-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."
We are now in the back of the car as Booth was right next to me making sure I was changing his dipper right. Temp had got the key and cleaned it with water as we talked to Angie through the computer as Temp tells her, "There's a series of numbers on it." "Angie says, "These keys were coded to indicate the specific bank. So read me your numbers." Temp nods, "36, 09, 20, 14." "Okay. It's searching. Got it. It's from Green Hills Bank, in Petersburg, West Virginia. I'll send the direction to your phone." "Thank you Angela." "No problem. How's my little bruiser?" I then speak, "Well, he looks pleased that a piece of metal is no longer passing through his intestinal tract." Booth then starts chanting, "No more metal! No more metal." I look at Andy's legs as I notice something, "Temp look, his legs are bowed." Booth comments back, "All babies' legs are bowed." I shake my head as Temp says, "No, not like this. How could we miss that?" She turns to Angie on the screen, "Tell Zack to run a P ratio test on the victim's teeth. He'll know what I mean." Angie nods, "Sure thing. Take care him him, sweetie, honey." Temp and I smiled at Angie, "We will."
We end the call as Temp checks her phone, "We've got the bank's address. It's in Petersburg, one town from Huntsville." Booth nods, "Great, I'll request a warrant. That'll give us time to go to Family Services in Parsons." Temp and I say at the same time, "What? No. Not yet." Booth looks at us, "Bones, Blueberry, I know this is difficult, but we all agreed that we keep Andy to get the key. Now that we have the key..." Temp takes Andy as I say, "You can't leave him with Family Services in the middle of nowhere." Temp adds, "Cam still needs to review his medical records." "Bones, Blueberry, well, I mean, there are doctors there." Temp then says, "You have no idea what that place will be like, Booth. Med students, underfunded, understaffed." "Bones..." "His mother is dead and his father is a felon. Ven and I have been in his situation, Booth. We're not turning him over until we're satisfied that he is somewhere safe where he'll get the care he deserves." I nod, "I agree with Temp." Booth sighs, "Fine, he can stay with us. For now." Temp and I nod, "Thank you." "Okay, I'll go lock the back up." I sit in the back with Andy as Temp looks at him and bends down blowing on him as he laughs. She does it again as he keeps on laughing.
We are at the bank as Temp and I are waiting for Booth to bring in the safe as we play with the baby. We hear the manager say to Booth, "Just let me know if there's anything else you need." Temp asks the baby, "You like elephants? Huh?" Booth then speaks, "Bank manager said Meg as a new client. Only got this box a few days ago." It opens up revealing something wrapped with a dirty cloth as we looked at each other. Booth opens it revealing a gun as he uses a pen to pick it up, "Uh-oh- is right. Ah, Andy... what kind of trouble was Mama in?"
I was examining the gun as I say, "There's a sticky residue lining the trigger and I see fragments of a foreign object inside the barrel. We should take this back to the Jeffersonian." Booth then says, "Well, Beg Taylor didn't own a firearm, at least not legally. We need to find out where Mommy got the gun, don't we?" I nod, "Well, it seems that someone filed off the serial numbers and it's been fired recently. I'm finding gunpowder residue." Booth then says, "Gunpowder's not going to get me the owner's name. I need fingerprints, DNA." I think for a bit, "Do you think there are any public pools around here?"
We are at a public pool but with Jimmy this time as he let us in as he says, "It's a pretty depressing job, you know, keeping an eye on the ruins, but I try to think positive. Like I'm keeping them safe till they open up again." He opens the door for us, "Chemicals are down here." I nod and start walking down the stairs as Booth is carrying Andy. I then says, "Thank you." Jimmy looks at Booth and then at Andy, "Can I hold him? Just for a bit?" Booth nods, "Okay. Just for a little bit. Right, Andy?" I then ask, "Did you know of any medical conditions that Andy was being treated for?" Jimmy shakes his head, "Meg never liked to share her problems. She was pretty independent. But, I mean, Andy's always seemed just fine. Is he sick?" I was grabbing the materials I needed as Booth says, "We're just checking. Must've been a pretty nice pool." "Yeah. Coached a high school team once back when I was teaching." I finally found what I mainly needed as I jump up with it, "Perfect. Muriatic acid."
Booth looks at me as Temp smiles. Booth then asks me, "Blueberry, what are you doing?" I then take out the gun from the evidence bag as Jimmy says, "Hey. I get it. Someone filed the numbers off, didn't they?" Booth then asks, "How did you know that?" "She's using the acid to react with the metal. Restores the original etchings. I taught science." "Really?" Temp then says, "You must've been a good teacher." I nod agreeing as I rub the acid with a qu-tip onto the field numbers. I watch it reappear as I smile and looked at the group, "I got the numbers."
