The Salt in the Wounds

"The Salt in the Wounds" Episode 4x17 / Production 4x11 Airdate: March 19, 2009 Written By: Josh Berman & Carla Kettner Directed by: Steven DePaul Transcribed by: blandinavian

Disclaimer: The characters, plotlines, quotes, etc. included here are owned by Hart Hanson, all rights reserved. This transcript is not authorized or endorsed by Hart Hanson or Fox.

TEASER

(City Maintenance Storage Unit, two workers walking towards a truck.)

TESS: Operation says we've got a black ice alert on the bridges.

DARLENE: Weather guys are like psychics, man, they don't know squat!

TESS: I went to a psychic once, talked to my mother. Mom even bothered me dead.

DARLENE: All of the bridges?

TESS: All of 'em! Okay, fill me up.

(They reach the truck, DARLENE pushes a button and salt starts pouring into the truck.)

(DARLENE sees something fall into the truck, and stops the salt.)

TESS: What's up?

DARLENE: Something in the salt.

(She glances into the truck.)

DARLENE: Aah!

TESS: What is it?

DARLENE: You know that Bible story about the woman who turns into salt?

TESS: Lot's wife?

DARLENE: I think maybe we found her!

(Camera pans to a body/skeleton lying in the salt.)

(Cut to later, police have arrived at the scene, Brennan is in the truck, and Booth climbs up.)

BOOTH: So, the weather's been warm for the past six weeks, wow, so they haven't had to use rock salt.

BRENNAN: The dermis is extremely desiccated, the salt quick-dried the tissues.

(She is examining the body of a young woman, covered in salt crystals.)

BOOTH: Looks like a really big Apple doll.

BRENNAN: Teenage girl. Very tall, six feet.

BOOTH: Looks like she's been dead for about a hundred years.

BRENNAN: No, in fact less than a month. Salt is hygroscopic. It draws moisture from its surroundings and replaces it with crystals.

BOOTH: You know what? I suddenly got a potato chip craving.

(Cut to the Jeffersonian, Angela Montenegro is talking to her girlfriend, Roxie Lyon.)

ANGELA: Cats are so disdainful.

ROXIE: They're independent and self-assured. Like you.

ANGELA: Dog?

(She holds up a photograph of a dog.)

ANGELA: Cat?

(She holds up a photograph of a cat.)

ANGELA: What'cha gonna pick?

ROXIE: Uh, this is a lion eating a gazelle. What's with the sudden pet desire? We're not even living together.

ANGELA: Yet. Look at him, Rox. Look at his warm, brown eyes.

(She holds up the photograph, and they both smile and laugh.)

(Cut to shot of intern Arastoo Vaziri praying on the floor of the Jeffersonian lab near the platform.)

BRENNAN: He's going to do this five times a day.

CAM: Mr. Vaziri is Iranian, he's an observant Muslim.

HODGINS: Bright side? We'll always know which way is East.

BRENNAN: I don't know if this is going to work out, Dr. Saroyan.

CAM: This country was founded on the notion of religious tolerance.

(The camera pans to a shot of the dead body lying on a table and they move around it.)

BRENNAN: Well, I'm not discriminating because he is a Muslim. I find all religions equally irrational.

(Arastoo comes running up to the platform.)

ARASTOO: Thank you for your patience!

BRENNAN: I had no choice; apparently it's a constitutional issue.

(They both look towards a screen with x-rays.)

ARASTOO: Eeh. Trauma to the temporal and sphenoid region, with buckling on the outer edges, probably from being dropped from the bin. Bonk.

CAM: I see some red fibers.

HODGINS: Oh, that's me.

BRENNAN: Mr. Vaziri, do you see the ante-mortem skeletal trauma?

ARASTOO: Significant remodeling of the metacarpophalangeal joint on the right thumb, a snap, an old fracture to the little finger, crack, and a bone chip at the dorsal radial portion of the left wrist.

HODGINS: Pop?

ARASTOO: I've seen this before in cases of abuse. A girl who was handcuffed to a radiator in order to preserve her virginity.

(Angela enters the platform.)

ANGELA: Well, it turns out, there aren't that many 16-year-old girls who are six feet tall on the missing persons list.

(She hands over a printout with a girl's photograph and some information.)

BRENNAN: Ashley Clark. Missing three weeks.

ANGELA: So... Roxie and I are getting a dog.

HODGINS: Wow. I had Roxie pegged as a cat person.

(Arastoo turns around upon hearing talk about Roxie.)

ANGELA: Hey! I'm Angela.

ARASTOO: Oh. Arastoo Vaziri. Uhm, y-your boyfriend's name is Rocky? Like, pow? Like the famous boxer?

ANGELA: No, uh, Roxie.

BRENNAN: Angela's boyfriend is a girl. Perhaps your religion won't allow you to accept that.

CAM: Blood chemistry shows unusually high levels of relaxin.

ANGELA: Relaxin? Sounds like something you could get arrested for taking.

BRENNAN: It's a naturally occurring hormone, secreted during pregnancy.

CAM: So, if she was handcuffed to protect her virginity... Didn't work out so well.

(Intro music)

ACT II

(Booth and Brennan are sitting with Ashley Clark's parents, Ellen and Bob Clark, at their house.)

BOB CLARK: We last saw Ashley the afternoon before her high school dance.

ELLEN CLARK: It was the end of winter dance. I remember because we made a bunch of jam that day and Ashley was worried that she'd smell like raspberries.

BOOTH: Ashley never made it to the dance?

(Ellen shakes her head.)

BOB: We had to wait 24 hours before she was officially missing.

BOOTH: Were there any major developments in your daughter's life in the weeks leading up to her death?

ELLEN: He means drugs. Was Ashley doing drugs.

