"Liz, are you sure about this?" Brennan asked, hovering in a far corner. Booth was talking animatedly with Camille about the events. She prayed that he wasn't talking about those poor kids; they did deserve their freedom if their exploits were true.
"I'm completely positive," Liz answered confidently. "Just do exactly what I told you to do, and you'll be fine."
"Did Max tell him what I'm doing?" Bones asked, turning away from the man.
"No. Only the three of us know, and anyone else in my family who doesn't care."
"It's a planned surprise?"
"Just do it!" Liz answered, pushing her into the open area.
Brennan forgot to breathe on her way over to Booth. He saw her coming, and immediately dropped his mouth; it was now his turn to lose his breath. She pulled on his lapel so that their lips could meet. She was desperate for more, but she remembered that Liz said to break it off and walk away, so she did just that, leaving Booth and Camille to look at her in wonder.
After a few moments, Liz walked into the lab and right past the pair. Booth suddenly had a thought, and he followed her into Brennan's office.
"So, you two are in cohorts to get me to admit to Brennan that I love her?" Booth accused severely. "Because guess what? I don't need my heart broken again."
"I've been talking to Temperance; she's in love with you, too," Liz answered calmly.
"You, out!"
"I'm going to stay because I'm in this, too. It's both of us."
"Then let her talk for herself," he seethed, glaring at the innocent-looking Liz.
"Seeley, sit down," Brennan chipped in quietly. Booth was so affronted that he listened to her and sat down next to Liz. "The rational thing to do here is to affirm our issues and concerns in turns and in a calm voice."
"That's a bit of psychology, Bones," Booth snapped, avoiding her.
"Do you want to go first?"
"Bones, I just can't take you denying me time and time again. I mean, I'm fine being partners, but don't leave me alone and hurt again. If you want a relationship, just let me know, but don't expect me to just break it off and go back to being partners again."
"And the rebuke," Liz narrated in a voice that was barely a whisper.
"I just don't want to lose what we have. I guess that I have the same fear: losing mere contact after this is over. Though anthropologically speaking, partners don't want to see each other again after something ends."
"Me, I'm just trying to fit into a world that thinks I'm a freak, and when I try to make something bigger than it is, I end up taking the blame for it. But when I'm so sure of myself, the people involved always get angry at me for no reason, even though that I can see something happen before it does and try to stop it," Liz answered, raising her voice and starting to stand up.
"Why can't you just help the human race in another country? This one belongs to me and what I believe should happen to the humans."
"And because you're a superhuman, you can do that. Booth, why can't you just trust me? I saved your son from getting skewered by a hot poker! What is keeping you from trusting us? Is it because you are so in love with your partner that you don't trust her with anyone that you don't trust?"
"Yes," he answered, standing up. "I love my partner. I'm going to do anything to keep her alive, even putting myself in front of a bullet, which I have done before. Yes, you've saved my son, but you also kept him captive."
"We kept him safe. We even delivered him to you ourselves. We're helping you with the investigation."
"After you failed to kill them."
"Oh, yeah, that'd be perfect. Just tell an FBI Special Agent that we recaptured his son and killed his captors. Oh, by the way, we're also on the FBI's Most Wanted List, and at the top."
"I would have thanked you because you kept my son safe!"
"That's not how it went, so no one knows what you would have done!" Liz snapped, thinking rationally, a trait she was picking up again with Brennan around.
Brennan stood up rapidly. "Both of you stop it! Liz is right; it would not have looked good if they had killed Parker's kidnappers. We need their help to solve this case and to stop them from taking your son again." Brennan sat back down, breathing deeply.
There were many minutes of silence, where someone needed to begin again with a sentence or an action, but were all thinking about their next move.
Booth stirred the silence monster. "So, what do we do now, Bones? You've put your tongue down my throat, so what's your next move?"
Brennan looked to Liz for advice, who merely shrugged and relaxed in her chair. She hesitated for a moment, searching for a way to make it romantic without the cliché. "You pick me up for dinner at eight, and we go out periodically. We will be a couple and still work on cases together."
"What about our time apart?" Booth asked.
Liz suppressed a fake gag and listened intently to the pair. They really were interesting.
"We keep in contact through letters and then we meet a different way than planned at our coffee cart…"
"…by the reflecting pool," they finished together, laughing.
"I want to be there," Liz cut in, trying to break off their stares.
Booth began to stand up and walk around to kiss her. "We don't need it, though, considering we're not going to get away from each other this time."
"But we set it…" Brennan said, accepting the kiss immediately. Liz couldn't look away due to the intensity of interest. Brennan stood up, moving her hands all across his neck. Liz knew this from all of her times alone with Max. She watched because she wanted to see what it looked like to Isabel when she needed Max for something.
Somehow they managed to sashay into opposite positions, and Liz couldn't see any space between their bodies.
But it was nothing compared to look the look of the two people who had just entered the room: one looking pink from embarrassment, one laughing quietly at the scene before her.
"So, she's a person that you just picked up off the street?" Angela asked, well aware of the fact that she was right there.
"Angela, she's right there and she does have feelings," Brennan answered tersely. She felt like she had been in every awkward position possible since walking into her office after kissing Booth. She was now in between a proud, skeptical Angela and a shy Liz. She was trying to convince Angela that the woman was okay, and she was trying to make sure that Liz kept from crying.
"What? I come back from Paris and find out that you already replaced me?"
"I called you back to do a sketch for a set of bones. They are connected with the kidnapping of Booth's son."
