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“Stiles, could you hand me the scissors,” Bones held out her hand.
Stiles grinned and placed it in his mentor’s hand.
He couldn’t believe it.
He never in a million years thought they’d choose him for the externship at the pristine Jeffersonian Institute Medico-Legal lab.
When he found out he had run straight home to tell Peter.
His partner told him he didn’t need to worry. But Stiles had been worried. It didn’t matter that Peter just started working with Seeley Booth.
The Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan said his name. Asked for his help.
He was grinning like a Cheshire Cat.
Deep breath.
He can’t fanboy all over the place.
He can be a professional.
He stared down at the dead body.
The back of the man’s head was crushed in by some sort of object— he was sure they would figure it out. His head was swollen and bruised.
Angela had her camera and was taking pictures of the victim’s head and face to do a reconstruction of him to confirm the identity.
The driver’s license on the man was a fake.
The person on it had been dead for thirty years.
Stiles' dreams had changed over the years but he finally settled for working for the FBI as a forensic anthropologist just like Bones.
He really idolized her. He read so many articles about her and Booth— her husband.
“So, Stiles, when did you see your first dead body?” Angela started off with a morbid question.
But hey they work with the dead.
“Well,” he stared off to the left.
“The First dead body was when I was eight. Mom was already in the long term unit at the hospital. It was late and I was poking around the other rooms and came across this old man. He was all wrinkly and pasty. At first I thought was sleeping but I stared into his open eyes and he never blinked and when I touched him— he was stiff.”
The staff was well aware of the tragedy of Stiles' mother dying young leaving him alone with an alcoholic dad.
“Now, my first murdered body— I was sixteen. My dad had a call for a body in the woods. It was cut in half. It was — frankly — it was terrifying and disturbing. My buddy with me ran off and we got separated. But, it was that body that led me to my partner Peter.”
“Oh, that hottie that dropped you off earlier,” Angela inquired..
Stiles grinned.
His man was a looker.
Bones sighed, “Can we get back on track please,”
“Oh sorry, of course. Dead body and murder—“
Stiles’ cursed later when got some bodily fluids on his white lab coat.
They had examined the whole body as is before they sent it off to be treated and have just the bones left over.
###
Peter was recruited by the FBI when he moved to NOVA, northern Virginia— following his boyfriend.
The only reason he hasn’t proposed was because Stiles told him point blank he wanted to be done with schooling first.
He was in between jobs when he accidentally solved a cold case along with Stiles.
They were online sleuths by night.
Actually— it was murder and chaos that brought them together.
He hadn’t meant to kill his niece. He was insane.
Ya know, being left alone—- basically packless— in an open public area — reliving the fire.
Who can blame him for attacking and killing his so-called Alpha when she approached his territory.
But that was all in the past now.
When Stiles told them his plans for the FBI he didn’t hesitate to ask when?
It helped calm the pack and Stiles' dad that he wouldn’t be alone.
They didn’t accept their relationship at first but he won them over.
They both waited until he was a legal adult before they even kissed.
It made the wait so much better.
“Peter,” he snapped out of his daydream to see Booth sliding into the chair across from him.
“Hey, thanks,” he accepted the black coffee.
How did he even end up here? Working alongside a vampire?
Well, it had to do with that first murder he and Stiles solved.
It was a different vampire and they stumbled upon it feasting on another person.
Stiles was using his magic to fix the scene when Booth came across them.
It was right before he married Brennan aka Bones.
That was when they found out he was from a different world.
His previous name was Angel.
Stiles soaked it all up.
All about Sunnydale and Buffy. About how he moved and started over.
It was like a movie.
When he was accidentally sucked into a portal and found himself stuck in this world as a daywalker—- he accepted his new life and now is an FBI agent.
He was sure there was a higher reason he came to this world and got stuck.
It had been forty years.
“So, did you pick up anything extra at the scene?” Booth asked.
“Nothing abnormal,” Peter replied.
As in nothing supernatural.
So most likely a human killer.
“Hey by the way thanks for pushing for Stiles. He is very excited to be with Brennen. He has always idolized her. He could be going to school for his magic but he really wants to be like her,” Peter nodded towards Booth.
“No problem— honestly— Bones said out of all the applications, Stiles’ was the best.” Booth commented.
After their initial meeting—- Peter and Booth became good friends.
A few months had passed and he was recruited to be Booth’s work partner.
That was two months ago.
“With that said, that was staged, the intruder's scent wasn’t saturated like he was taking his time looking for something,” Peter said off-handingly.
They were in their office going over the crime scene photos and evidence.
They were still waiting for proof of identity.
