My One and Only

by Ilovebooks10

Seeley is stuck at the Jeffersonian with a group of squints, over Christmas when suddenly there was a very familiar face in front of him.

My One and Only

It was a clear night even though there was some light snow falling, as Buffy pulled up to the Jeffersonian Institute. She had a meeting with the director of the Jeffersonian Institute and this was the only time she had available for the meeting. The director had also invited her to stay for their Christmas party as his guest. As she got to the reception desk, she asked to meet Dr Goodman, she was told to wait and that the director was coming down to escort her. She only had to wait a few moments before the receptionist pointed out the director to her.

"Ms Summers, it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Dr Goodman the Director of the Jeffersonian Institute" Dr Goodman held out his hand for her to shake.

Buffy shook his hand and said "It's a pleasure to meet you, I wanted to thank you for meeting me a such a short notice, especially since it is two days away from Christmas"

Dr Goodman gestured for her to follow him, "It's not a problem at all, I understand how important it is to have this mattered sorted out as soon as possible" as they headed to the elevator, "I thought it would be best to head to my office and we can first sort this matter out. Then we can join the Christmas party" they stepped into the elevator.

"Yes, I believe that will work" Buffy nodded in agreement to the plan that Dr Goodman had set out. They both stood quietly waiting for the elevator to reach the floor of the director's office. Within a few moments they reached the floor, Dr Goodman gestured for her to head out first. She then followed Dr Goodman towards his office.

They headed to a large lab, "This is the main lab that is mainly used when we examine the skeletons and bones"

Buffy looked at the room, which the Dr Goodman was showing her. There was an elevated platform area which was surrounded with bright lights and it looked like people had to swipe in. It looked like the area was protected by lasers as well. There were also two women in the elevated platform of lab, one of the women was dressed as an elf, whereas the other woman was dressed in a dark blue lab coat.

"It's very silvery" Buffy offered.

Dr Goodman laughed; this was the first time he had ever heard the lab being described in such a way. "Thank you. I believe that's the first time I have heard it being called silvery" Buffy smile up at him and gave him a small shrug. "The reason that it is set up this way is to reduce the chances of contamination" Dr Goodman explained, Buffy nodded in understanding. As they walked past the main part of the forensic platform lab, they could hear the conversation that was taking place between the two women.

"….to collect all the photocopies, I need you. Friends don't let friends photocopy their butts at the company Christmas parties".

Buffy had to bite her lip to stop herself from bursting out in laughter. Dr Goodman gruffly cleared his throat, looking completely uncomfortable at the conversation that was taking place between two of his most talented staff, while he was escorting someone through the lab. Dr Goodman looked over at Ms Summers and found her looking amused at what she was hearing. He decided the best thing was to get Ms Summers to his office as quickly as possible before the conversation between Angela and Dr Brennan escalated into something else. Buffy knew exactly what was going through Dr Goodman's mind as she quietly followed him to his office.

/-/-/

Back at the main lab, Angela was still trying to convince Temperance to join her at the Christmas party. Temperance walked around the autopsy table, pulling on her gloves, Angela went the other way around and stood in front of her.

"There's a secret Santa"

Temperance walked past her saying, "I don't like secret Santa. The whole idea that we are forced by convention to exchange meaningless gifts is barbaric" Temperance began to examine the skull in front of her using a magnifying glass. Angela came around the table and stood next to Temperance, "Yes, but if you rearrange the words you get 'Secret Satan'".

Temperance looked over at her friend incredulously, "What possible meaning does that have?"

"I have already started with the eggnog. If you can't tell" Angela watched as Temperance stared at the skull intently. "Now, how can I have fun, while knowing that my best friend is in the lab having a staring contest with Skeletor"

"With who?"

"It's a cartoon villi…..you know what, never mind, it's not important. Would you please just come to the party!"

Temperance let out a sigh of annoyance and said "20 minutes, I will come for 20 minutes".

Before Angela could try and bargain with her, someone called out "Bones". Both women looked up to see Booth striding upto them, he swiped in, hurriedly walking up to them.

"All right, glad to find you here"

"Merry Christmas Seeley" Angela said pointedly.

"Oh wow, look at you now. What are you an elf?" Seeley looked at Angela from head to toe.

"Ofcourse someone has to show a little Christmas spirit"

Seeley grinned at her as he handed over a file to Temperance for to look at. Temperance opened the file, which was handed to her and she skimmed through it quickly, "What's the context?"

"Federal property on Dupont Circle" as Seeley placed a suitcase, which he was holding, on the empty autopsy table in front of him. "It's where Congress puts up visiting specialists or something like that, and they're digging to put in a solarium" Seeley explained as Temperance looked at the picture of the skeleton which was dressed in a suit and was holding on to gun. "They found a fallout shelter with him inside".

"Do you know how long it's been there?" questioned Angela as she came closer to have a look at the picture that Temperance was holding.

"From what we found the shelter was built in the '50s as part of the whole A-bombs panic" answered Seeley.

"Well it's not a suicide" Temperance said as she studied the image of the skeleton.

"Why the hell not? Hole in the head, you do see the gun? It's a suicide" Seeley pointed at the gun on the image. Hoping that this would be an open and shut case, but seeing the look on Bones face he had a feeling that he wouldn't be getting his wish anytime soon.

"He shot himself and somehow his arm ended up across his chest?" pointed out Temperance as she looked at Booth like he wasn't thinking clearly. Shaking her head at him, she said "No, bring in the skeleton and I'll prove this wasn't a suicide".

Seeley smiled at her and said "Merry Christmas, Bones. Here is your Christmas present", he turned around and whistled, "Come on boys, bring it in". The automatic doors opened and two FBI agents came in carrying a body bag. Seeley removed the suitcase from the autopsy table and placed it on the evidence table for Bones to have a look through. He went down to swipe the agents in and he helped them bring in the body bag.

Angela shook her head at the tactics that had Booth just used, "Oh no, we are heading to the Christmas party" as she gestured between her and Temperance.

Seeley ignored her and Temperance turned to Angela, "Why don't you go ahead and I'll do a quick examination and then I'll meet you upstairs in a few moments".

Once the skeleton was on the autopsy table, Seeley turned around without saying a word and started to follow the agents out of the lab, but before he could leave, Temperance called "Booth could you escort Angela to the party and make sure she doesn't photocopy her butt"

Seeley stared at the two women in front of him incredulously, before he shook his head to clear his thoughts and said "No, I can't do that, I have way too many things to do". As he tried to justify himself, Angela came up to him and took a hold of his arm, "Come on Booth, it will be fun".

"Bones…. Oh, come on, Bones…. Bones" Seeley called out as he was dragged out of the lab. Temperance watched as them for a moment before she went back to the skeleton in front of her.

/-/-/

Back in Dr Goodman's office, Buffy was looking through a file which had been given to her by the director. "As you can see the bones indicate that the victim was a 17-year-Old female, of Caucasian descent. The bones were found in a warehouse surrounded by human ash".

"When was she found? And why was she sent here?" Buffy asked.

"She was found nearly two years ago and due to the number of bones we have here it took us awhile to examine her bones, all unidentified bones are sent to us for identification".

"What did you find what from her bones?"

"From the examination of the bones we discovered that she was killed nearly ten years before she was discovered. She died due to major blood loss and she had sustained fractures on both her arms and ribs moments before she died" explained Dr Goodman.

Buffy closed her eyes in pain, she couldn't believe there that a body of another slayer had been found, when they had First received the call from the Jeffersonian in regards to finding these bones, she had thought it was a mistake. It was Giles who thought that this may have been the bones of the second to last slayer who came before her. Giles explained that the slayer had gone off on her own to hunt nest of vampires that had killed her watcher and she had never heard from after the night and the next slayer had been called.

Dr Goodman looked at the woman in front of him in interest, when they examined the bones, Angela had used the markers to create a matching face. They had placed the image on the data base and he was astonished to find that TWC (The Watchers Council) was looking for the same woman. He had personally called the TWC himself, seeing as they were one of the most elusive companies in the world, only a select few knew exactly what the TWC did exactly. He did not however expect a young woman like Ms Summers, to be working with such an elusive company.

Buffy looked at through the file and said "If I can arrange for the body to be transported back to England, will that be possible?"

Dr Goodman nodded, "Yes of course we will be able to arrange that, however I will need you to sign some forms". Buffy nodded in agreement and took the forms which were being handed to her by the director and started to read through them.

/-/-/

Seeley had come back down to the lab, having left Angela kissing a squint under the mistletoe. He came down to find Bones ordering Zack to clean the skeleton and Hodgins to check the clothes for insect activity.

While Zack took the skeleton away to be cleaned off. Bones started to write down her findings that she discovered in cursory examination. She looked at Seeley and asked "I thought you were at the party?"

Seeley shrugged and said "It's not really my scene" and he looked at the papers that were in the evidence bag, "What did you find?"

"Two open tickets to Paris. One way, Pan Transit Airlines, they're blank".

"Pan Transit Airlines? They went out of business in the '60s"

Temperance held up the bullet that she had found in the skull for Booth to look at, "I found this imbedded in the skull"

Seeley looked at it and recognised it as, "That's a .22 calibre bullet, it matches the gun that he was holding. Have you looked at the suitcase yet?"

"No"

"Why not?"

