Time for a little fluff, I think, before we settle down to real business with the case.

Thanks, as always, for the reviews.

Booth parked the car in front of the motel, and turned towards Bones. "Dinner?" he suggested.

"That's very kind of you to offer," she said demurely. "I'd love to have dinner with you."

He grinned. "The diner, I suppose." On impulse, Booth held his hand out to Brennan and they walked to the diner with their fingers laced together. Booth gave Brennan's hand a gentle squeeze before he finally let go, and was pleased to receive an answering squeeze.

Sally was still working there, and greeted them cheerfully again. Just as they were sitting down Brennan's phone rang. She looked at the display, then at Booth. "It's Goodman." She frowned as she answered it.

Booth sat waiting patiently as she talked to Dr. Goodman. She did not seem too happy about something, he noticed.

After a few minutes she hung up and looked at Booth. "I've got to go back," she said, frowning. "I've got a meeting with Goodman and a Dr. Callahan from Quebec tomorrow at ten, I'd forgotten about it. And Goodman says the team need my assistance with the second body."

Booth scowled. "When are you leaving?" He felt his heart sink. He didn't know what he had expected from tonight, but Brennan rushing back to DC definitely hadn't been on his list of possibilities.

"I really ought to travel back tonight," Brennan picked at the tablecloth, deep in thought. "Or I could get up really early tomorrow morning," she added thoughtfully. "I'd have to leave by about six, but I'd catch clear roads and I'd be better rested and ready to drive."

"Or not," Booth thought to himself. Out loud, he said, "That sounds a more sensible idea. We could set the alarm for five."

Brennan looked up at him sharply. "We?"

He froze, suddenly concerned. How the hell had that slipped out? Then he saw she was smiling suggestively at him, and relaxed. After all, she had been the one who suggested she could stay the night. He felt he was justified in feeling curious as to why...

"Well," he said, trying to save face. "You don't think I'll let you go without seeing you off, do you?"

They discussed the case quietly over dinner, then sat over drinks. Booth really didn't know what he expected to happen when they left the diner. He wasn't sure Brennan knew, either.

Eventually he stood up and stretched. "Well, you've had an easy time of it today, but I've done a lot of driving and my shoulders ache, and you've got an early start tomorrow. I'm going to head back to the motel. Coming?"

Brennan stood up. "That sounds a very good idea." When they reached Brennan's room Booth hesitated, but she nudged him with her shoulder. "I'll rub your back if you like."

"That's an offer I can't refuse," he joked, reaching for his key.

"Take your jacket off and lie down," Brennan ordered when they were in the room. Booth did as he was told, lying at full length in the middle of the bed, his arms stretched out sideways. Brennan sat beside him on the edge of the bed, using her fingertips to gently massage his back and shoulders. She pulled his tee shirt out of his pants and up towards his neck, so that she could reach his bare back. Although he felt stiff at first, unfamiliar with the touch of her fingers on his bare back and not sure what she was intending, he found himself sinking into the bed, relaxed and comfortable.

"Booth? Are you falling asleep on me?"

He turned over, laughing, and smiled up at her. "Not yet!" he answered with a grin. "I'm just enjoying the massage."

"Well, in that case – I can give a better massage if you take your tee shirt off."

"Hey, that's not fair! How come I have to strip and you don't?"

"If it makes you feel better I can remove my clothing too, but then you have to give me a massage."

Booth pretended to think for a moment. "That could be arranged," he said with a grin.

Booth was amazed at how comfortable he felt with Bones. He remembered back to the fight they'd been having when they'd first heard about this case, and decided it was time to get his own back. Soon he had Bones wriggling and writhing under his tickling fingers. And then she stopped giggling and kissed him instead...

The alarm went off loudly in Booth's ear. He flung out a hand, fumbled for the off button, then lay in bed, idly running his fingers up and down Brennan's hip. "I wish you didn't have to go," he complained, watching his fingers as they brushed her skin.

She lay on her side, propped up on her elbow, gazing at him. Her long hair fell down to one side, brushing the pillow. How come she looked so beautiful at such an early hour?

"You know I've got to," she said quietly.

He looked up at her. "I know."

"I don't want to go."

"I know."

"But I have to attend this meeting with Goodman. And the rest of the team really need me on this other body. I can't stay here just because I want to. I have a job to do, and I can do far more good back at the lab right now than by staying here."

"We both have a job to do." Booth sighed, and lay on his back, staring up at the greyish ceiling of the motel room. "I hate to admit it, but I need to stay here and concentrate on getting this bunch properly organised. Much as I'd like to go back to DC with you, I can't." It hurt; this thought that he would be parted from her. He knew that it wouldn't be for long, but still – he tensed his fists in frustration.

Brennan put up her hand and stroked his face. "It won't be for long." She echoed his thoughts. "And I think we both know that if we put our relationship before the case then we won't last long."

He nodded, knowing she was right.

Less than an hour later, they were both up and dressed. Brennan packed her bag into her car, and then turned back to him. "I'm going to miss you," she said softly to him, and kissed him again.

Booth tried his hardest to remain impassive, but somehow he just couldn't manage it. Why was it that he found it so hard to hide his feelings from this woman? Rebecca and Tessa, the two other women he'd any kind of serious relationship with lately, had both complained at how hard it was to know how he felt; Bones seemed to read him like a book. Now she placed her hand against his cheek, and he moved his face to kiss it gently.

"Drive safely," he murmured to her. She smiled.

"You catch the murderer, so you can come back," she ordered him.

"For you – anything."

"Not for me. For those kids."

He grimaced and nodded. Watching her get in her car and start the engine, he fought off the urge to run along beside her and wave a handkerchief or something equally sappy, and instead turned away to his car, planning to head into the office and see exactly what was going on with the search team. Logic suggested that with the boys dead for so long a day or two wouldn't make much difference to catching their killer, but his heart told him that he had to close this one fast and get back to the city and to his Bones.

A/N: have you gathered my opinion of phones yet? intrusive, annoying, and rarely bringing you news you want to hear.

Maybe I'd better try to redress that balance over the rest of the story :-)

As always, your reviews are very welcome. Was that too much? not enough? need more plot? need more fluff?