Chapter 10 Secret
Booth and Brennan had been working on the surprise for Hank for weeks. Making arrangements with Gibbs had required careful coordination of their respective schedules, since the case workload Jethro handled was as heavy as that faced by the special agent and his favorite anthropologist. NCIS was called upon to solve murders just as frequently as the FBI/Jeffersonian Institution. Jack Hodgins and Abby Sciuto were equally skilled at teasing scientific clues out of muck and debris.
A recent joint effort to identify and apprehend the killers of a Marine veteran FBI agent had been extraordinarily successful, and the individuals involved were becoming close friends.
Booth was pleasantly surprised when Father's Day weekend turned out to be open for both their unorthodox family and Gibbs' team. Hank had become a favorite of Angela and Hodgins as well as the various interns. His dry humor and down-to-earth wisdom entertained all of them as much as Jackson Gibbs delighted Abby and Gibbs' NCIS team of agents.
The plan had been Parker's idea, and quickly seconded by Christine. They had never heard of Jackson Gibbs until recently. A few years before Christine's birth, Hank had been reunited with his previously-estranged twin brother Jackson Gibbs, after decades of tragic antagonized separation. Booth and Gibbs had thrust them together to reconcile. When Hank and Jackson's father drowned on a fishing trip, the two teenagers blamed each other.
Parker had wanted Pops to go fishing with him and begged his dad to invite Gibbs and Jackson to come along. Being elderly, the twin brothers didn't see each other often, and Parker wanted to give them that chance. The planning began for a surprise Father's Day weekend at Booth and Brennan's camp for the two entire teams.
"Shrimp, why the devil do I have to wear a blindfold to drive up to your cabin?"
"Leroy, why in tarnation are you making me wear this blindfold?"
"Oh, my gosh!"
"Holy smokes!"
'You kids are something else!"
"I knew you guys were up to something-"
Parker and Christine interrupted their elders, "Surprise! Happy Father's Day, Pops and Jackson! Now let's quit yakking and go do some fishing!"