okay first i have to say i can not believe i have over 200 reviews! wow! thank you so much.

Now the finale. omg! although i feel kinda cheated over what we didnt get to see, i'm not going to complain too much. at least it wasnt the heartache of last season...or the season before...or the season before that! lol.

also, although i loved VNM, and another character that is mentioned here, they dont quite fit in my story, sorry. although im still debating about the baby duck.

i own nothing

Chapter 14

"Perhaps we should move back a little more," Zack says apprehensively.

"Relax. We did all the calculations, everything is measured precisely," Hodgins replies as he pours a murky substance into a beaker. "We'll be standing twice the safe distance, so there's nothing to worry about."

Zack presses his lips together and groans slightly in worry. They are in the makeshift lab Hodgins built on the back lawn of his estate, dressed in lab coats and safety goggles. The boy has once again been lured into an experiment by the enthusiastic Hodgins.

Glancing to his left, he observes why he is once again participating in a semi-dangerous experiment. On the wall are two shelves, each with one of their names above it. Upon the shelf with Zack's name is a trophy, its plaque reading "King of the Lab". The competition had started when Hodgins had proved one of his theories correct, basically challenging Zack to come up with a better experiment. Zack is the current King of the Lab as he was correct in saying that nitrogen frozen turkey would bounce.

"Hodgins?" the boys asks, a different worry entering his mind.

"Yeah?" Hodgins replies distractedly.

"What do you do if you are worried about something that happened to a friend, but said friend told you not to tell the precise person you know would be able to protect your friend?" Zack says quickly, brow furrowed as he tries to understand his predicament. "I mean, telling would help them but would cause them to question your loyalty, therefore making you fail as a friend. However, if you don't say anything and something worse happens that you could have prevented, you again fail. Which is worse?"

"Zack!" Hodgins yells, walking over to him. "If it's to help them, then you have to tell someone."

"Even if they become upset?" the boy questions.

"Yes, because, if it is truly for their own good, they will thank you later. Even if they don't, you will know that they are alright," Hodgins tells him seriously. Zack nods, taking a deep breath to speak but Hodgins cuts him off, turning excitedly away and toward their experiment. " Alright, let's get the show on the road."

"Hey Jeff, where's he at?" Angela asks Hodgins' main butler with a happy smile.

"Good morning Miss Montenegro," Jeff smiles fondly at the girl. "I believe he and Mr. Addy are out in the lab."

"Thanks!"

Walking through the house, Angela can't wipe off the smile that has been on her face since she woke up that morning. After a vivid nightmare where she and Hodgins were a broken up couple that had to work together, she has decided to stop wasting time. She isn't scared anymore; today is the day she tells Jack that she is in love with him. She plans on asking him to have dinner with her tonight, and then over the dessert she will tell him. She just has to find him first.

She quickens her pace as she reaches the lawn, pulling her coat tighter around herself to ward off the cold December wind. She starts to hum the beginning riff to "La Grange" when suddenly there is a loud bang. She freezes her heart stopping and eyes widening as she sees some of the glass windows in the lab explode out.

"JACK!" she screams fearfully as she races forward, her thoughts a mantra in her head.

'Please, please please no! He's ok, please be ok.'

The door opens, releasing a cloud of smoke and the two coughing scientists.

"Oh god," Angela says with a huge sigh, her hand over her heart. "Are you guys alright?"

"I don't understand what happened." Zack says, dazed.

"Oh, you know what that proves?" Hodgins says excitedly toward Angela. Seeing that they are in fact okay, her worry quickly turns to anger.

"That you guys are idiots?" she snaps. She walks to Hodgins and hits him repeatedly with her purse. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Hey! Ange!" Hodgins throws his hands up to protect his face, bewildered by her sudden anger.

"You moron! I was going to-" she gives a grunt of frustration. She spins around, yelling over her shoulder as she speeds her way to the mansion. "You had to ruin everything with your stupid competition."