I am in Temps office feeding Andy as Booth comes in, "Hey, Bones, Blueberry, the pawn shop that closed last year no one has seen the owner. I mean, this gun that could've been floating around for months." He turns around seeing Andy eating, "Hey... little man." He then turns to Temp, "Yeah, Bones, Blueberry, what's with the Muzak?" I looked at him, "It's not me, it's Temp." Booth looks at Temp as she says, "I'm on hold. There's an anthropologically proven link between poverty and violence more people competing for scarcer resources." Booth nods, "Well, yeah, that's great, Bones. Bottom lines is, we're not gonna know if the gun owner's telling the truth." We then hear a beep on the phone, "Dr. Brennan?" "Oh!" She picks the phone up to her ear, "Yes, I'm still here... Well, then tell the Congressman I'd appreciate a call back. Thank you." Booth then asks, "Congressman? Oh, what is Bones up to, huh?" "I'm just putting in a few calls as well as Ven. We've contributed a great deal of money to numerous campaigns. I think these politicians owe us."
I then looked at her, "Oh, so that's what it was for..." Booth looks at Temp, "Bones, that's not how it's supposed to work." "That is exactly how it does work, Booth. If the government fixed that bridge leading to Huntsville, they'd be back on the scenic route." Booth then asks, "Okay, what about the lack of fiscal resources that you were talking about?" "They found millions to build a bridge to nowhere in Alaska. Plus, Ven is going to deal with that." I looked at her, "I am?... I guess I am dealing with this one." Temp then looks at Andy, "Do you need to burp?" Booth answered instead, "No." We looked at him as Temp says, "I was talking to Andy." "I know you were talking about Andy. My man Andy. So what's up with the little guy here? How's his condition? Any news?" I shake my head, "Cam's still looking in his records, consulting with some pediatricians." Booth then says, "He's gonna be just fine, isn't he? He's a tiger." He starts playing with his feet while saying, "Tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger. Tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger. Tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger..."
Temp then cuts in, "You know, verbal development would be heightened if you didn't talk to him like a fool." I tried not to laugh as Booth looks at Temp, "And what were you just doing just then?" "What? I wasn't doing anything." "You were going..." "What are you even talking about?" I was trying not to laugh at their silly conversation as Cam then comes in, "Hey. Hello." They stop as I calmed down as Cam continued, "I have some info about the skin Hodgins found on the gun's trigger." Booth nods, "Yeah." "It was male. Not Meg Taylor." Temp then says, "So Meg was either an accomplice..." Booth continued, "Or she witnessed the murder, got her hands on the gun, then hid it." His phone then rings as he answers it. He turns to us, "Bones, Blueberry, we just found our missing accountant. He used his credit card to check into a motel near Huntsville." He hangs up the phone and tears off the paper he just wrote in, "Local police are picking him up now."
Booth went to check Dave Shepard but turned out to be some guy that had his stuff. Temp and I are in Cam's office as she says, "So this Dave Shepard guy is an accountant? That's usually not profession I associate with killers." Temp then says, "Booth thinks that our victim may have seen Dave Shepard shoot someone. Since he's been missing since her death, he could've killed her, too." I look at the charts of the DNA seeing it was a match as Cam then says to Temp, "Yeah, well, tell Booth I just found the guy. Or parts of his skill anyway. I ran the DNA from the blood on the duffle bag and the frontal bone fragments from the gun through CODIS. Both his." I then say, "That means Dave Shepard isn't our killer; he's another victim." Cam nods, "He was shot in the head by a male with a gun Meg Taylor was trying to hide." We watch as Angie comes in, "Hey. You wanted me?" Temp nods, "Yeah, there was a flash drive in Dave Shepard's duffle bag." Angie looks at it, "It's crushed." Cam adds, "That's where you come in."
I then say, "We need to know if Dave Shepard found something that could've gotten him killed." "Okay, I'll get right on it." Temp then asks Cam, "Did you call your pediatrician friend?" "He's on his way." "And you know he's good, right? Because we have to be certain." I put my arm on Temps shoulder as she quiet down as Cam says, "Dr. Brennan, he's the chief of pediatrics at Children's National Medical Center. He's the best." I gave Temp a smile as she nods.
We are back at the tire recycling plant as they the forensic team searched the place as the Manager comes over to us, "What exactly are you looking for?" Booth answered, 'We're not sure yet. Anything that will help us figure out what happened to Dave Shepard and Meg Taylor." The manager nods, "Okay, people, back to work. You let them do their job, they'll let us do ours." I watched as one of the workers pressed a button showing the tires moving into a shreder as I start walking towards it. Booth and Temp looked at me as he asks, "Where you going? Blueberry..." I go around and start going up the stairs where it leads to the shredder as Booth tells the worker, "Hey, pal, here, hold on to that for me. Blueberry, where you going? Hey?" Temp and Booth follow me up as I look down the shredder. I then say, "Temp, Ranger, look at this." They look a the shredder. Temp understood and screamed down below, "Turn off the machine." The worker does as she says and Booth then says, "Okay, if I were a dead body and I need to disappear..." I nod, "This would be a pretty thorough way to do it." Booth then asks the worker, "Hey, pal, how often do you ship out a load of this mulch?" "We collect a week's worth at a time, but we bag it up every couple hours."
