A/N: This one shot is for those who requested something to explain Angela's reaction to "The Kiss" and it took me a while to get an inspiration on how to do it. I had originally thought to have this as a continuation of my "Mistletoe & Steamboats" episode tag but thought it best to keep to the original story.
Disclaimer: Nope not mine.
The Kiss Conspiracy
An intermittent river of people, first a trickle of one or two and then a torrent of hundreds, moved down the airport corridor as they disembarked their plane. Brennan was swept along and kept pace with difficulty through her weariness. She welcomed a spurt of energy as she shook off the effects of a nap cut short by their arrival at Washington's Dulles International.
The flight from Lima, Peru had taken almost a full day of travel and it was a relief to be back home. This trip had been postponed from Christmas to the first week of the new year due to her decision to celebrate the holiday with her family and a couple of special request Limbo cases to complete.
Her fellow passengers had included the expected mix of world travelers. The older aircraft unfortunately had not yet been fitted with the latest in entertainment offerings advertised in the in-flight magazine as "coming soon". This realization was bad news for the families with cranky bored children desperate for any distraction and destined to find only mischief instead.
A group of students, though mostly well behaved, whiled away the time taking candid shots of their classmates with their cell phone cameras. Brennan counted herself lucky that the constant camera flashes hadn't triggered a migraine that visited her occasionally when under stress and deprived of sleep.
She had ignored the students as best she could, but found the crying of a colicky baby broke her concentration as she worked on a chapter of her latest novel on her laptop. She fought the impulse to offer the child's frazzled parents seated across the aisle some advice but wisely suspected anything she said probably wouldn't be appreciated.
The moving stream of people slowed as they reached the lineup heading for the customs station. Ahead of her in the queue, the young couple fussed over their unhappy baby who continued to voice his displeasure. As she waited, her mind wandered to the brief experience a few months ago of caring for Andy, the infant son of a murder victim. The baby had been found at the crime scene and required their supervision until they could recover some evidence he had inadvertently swallowed. Brennan had also been determined not to abandon Andy to the "tender mercies" of social services until she was satisfied he would receive proper care and medical treatment for a condition they had identified during the investigation.
Even allowing for Booth's expert assistance, she felt she had done quite well looking after the baby boy even though she had initially been completely unprepared for the task when his care was placed in her hands. By the time Andy was released several days later to his adoptive parents and friends of his mother, she admitted to Booth at the end of the case that she had formed a natural fondness for him.
The positive effect of these child care memories and the few but enjoyable times she had spent with Booth's son Parker had not been sufficient to change her decision to not have children of her own. She had been puzzled though lately when seeing people with babies that her own arms seemed to remember holding Andy and irrationally felt empty and wanting. She observed herself curiously during these moments and was thankful that focusing her thoughts on work helped to counteract the triggered maternal responses. She found it interesting that a few days of infant care-giving could elicit such a strong reaction that could return at such seemingly odd moments.
Brennan held her carry-on luggage securely as she moved through the customs line. The contents of her bag included a special souvenir of her trip that had required a large bundle of papers almost rivalling the entire manuscript of her last book to transport it legally to its eventual home at the Jeffersonian. When her turn came up, the customs official removed her "souvenir" to the astonishment and fascinated horror of many of the people surrounding her.
As if recognizing a kindred spirit, Brennan's head began to throb as if offering its sympathies to the revealed artifact. A Peruvian colleague from the dig site she had visited had gifted her with a Tsantsa, a genuine shrunken head originally created from a captured enemy of one of his distant relatives of the Amazonian Shuar tribe or so he claimed. He had apparently been given it as a child to play with, which he said was a common practise. The Tsantsa's braided hair was heavily decorated with beads and semi-precious stones. In its own macabre way, it might be considered beautiful.
Brennan was very proud to have been able to acquire the artifact for the Jeffersonian Institute, especially if it could be authenticated. Her colleague had promised that it was more than two hundred years old. She knew that during the early 1900's many people were murdered to produce shrunken heads for the tourist trade of the time so there was always the chance that her gift might not be as old as claimed. Brennan felt it seemed worth the chance.
It took all of the artifact's import documents and Brennan's professional credentials for her to be allowed to escape from the scrutiny of the customs official and to continue on to claim her baggage. Once she had made it this far, she hoped to meet Angela who had graciously offered to pick her up when she had called a few days ago to confirm her return home.
