Hey guys, I wanted to update this a little sooner, or at least have it written a little sooner, but a lot of stuff is going on in my life - good stuff, and bad. This week so far, and the rest of the week, is filled with celebrating birthday's in my family - three people have a birthday on the same day, which is hectic. There's also been some sadness from the other side of my family, and some fighting. What I'm pretty much saying is that, while I hope it won't be, it might be a little while until I update the next chapter. It took me over a week to actually start writing again after something happened last week, but I'm back to it now.

Reviews from last chapter:
Loverofbones: I didn't even think of that to be honest, though I should have. I just thought her punching him was not something she'd often do.
Nourseholly: Glad you love it.


Christine's Pov

"Remind me again how you convinced me to do this?" I asked Kate as I helped make one of the classrooms look extra scary for the Halloween party here at school tonight. I wasn't on the decoration committee, and I so didn't want to be at school when there were hardly any people here because of what happened, but Kate had charmed me into it.

Every year we do a Halloween party, which includes making the school look like a haunted house. It was the Saturday before Halloween, considering Halloween a.k.a October the 31st was a Tuesday this year (A/N I actually checked the date going to 2028 on my computer) and we'd decided to do the Halloween party tonight. We never did it on a school night, for obvious reasons. We did the same thing last year, even though it was on a Sunday, since it allowed us to do our own thing on Halloween.

"Because you love me, and because my morning sickness seems to last all day lately." Kate said and I just sighed, going back to hanging up the fake cobwebs.

Kate was the head of the decoration committee and was adamant about continuing to be the head of the committee. She'd given up cheerleading, but she wasn't giving up this. She'd gotten me to help out here, mainly because she wanted to get home – she now lived with Darius' parents and was quite happy there; she was a lot happier than she ever had been at home, though she still missed Darius badly – and get into her costume with Amanda's help, since she wasn't as fast as she used to be. She was dressing up as a pixie, though her version of one. She said, despite all her sadness, she wanted a bit of fun.

"Hey, you're driving tonight, aren't you?" Kate asked me and I nodded.

"Yeah, Michael's truck is in getting fixed. He needs new spark plugs and a new radiator – he should get it back Monday afternoon." I said as I got off the ladder. "Which is why, now that I have helped you finish this room and the rest of the school is basically done, I need to get home."

"I definitely agree with you on that one; I'm barely pregnant and I've been feeling tired constantly, so it might take me a while to get ready." She said. The whole school knew she was pregnant now, but no one had given her shit about it, not even Mariah – even the cheerleading coach had been understanding. "Hey, what are you dressing up as tonight? You never told me, though I know it's a mythical creature since that's the theme we agreed to."

I smiled at her over my shoulder. "It's the theme you made me agree to, and it's a surprise. Not even Michael knows what I'm dressing up as." I said, before taking off. I had a boyfriend to meet at my house, since Angela and Hodgins were dropping him off before they went to the Jeffersonian Halloween party, which they were hosting early this year – this was my third year in high school and not once had our parties been on the same day.

X

I stood in my bedroom getting ready for the Halloween party, haunted house and dance at school, having told everyone that they couldn't come in here. I was going to the party as an elf, and I mean kinda like the Lord of the Rings style elf, though not exactly.

I was dressed in a forest green bateau/boat neck, long sleeved dress that was held together at the front, not that you'd know it just by looking at it. The top bateau/boat neck, middle of the upper part of the dress, the V shaped waist and the bottoms of the sleeves were all lined in a greenish/silver lining. The bottom of the dress was longer at the back and went up the front in an upside down V shape, going up to just below my belly button. I had on legging like dark green pants underneath it, and was wearing brown leather boots that went to just below my knees. I was also wearing a brown leather belt that had a silver leaf buckle, with the buckle sitting more to the right side of my waist, and connected to the belt was a small leather bag, which held my phone, house keys and car keys. I was also wearing a silver leaf pendent, the leaf made from a green stone and surrounded by silver.