BRENNAN: No, we don't mean drugs.

BOOTH: No, no drugs. Were you aware that your daughter was pregnant?

BRENNAN: Approximately twelve weeks.

ELLEN: Pregnant? Ashley couldn't have been pregnant.

BRENNAN: She was. Do you have any idea who might be the father?

BOB: Is that who you think killed her? The father of her child?

BOOTH: Well, we'd like to talk to him.

ELLEN: My daughter and I were very close, and it simply isn't possible that she wouldn't tell me she was pregnant.

BRENNAN: I would appreciate some insight into the high number of injuries your daughter sustained since puberty.

ELLEN: So now you're saying that we abused our daughter?

BOB: It's alright, they have to ask... My daughter was an athlete. She grew almost two feet over the last four years. You can confirm the injuries with her chiropractor.

BOOTH: We are very sorry for your loss, sir.

(He hands them his card.)

ELLEN: Then you shouldn't say such terrible things.

(Cut to the chiropractor's office, where Booth and Brennan talk to Dr. Sean Fitts.)

DR. FITTS: Ashley wasn't a victim of abuse. She was the victim of athleticism and a competitive disposition. See this remodeling of the right thumb, the little finger, the dorsal radial portion of her wrist?

(He points to a screen with x-rays.)

BRENNAN: Volleyball, of course.

DR. FITTS: That's right, that's very good.

BRENNAN: Patella tendonitis.

BOOTH: Jumper's knee!

BRENNAN: How did you know that?

BOOTH: Athlete, Bones. Thanks, Dr. Fitts, we appreciate your help.

DR. FITTS: Yeah.

(He hands Brennan an envelope with the x-rays.)

BRENNAN: Thanks.

BOOTH: Were you aware that Ashley Clark was pregnant?

DR. FITTS: No! No, her last appointment was about six weeks ago. She didn't mention it.

BRENNAN: Despite the fact that you aren't a real medical doctor, you have been quite helpful. Thanks.

(She starts walking towards the door, but turns when Dr. Fitts speaks to her.)

DR. FITTS: Oh, you're welcome. Oh, and by the way... You aren't a real medical doctor either.

BOOTH: Ouch.

(Booth and Brennan leave.)

(Cut to a lab at the Jeffersonian, Cam and Arastoo are examining Ashley Clark's body, removing the top of her skull.)

ARASTOO: No hematoma, meaning the skull was fractured post-mortem. Probably when the body tumbled out of the overhead bin. Clunk.

CAM: Very descriptively put.

ARASTOO: It has been pointed out to me that I tend towards onomatopoeia.

(Brennan comes into the room.)

BRENNAN: Dr. Saroyan! Why hasn't the body been defleshed?

CAM: I'm still conducting the autopsy.

BRENNAN: Well, if I can't remove the flesh, then I can't find cause of death.

CAM: If you remove the flesh, I can't find cause of death.

BRENNAN: What flesh? The body is completely desiccated. Any remaining indicators are going to come from the bones.

CAM: Not if I can rehydrate the tissue.

ARASTOO: Paleontologists have used Ruffer's solution successfully on mummies...but shush.

CAM: The salt arrested bacterial development, there's no decomp. If I can rehydrate, I can do a proper autopsy.

BRENNAN: No, it will take too long and a positive result is debatable.

CAM: Lucky for me, I'm the boss.

BRENNAN: I claim one of my freebies.

CAM: I claim one of my freebie-declines.

(Brennan angrily leaves the room and Cam sighs.)

(Cut to Booth's FBI office. Bob Clark knocks on the door.)

BOOTH: Come on in. What can I do for you, Mr. Clark?

(Bob Clark sits down in front of Booth's desk as Booth moves behind it.)

BOB: I, uh, wanted to tell you that I suspected my daughter was pregnant.

BOOTH: Alright, have a seat. And you, uh, didn't wanna say anything in front of your wife?

BOB: No. I found a pregnancy test in the wastebasket in the bathroom.

BOOTH: Your wife is still young enough to have children.

BOB: Sexual intercourse has not been a part of our marriage in several years.

BOOTH: Did you talk to Ashley about the pregnancy test?

BOB: Yes, but she denied that it was hers. She said it was a friend's. She asked me not to tell my wife. She called it a father/daughter secret.

BOOTH: Was there a boy in Ashley's life?

BOB: Ashley argued about a boy with her friend Becca. I overheard it on the phone. Didn't get a name.

BOOTH: I see. Well, I'll look into it.

(Mr. Clark gets up to leave.)

BOB: Uh, I hope my wife doesn't have to find out that I kept this huge secret from her. I don't think she'd forgive me.

BOOTH: Forgive you?

BOB: Considering how it turned out...

(Mr. Clark leaves.)

(Cut to Angela and Roxie in the lab.)

ANGELA: His name is Donatello, and he's a rescue, and he needs a good home. One caveat, though - he's afraid of the wind.

(Roxie looks sad.)

ANGELA: Wow, you really don't want this dog, do you? Is it because Donatello is a stupid name?

(Roxie looks over to her, with tears in her eyes.)

ANGELA: ...yeah. You're breaking up with me.

(Roxie looks over at her, looking like she's confirming it, but doesn't know what to say.)

ANGELA: You don't have to say anything, Rox, it's okay.

ROXIE: I do wanna say something. Ange, you live in the moment, I know that, but moments are fleeting. They pass.

ANGELA: Yeah, but we decide when the moments pass.

ROXIE: This one has passed.

ANGELA: Yeah...

ROXIE: I've gotta think about the future.

ANGELA: Okay.

(Roxie gets up, kisses Angela on the cheek and leaves.)

(Cut to Booth at the FBI building, by the vending machine.)

