Chapter Seven
"Oh good, you're here," Angela said as Erin hesitantly approached her office Sunday evening. "I was starting to think you had ditched us."
"Sorry," Erin said, setting hr backpack on the floor in Angela's office next to her couch. "I got distracted with work."
"I can see that," Angela said, giving Erin a once over. Erin's jeans were covered with dirt particles from one of the instruments Erin had spent the afternoon cleaning. Just because her own project was at a bit of a dead end didn't mean there weren't a ton of other things int he department to work on, and Erin had arrived at the museum just after lunch time. Zack had stayed at her apartment Friday night, all of Saturday, and Saturday night, leaving on Sunday morning only because he had been called into work. So Erin had come to work in an attempt to keep herself from overthinking the changing relationship between her and Zack. "I hope you brought a dress," Angela said, bringing Erin back to the conversation. The other woman was already dressed, hair and make up done.
"I did," Erin said, pulling a knee length black dress from her backpack. Angela tsk'd her blatant ignorance of proper dress storing as Erin brushed the few wrinkles out of dress and held it up.
"Very nice," Angela said, getting a full view of it. It was just a simple dress, all black with no patterns, two thin straps to go over her shoulders, and a v shaped neckline. It was fitted to the waist then flared out into a full skirt which would end a little above her knees. "You can change in here, I'll guard the door."
"Okay," Erin said, shaking her head. There were wide windows between Angela's office and the rest of the lab, so if anyone came in, guarding the door wouldn't matter much, but Erin quickly stripped off her work clothes and pulled the dress over her head within moments. "Finished!" She called to Angela as she tucked her other clothes into her backpack.
"That was fast," Angela said, coming back into the room. "Lets do something with your hair."
"Do I have to?" Erin muttered , but she followed Angela from the room to another office .
"This is Dr. Brennan," Angela said, waving a hand to a woman bent over her desk. Brennan looked up at her name. "This is Erin, Zack's girlfriend."
"We aren't dating," Erin said, shaking her head. "It's nice to meet you Dr. Brennan."
"You as well Erin," Dr. Brennan said, holding a hand out to shake. Erin shook it, then stood at the side of the desk feeling a little awkward.
"Sit here," Angela said. "I'm going to do your hair."
"It's really not necessary," Erin said, but she sat anyway. "None of the donors are going to be talking to me, I'm not the head of my department."
"Well you should still look nice," Angela said, twisting parts of Erin's harry away from her face. Erin sighed but didn't argue since Angela would just do whatever she wanted anyway. "I have some makeup in my office, bee right back," Angela said a few moments later, and Erin sighed again as the woman left the room.
"Do you work at the Jeffersonian, Ms...?" Brennan asked after a couple moments of silence.
"James," Erin finished for her. "Yes, I work in Egyptology."
"Oh, of course. Katherine James, correct?" Brennan asked, and Erin nodded, surprised the woman knew who she was. She seemed to be a little socially awkward, much like Zack was, and completely work oriented, from what she had heard. "You just received your Doctorate a few weeks ago. I have a copy of your dissertation somewhere that I've been meaning to read."
"Really?" Erin asked, frowning. "Why? It has nothing to do with forensics."
"A friend of mine on your review panel told me you have been researching the use of sonic energy to create an in depth picture of underground tombs. He thought it would be interesting to compare to the technology we use in our field," Brennan said.
"Under sand, actually. Not under ground," Erin couldn't help but correct. "There are plenty of machines that work to detect images of things buried underground. I was researching a way to use the same technology to view things buried under sand since there are a lot of mentioned tombs yet undiscovered of pharaohs and other important people in Egypt that have remained hidden because sonic imagery doesn't work unless the ground is a certain density. I modified the technology that already exists to read the refracted waves that returned through the sand to put together a mostly complete picture of anything underneath."
"Very impressive," Brennan said as Angela came hurrying back into the room.
"It's all just theory. I haven't been able to test it yet since I didn't have funding," Erin said, shrugging. "The current ambassador from Egypt's children have taken an interest in my dissertation. Nenet, his daughter has sent my research to her brother in Giza and if he finds the research sound he may fund a prototype based off my paper."
"That is wonderful," Brennan said, nodding. Erin tried not to flinch as Angela began dusting different things onto her face.
"I hope so," Erin said. "None of my work has been retested or peer reviewed yet so it may not happen."
"All the same, your work is being studied," Brennan said. "That is more than many newly awarded doctorates have succeeded in so early."
"Coming from her that is definitely praise," Angela said, grinning as she stood back. "I'm done."
"Thank you," Erin said to both of them.
"Lets go, the limo should be arriving soon," Angela said.
"I'll be there in a minute," Brennan said, bending back over her desk.
