S01E03 - A Boy in a Tree (02/08)
Fandom: Bones
Pairing: Seeley Booth/Zack Addy, Jack Hodgins/Angela Montenegro, Daniel Goodman/Sam Cullen
Rating:T
Spoilers:The Man in the SUV
Series:Fifth story of Bones Revisited - Season 01
Summary:My version of the third episode. Zack and Booth have to solve an apparent suicide at a high-profile private school while dealing with local law enforcement, stonewalling from the school's principal and hiding from a curious Angela. Contains slash.
Author Notes: I change the character highlighted on each scene. Words in italic are their thoughts.
I decided using different shades of red to describe Zack's blushes because red, burgundy and pink are too plain. And it's annoying repeating those three words. The shades used in this chapter are:
Folly is a color one-fourth of the way between crimson and rose, closer to crimson than to rose.
Red devil is a dark tone of crimson in use since 2001, when it was promulgated as one of the colors on the Color List.
Both of them are found in the wikipedia page for Crimson.
Main characters in each scene are Temperance Brennan (The Road to Hanover), Zack Addy (The Body and The Suicide) and Seeley Booth (The Stonewall).
Chapter One
In which they find a way of identifying the boy.
Special Agent Seeley Booth's car on route to Hanover Preparatory Academy
Washington D.C.
"Are you two going to tell me why you ran from the Jeffersonian?"
"Probably not." Zack said at the same moment Booth said "No."
Doctor Temperance Brennan shook her head smiling:
"What's the case? Or you can't tell me that either?"
"We got a dead body in a prep school. It's a very prestigious prep school; lot of rich kids. I know the sheriff out there, she's mostly okay. But the school has got a lot of pull in the county and she probably just wants us to scrape the whole case off on us. Look, what I'm trying to say is; it's not just a crime scene, it's a political situation."
"I hate those."
Political situations are only obstacles for the truth.
"I feel the same way about them, Dr. Brennan."
"When we get out there, you follow my lead and pay attention."
"How long until we get there, Seeley?"
"45 minutes."
"You always call him Seeley?"
"Only when we're off the job. And when no one but him can hear me."
"Aren't we on the job? And doesn't the FBI have rules against fraternization?"
"The job only begins when we arrive on the crime scene." - Booth looked a bit scared, not having thought about the rules, when Zack continued -
"It's prohibited for a FBI agent to have a relationship with a consultant. But technically, I'm not consulting with them. You are. And should I get my PhD and become a forensic anthropologist, we can argue that the relationship began before I became a consultant."
"You found a loophole in the FBI rules?"
That's impressive.
"I had some help."
"Elizabeth?"
"Yes."
"Who's Elizabeth?"
"My sister."
"Is she your favorite now?"
"No. Amy is still my favorite. But she did win points with me."
"She did win points with me, that's for sure."
They kissed quickly. Zack turned folly when he remembered his boss was on the backseat of the car.
"Just don't crash the car."
Zack blushed even more but Booth just said 'Will do.' before kissing his lover again.
I knew they would be a good match.
Hanover Preparatory Academy
Prince George's County, Maryland
"We're here."
"Finally."
A man walked to Booth's side of the car. The FBI agent flashed his badge:
"FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth and two forensic anthropologists."
"Dr. Temperance Brennan from the Jeffersonian Institute."
"Zack Addy."
"I'll need to see some ID, please."
"This reminds me of my old school."- Zack said handing his ID to the man outside the car.
"This doesn't get farther from the real world, Zack. The student list is actually classified information."
"Agent Booth, Drs. Brennan and Addy; I'll take you to Mr. Sanders, the head of security."
"Just aim us in the right direction and we'll find it."
"I'm sorry but all outsiders have to be escorted. Sir."
I just want to hit him.
Booth was angry at that condescending little man. That is, until Zack coughed suspiciously like he was saying 'dumbass'. The FBI agent looked out the window; he saw a golden plaque with the school name and a Latin saying.
"Omnia mea mecum porto. What does that mean? Normal people not allowed?"
"It means 'I carry with me all my things', Seeley."
"You know Latin?"
"I minored in literature, remember?"
They reached a clearing with three people going to meet three people: the sheriff, the head of security and the principal of the school.
"Hey Seeley. How's it going?"
Zack's grip on his camera tightened.
"Karen, congratulations on being elected full sheriff. Very impressive."
