A/N: It's Friday and I finished the chapter :). I hope you all enjoy it.
Update: Obviously, after reading this chapter after I posted it, I found some more inaccuracies. Hopefully I got them out this time around XD.
Jeffersonian, 7:25 am
It was still dark out when Lilly arrived at the entrance of the Jeffersonian, as it was only 7:25 am. However, judging by the parking lot, it seemed the Jeffersonian was already full in business. How come there were already some many people here?
Walking through the entrance Lilly bypassed security with her brand new security card, going straight for the open door of the forensic anthropologist. "Good morning dr. Brennan?" Bones sat behind her desk grading papers from her students. "Am I late?"
Dr. Brennan quickly glanced at her watch. "No, actually you are 20 minutes early. Don't you have a watch?" Bones' face sported a disapproving frown. Lilly smiled, not even a little taken aback. "I don't, actually, but I can tell time from my phone. What I meant is, would you have preferred it if I would have came in earlier? As it seems that almost everybody is already in", Lilly felt the need to clarify.
"Oh I see." Bones understood and her frown visibly lessened. "No, this is more than alright". Lilly nodded great. "And not everybody is already in. Angela for example usually walks in a little before 9 with dr. Hodgins. I was actually just grading papers until you would get here." Bones got up from her desk, placing the tests back in a drawer before getting her lab coat from her chair and putting it on. Quickly checking if she had everything she needed, she lead the way out of her office.
"I have about an hour before I have to get over to the FBI building to meet with Booth and dr. Sweets." Bones rolled her eyes in annoyance just thinking about wasting another hour sitting on that couch listening to the psychologist. "If you want, you can join me to the Hoover building and I can introduce you to dr. Sweets. I know the justice department building is nearby, so you wouldn't have to waste your time until the session ends to ride back with me", Bones explained. "Of course, you are welcome to stay here and observe on the platform. My intern will be in at 9 and dr. Hodgins will be busy running test on the mass spectrometer. But for now I was thinking I could give you a tour of the facility, in special Bone storage."
"So this is the bone storage, my interns and students like to disrespectfully call it Limbo. Every box here contains a set of human remains. When Booth and I don't have any active cases or I have to wait for dr. Soroyan to release the body to me I come here to identify these sets of remains." Bones explained as she opened the door to let Lilly in.
Lilly stepped into the windowless room and looked around her. As far as she could see there were stands from the floor to the ceiling filled with white gleaming boxes. "Wow", Lilly let out, trying to get used to the idea that she was being surrounded by human remains. People who maybe weren't even being missed. "How do you even know which set of remains is next?"
"Well there is a system, most of the work has been done by my grad students or interns." Bones walked to one of the racks. After checking the number she took out the box and walked back to the metal table in the front of the room. "These are the next set of remains I have to identify." Bones put on her gloves and gestured to Lilly to put on some gloves herself. Bones took out the skull, a femur and a couple of ribs, placing them on the metal table.
"Is this all you have to go on?" Lilly asked. "Yes, in this case it is. Sometimes there are some other types of evidence. Evidence that would be most likely for dr. Hodgins to examine." Bones pointed to a couple of evidence bags that were still in the box. "But in this case the evidence has already been processed by another legal lab, which you would be able to see in the digital file that belongs to these remains."
"The bones in this room have been sent from all over the world to the Jeffersonian to be identified by me and my team. Some of these remains have been found at for example sea or in an area where animals had access to them so most of the skeleton remains are incomplete."
Lilly nodded. "That makes sense. How many sets of remains are in this room?" "Approximately 10,000 unidentified sets of remains are stored here at all times." Bones answered. "Over the last 3 years I have identified about 750 sets of remains from here. "
Lilly looked up at Bones. "That is very impressive. Looking back to bones on the examiner table she shuddered at the thought that this was all that was left of a person. "Would you allow me to try to figure out the sex and race of these remains?" Bones looked surprised. "You think you'll be able to determine those traits?"
"I hope so", Lilly gave a optimistic smile. "I have been reading about it and in college we practiced determining those characteristics from skulls during anthropology week."
Bones looked impressed. "The high school you attended had an anthropology week?" Lilly nodded. "Every year there would be a science week, a week for culture and a language week. So one year the science week was all about anthropology. An anthropologist taught some classes and we visited some museums, but what fascinated me most was the lesson about identifying characteristics from skulls."
Dr. Brennan had to say she was pleasantly surprised. "I think that is an amazing concept from your high school. Is the high school located in DC? Maybe it would be a good school for Parker."
"Well it is in New York so I don't think agent Booth would be too happy about that." Lilly said.
Bones nodded "I'd have to agree." Feeling like she maybe had revealed too much about Booth's private life Bones felt like diving right back into the limbo case. "Alright go ahead, please show your process miss Johnson."
