Isabel walked, using the long flashes to guide her into what looked like the middle of nowhere. When they had crossed over a dune, Isabel pointed in front of her, and Liz followed the point. She gasped, and Isabel followed suit when she saw what was in front of her.
"It's too far from the Ranch. Even though the ecosystem here will support it, I don't see how it could have gotten here," Liz breathed, barely.
"Are there any rivers that go from the Ranch to here?"
"When the Queen died, every one of the crystals died. It already did your job in you, so it was okay that it died in you."
"And how are you alive if you didn't have the crystals to bridge the differences?"
"I don't know."
"I don't get it," Booth said.
"It's the crystals that we found." Isabel looked at his questioning face. "The ones that bridge the distance between humans and aliens."
"Genetic differences," Liz clarified. "But it couldn't have survived. We killed all of it."
"Yeah, when we killed Grant."
"Isabel!" Isabel frowned and Liz began to approach the substance. "How could Alex have known this? He was reluctant to accept the fact that we were aliens. Well, the three of you."
"He might have rejected the idea because there was already proof." It was Brennan who spoke, looking oddly at the blue crystals, following Liz as she began her descent toward the odd structures.
"Bones, stay away from psychology," Booth advised, grabbing her around the waist as she began to fall.
"Good news, it's just a frozen lake!" Liz answered, studying the odd structures. "It formed this way underneath the sand, but then the sand moved. I have no idea why it's still standing. I'm not a geologist."
"Alien?" Isabel asked, admiring some of the more interesting ones.
"Maybe. It's definitely lake water. That Hodgins person; if we send him a picture, would he be able to identify the cause?"
"He'd probably also need a sample to confirm," Brennan answered, staring at the same stalk Liz was. "But we can't just take it."
"There aren't any trails near here, and we aren't anywhere near where people play." Liz looked at her, but when she realized she won, she broke off a bit of the stalk and stuck it in her pocket.
"That's illegal," Booth shouted.
"So shoot me," Liz walked right past him and left for the car. "Am I going back alone?" She looked at the other three expectantly before they finally followed along. She led them to the car, taking twenty minutes to get there, looking at her landmarks she established on the way there to get back. She got in as soon as Booth unlocked the doors and went for his phone, which was beeping angrily. She looked at the missed call, and immediately put it on speaker. Booth was angry at her until he heard the message over the phone.
"We have to do something," Liz said, passing Brennan the sample from the lake. "He sounds sick, and he promised you complete safety."
"It's probably just a cold."
"The last time we thought Michael had a cold, he nearly lost himself in his own mind," Isabel said nonchalantly.
"So, if he catches a cold, he'll most likely die?"
"Yeah, and we left the healing stones. It's not worth it to get them," Liz said, trying to breathe deeply.
"It's my brother's life," Isabel nearly screamed.
"It's my husband's life. I'm saying that we can't go back there because they could have figured out where our stuff is. We can't go back there; we don't know if they know that we are so close. And they were probably trained under Pierce."
"There's too much going on. We have our mothers in FBI custody, Max is sick, Booth is in trouble, and his son was almost tortured with a hot poker. We have too much to do before the FBI realizes that Booth is working with the most wanted," Isabel listed off, attempting to change the subject.
"Our priority is to protect Booth and his son. When we're done with that, if he follows through, our mothers will be released. And Michael can deal with Max. I'm fairly certain that Maria can be caring towards him when Michael isn't."
"Why aren't you worried about Max?"
"Because I can't right now! I need to worry about keeping them safe. I've kept all of you safe for ten years now, and it's time that I keep another safe for awhile. I just can't do everything at once. If you think it's necessary, why don't you go to Max and take care of him?"
"What?"
"I mean it; if you are so worried, why don't you go help him?"
"Because he's a thousand miles away and you're here, so…"
"You're going to stay to protect me because I'm so important to Max," Liz finished for her slowly, nodding with recognition. She took a deep breath before going back to her explanation, being careful to say it lightly. "We have to trust that they can take care of Max. We can't stop this because he's sick. Just keep him from dying; we've seen what happens to Michael.
"We'll check in on them tonight. I'm sure they'll understand why we stayed here if we tell Max first."
Isabel didn't say anything; she merely resumed her moody self. Liz sighed with sad understanding before buckling the seat belt and settling in to listen to Brennan's conversation with Hodgins.
"You took a sample! Isn't that illegal?"
"I didn't do it. Liz did. We're going to send it to you overnight. We're coming back tomorrow."
"Two days? I'll have everything I can."
"Hey, Brennan. How's it going?" Angela asked.
"Angela, it's not a pleasure call. I'll talk to you soon." She hung up the phone and looked out the front window.
"So, why are we leaving tomorrow?" Liz inquired, looking at Isabel, wondering how she could cheer her.
"We can't stay after doing that," Brennan answered.
"If you leave town right now, they might suspect you have something; that you're guilty of something. If you took any evidence from it, they'll know if you leave anything there."
"Then what do we do?"
"We just keep checking in with them but we don't have to go to the park. We can just stay at the hotel, doing whatever," Isabel answered, her top teeth pulling at her lip to hide her smile.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Booth demanded defensively.
"It means that we have a couple of days that we can spend doing absolutely nothing."
"Don't they have a list that can say whether we were there or not?"
"Yeah. We can just go to the station in a couple of days and tell them that we were studying the case in the hotel. Meantime, we can have fun, or, if you're concerned about it, we can go and play in the dunes."
"With what?"
"We can make sleds, remember?" Liz said. "But I really want to go swimming at the pool. Could we do that?"
"I'll go with you," Isabel offered, almost snapping at her.
"We'll stay in our room."
"Then it's a good idea for us to go downstairs," Liz whispered to Isabel, both nearly laughing too loud.
"They haven't called back yet. They might be out," Maria said, sitting down on the opposite side of the bed and shutting her phone. "How are you feeling?"
"Ice," he whispered painfully.
"Yeah." Maria rose, stowed the phone on the shelf, and went up to Michael. "Why won't Liz come to him?" She looked him in the eyes, but when he didn't say anything, she moved to get more ice. She bumped into Michael, who felt her sobs and pulled her into a hug, which she tried to wriggle out of. "I need to get ice for Max."
"Why are you doing all of this for him?" Michael asked, turning the water into ice.
"Because I know how much it would destroy Liz if he died, and I care for her. Plus, we don't want you to become king," Maria retorted, rather brashly.