Bones whispered to Zack:
"I don't think Dr. Goodman would like having to pay for a new camera." - Which made Zack relax. A little.
"Agent Booth. I'm Leo Sanders, head of security. This is headmaster Peter Ronson."
"Where are the human remains?"
The FBI agent introduced the squints:
"Drs. Temperance Brennan and Zack Addy."
Doctor Addy. He sure knows how to make me smile.
"Can you just show us to the remains?" - Bones said with a hint of irritation on her voice, which only Zack and Booth picked up on.
The sheriff nodded and led them to the corpse while the Mr. Sanders talked:
"Even though the school was mostly empty during the two weeks break; it's impossible…" - his voice faded in the background.
"I know you don't remember me but we worked together on a case. A bunch of bones in a culvert about a year ago."
"I remember the bones and the culvert."
Zack approached the two women:
"That was you? The quirky deputy?"
"Guilty."
"Our two week break ends tomorrow. I'd like to get this tidied up so the students don't know what happened."
"But we don't know what happened yet, that's why we're here. Did anyone touch the body?"
"I doubt it. It's pretty grisly."
The two women went on with a quicker pace than the others.
"Not big on small talk, is she?"
"Dr. Brennan is very focused."
They arrived at the bottom of an enormous tree. On one of the lowest branches was the body. There were crows flying around it.
"Is that a student?"
"It's a secure campus. Gotta be student, staff or faculty."
"Zack, you should film first. We don't want the flash of the camera disturbing the crows."
The head of security wedged himself in the conversation:
"Yeah, God forbid you disturb the flesh-eaters."
Zack glared at the man.
"Let's open the perimeter? Give some space to my anthropologists." - Booth smiled at his lover.
The squint opened a smile so bright it could power the town of Vegas for a month.
I'm yours.
"Agent Booth, if you decide that this is a suicide, it becomes my problem."
"Booth doesn't decide cause of death. We do." - Brennan pointed to herself and her assistant.
"I think the problem is that a young man is dead."
Do this people have no heart?
"Let's give the bone people some room." - Was Karen's response to Zack's muttering.
"I got video, Dr. Brennan. I'll start on the photos now."
"Can you just get him down from there?"
"There's a lot to do before we get to that."
"Just get back, sir."
"I'm the headmaster here."
"And this is a crime scene. Step. Back."
The head of the deceased became detached from his body and fell, only to be caught by Dr. Brennan.
"We are gonna need an evidence bag."
"Watch out!" - Booth yelled as the body fell. Zack threw his camera at a grass patch and ran to catch it.
I'm not letting you reach the ground.
"We're going to need a bigger bag."
The FBI agent snorted at his lover's joke.
Medical-Legal Lab
Jeffersonian Institute
"I make this a male, 5 foot six, approximately 130 pounds. By the looks in his sternum and skull, I'd say mid-adolescence. 14 to 17 years old."
"High cheekbones. Maybe Asian. What do you think Angela?"
"I think you're crazy if you think I'm gonna forget what I saw earlier."
"I don't know what you mean. Maybe he's Hispanic."
"Of course you know what I mean. You and Booth playing tonsil hockey in the middle of the lab." - Zack's face became red devil with the memory. -
"You are so telling me everything."
"A gentleman does not kiss and tell."
My mother taught me well.
"Who said anything about the kiss? I want to know about the sex."
"I don't want to tell you about the sex."
"So you are having sex."
"Damn it!" - Zack muttered under his breath. He turned to Hodgins and mouthed 'Save me!'.
"Anyway. There's a significant Crematogaster ant colony in the tree that fed on the body. As well as Tabanidae maggots. I can give you a time of death estimate when I figure out who ate what when."
"Check the insects to see if they have any medication in their system."
"He was wearing this chain." - Zack gave a silver necklace to Angela.
"Catholic boy."
Bones noticed something shining in the deceased.
"Zack, can you see this?" - She pointed at the unknown object with a flashlight.
"Yeah. I believe it's a cochlear implant." - He used tweezers to get the aforementioned object. - "I was right. Looks like the crows wanted it."
"That would set a boy apart from the others, being deaf."
"A lot of things could set a boy apart from the others, Ange." - Zack said with a sad smile on his face. - "Get the serial number. Please."
"I'll also get x-rays and 3-D imaging of the entire skeleton."
