A/N: Good evening lovely readers! I bring to you Chapter Six AND Chapter Seven tonight, because that is how much I appreciate all the feedback and notes I have been getting from people. So in return, two chapters at once. =) I hope you enjoy them both equally, though perhaps the seventh chapter a bit more. ;-)
This was certainly a a big project. I've edited, re-edited, re-re-edited, and so on. But, despite my numerous re-editings these chapters would not be what they are now without the help of Nyre The Black Rose and Cathmarchr, both of whom provided invaluable insights and suggestions. So thank you to you both. You are wonderful, wonderful! =)
I hope you enjoy this new case and the places that it takes Booth and Brennan! As always, don't forget to let me know what you think! =)
Disclaimer: Still not mine!
~B/B~
Though the partner's first case had been eagerly awaiting their arrival, their second case did not follow suit. A week and a half passed before Booth was able to call Brennan and inform her that he would be picking her up in fifteen minutes. Dead body or not, she had sounded eager.
But now, in the midst of the early morning mist and the less than ideal conditions of the scene, the eagerness had dimmed a bit for each of them.
"Can we work quickly, here, Bones?" Booth said as he followed her through the muck. "This isn't that pleasant."
"It's a murder, Booth." She said, unphased as she waded through the muddy waters. "I'm relatively certain that murder is never pleasant."
"Lets just keep it speedy, ok?" He said, frowning as his shoe sloshed in a particularly deep puddle.
"I'll keep it accurate." She said, glancing back over her shoulder at him. "You know, you don't have to follow me out here. You're not exactly dressed for this."
"No way, I'm sticking close." He told her. "The chief said this was a nasty scene and I don't want you out there alone."
She raised her eyebrows. "We should talk about my time in Indonesia."
"Ha, ha." He said, gesturing for to her to move forward. "Indulge me, Bones."
Brennan dropped the debate, taking the last few steps to the body. The area had been taped off and she bent down, sliding beneath the tape. Booth stayed on the other side, watching as she knelt down over what appeared to be a mangled mess of disintegrating flesh and bone. Even to his layman's eyes he could tell that the body had been traumatized. Chunks of indiscernible remains littered the scene, and the bones themselves were cracked and marked.
"Wow." He said, resting his hands on his hips and turning slightly away. "Geez, Bones, what happened here?"
She didn't respond immediately as she went about her routine. Touching, looking, searching methodically. "The body appears to be severely mutilated." She finally said. "Pubic bone indicates the victim was male. Early twenties. Caucasian. There is extensive damage done to the bone that appears to be premortem."
"Yeah, but what happened to him?" Booth asked again, peering over the tape.
Brennan stood. "I need the body taken to the Jeffersonian." She told him, her voice robotic. "And I'll need samples of the water, the soil and the plant life."
"Yeah." Booth said. "Hey, Bones?"
She looked at him.
"We're pretty sure this is a serial case. There have been two other murders that fit this MO. Both were in North Carolina." He let his eyes wander over the scene, shuddering imperceptibly. "I'm guessing you're gonna want those files."
She nodded grimly. "As soon as possible." She agreed, accepting his outstretched hand when her foot sunk further than expected into the mud. He tugged her out, keeping his hand on her arm until they were on more solid ground.
"Hey, you ok, Bones?" He asked, glancing at her. Her face was tight, her eyes more distant than usual.
She looked up at him, her lips pressed together. "Booth, this victim… I have seen many terrible things in many terrible places, but I believe this is worthy of the concept of depravity."
~B/B~
Booth walked into the lab, his usual saunter replaced by a purposeful stride. His eyes immediately fell on Brennan as she worked alone on the forensics platform. Swiping his card, he was by her side in seconds.
"Where is everyone?" He asked.
She didn't look up. "Hodgins did not want Angela around the body since it triggered her heightened hormonal state. He is currently comforting her. And Clark attempted to assist me, but requested a break half an hour ago. Cam is discussing the press release." She told him, her hands remaining busy on the bones before her.
