Title: The Multiples in the Family
Disclaimer: I own nothing, sadly
Note: I'm starting to build a case now, and starting from this chapter I'm crossing over with Big Love, unless you've seen the show you really wouldn't know it. I hope you like it, I love the reviews.
It was almost two when Brennan started to clean the remains of the first victim, carefully separating the particulates from the scarred tissue and the tissue from the bones at the University of Utah forensics lab. At first look of the skull, the hole at the back didn't suggest a gunshot wound but more of blunt force trauma backed up by the large traces of dirt around the jagged edge.
Her partner had gone with the Agent Hyde to the FBI office to look through missing persons reports, leaving her with Agent Dalton. The young woman leaned against the steal metal table, watching with interest as Brennan's fluid motions around the body in awe. "I hear that you are very good in your field." She said, trying to make conversation.
"I'd like to think so." Brennan answered, looking at the screen with a magnified image of the pelvis. "She was definitely pregnant and about to give birth."
The woman paled and looked over her shoulder. "You can tell that from a pile of bones?" She asked with a shaky voice.
She spared the anatomy lesson and pointed to the end of the pelvis. "Yes, it was opening to allow for the head to pass and once the head passes the opening closes slightly." Brennan answered briefly. "But I can't seem to find any fetal bones."
"They can't just disappear, can they?" Asked Dalton with the color still missing from her face.
"No, the fetus was taken out by some kind of knife." Brennan said pointing to the nicks on the bottom ribs. "It's quite possible that the infant is still alive."
"I'll call Agent Hyde and have him look for any newborns checked into a hospital in the last twenty four hours."She said as Brennan's own cell phone began to ring.
"Brennan." She answered, almost annoyed.
"Are you playing nicely with Agent Dalton." Booth asked from the other end, she could tell that he was smiling into the receiver.
"Of course." Brennan answered, cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder. "I found that she wasn't shot in the head, she was struck by a hard object, probably a rock and her wrist show defensive breaks."
"That's good, because the gun has isn't registered to anyone after 1987. We called the previous owner and he said he sold it in 1994 in a penny-saver ad, after that it's been lost." Booth said, almost muffled. "Also had the techs run the necklace."
She smiled before she spoke. "Did you get a match?" She asked.
"We did, it was paid for by a Nathan Grant. This if I had to guess would be the 'N' in the etching, bought and paid for in March of this year at The Shane Company." Booth said, adjusting the phone so he wasn't muffled. "He is the same man who reported Elisa Grant missing early this morning."
"Can you get me any dental records for her? I just finished the initial report and on my way to get x-rays." Brennan asked, something she said caught the attention of the young agent who was talking to her partner on the phone.
"I'll see what I can do," Booth said, "but Hyde seems skeptical."
"Why?" Brennan asked.
"I'm not sure, he says ask Dalton who the Grants are." Booth answered, Hyde had said it would make more sense if the female agent explained it to her rather than Booth rely the message. Booth knew that it would annoy his partner, but Hyde refused to tell him.
"We don't even know if she's the same victim."Brennan argued. "Besides, she was at least 30 weeks pregnant, if not later, there has to be some documented blood work somewhere."
"I know Bones, I'm searching for any records and I will call you when I get an answer." Booth answered. "I'll talk to you later."
She said her goodbye and placed her phone into her pocket. Dalton had also finished her phone call and looked expectantly at the anthropologist. "Hyde told me to tell you who the Grants are."
Brennan nodded and continued her work on the remains. "Yes." She answered. "That would be appreciated."
"Roman Grant is the known prophet for the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, which is a protestant religion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who is a known strong supporter of polygamy and is said to have multiple wives himself, Nathan is one of his sons who is prominent in the religion."Explained Dalton.
"That isn't relevant to figuring out who this woman is." Brennan said pointing towards the remains on the table.
"It does if she was raised in a compound or not." Dalton argued folding her arms defensively.
"She's obviously had some dental work." She pointed to the mandible that showed a filling. "She had braces at some point in her life, don't forget that she is pregnant and has probably seen a doctor at one point. I mean you're pregnant and how many times have you had your blood drawn?"
