(The Finder)

A/N: This is a reminder that this story is AU.

I really don't own Bones.

Ooooooooooooooo

The guest bedroom in Brennan's apartment was finally set up with Parker's things. Satisfied, Booth collapsed the last box and placed it in a pile near the front door. He had bought some new Minecraft sheets for the bed replacing the Toy Story sheets Parker used to have in the other apartment. The boy was ten and his taste in Disney movies was changing. "My boy is growing up." Collecting the empty boxes, he carried them out of the apartment down to the basement and placed them in a recycle bin located in the back of the room.

Back in the apartment, he picked up his sports bag and carried it into Parker's room. After he moved his shoes from the floor of the closet and placed them on the shelf above his jackets and suits, he placed the sports bag in the closet next to the bag containing his sports equipment. "Okay, not bad." The closet door closed, he knew he would have to try to keep his sports stuff in this room so it wasn't in Brennan's way. He knew she was very tidy and he didn't want her to regret asking him to move in.

Making sure his TV was hooked up to the cable behind the dresser, he turned it on, found that it was working and turned it off. He knew that Brennan wasn't a big fan of TV and he knew he'd have to try to watch the games as quietly as possible. He knew he got overly enthusiastic during the games he watched and he needed to tone that down. The last thing he wanted was to make her regret letting him move in with her. "We can make this work . . . it is going to work. If I have to, I can walk down the street to the sports bar and watch games there. We'll figure it out."

Ooooooooooooooo

Walter Sherman had been a pain in Booth's back side since the day he'd met him. He felt that The Finder lacked compassion and crossed lines he shouldn't. Booth was certain that Sherman lacked a modulator between his brain and his tongue and that just made Booth hate him more. "What do you mean Walter asked if you'd sleep with him?" Furious, Booth exhaled deeply and tried to calm down. "That guy asked you that in Florida and you said no and just because he found your school medal and a picture of your mom he thought that meant you'd changed your mind?"

"I told him no and he accepted my answer, Booth." Brennan now regretted mentioning it to her partner. "Since we are in a personal relationship and I know you don't like him, I thought it would amuse you if you knew that Walter was still interested in me and I rejected him."

"Bones . . . It's just the lack of respect towards you when guys hit on you, I hate that . . . I told him we're in a relationship, but does he listen? Hell no. You're mine and he can't have you." Booth saw that she was now annoyed with him. "My affections belong to you and your affections belong to me. That's all I meant . . . Short of hitting him, I guess you handled it pretty good."

Slowly nodding her head, Brennan decided that Booth wasn't really trying to claim her as his property. "Yes . . . anyway, Walter found my science fair medal and the picture of my mother and though I don't know how he did it, I am grateful. He brought it to me because he said he was trying to impress me. It did impress me, but not enough to ruin my relationship with you."

"Maybe if you'd hit him in the nuts that would have impressed him too. I know it would have impressed me." Unapologetic for what he'd said, Booth shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, it's done and you handled it." Booth was going to be glad when Sherman found the piece of nautical chart from the Santa Esperanza. Too many people were interested in looking for a ship full of Spanish treasure and it was interfering with his murder investigation.

Ooooooooooo

The treasure was found and Walter decided to hand it over to the Catholic Church instead of giving it to the FBI. Booth was furious, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. At least they had the murderer in custody and that was the important part. "Walter better stay in Florida if he knows what's good for him."

Sitting next to Booth at the Founding Fathers, Brennan decided to show Booth the medal that Walter had found for her. "I never thought I'd see this again."

Booth saw the look of sadness on her face and he knew Brennan was thinking about her mother. "I'm glad you got the medal back and the picture." He hated Walter, but he did appreciate that The Finder had used his finding powers and had done a good thing for his partner.

"Me too." Brennan stared at the medal and smiled. "It's nice to have it back. It's one of the few things I possess from my childhood."

Oooooooooooooo

A body was found lying next to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Booth felt that the veterans the memorial represented had been disrespected by the murderer. Glancing at some of the names on the wall next to the body, Booth wasn't sure if the murder victim was connected to one of the names listed, but he knew he would eventually find out if he was. Turning to face the policeman who had waited for the FBI to show up, Booth pointed at the body. "Were there any witnesses to the body dump? Did you or anyone else see anyone near the body?"