"This doesn't make sense." - Zack shook his head. - "I didn't have many friends in my school and I didn't kill myself." - His gloved hand touched the boy's hand - "Why did you? Did you?"
Did you kill yourself? Or did someone do that?
Zack appeared to be in a world of his own, talking to the boy. The rest of the squint squad looked at the sad exchange between them. The (soon-to-be) Dr. Addy whipped his tears with the back of his hand and waited for someone to speak.
Hodgins decided to lighten the mood on the forensic platform:
"That wasn't a high school. It was an experimental eugenics program."
Zack just stuck out his tongue.
Hanover Preparatory Academy/Forensic Platform
Prince George's County, Maryland/Washington D.C.
"How hard can it be to find which student is missing?"
"We can't just call parents and say 'we found a rotting body, do you know where your child is?'. We can do a full row call tomorrow."
"All of our high-risk students are accounted for."
"High-risk?"
"The ones with personal bodyguards."
"What are our options vis-à-vis publicity, media…"
"Not my concern."
My concern is finding out what happened to that kid.
"There are students here that we don't want the world to know about."
"It's obviously a suicide. We're not asking to forgo the glory of catching a murderer."
Are you fucking kidding me? A guy is dead and you're thinking about publicity?
Booth stared in shock at the two men in front on him when his phone started to ring.
"Excuse me. Booth."
"We'll have the ID within an hour, Seeley."
"That was fast."
"He had a cochlear implant. A modern hearing aid."
"Fill me in later."
"Okay. If you tell me what made you so angry."
You can always see right through me.
"Goodbye, Dr. Addy."
"Goodbye, agent Seeley. Oh! One last thing. We're not completely certain the boy's death was a suicide."
"Huh. Good to know." - He hanged up the phone.
Very good to know.
The head of security started to talk:
"A death is very upsetting to a community as tight as ours."
"You're famous for keeping your students safe, but can't be held responsible if a troubled student kills himself."
"We all agree that suicide is the only feasible conclusion."
The headmaster finally talked:
"We understand each other."
"We sure as hell do." - He turned to leave. - "I'll need a full row call. Including staff, teachers and students."
"That's extremely confidential information."
"Luckily, I'm good at keeping secrets."
Except from Zack.
Pairing: Seeley Booth/Zack Addy, Jack Hodgins/Angela Montenegro, Daniel Goodman/Sam Cullen
Rating:T
Spoilers:The Man in the SUV
Series:Fifth story of Bones Revisited - Season 01
Summary:My version of the third episode. Zack and Booth have to solve an apparent suicide at a high-profile private school while dealing with local law enforcement, stonewalling from the school's principal and hiding from a curious Angela. Contains slash.
Author Notes: I change the character highlighted on each scene. Words in italic are their thoughts.
I decided using different shades of red to describe Zack's blushes because red, burgundy and pink are too plain. And it's annoying repeating those three words. The shades used in this chapter are:
Folly is a color one-fourth of the way between crimson and rose, closer to crimson than to rose.
Red devil is a dark tone of crimson in use since 2001, when it was promulgated as one of the colors on the Color List.
Both of them are found in the wikipedia page for Crimson.
Main characters in each scene are Temperance Brennan (The Road to Hanover), Zack Addy (The Body and The Suicide) and Seeley Booth (The Stonewall).
Chapter One
In which they find a way of identifying the boy.
Special Agent Seeley Booth's car on route to Hanover Preparatory Academy
Washington D.C.
"Are you two going to tell me why you ran from the Jeffersonian?"
"Probably not." Zack said at the same moment Booth said "No."
Doctor Temperance Brennan shook her head smiling:
"What's the case? Or you can't tell me that either?"
"We got a dead body in a prep school. It's a very prestigious prep school; lot of rich kids. I know the sheriff out there, she's mostly okay. But the school has got a lot of pull in the county and she probably just wants us to scrape the whole case off on us. Look, what I'm trying to say is; it's not just a crime scene, it's a political situation."
"I hate those."
Political situations are only obstacles for the truth.
"I feel the same way about them, Dr. Brennan."
"When we get out there, you follow my lead and pay attention."
"How long until we get there, Seeley?"
"45 minutes."
"You always call him Seeley?"
"Only when we're off the job. And when no one but him can hear me."
"Aren't we on the job? And doesn't the FBI have rules against fraternization?"
