Chapter Six
"Zack!" Erin's yell across the slightly crowded hallway in the Jeffersonian made more than one head turn her way, but she ignored them and kept up her fast pace. Zack, who had been walking towards the Anthropology department, turned toward her, then, seeing who had called him, stopped to wait for her to catch up to him. He raised an eyebrow at her when he saw her rather professional looking business suit and styled hair.
"Hello Erin," he said when she was within easy earshot. He looked her over again as she stopped in front of him, grinning. "I take it your dissertation went well."
"Very well," she said, slightly out of breath from her near run down the hallway. "I'm officially Dr. James now."
"Congratulations, Dr. James," Zack said, smiling in response to her grin widening again.
"They said that my paper was 'Very well thought out and detailed', and they called my research 'brilliant'," she said, walking with him as he began to move toward his department again.
"I agree with their assessment," Zack said, nodding. His face had returned to the slightly downcast, slightly disturbed expression he had been wearing when she had very briefly seen him that morning.
"Will you tell me what's wrong now?" She asked, keeping her voice low as she walked beside him. She had asked that morning, but Zack had told her he didn't want to give her something bad to think about right before her dissertation review.
"Nothing unusual," he said, his voice also low as the passed a couple people in the hall. "The case we are currently working on… is difficult."
"Well I'm sure you will figure it out," Erin said, frowning a little. She knew he wasn't supposed to talk about cases that weren't closed yet to anyone outside his department. "You are the most intelligent person I know."
"It's not that kind of difficult," Zack said, shaking his head as they came to a stop beside the Forensic's Lab doors. "It is… harder for me to compartmentalize this case than it usually is for me to do."
"I don't understand," Erin said, tilting her head to one side.
"The victim," Zack swallowed before continuing, something Erin had never seen him do before. "He was a child. His skeleton is so small."
"Oh," Erin said, realizing how difficult that would be, even for someone who usually wasn't over emotional. She didn't count herself as over emotional very often, but when she had been just into grad school she had been assigned to work with a group analyzing some unimportant mummies to study the procedures used, and she had cried for a very long time when she got home after seeing the multiple child sized coffins and mummies. "I'm sorry." She rested a hand on his arm and stepped fractionally closer than she usually would while they were at work.
"You have no reason to apologize," Zack said, shaking his head a little. "The person who killed him should be the one apologizing."
"I know," Erin said, rubbing his arm a little. "It's just something people say to comfort other people. It's like saying that I'm sorry you aren't happy."
"Oh," Zack said, then nodded. "Well then thank you. I really should get back to work."
"Okay," Erin said, stepping back again and letting her arm drop. Both of them had agreed that, while at work, they would only be professional, colleagues, no affection of any kind. "Will you need a ride home tonight? I usually leave early on Wednesdays but since I missed a whole morning of work, I'll be here for a while."
"We will probably be working on this case until very late so Hodgins can take me home," Zack said. "Thank you for offering."
"Anytime Zack," Erin said, then watched as he turned to disappear into the lab that was swarming with people dressed in blue lab coats.
She sighed and turned to head back to her own department. She had only really been involved with Zack for a couple weeks, but she was starting to realize that he was much different than he seemed at first glance. Just because he didn't display his emotions or react to things the way most people would, didn't mean that he didn't feel the same things as other people. When she had first met Zack, Erin had thought that his surplus of intelligence had separated him from other kids when he was younger, which led to him being emotionally stunted, and he was in a way, but he was also very good at hiding the feelings he did have. Maybe with more time, Erin would be able to figure out how to tell what he was feeling. Since their relationship at the moment was purely sexual, for the most part, she was already able to tell when he was turned on by something. The minute facial expressions, tiny changes in behavior and actions, she had always been good at reading people, but Zack was difficult for her to get a handle on.
"Ms. James," Erin turned to Dr. Lawrence as soon as she entered the Egyptology department. He had a slightly worried look on his face for some reason.
"Yes Dr. Lawrence?" She asked, frowning a little.
"There is someone here to speak to you," he said, gesturing back towards his office. "She says she was sent from the Egyptian ambassador himself."
"Oh," Erin said, smoothing her hands over her clothing, glad she hadn't changed into her usual clothing yet. "Did she say what she wants?"
"No," he said, frowning. "She just asked to speak to you privately."
"Is it alright if I talk to her in your office? There isn't really much privacy anywhere else in here," Erin asked, gesturing to the open work tables in front of her.
"Of course," he said, nodding. "She's already waiting."
"Thank you," Erin said, forcing her face to relax into a smile as she approached the office. She closed the door behind her and took a seat in front of the desk, since sitting behind it would be weird to her. The woman in the other chair was middle aged, black hair, wide forehead, dark eyes, very strong Egyptian genetics. She looked strict, her clothes were all very expensive and professional.
