12CHAPTER TWELVE

The next morning Agent Seeley Booth had to practically shove his way past multiple people and flashing camera lights that had now stationed themselves outside the Jeffersonian in hopes of getting interviews from anyone with an 'inside' on the serial killer case. Of course everyone had been lectured by Ms. Julian not to say a word and Agent Booth wasn't about to cross that woman, not that he'd even dream of it. He may have been trained by the army but he didn't doubt that Ms. Julian could lift him right on her lap and give him a strict whoopin'. And she'd probably enjoy it too.

Trying to weave around these people was like trying to walk through mud as high as your own height, and Booth was wincing even at the mere effort. Cursing under his breath he was actually glad that he had found a babysitter for Parker this weekend. Some young blonde of about sixteen named Claire who lived next door to his apartment who needed the extra cash for whatever young girls spent their money on. No doubt a sweater or something.

Parker insisted on asking Sweets or Krys but Booth had put his foot down like any good father shoulder. He wasn't going to waste what abilities the team had on something as trivial as babysitting. Even he had his limits when irking Sweets and this was one of them. Letting Parker stay with his mother was also out of the question. Seeley only got him for short spurts of time and he wasn't about to let those go to waste, no matter how selfish it might have been of him.

The door was now in sight, just a few reporters away, and the buzz of conversation and questions was growing louder and louder. It was giving the FBI agent a headache. It took all he had not to yell at them and tell them to move it in less than desirable words that he wouldn't want his son seeing on the television.

He felt a sharp heel on his foot and cringed. Some reporter who was all dolled up, but still awfully annoying, had accidentally stepped on him! He turned his head to say something but gritted his teeth when his eyes caught glimpse of a familiar form.

There was the boy wonder Lance Sweets clutching files to his chest as he was being rudely bounced about by the various eager beavers of the press. Booth resisted the urge to laugh or say something less than kind, only because it looked like Lance was uncharacteristically overwhelmed, and the last straw was reached when he saw the young psychologist being shoved to the ground.

"Whoah! Watch it." Seeley bellowed in warning causing some of the press to part as though he was Moses parting the sea. He strode right over to the young man, who was currently on his side instinctively curled up so to avoid being stepped on in the stampede. Seeley wrapped his fingers around his upper arm and yanked him up with ease onto his feet and the frenzy continued to go on around them. "You alright there Sweets?"

"Awesome." The young man reassured breathlessly, stumbling to regain his footing having been so shaken up by the sudden fall. "Just awesome." His shaky hand reached to hold onto something and slipped, grasping around Booth's tie and almost fell down, nearly taking Booth with him but luckily the FBI Agent had firm footing and kept the young man up and out of harm's way.

"Easy there Sweets." Booth steadied him, his hands moving to rest on the man's back and his shoulder, keeping him upright as he watched the psychologist's nervous eyes dart back and forth as he attempted to gather his thoughts. "What?" Booth's brow furrowed as he tried not to startle him too much, his voice gentle, no hint of sarcasm which it usually held with the man.

Lance's eyes moved back and forth, up and down, all over the place as if looking for something though his feet wouldn't budge. "I... I... My phone." Booth inclined his head snapping his fingers Lance's eyes landed directly on the Agent's. "Daisy. On my phone."

Oh! So that was it! Sweets had been on the phone with Daisy when he was caught off guard by the crowd. Agent Booth looked to the ground and immediately found the phone beneath the trampling hooves of the press. It was clear that it was broken and in pieces. No time to worry about it now, they had work to do and no good would come from either of them being in this swarm.

"It's alright." Booth reassured, trying to direct Lance's attention elsewhere instead of worrying. Worrying was never good, especially in situations like these. "You can call her from my phone." Booth reached into his pocket and handed Lance the black phone. Taking him by the arm he led the psychologist through the crowd of people and the crazy flashes. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Lance pound the number at least five times before getting it right. Booth's attention then moved back on the door, their goal destination.

"Daisy it's me.. No I didn't mean to hang up on you!" Sweets called out in a high pitched voice. Booth could clearly hear Daisy whining in a frequency that dogs should only be able to hear and he suddenly felt bad for the psychologist. "I didn't. I was knocked on my ass!" Booth didn't bother to remind him that he had saved him. "Listen I'm sorry! There's a lot going on. Just turn on the tv for god sakes!" Sweets cried out just as they squeezed in through the door and stumbled into the lab.

