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Come Back to Bed, Honey - TV Tropes

️Fri Jul 10 2009

When one partner has to go somewhere and the other wants more sex. Often used to show just how devoted a character is to the task at hand — they're refusing sex in order to get on with it — while their Satellite Love Interest only has one thing on their mind. That, or it just serves to suggest the character is that good in bed. Alternately, it can lead to Coitus Uninterruptus.

A common, more chaste use is when one character gets up in the middle of the night to contemplate something (common in mystery and Urban Fantasy stories) and their significant other wakes up and asks their beloved to come back to bed, so they can sleep.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

In Macross Plus, after Isamu and his co-worker/friend-with-benefits Lucy have had sex, Isamu is woken up by a call. He answers it but Lucy tells him to go back to be with her so he hangs up. The call was seemingly from his ex-girlfriend Myung, who has caught quite a Distress Ball and needs urgent help; Guld ends up saving her instead. However, the call was actually from Sharon, who was impersonating Myung (who herself was trapped in a fire). She was attempting to either bring Myung and Isamu together, instigate a fight between Isamu and Guld when they both showed up to save her, or kill Myung outright; Sharon was the one who overloaded a circuit and started the fire that put Myung in danger to begin with, then attempted to kill both Myung and Guld when Isamu didn't show up. To be fair to Isamu, he didn't recognize the voice anyways, since it was a robotic message that kept repeating; he simply thought it was a prank call.
Misa tries this with Light in Death Note but he tells her to get out of bed and "back to work".

Comic Books

In The Secret History of The Authority, Jenny Sparks is reminiscing about the fateful night where she saved Swift from the Nazis (and ruminating on how Bill Clinton is exactly like Adolf Hitler) when Swift comes down and tells her to come back to bed.
Gaston Lagaffe: The chaste version occurs several times with Meddlesome Patrolman Longtarin in response to his Catapult Nightmare about Gaston's misdeeds.

Fan Works

In Relax, the protagonist tries to get out of bed when his session with the prostitute expires. She lets him spend the night with her anyway.
The Spy X Family, NSFW doujin, "Spy x Sex" revolves around Yuri being jealous that his sister, Yor, is married to Loid, so he bugged their apartment to gather evidence that Loid is an abusive husband, and Yuri intends to use that evidence to have his brother-in-law arrested and executed. Loid is more concerned Yuri's trying to expose him as Twilight, but can't disable the microphones or he'll blow his cover as a foreign spy. To get Yuri off his back, Loid asks Yor to sleep with him, and uses a small portable jammer to block the microphones' signals, thinking Yuri would freak out, turn off his radio, and blame the disruption on equipment failure when he turned it back on. However, Yor gets scared and locks herself in her room, and when Loid goes to apologize for trying to pressure her into having sex, because a break up would ruin Operation Strix, she invites him into her bedroom while wearing sexy lingerie and explains that Camilla, a coworker, told her he would leave her for another woman if he feels sexually unsatisfied, and they make love for the first time. After he chastises himself for losing focus of the mission while in throes of passion, he swears he'll go back to being Twilight, but Yor calls Loid over so he can service her again. After their second session, Loid notices the jammer ran out of power, and Yuri is shown crying inconsolably after hearing his beloved older sister and her husband doing it, and the narrating text says Yuri couldn't report to work the next day. When Loid decides to call it an evening and go back to his room, Yor pins him down to the mattress, and it's heavily implied she made him keep going for the remainder of the night, since the narrating text stated he couldn't go to work the next day either.

Films — Animation

DC Showcase – Constantine: The House of Mystery. John Constantine jumps into bed with a Ready for Lovemaking Zatanna, only for her to turn out to be a succubus and Neck Snap him. He's in a Time Loop Trap so just comes back to life, only for her to attack him later while giving this line.
In The Incredibles, when Bob is heading to work (and after he's started working out again) his wife pulls him back once he's already out the door, using her elastic arms. This is presumably as close as a family film could get to hinting at Elastigirl "using her powers in the bedroom".