BOOTH: You gotta be kidding me.

(He's struggling with the vending machine, punching and shaking it. Becca Hedgepeth appears behind him, looking very pregnant.)

BECCA HEDGEPETH: Excuse me, agent Booth?

BOOTH: Yeah?

BECCA: I'm Becca Hedgepeth. They told me I could find you here.

BOOTH: Wow. Ashley Clark's friend.

BECCA: Yeah.

ACT III

(Booth and Becca are sitting in a hallway in the FBI building.)

BOOTH: So you heard that Ashley was murdered on the news, right?

BECCA: Yeah.

BOOTH: It's my job to find out who did it.

BECCA: 'Kay. Well, I hope you do.

BOOTH: According to her father, he said the two of you got into a fight and you stopped coming to the house.

BECCA: That's just because Ashley went behind my back with my boyfriend.

BOOTH: What's your boyfriend's name?

BECCA: Well, ex-boyfriend. Rory Davis. Wait. Do you think that I was jealous enough to kill my best friend? Or, are you saying Rory did it?

BOOTH: Well, you're pregnant. Emotions run high during that situation.

BECCA: Me and Ashley would've gotten past it. Because she broke up with Rory too.

BOOTH: Looks like I'm gonna have to talk to "Love 'em and leave 'em"-Rory.

(Cut to the lab, Cam, Hodgins and Arastoo are about to submerge the body in a tank.)

CAM: Okay, very careful, the tissue is fragile.

HODGINS: Alright, ready? On my count. One. Two... We're gonna completely submerge her in a bath of sodium carbonate, aqueous formalin and ethyl alcohol. Good. And somewhere between 24 and 48 hours from now, she should look practically human again. Ready? And, go.

(The fluid starts being sprayed onto the body.)

HODGINS: I got the trace back on those red fibers you found in her hair. They're tri-lobal, two red strands, one blue strand woven together. Given the length and texture, they definitely came form an automobile.

ARASTOO. But the killer must have transported Ashley's body from wherever she was killed into the salt pile.

CAM: Can you narrow down what kind of car?

HODGINS: Yeah, I'm running the fibers through FACID, that should be able to give Booth make and model and year.

(An alarm on Arastoo's watch beeps.)

ARASTOO: Oh, time-out for Allah.

(Arastoo leaves the room, while Angela is entering it.)

ANGELA: Hey, Arastoo.

ARASTOO: Hello, Angela.

(Arastoo leaves, and Angela heads towards Cam and Hodgins.)

ANGELA: Hey. Uh, listen, do you need me any more here today? 'Cause I could really use a...

HODGINS: Angela. What's the matter?

ANGELA: Roxie and I broke up, and I just...

HODGINS: Uh, you know, I'm gonna take Angela for a cup of coffee, okay?

CAM: Sure, yeah, go. This is a simple murder. Solves itself.

(Angela and Hodgins leave the room, while Cam looks down at the body.)

(Cut to Booth and Brennan entering a high school weight room.)

BOOTH: Okay. Rory Davis?

(Rory Davis is bench pressing, with Clinton Gilmour as his spotter.)

RORY DAVIS: Yeah?

CLINTON GILMOUR: Whoa, a little warning, dude, I'm only the Hulk when I get pissed.

BOOTH: Listen, we'd like to talk to you about Ashley Clark.

RORY: It wasn't me.

BRENNAN: It wasn't you who - what?

RORY: Becca texted me, saying that you think I killed Ashley, but I didn't.

(Booth looks towards Clinton.)

BOOTH: Excuse me, you wanna give me a moment here, I'd like to talk to him alone?

CLINTON: Dude, you're a murder suspect! That's awesome.

(Booth clears his throat and Clinton leaves.)

BRENNAN: Becca said that you and Ashley connected sexually.

BOOTH: Yeah, her exact words were "got all over"?

RORY. This is completely not fair.

BRENNAN: That you had s*x with two girls and they got pregnant?

RORY: We didn't have s*x!

BRENNAN: Pregnancy is unlikely without intercourse.

BOOTH: Right. Thanks for the tip, Bones, yeah.

RORY: No, we didn't have intercourse. I'm a Christian, I'm not gonna have intercourse until I'm married.

BOOTH: Okay, so you got two girls pregnant, but you didn't have s*x with either one of them?

RORY: Well, uh, I think some of, uh, my...you know, stuff, may have found its way in there. I mean, the way Ashley came after me, it's like she was really, really...trying...

BRENNAN: To get your sperm?

RORY: Yeah, well, if it wasn't for my faith in Jesus, there would have been sexual intercourse.

BOOTH: How did your relationship with Ashley end?

RORY: Bad. Ashley was mad at me. Becca was mad at me. I did everything right, and it turned out all wrong.

BOOTH: Mm. Did Ashley have any arguments with anyone else?

BRENNAN: Or try to get their sperm?

RORY: She had some sort of fight with Mr. Hawthorne. I heard it from the weight room.

BOOTH: Who's Mr. Hawthorne?

RORY: He's the volleyball coach.

BOOTH: Where would he be?

(Cut to the basement of the Jeffersonian, we find Hodgins and Angela in Cleopatra's bed, between loads of Egyptian artifacts.)

ANGELA: Wow. That was great.

HODGINS: Like I told you, I'll always be there for you when you need comforting.

ANGELA: Heh, I didn't need comfort. But I needed a good tumble.

HODGINS: Potat-oh, potah-to.

(He kisses her shoulder.)

ANGELA: I'm fine about Roxie. People come and go in life.

HODGINS: What did she say? Aside from "So long"?

ANGELA: Basically, she said she wants somebody who doesn't just live in the moment, but who considers the future. What's wrong with the moment?