Erin followed Angela out into the main part of the lab where Zack and Hodgins were waiting. Erin grinned at Zack's dress shirt. It was light blue and old fashioned, with ruffles going down the center of it. It looked nice on him though, especially since it was mostly hidden by his tuxedo jacket.
"Hello Erin," he said as she approached with Angela. "I didn't know you were meeting us here."
"Angela invited me," she said with a shrug.
"That is not a tuxedo, Dr. Hodgins," the director of the Jeffersonian said, walking into the lab.
"I'm not going, Dr. Goodman," Hodgins replied as Dr. Goodman put a paper name tag into his lab coat pocket. Erin raised an eyebrow at the comment. She wouldn't have had enough courage to stand up to her boss's boss.
"You are going," Dr. Goodman said, frowning at Hodgins before he walked further into the lab. "The donors will all be wearing name tags," he said, passing one to Angela, then one to Zack. "And you are?" He asked, catching sight of Erin.
"Dr. Katherine James from Egyptology," she said, holding out a hand to shake. She had met him before, but only once, so there was really no reason he would remember her name.
"You need a name tag, Dr. James," he said.
"Oh, right," she said, nodding. "I have one in my bag."
"I suggest you get it," he said, then turned to Angela. Erin went to Angela's office where she had left her backpack and fished around for the slightly crumpled name tag Dr. Lawrence had given her earlier in the week. She clipped it onto her left shoulder strap so it hung just above her breast, then went back out to the group.
"What happened?" Erin heard Dr. Brennan ask as she came back into the main lab area. Angela was hugging Dr. Goodman and he looked distinctly uncomfortable.
"Apparently all Angela needed was to hear he job description in a deep, african -american voice," Zack said. Erin elbowed his side and he looked down at her, confused.
"Mr. Addy," Dr. Goodman began, his voice conveying his fed up attitude. Erin suppressed a chuckle. She never would have guessed that all these people who held fancy doctorates in important things would have a sense of humor.
"Dr. Goodman, we need Dr. Hodgins in the lab tonight," a man in a suit said, walking into the lab. "The FBI needs this analyzed by morning." He handed a wrapped package over to Hodgins who looked very relieved to have an excuse not to go to the party.
"Uh, I'll- I'm gonna get right on it," Hodgins said, grinning.
"Wait a minute," Dr. Goodman asked, looking a little put out that Hodgins was dodging his plans. "What case file is this?"
"Am I supposed to know about it?" Dr. Brennan asked, looking confused.
"Oh, um, Booth mentioned it to me earlier today," Angela stepped in. Brennan glanced at her, then shrugged.
"That's good enough for me," she said. Dr. Goodman looked between them.
"Fine," he said at last. "You're off the hook Dr. Hodgins. Lets not keep the limo waiting," he said to the others, then turned to walk out the lab doors. Zack, Angela, and Erin followed him out into the hall, then out to the parking lot where a very nice looking Limo waited for them. She climbed in after Zack, glad she was sitting between him and Angela. Dr. Goodman made her nervous.
They waited a couple moments for Dr. Brennan to catch up, then they were off to the party, which was held at one of the larger hotel venues in town.
Erin had been right in her earlier assumption. The party was very boring. It was a lot of rich, older people, and their over entitled children, all running around talking to each other while the people from the lab mingled between them for a few moments at a time, obviously preferring to spend time at the refreshments table instead.
Erin made sure to greet Dr. Lawrence so he knew she was there, and she was surprised to see Nenet, the ambassadors daughter there. She talked to the woman for a few minutes, relaxing at the light conversation, then Erin retreated to a wall on the side of the room. Zack joined her after a couple minutes, a cup of wine in his hand, though he wasn't drinking it. He surprised her by handing it to her.
"What's wrong, you don't like wine?" Erin asked, accepting the drink and taking a sip. "It's very good."
"I have found in the past that I dislike alcohol," he said, moving to lean against the wall next to her and look out at the room.
"So you've never been drunk before?" She asked, grinning. "We are going to change that at some point."
"I got drunk once in college," he said. "I threw up and had a headache the next morning. It wasn't fun."
"It's fun if you drink with the right people," she commented, taking another sip of wine. She had to be careful with this. Usually she didn't like wine, but this was very expensive and very well flavored stuff. If she drank it too quickly she would become tipsy. "Atmosphere is important."
"Have you spoken to any donors?" Zack asked changing the subject.
"A few," she said, shrugging. "Our department doesn't have a lot of funding through the museum so there aren't many to talk to and Dr. Lawrence is taking over that for the most part." She said, pointing to her head of department who was currently chatting with three people.
"You are lucky," Zack said, shaking his head. "Dr. Goodman is making us talk to everyone. I do not converse well with people."