As for features, I had black eyeliner on my waterline and eyelid, bold black mascara, as well as green and brown eye-shadow on my eyelids that were blended well, and desert suede lipstick – I was also wearing light, bright green contacts, which would affect my eyesight slightly, but wouldn't stop me from driving to school, and I was going to take them out before I drove home and clean them properly when I got home, since they'd begin to bother me after a while. I had on really well made elf ears, covering my real ears, and was getting ready to put on my wig on. My wig was a waist length white blond lace front wig that was half up, half down straitened wig – the half up part being braided with a dark green ribbon in it. My hair was in a wig cap and I carefully pinned my wig into place, moving my hair to flow down my back, before fixing the front of the wig and my ears up quickly. I then grabbed my silver forehead band and put it in place.

I placed my quiver over my shoulder for the moment, which was full of real looking arrows without the real tips, and grabbed my wood bow off my bed – as well as a small bag that had my contact container and solution in it, which I'd be leaving in my care – before I left my room and headed downstairs, spotting Michael as I went. He was dress as a vampire and he looked hot. He had paled his face slightly, with red contacts in and a fang over each of his canines. His hair was slicked back with gel and he was dress in black dress shoes, black slacks, a black jacket over a white dress shirt with a cravat, as well as a black cape.

He looked up the stairs and smiled at me, which was slightly creepy with the fangs. "You look good enough to eat." He said and I laughed as I reached him.

"Very funny." I said, before looking into the living room and kitchen to see my parents and Michael's parents weren't dressed yet. "Aren't you guys getting dressed yet?" I asked, causing them to look at me.

"Christine, your outfit is amazing. You've put so much detail into it, you look like an elf from one of those fantasy films you seem to love, considering elves don't actually exist in the real world." Mom said and I smiled, noticing that my question wasn't answered.

"Well, that's the point Mom. We're dressing as mythical creatures." I said, before looking at the clock. "We better get going or else we're going to be late, but before that, can you take a picture of us Angela?" I asked and she nodded.

"Of course. I mean, you two put so much work into you costumes this year, it would be a shame not to have photos of them." She said, before going over to her bag and taking out her camera. Angela was a photograph, so it was instinct to ask her to take photos. I wasn't bad a taking photos, but unless it was a selfie, it was harder to take a great photo of yourself with ease.

Michael and I went out to the front of the house, and Angela stood in front of us, taking photo. She even got us to pose so it looked like Michael was drinking my blood, which took as a while because I kept bursting into laughter when his breath hit my neck. We then posed with me aiming an arrow at Michael.

Once the photos were taken, I started over to the garage, only to see that Dad had parked in front of my side of the garage. The garage had two doors, allowing two cars to be parked inside, so Dad let Mom and I park our cars inside and his SUV stayed in the drive. People could be stupid, but they weren't stupid enough to steal an F.B.I agent's SUV, especially since all the SUV's had tracking devices in them, though only the agents and some techs could turn them on.

"Um, Dad, can you move your SUV so I can get to my car?" I asked and he looked at the drive, before grabbing his keys out of his pockets.

"Sorry, it's just habit. Bones drives her car more than you do." Dad said as he went over to his SUV, while I hit the garage button on my house keys. Michael and I walked into the garage and I hit my electric car key, unlocking my car. I put my bow and quiver in the back seat, before I got into the driver's seat.

"You do remember how to drive right, I mean I'm the one who drives all the time." Michael said as he got into the passenger seat and I gave him the evil eye.

"I might be nearly a year younger than you, but I can drive just as well as you can smart-ass. The only reason I don't drive is because you pick me up all the time." I said as I put my seat belt, before starting my car and pulling out of the garage. I hit the garage key again and watched as it closed, before I pulled out of the driveway, before putting my car into drive and headed off down the road.

