Secret Santa (Bones, Angela Montenegro/Jack Hodgins, #8-Candy Canes)
Title: Secret Santa
Author / Artist: callieach
Fandom: Bones
Pairing: Angela Montenegro/Jack Hodgins
Theme: #8 - Candy Canes
Word Count: 1 316
Rating: K+
Disclaimer / Warnings: I don't own 'Bones', or it's characters. Fox handles that sort of stuff. I just like to steal them and play with them :) Oh, and I don't own Christmas either, in case you thought I did. Spoiler-ish up to 210, though not really.
Summary: Jack has Angela for his Secret Santa.
Author Notes: Enjoy! Feedback = telepathic gingerbread men!
“Well you’re in an awfully good mood today.” Jack said as Angela walked past him, humming a Christmas tune.
“And why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know.”
“That was a rhetorical question, Hodgins.”
“You can still tell me why you’re in such a good mood.”
Angela pulled a candy cane out of the pocket of her lab coat in response. “I found this on my desk this morning. It’s from me Secret Santa.”
Jack grinned. “Ooo, how exciting.”
“And no matter how many times I ask you who my Secret Santa is, you’re not going to tell me, okay?”
“Umm, why?”
“Because I don’t want to know. I want it to be a surprise.”
“My lips are sealed.”
“Good.” Angela said as she walked off to find someone else, still smiling to herself.
“But Hodgins, aren’t you her Secret Santa?” Zach asked, looking up from the table he was bent over.
“That was loud. Why don’t you just come right out and tell her?”
“Okay.” Zach put down his tool and started to follow Angela.
“Zach,” Jack said, “I was being sarcastic.”
*****
“So I finished that scene reconstruction you wanted.” Angela said into the receiver of her phone. “It looks like…” She drifted off.
“It looks like what, Angela?” Temperance asked on the other end.
“Umm… what was I saying?”
Tempe sighed dramatically. “What distracted you this time?”
“I’ve got another gift from my Secret Santa.” Angela said, picking up the parcel that was waiting for her on the Angelator.
“Another candy cane?”
“No, seventeen.” She said, counting quickly.
“Seventeen?”
“Yes, tied with a very festive bow.”
“Interesting, now, Angela what did that scene reconstruction say?”
*****
“Okay, Angela, your Secret Santa is definitely outdoing me.” Tempe said, examining the latest gift.
“Hey, don’t say that. I’ll know it’s not you.”
“You don’t know who it is yet? Besides someone with a candy cane fetish?”
Angela snatched the teddy bear out of her friend’s hand. “I am blindly ignoring all the clues so that I will be surprised.
“I’ve never understood your desire for surprise.”
“Sweetie,” Angela plucked two candy canes from the bear’s paws, and handed one to Tempe. “No offense, but you don’t understand much.”
*****
“Angela, you in here?” At the sound of her name, Angela looked up from her spot surrounded by paper on the floor. Booth was standing in the doorway, holding a giant candy cane.
“This was beside the coffee machine, and it had your name on it.” He navigated the paper-strewn floor to hand it to Angela, “Oh, and it’s not from me, I really did find it beside the coffee machine.”
Angela nodded as she examined the candy that was laid across her lap. “I believe you.”
“Do you know who it’s from?”
“No, and I don’t want to, either.”
“Why not?”
“The thing is called ‘Secret Santa’ for a reason, Booth.” Angela said in a patronizing tone.
“But how can you not know?” Angela fixed him with a cold stare. “Do they teach all the women here how to glare the right way, or something?”
*****
It was the twenty-second, the day they’d all decided was good to reveal the identities of their Secret Santa’s on, and it seemed as if Angela was the only one who didn’t know already. She’d already given Cam her final gift, a home facial set, and was now waiting eagerly to find out who had been so obsessed with giving her candy canes. Of course, she already had a pretty good idea who it was, but working around gore so long, she’d grown used to blocking out things she didn’t want to know.