"Bones," He said, frustrated, dragging his hand over his face. "I don't want you working on this alone. Understand?"
"I'm fine, Booth." She told him. "I am perfectly capable of handling this case."
"Not alone." He said, stubbornly.
"Well, you're here now, aren't you?" She asked, finally looking at him. "So I'm not alone anymore."
"But when I'm not here…" He said, his tone serious.
"Do you have something for me?" She asked, going back to her work.
Booth let his eyes travel to the body for the first time since walk in and felt his own gag reflex kick in. He tore his eyes away so that he could focus on answering her question. "Yeah, I met with the agent who handled the North Carolina cases. Brought you the files." He handed them to her, giving her time to flip through them before he continued. "I gave her your preliminary report and she said the cases are connected but that this is the worst yet. She'll be keeping in touch with us during the case."
"Why?" Brennan asked, looking up from the files at him. "We don't need her."
"Yeah, but she'll want to follow through. Get some closure." He explained. "Don't worry about it, Bones. Look, could we maybe talk about this somewhere other than here?" He shot a cautious glance at the body once more.
"I need to continue working…" She began, then stopped when she saw his face. "If you could allow me five minutes to finish then I can give you a full update and we can discuss the case in my office."
"Fine." He agreed. "I'm going to go find Cam. I'll just meet you there, ok?"
She didn't answer him, intent on the body before her, and he sighed. Lightly, he reached out and laid a hand on her back, running it up to squeeze her shoulder. "Bones, it's ok to be upset." He told her gently. "This one… its ok if you're upset."
"I can do my job." She said, looking over her shoulder at him. Her cheek brushed against the back of his fingers.
"Yeah. Yeah, you can." He said, squeezing her shoulder once more before dropping his hand. "But doing your job doesn't mean you're not allowed to feel the weight of what you're doing, Bones." He gave her a sad smile and resisted the urge to kiss away the worry lines on her forehead. "Five minutes." He reminded her instead.
~B/B~
"Cam!" Booth caught the former coroner in route to her office.
"Seeley, now isn't the best time." She told him, continuing to walk, her heels clicking quickly across the floor. "I'm dealing with the press right now because strangely enough the whole world wants to know what Joe-Blow meant when he said we had a potential serial killer in D.C. How I love self-important, attention-seeking…"
He followed her into her office. "It's about Bones."
"What about her?" Cam asked, sitting down at her desk and making notes in a file she threw open.
"This is a serial case, Cam, and a bad one by the looks of it. I want extra security around here, I want someone with Bones while she's working and I want your promise that you'll call me if anything seems off at all." He demanded, his hands on his narrow hips. "Can you do that?"
Cam looked up at him. "Has something happened?" She asked, concern evident on her features.
"You mean other than the mutilated body that my partner is currently standing over? No, not other than that." He snapped.
"Ok," Cam said, thinking. "So then why the panic attack?" She asked him.
"Because with these cases something always happens." He explained, pacing in front of her desk. "Body parts in the mail, or threats, or car bombs or something…" He stopped and looked at Cam. "So can you just take some precautions or something?"
Cam leaned back in her seat, her arms folded, her head tilted. "Of course we'll be careful, but you're going to need to explain to me why you're already so upset. This is what we do, Seeley. We're used to this. You especially."
"It was our last serial case that sent her running to Indonesia." He said, frustration emanating from his tone. Not frustration at Cam or Brennan or himself, but the fact that they all found themselves in this situation again. "Yeah, Bones can handle some tough stuff. But it wears her down after awhile. Murder isn't her primary focus and she's still talking to that guy from the dig and… look, I just don't want anything getting to her, ok? I don't want anything sending her off running again." He looked at his old friend knowing she could see the plea in his eyes that he was trying to contain.
Cam stood, smiling sadly at him. "Seeley, I think we both know it wasn't just the serial case that made her run."
He looked down. "Can we not do this?"
