Disclaimer: I understand Hart Hanson and FOX have ownership rights to all 'Bones' concepts, characters, and dialog. This is intended to be simple Fan Fiction for the enjoyment of the author and any readers.

Noon Saturday, July 7, 2012

Wendy's/Pawtucket Boulevard/Kohl's

Lowell, Massachusetts

David had pulled into the Wendy's drive through. He ordered a chili, a small plain burger, a small chicken sandwich, fries, drinks and frosties. Emily was again amazed, he talked to a box. It answered. They moved forward a couple dozen feet to a window where a young girl with dark skin and almond shaped eyes smiled, took his money, and handed him a bag … hot food, cold drinks, and a frozen treat, all in just a few minutes. He pulled the mustang into a quiet spot off the boulevard beside a picnic table facing the river. With just a few joggers, walkers, and other picnickers, it was peaceful. They sat beside each other at the table facing the river and just enjoyed the experience. The conversation was easy as they got to know each other better. There were just a few comfortable moments of silence as they shared the meal. Again Emily had an opportunity to try a number of different new food items. Before they ate, there was another experience with this era's obsession with cleanliness when he had her hold out both hands and a small glop of clear goo, hand sanitizer he called it, was put in her hands and she was told to rub her hands together to spread it around. He explained that it was an easy replacement for the soap and water washing of hands before eating.

Emily could not believe this day, this man, the fun, the conversation, the happy time they were experiencing together. For a day that started with such terror and fear, she could never have imagined she could have such a pleasurable time with a man.

David looked over at Emily and observed her glancing around at the sights and sounds with an easy smile on her pretty face. He pulled his phone out.

"I'm going to take your picture."

"I don't know what that means?" she muttered, looking quizzically at the small flat black box she had seen him work with before.

"Look at me and smile."

She smiled at him and suddenly a small light flashed. She blinked in surprise. He tapped the box lightly a few times then turned it around and held it close to her face. She was shocked; it was an image of her just seconds before!

"How did you do that?"

"It's a magic box." He chuckled and held it at arm's length and flashed another picture of both of them. The image captured was of him smiling, her frowning.

"Please don't make fun of me, it may be 'magic' to me but, I know it's not 'magic' to you," she whispered sadly.

"I'm sorry. Please forgive me, I was joking. It was a bad joke, sorry…" He paused. "This is primarily a two way communication device, but it can record images instantly and store them inside. Would you like to see some images I have stored in it?"

Emily brightened. She was thankful for the quick apology, but not surprised. David had been so kind and caring to her so far, so she took it as a small error in judgment. "Yes, please."

David leaned closer and started pulling pictures on to the screen. "This is Angela. Don't ever tell her I showed you this one."

Emily looked closer at the image of a young woman, about her age wearing very tight clothing with her tongue out and her hand in the air in a fist with just one finger up. Emily looked to David.

"Is this your sister? She does not look happy."

"Well, she can have an attitude sometimes, but we get along fine … most of the time, anyways." David chuckled and moved to the next picture of Angela and Jack. "This is Angela with her boyfriend, Jack."

Emily looked again, this time Angela looked much happier and she was dressed in similar clothing, and Jack was dressed very much like David. She smiled to see them in a close embrace. She was surprised Jack was not Angela's husband, given their embrace, but quickly remembered the number of similar embraces she had experienced with David. She concluded the word 'boyfriend' was a word of this time for a serious suitor or betroths and nervously wondered what David might be thinking about her … her morals … what she had allowed to happen between them. She gulped at the thought and glanced at David. "She looks happier here." Emily commented hesitantly.

"These are our parents." Emily was surprised as she looked at an older couple, but not as old looking as she expected. Again, they were in an embrace like Angela and Jack and she could see other people in the background. This time she was more surprised, because his mother wore clothing much more similar to Angela's than she expected.

David continued to move through a mini slide show of a couple dozen pictures doing some quick editing along the way. Emily saw more images of his family, friends, places he'd been, their homes and then an image of people dressed in almost nothing around a small stone pond? After her shocked gasp and quick looking away, he didn't show any more of those images.

When he finished he turned to her and said "Let's try a picture of the two of us again. OK?"

Emily smiled, except for the people around the small stone pond, she was very happy seeing all the personal images David had shown her. "Yes, please."

David shot half a dozen images of them. He then handed the phone to Emily and showed her how to scroll through them. It took her a few tries to master the right amount of pressure on the pictures in the small box to make them move. As she worked with the 'phone' she decided that learning to operate these machines of this future was more important than understanding how they worked. She thought that maybe they had very small gears and pulleys like the weaving machines, although as she listened she did not hear anything moving. Well, she decided, she could learn their internal operations later.

"David?" she asked. No answer. She looked up, and watched as two women ran by in very revealing clothes. She then noticed David staring at them very intently.

"David…David!" She was suddenly annoyed by David's attention to them.

"Huh … what? … Emily?" David's male brain quickly unlocked from the rapidly retreating female forms, moved his head around, and locked on to the annoyed tone and frowning face of his current female companion.

"I'm sorry Emily; I wasn't paying attention … Question?" David was now fully focused on Emily.

In the same moment, Emily also realized what she felt and was surprised at the realization. "I was curious why some people run when they do not need to and wear such revealing clothing when they do it?"