She was sitting at her desk, drawing, when someone knocked on her door. “Come in.” She called, the bells on her hat jingling.
The bouquet was the full width of the doorway, and it was impossible to see Jack behind it. But he was audible. “Surprise.”
“You can say that again.” Angela stood up as he put the bouquet on her desk.
“So you’re surprised, huh?” Jack asked, grinning.
“Mildly, yet pleasantly.” She smiled in return, then turned her attention to the bouquet. “Poinsettias, roses, and candy canes. Because that’s what you always put in a basket together.” She said teasingly.
“Hey, I stuck with my red and white color theme.”
Angela laughed. “I will give you brownie points for that. And I must admit that an abundance of candy canes beats last year’s framed, umm…”
“You still don’t want to know.”
“Do I want to know why your sudden fixation on candy canes?” Angela inquired.
“Seriously, Angela, who doesn’t love candy canes?”
“Everybody loves candy canes.”
“Exactly.”
“But I’m never going to eat all of them.”
“Then I,” Jack pulled a candy cane out of a clump of red roses, “Will help you.”
*****
“What are you two still doing here?” Tempe poked her head into the room.
“It’s not that late.” Angela said, shrugging.
“It’s after six on the day before Christmas holidays, and nearly everyone else was gone hours ago. It’s that late. And Hodgins, get your feet off the furniture.” Jack dropped his feet from the filing cabinet he’d had them propped on.
“Is she telling us to go home?” He asked Angela, though the question was palpably directed at Tempe.
“I think she is.”
“I am.”
“Candy cane?” Angela offered.
Tempe rolled her eyes. “No. Leave.”
“Why are you in such a rush to clear the lab out?” Angela looked at her best friend suspiciously.
“Ya, usually you don’t let us leave.” Jack added.
“You spent all of last Christmas in the lab, don’t you want to go home?”
“Sweetie, you can’t lie to me.” Angela said, smiling. “You’re meeting Booth somewhere, aren’t you?”
“Would you drop that, please? There’s nothing going on between Booth and me.”
“But you don’t deny that you’re meeting him?” Jack grinned conspiratorially.
Tempe rolled her eyes again. “Go home.”
****
“And they say chivalry is dead.” Angela said as Jack finished putting the bouquet in her back seat and closed the door.
“I’ve learned from experience that ‘they’ are almost always wrong, baby.”
“And that’s what I get for flirting with a conspiracy theorist.”
Jack moved so that Angela was practically pinned between him and her car. “So you admit it, you were flirting with me.”
“Practicing for this party I’m going to tonight. I’ll be drunk and a bunch of really hot, artsy boys will be there. I was just warming up.”
“You calling me target practice?”
Angela grinned coyly. “Maybe.”
“Should I be jealous of all these hot, artsy boys?”
“Maybe.”
“And are any of these artsy boys going to be kissing you?”
“More likely than not.”
“Any of them going to kiss you like this?” Jack asked, pressing a passionate, lingering kiss on Angela’s lips.
“Most definitely not.” She smiled, her dark eyes locked on his light ones.
“Good.” He lowered his lips to hers again.
Angela broke the lengthy kiss that followed. “I have to go.” She told him sadly.
“Do you have to?”
Angela laughed at his disappointed face. “Yes, I promised I’d be at the party on time.” She absent-mindedly traced shapes onto the polo-covered chest his jacket left exposed. “My friends will kill me if I show up late.”
“You artistic types are too sensitive.” Jack teased.
“Then I can’t have them mad at me, can I?”
“Your logistics are inarguable.”
“That’s because I’ve spent too much time with my science friends, and not enough with my art friends lately.” Angela explained, chuckling.
“Then I guess I have to let you go.”
“Yes.”
“Have fun at your party.”
“Don’t worry, I will.” Angela assured him.
“Merry Christmas, Angela.”
“You too, Jack. I’ll call you.”
“I’ll answer.” A brief kiss later, Jack was walking away.
“Wait,” He caught the object Angela threw at him, “Take a candy cane, for the road.”