Booth sauntered into the Jeffersonian one morning, unusually happy. Especially considering the fact that Bones had asked him to come in early that day.
"Why are you so happy?" Angela asked, smiling when the FBI agent came her way on the forensics platform.
Booth grinned like a child who had just been given a chocolate bar. "My younger cousin is coming here to work as another one of Bones's assistants. She's supposed to arrive today. Around 23 , kinda short, choppy, black hair, around 5'2..." He stopped when Bones walked onto the platform.
"Hey, Bones! You hear about your new assistant?" Booth asked.
She nodded and instantly began to converse with Angela.
"I'm going to need that facial reconstruction as soon as possible and-"
"What the HELL are you two doing?"
Earlier that morning...
Dr. Zach Addy arrived at the Jeffersonian that day, carrying his messenger bag and a cup of coffee. He sipped a bit and frowned. "The barista said this was supposed to be good..."
He was too distracted by the terrible taste of the coffee that he hadn't noticed the woman who was walking the opposite direction.
She had short black hair that hung around her face. She was wearing a blue lab coat over her distressed jeans and long-sleeved blue-green shirt.. She was also off in a world of her own, because she didn't notice Zach at all.
And, just like that, Lexi had managed to get lost, run into somebody, and spill coffee all over herself within her first half hour at the Jeffersonian.
The brown stain covering her lab coat, and probably the clothing underneath as well, was a combination of her own coffee and the 'disgusting' coffee that had previously belonged to Zach. He was staring at her in shock.
"Ah...I'm sorry. I was rather distracted by the taste of the coffee I had been drinking. It appears that you, as well, weren't paying any attention, because you would have been able to avoid me if you had been. And now..." He didn't bother finishing his sentence. It was clear that this woman had drinks all over her.
She laughed. "Um, it's fine... Dr. Addy." She read it off of his blue lab coat and looked down at the white embroidery on her own.
"Dr. Alexandra Perlind. Call me Lexi. Pleased to meet you, Dr. Addy... " She held out her hand for a shake, which was accepted.
"Zack. I'm sorry for having soiled your lab coat. You may borrow one of mine for the time being. I always keep an extra..." He reached into his bag and pulled it out. "I'll wash yours for you as well."
She smiled and pulled her coat off, handing it over to Zach and taking his. It didn't really bother her about wearing his name around all day. Lexi wondered why.
"If that's all, I suppose I should be going." Zach started walking past her.
"Wait!" She called, following after him. "Could you please direct me to the forensics department?"
"I'm headed there right now. If you follow me, you'll find your way."
Lexi nodded and sped up to catch up to Zach.
He frowned. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you trying to get to the forensics department, anyways?"
"I'm going to be working there for the time being. Also, my older cousin, he's an FBI agent who works with them in catching murderers, and-"
"Booth is your cousin?" Zach inquired, cutting off Lexi halfway through her sentence.
She nodded and grinned up to him. He was quite a bit taller than her, like most people- men especially. Lexi wasn't very tall.
"Hmm." Zack muttered, thinking. He noticed a thin white strip at the top of the chest pocket in the lab coat she had borrowed.
"Oh, I left my access card in that jacket." He reached over to pull it out as they neared the platform.
"What the HELL are you two doing?"
It looked bad. It looked really, really bad (at least in Booth's eyes). There Zach was, reaching over into the chest pocket of Booth's younger cousin. Neither of two involved saw anything wrong, so Zach finished pulling the card out, swiped it, and allowed both himself and Lexi onto the platform.
"Seeley!" Lexi cried, running over to Booth and hugging him.
He smiled and hugged her back, seeming to have forgotten what had happened just a couple seconds ago.
Lexi was released from his bear hug and noticed Bones behind him. She cleared her throat lightly and offered her hand to Bones.
"Dr. Alexandra Perlind at your service," She said, giving a firm shake.
Bones nodded. "It's nice to meet you, Ms. Perlind-"
"Call me Lexi."
"Right," Bones agreed, remembering something Booth had said about calling people by their first names. "Lexi, today you will be starting your job assisting me and Dr. Addy. You can start by examining that victim over there."
Lexi nodded, but before getting to work, also introduced herself to Angela.
"It's nice to meet you, Angela." Lexi smiled, then departed to the examination table.
"Zach, Lexi, I expect to have cause of death by the time we get back. Angela, the facial reconstruction, like we discussed?" Bones pulled off her gloves and disposed of them.
