Meggie
DreamboatAmy84
LilithBones: The Verdict in the Story
May 9th 2008 19:30
Caroline interrupts Booth and Bones as they’re just getting to a crime scene (where Bones can’t stop laughing at Booth for thinking the victim, who is now just a tied up skeleton) might have been rolled up in a carpet. She’s dying here as that would have taken thousands of years!) to tell Bones she’s suspended form from all crime-related duties.
Bones: For laughing at Booth?
Booth: That really doesn’t bother me.
No, not for laughing at Booth, just for the time it takes for Bones’s father’s trial to take place. Caroline leaves, admitting she didn’t know Bones could laugh. Booth and Bones are bummed that they won’t get to work on this very interesting case together.
~*~*~
It’s trial time for Max Keenan, which means trouble all around. For starters, Booth and Bones aren’t allowed to work together until the trial is over. On the plus side (for them anyway), they don’t have to go to partners’ counseling with Sweets for pretty much the same reason. He did the profile on Bones’s dad. Plus, as Booth points out, they’re not really partners anymore, so how can you have partner’s counseling?
~*~*~
Bones and her brother Russ visit their father in the Federal Detention Facility. His lawyer, David Barron and the forensic expert who is going to be working with them (Zack’s working for the prosecution side and Bones can’t testify as she’s too close to the case) visit them too. Max isn’t too sure about Clark, but Bones assures him that Clark is the last forensic anthropologist she’d want to go up against in court.
After Clark and Barron leave, Bones presents her father with a gray tie that will give the jury the right impression. Max doesn’t want to wear such a drab tie, but says he’ll do it for her. Bones tells him that even though all her friends are going to be involved in the case, she can’t help him on this one. He knows. He also knows that she loves him.
~*~*~
Back in the lab Angela complains how much she “hates this”. As in all of them on one side, Bones on the other. Cam points out that this isn’t a competition. It’s just “an unfortunate situation.” Angela tries to convincer herself that once Bones realizes they’re all not crazily competitive, everything will work out fine with their friendships intact.
Zack adds, “Plus Dr. Brennan must realize that we’re going to destroy them.” Hodgins quickly assures Angela that he’ll keep explaining “crazily competitive to Zack over and over until he gets it.”
They head off to meet with Caroline.
~*~*~
Clark is done with his review of the work Bones and her team has done on the case and has concluded that it holds together. He may feel better about it when he does his own examine. When he says his first impression that the killer was merciful. Bones and Barron can’t see the mercy in stabbing a person, setting them on fire and gutting them, but Clark argues that the victim was killed quickly before all that happened.
Bones argues that that’s completely unscientific, but both Barron and Clark argue that Clark is going to humanize the victim. It always gets the jury.
Bones: Zack with be the more precise expert witness.
Barron: Clark will be the more understanding and persuasive.
Bones accepts their logic. Barron points out that even though Bones says out loud her father is guilty, that’s going to be the last time she says that. They need to convince the jury otherwise.
Clark asks to see Bones’s casefiles because she taught Zack and he wants to get a feel for who he’s up against.
~*~*~
Caroline starts the meeting by telling them she’s going to tell them what she says at the start of every trial, that this one’s no different then any of the others. Zack points out that she’s never said that before and he and Hodgins argue that that means that it is different.
Caroline looks at Cam. “Have you no control over these people?”
“None whatsoever.”
Booth enters the conversation, pointing out that this is Bones they’re talking about here, of course this trial is going to be different.
Booth: Let’s just admit that.
Caroline: Here’s what’s not different. Lose the “Cocky” belt buckle. *she turns to Hodgins* No badges saying ‘Resist Authority’ or ‘The Truth is Out There’. (LOL!!)
*turns to Zack* Do not cut your hair the day before a trial. *To Angela* Ugly up a little! The plain women on the jury hate you. *To Sweets* Use your fully grown-up words. *Cam smirks* Eat! Last time your stomach was growling louder than your testimony.
Cam argues that they shouldn’t wake up so early to testify then if they don’t want her stomach to be growling. Sweets assures Caroline that he “will be totally, awesomely mature on the stand.”
