The response to the first two chapters to this story have been great. I'm enjoying writing this one, and have decided to do this chapter, and then one more to close it out. I hope you enjoy this one. Gregg.
Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Cam and Angela were a bit unsure of what was going on as they entered the diner. All they knew was that Max Keenan had asked to see them and suggested the Diner. They saw Hodgins already sitting there and were a bit surprised.
"Jack?" Angela asked when they came up to them.
"Oh, hey Ange," Hodgins said as he stood. "Cam."
"What are you doing here, Jack?" Cam asked.
"I don't know," Jack shrugged his shoulders. "I got a call from Max and he asked me to be here. You guys?"
"The same," Angela replied.
"Great! You're all here!" Max said as he walked up to them, his grin firmly in place. "Have you ordered yet?"
"We just got here," Cam said, slowly and with suspicion. She'd heard some disturbing rumors about a couple of "visits" that Max had paid to Hacker and Sweets the day before, so she was immediately on edge. What made her even more nervous was the fact that just this morning Hacker had asked for a demotion to Special Agent status and a five year posting to the US Embassy in Baghdad. Cullen, who had never really liked Hacker, had approved the request and Hacker was clearing out his office at that moment.
"Well, order up," Max said. "My treat."
"So what's this all about, Max?" Hodgins asked as the food arrived a few minutes later. He took a deep drink of his soda, and almost had a heart attack at Max's words.
"I'm really disappointed at how the three of you have failed to make my baby girl happy," Max said firmly, his smile, as always, in place. He enjoyed the speechless goldfish routine that Cam had going on, the look of shock and indignation that Angela was giving him, and the look of wanting to sink into the floor that Hodgins had. Evidently the rumor mill about his supposed visits to Hacker and Sweets had made it to the Jeffersonian. Good.
"What have we done?" Angela demanded when she got her voice back.
"How does that saying go?" Max looked up wistfully. "'Let me count the ways?'"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Cam asked indignantly.
"Didn't you hook up with Booth when you first began working at the Jeffersonian?" Max asked rhetorically as they all knew the answer to that. "And didn't you recommend to Booth after Tempe got back from Guatemala a few months ago that he hold off on telling her that he loves her?"
Cam shrank from the glares that Angela and Hodgins shot her over that last one. "Yes," she admitted.
"And Angela," Max turned the conversation over to her.
"Me?" Angela asked, shocked. What the Hell had she done?
"Aren't you the one always confusing Tempe about men?" Max asked.
"I have not!" Angela shot back very indignantly.
"Haven't you?" Max asked. "What about when you knew how she felt about Booth and yet were encouraging her to hook up with Sully once she accepted a dinner date with that guy? Or how about all the encouraging advice about going clubbing to look for men? Or how about doing nothing but asking for all the juicy details when she tried to have the two boyfriends? From the looks of it you've been doing plenty of encouraging, but in the wrong direction."
"He's got a point, Ange," Hodgins pointed out. He shut up when he got a fierce glare from Angela by way of reply.
"And what about you, Hodgins?" Max asked.
"Me!" Hodgins about soiled himself. He, too, had heard the rumors about Max's visits to Hacker and Sweets. He wanted no part of that stuff! Not if Hacker was voluntarily going to Baghdad for five years! He'd also heard that Sweets was looking over his shoulder every two seconds as if he was afraid of someone coming up behind him. Nuh, uh! Hodgins wanted nothing to do with this! He'd rather meet up with Angela's pissed off Dad in a dark alley somewhere and take his chances that way.
"How could you not keep Booth from having wandering eyes on occasion?" Max asked. "That Perrotta girl, for starters, and then this latest gal, Catherine I think her name is?"
"What was I supposed to do?" Hodgins demanded, trying to ignore the stares from Cam and Angela who were enjoying seeing him squirm far too much in his opinion.
"Sit his ass down and tell him to get his head out of his ass and keep his attention focused on the real deal," Max explained.
"Whoah, hold the phone, Max," Hodgins protested. "I mean, I like Booth, but we aren't bosom buddies! He threatens to shoot me a few times a month, for God's sake!"
"Doesn't matter," Max brushed the comments aside. "The fact is my baby girl isn't happy, and the three of you are part of the mess that's keeping her from being happy. Now we need to decide what to do about it."