"Because I didn't want to compromise my objectivity"

"Like a name and address could compromise with your objectivity" Seeley snorted.

"I like to make unbiased observations".

"Right you people need to listen to me" Seeley and Temperance whirled around to find Angela glaring at them, "There is a Christmas party going on upstairs and we are going up there, we are going to have some fun" Seeley and Temperance looked at her blankly. "You are going to kiss me under the mistletoe" Angela said as she pointed at Booth, she then pointed at Temperance and said "I might even kiss you, in a festive, non-lesbian way. But we are going to have some fun at the party".

"Oh no, I am heading out in a moment, I have things to do before Christmas" Seeley said shaking his head at Angela.

/-/-/

However, before she could drag Temperance to the party, a sudden blaring alarm started to ring.

BUZZ….BUZZ….BUZZ….BUZZ

Seeley who was standing by the automatic doors, turned around to face Bones and Angela, "What hell is that?"

"Biological contamination" Temperance said as she continued to write her report.

All of sudden the automatic doors closed, Seeley turned around and tried to open them, using his hands to pry them open. However, that did not work. Angela watched him struggling with the door, and remarked "The doors seal themselves automatically, don't worry"

"What do mean don't worry?" Seeley said angrily as he continued to try and open the doors.

As Seeley had his back to the others, he didn't see Dr Goodman and Buffy come in to the lab in a hurry. Dr Goodman swiped in and allowed Buffy through and himself, Buffy stood to the side watching as Dr Goodman went over to talk to Temperance and Angela about the alarm. Seeley started to bang on the door causing Dr Goodman to look at him and calmly said "There is no point worrying about this. Until we know what it is?"

"What what is?" Seeley asked, as he looked at the director of the Jeffersonian. He vaguely noticed the blonde woman standing behind Dr Goodman with her back to both of them.

Before anyone could answer his question, a dripping wet, half naked Zack and Hodgins came in to the lab with a towel wrapped around their waists. Everyone turns to them, giving them their full attention.

"Uh, we think we know what might have happened" Hodgins offered, he had a slight nervous look on his face.

Buffy turned around to look at the two men who had just walked in, she noticed that everyone in the lab was waiting for an answer for what was going on. She watched as the younger man nervously rubbed the back of his neck and said "I cut into the fallout shelter bones and the biohazard alarm went off".

"Were you following autopsy protocol?" Dr Goodman asked as he looked at the two men in front of him evenly.

"Well one of us was. The other was…"

"I was drinking eggnog" Hodgins admitted, holding up his right hand.

"And you didn't have your mask on?" confirmed Temperance as she stared at the two men in front of her in disappointment.

"Oh great" groaned Angela.

All the while Seeley and Buffy watched quietly, unsure of what was going on and what this meant for them.

"Okay, first of all Mr Hodgins and Mr Addy you need to get dressed and we should head to Dr Brennan's office and see what the scans have picked up" Dr Goodman calmly stated, and everyone nodded in agreement to the plan he had stated.

Zack and Hodgins turned around and walked off to get dressed. Whereas the rest of the group turned to look at each other, Buffy came down the staircase and started to walk towards the group. Hearing her footsteps, they all turned to look at the woman who had been standing quietly to the side. Seeley looked at the woman in pure shock, Temperance eyed Booth worried by the look on her face.

Before Buffy or Dr Goodman could say anything, Seeley called out "Buffy".

Buffy smiled at him and said "Hi Angel". As soon as the words came out of her mouth Seeley walked over and pulled her in for a kiss and hug.

"Angel?" mouthed Angela to Temperance

The rest of the group watched in shock as they had never seen Booth show so much emotion and they couldn't help but wonder who this woman was to Booth. Slowly Seeley and Buffy pulled away from each other smiling, before Seeley completely pulled away, he whispered "Hi beautiful" to Buffy, causing her to smile.

Dr Goodman cleared his throat, causing Seeley and Buffy to look at him, they had almost forgotten that there were people still around them. "Well Ms Summers you seem to know Agent Booth pretty well. This is Dr Temperance Brennan and this is Ms Angela Montenegro. Ladies this is Ms Buffy Summers she was here about the case 10053".

Seeley sent a confused the look towards the group not understanding what case 10053 is. Buffy sent him a look letting him know that they would talk about it later. Whereas Angela and Temperance nodded in understanding as they both had worked on the case.

"It's nice to meet you" Angela nodding towards Buffy

"Hello, May I ask what kind of name is Buffy?"

"Bones" hissed Seeley

"Brennan" groaned out Angela

Whereas Buffy laughed and said "Don't worry about it. It's pleasure to meet you two, and answer your question my official name is Elizabeth, Buffy is a nickname".

"Ah I see"

"Now that we have gotten ourselves acquainted; we should find out what the hazmat team have found in the scans" Dr Goodman headed towards Temperance's office. Seeley and Buffy followed behind Dr Goodman, quietly talking between themselves.

Temperance and Angela hung back slightly, Angela whispered to Temperance, "Do you know who she is? And how does she know Booth?"

Temperance shrugged "I have no idea who she is and I don't know everything about Booth's life, Angela".

Once they all got to Temperance's office, both Temperance and Dr Goodman started to contact the hazmat team and the rest of them sat down in the chairs that were available. Angela turned to look at Booth and Buffy, both of whom were sitting on the two-seater couch. As Dr Goodman got in touch with one of the hazmat team, Zack and Hodgins came in dressed. They both took a seat on the available seats and looked at Buffy in confusion.

Seeing the confusion, Seeley decided to head the introductions, "Buffy this is Mr Zack Addy" pointing out the younger man, Zack gave her a small wave, "And this is Dr Jack Hodgins, the idiot who decided to have eggnog instead of wearing a mask"

"Oh, like you have never made a mistake" Hodgins snapped back, before he turned to Buffy and said, "Hi" before sending a questioning look to Angela. Angela have him a half shrug in response. Buffy who had seen the exchange decided to explain what she was doing here, "I had a meeting with Dr Goodman in regards to case 10053".

Before Hodgins could say anything the screen in front of them turned on and an older man in his 60's, wearing a Santa Claus costume was staring at them, he looked extremely unhappy.

"Dr Bancroft, can you tell us what is happening? And what the scanners have picked up?" fired Temperance before Dr Goodman could get a word out.

"The scanners have picked a pathogen called Coccidioidomycosis in the scanner of the discharge vent from Mr Addy's station"

"Valley Fever?" Dr Goodman looked stunned at that information, "The alarm went off shortly after Mr Addy cut into the skeleton"

"So, the skeleton must be the source" interjected Temperance.

"Was Mr Addy following the appropriate protocol?"

"Ofcourse I was, however…." Zack said indignantly before he trailed off not wanting to point fingers.

"I, however was drinking eggnog" explain Jack.

Dr Bancroft sighed heavily and said "And now he is in the same room as you breathing the same air" shaking his head slightly.

"Hey I got into the decontamination shower with Zack, I have been through enough already" Hodgins said as he glared at the leader of the hazmat team.

"Why what is valley fever?" questioned Seeley worriedly, without noticing his hand curled around Buffy's hand and pulled it across his lap. Buffy absentmindedly started to play with his fingers, trying to calm him down.

Zack rested his head on the palm of his hand as he answered Booth's question, "It's a fungus that can lead to pneumonia, meningitis and death".

"Can Dr Hodgins be contagious?" Buffy asked looking at the man in the screen.

"Yes, it's possible that Dr Hodgins may have inhaled the spores" Dr Bancroft answered Buffy's question while looking at her wondering who she was as he had never seen her before.

"So, it sucks to be Hodgins, but rest of didn't inhale anything. So why don't me and Buffy leave and rest of you can sort this mess out between yourselves" Seeley said turning to look at Dr Goodman. Buffy snorted lightly at his naivety, knowing that it's never that easy.

"I am sorry agent Booth but you can't leave as Dr Hodgins may have exhaled the spores all over us. We will have to be in quarantine as valley fever can be deadly" Dr Goodman stated calmly.

Booth stared at Dr Goodman, as Dr Bancroft reassured them, "Just stay calm and let us handle everything".

Temperance thought for sure that Booth was going to explode, but she was very surprised when he didn't. She looked over to find that Ms Summers was had a tight grip on his hand and was quietly whispering something in Booth's ear. Sighing at the sight in front of her she decided they might as well carry on working, "Well seeing as we are going to be here for a while, why don't we get to work?" looking pointedly at Zack and Hodgins.

Everyone slowly nodded and Booth, Buffy and Dr Goodman got out their phones, heading to different area to call the people who were expecting them in the evening to let them know what the current situation was.

/-/-/

As the three of them headed back to lab they found three people standing in hazmat suits and Angela, Temperance, Zack and Hodgins were standing in a line waiting, clearly waiting for them. Next to Dr Bancroft was a trolley which held injections for each of them and boxes of pills.

Buffy stood in between Dr Goodman and Seeley as she listened to the Dr Bancroft explain the different pills that they would have to take and the function of the medication, "As we won't know until after 36 hours whether the fungus has taken hold in your system, you will be held here in the lab under quarantine"

"Whoa, whoa are you saying that we are stuck here until then?" Seeley asked aggressively, causing everyone to look at him. "Calm down" Buffy hissed, Seeley ignored her and said "I have things to do, I can't be stuck here"

"We all have things to do" Dr Goodman said as he lowered his trousers to allow the one of the hazmat members to inject him. Seeley refused to comment and reluctantly drooped his trousers to allow the hazmat member to inject him, once he was done the man turned towards Buffy, she huffed in amusement as Seeley grabbed the injection out his hand and hissed "Don't' even think about it bucko, I've been trained before to give injections" the man held up his hand in the universal sign of surrender and backed away. Seeley stood behind Buffy to give her injection.

