Chapter Ten

"Hey, is it okay if we skip this weekend?" Erin asked as she walked back to her car with Zack on Thursday evening the next week.

"Yes," he said. "Do you have plans?"

"Sort of," she said, shrugging it off. "I'm going to my parents house after work on Friday."

"Oh, I see," he said, slinging his bad into the back seat of her car. She climbed in, then waited for him to put his seatbelt on before pulling out of the parking lot.

"I'm sure it'll be a lovely time," she said, pulling out onto the road.

"Is that sarcasm?" He asked, peering at her through the dark. She smiled and nodded.

"Most definitely sarcasm," she said. "I probably wouldn't be going at all but I haven't seen my dad in a while and I want to tell them I won't be around for Christmas. Or Thanksgiving, though I haven't come up with a good excuse for that one yet."

"On Thanksgiving we all go out to dinner," Zack said. "I can ask Dr. Brennan if I can invite you as well."

"Don't you guys all spend the holiday's with your families?" She asked, glancing over at him.

"None of us have any family in the area," he said. "It would be too much of an inconvenience to travel for both Thanksgiving and for Christmas."

"I suppose," she said, nodding. "Did you want to come over tonight or go home?"

"I think I would prefer to come over as long as I am not late to work again," he said, smiling a little. She grinned. Hodgins had just recently stopped teasing her about making Zack late during the last case, though it wasn't really her fault.

"I think I can manage to get you there in time since I also work tomorrow and my clock is fixed," she said, turning onto the road that would take them to her apartment rather than to Zack's place.

Erin spent all the next day trying to contact the archeologist group that had discovered her tablets. She had called them, written to them, emailed them, and still no response. The closest she had gotten was leaving a message with the receptionist at the museum in Cairo, where one of them worked. She wasn't sure that would work, but it was better than nothing she supposed.

She left a little early on Friday, giving herself time to go home, shower, and change into something her mother might deem acceptable for a home visit, which was still ten times fancier than Erin would have thought was appropriate. She was really hoping she wouldn't have to stay for dinner, that would be unpleasant, but she was going to be on her best behavior tonight in an attempt to fix things.

It was only a little after four when she pulled up to the house. It wasn't overly large, but it was a lot bigger than Erin thought they needed, seeing as it was only the two of them in the house now.

She hesitated, then knocked on the door instead of entering like she usually did. To her relief, her father opened it. He grinned and pulled her into a hug.

"Erin, it's been a while," he said, standing aside to let her into the house. "How are you?"

"I'm good," Erin said, relaxing when her mother didn't come dashing around a corner. "Is mom here?"

"No she's out," her father said, leading her into the living room. Erin let out a quiet sigh at that. This was better than she had hoped. "How's school going?"

"I'm done with it," Erin said, then grinned as her father stood to give her another hug. "I defended my dissertation paper at the end of last month."

"Well congratulations, Dr. Erin," he said, and she laughed. She had really missed spending time with her dad.

"It's Dr. James, actually," she corrected him. He grinned and shook his head.

"So what are you doing now? Will you be going off to Egypt?" He asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Probably not," she said. "I'm still working for the Jeffersonian, though if someone funds a search in Egypt I'll be one of the first ones picked for the team."

"That's fantastic," he said, nodding. He may not have understood why she liked Egypt so much, but he knew it made her happy and she always talked about it excitedly, and that was enough for him. If only her mother could do the same.

"I came by to tell you that I won't be around for Christmas, I plan on going down to see Liz," she said. Her mother would have made a fuss about this, but her father just nodded.

"That would probably be a good idea for you," he said, then sighed. "Your mother has been a little… difficult about all this, I know. I'm talking her around though."

"It's fine," she said, though that was mores to pacify her father. "I know she just likes to be controlling, I can handle it."

"I wish you would get along though, maybe then you would come by more often," he said, then shook his head. "But yes, she is eccentric."

"That's an understatement," Erin muttered, then sighed. "I'll try to come by more often. I've just been a bit busy."

"That's understandable," he said. "Well if you want to avoid your mother, you should probably get going."

"I don't want to avoid her," Erin said, but she got to her feet anyway.

"Well you are welcome to stay for dinner if you want," he said. "I'm not kicking you out or anything."