"Hi," Erin said, smiling in an attempt to sooth the harsh expression on the other woman's face. "I'm Dr. James." She held her had out to shake. The other woman gripped it tightly for a moment, then dropped it. She smiled, an her face immediately softened.
"My name is Nenet Shoukry," she said, then smiled again as Erin's eyes widened in recognition. "I see you have heard of my family. My father is Sameh Shoukry, the current ambassador from Egypt."
"It's… very nice to meet you, Ms. Shoukry," Erin said, then she stood from her seat, looking around them. "Did you want something to drink? Or eat? I can go get something for you-"
"No, no," she said, laughing. "I came to speak to you about your paper."
"My… paper?" Erin asked, still a little dazed as she sat back down. "You mean my dissertation?"
"Yes," Nenet said, nodding. "It was a very comprehensive study on Theoretical Methods of Underground Tomb Location Using Sonic Imaging, correct?"
"Yes," Erin said, sitting a little straighter in her seat. This woman was practically royalty, or as close as Erin would ever meet to the Republic of Egypt officials. "You've read it? It wasn't published. In fact, I just completed it a few days ago."
"Yes well I take a strong interest in the parts of my home country that are researched here at this museum," she said, and Erin suddenly frowned.
"Was my paper inaccurate?" She asked. "I did extensive research on the subjects, but I will admit that I have only spent an accumulated time of eight months in Egypt."
"No, it wasn't inaccurate," she said. "I came to ask your permission to send your research to my cousin, Asim, who is the head of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. I think that he may be interested in some of your theories."
"Oh," Erin said, her face blank. "That would be an honor," she said slowly, "and I don't mean to be rude at all but… are you sure? The paper had only just been approved by the Jeffersonian and it hasn't been reviewed by any scholars, or published."
"You would receive full credit for any ideas he may want to use, if that is what you are worried about," Nenet said, frowning a little.
"No that's not… I just, well usually things like that are peer reviewed and restudied to make sure they are accurate results," Erin said, shaking her head.
"Yes, but that process can take a lot of time, and by then someone else may have published something similar on the topic, or someone else may approach you to sell the rights to the ideas, I wanted to be the first," she said.
"Well, I definitely can't say no," Erin said, smiling. "Do I need to fill out paperwork to release the paper to you? Technically it's property of the Jeffersonian since I studied it here."
"I'll have my lawyer contact you about it," Nenet said. "Thank you very much. In return, my brother agrees to approve your recent requisition of ancient engravings from his museum."
"Oh," Erin said. "Well that's… fantastic. I've been completely consumed by those marble tablets for the last week."
"I don't understand the fascination with ancient artifacts," Nenet said, getting to her feet with a smile. "I'm more interested in the living."
"Many people are," Erin said, laughing. "I'll walk you out, if you'd like. It's easy to get lost in this building."
"I noticed that coming in," she replied, nodding her head. "I have two personal body guards waiting in the hallway, and I'm sure they would appreciate not having to walk around in circles."
Erin smiled and walked with her out of the department. They chatted about how Nenet liked living in D.C. as opposed to Cairo, where she was from, and Erin made sure to file away every fact Nenet gave her about Egypt. The two times Erin had been there previously were on archeological digs, and she hadn't been anywhere near the big cities.
"So, who was she?" Dr. Lawrence asked as Erin came back to the department.
"Nenet Shoukry, daughter of the ambassador," Erin said, grinning with excitement. "She wanted to talk about my dissertation paper."
"Congratulations Dr. James," Dr. Lawrence said, looking a little stunned. "That is a very powerful person to have read your work. This bodes well for future publications."
"Thanks," Erin said. "She also said my requisition for the original tablets I've been working on was approved, so you should expect that shipment."
"I will file it with the authentication department," he said, nodding, then walked away.
Erin spent the rest of the afternoon, and much of the evening feeling as though she was floating on air while she worked on her deciphering. She had been documenting each word that looked like it could be a name to cross reference it with already known names so that she could find a key to the rest of the words. So far she had four potential names, maybe five, but the usual grammar marks were very faded on her photocopies.
She gave up and went home around eight, and she deflated a little on the drive, and even more as she walked into her apartment. She was beginning to dislike the nights she spent here alone. The place just seemed… empty, even with the multitude of recent additions to the books and papers that were still scattered around the living room and kitchen.
