(After season 12)

Thank you for reviewing my story. I appreciate it.

I don't own Bones.

Ooooooooooooooooo

A little eager for the upcoming holiday, Christine found her father in the garage tinkering with his Mustang. "Dad, I want to do a haunted house."

Surprised, Booth moved away from the engine, backed away from the hood propped up above him and grabbed a rag from the counter behind him to clean his hands. "What do you mean? You want to run a haunted house here?" He wasn't sure he understood what she wanted to do. "You want to make a fun house?"

"Yeah, Dad, in the garage." Her gaze moving around the room, Christine imagined what it would look like when it was done. "You'd have to move the Mustang out onto the driveway, so I could have room to set it up."

Throwing the rag onto the counter, Booth lowered the hood on his Mustang and leaned on the car. "Do you need help setting it up? Do have a plan written down? You know you can't use real bodies and stuff like that, right?"

Her eyes rolling, Christine threw her head back and then returned her gaze upon her father. "Dad, I don't own any real body parts to use and I'm not going to ask Mom for any. That would just be gross and I don't want to scare the kids that badly . . . I have ideas using just ordinary stuff . . . Would you mind helping me with some of it?"

"Of course not, Sweetheart." Booth loved how Christine could turn into a little Bones when she was irritated with him. For a thirteen year old child, he felt she had a good head on her shoulders. "Just tell me what you want me to do. Are you going to charge for your fun house?"

"I thought I'd charge 50 cents. It's not a lot, but I'm not doing it for the money." Christine just wanted to see if she could create a haunted house. It was an experiment. "I'll give you the money if you'll help me."

Giving it some thought, Booth shrugged his shoulders. "I'll take you up on that. I should get paid if I'm working for you."

Shocked that her father was actually going to take the money, Christine frowned. "Well, okay."

Chuckling, Booth knew that his daughter had assumed he would decline the money. "Hey, welcome to business. You hire someone you have to pay them."

"Well, okay." Since she wasn't doing the haunted house to make money, Christine realized that it didn't really matter. "I need to go to the arts and crafts store this Saturday. I'll show you what I have planned and you can help me set it up."

"Sounds like a plan." Done with his car for the day, Booth walked towards the door. "Do you want to let Hank help out? He might think it's fun."

Not sure about that, Christine sighed. "Let me think about it. He's only eight. He might not want to do it."

"Ha! You don't know your brother very well if you think that's true." Before he entered the house, Booth looked back at his car. "I think I'll see if I can park my car at Uncle Aubrey's house. I don't want sticky kid fingers on my car. I just had it repainted."

Oooooooooooooooooo

With his car safely parked at Aubrey's house Booth, Christine and Brennan with some help from Hank, set up a haunted house in the garage. The idea was for the customer to enter the garage using the side door. The overhead lights would remain off and strings of black lights were strung up along the ceiling and the walls. Christine had come up with the idea of having stations where the customer would interact with a display at the station. She wanted the customer to interact with her haunted house, not just come in and be scared.

Brennan approved and helped with the props. Booth set up the lights and the stations using black plastic sheeting hanging from the ceiling. He loved the idea of the stations once the displays were explained to him. He did have one rule for the haunted house, no kids under eight years old would be allowed in the garage and no one was going to get hurt. This was supposed to be fun.

The haunted house was opened the weekend before Halloween. Christine and Hank had created signs to post around the neighborhood and for their front yard. Hank sat at a table with a box to keep the money in he collected from his customers. Brennan sat on a chair next to him to make sure no one tried to bully the boy or to take his money from him. They lived in a nice neighborhood, but Brennan didn't trust two of the teenagers living at the end of the street. They were bullies that liked to make the younger children miserable. She had spoken to the teenagers' parents, but the parents shrugged off the problem. Booth considered them candidates for reform school but kept out of it. If the boys broke the law, he would make sure the police knew about it, but he had no intention in interfering with the situation. Of course, if the bullies tried to bully his kids then all bets would be off.

Surprisingly, Christine's first customers were two interns from the Lab. They were recent hires and they wanted an excuse to see where their mentor lived. They had heard a lot about her and wanted a chance to see how a rich author lived. A little disappointed that the house looked a lot like a lot of the middle class houses in the neighborhood, they presented themselves to Hank and smiled at the boy. "We'd like to be admitted to the haunted house."

Holding out his hand, Hank smiled. "50 cents please . . . each."

After they paid the money, both of them followed the sign that said the entrance was on the side of the garage. They walked along the path between the house and the garage and found the door. A sign taped to the door displayed the words 'Enter at your own risk'. There was a smaller sign taped on the door below that sign. 'Not responsible for heart attacks or stress incontinence'.

Amused, Larry took a picture of the sign with his phone. "This is cute."

"Yeah, cute." Tommy wasn't sure he agreed. No child would print a sign like that, but his mentor might. "I thought this haunted house was set up by Dr. Brennan's daughter. Kids don't write like that."

