Spoilers: None. Just some Christmas fluff :)
A/N: A big thanks to CupcakeBean for answering my plot 911 and answering it quickly! Also, for getting my Muse to whip herself into shape.
Disclaimer: Bones doesn't belong to me. Title taken from the lovely Christmas song Home on Christmas Day, which I never heard until I purchased Kristin Chenoweth's album this week.
What had she been thinking? This was turning into a catastrophe. She struggled with the cord and, finally, had some success as the knot untwisted. Now all she had to do was figure out the jumble of lights clumped together in the middle of the string. She shook her head wondering for what seemed to be the thousandth time why she was so intent on doing this. The answer came back almost immediately: family. For the first time in years she would be with her family at Christmas. She shook her head again. That wasn't entirely true; he had been there before Max and Russ came back into her life.
"Bones!" His voice drifting down the hall cut through her thoughts. "You left your phone in my car." She heard him pause to shut the door. "Bones?! Where are you?!"
"Back here, Booth." Knots completely gone, she climbed up on the stool and started working.
In her living room, Booth set her phone on the coffee table and smiled. She was really going all out. Fake snow coated the windows even though the real stuff was expected before the end of the week, red and green candles fought for space among her books, and a tall tree stood in the corner just waiting to be decorated. Once his Bones set her mind to doing something she gave it her all. And then some.
Figuring she would soon start wondering why he was loitering in her living room, he moved down the hall and was greeted by sight only God himself could be responsible for: Temperance Brennan was perched on a step stool stringing lights around the door frame of her guest bedroom. Her face was set in a look of deep concentration as she tried to equally space the thumb tacks in the frame and her auburn hair floating across her shoulders seemed to create a halo around her head. He paused, allowing himself to admire the view for a moment.
"See something you like?" She turned on the stool - a smile lighting her face - and pitched forward. He caught her effortlessly and, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, pressed his lips to her forehead.
He stepped back a bit, eyes traveling over her, and realized this was the moment. There were no puckish lawyers lurking, no - as he sometimes thought there might be - squealing Angela in the background. Just her and him. He let himself get lost in the moment.
Oxygen finally forced him to pull away and he steeled himself for the long discussion turned argument about what this meant, how he felt about her. He was sure it would follow. Instead, looking into her crystal blue eyes, he realized the discussion had taken place without him. This was them now. It had been for a while.
"Come on," He placed his hand on her back steering her towards the step stool once more. "Let's hang the rest of those lights."
"Alright," She grabbed untacked end of the strand and beamed down at him. "Hand me a thumb tack?" She moved forward on the step trying to avoid the edge and smiled to herself knowing he'd catch her if - whenever - she fell.