Title: The Multiples in the Family

Disclaimer: I own nothing, it took awhile to build a case and now we have remains to get the case on the road.

Chapter Three: Scorched Vehicle

Precisely at eight thirty the phone began to ring from its stand between both beds and was picked up after the second ring by the Special Agent. "Hello?" He asked.

"Mr. Booth, your ride is here to pick you up." Said a woman's voice from the other end.

"Thank you, we are on our way." He hung up the phone as Brennan came out of the bathroom, hair pulled back in a tie. "I feel so rich staying here." Bringing a laugh from the woman, who picked up the field kit and followed him out the door.

--

As they exited the elevator, a man that was dressed almost similarly to Booth in a look that practically screamed Federal Bureau of Investigation, approached them. "Special Agent Booth?" He asked, extending his hand.

Booth grasped his hand and pointed towards the woman to his side. "This is my partner Doctor Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist with the Jeffersonian Institute." He said proudly, a hand on her lower back.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I am Special Agent Kyle Hyde." He said, the man of his early thirties stood shorter than Booth and was not as toned. "If you would follow me, my partner is in the car waiting." They followed the agent towards a silver sedan with a woman leaning against the hood.

The woman stood to full height and took a step towards them. "Hi, I'm Special Agent Sarah Dalton and you must be Temperance Brennan." She said excitedly. "I've read all your books and just adore them."

Brennan flushed modestly. "Thank you." She said, Booth cleared his throat from next to her. "Oh this is Seeley Booth, my partner." She looked the woman over and watched her walked to the driver's side, her outfit hid the fact the she was pregnant.

Booth shoved her gently into the car before she could analyze the woman further and she walked around the other side and climbed into the car. "What can you tell us about the case?" Booth asked, turning his legs towards the center with a bump to her knees.

"Fire department was called at ten p.m. last night and discovered an abandoned pickup truck was on fire, they were lucky that the whole damn canyon didn't catch fire, but they put it out and found a body sitting inside. They called the local P.D., who called us in and thus why you are here." Explained Hyde handing them a manila folder that held the preliminary findings.

"Have the remains been moved?" She asked looking at the pictures, holding it close to her nose.

"Yes, FBI techs moved them about three hours ago and they are still on site awaiting for your orders." Hyde said, looking through his own file.

Brennan groaned inwardly so that only Booth could her here, placing a hand on her thigh with a squeeze. "Is there a problem?" Asked Dalton after she didn't respond, she looked through the rear view mirror and frowned.

"No, she's just really particular about her remains." Booth said with a smile, "Don't worry about it, you can just go over their work. The FBI techs back in D.C. have learned not to touch the remains until after Doctor Brennan gives the ok."

Hyde laughed softly. "I apologize for the inconvenience, we thought it would speed things along. . ."

It was Booth turn to groan at his attempt to speed the process, a big 'no-no' in the book of working with his partner. He looked over to her as her polite smile turned into a glare and she bit her lip to hide a retort that he knew was forming in her all too quick thinking brain. Brennan's blue eyes looked to his, trying to think of something nice to say. "It's no inconvenience she just likes to be thorough."

The rest of the ride was awkward as they reached a police road block, Dalton flashed her badge and they were waved through.

With the car put into park, they awaited for Brennan to put on her jump suit before ducking under the caution tape to the crime scene. A skeleton laid on a blue tarp and as Brennan kneeled at its side, Booth pulled out his notebook. "Female between seventeen to twenty one." She said, placing the latex gloves on her dainty fingers with a snap at the wrist. "Caucasian."

"That narrows down the population by half." Commented Hyde, gaining an elbow to the chest from Dalton. "Cause of death?"

Brennan took a deep breath before moving to the skull. "I think the gaping hole in the back of the skull is a clue." She answered sarcastically as she looked closer.

"What is it?" Booth asked, growing annoyed that Hyde was making their job more difficult.

"Her face has been scraped off." Brennan said looking up at him. "You can see the scrapes along the brow ridge," Booth looked up in surprise and she reached for the wrist to look at the fingertips, "same with the phalanges."

"Someone was trying at all cost to keep her identity a secret."Commented Booth, she stood to full height and he followed her to the pickup. She opened the door and took in the interior of the vehicle whose inside was charred black. It wasn't long until she took a step inside that Booth looked surprised, something had caught her attention.

"Will you hand me my forceps." She asked, her knee on the seat and a hand on the back window frame. He handed her the forceps and she reached in to pull the object that had caught her attention. The head rest that her hand was on gave away causing her to fall slightly and gasp in surprise.

"You ok, Bones?" He asked, the nickname piqued the interest of the two other agents that were watching their every movement.

"Yeah." She climbed out of the car, her elbows, knees, and back covered in ash from the car. "But look what I found." She held up the object and Booth's eyebrow shot up.

