A/N: Hello!!! So here I am again with a new fic. All my other fics will be on hold until the Christmas season is over as I'm now comitted to this new one, and hopefully, it'll be over by the 25th. Just a little Christmas loving to get us through the days!!!
Also, a HUGE thank you to bertie456 for being an angel to me with this fic and revising all the work!!!
Disclaimer: Don't own Bones.
"Honey, you're not listening to me," said Angela as she watched her best friend, her brow furrowed in concentration as her eyes flickered across the open and clearly fascinating case file in front of her.
"No, I'm not, Ange," Brennan said simply, not even bothering to look up to acknowledge the glare she knew as coming from the other side of the table. "I'm trying to work."
"And you're doing a wonderful job," Angela said with a smile, leaning over the desk and snatching the file Brennan was reading.
"Angela..." protested the anthropologist, her voice dangerously close to a whine.
"I'll give you the file back when I'm done talking, okay?" Brennan huffed in frustration, seeing no option other than listening to Angela, now that she'd learned that using karate moves on your best friend was socially frowned upon.
"Fine, but just so you know, this is a very childish attitude," she said, leaning back on her chair while crossing her arms beneath her breast with what could also be construed as a childish attitude.
Angela sighed, placing the hostage-file on her lap before resuming her previous, one-sided conversation. "As your best friend, I refuse to let you spend this entire Christmas season working."
Brennan rolled her eyes, uncrossing her arms as she gazed at Angela. "I fail to see the problem with me working at this time of year. It's very similar to almost every other time of year, except marginally colder."
"It's not the cold that's the point, Bren. It's the Christmassy goodness. What I'm saying is that I want you to get out of the lab occasionally and participate in festive activities," Angela explained slowly, her eyes sparkling like fairy lights.
"Activities such as..?" asked Brennan, arching a slender eyebrow in question.
"Such as shopping, picking a tree, getting drunk on egg-nog, you know... Have fun doing Christmas stuff." The unimpressed look on Brennan's face told her she wasn't convinced and Angela sighed sadly. "It's honestly not that scary, you know."
"What's not scary?" asked Brennan.
"Being happy, Bren. It's not that scary to let yourself be happy," said Angela, placing her warm hands on Brennan's cold ones. "You deserve it. And you don't have a reason to talk your way out of the Christmas spirit this year."
"What's your reasoning?" she inquired, curiously.
"Well, let's see... You know what happened to your parents when they left, your brother and father are back. Admittedly, in somewhat strange circumstances, but they're here. You have the most fabulous friends a girl can wish for and a very envied job. All you need to complete the picture is something hot to warm the other side of the bed. And I don't mean a hot water bottle," she replied, laughing when Brennan glared at her.
"I might agree on some of the things, but even so, just because I know what happened to my parents, doesn't mean that the knowledge erases the years I spent alone wondering."
"I'm not saying it does, but you can't hide behind your past anymore, sweetie. It hurts, I know, and it'll probably always hurt a little bit, but you have to find a way to move on with your life. If you look back for too long, you'll always miss what's ahead of you," said Angela, smiling as she saw the contemplative look on Brennan's face and guessing she was close to giving in. Unfortunately no-one had ever accused Brennan of being weak minded.
"You know I hate psychology," she said, crossing her arms again as if saying that the conversation was over. However, like a dog with a squeaky festive bone, Angela was never one to give up easily.
"Sure you hate psychology, but you can't deny that I'm right. Besides, what's the downside on spending the Christmas holiday with people you care about?" If Angela wanted this to go her way, she would have to play a little dirty. "Besides, how can I enjoy the holiday season when my best friend in the entire world is locked in this cold, cold lab?" she completed with her best lost-puppy look.
Unfortunately, Brennan saw right through it. "You're not getting me to agree to this by making me feel guilty. I don't buy that anymore," she shot back, feeling a small surge of pride as Angela huffed in frustration.
"You know, sometimes I really hate how much you've learned from Booth," the artist replied with faked annoyance, knowing that she was proud of how much her friend changed since the FBI agent came into their lives. Even if said agent had created a monster.
"You just hate the fact that now I'm able to resist your manipulations."
"Just so you know, I'm offended that you'd think that of me." Temperance raised her eyebrows and Angela shrugged. "Okay, but can you blame me? It was hard enough already to get you out of this damn lab when you weren't aware of my very subtle, barely there manipulation. Now, I can't get you to go anywhere with me!"
Brennan leaned back in her chair, her eyes focused on Angela as she contemplated her words. "You're trying to manipulate me again, aren't you?"
"Damn," Angela said, laughing when Brennan started to smirk. "You're getting too good at this."
"I know. Booth taught me well," Brennan said, smiling at her best friend. She was considering Angela's proposition, but it was always fun to watch her friend while she was being beaten at her own game.
"Okay, so… Manipulations aside, please consider what I said. You can't spend the season working," Angela said, desperately wanting her best friend to be unreasonable, illogical and careless even for a moment. She would love to see Temperance Brennan let loose for once in her all too organized life.
"Why would I celebrate Christmas? I don't even believe in God," said Brennan.
"You don't have to celebrate the birth of Jesus. You can just celebrate the end of another year or the fact that you have loyal friends and a loving family," getting up, she walked around the desk to come closer to Brennan's chair. Dropping the file on the desk, she placed her hand on Brennan's arm.
"Just think about it okay? Like I said, it's not that scary." With a final smile and a squeeze of her arm, Angela made her way out of the office, catching Brennan's reluctant parting words.
"I'll think about it".
