Well, here's a new story that popped into my head, watching Bones and reading fic. As always let me know what you think by leaving a review!

Love, Wings

Western Virginia State Hospital, the tired and worn sign at the turn off declared in peeling and flaking letters. On top of a small rise above the drive, a collection of buildings were clustered around a large grey and white structure.

At the core of the mass of construction was a hulking stone structure built in the soaring, ornamented style of the eighteen hundreds. The cupola of the building towered several stories over the other buildings.

Emmaline Stewart, an ambitious student double majoring in Sociology and Anthropology at George Washington University, stared out the window at the tower through the thick foliage as the van turned up the drive. She wasn't the only one as the rowdy conversation within the van of college students hushed suddenly as they all turned to look.

With such a large facility being so close to D.C, George Washington University had acquired ties to the hospital in the recent past. So it was only natural that most of the students here today knew the stories about the place whether they were strictly true or not. Most of them were the sort of gory campfire stories students liked to scare each other with during overnights and so as a result had almost no credibility.

Western Virginia Hospital had been built in the early decades of the nineteenth century- the first director had been one of the founding thirteen members of the American Psychiatric Association, and had worked closely with Dorethea Dix herself. The institution had been a model for the treatment of mental disorders. For years, it was Virginia's largest state funded facility, with numerous expansions in the twenties, fifties, and sixties that had turned it into the sprawling complex it was now.

But in more modern years, the ideas on which the hospital had been founded upon and strived for had crumbled with the aging stonework and helped to doom the structure as budgets slowly but surely dried up and the winds of public opinion shifted away from institutionalization.

The van stopped climbing; instead taking a more circular route around the back of the complex, and the cupola vanished again behind the foliage. The cheerful conversation resumed and soon the van jerked to a stop, the students piling out in one laughing, chattering mass.

Emma grimaced as she felt raindrops on her head and pulled up the hood of her jacket. Jumping out of the van after her fellow Anthropology students, she caught her first glimpse of Western Hospital in its entirety.

Located in the center of what must have been ten or fifteen outbuildings, wings and additional wards, the old original stone structure and cupola reined undisputed king over them all. Despite the crumbling façade and ornamentation, the old hospital still had the power to humble with its impressiveness.

However, instead of the air of security and confident grandeur she supposed it was meant to project, the building looked ominous to Emma- as though it was waiting for people to swallow.

Stop it. Emma scolded herself. The hospital was a building like any of the others.

"Your first look at Western?" A male voice said, off to her right. Emma turned, seeing one of her anthropology classmates; Josh, out of her peripheral vision.

"Yeah," she replied, turning around to follow the rest of the students. Josh, she noticed with a touch of flattery, fell into step beside her.

"I thought so- most people look like that when they see it for the first time. It's impressive, no doubt."

Emma thought of the looming grey hulk and shuddered. "It's like a fortress. I don't suppose the rain helps it be any less disturbing."

He grinned at her. "A haunted fortress, remember; and no, this month's lovely transplanted weather has only added to Western's personal aura."

She rolled her eyes at the 'haunted' jibe. "Please. We're science nerds. Ghosts don't exist."On the other hand Emma thought as she glanced back, if they did exist, there would certainly be more than a few in there.

Josh shrugged. "I suppose, but way to spoil the mood, Emma." Emma felt a little thrill that he knew her name, right before she told the giggling girly side of her to shut up.

"If by 'mood' you mean the completely depressing and creepy atmosphere, don't worry, it's still there." She said sarcastically, negotiating her way around several puddles in the path. "Complete with the still in use Psych Ward."

It was true- Western State still had a handful of patients in residence. It had only ceased admitting three months ago, and while most of the patients had been either discharged or transferred, several were still waiting for transfers to other facilities- the ones who were unlikely to ever be completely discharged.

Emma thought about the people locked up in those cold, dreary buildings and shuddered again.

"What, are you scared of the crazies?" Josh asked teasingly. "Don't worry; I'm sure I can manage to keep you safe. Seriously, though, it's just a building. What's to be afraid of?"

Emma shot him a mock annoyed glance. "It's just so sad." She murmured, focusing her attention back on the muddy path. Ahead of them, about half of the group continued straight, while the other half took another path leading back up to the main complex. "How many people, do you think, walked in those doors and never walked out again? How many people have been forgotten here?"

Josh was quiet for a moment. "I don't know. But that's why we're here."

Emma nodded. "Damn right. Can you believe that they're going to turn that into luxury condos?"