HODGINS: Nothing.

ANGELA: But?

HODGINS: But it's nice every once in a while to think about the future.

(Angela starts to get out of the bed.)

ANGELA: So let me get this straight. To be together, then it has to be all about the future?

HODGINS: Yeah.

ANGELA: So, this, right now, this isn't together?

HODGINS: It was a moment. A great moment, but like all great moments, it passed.

(Angela gets up and leaves, but Hodgins notices she has forgotten her earring.)

(Cut to Booth, Brennan and coach Adam Hawthorne walking down a set of stairs at the high school.)

BOOTH: We heard that you got into a loud argument with Ashley.

BRENNAN: With shouting.

COACH HAWTHORNE: That's true. Two fights, in fact. The first one was when she failed to seduce me, and the second, a couple of moths later, when she threatened to name me as the father of her child if I didn't give her five grand.

BRENNAN: Uh, she tried to seduce you?

COACH HAWTHORNE: Alright, seduce isn't the right word. Look, that girl came at me like....

BOOTH: So, Ashley Clark tried to blackmail you?

COACH HAWTHORNE: In case you're thinking that drove me to murder, you can check with the principal. I reported it. What with the way things are, I figured that that was the smartest move.

BRENNAN: The way things are?

COACH HAWTHORNE: Half my volleyball team got pregnant.

BOOTH: We're gonna need a team roster.

COACH HAWTHORNE: Well, if you wanna talk to them, go to the multi-purpose room. They're having another baby shower.

(Cut to the multi-purpose room, where a group of girls, several pregnant, are having a baby shower.)

BOOTH. Oh, you've got to be kidding me. This school ever hear of s*x education?

BRENNAN: Well, if so, there's gaps in the curriculum.

BOOTH: That's for sure.

(Pan to Becca, who is standing next to and talking to a girl, Alyssa Howland, who is holding an infant.)

BECCA: These are the people I was telling you about.

ALYSSA HOWLAND: Okay.

(Booth and Brennan approach Becca.)

BOOTH: That's Becca.

ALYSSA: Hello! Hi, I'm Alyssa Howland. You guys have already spoken to Becca and Rory, so I imagine you're here about Ashley Clark.

BOOTH: Wow. This texting thing is way out of control.

BRENNAN: Were you by any chance the captain of the volleyball team?

BECCA: Alyssa was the captain of all our teams.

ALYSSA: Yeah, and I'm also valedictorian and student body president. Or I was until people decided that I was a bad example.

BRENNAN: Well, as alpha female, you are a bad example.

ALYSSA: Hey!

BRENNAN: I'm sorry, but in this day and age of available contraception and easily accessed information, for a teen girl to become pregnant is clearly a lapse in judgment.

BOOTH: Okay, girls, you do realize this is a murder investigation?

ALYSSA: Oh, yeah, we understand that.

BECCA: Yeah, we're quite intelligent.

BOOTH: Right. So, Rory Davis was not the father of your child.

BECCA: I never said he was.

BRENNAN: And he wasn't the father of Ashley's baby either, was he?

ALYSSA: No. No, as a matter of fact, the same guy is the father of my baby and Becca's.

BECCA: And Ashley's.

BRENNAN: What about the rest of them?

BECCA: Jenny?

ALYSSA: Yeah, uhm, her. And the others got pregnant by their boyfriends and whatnot.

BRENNAN: So one boy is the father of four babies?

ALYSSA: Mhm.

BOOTH: Okay, and who would this stud be?

ALYSSA: It's Clinton.

BRENNAN: Oh. President Bill Clinton?

(The girls laugh.)

BECCA: Ew, no.

ALYSSA: Clinton Gilmour.

(She points him out and they wave.)

ALYSSA: The cute one in the yellow shirt.

BOOTH: The one in the yellow?!

(Clinton leaves the multi-purpose room, and Booth and Brennan stand there, confused.)

ACT IV

(Cut to the weight room, Booth enters and finds Clinton putting small weight plates onto a bar.)

BOOTH: Clinton?

CLINTON: What?

BOOTH: Alyssa Howland says that you had s*x with the entire volleyball team.

CLINTON: The girls' volleyball team, and not all of them. I don't like to boast. A gentleman does not kiss and tell.

(He lies down on the bench and starts lifting the bar.)

BOOTH: How old are you?

CLINTON: Sixteen. My personality is completely formed.

BOOTH: How'd you get those four girls pregnant?

(Clinton gets up from the bench.)

CLINTON: You want pictures? Check the Internet, that's what I did.

(Booth starts adding heavier weights to the bar, eventually lying down to lift them.)

BOOTH: Right. You know, I show no disrespect. I went to high school, and high school has not changed. The fact is, from what I remember, guys like you can't get that many girls. You know what I'm saying?

CLINTON: Wait, you can't lift that.

(Booth does a series of lifts.)

CLINTON: Wow.

BOOTH: Alright, see, the point is, I can do that, but I didn't get girls like that in high school. So, what you're saying happened really didn't happen, huh?

CLINTON: Like a conspiracy. The conspiracy is that they like me. I'll tell you something else. More than one of them told me that I'm actually very considerate and sweet in the bed department.

BOOTH: Ashley is dead. She was murdered. The prime suspect would be the person who knocked her up. I need to know the person who did that deed.

CLINTON: It was me. The s*x deed-part! The killing part was definitely somebody else.

BOOTH: You know what I think? I think those girls are up to something, and they're using you as a cover. It's okay. We'll just do a DNA test, and the truth will come out. Alright?

(Booth heads towards the door, while Clinton shouts to him.)

CLINTON: Take my DNA, and you'll find out the truth! I am the MacDaddy Supremo Baby Daddy of G.O.W. High School!

