The Woman in the Water, Part 1:

Annelise Rhonin, better known as Anne, sighed as she stepped into the office of the therapist appointed to her. She never thought she would ever go into therapy, as she never understood what good it would do anyone to repeat their entire life story to a complete stranger. Fortunately for her, her therapist was someone she had met before. Doctor Lance Sweets. They had met a few weeks ago, before.. She paused. No, it wouldn't do her any good to dwell on that. "Take a seat, Miss Rhonin." She frowned as she sat down onto one of the black leather chairs in front of her. "Really? I'm Miss Rhonin now?" Sweets chuckled at her remark. "Just trying to be professional. Being your therapist is new to me too." He straightened his jacket and sat down in front of her. "So, where do we start?" He clapped his hands and leaned forward, awaiting her answer. "What are we supposed to talk about here?"

"Anything you'd like. The Jeffersonian sent you to me for psychological evaluation, to determine whether or not you're ready to return to work. So for our first few sessions I would like to get to know you better."

"I think I'm more than ready for work. So why don't you just sign that stupid thing and be done with it?" Sweets sighed. "We both know I can't do that yet." Can't or won't, she thought to herself. "Why don't we start from the beginning? Tell me about one of your first cases together."

"Fine."

"Which gate did she say she was going to be at?" I said running after Angela through one of the busiest airports I've had ever seen. We were late, very late. "I don't know sweetie, let's check one of the boards. I'm sure it's on there somewhere." Angela said pushing through a crowd of people in front of the arrivals board. She sighed and rubbed her temples. "Great. This board is broken. Now what?"

"Don't worry. I'm sure we can ask someone?" I said, turning to the people behind us. "Does anyone know about the flight from Guatemala? Anyone? Guatemala?" No response, instead the people just scattered off, completely ignoring us. "So much for their help." Angela said as she hooked arms with me. "Maybe we can ask one of the employees over there?" She pointed at a man near one of the check in stations as we walked towards it. "It's worth a shot."

"Excuse me. Hi." Angela said as she approached the check in station. "You have a computer glitch at the arrivals board." The man held up two fingers as if to shush her and continued typing on his computer. All right, then. "Hello?" I snapped my fingers in front of his face, trying to grab his attention. Instead of a reply he raised his fingers at us again. "Great." Angela said to herself as she opened her sweater, revealing her bralette. "Angela!" She smiled at me, knowing she had finally gotten the man's attention. "Yeah. So, the flight from Guatemala?"

"Tell me you tried an excuse me first." We turned around to person speaking behind us. There she was. Doctor Temperance Brennan. I guess we weren't as late as we thought we were. "Sweetie!" Angela said as she ran over to Brennan for a hug, who dropped her bag in surprise. "Yes, I did. Welcome home!" She said, smiling, after letting go of Brennan. "Look who I brought with me." Angela stepped aside and pulled me into view. "Good to see you, Miss Rhonin. I trust the lab is still running the way it's supposed to." Brennan said, returning the hug I gave her. "Of course it is. I wouldn't let you down, you know that." I winked, handing over the bag she dropped as we followed after Angela. "So, are you exhausted? Was Guatemala awful? Was it horribly backwards?" Angela said as we walked towards the exit. "Yes, yet I was never reduced to flashing my boobs for information." I chuckled. "Well then, did you flash them for any fun reasons?"

"I was examining mass graves, there's nothing romantic about that." Brennan said, tucking her sunglasses into one of her pockets. "Well, diving into smelly cadavers is no way to handle a messy break up." Angela said with a smirk on her face. "Angela, nothing Pete and I ever did was messy."

"Are you sure?" I said. "If that's true then you weren't doing the right things." At that Brennan suddenly stopped walking and dropped her bag on the floor. Angela and I turned around and saw a large, bald security guard grab Brennan's arm. "Sir, why are you following us?" When he didn't respond Brennan proceeded to use her self-defense classes against him and pinned him down. "Hello?! Who runs this airport?" Angela yelled as she looked around for help. "Kick his ass, Brennan." I said, cheering her on. "Police! Step back now!" I stopped laughing as soon as the young police officer pointed his gun at us. "Alright, calm down." I said, holding my hands up in the air. "He attacked me!" Brennan remarked, letting go of the security guard. "I'm homeland security!" He yelled, as another police officer helped him up on his feet. "Uhm.. Little misunderstanding here." Angela said as she saw more police officers running our way. "Put away your guns."

