I found this day while researching June holidays and the story pretty much wrote itself. It does reference events and characters from Lachelle Nepper's Love & Carbonite, so if you need a refresher, go back and read at least the last several chapters.

The 2021 - 2022 DC school year schedule are available on Google.

There will be a sequel to this story. The next day was a perfect day to write a continuation of this chapter.

Rated 'M' for the occasional profane language. Enjoy.

May 25, 2022

On a very humid May morning, Cam arrived at work and heard the beep on her phone as she put her car into Park. Picking it up, she chuckled at the reminder Angela sent to her calendar. "National Wine Day, huh? It might be nice to have with Arastoo tonight once this horrid heat subsides…if it does."

She sat for a moment, lamenting getting out of her air-conditioned car. Resigned to her fate, she took a deep breath and got out. Groaning at the humidity, she quickly made her way inside and into her autopsy suite. Reading her emails, she stopped when she saw a message from Dr. Jessica Warren.

Dr. Saroyan:

I have eight bottles of wine for Angela for her Memorial Day barbecue in the specimen refrigerator, so they don't get ruined in the 90-degree heat. I figured that with most of the lab employees off either for Memorial Day or with Curly at today's inservice at the NFL, it would be safe. I just wanted to give you a heads up so if you saw them, you didn't think someone was drinking on the job.

Cam chuckled for a moment before responding.

Dr. Warren:

As long as the wine goes home with Angela at the end of the business day, that's fine. Between Hodgins and the techs being gone and the lab closed the rest of the week for the Memorial Day weekend, it should be only you, Dr. Brennan, and I here today.

Thank you for letting me know.

Cam then read the next message from the Jeffersonian's IT department, reminding her of the security update going on from 12:30 - 2:30. Knowing that the computer programs would be down, she went through her mental list of today's task. Getting an idea, she sent a Microsoft Office Meeting request to Angela, Brennan, and Jessica.

1:00 – 2:30 Girls Lunch in Break Area. Founding Fathers okay?

Acceptances of her invite came in quick succession before Cam sent a request to Genny Shaw as well. After her acceptance was confirmed, Cam read the rest of her emails before opening the lab 2023 Fiscal Year budget spreadsheet. "The Jeffersonian Medico-Lab budget. Always fun to deal with."

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

At 1:00, Genny Shaw and a security guard entered the lab holding several bags from their favorite pub. Jessica. who was on the platform, smiled when she saw her friend's arrival. "Genny, let me help you. We can take all this up to the break area."

Grabbing a couple of bags, she peeked into the autopsy suite. "Dr. Saroyan, Genny and lunch are here."

"Okay I'll let Dr. Brennan and Angela know."

Ten minutes later, the group of women sat around the table ready to enjoy their meal. "Thanks for lunch, Dr. Saroyan." Jessica replied.

"Yes, Cam, this lunch was a wonderful idea." Brennan sipped from her water.

"You're very welcome, Dr. Warren and Dr. Brennan. With today's system upgrade, our programs will be offline, and I thought this would be nice...and we can stay inside away from the heat." Cam replied in between bites of her fruit salad. "Agent Shaw, it's nice that you could join us."

Genny drank from her bottled water. "Yeah, me too. When you sent me the invite, Aubrey said to go and to take my time coming back. Thankfully, it's been pretty quiet there today. Everyone is enjoying their paperwork except for Bower and Nichols who had to go to an outdoor scene at Fort McHenry."

"They are going to cook today." Angela pulled out her silverware. "So, how the family, Genny? Is Danny excited to be out of school soon?"

"Busy as always and yes, Danny is counting down to June 17th. He's also excited for the 'Men Only' camping trip he and Hunter are going on to Assateague Island after school tomorrow."

"Any plans for you and the girls?" Cam asked.

"Emma, Sara, and I are hosting Jessica and Rachael for a girl's night slumber party at my house Friday night." Genny giggled. "Fun movies with the kids…"

"…and then wine, chocolate, and rom coms for the moms." Jessica finished.