Walking through the lab which had about triple the amount of blue lab coats walking around doing their squint-y thing. Seeley felt his phone being pressed into his chest and looked to his left at Sweets but Booth didn't move to take the phone. Instead he stopped walking and Sweets followed suit clearly a bit more coherent than seconds earlier. "I hate when you do this." Booth declared firmly, already he felt like something was being hidden from him.

"Do what?" Lance asked, craning his head in curiosity.

"Don't talk." Booth finished, narrowing his eyes. "You always talk. You talk and talk." Seeley then found himself smiling as something sunk in. "She hung up on you."

Lance's expression turned a bit more serious but he didn't respond to that question, instead he found different words leaving his lips. He wasn't even sure exactly why. "Krys was visiting Zack yesterday. Hodgins and I saw her."

Seeley's expression showed that he had been caught off guard, even if only for a split second. "Why?"

And out of no where Lance's face turned bright red and his hands threw themselves into the air. "I don't know. Why does she do anything? She just likes being confusing for the sake of being confusing!" His cheeks puffed in and out as his shoulders rose and fell from the suddenness of it all.

"Great. My Psychologist is growing increasingly less stable." A slow smile crept over Booth's lips. "I should have brought Krys here when Bones and I first started seeing you." Turning his back on the man he spotted Temperance hovering over the body, gloves and all, digging through the most recent remains. "Would have saved us all a lot of time."

Leaving Lance alone to his own devices now that he was safe inside the building, Booth swiped his ID and came boldly up the steps and right behind his partner. Cam and Jack were flanking her at the sides as they examined every centimeter and Angela looked on with morbid curiosity.

"What have we got squint squad?" Seeley announced his arrival trying his best to keep everything light especially with the recent victim having all of his flesh, and face, staring back at them as they cut him open for any internal evidence. Add that to the chaos outside and the pressure they were getting from everyone to solve this case, any little break was welcomed.

"There's blood flecks." Jack informed the agent, holding up a slide he had recently prepared from aid of a swab.

"Victim?" Doctor Brennan didn't even look up, Booth and Angela both had to divert their eyes to the floor as the brave woman's hands fished further into the cavern of the body.

"No way of knowing. Not until we do a comparative DNA test." Hodgins said in a bit softer tone, especially in catching Angela needing to look away. She always had a soft heart when it came to love and victims. With everything else she was as fierce as a lioness. Oh, how he missed her. Right now, just looking at her from some distance away he wanted to run to her and hug her. But he couldn't. Not ever again. He made himself look back down at the slide even though he had done all he could with it.

"I found traces of dirt in his stomach." Doctor Saroyan explained, holding up a jar before setting it down on a metal tray. "Where ever he was being held he got desperate and somehow found a way to get to something." Angela grimaced and quickly jotted something down on her clipboard.

"Splinters beneath his fingers." Jack looked to Booth as they played catchup. "Indicates he most likely pulled up some floorboards." A heavy sigh. This was a young kid. Hodgins knew what it felt like to be held up in one place and being near death. It had happened to him and Doctor Brennan with the Gravedigger. It seemed that they had been lucky. But why them? Why not this young man. The words, even ones of scientific facts would no longer come to his lips, only silence and thoughts he'd rather not be thinking at the moment... Or ever.

"Where's Mister Makazoo?" Booth asked, looking in each direction as his hands moved into his pants pockets out of habit.

"Doctor Brennan had Mister Murray run to one of the open smaller labs to conduct some testing on dirt found under the victim's sneakers since we have Hodgins held up here." Doctor Saroyan explained from behind rather large goggles. "Which unfortunately means no trivia about sea life or pygmies." Cam actually joked in a flat voice which caused Jack to actually smirk. It was a rare occasion that anyone found the boss amusing, but Hodgins was the odd bug guy so it seemed fitting.

Doctor Brennan hovering over the body felt her fingers come in contact with something hard. "I found something." Blinking she looked up and everyone's eyes fell on her face. With a quiet grunt she freed it from where it was lodged in the body and pulled out a small grey box. As everyone looked on she used a cloth to wipe off the blood and tissue to reveal a blinking red light. Booth's eyes widened.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" He shouted. Jack, Cam, Angela, and numerous blue lab coats immediately ducked behind whatever objects they could. Jack's hand grabbed Angela's wrist in a way of protecting her from whatever it was. Cam fell onto her side covering her head from whatever was coming. Bones was the only one who didn't move, holding the grey box staring at it in confusion.