"Who cares. Come on." Curious, Larry opened the door and found himself in a dark room lit with black lights and glistening black walls. "Cool." Once he was in the room, he noticed a young girl standing near the first display dressed in black clothing and a gold crown. Moving closer, the girl smiled and pointed a stick covered in gold glitter at the box sitting on the table with a hole in it's side. "Each station has a sign explaining what you should do. Good luck."

Wary, Tommy placed his hand in the hole and found a plate. Placing his hand on it, he felt a squishy substance in his fingers.

"It's a brain." Christine spoke solemnly. "My mother works with dead bodies."

Hastily withdrawing his hand, he found his fingers were covered with a red substance. "What the hell?"

Handing Tommy a paper towel, Christine laughed. "It's really spaghetti."

Chuckling, Larry placed his hand in the box and felt the spaghetti ooze through his fingers. "Hey, that's not bad. If you use your imagination then you might think this was true."

"Thank you." Proud of her displays, she pointed toward the next station. "Just follow the path and stop at each display. The display will tell you what to do." Confident that the young men would have fun, Christine watched them walk away.

Each station was set up differently. One display asked them to open a door and they were confronted with a mirror which made Tommy and Larry jump back since it seemed like someone was standing on the other side in the half dark room.

The next display asked them to open a coffin and inside they found a skeleton dressed in rags and several mice running around in the coffin. Since Larry wasn't a fan of mice, he slammed the lid down and hurried to the next display.

The challenge in the next display was to remove a cloth from a cage. Inside the cage was a large snake which made Tommy squeak. Embarrassed, he poked Larry in the ribs. "I bet they borrowed this from Dr. Hodgins. He has a big snake like this in his lab." It's why the hell I stay out of that room.

At the next station, they found a string that had a little sign taped to it that said, 'pull me'. Tommy didn't want to do it, but Larry said he had paid 50 cents for this adventure and he wanted to see it all. Grabbing the string, they witnessed what looked like a giant spider falling toward them. The spider had glowing red eyes and glistening fangs. Larry released the string and ran towards the next display with Tommy close on his heels while the plastic spider moved back towards the ceiling.

Huffing a little, Larry grinned at his friend. "This fun house is pretty good. I knew the spider was fake and I still ran."

Not amused, Tommy remained silent while Larry studied the sign in front of him. "Put your head in the hole."

"Pass." Tommy was not playing along, he'd had enough.

"Party pooper." Larry poked his head through the hole and noticed his head was in a box. The box was lit with tiny lights in the corners and the inside of the box was covered with what looked like blood and entrails. The entrails were purplish and looked very real. Feeling queasy, he pulled his head out and shook his head. "Don't put your head in there . . . it's gross."

It seemed that was the last display and the young interns headed down the path towards the door ahead of them. Before they reached the door, the black plastic sheeting beside them moved and a large figure lunged at them. It looked like something from "The Walking Dead' and frightened both young men. Fleeing the garage, they raced down the path and when they got to the driveway, slowed then walked towards where Brennan and Hank were sitting.

"That's a pretty good fun house, Dr. Brennan." Larry had enjoyed himself and considered the 50 cents he had paid worth the price and more.

Upset about the zombie like creature at the end of the fun house, Tommy complained. "You know, Dr. Brennan. Having someone lunge at you in a partially dark room dressed as a zombie may be a bit much for kids."

Puzzled, Brennan stared at her intern for a moment and finally replied. "We don't have a zombie as part of the fun house. Maybe my husband decided to do that."

Before she could speak, Booth left the house carrying two glasses of lemonade. Since he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and had no hint of make up on that made everyone stare at him with a worried expression.

"What?" Booth stopped and looked at the surprised faces turned towards him. "What did I do?"

"Were you in the fun house a few minutes ago?" Brennan decided that Booth was playing a trick on them.

He noticed that one of the younger men was looking a bit pale while he handed one glass to his wife and one to his son. "No, I've been watching a game on TV."

The hair on the back of his neck threatening to stand up, Larry placed his hand on the back of his neck. "Tommy and I have to go." Rushing towards his car, he barely let Tommy get in before he started the car and drove away.

"Tommy said someone dressed as a zombie startled them during their tour of the fun house." Brennan stared at her husband with suspicion.

Shrugging his shoulders, Booth saw three children approach up the driveway. "Overactive imaginations." Hurrying up the driveway, he took the path to the side door of the garage, opened it and poked his head in the doorway. "You have more customers coming."

Pleased with her success, Christine pushed the zombie next to her towards the black curtain. "Hurry Uncle Aubrey, you did good now do it again."

"Alright, alright, don't be so pushy." Aubrey was thoroughly enjoying himself and had plans to have his own fun/haunted house next year.

Laughing, Booth walked over to the door to the house and entered the kitchen. The haunted house was proving to be as much fun as he hoped it would be.

Ooooooooooooooooooo

Happy Halloween. Let me know what you think of my story. Thank you.