Age 28-
The door to bone storage opened slowly, and Temperance flicked the light on. The sounds from the Jeffersonian Christmas party wafted across the platform and through the offices in the lab, cut short by the closing of the metal door. Silence greeted Temperance like an old friend, embracing her fully. She had eight hours before her plane left for what Angela had called another 'unpronounceable country', and she was hoping to get a little bit of work done beforehand. Her friend had reminded her several times of the Jeffersonian Christmas party, and she may have even thrown in a loose threat or two that Temperance promptly shook off.
Unfortunately, Temperance was not in a very festive mood. The sounds of caroling grated on her nerves, and the colorful decorations through the lab simply served as a distraction. She imagined her coworkers all crowded into the conference room laughing and drinking eggnog, exchanging gifts, and generally wasting their time. Christmas Eve would be upon them in a little over three hours, and the last thing she wanted was to be surrounded by a room full of rowdy, drunk coworkers.
Carefully, she walked to one of the marked boxes on the wall. She slid the box from its resting place and walked to one of the exam tables. She removed the bones from the container, and very carefully arranged them in their proper order, paying careful attention to the condition of each and every one of them. She settled into her routine, and carefully began to review her notes from her previous trip to storage, choosing to rest a moment in her self imposed silence. Her fingers rolled over the bones on the table, and she was suddenly stricken by how white they were in contrast to the silver of the tray. The harsh lighting from above seemed to clash against the metal surfaces.
She looked up at the thousands of boxes in the room, each and every one of them illuminated, each and every one holding a chapter of a story that had yet to be told. The interns called this room 'Limbo', likening it to the holding pattern of the thousands of souls that lay unclaimed within the boxes. Some of them war veterans, some simply found by an innocent bystander, but all of them were someone. Every bone in every box belonged to a person that had once walked the earth, experienced life, and more times than she could count, had that life cut tragically short. The anthropology unit of the Jeffersonian used these bodies as teaching tools. Every body had a story, and it was up to Temperance Brennan and her team to find those answers.
Until recently, Temperance had been working simply within the Jeffersonian lab on ancient remains, on various exhibits for the museum, or discovering the identities or histories of the remains hidden in bone storage. Until recently, she often worked alone, with nobody other than her fellow colleagues that thought the same way as she did, and exhibited the same work ethic and educational mindset. Until several months ago, she could lose herself in her work, and the lost souls that sit within the walls of this chasm of the unknown. Things had been shaken up within the last year, and the dynamic in the Jeffersonian was changing. Angela had come to work in the Jeffersonian, a free spirit that though Temperance often found herself trying to distance herself from it, was always pulled back into her personality. There was just something about that free expression that Angela displayed that pulled Temperance in closer. Though instead of trying to explain it, she simply pushed it away and continued her work.
Temperance cleared her throat and yawned. She could feel a pall of exhaustion start to make her mind drift, and she closed her eyes to try to ward it off. This time of year was always difficult for her. Since her parent's disappearance, she found that hunger often escaped her, and sleep was a distant memory during the holidays. She always found that diving head first into her work was just the thing she needed in order to keep her mind from wandering into those unpleasant memories. Her cell phone rang, and she jumped at the sound of the phone vibrating against the metal table. She lifted it into her hand and gave the screen a sad smile.
It was her brother.
Her finger hovered over the answer button for a moment, and her eyes closed as she tried to will herself to answer. Unfortunately though, though her soul was strong, her heart was weak, and she pressed the ignore button. She knew he was simply reaching out to wish her a happy Christmas. She knew that he was trying. She also knew that if she opened up that line of communication, if she let him in, then every wall that she had put up in protecting herself from her emotions was at risk. She turned her phone off when the phone sounded indicating a message, and settled back into her task.
Temperance focused on the bones, focused on what she needed to give to the victim, not what she needed to give herself. She put all of her strength, energy and concentration into her work, and tried to keep her exhaustion at bay.
After what seemed like only an hour of standing on her feet, she decided to take a small break, figuring that she would be perfectly safe from holiday revelers in the depths of her office. She slipped from the storage room into the lab, and listened for any sign of people. The lab's security lights were on now, and the festive sounds from upstairs had disappeared. She glanced at her watch to see how much time had passed and her brow furrowed when she realized that it was ten after midnight. The party guests had long disappeared, and the lab was now peaceful and quiet. She walked across the lab floor toward her office and looked around to see a sign of anyone lurking about, and sighed in relief when she realized once again that she was alone. She stepped through the office door, and flicked on the light, and a look of confusion crossed her face.
On the desk was a red fur hat, with a white fur brow, typically seen on depictions of Santa Claus, she reminded herself. She knew that it hadn't been there earlier, so she approached her desk with a bit of wary curiosity. She lifted the hat up into her hands and down at the scrawl on the paper beneath it, a note from Angela.
'Next year, no excuses! Have a safe trip. Love, Angela'
Temperance lifted the note and couldn't help but allow a slow smile to appear on her lips. She turned the page over and her eyebrows lifted. She tipped her head to see what the image was, and after a moment realized exactly what she was looking at. She let out a stifled laugh and shook her head, stepping to the shredder, she let the paper slide in. Once the photocopy had been destroyed, she realized that she had been smiling at her friend's antics. Maybe things were going to be different, maybe next year she'd give the Christmas party a try. Maybe. After all, it looked like Angela was going to need a chaperone.