(Booth leaves the weight room.)

(Cut to the Jeffersonian, Arastoo is staring at the body in the tank.

CAM: The Ruffer's solution is working.

ARASTOO: I find myself wondering if the rate of tissue reclamation will accelerate over time, decelerate or hold steady.

CAM: You're worried about what to tell Dr. Brennan.

(Arastoo turns towards Cam.)

ARASTOO: If Dr. Brennan asks, when do you think we will have access to the bones?

CAM: Tell Dr. Brennan that unless she can think of a way to examine the bones while leaving the flesh intact, you're both out of luck.

(Cut to the Founding Fathers Bar, a reporter on TV is talking while Angela and Brennan eat and watch.)

REPORTER: During the investigation into the death of high school sophomore Ashley Clark, it was discovered the presumed murder victim was part of a group of girls who made a pact to get pregnant and raise their children together.

(The camera pans from the TV to Angela and Brennan, and the noise from the TV fades out.)

BRENNAN: No, there was no proof that there was a pact.

ANGELA: See, this is what happens when all you worry about is the future. Pregnant teenagers.

BRENNAN: I would argue that most pregnant teenagers get that way by becoming involved in the moment.

ANGELA: Yeah. True.

BRENNAN: Are you alright?

ANGELA: Oh, yeah. Totally. It was so worth it.

BRENNAN: Will you be able to remain BBFs?

ANGELA: B-F-Fs. Best friends forever.

BRENNAN: Oh. Will you resume a sexual relationship with Hodgins?

ANGELA: I already did.

BRENNAN: Oh. Well, good.

ANGELA: Yeah, but he can't keep it casual. He's the marrying kind.

BRENNAN: I am comfortable giving you advice in this area.

ANGELA: Shoot.

BRENNAN: I think you live your life very well.

ANGELA: Thank you.

BRENNAN: You are not afraid to change your mind when conditions change.

ANGELA: Conditions always change.

BRENNAN: The successful organism is the organism that adapts. This is one area where we are very similar.

ANGELA: I was with you until there.

BRENNAN: Like me, you are not swept away by your emotions. You remain rational. You use your brain to pick someone for s*x and companionship.

ANGELA: Uh, a minor correction there: I use my heart.

BRENNAN: That is not -

ANGELA: Metaphoric heart, sweetie. Stay with me here, right? Love, like art, comes from the moments where two people become one.

BRENNAN: Minor correction: Love comes from a confluence of chemicals and hormones in the pineal gland.

ANGELA: Right. But all beauty is transient and of the moment.

BRENNAN: Like a sunset is beautiful.

ANGELA: You know, it sounds like we are in agreement, which is worrying me just a little bit.

(Brennan's cellphone vibrates, and she looks down at it.)

BRENNAN: Hodgins says he found pectin in the scratches he swabbed on the victim's arm.

ANGELA: How did he find scratches? The victim looked like beef jerky.

BRENNAN: Well, apparently Cam had some limited success in rehydrating the body.

ANGELA: That's impressive.

BRENNAN: Yes. Pectin is used in making preserves, right?

ANGELA: Sure, I remember that from growing up a farm girl in Amish country.

(Brennan gives her an odd look.)

ANGELA: Sarcasm, Brennan. I'm sorry.

(Brennan gets up to leave.)

BRENNAN: The victim and her mother were making jam the afternoon before she disappeared.

ANGELA: Have you ever noticed that a sunset looks more beautiful when you share it with somebody that you care about?

BRENNAN: No. I haven't. But I'll pay better attention next time.

ANGELA: Okay.

(Brennan leaves the bar, leaving Angela there.)

(Cut to an interrogation room at the FBI building. Booth is interrogating Ellen Clark.)

BOOTH: So, we have evidence that you scratched your daughter shortly before she died.

ELLEN: I grabbed her arm is all.

BOOTH: Hard enough to leave marks?

(Booth shows her photographs of her daughter's arm.)

BOOTH: Was it because you found out she was pregnant?

ELLEN: No. I still find that hard to believe, Ashley and I talked about everything.

(Brennan and Sweets are standing in an adjacent room, watching the interrogation through a two-way mirror.)

BRENNAN: Why can't this woman face the facts?

SWEETS: Perhaps because the facts are so painful.

BRENNAN: Do you suspect the father of incest?

SWEETS: It would explain the mother's behavior.

ELLEN: I didn't know about the pregnancy, I was angry because...

(She hands Booth a piece of paper.)

BOOTH: You wrote your daughter a check for $5,000?

ELLEN: No, she forged my signature. I caught her before she could cash it.

BOOTH: Why did Ashley need $5,000?

ELLEN: I don't know. She wouldn't say, she just...was always hanging around Becca and the rest of that team, and suddenly I didn't exist. And now the news is saying that she had some kind of pact.

(Sweets speaks into a microphone.)

SWEETS: Booth, I have a theory.

BOOTH: Can you excuse me for a moment there, Mrs. Clark?

(Booth leaves the interrogation room and heads into the adjacent room.)

BOOTH: What do you got?

SWEETS: Okay, it's possible that Ashley Clark was killed by the pact for not coming up with the $5,000.

BOOTH: So you think this whole pact-thing is true?

BRENNAN: There have been many instances in history where women group together to raise their children, and the men become nothing more to them than sperm donors. The "walking marriages" of the Mosuo in the Himalayas, for example.

BOOTH: Right. Okay, so you think that the Himalayan Momos just killed each other when things got dicey?

BRENNAN: Killing is a more male response. Women tend more toward shunning.

SWEETS: I might be able to figure out the nature of the girls' relationship.

BOOTH: How?

SWEETS: Let me at the alpha girl. Psychologically, I mean.

