"Did you take any notes?" Booth asked, rubbing her spine with three fingers.

"Yes."

"What'd you come up with?"

"I can understand why so many women have slept with you," she answered.

"And why is that?"

"Because what you lack in subtlety, you make up for in the bedroom."

"Is that another way of saying that you had a good time last night?"

She smiled, so he continued. "Would you do it again?"

"Definitely not."

"Why not?"

"Because it'll create an unprofessional atmosphere," she answered, donning her reasoning face.

"But being together will create an unprofessional atmosphere."

"And we've already committed to that, so I guess that we've thrown that out the window. It won't matter if we sleep together twenty times or once; we'll still have all of that tension and we'll know that we would always be tempted to do it again."

"So, what are we going to do?"

"We are going to keep sleeping together. It's a real relationship, and all of mine have involved sex." She paused and realized that his hand had frozen on her back. "Still makes you uncomfortable?" He stuttered for words, and she kissed him. "But the actual act of doing it is okay, right?"

"Do you want to take notes on that one if we do it again?"

"Yeah. But I don't think we have time right now." But when she waited a few moments for the phone to ring and it didn't, she turned back to him and said, "Breakfast."

"We can't do room service, though."

"And I'm the one who can pay the extra money for the room service," she answered. She reached across him for the phone. She dialed for the front desk and asked for double toast, eggs, and juice, gave the room number, and turned back to her partner. "It's too late to not do it. But the problem is that one of us is going to have to get up, and neither one of us is going to want to do that. But, I'll be the rational one and get it because it should end at some point."

"What should?"

"The banter."

"Right."

"Liz, we should go get breakfast now. We can't wait around for those two."

"Did you know that they were…?"

"Please. I couldn't sleep over their noise. Are you ready to go?"

"Yep. I didn't get to sleep until they did. Did you?"

"Nope. I'm glad that I'm on the other side of Michael and Maria's room. I don't hear them."

"Yes, you are a lucky one," Liz answered, pulling the door closed behind her.

"Sorry. Forgot."

"It's alright. Max and I do get some time to talk then because we can't sleep. And it's only when they have something really good to share."

"And you do you and Max ever…?"

"Rarely. We don't really want to have another person among us. Remember, Max is the king who makes all the decisions."

"So you're finally realizing he has flaws?"

"Sometimes he can be a little overprotective. Sometimes, I'll ask him not to do something and he will do it when I'm not there. Like, I'll ask him not to eat a cookie, and he will. He did sleep with the enemy and procreate with her." She held the elevator doors for Isabel before following suit. "He doesn't always get the door or my chair. Often, he'll completely ignore me to help another woman. He has tried to leave the planet without me several times. Honestly, sometimes the only reason why I stay with him is because I know that he'll keep his promises, and he made a promise to love me forever, which he has stuck to.

"All in all, Isabel, he's flawed, but I still love him a lot." The elevator dinged, and she got out. Isabel laughed a little as she walked out behind her. They moved to evade the kitchen door, but they heard, "…goes to room 323," before dodging the room service person and looking at each other. They went back into the lobby for the express breakfast and began to eat.

"So, how do you want to torture them next?" Isabel asked, stuffing some bagel into her mouth.

"How about insisting about the details of last night?"

"Embarrassing yet entertaining for the ride there; I like it! But we have to carefully get them into the conversation."

"I think we can do that." Liz looked off into the distance because she didn't want to face the prospect of lack of conversation.

"How did you do it? Put the two of them together."

"I wasn't sure about taking a chance with Max, but I decided that I couldn't stand to be away from him."

"And you don't suppose I don't know?"

"Well, we're both rational thinkers, so I used that fact to say that I was happy in a serious relationship."

"You mean, the very same Max who broke your heart and slept with the enemy?"

"We've already admitted that he has flaws."

"Oh, so marriage has been good to you?"

Liz laughed and finished her breakfast. She went to get some coffee while waiting for Isabel to finish. But when she hadn't finished by the time she was back, she got another cup for Isabel, who had finished, and they went back up to their room. "So, what do we do now? I mean, we have to wait for the two of them to finish, and we don't know how long that'll take."

Isabel hardly thought before picking up the phone and finding out how to dial the room. When she did, she gave herself a Welsh accent by moving her hand over her throat. She waited a while for an answer, rolling her eyes for Liz's entertainment. "Wotcher, I'm from the Alamogordo Police. You've missed your appointment."

"A Welsh policewoman in the States?" Booth asked, laughing at something in the room, and Isabel could figure it out.

"I can stand the heat; something that helps in this part of the country. Anyway, we'd be very honored if you'd come in soon."

"Right. We'll do that," he answered, and he immediately hung up the phone.

"I think it worked," Isabel confirmed, sipping her coffee.

"Before they come, it's probably a good idea to change your voice," Liz advised, putting a way a few things to allow maid service to come.

"Right." She moved her hand over her throat and was clear of the accent.

"Why are we having fun playing pranks on them?" Liz asked, finished straightening her things.

"Because we hardly get human interaction, so we are using this new-found ability to have some fun that we never get."

"Yeah," Liz answered.

"Do we have to get out of here?" Booth asked, trying to hold her back from getting up.

"We are here for a job. Let's get it done and then I'll take you some place."

"Isn't that my job?"

"No; you are an FBI agent. You are supposed to investigate cases that are murderous spread across states or federal crimes."

"And what about the male part of me?"

"You already protect me."

"So then I'm not allowed to dote on you?"

"I really don't need anything."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Keep protecting me, but mostly just love me."

"I could hardly consider you a romantic. Didn't you want to stop the banter?"