"I'm supposed to be in Quebec" stated Hodgins angrily at Seeley, Seeley just waved his hand in indifference.

"Ooh boo hoo, whose fault is this anyways?" Angela glared at Hodgins.

"Who made me drink eggnog at a party I didn't even want to be at?" countered Hodgins shifting his glare from Seeley to Angela.

"Oh, you are blaming me" Angela huffed, "This is Zack's fault he should have never cut into a bone with a drunk asshole in the room"

Zack looked at everyone and then turned to Seeley and said "This is Booth's fault, he's the one who brought us the remains to avoid doing paperwork"

"Wait you're saying this is my fault? For what bring a great Christmas present for Bones?"

"Oh, you knew she couldn't resist" cried out Dr Goodman, Angela, Hodgins and Zack.

"Well, I'd have, if I had been allowed to go Niger" argued Bones, staring at Dr Goodman as it was his decision to keep her here.

Buffy ignored the rest of the arguing and turned to face, Dr Bancroft the leader of the hazmat team and she asked, "Umm, where exactly are we sleeping?"

Everyone turned to look at Dr Bancroft after hearing Buffy's question to him, this question had been on all their minds. Dr Bancroft cleared his throat at the intent looks he was receiving from agent Booth and answered, "We'll be delivering sleeping bags and some food in a short while, if you have your loved ones call me. I can set up a safe quarantine visit. Dr Goodman has my number".

"Are there any side effects?" Angela asked.

Before he could answer, Bones beat him to it, "There can be nausea, fever, insomnia. In rare cases people have said had hallucinations as well as the feeling of euphoria".

Dr Bancroft nodded in agreement and added "The early onset symptoms also mimic the common cold"

"And if it manifests?" asked Hodgins

Zack replied "Treatment involves painful injection at the base of the brain", everyone had a slight disgusted look on their face.

Buffy absentmindedly rubbed the base of skull, whereas Seeley stared up at the lights in the ceiling, mumbling "shiny, shiny pretty stuff". Everyone turned to look at Booth with amused at his reaction to the injection.

While this was going on the hazmat team had started to bring in the sleeping bags, pillows and food left over from the party which had ended early to avoid a pandemic. Soon the hazmat team left the group, after staring at Booth and they all glanced at each other, before Angela, Hodgins and Zack grabbed the food and headed to the lounge. Temperance, Dr Goodman and Buffy who grabbed on to the stoned FBI agent followed behind them. All of them sat down on different areas and ate quietly, all them were thinking about what had occurred this evening.

/-/-/

It was decided that it would be best that Seeley and Dr Goodman would share Dr Goodman's office, Zack and Hodgins were going to sleep in Zack's office. It was suggested that Buffy should join Temperance and Angela in Temperance's office.

Seely and Dr Goodman slowly bonded over their shared experience of having children and missing their Christmas filled homes and family traditions. Seeley explained how the babysitter was staying with his son and this is the first time that he was missing Christmas with his son. Zack and Hodgins were talking about what they would prefer doing for Christmas either being with family or with a model.

Back in Temperance's office, "Well seeing as we are sharing a room for the night, you can call me Buffy, being called Ms Summers the entire time will be weird" Buffy said as she set up her sleeping bag on the side next to one of the walls.

"You can call me, Angela"

"Everyone calls me Brennan; you can call me that"

Temperance and Angela set up their sleeping bags next to each other and all three of them sat on top on their sleeping bags.

"So, I am probably still a little drunk and the injection has not helped what so ever, but how do you know Booth?" Angela asked looking straight at Buffy.

Buffy smiled and said "I have known him for long time, he was... is my first big love. When we aren't together, we are still together" Buffy shrugged knowing that she hadn't really answered Angela's question. Seeing the way, that Angela was looking at Temperance, Buffy had a feeling that Temperance had some sort of feelings for Seeley, even if she didn't realise it.

"How long is long?"

"I have known him since I was sixteen, he is a major part of my life and he always will be".

"You called him Angel, earlier on. Can I ask why?" Temperance asked remembering the name Buffy had called Booth.

"Angel is nickname that a few close friends call him" Buffy said as she watched Temperance's face carefully, wondering if Seeley was attracted to this cold and closed off woman, personally, she couldn't see it.

As if Angela could understand what was going through Buffy's mind, she thought it would be best to change the subject, even though she too wanted more information. She thought it would be a good idea to have Christmas, it wasn't fair that they were missing out on celebrating with their families. But at least this way they could have some sort of celebration.

"Brennan, I know this is against your nature, but I think we should have Christmas" Angela said not knowing what Buffy's thoughts were about Christmas.

"What? Why?"

"I was thinking that we should have some kind of celebration, it's not fair that everyone is missing their families and this way we can get their minds off it. We could have decoration and we could do a secret Santa" Angela suggested.

"I think that's a great idea" Buffy piped up, even though she knew that Angela hadn't really asking for her opinion. "This way none of us will keep thinking about what we are missing".

"Exactly" Angela nodded.

They all sat there on their sleeping bags for a few moments, before Buffy got up and started to get into her sleeping bag. Temperance and Angela followed her in suit.

"It's so tragic, a wedding ring sewn into a suit, two tickets for Paris, it's a love story that got no ending. It makes you think about who the girl is. Can you imagine waiting for someone and wondering where they are?" Angela mused quietly.

"I don't have to imagine" Brennan replied dully, "I'll tell you what I will do this Christmas, I'm going to solve this murder".

Buffy quietly listened to the soft snores of Angela and Temperance; she couldn't help but think about what Angela just said. When she first heard the news that Angel had been killed by dragon, she nearly collapsed in shock, but in her heart, she knew it before she had even heard the news. She couldn't believe that Giles had lied to her and to Angel, it broke the trust that she had in Giles and Willow.

Soon after that she lost Dawn, it broke her, losing the most important people in her life, it broke her. She thought of how she left the TWC and went on a slaying spree, every single night she was out slaying. Suddenly without realising it, she had ended up in LA and there she found Spike still fighting demons and she joined him.

One day Whistler turned up in Angel's room and found her curled up with Angel's jacket. He told her of how the powers that be, were thinking that she is ignoring her calling. She was destined to do bigger and better things. She yelled at him, after all how could she do better things when she was broken, there were just pieces of her left, how could she continue fighting, she was questioning herself and the powers that be. Whistler had kept quiet throughout her entire tirade and when she stopped, he told her that her the man she loved, her soulmate was still alive. He was no longer a vampire, but a living breathing human being. Whistler explained how Angel had finally achieved his Shanshu, he had fulfilled his destiny. Instead of Angel now there was a Seeley Booth, how he had memories of being a human, joining the army, becoming an FBI agent, having a son. Buffy had filled with relief when she heard that Conner was with Angel, with his dad, Spike had told her that Conner had joined the fray and had been killed by the dragon fire. Then Whistler told her something that broke her heart, Seeley Booth also had the memories of his true self, he knew who she was to him, but he had been told that he couldn't join the supernatural world again. That truly broke Buffy's heart because that meant she could never be part of his life, she remembered how Whistler had shaken his head and said no, you will be a part of his life, after all they belonged together. "You will be together again; it will just take a while for you to get there" Whistler had said.

Buffy built herself up, in hopes that Whistler was right, she went back to England, leaving Spike in Japan, she had called some slayers to come and support him. She re-joined the TWC, keeping Giles and Willow at arm's length, Xander was still in Africa and Faith was in Cleveland keeping an eye on the hell mouth, Spike was in Japan keeping an eye on a dormant hellmouth. Buffy started building relationships with the governments, businesses, different agencies, working to harder than ever to keep the world safe. Giles and her were slowly working on their relationship, they would never be close as they once were but it would do work. But Angel and seeing him soon never strayed far from Buffy's mind, now, finally she was here. She would see Angel…. Seeley in the morning, and she hoped that woman who was still waiting for an answer would soon get one and that thought brought a smile to her face as she fell asleep.

/-/-/

The next morning when she woke up, Buffy found both Angela and Dr Brennan still asleep in their sleeping bags. She decided it would best to freshen up, she found a few essentials that she always kept in her bag in case of an emergency, and headed to Dr Brennan's private bathroom to clean up.

After finishing up, she headed to the main lab, there she found Seeley on the side of the room going through the motions of Tai Chi, just as he had done since he came back from the hell dimension. Without even thinking about it, Buffy joined him in his motions, falling back in to old memories. Once they finished, Seeley continued to do chin ups, after sending Buffy a look letting her know that they would have to talk soon. Buffy sat down on the floor and quietly watched as Seeley continued to exercise and Dr Goodman conversed with the hazmat team over the phone, she guessed that the rest of the group were still asleep.

"Coffee… coffee" The sound of Angela's sleepy voice broke Buffy out of her thoughts, it seems while she day dreamed the hazmat team had dropped off breakfast for them, she found Dr Goodman drinking tea, Angela making a coffee and it seems that Zack and Dr Hodgins were finally up. Buffy slowly got up and Seeley stopped his chin ups, as soon as Buffy was next to him, he put an arm around her shoulders and they both headed towards the others.