Caroline makes a face and suddenly Angela lets them all know that she’s not testifying. Caroline looks to Booth for help as Angela leaves. Booth tells them all that Bones believes in the system. “She would want all of us to do our jobs.”
Sweets adds, “Dr. Brennan does have seem to have an enviable, if somewhat disturbing, ability to compartmentalize.” He turns grinning to Caroline. “Hey, how’s that for fully grown-up vocab?”
Carloine nods. Cam reminds them they’re all going to be detached on this one, like usual. Zack has no problem but Hodgins says he’s going to make sure it’s okay with Bones first. They all start to leave, and Booth tries once again to talk Caroline out of making him lose his belt buckle.
“The jury’s not going to see my belt buckle because it’s below—”
“This briefing’s over sugar.”
“Yeah but see, even when I stand the tie kind of covers it...” It’s no use, Caroline has already left.
~*~*~
The Judge reminds them all that he may not be God, but in his courtroom he’s the next best thing. He also won’t hesitate to kick anyone out.
Thus, the trial begins.
In Caroline’s opening statement, she tells the jury it’s her job to prove to them that Max Keenan killed a deputy director of the FBI. Barron goes on with his opening statement. His client had motive, means, and opportunity, just like many others. They both agree the deputy director was a terrible person.
They continue on back and forth, until they get to the topic of Bones. She’s brilliant and very good at her job, but she is the defendant’s daughter…She won’t be testifying on behalf of her father because, as Barron points out, the jury wouldn’t believe that a loving daughter could be objective.
Bones leans over the aisle to whisper, “Booth?”
“What?”
“I could so be objective?”
“I know Bones, okay? Just shhhhhh.” He eyes the judge, who is watching them and stops talking.
Caroline tells the jury that although Max may be charming, he slit, gutted, and set a person on fire. Barron says that although he and Caroline disagree on many facets of this case, he does agree that “the accused is a very nice guy.”
“Point of clarification,” Caroline interjects, “I said charming. Not nice.”
Annoyed, the judge answers, “This is exactly the kind of nonsense that I want to avoid. And you two, please--” he adds, gesturing to Booth and Bones who are once again leaning over the aisle to whisper to each other. “—keep to your own sides.”
He calls for a break, and out in the hallway, Booth brings Bones a cup of coffee. Barron and Caroline eye them suspiciously, and Bones reminds him that they’re not supposed to talk.
Booth whispers that they’re not supposed to talk about the case, “But,” he announces loudly, “We can talk about crappy coffee!” He sits down and whispers to Bones to hold her cup to cover her mouth as Caroline and Barron go back to their own conversation.
Booth and Bones whisper about Angela and the fact that she’s not testifying because she’s Bones’s best friend. Bones points out that “you’re my friend and you don’t mind.” Booth argues that he does mind, they all do. Except for Zack, of course. She tells Booth that she gave Hodgins permission.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
“It’s not what’s wrong Bones,” Booth whispers back. “It’s what’s right.”
They both look up to wave at Hodgins, Zack, and Cam.
Caroline spots this. “No, no, ya’ll cut that out!”
They’re all called back into the courtroom and Booth wishes Bones luck. Then he tells her to remember that he gave her the coffee because, well he’s the first witness against her father.
Booth testifies about the night they entered her apartment and found all the blood. They thought it was Russ’s blood.
Cam takes the sand to testify that the blood was the Deputy Director’s. Zack holds up the skull to show how it was punctured with a long sharp object (copper pipe), and Cam says that the amount of blood found at the crime scene would mean that the victim had to lay their 3-5 minutes.
“About the time it takes to roll a body up in a shower curtain,” Booth testifies.
When Caroline asks how they know the copper pipe was the murder weapon, Hodgins testifies about the particulates found in the mandible.
Caroline: And what is the copper made of?
Hodgins: As with most copper pipes, it’s made of copper…
He also found the same soil at the crime scene, at the rooftop where the body was burned, and the seminary. Someone obviously transferred the body.
“Who could have done that?”
