What Goes Around

8. A Kiss Is Still a Kiss

She had been busy in her office all day. Or she had been hiding. Either way, she even had forgotten to have lunch. Maybe they all saw she was in a bad mood, because no one had dared to interrupt her. Yet.

"Bren?" Angela said softly, careful not to startle her.

"Working."

"I can see that," she replied, walking on egg shells.

She pulled a chair and sat next to her best friend. She read out loud what was on the computer screen.

"The three girls, age 8, 9 and 10, were found the next morning in their sleeping bags a hundred feet from their tent by the camp counsellor. They had been raped, bludgeoned and strangled to death...?"

Angela stopped. Her voice refused to continue.

"That was back in 1977. The Oklahoma girl scout murders. It's still unsolved today."

"You think it could be the same killer? 32 years later?" Angela asked, on the verge of tears.

"I don't know. That's why I'm doing research," Brennan said, refocusing on the screen, scrolling down to another article.

"You usually let me do this," the artist pointed out.

"I can't just sit around and wait for you guys to find something, I have to... The bones are... This..."

"I understand."

Brennan looked tired. Oh, she was still stunningly hot, but she was tense and agitated. Angela didn't know what to do to help her. She simply asked, without pushing,

"You know you can tell me everything, right?"

Brennan mindlessly adjusted the screen in front of her before clicking on another headline.

"This one was last year," she explained. "Two other girl scouts were kidnapped and murdered. They were raped, too, but they were abducted from their homes... This is unbelievable. Listen to this..."

But Angela didn't want to hear any more.

"I'm talking about you, sweetie. You can tell me what's bothering you."

"This case is bothering me!" she bellowed.

Shocked, Angela literally backed off. Brennan rarely, if ever, snapped like this. She was usually disturbingly calm and cold with cases as horrid as this one was. She never got emotionally involved. She normally avoided it at any cost. In anything, really.

Realizing she was making a fool of herself, the anthropologist tilted her head down and stared at her keyboard. I really should clean it, she thought, trying to keep her mind on something concrete. Then she shut off the computer screen and, without looking at Angela, she got herself together enough to say,

"I think I'm gonna go to Honduras. Professor Garron offered me a spot on her team. It would only be for a month. And at the pace we're going with this investigation, things will probably be the same when I get back."

Angela scooted closer. Her voice was low and steady.

"When did it happen?"

"She invited me two weeks ago, but it shouldn't be too late to accept."

"No..." she whispered, putting her hand on her friend's arm. "When did you and Cal break up?"

Surprised, Brennan looked over her shoulder to make sure they were alone.

"Who told you?"

"You're always planning a great trip when one of your relationships ends."

Brennan took a minute to realize Ange was right. And she said,