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Chapter Text

Zack sits in his 'Ooky Room', so designated by his landlord, peer, and occasional social mentor/friend Dr Jack Hodgins, staring at his computer and the flashing cursor indicating the point at which he is up to in his dissertation. Which is the exact same spot it's been for the three months he's spent almost solely working on it whilst his mentor Dr Brennan has been in Guatemala. Evidently, finishing his dissertation has been significantly harder than he had anticipated, for no logical reason. His contemplation of his own issues with procrastination are interrupted by the boisterous entrance of Hodgins, whom bursts in with a slightly breathless 'dude!'

"Yes Dr Hodgins?" Zack carefully turns in his seat to stand from his desk.

"What? No questions about how my holiday was?" Zack takes a moment to scan and categorise Hodgins after the question before answering.

"You went to Maui, you have a reasonable tan, and your smile lines are intensified, thus I surmise your holiday was pleasant. Was social niceties all you wanted?"

Jack squints at the relatively emotionless intern before him. "Goodman just told me I have an intern. She's arriving within the hour. And I figured you would care, given it's another intern and human being you have to learn to interact with as if you aren't an alien from another planet."

"But I'm not an alien."

The two engage in a staring contest, Jack suspiciously squinting as if he truly believes Zack might actually be an invading alien, Zack merely returning eye contact out of habit. Once it becomes evident, however, that Hodgins will not continue the conversation on his own, Zack sighs in a put upon manner.

"So the intern. I thought you would have gotten to choose one for yourself, Dr Brennan chose me."

Jack lets his eyes relax slowly before he answers. "Yeah, well I've managed to avoid getting one for years by just knocking back every application, but Dr Goodman felt that, given we're an 'institution of learning', I should participate in teaching or I would lose my job. So he picked her while I was away and didn't tell me till today." Hodgins sits in Zach's desk chair, spinning absentmindedly as he speaks, clearly upset, enough that even Zach notices.

"You look as though you are unhappy. Have you perhaps considered you might have things in common with your intern?" Zach meanders his own room, avoiding physical closeness to his peer.

"It's not the person. I'm just not the teaching type. Even you, Robo-Boy, would notice I have no patience. Not exactly ideal for nurturing inexperienced fools."

"Then I suppose you have to hope she's already perfect."

Their conversation is stopped at this timely point by the sound of knocking on glass. "Hello. I'm Dr Maguire, are either of you Dr Hodgins?"

Both men turn towards the noise, and Zach immediately begins cataloguing. Hair is shaved on sides and back, remaining hair reaches just above the jawline and is a silver-toned blonde. Her face is soft with youth, but her angles are sharp with prominent cheek and jaw bones. She wears burgundy eyeshadow, black eyeliner, and a matching burgundy lipstick draws his attention to her mouth before returning to her eyes. He finds them blue, a stark, slate grey blue, and somehow finds her brown eyebrows not incongruous with the rest of her features. Her chest is ample and clearly visible in the peep hole in her dress, a tight black thing with useless straps and buckled and mesh, with a skirt that falls gently around her thick muscles thighs. The black knee high socks she wears bring his attention to her calves, which are muscled, and yet considerably larger than his medium, modest ones, and her feet disappear in to large burgundy boots. In the two seconds it takes him to process this information, he judges she is reasonably athletic, visually intimidating, and very physically attractive. A small part of his brain pipes up to correct him.

'That's a lie. Your first thought was that she was hot.'

Ignoring the voice in his head, he points at the curly-haired doctor in the wheelie chair and goes back to perusing his books as if searching for something.

"Dr Maguire? I was under the impression you were an intern working on their doctorate?" Jack leans back in the chair, though stops leaning back in it after a glance from Zach, but continues to cross his arms sternly. "I don't think I need to teach someone who has already been taught."

"I'm a doctor, as in medical doctor, pathologist specifically, but my bedside manner was considered negligent and I reverted to my childhood interest in flora, fauna, which is what I'm here for. Is there somewhere I should put my things?" All she carries with her is a satchel bag, which seems full and heavy. Her question returns Zach's attention to her.

