"Bones, so I've been thinking" Booth started to speak, his voice modulated, low. He unclipped his wristwatch and placed it carefully in the jewellery caddy on the top of the chest of drawers. He slipped the St Christopher medallion on the silver chain over his head and let it drop slowly into velvet lining, it curled like a snake as he lowered his hand. He removed the cufflinks one by one, placing them next to the medallion and then pulled the tie clip from his tie and set that down methodically next to the cufflinks.

He turned and looked at his wife as she unzipped her dress and let it slip from her shoulders.

"Bones? Were you listening?" he asked, pulling a set of dice from his pocket and placing them on the corner of the chest of drawers with one hand. The other hand extracted two gambling chips and his one year GA medallion from the other pocket, and setting them next to the dice.

Brennan turned and smiled at Booth as she stepped out of her navy blue dress and bent down to pick it up. "Yes, of course! I'm in the room Booth." She responded as she walked over to the walk in dressing room, grabbed a hanger and proceeded to hang the dress neatly before hanging it back on the rail.

"I was just checking. You have a habit of switching off after a long day. I've told you things, and then had you accuse me of not telling you later on." Booth said, defensively holding a hand out, palm turned upwards. "Anyway," he said unbuttoning his trousers and letting them drop to the floor, kicking them to the side of the room and walking over to her in his boxers. His feet still encased in his shoes and a pair of bright yellow, orange and green striped socks.

"Booth! Please?" Brennan said, her frustration at his disregard for his clothing bubbling over.

"What? They're dirty. I'll pick them up later. Look, Bones. I wanted to talk to you about Christmas this year. You know, it's getting close and we haven't really talked about what we're going to do this year." he said.

"I was under the impression we were going to have a quiet, understated Christmas celebration this year, avoiding all the chaos that seems to surround the twenty fifth of December. I have to say, I'm glad. Being at home, just you, me, the children. Treating it just like another day" she said, pulling a gown over her slip.

Booth sat down on the bed and stared at her, using his toes to force one shoe off without undoing the laces, then repeating the process, accidentally kicking the shoe across towards the wall. "Yeah. About that. I've been thinking" he muttered.

"Oh no. Booth! Booth, we discussed this! No over the top, expensive, Christmas celebration. No ridiculous spending on things that the children don't need. No overeating until you feel ill. Just you, me, the children, a light dinner, a quiet glass of wine." Brennan rolled her eyes and sat down heavily next to him. "We talked about this" she said again.

"Bones. It's Christmas. I know I said I'd try. But. It's Christmas!" he whined, his brown eyes glistening and his mouth downturned into a sad and sorry pout.

"Booth"she said, her frustration clear.

Brennan had told Booth several months ago that she didn't want to get caught up in all the hype that surrounded Christmas. The tree, the home decorating, the expensive gifts. Their children wanted for nothing. Booth had the worst habit of bringing home the latest Barbie for Christine, or the newest baby toy for their son Hank, for no real reason, other than that he loved them, and he loved playing with them. And she hated cooking, truth be told. She would rather sit down to a cold, fresh salad, then deal with the smells of meat cooking, and the fatty, heavy sides that accompanied, as Booth referred to it, a real homestyle celebration dinner. And she was certain that he had agreed with her.

"Bones, hon. Come on. You love it. I know you do. The smell of the perfect pine tree, decorated with all the beautiful ornaments we've collected, and the ones that Christine made at school. You love driving down our drive and seeing the glinting christmas lights and the snow on the roof."

Brennan rolled her eyes at Booth "That's not actual snow. You spray that powder stuff all over our roof and then when Christmas is over, you spend weeks cleaning it off. We haven't had actual snow on Christmas for years."

"But this year, they're forecasting it Bones. I saw it on the TV earlier today. The long range forecast said chance of snow was eighty percent!"

"And that means there is a twenty percent chance that it will not snow. It will probably just rain, or simply just be cold."

Booth forged ahead "And the smell of the turkey cooking, the veggies roasting, the gravy. Oh the gravy, Bones!" he paused for a moment, eyes closed, imagining that thick, rich, brown gold, sliding over his dinner. He opened his eyes to see Brennan smirking at him, "And the looks on Christine and Hank's little faces when they come into the living room on Christmas morning, and see that Santa has been!" he added.

"You mean the look on your face when you see their faces" Brennan smiled lovingly. She shook her head and looked up at the ceiling. There was no winning this one. Christmas really was one of Booth's favourite days of the year. She should have known better than to think that he would actually go ahead with a low key, quiet day, with no friends, no decorations, no elaborate meal.

She released a heavy sigh.

Booth grabbed her and hugged her hard "Oh I knew you would agree!" he said, not needed her to say anything. "It'll be great. And I'll do the cooking. You won't have to do a thing. Not a thing!" he said as he jumped up and held his hands out to her "I've already thought about the tree. I'm going to go out next week and I'm going to chop down my own tree"

"No, wait, Booth. Why don't you just go to the tree farm and buy one that has already been chopped down, cleaned and prepped. All you have to do is find a nice six foot tall fir."

Booth stared at her, his face long, his eyelids blinking over and over.

Brennan forced herself to look away. "And stop making that face"

"What face?" Booth asked innocently, knowing full well the effectiveness of his puppy dog eyes.

"Fine. Fine! It doesn't matter what I say, you'll go ahead and do what you want. But please. Don't get carried away and bring home a twenty foot tall tree like you did two years ago. Honestly, it was so embarrassing. You had to chop off the bottom and it was still too tall, the top was curled against the ceiling and the star was sideways!"