Lilly nodded and swallowed before starting. "Okay, so I read that a Caucasian skull often is smooth and long, has rounded eye sockets with squared margins and a prominent nasal bridge. When I look at this skull, the nasal bridge is wide and flat and the opening is almost rounded. The eye sockets do seem kind of square to me, but not rounded. And apart from the few missing teeth, this person had big teeth that are spaced pretty far apart. Which actually makes me pretty sure I can skip the characteristics of an Asian skull and conclude that these are the remains of a person of African descent."
Bones nodded, "I concur, what about the gender?"
Lilly lifted the skull from the table to weigh the skull in her hands. Carefully she ran her fingers over the forehead. "Well this seems pretty rounded and the jaw line isn't very straight. So... ." Lilly bit her lip unsure about her answer. "I think this is a female."
"Very good, miss Johnson. I have to admit I was skeptical if you would be able to determine the gender and race but you are indeed correct. Nevertheless, we usually start with the gender of the victim and work our way up to the race. If you were my a student in my class you wouldn't be allowed to skip any part of the process and jump to an conclusion."
Lilly smiled at the reprimand, "I understand. I probably also butchered some of the terminology. Have you and agent Booth- apart from identifying the remains - also solved any cases that I assume come with these remains?"
Bones nodded. "Yes we have. Although not every set of remains here is associated with a crime. There have been remains from floods, which caused remains to float up to the surface. And then in some cases the remains are too old, so it would be unlikely for Booth or the local police to find a perpetrator. We have solved two homicides where the victims were identified in this exact room."
Bones took a deep breath before continuing. "One of those cases turned out to be my mother. Both my parents had been missing since 1991. Angela had a new program in the Angelatron and she ran it on a set of remains from here. When I saw the image she created I immediately knew it was my mother. Booth and I then found out who murdered her, caught the killer and it lead us in the direction of my dad."
Bones gave a weak and sad smile. "You know." Bones felt silent before continuing, "I hadn't thought about my mother in quite some time."
Lilly nodded understandingly , "I can only imagine how hard it was to work on that case for you."
"And I normally don't open up like that to anyone." Temperance was bewildered and maybe a little embarrassed that one simple question had been enough for her to lower her armor like that. That one question had been able to bypass the safety walls she kept around her private life, especially her family history. "I am sorry, that was highly unprofessional of me." It was as if Bones still was in thought while she spit out those last two remarks.
"Oh please don't worry about it." Lilly tried to ease dr. Brennan's discomfort. "Believe me, everybody here is very professional. And I've been told before that I am easy to talk to." Lilly was used to people suddenly opening up to her; it happened almost daily that it didn't surprise her anymore.
Bones nodded, "I suppose that must be the explanation." Lilly could feel that even though dr. Brennan was worried about how she would come across if she would discuss details from her personal life, it seemed she really wanted to talk about her mother. "What was her name?"
"Her name was Christine Keenan." Bones responded. At least that was the name that I remember her by, she thought sorrowfully.
"What was your mother like?"
"She was nice, kind, beautiful, loving. She read to me and my brother Russ every night. I always begged her to read me the Greek mythologies. I loved the myths involving Aphrodite and dolphins." Bones smiled at the happy memories.
"That sounds great and very educational." Lilly said as she could see the image of a happy family in her head.
Bones nodded. "It was." Taking a second and only a second to revel in what she had learned were called the good old times. Pulling herself back before it got too painful and before she'd tap into insecurities she had gained later on in her childhood.
She looked on her watch. "Oh we'll have to go now if we want to be on time for Booth and my appointment with Sweets." Carefully she picked up the bones to restore them into their white box until she would have time to identify the remains.
At the Hoover Building:
"So you have to see a shrink every week?" Lilly asked. Bones and Lilly were walking through the working stations in the Hoover building on their way to dr. Sweets office.
Bones nodded in response, "Yes Booth and I have to see Sweets together once a week at this moment. The FBI seems to believe we have problems, but I don't put much stock into psychology. I'm glad you decided to come so I can introduce you."
"I am very curious to meet dr. Sweets after hearing so much about him, so I am happy you offered." Lilly said politely but sincerely. Bones smiled, thinking the introduction would at least take a couple of minutes out of the obligatory session. "No need to thank me. It is custom for a new employee to meet their coworkers in their first week." Bones simply explained.
"Would you be interested in following some of the courses I teach at American University? Since you indicated your interest in learning the science."
"Really?" Lilly happily exclaimed. "Oh that would be wonderful, thank you. If I can squeeze it into my schedule I would love too."
