwed."

"Thanks you for putting it so lightly Doctor Sweets." Cam glared, setting down the little silver knife on a tray. Exhaling all at once she lifted the lab apron off of her person and set it down as well, pulling off her gloves and reaching into her pocket for a small black phone. "I'll call Booth and Miss Julian. They'll need to know before they address the public." Turning around she walked away, her shoes clicking against the tiles as she exited.

"We need something so we can ID the killer." Temperance said through gritted teeth, knowing very well that she was stating the obvious. But she always spoke aloud when she was working.

"Oh! Don't forget the poke marks below the hairline." Vincent blurted out in his English accent as he justled the many things he was holding out of fear of dropping them.

"Poke marks?" Angela asked from where she stood, looking up from her clipboard now that Sweets was far enough away.

"Yes. You see--" Mister Nigel-Murray nodded, handing off the various objects he had been holding, shoving them into Lance Sweets' arms without so much as a warning in his excitement before pointing with his latex gloved fingers to just below the ear, lifting some of the kid's hair up to reveal several poke marks all over the scalp. "Here, here, here, and here." His fingers remained in place, spreading the hair as he looked to Doctor Brennan, taking an instrument off the side tray he poked it inside each hole. "Each one deep. If you peel away the skin I bet it goes all the way down to the brain. Obviously fatal means of torture if the victim was still alive." Vincent looked up with hopeful eyes. "Puzzling." He concluded before giving a lopsided smile to the group, quite proud with what he had done until he fell back into his old habit of useless trivia. "Did you know that it was a long-held belief that the Stegosaurus dinosaur had three brains? One it its head, one in its back, and one on its tail? It later turned out the brains were just energy stores and the Stegosaurus' brain is actually one of the smallest." He gave a cheery sort of smile only to be chided by Cam who had returned.

"Not the time Mister Murray." Cam warned, arms crossed over her chest still looking less than pleased as she stepped toward the body. Vincent hung his head, falling quiet again. Why couldn't he ever just keep quiet?!

"Holes. With what?"Angela dared to ask, tucking a pen in her curly black hair next to a sparkly purple butterfly hair pin.

"I'll have to take brain impressions when she gets back to figure that out." Cam responded as she slipped her usual headset on, returning to inspecting the body. "This kid for his age was pretty built. Probably an athlete." Doctor Saroyan spoke into her head set which was recording. It was a series of silver and blue pieces of metal and plastic that clung around her left ear and the microphone rested against her boney, tanned cheek near her red lips.

Temperance ran her gloves along the flaps of skin, pulling them apart delicately, not at all phased. She too was speaking into a recording device but this one was a hand held that she was making Vincent hold by her mouth because she didn't trust him with a knife. He was no Zack Addy after all. "With all of this muscle in order to be taken down--"

"Sweetie." Angela spoke up, causing Bones' thin lips to close as she glanced with confused, curious eyes to her best friend. "Do you have to say 'taken down'? It makes this kid sound like a.."

"Animal." Vincent concluded without even realizing that he had spoke. His doe's eyes were far too focused on the opened chest of the deceased young boy in front of him.

"Not even an animal deserves this sort of treatment." Angela murmured in disgust, crossing her arms she moved to walk away having had her fill of death and cruelty, but of course nothing would be that simple.

Jack Hodgins had been approaching the group carrying something, and when he came up the stairs some big headed, idiot FBI cog of a machine bumped into him without so much as a nod in acknowledgment. With half a mind to yell at the idiot some sort of conspiracy perhaps involving the grassy knoll theory about the JFK 'slaughter' he spun around with narrowed eyes. Unfortunately this led to him bumping into Angela, causing his harsh narrowed eyes to focus on her and without thinking, in an annoyed tone he spoke. "Watch out!" His eyes widened when he saw Angela, looking beautiful as ever, even with the upset look on her face.

