She didn't get up early to fancy herself up, and she didn't try to do anything special with her hair- in fact, she didn't even put on make up today. She was really not excited about going out to dinner with her coworkers.

Which sounded atrocious, she had been so excited on Wednesday; but yesterday Stephanie had cornered her to talk about how she thought Megan smelled, and Megan had complained non-stop about not being able to figure out how to set up the booklet she was working on.

Shilloh had to restrain herself from yelling at both of them- Megan didn't smell, Stephanie was just smelling Bob's lunch, and how Megan had made it through college without knowing how to set up a booklet she did not know.

It didn't help matters that Stephanie had also tried to subtly hint to Shilloh that she should wear something that wasn't low-cut; apparently her scar made Stephanie upset or something.

So she spent a record amount of fifteen minutes getting ready; and that included taking a shower. She was pleased that the dress was just low enough to show off her scar, and decided to forgo wearing a necklace like she had originally planned.

The air outside was cold, but that probably had something to do with the fact that her hair was still wet; and so while she waited for her bus she pulled her shoulder-length hair into two small buns and zipped her gray hoodie up to her chin.

OOO

"My, you're dressed up all nice and pretty today," Angela commented as Shilloh came in to the lab. "You going to make that much effort when you go out with us?"

"Maybe. The airline called this morning; apparently they can't find my luggage, so it looks like I get to go shopping. The jerks tried to give me only $400, but I looked at the policy, and it's $250 a bag. I had to talk to three people before I finally got someone who would give me the correct amount for two missing bags. On the up side, the conversation distracted me from the smell on the shuttle," Shilloh sidled in next to Zach on the platform, who had stopped working to pay attention to the conversation the two women were having; it made her feel quite suddenly like she had been accepted as a part of the group.

"Ew, you have to ride the shuttle? We have our own parking spaces close enough to walk to the building," Angela informed, trying to ignore Hodgins who had been showing her the different bug specimens relevant to their current case.

"Yeah, well, I'm just an intern. Plus, there's no way I'd drive in this city; I've got road rage issues and this city doesn't exactly know how to drive. No offense," she said, then thought about it and added, "plus, I'm only here for a short time, it'd be a hassle to try to buy and sell a car."

"We don't know how to drive? Where are you from?" Hodgins put his bugs back at his station and went to grab his lunch as everyone else made their way up the stairs.

"Spokane; it's in Washington. We've got only about a hundred thousand less people than you do, so, yeah, I'm pretty confident when I say you don't know how to drive- we're faster and have less traffic jams."

"Yeah, and you're also probably bigger, Washington state is like the Wild Wild West, man," Hodgins defended, not much liking the insult to his home.

"Ok, no; it's just Washington. If I mean DC I say DC if I mean Washington I mean Washington. Simple as that. And also, my city's smaller than DC- suck it bug boy," she smiled at him. "Plus, Wild Wild West, really? You know we get Japanese exchange students that still think we all use outhouses and live on ranches?" She laughed to herself, and Hodgins could see the humor in it as well.

"So when are you planning on going clothes shopping?" Angela asked excitedly, bored of the conversation about driving.

"Whenever they send me the check- I'm hoping it'll be here by Wednesday, but I'm not holding out too much hope. Five hundred dollars isn't a whole lot to buy a new wardrobe with, I'm going to have to get creative and buy things that can layer," Shilloh sighed, picking at the wrapper on her string cheese.

"I know a couple places that you would love, mind if I tag along- I've got to get some fall clothes, myself," Angela asked, noting that the only thing Shilloh was eating today was an apple and a string cheese.

"Yeah! I'm horrible at clothes shopping; it'd be nice to go with someone fun to make it not so tedious," she agreed, and got a weird look from Angela.

"Wait, you don't like clothes shopping? I thought all girls like to go shopping?" Hodgins asked, and was rewarded with a light slap to the back of the head by Angela.

"I don't really mind it, it just always seems to take so long, and I'd much rather be looking at other things; like books or art supplies. Or video games," she sighed, thinking of the games she'd had to leave at home.

"Hey, how come I never see Dr. Brennan in the lab?" Shilloh changed the subject as she opened her string cheese.

"She tends to do a lot of field work with Agent Booth," Zach replied, and Shilloh jumped slightly, forgetting he was there due to his silence throughout lunch. She frowned lightly and hummed at the information.

"Alright, then; I just wanted to make sure she wasn't somewhere in the lab, I'd feel like I was ignoring her if she was," she said, peeling at her cheese and laying each piece onto a napkin within equal distance of each other.

"Why?" Zach asked, watching as she tried to evenly divide the pieces of cheese with minimal success.

