Christmas Magic

Summary: Booth invites Brennan to travel with him and Parker up to Vermont. They both get a little more than they bargained for. BB. Post Santa in the Slush.

Disclaimer: If I owned Bones in any way, shape, or form, Booth and Brennan would have started having sex after that kiss under the mistletoe.

A/N: Yep, I caught up on most of Bones (finally) and saw Santa in the Slush. Now I get inspired. Go figure.

Chapter 1: Invitation

"Aren't you glad you came?" Her father's voice broke through her thoughts. She looked over at him with her observant blue eyes, noticing the pure joy written all over his face and twinkling in his eyes. And if his face didn't give it away, the tone in his voice did.

It made her heart swell with happiness.

Temperance Brennan smiled and nodded slightly. "This is much better than skeletons in Peru," she responded, watching as Hayley and Emma played with Russ.

Max followed her gaze with his own eyes and then smiled, reaching over and patting his daughter's knee gently. "Maybe next year you'll have a family to bring."

She shot him a small, confused look, ignoring the family part of his comment. "You could be out by next year," she said, trying to be positive for him.

"Temperance," Max began, shooting her a look. "Let's face it—I'll be here for the rest of my life." The sadness that leaked through in his tone of voice made her frown softly. She leaned her head against his shoulder in order to comfort him.

"Merry Christmas, Dad," she whispered.

He kissed the top of her head. "Merry Christmas, Temperance."

&&&

The only damper to the day, she decided as she entered her apartment, was the realization that any more Christmases she spent with her family would probably be spent in that trailer. Temperance sighed and set her things down on the counter, opting to end her day with a nice hot shower and a glass of wine.

Her cell phone, however, had other ideas.

She toyed with the thought of ignoring the call, but decided against it, shuffling through her bag and pulling out the electronic device that was keeping her from a much desired shower.

"Hello?" Temperance answered tiredly, not even bothering to check the caller ID.

"Bones? What's the matter?"

She smiled and shook her head even though he couldn't see her. "I just realized any more Christmases I spend with my family will be in a trailer where probably hundreds of conjugal visits have occurred." She noticed that he was whispering. "Why are you speaking so quietly?"

"Parker is asleep next to me. I don't want to wake him up. Are you okay?"

"I'm okay, Booth. How was your time with Parker?"

"It was fun. Parker didn't even mind the detour we took."

The image of Booth and Parker standing next to the Christmas tree they had brought flashed into Temperance's mind. "Thank you for that, Booth. Hayley and Emma really loved that."

"It's not really Christmas without a Christmas tree." There was a brief pause and Temperance heard Booth whisper something that sounded like 'No I haven't asked her yet, bud.'

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, Parker was just wondering if—uh—you'd like to drive up to Vermont with us."

Temperance smiled. "I'd like that, Booth. What time?"

"I'll call you before we leave. Does that sound okay?"

"That sounds fine," she responded. "So I guess we both got what we wanted for Christmas after all."

Booth chuckled. "I guess we did. Good night, Bones."

"Good night, Booth."

Temperance hung up and set her cell phone down beside her. She had thought that after the kiss under the mistletoe, things would have been awkward between the two of them. Truth was—that was nothing like kissing her brother. She would never kiss her brother like that. She isn't even sure if she's ever kissed another man like that.

Well, maybe that was going a little far.

But regardless, she very much wanted to do it again.

Temperance sighed. You're being ridiculous, she told herself. And very unprofessional. She tried shaking her head, in hopes of clearing out her thoughts. A shower. She'd take that shower she wanted, go to bed, and when she woke up, she wouldn't even remember what kiss she had been thinking about.

Yeah right.

&&&

In another part of D.C., Booth had settled his son into his bed, shuffling out to the living room to clean up the mess they had made. His mind, however, was on Temperance.

She had kissed him. And it wasn't just some innocent, long peck on the lips. It was a lapel-grabbing, here-have-some-gum kiss. The kind he used to get in high school, except this one had more feeling. Everything would have been fine, really, if Parker hadn't insisted on having Bones come along for the trip to Vermont.

Tomorrow, he would be spending a massive amount of time in a car with her, half of it alone.

Booth rubbed the back of his neck. It wasn't a big deal. It didn't mean anything to her. At least, he was pretty sure it didn't mean anything.

But it didn't matter. It meant something to him.

A/N: So there's the first chapter. Consider this an early gift from me to you. I probably won't have the next chapter up by Christmas. It's possible, but I doubt that it'll happen. Review and let me know what you think, because I'm going to need some serious inspiration/incentive to keep going...-grin-