It's Christmas in July! I love the irony that I'm sitting on the beach in the sun and writing about Christmas and snow. I'm awesome like that, haha.


Chapter 3—Snow

It was that time of year, and once again, Brennan was alone for Christmas. She and Russ had made contact earlier that year and had been planning to spend Christmas together, until he ran off with her father, that is. She had let herself dream of having a family to spend the holidays with, and they left her again, alone for Christmas.

Her heart was broken, and she swore she wouldn't let anyone in again. People never stayed with her, no matter what they said or promises they made. They always left her. That was why on Christmas Eve, hours after everyone had left the Jeffersonian, she was still on the platform pouring over a set of remains from the Civil War.


Booth, as usual, had left his Christmas shopping until Christmas Eve, and so by the time he was finished his shopping, he was too exhausted to do anything but fall into bed. Rebecca had agreed to let him have Christmas Day with Parker, and he couldn't have been more excited. The house was decorated, and the refrigerator was filled with everything he needed to make a Christmas feast. The last thing he thought about before sleep overtook him was his Bones, who he knew would be spending her day in the lab. Resolving to drag her out of the lab for dinner tomorrow, he drifted into a deep sleep filled with dreams of his partner.


Brennan was startled awake by her ringing cell phone at 11am on Christmas Day. Rolling her neck, trying to stretch out the sore muscles from sleeping on her desk, she answered the phone, knowing the only person who would call her on Christmas would be Booth. "Brennan," she said, her voice still heavy with sleep.

"Merry Christmas, Bones!" he said, his voice too cheery for her sleep-filled mind.

"Bah humbug, Booth. I'm going back to sleep," she said, yawning as she walked toward her couch to find a more comfortable place to sleep.

"Bones! It's almost noon, you can't go back to sleep," he said, trying to keep her on the phone.

"Fine," she replied, wondering why he was calling her to bug her, "Why did you call?"

"Do I have to have a reason to call my favorite forensic anthropologist?" he asked, teasing her.

"You usually do. Especially because it's Christmas Day, and Rebecca is bringing Parker over in," she looked down at her watch, "less than an hour."

"Ok, ok, you caught me. I want you to join Parker and me for dinner tonight," he said, praying that she would agree.

"No, Booth. It's your holiday to spend with Parker. I don't want to intrude," she was stunned by his invitation, but wanted nothing more than to be with him today.

"Please, Temperance?" he asked again, using her first name to get her attention, "I invited you, it wouldn't be intruding."

"No, Booth. I don't want to interrupt the little time you get with Parker. And I don't know how to act around him anyway."

"Temperance, you wouldn't be interrupting anything. And Parker loves you, even if you use words he doesn't know. And…" he paused, searching for something to use as leverage, "I'll let you drive for a week."

She didn't answer him immediately, pretending to debate about it. "Ok," she finally said, grabbing her purse and coat and leaving the lab. If she was going to have dinner with Booth and Parker, she needed to go home to shower and change.

"Really?" he asked in disbelief. He didn't think one week of driving would do it, he figured he'd have to agree to at least a month.

"Yes, I'd love to come. What time should I come over? And do you need me to bring anything?'

"Can you come over around one? And don't worry about bringing anything, I've done more shopping for today than I usually do in a year," he was mentally running through his list of things to do before she came over, and he'd have to get started as soon as possible to be ready in time.

"Sounds good. I'll see you then. And, Booth?" she paused, trying to find the right words to say.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," she paused when she made it to her car, waiting for the windows to defrost, "for everything."

"Anything for you, Temperance. I'll see you in a few hours?"

"Yeah, I'll see you then."


A couple of hours later, the three of them were running through the park, dodging and throwing snowballs as they went. Brennan ducked behind a tree just seconds before a snowball exploded against the trunk. Keeping low, she kept running, watching Booth out of the corner of her eye. As Parker ran in front of him, he stopped watching her and took aim at his son.

As he drew his arm back, he was suddenly hit in the side of the head, throwing him off balance. At the same time, Parker came running at him, jumping into his arms as they both fell backwards into the snow, giggling like children.

As father and son wrestled in the snow, Brennan collapsed onto a nearby bench, trying to catch her breath. Finally able to breath again, she scooped up a pile of snow and walked toward the pair, dropping the pile on top of them before she started running away.

Booth was too quick for her, though, and grabbed her leg, causing her to fall into the snow as he scrambled over to her. Pinning her to the ground with his body, he grinned down at her. "We're not going to let you get away that easily, Bones," he said, moving off of her just enough to scoop her up and throw her over his shoulder without her being able to fight him off.

Running down the hill with Parker following closely behind, he dumped her unceremoniously into a snow drift before grabbing Parker and jumping in, too. The three were laughing uncontrollably, still throwing snowballs at each other, when she realized she was actually having fun. She felt as if she belonged somewhere. And it didn't scare her.