"Good morning Ms Montenegro"

"In some cases of valley fever skin lesions start to appear" Zack said as he headed down the stairs.

"Can someone in a higher position of management tell Zack to shut up" Groaned Hodgins as he followed behind Zack.

Zack and Hodgins grabbed themselves something to drink and without realising Buffy had made coffee for Seeley and it seems like Seeley had made coffee for her, quietly they both exchanged the mugs they were holding.

"Where did this come from?" questioned Temperance as she appeared from another area of the lab, she quickly grabbed a juice and hightailed it out of the lab and went back in the direction of her office.

"Uh, the hazmat team dropped it by this morning" Dr Goodman replied to an exiting Dr Brennan, before he turned to Seeley and asked "Are you back with us agent Booth?"

"Uh, Yeah I think so" Seeley said before he took a sip of his coffee.

"So, I was thinking that since we are stuck here, for who knows how long, we should make the best of it. I was thinking we could decorate this place up a bit and we could do a secret Santa and exchange handmade gifts" Angela explained her plan to the group, the rest of them.

"I'm in"

"Me too"

"An excellent idea Ms Montenegro"

Was called out in between sips of coffee and bites taken out of poptarts. Buffy couldn't but think about Dr Brennan reaction to celebrating Christmas, "What about Dr Brennan? Will she be joining us in this celebration?". Her question was answered by around of shaking heads and negative sounds.

"Yeah, what's the deal with Bones and Christmas?" Seeley asked the group, mostly he received shrugs as an answer.

Angela looked at the group and said "So last night I spun a little story, of how two young lovers were running off to Paris and how the man never shows up, and said imagine what that must have been like for the woman? And Brennan tells me she doesn't have to wonder"

"I don't understand" said Buffy in confusion.

"Brennan's parents disappeared just a couple of days before Christmas" replied Angela.

"Oh, my God"

"Well that explains a lot" Seeley muttered, "OW" Buffy elbowed him the stomach.

"Anyways we need a way to choose our secret Santa" Angela changed the subject deciding it was best course of action.

"We could build a random generator" proposed Zack

"I have five numbers and five letters in my head" said Hodgins

"No that wouldn't work, we should use predisposed manner to the similar person?" asked Dr Goodman.

Buffy looked at Seeley and rolled her eyes, this was starting to sound like a watchers meeting, which she tried to avoid at all costs, Seeley seemed to share her thoughts by look on his face. Whereas, Angela was laughing silently into her hand. Finally, Seeley grabbed a paper from a nearby table and wrote out the names and tore it out, Buffy grabbed a pencil pot and emptied it out so Seeley could drop the names into it.

"Or we could just pick a name and if you get your own put it back in" Seeley said as Buffy waved the pencil pot under the nose of the three arguing men.

"Good idea"

"Yeah, that will work" And slowly each of them reached in and drew names.

/-/-/

After exchanging information on what Bones had found out so far, Seeley headed to the lounge area, where he knew Buffy was waiting for him. He found her sitting on the couch, on the phone, as soon as she saw him, she quickly hung up. He took a seat on the chair opposite her. They both quietly looked at each other, just soaking in the feeling of being close to each other again.

"How is Conner?" Buffy asked, breaking the peaceful silence that enveloped them.

Seeley looked at Buffy in surprise, he had no idea that Buffy knew that Conner was with him, "How did you know…?"

"I didn't know, I found out later on" Seeley looked on at Buffy, she sent him grimace, "I didn't know, that you called for help, Giles, Andrew lied to you, and Willow helped them lie to me. How could you ever believe that I wouldn't trust you?" Seeley opened his mouth to defend himself, but Buffy shook her head. "I felt it, you know, the moment you died, a part of me died too".

Seeley tried to interrupt Buffy again, but once again she shook her head and sent him a pleading look, he knew she was asking him to let him what happened, this was something she had to say. "Giles called me too tell me the news, it took a while for me understand what happened, and I finally confronted Giles. I lost you and I lost the trust that had in Giles and Willow"

"Buffy…. To be honest I don't what to say. I knew that you would never abandon me when I need you the most" Seeley tried to wrap his mind around the things Buffy was saying. Buffy knew it was hard for Seeley to explain and she knew she need to explain what she knew, so she hardened her heart and carried on, "I started to take more risks and suddenly I lost Dawn too, I broke, suddenly the one thing that was keeping me going was taken".

Seeley's heart broke, Dawn was one of the most important people in Buffy's life, and with her relationship with Giles and Willow so frayed, he knew how hard Buffy would have found it carry on. He kept silent knowing there was more that Buffy still had to say, he knew this conversation need to happen now for them to go back to their normal.

"Sometime after Dawn's death, I somehow ended up in LA, and there I found Spike, still fighting demons and helping those who need it" Buffy looked up to see the shock on Seeley's face at hearing that Spike was still alive, she could also seeing the questioning look on his face and she knew it was about the rest of his team, she slowly shook her head at his silent question, "No, the rest of your team didn't survive" she watched as a look of devastation crossed his face, she wanted to comfort him, but in her heart she knew he wouldn't accept it. "I started to help out, and Spike told me exactly what happened that day" she said quietly.

"One day Whistler came to me, with a message from the Powers that be, apparently I was ignoring my destiny" Buffy laughed quietly, while Seeley looked at her in concern, "I asked him, how could the powers that be think that I cared about my destiny anymore? He instead told me about a prophecy, which was about you. He told me, that the man that I loved was still alive, he had achieved his reward, his Shanshu. And Whistler explained that Powers that be, gave you one more reward, a chance to raise Conner. He explained to me that we would meet again after all we are soulmates; it would just take us some time to get there".

Seeley looked at Buffy, silently thinking through everything that Buffy, finally he stood up and crossed over to be closer to her, he sat down next to her and grabbed both her hands and clutched them between his hands. "Buffy, I can't tell you how sorry I am, I know losing Dawn and me almost killed you, and I wasn't there for you when you needed me the most. But I am so glad you are here, back in my life, and too finally answer your question Conner is great"

"I am glad, you both deserve the best"

"So now that we have found each other, what does this mean for us?"

"I don't know, what do you think we should do?"

"It depends on your plans Buffy; I need you to be a part of my life. I left you once, because I thought it was the best thing for you, but I can't do that again".

Buffy thought through what Seeley was saying and there were a few plans that she was working on at the TWC to expand their base and be able to provide more support to the slayers. Perhaps it might even help her be part of Seeley's life.

"I have been planning to open another branch of TWC here in the states, this is something that has been in the works for a while. If you are willing to a part of this life, there is nothing stopping us from opening it here in D.C." Buffy said as she watched as Seeley played with her fingers.

"I need to think about this Buffy, this concerns Conner's life too".

Buffy nodded in agreement and said, "I'm not saying you have to give me an answer now Seeley, god that sounds weird. I just want to be a part of your life, even if it means in being a small part it. I will take whatever you give me"

Seeley looked down at their joint hands and said, "I will always want you; I want to give us a try. A sort of normal, human try. We could go on dates, you could meet Conner and get to know him, he knows about you know. I tell him stories about our life and I want him to know you in real life"

"I want that too" Buffy whispered, thinking if she spoke any louder she might start to cry, "If you want I can stay for a more weeks, and we could go on dates and when you think Conner is ready, I could meet him". Seeley shook his head and said, "I want you to meet him as soon as possible, Buffy, he thinks you are a hero, I have shown him photos of you and of everyone else. Believe me he is going to be so excited".

Slowly Seeley pulled Buffy in for deep kiss, both their tongues battled for dominance as they kissed. They both knew in their hearts there was still a lot of things to talk about, things that needed to be hashed out before they could go any further, but for now they both knew where they stood with each other and that was enough. Reluctantly, Seeley and Buffy pulled away from each other, Buffy rested her head on Seeley's shoulder, breathing heavily. Seeley rested his head on the top of Buffy's head, he kissed her lightly on the crown of her head before he stood up and said, "I have a murder to solve and you need to go and talk to Dr Goodman" Buffy sighed as she stood up and the two of them walked down to main level of the lab hand in hand, before they split up.

/-/-/

Seeley was standing in the Modular Skeleton room, examining the contents of the suitcase that had been found in the fallout shelter with the skeleton. Feeling someone's eyes on him, he looked up to find Dr Goodman standing at the entrance.

"I thought you had a meeting with Buffy" remarked Seeley

"Yes, we did, Ms Summers is currently viewing the personal effects that were found, I also took the liberty to set up the skeleton for Ms Summers to view before it is sent to England" answered Dr Goodman.

"What exactly is case 10053?" Seeley questioned.

"There had been a skeleton found in a warehouse, about two years ago, it was a very strange case. There was no identification found with the body, and they had found human ash surrounding the body. When we did our examination, we had found the skeleton to be a 17 yr old girl, we found that she had been killed nearly ten years ago due major blood loss. Angela used the facial markers to create a matching face and we placed it on the Jeffersonian data base which matched it to face on the missing data base. I was quite surprised to see the TWC were looking for the same woman".

