06 | Video

[unitas]

[ It's obvious this is being filmed in one of the many temples, all cool hard stone behind her, and, given the subject matter of the video, most likely to be Hope's. Sharon does not look pleased. Furious might be the better descriptor but it's a calm sort of fury. There are a few spatters of dark blood on her cheeks, dried and cracking; old. She has no wounds just stains and memories. She leans in towards the lens and whispers: ]

So, which one of you fuckers killed me? [ Her killer could reply, he might not, but she won't stop until she finds him and returns the favor. ]

Comments

[notimpervious]

Then it was designed very poorly, because it did not convey your point properly.

[Translation: be more literal and specific next time.

Brennan presses her lips into a line as she waits for him to finish his tirade, breathing deeply. This is not the first time she has heard this, and frankly, it has been said better to her. It is still somewhat upsetting -- evidently, she still comes across cold and callous -- but it is also old news.]

In fact, I can imagine quite well what it must feel like to die any number of ways. A person's bones can tell me about their entire life in a matter of hours. I work to give a voice to their final moments, to let their loved ones know that someone cares enough to devote themselves to finding out the truth. I divorce my metaphorical heart from every case in pursuit of the truth, but I am ultimately human. I may compartmentalize, but I also feel. I know how long a person suffered being hung by their feet before they took their last breath. I can say with absolute certainty how much pain a person was in before they died. I am able to tell a mother that her child's end was swift and painless, even if that is a lie.

[She has watched a man die from a bullet to the heart, pressed her hands against the hole as the muscle stopped pumping, desperate to save him though she knew that he was gone. She knows what death looks like. Every skeleton was once a person. Angela has reminded her of that for years, even when she knows that Brennan remembers it.]

A scientist with no imagination -- where do you think curiosity comes from? We seek answers because we create questions from where there were none. [A quiet sigh.] I have apologized to Sharon and offered her my condolences. It was thoughtless to immediately ask her what I did. But do not mistake that thoughtlessness for a lack of empathy. If I lacked that, I would look for answers by murdering our fellow captives.

[torrefied]

Or, perhaps you're not as good at understanding as you like to think you are.

[Don't question his methods!! He sighs tiredly. And people say he talks too much.]

Look, I have no interest in furthering this argument with you, nor do I care to detail the fallacy of your claim. People kill for all sorts of reasons, empathy or otherwise, and making such a sweeping generalization is both lazy and wrong. If you've apologized to Sharon, then I'm done here.