Booth held up both hands, palms forwards "I hear you. Massive miscalculation on my part." He then covered his heart with one hand "I promise you. I will measure the tree properly and we won't have the Godzilla tree this year. Absolutely I hear you. In fact. What if I take Max with me?" he asked, eyes wide, innocent.

Brennan looked at him, her eyes squinting "You've already arranged it, haven't you?" she asked.

Booth turned and bent over, retrieving his shoes and taking them into the walk in robe, making sure not to make eye contact.

"Booth?" she said his name firmly.

"Is that Hank?" Booth popped his head out of the dressing room, one hand cupped behind his ear.

"Booth?" Brennan said, standing up, hands on her hips.

"Yep. I'm sure that's Hank. I'll just. Uh" he stepped past Brennan as quickly as he could without looking at her. "Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm just. He probably needs something. Be right back!" he mumbled quickly as he exited the bedroom.

Brennan stared after him and took a deep breath and held it, eyes closed as she rubbed at her neck. Her husband and her father together, tree chopping, was a disaster waiting to happen. She wasn't sure exactly when their friendship solidified. The moment must have slipped past her when she wasn't looking. One day Booth was a by the book FBI agent slamming Max against a wall, frisking him, then locking his hands behind him in cuffs. And the next they were bonding over babies, and weddings and now Christmas.

She remembered at their wedding, Max had called Booth son. And from that moment onwards, he had treated him as an ally and a confidante. They spent days with Christine, playing tea parties. They built a tree house for her. They took her out tadpoling at the local dam. Then when Hank came along, Max and Booth were all macho, chest puffing , proud men handing out cigars and clapping each other on the back. It was unnerving.

Brennan walked over and bent down to pick up Booth's trousers. She pulled the belt from the loops and dropped it on the bed. She walked out of the bedroom and wandered down the hallway to the laundry. She passed the nursery where Hank slept. She could hear Booth talking to their son. It would be his second Christmas this year.

Last year Christmas had been exciting as it was Hanks first one. He was almost one, crawling and full of curiosity. The day was chaotic to say the least. People were coming and going all day. Booth drank way too much egg nogg, and beer, and wine with dinner. Christine made herself sick eating too much dessert. And Hank was just so wound up, he cried all night and she got absolutely no sleep, only to get up the next morning and have to clean everything up by herself because Booth was so ill.

She shook her head and continued down the hallway to the laundry and dropped Booths pants into the hamper. She walked back towards the kitchen and almost bumped into Booth as he came out of Hanks room carrying their son. He had grown so much. He was almost two, and was walking and he'd started saying baby words. In fact his first word was bone. It had made her so proud, and Booth jealous. He wanted DaDa to be Hank's first word. Of course, Booth had argued that Hank was copying him calling her Bones, but Brennan insisted that he had been paying attention when she was talking about her work. They had agreed to disagree.

Hank reached towards his mother, his little hands opening and closing "Bone!" he said grinning.

Booth gave his cheek a big wet smooch kiss "That's right! That's Bones!" he laughed.

Brennan frowned as she lifted Hank from his father's arms "Booth I don't want him calling me that." she said, looking into her son's eyes "Mama. Say Mama Hank. I'm Ma Ma. Say it"

"Bone!" Hank cried, grabbing Brennan's cheeks and pressing his open mouth against her lips to give her a sloppy baby kiss.

Booth burst out laughing "Told ya!" he boomed as he walked towards the living room.

He looked at the clock. "I better go get Christine from Angela's. Max will be here soon." he said.

Brennan hitched Hank onto one hip, settling his weight as comfortably as she could "So Max is coming here? Now?" she asked, her head tilted to one side.

Booth stopped and turned around to look at her, his lips clamped together.

"It's fine Booth. You and Max are buddies and you're going tree hunting together." she said.

"I told him he could stay here until after Christmas too. Gotta go get Christine! Bye!" he said quickly and exited through the front door as fast as he could pulling it closed behind him.

"Wait! Booth! What?" Brennan yelled after him. But of course he was gone.

She stood staring at the closed door, then swing Hank around onto her other hip "So, did you know about this arrangement with Max too Hank?" she asked her son.

"Poppy!" Hank yelled.

Brennan laughed "Yes. Poppy Max is coming to stay. Apparently. Looks like we're definitely not having a quiet Christmas this year. " She arched her back and then lowered Hank to the floor "You young man, are getting way too heavy to be carried around. You're going to be built like your father. And that's definitely not a bad thing. Your father has a very pleasing body shape and size. Girls like that in a man. You'll find out one day." she said to her son who giggled and crawled a few feet, then pushed himself up onto his feet and toddled over to his toy box. "Let's hope you don't have his stubborn streak" she added.

"Dada! Poppy!" Hank said, dribbling onto a teddy bear he had pulled from the box.

"Yes. Daddy invited Poppy Max to come and stay. I see you've been talking to him. You probably know all about his Christmas plans too" she muttered. "Must be that thing about the boy code, that Booth talks about. You know, there can be a Mommy & Son code too. We'll have to work on that" she said, smiling.

"Bone!" Hank laughed.

"Mama Hank. Mama" Brennan said leaning down and wiping the drool from his chin "Say Mama"

Hank grabbed her hand and laughed his cheeky baby laugh that she loved so much. "Bone" he said again.

"We'll have to work on that Hank" she said as she stood up. "One man in this family calling me that is quite enough" she said, sighing.