Chapter 7 The Collaboration in the Siblings
A/N: So for this episode of the Excavation, I've fallen back on the good ole' adage that there's no need to re-invent the wheel, so I'm taking the liberty of borrowing Zach from Razztaztic. If you've not read her stories, he is Booth's and Brennan's third child, a genius like his mother, who skipped several grades in school and ultimately became a physician, which is the whole reason he's entering this story. You'll need either to overlook the fact that Parker became a rock musician, with help from Angela's dad, Billy Gibbons, or assume that while furthering his music career, he has multi-tasked to simultaneously study anthropology. Since it's fan fiction we can endow our characters with the super-human ability to accomplish anything they set their minds to, never minding that there's only 24 hours in a day. So here we go…
Parker Booth was knee deep in his latest exploratory dig in Botswana's Okavango Delta. The ancient Lake Makgadikgadi, dried up before the Holocene epoch, and its dessicated basin had proven to be a habitat for early man before the lake disappeared. Even today, the area was still a verdant and fertile contrast to the desert regions of Botswana. There was some speculation that the hominids found here had migrated from the area around the earlier-excavated Rising Star cave. Parker had studied these contemporaries of Homo floresiensis, and written his doctoral dissertation about their skeletal variations from other hominins. The long bones of their legs were slightly longer than those of floresiensis and naledi, placing them a little further up the evolutionary ladder and a bit closer to modern Homo sapiens than other ancient ancestors. Parker had consulted Brennan as well as Dr. Jack Hodgins during his research to complete this paleo-anthropologic study, the capstone of his Ph.D. studies. Hodgins' input had been invaluable to Parker's extrapolation of the Okavangoensis' diet.
Now a full-fledged anthropologist, Parker was continuing to search for and uncover the bones of his Homo okavangoensis. This third expedition was sponsored in part by the Jeffersonian and American University, where he was a faculty member. Parker had noticed several deformities in the tibiae and fibulae of some individual specimens and wondered how this skeletal variation would affect their hunting and gathering capabilities. So he asked his brother for some assistance.
Zach had gone on five medical missions just after completing his family practice internship. These trips had satisfied part of his residency requirements. The younger Booth started an inner-city clinic in the rough Anacostia neighborhood where his parents had once untangled questions about the death of Dr. Lauren Eames. After six years of family practice at a clinic in Alexandria, he was completing a fellowship in orthopedics to augment his knowledge of skeletal injuries among African-American youth participating in sports. He'd observed the almost fanatical dedication of these kids to their teams and practice. Their parents saw it as a path out of poverty for their children, and pushed them to excel, sometimes at the expense of their health due to ignored injuries.
Zach flew to Gamborone, Botswana, and joined his brother at the Okavango dig. He'd studied the xrays and MRI's Parker had sent to his computer, and formulated some theories on how the observed deformities would affect the ancient Africans. But like his mother, Zach wanted to feel the bones. He needed a break after his intense year of study before returning to his medical practice, and Parker's questions gave him the perfect excuse for a trip. The brothers' limited time together recently gave him another reason to fly to Botswana. All three Booth children had spent time at their mother's digs and knew how to pack light for these excursions. Zach arrived with one duffle bag, and was staying a week. He strode through the dig site, trying to imagine how it would have looked to Homo okavangoensis, and joined Parker bent over a carefully-excavated trench. He scrutinized the bones his brother was brushing to free them from their moist soil surroundings. The texture of the dirt reminded him of the peat bogs of Ireland, which had preserved the remains of other human ancestors. Chuckling, he knew Hodgins would scold him for calling it dirt.
"Let me show you the bones we've already cleaned and cataloged. I have the scans and x-rays for you to examine as well," Parker told him. "I can't thank you enough for coming. Let's get your analysis started and we can talk over dinner a bit later tonight. I know your time here is limited."
"Your project here is fascinating, Parker. Has Mom been out here to see it? You know she's busting her buttons, she's so proud of you," Zach told his brother as they walked to the examination pavilion.
"I see what you mean about the deformities. They are subtle but occur in just the spot to be damaging. A person with skeletal weakness at these points would have a hard time keeping up with the rest of his group, would tire more quickly, and fall behind in gathering the quota of foodstuff or grain that each individual would surely have been expected to contribute to the family or community. It's likely they would have been excluded from the tribe if they couldn't help in feeding the group," " Zach remarked. "Remember that Jeffersonian exhibit we went to when I was little? The one about the family where the little girl starved because she was mixed-breed and no one would help her? I felt so sorry for her, because I wasn't much older than she was. I didn't fully understand why she had died right then; later on, Mom explained to me in detail what would have happened to her. I just knew she died alone and that made me sad. I think these deformed individuals you've found might have suffered the same fate. You should be able to determine if starvation occurred by checking the bones more closely, of course, if it's important to your study. I am glad I could come, Parker. It is much easier to assess the bones' fragility first hand than on the scans."
"Yeah, Bones is right, there's no substitute for handling the bones yourself," Parker smiled, echoing Brennan's frequent mantra. She repeatedly admonished her students, including him, to touch, hold, and experience the feel, the weight, the texture of the bones for themselves, over and over, until they knew the skeletal surface characteristics as well as their own names.
Zach enlightened his brother regarding the significance of the skeletal deformities he had observed in his ancient specimens. "These folks would have benefitted from a doctor like me. I can't imagine the suffering they endured with broken bones and these congenital infirmities without any hope of medical treatment. I suppose you're aware of what happened to Dad's feet in Iraq. He and Mom just recently told me about his time as a prisoner in 1991. I'm not sure they would have if I hadn't been doing that orthopedic fellowship. Mom thought it was appropriate to show me Dad's x-rays, and he agreed to it."
"Yes, I do know about that. Dad explained a little about what he did in the Middle East when he was in the Army while I was young, but it was years later that I learned he'd been captured and tortured. He told me he'd discuss his Army experiences with me when I grew armpit hair. When I heard about his imprisonment, I wished I was still that little boy. It made me cry to know what he'd undergone in serving our country. I tried to hide my tears, but Dad ended up giving me a lecture that Pops had given him. That real men aren't afraid to cry when they feel like it. But, Dad said he didn't do that while he was a prisoner. Right then, he said he never let them see him flinch."
"Our father is one tough dude," Zach said solemnly. "And so were your little Okavango guys!"