(Cut to the lab, where Arastoo is working in the bone room/limbo, and Cam enters.)

CAM: Mr. Vaziri, do you have any idea where all the monitors on the forensic platform have gone?

(She sees that Arastoo has arranged all the monitors to show an oversized x-ray version of the body.)

ARASTOO: I appropriated them. I sent you an e-mail.

CAM: I didn't have a monitor to check my e-mail. You have created a virtual skeleton.

ARASTOO: It was your idea, Dr. Saroyan.

CAM: No, I don't recall -

ARASTOO: In speaking of Dr. Brennan, you said to me "Tell her that unless she can think of a way to examine the bones while leaving the flesh intact, you're both out of luck."

CAM: Well, I'll make sure you get the credit for this with Dr. Brennan.

ARASTOO: No, no, no, no, no.

CAM: You don't want credit?

ARASTOO: No, I would rather not be the person to point out to Dr. Brennan that she was incorrect about retaining the soft tissue at the expense of exposing the skeleton.

CAM: Meaning you found something?

ARASTOO: I would never have seen this on the actual bone, but when I blew up the digital x-ray...

(He shows Cam a blown up version of an x-ray.)

ARASTOO: Here, in the middle ear, there is a hairline fracture on the stapes.

CAM: What does that suggest to you?

ARASTOO: Violence, Dr. Saroyan.

ACT V

(Cut to Angela sitting in her office, sipping tea, while Arastoo pokes his head in the door.)

ARASTOO: Ms. Montenegro?

ANGELA: Yeah. Hi, Arastoo, how are you?

ARASTOO: I would like to pass onto you my condolences that your heart has been broken.

CAM: Oh. Here we go. Are you gonna quote the Quran?

ARASTOO: No, no. I - I put together a CD with some songs that I have found to be cathartic. "Hope There's Someone" by Mr. Antony and the Johnsons, "Breathe Me" by Sia, "Heartbeats" by Mr. José Gonzalez, "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star - this is not a person, but a band, "Lullaby of Loneliness" by Aaron English and of course, the finest of the melancholy songs, "Dust in the Wind". Very melancholy that. I wish you peace, Ms. Montenegro, and I wish that you find love again.

ANGELA: Thank you, Arastoo. Thanks very much.

(She gives Arastoo a hug and he leaves.)

(Cut to the forensic platform, Cam is photographing the body when Arastoo arrives.)

ARASTOO: Dr. Saroyan?

CAM: Tell Dr. Brennan she cannot have the remains yet. Hovering will not make this go any faster.

ARASTOO: Dr. Brennan required me to hover.

CAM: How's about you go bank a prayer, and give me a little breathing space? I apologize, I quip sometimes.

ARASTOO: Believe me, it is nothing compared to the 1st Batallion, 9th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team One.

(He does a military salute and Cam gives him an awkward look.)

CAM: Glycerin, please?

(Arastoo gets the glycerin for her.)

ARASTOO: What are you going to do?

CAM: Ruffer's only gets us so far, so I'm going to inject some glycerin around the soft tissue of the ear.

ARASTOO: Oh, to see if there's any tissue damage which might explain the fractured stapes.

(Cam injects the glycerin next to the victim's ear.)

(Cut to an interrogation room at the FBI building, where Sweets is interrogating Alyssa Howland.)

ALYSSA: A pact? There's no pact. The papers totally made that up.

SWEETS: Okay, but you are very close?

ALYSSA: Yeah, we played on the same team together since we were freshmen. We've traveled a lot too. I mean, we've been through a lot together.

SWEETS: Boys...?

ALYSSA: Boys come and go, you know, but your friends, that's who you can really count on, right?

SWEETS: Count on?

ALYSSA: Yeah, they don't pressure you like boys. Like parents.

SWEETS: Uh, pressure?

ALYSSA: Pressure to succeed, yeah.

SWEETS: Well, you're a very high achiever, Ms. Howland. Student body president, valedictorian, full scholarship to Amherst, all of which went away when you got pregnant.

ALYSSA: Yeah, it's okay. I mean, I'm totally cool with being a mother.

SWEETS: Is it a coincidence that once you got pregnant, seven of the others on the volleyball team did the same?

ALYSSA: It's not my fault that people wanna be like me. I'm a natural leader.

SWEETS: They look to you as an example.

ALYSSA: It was my idea that we all get a house together. Help each other raise our kids.

SWEETS: Where would the money come from?

ALYSSA: Oh, uhm, I mean, we'd all put in. I'd figured out how much we'd need.

SWEETS: $5,000 each.

ALYSSA: That's right. Wait, how did you know?

SWEETS: You said it wasn't a pact. Then how do you explain that four of you got pregnant from the same boy? He seems an unlikely choice.

ALYSSA: Clinton wasn't a choice. I didn't plan the baby. I'd...just found out I'd won the scholarship, and my parents started to plan my whole life. I just went to the park, I couldn't...breathe, I couldn't think.

SWEETS: Too much pressure?

ALYSSA: Yeah. And Clinton was there and I was crying and I just - I felt like I was being banished. You know? I mean, nobody asked me what I wanted. And Clinton understood. And he held my hand and he let me cry and, you know, one thing led to another. And he's been great.

SWEETS: Great how?

ALYSSA: Well, he's a kid, you know. He doesn't really wanna raise kids.

SWEETS: Right. Maybe that's why the other girls chose him to get them pregnant?

ALYSSA: Yeah, yeah! And it's gonna be great. We all are gonna have these cute kids, and we'll all be there for each other.

SWEETS: Except Ashley?

ALYSSA: Yeah.

(Cut to the forensic platform, Cam and Arastoo are working.)

ARASTOO: What exactly are we doing?