Jack stares at her back, completely confused, ignoring Zack as he mumbles to himself about the failed experiment. Then it clicks: she was going to say the words he has been waiting for. Blue eyes wide in panic, he runs to catch up with his girlfriend. Zack stares after him for a second before reentering the lab. He goes to the wall and moves the trophy from his shelf to Hodgins' with a resigned sigh.

"Angela! Wait!" Hodgins calls, rushing past to block her path.

"You could have been hurt, or killed," she says, her voice breaking at the echo of fear she had felt. "Why would you take a risk like that? Especially with Zack with you?"

"I know, I'm sorry." She scoffs and turns her face away. He steps closer, cupping her cheeks to make her face him. "I'm sorry, babe. I promise to be more careful."

They stare at each other for a moment, Hodgins rubbing away her single tear with his thumb. She reaches up and places her hands on his wrists, her heart beating faster.

"I love you Jack," she says softly.

She watches, mesmerized, as his eyes turn a deep sapphire blue, filling with love. He slides his hands down her back to pull her closer, smiling as he presses his mouth to hers in a passionate kiss. Angela squeals into his mouth when he picks her up and spins around, breaking out of the kiss with a laugh when she is set back down.

"Oh baby," Hodgins pulls her in for another quick kiss, smiling from ear to ear. "I love you. I love you Angela."

"Well, that was easier than I thought it would be," she says smiling. She puts her arms around his neck, fingers playing with his curly hair. Hodgins chuckles, gazing at her happily.

"So, how about I make you some breakfast and then we can celebrate?" he leans to again kiss her.

"As great as that sounds," she says, sliding her hands down to his chest. "I promised my dad I would have breakfast with him. He flew in last night."

"Your dad is here?" Hodgins says with slight panic. "In town? Right now?"

"Yeah, he's staying for Christmas," Angela smiles at him a little confused by his nervousness.

"You're going to be here for Christmas?" Hodgins is distracted from his fear of her father by the news. "You said you always fly to Texas with your dad for the holidays."

"I do. But I love you Jack," she cups his face, looking at him seriously. "It's not Christmas without you."

Hodgins stares into her eyes, trying not to let his emotions take over. He lost his parents at a young age, and although he made his peace with being without them the holidays have still always been hard on him. Being needed for Christmas by this woman means more to him than he will ever be able to tell her.

"Okay. Do you want me to come with you?"

"I don't know if that's a good idea. He's not good with surprises." Angela says with a doubtful expression. "How about dinner?"

"Alright, dinner it is." Hodgins feels slightly relieved that he has a full day to come up with reasons why the man shouldn't kill him for dating his daughter.

"So, what were you and Zack doing anyway?" she asks with a curious look. Suddenly Hodgins' eyes fill with triumphant mischief and he chuckles.

"You're getting that mad scientist look in your eyes," Angela says to him.

"I always wanted to be a mad scientist. Living the dream baby," Hodgins kisses her.

"What?" Angela asks confused.

"I just proved why they call me King of the Lab," he says grandly, grabbing her hand.

"Nobody does that but you" she says with a slight smile as he leads her back to the lab.

"Hello miss, do you need any help?" the young sales woman ask, smiling politely.

"Oh, no, thank you," Brennan says as she walks past her and into the store.

Squeezing past other shoppers, Brennan is glad she has already made a stop to her car, depositing the bag of gifts she has already bought. So far she has completed her shopping for Angela, Hank and Lizzie. While she has a good idea what to get Hodgins and Zack, she hasn't figured out what to give Booth, unsure of what their relationship actually was.

With a frustrated sigh, she leaves the store and walks through the mall, grimacing at the cheerful music playing. Since the moment she agreed to spend Christmas with the Booths, she has been alternately filled with excitement and dread. Booth is the first person in three years who has made her feel comfortable in a holiday atmosphere. But the nightmare of her parents' disappearance is now a nightly event, making her even more uneasy with anything Christmas-like, including the mandatory gift shopping.

