Chapter: 6
Sorry this is really late. I recently hit my head on an elevator wall. Anyone else ever do that? It's not a very fun experience… -.-
So thanks for your reviews :). Has anyone else realized that a lot of the people who worked on Merlin have names that start with the letter J? I don't know why but I just noticed that.
That's all folks.
Oh yeah the story. Here's chapter 6. Please comment and leave your input.
Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or Bones.
Cam was almost done with her own examinations when Dr. Brennan walked up the stairs, putting on white latex gloves as she did. All eyes landed on the anthropologist as she walked onto the floor, Booth and Angela trailing behind with worried glances.
"What have you found," Brennan asked Cam with a large smile on her face.
Cam stared at her then at Booth and Angela, then back at her. She wondered what was going on between the three. She shook her head, forcing herself out of the puzzling trance.
"The tests came back, the skull is approximately one thousand and five hundred years old," Cam answered, walking towards the exposed remains as she spoke of it.
Brennan nodded her head standing next to her colleague, her smile never fading. Cam turned her head and saw the grin. She looked over at Booth who only shrugged in response. Brennan picked up the lab reports lying on a table near the slab.
"Doctor Brennan," Cam began, cautiously turning her head towards Brennan. The doctor didn't look up from the charts in her hands as she 'hmm' as a response.
"Is there something you are not telling us?" Cam asked worriedly. Brennan's smile, if possible seemed to grow mischievously as she set down the charts and looked at the people surrounding her.
"Bones?" Both asked and Cam sighed crossing her arms awaiting news that would either make her happy or want to crawl up in a corner. Really anything was possible when it came to Dr. Brennan. Angela and Hodgins looked at her as well, also curious by her secretive look.
"I contacted the British Science Department. With some persuasion and logical reasoning they have agreed to allow us to get a better view of the remains," Brennan stated with a proud smile.
"How much of a better view?" Hodgins asked turning his head slightly at Cam who returned the look.
"They have allowed us access to the remains directly," Brennan told him.
"You mean they are going to let you open these statue people tomb things?" Booth asked. Hodgins and Angela sent him questioning glares at the term used, but he ignored them.
"Yes," Brennan said with a nod of her head, then walked over to the monitor. "The question is though, how do we open them."
Her head tilted as she looked the images over, something obviously troubling her.
"What do you mean how? Just take a chisel put some old squint back into it and there you go. Medieval dead guys galore," Booth so wisely put.
"It's not that simple," Brennan answered by looking at him. His look of confusion told her that he didn't understand. He looked around for someone to answer and Cam was the one who did.
"Air has damaging qualities. The tissue could disintegrate in an instant if exposed," Cam answered. Booth mouthed a large 'oh' and looked at Bones.
"Well how are you going to get them out without making them piles of dust?" he asked her.
"I don't know," she said looking at the monitor.
It stayed like that for a few moments, Brennan staring at the monitor, while Booth awaited a miraculous response. Hodgins went over to sit at his computer and began typing away on the keyboard. Cam stood by the statue of the woman, a deep frown on her face. There wasn't a way to retrieve the remains without the air hitting it, and the United Kingdom wasn't going to allow them access to the slabs forever. She had to figure this out before they sent the slabs back. She had to figure out how thousand year old bodies were able to look as if they had been encased a few hours ago.
"What if we make a vacuum?" Hodgins broke the silent thinking. All heads turn towards him.
"You mean get rid of all the air in the room?" Cam asked.
"Yeah, I could do it. All we would have to do is seal the area off and suck the air out. We could use the radiation suits so we can still breath while inside," he said with a nod and swiveling in his chair to face them.
"That could work," Brennan nodded and looked towards Cam for signs of encouragement, but she only stared at the statue of the woman. Hearing no response from Cam, Brennan continued on. "How would you remove the air?"
Hodgins began explaining his complex plan, which everyone seemed to be agreeing with despite how crazy it might sound, but Cam wasn't paying attention. She stared at the woman below her. The stone face was cast into worried creases, and Cam wondered what the woman was so worried about. Was her face, her real face, in such a worried appearance below the stone exterior? Cam closed her eyes.