"No that's alright," she said. "I have a few things to work on for the weekend."

"I'll see you again soon though?" He asked, walking with her to the door. She grinned and nodded.

"Of course," she said. "I'll come by around Thanksgiving if you want."

"We'll be out of town for Thanksgiving," he said. "We are going down to Florida."

"That sounds nice," she said, relieved that she wouldn't have to make an excuse for that now too. "Have fun then and I'll see you when you get back."

"Okay, bye Erin," he said. She gave him a final hug and left, closing the door behind her.

She wasted no time in getting back on the road, not wanting to run into her mother on her way out. She was just debating whether or not to go home or back to work when her phone rang. She carefully pulled it out of her pocket, glad she was at a red light, and flipped it open without checking the caller.

"James," she said in a professional tone, in case it was from work.

"Erin it's Zack." She relaxed into her seat.

"Hi Zack, what's up?" She asked, turning her car toward the Jeffersonian subconsciously.

"Are you still at your parent's house?" He asked.

"Nope, just left," she said.

"Could you drive me out to a park?" He asked, and she chuckled.

"You could drive yourself if you had a license," she said. "I'll be at the Jeffersonian in about ten minutes but it's starting to get dark. Why do you want to go to a park in the dark?"

"It's for a case," he said.

"Of course it is," Erin said with a sigh. "You know, I actually like parks. Thinking about people being found dead in them is going to make me not like them anymore."

"I can ask someone else if you don't want to go," he said, not catching her tone. "I just thought you might be needing an excuse to leave by now."

"That's very thoughtful of you," she said, smiling. "I'll be outside your building in three minutes."

"Thank you Erin," he said, then hung up the phone.

When she pulled into the parking lot two minutes later, he was already standing by the doors, his large camera case in hand.

"So where are we off to?" She asked, pulling back towards the road.

"Turn left here and drive for 5.6 miles, then turn right until we are on the outskirts of town, then make another left," he said. Erin sighed and shook her head.

"You don't happen to know of actual road names do you?" She asked.

"The park is called Landmark," he said.

"Okay, I can work with that," she said. "I know where that is. So what's the case you are working on?"

"Have you ever heard of Howard Epps?" He asked, and Erin shuddered.

"Yes, I remember he killed a girl that went to my high school," she said, frowning. "My parent's wouldn't let me or Liz out of the house alone for that entire year.

"Well his defense lawyer doesn't think he did it. He's scheduled to be executed tomorrow and Dr. Brennan wants us to be absolutely sure it was him who killed her," Zack explained.

"I suppose that makes sense," she said. "But wasn't that over six years ago? What is going to the park now going to tell you?"

"I'm not sure, but we have to check everything," he said.

"Where are we going in? That park has about twenty different entrances," she said.

"Gate 25," he said. They rode in silence for a few moments. "Judging by your seemingly upbeat attitude, your visit to your parents house must have gone well. Do you ant to talk about it?"

"You sound like a therapist," she said, but she smiled anyway. "It was good because my mother wasn't there. And it turns out they are going out of town for Thanksgiving anyway so I didn't even need to make an excuse."

"Well Angela said I should invite you along when we go out for dinner on Thanksgiving," he said. "If you want to that is."

"Sounds fun," she said, nodding.

"It's not unpleasant," he said, and she chuckled.

"I'll be there then," she said. "Will you be working on this case for a while?"

"Overnight probably," he said. "We have a time limit on this."

"Makes sense," she said, finally pulling into the park. She drove until she found gate 25 and turned into it.

"Go to picnic area 10," he directed her. She pulled into the small picnic area, parking in one of the spots.

"Do you need me to do anything?" She asked, not wanting to get out of the car. It was fully dark now and the park gave off a menacing air, though maybe that was just because it was dark and empty and she knew that a murder had happened here.

"No, it'll only take a few minutes, you can stay here," he said, pulling the camera out of the bag in the back seat. She watched as he walked around the area, taking pictures of what looked like nothing to her. At least the space was mostly cleared, he never went out of the sight of her headlights. He was coming back to the car when he stopped, frowning. She was about to get out and ask him what was wrong when he took a picture of the parking spot next to her, then walked back toward the entry way. She did get out then, not wanting to let him out of sight. She followed him as he snapped a picture of the area number, then walked a little farther to get one of the gate number.

