Hello my readers!
I'm really sorry for the huge break – I've got exams, and I'm crazy revising, so there's not much time to write.
Thank you to those who did pop in a review – weeks ago, now, I'm sorry I had you waiting so long - Your support (alexindigo, and brennanize!) is so wonderful,
Now, this chapter is a little jump forward from the last – you'll pick it up though. X
I'm not sure whether you're still out there and reading this, so please let me know – pop in a note or a word! If you think I should end it at Chap. 22, then so be it. If not, I'm happy to continue, but I warn you that updates may have a bit of a gap between them until summer holidays, when I am yours for 8 weeks :)
Regardless, as always,
Enjoy! Xx G
23. Working Together
"No way."
Booth laughed. Parker giggled.
"I am amazing at this," Brennan said defiantly, placing her hands on her hips. "Your lack of confidence in me is a little insulting."
"Ten attempts, and you wonder why we're losing confidence," Booth snickered, ruffling his son's hair. "Babe...it's okay to say you can't do it."
His partner pouted and turned her focus back to the screen.
"I'll do it," she promised determinedly. "You just watch."
The two male companions bit their cheeks to conceal any spluttering laughs, or cheeky grins.
Eyes fixed intently on the virtual tightrope on the screen, Brennan gingerly lifted a foot on the platform, and began her journey across it...yet again.
"I have perfect balance," she muttered as her Mii wobbled along the line. "Why can't I do this?"
"That's because it takes skill," Booth piped.
"You're leaning to one side too much," Parker supported. "You gotta-"
Suddenly 'Bones' theMii wobbled and fell out of screen view.
Brennan leapt off the WiiFit block with a huff.
"I'm changing games. This is ridiculous," she said, grabbing the case from the coffee table. "Worst investment I ever made."
Booth and Parker laughed.
"Ha. You might be laughing now, you two, but you won't be when I beat you in tennis." Brennan narrowed her eyes playfully.
"Nuh-uh," Parker disagreed. "Not tennis. MarioKart. There's no way you can beat us with Princess Peach."
"I don't know whether that's a good idea, Parks," Booth told his son with a lilt of laughter.
"Why?"
"Because there is no way the Mario and Peach are gonna beat Yoshi."
"You are so on," Parker challenged, meeting his father's eyes with a very testing look.
Brennan smiled and scrambled for MarioKart and the three wheels. Just as she had disconnected the other game, and was about to insert the disc for their chosen competition, Booth's phone buzzed.
He moved to get it, but she gave him a differing look.
"Can't you just leave it?" she requested, the little hope evident in her tone.
"I could, but it's my paging ring tone," Booth replied ruefully, whipping the phone up to his ear and motioning with a finger for silence. "Hacker," he answered into the phone. "How's it going?"
After a few mmm's and humph's, he left the room swiftly.
Brennan couldn't help but feel a little twinge at the strange sensation she felt when her boyfriend spoke to her 'ex' so nonchalantly. She knew that if the situation was reversed, should the unwelcome Hannah ever show her face again, she would run at her with a sharpened machete.
Cheery thought.
Brennan smirked to herself.
"What's funny?" Parker asked innocently, eyes wide.
She was shaken from her travelling thoughts by his question, as Booth re-entered the room.
"Got a case," he said openly, although Brennan knew it was only for her. "Sorry little man," he apologised to his son, tousling the curls of his hair again.
"Do I have to go back to Mom's?" Parker didn't seem thrilled.
"You remember our friend Angela, don't you?" Brennan put in suddenly, knowing of the child's mother's whereabouts that particular weekend. And her...activities.
Parker nodded. "Of course."
"Would it be okay if we dropped you at the lab for a little while, under her surveillance?"
"It'd be great. I don't mind."
"Perfect." Brennan was so relieved that the boy had an easy nature like his father; not a stubborn, closed-minded perception like the mother.
Booth mouthed a thank you to Brennan, who smiled shortly and switched off the television and Wii console.
"Whereabouts is it?" Brennan asked she and Booth put on their coats, and waited for Parker to use the bathroom.
"Washington DC Racecourse. Decomposed body found in a manure pile or something."
"What is with all of our cases including horses?" Brennan asked an exasperated wave.
"It's only two that we've had in the past three months, Bones," Booth contradicted, although intrigued by her comment. His Bones never over-exaggerated – she never made remarks like that full stop. It was good, though.
"I know. I'm just trying it out."
"Trying out what?"
"Making instantaneous comments. It's actually quite stimulating; not always saying everything as it is."
"That's my girl," Booth hummed, kissing her on the cheek. "Always experimenting."
"I remember the last case as if it were yesterday," Brennan said easily after a moment. "Only the good bits, though," she added almost in a whisper, smiling coyly at him.
Naturally, swiftly, Booth planted a sweet kiss on her lips, just as the bathroom door closed down the hall.
"Let's go and catch a murderer," he murmured quickly in her ear. "I love the celebratory drinks afterwards."
Brennan smirked and held the door open. "What if I don't want to have drinks with you?"
Booth nipped her ear. "Then I'm sure we'll find something else to do."
"What if I don't want to do anything with you?" she asked playfully, giving him a little push.
"Keep up that attitude, and I won't invite you back in."