"Where are you going?" Zach wondered.
Booth put his hand on the small of Bones's back and smiled at Lexi. "Interviews. We'll be back later, and I'll take you to lunch, okay?"
Lexi nodded and picked up a leg bone.
Half an hour later...
Zach and Lexi had been staring at the bones for quite a while, searching for any cause of death or possibly fatal injuries, when Lexi suddenly yelled out.
"I found it!" She shrieked, grabbing most of one of the arms and placing it under the microscope.
"You see this?" Lexi pointed to some minute scratches on the bone, which appeared scratched. "It appears that a razor has cut into the radius and ulna.."
Zach shook his head. 'We know that already. But the wound wasn't substantial enough to be cause of death."
Lexi grinned even more. "That's what we thought. But see, these marks right here show that this one didn't come straight in. Instead it would have come from the right side, and on that right side there's a vain that leads straight to the heart-"
"The bleeding would have been so severe that the victim would have died, leaving these stains on the bone." Zach finished, staring at it in awe. (Don't be mad at me if this isn't true, haha.)
"Yes!" Lexi cried, punching the air. She was grinning so wide it looked like it hurt.
"Good work, Dr. Per- Lexi," He substituted.
The dark-haired woman ran to the other side of the examination table and gave Zach a huge hug. It was almost as big as the one she had given Booth upon her arrival, but not quite there.
Zach awkwardly hugged her back.
"What's going on here, huh?"
Both turned around to see Hodgins approaching them with a tray containing some small, dirt-like particles. He was smirking as he walked up the steps.
"Sorry to interrupt you two, but Brennan requested these. I guess I'll have to give them to her later. And who," Hodgins paused, casting a sidelong glance at Lexi, "is this?"
Lexi sighed and held out her hand, repeating the process she knew would become common for her first day.
"Dr. Lexi Perlind. Here to assist Dr. Brennan."
Hodgins kept that smirk on his face as he went back down from the platform. "Good to meet you. Don't mind me, you guys." He laughed and went back to his station.
"Who...?"
"That's Hodgins. He examines bugs, particulates, and dirt from bodies and crime scenes," Zach explained to her.
She nodded and looked back over to the rib. Lexi smiled again.
Zach looked down at the body again and checked his watch.
"I believe it is time for us to take a break." He announced.
Lexi nodded. "Alright. Will you sit with me? I don't really know what else to do around here yet."
"...Alright." Zach wasn't sure exactly what to do in this kind of situation. He hadn't been asked by very many people to 'hang out.'
The two of them left the platform and sat down on one of the couches in the Jeffersonian. Lexi looked down at her lap for a while, and Zach stared idly out the window.
"Zach, how did you feel when you first started working here?" She questioned, wondering if her feelings of nervousness were illogical.
"I was..." He paused. "I was excited but a bit nervous," Zach confessed. He never shared his feelings with anybody, and here he was with somebody he had just met not too long ago, admitting his feelings about his job.
"Lexi!" Booth shouted over to them. "We're going out to lunch!"
The girl leaped up as she heard her cousin calling for her. Zach watched as she hastened over to Booth.
"Bye, Zach! I'll see you later!" She turned and waved over her shoulder. "If you see Doctor Brennan, be sure to tell her about the cause of death!" Lexi was practically skipping to catch up to Booth.
Zach nodded and pursed his lips, wondering what to do.
Lexi and Booth- In Booth's car
"So, what were you and Squinty doing?" Booth asked, venom lacing his voice.
Lexi put on a puzzled expression. "You mean Zach? We were just talking."
Booth grumbled, resting his head in the palm of his left hand. His elbow was propped against the arm rest.
"Not this morning, you weren't talking," he accused.
She tried to think back... getting lost, spilled coffee, wearing Zach's lab coat, getting his access card out...
"Really, Seeley? That's what you were worried about? Him 'inappropriately' touching me?" Lexi watched as Booth furrowed his eyebrows and tightened his one-handed grip around the steering wheel. "Seeley!" She cried. "Listen, I hardly know Zach, but he definitely doesn't seem like the kind who just goes around touching people. Actually, when I hugged him before, he seemed pretty-"
"You did what?" Booth cut in, slamming on the brake as they approached a red light.
"I hugged him. That's what people do when they're happy. They hug." Lexi explained as though she were talking to a small child.
Booth returned to his previous state of irritation. He pulled into a spot at the Diner and noticed that Lexi was still wearing her lab coat.