My car was a sleek black, automatic, with a touch screen on the dashboard. I had a rear-view mirror, a dashboard cam, GPS, access to the internet so I could search things and a ghost driver, which I rarely used. The car could parallel park itself, which is the only thing I used it for at times. It also had a really good sound system and was fuel saving, as well as righting the car if I swerved and warning me if I went over the speed limit, not that I ever did. My mom really had brought me the best car she could, within reason. It was still too expensive if you asked me, but my mother was stubborn and wanted me to have a safe car – it was annoying because Dad had agreed with her, though he'd not agreed with the price.

"So, how's your truck going?" I asked Michael and he sighed.

"Well, I might have to get a new one soon enough. It's pretty old, so Mom and Dad a looking into getting me a new one. They have the money thanks to Dad's invention." Michael said and I smiled.

See, Mom and Dad had paid for them to go on a holiday, but it was more because they paid for a surprise trip for us a year earlier. Michael's parents were in no way broke, and while they would have had billions if Pelant hadn't taken the entire Hodgins fortune, it was obvious the Hodgins was happier without it. He'd said often that he had everything he needed.

"Hey, is everything alright with you?" Michael asked and the question surprised me.

"Where's that come from all of a sudden?" I asked and I could feel his eyes on my face, while I focused on the road.

"You've put so much effort into your costume this year and said it was because you wanted to surprise Kate, and make this an awesome day for her, and helped her and yet complained about it to get her smiling, but I don't really believe it." Michael said and I flicked my eyes towards him, which is when I saw just how concerned he was, though it was a little hard because of the contacts. "Stacey called me earlier and said that when she went into the girls' bathroom, you jumped and looked panicked, and that's made me realize a few things."

I sighed. "Michael, can we please just talk about this later?" I said and I could tell that he didn't like that idea. "Look, I promise I'll talk about this with you, but I just want to have fun tonight and help Kate have fun."

"Alright, but after the party, we're going back to your house, changing and talking, because I know there's something wrong." Michael said and I nodded.

Michael wasn't wrong, I had been going through something, but I'd been ignoring it because I wanted to be there for Kate because of what she was going through.

X

"Oh, my god, you look amazing! If it wasn't for the car, I wouldn't have known it was you!" Kate said as she ran over to me and hugged my tightly, grinning widely.

Kate was dressed in a multi-colored pink dress, with a strapless sweetheart neck line and a multi layered ripped bottom, which was were the multiple pink colors came in. The chest area was sparkly and glittered. She was wearing pink shoes as well, with ribbon that tied up to her knees. She was wearing a pink wig that was tied up in a ponytail, elf ears like mine and pink swirls around her eyes area with glitter. She also had on spiky pink wings.

"You look amazing as well. A real hot pink pixy." I grinned, which seemed to make her happy.

"I know, but you two look absolutely amazing. I've never seen you two put so much effort in your outfits. We need to get a photo taken together." Kate said, pulling out her phone from the bag at her side.

"I'll take it." I heard someone say and I turned to the right to see Ford coming towards us, dressed as a cowboy – again. Behind him were Anna and Stacey, or should I say Anna and Else from Frozen.

"Do you ever dress as anything else mate?" Michael asked.

Ford shrugged. "Easier to wear this each year than spend money on new costume's all the time." He said, and I couldn't disagree with him on that one, but it was fun.

"Come on you three, get together. Stand behind Christine and Kate Michael." Stacey said, her phone out ready to take a photo of us. Kate stood by my side and Michael stood behind me. My bow was with my quiver over my back and wasn't irritating me at all. "I got it. I'll send it to all three of you, because you look amazing."

"Good, because I plan to show my little one just how amazing things can be with amazing friends." Kate said and I smiled at her. She said the moment she could find out the baby's sex, she would, because she wanted to give them the best life ever. She's was nine weeks now and was handling herself pretty well. She would be able to find out the sex at the end of December, or start of January – basically when her mid-pregnancy ultrasound was – her due date was in May.

"That baby is gonna grow up loved." Anna said and Kate smiled.

