There was something... off about this new girl. Cam could feel it as she stood upstairs in the employee lounge, looking down at her team working in the lab. Brennan had taken her hiring a new assistant better than Cam thought she would, of course, Cam also often forgot that Dr. Brennan had an unnatural ability to rationalize almost anything. Her seeing logic in a logical decision should've been no surprise.

Angela and Hodgins were both noticeably chilly toward both Cam and Rosalie, who had asked them all to call her Rose. Dr. Brennan was... well, she was as welcoming as Dr. Brennan ever is.

Dr. Saroyan took a moment to watch the dynamic of her team as they got used to someone new. Up to this point, they had been very comfortable every time a new grad student or possible assistant came into the picture, simply going on as they normally would. With Rose, Jack was almost outright hostile, and Angela ignored her as well as she could. Well, that wasn't actually too hard, in the 5 hours she'd been here so far, Cam had actually forgotten Rose was there at least five times. The girl was extremely unobtrusive. She barely spoke, and when she did she was always very direct, saying only what needed to be said, and only elaborating if asked to do so. Through the tour this morning, Cam had tried to make some small talk, and failed miserably. Rose had answered all her questions in one or two words, and when the tour was over, her only question was, "What should I start with?"

At that point, all Cam could do was introduce the girl to Dr. Brennan and see what Rose would be working on. There were no cases at the moment, so Rose was working on identifying skeletons from Limbo.

What on Earth was it about this girl that had everyone do unsettled?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Rose was unwelcome here. She had known that since the moment she walked in this morning. It had taken her exactly 30 seconds to figure out that she would be doing her own lab work until she proved herself to these people. Dr. Saroyan seemed friendly enough, and Dr. Brennan appeared to be oblivious to how tense Dr. Hodgins and Miss Montenegro were.

Sighing, she determined that she would ask Dr. Saroyan this afternoon if she could bring in her own equipment. Rose was well aware that the Jeffersonian had the best equipment available, but... well, Rose didn't get her Masters in Engineering to not use it. The microscope she had developed was FAR more sophisticated than this standard lab stuff. All the patents were still pending, but maybe if she played her cards right she'd have a customer in the Jeffersonian once all the legalities were handled.

Nah, too early to be thinking about that.

Hearing the door to the lab open, she focused her hearing that direction. Long strides, dull thud, uneven steps... Male. Tall, 6'3"-6'5". Hard-soled shoes, probably loafers. Swagger, the guy is full of himself. Not in a hurry either.

"So, who wants to go to lunch?" This man said, very loudly. Rose could hear a smile in his voice, and imagined he had his arms stretched wide as he waited for an answer.

"Yeah, breaktime!" Hodgins cheered, with noises of agreement from both Dr. Saroyan and Angela. Rose heard him pulling off his lab coat. Looking at where she was in her work, she had to agree with the sentiment. She had already positively identified two sets of remains - they were in their plastic tubs next to her desk waiting to be shipped to their families - and was waiting on the mass spectrometer to finish analysing a soil sample from a third. She had just put in in 20 minutes ago, so it would still be nearly an hour before she got any results back.

"Don't you have a case you should be working on?" Dr. Brennan asked, not pausing in her examination of a skull. Ah, this must be the Agent Booth Dr. Saroyan mentioned.

"No, actually. I just finished all my paperwork that was due, and nothing new has come in yet," the man said, shoving his hands in his pockets and sounding arrogant. Rose could practically fell this guy's cocky smile twinkling. "Come on, Bones! You gotta eat sometime!"

Making a note about where she left off, Dr. Brennan gave in with, "Fine. You're not going shut up until I agree anyway." and a roll of her eyes.

A few moments later, the group started toward the door, good-naturedly bickering over whether to get Chinese, Thai, and go to the diner. Just as Booth, at the front of the pack, put his hand on the door to open it, Cam suddenly stopped and exclaimed, "Rose!" As Rose turned to look at the group, she saw Booth looking completely confused, Hodgins and Montenegro rolling their eyes, and Dr. Saroyan and Dr. Brennan both looking slightly regretful for having forgotten her. "Would you like to come to lunch, Rose? You haven't taken a break all day, you must be starving by now."

Rose quickly weighed her options. She could say no, and go buy lunch at the cafeteria downstairs, and not ruffle any feathers.... or she could have fun pissing off Hodgins.

Pissing off Hodgins won.

Smiling slightly at what should, with any luck, prove to be an entertaining lunch hour, Rose replied, "Sure, Dr. Saroyan, I'd love to." and quickly discarded her lab coat on the chair at her workstation.

Working here might be more amusing than Rose had anticipated.