"Aubrey's going to be home alone with Jamie and Savannah?" Angela chuckled.

"Yes, he is. He said he wanted some Daddy time with them." Jessica nibbled on her salad. "I just have to leave him plenty of breast milk."

"So how is the boss with feeding two babies?" Genny asked.

"He's getting the hang of feeding both of them when I'm not home." Jessica giggled. "He even used my nursing pillow once to hold them."

The ladies all laughed when they heard that. "Oh, Jessica you need to get that on video." Angela begged.

"No, no. That's too mean to do to Aubrey." Jessica chuckled. "However, if you all just happen to show up while he's doing it—"

Jessica's answer was interrupted when suddenly all the lights in the lab shut off. Surprised, the women waited for it to come back on, but to no avail.

"Why isn't the emergency generator turning the lights back on?" Cam exclaimed. As she was about to call maintenance, the phone rang on the nearby table. Getting up, she quickly answered it. "Hello…yes I was about to call…I see…I see…the automatic doors should still be able to open manually with the override…I see…what about the emergency doors...that's understandable...okay, thank you."

"Cam, what's going on?" Angela asked as the pathologist hung up the phone.

"Ladies, due to some unknown cause, several parts of DC have no power with an approximate restoration time of six to nine hours…and because of the system upgrade going on, the door won't open."

"I thought the main doors had a manual override so they could open?" Jessica asked.

"Usually, the main doors will open manually." Cam sighed. "However, there was also a malfunction during the update to the contamination sensors right before the museum lost all power."

Brennan realized what her supervisor was saying. "So, the automatic doors are programmed to stay shut because the lab has a contamination..."

"...and the manual override will be locked to contain the nonexistent contaminant." Angela sighed.

"What about the emergency doors?" Genny asked. "They should still be able to open."

"Usually yes, but the Governing Board doesn't want to risk damage or a false alarm from trying to open them since there is no medical or fire emergency."

"Even though there's no power?" Brennan asked.

"Yes, I guess those sensors have an automatic generator, like we do, but unlike us, they are receiving power." Cam replied. "So unless we have a genuine emergency…"

"We're stuck in here then." Angela finished. "Wait Cam. If there's no power, then there's no air conditioning."

The women groaned thinking about how hot the area will become during the day. Getting her phone, Brennan made a phone call and put it on speaker. "Booth, I'm just calling to let you know that we have no power at the lab."

"Okay, so are you going home?"

"Actually Booth, there's a complication with that." Brennan explained what was going on. "Christine is still at school, but Hank is at Day Care. Of course, Ms. Warren can't leave to get Rachael or the twins, either."

"Crap, the Day Care will be calling…" Angela heard her phone ring. "Speak of the devil, it's the Day Care…hello?"

"Aubrey just got a phone call…and the Day Care is calling me, probably to pick up the kids. Okay, have Angela let the Day Care know that Aubrey and I will head over to get the kids. What, Aubrey?" It was quiet for a moment until Booth got back on the line. "Okay, Aubrey wanted me to tell Jessica that he got a message from Daisy and since the NFL inservice is over, she's going to take care of Rachael and the twins since Aubrey has to stay here and you're there. Hodgins just sent me a message for me to tell you all that he'll take Hank home with him and Jeffrey."

"Yes, Agents Booth and Aubrey will be there to pick up their kids. Yes, thank you." Angela hung up the phone and heard her phone beep. "I'm glad Christine and Michael Vincent are at school today...and Hodgins said he and Daisy will meet the guys at the Hoover to pick up the kids."

"That's good." Brennan replied but thought her husband sounded strange. "Booth, is there something else going on?"

"Well, it's a clusterfuck in DC right now. The Hoover has power, but several other buildings and traffic have lost power. PEPC is all over trying to restore power and it's going to be hours."

"Yes, we were told that it would be six to nine hours until power could be restored, but Booth, there's more. I can tell by your voice…"

There was a sigh on the other end. "Okay, we think all this is from a group of hackers, but we're not sure why yet. FBI and DCPD are looking for these jackasses and we've sent our computer squints to help your IT folks to remotely fix the computer fuck up that's keeping you ladies there. Just hang tight, all right?"

