A/N: A little different tone for this one.
Disclaimer: I own nothing Bones related except my imagination. (12/28/15)
When Dr. Temperance Brennan was a young child, she had loved Christmas. The colorful twinkling lights that decorated the trees, houses, and street poles were like bringing the stars from the heavens within reach. She loved the anticipation of waiting to discover what goodies would be revealed on Christmas morning when the presents under the Christmas tree were finally unwrapped. On Christmas Eve, she and her mother, her father, and her brother would gather around and sing Christmas carols while her mother played the piano. Sometimes, they'd even go door to door in their neighborhood and sing to the neighbors, although she didn't realize until she was in her early teens that that particular tradition largely depended on how much eggnog her parents had consumed throughout the evening.
Then, her parents left her, as did her brother shortly thereafter.
For the next decade and a half, Christmas had simply been a reminder that she was alone, without a family to share with. There was no warmth, no joy, and no more eager anticipation in it for her. She never bought a Christmas tree during that period of her life because it would've been too disheartening to look at it every day and be reminded by the absence of gifts that she wasn't special to anyone in particular. All she saw of Christmas was the excessive over commercialization of what should've been a reverent religious holiday and that many people used the holiday as an excuse to overindulge their every whim.
So, she left.
For a number of years, throughout college and into her early career, she would travel to some third world destination and spend her holidays doing research at an archeological site or participating in some sort of anthropological exploration. Several times over the years, she'd been able to partake in assisting at mass grave sites, helping to sort the bones belonging to multiple co-mingled bodies and assign basic facts such as gender, age, and race to each set of remains so the local authorities could try to assign a name or family to the individuals. To her, Christmas became a time where she could no longer ignore the atrocities of mankind and our species inherent ability to slay our fellow man without guilt over relatively minor infractions, such as the way someone looked, where they came from, or what their beliefs were. She saw lots of death and she repeatedly saw evidence of human behavior at its worst. Intellectually, from a cultural anthropological perspective, she found the work fascinating and highly engaging. But as a human being, she struggled with understanding how so many societies throughout time and all across the world could condone such carnage perpetuated on their fellow man.
Then, she became partners with Booth.
The first Christmas after they became partners, they were stuck in quarantine at the Jeffersonian lab together with several of their other co-workers – Angela, Zach, Dr. Hodgins, and Dr. Goodman. Brennan had no desire to participate in the foolish antics that Angela and the others thought up to bring the holiday into the laboratory since none of them could go out, but that didn't mean she didn't observe what was happening around her. She saw a group of people who weren't terribly close to one another and came from diverse backgrounds of culture, race, economic status, gender, and age all working together and making a concerted effort to help one another retain some holiday magic despite the circumstances so their Christmas experience would still be positive.
Angela had created a virtual Christmas tree using the Angelatron and Brennan had stood in the back of the room as everyone gathered around when she turned it on, sharing her masterpiece with her colleagues. The symbolism of the tree had been so powerful to that small group of people, including Brennan, that she had been overwhelmed by feelings she didn't fully understand and she had slipped out the door before she could say or do anything that would ruin the moment for everyone else and continued her study of Lucky Lionel's personal effects.
Later that morning, Booth had talked with her about the true meaning behind gift giving, from his viewpoint and she'd met his son, Parker, for the very first time. Surprisingly, for the first time since before her parents had disappeared from her life, she'd seen and felt some of the goodness associated with the Christmas holiday.
The second Christmas after she and Booth became partners, she once again traveled to the far ends of the earth to avoid the holiday and all its trappings, focusing on dead bodies instead. However, before she left, Booth had given her a small Christmas gift. It wasn't anything fancy or elaborate, just a simple Christmas tree ornament. But Booth had found an ornament with Santa standing in front of an x-ray plate that covered him from knees to neck, showing Santa's bones. It was, of course, highly inaccurate in its depiction of the human skeletal system, but she appreciated Booth's gesture. Whether he'd deliberately meant to or not, he'd found an ornament that combined her world of science and bones with his world of mythology and Santa. She didn't give him anything in return.