Angela was relieved to arrive at the airport only 5 minutes after Brennan's flight had landed according to a quick phone check with the airline's call centre. She had parked in a loading zone and hurried inside to find Brennan. Her good timing was confirmed at the first flight information monitor found near the main doors of the terminal.
"Ah, there she is," Angela said to herself from her position on the other side of the baggage claim area. They greeted each other warmly with a quick hug and after a few minutes wait, Brennan's suitcases came down the chute.
"I'm parked out front so we shouldn't dawdle, sweetie," Angela explained and led the way to her waiting vehicle. She drove one of Hodgins' fleet of collector cars that he had given her that Christmas. He had surprised her by taking her through the entire collection and then told her to pick her favorite as her own. Like a kid in a candy store, she had flitted from one favorite to another before finally making her choice. It was a white 1959 Mercedes 220S cabriolet convertible with red interior and black ragtop roof. Brennan knew about the gift but hadn't yet ridden in it.
They quickly arrived at the car, stowed the luggage and left the insanely busy airport. As they moved along with rush hour traffic, Angela gave Brennan a running account of the last few days including the newest tidbits of office gossip since Brennan's last call to check in. Brennan found she was too exhausted to properly follow her best friend's good-natured chatter but tried to at least look attentive. Brennan's eyes wandered around while Angela spoke and fixed on an odd object hanging from the rearview mirror. Her mind tried to analyze the object for its anthropological meanings but was too tired to come up with anything that made sense. In her travels, she had seen all manner of things used to decorate this particular vehicle accessory.
"Angela, why do you have that dried twig tied to your mirror?" Brennan asked, interrupting Angela's story about the romantic troubles of a department staff Brennan had never met. "If that's mistletoe, Christmas was over weeks ago and you're not Ukrainian or follow a religious tradition tied to the Julian calendar."
"What?...Oh, that." Angela said, with a grin. "To you, it might be an old twig past its 'best before date' but that has important sentimental value for me. It was part of a hot little Christmas game between me and Hodgins."
"I see," Brennan replied simply and hoped Angela didn't continue with more detail than she really needed to know.
Noticing Brennan's exhaustion and lack of attention to her stories, Angela chuckled silently to herself as private memories went through her mind.
During the following silence, Brennan's thoughts turned to her own recent experience with the traditional plant and gazed out her window as the ghost of a smile formed on her face.
Angela, never missing anything, noticed Brennan's smile reflected in the window as her friend looked outside. She was pretty sure she knew what was at that moment going through Brennan's mind. She remembered a certain phone call that she hoped Brennan would never find out about.
(A few days before Christmas)
Angela had walked into Brennan's office to drop off some files into the desk's in-basket. As she turned to leave for her own office, the phone rang.
"Dr. Brennan's office, Angela Montenegro speaking," she answered politely.
"Ms. Montenegro, where is Dr. Brennan? I'm due back in court and I was told she was trying to contact me regarding an urgent matter," said Caroline Julian with an exasperated tone to her voice..
"She's out with Booth following up on a lead on the Santa murder. Did you try her cell, Ms. Julian?" Angela replied.
"Yes, I already left a message on her voice mail half an hour ago. Do you know what she wanted?" Caroline asked, hoping it wasn't something that was going to interfere with her holiday plans.
"I believe she was going to ask for your help so her family could use one of the visitor trailers at the prison for Christmas," Angela offered.
"Humphh. She should have submitted her request weeks ago. I'm not a miracle worker, you know...Oh, all right, I guess I could put in a good word for them with the judge. But this is going to cost her big time, favours like this don't grow on trees," she said with her characteristic gruffness. "Well, I'm glad she's finally getting some Christmas spirit. She's always so serious about things and really needs to lighten up some. I know, I know all about her childhood history," Caroline continued with a sigh. "And that Booth doesn't help. He's just as bad only to the other extreme. He's such a big kid at Christmas, he gets distracted by all the pretty lights and toys."
Angela suddenly had an idea but wasn't sure if their favorite assistant DA would go for it.
"Ms. Julian, you're right. I mean, they're out there right now frisking a bunch of Santas. You know, those two are destined to be together as a couple but they just don't believe it yet. How would you like to assist me in a little experiment?" she asked cautiously.
"What do you have in mind, cherie. They've worked with each other long enough for something to have blossomed before now and they're always arguing," observed Caroline.