"Well, because if she was in the lab I would want to say hello and invite her to eat lunch with us; I find her intimidating but I thoroughly respect her and think her profession is fascinating. No doubt she would be an interesting conversationalist," she replied, going down her string cheese line and picking out the ones that were least like the others, deciding to eat those ones first.

"Didn't your parents ever tell you not to play with your food?" Hodgins interrupted as she began to make a star shape out of the pieces that were left; she looked up at him from her craft project, then back down at the napkin on the table.

"Dude. It's string cheese. It's practically illegal not to play with it," she finished her star, leaving it out for her companions to "admire," and then began eating her apple.

She was finished with her lunch before anyone else, most definitely aided by the fact that her lunch was so small, and she decided that she should get back and finish some last-minute touches on the brochure before she headed out to dinner for the night.

"Alright, well I need to go finish a project, so I'll see you guys on Monday. Jack, I'd leave my beautiful string cheese artwork for you, but I don't think you'd really appreciate it," she said as she scooped up the napkin to throw it away.

"No, I really wouldn't," he agreed, "see you Monday then," he waved goodbye, watching as she tripped herself up going down the stairs.

OOO

Her coworker's idea of dinner was actually a mildly expensive restaurant that really could have counted as a night club; almost.

She had been expecting something low-key and relatively quiet, thinking that she had been invited as a way to try and get to know her, and usually loud noises were counter-productive to said endeavor.

At least the food was good; and the booth was comfortable; and she also no longer had to listen to Stephanie and Megan being passive-aggressive towards each other, since they had both decided to go dance.

It was like a night club for vanilla Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, though, and so Shilloh tried not to laugh. She wouldn't have gone dancing if it were a regular club, she wasn't much of a dancer, but she definitely wasn't going to dance here- it looked absolutely boring.

She picked at her rice and tried to ignore that she was now alone at the table, as the two other women that had invited her along had gone 'to the bathroom' after giving each other lecherous looks. It was too bad, they had been interesting to talk with, but she had a feeling they wouldn't be back for a while.

She was also focusing intently on her rice to ignore the guy who was trying to get her attention. No such luck, apparently.

"Hello," he said, standing in front of their table; not blocking her way out of the booth, but still making her feel uncomfortable with the situation.

"Hi," she responded, blinking up at him, trying her best imitation of Zach- completely clueless about what this guy wanted.

"Would you like to dance?" He motioned over to the couples, and she tried not to laugh again at how absurd it was.

"Oh; no, that's alright," she went back to her rice. She was being a bitch, she realized, and suddenly felt bad for her behavior; but then he touched her wrist and she felt completely justified in brushing him off- personal space was always to be observed.

"Then how about I just sit here with a pretty lady?" He tried again, and she frowned at him.

"No, I don't think I would like that; please leave now," she looked him in the eyes, and he continued to hold onto her wrist. When he didn't say anything, she stood up, deciding that she'd simply skive off to the restroom for a moment to get rid of him before returning.

The perv's hand dropped from her wrist to her butt and he was about to say something when she jerked away from him and slapped him. She then turned and walked towards the dance floor. Her night was over, and she was going to have to find Stephanie and Megan to let them know.

She really wished she had gone to dinner with Angela the night before instead.

OOO

Saturday morning dawned and she was still absolutely furious. She had never been taken advantage of before in such a manner, and while it had just been a light grazing, she wished that she had done more than just slap that guy.

She did minor cardio exercises to try and work off her energy until her landlord appeared to fix her oven; which had taken less than half an hour. After that she had spent the rest of the day making what she dubbed 'angry cookies,' until she had run out of eggs and Tupperware to store them in.

It was a good thing she was giving the cookies to two guys, otherwise they'd probably never be eaten, she'd made so many.

With a heavy sigh, she decided to freeze a batch for herself, and then sunk onto the couch.

Not having much else to do, she grabbed a sketch pad and a pencil and spent the rest of Saturday doodling; she spent Sunday in much the same fashion, but she had managed to get her hands on some tape. And so she also spent Sunday placing her doodles on her wall; and painting her nails.

She went in to work on Monday with sunflowers on every other nail.

So I've decided to post everything I have up. You're probably going to get all the way up to day ten today (or tomorrow, it depends on how long it takes me to finish editing them). And then after that I've got to start writing more.

Past day ten, the plan is to do a short chapter or two to finish up the current week, then skip into "future world" briefly- a couple chapters there- and then finally we will begin to see the actual cases; starting with Man in the Fallout Shelter.

I'm not so sure how I'm doing with characterization here, so if you see something you don't think works, let me know; thanks in advance, guys!