Booth testifies that, “The defendant was at the seminary that day.”
When Caroline asks what he was doing there, Booth hesitates. The judge urges him on, but he looks to Bones instead. She nods, and Booth reluctantly replies, “Impersonating a priest.”
The jury is disgusted.
Caroline asks Zack if he’s “100 percent positive” that the copper pipe is the murder weapon, and Zack testifies that he’s not comfortable with that phrasing. Caroline restates her question, “You’re convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this is the murder weapon?” Yes, he is.
Back to Booth. Caroline asks if there’s any reason to tie the copper pipe to Max, and Booth tells the courtroom that in 1966, Max Keenan was sent to jail for robbery. He was attacked…” Booth hesitates.
“Did he defend himself?
“Yes.”
“Did he defend himself with this?” Caroline brings up a picture of the copper pipe.
“Yes.”
Max leans over to whisper to his kids that he didn’t kill anyone. “I just poked them to keep them away!”
Caroline asks Booth what the result of the attack was, and Booth answers, “Well, no one bothered Max again.”
“Anything else?”
“He had eight months added to his sentence.”
“Anything else Agent Booth.” Caroline prods, knowingly giving Booth a “say it” look.
Booth finally answers, “A sharpened pipe kind of became a trademark for him.”
Things are not looking good for Max.
Booth points out on a blown-up picture where the pipe was found. It turns out the ashes were the victim’s burned intestines.
Caroline puts Angela on the stand, but she just replies, “I’ve got nothing to say.” Caroline and the judge both argue that she’s under oath as a material witness to talk, but she still won’t. The judges asks Caroline why she put Angela on the stand when she knew she wasn’t going to testify, and Caroline merely shrugs.
Okay…well, then…Angela pleads the first. Her argument is that the 1st Amendment protects the rights of friendship. Exasperated, the judge insists, “There is no friendship in a homicide trial!”
Hodgins tries to tell her the judge isn’t kidding around when he threatens to confine her until she talks, and Booth leans over to whisper, “Bones, now’s the time to speak up!” Even when Bones does, Angela still won’t talk. The judge has her hauled off in contempt of court.
Bones stands up. “Angela please!”
Angela just turns to her on her way out in handcuffs. “Sweetie, this is one of those times when I know what’s right. And everybody else is confused.”
~*~*~
In the detention facility visiting room, Bones, her brother and father, and Barron go over the case. Max thinks he should be objecting more, and Russ adds, “The jury looks kinda mean at Dad.” Barron reminds them that they have to find someone to blame the horrific crime they’re being told about.
“Yeah, me.”
Bones points out that all they’ve established so far was that a crime took place, and they already knew that. Barron assures them all that the prosecution has to establish that Max is the killer beyond a shadow of a doubt. Max thinks they already have.
Barron: We have to discuss putting you on the stand.
Max: Absolutely! Put me on the stand. Didn’t that lady say I ooze charm?
Barron: The first question you’ll be asked is did you murder Deputy Director Kirby?
Max looks at him a second, looks down, bits his lip…”No I did not.”
Both Russ and Bones can’t look at him. Barron just sighs. “I can’t put you on. It’d be obvious to the judge, the jury, and blind Martians that your family doesn’t believe you!” Bones and Russ say they’ll leave the room.
Russ decides that he should take the stand instead. He wasn’t there when the murder took place, he won’t give the jury anything to use against his father. Barron argues that he can’t put Russ on the stand if he thinks he’s going to lie. Bones assures that Russ is telling the truth—she’s grown up with him, she knows when he’s lying.
Barron tells them all to take a family minutes, he see them in the courtroom. Max turns to Bones. “A country filled with unscrupulous lawyers, you find the one with scruples?” Russ reminds his dad that his sister is pretty sure he killed that man, and she’s having a hard time seeing how lightly he bears it. Max assures her that his conscience is clean.
Bones looks at him. “That’s not the same as being innocent.”
~*~*~
Bones goes to visit Angela in her holding cell to talk her into testifying, but Angela still refuses. Bones assures her that she doesn’t care, but Angela insists she’s not about to help kill Bones’s father. Bones points out that she’s not the one who decides, the jury is.
