Day 2 Part 2

Cherryl Renniker, as it turned out, was a very impatient woman. A very impatient woman who would not listen to excuses, was very unhappy with Shilloh's clothing choice, and decided to throw an arm load of work onto her new intern right away.

And it wasn't the grunt work, either- none of that, 'touch up the skin tone, edit out that bug, fix the sky,' crap. Nor was it, 'type this up and make sure it all fits properly.' It was, 'we have this brochure due in two weeks, here's all the files. Do it and have it ready for print next Monday.'

She was completely overwhelmed already, she only worked here twenty five hours as an intern, she wasn't supposed to be doing an actual full-time job workload; she was supposed to be helping her mentor with her workload. With a heavy sigh she reminded herself how good it would look on an application. Sure, the Jeffersonian wasn't the Mecca of graphic design and advertising, but it was still the Jeffersonian.

Cherryl Renniker, apparently, was also the type of woman to dump a large work load onto a new intern, and then disappear.

With a heavy sigh, she grabbed her lunch and made her way out of her work station, in an attempt to find the cafeteria. After ten minutes she decided to just double back and eat at her desk, she only had thirty minutes left and she was too hungry to try and spend her break looking for a place she wouldn't even feel comfortable in.

She conveniently passed the forensic lab on her way back, and decided- what the hell- she might as well try and make some friends, right?

Standing and the bottom of the steps, she called out, "knock knock?" hoping Hodgins would be the one who would hear her and let her up. A very tall male with floppy brown hair looked down at her from the top of the steps, his expression quizzical.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

She bit her lip, and made her way to the top of the stairs, careful not to walk beyond the key swipe. "Yes, I met Hodgins earlier. It's... Uh… It's my first day here, and I didn't know where the cafeteria was and I didn't know anyone I could eat with and I decided, hey, maybe I could eat here, since this place is pretty cool, and it would be nice to get away from my work for a while, and, and. I'm sorry. I'm rambling," she took a deep breath in, forcing herself to not look down at her feet.

"Oh. Hodgins is not here right now," he kept looking at her, and it was starting to make her feel uncomfortable.

"Oh," she couldn't think of anything else to say for a minute, so she shifted her lunch to her other hand, glanced down, then straightened her back and smiled up at him. "Hello, my name is Shilloh Phillips. And if you wouldn't think it too forward of me, would you like to have lunch together? I'm new in town and don't really feel like eating by myself," she continued to smile, her heart beating in her chest. God, she had never felt so awkward and moronic in her life. If you wouldn't think it too forward of me? Who the hell talks like that?

"Hey! Came by for lunch did you?" Hodgins appeared from somewhere- so far this entire lab set up seemed like nothing but magic to her. Her smile went from awkward to relieved, and she nodded.

"Yeah, I couldn't find the cafeteria, and on my way back to my work station I passed the lab- figured I'd stop by and see if I could bug you for a bit," she explained as Hodgins swiped his card. "I ran into.. uh… him?" She paused, not knowing the young man's name, "first, and invited him to lunch instead. So if you're not the jealous type we can maybe all have lunch? Or I could, I don't know, sit quietly in a corner while you work," she looked so hopeful that he almost laughed at her again.

"My name is Zach," Zach interrupted with his usual timing, causing both Hodgins and Shilloh to turn to him, "and while I do not know what Hodgins' predisposition for jealousy has to do with eating lunch, I am willing to inform you that he is not normally the type of male to exhibit such symptoms."

Hodgins let out a little groan at his friend's general ineptitude, and made a mental note to inform him of what the joke was later.

Shilloh, however, grinned at Zach, nodded sagely, and announced, "good, I hate eating with jealous people, they are such bores personality wise," she glanced at Hodgins, who momentarily bristled, thinking she was making fun of Zach, but he saw that she was merely trying to subtly ask him if that was an ok response. Apparently she understood Zach would require some extra care when speaking.

With a brief nod, Hodgins announced that the "usual spot" was the best choice, and Shilloh joked that he was just trying to impress her- usual spot indeed.

The usual spot wound up impressing her after all, though- she gushed about being able to see the entire lab from all the way up there, and how entirely comfortable the couches were.

They were half way through their lunches when Zach looked at her, and blurted without any form of preamble, "where did you get that scar?"

Hodgins choked on his food, and so wasn't able to scold him like he normally would have; Shilloh, however, didn't look fazed at all.