The marble tablets arrived at the museum on Friday afternoon, and, with the exception of Friday night with Zack, Erin spent the entire weekend at the Jeffersonian going over every inch of them with a magnifying glass and copying down the inconsistencies she found between them and the pictures she had been working off of before, then she immersed herself into translations again for the next two weeks, putting everything else aside, including Zack. She felt a little bad since they had agreed that they would meet every week, but she knew he understood what it was like to have something important to work on, and besides, he and the entire legal lab were completely focused on their current case about the dead child. As far as she had heard there hadn't been any breakthroughs in that case yet. It must have been frustrating for them.
Erin, on the other hand, came by her big breakthrough after two weeks. She had finally figured out the connection between the list of names mentioned in the tablets, and though the name Karanebti was not specifically mentioned in any official records, the name Karan had been a possible translation of the name of the sister of the Pharaoh around 2740 B. C. and the add on of -ebti to that name could be some sort of a pen name.
It made sense to her, after many weeks of frustrated scribbling. The few words she had been able to translate using the names as a key had strengthened her belief that these were medical texts. If they had indeed been written by Karan, who was not only a woman, but the sister of a Pharaoh, she would have had to use a pen name, or a disguise. Women were not allowed to work in that era, and they were very rarely allowed to learn to read and write. If it was, in fact, a woman who wrote these tablets, she would have had to been very high up in the monarchy, such as a Pharaohs sister. She also would have had to have disguised her texts so that no one who found them would be able to connect them to her. There had to be a key somewhere though. She hadn't hidden the tablets, so she had obviously meant for someone to find them after her death.
If the woman had been close to the family physician, or to anyone else in the palace, she would have had only a spoken key. But, if Erin was lucky, the woman hadn't trusted anyone with the information while she was alive, which would result in a written key, probably carved somewhere that the woman spent a lot of time.
This conclusion put most of Erin's work at a standstill as she waited for another of her requisitions to go through. This one wasn't for any physical material, but rather it asked for pictures of the palace the diggers had found. It was standard procedure on any dig to photograph the area before they tried to extract anything, just in case there were booby traps or the object were in bad quality.
She wasn't sure how long it would take to get copies of the photographs since she had to get them from the privately funded group who had actually gone on the dig, rather than a museum or government official. She had provided a brief summery of her recent work, but she made it sound as though she was seeking knowledge rather than trying to decipher something she thought might be important. This wasn't out of greed for all the credit, but if she got them all excited about their find, the diggers wouldn't leave her alone until she translated every last symbol and if it turned out to not be important, they were likely to become upset. It had happened many times before with things more common than the Stelas she was working on.
She packed up her things early on Friday, which obviously surprised both Dr. Lawrence and the other intern, Paulo, since she had been staying later and later into the night the past month.
"Are you heading out already, Dr. James?" Dr. Lawrence called from his office doorway.
"If that's alright with you, sir," she said, swinging her backpack over her shoulder. "I'm waiting on further requisitions and there isn't much more I can do with these until I get them." She gestured at the tablets, which were safely stored away in contamination free boxes on her desk.
"By all means," Dr. Lawrence said, waving a hand to the door. "Lord knows you deserve an afternoon off. I'll see you on Sunday for the Founders Day party?"
"Yes, of course," Erin said, having completely forgotten about the stupid fancy event that all the employees were required to go to. She dreaded it. A bunch of self important people dressed fancily all together in one room with only very small amounts of alcohol? That was bound to be boring. Though maybe it would be entertaining if Zack was going. He had a tendency of making others feel uncomfortable, which usually happened by amusing means. She would have to ask him if he was going.
She was just barely out of her wing of the building, having planned on crossing the courtyard to get to the parking lot, when she spotted Angela sitting on one of the courtyard benches. She might not have stopped to talk to the woman is Angela hadn't looked so downhearted.
"Hey," Erin said, sitting on an adjacent bench. "You okay?"
"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine," Angela said, shaking her head as she sat up straighter.
"You don't look fine," Erin commented. "Is it the case you are working on? Zack said it was hard to compartmentalize this time."
"We are supposed to keep cases in the lab," Angela said, but she was nodding and her voice was resigned.
"He didn't tell me any specifics," Erin said placatingly. "But it's been in the paper that you guys found the remains of a missing child."
"He's just so small," Angela said, frowning at the ground now. "He was only six. And everyone else seems to be just fine with everything."
"They aren't," Erin said, patting Angela's shoulder. "Zack has a hard time showing emotions and even he was upset when the case first started."
"He told you he was upset?" Angela asked, tilting her head to one side in interest. Erin shrugged.
"Not in so many words," Erin said. "I'm just good at reading people I guess."
"Uh huh," Angela said doubtfully. Erin gave her a smile. Obviously Hodgin's had told the other people in the lab about finding her at Zack's apartment a few weeks ago. "You said your name is Katherine, right?"
