Who: Temperance Brennan What: Ghosts from the past showing up in the bones When: Now Where: Brennan's office at work and a cafe. Warnings: Mild angst. Nothing major. Status: Narrative, complete
Brennan had always been someone who believed in science. For so long, she had held onto it's ideals as truth. She clung to them desperately in some vain attempt to hold onto her father after he had disappeared. It was something that she could rely on, that made sense. Religion was faulty. There was no higher being, it was just a means for people to feel comforted. She understood this. She saw it in the archaeological digs she went on before she began her partnership with the FBI. There were times when she missed identifying ancient bones. She felt like she was making a mark on history. And she didn't feel bogged down by the weight of the world. Oh. She had always known of the darkness in the world, but to work with it and make no difference at all? It was why she had left the Jeffersonian the year previous before Caroline had called them back to help Cam. She needed to do something that made a difference. Yes. Giving names to those who were nothing but bone was important, Brennan knew this. Wasn't that how they had found her mother? But at the end of the day, there would always be murderers and pedophiles and thieves.
Being here didn't help. Because there were things here that couldn't be explained away by science and while she tried not to let it show, Brennan didn't know how to handle that. She wasn't used to this and she'd been here for months already. Three days. It was supposed to take three days for the world to turn right side up again and it wasn't. She had adjusted, yes, but that didn't change the fact that she felt lost. So she threw herself into her work because it made sense. Bones made sense. Not angels. Not demons. That was where the truth was buried. In the bones of murder victims. And it was upsetting. Even though she was over the phase of staying at the lab all day and night, not even leaving to thanks to Famine, Brennan did spend most of her time there. She knew she was pulling away. She knew she was becoming more how she had been when she had first met Booth, but she didn't know how to handle this. She tried. She did the classes at the Complex when she wasn't at work. She had done an exorcism. And she knew of the Hunting 101 course that she should probably take but didn't know if she could get the time off for. The proof was there, but it wasn't quantitative. There was no research, no data to be proved. It wasn't supposed to exist. She was at a cross roads and she was lost.
At the moment, Brennan was finishing up some paperwork for the day before she was planning on heading home when she heard a knock on the door.
"Come in."
Looking up, the brunette noticed one of her interns with two print outs that were then handed to her.
"The computer renderings of the two john does." Nodding in thanks, Brennan motioned her intern to place the papers down and went back to what she was doing. Or that was the plan. Glancing up briefly, the forensic anthropologist felt her eyes widen. Staring back at her were Zack and Russ. No. That's impossible. I would know if they were here! She couldn't breathe. It was the Jeffersonian all over again, when the bones unearthed were those of her mother. The shock and need for the image to just go away. She didn't want their bones there. She didn't want to be working on them!
Logically she knew that the likelihood of the bones being them was slim to none. After all, they hadn't shown up on the boards. Though they could have never gotten the chance to. There was always that possibility. But no. This was a world where she was fictional. Where people could show up and look like others who were here. So really, all this clearly was was just two bodies who happened to have the correct markers to have them look like Russ and Zack. Besides, it wasn't as if they were all that accurate. They gave a basic idea, nothing more. Add in that she had been convinced that her last case at home, the woman had been her and not just look like her some? Really. It was stress and lack of sleep. The bones she was working one were not those of her brother or former intern.
Shaking herself from her thoughts, Brennan decided that the paperwork could wait. She needed to get out of the lab. She needed to be around living people. She needed... she didn't know what she needed. But what she most certainly did not need was to have the faces of not!Russ and not!Zack on her desk She would never be able to work on those bones now. No. She would. Because she was fine. She could handle this objectively. Just as she always did. Still, right now, she needed to not be here. So she grabbed her bag and left the lab. It wasn't as if she weren't already clocking in more hours than she should be.
Letting out a slow breath once outside, Brennan started to wander aimlessly until she found a small cafe and went in, ordering some coffee and sitting down outside, just watching the people walk by. None of them knew what was happening. They didn't know of the dangers that shouldn't even exist. Or they used selective memory and forgot. What Brennan wouldn't give to forget. To live in her world of science where angels and demons didn't exist. To have empirical proof. None of the unknown. But that wasn't so.
Sipping her tea, the brunette was thinking back to home when she heard out a voice saying "Marco". Snapping from her thoughts, Brennan scanned the area for Russ only to hear a response of "Polo" and arms waving. Two siblings or friends finding one another. As if the computer rendering of one of the bodies wasn't enough to send her mind to the past, that alone did it. To a time where someone was always looking out for her and making sure she was okay. She had come a long way from then. She wouldn't go days without speaking. Even if she was finding herself falling back to habits from before working with the FBI, she had still come a long way since high school.