From: dfalk123@home.com Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 01:09:10 -0500 Subject: Dances with Memory by Trinity Source: direct Title: Dances with Memory Spoilers: None, but come on you guys! If you don't watch the episodes, what are you doing here! Category: MSR, Humor, Scully/other romance. Summary: Scully reminisces, and mulder mopes. Happy ending! Disclaimer: AS IF! If they were mine I'd have way more fun! Author:Trinity Feed me at: mrs_mulder1121@yahoo.com She could feel her accelerating heartbeat resonate through her body, her mind at full alert. Her intellect screamed at her through the darkness that running ahead without backup was stupid. More than stupid, it was like HIM, and she was smarter than tha t. She was the one who always saved him. Her mind continued its diatribe of emotion while her instincts sought signs of danger in her surroundings. Her minds ramblings broke through again, chastising her current situation. He doesn't even know where you are. NO ONE knows! She was so preoccupied with her inner turmoil, that she didn't notice the approaching danger until it was too late. "Relax Red, you're off duty now." Before she could react, she felt a sharp pain in her thigh, followed by darkness. 1 week earlier It was Monday morning, and Agent Dana Scully was making her way down to the basement, mentally preparing herself for whatever case had caught her partner's eye. Monday's always seemed exhuberant to him, she suspected because he had missed the work. No, he ate, breathed and slept the work. It was perhaps more to the truth that he missed her. Missed his only human contact. Passing different offices as she neared her destination, she noticed how easy it was for some people just to socialize. Small talk . Her mind nostalgically reminisced back to another time, a time in college when her biggest worry was her MCAT. Before aliens and mothmen had monopolized her dinner conversation. She smiled ruefully. After all her loses, who knows if she could even a ttempt a conversation, other than with mulder. She had grown dependant on their telepathy. Reaching the door, she felt the comfortable familiarity of knowing that he would be sitting there at his desk, patiently but eagerly awaiting her arrival. "Scully, how was you're weekend?" Mulder asked, looking up from the file in front of him. "Good. What are you working on?" Mulder shrugged, indicating he'd recieved an interesting file but hadn't yet formed a theory that would be worthy of their usual belief VS science tango. Either that, or he had nothing and he was so bored he was pretending to be busy so as not to evoke h er pity. Scully let a small smile escape her lips, but didn't press. Sometimes it was comical to watch him think. She sat at her desk and opened a file that was due on Skinner's desk ASAP. She had to figure out how to claim yet another rental car from their las t case. Pretty soon, they'll get off a plane and be given rental bicycles. They most of the morning in working silence, the only sound being Mulder's incessant cracking of his sunflower seeds. A few times he attempted to draw her out with such conversational topics as: Crop circles in the Shine Circus, and a pencil throwing co ntest. Trust Mulder to pass on the expense reports time after time, and then insist on constantly distracting her. She was so focused on her report, she didn't hear the knock on the office door. "Is there a doctor in the house?" She looked up, and she almost felt her heart stop. "Grant? Grant Richards?!" She quickly rose to embrace her old friend, files and expense report forgotten. "When did you get in?" "Well," said Grant, running a hand carelessly through his blond hair and dazzling her with a bright smile, "I flew in 2 days ago on business so I thought I'd visit my favorite redhead." He was rewarded by a small blush from Scully. Mulder, whom she'd completely forgotten, made a very deliberate point of clearing his throat. Scully looked over at him, and silently swore at herself for her immaturity. She had made an emotional display infront of Mulder, and now he was hurt and threatened. How she wished he could understand that she was his partner, and always would be. Well , today she didn't have the patience to reassure or calm his insecurities. "Mulder, this is Grant Richards, a friend from college. Grant, this is my partner, Fox Mulder." Mulder rose from his desk and shook Grant's hand. There was a silent exchange that lasted only a second. -Whoever you are, she's mine. -I knew her before you did. "So, you and Scully went to college together?" Grant just laughed. "Yes, Dr. Dana and I go WAY back," he turned to her before continuing,"She's the only woman I know who can break a man's heart, and then cut it out of his chest." Scully rolled her eyes. He always did have a flair for dramatic. "How long are you in for?" "A week," he replied, "Hey, why don't I take the two most unappreciated agents in the FBI out for lunch? My treat." She was about to refuse, citing the mounds of paperwork on her desk, when Mulder piped up. "Actually, there's lots of paperwork to be had, but I can do it. Go right ahead without me." Scully becan to protest, but Mulder raised a silencing hand. "You