When
they got back to the lab, Cam entered the office that doubled as
the
autopsy room. Zack followed her, nervous about their
pending discussion. He
had never requested time off before,
but he wanted to spend as much time with
Howie as possible during
the Wing Commander's visit.
"Dr.
Saroyan, I was wondering if I could have three days off, please.
Well, today would be one of those three days, so I really only
need two days
off then." Zack rambled, staring at a point off in
space, unable to meet the
piercing gaze of his boss.
"Zackaroni,
what are you asking for?" While the situation was somewhat
comical,
Cam tried hard not to laugh at his discomfort.
"Howie only has
3 days of R&R, and I was wondering if I could have some
time
with him before he went back to Iraq."
"I'm
sorry, but with the new body coming, I can only give you tomorrow.
You know that I like seeing you happy, and want to help you
anyway possible,
but my hands are tied on this one." Seeing the disappointment on his face,
Cam was reminded of how
much it sucked to be the boss sometimes. A sudden
idea
struck her. "How about, when he comes back, you give me the
date of
his return and I'll give you a whole week off." Cam
smiled when the
enthusiastic look returned to the young doctor's
face.
"Thank
you, Dr. Saroyan!" Zack exclaimed as he bounced out of the
office.
For the rest of the day, Zack was a bouncing ball
energy; he couldn't wait
to tell Howie the good news once he got
off work.
Soon
Booth and Brennan turned up with the body of another young male,
whose
injuries were identical to those of Jenson Triga. Further investigation
revealed that both men had been murdered by
the same person, sending a chill
down the spine of all those
involved in the investigation. Was this a new
serial
killer?
"We
will need to talk with their parents and friends now, especially
if
they were together." Booth said as he looked sadly at the two
piles of bones on
the autopsy tables.
"How do you mean together?" Brennan asked, clueless as usual.
"Well,
they appear to of been killed around the same time." Cam stated.
She wondered, somewhat fearfully, if Brennan was going to say
something that
might upset Zack.
After
cleaning the bones and running Angela's sketch through the
missing
person's database, the squints were able to find out the
identity of the newest
victim, Jack Watson. It turned out
that there was a picture of Jack in
Jenson's wallet, which
seemed like a very 'boyfriend' thing to do,
further
confirming the suspicions of Booth.
"Could
this be a hate crime?" Zack asked as he unconsciously
reached
around his neck to touch the necklace that belonged to his
first boyfriend,
Kenny, who was killed because of homophobia.
"That's
if anyone knew about them." Booth stated as he watched Zach,
concerned for his friend.
"Excuse
me" Zack made a quick exit, trying his best not to cry in front
of
his colleagues. All of the squints and Booth looked at one
another, trying
to decide who should go after Zack; they all felt
close to the youngest
scientist. In the time it took them to
decide on a person, Zack had returned,
with red puffy eyes.
"Are
you okay, sweetie?" Angela asked when Zack was back at the table,
standing opposite her.
"Yeah,
this case is just reminding me of something from my past."
He
replied solemnly as he looked at the bones of both Jack and
Jenson, going back
to the day he asked his boyfriend Kenny to the
prom; but unfortunately, the
enchanting night was never to be, all
because of a jock named Tommy Barry.
