Chapter 4 A Surprising Development
Two weeks into the Rising Star project, Brennan found herself unusually restless. She had spoken to Booth, Hank, and Christine several times, and emailed back and forth daily, but she missed them terribly. "If Parker wasn't here, I'd really be miserably lonely," she thought to herself.
They had begun doing yoga together each morning as she taught him some basic poses and moves. Her routine was quite advanced, and Parker marveled at her flexibility, but he could tell that the exercises were increasing his mobility as well. He resolved to continue learning with her when they returned to the States.
Their progress on the specimen retrieval and study was quite satisfying, and the project team took a day off to explore the terrain around their camp. The autumn season brought temperate weather and the landscape was intriguing; very different from what Americans were accustomed to. The expedition support staff had arranged a picnic for the scientists and their aides. The entire group enjoyed the leisure of a day away from dusty bones and achy shoulders. They returned to the camp late in the afternoon, tired from their lengthy hike and ready for dinner.
As Brennan and Parker approached the camp, they saw two people sitting in canvas Coleman folding chairs in the shade of a canopy where the team held meetings. Striding toward their tent to retrieve his bath supplies, intending to catch a shower before supper, Parker glanced at the pair, and stopped walking so abruptly that Brennan ran right into his broad back. "Bones," he said slowly, "I think we have company."
Brennan looked more closely at the meeting area where the newcomers sat. A smile began to creep across her face. "Booth? Christine? What are you doing here?"
Standing, Booth walked quickly toward his wife, mirroring her happy face. Christine ran toward Parker and held out her arms for a hug from her big brother. "Bones, we missed you worse than the dickens. We decided since it was Christine's spring break, she could stand to miss a few days of school. We left Hank with Angela and Hodgins, made sure to bring all Chrissy's assignments, and boarded the first plane we could find. I'd kind of thought of surprising you two myself, and when I mentioned the trip, Christine begged to come along too. I decided what better use could we make of your most recent book advance than to come see our two favorite digging anthropologists? So here we are," he finished with his best Boothy charm-your-socks-off grin.
"Oh, Booth!" was all she could manage, burying her head in his chest.
"Wow, Dad, great timing! This place is absolutely amazing. Chris, you'll have material for the rest senior research paper your high school ever saw!" Parker exclaimed happily.
And so, they spent the next week together. Lee Berger was happy to add two more members to his staff. Booth and Christine learned how gently to brush the bones, and assisted in ferrying specimen bags out of the cave. Brennan and Christine descended into Malapa Cave, the Rising Star's much more shallow neighbor under Dr. Berger's supervision. When Booth and Christine returned to the States, Brennan was rejuvenated for the remaining two weeks of the project.
As she crawled into her cot and bid Parker good night, she reflected happily at how wonderfully different this expedition was from her earlier solitary participation in numerous other digs of her career.