"What? Are they in charge now?" The security guard yelled as he saw one of the officers lower his gun. "I'll tell you when you can lower your weapons!" I rolled my eyes at him. "Now hand over the bag." He said, pointing at Brennan's bag on the floor next to me. "Is that what this is about? Brennan's luggage?" I said, handing over the bag. What could be so important about that? I thought to myself. But as soon as the guard opened it, I understood what was going on. "You brought a skull back from Guatemala?" I heard Angela say as the security guard dropped the bag on the floor in disgust. "What else would I keep in there?"

"Soon after Brennan was arrested by the homeland security guard, Angela and I got called back to the lab. They told us that a body was found in a lake near Arlington cemetery. While Angela drove us back to the Jeffersonian, I received a call from Brennan saying she was free to go and on her way to the cemetery."

"So, what happened to Doctor Brennan at the airport? Why did they let her go?" Sweets asked as he took a sip from his coffee. "Not important." I said as I tried to continue my story. "It is to me. I want to know the whole story, not just bits and pieces." I rolled my eyes, it almost seemed like Sweets was enjoying listening to my story a little too much. "Fine. If you must know, Agent Booth played a prank on her." Sweets chuckled. "Sounds like him, all right."

"The pond is not only warm and full of microbes which accelerated decomposition, but it houses black carpers and koi which fed on the body." Hodgins said as he walked over to the body in front of us. "Can I, as the only normal person in this room, say ew?" Angela said while photographing the body. Hodgins sighed and continued. "I got 3 larval stages of trichoptera, chironomidae.."

"And as we cut to the chase.." Brennan interrupted him. "The body was in the pond one winter and two summers."

"Spring before last?"

"You really think I'm lusty?" Brennan raised an eyebrow at that. "The book." I said, clarifying what Hodgins asked. "No, no. You're not in the book." Zack smirked. "Sure he is, we all are."

"No, none of you are in the book. Those are all fictitious characters based on.."

"I found some small bone fragments in the silt." Hodgins said as he pointed to the screen next to him. "So, we're out of the book now and back in real life?" Angela asked. "I guess we're on temporaria." He said as he showed us a few small bones in a petri dish. "Frog bones?" I asked. "And tiny gold links from a fine chain."

"Point of clarification, I'm not a virgin. Nowhere near in fact." Zack said matter-of-factly. I smirked and spoke. "I can vouch for that." Angela chuckled and turned to face Brennan. "Who you captured perfectly is Booth. Buttoned down but buckets of sexual confidence, which I for one would love to tap."

"It's not right to discuss tapping asses in front of a soaked.."

"Well you're the one who started the sex-talk." I said, interrupting Zack. Brennan sighed. "I can't keep bouncing back and forth between my book and real life all the time, so since we're stuck with real life, let's just forget about the book." Hodgins nodded and spoke. "Well, I haven't analyzed yet what the victim was holding in her hand. But it looks like cellulose."

"Paper?" Angela asked. "Possibly."

"I found microscopic gritting imbedded in the skull fragments, I need you to identify those too. Anne, would you and Zack please remove the remaining tissue then I will reassemble the skull fragments myself so Angela can put a face on our victim." Angela nodded. "Good. I prefer holographs. They don't stink." After Angela walked away, Brennan approached Zack and spoke. "Zack. I don't like those terms you like to use for human remains so.." Zack nodded and apologized. "I know Doctor Brennan."

"Good." With that she walked away and left us to clean the bones. It was going to be a long day.

The next morning Zack and I approached Doctor Brennan's desk where she lay asleep with the skull next to her. It was completely reassembled with tissue markers in place. I sighed and I placed a cup of coffee in front of her. As I turned to log onto the computer, I heard her wake up behind me. "Thanks Miss Rhonin." I smiled. "You're welcome."