“I agree, if it was a real robbery why didn’t they take the money from the safe or at least some of the high-end jewelry. It was mostly scattered,” Booth added.
Sadly, the jewelry store cameras inside were just for show. The front glass door was shattered and the closing manager insisted he was the last out. The manager’s alibi checked out with receipts and camera views from the gas station down the street. They also were able to follow his car home via cameras and his wife also confirmed his arrival home.
The man was estimated to be dead for less than two hours… when he was discovered.
That would put the murder around four A.M.
“Ready to go out for interviews,” Booth stood up and threw his empty cup in their trash can.
“Yep,” Peter tossed his too.
Who would have thought the ex- left hand of the Hale pack would be working for the FBI and his partner was a vampire.
And he was an old and powerful vampire.
###
“I got the photos in and I am running them now,” Angela came to the bone room to tell Bones and Stiles.
They both looked up from their respective microscopes and nodded to follow her out.
The bones showed he had a knee replacement. It seemed pretty recent. Then he also had an old arm fracture too.
There was also evidence on the bones of old stab wounds too.
The photo showed a man with a round face and light-brown hair.
“Oh, he looks younger than originated thought,” Stiles said.
“Yeah, it was most likely the swelling and bruising,”
Angela replied.
This man appeared to be closer to twenty-five. Just as the bones provided too.
“And nothing came up for the local missing people?” Stiles asked.
“No. No one is even close to this description,” Angela relayed.
“Well, let’s head back.. maybe we missed something,” Bones turned and went off with Stiles to run after her after saying bye to Angela.
Later on, Stiles had a row of objects, they were going to determine the object used.
Did he use his magic to help narrow it down—- yes.
Some of the items included a small rod iron, a hammer, a flashlight, and a steel toe shoe.
“Okay, let's see if any of these would work,” Bones stated and they stood around and tried the different scenarios.
Ended up the steel toe boot matched best.
###
“So, tell me what we found,”
They had a hit finally with Angela’s reconstruction.
He had a couple stints in jail over petty theft.
His real name was Roger Howard of Mount Pleasant Utah.
“It seems he’s been all over the states,” Booth started.
He didn’t stay long and had been in the Washington D.C. area for a couple years. His parents had told Booth during the phone interview that Roger had always had a home to come to but he always refused. He had fallen into the wrong group of people and got into drugs which lead to petty crimes. But the past couple years— his parents stated he had left that life behind. He went to rehab and said he was ready to start anew.
“That doesn’t narrow down why he was at the jewelry shop. Where to next,” Peter hopped into the black SUV passenger side as Booth got behind the wheel.
“Picking up the warrant to his residence,” Booth replied.
Things take longer when you got the legal route.
Peter sat back and enjoyed being chauffeured around.
###
Jack was bumbling with excitement. He had taken samples from where the body had been found but also off the body and shoes.
“I can narrow down where he was beforehand,” Jack came in to tell everyone.
Peter and Booth had stopped by to check on updates from the lab.
“He was at the Great Falls.”
Jack explained how a certain water bug had been implanted by some wet soil on the shoes.
Tracing it all and the life spans of the bugs it narrowed down it had to come from Great Falls.
Booth and Peter both grinned at each other. They could go check out that area.
It was forty-five minutes away.
The opposite direction of the store and Roger’s house.
The house was Sparta. Just the very bare minimum.
A sleeper couch, a tote used as a coffee table.
The man had exactly one each for dishware.
But they did find a hidden laptop within the couch and were sending it off to be checked out.
“Also, it was a size 10 in men’s shoe,” Stiles added.
Booth and Peter knew he used his magic to help figure it out. But he did do different experiments with Jack to confirm.
###
They lucked out. There was a camera that caught Roger driving up to the visitor center. Another dark sedan was there.
They watched as Roger came out to meet up with another man.
The video was grainy.
They watch them argue. Arms were flying about. Roger was pushed up against his car.
Roger leaned into his car and shoved a small bag-like object at the burly man before jumping back into his car.
As he backed out, they saw the window come down and yell something before speeding off.
A couple minutes later the man looked in the bag, jumped into the driver side and tore off.
“Can we have a copy of this please,” Peter asked the employee.
“Sure.”
As they drove back they made a stop by Peter’s apartment.
Their reasoning was to pick up some files.
The real reason was Stiles was home.
“You sure you don’t want to change professions?” Booth asked after Stiles worked his magic on the grainy file.
Now the cyber unit will definitely be able to make it more clear.
Besides that, Stiles was able to tell the conversation.
Off the records— since their video system didn’t have audio.
Roger was having an argument with a man he referred to as T-Bone.
