Here's the short first chapter to my sequel to A New Strategy, only in this one Angela is trying to win back Hodgins. I'm really not sure how this will work, or even if the idea is worth exploring, so any comments or suggestions would be gratefully accepted and considered. Gregg.
Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
"What do you think, Sweetie?" Angela asked Brennan. "Do I really have a chance at this?"
Dr. Temperance Brennan looked up at her best female friend and smiled a bit. She'd been listening to Angela's plan for going on one hour now, and had to admit that it was pretty interesting. Not as good as the one that she herself had devised to get Booth, but it was a good one. There was only one catch. "But you've already seen each other naked," she pointed out. "How are you going to get him worked up about that?"
Angela sighed. For someone who was as sexually outgoing as Bren was, she could also be pretty naïve at times. "He's a guy, Sweetie," she said patiently. "What guy doesn't get hot over a live naked woman in front of him unless he's gay?"
"True," Bren smiled, thinking of Booth's reaction every time he saw her naked. She also remembered his reaction when they were in that lap dance club a while back. That didn't produce as much of a smile, though. Thinking of Booth being turned on by any woman other than herself was definitely a non-smiling issue now that their relationship was intimate.
"So, should I do it?" Angela pressed. She wouldn't go through with her plan unless Bren supported it fully.
"Yes," Bren said with a nod of affirmance.
Angela squealed in joy. This was going to be fun! "Gotta go, Sweetie," she said as she stood up. "I've got to go get my man!"
"What's Angela all excited about, Bones?" Booth asked as he entered her office a few minutes after Angela had left. "She's out there smiling like mad and looking for Hodgins."
Bones decided to have a bit if fun at Booth's expense. "Oh, she's just excited since I volunteered you and Hodgins to be the nude models for her latest male figure studies," she said with an air of banality.
Booth missed the seat he was bending down to sit on and fell flat on his ass. "NUDE model?!" he roared. "What the hell are you trying to do to me, Bones?"
"Angela needs some help on this, and frankly both you and Hodgins have excellent symmetry and definition," Bones explained, enjoying the look of horror on his face, and also extreme discomfort as it always showed when discussing anything sexual outside his or her apartments.
"Well thank you for the appreciation of my attributes, but I'd really rather they not be displayed for anyone other than you, Bones," Booth replied snarkily. He'd just known that this day was going to turn out miserably. Bones had announced, very matter of factly, while he was enjoying his breakfast of champions, warm apple pie, that she had started her period that morning and launched into a long winded discussion of how she was feeling, and asked that if he wasn't doing anything too important after lunch, could he pick her up some tampons as she was almost out. Naturally the idea of eating anything at that moment had been destroyed, and all thoughts of sex for a while were banished. Yep, a miserable day. No Pie (not his fault), no sex (again not his fault), and volunteered to be a nude model for Angela (most definitely not his fault!), the second most sexually outgoing woman he'd ever met. Joy. Would he ever have control of his life again? He seriously doubted it. He was so fucking whipped!
Bones decided to let him stew for the afternoon and then tell him she was kidding over dinner. She had to make sure he didn't get too full of himself, after all. "Do you have those papers I need to sign?" she asked, making the switch to business. They were at work, and she always wanted to get the important stuff out of the way, despite the fun of teasing Booth.
Angela came up to Hodgins and placed an arm around his shoulders. "Hodgie!" she said enthusiastically.
"Hey, Ange," Hodgins said as he looked up from his microscope. He'd been identifying fungal types all morning from an archaeological find in South America and could do with a break. He was also always willing to spend time with Angela. Now that her relationship with Roxie was over, he was curious if there was any chance of them being together again. He hoped so, and had tried to be supportive of her this past year once his initial anger and self-pity had subsided.
"How would you like to help me with an art project, Hodgie?" she asked in her most sincere, yet feminine manner, namely with her body draped over his as her arm began to weigh down on his shoulders.
Hodgins got suspicious all of a sudden. Angela was a direct woman, and here she was trying to be seductive. "What kind of art project?" he asked.
She leaned over further and whispered in his ear all of her art plans. She'd actually been wanting to do this for some time, and now that she had decided to try and get Hodgie back, it was the perfect opportunity.
"Nude?" Hodgins asked with a gulp. It's not that he was a prude, but this was an art study which would, no doubt, be on display. He wasn't too keen on flashing the goods all over, even if it wasn't live.
"Oh come on, Hodgie," Angela said in the voice she remembered really turned him to mush. "Please," she said in an unmercifully pleading voice.
"Okay," he managed to get out. He was such a pushover when it came to her. He was definitely going to make sure that he had some fun, too, with this.
Angela kissed him on the cheek. "Be at my place at 8:00 tomorrow evening," she told him.
"I am so whipped," he said as she pranced off to her office, all the while he kept his focus on her ass.
"Now, Bones," Booth said in his best wounded party tone of voice. "You've got to admit that this whole nude modeling thing is a little out there."
"Not really, Booth," Bones replied as she opened the door to her apartment, letting him go past with the groceries that they'd picked up to make dinner with. "I modeled for several figure studies while I was in graduate school and it was no big deal. I'm sure you're portraits will turn out to be very, very good."
"Bones, you and I both know that when it comes to sex and this other stuff, I'm not nearly as 'liberated' as you, and also Angela, are," he tried to explain. "I also work for the FBI, Bones. In case you haven't noticed, they get pretty uptight about my flashy socks every now and then. How the hell are they going to react if yours truly winds up on display in some art show sans clothes??? Bones, I love being an FBI Special Agent. I'd like to think that it's my career here. Posing for Angela will flush that happy thought right down the toilet!" he pleaded.
Bones laughed finally. "I got you good, Booth," she said when he looked at her as if she'd suddenly gone insane.
"You were having fun at my expense?" he questioned.
Bones nodded. "And you fell for it!" she said delightedly. Finally a joke worked on him and he didn't catch on. The seduction with the sex toy bit a few weeks before didn't count in her opinion since she had ulterior motives. This was simply for a good laugh.
"You're really killing me here, Bones," Booth said as he sighed deeply in relief.
Bones walked over to him and pulled his head down for a deep kiss. "But what a way to go," she murmured.
A/N: I did a back and forth with this chapter to make it clearer that this is a sequel to A New Strategy, but the following chapters will be more Angela/Hodgins centric, with a bit of Bones/Booth thrown in since they're too fun to write to keep them out of the mix. Let me know what you think. Gregg.
