Brennan sighed as she looked around the lab. Angela had insisted on decorating every available surface with some sort of garish Christmas tinsel or garland, and the strings of small twinkling lights were impossible to avoid. All of this effort to enhance the lab's appearance for one day of the year seemed to be waste of time, but Angela thought it was fun, and since she was Brennan's best friend, Brennan saw no problem in indulging her whimsy. Brennan shook her head, amazed at Angela's enthusiasm over a holiday. For some reason Brennan could never understand, Angela thought Christmas was wonderful. Shrugging, Brennan turned away from the display and walked into her office.

It really didn't make any difference, anyway. Brennan checked the reservation confirmation on her computer once again. She was finally going to Niger over this Christmas holiday. She had wanted to go last year, but Dr. Goodman had denied her request, saying she would be needed at the lab to help identify some newly arrived sets of ancient remains. What a fiasco last Christmas had been...being locked in the lab under quarantine wasn't a complete waste of time, given that they were able to help Ivy Gillespie recover part of her past, but it was not the most efficient way to spend a long weekend.

The one good thing about having Dr. Saroyan in charge of the lab this year was that she didn't seem to care if Brennan stayed or left over the holidays. For some reason, that irked Brennan...at least she assumed that was what irked her, even though she had to admit that she might also be irked by all the attention Dr. Saroyan had been lavishing on Booth since she had taken over the leadership of the lab.

Thinking of Booth made Brennan smile as usual, especially when she thought about how excited he'd been about Christmas this year. He had purchased some sort of elaborate remote controlled car for Parker this year, and it was difficult to determine who would actually have more fun with it...Parker or his dad. Booth had talked endlessly about how happy he was that he was going to be able to take Parker to see his Great Grandpops for Christmas this year since Rebecca was going on a trip to London with her new boyfriend.

All of Booth's nostalgic talk about how he had spent Christmas with his grandparents over the years had made Brennan a little wistful. Even though rationally she realized that she should be over her mother's death and her father's disappearance, small memories of Christmases with them and her brother still managed to worm their way into her thoughts. However, she had steeled herself against those little intrusions into her logical mind and had even been able to be happy for Booth as he shared his plans for the holidays.

She shut down her computer and turned to check her desk one more time when she heard the soft voice at the door.

"Hiya, Bones…" Booth stood leaning against her doorframe. "I'm glad I caught you before you left."

"Booth...I thought you'd left for your Grandfather's house already." Brennan picked up her bag and files. "Are you running late?"

"No...not really...it's just…" He blushed slightly. "I wanted to give you your gift before you left. It isn't much….sorry. I kinda ran out of time to shop." He held out a small gift bag for her.

"Oh, Booth….I'm sorry. I don't have your gift here with me. It's at my apartment. I had planned to see you next week…." Brennan stammered a bit as she avoided eye contact with Booth. Gift exchanges always made her feel awkward and uncomfortable.

"Don't worry about that. I just happened to be in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd stop by." A lie...but she didn't need to know everything, did she? "Anyway...here..open your present."

"Thank you, Booth." Brennan smiled as she removed the tissue from the bag and pulled out the picture frame. "Oh, Booth! I love it!" She laughed as she saw the picture of the two of them dressed as Tony and Roxie, taken while they were undercover when they were on a case in Las Vegas.

"Yeah, I thought you might...that black dress looked really good on you, and I liked Tony's clothes, too." Booth stood next to her as he looked over her shoulder at the picture. "It's kinda fun to remember that trip, isn't it? We had a lot of fun…." He paused as her blue eyes captured his thoughts. "Maybe we can go back some time as us…"

She nodded, inhaling sharply as she noticed the physiological changes in her body in response to his proximity. He was so very attractive…"Yes, maybe so...except for the fact that you should avoid any temptation to gamble…"

"Yeah, you're right…." He shook his head. "Bad idea. God, look at the time. I gotta go." He turned to face her. "Look, Bones….be careful on your trip to Niger or wherever the hell it is you're going. Be safe, okay?"

"Booth...I can take care of myself...I've been on many trips like this before…"

She was so close...he wanted to avoid looking at her lips...he didn't want to kiss her, did he?…."Yeah, I know, but the FBI needs you to come back in one piece to help me solve crimes, okay? So you gotta be careful."

He was so close...his eyes were so warm…"I will, Booth. I'll be back next week." She took a step towards her door. "I need to go...to get to the airport on time…."

"Yeah, of course….so, um...Merry Christmas, Bones."

"Merry Christmas, Booth."