This chapter is completely AU in that nothing like this memory happened on the show. However, given what we know about Brennan, Hodgins, and the interns, I think it's within the realm of possibility. I hope you enjoy my flight of fancy...

It was warm and sunny in Washington, DC, and Jack Hodgins had decided it was the perfect summer day to take his youngest grandson on an outing. Watching as the boy got his backpack ready to go, the old man smiled.

"Your dad's gonna drive us over to Rock Creek Park, Max, and we're gonna look for all sorts of cool stuff, okay?" Seeing the boy's happy grin, Hodgins chuckled. "I think maybe today we should focus on collecting some rocks, minerals, and fossils. Your mom says you've got enough insects for now…"

Max sighed in disappointment. "How can anybody have too many bugs, PaJack? After all, they don't take up a lot of space…"

"I know, right? But we need to listen to your mom so we don't get in trouble, otherwise she might not let us play together anymore." Hodgins glanced up at his son. "Okay, buddy...let's get this show on the road."

"Are you sure you want me to just drop you two off at the park's entrance, Dad?" Michael-Vincent's uncertain expression gave away his concern. "I can hang out at the park with you guys if you want…"

Hodgins rolled his eyes at that silly idea. "You've got too many things to do instead of following us boys around while we go exploring. We'll be fine. I'll keep my chair on the concrete path, and Max will be close by if I need something." He held up a small electronic device. "And if we need anything, I'll let you know. Now, let's get a move on. Time's a-wastin'. I'm not getting any younger, you know. Anyway, I've been to the park hundreds of times...it's a piece of cake trip..."

Grumbling under his breath, Michael-Vincent pulled the van around to the front of the house and helped his father get ready to go. "I know you're not anticipating any issues, Dad, but still…" He glanced at Max and sighed. "Christine and I trust you...we really do...but the kiddo can be a handful at times, okay? If he sees a cool butterfly or a shiny beetle, he's off like a shot…"

"So you're saying he's a chip of off his grandfather's old block." Hodgins patted his son's arm. "Relax, okay? I put up with you, and I can put up with Max…we're gonna be fine."

"But Dad...it's not quite the same, is it?" Hating to sound cruel, Michael-Vincent still needed to voice his concerns. "If he gets lost or hurt, how can you help him?"

"I'll do just fine, thank you very much. If I can call you with my little toy, I can call for help from the police or a park ranger, too. Besides, Seeley is going to meet us out there." Giving his son a steely glare, he crossed his arms over his chest. "Let's go…now. Unless you hear different from me, you can pick us up at four..."

Oooooooooo

After exploring the developed section of the park, Hodgins and Max met Seeley in a covered pavilion, and the three of them enjoyed some sandwiches and cold drinks before the next phase of their day's adventure.

"Okay, boys...you understand the plan, right?" Hodgins gave his grandsons a pointed look. "No going off script today. It's important to follow my directions exactly..."

"I think I've got it." Squinting against the bright sunshine, Seeley pointed to an area in the distance. "We're gonna go over to that place where they're adding on to the park, and scatter some of this stuff that Max found this morning…"

"It's gonna be like setting up a scavenger hunt, isn't it?" Max was practically jumping up and down in excitement. "Can we put stuff wherever we want?"

"Well, I'd prefer it to be in plain sight, but other than that...yeah, you can put it anywhere in that field. They'll be here any minute, so you two had better get going." Hodgins chuckled to himself as the boys ran off. This was going to be fun…

Oooooooooo

Fifteen minutes later, three people in Jeffersonian intern uniforms met Hodgins at the top of a hill. "Mr. Wagner...Ms. Fincher...Mr. Parks...welcome. I'm Dr. Hodgins, and I'm going to be leading your field exercise today."

The interns looked at each other in surprise before turning their attention to the elderly man in front of them. "Um…", Ms. Fincher began as she eyed his wheelchair. "...I'm not sure we're in the right place..."

"Oh, let me assure you...", Hodgins chuckled. "...you're definitely in the right place. You're going to be participating in the first section of your geology field study today." Turning slightly in his chair, he pointed toward the newly turned earth in a field about fifty yards away from their location. "My assistants have been busy getting things ready for you." He smiled and waved at his grandsons as they came trudging up to meet him. "You're going to be looking for some fossils and some mineral samples…nothing exotic, just the normal stuff we have in the area...calcite and quartz crystals...some brachiopod fossils, and, if you're lucky, some shark teeth...things that you might find at any normal crime scene. It's important that you take all of these factors in at a crime scene. You need to be prepared to recover all sorts of materials..."

