[Fic] Bellatemple: The righteous Man in the Shallow Grave
[ Crossovers ]
Title: The Righteous Man in the Shallow Grave
Writer: bellatemple
Alternate links: (if any exist)| HTML | RTF | PDF | EPUB |
Status of work: complete
Characters and/or pairings:Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Ruby, Tessa, Death, Castiel, Seeley Booth, Temperance 'Bones' Brennan, Jack Hodgins, Cam Saroyan, Angela Montenegro, Sweets
Rating:
Warnings, kinks & contents: [Click to read]Grisly imagery, strong language, some nudity. Set season three for both series, post-”No Rest for the Wicked” and “The Pain in the Heart”
Length:27030
Summary: When an unidentified body is found in an illegal grave in a field in Pontiac, Illinois, the body gets shipped to the Medico-Legal Lab at the Jeffersonian for identification, and Death calls Tessa in with a warning: "The righteous man has broken, and the angels have breached Hell's gates."
Reccer's notes: I'm not a big Bones fan, but the second I saw that this fic was going to be about the crew from Bones finding Dean's grave, I knew I needed to read it. Every character stands out on his or her own, focus on both fandoms and an all around fascinating plot. Well worth the read.
[Short excerpt]
"I take it," she said, looking back at the man, "that you're implying that this man is the same as the one whose remains we've been examining." She shook her head. "Then Angela's right. You have to be joking."
"Um," said the man on the table. "Either way? Still naked, here."
"I don't see what you want us to do about that. It was clearly your own misjudgement and none of our clothing would fit you."
"Also," Angela said, giving the man a stern look, though Brennan noted that she remained in the doorway, well out of his reach. "We don't give our clothing to serial killers."
"Alleged," said Hodgins. Brennan huffed.
"Dr. Hodgins, please."
Hodgins raised his hands. "Hey, I'm just sticking to the facts."
"Look at him, Tempe," Angela said, waving in the man's direction. "He looks exactly like Dean Winchester."
"No," said Brennan. "He doesn't." Angela raised her eyebrows and Brennan went on. "I will admit that he's the same height and build as the skeleton and that he bears a marked resemblance to your reconstruction sketch --"
"It's not just marked," Hodgins said. "It's uncanny."
"He's even got the tattoo," said Angela. "That wasn't in any of the reports, but it's the same placement and angle and everything."
The man glanced down and poked himself in the pectoral, just next to the tattoo in question. "That's a relief," he said. Brennan chose to ignore him.
"Even if we assume that the completely skeletonized remains could spontaneously regenerate epithelial, connective, muscle, and nerve tissue -- which is completely irrational -- this man's skeletal structure bears none of the markers I noted in Dean Winchester's remains." Brennan stepped up next to the table, gingerly working her way around the bone shards she could see scattered about. Hodgins let out a squawk of protest, which she ignored. She grabbed hold of the man's left arm, avoiding the mass of keloidial scar tissue on his deltoid, and set her stance in case he struggled. He stared at her, shock apparent in the contraction of his levator palpebrae superioris muscles, but didn't resist. "The remains showed significant remodeling to the Coracoid process from what I surmise to be at least two gun shot wounds, approximately one year apart, the most recent occurring no more than four months prior to death. Even without the significant scarring one would expect to see, doing this --" she worked the man's arm up, down, and around, "-- would be incredibly painful." She looked closer at the keloid, noting the distinct and startlingly accurate hand print shape. "This brand is impressive," she noted. "I assume it bears some sort of tribal significance."
The man craned his neck to look over at his shoulder, his eyebrows drawing together as though he'd never seen the brand before, then turned his gaze from Brennan to Angela and Hodgins. "Is she for real?"
"No," said Hodgins. "She's entirely imaginary."