Title: Heroes in the Jeffersonian

Author: Maeve Bran

Rating: T

Summary: Willow and the Squints deal with a death at Arlington National Cemetery.

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy or Angel or Bones.

Notes: Challenge fic. This is set during the Bones episode 1.21 "The Soldier on the Grave". Set in my slightly AU season 5 Angelverse. Part of the "Willow, the Squint" subseries.

Willow knew bad things were coming and that the next few days would be like a vacation in a Hell dimension.

The newest case the team was working on was a person who was found torched on a grave at Arlington National Cemetery. That was not the bad, however. The bad was that Dr. Jack Hodgins was an outspoken conspiracy theorist and critic of the government and Special Agent Seeley Booth was former military and a supporter of the government. The fact that they both had to work this case was going to be bad and uncomfortable.

Not to mention that the case was hitting too close to home for Booth and Dr. Temperance Brennan was trying to keep him objective. Willow hoped this didn't end as badly as it looked like it would. This was looking to be a disagreement on the level of the time Buffy knew she might have to kill Anya for the way she was going about being a vengeance demon, and Xander had been trying to find another solution. That had ended well, at least for Anya, as she hadn't died, though D'Hoffryn had killed Halfrek instead. Willow was reassured that no matter how Booth and Hodgins disagreed at least no one was going to die.

Willow was grateful when Angela Montenegro, her teacher and friend, noticed the tension and stepped in. Angela talked to Hodgins, who seemed to actually listened. Willow was going to have to keep an eye on that couple to see what developed. Angel also encouraged Brennan to be there for Booth, not to spout anthropology texts at him. Every one seemed to be dealing with the case all right.

Hodgins not only listened, but also offered an olive branch to Booth. Willow knew that Hodgins actually liked the FBI man as a friend and was happy to see it expressed. She decided that both Angela and Hodgins were heroes in their own way for being there for friends. That was one lesson Willow had learned on the Hellmouth-- heroes didn't just save the world, they cared about the people in that world too.

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