Home for Christmas

Disclaimer: I don't own Bones. I make no profit.

Day 12: Christmas Movies

Hodgins rolled close to the ridiculous (but endearing) fluorescent pink tree that stood proudly in the corner of his bedroom and lowered himself from the chair to the floor. It was a maneuver he had perfected some time ago, but not one that he was ever going to like.

Hopefully, he wouldn't have forever to learn to like it.

Hopefully, by next Christmas the chair would be a thing of the past and he would be back on his feet.

But sometimes the worst happened, and he knew that he had to be prepared for that.

"We're putting all of the Christmas decorations away today, and don't think you're getting out of helping just because you didn't have to put any of them up," Angela sang out as she swept into the room.

"My pleasure," he told her, and he meant it. He had hated missing the little day-to-day things just as much as he'd hated missing the big things when he'd been in the hospital. "But sit here with me for a minute. We didn't sit under a Christmas tree together all year."

She dropped easily to the floor beside him, and he took a moment to appreciate her casual touches and invasion of his space. She'd been a bit hesitant to touch him, at first, when he'd returned home. She had said all the right things, but she had had trouble making her actions match her words. He suspected that she was afraid of hurting him, and he couldn't fault her for that.

He didn't want to hurt her, either.

That was why they were going to have one last conversation before they packed Christmas away and hoped that it would be better next year.

"Is sitting under a Christmas tree together something we've done every year?" she asked as she let her fingers dance up and down his arm. He caught her hand in his.

"No. I don't think so. I just wanted to."

"Good enough." She leaned against him. "Is there anything else that we missed this year that you wanted to do? Food you didn't eat? A song you didn't hear? A movie you didn't watch?"

"I don't think I saw any Christmas movies," he mused. It didn't seem like a great loss, but it did seem odd that it hadn't occurred to him. "Maybe we can watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas while we undecorate the trees. Maybe we can stop at the part where he's about to dump the sleigh off of Mount Crumpet and pretend the story has a happy ending."

She laughed and swatted him playfully with their joined hands. "Christmas was that bad that you're rooting for the Grinch now?"

"No," he said quietly. "Christmas was wonderful, and don't think that I didn't notice and appreciate everything you did, Angie."

"I didn't do anything. You did the hard part. You're still doing the hard part." Angela sighed. "I know what you mean, though. It's why I'm so excited to start putting things away. It means that the month where this happened is over."

"That's why I wanted to talk to you. Here. While we're still in this place. So we can move on."

She twisted to look at him. "Sounds serious."

"It is."

She squared her shoulders almost imperceptibly and he was hit with a rush of love for her. "About having a baby the old-fashioned way," he prefaced. "I apologize for how unromantic and scientific this sounds. Because of the LCA gene, we were better off looking at in-vitro fertilization anyway so that we could minimize the risk. It would still be there, but it would be a lot less than one in four."

"We do not have to worry about this now," she said hastily.

"Yes, we do. If this," and he glared at the chair, "is permanent, my sperm count is going to fall. I know it seems like bad timing, but there's never really a good time for something like this. So if you still want another baby with me, we should get started as soon as we have a doctor who says it's okay to do electrostimulation or whatever they need to do to me."

She moved so that she was almost straddling him, and he tried not to give into the resentment that he couldn't much feel it. Then she grabbed his face with both of her hands, and he couldn't focus on anything but her eyes.

"Listen to me very clearly," she said. "I will always want another baby with you. Any baby that I ever have will be yours. But I am not going to allow anyone to do any kind of invasive procedure on you a few weeks after someone basically blew you up."

"I don't think a doctor will agree to it, either. But as soon as they let us, Angela. As soon as they let us. I know it will be harder on you being pregnant under the circumstances, but we can hire help if we need it. It's not like money is an issue. You aren't going to miss any opportunities because of this."

"The only opportunity I care about is the opportunity to spend the rest of my life with you."

He kissed her. "I love you, too. And I hope this isn't permanent. God, I hope this isn't permanent."

"So do I. But mostly I know that wheelchair or no wheelchair, we're fine. Baby or no baby, we're fine. You have been amazing this past month. It scared the hell out of me when you were so quiet at first because… well, you don't do quiet."

"As many times as you've wished I would."

She kissed him. "Don't joke. Not about this."

"Mind over matter, baby. I know that when life deals you a shitty hand, you can make yourself and everyone around you miserable or you can work with what you have left. Some days it's a lot harder than others."

"And you want to bring a new baby into our lives on top of that."

"I told you before our little detour to hell. I want to experience everything in life with you. All right, maybe I could have done without experiencing paralysis. But yes, another baby. I'm not going to take that from you. Or from me. Or from Michael."

"I don't want you to worry about taking things from me."

"I don't want you to act like I'm made of glass and what you need doesn't matter. Like when you didn't want to touch me because you didn't want to cry."

She slipped off of his hips and sat beside him again. "I was that transparent, huh?"

"Only to me."

"Then I'll tell you this instead of letting you see it without my help. I'm worried that your attitude is too good. I'm not sure you've dealt with everything."

That amused him more than he wanted to show. It flattered him, too. "Has anyone ever really dealt with everything? I mean, Brennan has two kids and if she waited until she'd dealt with everything she has going on-"

She shoved him hard enough that it surprised him; no one used force with the guy in a wheelchair. "That's my best friend that you're talking about."

"She wouldn't mind. She'd say I was using evidence to support my point."

"She probably would," Angela admitted. "But this is one of those times that science needs to step aside and listen to the rest of us. There are more important things. Like love."

"More kids, more love. Isn't that what you said, like, a month ago?"

"Why are you pushing this, Hodgins?" she asked firmly.

"I'm not pushing. If you say that our family is complete the way it is, or that you aren't sure about having another baby with me-"

She snapped her fingers. "And there it is."

"There what is?"

"You always worry about me leaving you for some guy I jumped over a broomstick with or whatever. We don't need a fix-it baby. There's nothing to be fixed."

He felt a dizzying rush of blood to his head. He had genuinely intended to raise the issue of babies and nothing else. "Sex?" he asked bluntly.

"Has more to do with your brain than any part of your body. I don't know how you're doing with getting an erection-"

"I can, but I can't feel it," he admitted.

"But the person I loved most in the romantic way in my life other than you was a woman."

He made a face. It wasn't that he hadn't liked Roxie, but he would just as soon not dwell on his wife's assorted exes.

"Fine," said Angela. "To get to the point of that, you're very good at oral, and if I haven't told you that enough I should have. I expect you to continue being my husband in that manner."

"You've got it," he smiled.

"And if this is temporary, and I hope it is, we will use this time to explore things that are fun for you even if you can't feel much below your waist." She jumped up and locked the door. "We can explore them now, if you like."

"I thought that you wanted to get the Christmas decorations put away," he teased her.

"That can wait until this afternoon," she whispered in his ear. "I'm flexible. Very, very flexible."

The End.

Note: That's it for the 12 days of Christmas challenge. It was definitely challenging. The day after Christmas, the day of my friend's New Year's party, the day I drove 6 hours in the snow, the day I went back to work, a couple of prompts that didn't prompt me… In fact, I don't think I need to be challenged any more in the immediate future. I'm so impressed with everyone who managed to complete this with more than an hour to spare.

And also, FF.N is in the mood to let me PM again so you can expect thank you notes of appreciation for the reviews.

But thank you right here, anyway, for reading! Hope you enjoyed and hope your 2016 is off to a wonderful start.