He pulled out his phone as they walked back to the car, but she couldn't understand most of what he was saying as he spoke too fast. He hung up within moments.

"I figured something out," he said, getting back into the car. "We need to get back to the lab as fast as possible."

"Okay," she said, climbing back int he car. She didn't want to ask him about what he had seen, she just wanted to get out of the creepy park.

They made it back to the lab within twenty minutes, which was fast, even for her and she regularly drove faster than the limit.

"I'm going to head home," she said, letting him climb out of the car. "Call me in the morning if you need anything. I can bring you clothes and stuff."

"Thank you Erin," he said, then surprised her by leaning in the open door and across the seats to kiss her. She grinned as he pulled away and went back inside the building, then frowned at herself, willing herself not to feel the pounding in her chest which had started when he had kissed her and had not yet calmed down by the time she made it back onto the road.

Zack did call her in the morning, but only to tell her that he was going home so he didn't need her to bring him anything. She didn't ask about the case since she was sure he wouldn't be able to tell her anything important.

The rest of the weekend passed quickly. Erin spent the time documenting her process of translating the tablets because she was sure that if they turned out to be important, others would want to know how she had discovered them. It was common to make a written report of translations anyway, so that there were no errors in the findings.

On Monday morning she eagerly went into work, almost two hours early, hoping there would be a message from the one archeologist on the original dig she had been able to almost contact. There was nothing new though, so she got to work going through more of the things in storage.

"Hey," a voice interrupted her work just before lunch. Erin looked up and smiled, setting her things aside on her desk.

"Hi Angela," she said, then frowned. Angela looked downhearted. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," she said, shaking her head. "Want to have lunch with me?"

"Sure," Erin said, standing and stretching. "Can we go to that sandwich place across the street? I'm actually really hungry."

"Sure," Angela said, falling into step beside Erin. They walked in silence the whole way, which Erin gathered was odd for Angela.

"Are you sure there isn't something wrong?" Erin asked as they sat down at a table int he small shop. "I've noticed that you only seek me out when people at the lab are bothering you."

"They are all just so… robotic at times," Angela said, shaking her head.

"Is it that case you were all working on last Friday?" Erin asked.

"Yeah," Angela said, sighing. "The guy that we were investigating, Howard Epps…"

"I know of him," Erin said, frowning. "The girl he killed went to my high school."

"I'm sorry," Angela said.

"Did he definitely kill her then? Zack said you all weren't sure."

"He killed her," Angela said. "And we found two more bodies of girls he killed. It staid his execution, just like he wanted. He basically used us all."

"I'm sorry Angela," Erin said. "That really sucks."

"Yes, it does," she said.

"Is that why you wanted lunch today? To talk about the case?" Erin asked after a moment of silence.

"No," Angela said. "The opposite actually. I need to talk to someone who doesn't work with dead things for a while."

"I do work with dead things," Erin said, but she understood what Angela meant.

"But they have all been dead for decades, it's not the same," Angela said. Erin nodded.

"Centuries actually," she said. "But I get it. It's different when they have a family and a life and everything."

"I don't know how they can do this every day," Angela said, shaking her head as she picked apart the remains of her sandwich. "They go and talk to the murderers, and the families."

"They catch bad people though," Erin said. "And you make them human again, the victims. You give them faces and names and stories."

"I know," she said with a sigh. "It's just difficult sometimes."

"You aren't thinking about quitting are you?" Erin asked, frowning. "You are the most sane person n that lab, I think they need you."

"Thanks," she said with a snort of amusement. "I'm not leaving. I just need a break sometimes."

"Well whenever you get overwhelmed, come over to my department," Erin said. "I can bore you with old artifacts until you are begging to get back to your computers and dead things." That got the laugh she had intended, and Erin smiled.

"So how are things with you and Zack?" Angela asked, changing the subject. Erin frowned, but caught herself, quickly making her expression neutral. Angela raised an eyebrow at that though, so Erin new she had noticed. "Not good it seems."

"No," Erin said, shaking her head. "It's all fine."

"Doesn't sound like it," she said. "Come on, give me some details to gossip about."