"No sir, Agent Booth." Pointing at the wall next to them, Officer Carey shook his head. "The brother of Jesse Crow dropped by to leave some flowers early this morning because it was Jesse's birthday and that's when he found the body. James Crow called 911 to report what he'd found. He waited for me to arrive, I took down his contact information and I let him go to work. He's a radiologist at George Washington University Hospital. He said you can call him anytime . . . He was pretty upset about the whole thing."

"I don't blame him." Booth took the card containing the contact information and placed it in his notebook. "What time did James find the body?"

Checking his notebook, Carey made sure he got the information right. "James arrived at around 5 this morning. He found the body and checked to see if the guy was breathing, so he did touch the body on the neck and on his right wrist. I mean, you can see the victim was shot, but James just wanted to make sure . . . Once he saw that the man was dead he called 911 and waited for help to arrive. I got here about 5:18 or so and I should mention there was an elderly couple who entered the memorial when I did, but I didn't see anyone leave. James said he saw someone leaving through the entrance of the memorial when he got here, but he didn't really look at the man. James was in a hurry to deliver the flowers so he could go to work. He said the guy was Caucasian, but that's all he could tell me. The man wasn't wearing anything unusual and he didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave. He was walking in a normal manner."

Brennan looked up and interrupted Booth's conversation with the police officer. "The victim was shot in the forehead and the bullet exited the skull in the back so the shooter faced the victim when he fired the shot. Since there is very little blood under the victim we can assume he wasn't killed here . . . It seems to me that the murderer took a lot of risks placing the body here."

Shrugging his shoulders, Booth glanced at the path next to the memorial and then over the top of the wall. Since there were no witnesses to the body dump, he knew that there might be a reason for that. Pointing towards the trees in the distance, Booth commented, "The murderer could have carried the body from the trees over there and dropped it here then walked back to the trees or he could have just jumped down and followed the path out of the area."

"Once I'm done here, I'm going to help the techs search the area above the memorial including the trees." Hodgins was searching for particulates around the body, but so far all he'd found was a couple of crickets near the wall and some ants and some flies on the body. "I'd say the body hasn't been here very long since there is very little insect activity."

"Alright." Puzzled, Booth stared at the body and frowned. "It seems to me I remember seeing this guy somewhere, I just don't remember where."

The body ready to be transported, Cam glanced at Booth. "There isn't any ID on the body. Interestingly enough, his pockets are empty, so whoever left the victim here didn't want us to ID the man right away or it's possible the victim didn't have anything in his pockets when he died . . . I'll get Angela to run a facial recognition when we get back. Hopefully, he's in the system. I hope he doesn't work for the FBI."

"Yeah, me too." Booth was certain he'd seen the victim before and that worried him.

Ooooooooooooooo

"Christopher Pelant . . . he wasn't an FBI agent, Booth." Angela pointed at a picture of the victim on the Angelatron and shook her head. "He was a computer hacktivist . . ."

"Yeah, now I remember." Booth glared at the picture of the victim. "That guy hacked into the computers at the Department of Defense and endangered our military who were stationed overseas. He was given a few years of house arrest for computer fraud. He should have gone to prison for what he did. He got off easy as far as I'm concerned."

Staring at the photo, Cam shook her head. "He was murdered so maybe someone felt the same way you did and decided to give our victim a harsher sentence."

"I despise vigilantism." Brennan studied the picture of the victim. "The court sentenced him and that should have been that."

Booth agreed. "Yeah, well now we have to find the murderer." Checking his watch, Booth knew he needed to leave soon if he was going to get to the meeting with the Deputy Director on time. "I got to go. Angela, send me what you have. I'll contact James Crow and get him to come in for an interview."

Once Booth was gone, Hodgins cleared his throat. "I hope it wasn't a veteran that killed Pelant. That is going to upset Booth."

"The body was dumped at the memorial for a reason . . . Booth is going to be upset because I suspect that it was a veteran or a relative of one. Pelant endangered a lot of our service people overseas and didn't care." Cam was certain that the body dump had been a message. She just didn't know who the message was for.

Ooooooooooooo

Something different. Let me know what you think of my story. Thanks.