"Hey, you brought it up." She said, reminding him that he was the one who'd burst into her office with his many demands. "I don't know what happened last year between the two of you, but it's kind of hard to work around here and not know that it was something. Something that scared her enough that when she got the opportunity to leave her job, her family, her home, she jumped at it."
"Thanks for the pep talk, Cam, but I really gotta go meet Bones…" He said, starting to turn away.
"Seeley." She called after him.
He paused in the doorway, reluctantly turning to meet her eyes. "Camille."
"Do you really think that I can't see that you love her?" Cam asked, smiling softly.
"Cam…" He warned her.
She held up her hands, shaking her head. "I know. It's not any of my business. I just can't help but wonder when you became the guy who doesn't fight for what he wants."
Frustration and sadness and anger all swept through him as he stepped back towards her, his finger in her face, as he leaned in to her. "You don't know what you're talking about." He told her, his voice gravelly. "I offered her everything. That's what happened last year. I told her I wanted her, that I'd wanted her from the moment that I laid eyes on her, and she told me that it would never happen."
"Seeley…" Cam tried to soothe him.
He stepped back from her and took a steadying breath. "Look, I'm sorry." He said, shaking his head. "This is not something I want to talk about, alright? I tried for her, she said no, we were figuring out how to work together again, and then, bam, she left and I left and now… " He shook his head again. "Now we're back and I think that maybe if I make things how they used to be she won't run again. Because…" He sighed. "Because I'm a sucker, Cam. I need to be around her even if she doesn't – can't- love me the way I love her."
"I'm sorry." Cam said sincerely. "I didn't mean…"
"Just help me take care of her, ok?" He said, looking down. "Throw up some extra security. Keep an eye on her when I can't." He met her eyes again. "Can you do that, Camille?"
She nodded. "Yes, yes, I can do that."
"Thanks." He said, starting to leave. He hesitated one last time, turning around and offering her a smile. "Sorry… didn't mean to let all that come out at you."
"No problem." She assured him, shaking her head. "Anytime. You know that."
~B/B~
She hated this feeling. She wasn't used to it. Cases were just cases, each of them a little different, but all somehow the same. It was about listening to what the bones told her, about reading the indicators and forming a picture of who the person was before they weren't anymore. It was what she did.
But when she saw that body…
The victim had been tortured. For a long time. Tortured and cut and hit and pierced and scraped until whoever had inflicted all that pain had decided they were done and dumped the body into muddy water that soaked the flesh straight off of the bones.
Booth was right. It upset her. She didn't know what that meant.
"Ok, sorry, got caught up." Booth said, bursting into her office and startling her from her thoughts. "Here's what we know. This guy, he thrives on torture. It's the pain that he likes. Profile is that he's in his forties, white, male – obviously, possible trauma in his background that leaves him seeking power that he gets from causing pain to others."
"Psychology." She muttered, knowing that meant there would be an element to this case that she simply didn't understand.
"Yeah, well… there's gotta be some of that when it's a case like this." He said, glancing over at her. "We're going to need Sweets to look at the profile and give his notes on it."
She nodded, folding her arms across her chest. "It will take me a great deal of time to catalogue all the marks on the bones." She told him. "We need to obtain a clear picture of what exactly happened to the victim. Hodgins will look at any particles or trace evidence that we find, but I expect there will not be a significant amount since it appears that the body was immersed in some sort of cleaning agent before it was disposed of."
"How bad is it?" He asked quietly.
She lifted her eyes to his. "There are extensive marks and fractures on the bone. Some indicate beating, others indicate cutting, all of them indicate that the victim was alive when they occurred."
"Bones…" He stepped forward and she could tell he was going to comfort her but didn't know if she wanted him to or not. Accepting his comfort meant admitting that she was irrationally affected by this case, but not accepting it meant not being in his arms. Which was exactly where she wanted to be.