Seeley nodded, now he understood why Buffy was here, the bones belonged to a slayer. Dr Goodman looked at agent Booth in interest, it seemed that agent Booth understood he said, as he didn't question the human ash that had been found with the bone. Dr Goodman watched as agent Booth looked at the contents of the suitcase and said, "I see that you have decided to help Dr Brennan with the case"

Seeley shrugged and said, "If she wants to help someone find answers to what happened all those year ago, who am I to stop her?"

"Uh I thought that I might take a look at the contents of the suitcase with you. if you don't mind? I thought that I could offer my expertise"

"Sure, why not"

Dr Goodman walked closer to the examination table, looked at the items that were spread out. From the contents on the table, he could see that the man who owned these items was a working-class man, most likely a trained valet from the way the clothes were folded.

"From the look of these clothing, I could tell you that this man was not wealthy, look at these clothes have been well used and mended a number of times" Dr Goodman carefully picked up a shirt to show agent Booth, what he basing his findings on.

Seeley looked at the label on the shirt that Dr Goodman held out, "Look at that, Blackman and Ball, Fine Tailors, Washington D.C." Seeley looked at the labels on the clothes, "Here, the other clothes are from Tulsa, Oklahoma" Seeley wrote the information on a small notebook.

Dr Goodman found a stack of letters; he carefully placed the shirt back on the table and picked up the letters. He noted out that the penmanship showed a female writer, "Agent Booth, have look at this, the handwriting shows that this was written by a female"

"How can you tell?"

"After cuneiform, handwriting is a snap", Dr Goodman began to read the letter, "Dearest Lionel…..."

"Huh, there is no envelopes, no return address"

Dr Goodman scanned the rest of the letter and noted, "No there is signature either, only a drawing of a leaf"

Booth looked through the rest of the letters, and remarked, "These letters seemed to be dated from the summer of 1957 to 1958"

"With your permission, Agent Booth, I would like to read these"

"Yeah sure" Booth pointed at a small squared paper and said, "Bones thought that you might know what this is"

Dr Goodman slowly picked up the small squared paper with a pair of tweezers and held it up to the light, so that he could examine the paper, "It seems to be pouch" he mused.

As Dr Goodman continued to look at the paper. Seeley's phone rang, looking at the id he saw that it was Bea, the babysitter who was looking after Conner.

"Hey Bea, how are you doing? Is Conner ok? Has he been behaving?" Seeley questioned in rapid fire.

"Hey Booth, I am ok, Conner is ok, he is a bit confused about what is going on, so I kept it simple and said that you had to work"

"Right, yeah that's fine"

"Anyway, I called to ask, if was ok that I brought over some food that Conner helped make, he really excited for you try the cookies, when we come over later on tonight"

Seeley smiled at the thought of his son, baking cookies, from personal experience he knew that Conner created more work than helped out when it came to cooking. "Umm, to be honest I am not sure, but I think it should be fine. Bea I just wanted to thank you for staying with Conner, I am sure this is not what you had planned for Christmas"

"It's not a problem Booth, anyways I should go, we will you in a couple of hours, Booth"

"See you" Booth replied, before he put the phone down and turned to look at Dr Goodman, who had moved over slightly to give him some privacy.

Seeing that agent Booth had finished his conversation up, Dr Goodman headed back to the table, and he when he saw the look of grief on Booth's face, he became concerned, "Is everything ok?"

"You know this job take a lot out of us and our families, but this is the first time that I have missed Christmas eve, you know. Sure, I have missed Halloween twice, half a birthday, nursery Graduation, but I have never missed Christmas eve/ or day"

"Yes, I can imagine how hard it is on you and your family"

"It's just me and Conner"

"And his mother?"

"She had no wish to be a mother, she left us as soon as Conner was born" Seely said, lost in memories of the past.

Dr Goodman looked at the FBI agent, who was lost in old memories, deciding that it was best to leave agent Booth to his thoughts. He picked up the stacks of letters for him to look through and quietly headed to his office.

/-/-/

Temperance and Hodgins were talking, as they walked the second level of the lab where the lounge is based.

"The results show that Lionel had valley fever" Hodgins informed Dr Brennan, walking faster trying to catch up with her.

"We had guessed that already" Temperance reminded Hodgins.

"Oh wow, was that a shot? I mean Goodman doesn't get to see his family. Zack doesn't get see his family. Booth doesn't get to see his son. At least I'm an accidental grinch, but you're being one on purpose" shot Hodgins.

Temperance looked at Hodgins in confusion, not really understanding what he was trying to say, "I've no idea what you are trying to say", she informed him.

"The Grinch is well known creation by children's author Dr Seuss"

"What does have to do with this?"

Hodgins looked at Dr Brennan is surprise, before shaking his head in disbelief, "You what never mind. So, listen I have Angela for my secret Santa, any ideas on what I should gift her because I had an idea but I am not sure if it will appeal to her"

"I'm not really the person you should talk to about gifts" Temperance said distractedly, as she stared absentmindedly at Booth and Buffy in lounge area, before something that Hodgins said came back to her, "Wait. Hold on, Booth has a kid?"

"Yes, didn't you know?"

"No, I had no idea"

"Ok, then I wasn't the one to tell you" Hodgins said, before he walked away.

Temperance stared at the back of retreating Hodgins, confused on where he got his information from. She slowly walked over to the lounge, Booth was on the phone and Buffy was sitting on the couch, on the laptop typing away furiously.

She listened as Booth gave information about the case to the person on the phone, "Fall of 1958, heavy weight suit, kind of small, wool and black. First name would have been Lionel. That's all the information I currently have. Thanks, I appreciate this" Booth said to the person, as he turned around walked over to lean against the railway. "Lionel had a suit made in town. At an existing tailor shop. The grandson now owns it, they still have records" he whispered to Temperance as she walked up to him. "We might still be able to get Careful Lionel's last name"

"Careful Lionel?"

"Yeah, Buffy named him that" Buffy looked over after hearing her name, Seeley waved her off, "Yeah, little guy, toupee. Drank a tonic an all-round a good boy scout. Careful Lionel".

"You have a son?" Temperance asked ignoring the weird name Buffy and Seeley had given to Lionel.

"Yes" Booth answered, wondering why she was bringing this up.

"You've never mentioned this before"

"Well, nothing brings people together like a Christmas lung fungus" Seeley said, thinking that ironically this was the very reason that he and Buffy were back in each other's life.

Temperance opened her mouth to say something when Booth went back to the phone call, while he was on the phone. Temperance turned her attention to Buffy who was now typing with one hand, and holding her phone to ear with the other.

"It doesn't matter Faith, there is nothing we can do at the moment… Yes, I understand that, yes, I will have Andrew look into it…. ok take care and I will let you know what going on" Buffy sighed deeply as she hung up the phone and turned all her attention back to her laptop.

Booth finished up his conversation and said, "Lionel Little" causing Temperance to go "Huh?".

"Careful Lionel, his full name is Lionel Little, he picked up his suit on November 7, 1958, paid cash, apparently he was meant to come back the next day and pick up his shirt, but he never showed. Get this it was his wedding shirt"

Achoo…. Achoo….

Buffy's head shot up at the sound of Temperance sneezing, and said worriedly, "Please tell me you have allergies". Even Seeley looked worriedly at Bones, "Uh-oh, Um I think you should go talk to Dr Goodman"

Temperance nodded in agreement and left a worried Buffy and Booth in the lounge, while she headed to go talk to Dr Goodman and Dr Bancroft.

/-/-/

That evening the group was found in the Bones room, they had pushed together two examination tables together so they could sit and eat as a group. Temperance watched from the corner of her eye as Booth made two plates of food, one for himself and the other for Buffy. She looked over to the corner of the room, where the tiny, blonde woman stood, on the phone, Seeley, Buffy and Dr Goodman had walked in together, the two men talked about the letters that had been found in the suitcase, whereas the young blonde woman had been reading something in great interest. While the group sat down, when Buffy's phone rang, so far, she had hardly said anything other than, humming in agreement.

Finally, it seemed that Booth had enough, the group watched as he walked behind Buffy, and grabbed her phone, Buffy twirled around to see who had grabbed her phone. Seeley stood on the tip of toes to stop Buffy from reaching the phone and said, "Faith, you still have a few weeks until it's the end of the world, so she will have to call you back once she has eaten…. It was good hear from you again Faith" he said earnestly, before he turned the phone off and looked down to face an angry Buffy. While the rest of the group listened to the conversation and exchanged confused looks.

"Sorry Buffy, but you need to eat, you have been working non-stop since you got on to the laptop" Seeley gave her a smirk, seeing that smirk and listening to his explanation, Buffy's heart melted and she completely forgot the reason why she was mad at him.

Seeley pushed Buffy to sit at the table, where the rest of the group minus Temperance gave her a knowing look. Buffy looked at Angela and Zack knowing it was mainly the two of them who had rustled up the Christmas decorations, "I love the décor, it's very festive in a sciencey way".

The two of them grinned at her in appreciation, Angela couldn't help but wonder about the conversation and Buffy's life, "So Buffy where do you live?"

Buffy looked up from her plate, "I used to live in Sunnydale, after the earthquake, I moved to London, but I am constantly traveling, my Flat in London is sort of a place for my things"

Angela looked eagerly at Buffy, another person who liked to travel, "You travel? Anywhere interesting?"