The third Christmas after she and Booth became partners, Brennan actually went out and bought a small potted pine tree plant that she set up in her apartment on a small table. She figured she'd plant the tree in the ground somewhere in the spring. She placed her one ornament, the previous year's gift from Booth on her little tree. She thought about going out and purchasing a few more ornaments, but felt that would diminish the significance of what Booth's meant to her, so she did not. Around the bottom of the tree, she placed gifts she'd purchased for Angela, Booth, Parker, her Dad, Russ, Amy, and their girls. As she'd pass the tree in her apartment, she no longer saw the absence of gifts for her as a symbol that she wasn't special to anyone. Instead, she saw the abundance of gifts for others indicating that there were people in her life that were special to her.
She ended up cancelling her plans to leave town so she could spend the holiday celebrating with her father, her brother, and his family at the prison. Booth and Parker had made it even more special by bringing a fully decorated tree to the jailhouse that they set up in the parking lot, powering the Christmas tree lights from Booth's car battery, so that she and her family could enjoy the tree through the windows. It had made the holiday event even more perfect for her whole family. That year, Brennan felt as though she'd actually been able understand the appeal of Christmas again thanks to Booth. He'd made her feel special.
The fourth year into their partnership, she'd again left town, but she'd missed being home. She'd exchanged small gifts with Booth and Parker before she went away and she'd found herself thinking about them and missing them, especially on Christmas day itself. It had been irrational to feel that way, of course, but nonetheless, it's what she'd felt. Brennen didn't have a tree that year, but she'd taken Booth's ornament with her and hung it in her tent for decoration anyway.
The fifth year, her father had convinced her to host a Christmas dinner at her place and, when it was all said and done, she was glad he did so. He went out and bought a real Christmas tree to put up in her apartment and she'd had to purchase a number of decorations for it, but she'd still put that first ornament from Booth on the tree in a spot where she could see it from her sofa where she sat most nights reading or working after her dinner.
The Christmas dinner party had been a splendid success. Brennan, for the first time in almost two decades, had felt she was truly part of a family again and she credited much of that to Booth. He'd played host to her hostess that night, just naturally stepping in as needed, as if he belonged there. When the party was over, he'd stuck around after everyone else left and helped her clean up. Then, even though it was late at night, the two of them had exchanged gifts and spent the next several hours sitting on her couch just talking about everything and nothing until the wee hours of the morning, as though neither one of them wanted the night to end. In Brennan's mind, it was the best Christmas she'd ever had.
Which, in contrast, had made the next year extremely difficult. She'd left town again, even though, for the first time ever, she hadn't really wanted to go. But, she'd wanted to stay even less. As hard as it was on a day to day basis to watch Booth and Hannah together, she didn't think she'd be able to tolerate watching them together at Christmas time, a time of the year that she had begun to associate as being special to her because of Booth, the man she'd come to love. Over the years, he'd given Christmas back to her a small piece at a time and for Brennan, the two went hand in hand – Booth and Christmas. That year, she didn't even take the ornament he'd given her earlier in their partnership out of the closet. It had probably been the most depressing Christmas for her since she'd been fifteen years old.
Fortunately, by the seventh year of their partnership, things between them had changed drastically again and this time for the better. She was pregnant with Booth's baby. They spent every one of their nights together, all night, in the same bed.
When Christmas rolled around, they'd gone together to select a tree which they'd put up at his place so Parker could enjoy it too when he came over. As they decorated the tree, there was Christmas music playing in the background and Brennan had found herself humming along, often singing softly with the tunes, just like when she'd been a child singing with her family. Booth had praised her singing voice, encouraging her to sing more. Once the tree was complete, they'd spent several nights leading up to Christmas snuggling on the couch and admiring it. Slowly, a pile of gifts had appeared at the base of the tree. Several labelled for her and she knew that between Booth and their baby, she didn't need to worry anymore about whether or not someone out there considered her special.
Now, they were married and had a second child. The last five Christmases they'd spent together had each been unique in their own ways, but the love and happiness she experienced sharing the holiday with Booth had been a constant. As Brennan carefully removed the ornaments from this years' tree, several of which she and Booth had collected together in the last few years as souvenirs of shared experiences, she couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic that the holidays were winding down and it was time for the tree to be put away. However, she knew next year it would be back up again. After all, she finally had a real family of her own to celebrate with now.
A/N: Would you believe I sat down intending to write a fluffy scene about them removing the decorations from the tree after Christmas ended? Obviously what came out when I started typing was very different though. Hope you enjoyed it?