"No," she said in a whisper but was loud enough to stop the current conversation and draw everyone's eyes to her.
"What?" Brennan asked confused, her face scrunched up as she looked at her boss's closed eyes.
"I mean we won't be turning the lab into a vacuum," Cam said looking at Brennan with open eyes. Her stare was confident and not backing down. Her gloved hands rested on the stone slab as she spoke. "It's too dangerous, and it will take to long."
"But," Hodgins began to protest, but stopped with a glare from Cam. Brennan crossed her arms and stared at her boss in retaliation.
"What do you suggest we do," Brennan asked with a tight jaw. Cam sighed and crossed her own arms. Why does everything always have to be a battle?
"We are just going to have to try, and hope the air has no effect," she answered calmly.
"But there's no telling what could happen to the remains! The air could cause the tissue to completely collapse, and the knowledge of the preservation would go with it," Brennan shouted in protest.
"Whatever has kept them preserved so far is still active. Who's to say it won't keep them intact when it comes to the air?" Cam stated in the constant, calm tone.
"For all we know the stone itself is what is preserving the remains. If we crack the seal then we will be removing the only protection."
"Unless you have another way do it without damaging the remains, I think we at least have to try."
"But-," Brennan pleaded angrily.
"That's the end, Dr. Brennan," Cam cut her off, raising her hand to silence Dr. Brennan's protests. She looked around to see if anyone else wanted to voice their opinions as well, but all eyes were facing away except for Brennan's. Cam walked over to the monitor, ignoring the angry glares from the woman next to her.
"We will open one of the statues. We can monitor for an hour to see if there is any change due to the air. If nothing happens we can open the rest," Cam reasoned and turned to Brennan. It was a reasonable decision and it compromised with Brennan. If one specimen was to be destroyed, they would still have seven more they could use.
Brennan seemed to get the idea as she nodded and turned towards the monitor, though her lips were pursed into a thin line and her arms remained crossed. She scanned through the images and focused on one of the x-rays.
"I suggest we use this set of remains," she sighed pointing to one of the bodies on the screen then walking to set statue. Cam looked at where she at pointed then followed her.
"Why this one?" Cam asked. Brennan's eyes still showed she wasn't happy about the decision, but Cam had no time to worry about that. The dislike came with being in charge.
"There are three bodies that are quite similar in both past injures, build, and, from their appearance, social status. If one of these remains were to be damaged there are two more we can use in comparison," Brennan stated scientifically.
"Very… logical," Cam stated with a smile which was not returned. She turned away without loosing the smile and spoke to everyone. "Let's get to work people."
As Cam walked away, Brennan looked at the statue. He was one of the many who was wearing chainmail and a mixture of armor. His rugged face was in cheeky grin which she could only imagine had some sarcastic hint to it. He, like the others, was holding a sword in a battle grip. The long carved lines of stone made to resemble hair stopped just above his shoulders. It was an odd look. Not what you'd expect a warrior to look like.
Dr. Patrick woke up on the cold floor of the abandoned examination room. Medical tools scattered nearby. His head was on fire and his vision was blurred. The air smelled musty. He couldn't remember anything that happened after he had picked up the chisel. Slowly he was able to back on to his elbows. It was then that he felt the dried blood sliding along the line from his ears to his jawbone.
He used a hand to touch one of the sides and cringed when a jolt of pain shot through his shoulder. He must have landed on his shoulder hard, and that wasn't good for someone his age. He felt a gentle wind blowing his hair.
With some difficulty and cringed of pain, he was able to reach a kneeling position. As he rose higher he began to realize that the gentle wind was actually a small wind storm, but he was indoors?
Slowly he stood, the wind growing stronger the further up he got. Though his vision was still blurred he could make out the slab and a large crack on the statue. He shook his head, trying to clear his vision, but it only hurt more in the whirl of the wind. He took a few steps closer to look at the crack. It was growing!
Not very fast but happening all the same, the crack was traveling up the stone arm of the woman, chipping the stone and making a dark line. The hole was nearly two feet long.
Suddenly the force of the wind began to rattle the many drawers that lined the walls. He took no notice though as he took another step towards the statue. Putting his hand over the crack he gasped and pulled it back. The wind was coming from the hole, but how?