Outside her office, the pathology lab was quiet as Cam, Zach and Hodgins were all concentrated on their jobs. Their latest body wasn't decomposed, since it was a fresh kill, so Brennan wasn't needed in the investigation. Booth also wasn't involved as another agent had asked Cam to work on it as a personal favor, since she apparently knew him from her previous job.
Hodgins had being needed to identify the particles found under the victim's fingernails and hair. Zach, having nothing else to do, decided to help with the body, even if bone people should only do bone things.
When Angela entered the room, nobody moved to acknowledge her presence, being too invested in their work. Sitting beside Hodgins, she watched as he typed something on the keyboard and a number of different screens opened. She sighed loudly, hoping to get his attention.
It didn't work.
Shifting on her chair, she brought her face a bit closer to his and sighed again, this time in an almost theatrical manner. Hodgins brought his eyes up to meet his girlfriend's eyes, frustration written all over his features.
"Will you stop that?" he said, turning his eyes back to the screen. "It's not exactly helpful to the identification process."
"What's up with the attitude?" she asked, amused with his attempt to be intimidating. It was cute, really.
"I haven't forgiven you for what you did last night," he said sulkily, scrolling down as he continued to read the information.
"Will you let it go? It was one lousy cockroach!" she said as he turned to face her again.
"You didn't have to kill her!" he said, offended.
"What did you want me to do? Sing it to sleep? It was walking all over my canvas, getting its disgusting little cockroachy feet on my paintings!" she said, inadvertently attracting Cam and Zach's attention as she vehemently defended herself.
"You didn't have to kill her! You could have shown that beautiful, highly evolved creature some love," Hodgins said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Yeah, well… I can think of another highly evolved creature that won't be getting love any time soon," Angela said, her meaning not lost on him as he contemplated his options. Mourning for his dead sex life was definitely worse than mourning for the poor dead specimen of Periplaneta americana.
"So what can I do for my goddess today?" he asked, and Angela laughed out loud. Hodgins was a smart man.
"I'm just worried about Brennan," she said, rotating on her chair, spinning around as she spoke.
"Why do you say that?' he asked, placing both his hands on her chair to stop her from spinning as the sight alone was making him dizzy.
"Well, the Christmas season is here again, and again, she refuses to participate in any type of activity," she said, frustrated at her own inability to convince her best friend.
"Well, Ange, Dr. Brennan has free will, and neither man nor God can make her believe." At seeing his girlfriend's glare, he knew it wasn't the right thing to say.
"I'm not saying I want her to become a God-fearing woman. All I'm asking for is a little Christmas spirit," she said, leaning back in the chair with a sigh. "I just don't want my friend alone for Christmas. Again."
If there was one thing Hodgins knew without a doubt in his mind was that Angela had the one of the largest hearts in the world, and Brennan occupied a big part of it. "If you're asking, I'll help," he said, and was rewarded with a delighted beam from Angela.
"Really?" she asked, grinning madly when he nodded. Getting up from her chair, she jumped on his lap as she kissed him.
"Again, I remind you, not in the lab!" Cam's voice echoed throughout the room and Angela detangled herself from Hodgins as she walked over to stand by the pathologist.
"We're just discussing my plan," she said innocently. Her boss' head shot up and she knew she had her attention.
"What plan?" Cam asked, always apprehensive of anything involving the words "Angela" and "plan".
"A plan to get Brennan happily dating by the holiday's end," said Angela, her grin growing as she racked her brain for the perfect guy to hook her up with.
"Are you sure you should be meddling with Dr. Brennan's love life?" asked Cam, bringing her attention back to the corpse lying on the metal table.
"What love life? You can't meddle with something that doesn't exist," said Angela, with a conclusive air. "Besides, anything I do is for her own good."
"Right, and I'm sure she'll see it that way," said Cam, shaking her head in amusement.
"So, Cam… Do you know any decent guy who could make Brennan happy by Christmas?" she inquired hopefully.
"Angela, if I knew a guy like that, I would be calling him my boyfriend," the pathologist replied.
"Does Dr. Brennan knows about this?" asked Zach, looking up from his study for a split second.
"Of course not. First I need to find a guy, and then I can convince the girl," said Angela, wincing as she saw the trouble ahead. Convincing Brennan would be the equivalent of skiing through a revolving door - difficult, risky and quite possibly painful.
"So that leaves you and me to come up with a guy," said Hodgins.
Suddenly Angela's face brightened as she smiled. "What about Booth? We can ask him to find a hot FBI agent for Bren." She glanced over at Hodgins for approval.
"I don't think it would be a good idea to get Booth involved," he replied, shaking his head.
"Get me involved with what?"
The couple turned to see the agent in question entering the pathology lab.
"We're trying to find a good guy for Brennan," said Angela.
"And what does that have to do with me?" he asked, furrowing his brow.
"I was just wondering if you could find some nice, hot FBI agent to date her." It was said casually, but to Booth, it sounded a lot like a death knell. Specifically, his.
"No way, I'm not getting involved with this. Bones would kill me if she knew." Grinning, he started to back away towards the door. "As a matter of fact, I don't even want to be present while you discuss this."
"You refuse to be in her love life. The least you can do is help to fix it," said Angela, standing up in protest as Booth started to leave.
"Nope," he said firmly, backing towards Brennan's office. "Leave me out of this." He was gone before she could say any more and she turned to Hodgins, her smile back in place.
"I guess it's just you and me then."
He smiled, taking her hands in his. "As always, baby."
Planting a quick kiss on his lips, Angela leaned in, speaking conspiratorially, "So, I know this guy..."
So, what do you think? Anyone else thinks that Booth is the perfect hot FBI guy for Brennan? Will Brennan agree with the dates? Next chapter already on the making!!! Leave a review and it'll probably come faster!!!