David could see where this question was coming from and could feel an embarrassing blush rising in his face. "Well, there are two basic reasons: first is they eat too much and don't get enough exercise in their normal life and they enjoy running as exercise. Second, they wear less restrictive clothing to be more comfortable and," he hesitated, "for some people it's, well, to attract the attention of the opposite sex." He added the final comment knowing he had been caught. He looked right into her eyes.

Emily locked her eyes right back into his. "Hum, it appears those two girls were successful in achieving that goal…"

Slowly, Emily started to smile a knowing smile.

"You caught me," David stated with embarrassment and shrugged.

"Yes, I did." Emily replied smugly and slowly her smile grew.

"Sorry," he replied as he smiled tentatively.

"I guess men have not changed that much in this world of the future." She grinned and winked at him.

After another half hour of joking, laughing, conversation, and comfortable hanging out together, they packed up and headed to Kohl's.

Emily decided she was not going to let herself be overwhelmed by what everyone around her viewed as normal. The new sneakers were much easier to walk in and much more comfortable than the flip flops. She walked into the store with confidence, as though she had done it a hundred times. Thinking how thin Emily was, David suggested they try 'juniors' first. So, they headed in that direction with David pushing a small black cart. They found a rack of summer long dresses, but the skimpy tops and very thin material scared Emily. And still no petticoats.

Emily glanced around trying to spot a woman who was wearing a dress, but with limited success. She debated asking David. Finally, decided that given the amount of embarrassing personal conversation they had already been through, she should be able to ask him this simple question. She whispered to David. "What do women wear under dresses?"

"Just panties, you know, like the package we got at Target. Sometimes they wear pantyhose, depending on the occasion or sometimes if it's cold. Sometimes women will also wear a slip, which is like a thin single layer petticoat, if the dress is made of a thin or semi transparent material or if it's a dressier occasion." He explained. She grumbled to herself at his answer, wondering if she would ever adjust to the attire of this time. At the same moment it occurred to her she had the courage to ask the intimate question of a man and received an intimate answer and accepted the answer with little concern. Again she was not sure of how to reaction to her surprising level of comfort with the increasingly intimate relationship with David.

David found a rack of leftover winter and spring clearance items and they spent time sorting through a jumbled mess of sizes and items Emily could not imagine that anyone would wear. Again, she thought, it was beyond her comprehension the variety and easy availability of so many items of habiliments or again clothes as David called them. After much searching, she was very happy to finally find a plain long wool skirt and one long dress with three quarter sleeves that looked small enough to fit. It was a pretty shade of blue which David thought matched her eyes, causing a much more pleasurable blush for Emily. As they moved away from the confusing mess of clearance items to the standard racks of regular and sale items, their running bickering debate over what he called 'normal young women style of clothing' and what she could imagine herself wearing in public, continued. David tried a number of times to get her to consider at least knee length skirts or dresses which drew either a nervous glare or shaking of her head.

They stopped at a sale shelf of junior fitted summer tops in various colors and styles.

"What colors do you like? " He asked as he pointed to and held up a couple of similar styles for her to examine.

"This blue one is nice." Emily responded as she looked carefully at a rather plain medium blue. "It seems a little small?"

David looked at her as she held it up looking at it. "It's supposed to fit snuggly on you. If you like that style after you try it on, we can get a few other colors, ah, here's a red and a dark blue…"he pointed to the variety of colors on the shelf.

"Why do I need more that one?" she asked a little confused.

"So you have a choice of what to wear." He replied as he looked into her confused face. "Most women have dozens of different colors and styles of tops and bottoms to mix and match. Try on a few difference styles, the ones you like, we can pick a few other colors for you."

Emily looked into David's slightly concerned face and remembering his small odd room full of so many different things to wear, agreed hesitantly. "If you are sure, it seems such an extravagance."

With more than a half dozen different sizes and styles of tops in the basket, they moved on the pants and jeans.

David knew from Angela's bitching that women's pants and jeans were difficult to find in longs. Emily was about the same height as Angela and even thinner, so it was a similar challenge. David remembered from gift buying that Angela wore a five long in most pants or jeans in juniors. Then he remembered something about size four long in misses, but they were in juniors, so. It boggled his mind. Why couldn't they just be like men's and have actual measurements for waist and length rather that this stupid numbering system. He refocused, so a one or three long would probably fit Emily. With that in mine, he focused her on a variety of pants that were either longs or 'cropped' that looked baggy enough for her and stylish enough for him in both sizes. With a move to the 'juniors' jean area it became debate central. David held up a pair of denim short shorts with a grin, but the instant look of horror on Emily's face ended any discussion before it started. Despite, seeing young women all around in tight jeans, Emily could not see herself wearing such things. David convinced her to at least try a few pair on.

Before they started to the dressing room, David quietly whispered instructions to her on how things worked in there, not to worry about price on anything and to get whatever she was happy with. He said he would be right outside. She entered the area with confidence and a full cart. A half hour later, she was exhausted, but had found enough acceptable clothes to represent more than she had ever had at any one point in her life. She still felt embarrassed by the number of items and the cost, but he insisted they get all of the items she found acceptable plus one pair of jeans which she admitted fit, but… They were out the door with a large bag and back home before three in the afternoon.