Films — Live-Action

Some of the earlier James Bond films.
- From Russia with Love: Bond's Post-Sex cuddling with Sylvia Trench is interrupted by a phone call from headquarters.
- In Thunderball, Bond manages to seduce the Ice Queen nurse at the health clinic, but right when she's getting worked up for another round thanks to being massaged by Bond's mink glove, he catches sight of something suspicious outside and leaves for some 'exercise'. Her response is an incredulous, "You must be joking!"
- The Spy Who Loved Me:
  M: Moneypenny, where's 007?
  Moneypenny: He's on a mission, sir. In Austria.
  M: Tell him to pull out. Immediately.
  [Bond receives message]
  Girl: What happened? Where are you going?
  Bond: Sorry. Something came up.
  Girl: But, James, I need you.
  Bond: So does England!
  - This is a subversion, as said girl is a KGB informant, who goes on to inform KGB assassins of Bond's position—location!
- Live and Let Die. Bond seduces the virginal Solitaire for information (citing Lesson No. 1: no secrets between lovers) only to find out she doesn't know much about what the Big Bad is up to on his Island Base. So Bond is determined to go look for himself and makes it clear that she's coming with him. "Togetherness is Lesson Number Two." Solitaire asks coyly if there's time for Lesson Number 3 before they go.
Implied in Rear Window, where a newlywed couple move into an apartment close to the protagonists. They close their blinds, and are not seen for a while. After a few days, the man is seen leaning out of the window, and his wife calls him back.
Frantic. Dr. Richard Walker pretends to do this to stop a pair of Mossad agents roughing up the French girl who's helping him (actually Walker had just sneaked in the bedroom window).
The Crazies (1973). Happens as a Mood Whiplash after the opening scene where a man burns his family to death. The two protagonists, a volunteer firefighter and a nurse, tease each other about ignoring the ringing phone and blaring fire siren.
Dr. Strangelove: General Turgidson is called to the War Room, leaving his girlfriend protesting - in keeping with the overall theme of the movie he tells her "You just start your countdown, and ol' Bucky'll be back before you can say 'BLAST OFF!'"
In a flashback to when he was Lord Marshall of the Necromongers, Riddick is shown drinking on his throne, ignoring the allure of four naked women in his bed. When we see the cold eyes of his Royal Harem, we understand why.
Happens in The Nutty Professor (1996), but with a twist. Buddy Love is implied to have had sex with at least one of the women with whom he had been partying the night before; when he turns back into Sherman Klump the next day, he has to get out of bed to tend to Carla Purdy. One of the floozies follows Sherman out of bed and asks where Buddy is, causing Carla to become suspicious that Sherman and Buddy are sharing women.
Star Trek Into Darkness. Jim Kirk is in bed with twin Cat Girls when his communicator rings. As he eagerly searches for it...
Catgirl 1: Jim, come on. (nuzzling him) Let it go.
Catgirl 2: You're not actually going to answer that, are you?
In Art of the Dead, the Lust-stricken Gina attempts to lure Dylan to bed, but he's too affected by Greed to pay attention to her.

Literature

A Song of Ice and Fire. The night before she has to make a marriage for political reasons, Queen Daenerys Targaryen takes handsome sellsword Daario Naharis. The next day he's in a sulk about her marriage, and when she jokingly orders him back to bed ("I am your Queen and I command you to fuck me") he just retorts that her aristocratic soon-to-be husband can do that, or maybe he'd just order one of his servants to do so.
A combination of the two uses occurs in The Bacta War, with Corran being called back to bed by Mirax while he's up late at night, worrying over what he's gotten them all into (at the end of the last novel, he resigned his commission because the politicos wouldn't let him go after the Big Bad, and the rest of the squadron followed).
- This also occurs near the start of I, Jedi, before Mirax gets kidnapped and Corran is wondering if he should accept Luke's offer to join the academy after all.