"This is the interns office. I have been the only intern here for the duration, but that desk there is unused." Zach points to the opposite corner of the room. "I hope you have no difficulty with sharing a space."

"I am used to sharing space. What is your discipline?" Her eyes are owlish, and the way she blinks is too perfect and robotic. To Jack, she seems surreal, to Zach, she seems perfectly normal.

"I'm working towards a doctorate in Mechanical Engineering and Forensic Anthropology, though have yet to finish either. Zach Addy." He reaches out to shake her hand, which she grips and pumps up and down firmly, exactly one time.

"Nice to meet you Mr Addy. Since we shall be sharing a workspace, I believe it would be reasonable for you to call me Tully."

"A fair assumption, you are welcome to call me Zach."

Jack watches on in awe and horror, eyes sliding between the two as he watches his friend interact with his new, eerily similar intern. Before anything further can be said amongst the group, Zach's phone rings, which he carefully answers after three rings. To give him slightly more privacy, Tully walks closer to her new boss.

"I'm sorry for not shaking your hand, I forgot. Is there anything you wish to ask me before you begin assigning me tasks?" She holds her hand out to Hodgins who sits and stares grumpily at the girl.

"Any attachment to government agencies?"

"Both my brothers are involved, FBI agent and United States Navy intelligence officer, but I personally don't have any current connections, other than that of this institution."

"...Fine." Before Jack can ask any further probing questions, Zach finishes his phone call, drawing attention to himself with an unnatural sounding clearing of his throat.

"Dr Brennan has called me to a crime scene, we are going to be working with the FBI again. I suggest you complete whatever verbal hazing you have planned before we return with the body and any samples." And with that, he leaves.

"Was there any further 'hazing' you felt was necessary?" The word seems foreign on her tongue, judging only by the halting way she pronounces it, but the truly peculiar part is she's still holding her hand out to shake with him.

"I'll save that till after we're sure we don't have to solve a murder. Lesson one kid, your work will come before all else."

"I'm not a infant goat, but I will write that in my notes."

Jack stares at her, mildly bewildered that he's managed to collect what essentially appears to be Lady-Zach, before shaking her hand sternly and walking away. Once he has left the room, she walks to the desk Zach had previously indicated and emptied out the unnecessary aspects of her bag on to the desk. These consist of a copy of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, well worn and yellowing yet clearly well loved and cared for. A photo of her younger self graduating, standing beside a grey haired man, and two adult men, all four smile happily. A fountain pen inscribed with the words 'victus amore a tinea' which she sets beside a plain black leather notebook with an old school brass clasp. She also places a display of pressed flowers, made up of nine similar and yet different flowers. Her desk is clean, and yet personal, and with that job done, she nods with a pleased look on her face before leaving the room to find her boss and truly begin her first day.

Chapter Text

Zach and a woman finally arrived in the lab, following behind them is a body bag being transported by FBI grunts and a face familiar to the newbie in the lab.

"See-Lion?" A surprisingly emotive voice asks the FBI agent who's head snaps up, a wide grin spreading across his face. His response is muffled by the running, jumping, smothering hug of the intern, but Brennan does hear the word 'Tulip'.

Hodgins looks the pair up and down as Tully excitedly punches Agent Booth in the shoulder, her smile wide. It's the most emotion he's seen out of her yet, and for a moment, he's absolutely flummoxed, then remembers her mention of a brother in the FBI. He patters down the steps from the main lab platform to the pair, and even as short as he is, he exudes a fair amount of prowess and intimidation to the surrounding area.

"So I assume this is the FBI brother, but the question is, why different surnames?" Hodgins crosses his arms and levels a stern glare at his intern as he interrupts, which Booth takes significant exception to.

"Squint. Do not talk to my sister as if you're her boss."

"Cro-Magnon, do not undermine my authority over your sister, my intern. Now explain, only half-siblings, you're secretly married?"

