-Venus POV-
Temp and I are on the platform with Hodgins as he yells out, "Got Something. A splinter pattern." I stay focused on the screen then the body as I look closely at it and say, "Particle's of wood were blown back into one of the exit wounds from the AK-47." Temp looks as well saying, "The missing bullets." Zack then add, "But he wasn't leaning against wood when he was shot. He was in the middle of the room." Hodgins then brings up pictures of the scene, "No, he was on the floor." I was look at the reports not looking at the pictures as Temp says, "Someone stood over him and squeezed off some rounds from an AK-47 after he was already dead." Zack adds, "The missing round passed through him and into the wood floor."
Angie then speaks, "Yeah, but all the insurgents had already been killed. And they were the only ones with the AK-47s." Hodgins then adds, "I hate to say 'conspiracy,' but, my peeps, we've got a conspiracy." I sighed deeply not liking how this is coming out, "Someone wanted to cover up the friendly fire incident by making it look like he was killed by the insurgents. Angie, enhance all the pictures of the aftermath so we can see body positions, bullet holes, damage to the house. I would like to reconstruct what happened that night. I need to do something, so please call me when your finish." "All right Sweetie." "Thank you." I leave and head to my safe haven room and I lay on the bed and did some deep breathings to calm myself."
I called Booth and he tells me that he will be in the lab in a few minutes. So I waited for him by the front of the laboratory as I looked at the floor. I then hear someone walking towards me and I look up seeing Booth has arrived and I give him a small warm smile, "Hey Ranger. Nice to see you again." My smile then drops a bit as I continued talking, "Ranger, we found some stuff that I think that you wont like at all. I had Angie enhance all of the pictures so we could get a better look at." "So that's where we are headed." Yup, lets get going before we miss anything else." He nods and we start heading towards to Angie's office.
We walked inside Angie's office and we see both her and Temp already looking at the pictures. Booth gets their attention saying, "Found anything yet?" Temp nods, "Yeah. None of these people were armed when Kent went in there. All of the weapons were planted on them after they died?" I then speak, "So, Fuller's unit killed an unarmed family." Temp nods as she continues, "They look like a family." Angie adds, "About to sit down to dinner." I look at Booth, "Were there any other questionable operations with this unit?" Booth shakes his head, "None. They served another six months without incident." Angie then asks, "How could something like this have happened?"
Booth then answers, "Women could have heard them. She was on her way to the back door. Kent probably thought the spoon was a weapon." Temp asks, "A spoon?!" I then answer, "It's dark. It happens Temp. He's inexperienced. He's scared out of his mind. You only have an instant to make a choice." Booth nods, "Yes and Kent probably thought he was being attacked, so he burst through the door." Temp adds, "From the spray pattern, he was shooting as he entered. He must have killed the woman first, the others as they rushed to the woman to help." Booth continues, "He probably thought they were attacking, too. Lefferts hears all the firing he goes in. Kent turns, weapon still pointed. Lefferts shoots, killing Kent." I sigh adding, "It all happens in seconds." Angie then asks, "But if Kent turned to face him..." I shake my head, "It doesn't matter, after all the shooting, all Lefferts sees is a weapon pointed right at him. He just reacted." Angie then says, "God." I nod as she continues, "So this was more than a friendly fire incident." I nod as Booth says, "Hell of a lot more." I look up at Booth seeing him in thought as I say, "Let me go with you." He looks down at me for a few seconds thinking if he should let me go or not. So to convince him I say, "I will be there just in case anything gets out of hands." He sighs, "All right. let's go." I nod and wave Temp and Angie good bye as they looked a bit worried on what's about to happen when we get there.
We get to the base camp and walked straight to Captain Fullers office with Booth slamming the door wide open with me right behind him as he grabs Captain Fuller by the collar. "You son of a bitch! You covered up the whole thing." "Stand down, Agent Booth." "They were innocent." I pulled Booth off the Captain standing in front of him as Captain Fuller says, "I don't know what you've heard, but my report clearly states..." I then interject as Booth was about to lung at him again and I say, "We've taken your report apart. We have the facts, Captain. Your squad blew away a family of innocents!" "Kent! Kent did! A kid so green, he never should've been there in the first place. Do you know what that town was like? Our guys were getting blown up by IEDs every day while we were trying to build hospitals and schools. A mistake was made. No one likes it. But you know it happens. If it got out what we did, that neighborhood, the whole damn city, would've exploded. What would either of you have done? Would you have let the city burn. This can't come out, Agent Booth. Don't make this harder, with an ugly story like this."