"BONES!" Booth yelled again, back on his feet he leapt at the woman, managing to take the grey box and hurl it across the lab like it was a bomb. As the grey box somersaulted through the air his arms wrapped around the anthropologist and brought her to the ground landing right on top of her. The seconds after dragged on until finally everyone heard the clinking of the metal and plastic make contact with the floor several times like a stone across water. Then silence.

Doctor Brennan looked up at Seeley who was still lying on her. Their chests, both breathing rather heavily, touched several times. Blinking Booth made himself look at his partner, his lips slightly parted, their faces mere centimeters apart.

"What are you doing?" Temperance found her voice, sounding as logical and unaffected as possible.

"I.. I thought it was a bomb." Agent Booth said almost stupidly, a bit embarrassed by his mistake and preoccupied with the pretty woman beneath him as any regular male would.

"It didn't explode." Temperance stated being the know it all that she was which caused Booth to actually blush.

"I know that Bones." Seeley countered bringing his jaw inward because the scientist was pointing out that he was wrong. Neither of their faces budged, Booth felt his throat go dry and he made himself swallow so to correct this problem, but to no avail. Why did she have to look at him like that? Wide eyed and as though she was learning something for the first time... Constantly. She had taught him so much, there were probably a few things he could teach her. His head leaned a bit further in and then...

"You made us bruise our kneecaps for a little block?" Hodgins' sneakers stood by the top of Temperance's head looking down at the two partners with his brow raised in skepticism.

Agent Seeley Booth clamored to his feet and Bones did the same, brushing herself off as Seeley cleared his throat, going cold once again. "You shouldn't be touching that." Booth warned the scruffy scientist as Jack slipped it into a plastic evidence bag.

"Right. National Security right?" Hodgins shot back, his arms crossing over his chest showing that he wasn't impressed. "A scientist can't touch something found in his own lab."

"Your lab?" Cam spoke up, her eyes now narrowed at Hodgins awaiting his usual ballsy answer.

"I wouldn't allow someone like you to even touch women." Booth shot right back, ignoring Cam, his eyes unwavering from Jack Hodgins. When Booth was wrong, especially in front of the very intelligent squints, he often became defensive. Now was one of those cases. Angela cleared her throat as this argument was becoming a little too close to home. "Sorry Ang."

Bones meanwhile ignored the battle of the boys and instead moved to study the contents of the see through bag. "Lightweight. No wires to provide a circuit. Definitely not explosive."

"We get it Bones!" Booth warned, growing exasperated he wiped his brow with the back of his arm. A sigh and he found himself back in work mode. "Get it to Krys. She'll pull it apart. Do her thing." He ran a hand through his short brown hair as everyone returned to their work (if only because of the warning glare they had received from Cam).

"I'll have Mr. Murray run it by her office when he returns." Temperance nodded, her eyes studying her partner and easily picking up on his little ticks of annoyance. "Is Parker with Rebecca?" She questioned, beginning to remove her gloves.

"No. I got a sitter." Booth shrugged, becoming increasingly uncomfortable he reached out and grabbed the evidence bag. Temperance didn't even move to stop him. "I'll just bring this to Krys now. Save you the time." And he then left the squints to do their job.

Temperance watched his back for a few moments before she felt a tapping that was so clearly Angela on her shoulder. Turning around she was met with the artist's bright, shining face.

"Honey. It's been four years." Angela told her best friend. "Make a move!" Temperance gave her a bit of a dumbfounded look which was rare in the lab unless a pop culture reference was brought up. "He's clearly interested." Angela sighed, frustrated with all of the effort this was taking.

"That's a ridiculous assumption with no factual backup." Temperance frowned, setting her gloves on an empty slab. Her eyes on her friend with an air of confusion.

"Sweetie." Angela began in a very quiet voice, so the others couldn't hear. Her smile growing into a devilish one that Doctor Brennan found herself not liking. "He just threw himself on top of you to protect you from a bomb."

"It wasn't a bomb!" Temperance Brennan exclaimed, her eyes wide because she had to repeat herself several times.

"Yes. But he thought it was."