This time Seeley laughed, he knew from the talks that he had with Whistler, that Buffy was constantly on the go, Buffy smiled at him before answering Angela, "All over the place really, I literally land yesterday morning from Japan, I was meant to be heading to Oslo four hours ago" as she checked her watch.

"I hear that the TWC have some of the most fascinating collections of history in the world, from art, to sculptures, there have been rumours that the TWC have a mummy or two" Hodgins added in idly.

This caused Buffy and Seeley to exchange a look that had a lot to say, before Buffy shrugged, "It's true, we do have one of the most sought-after collections, but I don't think I have ever seen any mummies lying around".

While Dr Goodman looked more interested in what Buffy was saying, wondering if he could arrange for some the TWC collection to be shown here at the Jeffersonian, knowing this could bring in more revenue. Temperance couldn't help but wonder what exactly was Buffy's job and what TWC did, "What does the TWC do exactly?"

Buffy swallowed the food she had in her mouth, "We have our hands in a lot of different pies, you know like pumpkin, chocolate and blueberry" Buffy joked, causing the others grin.

Temperance looked at her blankly, not understanding what Buffy means, "Pies?"

"I am kidding, we have a school for girls, and we have some contracts with many different governments" said Buffy vaguely, "We also sponsor digs and expeditions to find parts of history that has been forgotten" Buffy grabbed a spring roll and asked the group, "How's the case going? Did you find out more about careful Lionel?"

"We figured that Lionel was a coin collector, seeing the levels of lead and nickel in his bones" Hodgins said as filled the group in the results of the test he carried out.

Zack stared at Temperance is worry and asked, "When will they insert the needle in your brain?"

"Oh honestly" sighed Angela and Dr Goodman. Buffy and Seeley laughed quietly into their food.

"I sneezed because of the dry air. It's not Valley fever" stated Temperance

"Are you sure? Have you had any other symptoms? Headaches?" questioned Hodgins.

"Any foul-smelling pus on your shins?" carried on Zack oblivious to the disgusted looks on the rest of the groups face.

Seeley decided that the best thing to do is to change the subject or he knew or a fact that he and Buffy were seconds away from being put off their food. "Dr Goodman did find anything in the letters?", deciding now would be a good time to carry on their previous conversation.

"Yes, actually, these letters are some of the most passionate love letters I have read" answered Dr Goodman.

"Careful Lionel had a girlfriend?" asked Buffy interestedly, she had never seen how murder cases are investigated. But from what she had seen so far it was very interesting diving into people lives and digging around to see what secrets they are hiding. She could see how much Seeley enjoyed his job.

"Oh yes" Seeley answered Buffy's question.

"Yes, a girlfriend who was in trouble" Dr Goodman added.

"Pregnant trouble?" asked Angela looking between Booth and Dr Goodman for an answer.

"So careful Lionel isn't so careful" remarked Hodgins.

"An unmarried pregnant girl?" wondered Seeley

"Harsh"

"in Oklahoma? In the '50s?" questioned Temperance.

"Do you think that Lionel came here to acquire an abortion?" probed Dr Goodman looking at Seeley with a questioning glance.

"This is not very Christmassy story" sighed Angela

"I believe that it is, the whole Christ myth is built on struggles of an unwed mother" said Temperance in a slightly callous voice.

"Can we stop with the whole 'Christ Myth'" snapped Seeley, Buffy put her arm on Seeley's arm to calm him down. She knew that Seeley needed to believe in something bigger than himself, after everything that had happened previously, the knowledge they both had of this world.

"Some of us do believe it's more than a myth" Buffy said, bringing her other hand to the necklace around her neck, it was the necklace that Angel had given her when they met in the alley all those years ago. Seeley also caught her actions, and smiled slightly when he saw the necklace she was wearing. Even Angela had caught her action.

Temperance looked at Buffy, along with the rest of the group and they all caught sight of the heavy sliver cross that lay in Buffy's hand. Temperance asked, "Then who other than the two of you believe in it?"

"That would me, Dr Brennan" stated Dr Goodman.

"I do, at least during Christmas and Easter" piped up Angela.

"While I believe that organised religion is another political move to control the masses, it doesn't mean, God doesn't love me" added on Hodgins.

Temperance then turned to look at Zack wondering what his thoughts were on this subject, he put his hand up to stop her from questioning him and said, "I'm a rational empiricist all the way. Unless you ask my mother and grandmother".

Temperance sighed and then turned her thoughts back to Booth and said. "I understand why you are so sensitive, Booth. Seeing as you have a child out of wedlock"

"Excuse me, what difference does that make?" Buffy glared at Temperance, everyone else stopped what they were doing and stared at Temperance.

"I am just saying that…"

"No" Buffy interrupted Temperance before she could carry on, "Believe me when I say that you have no idea why Seeley believe in what he what does. And as for him having a child out wedlock. I didn't peg you as a traditionalist, Dr Brennan"

Everyone looked away uncomfortably from the furious blonde, who was still glaring at Temperance. Seeley now had his hand on Buffy's arm, he knew that she hated it when made assumptions about their lives. Dr Goodman cleared his throat and changed the topic back to the letters, "The letter showed a combination of cursive and block handwriting".

"A combination of printing and writing" repeated Angela, "Is that normally how people wrote back then?"

"Well it would indicate that the woman must have left school in the second grade" Dr Goodman mused.

Temperance stared at Seeley, watching as he rubbed circles on Buffy's arm with his thumb. Seeley could feel Bones eyes on him, but he refused to look up and give her the satisfaction of seeing him look so uncomfortable. He knew that Bones had no idea what his life was like and what he and Conner had been through to get to this point, but this did not give her the right be dismissive of his believes. Buffy smiles lightly at Seeley, and pulled his hand into hers to hold. The two of them looked on to Dr Goodman, who was still musing about the handwriting he found on the letters. "Most white children in those days would have attained an eight-grade education".

"She was African- American" concluded Temperance.

"Yes, I do believe so" agreed Dr Goodman.

"Is careful Lionel an African-American?" asked Hodgins.

"No. No he's Caucasian" said Temperance with tone of finality.

"A white man and pregnant black woman in 1958 Oklahoma?" asked Angela.

"That's bad?" asked Buffy and Zack.

"It was illegal" stated Dr Goodman.

"In Oklahoma?" asked Buffy.

"No, not just there, even here in D.C." corrected Dr Goodman.

"Then why would they come here?" wondered Angela.

"They were running away" answered Booth, the thought suddenly came to him, "That's why he had two tickets to Paris" reminding the group of the tickets that had been found by Temperance earlier on.

As the rest of the group nodded in remembrance, they didn't notice Dr Bancroft enter the room in the hazmat suit, until Buffy greeted him.

"Evening ladies and gents. Your families are here to visit you. Who wants to go first?" asked Dr Bancroft.

"I believe that I will take that honour, as the director" Dr Goodman said as he stood up, to go see his family.

As he headed off, Angela decided that the rest of group should be warned about her dad, "So, you guys might recognise my dad, but I don't want to talk about it" she announced. The rest of them nodded and continued to eat. Just a few moments later Buffy's phone rang and she walked out of the room with Seeley following her with both their plates in his hands.

/-/-/

Slowly everyone met their families and friends individually. The last people to come were Conner and Bea. While Buffy and Seeley were waiting at the main doors of the lab, Buffy was currently making sure, again for the third time that it was ok for her to meet Conner now and Seeley reassuring her that it was fine. Neither of them noticed that they were being watched from the top level of the lab, Temperance and Angela were extremely interested in seeing how the meeting between Conner and Buffy goes.

"DADDY" came a muffled shout from a young boy who came running around the corner, he just manged to stop himself from running into the glass door. Behind him a young woman in her early twenties came running behind him.

Seeley instantly kneeled down so he could be eye level to his son and he put on his headset so he could hear and talk to his son. He motioned for Buffy to kneel down too and she put on the headset so she could communicate with Conner.

"Hey Bud, Hey Bea"

"Hey Booth"

"Hi Daddy"

"how're you doing, Conner? Have you been a good boy for Bea? Bea, I can't thank you enough for staying with him. I know this is not what you had planned for Christmas"

"Yes daddy, I have been really good, so Santa has to bring me lots of prezzies"

"Its fine, Booth. I know this isn't what you had planned too" said Bea with slightly amused tone.

"No, it really wasn't" Booth shook his head, "But I will make sure that I make it up to you".

"Daddy, who is that?" whispered Conner, pointing at Buffy.

Seeley shook his head in amusement, while Buffy and Bea shared a look of amusement and understanding.

"This Conner is Buffy, do you remember the pictures I showed you?" asked Seeley, hoping to jog Conner's memory.

Conner looked at Buffy in concentration, suddenly he smiled at her in remembrance, and he excitedly stared to ask her about all the stories that his dad had told him. Buffy smiled and spoke to him telling him different stories about his father. While Buffy and Conner continued to talk about the stories which Seeley had told him since he was little, Buffy added in more details. Seeley and Bea had a chat, about the things that she had planned for Conner and how things were going, how long he thought he might still be under quarantine.

Sensing another presence standing over Conner, caused Buffy to look up, there standing behind Conner was Xander. "Xander!" cried Buffy in shock. Seeley looked towards Conner to see that Xander was standing in front of them, smiling.

"Hey Buffster, Hey Dead boy" Xander waved.

"What are you doing here?" asked Buffy, she thought that Xander was in Africa helping train the new slayers.

