AN: Hi, everyone. I'm so sorry I took so long! This is a shorter chapter, but I had to write it a couple times. Hope you enjoy! Before you start reading, all I want to say is RIP Ralph Waite :(

Disclaimer: Ya. I don't own Bones. So... Ya.

"So uh Bones, Max called you. I picked up but he said it was just a quick call," Booth tells me.

"Oh. What'd he say?" I ask him, keeping the conversation going since we'd been stuck in a deep silence since the beginning of the meeting.

"He just said he wanted to call to talk to you about New Year's Eve. We, uh, talked though."

"What did you talk about?" I ponder. What could those two possibly have to say to each other? They seem to only get along for my sake.

"Well, you know, like Christmas and what you did. What I did." Booth's face is almost st in a bragging expression. His shoulders are hunched and he rubs his hands together.

"Why?"

"What do you mean why?" he fires back at me. Unable to tell if he is angry, I continue.

"Why were you talking about what I did? Why is that a topic of conversation?"

"Well, he thought you were going to spending Christmas with me, and I thought you would be spending it with him and Russ. So, he asked how your Christmas with Hannah and I was." Booth shifts his body so he is half laying on the couch, but his legs are swung off to the side.

"I didn't spend Christmas with either of you. How did you two come to that conclusion?"

"I don't know," he momentarily pauses. His brow then furrows and he tells me, "but he told me he was glad that when he told you spending Christmas alone means nobody loves you, that you didn't believe him." Booth's eyes looked clouded now. His brown eyes deepen in color. Darker than the blackest black.

"But I do," I murmur.

"What?" he shakes his head like he couldn't hear me. Or at least he didn't want to.

Choosing my words carefully, I state factually, "I do believe that spending Christmas alone means that nobody loves you."

"What! Why?" Booth throws himself up from his reclined position and sits tensely

"Christmas is a time of gathering and celebration with those you love. If you don't gather at that time then logically, you are alone. If I didn't believe that then I wouldn't have gone to the grave of the exterminator. She was alone on Christmas, if you remember."

"Closing his eyes, Booth says, 'So you think nobody loves you?"

"Yes, Booth. Have you been listening?" I watch his fingers grasp the pen he was holding very firmly and I see his knuckles turn white.

"So what did you do on Christmas?" he continues.

"I identified four limbo victims and finished some paperwork," I state clearly. Making sure no nostalgia is evident in my voice, I think back to the Christmas Eve spent at my apartment, with family. Because there is more than one kind of family. At least I hope there is.

"Bones you aren't could have spent Christmas and Hannah and me.

That would be considered rude. Anyways, I didn't want to intrude on such an important milestone... in your relationship."

He stands up from the couch and turns around towards me.

"What?" I ask him after his reaction to my words.

"I'll be right back," he says then strides toward the door. After him finally reaching the Jeffersonian's bathrooms, I stand. Taking a deep breath, I walk over to the glass desk and stare at the papers strewn about. The words on the pages blur I stand still in my place.

AN: Hope you enjoyed! Please REVIEW! Thanks to all that have reviewed and thanks to all who gave me some constructive criticism and some ideas of where they hoped the story would go. KEEP GOING! IT HELPS!