She opted for diversion, avoidance. Pushing away from her desk where she was leaning, she moved around it, flipping through paperwork as her cover. "I'm not sure how long it will take to obtain an ID." She told him as he stood awkwardly in the middle of the room. "Angela reacted very poorly to the sight of the body and to what our preliminary findings were. She hasn't come out of her office yet."
"Should you go talk to her?" Booth asked, shoving his hands in his pockets.
That was the same question she'd been asking herself since Angela had broken down. "Hodgins is with her…" She said, hoping he would tell her what to do.
But suddenly the decision was taken out of her hands as Angela strode into her office, her brown eyes red-rimmed, her face tear-streaked. Hodgins was right behind her.
"Angie, sweetheart." He said softly, resting his hand on her back when she came to a stop.
"No." Angela said, shaking her head at him before turning to Brennan. "You have to find this guy." She demanded. "You have to find him right now and you have to make him pay for what he did to that person. To that human being. You have to, because if you don't, I'm going to have to bring this baby into a world where people like that exist, and I don't know how I can do that." Tears fell from Angela's eyes. "I really don't."
"Angela," Brennan stepped forward and pulled her friend into a hug. "Please don't cry. I promise you, I will find him. Booth and I, we will find him."
"What if you don't?" Angela asked, her words muffled against Brennan's shoulder.
"We will." Booth said, and Brennan was grateful for the confidence behind his words.
"I hate this." Angela said, drawing away and wiping at her tears. She allowed Hodgins to slide his arm around her and pull her close. "I hate this so much. All of it."
"I know." Brennan said, wishing she knew what to say. "We all do." She glanced at Booth, found him watching her closely and met his gaze.
Angela's hand ran over her small bump. "I don't know how you do it." She said, leaning into Hodgins and placing her head on his shoulder. "How can you face it?"
Brennan wondered why Booth appeared to be waiting for her answer as much as Angela was. Taking a deep breath, she shrugged. "I have to face it. I have to do what needs to be done to make sure that he can't hurt anymore people. " She pulled her gaze away from Booth and back to Angela. "I have to give the victim back his voice, like you give him his face, Ange. Sometimes it's hard, but in the end its all worth it. In the end it makes the world a better place. For all of us. Even those who aren't born yet."
Through her tears, Angela nodded. "Yeah, I get that, I guess. But that doesn't mean its not awful." She said.
"Come on," Hodgins said gently. "I'm taking you home." Keeping his arm around her, he attempted to guide her away.
"No, Jack." She said, laying her hand on his arm and taking a deep breath. "Just to my office. He'll need a face soon. That's my job."
"Ange…" Brennan said, wishing her friend would listen to reason. "Maybe you should let Hodgins..."
"No." Angela said stubbornly, if a little shakily. "I want to help make my baby's world better." Angela's eyes flicked to Booth as she left. "You'd better keep her safe." Angela said, threat low in her voice, before allowing Hodgins to guide her out of the room.
When she had gone, Brennan let out a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"Hey." Booth said, his hand finding her back, pulling her in. He wrapped his arms around her and this time she welcomed the comfort as she willingly laid her head on his broad chest, her hands resting on his back. "You ok?"
She curled closer to him, holding on tightly. "Yes." She said into his shoulder.
"I will, you know." He said, his cheek against her hair. "Keep you safe. I promise."
"I know." She told him, drawing away reluctantly, afraid of his ability to pick up on body language and therefore his ability to realize that she wanted to keep holding on to him forever. "I just want to get started." She said. "I want to make sure that this man is never safe again."
"We can do that." He told her.
~B/B~
"Angela?" Brennan called out to her friend as she stepped into Angela's office.
"Hey, Sweetie." Angela's tired voice responded. "Over here."
Brennan made her way over and watched as Angela entered data into the Angelator. "I was just stopping by to see if you'd made progress with the facial reconstruction of the victim."
"Just inputting the last few variables." Angela said, her voice steadier than before, but the usual enthusiasm was missing.
