A/N – Alright this chapter will follow the first part of the pilot episode with a bunch of changes in attitude and things like that. Basically the crime will come from the show but everything else it up in the air at the moment. Hope you like how I decided to do this.
Brennan sat in the highly uncomfortable chair across from one of her new bosses. Doctor Goodman was the head of the institute which made him her bosses, boss, and before she could meet the team she would be working with first she had to have “the talk” with him. She pretty much already knew everything he was going to say but at the same time it was slightly nerve wracking to be there. She didn’t care about what the man thought of her, but at the same time she respected him and his reputation within the scientific community.
She’d read several papers that the man had published several years ago and had found his findings while theatrical and steeped in supposition very entertaining and intriguing. As most archaeologists did, doctor Goodman tended to turn the facts he found into a story to be told. While he was less scientific than most of the other professionals that she admired there was just something about him that always spoke to her. It was the way he would tell the stories of the long dead and nearly forgotten that would nearly bring them all back to life if only for a few moments and then they would live on forever in the imagination of the reader. It was a lot like what her family would do when they would become someone else. The person you were becoming had to be real to you after all or the “performance” would simply fall flat.
She could tell from the way he was sitting, without a twitch or a fidget, that he was trying to wait her out. He thought to try and make her take the lead in the conversation to try and psycho analyze her actions along with her reactions and responses. Normally when people did things like that she would just sit as still as a statue and wait even longer herself, but for some reason she decided to give a little with this man.
She could tell from the set of his shoulders that he was tense, worried even, and she knew why. She worried him, this place these people were his, and now she was a potentially dangerous unknown being thrown into the mix likely without his imput or consent. She understood that and would take pity on him.
“Doctor Goodman, I understand that you don’t want me here and I understand why you don’t want me here. To be honest I don’t really wish to be here either, but I am here and I plan to make the best of a bad situation and I can only hope that everyone else here feels the same way.”
There she had given him the opening that he wanted, now all that was left was to see what direction he took after he walked through it. His next sentence would tell her a great deal about him, and his thoughts and feelings towards her. Was he going to be an ally, an enemy, or something in between.
“I understand that you were given about as much of a choice in the matter as we were, and I find myself wanting to apologize for that even though I had no part to play in your current situation. I was given a copy of your records to peruse before your arrival along with a list of the current charges leveled against you. I see from that, from your history, that you are extremely intelligent and your qualifications leave nothing to be desired. Had you chosen a different life path I feel certain you would have likely come to be here of your own free will.
“Please do not misunderstand me when I say this next bit, but I feel it must be said. Your past does show intellect as I said but it also shows a willingness to tread where many others fear to go. Here at the Jeffersonian we dwell within the light of life only to have to continuously dive head first into the darkness in order to drag the answers that are sought back with us into the light of day. You live your life in the gray areas in between the darkness and the light, and I am having trouble understanding exactly what it is that is expected of us all with this experiment, but I do hope one day to find those answers as well.”
Realizing she was free to go now she slowly made her way out of his office and tried to understand exactly what it was he’d been trying to say. She’d understood the words of course but his meaning was two fold and she couldn’t seem to figure out exactly what it was he had truly meant.
“Doctor Brennan this way please, it’s time for you to meet the team you’re assigned to be working with.”
Booth was up on the platform in the middle of the Jeffersonian lab surrounded by the squints as they all waited for Brennan’s meeting with Goodman to end. He was still on the fence about the whole thing but he’d been given his orders and now he was responsible for a felon while trying to work a case out in the field. When the orders had first come down that Brennan would be a part of their little team he’d thought she would be treated like all the other squints, stuck in the lab not allowed out in the light of day with everyone else.
Then it was explained to him by the mutant adolescent Sweets that part of this little “experiment” was showing her every part of the justice they would be finding for these people. She was going out in the field with him, knocking on doors, asking questions, and finding the ones responsible. He hadn’t liked the idea, and he’d even gone to the Director about it hoping that someone, hell anyone, other than Cam and her crew would take his side about this. No one had of course, and he’d even been given a warning to not “screw this thing up”. Life was so unfair at times, but he would do this to the best of his ability and he would hope like hell everyday that his new “partner” wouldn’t get him killed. Either accidentally or on purpose.
Hearing the sounds of a long purposeful stride headed towards them all he turned and got his first real look at Doctor Temperance Brennan.
Cam waited for the woman to make it all the way up onto the platform before she began the introductions. She was hoping that if she set a strong enough example of professionalism towards their newest member of the team that the others would follow her lead and do the same.