He did it again on another part of the line and drew his hand back once more. There wasn't air being released. Instead it was being sucked in, but how? The doctor looked around to see if someone would pop out and tell him it was all a joke but no one came.
"What the he-," he began to say, but his words were cut off by a hard jolt to his skull from one of the many skulls which had blown out of their fallen drawers and were flying around the room.
His vision became spotted. He took a few steps backwards before he was completely engulfed by the darkness and fell back to the ground. With another cracking sound from the stone the wind picked up.
Back on the platform, the team was preparing to open the statue. Brennan riffled through a chisel, like the one Dr. Patrick had used, and a rubber mallet. Booth noticed Cam staring at the hallway entrance.
"Has anyone checked on 'Lord Creep,'" Booth asked Cam. She turned towards him with a genuine smile, one of the few she had today.
"You don't like Dr. Patrick," Cam asked but already knew the answer. Booth hated people who thought the world revolved around them, also clowns for some odd reason.
"Are you kidding! 'Mr. Fish and Biscuits' left me a message on my phone complaining about Bones and her 'horrid disposition.' How the old fart even got my number, I have no idea," Booth said staring at the hallway.
"No, no one's looking for him and I doubt anyone will," she chuckled. The raise of his eyebrows made her roll her eyes. "It's fine. He's not a security risk. He has somehow already made enemies with or scared away most of the Jeffersonian staff, though. I doubt he wants to be bothered anyway."
The two chuckled, but were brought out of their musings with a call from Dr. Brennan, "It's time."
With the team, and Booth, gathered around in anticipation Brennan picked up the chisel and angled it so it would make a line near the top of the statue's left shoulder. Taking in a deep breath, she slammed the hammer on the chisel and drew both back. Where the edge had been there was a dark line. With the okay from her everyone else, besides Booth, picked up their chisels and went chipping away at the gray surface, careful not to nick the remains underneath, and taking away chunks of the stone.
After 15 minutes of the eight people, interns included, working on them, the remains were finally free. All gathered around to see if the tissue remained.
"The tissue seems stable," Cam stated in shock. Everyone's faces looked awestruck. When they saw the images on the monitor almost everyone had assumed that it was a hoax, but here was the body, actual flesh. Even Brennan looked dumbfounded, but she drew out of it in a matter of moments.
"Right," she got everyone's attention, "Thank you for your assistance. I will call you again when you are needed."
With a wave of her hand the group of interns filtered off the platform. Mummers of incredulity could be heard from each one. Brennan turned her attention to her team and boss.
"Well now what?" Booth asked stepping out from the corner.
"We wait," Cam told the anthropologist, soils expert, artist and agent. All sat down and stared at the body. No one moved or spoke. They just stared at the thousand year old dead man.
"How is this possible?" Hodgins asked under his breath, breaking everyone's trance. "Why isn't he just bone?"
"I don't know," Brennan answered not wavering from her watch. "But we are going to find out once we are sure that the tissue won't fall apart."
"Well, if the tissue holds out for an hour that means that we at least have that long to work with it," Cam put in.
"But look at him," Booth said from sitting in his chair, pointing his finger towards the man, "It looks like he just died a few minutes ago. Isn't that freaking anybody else out?"
"I for one am creeped out," Angela agreed also by raising her hand. "Can we at least close his eyes?"
The man was just like the statue depicted. Long brown hair, chiseled features. His chainmail seemed to be worn out and damaged. His green eyes were glazed over, like any dead person's.
"No, we are still waiting to see if air will damage the remains. If we touch them it could have an effect on the remains, and we wouldn't know for sure if we did it or the air," Brennan stated, though even she was feeling uneasy with the remains.
She never feels uneasy about remains, but these were supposed to be bones, not tissue. It went against everything she felt was right. Tissue disappears and the bone remains. It wasn't right, it felt wrong. Yet there they were full-fledged, tissue ridden ancient corpses.
She didn't like the feeling.
After a few more minutes, Booth decided to spike a conversation.
"Where do you think these guys are from?" he asked.
"What?" Cam asked. "The United Kingdom?"
