Bones Fanfiction-There's a Puddle
“What’s that?” Cam asked as she approached the platform at the center of the Jeffersonion Lab, where her coworkers were all staring down at a pool of liquid on the floor. “Don’t tell me one of our victims is…sweating…again.”
“Can I just say on behalf of all the normal people in the world, ew?” Angela shuddered at the images Cam’s comment brought to mind.
“It’s not bodily fluid,” Brennan informed Cam. “It’s merely a collection of…”
“I believe the technical term would be “puddle”,” Hodgins interrupted, chuckling while Angela elbowed him.
“And the reason we are all standing around staring at a puddle is…” Cam trailed off, never ceasing to be amazed by the habits of her endearing yet frustrating team.
“Well, it’s a little weird,” Angela offered, gesturing at the offending wet spot. “Everything in here is brand new, they spend millions of dollars making sure this is a secure, sterile environment and then this morning…bam...the roof is leaking like the pipes in my college apartment.”
“Right…well, weird as that may be, we’ve got murders to solve so…has anyone put a call in to maintenance?” Cam asked, receiving only blank stares from the supposedly brilliant minds she was surrounded by. “Right, of course not. Well, while I do that, what do you guys say we get started on identifying the victim the FBI brought in this morning?”
Exchanging slightly guilty looks everyone quickly dispersed to their individual tasks, leaving Cam shaking her head affectionately.
“How did they function without me?” She sighed before heading off to put a call in to fix the leak.
Brennan was concentrating so deeply on the small indentations she’d found on the victim’s clavicle, that she didn’t hear Booth approaching the platform until he swiped his clearance card and the tell tale beep sounded.
“Hey, Bones. I see you got the little present my people left you this morning,” Booth jogged up the platform steps, hovering over her shoulder as she impatiently swatted him out of her way.
“I’d hardly call human remains a present, Booth,” She replied without looking up, her face only centimeters away from the bone she was examining. “It implies an objectification of the victim.”
“Well, I…” Booth sputtered for a moment, the charm smile sliding off his face. “Look Bones, of course he’s not really a present…it’s just a…never mind.”
“Ok,” She shrugged, continuing her examination of the remains, though she was pretty sure she heard Booth muttering something about, “It’s not like you’re not enjoying it like a present though.”
“Hey, what’s that?” Booth’s tone finally broke through her concentration and caused her to tear her attention away from the bones in front of her. She followed the direction Booth was pointing until her eyes landed on the puddle.
She gave him a small smile, unable to hold back the slight feeling of excitement that always surged through her when she got the chance to prove to Booth that she could be funny.
“I’m no expert, but I’m told the technical term is a puddle,” She offered, trying to ignore the slight warmth that entered her cheeks when Booth returned her smile with one of his own. She knew it was a chemical reaction brought on by his symmetrical features and the comfortable rapport they had developed over the years and so she chose to overlook a feeling that would normally have made her uncomfortable.
“There’s a puddle?” He asked incredulously.
“Apparently, there’s a puddle,” Hodgins answered, climbing the platform to retrieve a sample.
“There’s a puddle, alright,” Booth confirmed, shaking his head.
“Why does everyone find that so hard to believe?” Cam groaned, following Hodgins up the steps.
“You know, because everything in here is so…shiny…and clean…”Booth trailed off suddenly turning to face Brennan. “Hey, is this you know…sanitary…for the remains?”
“It’s not ideal, but given the location of the collecting water particles and the precautions we’ve taken with the body, the remains shouldn’t be comprised,” She assured him, her attention already drifting back to the bones on the table. “Besides it should be cleaned up soon.”
“Ok, well, I can see you’re busy here,” Booth finally gave up trying to capture her full attention. “I’ve still got to get a warrant for the neighbor’s apartment whose trash can had the body in it. I just wanted to you know…check in. I’ll...again…later.” The truth was he could have easily waited to come in to the lab until after he obtained the warrant but he’d found that his days usually went better when they started with a visit with Bones. If he’d cared to look into that assertion too deeply he might have arrived at the conclusion that her obvious brilliance helped get his mental juices flowing…or he might have admitted it was something more personal. Luckily, he wasn’t Sweets, and he just went with what worked rather than over analyzing it…most of the time.
“Right, ok,,” She answered absent mindedly as Booth reluctantly left the lab alone
It was several hours before Brennan felt as though she had completed her initial examination to her satisfaction. It appeared that the man had been…what would Booth say…”konked over the head”…with something. There were also multiple broken bones due to the victim’s body being stuffed into the trashcan. She still hadn’t identified the cause of the indentations on the clavicle though, and it was still the foremost thought on her mind as she stepped away from the examination table.
“Some kind of jewelry trapped between the body and the trash can?” She mused as she removed her gloves and started across the platform.
She hardly had time to hear Angela’s cry of “Sweetie! The puddle!”, before she felt her feet slip out from under her and caught a glimpse of the ceiling before everything faded to black.