Thank you all for your reviews and alerts .I love each and every one. I know this update was quick but it's really part of the last chapter so...here it is. I hope you like it :)

Thanks to Maudlin Muse who had a little input into this one :)

Chapter 15

"Where'd ya think you're going?" Booth asked as Lance tried to slink up the stairs.

"To my room." he said.

"No...later." Booth said. "We're gonna have a family dinner."

"I'm not really hungry." Lance said. He was feeling ashamed and scared and embarrassed. He really wanted to just get it over with and go to sleep. Maybe then he'd wake up from this horrible dream."

"No dice...set the table."

"Oh common Booth." he whined. Booth spun him around and whacked his backside.

"Don't you dare." Booth said with narrowed eyes. "Your damn lucky you got to come home. Now I spent all day making sauce and now I'm gonna cook the pasta and we're all gonna sit down and eat it like a civilised family...Now set...the...table." Lance frowned but moved towards the cabinet to get what he needed.

"Geez..." he muttered under his breath.

"Pardon?"Booth said.

"Um...I said thank you Jesus for the food we are about to receive."Jack winced before leaning in.

"I'd be thanking Jesus that I was still alive and kicking if I were you." Lance rolled his eyes. "Oh to be young and fearless." Jack muttered.

Everyone at dinner did their best to be jovial..well to act as jovial as they could, but Lance's looming punishment was weighing heavily in the air.

"Great pasta Booth." Jack said.

"Yeah it is.." Ang said. "Garlic bread's good Lance isn't it?" Lance gave her a long look.

"Yeah." he said.

"Do you like your pasta Lance?" Bones asked.

"YES." Lance said. "Yes I like the pasta and I like the garlic bread..." he said.

"Hey!" Booth siad. "Don't be rude Lance."

"Sorry Bones." he said. "I just don't see why exactly you're so pissed..." Jack cringed.

"Oh dude...did you leave your brains in the bushes with your girlfriends skirt?" he chuckled dropping spaghetti down his hairy chin.

"No really..." Lance said. He knew he was playing with fire...sort of...but his nerves were all jangled and he couldn't stop.

"I'm all ears." Booth said putting down his fork. The tension between them was palpable. "Why don't you tell me why you think you don't deserve to be in trouble?" Everyone else watched like they were driving past a car wreck... not wanting to look but not wanting to look away either.

"I didn't say that." Lance said. "I know I shouldn't have gone along with it...but TECHNICALLY...to steal...is to take the item yourself...I didn't."

"Have you ever heard of being an accessory after the fact."

"Whatever that means." he said. Booth was determined to hold his patience.

"The term refers to you." he said. "A person who receives stolen goods with prior knowledge of the crime...you assisted with a crime. You knew she was gonna steal ie therefore you are guilty." Booth cracked a serving spoon down on the table.

"Shouldn't a jury decide that?"

"Guilty Lance." Bones said.

"Guilty hon." Ang said with a sympathetic smile.

"Oh dude...you are sooo guilty ...and in trouble...he hasn't even got to the lying yet."

"I rest my case." Booth said. "Now eat." Lance forked his spaghetti slowly.

"I don't know how 'Law and Order' lasts an hour." he grumbled.

When Jack and Angela finally left, Booth looked at Lance. "It's time." he said.

"Maybe I should wash the dishes first." Lance said.

"I'm sure the dishwasher can handle it." Bones said. "I'm gonna go work for a while." she nodded towards her office.

"That's fine Bones." Booth said. He understood her need to be out of earshot. "Go upstairs Lance and stand in the corner. Think about why you're in this mess." He was about to argue again but with a spanking coming he wasn't a complete idiot. He dragged himself up the stairs slowly like a man walking to his execution.

Lance stood in the corner like a five year old trying to think about why he was there. Where the hell would he even start. He went over and over in his head the events of yesterday and today. Wow. He had been pretty stupid...but then so had Skye...but man...she had a sucky life...no wonder she didn't know how to be normal. He couldn't help but like her though and he didn't know why...getting him arrested was ...like way way over the top. It was definitely more annoying than she normally was. But kissing her was...sweet, he thought with a grin...like seriously...sweet. She must've been wearing some kind of strawberry lipgloss or something. He giggled. It was nice. He jumped when he heard his bed creak. Booth had been behind him...

