Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

Author's Notes: This story was requested by TLWtlw. It is based on the television show Bones. This is not a crossover. This is a what if Rhett was a forensic anthropologist and Scarlett was an FBI agent. I had to switch the lead characters to make it work in my mind. Rhett had to be the smart one and Scarlett had to be the streetwise one.

My main stumbling block was that I didn't think that I could think up the cases or the forensic data, therefore I am quite proudly stealing from the actual show and some true crimes that I know of.

The show Bones ran from September 13, 2005, through March 28, 2017. I did watch the show in the beginning, but as I grew older, I began to watch less and less television. Although I would watch an episode every now and then when I was visiting my daughter. (She is a huge fan. She even gave her youngest daughter the middle name Temperance.) Of course, she would only allow me to watch it if I promised not to ask any questions. (I kept asking questions about the changes that had occurred since the last time I watched the show.) I ended up not watching the show because I was confused by not having the background information.

To get into the right mind set to write this story I binged watched season one. At least, the first half.

I have used a couple of the characters from the show Bones, Jack Hodgins, Dan Goodman and Sam Cullen

Chapter One

March of 2024

As the man walked across the parking lot to the Jeffersonian Building, he did not look left or right as he crossed the street. No one would dare to hit him because he had such an air of confidence. As he walked along, he saw no one. There were people around him, but he didn't see them. His mind was on his schedule for the day. He was a very organized man. Someone unkind might have said he was anal, but that trait was what made him good at his job. He was walking behind a woman with a beautiful figure. He might often have his mind on corpses, but part of his body was still alive. He had spent the last ten years immersed in his work, but he was still a man. A young man at that. The man was only thirty-eight.

He never smiled, He never idly talked with anyone except his one friend, Miguel. Miguel knew never to bring up subjects that Rhett would rather not remember. All his other conversations were always only business.

His name was Rhett Butler. He was a renown forensic anthropologist. All the institutions were wanting his services, but only the Jeffersonian could afford him. He was that brilliant and that smart that he demanded a high price tag. The Jeffersonian ponied up the money. Every year he got another wonderful, but expensive piece of equipment. He had even gotten his friend Miguel a holographic machine.

Rhett watched the woman walk into the building and head upstairs. He headed downstairs to his labs. He passed a placard that was over his head that identified the labs as: Medico-Legal Lab Forensic and Anthropology.

When Rhett entered the lab Emily, his assistant, said, "Dr. Goodman wants to see you ASAP."

"I don't have time for meetings with Dr. Goodman. I have skeletons that need to be identified."

"I'm just delivering the message."

"I might as well go. If I don't, he will come down here and contaminate my lab."

"Yes, Dr. Butler."

As Rhett walked into Dr. Goodman's office, he said, "Make this fast. I have things to do."

Dr. Goodman was an imposing man who had a superior air about him. It was understandable. He had always been the best in his field. He stood up and with his hand indicated the woman in the room, "Dr. Butler, Scarlett O'Hara. You will be helping her with her current case."

"What do you mean help her with her case? I have better things to do than help some police officer.

The woman stood up and Rhett realized she was the woman he had followed into the building. As great as her body was, her face was even more amazing. She was tall for a woman probably five feet ten inches. She had long black hair and the greenest eyes he had ever seen. She said, "But I do need your help or at least the help of a brilliant forensic anthropologist."

"Why?"

"We found a body stuffed into a fifty-five-gallon drum."

"Why can't your crime lab handle this? Are they incompetent?"

The woman smiled and said, "They are quite competent. They have their moments when they are outstanding, but dealing with remains that are at least thirty years old is not their strong suit. I understand it is yours though."

"Find someone else."

Dr. Goodman said, "Dr. Butler, the FBI needs…."

Rhett turned to the woman and said, "You are an FBI agent?"

"Yes, Special Agent O'Hara. Would you like to see my badge?"

"Yes."

Scarlett grabbed her tiny purse from the couch she had been sitting on and took out her credentials. She did not flash them at Dr. Butler like she did most people. She already knew he would want to study them to be sure she was who she said she was. She appraised the man in front of her. He was a handsome man with a good form. She liked his mustache, and she usually didn't like mustaches. He was a tall man of probably six feet. When his eyes had born into her, she had notice they were an extremely dark brown. The man had ebony hair like her. She already liked the man. He was just like her. 'Don't trust anyone. Verify and confirm.'

As Scarlett took her credentials out, Rhett saw the gun in her purse. When she saw him looking at her gun, she said, "I only need one shot to put a bullet in a man's heart."

The statement didn't scare Rhett because he thought it was more bravado than fact. He took the credentials from Scarlett. He did indeed study them. He looked at her and said, "How long have you been an FBI agent?"

"Five years."

"You must be good to already be assigned to the Washington office."

"I am the best. I graduated first in my class therefore got to select my initial assignment."

"Where is your partner?"

"Intellectual differences."

"Like what?"

"Like I had some intelligence and he had none."

Rhett handed the credentials back to Scarlett. He said, "As much as I would like to help, I have a full case load therefore…."

Dr. Goodman said, "Helping the FBI is part of your job."

"Since when?"

"Since always. Look in your job description."

"No, I would remember that."

"Remember that sentence at the end that said render aid to other government agencies as needed."

Rhett said, "This is not what I thought that meant. Nonetheless, bring the drum in."

Scarlett said, "Dr. Butler, I understand you have a great eye for detail therefore I would like you to accompany me to the location that the drum is at."

"No. No. That would be a major waste of my time."

"Very well, but if the men that bring it in destroy evidence, that will be on your head. This case is going to be difficult to solve without losing any of the evidence."

"Very well. Let me tell my assistant that I will be out of the lab for a while."

"I will meet you at my truck. It is a red Ford Bronco."