The woman's face fell. "How did you know I was pregnant?" She asked in just above a whisper.
"By the way your hips have shifted to allow the head to rest in the pubic region, you're not that far along and I would have to guess fourteen weeks?" Brennan retorted before moving back on the subject. "There has to be record of this woman somewhere."
The woman huffed before brushing her bangs out of her face. "What I'm trying to say is that polygamists don't usually see regular doctors or dentists."
"As I recall polygamy is illegal is it not?" Brennan asked.
"It is and it was abolished a long time ago." Dalton said. "But they can say they are married, but not by the books. . ."
"Anthropologically speaking having many wives was a way to show status or to produce many heirs to help work the land because women can only have so many children when men can have many children." Brennan explained.
"I don't question it, they say that God tells them to have multiple wives and have strict rules on schooling, clothing and rumor has it that the prophet assigns who marries whom. Generally women don't have a say in any of it and I think it's barbaric." Her phone rang and she shot her an apologetic smile.
Brennan rolled her eyes, moving onto the other remains from the scene that had started to arrive and she turned to the tedious task of sorting and cataloguing the mess of bones.
_
The early October sun had set completely when Booth had returned to the make shift lab to bones sorted on white sheets on the floor and a sign at the door written in her familiar script to take all shoes off.
Booth complied with her request and began to search the large room for his partner, who wasn't standing next to a table of remains but on the floor kneeling next to the massive pile of unidentified bones. "Welcome to the danger zone." Booth said with a smile. "It looks like there was an explosion."
She stood up and placed her hands on her aching back, her hair had fallen mostly out of its tie and was knotted around her face. She glistened with sweat and her deodorant was working overtime, her knees were dusty from the dirt on the floor and her top hung tightly with hand prints on the sides, in Booth's opinion, beautiful. "This place isn't dangerous, just a mess. . ."
"It's an expression Bones." He said with a smile. "You look . . ."
"Don't you finish that sentence, I might have to hit you." Brennan threatened pointing her index finger at him, Booths hand went to his jaw where she had hit him after his funeral and knew full well that she would.
"I was going to say exhausted, how long have you been working on these?" Booth asked with a smirk.
"What time is it?" She asked, stretching her arms high above her head.
"It's almost nine in this time zone." Booth said adding two more hours to what his body was feeling made it almost eleven back in Washington.
"Since three, I think. Dalton left around five and I've been sorting since they got here." She calculated with and hand on her eyes. "I sorted males and females, then by age and size." Brennan pointed to all the piles around the room, but the sorted was still considerably smaller than the unsorted.
"Do you have any complete skeletons?" He asked impressed by the process she had taken in sorting the remains.
"No, but what I can tell you is that at least half are over the age of 55." Brennan said almost excitedly, her blue eyes sparkled as she went into detail of the victims. "I haven't been able to determine a cause of death that points to murder or to our victim."
"Meaning?" Booth asked, he could almost see the cogs and wheels turning in her brilliant mind.
"Meaning that this is just a burial ground," Brennan answered, Booth squinted trying to catch where she was thinking. "The remains haven't been there that long, but until Hodgins gets the particulates my guess is in the range of six months to twenty five years."
"So like a cemetery?" He questioned again.
"Yes and the way the bodies were positioned may have some religious connotation." Brennan answered excitedly. "I've emailed the pictures to the Jeffersonian and Doctor Goodman would know what or who to make it out too."
"Good job Bones, I'm impressed." Booth said looking at his watch again as the long hand ticked toward the fifteen. "Hyde is waiting for us outside, what do you say we head back to the hotel, order some room service and watch a movie. I even have your dental and medical records for you to go over. Your brain can use a break for a little while."
She chuckled and pulled off her latex gloves. "You sure take advantage of the Bureau when it's them paying the tab." She teased.
His face fell, caught off guard. "No, remember the receptionist this morning said we get everything for free because we are sharing a room."Booth said. "And are you calling me cheap?"