"Okay. Just keep us informed, Booth. Bye." Brennan hung up the phone. "Well, at least it's not Pelant this time."

Everyone shared a weak laugh before Angela had an idea. "Hey Cam, what about breaking out the wine?"

Cam shook her head. "Angela, this is a federally funded lab—"

"…which is technically closed for the day." Angela pointed towards the front. "Those doors are stuck, and we need to hydrate."

"Angela, alcohol is a diuretic, which will dehydrate us." Brennan replied as Jessica got up and headed downstairs towards Angela's office.

"So what? We can still flush toilets, and we have plenty of water in the fridge as long as we don't open it repeatedly…and we have lunch." Angela could see the hesitation. "Ladies, we're stuck in here and it's not like we can do any work. Genny, can you work at all from your phone?"

"Nope. I can check my email but that's it. I would need my laptop to do any remote work." The FBI agent shrugged as her phone beeped. "Aubrey says Major Crimes is fine so if the power comes back in the next couple of hours, I can go home unless I want to come back."

"Okay." Angela turned to Brennan. "Brennan, how about your laptop?"

The anthropologist shrugged . "Unfortunately, it's still not charging and the new battery that I've ordered from Amazon is arriving at my home today."

Angela looked at the redhead, who had returned holding her portable breast pumps. "Jessica?"

"Dr. B and I could try to ID bones in Modular Bone Storage, but I don't know how long we could do that since there's little natural light down there for security reasons. My batteries for my breast pumps are at 75% so I should be fine there. Of course I'll have to dump whatever I do since it'll have booze in it."

Brennan smiled. "Dr. Warren, thank you for using the proper term instead of Limbo."

"You're welcome, Dr. B. I'm just glad that I'd pumped earlier in Angela's office and left these in there instead of my locker." Jessica inserted her pumps into her bra cups and turned them on. "Save me some wine after I'm done…"

Angela, Brennan, Genny, turned to Cam. Realizing she'd been outvoted, she made an executive decision. "Oh, what the hell. Wine would be nice with lunch."

"Might as well get all the bottles out so we don't have to keep opening the specimen fridge." Jessica said. "But the heat might mess up the wine..."

"We do have the biohazard containers we can pack with dry ice…" Brennan posited.

"Or we can just enjoy the wine..." Angela said with glee.

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

5:00 PM

The five women were sitting downstairs in Limbo trying to beat the increasing heat in the upstairs area. By now, all of them had their jackets off along with their shoes. In a nearby biohazard cooler, several bottles of wine and water were cooled with dry ice. Nearby, a storage locker being used as trash sat with six empty water bottles.

"I'm sorry I keep drinking the bottled water, ladies." Jessica finished her bottle and held up her Princess Leia coffee mug to accept more wine from the bottle of Chardonnay that Angela was offering to the group.

"You're lactating, Dr. Warren. Besides, we have…" Brennan counted the bottles in the biohazard cooler. "…nine more bottles."

"Brennan, more wine?"

Grabbing her 'Most Amazing Mom' mug, the forensic anthropologist held her up. "I would, Angela…very much."

Pouring the final bit, Angela set the empty bottle down and made a toast. "To us...enjoying an early Memorial Day fun day."

All of the other women giggled as they joined in the toast. "To us!"

Cam sipped and felt her stomach grumble. "Oooh, I may have to stop drinking wine after this. I'm hungry."

Genny felt the same. "Do we have any other food?"

Brennan nodded. "I have some lovely vegan jerky that Booth got me last weekend at that Priceco store Dr. Warren recommended to me. He even tried it and said that it 'wasn't cardboard'."

"Booth ate vegan?" Angela replied. "I may just have to try that jerky."

"I get their turkey jerky for Aubrey when he's out of that stuff he gets from Canada." Jessica sipped her wine. "I have some almonds in my purses."

"Cam, do you still keep trail mix in your office?" Brennan asked.

