A/N: This is my Bones fanficion Secret Santa for Spitfire303, one of the things they wanted was Christmas day with Booth, Brennan, and Christine.
Temperance Brennan sat on the couch nursing a cup of homemade hot chocolate looking at the large festively, and some would say over decorated tree in the corner while she waited for Booth to come home from doing his annual Christmas Eve shopping,
Brennan heard Booth open the front door and stomp the snow from his shoes before coming into the living room.
"Bones, it's insane out there! Not to mention it's getting colder by the minute, it started snowing as I pulled in the driveway!"
Brennan got up and headed to the kitchen, returning shortly with her own cup of hot chocolate topped off and a steaming cup for Booth.
"Here drink this, it will warm you up. I don't understand why you go shopping on Christmas Eve to begin with. With the internet and not to mention the MONTHS of 'warning' the stores give us you should have been done weeks ago."
Booth took a drink of the hot chocolate, "this is really good, it tastes noting like the stuff in the packet."
'That's because it's homemade not from the packet."
"Oh. For your information I was done with my shopping weeks ago, I had to go and get Christine one last gift."
"Booth, between what we got her and what Santa got her, she's getting half the toy store! I'm sure Dad and everybody else will get her the other half! She didn't need another gift…."
"I know but this one is special and custom made just for her."
"What could you possibly get a four year old for Christmas that's custom made?"
"You'll see when she opens it, you'll like it too. Did she go to bed okay?"
"Yes, after I told her if she didn't stay in her room and go to sleep Santa wouldn't come."
"Bones…"
"Booth, it's an empty threat Santa would come even if she didn't go in her room and sleep. I had to tell her something; she wanted to stay up and wait for Santa to come…."
'Ah, Parker wanted to do the same when he was about Christine's age. I told him he could stay up and wait, as soon he fell asleep I carried him to his room. Do you think she's asleep?"
"I checked on her a few minutes ago, she's asleep, but it isn't a very deep sleep. I think we need to wait a little longer to be sure she's not going to wake up. "
"That's probably a good idea; I don't know how we'd explain it to her if she caught us."
"We'd tell her the truth."
"Bones, we can't take the magic of Christmas away from a four year old."
"We wouldn't, we'd just tell her that Santa didn't have time to put all the presents under the tree so he asked us to help or something…."
Booth chuckled, 'I never thought I'd see the day when Dr. Temperance 'I hate Christmas and everything it stands for' Brennan would be participating in the 'whole Santa myth' let alone lying to her own daughter about it."
Brennan wrapped her hand around Booth's and he instantly pulled her into his arms."It is true when we first met I didn't like Christmas, it had many negative feelings associated with it. But since becoming your partner and now seeing Christmas through Christine's eyes the negative feelings are starting to fade. What my parents did will always be with me and this time of year will always make me think of it. But I don't want to spend the holiday's waist deep in a mass grave anymore, I haven't for years…."
Booth kissed Brennan's hair, "Thanks Bones."
"What for?"
"Letting me give you back Christmas."
Brennan nodded a little, snuggling more into Booth's side. After another hour Booth sat up. "I'm going to get her stuff out, she's asleep."
"Okay," Brennan followed to help Booth lug all of Christine's presents upstairs from the basement and put them under the tree.
Booth and Brennan hadn't been bed that long when they heard, "Mommy, Daddy, Santa came!"
Booth rolled over and looked at the clock it was a minute after 2 AM. "Noodle, it's too early for Santa to come-"
"No it's not, he's already been here!"
Booth sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, "did you peek downstairs?" in the light from the hallway he saw Christine nod and look at the floor. Booth got up and went over to Christine picking her up, "you're not supposed to peek, noodle, it's supposed to be a surprise! No more peeking, let's get you back to bed." Booth kissed the top of Christine's head and headed toward the door.
"Booth, she can sleep with us, she'll just get back up otherwise."
"Do you want to sleep with Mommy and me instead of going to your room?"