Angela: That’s not the point.
Bones: What is the point?
Angela: Friends don’t send friends’ fathers to the electric chair.
Bones thinks about this for a second and mumbles, “Maryland uses lethal injection…”
“Well the principle holds, sweetie.”
For the first time Bones starts to realize what this could mean for her father. “You think we’re going to lose?”
She sits down next to Angela, who sadly admits, “Yeah. I think you’re going to lose. And I am not going to help you.
She and Angela smile sadly and Bones wonders how she got so lucky to have such a loyal friend.
~*~*~
The next day, Sweets takes the stand, citing his very impressive credentials. Booth and Bones whisper back and forth about it.
Booth: Doctorates? As in more than one?
Bones: More than one scholarship too.
Booth: I wonder if Dr. Geeks could ever hang on to a girlfriend.
Bones: It’s Dr. Sweets.
Booth: I know, Bones, I just like to say Dr. Geeks as in—
Sweets asks if the court requires a list of his scholarly publications as well, and Barron assures that the Defense accepts him as a qualified witness. “Despite the fact that he looks like a high school volleyball player…”
Booth leans over to whisper “Dr. Geeks” to Bones again and the judge, who has been glaring them both this whole time, finally cuts in, “Excuse me? Agent Booth? I’d like you to switch seats with Dr. Saroyan. You, Dr. Brennan, please switch seats with your brother.”
“Why?”
“You don’t whisper as quietly as you think you do.”
Booth whispers, “Yeah you know you do whisper a little loud.” She tries to argue and he just cuts in, “A little loud,” as they all switch seats.
The trial continues.
Caroline asks Sweets about the psychological profile of the defendant and asks, “Is he capable of murder?”
“Like totally,” Sweets answers automatically. When Caroline makes a face, he corrects, “Most definitely.”
He goes on to say that in his own way Max Keenan is a great man. In another time he could have been a great leader.
“You mean in a time when people conked each other on the head, and lit them on fire as a way of getting what they want?”
“Yes.” Sweets also says that when Max’s loved ones are in danger he can be “mega dangerous.”
When Caroline asks if Max thought his family was in danger, could he do this (she gestures to the crime scene photo). Again, Sweets automatically answers, “Totally!” He gets The Look. “I mean…indubitably.”
“Without hesitation?”
“Without hesitation, without remorse. Without guilt.”
Things are looking even worse for Max. Booth looks over at Bones to check how she’s doing. Not well.
Russ takes the stand. He wasn’t afraid of the deputy director, as he didn’t know who was after him, but he was afraid for his life since someone he got shot at. Yes he was staying at his sister’s apartment where the deputy director was murdered, but he wasn’t there at the time. He was at a job interview.
Caroline has a hard time believing that while he was being stalked he suddenly decided “this was a good time to wander around looking for a job?” Russ points out that he wasn’t wondering, he was going to a specific job interview.
Barron sits back, sighing. He knows when Caroline is about to go in for the kill. She asks Russ which job, Barron objects, but the judge lets her continue. Where did he find this job?
“My dad…” Russ finally gets it.
Caroline says it’s almost like Max was trying to get Russ out of the apartment…She’s done with the witness, and Barron gets up and asks only one question. Did his father ever make it seem like he was trying to get Russ out of the apartment? No.
The people rest. The Defense will be ready this afternoon. Significant glances all around.
~*~*~
Clark has been going over Zack’s work in the lab and has decided to do his own tests. Zack enters and warns, “That better not stain.” Clark realizes that Zack’s not messing with him, he really is just this way. Zack wishes him good luck.
~*~*~
Bones joins Booth on a bench outside. This time she brings him the coffee. Sweets approaches them. He’s writing a book, he wants to use them as a case study. “You shouldn’t work well together but you do, I’d like to study it.” Once a week, nothing changes.
Booth: *turns to Bones* Now why would we want to do that?
Bones: I can’t think of a reason.
Sweets: See! That thing that you do when you talk to each other excluding the third party, namely me?