"Exactly. They just need a little help. Why don't you tell Brennan that she can have your assistance with the prison trailer if she kisses Booth under some mistletoe in your presence." Angela said, as she outlined her idea.
"Fancy yourself a matchmaker do you, cherie? Those two are as professional as they come, but in the spirit of Christmas that does appeal to me. If they have to do this in front of me, I still think they'll just give each other a quick peck to get it over with," she said, becoming inspired about the idea the more she thought about it.
"I'll even bet you real money that if you get them to kiss for more than a couple of seconds, you are guaranteed to see some fireworks. What do you say to $100 for your favorite charity, in the spirit of Christmas, of course?" she suggested, hoping that sweetening the pot with the bet might give her a worthy challenge.
"All right, cherie. You have yourself a deal. Just tell Dr. Brennan that I returned her call and she should be able to get in touch with me later after court," Caroline said, accepting the deal with a chuckle.
"Merry Christmas, Ms. Julian," Angela said with a conspiratorial chuckle of her own.
"Merry Christmas, cherie," said Caroline to end the call.
Angela wrote out her message for Brennan and left the office with a huge grin on her face that she quickly erased. She looked cautiously around her hoping that Hodgins wasn't there to get suspicious. He was quickly developing an "Angela's up to something" radar that she would have to be aware of in future.
Angela changed lanes as her car made its way through a series of freeway off-ramps as she neared their destination.
"Bren, what are you smiling about?" she replied with a smile of her own as if she didn't know.
Brennan knew that there was little chance that her mistletoe kiss with Booth in her glass walled office in front of Caroline Julian hadn't found its way into the office gossip mill. Angela was probably the reigning moderator of this particular communications relay.
She had often found herself in recent days replaying her kiss with Booth but still hadn't sorted out her feelings about it. As Booth had rightly agreed when the topic came up with Dr. Sweets at the diner later on, it was only mistletoe and the result of blackmail. As simple as that sounded, she recognized that something between them had changed during that kiss. Simple, it was not.
Actually the Christmas tree that he had brought to the prison that night had more significance for her than the kiss itself. She fondly remembered it, and the emotion laden looks they had exchanged, as the best gift she had ever received. That night, she was able to be with her family again at last after more than 15 years. After such a long time, she felt like "pinching herself" as the saying went. It had always seemed an odd expression until that night when she was able to experience something that seemed appropriate. Brennan's thoughts came back to the question Angela had asked but only exchanged her smile for a less revealing facial expression.
"You're thinking about kissing Booth, aren't you," said Angela as she couldn't resist probing deeper. She had been waiting for this conversation for weeks now.
"That was nothing. It was just Caroline having fun at our expense," she responded flatly.
"But you still liked it, right?" Angela said, not about to let Brennan off the hook just yet.
"Booth is an adequate kisser," Brennan said, trying unsuccessfully to keep a neutral expression on her face.
"Oh, yeah! You liked it," Angela observed, watching her friend's face go through a series of expressions that she was an expert at deciphering. "Only adequate, hunh? Come on, tell me. I wasn't there to see but I've heard a million rumours from people who saw you from the platform and all of them said you two were hot."
"Really, Ange. There's not that much to tell. I had barely enough time to warn Booth about Caroline's conditional assistance to help me get the prison trailer for Christmas when she marched right in. I was already standing under the mistletoe I had attached to the ceiling when she pushed Booth towards me expectantly and we kissed. I counted up to 5 steamboats like Caroline had instructed and then she left. Booth had stuff to do so he left right afterwards...end of story," Brennan said as she laid out the basic details.
"5 steamboats, eh. I heard it was a lot more than that," Angela commented, trying to watch Brennan's face as she zipped in and out of traffic.
"Well, whoever said that was exaggerating," she replied defensively. If she was going to be honest, at least with herself, she actually forgot to count after the first couple of steamboats. Once she grabbed Booth's collar, she was surprised to easily fall into a seductive rhythm with Booth and almost forgot that they had an audience. She struggled to consciously add a couple of steamboats, but wasn't actually sure how many, just to make sure that Caroline couldn't call foul for not fulfilling the agreement.
"Really? Okay, then," Angela said, sensing that, what with travel fatigue and all, now was probably not the best time to press her friend for a further examination of the event.
Brennan fell silent and stared out her window again while Angela recalled her conversation with her unimpeachable source...