"Take that off; you're not at work anymore," He instructed, putting the car in park and yanking his keys out of the ignition.
Lexi had hardly noticed that she was still wearing it. She went to pull it off, unbuttoning the top 3 buttons, which were the only ones she had done.
Booth watched as she fumbled with them and as he was looking at her hands, he noticed on the chest that it said...
"Okay, Lexi. Please tell me why the hell you are wearing Zach's lab coat," Booth spat. His words were seething, and Lexi knew that if Zach had been in close proximity that Booth would have been pulling his gun on him that very second.
She grinned sheepishly. "Well, you see, I ran into him this morning and he spilled his coffee on me, so he let me borrow one of his..." Lexi rubbed the back of her head.
"LEXI!"
"Just relax, Dad," Lexi taunted. "It's not a big deal, it's just a lab coat. Come on, let's go inside."
Jeffersonian (Angela's Office)- Hodgins and Zach
"So Zach, who was that?" Hodgins asked.
Zach looked at him, scrunching up his eyebrows. "Like she said, that was Lexi Perlind. I don't see how you didn't catch that the firs-"
"No, Z-man. I mean why were you two hugging?"
"You could have just said that," Zach chastised. "She found out the cause of death and in her excitement, hugged me."
Hodgins grinned. "Oh really?" He said skeptically.
"Yes. Unless my phrasing confused you," Zach said in a pitying sort of way.
Hodgins sighed. Zach had to be the most socially inept person on the face of the planet. Ever. "Listen, Zach, I know you haven't been in many relationships-"
"One." Zach interrupted. "It was terminated almost immediately by Naomi."
"Right. Anyways, what I'm saying here is that that little girl who just showed up on our doorstep-"
Zach interrupted again. "From what I was informed of, Lexi is a grown woman age 23. And she was not delivered to our doorstep- she's here at the Jeffersonian."
Hodgins rubbed his temple with two fingers. "Zach. Just hear me out. What I was trying to say was that Lexi could easily be somebody you could initiate a relationship with," Hodgins stated, trying to talk more like his friend.
Zach thought for a second. "I've been told that it is bad to initiate a relationship with somebody you work with."
"Whatever man..." Hodgins said, turning back to a tray of particulates.
"If you find her so appealing, why don't you pursue her yourself?"
"Dude, she's way too young for me. Besides, I have-"
Angela walked in, carrying a sketchpad and a box of art supplies.
"Angela!" Hodgin's exclaimed, putting down his tools. Zach observed their interaction with great interest. It certainly appeared that they were a couple.
"Hey, Zach," Angela greeted. "I saw our new squintern this morning." She said, using Booth's nickname for any of Bones's assistants.
"Yes," Zach amended. "She is not a graduate student though. Lexi has her doctorate, like me."
"Isn't she pretty?" Angela said, remembering the brief encounter she had with her that morning.
This question caused the overly-logical mind of Zach Addy to kick into gear. "Her facial structure is slightly asymmetrical, but it is complimented by the uneven cut of her hair. Lexi is very short in stature, perhaps an inch shorter than Hodgins. However, she has a slight resemblance of Agent Booth, being his cousin, which I find a bit unnerving."
Angela's eyes widened as she made a note to herself to become better acquainted with Lexi. She tried to imagine Zach with a short, beautiful girl, then a tall one. 'No...' she thought. 'Short is definitely better.'
"I have to get back to work," Zach announced abruptly, leaving Angela's office and going up to the platform.
Lexi had just returned, Zach's lab coat still on her, and was observing another body. It was quite fleshy, so Zach and Lexi were primarily examining the X-rays.
"There's something metallic in her stomach," Lexi pointed out on the chart.
Zack looked down at the body. "You're right. There is no exit wound. It must be a bullet." He stared. "Could you please grab that tray of surgical tools?" Zach requested. Lexi complied and crossed the platform.
She was walking back slowly, but somehow managed to trip and fall, landing on a scalpel.
"Shit..." Lexi muttered, sitting up and clutching her midsection. There was a growing red stain on the front of her lab coat.
Zach rushed over and kneeled down to help her, unbuttoning her (well, his) coat and rolling up her shirt to the point of injury. He found the cut with ease.
But that wasn't her only injury.
I found it rather easy to potray Zach. But maybe that's because I'm doing it badly? Please let me know what you think. Also, let me know what you think of Lexi! I'd like for her to be likable. Review please!
~SnowKoyuki13