"Hey..." Jack found himself saying in a breathless voice that he didn't ever have to worry about in front of his bugs.

"Look Hodgins, we're all having a rough day. You don't have to be an ass about it." Angela frowned, before doing the only thing she could do to avoid the man she had loved and turned back to the body. At least facing the dead was better than facing Hodgins. Especially a Hodgins whom was still very upset with her. She hated seeing him upset. It made her upset. So unfair!

Cam meanwhile tried to keep things professional. Clearing her throat she tried to get everyone's attention back on the body. Lance meanwhile was still looking at the two ex's shaking his head. No one ever listened to him anyways. "Find anything Doctor Hodgins?"

"Nope." Jack, glad for someone to be addressing him as Doctor and relieved that it wasn't someone he had slept with, stepped toward the group. "Nothing but acid, most likely bleach in the stomach." He held up two large containers with his hands. Both containers were made of clear plastic and were filled about halfway with gunky liquid that looked absolutely disgusting. Both were topped off with dark blue lids. "The victim would have died of starvation if not otherwise intervened."

"By jabs to the brain." Angela declared flatly, shaking her head in disbelief. How could people be so cruel?

Cam meanwhile moved to grab a remote and turn on the overhanging television. Booth would be on shortly. His big moment. She moved just in time to see Krys on the lower level. This was something different. Anything for a break from the harshness of reality. "Miss Robin. Have you come to join us?" Everyone followed suit and turned around.

Temperance did her best to continue her work, her driven mind wouldn't allow anything less, though even she stole a quick glance at the young woman. There was no Booth to protect her, no one for her to speak through, what was she doing? Had she gotten lost?

"No that's alright. You guys do the dead body thing.." Krys declined with a smile, though Temperance couldn't help but notice the girl was diverting her eyes in any direction but at the body on the slab. That was until she spotted Vincent and tilted her head slightly. "Who are you?" She asked outright, no sense of fear in her.

"Vincent." The intern in the light blue lab coat spoke up, almost in a shout which caused Sweets to look at him with an unamused look that he couldn't quite explain. "Did you know that 7% of people will respond with a fake name when you ask them that question?" Cam smiled. Sometimes what the boy said was pretty funny and sometimes she needed to hear it.

"What question? If I ask them if their name is Vincent?" Krys phrased matter of factly which caused Hodgins to snort in laughter.

Vincent blushed and looked down at his feet while Sweets looked quite pleased with himself. The Psychologist then felt his pocket vibrate which meant he had a text, probably from Daisy. He'd check it later.

Krys then turned her attention to Cam, her surrogate of authority when Agent Booth wasn't around but by this point everyone had returned to their work. Even so, she'd attempt to speak loud enough to be heard while maintaining her distance from the body. "I just thought you'd like to know there's a random kid in my office." No one looked up except for Vince whom seemed to shy to even open his mouth to speak and Sweets who just watched as was his psychologist way. Krys meanwhile, continued to call out. "So this is a usual thing then? Stray kids in people's offices?" No response, except for the sound of the news station on the television.

The murmur from the above television set caused everyone, even Doctor Temperance Brennan, to cease their work and look up. There was Seeley, approaching the mahogany podium wearing a suit that he had somehow managed to get into within the last hour. His hair had been combed and he looked much more awake than earlier. Though Bones was willing to be the flashing cameras and the mixed voices of the press had something to do with that.

"I am Special Agent Seeley Booth."He began. Based on just the tone and pitch Temperance could tell that his throat was dry. From nerves? The sniper was nervous speaking in public? Maybe. "The past two weeks this area has been the site for a string of connected killings by the same person. Today we found the third known victim of this person. As more information is discovered we'll be releasing it to the press. The Bureau, the District, the police force, and everyone is in need of assistance from the public. That is all that we can release at this time.." Agent Booth's voice was then lost in the midst of shouted questions and flashes of cameras.

Miss Julian pushed her way to the microphone just to announce: "No comment."