Booth and I look at each other as I gave him a nod and he walk over to Captain Fuller and says, "I don't know what you're fighting for, Fuller, but it sure as hell wasn't my country. We'll start with obstruction of justice." "You have no jurisdiction on this base." I then pipe in, "That is true, but I do Captain Fuller. Also, the Colonel and these men as well." Colonel Philip then says, "And we're cooperating fully with Dr. Venus and Agent Booth. You will not disgrace us, Captain. You will be held accountable." I give Booth the thumbs up with a small wink as he smirks and spins Captain Fuller and handcuffs him. As they were about to walk out of that door I stopped them and I look at Captain Fuller in the eyes and slapped him across the face. He tumbles back but was caught by the other two soldiers as they take them away as Booth looks down at me with wide eyes. "Blueberry! Wasn't that a bit much?" I looked at him with a smile as I looked back at the Colonel, "Sorry sir, but sometimes we all lose our composure when one of our own fellow soldiers do this." The colonel chuckle a bit and nods, "I would've done the Same Major." I nod as he left and added in a bit of a whisper to Booth, "You couldn't have taken up all the fun Ranger." Booth starts to laugh as we walked back to the car.
We are back at the lab as Booth says, "Devon Marshall's killer is still out there. Fuller paced some confiscated weapons on the Iraqis, pressured the others to be quiet, but he still has an alibi for the night of Marshall's murder." Temp then says, "Zack found some discoloration on Devon's vertebra." Hodgins then speaks, "It was caused by residue left from pethidine." I then add for Booth to understand, "It's an opiate affectionately known as Demerol." Hodgins nods as we both high fived each other as Temp speaks, "Someone jabbed a syringe into his neck, creating the indentation in the bone. He would have been unconscious in seconds. That's why the instrument could have been placed into his ear without a struggle." Zack adds, "It was a nine-inch surgical curette like this." I then say, "So we're looking for someone with access to surgical tools and prescription drugs." Booth adds, "Someone the Army sent to medical school." Temp, Booth and I look at each other knowing who it was and we left to the go arrest the murder.
We get there and we look through the door seeing Private Jody finishing with a patient as she looks at us and nods knowing what we were there for as she says, "He was going to tell. I... It's like the war was still going on. I was just trying to survive." I go up to the girl who was the patient and smiled at her and lead her out of the room as the rest did what they needed to do. After that a day had passed and it was the ceremony of Marshall's. We all attended to pay our respects as the mother and her daughter comes over to us. "My boy was just trying to do the right thing. Thank you for letting people see that." Temp then says, "You can be proud of him."
Just as the family was about to leave, I spoke up, "Wait... Before you go I think you should keep this..." The two turn around as I hand them a box. The mother takes it and opens it up seeing it is the Medal of Honor. She looks up at me in disbelief as I continue saying, "I thought it would be arriving a bit later, but I was able to get it on time... This shows how much your son has done for this country and others as well." The mother says thank you and cries with her daughter as they walk away. Booth gives me a pat on the head as I smile as we watch the Marshall's walk up to the Kent's and they give each other a hug. Temp then says, "I would never have expected to see that." Booth then says, "Well, people always surprise you." "That hasn't always been my experience."
We stand there for a few seconds in silence as Booth speaks up, "I've done some things." I look at Booth as Temp says, "I know." Booth looks at Temp saying, "No, no, you don't." "But it's okay." "Well, not... not as a secret. It's not. I have to be, uh... honest... about myself. I-I-I have to be able to tell someone." I then speak, "You will in time, Booth." Booth nods as Temp says it, "You will.". Booth then starts talking, "I was sent to Kosovo. There was this Serb general-- Radik- who led a unit... who would go into villages, and you know, destroy them. Women, children, all... all killed because he wanted to ethnically purify his country. He'd done this twice before. I mean, we had facts. Proof. 232 people... just erased. I was the... sniper... sent in to stop him. He was set to leave in a couple of hours. It was his son's birthday. A little boy, maybe about six or seven. I can still hear the music from the party, you know, that song is just... just playing in my head. Nobody knew where the shot came from, but, you know, they knew why it came. They said I saved over a hundred people... but, you know, that little boy, who didn't know who his father was, who just... who just loved him- he saw him die... fall to the ground... right in front of him. That little boy, all covered with his daddy's blood. Just changed forever. It's never just, it's never just the one person who dies, Bones... Blueberry- never, never." I nod saying, "I understand Ranger... I understand." I gave him a side hug as Temp places a hand on his arm giving it a small squeeze. I continue, "We all die a little bit, right Ranger." Booth nods, "With each shot, we all die a little bit." I nod as we stay like that for a while as I think about my nightmare past.
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DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN "BONES". IT IS OWNED BY JOSEPHSON ENTERTAINMENT, BY HART HANSON. I ONLY CLAIM MY CHARACTER VENUS BRENNAN. I ALSO DON'T OWN ANY OF THE IMAGES. THANK YOU.