"The job only begins when we arrive on the crime scene." - Booth looked a bit scared, not having thought about the rules, when Zack continued -
"It's prohibited for a FBI agent to have a relationship with a consultant. But technically, I'm not consulting with them. You are. And should I get my PhD and become a forensic anthropologist, we can argue that the relationship began before I became a consultant."
"You found a loophole in the FBI rules?"
That's impressive.
"I had some help."
"Elizabeth?"
"Yes."
"Who's Elizabeth?"
"My sister."
"Is she your favorite now?"
"No. Amy is still my favorite. But she did win points with me."
"She did win points with me, that's for sure."
They kissed quickly. Zack turned folly when he remembered his boss was on the backseat of the car.
"Just don't crash the car."
Zack blushed even more but Booth just said 'Will do.' before kissing his lover again.
I knew they would be a good match.
Hanover Preparatory Academy
Prince George's County, Maryland
"We're here."
"Finally."
A man walked to Booth's side of the car. The FBI agent flashed his badge:
"FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth and two forensic anthropologists."
"Dr. Temperance Brennan from the Jeffersonian Institute."
"Zack Addy."
"I'll need to see some ID, please."
"This reminds me of my old school."- Zack said handing his ID to the man outside the car.
"This doesn't get farther from the real world, Zack. The student list is actually classified information."
"Agent Booth, Drs. Brennan and Addy; I'll take you to Mr. Sanders, the head of security."
"Just aim us in the right direction and we'll find it."
"I'm sorry but all outsiders have to be escorted. Sir."
I just want to hit him.
Booth was angry at that condescending little man. That is, until Zack coughed suspiciously like he was saying 'dumbass'. The FBI agent looked out the window; he saw a golden plaque with the school name and a Latin saying.
"Omnia mea mecum porto. What does that mean? Normal people not allowed?"
"It means 'I carry with me all my things', Seeley."
"You know Latin?"
"I minored in literature, remember?"
They reached a clearing with three people going to meet three people: the sheriff, the head of security and the principal of the school.
"Hey Seeley. How's it going?"
Zack's grip on his camera tightened.
"Karen, congratulations on being elected full sheriff. Very impressive."
Bones whispered to Zack:
"I don't think Dr. Goodman would like having to pay for a new camera." - Which made Zack relax. A little.
"Agent Booth. I'm Leo Sanders, head of security. This is headmaster Peter Ronson."
"Where are the human remains?"
The FBI agent introduced the squints:
"Drs. Temperance Brennan and Zack Addy."
Doctor Addy. He sure knows how to make me smile.
"Can you just show us to the remains?" - Bones said with a hint of irritation on her voice, which only Zack and Booth picked up on.
The sheriff nodded and led them to the corpse while the Mr. Sanders talked:
"Even though the school was mostly empty during the two weeks break; it's impossible…" - his voice faded in the background.
"I know you don't remember me but we worked together on a case. A bunch of bones in a culvert about a year ago."
"I remember the bones and the culvert."
Zack approached the two women:
"That was you? The quirky deputy?"
"Guilty."
"Our two week break ends tomorrow. I'd like to get this tidied up so the students don't know what happened."
"But we don't know what happened yet, that's why we're here. Did anyone touch the body?"
"I doubt it. It's pretty grisly."
The two women went on with a quicker pace than the others.
"Not big on small talk, is she?"
"Dr. Brennan is very focused."
They arrived at the bottom of an enormous tree. On one of the lowest branches was the body. There were crows flying around it.
"Is that a student?"
"It's a secure campus. Gotta be student, staff or faculty."
"Zack, you should film first. We don't want the flash of the camera disturbing the crows."
The head of security wedged himself in the conversation:
"Yeah, God forbid you disturb the flesh-eaters."
Zack glared at the man.
"Let's open the perimeter? Give some space to my anthropologists." - Booth smiled at his lover.
The squint opened a smile so bright it could power the town of Vegas for a month.
I'm yours.
"Agent Booth, if you decide that this is a suicide, it becomes my problem."
"Booth doesn't decide cause of death. We do." - Brennan pointed to herself and her assistant.
"I think the problem is that a young man is dead."
Do this people have no heart?
"Let's give the bone people some room." - Was Karen's response to Zack's muttering.
"I got video, Dr. Brennan. I'll start on the photos now."
"Can you just get him down from there?"