"No, no I mean where as in where did they live? When did they live?" he rephrased the question.
"I don't know," Brennan answered. "We didn't look into it yet."
Suddenly the shuffle of feet and a squeak of a chair let everyone know that someone was standing up. Sure enough Hodgins was standing right in front of his chair with a smile on his face.
"Are you people kidding?" He asked. He looked around expecting an answer, but none came. "One thousand five hundred years ago? Knights? Honestly guys isn't it obvious?"
"What are you getting at, bug man," Booth asked annoyed by Hodgins' unexplained excitement. Hodgins ignored him and looked around once more.
"Isn't obvious?" Hodgins repeated throwing his arms up in the air and practically laughing out the next line. "It's Camelot!"
The silence that followed was filled with faces trying to make sense of Hodgins' statement, and Hodgins looking around with a grin on his face waiting for their responses.
"You mean the mythical land of King Arthur, filled with peace and prosperity?" Cam finally asked mouth agape. Hodgins' hid his teeth with a closed smile.
"No I mean the amusement park," he said sarcastically ignoring the warning look given by Cam. "Of course I mean King Arthur."
"That seems very unlikely, Dr. Hodgins," Brennan answered, "The body of Arthur would likely be hidden away, as would his knights. There's no proof that supports these are the warriors of ancient English society."
"Woah, woah, hold up!" Booth said waving his hands in front of himself.
"Are you telling me that Bones believes in King Arthur?" Booth asked pointing his finger at the doctor as he spoke about her. She nodded in return.
"You believe in King Arthur and Camelot?" he asked again. She nodded again.
"As in King Arthur sword in the stone, defeating dragons, love betrayal from his wife and best friend a wizard with a beard, King Arthur?" Booth asked making a sign for beard by rubbing his chin.
"Don't be ridiculous, Booth! Of course there's no such thing as magic or dragons, and those stories of love and betrayal were just romantic novels made by French Poets," Brennan corrected. "But I do believe there was a warrior named Arturus who lived in the 5th century and fought the army of the Saxons who were invading Old Time England. Weather or not he was a king is still debatable. Its most likely that the original accounts of the warrior, Arturus, was refitted by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia Regum Britanniae to make it seem like the English kings came from a great bloodline. And there was a land mentioned called Camelot, still it doesn't mean King Arthur ruled over it."
She then turned to Hodgins.
"But I doubt these are the remains of Camelot knights. They would have been put in a sacred shrine and guarded over in secrecy."
"But it would make sense as to why they were preserved in such a way," Cam put in, "Perhaps they found a way to preserve the dead for long periods of time and who else would they other than the Knights of the Roundtable."
Cam smiled and looked away when she realized she had just tried to prove one of Hodgins' crazy theories.
"See," Hodgins said, smile opening again.
"I still don't see how it would be possible," Brennan said with a shake of her head.
"Maybe Merlin put a spell on them," Booth joked.
"Merlin did not exist," Brennan told him.
"How are you so sure?" Booth asked.
"Because magic isn't real," she responded.
"He might have been an advisor," Cam added, then looked away again at her foolishness.
"Maybe Lancelot sprinkled Holy Grail water over the bodies," Hodgins kidded.
"That seems more likely than magic," Brennan said seriously.
"Would you guys be quiet for five seconds!" Angela interrupted the everlasting argument. All eyes turned to her. "Jeez, maybe some of us want to watch some old dead guy in peace."
Everyone looked down to the floor, and then back at the body. Hodgins sat down, and Brennan stole a glance at the timer they had set up beforehand. They had forty two minutes left.
In the other room the crack grew at its constant speed and the wind rage.
The forty two minutes ended, and there was very little conversation about the slabs that followed. Brennan and Cam walked over to the body to start their tests. The others watched from their seats.
"Perhaps a tissue sample first," Cam suggested to Brennan. She nodded and grabbed a scalpel.
Carefully and still afraid that the tissue would collapse, Brennan lowered it onto the dead man's arm. She pushed the blade in but drew back and gasped in shock, Cam not far behind.
"There's blood!" they both shouted. The rest of the group ran up to the remains still lying in the remnants of the stone casing and on the back of the slab. There, were Brennan had poked the skin with the scalpel was a thin line of blood dripping onto the stone.