Angela walked down the hall towards the examination platform and was startled to see a confused Caroline coming towards her like a runaway train intent on a collision. Actually her facial expression looked like she had just bit into a lemon. That sure was odd!
Angela hadn't known until that moment that this was "Operation Mistletoe Day".
"Hello, Ms. Julian," she said excitedly with her curiosity and anticipation written plainly on her face. "Well...?"
"I don't know what's wrong with those two, chere, but you've got quite the challenge there. I knew I'd lost our little arrangement when I got to four steamboats and they weren't even half done, yet," Caroline said, relaxing her expression to laugh lightly, shaking her head. "And then she tried to pass it off as being like kissing her brother!"
"You're kidding. Wow. Now you know what we have to live with around here. The UST is so thick some days that we've been waiting for them to figure things out before they explode," Angela explained, with her happy "things are coming along nicely" face on.
"Well, good luck, cherie. So where would you like your Christmas gift to go?" Caroline asked.
"I chose 'Green Door' this year. And where's yours? I don't really want to deprive anyone at this time of year. It doesn't seem fair, somehow," replied Angela.
"That's very kind of you. I agree. I was going to offer the same thing. I like to support 'Bread for the City" at Christmas time. I'll send you a copy of my tax receipt as proof," added Caroline as she turned to leave. "Well, I have to go meet my daughter and her father. Merry Christmas, Ms. Montenegro." She gave a small wave and headed towards the lab exit.
"Merry Christmas, Ms. Julian," replied Angela. At that moment, she was startled by the presence of Jack suddenly standing at her elbow.
"What was that all about?" he asked, with a knowing grin that his fiancee was probably up to something.
"Oh!" Angela said, covering her surprise with a bright smile. She looked affectionately up at him, gave him a quick kiss and said,"Oh, nothing. Just spreading some Christmas cheer."
Angela and Brennan made a short stop at the Jeffersonian so that Brennan could secure the Peruvian artifact. Delivering it to its intended destination as soon as possible had been a condition of the additional travel insurance Brennan had purchased for the artifact and didn't want to take any chances with the delicate item. She wanted to be able to surprise her boss with the acquisition when she returned to work the next day as a thank-you for allowing her the time off for her extended trip to the Peruvian dig site. Although she offered to show it to Angela, her squeamish friend politely refused with a visible shudder of disgust. Brennan had expected this reaction but couldn't resist teasing her about it.
Angela dropped Brennan off at her apartment. Brennan thanked her for picking her up at the airport and promised to meet her for lunch the next day. Inside her apartment, Brennan had the long awaited opportunity to relax from her day's journey. After unpacking and making herself a cup of tea before going to bed, she decided to called Booth to check in.
"Hey, Bones. Back from Africa?" Booth said, unable to resist teasing her with the little white lie he had invented when talking to Parker just before Christmas. Telling children untruths like Santa and flying reindeer at Christmas had been a point of argument between them until Brennan had accepted the beneficial aspects of the culturally accepted practise.
"Very funny. Just for that, I'm getting Parker an atlas and then you'll have to explain why you lied to him," she said.
"Too late. My sister sent him a bunch of books for Christmas and we, ah, already had that little conversation. He called me on it and I told him that I must have been confused and misunderstood where you were going. I'm not sure if he bought it but I'm hoping he'll just think it's just one of those weird parent things. I'm sure my parents did the same to me about one thing or another and I don't remember them," explained Booth.
"I hope so, but now he's going to think I lied to him as well," she replied.
"He mentioned that and I told him that you were used to me getting things wrong and would pester me incessantly until you made me get it right," Booth continued.
"Well, that's true." she said, with a laugh. "So are there any cases right now. I'll be back to work tomorrow."
"No. Nothing new. I do have some followup paperwork on some of last year's cases to get you to sign off on, but that's about it," Booth replied. "I'll stop in tomorrow and drop them off."
"Alright. Good night, Booth." Brennan said with a yawn.
"'Night, Bones," he said, ending the call.
Brennan finished her tea and crawled into bed. With the comforting tones of Booth's voice still on her mind and the flashback of his smile from Christmas eve night, sleep soon claimed her.
A/N: For those who might be curious, the two charities are both real organizations and were picked randomly from a list of Washington area charities I found on the 'net.
As always, any thoughts or comments always appreciated. Thanks for reading. Enjoy the summer, everyone!