Giving up and thinking it may be for the best, she steps to the side of the rushing crowd and pulls out her cell phone to tell Booth she wont be spending Christmas at his grandparents'. She turns towards the glass store window and dials his number, glancing up as she does. She snaps her phone shut as her eyes spy what could be the perfect gift for Booth. With an excited smile at what his reaction will be, she enters the store.

"What the hell!"

Booth looks over at the angry yell, seeing a blonde girl slam shut the door to a garish pink Honda. Although his gut is telling him talking to the girl will bring him trouble, he is too much of a gentleman to not offer help. Closing the door to his own car, he walks over to the blonde.

"Do you need some help?" he asks politely, shrugging into his leather jacket.

She turns towards him with a quick flip of hair and an annoyed expression on her face. Once she gets a good look at him, however, her expression quickly changes. Widening her blue eyes and setting her mouth into a pout, she gestures helpless to her car.

"It won't start. Do you think you could take a look?" she sends him a hopeful smile, tilting her head to make her hair frame her face.

"Sure. Can you pop the hood, and try to start it again," he says, moving to the front of her car.

"Thanks a lot. I'm Hannah by the way," she says with a flirtatious smile. "Hannah Burley."

"Seeley Booth," he smiles automatically, placing his hands on the hood to try and speed things up so he can go into the mall and by his Bones a gift.

Booth quickly realizes her battery needed a jump, and uses his car to give one to her. During the process, Booth tries to ignore the blonde's attempts to flirt and her suggestive looks. Before he joined the army he always dated blondes, mostly because it was expected of the jock status he had achieved. Being a man, he sees how attractive this girl is, and can't help that a part of him is reacting to her. But Brennan is in a league above gorgeous and after knowing her there is no way he would ever fall back to the blue-eyed blonde bombshell stereotype of his youth.

"Okay," Booth closes the hood of her car, turning to her with a politely friendly smile. "Keep it running for at least a half hour, maybe take the long way home. And the first chance you get you should take it in to get charged or buy a new one."

Hannah nods her head, hiding the frustration she is feeling at the lack of response she is getting from him. When he wasn't looking, she had lowered the zipper to her jacket just enough to let her low necked sweater do it's job. Pushing her chest out just enough to expose her cleavage, she approaches him with a sultry smile.

"Thank you so much for your help, Seeley." Booth inwardly winces at the way she says his first name.

"It was no problem," he says, taking a step back.

"Well I feel like I should do something to thank you," she looks him up and down, tilting her head. "There's this underground garden that does night tours. The section with fig trees is very secluded. How about we go Saturday night?"

"Look, you're a beautiful girl, and I'm flattered. But I'm seeing someone," taking another step back, Booth sees a familiar figure exit the mall. "I hope everything works out with your car. I gotta go. Bye."

Shocked, Hannah turns to see where he is going. Seeing the girl who has captured his attention, her face turns bright red in anger and embarrassment. With narrowed eyes, she enters her car, making a silent vow to take revenge on little Miss Morticia.

"Hey, Bones," Booth calls as he jogs over to her.

"Booth!" surprised, Brennan quickly hides her bags behind her back. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm going to do some shopping," he says with a mischievous grin, knowing why she is hiding the bags. "What are you hiding Bones?"

"None of your business," she turns away. "You are going to have to wait."

"Ha! So it is for me, huh?" he says gleefully. He wraps his arms around her, looking over her shoulder to try and peek into the bags. "What did ya get me?"

"Booth!" she tries to scold him, but its effectiveness is lost with the laugh that bubbles out of her. "Stop it."

"Come on, just a peek." He is filled with happiness that she would actually buy him a gift, knowing how she feels about it. Wanting to see her smile more than to find out what his gift is, he sends her his charm smile. "Please?"

"Don't use your charm smile on me," she says, breaking out of his grasp. She turns back to her, walking backwards with the bags behind her.

"What? It's a mark of respect," he chuckles.

Brennan shakes her head with a wide smile, letting him take her free hand and pull her into a short kiss.

"I missed our coffee meeting this morning," he says as they walk towards her car, the bags in her left hand, away from him.