"Bea called me when she heard from Faith that you were also stuck here"

Seeley turned to look at Bea in shock, he couldn't help but wonder how Bea knew Faith, and how she could get in contact with her.

"You must be going mad stuck in here" Xander said, before he turned to look at Seeley, who was currently staring at the three of them in shock. "You have great son, Ang…..Seeley. Sorry that is going to take some time to get used to. Why are you looking so shocked?" Xander asked Seeley.

Seeley ran his hand through his hair and asked in a slight confused tone, "Hmm, how do you guys know each other exactly?"

Buffy smiled and said "Bea trained as a watcher with the TWC, but she didn't want to carry on. So, one day when Whistler came for a visit, he mentioned that you were looking for someone to care for Conner. I went to Bea and asked her if this is something she was interested in and she said she was"

Seeley then turned to Bea and said, "So, when I asked you how you heard of this job, and you said through a friend. You really meant Buffy?"

Bea nodded and said "I never wanted lie to you, that's why I said a friend. Buffy warned me that I couldn't mention the council, or the fact that I knew her".

Bea looked a bit scared that Seeley might fire her for lying to him. So, she was extremely relieved when, he just shook his head and turned to look at Buffy and said, "Even then you were still looking out for me".

"Of course, she was" Xander stated as he smiled at the two of them.

The five of them continued to talk for the rest of the visit. Conner told them of all the gifts that Xander had brought for him, causing Seeley to glare at Xander.

On the top level of the lab Temperance and Angela continued to watch the small group, standing at the main doors of the lab. They couldn't really hear the whole conversation; all they could hear was what Booth and Buffy said.

Angela turned to face her best friend and watched as Temperance stared at the group in coveted interest. Finally, she couldn't keep quiet anymore and asked, "You really were interested in him? Weren't you?"

Temperance shifted her attention from Booth and Buffy to Angela. She finally nodded, "Yes, in a sense I thought that Booth might have been a viable partner for me".

"So why didn't you act on it when you had a chance?"

"Because, I thought that I had time. I didn't want to mess up relationship that we have now" Temperance tried to explain why she couldn't act on her interest in Booth.

"Now, what will you do?"

"I can't really do anything, can I?" Temperance countered as she watched Buffy and Booth say goodbye to their friends and to Booth's son.

"I have never seen Booth act like this. She really does bring out a different a complete different side to him" Angela said as she looked to see, Booth and Buffy whispering to each other and smiling at each other. Seeing the look on Temperance's face, Angela said "Come on let's get back to work". And the two of them left Buffy and Booth at the main door and headed to Temperance's office.

After Conner, Bea and Xander left Buffy and Seeley, looked at each other. Before Seeley pulled Buffy into a deep kiss, "I love you" he whispered to her against her mouth before pulling her into a deeper kiss.

"Your…..not…..angry…about….Bea?" panted Buffy in between the kiss.

"Nope" Seeley said popping the 'p', as he continued to kiss her

/-/-/

Seeley stood at the door of Temperance's office, silently listening to Angela and Bones conversation, not wanting to disturb them. "….I refused to open the presents until they came back" Temperance said to Angela.

Seeley cleared his throat loudly, to get the attention of the two women, "Hmm guys, we have Lionel's missing file".

The women looked at each other and shared a look, before they wiped their tears and faced Booth. Together the three of them went to find Zack, Hodgins and Dr Goodman at main part of the lab. They all grabbed a chair and sat down.

"Is Ms Summers not joining us?" ask Dr Goodman looking around the group

Most of them shrugged and turned to look at Booth, knowing that he would know where she would be.

"No, she has some work to do and she didn't want to get in the way" Seeley answered.

"She wouldn't have been in the way and plus she seemed so interested" Angela pointed out.

"She wanted us carry on" Seeley said with a half a shrug. He then opened up the file that he was holding and he read out, "Lionel Little, born on May 19th 1934, Tulsa, Oklahoma".

"He would have been 24 when he died" said Hodgins.

"That fits with the remains that were found" Temperance agreed.

"Well according to the missing person's report, reported by his boss in January of 1960, Lionel worked a lease inspector. For Silver Cloud Petroleum out of Tulsa" reported Seeley.

"So, he was like an accountant?" questioned Angela.

"Yes, I do believe so" answered Dr Goodman.

"Looks you were right about Lionel's coin collection, Hodgins" Booth said as he continued to read through the missing person's report, he passed around a photo of Lionel that was included with the report.

"He's very handsome" Angela stated.

"Apparently, when Lionel disappeared, so did most of his coin collection" Seeley passed a list of the coins that were missing from Lionel's collection to Dr Goodman.

"Did the coins ever show up?" asked Zack.

"Yeah throughout D.C., Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania" read of Seeley, "It looks like a Gil Atkins sold the coins, he made around $8,000 from the coins".

"So, Atkins must have killed Lionel for his coin collection, right?" asked Hodgins.

"Yeah, I think so" agreed Seeley.

"$8,000 in 1958 is roughly $64,000 now" added on Dr Goodman.

"So, Lionel gets a young black girl pregnant. He sells his coins so they could move to Paris together" says Angela.

"He must have offered to sell the coins to Atkins" Dr Goodman thinks out loud, "Who figures out that it will be easier to kill Lionel and sell the coins himself".

"According to this report the last person to see Lionel is a woman called Ivy Gillespie, she used to clean his office" added on Seeley.

"Why is that important?" asked Angela.

"That leaf drawing on the letters? Could that have been an ivy leaf?" Seeley asked Dr Goodman, the other person who had looked through the letters.

Dr Goodman stood up and pulled out the letter that was on the examination table and opened it up to look at the drawing that was at the bottom of the letter. Angela also stood up to look at the drawing.

"Oh my god, it does look like an ivy" gasped Angela. Dr Goodman nodded in agreement to Angela's assessment.

"Ivy Gillespie, she is African-American" read out Seeley from the missing person's report.

Angela looked at Booth and said, "You have to find her"

"She may not even be alive, and if she is there is a chance, we would be opening very old wounds" countered Dr Goodman.

"Angela is right, you have to find her and tell her what you have found" said Buffy, causing everyone to look up and glance at her leaning over the metal fence and looking down at them. She looked very serious as she said, "You have to give her the answer that she never got, Dr Brennan wouldn't you want an answer even now about what happened to you parents?"

"Yes, I would" agreed Temperance, when everyone turned to look at her, all waiting to see what she would say.

"What would you say? Merry Christmas, Ivy Gillespie. Your fiancé was murdered, but good news he didn't run out on you" scoffed Hodgins.

"It's better to have answers, than be left wondering" murmured Temperance.

Seeley looked up to find that Buffy had already left them to their conversation, Seeley watched as the group argued about the best course of action. "Enough - ".

Before Seeley could even finish what, he was going to say, Temperance said, "Angela and Buffy are right" and stood up and walked away, as everyone watched. Seeley sighed, "Guess we are now tracking down Ivy Gillespie".

The rest of group dispersed, most of them went back to making their secret Santa gifts. Temperance spent her time on the phone looking for Ivy Gillespie. Seeley left the group to go join Buffy, he also called in a few favours in order to try and search for Ivy.

/-/-/

The next morning the group met at the main part of the lab, the only ones that were missing were Temperance and Angela. Buffy and Seeley once again went through their Tai Chi motions. While the rest of them made a queue for the coffee.

"Merry Christmas"

"Happy Christmas"

"Morning" yawn "Merry Christmas"

"Merry Christmas everyone" smiled Buffy, as she made a cup of coffee for herself and Seeley.

Everyone wished each other, while looking around the room for the missing women. Finally, Seeley finished up with his morning exercise routine and joined the group.

"Morning everyone, Happy Christmas" he greeted the group. Before turning to ask Buffy, "Where is Bones and Angela?"

Buffy shrugged, "I have no idea, when I went to Dr Brennan's office, neither of them were there. I don't think either of them came to the office to sleep".

"I think that Dr Brennan is still on the phone looking for Ivy Gillespie" Zack spoke up.

Just then Angela came up to the group and said, "Merry Christmas" sounding very cheery.

"Merry Christmas" everyone chorused back.

Angela went up the trolley and made herself a coffee, while continued to have their breakfast, and quietly talked to each other, wondering if they could leave today or not. While Buffy silently listened to Dr Goodman, Zack and Hodgins discussing the odds of them having valley fever, she waited until Angela had some coffee in her system. Before she asked Angela the question, she dying to ask, "So…. Did you or Dr Brennan find Ivy Gillespie?"

When the rest of them heard Buffy's question, they whirled around to face Angela with a questioning look on their faces. Angela slowly looked up from her coffee to face them, without realising she had a massive grin on her face, "Yep, Brennan found her this morning, she spoke to her granddaughter".

"That's good, I hope" Dr Goodman said, while silently wondering if it was a mistake opening up old wounds.

"I think it's great, now she will finally know the truth" Buffy spoke up. Angela nodded in agreement to Buffy's statement.

While the rest of the group continued to chat, Seeley headed to Bones office, where he found her looking at the coins that had been found along with Lionel Little's bones.

"So, I hear that you found Ivy Gillespie"

"Yes, I did" Temperance answered as she continued to look at the small square paper, that they had trouble understanding what it was.