CAM: I couldn't see any contusions around the ear, but perimortem bruising is often only visible under certain light wavelengths.

ARASTOO: You're using colorimetrics?

CAM: That's right.

ARASTOO: I read an article in a forensic journal. A Japanese scientist published his study.

CAM: We read the same article. Could you turn on the UV light?

(Arastoo turns on the light, and they examine the area around the ear.)

CAM: Look at that.

(Brennan arrives on the platform.)

BRENNAN: Are you switching teams, Mr. Vaziri?

ARASTOO: No, no. My preference is forensic anthropology, but Dr. Saroyan's use of colorimetrics was thrilling.

CAM: Look at the monitor. Assuming sufficient force, that perimortem bruising explains your stapes fracture.

BRENNAN: The bruise is directly on top of the vagus nerve.

CAM: And...?

ARASTOO: Cowabunga!

CAM: What?

BRENNAN: When the vagus nerve is triggered with enough force, the victim will go into cardiac arrest and die. You have discovered the cause of death.

(Cam looks please, Arastoo looks pleased, but worried, Brennan looks slightly annoyed.)

ACT VI

(Cut to the autopsy room, where Brennan and Cam are examining the body.)

CAM: The tissue damage is distributed evenly.

BRENNAN: What does that indicate?

CAM: That it was a single blow.

BRENNAN: Whatever did this is completely flat and round.

CAM: Some kind of hammer?

(Hodgins enters the room.)

HODGINS: Anyone interested in our mysterious red fiber?

BRENNAN: Oh! You identified the vehicle?

HODGINS: Late-model German sedan, Mercedes or BMW.

CAM: Let Booth know.

(Hodgins starts to leave again.)

HODGINS: And just so you know, Arastoo is praying again. Either that, or he's doing a very repetitive yoga move.

(Hodgins leaves.)

BRENNAN: Is that appropriate in the lab?

CAM: Some of us take coffee breaks, some of us take smoke breaks, Mr. Vaziri takes a spiritual break.

BRENNAN: Who smokes?

CAM: Nobody. Not very often, anyway, just very rarely in times of great stress.

BRENNAN: If you had release the remains to me when I'd asked, and Mr. Vaziri had removed the flesh, then we'd never have found cause of death.

CAM: Thank you.

BRENNAN: Why are you thanking me? I'm simply stating a fact.

CAM: I am thanking you for stating the fact that you were wrong.

BRENNAN: Oh. You're welcome.

(They both nod.)

BRENNAN: The odds of hitting the vagus nerve by accident are very slight.

CAM: So, do you think this was done by someone who knew what they were doing?

BRENNAN: Yes. Someone who is very familiar with human anatomy. Like a physiologist or a doctor... Or a chiropractor.

CAM: Let's check out the victim's chiropractor's ride.

(Cut to the FBI building, Booth is entering his office, where Cam and Brennan are waiting.)

BOOTH: So, Dr. Fitts drives a 2007 BMW sedan.

CAM: So you got a warrant?

BOOTH: There are 1,208 BMW sedans in D.C.

CAM: So you didn't get a warrant?

BRENNAN: But how many of those drivers know how to kill using the vagus nerve? And how many of those drivers had access to the victim?

CAM: And own chiropractic tools we might be able to match with the murder weapon?

BOOTH: Guys. No warrant.

BRENNAN: If Booth and I hadn't questioned Dr. Fitts, we could mount one of our clever undercover operations.

(They all exchange glances.)

CAM: Hey, not me. But I do have a great idea.

(Cut to the waiting room at Dr. Fitts' office, Sweets is posing as a patient with Angela as his significant other. Sweets is pretending to have back issues.)

SWEETS: How long have we been married?

ANGELA: Just concentrate on your symptoms. That's all he's gonna ask about. I'll look for this thing here. Brennan says it's the murder weapon.

(She shows Sweets a drawing of a chiropractic instrument.)

ANGELA: So you heard about me and Roxie?

SWEETS: Yeah. I'm sorry.

ANGELA: Oh, no, really, it's absolutely fine.

SWEETS: Okay.

ANGELA: I also had a little afternoon delight with Hodgins, but let's just say it's not really his thing.

SWEETS: Again, I'm sorry.

ANGELA: No, it's totally fine.

SWEETS: Then why are you telling me?

ANGELA: Brennan approves of the way that I conduct my love life.

SWEETS: Ooh.

ANGELA: Yeah. What's wrong with living in the moment?

SWEETS: Nothing, nothing. As long as it's working for you.

ANGELA: Oh, it is. Definitely.

SWEETS: If it weren't -

ANGELA: No, it is.

SWEETS: Well, if it weren't -

ANGELA: It is.

SWEETS: If it weren't, I'd suggest to you...

ANGELA: What?

SWEETS: You won't like it.

ANGELA: Oh, no, I'm... I'm happy living in the moment. What you say is merely interesting.

SWEETS: Well, what I would advice you to do, is remove s*x from the situation.

ANGELA: I don't like that.

SWEETS: You're a beautiful woman. You're confident in your sexuality, which is laudable, but you need to connect with people on another level.

ANGELA: Why?

SWEETS: Why? Because sexual attraction is only one facet of the human romantic experience.

ANGELA: So, don't have s*x?

SWEETS: I - I'd suggest you be celibate for, say, six months.

ANGELA: Oh, my G... Six months? Why not ten years?

SWEETS: You asked my opinion, and that's it. Forgo s*x in favor of other connections. Shouldn't we have like a cover story in order to reassure the chiropractor that we're married?

(Dr. Fitts opens a door to the waiting room.)

DR. FITTS: Mr. Sweets?

SWEETS: Yeah.

(Angela kisses his cheek.)

ANGELA: Okay, honey, we're up. This is us, a happily married couple.

