AN: I'm very behind, so I'm just going to go right for it. I'll take care of the anonymous reviews from all the chapters during the last one.

Disclaimer: The fact that Hodgins' was barely in the last episode pretty much indicates I have no ownership of Bones whatsoever.

Taking Steps, Slowly but Surely

Angela had never been ignored by a guy so effectively until Hodgins decided to ignore her.

He was gone before she woke up the day after the Grave Digger Incident (GDI, in her head, for short). For the next couple of days, he made disappearing an art. As long as there were other people in the room, he acted like the same cocky, dorky jackass he'd always been – but as soon as it looked like they might end up alone together, he was at the other end of the Jeffersonian. She would have been impressed, under any other circumstances. She was a very persistent person. Ignoring her was pretty difficult.

She'd already screwed up with Hodgins. He'd asked her out, and she'd hesitated. They'd gone out, and she'd dumped him. And now he was the one running. Well, she'd decided she'd wanted him. She was just going to have to do a little fighting for him now.

Which was why, after three days of being avoided like Mel Gibson by anyone of Jewish decent, she caught him on the way out of the Jeffersonian. She'd been hanging out by his car for nearly two hours by the time he showed up, but she tried her best to play it off as if she'd been there for just a few minutes. "Saw your car on the way out," she commented as casually as she could, gesturing backwards in the direction of his toy car.

Hodgins grinned at her a little. "And you decided it needed a hood ornament? I don't know. You're going to be hard to tie down."

Double entendres. Nice. "You're avoiding me." She folded her arms slowly, for that "Don't think you can fool me" sort of effect.

"Why would you think that?" Hodgins raised his eyebrows, for that "This conversation is barely interesting enough for me" sort of effect.

Angela tilted her head. "Are you seriously denying it?" Hodgins merely shrugged. "I haven't been alone in a room with you in days. You detailed an entire crime scene with me and Zack, and you didn't actually direct one sentence to me." She gestured wildly at the space between them. "You are twenty feet away from me right now, having this conversation." She took a deep breath, shook her head to resettle her hair, and gave him her patented stare. "What are you trying to do, Hodgins?"

He laughed at her. "I wasn't denying it. Missed me much?"

Officially, he was the most aggravating man on the planet. Including politicians, lawyers, and anyone who said "perf" instead of "perfect." Angela was practically about to explode. She attempted to remain calm. "Hodgins. Come on. You have to tell me what's happening."

She had almost forgotten how piercing his gaze was when he looked directly at her. She was reminded forcibly as his eyes abruptly met hers. "I was giving you time."

"Time for what?" She was almost pleading with him.

He sighed. "Time to back out, Angela. Time to change your mind."

The breath spilled right out of her with a slightly ashamed, "Oh."

"Yeah."

She really wished he weren't looking at her so openly. "Um, thanks. I guess."

They stood there for a moment, looking at each other. Then he nodded at his car. "I'm gonna need that, you know."

"Oh. Yeah." Angela slid down off the hood, and backed up a bit. Hodgins started to walk past her. And her brain finally caught up with the rest of her. Her arm shot out to catch him. He looked at her, those amazingly blue, blue eyes questioning. She took a deep breath. "I don't need time."

A hesitant grin began to split Hodgins face in half. "Really?"

It was contagious. She couldn't help grinning back. "Really."

He was leaning in. She could see he was about to lean in. They would have been making out in the parking lot, on his car, or in his car, in just a few seconds. They would have, of course, if Zack hadn't shown up just then.

"Hey." Zack looked uncomfortable. But then, Zack always looked uncomfortable.

Hodgins hesitated for a moment, looking at her. Then he sighed a little, shook his head, and started around to the other side of the car.

Angela stood still for a minute. She had missed an opportunity. She could practically see it waving good-bye as it passed her. She nodded her head in acceptance, and turned to go.

"Angela." She whipped back around so fast her neck hurt. Hodgins was smiling at her. "What are you doing for lunch tomorrow?"