two should have a good walk down memory lane. I don't know the way." Grant needed no further encouragement. Before she knew it, he had whisked her out of the office and down to her favorite chinese restaurant. * * * Mulder sat at his desk, staring at the pile of seed shells discarded in his waste basket. What just happened? Maybe he should have pretended he had an x-file infront of him instead of meaningless papers and chartered a plane for the two of them to anywhere but here where 'mr suave' could come looking. He sighed. The syndicate was having a slow week. Maybe they caught spring fever and are too busy to have their alien pow-wow's. He felt guilty for the look on her face when she left. -I don't have to go? -really, I'm 'fine'. Involuntarily, he let a snort out at this thought. Fine... Boy, they were really switching roles. She gets to ditch, and I'm saying I'm 'Fine". "Now I know how she felt." Sighing again, he decided to get back to the expense reports on Scully's desk. After all, its only a week, he commisserated. * * * The week flew by for Scully. Every day Grant would come to visit, citing one excuse or another to take her out to various sights. MUlder took it very well, picking up the slack every time, but she was beginning to get suspicious. There was probably a p ayback involved, and she was sure it would be a case about swamp monsters first thing monday morning. She had to remember to find one of her dark suits to wear. The one that didn't stain that easily. On one of his visits, Grant decided to try to pull Mulder out of his 'shell' for a discourse on why aliens will someday take over the world. It's too bad today is Friday, she thought. It's all ended too soon! "So, agent Mulder," Grant began casually, waiting for Scully to pack up her desk for the weekend, "did you know that if it wasn't for me, Doctor Dana her wouldn't have even thought of the FBI." Mulder's eyebrows shot up in what Scully recognized as more interest than he was actually letting on. "You betcha," Grant continued, giving Mulder his casual "You owe me" look, "I was telling her that my dormmate at the time was leaving that year for the FBI, and how they got all the cool parking spaces." Scully playfully swatted him on the arm. "I'd almost forgotten! What was his name?" Grant's eyes unfocused, as if trying to recall, and then shrugged. "Dunno. I guess that's why I'm in sales and marketing." Mulder shrugged into his jacket and joined them at her desk. "So, where are you crazy kids going to tonight?" Grant's smile was a thousand watt. "Seeing as how I must leave tomorrow morning, it will be a surprise." * * * Mulder sat in a chair in his appartment staring at his fish. The aquatic tank was the only source of illumination in the appartment. Grant's sneer was replaying in his mind. "She's a grown woman," he chastised his thoughts, " and she's coming back to you Monday morning." Suddenly, a weekend felt like an eternity. The fish just kept swimming, oblivious to their owner's turmoil. "What are you looking at?" he accused his fish. They made no answer. * * * "And that's when I told him, ' yes, but if you follow my advice, you can hire extra help and maybe let the lithium you must be on take effect!" Scully chuckled at Grant's story. "It's too bad you didn't finish med school. You would have been a great doctor." Grant grinned, and picked off a pepper from his shishkabob skewer. "follow the money, Dana," he waxed philosophical, "not all of us can have parents who care." Scully looked down at her plate, silently chastising herself for touching the only raw nerve her old friend had. When she looked up again, she saw a look she remembered all too well. "Come with me, Dana." There it was. She sighed. "Grant, its been wonderful, this week, but my answer is still no." "Is it him?" Grant questioned, abruptly forgetting his dinner. "Grant, It's always been me. I just don't feel that with my line of work, there would be any room for-" "Dana," he interrupted, exasperated,"He thinks your first name is agent!" It was beginning to become clear to her the meaning of the dinner, and also increasingly clear that the alcohol he was consuming was beginning to affect him. Grant was becoming so agitated, the other patrons were beginning to look over. Scully placed her napkin on her half eaten plate, suddenly feeling an imense need to see something familiar, someone familiar. Mulder. "Grant, thank you for the dinner, and the wonderful week. Next time you're in DC, we should have lunch." With that, she left. She didn't even give him a chance to react. She had hailed a cab, and headed back to home. Maybe she'd phone Mulder from home. Even the answering machine voice would be a comfort. * * * She paid her cab and it left before she had realized her mistake. Her thoughts had been so preoccupied with Mulder, she must have told the driver his address by mistake. Why was her head feeling so foggy? Didn't she only have one glass of wine? Well, she thought, I guess I'll see him tonight after all. She got to the door and was going to use her key, but thought better of it and decided to knock. "It's open, but fair warning, no one's in here but the FBI's most unwanted." She smirked. He knew it