"Yeah," Erin said, then shrugged, knowing Angela was fishing. "I prefer Erin though."
"So you are the girl Zack has been-" she cut herself off, but Erin laughed. Angela obviously had a harder time dealing with cases than the others did, and if she needed a bit of gossip to distract her, Erin wouldn't prevent that.
"Sleeping with?" Erin finished for her. "Yep, that's me."
"I thought so but Hodgin's said 'Erin' and he didn't know if you worked here or not so I couldn't be sure," Angela said, leaning forward eagerly. "So… Zack?"
"Yep," Erin said, chuckling. Angela's voice was quiet now, obviously not wanting to be overheard, thought the courtyard was empty now.
"Why?" Angela asked, her voice curious rather than rude. Erin shrugged.
"He's nice. And cute," she said, and Angela chuckled.
"So are puppies," Angela said.
"Well I also like puppies so that is a good comparison," Erin said straight faced. Angela laughed at that.
"But you aren't dating?" Angela asked, fishing again. Erin shrugged again.
"We agreed that both of us were too busy to be dating, so we are just… friends with benefits," she said, though she couldn't help the frown at the spoken words.
"I see," Angela said, and Erin made an effort to clear her face, but it was too late. Angela had seen the expression. "And this was Zack's idea?"
"Well, sort of. Not the wording, that was mine," Erin said. "But he came up with the idea. I just agreed."
"I'll have to knock some sense into that boy," Angela said, shaking her head.
"Please don't," Erin said quickly. "It's fine."
"But you obviously like him," Angela said, confused. "Don't you want to date him?"
"I'm not good at dating people," Erin said. "I get too consumed by my work."
"So does Zack," Angela said, but Erin ignored her.
"I don't do well with feelings, and I just don't have time to actually date. Besides, Zack doesn't feel the same way," Erin said, verbalizing the mental list she had made herself.
"Of course he does," Angela said, shaking her head in frustration. "He talks about you all the time."
"He does?" Erin asked, forgetting herself for a moment. Then she shook her head. "No, it doesn't matter. I don't want to date."
"But you do like him?" Angela prompted.
"We agreed that feelings wouldn't be part of our… relationship," Erin said, avoiding the question.
"But you like him," Angela continued, not letting it drop. Erin sighed.
"I don't know," Erin said, looking into her lap as she twisted her hands together. "Maybe."
"So that's why you've been avoiding him for the last couple weeks?" Angela asked, nodding in understanding.
"What? No, I haven't been avoiding him," Erin said, frowning. "I've just been really busy with a project I've been working on and before that I had my dissertation…"
"Sure," Angela said, patting Erin's knee. Erin sighed. Angela obviously didn't believe her. They were both silent for a few moments.
"Can you do me a favor and not tell Zack we talked, please?" Erin asked. "I don't want him getting any ideas about… anything."
"Of course," Angela said, miming zipping her lips shut. "Can you do me a favor in return?"
"I can try," Erin said.
"We all think of Zack as a younger brother, so could you try not to do anything that would hurt him?" Angela asked. "These kinds of relationships usually end badly, and I don't want to see Zack moping around the lab."
"He wouldn't mope," Erin said, chuckling. "He's very good at compartmentalizing his emotions."
"All the same though," Angela said. She was smiling but her face was serious.
"Of course," Erin said. "I would never want to hurt him. He's my best friend."
"And you love him," Angela said, straight faced.
"No I don't!" Erin said, getting to her feet.
"Calm down," Angela said, chuckling. "I was joking."
"It wasn't a very good joke," Erin said, frowning.
"Touchy subject?" Angela asked, chuckling again.
"No," Erin said, shaking her head. She swung her backpack over her shoulder, deciding to go talk to Zack and invite him over tonight. She didn't want him to think she was avoiding him again.
"Hey," Angela said, getting to her feet as well. "The Founders Day party is on Sunday, are you going?"
"I have to," Erin said. "Otherwise I wouldn't bother."
"Would you like to get ready with us before it?" Angela asked. "Dr. Brennan and I were planning on meeting at the lab a couple hours early to get dressed."
"Oh," Erin said, thinking. Then she shrugged. "Sure, thanks."
"Great," Angela said, grinning. "There probably won't be many people here on Sunday so just come right on back to my office, it's the third one against the right hand wall."
"Okay," Erin said, smiling. "See you then."
"Bye," Angela said.
Erin made her way to the lab, waiting just inside the door till one of the lab techs came over to her. They had a real talent for spotting people who weren't supposed to be there. She conveyed her request and the tech ran off to find Zack. She stayed only long enough to invite him to her place after he was done here before she left the too clean room.