A moment passed and the digital representation of the face appeared.
"He was handsome." Angela said sadly.
"That is excellent work, Angela." Brennan said sincerely. "We need to run this through the computer, see if we can come up with any matches."
"Sure." Angela said, nodding. She put down the equipment in her hand. "Look, Bren, I'm sorry about earlier. It's just…"
"I know." Brennan said, shaking her head. "Your hormones are imbalanced due to your condition and the case is significantly more brutal and offensive than the average crime. Your reaction is understandable."
Angela gave a faint smile. "Thanks." She said. "So how are you and Booth coming along? Do you have any leads?"
Brennan sighed. "We have the bodies of the victims and the profile, but that is essentially all. Booth continues to remind me that serial cases are different. They aren't always solved easily." She folded her arms and shrugged. "I find it very difficult."
"It is difficult." Angela said, laying her hand on Brennan's arm. "For you too. That's good, Bren. Its good to feel things."
Brennan let out a short laugh. "I'm tired of feeling things. Its all I do lately. Feel things."
"About Booth." Angela said. There was no question in her voice.
"About Booth." Brennan confirmed reluctantly. "I spent a great deal of Saturday with him and Parker. Things felt as though they were back to normal between us. It was… very pleasant."
"But?" Angela asked, tilting her head.
"But it was all very friendly." Brennan admitted. "I should be happy. Relieved."
"No, you shouldn't." Angela said bluntly. "Why would you feel happy about friendship when you want more?"
"There are very valid indicators that more between us would be an unwise decision. Nothing has changed from last year." Brennan told her friend, wondering if she could force herself to believe something just by saying it out loud over and over.
Angela sighed and reached out to squeeze Brennan's arm. "Or maybe nothing has changed… except you." She suggested. "Love you, Sweetie, but I'm in serious need of a bathroom break." She patted her belly. "Inchworm here is sitting on my bladder."
Angela walked out of the room and Brennan rested her hip against the Angelator, pursing her lips as she considered her friend's words. She hadn't changed… had she?
"There you are." Booth's voice interrupted her thoughts for the second time that day and she looked up to see him leaning in the doorway. "Agent Lyndon is here and she wants to talk to us about the earlier cases.
"Is that a new suit?" She asked, changing the subject abruptly.
"What?" He looked at her in surprise. "Yeah, it is. Bulked up in Afghanistan. Old ones don't fit so well anymore."
She nodded. "It looks good on you." She told him, heading for the door.
His expression lost its business-like determination as a smile broke out over his face. "Thanks, Bones." He said, bumping her shoulder with his as they headed to her office where Brennan assumed the agent was waiting. "Anytime you want me to stand still for a minute so you can get a good look, just let me know."
She rolled her eyes. "Your belt buckle has never been more accurate." She informed him.
"Hey, I'm just trying to be nice. If I can make your day better, you know I will." He teased her.
"You should stop talking, Booth." She said as they walked into her office. "Agent Lyndon, I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan." She said, addressing the woman who had been sitting on her couch but who stood when the partners had barged into the room.
"Nice to meet you, Dr. Brennan." The agent held out her hand for Brennan to shake, but Brennan didn't notice as she was busy sending another glare towards the still grinning Booth. Clearing her throat, Agent Lyndon laughed nervously and dropped her hand.
"I'm sure we'll all get along very well." Lyndon said, overt enthusiasm injected into each word.
"You can't possibly know that." Brennan said, taking a seat.
"Oh." Lyndon said, deflated. She glanced questioningly at Booth.
He shrugged. "She doesn't like assumptions." He told the newcomer.
"Sure, ok." Lyndon said, crossing her legs and sending them both bright smiles. "No assumptions. Got it. Great. Let's get started."
~B/B~
Alright, now I know that you're tempted to simply click that little arrow and go straight to the next chapter because you're just sitting on the edge of your seat, BUT wouldn't it be lovely if you reviewed both chapters? I know I would think so. ;-)