"What?!" Mr. Wagner was incensed. "You mean we have to dig around in the dirt to find some stuff scattered by a couple of kids? I don't believe this...I have real work to do. I don't have time to play these silly games."

"Really?" Hodgins laughed mirthlessly at the man's outburst. "Well then, I suggest you take your concerns to Dr. Carson, since he's your graduate advisor. He's the one who asked me to set up this little lesson for you…"

"Oh…" Muttering to himself, Wagner clenched his jaw. "I see…"

"As I was saying...when you work as a forensic anthropologist in a smaller city, you may not have an expert in geology available to you, in which case you'll need to know what minerals, rocks, and fossils to look for during a body retrieval. Mineral samples and fossils found with the body or in the immediate area can give you valuable clues as to whether or not the body was moved from one location to another. Remember...never assume that a clue isn't important. Any little shred of evidence you recover can be the very thing that makes your case successful in court. Believe me, the District Attorney's office will appreciate your thoroughness." Seeing that he had the interns' attention, Hodgins gave each of them a tablet that held a list of items. "These are the samples you'll be looking for, along with a description and a photograph. Please take photographs of the objects in situ before collecting them. My assistants have placed them in plain sight, so it shouldn't be difficult…"

Mr. Parks groaned as he looked over the list. "This is impossible. I can't believe you let those kids help you…"

"Those boys are my grandsons. They are quite intelligent and I've trained them to do exactly what I've asked of them." Smirking as he turned his wheelchair away from the interns, Hodgins called out over his shoulder. "Look at it this way...if kids planted the items, it'll be easy for the adults to find them, right? You have one hour…good luck."

Oooooooooo

Sitting in the pavilion as the hour passed, Hodgins found himself becoming drowsy in the warm sunshine. He smiled to himself as he began to nod off. He'd missed being out in the field like this. Normally Dr. Edelmann would be running the geology field studies, but he'd had an emergency appendectomy, and Dr. Carson had needed a substitute in a hurry. When he'd called Hodgins for suggestions, the old man had volunteered almost immediately, much to Carson's surprise.

The geology field study had begun in earnest several years ago, having been reinstated by Dr. Wendell Bray when he had taken over the Forensics Department at the Jeffersonian after Brennan's retirement. Wendell had finally retired as well, leaving the department in the competent hands of Dr. Carson. Hodgins chuckled softly. Dan Carson was an interesting combination of his predecessors: he could be stern and imperious or an excitable small child, depending on the circumstances...

Having dozed off, Hodgins was suddenly jolted awake as the sweaty interns approached the pavilion with the samples they'd found. Mr. Parks mopped his brow with his handkerchief as he sat down on a bench. "Man...that was hot, miserable work."

"Exactly. The moral of the story is...don't take your techs for granted. They do a lot of hard work to make you look good, okay? Now...let's see what you found. Max? How did they do?"

Wearing a serious expression, the nine year old nodded as he looked at the samples that had been collected. "Not too bad, I guess…" He pointed at a white object in Ms. Fincher's hand. "...except that's a piece of plastic…"

"Very well. Good job. Let me take your pictures to record your attendance…" Hodgins snapped a picture with an old fashioned camera. "Dr. Carson will inform you of the date for your next field study. Thank you...after you turn your samples over to my assistants, you may go."

The interns grumbled and fumed as they slowly walked away, much to Hodgins' displeasure. "I think those three will be in for a shock when they have to do their first real body recovery in a muddy field. There's a lot more to forensic anthropology than staying in a lab." He grinned as he turned to his grandsons. "Remember these words of wisdom, boys: never trust anyone who doesn't like rocks." Checking the time, he pointed across the park. "Come on. Your dad will be here soon, and I don't want him to worry because we're late."

Oooooooooo

Back at Michael-Vincent's house, Hodgins relaxed and cooled down in the air conditioning as he waited for his wife to come pick him up. Taking a sip of his water, he spied the old photo album sitting on the counter. "I wonder if Brennan kept that picture.", he said to himself. "Let's have a look…"

He pulled the heavy book onto his lap and leafed through the pages. There didn't seem to be any sort of chronological order to the pages, which surprised him, but he had time to look for the picture he wanted. Finally he found his prize. "Here we are!", he chortled as his son entered the room. "Hey, buddy...look at this."

Taking the picture in his hand, Michael-Vincent laughed out loud. "What happened to you? You all look like refugees from a mud wrestling tournament!"