"This is my apartment."
Parker arrived behind Booth and tugged on his sleeve. "Daddy? Are we going?"
Brennan gave Booth another push.
"Yeah, little man. We're going," Booth replied, giving his partner a good-natured narrow of the eyes.
.
-~B&B~-
.
"Careful, Bones," Booth warned, watching his partner with worry. "It's slippery."
Brennan looked up and gave him a crooked smile. "I know." She began padding down, when suddenly her boot slipped forward, and her balance rocked, resulting to her arms flailing for stability.
"Bones!"
The anthropologist steadied herself, and looked up, eyes mischievous.
Booth frowned. "You played that."
"Did I?" she gainsaid, lopsided smile returning.
"Not funny."
"It was very funny," she argued lightly, "and you know it."
Booth surrendered and waited until she reached the bottom, before saying anything else, and distracting her focus as she trooped along the muddy side.
"Oh." Brennan's voice etched surprise when she finally reached the body.
"Oh...what?" Booth asked reluctantly, unsure whether he liked the tone of her voice or not.
"It's not something I could explain to you without causing you confusion," she replied, the concentrated frown she wore spreading into her vocal tone.
"We have a spare suit, Agent Booth," one of the assistant techs from the Jeffersonian vouched. "Only if you want to."
Booth took a cagey step back. "Oh no, no." He put his hands up in a defensive posture. "Six years I have avoided that monkey suit. No way."
"Please, Booth?" She hit the right spot. Her voice. Her request.
Moaning on the inside, the agent accepted the offer, and a few minutes later, he trudged out of the van in the field suit and boots. Rolling his shoulders and stretching the outfit as much as he could, Booth came to a halt at the top of the slope.
"So now I just...," he stalled.
Brennan looked up, and while she managed to stifle a laugh, she couldn't conceal her broadened smile. "Join me," she said simply. "Just make your way slowly down...," She trailed off when her partner already began a very swift decent.
"Look at this," Booth said excitedly as he arrived by her kneeling form. "Us working together."
"We always work together," Brennan replied, the same old blank misunderstanding evident across her face and intertwined in her tone. "I don't see why this is such a different situation."
"This is our first case since...y'know..."
"We began seeing each other," she finished for him. "Yes, I know."
"And I'm in-" he tugged on the navy of his jumpsuit, "-this."
"You are." She turned her attention back to the victim, eyes scanning of the remains for visible indicators.
They were silent for a few moments as Brennan examined the remains.
"What did you need me down here for?" Booth asked a little impatiently, always unnerved by the sight of bodies. "Bones?" he persisted after receiving no answer.
She almost looked embarrassed. "I wanted you to come down...so I could..." she admitted sheepishly. "Maybe I could teach you something?"
"Look, Bones, that's sweet and all but-" He broke off as he watched her face fall. "This isn't the best place for us to be playing and testing new territory," he finished gently.
Brennan nodded in understanding, but she had been taken down a peg, and as quickly as the flash of vulnerability came, her expression became guarded, and the situation was immediately professional again.
"Victim is female, pelvic diameter indicates female...who has given birth. Small stature suggests younger age, but the matured growth of her bones and the completion of her third molars tells us that she is older than twenty-one."
Booth listened to Brennan's observations – at first, believing that she was talking to him, but when she didn't make eye-contact again, and he spied the recorder she possessed, he gave her space.
She was in work mode now; there was no point disrupting her, because he would be answered either with annoyance, or ignored all together.
.
-~B&B~-
.
"Is that everything?" Cam asked as the last bone was placed out.
"Yes," Brennan called from her position at the platform's table. "Hodgins has everything else. Everything we need is here."
Wendell eyed the victim skeptically. "And she's older than twenty-one?"
Brennan nodded.
Their boss swiped her access card and joined them. "She's small for an adult," Cam observed, placing her hands on her hips.
"We've established that," Brennan supplied.
"Oh," Wendell started suddenly.
Brennan lifted her eyes from the notes she was scribbling, and fixated them on her assistant. "What's the matter?"
"N-nothing's the matter really, Dr B, I just..."
"The tone you used indicated your surprise, I just assumed-"
"Could you please come and look at this?"
Brennan rose her eyebrows in slight surprise at the request, but retrieved a pair of latex gloves from the table.
"What appears to be the abnormality?" She came to his side.
"What's with this?" her student asked very suddenly, motioning with his hand to something additional on the steel gurney.
"Oh." The anthropologist lifted the tibia.
"This bone doesn't belong to our victim-"
"No," Brennan confirmed, frowning down at the lost soul before her. "No, it doesn't."
"What's wrong?" Wendell asked, as his mentor's eyes darkened.
Brennan's eyes narrowed, and her finger traced the gaping slice.
"There's more than one victim."
Are you still out there, readers? If so, please let me know! I know that it has been a while, and for that I am really sorry. (Also, I'm aware that this chapter is shorter, but it just depends on whether you want me to keep going...:S )
Just a 'Yes!' will do :)
Do you want The Matter to the Bones to end at Chapter 22, and then let there be a sequel, or would you like me to keep on going...or stop...? Not sure what to do, and I am up to my neck in exams now, but I'll try. Please, let me know –
Xx G