Broken Bones

Episode 40 "The Baby in the Bough" Part 2

-Venus POV-

Temp gets a call as she answers, "Brennan." I watch as the baby starts trying to grab Temps neck as she says, "No, no, no, no, no. no." She then goes back to the call not hearing anyone as she asks, "Zack? Hello?" I start laughing knowing exactly how it played out since it was with Zack. I then says, "You need to call him back Temp. She nods and does so and waits as Zack answers, "It's Dr. Brennan." The baby starts playing with the neckless again as she says to him, "No, no. no." I try not to laugh as the whole cycle was repeating again. It seemed that Zack stated his confusion as Temp says, "I wasn't speaking with you, Zack... I was saying 'no' to Andy. He was grabbing my necklace. Here you go. You were saying?" I calmed down as I watched and made sure Andy wasn't to eat it this time. I hear Temp asks, "From a traumatic injury?... Do you know if Cam found any painkillers in Andy's tox screen?"

I took the carrier as we walked out of the trailer as we head over to the car where Booth was waiting for us as he says, "First a key. Now jewelry. What's next? You going to let him play with a bowling ball?" Temp and I say at the same time, "We're watching him." Temp then adds, "Meg had a number of bone conditions that would have caused chronic pain, but she wasn't taking any pain medication." Booth gives Temp her jewelry back as I piped in, "Probably because she didn't want it affecting her breast milk." Temp then asks Booth, "Well, didn't Rebecca breast-feed Parker?" Booth says, "You know... I am not discussing that with you." "Would 'teat' make you feel more comfortable?" "I'm not talking teats with you." "Why not?" "Enough!"

Booth sighs, "So our victim wasn't taking any painkillers." I shake my head as Temp says, "No, but her occupational markers in her lateral epicondyle and lower discs suggest that her job requires manual labor. Her pain might have been excruciating." Booth adds, "Probably had no choice. Jobs around here are pretty scarce. What do you say we go talk to her boss?" I nod, "That's a good idea." Temp then asked Booth, "Wait. Weren't you breast-fed? Ven and I was." Booth just sighed not answering her and driving off.

We make it to where Meg worked and were talking with the boss as he says, "Yesterday was her day off. When she was late today, I just... God! I mean, who did it? What happened?" Booth answers, "We're not sure yet. Mr. Barnett, how long you been the manager of this plant?" "It's three years now. It's the only real business left around here." Temp then asks, "Since Meg's job involved a lot of physical labor were you aware of her spinal condition?" "The pain you mean?" "Yeah, I saw. I offered to put her on disability; she said she and the baby couldn't get by on that. She was tougher than half the guys here." The manager then looks down at the baby that I was carrying in the carrier, "Poor little bug. I got five kids myself. I... I can't imagine..." Booth then asks, "Any reason to think Meg was in trouble?" "No. I was her boss. She didn't confide in me." A worker then asks, "How about that husband of hers? He was a trash on a cracker if I've ever seen it." The boss nods, "Yeah. They weren't even living together anymore." Another worker speaks, "Doesn't mean he ain't jealous. Maybe someone told him about Shepard."

I then ask, "Who's Shepard?" The boss answers, "Dave Shepard. Some accountant from corporate headquarters in DC. He was here for a week. Left a few days ago." The worker from before comes back, "Yeah. He was here to cut costs. We've all heard that before." "Good-bye, jobs." I ask, "Was there anything between Meg and Shepard?" The boss nods, "Guy was kind of slimy. You know, offering to buy her sodas asking about her kid, all the time looking at her, you know..." Temp asks, "Breasts?" Booth then says, "Meg return the attention?" The worker nods, "He was from the city, had money. After her deadbeat of a husband you can't fault her for wanting a good meal." The other worker adds, "The only guy Meg really cared about is right there." He points at Andy as he continued, "She would've done anything for this kid."

We were done talking with them as we started walking back to the car as Booth was on the phone, "Just do a check on all of the employees, and also get me the contact information for this Dave Shapard put of the DC area. I'm telling you, Long Taylor, he didn't do it. He was in jail. They picked him up passed out in another county." I look at Andy seeing that he was I assume going restroom as I say, "Ranger." "Hold on. Yeah. Well, you know what? If Lou didn't toss the place then somebody else did. All right? So just keep checking for prints." He hangs up and continues to talk, "I'm telling you, somebody else is looking for that key." I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying as I say, "Ranger?" "Yeah." "He's making that face again."