"Fine." She stood up and put on a robe at the knocking of the door. She received the food from the smile-containing waiter, feeling her face turning to hot rubies. She took the tray and indicated he could take the cart, which he did with an odd face. She walked back to the bed and placed the tray on Booth's lap before going around to sit down next to him. Just as she put the sheets over her, she decided to take off her robe, so she stood up and took it, letting it fall to the floor before getting back in and eating her food.

"That didn't imply no talking, did it?"

"What do you want to talk about?" She looked at him, looking at his food on the tray, and buttered her toast. He stayed silent in thought. "See, Booth, I think the only way that we can talk is if we are arguing with each other over something or are teaming up to make fun of Sweets. So, we can't really converse about certain things without making fun of the other person."

"So, you want to stop the banter, but you've accepted that's only the way to talk about something other than work?"

"Yes," she answered, finally taking a bite of her toast. "Well, when we are in a stressful situation, we often confide in each other in a serious manner."

"So, if we can't talk to each other seriously without a bad situation or in an argumentative manner, which you don't want, we either have to teach each other how to have a normal conversation in a normal situation without the jokes."

"Unless that is the sole reason of why we converse in a normal manner."

"But the thing is that we can never have a normal conversation or even a normal date because you speak as though you're from a different planet, and you hardly watch any of the classic movies that I watch. So, we can't have a normal relationship that way."

"Most relationships have certain idiosyncrasies about them that contradict the term 'normal relationship.' And why are you trying to imply that I am the one that is quirky in this relationship?"

"That's because I don't spend my vacations in Guatemala studying bones instead of on a beach admiring the lifeguard men."

"You mean women." When he gave her an odd look, she added, "You're a male, and you've shown in more ways than one that you prefer women. So, if you went to the beach to look at lifeguards, it would be women. Though, generally, the female mate would object to the intention."

"But you would understand that it was normal to feel that way, even though you had dedicated yourself to another person."

"We're talking about you. And I would feel jealous if you started looking at other women, considering our history."

"Which means what?"

"It means that because we put off being together so long that it created sort of a rift between us. That now we are sexually involved, it has caused us to want to protect our relationship. We won't want the other to feel jealous because it will destroy the relationship, and we don't want to be separated at all."

"Right," Booth said through his last bite of eggs. "Can you take the tray from me so that I can get dressed?"

She angrily took the tray from him and began to eat the rest of her breakfast, looking off in the other direction in thought. When she finished, she set the tray down and began to get dressed. But by the time she was done, he was still having trouble with his tie, so she went up to him and began to help him with it. She didn't notice he was looking at her until she looked up at him. "What?"

"It's still so surreal to me." She smiled in wonder before she hung onto his tie for a moment. "What are you doing?" She snapped out of it with a sharp intake of breath before grabbing her things and leaving.

"Isabel, why did you have to make so much noise last night?" Liz asked when they were on the highway.

"I was sleeping. I thought that it was you making a lot of noise last night. But I figured you couldn't because you didn't have your phone on last night."

"I told you that we only do it on special occasions. Even less often than our birthdays," Liz retaliated, acting perfectly. "It must have been the neighbors." Liz looked out the front window to guide them if necessary on their way to the station, giving her a nice view of the two red faces in the front. She put her hand on the seat and made it glow red, subsequently hearing Isabel's quiet snort.

"Liz, I know how to get to the station," Booth said, annoyed.

"Just checking. So, do you two normally share a room when you're on travel?" She settled back into her seat.

"We never even share a hotel. He doesn't want to go over his per diem," Brennan answered, and Liz could detect the playful tone of someone who was making fun of their significant other.

"Right. As I recall, you had a room with one bed in it, right?" Isabel prodded, both of the girls trying to manipulate them into saying.

"We slept together," Brennan answered. "I don't really understand manipulation to get people to say something. They can just ask for it. I don't understand why they would lie back, either," Brennan reasoned, literally scratching her head.

Liz decided to change her tactic. "Your reasoning. I mean, I can't understand why people would do something that they shouldn't do."

"Like you getting together with Max?" Isabel offered.

"That was a good thing because I would never have saved your butts so many times," Liz bit back. "You see, it was Max's love for me is why he saved me and the reason why I was able to protect you from the duplicates and the FBI. Or would you rather be dead on Antar with Tess getting tortured because she produced a human child."

"That's great. Just the time to tell us that there are more of them."

"Were you not listening in your office? Because Liz and I both explained the seriousness of the situation. They are more alien than human, so they are far more likely to do something to humans, especially when provoked."

"How so?"

"Rath, Michael's twin, killed Zan, Max's twin, so that he could be king. But he needed us to find the Granolith because it was in our possession. And then he would have gone back home."

"We should have done it; he would have been killed in our place, and Kivar wouldn't have tried to ruin your honeymoon."

"Yeah, but Lonnie would have been seduced. I was the only one who could have defeated him, and that was because I was in love with Jesse."

"What about if it had been Alex?"

"Liz!" Isabel screeched, suddenly crying.

"He was my best friend. I took me five years to even be able to say his name. Why aren't you over him by now? Besides, you had only been dating for a couple of days."

"But I still loved him."

"I thought Jesse was your soul-mate. Which is it?"

"Does it matter? One's in Boston and one's dead. I can't see either one of them again. God, Liz, do you even feel anything?"

"The one that was dead was my best friend. All I have left is Maria to keep me grounded from this whole alien thing."

"You had your choice to get out of it!"

"Really? When I was crackling green?"

"We're here!" Booth yelled, looking back at both girls. "Isabel, you get on your mask and come in with me. I am not leaving the two of you in here together. Brennan, let's go." He got out swearing before having to pull a fuming Isabel out of the car and making her put on the mask. He led her in, nearly pushing her the entire way.