All three paled. They did not like the sound of that one bit. Cam knew that Booth despised anyone interfering in his personal life, and she was still amazed, despite knowing her for three years now, that he allowed Temperance Brennan to be as involved in his personal life as she was. Angela was not too keen on the idea, as she knew that Brennan was in a difficult time right then. She'd rejected Booth not too long ago, and she'd clammed up pretty tight about it. If anyone pressed, she may regress to where she was five years ago, which no one wanted to see happen. As for Hodgins, he could see Booth beating him to a pulp and spending a number of painful days in the hospital, and then a few months of painful physical therapy if he did anything and it backfired. The worst part for all three was that Max was even scarier than the alternative.
Max laid out his plan and as he'd known, the other three hadn't liked it. Not one bit.
"No way!" all three said simultaneously.
Max just grinned even wider. "I had a feeling you'd say that," he replied. The he played his hand. "Dr. Soroyan? How would you feel if I let it be known that you slept with your professor of surgery the week before finals in Med School?"
Cam paled. That was so not fair! She'd been at a party and had gotten horribly drunk and woke up with the guy! Sure, it sounded bad, but it had some mitigating circumstances. That's not what people would care about, though. She would love to know who told Max that juicy bit of info!
"I'm in," she said with a scathing look at Max.
"And Angela," Max continued.
"Hey!" Angela said with some serious indignation. "I'm as clean as the Preacher's sheets, Max!"
"Oh?" Max said in that infuriatingly polite tone of his. "So everyone knows that you worked as a topless waitress your senior year of college at a lap dance club?"
It was Angela's turn to pale now. She wasn't ashamed of her past, and it had been a very good way to earn money for someone who wasn't ashamed of revealing her body, but in this day of political correctness, and the stodgy conservative do gooders who oversaw the Jeffersonian, it would not look good at all.
"I'm in," she glared at Max, and then gave Hodgins a look that said he'd be a dead man if a word of this got out to anyone.
"And then there's you, Jack," Max said, his smile even wider.
"Hey now, there's no way you have something on me," Jack defended himself. He paid to much money to sanitize his own record given his more, ahem, indiscreet youthful transgressions.
"So people know that when you got your PhD you celebrated with a whole month in a rented room in a brothel in Bangkok, Thailand in the red light district Patpong?" Max asked.
Jack gave a sickly grin, feeling his lunch coming up, but he squelched the puking for the time being. He noticed the rather disgusted looks that Cam and Ange were shooting him at that very moment.
"Could I say someone kidnapped me and made me do disgusting things in the sex capitol of the world?" Jack tried.
"That the best you could come up with?" Max grinned.
"I'm in," Jack caved.
"A month with cheap whores!" Angela hissed at Jack.
"I was 23 and had a shit load of money from my trust funds that just got released to me," Jack hissed back. "Believe it or not, I was not a roaring success with the ladies in college!"
"Hold on you two," Max shushed them. "You can argue about who had the most morally corrupt past later. For now, I expect each of you to do your part in this plan, which I will be putting into play tomorrow."
"I'll have my part done," Jack said, thinking of his coming credit card bill after this one. Not that he normally cared about such things, but his accountant, who got all his bills and took care of them, would be calling and asking for an explanation.
"I know what to do," Angela nodded. Then she looked at Hodgins. "And tonight you can explain what you were thinking paying to get laid non-stop for a month!"
"Yes, Dear," Jack replied, wincing at the thought of the coming conversation. He only hoped that this info didn't get back to her Dad somehow. He was sure that the buzzards would be feasting instead of circling this time if that happened.
"And I'll come up with some reason that the lab will have to be closed for a few days," Cam pouted. If she ever found out who squealed about her medical school indiscretion, she would be committing murder!
"Great!" Max grinned. "Thanks for the help, Guys! I gotta go and get my end ready."
They watched as Max waltzed out of the Diner. Then they looked at each other and started arguing over who was the most to blame for this disaster. The waitresses and the cooks only shook their heads and laughed to themselves. Life was never dull with the group from the Jeffersonian.
A/N: I deliberately left out the plan so that I could reveal it in the next chapter, which will be the last one for this story. I hope you enjoyed this one as it was along the same lines as the first two, but wasn't as threatening as much as it was embarrassing for the victims of Max's attention. Gregg.