Booth felt Christine nod against is chest, he turned and walked back to the bed, letting Christine roll onto the mattress as Brennan pulled her close. "Mommy, Santa came!"
"He did?"
"Yeah, I looked downstairs…"
Brennan chuckled," you're not supposed to peek, Christine. It's still too early to open your presents though. Go back to sleep so you won't be tired when you open your presents and won't have to stop playing to take a nap." Brennan rubbed Christine's back as she snuggled into the blankets and fell asleep.
Booth rolled to face Brennan, whispering," how much time do you think she'll give us?"
"Christine will be up with sun, I'm sure."
Booth groaned. "Don't do that, you love that she now 'gets' this part of the Christmas holiday."
"I do, but I'd love it more if she'd let us sleep in."
Brennan laughed, "Good night, Booth."
"Night Bones." Booth put a hand on Christine's back, hoping the comfort would help her sleep longer.
As soon as the first streaks of light penetrated the bedroom blinds Christine's eyes opened and she turned to Brennan, pushing on her shoulder."Mommy, can I open presents now?"
Brennan rolled over and looked at the clock, it was 7:26 the sun had been up for a minute. "Not until Daddy wakes up-"Christine turned and began to push on Booth's shoulder, "Daddy wake up!" Booth had been awake since Christine woke Brennan, and was lying quietly to see what Christine would do.
"Why?"
"So I can open my presents!"
Booth rolled over and scooped Christine up, "how do you know you have presents? Santa could have left those for me and Mommy."
"I saw my name on them!"
"Oh, did you see any with my name on them?"
"Uh huh, Mommy too. Christine pulled on Booth to try and get him out of bed.
Booth grinned. "Okay. We can open them after I take a shower…."
"Daaaaaaddddddddddddddddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! I want to open them NOW!"
Booth chuckled and kissed Christine's forehead "Okay, I guess I can take a shower later, but I have to get coffee first. While I do that go pick out what you want to open first."
"K." Christine ran from the room
Brennan sat up, "Booth, you took a shower before bed last night so you wouldn't have to."
"I know Bones I was just teasing Christine, and she knows it too. Let's go before she spontaneously combusts or something "
"That's not-"
"It's Christmas, Bones save the science lecture for tomorrow." Booth kissed Brennan's cheek,"Merry Christmas, Bones."
"Merry Christmas, Booth." The partners got out of bed and headed to the kitchen. Five minutes later Booth stood in the kitchen doorway with a steaming cup of coffee quietly watching Christine trying to see what the present in her lap was without opening it. Booth felt Brennan behind him. "You can open your presents now Christine"
"K Daddy. " Booth and Brennan dodged flying wrapping paper and made their way to the couch. forty five minutes later Christine had piles of mini furniture and everything else you would need to lavishly decorate a dollhouse. Plus she had games, books and other toys piled around her.
"Christine come here and open one last present from me then you can open your last Santa present."
"K Daddy." Christine walked over to the couch and Booth helped her sit between himself and Brennan. Booth reached beside the couch and pulled up a bright yellow hard plastic case with red sparkly bow on it."Booth…." Booth nodded and set the case in Christine's lap, opening the latches."Go ahead and open it Christine."
Christine opened the lid and looked down at the robot that had been painted to loosely resemble her. "I got you your own robot that you can play with and not just look at like you do Parker's." Booth took the robot from the case and turned the switch on the robot's back on, and then he put it on the coffee table."Walk." the robot started walking across the table." I can play with it by myself?"
"Yes, you just have to tell it to do whatever you want. Tell it to stop; you have to say it a little loud."
"Stop!"The robot stopped dead a few inches before the end of the table.
"Daddy, it stopped!"
"Yep, if you want it to start walking, you'll have to tell it to turn around first so it doesn't fall off the table."
"K. Turn around!" the robot turned around. "Walk!" The robot started walking and a few steps before the end of the table Booth told it to stop. "Christine, Santa left you another present behind Daddy's chair, go look."
