Crossed Verses

Chapter: 1. Waking Up

Fandoms: Bones/Firefly

Prompt: #001 Beginnings

Notes: Written for crossovers100. My first ever crossover!!! XD

Brennan woke with a start from what felt like an extremely long dream, her eyes snapping open suddenly to a harsh white light shining down on her from the ceiling. For several moments, everything was out of focus and blurry and she had to blink a few times to make out the soft white edges of the room she was in, turning her head as the brightness stung her eyes.

One thing was sure - she wasn't at home, where she last remembered being. She was on a bed with stiff, white sheets wrapped around her.

Clamping her eyes shut again, she waited awhile until the pain slowly subsided. The burning sensation eventually faded and she chanced a look at her surroundings. She noticed the highly advanced technology that surrounded her - nothing like she had ever seen before - and the dozen or so beds identical to her own that lined the walls on either side of the room. She was in some kind of infirmary by the look of it, or maybe a laboratory.

She began piecing it all together, hoping like hell that she hadn't been somehow involved in another voodoo-orientated murder and lost her memory again, when the queasy feeling in her stomach surfaced in a violent wave. She sat up straight, overcome by a coughing fit that wracked her body and seemed to shake her right to the soul .

For what felt like hours, but was in actual fact closer to three or four minutes, she coughed as the drugs inside her body turned her stomach and sent her stabs of pain. She didn't bother covering her mouth and instead focused on minimizing the aching in her sides, doubling over on her bed.

It wasn't until her throat was raw and dry that it stopped and she was able to take control of her bodily functions once again. Falling back onto the bed in exhaustion, she greedily sucked in air and tried to catch her breath. What had caused her sudden coughing attack, she didn't know, but nothing was going to stop her from finding out.

She needed to know where she was. And more importantly, why she was there and what had happened to her. She needed to remember.

"B..Booth?" Brennan's eyes flickered over to the bed beside hers as she heard a familiar sound - her partner, Agent Seeley Booth, coughing. Sure enough, he was there, suffering similiar symptoms to what she had faced mere moments ago. Tears streamed down his face from the pain and his hair was all mussed up, sticking up in every direction. It was much longer, too. In some places, it hung down to his shoulders and strands of silky brown fell over his eyes, obscuring his face.

"Booth?" Brennan repeated, her voice more steady and firm this time. She reached out as if it would bring them closer and heal his pain. It didn't help with the pain. Booth continued coughing violently for an eternity, before he was finally settled enough to speak.

"Brennan," he replied gruffly. "Wh-where are we?" He began to go through the same motions she had, scanning the room and blinking at the sharpness of the light. "Who's that?" He pointed off to a doorway that Brennan hadn't noticed, as a young man with silky black hair and a crisp, clean uniform paused and looked in.

Before he had a chance to get away and leave them there with their questions, Brennan forced herself off her bed and awkwardly rushed to the door. "Hey! You there! Where are we? What did you do to us?" Her voice rasped out as if it hadn't been used in years and she grimaced at the sound.

"I...uh..." the man stuttered nervously. "I'm sorry. I've got to - " He gestured wildly behind him towards the hall he had just poked his head from. "I've really got to go." He didn't move though, and instead stood rooted to the spot, his mouth gaping open slightly in mild confusion.

"We really need help here," Brennan told him, hoping that his stunned state was an advantageous thing on their part. Maybe he would do something or tell them where they were. Anything he could tell them would help. Anything at all.

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I've got to find my sister." He glanced awkwardly out into the hall again, obviously wanting to be elsewhere and dragged a hand through his hair. There was a reluctant pain in his eyes as he looked at Brennan, like he was considering what to do - most likely whether he was prepared to put off what he had come there for originally to help a few people in need.

"We can help!" Brennan started determinedly. "Can't we, Booth?" She gave her friend a firm look - the look that told him that no matter how much he argued and fought with her, she wouldn't give up and would win out in the end. Booth nodded silently in agreement.

"I...fine! But I've got be somewhere. You'll have to come with me." He looked each of them in the eye in turn and then nodded as he decided that he would help. "Just...stay close. And be quiet!"

Brennan smiled and moved over to help Booth up. He accepted her hand and she pulled him to his feet, steadying him until he was able to walk on his own. Then, they began to move over towards the man.

Just as they were leaving the hall, more coughing alerted them to the presence of another few beings. Brennan stopped abruptly and turned, racing to a bed positioned several beds away from where hers and Booth's were. Angela. And Hodgins and Zach. They were all bent over in pain, the exact motions playing out in them as in both Brennan and Booth.

Brennan moved to Angela's side at once, patting her on the shoulder comfortingly as her body convulsed. Booth patted Hodgins on the back awkwardly, too, leaving Zach on his own, until the man reluctantly walked up to him and did the same. It was ten or so minutes later before they were all on their feet, having recovered from whatever it was that had caused the coughing fits.

Booth explained what was going on then, and an awkward quiet fell.

"Where are we?" Zach asked first. His eyes latched onto the man beside him and he stared accusingly at him. "And who is he?" He pointed at the stranger, clearly not liking that he had been rubbing his back as he coughed earlier.

Booth nodded in agreement, sizing up the man cautiously. "Yeah. Who are you?" he demanded. "Did you put us here? What's going on?" He advanced on the man, backing him against the wall until there was no escape.

The man sighed, as if expecting nothing less. "No, I didn't do this. I didn't want any of this!" He paused and shook his head. "I'm looking for my sister. The people that did this to you took her and have been playing with her brain like it's some kind of rutting playground. I'm trying to get her out!"

"And where is here, exactly?" Booth continued, his FBI training skipping in.

"We're on Osiris in an Alliance medical facility. They've been doing experiments here - on my sister, on others like her and who knows what else. I need to get her out!" He put his hands in front of his face in defence.

Angela finally spoke up, so quietly that they almost didn't hear her. "So, what's your name?" she asked, forcing a small smile. She stared meaningfully at Booth, urging him to shut up and get them out of there. Wherever they were, she wanted out. Now. "I'm Angela." She offered her hand to him.

The man reluctantly took it, smiling grimly back at her. "I'm Simon."