Author's Note: This one is turning out to be a little longer than "Third Degree," but so far I don't think it will be more than two more chapters. Again, not my characters, Fox's, etc. No infringement intended. Please let me know if you want more. Thanks.

As Booth followed Angela into the kitchen, he couldn't help thinking "Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly." It was one of Parker's favorite creepy poems because the little boy was fascinated by spiders, but Booth had always felt a distinct kinship with the doomed fly. Which was weird given that he had spent a large portion of his adult life acting as a stealthy predator. He wondered what Dr. Wyatt or Dr. Sweets would make of that. Probably a lot. Luckily for him, they weren't around to try.

He hoped that Angela wasn't going to try to pin his guts to the wall for the amusement of the other squints today. They still tended to gang up on him if he showed any weakness, so he always tried to present a strong front when he came into the lab. It didn't take much for them to start in on him—especially Angela and Hodgins. Sometimes it felt like their favorite sport was trying to get Booth's goat, especially Hodgins. And nowadays, Angela and Hodgins were an inseparable team.

Of course, he was used to that kind of behavior. He had learned it on the public playgrounds of his childhood, where any sign of weakness was treated as an excuse to go for the jugular, psychologically speaking. Sensitivity was definitely not a plus in that type of environment, so he had learned to be very tough, at least outwardly. The squints had all been on the receiving end at one time or another, so he was the unlucky recipient of their combined revenge. He could take it, but didn't like it because he knew it didn't help matters when you were trying to work with each other. So he was determined not to give Angela any ammunition today if he could possibly help it. Some of the squints' jokes had seemed borderline sociopathic as far as he was concerned, but they had just accused him of having no sense of humor. In Booth's opinion, squints had a demonstrably abnormal sense of humor.

Still smiling faintly, Angela handed Booth a cup of coffee the way he liked it. She added sweetener to her own cup, picked it up, and headed back to her office.

"Everyone else is either giving our visitor the grand tour or attending a meeting of the techies about a very old skeleton found out in the desert in Arizona," she said, "So we have the lab to ourselves temporarily."

"So what did you want to tell me?" Booth asked, sitting down and cutting to the chase. He decided that the best way to handle Angela was to take the offensive immediately and try to throw her off with a little deflection and misdirection.

"I just want to talk, and I seldom get the chance during normal working hours," Angela replied reasonably as she sat down and leaned back in her chair. "Why are you so suspicious? What are you afraid I'll do?"

"I'm not afraid. I'm concerned that you and the rest of the squints will pull one of your little jokes on me, and I really don't have time for that," Booth said.

"But Booth, I would never. . ." she began in a fake wounded voice..

"Oh yes, you would," Booth jumped in. "And don't think you can fool me by batting your eyelashes and looking innocent. I can tell when you're in on it, and you usually are these days. And I can tell when it's just Hodgins. Or Hodgins and Zack. The jokes are different. And given the way you and Hodgins enjoy giving me a hard time, I always expect the worst when you two are bored like you have been lately."

Booth was gratified to see that Angela looked surprised. That was good. It would help to keep her off balance. Gaining momentum, he continued his rant. "The absolute worst was when you took a picture of me with a cell phone and photoshopped my head onto some guy from a porn site," Booth seethed.

"Booth, I swear to you, I had nothing to do with that. I always disqualify myself from the artistic contests because that's what I do for a living," Angela defended herself in a rush, trying not to laugh. "Besides, it was all in fun. They did it because you refused to pose for a picture like all the other contestants. And besides, you won the contest. They voted you both 'The Guy I'd Most Like to Be Lost With' and 'The Guy I'd Most Like to Get Voted Off the Island With.' The picture was just somebody's stupid idea of a joke."

"I refused because the idea was nuts and I was right. I still think the computer geeks could have caught the person who did it if they'd really tried. For months, I couldn't walk into the building without some knucklehead mentioning that stupid picture to me. You people are lucky some of you weren't fired for using government computers," Booth still sounded pretty angry about it.

"You know perfectly well that all of it was done on home computers, Booth. Dr. Goodman made sure of that. Even though they never found out who did it, they made sure there were no traces on the lab PC's. And unfortunately since you're a public figure because you've worked on some pretty high-profile cases, your image is pretty much fair game. If it makes you feel any better, there's a lot worse than that on the internet about lots of TV stars and other celebrities. It's not like it's just you being singled out."

"I'm the only one I care about. And what about my family," Booth said. "I have a young son. What if he comes across that some day? What the hell do I tell him when he asks me if I posed for it?" Booth looked his most defensive and pugnacious when talking about Parker. It was obvious to Angela that the picture was obviously still a very sore spot with him. She hadn't really thought about Parker at the time. She had just thought Booth could dish it out but he couldn't take it. She hadn't met Parker then. But now she could see his point about wanting to protect his little boy.

"I'm really sorry about Parker, Booth. I think the world of him, I really do. I'm sure that if he ever does find out about the picture he'll understand that it was just a bunch of people with high IQ's and low EQ's playing a juvenile prank."

She paused. "But that's not why I asked to talk to you," Angela said, thinking fast, and talking faster. "What I really wanted to talk to you about was the kiss." She stopped abruptly. She had intended to be a lot more subtle in bringing up the kiss, but it was too late now.

Booth's eyes had widened a fraction when she mentioned the kiss, but he didn't blurt out anything. He had been tortured by experts, so he was used to refusing to talk under stress. So far it was no contest.

"Which kiss would that be, Angela?" he asked carefully, as though he wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about. Besides, it was true, as far as it went. Bones had kissed him on the cheek too.

Angela was in no mood for tiptoeing around. "I'm talking about the kiss where you and Brennan had each others' tongues down each others' throats, Booth. The one where Caroline practically had to throw cold water on you to break it up. Why do you ask? Is there another one I don't know about?"

Booth stared at Angela. His face remained impassive, but he was in shock. Somebody had obviously told her about the whole thing. He wondered for a split second who had done it, and then just as quickly he knew it was Bones. "She probably described the whole thing like a lab experiment from Kinsey or something," he thought. He frowned at that depressing thought and didn't say anything in response.

"Come on, Booth, don't just sit there pretending it didn't happen. I don't have time for that. I'm trying to help the two of you out here. And contrary to what you may be guessing, Brennan didn't tell me much at all. In fact, she completely denied everything until I convinced her that I knew most of it from other sources, and then all she gave me was confirmation of the facts. So please don't clam up on me now."

Booth continued to stare at Angela, thinking fast. It sounded like she was willing to help him figure out what Bones wanted, but he was still wary. After three years, he knew he could trust her professionally, but he didn't know how much he could trust her on personal matters, especially those involving Brennan. She definitely hadn't been on his side when it came to Brennan/Sully. Then again, what did he have to lose? Maybe she could actually help him figure out what Brennan felt about their relationship. He could usually read Bones like a book, but not when it came to how she really felt about him. Finally, taking a deep breath, he said reluctantly,

"OK. It happened, but that's all I know about it. Bones basically acts like it meant less than nothing to her, so I really don't see where you're coming from. What exactly did you have in mind when you said you wanted to help?"

Angela said a quick prayer of thanks (for luck) and smiled wryly at Booth's extremely cautious expression. This wasn't going to be easy, but at least she'd gotten Booth to listen. That was a start.