The pathologist hesitated as it was a blend Arastoo brought back from his recent trip to Eastern Europe for the WHO. However, a message from Booth appeared on her phone.

PEPC is still working on K St power. May not b up on Constitution Ave until after 6P.

Looking up at the group, Cam made her decision. "Yes."

"Let's make a smorgasbord." Genny suggested. "Then, we talk boys…but first, I have to pee."

"There's a small restroom on the north side of Modular Bone Storage, or you can go upstairs to the other facilities, but without air conditioning, it's probably rather hot." Brennan replied.

"Okay, bathroom breaks and food, then reconvene here. Sound good?" Angela asked. When everyone else was in attendance, the group got up and went their separate ways.

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

Later that evening, the ladies enjoyed their snacks and wine…then just wine. It wasn't long before the women began to feel the effects of their alcohol consumption during the day.

"So…Hodgins got his new sex swing last weekend and we tried it out with his Hoyer lift…and it was awesome!" Angela laughed.

"Can he do that with his wheelchair?" Brennan asked, thinking about her and Booth using a sex swing one evening.

"We have…aids to help get him set up by the door." The artist giggled. "Of course, his wheelchair is pretty fun, too."

Jessica laughed. "For Superman and me, quickies are our best friend. Sometimes we have to get a pop in between feedings and naps. He likes my new fat hips…"

"Woman, you're not fat! I'm fat!" Genny bellowed as she jiggled her stomach. "I still have this a year after I gave birth to Sara. Of course, Hunter, according to him, thinks I'm just beautiful. He even asked me yesterday if I wanted another baby."

"What did you tell him?" Cam replied.

"I said no! Emma is starting Kindergarden in the fall, I'm 41 years old, and that train left the station." A giggly Genny replied. "We're so done. I think Hunter wants another baby because he just likes my boobs when I'm pregnant."

Everyone laughed. "Jordan asked if Arastoo and I were thinking about giving him a little brother or sister."

Brennan in her alcoholic haze, replied. "That would be…impasse…impossible…Cam…due to…um…"

"Menopause!" A buzzed Cam bellowed. "Yep…I'm drying up!"

Jessica looked at the pathologist. "Are you okay with that?"

Cam nodded. "Yes, Jessica. I'm 50 years old and I'm going to be an awesome grandma someday, but…no babies for me. I have one baby in the FBI, one starting college in the fall and three more boys at home, including Arastoo. I'm good."

Smiling, Angela turned her attention to Jessica. "So, Jessica, you and Aubrey thinking of any more babies?"

The redhead almost spit out her wine. "Oh, I don't know about that. I've got a four-year-old, a set of newborn twins, and Aubrey can be a handful at times."

"Your grocery budget will probably be exploding soon." Cam quipped to everyone's chuckles.

"Oh yeah…" Jessica sipped her wine. "I remember thinking for years I didn't know about if I wanted to be a mom because my example…wasn't very stellar."

"I miss my mom…" Angela sighed. "Genny, at least you have yours."

"Yeah." The agent gave a buzzed smile. "My mom is the best."

"Jackie is an amazing mom, Genny." Jessica replied. "I wish I had her growing up."

"Jessica, she considers you her other daughter now, remember?" Genny replied.

"I know…and I really didn't know if I wanted to be a mommy…but I love being a mommy now…I love my babies…even Aubrey when he's hangry…" Jessica began to cry. "I'm sorry. I'm just drunk and so tired. I love Jamie and Savannah but they're like vampires when they're hungry. My boobs always hurt and if we get four hours of sleep in a row, I'm excited. Twins are so hard!"

The group came together and gave the young woman a hug. "Dr Warren…Jessica, we understand. Christine breast fed easily but Hank was more difficult. I had to feed him formula and it made me feel so bad, but formula also had all the nutrition Hank needed."

"I wanted to bitch slap that lactation specialist you saw after Hank was born, Bren." Angela swished her glass around, barely avoiding Genny as she continued to hug her friend. "I gave Michael Vincent and Jeffrey both breast milk and formula and they're somewhat fine."

