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Oooooooooooooooooo

Booth wasn't sure how this was supposed to work, but he contacted Captain Anderson at the local Salvation Army and asked to meet with him. The Captain was very busy during the Christmas season, but when an FBI agent had called him and asked to meet, he was intrigued and couldn't turn the agent down.

"I won't take up too much of your time and I don't know if you can help me, but I'd like to do something for someone and I was hoping you could help me do it." Booth sat patiently in front of the Captain's desk and waited for him to respond.

Curious, Captain Anderson leaned on his desk. "What can I help the FBI with?"

"This isn't an FBI thing, Sir." Booth wasn't sure if the Captain was going to help, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. "I met a bell ringer at the mall two weeks ago. He looks like a younger version of my grandfather and my kids were excited to see him. They were confused and they thought Lawrence was Pops. My grandfather died two years ago and my daughter took his death hard . . . anyway Lawrence was nice to my kids and to me and while I was talking to him, I found out he's retired and his wife just beat cancer . . . My wife and I would like to do a little something for them, but I don't know their last name . . . It's not much, but just something to make their Christmas festive. He said his only child died when he was a boy and I got the feeling that Lawrence and his wife Mary are all the family they have. I could be wrong."

"No, you're not wrong." Captain Anderson wasn't sure what the agent wanted to do and he was wary of giving out names of members of the Salvation Army. "I wish I could help you, but I don't feel comfortable giving you his name. It's the times you see. I have to protect my people and I don't know you . . . I'm not trying to be mean or anything. I hope you understand."

He had known this was possible and Booth accepted it. "Sure, I get it. Thank you anyway." Booth stood up. "Thanks for meeting with me, Sir." Once he was back in his SUV, Booth sat staring at the traffic passing by, smiled and nodded his head. "Okay, I know what to do."

Ooooooooooooooooo

Booth still knew how to contact Noel Liftin and if anyone could find out who Lawrence was it was Noel. The best part, it would only cost him $100. He'd probably give the hippie a gift card to Walmart or the Royal Diner as a bonus, because it was Christmas.

"You want me to find out who Lawrence the bell ringer is and maybe where he lives?" Noel was used to Booth asking him to be a detective for him. He was pretty good at finding people and worked for a detective agency sometimes for extra money doing just that.

"Yeah. He didn't do anything wrong. I just want to do something for him for Christmas." Booth knew that Noel would do it. "He rings a bell for the Salvation Army in front of the mall. At least he did on Saturday morning a few weeks ago. I'll give you $100 if you find him."

Slowly nodding his head, Noel shook Booth's hand. "Got it man. I can use the extra money. I'm trying to get a decent Christmas present for my neighbor this year. Her husband died and she's all alone and I don't want her to miss out on the holiday."

Booth knew that Noel was a good guy and he would give him that gift card to Walmart after all. "Good. Let me know when you have his name and I'll meet you at the Royal Diner."

"Got it. I should know by tonight or tomorrow."

Ooooooooooooooooo

True to his word, Noel found out that the bell ringer's name was Lawrence Clayton. Noel had given Booth the man's name and taken his wages of $100 and appreciated the bonus when Booth gave him two gift cards, one to Walmart and one to Taco Bell. "Cool. I love Taco Bell. They have the best vegetarian tacos."

With the name and address in their possession, Booth and Brennan planned how they were going to handle their surprise. They wanted to do it anonymously, so that Lawrence and Mary didn't think Booth was obsessing over them or stalking them. He was a cop and he knew that people worried about their safety when it came to stalkers.

On the night before Christmas, Booth and Brennan arranged for Aubrey to watch Christine and Hank for a few hours, drove over to where Lawrence and Mary lived and waited for the lights to go out in the house. An hour after the house was darkened, Booth and Brennan carried several bags over to the porch and placed them near the front door. Booth also carried a small decorated Christmas tree over to the porch and left it next to the bags. The star on top of the little tree had been made by Christine out of poster board and colored a bright blue with a lot of silver glitter to make it shiny.

Once they were done, Booth waited for Brennan to get back into the truck, knocked on the front door as hard as he could and ran to the truck. As quickly as possible, Booth drove down the street and stopped when he was six houses down. Booth and Brennan turned and watched the Clayton house to make sure someone came to the door. The last thing they wanted to happen was for a porch thief to take everything.

Soon, the porch light came on and the door opened. Lawrence stepped outside, saw the bags and tree and gazed up and down the street. Not seeing anyone, Lawrence stared at the bags for a moment, shrugged his shoulders, carried the bags and tree inside and closed the door.

Pleased that their mission was done, Booth and Brennan drove home. They still had to load toys under the Christmas tree for their kids and Booth had a bike to put together.

Not sure what to make of the bags and tree, Lawrence place the little tree on the kitchen table and smiled. The star on top had a lot of silver glitter on it and he could see that some of it had spilled on the tree branches. "I love it." Stepping over to the staircase, he called up to his wife. "Mary, come see. We had an angel visit this evening."

Hurrying down the stairs, Mary spied the bags and the tree and stopped at the bottom of the staircase. "Larry, what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything. I found all of this stuff on the porch." Lawrence opened a bag and found a large whole spiral ham. In another bag, he found two fruit pies and an angel food cake. In the next bag, he found a box of gingerbread men cookies, a box of chocolates and a pound of dark roast Community Coffee. The fourth bag had two wrapped presents. One with a tag that was for Lawrence and one for Mary. "My goodness Mary, I don't know what to say."

Stunned, Mary looked at the ham and nodded her head. "I think we're having ham tomorrow instead of that chicken I was going to bake . . . Goodness, Larry, whoever left this for us . . . I think I'm going to cry." With tears running down her cheeks, Mary walked over to where Lawrence was standing and hugged him. "We've been treated so kindly this year, Larry. So kindly."

"We really have, Mary." He held his wife in his arms and stared at the little tree. This was the first Christmas tree they'd had in the house for the last three years. They had cut down on expenses to help pay for Mary's medical bills and Lawrence realized that he had missed having a tree for the holidays. "It looks like we're going to have a good old fashioned Christmas this year and it's wonderful."

"It really is, Larry. It really is."

Oooooooooooooooooooo

The word of the day was angel.

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