"Yes." Brennan answered, grabbing the file with all her work.
"Come-on Ms. Six-Figure-A-Year, Hyde is waiting for us in the parking lot." He scoffed, putting a hand on her lower back and they walked out of the lab.
--
It was almost eleven when they finished eating their meal and the tired anthropologist had taken a shower when Booth laid on his stomach with his head closest to the TV watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall on the bed closest to the windowas Brennan laid against the backboard on her own bed reading over the notes that Booth had given her.
He turned to watch her as she held up both sets of x-rays to do a comparative match of the dental records. "The victim is Elisa Grant, the dentals match."
"Alright, we'll visit her husband tomorrow." Booth said, turning back towards the TV.
She slid back, resting her head on the pillow and started to read over the toxicology report before falling asleep quietly. It wasn't until the movie ended that the agent looked back to his sleeping partner and smiled.
A soft tap on the door caught his attention and he grabbed the holster with his gun in it before padding bare foot to the door. Looking through the hole, he opened the door and on the other side stood their shrink with a suitcase in his hand. "Sweets?" Booth asked with a sigh and stepping into hallway to allow the door to push by. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Doctor Brennan needed a consult and I was in the area for a wedding." Sweets explained with his cocky smile.
"She told me she emailed Doctor Goodman." Booth said, confused.
"She did, he forwarded it me." Sweets said. "Like I said, I was in the area and I was actually flying back today when Doctor Saroyan called me to tell me that you were already in Salt Lake."
He ran his fingers through his hair and looked at his suitcase. "Where are you staying?" He asked, motioning to the bag at his feet.
"I don't know yet, I checked out of my hotel and was on my way towards the car rental place. I was going to see if they have a spare room here, but it seems that this weekend is not the best for spontaneous travel." Sweets answered with a slight chuckle.
Booth sighed again and opened the door to the room. "Come in." He said leading him into the room and a gasp escaped from his lips when he took notice of Doctor Brennan asleep on her back with a file lying across her chest. "She just fell asleep, I'd prefer if you didn't wake her."
Sweets placed his suitcase on the table quietly, looking at the second bed and taking note that it had been occupied, whereas half of Brennan's bed was untouched. Booth stood over her bed and gathered the papers that stacked all over her bed and placed them neatly on the nightstand. "What is the case about?" Sweets asked curiously.
"A set of remains were found in a vehicle that was on fire." Booth whispered as he pulled his own paperwork and computer that sat on his bed. "You can take my bed."
"Where will you sleep?" Sweets asked, looking to the very small couch in the corner of the room, suddenly feeling guilty for kicking him out of the bed.
Booth pointed towards the bed with Brennan in it, his eyes widened. "Unless you want to sleep on the couch that is probably two feet shorter than you are." Booth said reading his mind and Sweets shook his head negatively, leaning over to whisper to the woman. "Bones."
Her eyes fluttered open slightly and she looked at him confused. "Sweets is here and he needs a place to stay." Booth explained slowly so she could register. "Do you mind if I share a bed with you?"
She nodded. "Why is he here?" She asked, her blue eyes glowing with confusion.
"Don't worry about it, just go back to sleep." He said softly, gaining a nod from the woman. Brennan closed her eyes and rolled to her side facing the wall. Booth got to his feet and walked back to the door, locking the deadbolt and moving the chain in its place. "It's late, Sweets. . ."
"I won't take long, I just need to change." He said, grabbing this things and walking passed him towards the bathroom.
Booth crawled into bed with his partner, pulling up the heavy comforter before turning on his side so he was back to back with his partner, his long legs stretching to the end of the bed and accidently brushing her legs with his foot. She jumped and opened her eyes. "Sorry." He said.
"Your feet are cold." She mumbled, burying her face into the pillow and falling back to sleep.
Sweets came out of the bathroom after watching the partners interact on the bed with a wide smile and turned the lights off behind him before crawling into bed, making a mental note to document everything for his book and he too fell into a quiet slumber.
