Same disclaimers apply! Enjoy, y'all!
"So this here is the Medico-Legal lab," a short man that Kylie was sure was named Jack Hodgins waved his arms around. "Doctor Brennan would be showing you around, but she had to pick up some new remains. But just between us, I like to think I make it more interesting."
"How's that?" Kylie asked curiously.
"Well, she's very scientific, for one," he explained. "Second, she's a workaholic, and she forgets how to talk to people sometimes. No, scratch that, all the time."
"She seemed really nice during the interview, though," she furrowed her chocolate brown eyebrows.
"She's alright with those. She's had plenty of practice from all the times she's been interviewed to promote her books. Not to mention her time with Booth has helped loads. More than half the time, though, most of us have to ask her to repeat herself. Except for the person who used to stand where you're standing."
Kylie sensed a sadness in his voice, confirming her suspicions that Zack's lie to his friends had done them great emotional harm.
"This is where you'll report for work," he went on, sliding his authorization card before leading her up to the platform. "A typical day for you would consist of analyzing remains, reporting your findings to Doctor Saroyan and Doctor Brennan, and then go from there and do whatever they tell you. I typically work down here," he pointed to a set of equipment that included numerous monitors, a microscope, and various chemicals and other organisms safely sealed in mason jars.
"It's bigger on the inside," she murmured, having underestimated the size of the lab in proportion to the rest of the Jeffersonian.
"Nice to have another Whovian around here," Hodgins' bright blue eyes twinkled in delight. "Remind me to invite you over for a Who marathon sometime. Say, has anyone ever told you how much you look like Dawn from Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I hated Dawn as a character, but man, is she hot. Your eyes are different, though."
"Not sure how you went from Doctor Who to Buffy," she laughed, ignoring the implication at her looks, "but yeah. I've heard that more than I'd like to hear."
"It can get boring around here," he admitted, "so you can expect that sometimes."
"You're supposed to be showing our newest intern around, not discussing pop culture," Doctor Saroyan walked into the room with a slight disapproving glare before noticing Kylie and smiling. "Miss Wells, it's good to see you again."
"It's good to see you, too, Doctor Saroyan!" she replied enthusiastically, shaking her hand.
"You two have met before?" Hodgins quizzically looked back and forth between the two of them.
"In passing," Cam nodded, with a glint in her eye that told Kylie to keep mum about their first meeting.
"Do you have any questions so far?" Hodgins asked, switching into professional mode as Cam hovered for a few moments longer.
"How many people work at the Jeffersonian?" Kylie asked curiously. "I know this has nothing to do with what I'll been doing, but still."
"A lot more than you'll see in here, unless you decide to wander to some of the other departments when you're not working," he answered. "Anything else?"
"I take it you're an entomologist?"
"Yeah, how'd you guess?" Hodgins smiled, already impressed with his new co-worker.
"Why else would you have mason jars full of bugs or chemicals, a microscope, and a gigantic monitor with a less than pleasant display of a particulate?" she smirked.
Upon noticing a sudden glaze that formed over his eyes, her smirk turned into worry. "Should I have worded that better? I'm sorry, it sounded way more witty in my head."
"It's not your fault," he shook his head. "It just reminded me of…something."
"You miss him, don't you?" Kylie finished his thought for him. "The guy who used to work here?"
"How do you know it was a guy?" he said suspiciously.
Not wanting to reveal her past with Zack right away, she vaguely replied, "It was in the paper. I kind of figured he was the one."
"He was the one, all right," Hodgins said in a low voice. "How could he do that? Betray us like that? I should never have told him about those secret societies. Who knew he'd actually been listening…?"
She had only known Jack Hodgins for about twenty minutes, and it didn't take much to tell that Zack and him really had been best friends.
"He did it to protect you! All of you!" Kylie wanted to tell him, but merely shook her head. If only you knew; if only the truth was mine to tell.
"Are you going to say something, or are you just going to stand there and make me look like a weeping wimp?"
"It's never easy losing someone that was close to you," she chose her words carefully. "Especially if you shared a part of yourself with him."
"Okay, now you're making me sound gay," he crossed his arms.
"Sorry, I can really suck at wording. My point is, we all share parts of ourselves with people we have any sort of special connection to, which would make losing them that much more difficult." Kylie stood up to her full height of five feet, four inches before continuing, "You probably resent me right now, and you think I'm replacing your best friend."
"Alright, stop right there…"
"Let me finish," she insisted, holding up a hand to stop him. "I'm pretty sure you feel that nobody can ever take the place of your best friend, and working with someone else won't be the same. And you're right. It won't be the same as before, but that doesn't mean it won't turn out okay. If you're going to compare me to him while we work together, you're going to be disappointed. With that said, I can't promise I'll be as great as he was, but I've always been a hard worker, so I can promise that anything you get from me will always be my best work. So what do you say?"
Hodgins gulped. "Where did you learn to psychoanalyze someone on the spot like that?"
"That wasn't my intention," she laughed. "I just wanted to minimize any potential issues that might come up. But now that you mention it, I did minor in psychology."
"Figures," he smiled for the first time since the whole subject of Zack had unintentionally been brought up.
"Well look at that, Bones," a well-built man walking next to Brennan strode through the lab entrance with a megawatt smile on his face. "I think we just walked in on a squint bonding session."
"Squint?" Kylie raised her eyebrows.
"Special Agent Seeley Booth," he introduced himself. "Kylie Wells, right?"
"That's right," she beamed proudly.
"Bones here tells me you and Zack were buddies back in the day. What was that like, huh?"
"Booth!" Brennan glared at him. "Did you listen to me at all on the way here?!"
"What's she talking about?" Hodgins turned to his new coworker.
"Oh my God, Zack had a lady friend?"
"Ange!" Hodgins shifted his glare to a tall brunette with Asian features swiping her card and excitedly rushing up to the main stage.
"I'm Angela." Kylie jumped a little as she found herself wrapped in a big bear hug. "If you need anything at all, don't ever be afraid to come to me, okay Sweetie?"
"I can't believe this!" Hodgins threw his hands in the air and stormed off.
"What's all the fuss over a new intern?"
Kylie slowly turned to match a face to the voice, which was all-too-familiar to her. Her fear came true when their eyes locked, and she was absolutely certain her heart beat louder than anything else in the room when his next words were spoken.
"Holy shit."
As if a drunken make out session with your friend's doctor wasn't awkward enough! If anyone's wondering how much time passed between the last chapter and this one, I'd say about a week and a half; I had to speed up the pace because I felt it was getting a little slow and I wanted to introduce the rest of the Bones gang. Also, I have no idea if Hodgins would actually be a Doctor Who or Buffy fan, but for this story he is. Thank you everyone for following, favoriting, and/or reviewing! I always appreciate hearing what people have to say :)
