Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up, it's just been one of those weeks where life tramples all over you. Thanks to fortune kookie 91, stainedglasshorse, tvholic68Terapsina forensicsfan, ElLivFan4Ever Elliesmeow and MyForbiddenFruit. Your reviews seriously were the highlight of this week. That may be kind of lame, but please keep reviewing. (Also, as always I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing them for a while, so don't sue.)

"Hey hon," Angela said to her fiancée, "can I borrow Brennan for a minute?"

"What? Why?" Brennan looked over from her lab area.

"Sure," Hodgins easily acquiesced.

Addressing Brennan, "You really need to get out of the lab. We're going for coffee."

"Can it wait? I'm busy now."

"No," Angela wasn't going to let her friend continue to avoid anything even remotely personal. "You need to stop waiting here for Booth. That mistletoe can't hang forever."

"I'm not waiting for Booth. I just have a lot of work."

"What's this about Booth and mistletoe?" Hodgins re-joined the conversation.

"Brennan kissed Booth under some and now she won't take it down from her office because she wants to kiss him again," Angela summed up the story.

"Actually I can go now," Brennan didn't want any more details about her and Booth shared with the whole lab.

"Great," Angela knew her ploy had worked.

"Was there tongue?" Hodgins called after them, not receiving a response.


Angela looked across the coffee shop table at her friend. "Okay Bren, I need an update. That mistletoe is finally beginning to wilt."

The holidays now over, Angela was becoming concerned. Brennan had hardly left the lab in days, throwing herself into all the obscure bits of back work she could find. And Angela hadn't seen a certain FBI agent hanging around.

"There's nothing to tell," Brennan almost meant it.

"So what, you two just kissed and that was it? That can't be it." Angela knew that nothing was ever that simple.

"I think we may have some unspoken agreement never to talk about it. I'm hazy on the details, but Booth certainly seemed uncomfortable discussing it with Dr. Sweets."

"How come he gets to hear more than I do?" Angela had spent years getting her best friend to confide in her; she didn't want some therapist to accomplish it in a matter of weeks.

"He didn't." Angela was relieved. "I said I had a crisis and Booth automatically assumed it was about the kiss. I wasn't going to bring it up at all."

"You wouldn't characterize kissing your partner, leaving the mistletoe up for a repeat performance and then getting cold feet about the whole thing a crisis?"

"It's not a crisis. It's just something that happened. It didn't mean anything." Brennan was less than convincing.

"Sweetie, you don't mean that."

"It wasn't supposed to." But it did, Brennan thought to herself.

"Oh Bren," Angela felt for her friend. Trying to get a sense of the situation, "What's the problem with that? Didn't he call? You haven't talked to him since your meeting with Sweets, have you?"

"No," Brennan smiled at the memory, "He and Parker set up a Christmas tree outside the trailer."

"Wow, that's surprisingly thoughtful of Booth. He totally wants you. What's the problem then?"

"It was just a nice gift. I'm sure he didn't mean it like that."

"It was gesture."

Brennan tried without success to change the subject. "I need to get back to the Jeffersonian. I have a lot of work to do."

Angela wouldn't let her off the hook, "You can spare another minute; Zach can handle it." Angela looked Brennan in the eyes. "Did you thank him appropriately?"

"I told him I loved my gift."

"Maybe you should show him," Angela said, only half teasing.