Of all the stupid, cliché, un-Angela-like things to happen. Her heart literally skipped a beat. It was years of nonchalant, three-dates-and-run Angela that kept her from doing more than smiling back and replying, very smoothly, "Going to the diner with you."

He didn't answer, unless smiling a bit wider counted.

Zack's head poked out of his window. "So ... you two are talking again?"

Angela twiddled her fingers at him. "Bye, Zack."

Zack squinted at her. "Wait. What's going on? Are you two ... ?"

Hodgins rolled his eyes and ducked into his car. "Shut up, Zack."

"But I want to ..." Angela didn't hear the end of his sentence as Hodgins drove off, but she was way too excited to care.

She hadn't screwed it up. She still had a shot at Hodgins.

Hodgins had snuck out of a lot of beds. He wouldn't have ever guessed, though, that he'd do it to Angela. But when he woke up with her next to him, her arm still tucked snugly under his neck, he suddenly knew he couldn't talk to her just now. She'd say that it had been a mistake. She'd say that she was just emotional. She'd say it was a good thing they never actually slept together, huh? Then the word "friends" would crop up, and that would just be that. They'd be done, and he'd still be crazy in love with a girl he couldn't pin down.

That was not a scenario he was ready to confront. Not when he still felt the slight ache in his leg where Brennan had performed surgery on his leg Civil War, bite-the-bullet style. So he had slipped out of the bed, redressed in a silent frenzy, and was slowly closing the door of her apartment when he heard her murmur his name from her room.

For once in his life, Hodgins was seriously glad that he was small. If he was built like Booth, it would've been seriously hard to avoid Angela the way he had. For three days, he'd duck behind doors, crouch behind his desk, and flatten himself against walls as soon as he saw Angela coming towards him. There was a particularly interesting moment when he ran into Cam's office while Cam was still in it. To her credit, she did nothing more than grin wickedly at him before continuing to read the case file in her hand.

After three days of this, he'd decided he was ready for it. Maybe when she said "friends," he'd just nod and smile, instead of ripping out of all of his hair, running up the stairs to the top of the lab, and taking a flying leap off. He felt that this might be a bit melodramatic and cliché. Which is why he had to remind himself three or four times that he had to use his car to get home before he was able to come out of the stairway exit and walk up to Angela.

She didn't say "friends." And if Zack hadn't interrupted, he probably would've shown exactly how the fact that she hadn't made him feel. It wasn't until they were out of the garage the impact of having a date the next day with Angela hit him. It wasn't until he was halfway home, and Zack had asked him a thousand questions that he refused to answer, until Hodgins could stop grinning.

Lunch was at the diner, because he didn't feel like he should make another big deal about a date. He caught himself thinking that it was almost too easy – talking, laughing, and her hand sliding into his across the table halfway through, and staying there.

They were still laughing and arguing playfully when they wandered through the front doors of the Jeffersonian. "You can't seriously want Gone with the Wind should be number one on the list of America's best movies."

"Oh, come on. 'Frankly, dear, I don't give a damn.' It's a classic."

Hodgins made a face as they walked past his desk towards Angela's office. "Better than Citizen Kane? Better than The Godfather? No way, baby."

Angela tuned to face him as they walked through her office door. "Rhett and Scarlet are the most romantic couple in any movie, ever."

"Marlon Brando is the coolest mofia leader, ever." Hodgins tilted his head and placed his feet in his patented defiant stance.

Angela cracked up, shaking her head at him. "God, you're such a romantic. I'm gonna grab the video footage from the woods murder. I'll see you later?"

Hodgins grinned a little. "Yeah. I have to test some of the mineral composition on the gloves, anyway." He held her eyes for a moment, then turned to leave. He wasn't going to press forward if she wasn't ready.

"Hey, Hodgins." He stopped and turned back to see Angela biting her lip nervously. Before he could so much as blink, she had crossed the room, grabbed the back of his neck, and covered his mouth with her own.