was her. How could he know? She entered and closed the door behind her. It took her eyes a minute to adjust to the darkness, but when she could finally see, she had to clamp her hand over her mouth to stop the laughter from escaping. Mulder was straddling a chair directly in front of his fish tank and was in such concentration it appeared that he was having a telepathic war. "How's Grant? He turn into a pumpkin already?" She was halfway in the process of removing her coat, and the bile in his voice made her stagger as though she'd been hit. "I left him at the restaurant." She answered, quickly recovering. As she approached, he finally turned to see her. His eyes slightly widened as he took her in, and she realized she was in a dress. Sapphire blue sheer, to be exact. She wished she would have remembered to change before coming, but she didn't even remem ber how she arrived here. She was sure she'd given her own address to the cab driver. "It's a little dark in here Mulder, can we turn on some lights?" she asked, her voice suddenly sounding uncertain. Wordlessly, keeping eye contact, he rose from his seat and approached. She felt her heart start to quicken. 'What is he doing?' her mind screamed, but her heart already knew. He stopped when he was just an inch from her face. She remembered she was wearing heels, so this almost put them on level ground. His left arm reached out nimbly grazing her hip and continued to reach beyond her body. In an instant the room was flooded with brilliant light. "Lights are on," he breathed into her ear. She felt her whole body shiver. So close. Too close. * * * I'm standing almost against her now. My Scully. I can't believe how beautiful she looks. I was set for a weekend of sulking, but here she was. This meant that her 'evening' was most definately cut short. My hand is still clasping the lamp switch, my arm gently threaded under her arm. Is it my imagination, or did I just feel her shiver? Slowly, I release the chain, and my hand nestles itself against the small of her back, as if having a will of its own. * * * 'Oh, God,' her mind raced, 'why did he have to do that?' She could feel the pressure of his palm against her silk dress creating an explosion of heat on her body. When her eyes shut, she didn't even notice him leaning in to whisper, "may I have this dance?" Her eyes fluttered open to see his face inches from her own, and the deafening silence was replaced with the soft strains of Jazz. She realized that when he leaned in towards her, he turned on the sterio behind her. She responded to his question by relaxing in his arms, and allowing him to lead. She rested her head against his chest, content to feel happy and safe. If only life could be this easy. End of Part one ____________________________________________________________ Part 2 Consciousness came slowly to Scully. Awakening, she found she was lying on a bed. And she was not alone. 'Clothes,' her mind screamed,'am I dressed?' Upon inspection she realized she was still wearing the sheer dress she had arrived in last night, and a man's arm was draped possesively around her waist. Slowly, she peered over her shoulder. Mulder. So sweet and peaceful. Her sleep-addled brain began to reconstruct the events of the evening. The restaurant with Grant, going to Mulder, Dancing. She must have passed out from sheer exhaustion. He probably carried her to bed. His bed. Her body began tingling even thinking about it. She tried not to move anymore than she already had, hoping not to break the spell by waking Mulder. * * * When she awoke, it took all the effort he could muster to keep his breathing slow and to appear as if he was sleeping. She felt as though she was trying to piece together what had led them here. But he still had his hand pressed firmly against her sto mach. Eventually, she relaxed into him, and her breathing became more even. She wasn't sleeping, so he stole a look at her. She was facing away from him, and he could tell she was thinking. Closing his eyes again, he let himself drift off in the sleep of paradise. * * * Scully basked in his embrace until morning broke, lifting the spell. Gently, she extricated herself from Mulder's sleeping form, and crept off into the bathroom. She hung her dress up as she showered, hoping the steam would erase the night's transgressi ons. Emerging refreshed from her shower, she decided that it would be too tacky to leave his appt on a Saturday morning in a wrinkled evening dress. So, clad in a towel, and moving carefully, she found a pair of blue jeans(with a belt of course), and a white dress shirt. She inhaled the shirt deeply, imagining his body in it as she buttoned it up. 