"Cancer," and continued eating, picking bits of tomato out of her store-bought sandwich. "Been in remission for three years, but the scar from the port they put in hasn't gotten any better" She glanced up questioningly when she noticed Hodgins was choking on his lunch.

With one last cough, he turned to Zach, "that's not normally something you bring up, especially to someone you barely know," he pointed out, feeling embarrassed for his friend despite how well Shilloh seemed to have taken it.

Zach looked confused for a minute, but seemed to accept that he had said something wrong, and addressed Shilloh, "I apologize for saying anything that may have caused you discomfort- it was not my intention."

She laughed, then, which really confused both men. "Zachs, Hodgins, it's ok. I get asked that a lot- mostly I make up ridiculous and outlandish stories, since most people don't really want to hear the truth, it makes them uncomfortable. But I don't want to lie to people I'm probably going to see around the place a lot."

"Stories? What sorts of stories?" Hodgins couldn't keep the smile out of his voice.

"Well, my all time favorite one is 'don't ever run with scissors, kid,'" she said, attempting a straight face. Hodgins laughed, and they had to explain to Zach why they both thought it was funny before he smiled softly.

Zach wound up finishing lunch first, and left to hopefully identify a murder weapon, at least, that's what Shilloh thought he mumbled as he departed their group.

"Hey, I'm sorry about Zach. He's really smart, but he doesn't quite get the whole, human interaction, thing," Hodgins broke the silence that fell, and Shilloh looked over to him.

"Oh, there's nothing to be sorry about, really. It doesn't make me uncomfortable or anything, I was just a bit surprised at first. It's easy to work around, and he's sweet, so it's not like he gives off that weirdo-on-the-bus vibe or anything," she frowned deeply for a second, "and I really hope that didn't sound like I was insulting him, because I was trying to say he wasn't a creeper, and therefore there wasn't anything weird about him, thus no reason for you to apologize and oh God I'm digging myself in deeper aren't I?" She looked up at him, afraid he would be mad at her for saying something mean about his friend.

He was actually smiling at her, "no, no, I got what you were saying the first time. He's not a creeper on a bus. He's just too smart for his own good. Also, nice failed attempt at logic at the end, there. If, then, therefore? Nice."

"Yeah, well, I did take intro to logic at the community college several years ago. Good to know some of it stuck, yeah? Anyway, I need to head back, thanks for eating lunch with me, and for not thinking I'm a crazy stalker or anything," she smiled as she threw away part of her sandwich, making her way back down the stairs with him and towards the lab exit.

"Well, I do think you're a crazy stalker, but you're adorable so I'm letting it slide; stop by for lunch tomorrow- the socialization will do your stalker self some good," he pushed her towards the stairs, smirking at her muffled, 'hey!'

She waved to both him and Zach before she left the lab completely, and she felt good for the first time that day- hopefully, with any amount of luck, she would have some friendly acquaintances out of the entire fiasco that was this internship thus far.

OOO

She had to buy some blouses before heading back to her apartment that night, which she was not looking forward to. She barely had enough money to buy food, which she supposed she'd have to do tonight as well.

She also had to buy some high heels. Cherryl had made some not-so-subtle references about proper work attire, and they had all seemed to include heels, which she had no idea how to walk in. This was going to be the most interesting nine months of her life to date, and hopefully none of that interest included her breaking her ankle.

Luckily she was able to find a clothing store and a food store several streets down from her apartment, and so didn't have to spend all night wandering around on tired feet. She decided to pick up some sheets for the couch, too; she'd slept on it the night before, but thinking about sleeping on it without sheets now, it made her feel kind of queasy.

She managed to get all of her bags into her apartment without having to make two trips up the stairs, which she was thankful for- the stairs kind of scared her, she was afraid she was going to slip and get her leg caught in the gap between steps.

Well, all that was left now was to put everything away. And then sit quietly, bored stiff in her tiny little apartment that had no form of entertainment whatsoever. She'd known her mother would be right; it was entirely a terrible idea to come over to DC with next to no money and attempt to live off of an internship that paid next to nothing. But she'd had to get out of the house. And it was a great opportunity. One she simply couldn't afford to look past.

With one final heavy sigh for the day, she made up her bed on the sagging couch, set her cell phone's alarm, and tried to fall asleep at an hour that was so ungodly early she felt old for even trying.