"I breast fed…my son…Danny…" Genny trailed off, her thoughts hazy from all the wine she had. "…but his daddy had died and I was so sad. Now I have Danny and Hunter and two beautiful little girls…and I'm old and tired…but Emma and Sara both had formula and so far, they are all right."

"I've never been pregnant, but I don't think I would ever want a baby sucking out of my boob. Arastoo loves them the way they are." Cam slurred to everyone's chuckles.

"Even when Booth annoys me, he's a good father." Brennan sighed. "I hate Rebecca for keeping Parker from him. Some days, I still want to yank her fake blond hair, including the follicles from her head. That's not logical…but I find it might be pleasant…"

"Yeah, but Parker is now in New York, Bren and he sees you guys more than his mom." Angela said. "We're the best moms ever! We need more wine!"

Cheers from the group came as Cam grabbed a bottle of Pinot Grigio to pass around.

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

8:15 PM

"Aubrey was stunned when I told him about peeing at the Lincoln Memorial." Jessica said, making the group laugh. "Then he got weird about my background check, but he apologized later with a pretty pigeon with big blue eyes and a white flag."

"That's so sweet, Jessica." Genny sipped her wine.

"I know...Rachael has Aubrey's pretty blue eyes...damn, his eyes are so beautiful…"

"Hunter has great eyes, too...and a great butt—" Genny replied as the lights came on. "Yay! We have lights again!"

"Air conditioning!" Angela stood up and got wobbly. "Oh…"

Brennan and Jessica both tried standing up and also felt a little wobbly. "Uh oh, Dr. B…"

Cam looked over at the seven empty wine bottles and the one that was half full of sauvignon blanc. "I think we drank a little too much."

Holding herself up with the light table, Brennan struggled to focus her thoughts. "Booth and Aubrey are still working at the…Hoof…Hoop…"

"Hoover, Bren. They work in a vacuum cleaner. That must be very dirty." Angela finished. "Let's go up and call the boys, shall we?"

"Good idea." Brennan replied. "Booth sent a message saying they're in Aubrey's…area…"

"Major Crimes, Dr. B." Jessica chimed in before accidently burping. "Sorry."

"Major Crimes. Try the conference…room thing."

The five made their way up the steps, grateful to feel the air conditioning breaking through the heat. Going into the artist's office, Angela pressed a few buttons to make a call.

At the Hoover, Aubrey and Booth were packing up the case files, shaking their heads at their day. "I can't believe those morons caused all of this chaos in DC just to show off for their girlfriends." Aubrey sighed. "What happened to just spray painting their name onto a building?"

"Teenagers have bigger toys now, Aubrey and they have to go bigger to show how small their dicks really are." Booth heard the ring and read the caller ID. "It's from the lab. The power must be back up."

Aubrey hit the accept button and saw the women in Angela's office. "Hey there ladies."

The reply was a loud chorus of voices. "Hey there!"

"Guess what, Boss. We're going home!" Genny yelled.

"You need to come get us, Booth. We've partaken in this lovely wine Angela purchased for her party Saturday…"

"And we didn't have any dinner!" Cam yelled. "Thank God today was Wine Day."

"Holy shit, they're drunk." Aubrey said. "Jess, are you drunk?"

"I'm just happy, Superman!" The redhead replied before picking up her breast pump. "I'm so good that I've even pumped milk for my babies…my sweet Jamie and Savannah…"

"Jess, you didn't pump while you were drinking, did you?" Aubrey made a mortified face.

"No, James! What kind of mother do you think I am!?" Jessica yelled. "I pump, then I drink. That's what responsible mommies do. Oh, we need to give Genny a ride home."

"I'm a little tipsy, Boss."

"Ladies, we're on our way." Booth ended the call. "Come on, Aubrey."

"This ought to be a fun night."

*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*

Back down in Limbo, the women cleaned up their mess as best they could in between being wobbly and laughing.

"Today was fun." A buzzed Angela giggled. "We need to lose power again."

"Well, today was a Wine Day to remember." Brennan replied, making everyone else laugh.