The Doctor In A Daze

The Secret Of The Siblings

Zach and a woman finally arrived in the lab, following behind them is a body bag being transported by FBI grunts and a face familiar to the newbie in the lab.

"See-Lion?" A surprisingly emotive voice asks the FBI agent who's head snaps up, a wide grin spreading across his face. His response is muffled by the running, jumping, smothering hug of the intern, but Brennan does hear the word 'Tulip'.

Hodgins looks the pair up and down as Tully excitedly punches Agent Booth in the shoulder, her smile wide. It's the most emotion he's seen out of her yet, and for a moment, he's absolutely flummoxed, then remembers her mention of a brother in the FBI. He down the steps from the main lab platform to the pair, and even as short as he is, he exudes a fair amount of prowess and intimidation to the surrounding area.

"So I assume this is the FBI brother, but the question is, why different surnames?" Hodgins crosses his arms and levels a stern glare at his intern as he interrupts, which Booth takes significant exception to.

"Squint. Do not talk to my sister as if you're her boss."

"Cro-Magnon, do not undermine my authority over your sister, my intern. Now explain, only half-siblings, you're secretly married?"

"I legally changed my last name before I finished high school, neither of my brothers felt the need. Full siblings, no marriage. And don't call Seeley a Cro-Magnon, he's very intelligent." The joy and excitement upon seeing her brother drops from her face as she addresses Dr. Hodgins, she's suddenly back to her business formal voice. "We better get up to the platform to give Dr. Brennan the results."

Tully firmly walks past both of them, scanning her new security card as she walks up the steps to the platform. As he walks up behind her, scurrying away from Booth's evil-eyed glare, he begins telling the group about the sample's from the crime scene.

"The pond is not only warm and teeming with microbes, which accelerated decomposition, but it also houses black carp and koi which fed on the body." Hodgins level of excitement for the state which the flora and fauna of the pond left the remains in thoroughly disturbs Angela, who says so aloud before allowing him to continue. "I got three larval stages of Trichoptera, Chironomidae-"

"Cutting to the chase?" Dr. Brennan cuts in to get Hodgins to answer the simple question of the time of death, but Tully beats him to the chase, bringing the new members of the group's attention to her.

"The body was in the pond one winter and two summers."

"And you are?" Dr. Brennan asks.

"Dr. Tully Maguire. This is my first day as Dr. Hodgins' intern, as I am studying doctorates in all three of his fields of study." Tully extends her right hand towards Dr. Brennan, who looks at it for a moment.

"Doctor of?"

"Pathology, I went to medical school before deciding this would be a more appropriate use of both my intellect and lack of social skills combined."

Dr. Brennan processes the information, before taking Tully's hand in her own, and Tully again does her succinct up-down single handshake, which seems to please Dr. Brennan. She then proceeds to ignore Tully to focus on the case. "So the victim was killed Spring before last."

The concentration of the group is once again fractured by the interspersed mentions of Dr. Brennan's new book, which is apparently based significantly on the members of the team. The banter does not include her, so Tully continues to stare at the remains as if focusing her pure sole energy on it through her eyes will bring her some answers from the corpse of the young woman before them. Her attention is returned by her new bosses supposition in the face of real true evidence.

"I guess Rana Temporaria."

"Frog bones."

"Those don't look like frog bones to me, and we have no evidence to prove that they are or are not." Hodgins levels a displeased look at her, whereas Bones chooses to seem approving of her evidentiary methods.

"While I approve of your skepticism without evidence, as I am the skeletal expert here, and I trust Dr. Hodgins' ability to identify frog bones, perhaps your expertise may be better suited elsewhere, Dr. Maguire." Tully is silenced by Dr. Brennan's short dismissal, and even though she wants to say 'yet fauna is my area of expertise and I own an entire display of the bones of every frog species in my apartment and none look like that', she decides to just wait it out until her point is either proven is disproven. Nevertheless, Tully zones back out as Dr. Hodgins mentions the gold link chain segment found with the body. She continues to ignore the banter of the group about Dr. Brennan's book until they refocus on the body at the author's own insistence.

"I haven't analysed whatever it was that was in the victim's hand but it looks like cellulose."

"Paper?" Angela looks a little more perked up at the concept of working with something that was just the skull.

"Possibly."

"I found microscopic grit embedded in the skull fragments, I need you to identify those too." Dr. Brennan hands the sample off to Hodgins, who passes it to Tully. "Zach, I need you to remove the flesh from the bones, I'll debride the skull fragments myself, reassemble it so Angela can put a face on our victim."

"Have we found any pieces of the liver?" Tully cuts in before everyone can disperse.

"Why?"

"So I could do a tox screen, I am a doctor of pathology, knowing if she had been drugged or recently drank alcohol might be useful."

"Unfortunately, these coy appear to have been particularly ravenous, so there are no useful organs left and very little flesh, but I will keep that in mind for future instances of more flesh retaining corpses." Dr. Brennan politely dismisses Tully, who nods and leaves the platform, before turning to berate Zach for his use of colloquialisms for the body.

"Zach, I don't like those terms for human remains, soaker, crispy critter."

"Yes, Dr. Brennan." Having been suitably scolded, Zach takes the remains to his and Tully's shared room, where he places it to debride.

~~~

Hi! Sorry it's been a while, I got stuck here, and after a wonderful comment bugging me to update, I looked at this chapter and decided this was a fine place to end the chapter. I will try to update with a new, not already pre written chapter soonish, maybe after school assignment mountain has been climbed, because that is destroying me rn. Other than that, read on my dudes, hope y'all are enjoying, stay nerdy my dudes.

Peace out