Shrink

16

//Warning, triggering stuff up ahead//
"You're late," stated Doctor Brennan flatly as I knelt beside her amongst the scrub and brush of the plateau.
The wind whipped out faces, and I regretted not bringing a sweater or something. The land was very green midsummer, but it was all very flat. I could see the deep blue of the sky as it curved around the soft slope of the earth in the distance. Everything here was sky.
"Sorry, Doctor Brennan," I said simply, and left it at that.
She didn't push any further, and I thanked her for it. Booth had plied both me and Sweets with reprimanding, if not a little roguish questions about what had kept us.
"This is sad," I said plainly, staring at the remains of a whole human that lay discarded in the center of a group of nettles.
The body was nothing more than an anatomically-lain skeleton, the bones half-sunk into the ground, as the wildlife had begun to scavenge them. I noticed the lack of nearly all of the phalanges on the right hand.
"Female, caucasian, aged mid-twenties," I began, running through the preliminaries. "pelvic girdle suggests she's given birth. Recently, too."
I silently mourned for the child.
Sweets walked over from his conversation with Booth, and stood, his hands in his pockets.
A frown creased his face.
"This is way too staged. Someone was here to bury her, and placed her like this. See the way her hands are flat on the ground? It's purposeful. Serene."
I looked up at him, his head was obscuring the sun.
"Could this be religious?" I asked, but Sweets shook his head.
"There would be something to mark her, or else she would be wrapped, or prepared in any sense. There aren't any objects around her either to signify that it's anything more than a body drop."
I sighed. We would be here a while.
I stood, allowing my sore joints to stretch again, and took a step back. Something wasn't right.
I took another step back, and another. I was soon more than five yards away, observing the carnage from a short distance. The officers surveying the area, as well as Booth, Sweets and Doctor Brennan were all staring at me, askance.
My face reddened at the attention, but I couldn't help feeling like something was missing. My heel dipped slightly, and I nearly lost my balance in the ravine that had crept up behind me. I turned, observing it gurgling, unobstructed by rocks or plants, when something caught my eye. I wasn't much used to flesh, but I knew an umbilical cord when I saw one, but this one was grey, withered and lifelessly tangled under the pebbles of the creek bed. I followed it, and was dismayed at what I found.
"Oh..." I breathed, feeling dizzy.
A skeleton was recognizable regardless of its size. However, I wished I hadn't recognized it for what it was.
The infant had probably drowned.
Before I could recognize what was happening, I was stumbling backwards, my palms being ravaged by the brush and sharp rocks. I had to get as far away as possible.
Someone was restraining me mid-escape, arms wrapped around me to keep me from falling any further backwards, and all I remembered before the nothing, was two brown eyes.
***
My feet were cold as they were propped up against the edges of the bathtub, and I felt my core shattering as a scream racked my body. My body, however, was burning. I was in hell.
I stared at my pale thighs, slick with sweat and blood. My enormous stomach seemed to lurch with every contraction, and I could feel my ribs being pushed from inside.
I let out one last bloodcurdling scream.
***
There was supposed to be crying, but all that I could hear was my own blood pounding in my ears, and my hollow breaths.
It was blue when it came out. Why wasn't it crying?
***
First responders found me cradling him in the bathtub, his body as cold as mine now was.
***
My hands were in my lap, bandaged tightly, and I was sitting in the back of Booth's SUV. I could hardly feel anything besides numb, and a distinct ghostly feeling of remembrance.
Sweets was beside me, staring a hole into the side of my face with his concern. Booth was driving, silent, and Doctor Brennan was casting occasional glances at me from the front seat.
"Papillon," Sweets said gently, leaning forward so he could be in my fixed field of view. "what happened?"
I didn't respond. My mouth was dry, and I couldn't really breathe, let alone speak.
"We should reach the hospital in less than twenty minutes," commented Doctor Brennan.
"Papillon," Sweets pleaded.
"He's gone," I breathed at last, turning over my empty, bandaged hands.
"What's gone?" asked Booth, trying to twist in his driving position to get a look at me.
"My baby."