A/N: Set in season 3, shortly after the Intern in the Incinerator. By the way, I'm not exactly sure how the mass spectrometer works, so please overlook that minor detail if I made a mistake...

Hodgins had a busy day ahead of him. There were a lot of different diagnostic tests that had to be run for the lab's most recent murder cases, and because they were short handed that week, he'd had to do a lot of the work by himself.

Normally, that wasn't a problem. He loved his work, and was perfectly content to spend his days conducting experiments and finding new ways to do things. Unfortunately, he was running behind that morning. The mass spectrometer was being cantankerous, and because he was in a hurry, he'd decided to run the necessary tests the old fashioned way, without trying to recalibrate the machine.

"Now...where is that reagent?," he muttered to himself as he searched through the shelves in his lab's chemical cabinet. "I thought I had some of it in here…"

However, the bottle of reagent he thought he had was nowhere to be found. "Not a problem. I'll just go over to the pathology storeroom and borrow some from Cam. She won't mind, and I can replace it later."

Whistling a little tune, he quickly walked down the hall to the storeroom and threw open the door, only to be startled by the looming figure of a large man emerging from the small dim space. Gasping in surprise, he stopped short. "Booth? What are you doing in here?"

"OH!" Surprised at being discovered, Booth tried to shrug off the question. "I'm...um...I'm looking for my sunglasses."

"In the dark?" Switching on the light, Hodgins broke into a wide grin. "Dude...it looks like your sunglasses might be in your jacket pocket…"

Patting his jacket pocket, Booth bit his lip as he fumbled for an explanation. "Oh, yeah...so, um...maybe it's my car keys that I need to find…"

Trying not to laugh out loud, Hodgins slowly nodded as he turned to leave. "You lost your car keys in some random storage closet at the lab. Of course. Well, I'll just get what I need and leave you to it…"

"Hodgins...wait." Dropping his voice to a whisper, Booth furtively glanced toward the door. "Listen, I need your help…"

Intrigued, Hodgins turned back to Booth. "Well...okay. What's up?"

"See, it's Felicia...Cam's sister. She's gonna meet Cam here at the lab so they can go to lunch, and…"

"Cam's sister? The one who planted a big wet kiss on you when you weren't ready? Hoo, boy...and you're hiding from her? In a storage closet?" Hodgins couldn't help but chuckle merrily. "So the big bad FBI agent is afraid of his former girlfriend's sister. Wait until Dr. Brennan hears about this…"

Booth was outraged at Hodgins' tone. "I swear, if you say one word about this deal to Bones, I will take out my gun and shoot you." Realizing how ridiculous the situation was, his shoulders sagged a bit. "So, yeah...Felicia did kiss me, without the slightest provocation...and then when Cam found out, she got mad at me, even though we weren't even dating any more...and then she and Felicia started to argue about it and when I tried to get them to calm down, they ganged up on me! Can you believe that? I mean, they're both intelligent women, but you'd think the whole thing was my fault…when actually I was totally innocent." He paused, sighing quietly. "So yes, I'm hiding from her. I really want to avoid another awkward scene like that. So...what d'ya say? Do me a solid, okay? How about being my lookout? Do you see Cam or her sister around?"

"Well, I don't know what Cam's sister looks like…"

"She's really pretty…" Thinking he might need to cover all his bases, Booth was quick to add a disclaimer. "Not as pretty as Cam, of course…and definitely not as pretty as Bones..."

"Of course not. That helps a lot..." Rolling his eyes, Hodgins shrugged sarcastically. "Okay, let me take a look…"

Grabbing his bottle of reagent, Hodgins slowly peered around the door frame. "So...it looks like the coast is clear…"

"Really?" Booth hesitated. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Hodgins scoffed at Booth's cowardice. "Listen, man...you're an adult, right? Why not just take your chances with those two, okay? I mean, the FBI got Dillinger, right? So two pretty sisters can't be that scary for a big bad special agent like you…"

"Yeah, right. Dealing with two competitive, jealous women should be a piece of cake, right? A walk in the park?" Booth shuddered slightly. "Remind me to tell you about the time I dated a set of identical twins. You'll change your tune."

"Dude...respect." Hodgins smiled at the agent. "So if you can pull that off, surely you can handle Cam and Felicia…"

"Maybe…" Feeling braver after Hodgins' pep talk, Booth squared his shoulders and nodded resolutely. "Yeah, you're right. I've got nothing to be afraid of, right? I didn't do anything wrong, and so what if they're mad at me. I'll live."

"Exactly. You're the man, okay? And it's not like you kissed Felicia back, right? You were just an innocent victim caught between two strong willed women." Hodgins raised an eyebrow at the agent. "I mean, if she's that pretty, you might've been tempted to reciprocate…but you wouldn't have wanted to upset Cam..."

"Well, in the heat of the moment I may have…" Realizing he was giving too much away, Booth shook off Hodgins' silly question. "Of course I didn't kiss her back, okay? I was Cam's date for the evening, and I'm a gentleman..."

"Whatever you say, dude. Whatever you say." Grinning broadly, Hodgins pointed toward the door. "Better let me take one more look, just to be sure." The scientist opened the door and stepped out into the hall, looking in both directions before giving Booth a nod. "Yep...I think you're good to go."

"Thanks, buddy. I owe you one." Giving Hodgins a thumbs up, Booth hurriedly left the storeroom and started down the hall towards Brennan's office when suddenly he heard a sound that made his blood run cold.

"Seeley! There you are, poor baby! I've been looking all over for you..."

"Oh hi, Felicia. Listen, I'm in a bit of a hurry, okay? I'll talk to you later." He jogged down the hall and ducked into another storeroom, only to run squarely into Brennan.

She looked at him in surprise. "Booth? What are you doing in here?"

"Would you believe that I'm looking for my sunglasses?" Seeing her quizzical look as she eyed the 'lost' item in his jacket pocket, he sighed. "Look, it's a long story, okay, Bones? Let's go have lunch, and I'll tell you all about it…"

"That will be satisfactory." Tilting her head to one side, she studied him intently. "I imagine it will be a very interesting story…"

As he thought through his explanation, he grimaced slightly as he glanced over his shoulder towards the hall. "Yeah...you might say that."

The items I used in this combo were Hodgins, Booth, a storage closet, and lost keys/sunglasses.

If you have time to review, I'd appreciate it. More soon.