"My baby sure will, so let's go and have fun tonight. I'm going to be a mother when May gets here, so I want to have fun while I can, before I become a mother." Kate said and I couldn't blame her. She was going to become a mother right before her last year of school, which was why I planned to help he with her studies as much as I could.

"Let's go then." I smiled, linking my arm with hers. I was going to show her a fun night, while her morning sickness wasn't so bad.

We walked together into the school, which was definitely scary. The school had lights on, but colored lights and it was smoky, but not too much – Kate had worked in that pregnant girls would be there, and that doesn't mean only her. I will admit, everyone involved had done a damn good job of decorating. I was looking forward to getting to the gym and dancing – I didn't like being in the halls, especially when they were like this and people were scaring each other. I had my hand in Michael's and was focusing on getting to the gym.

We reached the gym and I have to admit, it looked like a lot of fun. People were dancing and having fun, and it looked a cool kind of scary.

"Come on, let's dance. It'll take your mind off things." Michael said and I wasn't all too happy that he was now seeing through my façade, but I guess I had to face what was wrong sooner or later.

"I'd like that." I smiled, because I just had to try to ignore what I was worried about and have fun with my boyfriend and my friends – high school didn't last forever.

X

As I came out of my bedroom, costume, wig and contact free, I was worried. I had promised I would talk to Michael once we were home and changed, but now I wasn't so sure. Tonight had been so much fun, and I didn't want to turn it bad, but I had to talk to him. He was sitting on the couch in normal clothes and without any face paint or contacts because he'd been smart enough to bring a change of clothes.

"Hey, look who looks like a human again and not an elf. I have to admit, I miss the look." Michael said as I walked into the lounge room and sat beside him on the coach. You could feel the hesitation. "Look, I don't want to push you, but I'm worried about you. Christine, I love you, so please, just talk to me."

"I haven't been sleeping well." I said and I saw the shock in his eyes. "The last time I slept through the night was the night you stayed over after Darius' funeral. I keep having nightmares about what happened that day, but worse. Sometimes things go a lot worse for me then they did, and sometimes… you get hurt, and it doesn't end well for you."

"Why didn't you tell me this was happening?" He asked me and I sighed, whipping my eyes to rid them off the small tears there. I'd been avoiding talking about this for weeks – I'd hidden it since it started happening.

"You lost your best friend, I didn't want you to have to worry about this too. Also, I thought it would go away after a while, but it didn't." I said and he sighed, before placing his hand against my cheek.

"Chris, you are my girlfriend, I want to know these things." He said and small tears started falling again, which he wiped away. "Does anyone know you've been having nightmares?"

"No, my parents haven't noticed because I have been trying my hardest to act normal, and neither did Kate. I don't want to worry them." I admitted and he sighed.

"Sometimes your need not to worry others and put them first frustrates me, but I do understand it this time. Still, you have to talk about this – it's pretty obvious that what happened is scaring you more then you're admitting." He said and I leant into him, tears now streaming down my face. He had gotten it right off the bat. "Chris, the things we've gone through, it would be hard on anyone. In the last year we've been poisoned, we've been kidnapped and nearly blown up and you came face to face with the person who killed Darius, who also tried to kill you. It's been a lot, and it hasn't been easy on me, but I wasn't the one who was chased through the school."

"Every time I go to school, there are times where I had these… small panic attacks. Whenever I'm either alone or somewhat alone in the hall and someone comes up behind me or touches my shoulder, I always jump, like I did with you the other day. The same thing with Stacey when I was in the bathroom – she came in and I freaked out." I admitted, because maybe that was my problem. I wasn't talking about it, so I wasn't getting any better.

"I'd suggest maybe changing schools, but I know you'd never do that because you like the school, your friends go there and you hate running away from your problems." Michael said and I nodded.

"You've got that right." I said, because I didn't believe in running away from things.