They’re amused as he goes on to talk about adaptive mechanism, bonding, disassociation. Booth just turns to Bones. “What’s that mean for us?”
“Nothing useful.”
“Tell you what, why don’t we make a deal with him where we allow him to study us, and in return he gives us psychological profiling on demand.”
Sweets cuts in. “Okay!”
They continue to ignore him.
Bones: You like that sort of thing but I don’t see the point.
Booth: I just think he doesn’t want to admit that he likes us.
They finally turn to look at Sweets, enjoying teasing him.
Bones: Do you like us?
Sweets: What?
Booth: And he wants to spend time with us.
Bones: Is that true Sweets, do you like us?
Booth: He really likes us.
They teas Sweets in a sing-song matter, and he finally cuts them off. Alright, never mind. He leaves.
Booth and Bones turn to each other. Sweets is pretty good in the interrogation room. And Bones was impressed by his credentials. Booth will tell him okay.
Clark shows up. He found something.
~*~*~
Back in the court room, Zack gets called to the stand. Clark is the one who questions him this time. He identified the copper pipe as the murder weapon right? Yes…Clark brinks up a picture of the skull. Zack IDs the skull. Clark pulls up a picture of his stain of the skull.
“Can you discern any micro fractures in that photo?”
“Yes—Oh.” Zack stops. Clark makes him explain the photo. It looks like a hilt did the damage to the skull.
Clark hold up the pipe. “Can you please identify the hilt on this weapon.” No, Zack can’t. There is no hilt.
“So you made a mistake.”
Bones gives Zack a sympathetic look as he says, “Yes. I was mistaken.”
Barron asks for a dismissal of all charges. Caroline asks for some time to review the new evidence. How much time? As much time as it takes Booth to find the real weapon.
~*~*~
Booth and Zack show up at Bones’s apartment with a warrant to search for the weapon. She tells them she could save them some time, but Bones just tells her Zack’s the bone expert on this one. Zack asks where Clark learned the food dye trick. “I don’t’ know that one.” Booth snaps his fingers. “Zack? Focus.”
Zack starts to look for the weapon.
Bones sits down and Booth turns to her. “How you doing there Bones?”
She admits that this is all very confusing to her. She wants her dad to get off but, well, he is a murderer. They put murderers like him away.
Booth reminds her that, “You’re not Dr. Brennan today, you’re Temperance.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
He explains that the scientist part of her got sidelined. Only temporarily of course, but…She still doesn’t get it.
“Bones, just take the brain, okay, and put it in neutral. Alright? Take the heart? And pop it into overdrive.” He starts to make racecar driving noises and she just laughs.
“Sometimes I think you’re from another planet!” She pauses then adds. “Sometimes I think you’re very nice.”
They stare at each other until Zack announces, “I found it.” The “it” turns out to be one of Bones’s artifacts, a misericorde (medieval copper dagger used to give the fatal blow).
Booth: I’m sorry Bones.
~*~*~
Russ grabs his sister’s hand as everyone goes over this new evidence in court. Bones’s team is testifying the truth, but are giving Bones “I’m sorry!” looks as they do it.
The judge asks the jury not to talk about the case until they all reconvene tomorrow. At which time they’ll determine Max Keenan’s fate.
~*~*~
The Defense team sits around boxes of Chinese take-out. The mood is all but defeated already. Max tells Clark that he did good, he had them going for a while. Bones points out that her team is really very good, and Russ asks if maybe she could brag at a later time?
Barron says they’re beyond forensics now. It’s all about the story. The jury needs a boogeyman and they didn’t give him anyone else but Max. Russ tells his dad that he should have ran, but Bones points out, “He stayed for me.” Max tells her it was worth every second they had together.
Suddenly Bones asks, “If I needed a boogeyman, how much warning would you need to make it work?” Barron tells her for a good story about five minutes.
Bones gets up. She has to talk to someone.
~*~*~
That someone, of course, is Booth. She invites him to breakfast asking, “Is the truth really the truth if it can’t be proven?” He wants to know why she invited him to breakfast to talk philosophy.
