Tiffany stepped into the doorway of the lab. She had been working very hard lately was going to be no expection.

Intensely studying the fracture pattern on the back of an aged skull, Temperance heard the clicking of shoes on the hard laboratory floor. "We're not open to the public," she said, barely glancing up.

Her heels made more noise as she entered the lab. "I know ... I'm looking for Booth? Seeley Booth?"

Temperance's head shot up at that, and she gave a rare smile. "Booth's first name is... Seeley?" she said. "Who are you?"

"Tiffany.... Tiffany Booth... He's my uncle..."

"Interesting. He's not here right now. In fact, I'm the only one here. He might be in later, or you could go to the FBI Building," she informed Tiffany. "I'm Doctor Temperance Brennan."

She nodded, "Damn, I really wanted to catch him and I really don't have time to trek ovr to that stupid FBI building and have to go through ten cleareances just to see him either... Nice to meet you," she said, putting her hand out.

Bones held her hands up in the air, showing that she had laytex gloves on. "Sorry, no contamination on the gloves," she said. "You're welcome to wait. You could go look around the museum."
unijess: "Will you be taking a break soon or is this a nighter?"

"I don't know what that means," Temperance replied. "But I've been here since 5, if that helps. I'll take a break when I've finished figuring out what this skull was fractured with."

"Well, what info do you already have on the case? Maybe I can help you solve it faster..."

"Do you know something about cultural anthropology?" Bones asked, marginally more interested in the girl.

"Well, I've studied about it... I'm not a professional in the field like I'm sure you are but... I couldn't hurt right? Fresh set of eyes and all that."

"Hmm," Bones said. "Step up here, then. This case is acutally hundreds of years old, so don't touch anything until you put gloves on." She gestured to the box of gloved over on the counter.

She took some gloves from the box and put them over her hands. "Ready..... Okay, so... anything I should know about the case?"

"This was a dig site in Guadalajara. These bones were found away from the main gravesite, and weren't buried with any pottery or cloth, which is unusual," Bones replied, mind buried back in the case.

"You can tell it is a murder by the crack pattern in the skull. However, as they weren't buried with any clues, we're having difficulties figuring out the murder weapon."

"Well, since it was so long ago you can rule out things like crow bars and such, which is one step since my professor says that are more common.... Was it a blunt object though?"

"Here, look at it. You tell me," Temperance replied, handing her the skull.

"Whoa!" she yelled, not exactly expecting that to happen. A little disconcerting to say the least. "Wow... Ummm..."

"Bones..." Agent Seeley Booth chastised her, stepping up onto the platform as he scanned his badge. "Quit terrorizing the girl." He stepped up beside Tiffany. "Whatever she says, don't let her talk you into anything that has to do with crap or cleaning bones." He smirked. "She has 'underlings' for that."

Tiffany

Tiffany laughed as she held the skull in her hand.

"What, it's been that long and with my new blond hair you don't recognize your own neice, Uncle Booth?" she said with a smirk of a smile. She loved him and all but they hadn't seen each other for a long time now.

"I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt..." Booth said from the corner of his mouth. "I you wanna get a job here or something, I figure not telling the boss you're related to me could only help you out..."

He gave Brennan a wide smile. "So, Bones, what's shakin' with your bacon?"

Tiffany

"I don't think she'd give me a job, Seeley.. I mean, I don't have a degree yet, I've got a year to go still in college and all and I'm sure you wants trained people in the field working for her, you know? It would be like you getting someone still in college to work on the force."

Bones

Carefully taking the skull back from Tiffany, she told Booth, "I don't know what that means. But I wasn't terrorizing anyone. She came in here and started talking to me. Speaking of coming here, why are you in so early? Is there a new case?" Now more interested in the fact Booth had come into the lab, Temperance put the skull down and looked up. Then some new information she had just gathered came to mind.

"Is your first name really Seeley?" she asked, small smile in place. His reaction to her question should show Bones a lot more about his personality, and she had been slowly learning that she should try to understand more about people than the dry facts.

Booth halfway shook his head. "I don't think that's important to a forensic anthropologist, Bones..." Booth replied, artfully dodging the fact that it was Seeley. Not exactly as cool as 'David' or anything like that, but hey, he could always shoot anyone who teased him about his name.

"What?" he asked in regards to his visit. "Can't I come by and see my partner for no good reason?" His head tilted slightly. "Okay, yeah... we've got a stiff..."

Bones

Stripping off her laytex gloves, Temperance moved to get her forensic coreners kit. It was always fully stocked for situations like this, but she rechecked it anyway, making sure there were enough fresh gloves and unused plastic bags. "What do you know about the case? Where is the body located? If it's another burn victim, I need to call in Zach," Bones said, done with her check. Pulling her long tweed trench on, she started to walk to the door. Oh wait...

She turned and looked at Booth and Tiffany. "Is she coming?" Bones asked him. "If not, she can stay in my office. The others should be here in fifiteen minutes."

