"Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Take a puff of your inhaler because you're freaking out. Breathe in. Wait a second. Now exhale," Aaina gently spoke, "do you feel better now?"
I gathered my thoughts and closed my eyes for a second. "Yeah, I'm better now," I laughed quietly, "quite frankly I'm not sure what I'd do without you."
She smiled and helped me off of the floor. "Now you go get dressed. You only have one chance to make a first impression. I won't let you screw this up."
I nodded. "Yes, Ma'am," I smiled, mocking her motherly tone with me. Aaina's always been a caretaker, ever since we first met. She's always been helping me clean up my messes.
I looked in my closet, but I didn't really see much to wear. T-shirts, jeans, hoodies... I didn't know if I actually had anything to wear. Aaina was standing in the doorway, with a knowing look.
"I knew you wouldn't have anything to wear, so I picked out a couple of my outfits that I think you look good in," she said as she plopped three outfits on my bed. A conservative body-con dress with a blazer, a button-down blouse and black skinny jeans, and a peplum shirt with slacks.
After looking at my choices, I decided to go with the button-down. Then, Aaina took me into the bathroom to do my makeup. I've never really been a big fan of makeup, nor do I really know how to use it. So Aaina decided to take the reigns for me.
Once we were finished, it was time for one of Aaina's famous pep talks.
"Okay, Xan. You can do this. I believe in you," she smiled, "I remember when we first met in college, and you were just the cutest thing. I knew in that very moment that we'd be good friends. There's just something about your awkwardly adorable interior that shines through and I noticed it from the start. They will too. You don't need to worry, because you've got this. Knock 'em dead!" She folded her hands together in excitement.
I started to head out the door, and she loudly cleared her throat, obviously trying to get my attention. I turned around to face her.
She was holding a paper bag and grinning. "Forgetting something?"
I grabbed the bag, "Thanks," I hugged her and she held me tight for a second.
"Believe in yourself," she whispered in my ear.
And then, I left for my first day at work.
...
This was it, this is Sweet's office. I knocked on the door and not even a second later, he opened it.
"Hey, Xandra, are you ready to head to the Jeffersonian?" He looked really excited.
"Yeah, I think I am," I said, "who all am I going to be meeting today?" I waited nervously for his answer. I've never been too good with large crowds.
He chuckled. "Everyone. There are a lot of people for you to meet, and I know that makes you pretty nervous, but you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Most of them are way nerdy."
I smiled at him, a little amused by his comment. "Well, I'm good with nerdy. Actually, way good with nerdy. It's definitely a comfort zone for me. And I'd ask you how you knew that I get anxious around a lot of people, but that's kind of an obvious answer, isn't it?"
We got into his car. It was a really, really nice car. He laughed at my question. "The whole Psychologist thing has a little bit to do with people. Just a little bit." He looked into my eyes and smiled comfortingly.
....
We were at the building, but Sweets was just sitting in the car. "There's a couple of things that I should probably warn you about, with these nerdy folk."
I raised my eyebrows. "What do you need to warn me about?"
He bit his lip, thinking of an answer to give me. "Well, these people," he inhaled, "have some quirks, you might say. There are a couple in particular that you should know about. Brennan and Zack, they mean well, but sometimes they say things that might come off as being offensive. They're brutally honest."
I nodded. "So they're those kinds of people who's social intellect is greatly surpassed by their book intellect?"
He grinned. "Yes. Exactly. You know someone like that?"
"Yeah, my little brother is just like that. He's absolutely brilliant, but doesn't know how to converse normally."
He sighed in relief. "Awesome. They're just like that. There's another person that I'll tell you about, his name is Vincent. He's really sweet, and he's probably got more knowledge than Einstein himself, but he pretty much only speaks in facts. Random facts, that usually don't have to do with anything at all. He's British, too, if you're into that."
Who isn't into British accents?
"Honestly, this Vincent guy sounds pretty cool. I'll probably like him a lot."
He smiled. "Good, now let's go in. You have nothing to worry about, their bark is worse than their bite. And I'll be with you, to help move things along smoothly. If you get uncomfortable, make a fake excuse and I'll follow your lead."