"K, Mommy." Christine got off the couch and went behind Booth's chair and Booth and Brennan followed. Christine pulled the Christmas blanket off. "A dollhouse!"
"Yes, do you like it?"
"Yeah."
Brennan smiled. "Let Daddy put it in front of the tree so you can play with it."
"K." Brennan picked Christine up as Booth picked up the dollhouse and headed for the tree."Christine you're going to have to keep the pieces of your doll house inside it and not on the floor of your room, okay?"
"K.
"Thank you. Go give Daddy his present and then you can decorate your dollhouse."
"K." Brennan put Christine down and headed to the tree. Christine got a box from under the tree and went over to Booth."Here Daddy!"
"Thanks noodle." Booth took the box and started wrapping the paper off, he opened the box. "Stripped socks and ties, I love them Christine, thank you.' Booth hugged Christine, whispering in her ear. "Give Mommy her present."
'K." Christine went back to the tree and got another box, and walked over to Brennan, "Here Mommy!"
Brennan took the box, "thank you Christine." Brennan carefully unwrapped the box, opening she pulled back layers of tissue paper to reveal Christine's hand prints made into ornaments and painted red and green with the year written in gold.
"Thank you, Christine, I love them." Christine grinned as Brennan hugged her. "I painted them myself."
"You did a very good job. I'll put them on the tree for now, but I think after we take the tree down I'll put them in my office, so I can look at them all the time. Go play with your dollhouse."
"K." Christine slid off the couch and went over to the pile of dollhouse accessories, which Booth had taken out of the protective packaging before Brennan wrapped them up, and started decorating. Brennan pickled up Christine's robot."Why did you get her a robot?"
"I thought she's like it, A few months ago when you were on your book tour Christine saw Parker's and got mad when he wouldn't let her play with it, the voice recognition hasn't worked for years, but he still likes it. I called Zach and asked if he could make Christine one, he said he could if Hodgins helped him; they've been working on it for a few months. Angela painted it, that's why I had to go get it last night, the paint wasn't dry."
"I think she'll like it." Just then Christine came up and Brennan handed her the robot. Christine went back over to the dollhouse and tried to fit the robot inside. "Christine, I think the robot is too big to fit in the dollhouse. The other dolls will have to have a picnic or something and visit the robot."
"K."
Brennan smiled and went over to the tree, getting another box."Merry Christmas, Booth."
Booth took the box and pulled the paper off. "Flyers tickets?" Booth took the tickets from the box noticing they were attached to a large bag of peanut M&Ms
"Yes, you expressed an interest in going to a game this season so; I thought it'd be a good gift. I got you two tickets to two games next month; I thought you and Parker could go together. There are things Christine and I can do nearby, in less you and Parker would rather go alone. The M&Ms are for weight, in case you had to shake it before you opened it. Plus I know you love them."
"No, Bones, I'd like for the four of us to be together; we could do family stuff during the day and Parker and I can go to the games at night."
"Sounds good."
"I love my gift, Bones, thanks."
"You're welcome, Booth." Booth got up and got Brennan's gift from under the tree. "Merry Christmas, Bones." Booth handed Brennan a large gift bag, she pulled the tissue paper off the top to find all of her favorite bath oils, soaps, candles, and lotions. Booth also tucked in a few pairs of fleece lined lounge socks and some of Brennan's favorite dark chocolates.
"I love this Booth, thank you. I can't wait to use it."
"You're welcome Bones. I'll fight Christine at bedtime while you relax in the bathtub. I also put a bottle of wine in the fridge…"
"Aw, thank you, I can't wait."
"You're welcome, Bones."
"Mommy, will you play with me?"
"Yes, but let's eat breakfast first."
'I don't want to."
Brennan smiled, "we're having bagels, and you can eat at the coffee table."
"K."
A half hour later Brennan was sitting on the floor in her pajamas playing with Christine and her dollhouse. Booth sat on the couch watching them, it was the perfect Christmas.
A/N2: I hope it's what you had in mind, and enjoyed it.