Booth

Pausing in between answering the flurry of Brennan's questions, he turned to look at his niece. "I'm not one to take civilians along for crime scenes, but..." He gave a shrug to her. "How about it, Tiff? But only if you stick with 'Uncle Booth', or even better 'Agent Booth'. Even Bones here doesn't call me anything but 'Booth'," he warned her.

Tiffany

"I so am not calling you Agent Booth, even if your my uncle. Like your an authority over me or something. As for the case, if you don't mind, I'd like to come along, Temperance, is it?"

(Sorry, was the longer but the freakin board ate my first post!)

Bones

Shrugging, she replied, "Yes, it's Temperance. Booth's your uncle so it's his choice. He doesn't let me make a lot of decisions like this. I don't even get a gun. But it sounds like you have some training. As long as you listen to me and don't contaminate the field, I don't see why you can't come along."

Giving them both a warning look, Bones finished, "But I'm riding up front."

Booth

Shoving his hand in the pocket of his tailored blue suit, Booth shook his head. "She's pretty stubborn about that..." he commented to Tiffany. "One of her rats tried to call shotgun one day. He still ended up riding in the back." He rolled his eyes for a moment, pulling the keys to the large blue SUV parked out front of the museum.

"What brings you 'round here anyway?" he asked Tiffany as they walked though the marble-decorated hallways towards the entrance.

Tiffany

"Though I'd catch up with ya, see how you were doing, hit you up for a loan, no, just kidding... Actually I came to ask you if I could stay with you for awhile? Things aren't going so hot exactly with Mom and Dad right now and staying there and going ot college is a real trial... But if you don't have the room..."

Booth

Booth paused for a moment, looking over to Tiffany. His sister's marriage was in trouble? He knew all about those problems in relationships himself, but if his sister got hurt, he did have a gun...

But he'd certainly never say "I"m going to shoot your dad" to Tiffany.

"Sure, Tiff," he finally relented. "You can swing by after we get done here and drop your stuff off at my place. I have an extra key there."

'Hey everyoneeee' Angela sang as she walked in the door, rummaging in her purse. 'Can you BELIEVE someone trie dto park in my spot? well, a little pepper spray and that solved THAT problem-hello.' she blinked at Tiffany. 'I don't know you. I'm Angela.'

She walked over, smiling warmly. 'Oh God, your first exposure to us was our dear Temperance. Honey you didn't scare her did you?' she tutted at her best friend.

'Booth, what a nice surprise, who died?' she added, elbowing him playfully.

Zack

Parking his mint green Moped in one of the motorcycle spots out in front of the Jeffersonian, Zack tried for a Charlie's Angels-inspired hair flip as he took off his helmet, but only succeed in whapping himself in the eye. "Ow, geez," he said, trying to rub away the soreness. "Okay, that's the last time I'm gonna try that. Of course, I say that every morning, but still..." Zack went on and on, locking his bike and grabbing a backpack out of the cubbyhole.

Hodgins

Jack routinely walked to the Jeffersonian, fervently believing that driver's lisences were just another way the government tried to subjugate the masses. Spotting Zack's embarassing hair malfunction across the parking lot, Jack rolled his eyes. "What a dork," he said, then jogged to catch up with him. "Do you spend a lot of time talking to yourself?"

Zack

Jumping when Jack appeared at his elbow, Zack tried to regain his cool and replied, "Yes. It's one of the many signs of genius. I am one, you know." He lead the way into the Institute, yanking out his employee badge to show the security guards, then walking at a fast clip towards the lab.

Hodgins

"Yeah, I might have heard that once or twice," he replied dryly, yanking out his own badge to wave at the guard, then following Zack down the halls, footsteps echoing in the large rooms. "Or a hundred times. You really need to get over it, you know?"

Zack and Hodgins

They both scanned their passes at the doors to the lab, then walked in. Stopping next to Angela, one on each side of her, they both looked at Tiffany. "Morning, Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth, Angela," Zack said calmly, briefly glancing at each of them before his gaze returned to Tiffany.

"Well well, what have we here?" Hodgins said, smiling as he stared at Tiffany and completely ignoring the others in the room. Then the grin quickly fell of his face. "We're not under review again, are we? I'm not answering any more questions."

"Cool it, dude," Zack replied, rolling his own eyes this time. "I'm sure there's a logical explination for her being here."

Booth

"This is my niece, Tiffany..." Booth said to everyone, but looked directly at Hodgins... all the while pulling his suit coat back to reveal his Smith & Wesson he carried there. The message was pretty clear, pretty fast.

He looked over to Angela. "We've got a body. Don't worry... I'm sure your services will be needed shortly. Bad decomp going on..." He looked around at the gathering, distain on his face.

"Okay, this is nice," he quipped sarcastically. "Bones, are we done with the Star Trek convention and can get going?"