She points out the a theory isn’t even a theory until it’s challenged. It’s simply a hypothesis. I don’t believe that a man should die based on a hypothesis, do you?”
Booth stares at her. “If you have a question, just ask it.”
When she starts to talk about the case, Booth quickly interjects, “We can’t talk about this!”
Bones asks him to please hear her out because he’s the person she always talks to about this kind of stuff. Finally, Booth gives in.
“No perjury involved. Just an interpretation of the existing facts.”
She agrees. “An alternate story.”
He tells her that she doesn’t know that her dad killed that man, but she mumbles, “We both know that he did.” Booth elaborates that she doesn’t KNOW, know, now the way Bones defines “know” anyway, with the proof all that.
He points out that juries are human factor in a trial. She asks him if he thinks it’s okay that she takes advantage of that and he just replies, “Brain and heart Bones. Brain. And heart.”
~*~*~
Back in the courtroom, Hodgins is on the stand again. He found the particulates in all three places where the victim was, right? Yes. Who else was in all three places?
Booth takes the stand. “I was.”
Barron points out that Caroline was to (to which she objects on the grounds that it’s rude to accuse her of being a murder), and Booth says she was never at the crime scene so “You’re stuck with me.”
“And Dr. Brennan.”
“I see where you’re going with this.”
Bones takes the stand. She was at all three places, the murder weapon is hers. Sweets testifies to her being totally rational about everything, including murder. Barron asks Booth if Bones had a motive.
“Yes, she had a motive. Kirby tried to killer her brother.” he answers somewhat curtly. Without being asked, Booth adds, “Bones was with me all day.”
“She didn’t have time to commit this murder?”
“No she did not.”
“How did your son Parker get home from school that day?”
Booth glances at Bones, then answers, “Forty-five minute we were apart, but we talked on the phone.”
“Plenty of time, wasn’t it Agent Booth?” Barron asks easily.
Booth flashes on the possibility of Bones committing the murder. He won’t believe it. He won’t say it.
Barron points out that she could have burned the body later when Booth was safely at home, right?
Everyone’s eyes are on Booth.
Finally the judge orders, “The witness with answer the question.”
Booth looks at Bones. Struggling, he says quietly, “That’s a lot of heart Bones.”
Booth is ordered to answer the question again, and shrugging he says, “Could Bones have killed Kirby? I—” he can’t stand it anymore. “Temperance Brennan, I’ve worked with this woman, I’ve stood down death with her. I’ve faced down death with her.” He glances away from Bones for a second as he says, “Sweets is brilliant, he is—” before once again staring at Bones. “But he’s wrong. She could not have done this.”
Barron points out he didn’t ask Booth if she could have done this, he asked if she had time.
Booth stares at Bones for a really long time, then says quietly, “Yes. She had time…”
~*~*~
Bones waits outside as the jury comes in to read the verdict. Booth leaves before he hears it.
He finds Bones outsides on the steps and pulls her into a hug. Angela joins them, finally being set free.
They turn as everyone starts to come out and…Max and Russ appear smiling. Bones lets out a relieved look as her dad pulls her into a long hug.
“So,” Sweets asks Caroline. “You gonna charge her?”
“You gotta go back to school on this one,” she answers, watching Bones hug her dad. “That’s a fine woman there.”
Bones continues to hug her dad, staring at Booth standing behind him. He smiles at her. She smiles back.
Everyone’s happy again.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Awwww...Very good episode. As always!
It was a great mix of sad and funny, and I'm just very glad it all turned out okay for everyone in the end!In another Bones note, here's an interesting thing I noticed in my monthly VIP newsletter...
Bones executive producer Hart Hansen says he expects a romantic relationship to bloom between Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz), according to TV Guide.com’s Ausiello Report. While it feels like Bones just returned from a strike-induced hiatus, the fourth year of the series is expected to debut on Aug. 26 with a two-hour premiere.
Two hours? Yesssss! And seriously, have we not been seeing this "bloooming" for a while now? LoL
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Comment by Anonymous
THANKS!
Comment by Meggie
TV Chit Chat
Glad I could help!!