She referred to the current plan for the old asylum- when the state announced the hospital's closure, there was an immense public outcry over the proposed demolition of such a 'historic' structure. Unwilling to risk public displeasure and equally unwilling to keep the enormous resource drain, the state had sold the property to a developing firm. As soon as the current patients were gone, construction crews would take their place.

Josh shook his head emphatically. "I can't imagine they're going to sell well. Scientific disbelief in the paranormal and all that, but I wouldn't live there without a very good reason."

"Me neither." Emma agreed. She might have been a rational, skeptic science student, but the thought of living here made her cringe. It sounded far to like the premise of a horror movie; but surprisingly, some of the wealthier government and business people in DC were already looking to buy… or so it was rumored.

"I'm gonna go get to work. We've got to get the wealthy idiots in as soon as possible after all."

A dozen feet ahead of them was a large jumble of grave markers, interspersed with several low hanging sycamore and cedar trees. Across the expanse were scattered groups of students carefully excavating graves under the eye of several anthropology and archeology professors. That was why the Washington students were there on the grounds of the old asylum.

After the announcement of the hospital's sale and closure, a few crews had come in to do preliminary surveying. They'd brought with them an unusually wet spring; this part of the state had received several more inches of rainfall than usual. On the crew's trip across the grounds, they'd stumbled across the sprawling graveyard- literally stumbled, in fact; erosion caused by the recent rainfall was washing away the soil and beginning to expose some of the more relatively recent graves.

And since having skeletons popping out of the ground on the site of a luxury condo was neither good for selling condos or the state's image, the anthropology departments at several universities had been called on to help excavate and relocate the graves. It was also 'encouraged' that they identify as many remains as possible before they were reburied in a new memorial on the grounds.

George Washington had been the only one to respond in number; the University of Virginia was sending a team up in the summer, but the remains needed to be preserved now. The other half of students, the ones heading to the main hospital complex, were searching through decades of old paper records in the hopes of compiling a list of patients buried and those likely to have been buried on the grounds, along with any possible individual identifying markers.

"Do you mind if- can I work with you?" Josh asked, sounding both eager and slightly unsure.

Emma glanced at him in surprise before smiling warmly. "Of course, I'd like that."

Like it? The giggly girl side was bouncing with happiness. Emma tried not to give into her girly side to much, both of her chosen subjects were competitive fields and she had no intention of letting her personal life sidetrack her from her goals. But that didn't mean she didn't want a personal life.

"Great." He smiled back. "I'll go ask Professor Slater where she wants us to work."

"And I'll get the tools." Emma agreed.

Fifteen minutes later, they were both bent over a plot marked only with a weathered stone block carved with a four digit number. The rain had stopped, but the air was increasingly muggy.

"What is this, Florida?" Emma complained, stopping for a second to wipe her face. Josh arched an eyebrow as he leaned on his own shovel.

"Well, considering that you're not wearing a Gators shirt and there are no palm trees that I can see, no, it's not. But the weather certainly belongs in Florida. Do you want to take a break for awhile?"

"We just started." She protested. "Maybe… why don't we work for another fifteen minutes and then we can go take a break for a couple minutes."

"You're a hard taskmaster, partner. But I suppose I can agree to that."

"Nope, I'm just driven." Emma rejoined. "I didn't get here by being afraid of hard work."

"And I imagine you didn't choose to double major because it was easy." Josh agreed. Emma looked up at him sharply. Josh laughed.

"Don't be surprised, be flattered. The profs talk about you sometimes and I'm a TA; I hear a lot."

"And what do you hear?" Emma said, curious- but also feeling her heart beating strangely fast. Josh grinned again- this time, less friendly and more inviting.

"A lot of good things." Then he backed off a bit, back to the friendly, easy going persona. "Don't worry; I don't need help on my term paper or anything; that's not why I wanted to work with you. I just- wanted to ask if maybe you would like to, I don't know, go have lunch together or something?"

Emma smiled. "Sure. I'm free." Dumping her last shovelful of dirt aside, she noticed a sliver of white out of the corner of her eye. She glanced down- it was the white of bone, no doubt of it.

"Josh!" She shouted, getting down on her knees to brush away the loose dirt. "Look!"

Her partner bent down beside her. Emma's careful, efficient gloved fingers had exposed the curve of a rib- one that now undoubtedly still had flesh attached.

"Oh, wow." He said quietly, lunch date also temporarily forgotten. Emma and Josh's eyes met, and Emma nodded.

"That's right. These aren't what we're looking for. These are recent." They looked at each other in understanding. Josh nodded back and stood up.

"I'll get the professor."