Temp then says, "Dave disappeared four days ago. He could still be here." Booth and I proceeded to follow the worker as he points out with one is the one we are looking for, "It's this lot right here." Booth nods, "Blueberry." "Yes." "This lot was collected right after Dave's disappearance." The worker then adds, "Everything's washed, sanitized and ready to be shipped." Temp comes over with a kit ready for us to go as she hands me my gloves and we start putting them on as Booth says, "That means all the evidence has been washed away." I shake my head, "Not necessarily. Excuse me." I scooped up some of the mulch as Temp sets down a cup and some water as I put the mulch inside. She then closes it with a lid and shakes it. We looked inside seeing everything starts floating up again.
I go to the next bag and do the same process as Booth asks, "What are we doing here?" I chuckle as Temp says, "I'll explain in a minute." We do it over and over again going through each bag as Temp explains, "The rubber pieces float, see?" Booth looks nodding as Temp then lowers the cup down. We watch it closely as she then says, "But bone..." Booth finishes seeing the bone sinking, "Sinks. We just found Dave." Booth turned to the worker, "Tell the manager to shut this plant down now. He nods as I get a call, "Venus?" "Ven it's me. Turn on your video stream." I then ask, "Is Andy all right?" "The pediatrician is examining him right now. The baby is fine." I get the computer out and turn on the video stream as Angie continues, "Take a look at this." She then shows up on screen and shows us records, "I recovered most of the memory from the flash drive. Dave Shepard's internal audit showed a completely different set of numbers than those reported to corporate headquarters." Booth then says, "Someone here was doctoring the profit reports." Temp adds, "Siphoning the money into a private account. Dave figured it out while he was in Huntsville. That's what got him killed." "And if Meg knew about it, then the killer would want her dead, too. Come on.
We walk up to the workers as Booth asks them, "Hey, where's Barnett?" "Chip left." "Where did he go?" "Said he had an emergency at home." Booth scoffs, as they realize who it was and hurried. Booth drove and made a turn hearing a car coming over around the corner. It was Barnett trying to leave. Barnett reversed and crashed onto a gate. He gets out just as I did as well as he goes on top of his car and jumps over the fence as well as do I with Booth behind me and Temp behind him. Just before he could do anything Booth and I ram into him. I moved out of the way so Booth could do his thing, "Chip Barnett, you're under arrest for eluding a federal agent. I'm sure we'll be throwing in a few murder charges as well. You know your rights." "Yeah. It's only a matter of time before they close the plant." "So you embezzled from the company? " "A man does what he has to for his family."
I then glared daggers at him as he could feel my anger arising as he then becomes quiet. "So that justifies killing two innocent people?" "Sh... Shepard was going to turn me in..." "So you shot him. Meg witnessed it, got a hold of the gun..." "She... wanted money to keep quiet. Take her kid to some doctor in DC." My anger grew as I walk closer to him as he tries backing up, "So you knew where she was headed." Booth then add's "Yeah, you followed her out of town so you could kill her with no one around." "I didn't want to kill her. I went to her trailer, I looked for the gun first, but you do what you have to do..." I couldn't hold my anger that much longer as I grabbed him by the collar and harshly slammed him into the fence my voice more menacing and louder, "There was a baby in that car! You son of a bitch!" I then hit him hard right into the gut as you could hear him lose his breath and quickly fall down onto the ground in pain as Booth pulls me away, "It's all right... It's over..." He passes me to Temp as I hug onto her not letting my tears fall as she hugs me back in comfort as Booth takes Barnett away.
We are back at the lab in Temps office as Temp and I were playing with the baby as Booth comes in, "Hi." We greeted him back, "Hey." "One of the techs found this in Meg's trailer." I then ask, "What is it?" "A letter that Meg wrote to her friend Carl Grant." Cam then comes over, "Hey. Andy has a genetic condition." Booth asks, "What is it?" "Vitamin D-resistant rickets. Meg had a mild form, very few symptoms. She probably didn't even know she had it." Temp then says, "But males are prone to more severe cases than females, So Andy would have exhibited more extreme symptomatology." I add, "Including the seizures. The clinic probably prescribed him phenobarbital without searching for underlying causes." Booth then asks, "Is Andy going to be all right?" I just smiled at Booth, "Absolutely. Very treatable." Cam nods, "My friend can treat him as an outpatient. Andy's going to be fine." I looked at Cam, "Thank you Cam." She smiles, "Don't mention it.
She leaves as I watch both Temp and Booth babying him. I saw that they were having another moment. I then take the letter reading it and smiling thinking it was also a good decision. Next thing we know we were over to Jim and Carols home as we handed her a letter as she reads it.
"Dear Carol, if anything happens to me, take care of my Andy. I know you don't have much. None of us do... but you have love. And I know Andy would be lucky to be a part of your family." We watch as the couple signs the adoption papers as Temp hands Andy to them. Not only that since the politicians where of no use to help in the project, Temp and I decided to build that bridge together with hiring Carol as the project manager. So it all ended well in the end. Booth wanted to convince us to get a home over there but instead Temp stuffed a pacifier into his mouth to get him to stop talking.
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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.