Bones smiled at the intern's enthusiasm. It reminded her of herself when she was still studying for her degrees. "When we are back at my office we can check the schedules. If you have the opportunity to come by my office tomorrow, I will have sorted through the reading materials for you." Intensely grateful for the opportunity Lilly nodded.
Nearing their destination Bones glanced into Sweets' office. "Oh Booth's already in", Bones noticed before pulling the door open. Cutting into whatever the men were discussing; "Hi Booth, Hello Sweets. Sweets, I'd like to introduce you to miss Lilly Johnson, Caroline's intern."
Sweets looked up taking in the handsome young intern. "Intern huh? From college or something?" Sweets asked without thinking. Lilly frowned as she didn't appreciate the remark. It either meant that dr. Sweets didn't deem her of age to already be out of college or to be professional enough. "If I am a college student you are about to start high school." Lilly immediately reflected as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, causing Sweets to turn red, embarrassed how he had been so wide of the mark.
Booth smirked. "She got you there, Sweets". Booth and Bones exchanged glances of joy. No matter the rough patch the partners were going through, the opportunity to laugh at their psycho spotting colleague was always welcomed. Bones grinned, "I think this calls for a oh snap , right?" Bones looked at Booth for guidance in her usage of slang. Booth nodded at Bones while trying to hide his smile behind his hand until he could keep his face in check.
Lilly continued. "I am a master student, currently working on my master of Criminal law, I already have a master's degree in Civil law and I am on the short track to become a Federal prosecutor. So no, I am not some sort of high school graduate here for a career day."
"I am truly sorry about the assumption. Could we maybe start over?" Sweets stammered while trying to regain his composure.
Lilly took a deep breath in. It wasn't like Lilly was immune to spitting out inadequately considered thoughts. He probably hadn't meant to insult her. She smiled and gave a small nod "I think that would be best, yes." Sweets extended his hand. "Pleasure to meet you, miss Johnson, you can call me Lance." "Lovely to meet you too, feel free to call me Lilly." Sweets nodded, still slightly worried about what Lilly was thinking of him. The conversation stilled.
"Well then, I'll let you all do what you came here to do." Nodding to the crime solving duo and Sweets, Lilly made her way to the door.
Booth nodded. "Oh before I forget to ask you," snapping his fingers at remembering the idea, "will you meet us at the diner for lunch? I have some developments in the case we need to discuss and it would be nice to have you there as well."
Booth thought a buffer between him and Bones would be the right way to go. Ever since the break up with Hannah it had felt different to be around Bones. His anger and disappointment complicated things and caused him to keep Bones at arm's length. He knew he should feel bad about the slump in their friendship and partnership, but it was too complicated for now for him to care.
Standing in the doorway Lilly turned back to face Booth and nodded. "Sure thing, see you and dr. Brennan there in about 1.5 hours?" Both occupants of the shrink's couch nodded.
"Oh Agent Booth, do you have a second?" Lance asked. They just finished their session. Bones held up a file, "I'll get this to Andrew and meet you at the diner." Not waiting for a reaction from Booth she left Sweet's office.
"So what's up Sweets?", Booth asked while he dropped himself back into the couch. He really hoped mr. 12 year old, sorry dr. 12 year old, wasn't going to start again about his failed relationship with Hannah. How it affected his partnership with Bones blablabla, how he would need to talk about it with someone blablabla.
"Well I just wanted to ask if you think I got off on the wrong foot, already burned all possible bridges between Lilly and me? I clearly insulted her by asking if she was still in college."
Booth grinned, relieved this wasn't about him, Bones or Hannah. "Yeah that wasn't the most considerate thing you have ever said when meeting a new associate. And she really had a nice feisty comeback", Booth chuckled at the memory. Sweets visibly shuddered at the mention of what happened when he met the new intern.
"But why would you think I would know how she feels about that?" Fascinated that Sweets was worried about what the legal intern would be thinking about the FBI shrink.
Lance shrugged. "You are good at reading people and you've known her longer than I have."
"I have only known her for about a week, but she is really laid back and easy going. So when she gave you a chance to start over I honestly think that was the end of it." Booth said to reassure Sweets.
"You know that she is only a year younger than you are?"
"Really?" Sweets said, not willing to believe that, but taking into consideration her level of education it probably was true. Booth uhu'd.
"Why are you so worried about what Lilly thinks of you, though?" Not giving the noisy psychologist a chance to respond. "Are you ready to climb back on the horse after your second fiasco with Daisy? I saw how you looked at her when she came in. " Booth teased.
Sweets turned red for the second time this morning. "No, no, that is not it. I suppose we are going to run into each other every once in a while during her internship and I was worried about when we would have to work together."
Booth got up from the couch and patted Sweets on his back. "You'll be fine" and walked out of the shrink's office with a wide cracked smile.