✔️Romancing The Bone--- Seeley Booth ✔️

Ch. 8: The Mercenary at the Matinee (Part 2)

"Are you saying a woman did this?" 

The question hung in the air as Lizzie and Booth looked from person to person for an answer. "I'm saying that a female assailant is the best likely guess." Bones said. "Besides, a woman can do just as much damage as a man Lizzie. You of all people should know that." Lizzie shot the scientist a look that said 'never underestimate me'  and then she looked over at Hodgkins who was just shaking his head at her. 

"I don't need a disapproving look from you Hodgkins." she snapped. "What else have you found? Any particulates that could lead us to this female assailant?" Her gaze fell across each face gathered in the lab, a question in her eyes. When no one spoke up, she turned to Angela. "Have you had any luck reconstructing him for a sketch yet then?" The other woman reached for her sketch book. "Yes actually I have. Here is my estimation of our mystery man's previous visage." 

The sketch book that Angela passed to Lizzie showed a black and white drawing of a man with a square jaw and almond shape eyes. His nose, though large, didn't pull attention from the other parts of his face and he had a small scar at the base of his lip on the right hand side. "Any matches within the facial recognition system yet?" Lizzie asked, looking up from the sketch. "Its still running, but it should only take about five more minuets." Lizzie nodded at the other woman in recognition and gratitude. "Okay, so while that is running I need everybody else scouring these remains, I need something that will help me find the woman that did this." 

Lizzie spun on her heel, walking away from the group and as she did she felt a stitch in her side, phantom pain most likely from where she was shot, but that wasn't the only this that was bothering her. She couldn't shake the feeling that she knew the man. There was something about the sketch that tugged at some recess of her mind. She had to think... 

However before she got too lost in thought, Booth joined her. "Hey, are you alright?" The question was laced with worry but Lizzie knew that when she looked up into his big brown eyes, she would see the well-placed mask that he wore whenever there was business to handle. "Yeah," She replied "I'm fine. A little sore, but that's not the issue." 

"Okay, so tell me the issue." He prompted. "I just... I can't explain it Boothy, I feel like I know him." The look on her face must have been one of pure worry or fear, because it caused Booth to pull her into his arms and run his hand over her hair in a soothing way. "Hey, it'll be okay Lizzie. Bones and the squints are the best at what they do, or they wouldn't be here. They will find out who this man was and then you and I will go out there and catch this woman before she is able to strike again." 

Before Lizzie was able to respond, they heard Hodgkins' voice ring our across the lab, "I found something! I'M KING OF THE LAB!!!" A small smile played across Lizzie and Booth's faces as they made their way over to Hodgkins cave-like laboratory.  

The room was filled to the brim with habitats, large, small and otherwise, each one housing some different kind of insect or small creature. Along one entire wall were containers of various shapes and sizes each one holding a different amount of soil, minerals or stones. Each was labeled and Lizzie knew, meticulously recorded and protected by Hodgkins. Often Lizzie felt that Hodgkins was more mole than man, seeing as his love of particulates and insects lead to his multiple Doctoral degrees. When Lizzie, Booth and the rest of the team made their way into Hodgkins' domain, they say the doctor doing what appeared to be some sort of happy dance around his computer desk. 

"Hodge," Lizzie called out using her nickname for the scientist. Giving a nickname to someone was Lizzie's way of forming attachments, so she rarely did this for anyone that she did not truly care about.  "What did you find?" The doctor whipped around and the look on his face was enough to pull a laugh from Lizzie and a chuckle from Booth.  Whether he wanted to or not, he was beginning to like this team.  

"What did I find?" Hodgkins repeated the question with an incredulous tone. " I only found the most amazing thing anyone could have found!" Lizzie was beginning to feel her frustration at the scientist's joyous state bubble over. "Okay, great. But, what is it?" She repeated her questions giving him her best hurry up and tell us before I shoot you look. "I found skin cells." He said looking like a chagrinned school boy. "Under the remains of the fingernails. Which, lucky for us, means that our victim fought back, and hard." The emphasis that he put on hard, lead Lizzie to wonder. "Why did you say it like that?" She asked him. "Well," he responded "I say it that way because there was such a large amount of skin cells." 

"If there was that large of an amount why didn't we see this until now?" Booth asked. 

"Because, yes there was a large amount, however they were spread across each hand. There were spread thin enough that the scanner wouldn't have found them until we searched it by hand." Hodgkins responded. 

Before Lizzie could question him again, Angela came rushing into the room. "Guys! The system found a match. You are gonna want to see this." Lizzie dashed from the room behind Angela, but when she came to the doorframe of the facial recognition lab, she froze. The face that she could see on the screen matched the sketch but was in sharper imaging and color. The man had brown hair and leafy green eyes, his square jaw was dotted with stubble. His eyes were indeed almond shaped but they held no feeling in them. This face was a face of pure anger and rage. This was a face that Lizzie hoped to never see again. 

This was the face of Jessie Parson, one of the inmates that she had evaluated for the investigation into the murder of his wife and child.