"I legally changed my last name before I finished high school, neither of my brothers felt the need. Full siblings, no marriage. And don't call Seeley a Cro-Magnon, he's very intelligent." The joy and excitement upon seeing her brother drops from her face as she addresses Dr. Hodgins, she's suddenly back to her business formal voice. "We better get up to the platform to give Dr. Brennan the results."

Tully firmly walks past both of them, scanning her new security card as she walks up the steps to the platform. As he walks up behind her, scurrying away from Booth's evil-eyed glare, he begins telling the group about the sample's from the crime scene.

"The pond is not only warm and teeming with microbes, which accelerated decomposition, but it also houses black carp and koi which fed on the body." Hodgins level of excitement for the state which the flora and fauna of the pond left the remains in thoroughly disturbs Angela, who says so aloud before allowing him to continue. "I got three larval stages of Trichoptera, Chironomidae-"

"Cutting to the chase?" Dr. Brennan cuts in to get Hodgins to answer the simple question of the time of death, but Tully beats him to the chase, bringing the new members of the group's attention to her.

"The body was in the pond one winter and two summers."

"And you are?" Dr. Brennan asks.

"Dr. Tully Maguire. This is my first day as Dr. Hodgins' intern, as I am studying doctorates in all three of his fields of study." Tully extends her right hand towards Dr. Brennan, who looks at it for a moment.

"Doctor of?"

"Pathology, I went to medical school before deciding this would be a more appropriate use of both my intellect and lack of social skills combined."

Dr. Brennan processes the information, before taking Tully's hand in her own, and Tully again does her succinct up-down single handshake, which seems to please Dr. Brennan. She then proceeds to ignore Tully to focus on the case. "So the victim was killed Spring before last."

The concentration of the group is once again fractured by the interspersed mentions of Dr. Brennan's new book, which is apparently based significantly on the members of the team. The banter does not include her, so Tully continues to stare at the remains as if focusing her pure sole energy on it through her eyes will bring her some answers from the corpse of the young woman before them. Her attention is returned by her new bosses supposition in the face of real true evidence.

"I guess Rana Temporaria."

"Frog bones."

"Those don't look like frog bones to me, and we have no evidence to prove that they are or are not." Hodgins levels a displeased look at her, whereas Bones chooses to seem approving of her evidentiary methods.

"While I approve of your skepticism without evidence, as I am the skeletal expert here, and I trust Dr. Hodgins' ability to identify frog bones, perhaps your expertise may be better suited elsewhere, Dr. Maguire." Tully is silenced by Dr. Brennan's short dismissal, and even though she wants to say 'yet fauna is my area of expertise and I own an entire display of the bones of every frog species in my apartment and none look like that', she decides to just wait it out until her point is either proven is disproven. Nevertheless, Tully zones back out as Dr. Hodgins mentions the gold link chain segment found with the body. She continues to ignore the banter of the group about Dr. Brennan's book until they refocus on the body at the author's own insistence.

"I haven't analysed whatever it was that was in the victim's hand but it looks like cellulose."

"Paper?" Angela looks a little more perked up at the concept of working with something that was just the skull.

"Possibly."

"I found microscopic grit embedded in the skull fragments, I need you to identify those too." Dr. Brennan hands the sample off to Hodgins, who passes it to Tully. "Zach, I need you to remove the flesh from the bones, I'll debride the skull fragments myself, reassemble it so Angela can put a face on our victim."

"Have we found any pieces of the liver?" Tully cuts in before everyone can disperse.

"Why?"

"So I could do a tox screen, I am a doctor of pathology, knowing if she had been drugged or recently drank alcohol might be useful."

"Unfortunately, these coy appear to have been particularly ravenous, so there are no useful organs left and very little flesh, but I will keep that in mind for future instances of more flesh retaining corpses." Dr. Brennan politely dismisses Tully, who nods and leaves the platform, before turning to berate Zach for his use of colloquialisms for the body.

"Zach, I don't like those terms for human remains, soaker, crispy critter."

"Yes, Dr. Brennan." Having been suitably scolded, Zach takes the remains to his and Tully's shared room, where he places it to debride.