"Me too," she says shyly. Booth smiles at her, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry, baby," Booth says at they reach her car. "I spent the night at Pops and Grams, and didn't feel right leaving without telling them."

"Okay." She opens her trunk to place the last few bags into it. Biting her lip and avoiding his eyes, she asks the question that has been bothering her. "Do they know that I will be spending Christmas with you?"

"Yeah, of course they do," Booth frowns at the unease he can hear in her voice. Closing the trunk, she leans against it, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Are they okay with it?" she asks, still avoiding eye contact.

"Hey, of course they are," he steps in front of her, leaning his hands on the car behind her. "They couldn't be happier. They love you, Bones."

Brennan nods, looking into his eyes, seeing a flow of emotions in them. Not ready to identify those emotions, she asks another of her questions. "So what's the plan? When do I go over?"

"The morning of Christmas Eve, or if you want you can spend the night before there too, like me." He says, moving to lean against the car next to her.

"Why the morning?" she asks confused. "Isn't the evening the more logical time to meet. There isn't anything special about the day."

"Bones! It's Christmas Eve day! Both an eve and a day!" he says jokingly, smiling widely. "It's a Christmas miracle!"

"That's not-" she begins with a puzzled look, taking him literally. With a wave of the hand, Booth cuts her off.

"No Bones, it's because it's a tradition." Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he looks at her, smiling fondly at his memories. "Every Christmas Eve morning, ever since I can remember, we would go to my grandparents' house. We would spend the whole day laughing together, enjoying the winter weather. My mom and Grams would chase us around with the mistletoe. At night, we would sit around the tree with hot chocolate, and we would all open one present, before being rushed to sleep so Santa could come. It was great."

"You did this every year?" she asks softly, thinking back to her own family's traditions.

"Yeah. Right until I joined the army." He looks away, shuffling his feet, his voice becoming slightly sad.

"So, the night before Christmas Eve would be the day after tomorrow," she says, drawing back his attention. "Will you pick me up on your way to Hank and Lizzie's?"

"Yeah, I could do that," he says with a happy smile, which she returns. "Well, I better let you go, besides I still got to finish my shopping."

"Okay," she says, tilting her head back slightly for him to kiss her, which he does immediately. After breaking apart and a caress to her cheek, Booth turns to walk into the mall, waving to her as she passes by him in her car.

As he watches her car leave, his phone begins to ring. Looking at the caller id, he doesn't recognize the number but decides to answer anyway.

"He's her dad, Zack," says the irritated voice of Jack Hodgins before he can say hello. "Of course I'm nervous."

"What's wrong Hodgins?" Booth chuckles, recalling the stories of Angela's father that Brennan had told him. "Afraid he's going to knock you out and tattoo your arm?"

"No, I'm afraid he's going to tie me to a pole and set me on fire," Hodgins says almost angrily, not enjoying Booth laughing at him.

"Oh come on, what kind of father would do that?" Booth asks, just as he collides with an older man. The smiles at him, but there is a hardness to his eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry sir."

"No problem," Max Keenan says amicably. "You should be careful though, you don't want to hurt anybody. You never know what the consequences will be. Merry Christmas, son."

With a nod, the man walks away. Booth stares after him, not sure why but knowing he had just been warned about something other than watching where he walks. Also, something about his face had seemed so familiar.

"Booth?" Hodgins says from the phone. "Dude, you still there?"

"Yeah," Booth says, still watching the man as he enters his car.

"Can you meet me and Zack at the diner at noon? It's about Brennan."

"Bones?" Booth snaps his full attention back to the phone call. "Yeah, I'll be there. What's up?"

"Zack will tell you. Bye"

"Bye," Booth says then hangs up the phone. With a frown, he enters the mall, intent on giving Brennan the perfect gift.

i dont really like my writing, it just doesnt come out the way i want. also the story has become more complicated than i planned lol. okay, ideas on gifts to and from characters? cause honestly, i'm kinda lost on some of them.