"Uh, Dr Brennan?" Zach tapped her lightly on the shoulder, withdrawing his hand sharply as she stirred. "Dr Brennan?" He sat stiffly in a chair beside her bed. "Dr Brennan, we have a case," he said uncomfortably. Her eyes flew open.

"Zach?"

"Yes. It's me."

"Okay. What've you got?" she asked, indicating the plastic folder in his hands.

"The victim is female, early to mid thirties. We found her in a nearby forest. She shows signs of advanced osteoporosis, including severe loss of bone mass and evidence of multiple recent fractures. Cam says she also displays extreme muscle deterioration. Her sacroiliac joints show signs of premature wear, and there's also significant damage to her lower spinal discs, indicating frequent use of an athletic training exercise called 'straight-legged deadlifts'. Knee damage indicates excessive squats," he said monotonously, flipping through the file.

"An athlete?" she guessed. He shook his head.

"Not enough wear to the hip joints in relativity to the damage to the knees."

"Time of death?"

"Hodgins estimates she's been dead for at least three weeks. Aren't you going to ask about the cause of death?"

"Well, do you know it?"

"No. There isn't one." Brennan rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. "Are you in pain, Dr Brennan?"

"No, Zach, it's just... what do you mean there's no cause of death? There must be."

"I concede. There is no apparent cause of death," he explained, spreading sheets of paper across the bed.

"Is it murder?"

"I can't decide. Booth wants me to say it is, so he can involve the FBI, but I can't be certain," he admitted.

"Don't let Booth pressure you into making the wrong choice. It's your decision."

"I know."

"What about the fractures? Defensive wounds?"

"No. They show evidence of healing. Most likely they're a result of her osteoporosis combined with..."

"Clumsiness?"

"Yes."

"What do you think? Should I declare it a murder, or not?"

"I think... it would be a better use of your time to work on identifying the victim, rather than the cause of death." Zach's face took on an expression of acute confusion.

"Why?"

"Cam was right; we're bone people. If our victim had some sort of hereditary condition, the evidence of which has been erased during decomp, her family will know about it," she shrugged.

Zach nodded. "Should I send Cam and Hodgins over later?"

"If you like," she said indifferently. There was an awkward silence in the room for a few minutes, until, "Zach, did you move Jasper?"

"What? Who's Jasper?" he asked, bewildered. "Are you on medication?" he enquired suspiciously.

"Jasper, my pig. And yes, I am, but nothing hallucinogenic," she said doubtfully, checking the little bottles beside her bed.

"Oh. No. I did not move the pig."

"I could swear I left him on the locker," she mused. The little figurine now stood on the window sill, bathed in watery afternoon sunlight.

A nurse appeared in the doorway.

"Mr Addy, visiting hour is over until 3pm, it's time for-" She blanched at the crime scene pictures spread across Brennan's legs. "Mr Addy, you are disturbing the patient! This, this - this will not help aid the patient's recovery from her mental trauma!"

"What mental trau--"

"No, he's not," interrupted Brennan. "Dr Addy and I were just discussing the details of our latest case. If it's making you uncomfortable, you're more than welcome to leave," she suggested. The nurse looked pointedly away from the photographs.

"Still. It's time for Dr Addy to leave, anyway. We're about to serve lunch," she announced in a disgruntled tone.

Zach gathered the papers back into the file and stood to leave. The nurse glared at him. He stopped in the doorway, eyeing the lunch trolley with evident distrust.

"Enjoy your mush, Dr Brennan."

-x-

"SQUINTS! Squints, we have a problem!" Booth yelled, storming into the Jeffersonian. Hodgins skidded out of a sideroom, jogging after Booth as he tried to catch a glimpse of the sheaf of papers being waved about two feet above his head.

"Hey, isn't that... Dude, this is not good," breathed Hodgins, his face contradicting his words as his eyes took on a conspiratorial gleam.

Up on the platform, a bewildered looking Angela abandoned her tablet and descended the steps to where Zach was working on what had come to be known as the 'Undead' case, due to the lack of evidence pertaining to the cause of death. The skittering of Cam's heels on the hard floor signalled the presence of the entire team. She wore a transparent plastic mask and held what appeared to be a piece of flaming spam between a pair of metal tongs.

"This better be good, Booth," she growled, extinguishing the spam with a sharp blow.

"FBI got an anonymous tip-off from a disposable cell phone in Virginia, digitally-altered voice, the works. We get there and find a very familiar face in a shallow grave just off the highway, single gunshot wound the head." He flipped the papers over to reveal a photograph of a woman on an autopsy table, her eyes scrunched shut and a dark red circle decorating her pallid forehead.

"Oh, my God," gasped Angela.

"How many lives does this woman have? We already buried her once," muttered Hodgins.

"We've found... Christine Brennan," declared Cam, shaking her head and pulling off her mask tiredly.

Zach scratched his head. "Again."

-x-

"You go."

"What! Why me?" protested Hodgins.

"You got buried alive together!"

"So? Angela should go!"

"No. No way. I'm not telling her we found her mother again! She practically bit my head off last time."

"Guys, shut up! Booth should go," said Cam.

"Yeah, that's reasonable," agreed Hodgins. Zach nodded mutely.

"No. I'm not doing it! Zach should do it."

"How about we all go," suggested Cam wearily.

"Oh, right... okay."

"Sounds good to me."

"Let's do it."

The five of them shuffled into Brennan's room uneasilt, standing in a crowd at the foot of her bed. She looked at them expectantly, amusement colouring her expression. Angela poked Booth in the back.

"Um... hi, Bones," he mumbled. "We, er, have something to, uh, tell you."

"Seeley Booth, you wimp," sighed Cam, elbowing her way to the front of the little party. "Brennan, we found your mother. Again. Dead."

"Well, this is... suitably awkward," muttered Hodgins.

"No. I just - what? That's... impossible," stated Brennan, slipping down further into her pillows with a groan.

"This her?" asked Cam, leaning over the rails and handing her the autopsy pictures.

"Yes. No. Yes - it can't be!"

"The Bureau wants a DNA sample, sweetie," said Angela sympathetically.

"Sure," she mumbled distractedly, silent tears creeping down her face as she deposited the papers back into Cam's hands.

"Listen to me, Bones, I'm so sorry, we're looking into as best as we can," promised Booth.

A familiar voice spoke from the door. "People, I would say you are definitely disturbing the patient."

Ugh, damn thing always manages to delete my AN.

Okay, please excuse any mistakes if you find them; Dr Brennan may not be in paain, but I am. Horrid jabs... Which leads me to my next point. I'll try to get at least two chpaters up before I go away, but no promises. I'd also like to thank everyone who's reviewed, even if it's not very popular! I've noticed I have lots of faves/alerts, so it would be fantastic if those of you who fave/alert me could also take two minutes to leave a review, me being the review-whore I am.