"Have you found something?" Seeley asked, wondering why Bones was staring at the small piece of paper in fascination.

"Two things that fit together"

"Huh?"

"Come and look at this" she said, as she pointed at the scanned penny on her monitor.

"It's just a penny" Seeley said as he got closer to see what Bones was looking at.

"No, it's not just a penny" she said as she read the information that had been collected on the penny, "This is a 1943 bronze one-cent piece".

"And that's important why?"

"Did you know that there were over million pennies minted in 1943, most of them in steel, to help conserve copper for the war. But a handful were struck in old style bronze. There are only now 12 is existence today" she informed Booth, as she gave him the penny to have a look at.

Seeley held the penny between his thumb and forefinger, he held it up so that he could look at easily, "Wow, so this one those handful of pennies?"

"Yes" Temperance gave him a small nod, "Gil Atkins killed Lionel, never knowing that Lionel had never shown him the best part of his collection"

"Huh.. how much is the penny worth?" wondered Seeley, he handed the penny back to Bones to keep safe with the rest of the evidence.

"Around $100,000"

"Well, looks like careful Lionel got the last laugh" Seeley said with a small chuckle, before he looked at Bones and said, "Bones come on it's Christmas leave this for a moment and come join us" before he turned away to join the rest of the group to exchange presents.

"Hey" Temperance said causing Seeley to turn around to face her, "I'm sorry that you missed the last couple of days with your son, especially this morning".

Seeley gave her a short nod, "Thanks, but I am glad this happened, because if it hadn't then Buffy wouldn't be a part of my life again"

"Is she the one who got away?" Temperance asked the question that had been on the forefront of her mind since she saw Booth kiss Buffy.

"Yes and no, personally I think she's the one of who always comes back" Booth said wistfully remembering all the times Buffy came back into his life, most of the time it was when he least expected it.

Temperance watched as Booth walked away, she then turned back to the penny and carefully placed it back in the evidence bag. She sighed as she stood up, and went over to Angela's office where she knew the rest of the group were waiting for her. She found them all standing around in Angela's office in complete darkness.

"Alright, everybody, come in a bit closer and close your eyes"

The whole group followed Angela's instructions and closed their eyes.

"Alright, open your eyes…Merry Christmas everybody" Angela turned on the digital Christmas tree that she had designed. Slowly the musical notes of Winter Wonderland started to play, and Angela turned on the lights, making sure they were dimmed, making an effect of warm glow from a fireplace.

"Oh wow"

"Oh, this is wonderful, Ms Montenegro"

"It's beautiful" Sighed Buffy as she leaned back onto Seeley, only Temperance noticed, Booth leaned down and kissed the side of Buffy's neck.

The whole group hugged, shook hands and wished each other a very Merry Christmas. After Temperance had wished everyone, she carefully slipped away as everyone looked at the Christmas tree.

As a group they grabbed a present each, and placed it on the floor, they all took a seat on the chairs available. While Angela took a seat on the floor. Angela was the first one to open her gift, she excitedly opened her gift, she pulled out a large frame with an image of blown up of microscopic image.

"Oh my god, this is beautiful. What is it?" She held up the frame for the rest of the group to have look at.

"It's better if you don't know" Hodgins admitted.

It was decided that Dr Goodman would be the next person to open his gift, Angela picked up a small envelop and handed it over. He carefully opened the envelop and pulled out a stack of papers, which he slowly read through. The rest of the group looked incredibly confused, wondering what the gift was. Dr Goodman read through the papers and he looked up at Buffy, "Oh my, this is incredible. Ms Summers this an incredible opportunity but-"

Buffy interrupted him, "Hm Dr Goodman before you say no to the offer, I understand that this is something that you would need to discuss this with you wife. However, you should be aware that spouses and children are permitted to join you. There is also a childcare service that is available for people how are part of the program".

"Thank you very much Ms Summers, of course I would need to speak to my wife, but I am fairly sure this is something that I would love to join"

"What is it?" wondered Hodgins.

"It's a contract to join and head an archaeological dig in China, to look for evidence of the Cishan culture in foothills of Taihang Mountains, and any finding would be displayed here in the Jeffersonian for at least a year" Dr Goodman informed the group.

"How did you do that?" Zack asked Buffy.

"As I said before we sponsor archaeological digs all around the world, and this is something we have planned. And when I spoke to Dr Goodman the day before he told me how this was something that he was interested in. After finding a little more about his work history, I made some calls" explained Buffy.

Dr Goodman carefully put the contract back in to the envelop, the next person to open their present was Zack, he grabbed his gift. He pulled out a rolled piece of paper from the tube, he carefully unrolled it, Angela had created a drawing of his entire family for him.

"This is brilliant. Thank you, Angela" Zack said absentmindedly as he looked at the drawing.

Hodgins was the next person to open his present, he pulled out a box with a rendering of the scarabaeus sacer (the Sacred scarab) on top. "Oh, this is an excellent rendering, sir. Thank you" Hodgins thanked his boss.

Seeley finally picked up the large case that was addressed to him, he opened it up to find, huh to be honest he wasn't sure what it was. So carefully pulled it out and held it up for the group to see. "Wow, Zack. That's a…. I am not sure what it is" he informed the young man, this caused Buffy to laugh lightly.

"It's a self-propelled, non-automatic unit" Zack informed him helpfully.

"Huh?" Seeley had one the most confused look on his face.

"It's a robot" Hodgins added when he saw the look on Seeley's face.

"I thought that you could give this to your son, seeing as you missed your chance to get his Christmas gift" Zack said slightly shy of what Booth might say.

"Zack, seriously I can't thank you enough. This is great". Seeley held out his hand for Zack to shake.

"Guess that just leaves me" Buffy said, as she reached for a small box, that was left. She slowly peeled the red plastic which was used as a gift paper. She opened the box to find, her claddagh ring nestled in the box. She gasped in surprise and whirled to look at Seeley in surprise, "I thought…".

Seeley smiled as he pulled her closer and said, "I saw it that day, just on the floor, even in that state I knew you weren't ready to have this ring again. So, I kept it all these years, I wore it with mine" as he showed her his ring which was around his neck. The necklace held his claddagh ring and a cross similar to the one he had once gifted to her.

Buffy's teared up slightly as she pulled out the ring and Seeley took the ring from her and slipped it on to her finger, "I can't believe you had it all these years, I really thought it was lost that day and I would never see it again" she pulled Seeley down and gave him a short, passionate kiss.

Angela smiled at the couple, while the rest of the group looked at the gifts they had received and to give the kissing couple a sense of privacy. Once the couple pulled away from each other, Angela asked, "Can I see the ring?". Buffy nodded and held out her hand so that Angela and the three men could have a look.

"Oh, that is a lovely piece, I believe it was made in the early 17th century" guessed Dr Goodman, "the claddagh ring is mainly from Ireland, I believe that the crown represents loyalty, the hand represent….."

"The hands represent friendship and the heart represents love. When the ring is worn with the heart pointing inwards it means that you belong to someone" finished Buffy and Seeley together.

"Yes" agreed Dr Goodman.

"Oh wow, that's gorgeous" Angela said as she noted silently that Booth had put the ring on Buffy with the heart facing inwards.

/-/-/

After spending the rest of day enjoying singing carols, while in the middle of singing a carol, Dr Goodman's phone started to ring. He left the room to take the call, leaving the group to look at each other's gifts.

Dr Goodman came back into the room and went over to the music system and turn down the music to get everyone's attention. "Everyone, that was Dr Bancroft on the phone, they are ready to check us for Valley fever. We should head down to the main lab. Mmh Ms Montenegro could you please go get Dr Brennan?"

Everyone cleaned up Angela's office before they went down to the main lab where they found the Dr Bancroft and the rest of the hazmat team standing there waiting for them with a computer, which would deliver the results. They all rolled up their sleeves and allowed a member of the hazmat team to take a vial of their blood for the test.

They all stood in front of Dr Bancroft and the hazmat team and watched them test their blood, they watched as a line of green line pass the through the top of the computer.

"Green, Green. Is that green as go?" Seeley asked.

"Or is it green as stick a needle in your brain?" Hodgins asked completing the rest of Seeley's thought with a sardonic tone.

In answer to their question, Dr Bancroft opened the zip of his hazmat suit and removed the helmet of the suit and turned to group. "Merry Christmas, you are all free to go home"

"Oh yes" "yes" "great" chorused the group in unison.

Dr Goodman went over to Dr Bancroft and the two men talked quietly to each other; the rest of the hazmat team took their equipment back. Whereas, the rest of the group headed to the rooms that they were sleeping in to grab their things. Buffy and Seeley were getting their coats, when they heard Hodgins, Zack and Angela yell goodbye to them before they left.

Buffy and Seeley met up at the main doors of the lab and said a quick goodbye to Dr Goodman and Dr Bancroft, and Buffy thanked him for his help and asked him to let her know about his decision about the archaeological dig. Whereas Seeley went over to Bones who was standing at the edge of the lab, looking at the penny which was found with Lionel Little, "We're heading to my place if you decide you want some company".

Temperance smiled at him and said, "Go, go on have a good Christmas and go see your son"

"Merry Christmas Bones" Seeley wished her, before he turned away from her and went over to Buffy. He took her hand and laced their fingers together as they walked out of the lab, smiling and quietly talking to each other and kissing each other.

~The End~