BONES

"Hodges, Zack." Temperance greeted the others and tilted her head at Angela, "Why does everyone think I scared her?" She listened to Booth and frowned slightly, she was going to ask for an explaination but deicided not to, "Ok let's go." She turned to Tiffany, "If you are coming with us remember don't touch a thing." She called behind her and began walking... she paused and looked at Booth and his niece, "We going?"

Booth

"Bones grows a pair..." Booth quipped under his breath, heading out the double door of the Institute, pulling his keys from his pocket. He hit the unlock on the doors of the enormous SUV, finally climbing in the driver's side and starting the engine.

"We have a body that was found in the crawlspace of a federal building downtown. Since it pulls in that, we're talking Federal jurisdiction, and my involvement. Which I'm sure you're thrilled about..." He looked over to Temperance teasingly.

Bones

Temperance narrowed her eyes at Booth after his comment, she knew he'd said something but wasn't sure what. She headed out with her case and put it in his trunk then went to the passenger side, "I think one of these days I should drive..." She commented as he started up the engine. "Or we could take my car."

Temperance looked at him, "Overjoyed Booth." She said not taking the bait and looked at the file. "As long as they don't touch it I'll be glad to look it over..." She looked out the window after reading the little information they had and wondered what waited for them... she always had her mind on bones....

(ooc: I don't know if there was a file but there usually is so hope you don't mind.)

Tiffany

"Great, I only got like three bags because my ex-boyfriend kinda kicked me out and threw my stuff out so.... yeah, not exactly something to tell your uncle, huh? Especially one that totes a gun and likes to shoot it... Pretend I didn't say that," she said as she started to whistle and follow behind the two of them.

Booth

"You -can't- drive, Bones, you know that. I'm sure there's some insurance regulation there in your participation with an FBI investigation. If you get into some wreck and die on the way to a site, then what are we going to do? Drag Angela out here? Pleasant a thought as that may be..." Booth shrugged.

"Besides, I think it ranks right up there with you getting a gun." He knew that would get her riled up, and had a bit of a smug grin on his face.

"No I COULD drive, you just won't let me... we could have taken my car!" Bones said and glanced in the mirror at Tiffany. "Why would it be a pleasant thought for me to die? Or for Angela to witness it? Booth sometimes you don't think about things..." She said not getting what Booth really meant!

Bones looked at Tiffany, "I mean you would give me a gun right? To protect your Uncle I mean... I'd use it for emergencies only..." She said and looked out the window again.

Booth

"Don't answer that..." Booth stated bluntly, adjusting his glasses as he looked in the mirror to Tiffany. "If you do, you'll be sleeping on the street tonight." It was an empty threat, he knew, but he did like the way Temperance got all riled up when he poked at her.

Bones

Temperance looked at Booth, "You'd really throw her out if she agreed with me? You can stay with me!" She said to Tiffany and smiled. "Anyway I still think I should drive, you let me drive in LA." She said talking about the case where they went to LA and she met that producer woman. That was confusing! Bones sat and thought about her new book, she had to finish a chapter this week!

Booth

"This is an official investigation, and because of that, we have official SOPs for doing things, Bones." Booth shook his head, sighing softly. He looked back in the mirror again at his niece.

"See what I have to put up with?"

"Besides, Bones, if you drive like you shoot, I'm doing a public service."

Tiffany

Tiffany looked between Temperance and her uncle.

"Whoa, thanks for the invite, Temperance but I wouldn't want to put you out and I wouldn't want to get on my uncles bad side, I've seen it and it's not pretty .... no offense," she said his way, looking out the window.

"Sides, I don't think I should get in the middle of partners, period."

Booth

"See that, Bones?" Booth smiled, looking pleased with himself. "That's a smart girl. You can tell we're related." He beamed in the mirror as he pulled onto the turnpike heading into Virginia.

"In any case, we have a body located at a federal building. Found in a ventilation shaft - one of the unused parts of an old building. They finally went into that area looking for some files, and noticed the odor pretty quickly. Locals got called, then I got the call. We don't know how long it's been there."

Temp raised her eyebrow, "I see how your related... the brains went to the women..." She smiled back and looked at Tiffany. "If you changed your mind..." She smirked this time and looked back at the road infront.

"A federal building? Different..." She said and closed the folder. "I'm sure we'll be able to find out how long the bodies been in there..." She said and looked at Tiffany again, "Has he always been overly self-conscious with his clothes?" She asked the young girl. Brennan knew Booth was always in his wonderful suits... well he thought they were wonderful, Temp thought they looked all the same.

Booth

Booth groaned, pulling off the beltway and heading into Northern Virginia. Ten minutes later they pulled into a federal building in an industrial park. He got out, flashing his credentials to the police that were waiting outside.

"Down here..." he took the steps into a moldy basement, walking into the crime scene. The body was crammed into a ventilation duct.