Day 2 Part 1

Well, shit. "Excuse me? I think I'm in the wrong section?"

It had started off as such a beautiful day, too; despite the need to wear the same clothing as yesterday, and despite the fact that the shuttle smelled like feet. Of course, she had to ruin everything by getting lost on her first day- horribly, horribly lost.

As in, she was in the science section. Well, it was all science, it was the bloody Jeffersonian. But she was supposed to be looking for the graphics area. Wherever the hell that was. She looked down at the email her mentor had sent her, and concluded that she most likely wasn't going to like the lady.

There were no clear instructions on where to meet her. Granted, misinformation was a two-way street, but she was just the damned intern; and she was also, apparently, a moron. She had no idea how big the Jeffersonian was.

"What are you looking for?" the curly-haired man she had stopped asked her, he held a small vial in his hand that looked like it was holding something moving. She really wanted to ask, but she was already late.

"Uhh… I'm looking for a… Cherryl Renniker- the graphics department?" she ventured uncertainly, looking down at her email to make sure she was saying the correct name. Her eyebrows scrunched together briefly before looking back up at the man in front of her.

"Graphics? Man, you're way off, how did you even end up over here? Ok, you're going to go to the end of the hall here and take a left. Keep going until you reach two double doors, go through them and then immediately to your right. You'll find a set of stairs, go up those, then go left. Keep going, you'll reach an area where you have to go either left or right- go right. You should find whoever you're looking for somewhere in there."

She panicked, there were a lot of directions in there, and she was already frazzled as it was. Her face slackened a little, and her hands fumbled with her messenger bag, hoping to find a pen. Maybe, if he was really nice, he would repeat that so she could write it down.

Apparently, he could tell how panicked she was, and he laughed a little. "Here, how about this. I have to go drop this guy off back at the lab; afterwards I'll show you where you need to be," he smiled at her in a way she normally would have found condescending, but seemed genuine coming from him, so she smiled back.

"Thank you so much. I'm normally horrible with directions, but apparently today I'm extra horrible. I don't even know how that's possible," she lamented. He laughed a little and then continued forward, towards his lab. She stopped herself from following; she didn't know what to do. He said he had to go drop off the vial, and then after he would show her to the graphics department; did he want her to follow him or wait in the hallway? The thought of waiting in the hallway made her feel like a puppy, but the thought of just following after him made her feel presumptuous.

"Well, come on, the lab's on the way," he beckoned her forward, and she inwardly sighed in relief.

Now that she had a guide, she allowed herself to look around, and felt highly uncomfortable in her surroundings- the hall alone was opulent.

God, she was just a piddley little computer player who made pretty brochures and posters. And sometimes, when she got bored, website layouts. How in the hell had she gotten an internship at the Jeffersonian for her senior year?

"So what's your name?" the man beside her asked, startling her out of her thoughts.

"Oh. Shilloh…." She petered off uncomfortably, cleared her throat, then asked, "and you?" her eye twitched slightly in self-deprecation, but she refused to feel any worse about how shy she was. She was making an attempt, and that was good enough for her, damnit.

"Jack Hodgins. It's nice to meet you. So, this is your first day?" He asked as they made their way through a set of large doors, into an area that positively glistened with science. It wasn't exactly an accurate description of the place, but it was the only one she could think of.

It was beautiful and large and made her feet still and her mouth gape, "yeah, got a bit lost so I'm about twenty minutes late," her voice was loud enough to carry over to him, but still held the soft-around-the-edges sound that so often accompanies awe, and he grinned over at her. She returned the grin with one that lit her entire face up, and scurried to catch up with him as he swiped a card, allowing him access to the lab itself.

She paused at the bottom of the stairs, biting her lip, and glanced at his back as he began to move away from the stairs; then immediately berated herself for assuming she'd be able to go look at all the shiny baubles and trinkets and... and... science. She tried not to feel too disappointed.

He turned to his left with his mouth open, only to frown and look back down the stairs. He tried not to laugh at the sight of her, scooted as close to the bottom step as she could get, her feet bouncing up and down to try and get a better view of what was happening up top. Shaking his head, he headed back down the stairs, swiped his card again, and ushered her through.

"What department is this?" She asked excitedly, trying her best to not skip steps in an attempt to reach the platform sooner.

"The forensic anthropology section. Mostly we identify the remains of people who have been dead for a long time, but we also work with the FBI on quite a few cases," he smiled when she grinned up at him and opened her mouth to ask another question.

"Hodgins, were you able to find the specimen?" a contradictory voice- somehow both harsh and warm- interrupted whatever Shilloh was about to say.

"Yes I was, Dr. Brennan," he held up the vial, which she could now see did indeed hold something moving- it looked like a small beetle. "I'll be able to set up a proper cross-reference with this to determine if what happened to the other specimens we found was indeed a normal occurrence." He moved to set the vial down at his station, but was stopped by another question.

"I'm sorry, we haven't been introduced- who is this you've brought to the lab, Hodgins?" Brennan directed at him, her eyes on Shilloh, who looked mildly uncomfortable.

"Hello. My name is Shilloh Phillips; Mr. Hodgins was going to escort me to the graphics department, as I'm afraid I'm terribly lost. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Dr. Brennan," she smiled up at Brennan, her hand extended awkwardly but firmly. When the older woman shook it, there was no judgment in her eyes, which made Shilloh instantly feel better about the entire situation, non-drama as it was.

"It is nice to have met you as well. Hodgins, your assistance on the case can wait another five minutes, I will see you when you get back from wherever the graphics department is," with a brief nod of her head, she lightly smiled at Shilloh and then headed out the same way she had come in.

"She is intimidating," Shilloh confided to Hodgins once they were back in the hallway, her child-like face looking up at him with open curiosity.

He laughed again, something she supposed he did a lot, and it seemed to suite him, "yeah, but she doesn't do it intentionally. You surprised me with your sophisticated talk back there, by the way," he added as they pushed their way through the double doors and headed right.

Scrunching her eyebrows and scowling good-naturedly, she retorted, "why? Because I'm blonde and you're surprised that anything above a fifth-grade reading comprehension or the three-clap test could pass my lips?"

"The three-clap test? What the hell is that?" He laughed; she was fun once she forgot that she was supposed to be polite and shy around someone.

"You know- you clap along with the syllables in a word, and how many claps you do is how many syllables there are. You learn it in like, first grade? Supposedly, the more claps a word has, the smarter you sound when you say it. Though you look like an idiot doing the clap test on really long words, so I wouldn't try it out in public if I was you. Lots of awkward questions," she smiled up at him again and then groaned as they came up to the stairs.

"There's a lot of stairs here. I hate stairs," with a mildly irritated huff, she trailed up after him and he once again laughed down at her, skipping steps in an attempt to force her to hurry up after him. "Also, there is no way I am ever going to remember any other way to get here from now on. I'm going to have to walk by your lab every day to get here- just future warning so you don't think I'm stalking you or anything," her voice was dead serious, and he shook his head at how hopeless she was with directions- he hadn't entirely believed her when she had first told him so.

"Duly noted. From here all you have to do it turn right at the end of the hall. Good luck, make nice with the other kids, and if you don't want to sit by yourself during lunch you can stop by the lab," he waved goodbye as he skipped back down the steps.