But if she wanted to press forward, that was just fine with him.

Angela had never had music on that loud before in her life. Well, not at work, at least. But she was caught between nerves of what was going on with her and Hodgins and horror for the images on the screen in front of her, and she needed to something to drown out the thoughts. And the screams.

She bounced between trying to notate the video and thinking about Hodgins. Every time she thought about him, it was like she started to glow inside a little bit. Which was just a really weird feeling, and one she wasn't used to, and it brought up all those insecure feelings, and ... and it made her start babbling in her own head. So she'd watch the footage. That made her feel disgusted and depressed and horrible. So then she'd think about Hodgins some more. And then she'd be happy, and then she'd freak out, and then she'd pay attention to the video, and then ...

The hand on her shoulder made her nearly explode from everything going on in her head in combination with the creeping chills she was getting from the videos. And when she whipped around in terror, who was standing there but Hodgins? And, of course, this only made her blood pump faster. When she asked if he were trying to kill her, she'd never meant it so literally.

Her pulse had just begun to slow down when he mentioned the trees. "We have to go through the videos again?" Her voice cracked a little bit. She really didn't notice as she stared up at Hodgins in horror.

"Don't worry, I'm right here for you." The way he said it was kind of condescending, but also kind of sweet, and, as soon as the video began to replay, kind of necessary. As the first scream rang out, Angela's hands clamped onto Hodgins' wrist on impulse. She decided she had the pretty nice impulses when his hand slid onto her shoulder, and his head lowered towards hers a bit more.

Of course, the state of glow-y, new feeling-ness didn't last very long. No longer distracted by thoughts of Hodgins, now that he was in the room with her, half perched on her chair and holding her rather firmly in one arm, she was forced to pay attention to the screen in front of her. As the tape went on, she felt more and more like whimpering like an abandoned puppy. When the worst part of tape started to come around, she buried her face into Hodgins shoulder, ignoring his teasing, and felt amazingly relieved when she caught sight of the trees in time to forego the fresh batches of screaming.

The feeling of being close to vomiting barely registered anymore by the time Booth and Bones came in to look at the mystery man she'd picked out. The thought of actually watching any more of the video without Hodgins made her think she might, in fact, puke, as Booth asked Hodgins why he was still there.

"Because I want him here," she snapped at the computer screen, blushing a little. Confessing that was definitely a fair price for Hodgins staying. She kept her eyes forward, but she could almost feel Hodgins' staring at her.

It was almost midnight when Angela began to case the last of the videos. She looked over at poor Hodgins, who looked exhausted, no matter how adorably cocky he was acting. She'd decided that she was definitely asking to spend the night. It was about time, as far as she was concerned. She was leading up to it in fact, when Hodgins wandered over and pointed out the blob on the screen. "It could be a ... a reflection on the screen," she suggested, stammering.

"Or moonlight." It surprised her that Hodgins seemed a little spooked.

"Moonlight. That sounds right. Can I stay at your place tonight?" It just slipped out before she could think about it.

"Sure." Hodgins' grin practically split his face in half. She probably would have the same look on her face, if she wasn't somewhat afraid that a headless three hundred year-old witch was going to reach through her computer screen at any given moment. She was a calm, rational adult, but she was allowed to be creeped out by floating blobs if they happened to be connected to a crime scene and extremely coincidental.

Angela forgot about scary blobs, though, when she and Hodgins had managed to ditch Zack and were making out in the foyer, and up the stairs, and in his room, and ...

AN: I've deviated from the norm with this chapter and left out the last bit from Hodgins' POV. I needed to get this out tonight so I could give y'all some time to read before the new episode came out. Perhaps I will give Hodgins' his due time next chapter. Sorry this took so long to get out. I've just had the craziest past couple of weeks. Plus, this chapter gave me some trouble, as I had no transcript nor any clips of 2x10, and therefore agonized over timing and dialogue and stuff. And writing original dialogue for these two took me a bit, being new to the fandom and all. Still, hope you enjoy.

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