SWEETS: Uh, help me, please.

(Angela helps Sweets to get up.)

ANGELA: Okay.

SWEETS: Thank you.

(They are now in the treatment room. Sweets is sitting on a massage table while Dr. Fitts examines him and Angela is walking casually around.)

DR. FITTS: You've had some discomfort in your lower back?

SWEETS: Uh, yeah, yeah. As a fireman, I often have to carry heavy -

(Dr. Fitts does several maneuvers twisting Sweets' back.)

SWEETS: Oh!

DR. FITTS: Oh, it's very tight. It's very tight.

SWEETS: Oh, ow, what are you - oh God! What are you doing?

DR. FITTS: Okay, frankly, these knots I feel in your lumbar region are more congruent with sitting hunched over a desk than they are pulling people from a burning building.

ANGELA: Oh, well, he's not a fireman yet, Dr. Fitts, he's just training.

SWEETS: Yeah, almost. Another week.

ANGELA: Spends a little too much time on the Internet, if you know what I mean.

DR. FITTS: Well, I feel knots in your lumbar region. I'm going to give you a minor adjustment. This won't hurt.

(He picks out an instrument from a drawer, which looks exactly like the drawing of the suspected murder weapon.)

DR. FITTS: But you will feel some pressure.

(Angela takes a photo of Dr. Fitts using the instrument on Sweets, and whispers to herself.)

ANGELA: Not as much as you.

(Cut to a montage set to "Heartbeats". We start off in the interrogation room, where Booth is interrogating Dr. Fitts, showing him the instrument, and Dr. Fitts looking guilty, followed by Angela looking at photos of herself and various previous lovers - Hodgins, Roxie, Birimbau - and putting them in a box, followed by Cam finishing up with the body, Hodgins sitting by his desk while looking at Angela's earring and then Arastoo praying while Brennan is watching.)

(Cut to the Founding Fathers Bar, where Booth and Brennan are sitting by the bar.)

BOOTH: Ashley needed $5,000 to leave home and raise her baby, so she tries to blackmail her coach.

BRENNAN: But it didn't work, because he'd never had s*x with her.

BOOTH: Right, so she has to go and seduce the chiropractor and threatens him with statutory rape if he doesn't pay up.

BRENNAN: And he killed her.

BOOTH: Horrible. Wow.

BRENNAN: So, are the rest of the girls still renting a house together?

BOOTH: Right. You know what I don't get? How is it that eight beautiful girls could just give up their whole lives during high school?

BRENNAN: It's a rational decision.

BOOTH: On what planet?

BRENNAN: Earth!

BOOTH: Earth?

BRENNAN: Given the current environment, the paradigm within which a group of girls band together to raise their offspring has merit.

BOOTH: Without their fathers?

BRENNAN: Anthropologically speaking, those girls have grown up in a culture that reinforces the sad truism that women cannot count on men.

BOOTH: Don't say "men" like that. Men do not like a world without responsibility.

BRENNAN: Well, that boy whom these young girls chose as their sperm donor, he seemed more than happy with the arrangement.

(Booth looks at her, thoughtfully, before getting his phone out of his pocket.)

BRENNAN: Booth?

BOOTH: You're right.

BRENNAN: I know. Who are you calling?

(Booth starts speaking into the phone.)

BOOTH: Clinton, listen, it's Agent Booth, I need to talk to you.

BRENNAN: The kid?

BOOTH: Listen, meet me at the Royal Diner, uh, in 20 minutes. Yeah, just get there, okay? Thanks. I'm buying.

(He hangs up the phone.)

BOOTH: Look, I know you want to come along and all, but -

BRENNAN: No, I get it. Go on, it's a... guy-to-guy-thing.

BOOTH: Thanks.

(Cut to the Royal Diner, where Booth and Clinton are sitting by a table.)

CLINTON: Why did the chiropractor kill Ashley?

BOOTH: Well, Ashley seduced him, you know, and tried to blackmail him.

CLINTON: So he murdered her? Dude.

BOOTH: Yeah. You know, Ashley needed money, to raise her baby. Your baby.

CLINTON: You didn't think those girls would have s*x with me because I can't bench press enough.

BOOTH: (chuckles) DNA tests, they prove that I was wrong, so... yeah, I owe you an apology.

CLINTON: I did... I told you.

BOOTH: Yeah. You know what? You are a smart kid.

CLINTON: I know.

BOOTH: But you're also a real smart-ass kid. Okay? There's something I want you to think about, alright? s*x is never free and easy.

(Booth starts taking something out of his pocket.)

CLINTON: I beg to differ.

BOOTH: Because the fact is, any one of these girls, they could change their mind, and you would be paying child support for the rest of your life.

CLINTON: Wait. What?

BOOTH: You see these four girls right here?

(He lays out photos of four girls in volleyball uniforms.)

BOOTH: You are responsible for bringing their children into the world. Whether they think so or not, they are your responsibility. Your children, your responsibility. Do you understand?

(Clinton looks petrified.)

BOOTH: And what you do about that will define what kind of man you are.

CLINTON: No, no, hold on a second.

BOOTH: But if you ignore that - ignore your children - that's exactly what you're going to become: A loser. A deadbeat. For the rest of your life. You know what, there's something else that you should think about. Ashley Clark? She was going to have your baby. According to our pathologist, it was gonna be a boy.

CLINTON: A boy?

BOOTH: Mhm. A son.

(Booth rips up the photo of Ashley Clark.)

BOOTH: Who died... With his mother.

CLINTON: What did you have to tell me all that for?

BOOTH: Because you needed to hear it. Do you understand?

CLINTON: Yes.

(We see Brennan watching Booth and Clinton through the window.)

END.