"How is that possible?" Hodgins asked. All eyes were wide.
"I don't know," Brennan answered shaking her head. She looked around at the other slabs. They were a mystery, a mystery she was going to solve. She took in a deep breath and spoke loudly.
"Go get the interns we have to open the rest of the statues," she told Angela. She looked warily and Brennan and Cam then went down the platform steps. She turned to face her colleagues.
"If there is something going on we need to make sure how many of the remains have in fact been effected," she told them and they nodded in response.
A minute later Angela returned with the herd of interns behind her. In a matter of minutes they were cracking open the slab of another man in chainmail. Like the other one only his hair was a different style and color. Then they went to the next statue, it was the one of the woman.
When they took away the stone casing she, looked like a queen, just as the statue had depicted. Her red gown caressed her curves, and her long brown hair curled down her back. Her light, brown skin stood out from the gray stone. Some of the interns began to ask Brennan about her ethnicity but she only moved onto the next statue. She was on the verge of something big and wasn't in the mood nor had the time to answer questions that could be answered later.
The interns and she opened the next statue. It was the one Booth had seen either. Some of the interns stop to stare at the beauty of the sword, but Brennan chastised them, saying it could wait until all of the remains were uncovered. They knew they had at least an hour to work with the remains, but that didn't mean they would last forever and she needed to see if all of the remains had been affected.
They uncovered the next set of remains in the same amount of time it took the others. It seemed to be going fast but in reality it had been little over two hours. Brennan shot her head back to the original uncovered body. It seemed to be stable. She took a deep breath and looked back at the work she had done with the interns. Cam and Hodgins were removing the dust and chips of stone left behind on the bodies. She looked forward. They had two statues left. Without saying a word she moved to the next statue in the line. It was the remains of the man who had many healed injures.
She angled the chisel and cracked down on the stone, the interns doing the same. Unknown to the working hands, in the other room the cracking of the other statue was speeding up. Every time a crack was made on the statue of the man the statue of the woman would crack.
So it went on for fifteen minutes.
The team would make a crack.
The stone of the woman would crack and the wind picked up.
For fifteen minutes the pattern continued.
Finally the team was able to uncover the remains of the man. His eyes were closed unlike the other bodies. His attire was strange, different from the men in chainmail, though Brennan wasn't having any questions. They walked over to the next statue, another man in chainmail.
In the other room the wind storm was a small hurricane. The figure of the woman was just a net of cracks. Suddenly the wind and the cracking stopped.
On the platform there was a loud gasp of air. Just as Brennan was about to connect the hammer to the chisel the sound stopped her. She looked around the group of people for the source of the noise, but it seemed they were not the ones who made it. She turned around to see if perhaps Cam or Hodgins were the source. The two were suddenly looking down at the statue they had just completed, their eyes wide and mouths open. Brennan got a puzzled look on her face and took a step over to where they were.
She looked down at the remains, about to ask them what was happening, when the most shocking thing that could have happened, happened.
The man's, the dead man, mouth opened wide and gasped a breath of air.
Brennan jumped back as did the other two doctors who had witnessed it. The interns stood in the corner, unable to see what was going on. The man's chest rose and fell. He began to intake through his mouth and nose. The three doctor's did not take their eyes off of the supposed dead man.
"What the He-," Hodgins began to say, but stopped when the man's eyes began to flutter.
Suddenly the lids flew open to reveal blue eyes, looking up at the ceiling. The man's back arched as the blue flashed to a stunning gold. He slowly slid back down into his stone bed and his eyes closed as his chest rose and fell evenly.
It was silent everything was silent.
In the other room all was silent.
Before anyone spoke a word large gasps filled the air. The three doctors twirled around to see that all of the bodies' mouths were open and sucking in air.
With a cracking sound the stone pieces flew off the pale, dark-haired woman below and the wind storm began to fill the tiny room again.
Suddenly the blue eyes opened again, as did the other six pairs on the platform.
The doctors stood dumbfounded, unsure of how to respond.
And no one even noticed as the cold, deathly green eyes shot open in the next room.