Wow, Sweets was really, well, sweet. "Thanks, that means a lot. And I'm totally ready to meet them, let's do this."
...
We opened the doors, flashed our badges to pass through security, and came into the building. I was instantly smacked in the face with what was probably the worst thing I'd ever smelled. Not that I expected any different, they were disecting a corpse that was, from the smell of it, probably a couple of weeks old.
Sweets' nose crinkled. "I should've warned you about the smell..."
I laughed. "It's alright, I didn't expect a rotting corpse to smell like flowers and sunshine."
When we got onto the platform, I saw three people; a brunette woman, and two brunette guys.
The taller brunette guy glanced at me, then at Sweets, and then his eyes went back to the skull he was examining. "Dr. Sweets, who is the girl standing next to you?"
I stepped forward. "I'm Dr. Alexandria Harriet, and you are?" I sensed that he wasn't the hand-shaking type.
The guy stood up straight, and looked at me with a confused expression. "Mr. Zack Addy."
Zack paid little attention to me, but he occasionally stared at my chest. I've always been quite large in that area, and he didn't really strike me as the kind of guy who gets laid a lot.
The other brunette guy came up to me, held my hand, and kissed it. I assumed that he was "fact guy". He also appeared to be "flirtatious guy", but I didn't really mind. He had eyes that were as blue as a summer sky, they were so pretty.
He looked me in the eyes and smiled. "I'm Vincent, it's quite lovely to meet you, Dr. Alexandria. You are quite stunning, by the way," He winked awkwardly, "were you aware that the first woman to obtain a Ph.D was Helen Magill White, in 1877?"
I blushed at his earlier remarks-oh, his accent was just the most attractive thing ever-and I nodded at his interesting fact. "No, I did not know that, but thank you for that interesting information."
The woman took off her gloves and came up to me to shake my hand. "Hello, I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan. I was quite impressed with your credentials, as well as your paper on the psychology of sexuality. You seem to have an outstanding range of knowledge, I'm unsure why you chose to pursue Psychology."
I nodded, amused by what Brennan had to say. "I'm generally uninterested in hard sciences; there's always a wrong and right answer. However, with Psychology, there are shades of gray that you could just spend weeks getting into. It's heavily based on interpretation. Obviously, it's difficult to acquire an exact reason for every thought and action, since people's minds are so beautifully intricate and specialized. I enjoy looking at the aspects of every person's personality and deciphering their personalized thought processes much more than I enjoy other sciences. That's why I decided to go into Psychology."
Brennan nodded, and she seemed interested in what I had to say on the subject. "You seem to have very logical reasoning. I respect your choice in profession and I anticipate that I will not dislike you. Sweets has told us that you're quite likeable, and although that's not a fact based upon evidence, I trust his judgment."
I smiled. "Thank you, and I'm curious, what all did he say about me?" I knew that I would get an honest answer from these people, and I'd like to know where I stood so far.
Zack stood back up and gently set down the scapula he was inspecting. "Dr. Sweets told us that you are a quite brilliant, and attractive woman with ample breasts. It appears that he was accurate in his vivid description of your appearance."
I held back laughter and looked at Sweets' face, which was turning a shade of red similar to a tomato.
Sweets looked quite uneasy and tried to save what Zack had said. "That's not true, I haven't talked about you in that way. Never. I haven't said anything like that," and he started to escort me off of the platform. But Brennan didn't let him get away that easily.
"Sweets, you tell us the importance of honesty yet you are unable to be fully honest with your new assistant. I find that to be quite hypocritical. I also find it highly unlikely that she hasn't noticed her large breasts." She crossed her arms.
I didn't hold back my laugh this time. "I'm aware that I'm well-endowed, Sweets, and if it makes you feel any better, I told my friend Aaina that you have a lovely butt. So we're even."
He blushed. "Well it's good to know that you're not easily embarrassed. You'll fit in well around here." And with that, we went back to his office to do paperwork.
...................................................................................................................
Thanks so much for reading, I'm splitting this into two parts because it was getting pretty long, and I wanted to be able to go into lots of detail. The second part of this chapter will have Booth, Angela, Hodgins, and another intern. (I haven't decided which one yet.) So stay tuned! :)