"You scared me." he said panting.

"Something funny Lance?"

"Nooo."

"You were smiling..."

"Um yeah. I was thinking about something...not the stealing or the police station honest." he said.

"I believe you." Booth patted the bed.

"Come talk to me." he said. Lance carefully crossed the room and took the spot next to Booth. "Now talk."

"I'm sorry Booth. It'll never happen again." Lance said.

"Well ...getting arrested won't..." Booth said. "Being tempted by girls? THAT is just beginning." Lance blushed. Did Booth know he kissed Skye? "Lance...nothing really changes as you get older...you know what's right and wrong...you still have to make choices and sometimes you have to say no...no matter what's at stake." Lance nodded.

"I really have learned my lesson Booth." he said. "Honest."

"I hope so. But...you did wrong... and when you do wrong you have to be punished. Just because you got away with it this time..."

"You know about the other one?" Lance asked innocently. Booth stopped in his tracks.

"WHAT other one..?" Lance was like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Um..." he said. Booth could see the gears in his mind turning trying to come up with something.

"I swear..." Booth said. "If you lie to me now I will take down your pants and paddle your bottom until it's the same colour as your guilty face."

"Um..."

"TELL ME!" Booth said sternly.

"Yesterday we went to the store and Skye put candy in my pocket and we ran to the park and ate them." Lance said without taking a breath.

"Lance!" Booth scolded. Before Lance knew what had hit him he was staring at the carpet and clinging to Booth's leg for grim death as smack after powerful smack covered every inch of his increasingly burning bottom. Sheer panic hit him when he felt the sudden rush of cool air on his now exposed rear end.

"Noooo." He yelled. "You said you would only do that if I didn't tell you!"

"No I didn't!" Booth said as he his hand bounced noisily off Lance bare behind. "What...I...said...was...that I WOULD paddle your bare bottom if you didn't tell me!" He smacked from cheek to cheek colouring Lance's lily white bottom a shade of deep pink.

"Ouch Booth Booth!" Lance yelled... "No it hurts too much..." Booth stopped for a minute to allow Lance to catch his breath while he explained."All bets were off when I realised that you had done this before...and you only accidentally owned up!"
"It'll never ever happen again..." The distraught boy wailed as he tried to scramble to his feet.

"You think this is over?" Booth asked. "Not even close."

He secured the squirming young boy back over his knee and brought his hand down again, rhythmically paddling the upturned bottom.

"I didn't mean to..." Lance cried... "Stop please...it hurts."

"You did it. It wasn't a mistake Lance!" he said. "You got away with it so you did it again today!"

"Ow, ow, ow!" Lance wailed. He squeezed his aching cheeks together and then twisted and kicked in an effort to dodge the fiery pain that was searing his poor burning bottom.

"I'm sorry!" he yelled. He couldn't believe how stupid he'd been to do it in the first place or to tell on himselfffff. "Owww." He couldn't take it anymore. He burst into loud sobs. At last all the fight had gone out of him and he lay limp over Booth's knee until the man fixed his pants before he lifted him and drew him into his arms.

"I ...won't... EVER... do... it... again." Lance sobbed into his shoulder. He felt as though he wouldn't literally ever be able to sit down again. The tender skin of his bottom burned something fierce. He never wanted to be in this much trouble again.

"Shh, shhh, I know." Booth said gently as he soothed him. "You know we love you Lance. I don't ever want to have to come visit you in jail."

"You won't I promise." Lance said. He clung onto Booth's shirt and cried, the fear, frustration and guilt from the last couple of days finally washing away with his tears.

"I know." Booth said. "Besides...it'll be a while until you see the light of day...besides school." Lance groaned.

"Can I still be friends with Skye?" Booth sighed.

"Yeah. I think the poor kid could do with all the friends she can get."

"Thanks." Lance said.

"But try not to upset the Preacher man." Lance giggled and coughed, scrubbing his wet and puffy face on his sleeve.

"I'll try...but I don't think it takes much."

TBC