Live-Action TV

The Crown (2016). In "Misadventure", a young Queen Elizabeth wakes up to find Prince Philip doing calisthenics after an implied night of lovemaking, wonders where he gets the energy...and then invites him back into bed for another go. Then their courtiers enter with breakfast only to quickly depart when the Queen tells them to leave, giggling all the while. The scene sets a sad contrast with a previous flashforward set several months later when their marriage is under strain.
Parks and Recreation: After Mark seduces the Pawnee reporter Shawna Malwae-Tweep (who is writing a story on Leslie building a park), he tells her to come back to bed because "that park is never going to get built". Unfortunately for him, she quotes him on that in her story on the park.
In Smallville, Clark (actually Bizarro) to Lana in "Persona".
Monarch of the Glen
Justine: Did you sleep all right?
Archie: Eventually, thanks.
Justine: Missed you. Come back to bed.
Pennyworth. In "Silver Birch", Alfred says this to his pop star girlfriend Sandra Onslow, but she says "hair and makeup" will be arriving any moment. Sure enough a crowd of makeup artists and hairdressers burst into the room and start making her look beautiful for a photoshoot, leaving Alfie feeling like a Third Wheel until he makes a discreet departure.
The chaste version occurs in one of the flashback sequences in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Threshold". The participants are Teal'c and his then-pregnant wife Drey'auc.
Farscape. Inn a flashback, we see Aeryn's last sexual partner Velorek try and persuade her to come back to bed rather than going straight to her post.
The pilot of The Chronicle starts with Tucker (an out-of-work reporter) telling this to his girlfriend, as she's getting ready for work. Naturally, being already dressed and with her make-up on, she refuses but claims she really wants to.
In the Supernatural episode "What Is And What Should Never Be", Carmen Porter in the Wishverse asks Dean to come back to bed when she finds him in the living room.
Sisko tries this on Kassidy once in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Doesn't work, but he still has her pillow to hold.
Star Trek: Voyager. In "The Disease", by-the-book Ensign Kim is having an illicit relationship with an alien girl against Starfleet regulations. She wakes up to find him fretting about it, so gives this trope. When he says he's disobeying Captain Janeway's direct orders as well, she says That's an Order! and he complies (at least until he realises they should have both been at their posts several minutes ago).
The X-Files: Scully to Mulder in the episode "Plus One" in their motel room.

Music

John Mayer's "Come Back to Bed," which is a sad twist on the chaste variation. The singer has woken up to find the spot next to him in the bed empty with a tear-stained pillow. He doesn't know what he's done to upset her, but begs her to yell at him the next day because he can't sleep without her.
You can be mad in the morning
I'll take back what I said
Just don't leave me alone here
It's cold, baby
Come back to bed

Theatre

Hamilton: As Alexander is up frantically writing his last will and testament before the duel with Burr, Eliza tries to coax him back to bed in "Best of Wives, Best of Women". Failing to convince him, she ends the conversation with "Well, I'm going back to sleep."

Video Games

Duke Nukem 3D
Duke: My name's Duke Nukem! After a few days of R&R, I'll be ready for more action!
Woman: Aww, come back to bed, Duke! I'm ready for some action, nowww!
God of War. "Stay, Kratos. Just a bit longer."
Fahrenheit (AKA Indigo Prophecy) has Tyler do this to his girlfriend Sam. She's seducing him on their anniversary when the phone rings regarding the murder case he's working on. Annoyingly the game won't let you just stay with the hot girl and won't continue until you answer the phone and leave for work. Sam is understandably pissed.

Webcomics

In The Order of the Stick, Belkar Bitterleaf gets this when he seduces Jenny the Bardess.
Eerie Cuties: Faith interupts Tiffany's latest attempt to stake Layla, by mind-sexting her. It gets cut short when the other girl she's sleeping with calls her back to bed.
In El Goonish Shive, Grace is contacted, via a computer, by an Alternate Universe's version of her boyfriend Tedd. Grace mentions Elliot, who the alternate Tedd believes he has never met in his universe. This is when the alternate Elliot appears on screen, apparently female in that universe. She is in a nighty and asks Tedd if he doesn't want to make a better use of his father being out of town. Grace falls off her chair.
At the end of a stick figure arc in Sluggy Freelance, Torg tries to explain what just happened to Riff. Then the artist draws in a pair of underwear-clad girls telling Torg to come back to bed and he disavows the entire arc as a dream before complying.
An early Hark! A Vagrant comic depicted Charles Babbage tirelessly working on his Difference Machine while his wife Georgiana tries to get him into bed. The artist's comments inform the reader that despite what the comic shows, the pair had eight kids together, so Georgiana must've succeeded eventually.

Western Animation

Futurama: Fry hears this from his grandmother-to-be in "Roswell That Ends Well", and suddenly sees her as the old woman he knows from the future.
"Come back to bed, deary"
The Simpsons: Homer did this once and annoyed Marge greatly. She also gets annoyed when he's too busy (even reading to Lisa) to have sex with her.
- In one of the Halloween episodes, Maude Flanders comes out of Hell to say this to the Devil. Ned is NOT pleased!
King of the Hill: In one episode Hank finds some arrowheads on his property and goes to talk to John Redcorn about them. When Hank asks if they have any value, Redcorn very severely tells Hank that it's wrong to take something that belongs to another man...at which point Nancy Gribble's voice comes from inside the house, asking him to come back to bed. Blushing, Redcorn says "Well, food for thought" to Hank and goes back inside.