Bones (An Avengers AU)

The Woman in the Sand Pt. I

"What do you mean you've never played Blackjack?" Rogers asked you as he drove you both down the dirt road.

Ever since the Cleo Eller fiasco, Director Fury decided to make you Rogers' permanent partner. Turns out that even though "you royally fucked up the investigation by fishing for evidence to pin against Senator Bethlehem" you still managed to catch the actual killer; courtesy of your unorthodox techniques.

"I mean that it wasn't something that I was interested in," you replied simply, looking out the dust-covered window.

"And what did you expect?" He chuckled, interested in what your idea of coming to Vegas would be.

"Well?" he asked, the curiosity getting the best of him. "What were you interested in?"

You gave him a small smile and put down the sun visor to cover your eyes. "Same thing I've always been interested in. Science."

After driving in silence for a few minutes, you decided to make some conversation with your new partner, "So who do they think the body is?"

"Federal prosecutor who disappeared five years ago, a day before he was starred at a mob trial," Steve replied, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.

"Ya know," you said looking back at him, "when you told me that I would be going to Vegas, this was not what I had in mind."

"And what did you expect?" He chuckled, interested in what your idea of coming to Vegas would be.

There wasn't time to give him a smart-ass answer. He rolled the car to a stop just outside some tents and the pair of you got out of the SUV, climbing up the small hill where you were greeted by agents placing markers around what appeared to be a cadaver buried in the sand.

"Five years you say?" you asked Steve, looking at the scene in front of you. "There's not much left of him."

"Yup, that's why they flew you to Sin City, Bones." Steve chuckled, grabbing a notepad and a pen from a nearby table. "Well, technically speaking, We're fifteen miles outside Vegas. This is America's frying pan."

"Yeah, no kidding," you snarked, wiping away the sweat that was already. "A person can melt before finding a body anywhere near here."

He chuckled. "Once the mob makes a federal prosecutor disappear, they kind of want him staying that way."

"Agent Rogers!" shouted a voice, interrupted your banter. You both turned to find a man wearing a light blue suit and yellow tie walking up to you both. "Agent Rogers," said the man as he jogged over to your partner and shook his hand. "I'm Agent Eric Zhang, we spoke on the phone earlier."

"Pleasure to meet you," said Steve as he let go of Agent Zhang's hand. "This here is Dr. Y/-"

"Dr. Y/N Y/L/N. I'm a big fan of your work," the agent praised as he took hold of your hand and shook it. "Thank you for coming."

"Thank you." Smiling, you let go of his hand. "What can you tell me about the prosecutor?"

"Okay," started Agent Zhang as he motioned for you and Steve to follow him. "May 20, 2012, Mason Roberts was supposed to deliver a keynote address at the University of Las Vegas but he never showed. Found his car 3 blocks from his office, engine still running."

"Wait. No leads until now?" Steve asked in an unsettling tone.

"The police don't mean much without a body." Agent Zhang shrugged. "Until yesterday, when we get a tip from this call girl working at the Tangiers Hotel."