"Your boyfriend or boytoy?"
"Angela!" Brennan exclaimed exasperatedly. "I didn't say anything when you decided to date Hodgins. Why are you like this?"
"Because I've been trying to get you to realize that you love Booth, and you never would. But when this girl comes along, you automatically go with whatever she says and you just go ahead and do whatever I want."
"Typically someone who is completely on the outside can see more clearly because they don't have any feelings on the matter of their own."
"So, you'll take the advice of a random person on the street, but not your own best friend?"
"Angela, she saved Booth's son. Liz and her family are helping us solve the murder and put this guy away for a long time." When Angela got up to leave, Brennan stopped her. "Angela, just because I'm trusting someone else while you are in France doesn't change the fact that you are my best friend."
"Yeah, but taking her advice behind my back…"
"Fine, what do you want me to do next? Do you not want me to go out with him tonight, deny me a right to be happy for the first time in a long time?"
"No."
"Then what's your problem, Angela?"
"It's just that I'm happy for you, and I'm just trying to adapt to it," she added sadly, leaving. But she remembered something and came back to say, "I'll get that face done for you."
"So that's your best friend?" Liz asked, turning back to Brennan.
"Yeah. She can be a bit eccentric, though."
"Best friends always are. Maria just blows things way out of proportion and she's always changing her mind."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, one minute she's sleeping with Michael, the next she won't even talk to him. I mean, it's honestly so difficult to deal with her sometimes because you have to keep up with what's she doing at times."
"Angela's just so…"
"She brings you down to Earth. Maria was the one who wanted me to get away from Max because I was falling in love with him and I shouldn't have at that point."
"Dr. Brennan, I need you to look at this," a man with curly hair said upon opening the door loudly. "After you looked at the body, I began to take dirt samples and bug samples. He stopped at a work station and began to work the computer. "I found a cockroach head and evidence of scorpion venom in the bone."
"How does that happen?" Liz asked.
"If you use the same syringe they use to collect bone marrow, you can put almost any liquid in the bone," Brennan answer.
"I also found traces of gypsum."
"Which means?"
"They were buried at White Sands in New Mexico."
"We'd have to go through Roswell to get there. We can't exactly go there again," Liz responded. "Besides, I'm not leaving my family. It's all of us or none of us."
"Liz, we're going back to my office now," Brennan answered, leading the way. "Thanks, Hodgins." She led her into the office and began when the door was fully closed. "Liz, you need to go, but the FBI will get concerned about the four extra tickets it'll take to get all of you there. They'll wonder why we drove instead…"
"And they'll wonder why four went instead of two," Liz interrupted. "We can't go."
"But we need to you to. I want you to go to help me. I want Booth safe!" Brennan insisted.
"He has a gun. Temperance, we cannot go along without endangering ourselves. We're from Roswell, and we'll have to go through it to get to White Sands. If anyone from Roswell recognizes me and reports me to the wrong people, it's all over."
"What about that friend you have? Can't you call him and tell him that you're coming?"
Liz breathed deeply to think before picking up the phone and dialing. She set it to speakerphone and waited from him to answer. "Mr. Valenti, I need you to know something."
"Liz, if this is about your whereabouts, I don't want to know."
"Would you want to know if we were going to pass through Roswell again?"
"Liz, you shouldn't do that. You don't know what agents could be there."
"Oh. We'll be traveling with one," she answered slowly.
"If I have to stop you on the way, I will. This is too dangerous."
"We can protect ourselves. Do you want us to stop by and show you that we are safe right now? I'm sorry we won't be able to bring Kyle."
"It's not a good idea for you to bring him anyway. I might not be able to say goodbye again."
"We won't bring him. It'll probably be me and Isabel. Do you want us to stop by, ascertain that we are still okay?"
"Don't. I can't sneak you in, and Hansen will recognize you. It's best for you to simply go through Roswell without stopping."
"Okay." She hung up the phone abruptly. When Brennan gave her a weird look, Liz answered, "It's best for us all to have the least amount of time on the phone and if we get the business done and end it because of how hard it is to let go of something that's been a friend to you and protected you from the FBI."
"I suppose it is. So, are you and Isabel are going with us?"
"Yeah. Fly into Albuquerque, drive the three hours to Roswell."
"Actually, I think it would be best to mask just the two of you if we drive. Considering it's just the two of you."
"Yeah. I know. I'll have Max stay here with Parker and the other four to protect them."
"Quick mind-change!"
"We don't have a choice. Isabel, we're taking a trip!"
"Paris? Madrid? London?"
"White Sands, New Mexico."
"Seriously. We can't go anywhere near civilization?"
"I thought you loved Roswell!"
"I loved my home and my family and my friends. But they're all here now, and I just want to be with them. But I didn't miss the heat, and we're going even more south than we were."
"Yeah. I'm not too happy about it either."
"What's wrong?" Booth asked, sticking his head in.
"We're going to White Sands en route, Roswell, New Mexico."
Booth began to stare blankly before it slowly began to dawn on him. "You've got to be kidding."
"Yeah." Liz smiled weirdly before adding, "Isabel, why don't we go help Angela with the facial recognition?"
"What? Oh, sure." Isabel smiled stupidly before following her sister out.
"Still on for eight?"
"Nope. We have to pack for New Mexico. But when we get there, if we have time, we can have some fun time. I promise." She smiled, tapping the folders to straighten them and sitting them down on the table. She left curtly with a huge grin on her face.