"There's a lot to do before we get to that."
"Just get back, sir."
"I'm the headmaster here."
"And this is a crime scene. Step. Back."
The head of the deceased became detached from his body and fell, only to be caught by Dr. Brennan.
"We are gonna need an evidence bag."
"Watch out!" - Booth yelled as the body fell. Zack threw his camera at a grass patch and ran to catch it.
I'm not letting you reach the ground.
"We're going to need a bigger bag."
The FBI agent snorted at his lover's joke.
Medical-Legal Lab
Jeffersonian Institute
"I make this a male, 5 foot six, approximately 130 pounds. By the looks in his sternum and skull, I'd say mid-adolescence. 14 to 17 years old."
"High cheekbones. Maybe Asian. What do you think Angela?"
"I think you're crazy if you think I'm gonna forget what I saw earlier."
"I don't know what you mean. Maybe he's Hispanic."
"Of course you know what I mean. You and Booth playing tonsil hockey in the middle of the lab." - Zack's face became red devil with the memory. -
"You are so telling me everything."
"A gentleman does not kiss and tell."
My mother taught me well.
"Who said anything about the kiss? I want to know about the sex."
"I don't want to tell you about the sex."
"So you are having sex."
"Damn it!" - Zack muttered under his breath. He turned to Hodgins and mouthed 'Save me!'.
"Anyway. There's a significant Crematogaster ant colony in the tree that fed on the body. As well as Tabanidae maggots. I can give you a time of death estimate when I figure out who ate what when."
"Check the insects to see if they have any medication in their system."
"He was wearing this chain." - Zack gave a silver necklace to Angela.
"Catholic boy."
Bones noticed something shining in the deceased.
"Zack, can you see this?" - She pointed at the unknown object with a flashlight.
"Yeah. I believe it's a cochlear implant." - He used tweezers to get the aforementioned object. - "I was right. Looks like the crows wanted it."
"That would set a boy apart from the others, being deaf."
"A lot of things could set a boy apart from the others, Ange." - Zack said with a sad smile on his face. - "Get the serial number. Please."
"I'll also get x-rays and 3-D imaging of the entire skeleton."
"This doesn't make sense." - Zack shook his head. - "I didn't have many friends in my school and I didn't kill myself." - His gloved hand touched the boy's hand - "Why did you? Did you?"
Did you kill yourself? Or did someone do that?
Zack appeared to be in a world of his own, talking to the boy. The rest of the squint squad looked at the sad exchange between them. The (soon-to-be) Dr. Addy whipped his tears with the back of his hand and waited for someone to speak.
Hodgins decided to lighten the mood on the forensic platform:
"That wasn't a high school. It was an experimental eugenics program."
Zack just stuck out his tongue.
Hanover Preparatory Academy/Forensic Platform
Prince George's County, Maryland/Washington D.C.
"How hard can it be to find which student is missing?"
"We can't just call parents and say 'we found a rotting body, do you know where your child is?'. We can do a full row call tomorrow."
"All of our high-risk students are accounted for."
"High-risk?"
"The ones with personal bodyguards."
"What are our options vis-à-vis publicity, media…"
"Not my concern."
My concern is finding out what happened to that kid.
"There are students here that we don't want the world to know about."
"It's obviously a suicide. We're not asking to forgo the glory of catching a murderer."
Are you fucking kidding me? A guy is dead and you're thinking about publicity?
Booth stared in shock at the two men in front on him when his phone started to ring.
"Excuse me. Booth."
"We'll have the ID within an hour, Seeley."
"That was fast."
"He had a cochlear implant. A modern hearing aid."
"Fill me in later."
"Okay. If you tell me what made you so angry."
You can always see right through me.
"Goodbye, Dr. Addy."
"Goodbye, agent Seeley. Oh! One last thing. We're not completely certain the boy's death was a suicide."
"Huh. Good to know." - He hanged up the phone.
Very good to know.
The head of security started to talk:
"A death is very upsetting to a community as tight as ours."
"You're famous for keeping your students safe, but can't be held responsible if a troubled student kills himself."
"We all agree that suicide is the only feasible conclusion."
The headmaster finally talked:
"We understand each other."
"We sure as hell do." - He turned to leave. - "I'll need a full row call. Including staff, teachers and students."
"That's extremely confidential information."
"Luckily, I'm good at keeping secrets."
Except from Zack.