"That was our very first geology field day, several years ago." Hodgins chuckled as he remembered the event. "It was my idea...you know, to help the interns get a feel for how to collect particulate mineral evidence and stuff like that. I'd arranged to take all of them: Arastoo, Wendell, Fisher, Finn...even Clark and Daisy were going to go. Well, of course, Dr. B decided she had to go, too, so she could 'supervise', and somehow she talked your mom into coming along…"

"But Mom hates that kind of stuff…" Michael-Vincent was shocked. "She actually wanted to go?"

"Yeah, I know...it was a surprise to me, too, but Brennan had verbally twisted her arm, I guess. Anyway, I'd found a great place for our expedition...Petersburg National Battlefield in Virginia. There's all sorts of stuff to find out there...both natural materials and manmade items from the Civil War. So that was the deal...we'd all go and spend the day looking for rocks, minerals, and fossils…and whatever else we could find..."

Michael-Vincent shrugged as he refilled his father's water glass. "That sounds simple enough…"

"Yeah, but I hadn't taken the weather into account. It had rained for a couple of days before our trip, and by the time we got out there the ground was pretty soggy, so we were at least ankle deep in muck. We were making it around the battlefield okay until Arastoo slid down a steep hill and landed face first in a big muddy puddle. The slope was too slippery for him to climb back up, so we all slid down after him to help him out...and then we started laughing at how silly his predicament was, and we all started throwing mud at each other…pretty soon we were all covered with mud from head to toe. It was a lot of fun, you know? And then your mom had us all line up and she took our picture to commemorate our trip. That's what this picture is..."

"Wow...you guys got that filthy in a small mud puddle?"

"Well, it was more like a huge animal wallow...several feet wide, and surprisingly deep. Once we got Arastoo situated, Wendell got stuck in it when his boots sank deep into the mud, and we had to struggle to pull him out. It was like pulling him out of wet cement, you know? It took us several minutes, and he was flailing around like crazy the whole time, yelling about his boots being ruined. Finn thought it was hilarious and gave Wendell a really hard time about being a city kid who'd never seen mud, and Wendell retaliated by chucking a fistful of mud at Finn, which hit him right between the eyes. Pretty soon, it was a 'no holds barred' mud fight between all of us. It was like watching a pie throwing fight in an old movie." Hodgins guffawed as he pointed at the picture. "Brennan tried to get us under control, but she ended up falling on her ass in the mud, too! I thought she'd be pissed, and the rest of us were trying so hard not to laugh at her...but she was giggling so hard she couldn't stand up, and when we tried to help her, she ended up pulling us down on top of her into the mud, and we sat there for a few minutes, just laughing about how ridiculous the whole thing was. We all ended up with mud in our undershorts...in our mouths...and everywhere else you can imagine. It was great...we had a lot of fun, and it turned out to be a great team building activity."

"Yeah...sounds like it." Michael-Vincent nodded as he looked again at the picture. There was his father and his future mother in law, their hair, skin, and clothes caked with mud, surrounded by a group of very dirty interns, all of whom were grinning from ear to ear through the grime on their faces. "I'll say this...Dr. B wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty, was she?"

"That's the truth, and that's why her interns have always respected her so much. She isn't afraid of hard, nasty work." Closing the album, Hodgins sighed. "Thanks for letting me take the boys with me today, son. I know it's kind of nerve wracking to send them out with your crotchety old man, but I needed their help today."

"Dad…" Michael-Vincent patted his father's arm. "I never want you to feel like you can't spend time with the kids, okay? It's just...I was worried about you, being out there at the park by yourself…"

"I've been in much worse places by myself." Handing his son the album, he took a sip of his water. "Anyway, it was worth it to be able to hang out with the boys. It keeps me young, okay?"

"Yeah...okay." Patting his father on his shoulder, Michael-Vincent placed the album on the counter. He was willing to do whatever it took to keep his father as young as possible, even if it meant he'd have to worry about him from time to time. "Maybe next time, I can go with you. I want to feel young, too, okay?"

"Maybe...if Max doesn't mind." Hodgins grinned at his son. "I'll look forward to us spending the day together. Who knows? Maybe we can have a mud fight, too."

Michael-Vincent narrowed his eyes at his father. "You're on, Dad...and I'm gonna win."

Hodgins let out a belly laugh. "No way, kid...no way."

Thanks for reading. If you have time to review, I'd appreciate it.