Rhett went back to his lab and told Emily, "Put the bones back up, I have to go help some stupid FBI agent."

"Yes, Sir."

As Emily watch Rhett walk away, she thought, 'He is going to be in a bad mood when he gets back because he will have wasted his entire morning on something he doesn't deem important.'

Rhett found Scarlett's red Bronco easily enough, but he hardly recognized the woman standing beside it. She was wearing a Vee neck T-shirt, and he could see the top of her breasts, a pair of tight jeans and a blazer. Her hair was up in a ponytail. He said, "You changed clothes."

"They are right. You are brilliant."

"How did you do that?"

"Do you not understand how people change clothes? Get in. I will explain on our way to the dump site." When Rhett opened the passenger side door, a Styrofoam coffee cup fell out. She said, "Would you pick that up? I don't want to be a litter bug."

Rhett picked the cup up and said, "Where shall I put it?"

As Scarlett pushed everything that was on the passenger seat onto the floor, she said, "Just toss it in the back seat and get in."

"I'm not getting in there. There might be something in one of those cups that might ruin my shoes or my suit."

"Don't worry about it. Just get in."

"I will have you know that this is a three-thousand-dollar suit, and these shoes were a thousand dollars." When Rhett saw Scarlett's expression of amazement, he added, "They were handcrafted in Italy."

"If you ever go to a crime scene again you are going to have to dress down."

"What are you going to do about this trash?"

Scarlett reached in the backseat and grabbed a plastic shopping bag. She dumped what was in it on the back seat and handed Rhett the bag. He noticed that the bag had contained a bunch of snacks. She said, "If it bothers you, clean it up."

Rhett stared at Scarlett. Finally, he took the bag and started shoving trash into it. He said, "You knew you were going to pick me up today. Why didn't you clean your truck out last night?"

"I was going to then Ashley dropped by, so I did other things instead."

Rhett knew by the way Scarlett had said it that this woman and Ashley had sex last night. He guessed Scarlett was a lesbian. His only thought was such a waste. He offered her the shopping bag. She didn't take it. She said, "Be a dear and put it in the trash can over there."

Rhett walked over to the trash can and deposited the shopping bag. As he walked back, he thought, 'I don't know how, but I am going to find a way to never have to help the FBI with their cases again.'

After Rhett was seated, Scarlett said, "Buckle up, Buttercup."

"I have a PhD. I would appreciate you using my title and my last name"

With a smile, Scarlett said, "Okay. Buckle up, Dr. Buttercup."

Rhett scowled at Scarlett. He didn't buckle up. Scarlett smiled and said, "Your choice."

Scarlett backed out of the parking spot with incredible speed. As she took the turns, she didn't slow down at all. By the time the truck had left the parking area, Rhett had buckled up. Once he was buckled up, she slowed her speed down and started driving more normally. She smirked at him. He looked daggers at her.

Scarlett was sure it was going to be an expression she saw a lot until this case was solved. She didn't care. Dr. Butler was way too conceited in his own self-worth. She figured it was because everyone in his world was constantly either kissing his ass or playing up to him. She didn't care. She had a bet with her boss. He had wanted to deem the case unsolvable and wash their hands of it. She was determined to solve the case. Her solving the case would make her star rise even higher and she was already a rising star in the FBI Washington Office.

After a few minutes Rhett said, "Why did you change clothes?"

"Did you really think I could investigate crime in that get-up? I just wear it to impress men. It never fails."

"I was not impressed."

Scarlett turned to look at Rhett with a knowing smile and said, "It never fails."

"Can you keep your eyes on the road? You are going to get us killed. Where did you change clothes? You couldn't have gotten your clothes and walked back to the building than walked back to your truck in the short amount of time you had."

"That would be correct. I really am impressed by your intelligence in just this short amount of time. I changed in the parking lot."

"You changed your clothes in public!"

"Why not? Everything was covered up."

Rhett was flabbergasted, but her logic was sound. He said, "The brassiere goes all the way back to ancient Greece. Women wore apodesmos or breast-bands. It was a band of wool or linen that was wrapped across the breast and tied in the back."

"That certainly would be itchy."

"What?"

Scarlett smiled and said, "The wool."

"I suppose. Roman women wore breast-bands while playing sports."

"Like a sports bra."

"I suppose. Why were you assigned a murder case? That usually isn't the FBI's jurisdiction."

"Normally no, but the drum was found at Arlington Cemetery. When the groundskeeper found it, he attempted to lift it and he couldn't. He opened it up to find out what was inside it. That's when he found a skeleton. He closed it right up and call the police. When the police detective learned it was on federal land, he kicked it to us."

"Who else has open the drum?"

"Just the groundskeeper that I know of."

"We will need to fingerprint the drum to make sure the groundskeeper is the only one. We must eliminate any contamination."

"Agreed."

After a few minutes, Rhett said, "Snacks are a result of the Industrial Revolution. Because of the Industrial Revolution people started eating three meals a day at set times. Before that people just ate when they got hungry. Because they were only eating three times a day, people got hungry in between meals. Popcorn and peanuts were originally from South America."

"Kind of like that song."

'Huh?"

"Popcorn and peanuts and cracker jacks."

Rhett just stared at Scarlett and continued speaking, "It wasn't until the early twentieth century that process foods were introduced as pre-packaged items filled with preservatives. The word snack is from Middle Dutch. It was a verb that originally meant 'bite or snap.'

"You are very fascinating."

Somehow Rhett didn't think she meant it as a compliment, but he couldn't figure out why he thought that.

Author's Notes: Rhett and Scarlett's first case is based on the real-life murder and investigation of Reyna Marroquin. Her body was found thirty years after her death in the crawl space of Howard B. Elkins former home. It was quite the forensic investigation.