"But you need to tell your parents. Maybe the reason this is so hard on you is because you have no one there helping you through it – you've helped both Kate and me through this, so let us worry about you. You were alone in the school and running for your life, but you're not now." Michael said and I knew he was right.

"You're right, and I hate it. I didn't want to stress anyone out." I said and it was very obvious that he found that a little bit funny. "Funnily enough, I did talk to Sweets about it on Friday, but it didn't help and he suggested the same thing."

That is when the front door opened and our parents walked in, both his and mine, and I worked quickly to wipe the tears away from my eyes. They were laughing and happy, and they were not longer in their costumes, but they must have changed before they came home, but it was twelve at night and they tried to come home earlier then they would have when they didn't have kids, even though Michael and I were old enough to look after ourselves and Katherine was at a friend's house.

Unfortunately, Dad noticed me wiping my eyes, which made it obvious that I was crying. "Christine, what's wrong?"

"Michael, you better not have caused this." Angela said and Michael held up his hands.

"He didn't, I promise. We were just talking about something I haven't been talking about." I said, because I didn't want Michael getting in trouble. "Can all of you sit down? I was going to just tell Mom and Dad, but you two are family too." I said. I had to tell them now, or I was going to chicken out of it.

They all sat down, and I could tell that all of them were now worried about what I was going to say. "Christine, what's going on?" Mom asked.

"Ever since what happened at school, or more importantly, just after Darius' funeral, I haven't been sleeping well. I've been having pretty bad nightmares that have been waking me up every night, that's why you caught me in the kitchen at 3am Thursday night Mom. That's not the only thing either – I've been having minor panic attacks at school, though I've had one serious one." I explained and I could tell that they were shocked by what I had said.

"What do you mean by panic attacks?" Dad asked and I sighed.

"When people come up behind me and touch my shoulder, or just stand behind me. Pretty much whenever I'm alone, or nearly alone, and something like a loud noise or someone touching me happens, I freak. Even sometimes when I'm not at school – I've just been really jumpy." I explained, as I didn't want to lie about this anymore.

"How long have you known about this Michael?" Angela asked and he sighed.

"I only just started noticing not long ago, but she told me what's going on with her tonight, right before you got home." Michael said, taking my hand in his as I waited for what was going to happen.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Mom asked and I sighed.

"I didn't want to worry anyone. Everyone's been going through so much lately that I didn't want to add to it. So, I stayed silent and hoped things got better." I admitted. "I didn't tell anyone, but Friday I talked to Sweets about it and he told me that I should talk to you. He actually helped me through it a little, but that was basically only yesterday and I didn't want to tell you originally."

"You talked to Sweets?" Dad asked and I sighed.

"Yes, because he's like an Uncle to me, and a psychologist – if anyone was going to help me understand what was going on, he could." I admitted, which I had yet to tell Michael. It was easier talking to Sweets, because I wasn't as worried about stressing him out and making things worse for him. The adults had work that involved crime, and Dad felt bad about all that had happened to me. Kate was pregnant and still dealing with Darius' death and Michael had lost his best friend.

"I'm not happy that you didn't tell us, but I understand why you didn't. I did the same thing." Dad said and I smiled, because I knew he would, when I eventually told him. He was in the army, so he understood stressful and damaging things could be. "Why don't you go up and get some sleep then? Michael's free to stay and sleep, but only sleep, if you want, and we can talk about this more in the morning."

"I'd like that." I said, doing my best to ignore how intent he was on us just sleeping. When Michael and I decided to take that step, it wasn't up to my father.

"Let's go to bed then." Michael said and he pulled me up off the couch.

I stopped and looked back at my parents. "Mom, Dad, I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner." I said, because I felt bad about it.

Dad smiled and got off the couch, coming over to me and kissing my forehead. "You have nothing to be sorry for." He said. "Now go to bed."

Michael and I left them there and headed up the stairs, and I had a feeling that I was going to actually sleep through the night tonight. Tomorrow, I could talk to them more about it and tell them about the school Halloween party.


Hope you guys enjoyed.