It was a small hand gun.

Booth reached for an evidence bag and she placed it inside. "Is it the weapon that killed her?" Asked Dalton, folding her arms tightly around her.

"I'm not sure until I analyze the remains." She answered wiping the sweat from her face, covering her face with soot. "I didn't find a bullet, maybe the tech's can find something."

She walked back to the remains and kneeled down next to the skull. Booth stood in front of Dalton and Hyde, giving them instructions before walking back to his partner. "What is it?" She squinted and frowned."You don't think she was shot, do you?"

"No, but she was pregnant." Brennan responded. "Her pelvis was opening in order to allow the fetus to pass through the birth canal, but I don't see any fetal bones."

"Is it possible that they disintegrated in the fire?" Booth asked.

She shrugged. "Maybe, I won't know until I get to a lab." She looked up at Booth and something in the distance caught her attention. She stood up to full height and walked to the tree line, a golden bracelet laid in the grass and she picked it up holding it for both to see. "Elisa. For all time and eternity-E & N April 22, 2008." She read out loud, her bangs fell out if its tie on to her face.

He brushed it out of her eyes. "Eternity is a long time." He said smiling. "Do you think its related?"

"I won't know until I test it, but that's not what I noticed." She pointed to a large wooden gate that was buried in the trees. They walked through it and again the anthropologist frowned, trotting a couple of steps to some moss that grew strangely on the ground. "Do you know what that is?"

"Moss?" He asked.

"It's adipocere, there is a body under there." She dropped to her knees and started to dig with her hands.

Booth started to shuffle the dirt with his feet and a white pair of bones poked through. "Here it is." He said looking surprised.

Brennan stood up and walked some fifteen feet away. "I found something over here also." She called standing up looking confused and frustrated. "Femora, maybe three or four."

They made eye contact and Booth took the hint to go in search of help, he returned with a small army of agents who immediately began to help her excavate the remains. Starting with building a small grid system and taking pictures of the scene they began the tedious work of searching for the bones.

It was three hours later that she stood to full height, her aching muscles and head ache caused the unwanted break. Booth wandered over to her, handing her a bottle of water. "Here drink this." He said with a frown, her face was flushed. "Let's go sit down for a bit."

"No, we are nowhere near finished with excavation." She said handing him the water.

"You are getting dehydrated, you need to sit down before you get sick." He said firmly and led her back to the mobile lab just outside the original crime scene, she sat down in the dirt and leaned back against the trailer.

Hyde walked over to them, carrying a laptop computer. "We've satellite linked you to the Jeffersonian, just as Booth had asked." He set it on the cooler that sat in front of them and Booth sat completely on the ground.

She opened the screen and her co-workers sat on the other side of the screen. "You look like Hell, sweetie." Came Angela's voice from the screen, the artist's face dropped in worry.

"I'm having the time of my life." She said unenthusiastic about her current state, her hair was falling out of its tie, soot on her flushed face and she had unzipped the top of her jump suit as the top rested at her waist.

Booth smiled before he spoke. "We've just uncovered a mass grave on top of our original case. . ."

"Mass grave?" Asked Cam, it caught the interest of the people on the screen.

"Yes and some of them seem fairly recent." Brennan answered. "The remains have been organized strangely, none of them anatomically placed whereas the bones suggest that they have been dismembered post mortem."

"Really, that's kind of cool." Hodgins said, getting elbowed by both women. "How many bodies?"

"We have uncovered twenty one skulls, forty two femora and some five hundred ribs." Brennan described. "Not to mention the countless number of vertebrae, carpals, tarsals and phalanges that had been sorted accordingly and separated the same amount of space. I'm hoping that they are placed by in a way that it would be easy to identify, but it's still going to take a while."

Her name was called and she looked up, it was Hyde motioning for her to come to her. She rolled her eyes and got to her feet. "She doesn't seem impressed." Commented Cam, gaining a laugh from Angela and Hodgins at the anthropologist's expense.

"She's not, the agents that picked us up this morning moved the original remains from the vehicle to speed the process, so immediately getting off to the wrong foot with her and the remains keep piling up." Booth said with a laugh, Brennan called him from the other agent. "We will call back later, I think it's time for lunch."

They said their goodbyes and he walked towards Brennan. "It's almost one, we are going to go to lunch and the first set of remains will be sent to the University of Utah." Kyle answered.

"We aren't finished with the excavation of the mass grave and with the pattern we still haven't found any of the tibia, clavicles, radii and ulna." Brennan said forcefully.

"The techs will finish that and as soon as they are finished they will be sent to the lab." Hyde said almost as forcefully, prepared to argue with the woman.

Booth glared at the man, "I'm hungry, Bones. After we eat, you can go over the remains." He shot her his charm smile.

She huffed and put her hands on her hips, his charm smiled had taken its effect. "Fine."