“Welcome to the Jeffersonian Doctor Brennan. I am Doctor Soroyan, I am the head of the team here and I offer both assistance and oversight. When we are brought to the scene of a crime and the remains still retain some flesh that is where my expertise comes into the equation. Beyond that I am a former medical examiner and a former law enforcement agent. This is Doctor Hodgins he deals with particulates, slime, insects, and other non organic materials. To your right is Mr.. Addey who has been filling the roll of forensic anthropologist. To the right of him is Doctor Sweets who is a psychiatrist assigned to our team his role is both to provide profiles of the people we’re after based on the information of the victims we can provide, but also to ensure the psychological well being of every member of the team. Sessions with Doctor Sweets are both mandatory and non-negotiable. Finally to your right is Special Agent Booth, he will be your partner in the field. Now that you know who everyone is we’re going to jump right into our current case. If everyone would be so kind as to help catch Doctor Brennan up on the details we know so far.”
There that wasn’t so hard was it, now hopefully everyone would follow her lead and keep it all about the work.
“The body was found in Arlington cemetery in the pond located on the grounds. The remains were wrapped in four mil flat polly construction sheeting and pvc chicken wire and weighted to prevent it from rising to the surface during decomp. The skeleton was complete save for the skull which as you can see is fragmented.” Zach of course had no problem with that. Hell, with his social skills or lack thereof it was completely likely that he didn’t understand why everyone was so apprehensive about the inclusion of a new member to the team. When he’d been given the chance to review her file he’d likely looked at her education and qualifications and nothing else.
“The pond was warm and teaming with microbes but it also housed black carp and coy which fed on the remains accelerating decomp. Given all those factors I estimate the body was in the water for one winter and two summers.” Hodgins was being as polite as he was with any one of them. His anger issues were something else she was hoping Sweets could focus a bit of his attention on. It had been decided that for Sweets to be able to keep close tabs on Doctor Brennan and her progress that everyone would have to attend sessions with him.
“Young woman between eighteen to twenty-two, approximately five foot three with delicate features. There were some small bones found lodged under the ribcage but they do not belong to this skeleton but were in fact frog bones that got mixed in with the remains likely when the creature became caught in the material used to wrap the body.” Zack finished telling her everything that they knew so far and while she could see that they had mildly impressed her, she could also see that she thought they had missed something. Only question now was, was that arrogance or experience?
“Would you mind if I took a look at everything and determined some of that for myself. It’s not that I don’t trust your finding, it’s just that I would like to see if there is anything more I might be able to add.” Her question and explanation was polite and offered no insult so she didn’t see any reason to deny the request, but she saw the rest of her team getting their hackles up. God help them if they had missed something.
“Of course Doctor Brennan, after all that is why you’re here.”
Bones knew that they wouldn’t leave her alone with the remains, they didn’t know anything about her but what they’d read in a FBI file so it wasn’t likely they would trust her not to compromise the evidence or the remains for a while to come. Looking over everything she saw everything that Mr. Addey had described to her and a bit more.
“May I see the small bones you found under the ribcage please?”
It was a little disconcerting trying to examine the bones with such a focused and captive audience. They all simply stared at her as though they had nothing better to do. Normally she would have snapped at them to all go somewhere else by now, but she was trying to build bridges here not burn them so she just blocked them all out and concentrated on the work.
What she found made her stomach churn and her skin crawl. Looking up at the people around her she pulled off her gloves to show them that her examination was done.
“After looking over the remains myself I concur with Mr. Addey’s findings and only have two things to add to his very clear picture. First off, if you note the slight wear of the shoulder here, that indicates that your victim was a tennis player and a fairly serious one at that. You don’t get injuries like that from a casual sport, this woman played often. Second, these smaller bones found under the ribs are not frog bones, the curvature is all wrong for that. These are half formed fetal bones.”
“You mean-”
“Your victim was pregnant when she died. If you like I could try and reconstruct the skull to see if it would be possible to narrow down your victim profile a little more. A full or even partial skull could help to give us race or some other distinguishing features.”
“Of course Doctor Brennan.”
Booth sat in his office and didn’t know what to think. She had looked at the remains for no more than ten minutes and had not only confirmed everything they already knew but also gave them the victims favorite sport and that she had been expecting at the time of her disappearance. What he’d just seen didn’t fit with the file he’d read at all. Deciding to push it all aside for now he turned to his computer and started pulling up all the missing persons files for women ages eighteen to twenty-two who were pregnant at the time of the disappearance.
A/N – So that’s the start of this, next chapter we get to meet Angela and see a bit more about how Bones really feels about her new circumstances. Drop me a line and let me know what you think.
Kasey1939 