The Face with Two Skeletons

By: Tropicwhale

Disclaimer: You know the drill….

Author Talk: I KNOW. I KNOW. I'm late. Well, better fanfic than other things….and if you didn't get that joke you shouldn't be reading my work as you're too young. :P. Anyway, I didn't finish "Sometime Around Midnight" but am still writing it while I continue to write this one. SO, if Zack says things like "Bloody Hell" or Xander (if you are reading "Midnight") starts babbling in technospeak...oops. :P I found more chapters hidden in the outline so now this story is about 47 chapters long instead of 42. Neat, huh?

PS: My dog died…I had him for twelve years which is the majority of my life and his and I loved him greatly. He wasn't really a dog so much as a half cat-half pig that was the friendliest thing on the planet if you weren't a cat, a rabbit or a squirrel (and that one fox on my graduation day…fucking dog.) As such "Skeletons" and "Sometime Around Midnight" are both dedicated to Pepper. He had cancer and arthritis and was an old dog who lived a life that was full of hugs and belly rubs…it was time for him to pass on….doesn't make the lost any less felt.

Dedicated: Pepper 1996-2009, love ya, ya mutt.

Chapter Twenty Five

Zack was bored. Even he knows only so many digits of pi to could out in his head while sitting on Booth's couch watching daytime television on Booth's television. Dr. Saroyan had told Zack, on his return to the Jeffersonian, that he could take the rest of the week off. He had tried to argue. He wasn't affected by the fact a gun was pulled on him and he could compartmentalize. She glared at him and had Hodgins take him back to Booth's. Zack wasn't fooled. He knew he was no longer allowed near either case. It was common sense.

It wasn't all bad. He had a free week off. Booth would bring home treatises and journal articles from Dr. Brennan and Sodoku puzzle books from Hodgins and Angela but in the end…Zack was bored. Booth wouldn't talk about either case and had said that his bosses, in the FBI, had agreed to let Zack stay with Booth as a person of interest in the murder cases of both Anne Zerbrowski and Olivia Oscarmann as well as his house blowing up. Booth had tried to talk to Zack about what happened in Alabama but soon gave up because of Zack's general noncommittalness about the matter. Booth gave Zack hurt eyes and left for work and Zack felt guilty about the whole thing. This is why he didn't like emotions. They clouded issues and seemingly simple situations. It wasn't fair to those around him if he let his anger at being kept out of the loop, not being able to work, and Booth….well, Zack couldn't really blame Booth for working as hard as he was to solve the two murders. The faster Mrs. Oscarmann and Anne's murders were solved the faster Zack could go back to work…which is where he excelled. He liked working. It was fun.

There was knocking at the door. Zack got up to answered it. He looked through the peephole to see Ms. Caroline Julian. He opened the door. "Yes, Ms. Julian?" The older black woman really did scare Zack.

"Dr. Addy." She lumbered into Booth's apartment.

"Agent Booth isn't home."

"I know. I just saw him at the Diner not two hours ago." Zack's brow furrowed then he shut the door.

"Dr. Saroyan already informed me that I can't work on either case." Zack said. Ms. Julian looked at him. "Can I get you something to drink? I think Booth has some soda or…water…."

"Water's fine." Zack went into the kitchen to fix Ms. Julian a glass of water. "Little ice, Dr. Addy." Zack added ice from the ice tray in the freezer. When he came back out to the living room Ms. Julian was sitting on the couch. He sat awkwardly next to her.

"No offense, Ms. Julian…but why are you here?" Ms. Julian took a sip of water and set it on a magazine about forensics that was sitting on the coffee table.

"Dr. Addy" she stopped and gave a good look at Zack. "Calm down. You look ready to jump if I so much as say 'boo'. It's making me nervous."

"Sorry. I'm a little bit afraid of you." Ms. Julian smiled.

"Really?"

"Yes."

"See, there's a sadistic side of me that is a little happy about that." She picked up her water and took another sip.

"I didn't kill anybody."

"Guilty conscious, Dr. Addy?"

"It's happening all over again." She looked curious.

"What is?"

"Back in Michigan…everyone thought I….they thought I killed Bradley….or something…even though Mr. Oscarmann said that his 'son was gone.' and he's 'the one that pulled the trigger'. They thought it was my fault and…treated me like I had some contagious disease. My family was just starting to get over that and started inviting me to Michigan for Christmas and Thanksgiving and this happens." Zack looked at Ms. Julian. "It's…." He took a deep breath to calm down. Emotions blurred the facts. "The situations are very similar. I don't like being treated like a murderer or a victim."

"Well, cheri, you kinda elude the same vibes as a puppy." Zack looks at her.

"I'm not a dog. I'm a human. I should be treated with the same respect as everyone else gets. I am also not a child."

"I never-"

"You're being nice to me. Booth is speaking to me directly and letting me stay at his house. Hodgins looks at me like I'm a foreign contamiant in his food. Angela is overly-sympathetic and even Dr. Brennan and Dr. Saroyan are both treating me like I'm going to break down in tears or something. I'm not! I may be emotionally immature but I can take care of myself. I have two doctorates. I am an expert in removing flesh from bone without damage to the skeleton. I got hired as Dr. Brennan's assistant on the merits of my mind and my abilities to compartmentalize. Yes, my house was blown up and yes I had a gun drawn on me but neither of those events means I can't do my job."

"The passion of the young. Hmmph." She shifted in her seat. "Wish I still had that." She shifts against. "As it is….darn it! Your little rant made me forget why I came here."

"It wasn't a rant. I was stating facts."

"Stating facts passionately."

"I would have been a bad lawyer."

"Oh, I know that."

Elsewhere……Dadadum

Brennan slams the adoption papers onto Booth's desk triumphantly. "I found Anne Zerbrowski, formally Anne Riley's adoption papers." She says smugly before sitting down in one of the chairs at the front of his desk. Booth looked up from whatever it was that he was working on.

"What? How?"

"I have friends in high places, apparently." Booth hated it when she did smug.

"I hate it when you're smug." Brennan flashed him a grin that could light up a room. He picks up the folder. "By the way…I found Olivia Oscarmann's adoption papers." Brennan's smile deflated and Booth turned up the wattage on his own charm smile.

"What?"

"Both our victims were adopted and…." he drums on the tabletop. "Their biological mother is still alive."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Where is she?"

"Actually….she lives in Richmond." Brennan tilted her head sideways. "I know what you're thinking."

"I'm thinking that it's odd that she would put her twin daughters up for adoption and be within a two hour drive from where their bodies were discovered."

"That's what I thought you were thinking."

"So…are we going to check it out?"

"Absolutely. But, first…let me call Zack." Brennan smiles at him. "He gets bored." Booth explained. Brennan's eyebrows raised up. "It's not like we're a couple or anything."

"I never said you were."

"I'm not gay."

"Booth...would you rather Zack move in with me?"

"No. He's fine on my couch. Besides, he has a crush on you. He might think that you letting him stay with you might lead to something more."

"Like sexual intercourse?"

"Yes. Yes, Bones, that's exactly what I was hoping for you to not say aloud."

"Zack knows that, as his employer, it would be ethically remiss of me to engage in any form of personal intercourse that would affect our professional environment."

"Bones…knowing something to be true and hoping for something else is completely different."

"I hate psychology."

"I know."

Author After Talk: It's two am. I'm going to bed. Enjoy!!

Tropic