"I'll give you details if you promise not to gossip about it," Erin said, and Angela looked almost surprised, like she hadn't actually expected Erin to talk to her.

"Cross my heart," Angela said, leaning forward over the table as though they were exchanging secrets.

"I want to date him, like for real instead of this whole friends with benefits thing," Erin said quickly before she lost her nerve. She didn't really have any other female friends, and though Angela was a new friend, Erin liked her and knew she would probably have some suggestions to make.

"So why aren't you?" Angela asked, leaning back.

"Well, when this whole thing started I sort of stipulated that feelings wouldn't be involved because I wasn't looking for anything serious at the time," Erin said, sighing. telling someone else about this did make her feel better, even if it did make her feelings even more real to her. "And what if I decide to go out with him for real, but then I change my mind later? Zack hasn't ever seriously dated someone before. I don't know how he would take it."

"Well, I think you should go for it," Angela said. "Zack might be a little different from regular guys, but I think he could handle a breakup so long as you explain it rationally."

"I guess," Erin said, frowning. "I was going to wait until Christmas time. He's going to go see his family so I was going to tell him right before he left so he would have time to think about it."

"That sounds a lot like running away from things to me," Angela said, frowning. "Just tell him now."

"I want to make sure I'm not going to feel differently in a few weeks though," Erin explained. "In the past when I've dated people it's only been for a few months at a time, and I don't want to do that to Zack. He seems like more of a 'long-term' type of person."

"I see what you mean," Angela said, nodding along. "So Christmas then?"

"Yeah," Erin said, nodding too. "And I'm only telling you that so that I feel more obligated to keep that timeline."

"I won't let you forget," Angela said, grinning. Erin chuckled and stood, ready to head back to work.

"I'm sorry about Epps," Erin said as they crossed the street. "At least he is still in jail though, even if he isn't dead."

"That's true," Angela said. "I just wish there was something more we could do."

"You could hire a prison assassin," Erin suggested, chuckling. "I'm sure there must be some way of doing that."

"No thanks," Angela said, laughing. "I'll let the system do it's work. There's no way he's every getting let out so that will have to be enough for me."

"Dr. James, there's a call for you from Cairo on line two," the bubbly intern called out as they neared the Egyptology department again. Erin grinned, then turned to Angela.

"This is important, I'll talk to you later," she said, then waved as she practically sprinted to her desk, the hyper intern following her in from the hallway.

"Dr. James," Erin said, picking up the phone.

"Hello Dr. James, this is Dr. Shoukry from the museum in Cairo," Erin frowned. That was not who she was trying to get in touch with. "I believe you've met my sister Nenet."

"Oh, yes," Erin said, connecting who she was speaking to. This man was the curator of the museum, the one that had been interested in her dissertation paper. "How can I help you Dr. Shoukry?"

"I'm calling about your dissertation paper," he said, and she frowned, not understanding why that warranted a call. "I've studied your research and I think that it's possible to build a prototype of the machine you have suggested here." Her mouth fell open. "I was calling to tell you that I'd like to but the idea from you. If it's successful you would receive a portion of the profits of course."

"I- Yeah, that sounds great," she said. "I'll have to put you in contact with the Jeffersonian's lawyers to figure out how to proceed. Since I was studying here when I came up with the idea, they technically own it as well."

"I understand," he said. "Please have them call my office and we can arrange a time to confer."

"Of course," Erin said, pausing to jot down the number he gave her. They exchanged pleasantries then she hung up the phone and sat in her chair, thinking. If her design was put into production and actually worked, she would make quite a bit of income from it, even if most of the money would go to the Jeffersonian.

She spent the rest of the day in a daze, going through all her work mechanically and with very little thought.

Hey everyone! Sorry for the kind of short chapter but thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think.

Demona Evernight: But I have such a dramatic subplot for the Gormagon case. I love drama XD I also miss Zack though so maybe I'll come up with an alternative that is equally dramatic. Thanks for the review :)

Curious Kat: Thanks for reviewing :) I have no idea when I will be updating. I have found that when I put a time limit of how long I have to write I don't enjoy the story anymore so then I end up never working on it. So you can expect random sporadic updates whenever I get a somewhat good idea to write about.