Roger told the man that this was his last job and he’s done.
The older man said he’s never let him out.
“You can go to hell,” Stiles said as they watched Roger smoke tires as he left.
“Hmm, this is a good start. Thanks Stiles.”
Peter promised to be home shortly after they dropped off the grainy video.
###
“T-bone aka Trevor Smith—,” Peter told Booth.
They were able to get the license plates off the cars in the video to look up the owners.
He was a local drug dealer who frequented the system.
He had just gotten out of prison on a murder charge about six months prior.
“Let’s see if we can figure out the link between them,” Peter said.
Over at the lab, Stiles had found a small incision, like from a syringe on one of the shoulder blades.
They went to run a more thorough screening on drugs.
There was a new one on the streets called ‘myth’. It wouldn’t have come up on the normal screening.
There wasn’t a syringe found in the scene.
###
They finally found the link.
It was from an informant. In lieu of a sentence reduction for his newest crime he blabbed about T-Bone.
The informant had known T-bone and when he and Roger were cellmates down in Georgia, he promised to hook them up after they got out.
After they arrived in NoVa, Roger started to work for T-bone.
Petty crimes.
“T-bone was pretty pissed when Roger told him he wanted out. He went to rehab when T was in prison for accessory to murder. Then he hurt himself and had to have knee surgery.
Roger told me he was ready to get out and really wanted to try his hand at a clean life. Which is great. I was proud of him. He was a bright young man. He wanted to work and go back to school to be a lawyer. He wanted to join the Innocence Project,” the skinny man said.
He spoke of Roger as if he was a proud father talking about his son.
He was in his early sixties and been in and out of the system his entire life.
Roger confided in Benny, the informant, that he had one last job to do and then he was going to wipe his hands free of T-bone. It sounded like he had some
Hard evidence that would put T in prison for life,” Benny added.
Afterwards they picked up T-bone and brought him down to the station.
The interview didn’t last long as he lawyered up fast.
They were able to obtain his shoes, the same ones that were on the video, yellow with green soles, as evidence.
They already had his DNA on file.
While Booth was trying to interrogate Trevor— Peter at the same time was obtaining a fast track warrant for Trevor’s house.
He lived by himself as his estranged wife moved out with their son while he was in prison.
She joined witness protection and they bounced.
Peter was impressed by how clean and organized Trevor’s home looked.
It lined up to a large hill behind his house.
It was a small two bedroom tiny home.
While he was with the team looking through— he used his heightened senses to ‘stumble’ upon a steel door hidden behind a bookcase.
There was a staircase leading down.
But this house didn’t have a basement.
They followed it, as it travelled away from the house towards the large hill.
Trevor had built himself a whole-scale lab inside the hillside.
The heat sensors wouldn’t pick it up from high above. Too much dirt interfered with it.
It was a goldmine.
Either way, Trevor wouldn’t see the light of day again.
He called up Seeley to hold Trevor best he could.
T-Bone is a flight risk.
###
The lab was producing the new drug, ‘myth’.
It was high-class. It looked like it belonged at the institute, not the inside of a mountain.
Peter wondered if the human had any supernatural help.
Though, that didn’t matter at this time.
They were there a long time gathering evidence.
It was a huge break.
He was one of the biggest dealers in Northern Virginia/Washington D.C. areas.
###
Roger’s laptop was a treasure trove.
He definitely had blackmail on Trevor. He had gotten a copy of Trevor’s computer of all his workers. It even listed in detail— blackmail info.
There were a few higher ups in politics on his payroll too.
It was more than enough to prove motive.
###
They actually found the syringe used on Roger.
For how well-versed T-Bone was— he kept the same clothes he killed Roger in. They were found in a black trash bag found by the incinerator in the homemade lab.
Perhaps a mistake.
But the blood on the clothes and the tip of the syringe found in the jeans pocket all matched.
Finally, the lab report came back.
There was a small level of the drug found in Roger’s system.
###
One of Peter’s favorite perks of working is when he gets to watch the asshole’s face crumble when they realize they lost.
Picture after picture was tossed on the interrogation table.
Bones, Booth and Stiles watched from the two-way window.
“ It’s like he interrogated for his whole life, what did he do before this,” Bones asked.
“Private security,” Stiles and Booth said way too quickly.
“One day, I’ll figure it out,” Bones stared at them both.
Yes. They were sure that day would come.
But it wouldn’t be today.
###
Trevor Smith versus the state of Virginia lasted a month.
It took that long to present all the evidence.
The jury only took long enough to eat lunch to reach a unanimous verdict.
Guilty on all accounts.
One murderer convicted, many more to come.