(Season 12)

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Hodgins rolled into Angela's office with a sheaf of papers and an air of excitement. "Angela I have this great idea for a pop-up book. It hit me late last night and I've drawn a few of my ideas on these pages to show you. You know I can't draw like you, but if we work on this together I think we might have a real gem on our hands."

Curious about her husband's idea, Angela stood up and moved closer to his wheelchair. Taking the proffered sheets of paper, Angela flipped through them looking at them carefully. "I'm not sure . . . can you explain it to me?"

His excitement threatening to bubble over, Hodgins grinned and pointed towards the table near the corner of the office. "Let me spread them out so you can seem them better and then I'll explain."

Angela hadn't seen her husband excited about anything for a long time and to see him practically bouncing in his chair made her excited in turn.

After the papers were spread out in a specific order, Hodgins pointed to the first page. "Okay this book is aimed at kids about Hank's age. He has a new pop-up book about fireman he showed me yesterday when we went over to their house for dinner. It was so cute and very colorful and I kept thinking that if I had a story to tell, I'd do it that way . . . in a pop-up book." Hodgins felt nostalgic and that feeling had been with him since the idea for the book came to him. "A few years ago, remember when Booth was a suspect in an murder investigation and we had to work with Agent Perotta? You know he had a fight with some firefighter and the guy turned up dead?"

"Booth was never a suspect in that murder as far as I'm concerned." It still made Angela angry that the FBI would ever consider Booth anything other than a fine upstanding man. Of course they let themselves be tricked into thinking he was a murderer a couple of years ago and Booth ended up in prison for several months before the prosecutor relented. Angela would never forgive the FBI or the Justice department for doing that to Booth. It was abuse and terrible abuse at that. "But yes I remember Agent Perotta."

"Anyway, Perotta made a comment that we were her people and Wendell and I corrected her and reminded her that we were Booth's people." Hodgins jabbed at his first drawing. "Angela we are Booth's people and this is our story, but in a simple tale for kids. It's about us . . . As you can see in the first print, this shows Booth as a farmer and he's holding a flashlight because he's investigating the woods beyond his barn."

His excitement continuing to grow, if that was possible, Hodgins flashed a toothy grin at his wife. "That little building at the top is the barn with an attached silo . . . now these characters are us. All of us."

Angela saw him point at each character he'd drawn on the page. "Brennan is a beetle . . . notice she's looking in a microscope?"

The pictures weren't drawn badly, but Angela knew she could do much better. "Yes, I see."

A quick nod of his head and Hodgins continued. "Now this ant is Aubrey and he's writing in a notebook. Cam is the caterpillar and she's holding a magnifying glass. That butterfly is you and you're holding a camera." With pride Hodgins tapped the wasp flying in the air. "That's me . . . I don't have the story written yet, but Booth is investigating something going on in the woods and we're helping him because we're his people. Get it? What do you think?" He pointed at the other pictures and frowned. "These pictures should line up with the story. They're rough drawings I know, but with your help we could do this Ang. We could work on this in our spare time and when it's ready to go to print we can show it to Brennan and Cam. I really want to do this Angela. I really want it to be published, but I need your help. I can't do it by myself."

Her enthusiasm growing as she looked at the rough sketches, Angela finally leaned over and kissed Hodgins. "This is wonderful, Jack. It's beautiful. I want to help you do this. I'll draw the characters and put together the pop-up book. You can write the story since it is your story. I love it. I just love it."

So pleased that she was going to help him, Hodgins smiled at his wife in gratitude. "Babe this is us. This is a story about all of us. We rarely get in the news and that's okay. I don't work here for fame or glory, but I think it would be nice to tell our story. This book shows how Booth is the investigator and how in this story we help him to solve a mystery. It shows us as part of his team, his family. It's our story. It shows how we work together and we do it because we do it out of love for each other. We can count on each other."

Angela was suddenly filled with emotion and felt a tear slide down her cheek. "We are a family." Sniffing, Angela ran her finger under her damp eyes. "Booth will be so surprised to see himself as a farmer. He's such a city boy. It's a sweet idea, Jack. If we can't get anyone to publish it, we'll publish it ourselves. Our story needs to be told and we're going to tell it."

"Thank you, Angela." Hodgins gathered the papers together and gave them to his wife. "Thank you for listening to me and helping me with this. I really want to do this and when it's printed we can give a copy to all of our friends . . . our family because they need to see their story."

"You're welcome Jack." Angela held the pages against her breasts. "Thank you for trusting me to help you with this. It's going to be so beautiful."

Hodgins was filled with pride for his wife. He knew that she had helped him to grow over the years to be a better man. He was no longer the angry man that had to wear rubber bands on his wrist to snap them to try to stop him from lashing out at others around him.

It wasn't too long ago that he had wanted to give up on his life. His legs were useless from the explosion he had been in and he had lost hope, but her love had broke through his self-pitying wall and she had forced him to see that he hadn't lost everything. He had only lost his ability to walk. He was still Jack Hodgins. He had a gorgeous wife and handsome son. He had friends that he loved so much he considered them to be his family and he knew that he was a lucky man. "Wouldn't it be cool to be a wasp? I could fly. That would be so awesome."

Angela leaned over and kissed him. "You're already awesome, Jack Hodgins."

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