"Why not?" She asked, frowning. "This whole event is practically scripted."
"What do you mean?" He asked, turning to look down at her.
"Well, in every social setting like this there are only a few things that it's appropriate to talk about," she said. "You have to be overly nice to the donors, so ask them about themselves, how they are doing, who they like the event, those kinds of things. They usually respond with a positive answer, because that's the polite thing to do, and they will return the question, which you also respond to in a positive manor. Then you tell them how important their funding is and how grateful you are, then after that you can excuse yourself to talk to someone else or to get a drink. If you were a girl I'd say you should compliment their outfits or hairstyles, but you aren't so you don't have to."
"You seem to be very adept in these kinds of situations," Zack commented, turning back to the room.
"I'm good at observing," she said, shrugging. "And my mother always had her friends over for little gatherings when I was younger. This is the same thing on a bigger scale."
"I see," he said, then sighed as Dr. Goodman spotted him and waved him over.
"Would you like me to go with you?" Erin asked, chuckling.
"No, it's alright," Zack said, frowning.
"Just be polite and pretend to be interested in anything they say," she said, smiling.
"Okay," Zack said, then left. She watched him walk over for a moment, then turned to watch the other people in the room.
Zack came back to her a few minutes later, smiling.
"I take it your conversation went well?" She asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Not at all," he said, smiling wider. "I did the opposite of the things you told me."
"Um, why?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.
"Dr. Goodman told me that I should consider not talking to any of the other people here for the remainder of the party," he said, still smiling. Erin chuckled and shook her head.
"You are quite conniving when you want to be," she said, smiling now. "So what are we going to do now that you have been relieved of your social duties?"
"We could leave," he said, shrugging. "But it's a long walk back to the lab."
"We could sneak off into a broom cupboard," she suggested jokingly, taking another sip of her wine.
"What for?" He asked, confused. She looked up at him for a moment, then chuckled.
"You really didn't live much in high school did you?" She said, shaking her head.
"I don't understand," he said, frowning. Erin looked up at him for a moment, then looked around, trying to see where the people she knew were at. When she didn't spot any of them nearby, she finished off her wine and grabbed his hand to lead him from the room, setting her empty wine glass down on a table as she went. He followed her without protest though he was still confuse.
When they made it out of the room into the other parts of the fancy hotel, she began looking for an unoccupied room, grinning when she found a small room with an ice machine and a vending machine in it. She pulled him in and moved the kickstand from the door to let it fall shut. Then she turned to him.
"This isn't a broom cupboard," he said, frowning in confusion.
"It's the same concept," she said, stalking towards him with a grin on her face. He backed against the only open wall as she approached.
"Erin," he said, then cleared his throat. "I think I understand now."
"Do you?" She whispered, coming to a stop only an inch from him.
"'Go find a broom cupboard' is a metaphor for finding an unoccupied room to engage in sexual activities," he said, and she leaned back a little, chuckling.
"Half right," she said, grinning. "Not sex, just making out. Though I suppose sex could happen."
"While this is better than the party, why would we come here instead of just renting out a room? We are in a hotel," he said. She leaned closer again.
"Because," she began, running her hands up his arms, which had automatically fallen to her waist as they always did when she was too close to him. "At any moment, someone could walk through that door. We aren't supposed to be here. The adrenalin caused from doing something you aren't supposed to be doing where someone might catch you makes it all more exciting."
"Oh," he said. She grinned as he leaned down to kiss her. She flattened herself against him, standing on her toes to get closer as they kissed. She pulled his lower lip between her teeth, giving it a little bite, and smiled to herself as he let out a soft moan. One of his hands wrapped around her waist while the other one slid up to her neck to tilt her head back.
She was just starting to really get into it when a throat cleared behind her and she pulled away, turning to face a cleaning lady whose brow was raised, arms crossed over her chest.
"Oh, sorry," Erin said, grinning at the woman. She just rolled her eyes and stood aside, gesturing for them to leave. Erin grabbed Zack's hand and pulls him past the woman. They walked down two random halls before she let out a breath and a small chuckle.
"I think I like broom cupboards," Zack commented as the noise from the Founders Day party reached them. "Except the part where were were interrupted."
"That's half the fun," Erin said, grinning as she let go of Zack's hand to pat her hair back into place. "It's like a preview of what will happen later."
"Later?" Zack asked, frowning.
"Yeah, after the party," Erin said, chuckling again. "When we are alone."
"Oh," he said.
"Does my hair look okay?" She asked as they stopped outside one of the entry doors to the large ballroom. He glanced over her hair, then her face, then her dress.
"All of you looks very nice," he said. She smiled.
"Thanks," she said. "That was almost a properly worded compliment."