'stop it,' she chastized herself,'just get home and start putting some distance between you and these dangerous thoughts.' * * * Mulder felt her awaken in his embrace. It took all the effort he had to again appear asleep. By her movements, he surmised she was trying desperately to rise without waking him. He felt the least he could do was give her the morning. He shifted his we ight, still feigning sleep, and she stealthily rose. He didn't have much difficulty pretending he was still sleeping. She crept away so carefully, the only evidence he had of her absence was the sudden lack of warmth. It was as if the distance he had o ften felt from her had suddenly manifest, and the frost that came with it. He then heard running water. She was showering. Taking a deep breath, he let the warmth of that thought lull him back to sleep. * * * Dana Scully's Appartment 8:27am Scully let herself in quickly, willing her neighbours to be sleeping in this morning. The last thing she needed was them getting a glimpse of her in men's clothing and high heels. She smiled to herself. If that wasn't an x-file, she didn't know what was! Once inside, she leaned against the door and let go of the breath she didn't know she was holding. The blinds were all closed, and it took her eyes a while to adjust to the darkness. Warning bells went off in her head. She never closed all the blinds! Groping for her gun, she flicked the safety off with practiced precision, and performed a task that was all to familiar to her. Searching for the evil within. Unfortunately, it was too late for her, and her mind screamed its protest as a shadow swiftly moved from behind her and chemically invaded her body. She felt the sharp needle penetrate the coarse fabric of her borrowed clothes, and almost immediately los t all muscle tension. MULDER! she felt her mind scream. It was too late. As she collapsed into the waiting embrace of the darkness, she felt a raspy voice breathe fire in her ear, "Relax Red, You're off duty now." * * * When she came to, she became aware of the sharp pain in her leg. Her mind tried for the second time that day to rewind the events of the past few hours. The needle, her mind leapt the facts to her consciousness. Residual tenderness from tissue penetrat ion. Looking around at her surroundings, she realized she was still dressed in mulder's clothes. She was in a small room with only one visible exit, and no apparent windows. There were wall to wall boxes, so there was no telling where they were or what was on the other side of them. Scully turned over to her other side, and noticed a figure sitting on a chair. She flinched, immediately suspecting it was her captor, but then realized the shape of the man was familiar. MULDER! Gingerly standing, she approached the unconscious and bound mulder. "Mulder!" she urgently whispered, desperately searching for signs of trauma or serious injury. He was dressed in his jogging outfit. Had they caught him on the street? In the dim light of the room, she began to search for a way to free him . The rope was thick, but she found a piece of glass in one of the boxes and began sawing the ropes. "Hey, I never knew you liked it rough, Scully," Groggily, mulder awoke. "Shhh!" Scully hushed him, desperately looking from the door to her work of trying to free him. "Doctor Dana, I didn't know you made housecalls." The voice chilled her to the bone. She knew who it was but she couldn't accept it, couldn't believe it. Slowly she turned to where the wall of boxes had been. She saw now that the darkness had indeed hidden a door. "Grant," She breathed in horror. Slowly she stood to face him. "Why?" His suave face had given way to such hatred in just a blink of an eye. "Did you honestly believe I was a Sales man? Dana, come on! I got recruited from medical school too, But my job could be termed waste management." He stopped to light a cigarrette before continuing, carelessly tossing the match aside. "Dana, we actually have the same employer, in a round about way. It's too bad you had to get in the way of business. I gave you a way out last night, but you had to go to him." He finished the sentence in disgust, flicking cigarrette ash in Mulder's direction. Mulder barely flinched, now fully awake and focused at the situation at hand. "What the hell do you want, Richards? Micro film? A blood sample? My secret recipe for Liver and onions? You wont get anything from me." Grant just smiled and took another drag on his cigarette. "I don't want anything from you." His gaze shifted to Scully. "You know what I want. Is you're answer still the same?" Revolted, she spit at him. Grant just smiled, a horrible grin. "Pity. There just aren't enough redheads in the world. Why do you suppose that is?" He left her with that, and motioned for his associate to come closer. "Finish them, call me when it's done." Just then, his associate turned his gun and shot Grant point blank in the chest. Scully flinched, thinking the bullet had hit mulder. She looked over at him only to see a relieved grin. The associate was MR. X. "Quickly agents, there isn't much time." He stated as he quickly untied mulder. "You." Scully said, willing her foggy memory from last night to resurface, "you were my cab driver!" "It was necessary, agent Scully. Agent Richards had become unpredictable, and I needed you two in one place." Scully began to ask more questions, but X interrupted her, helping mulder stand. "Agent Scully, Please. In a short time this will not be a place you want to be. Your partner is your primary concern. I will not contact you further on this matter." With that, he turned and dissappeared around the boxes. "So," mulder said as he limped his way past the boxes with Scully's support, "How do you feel about sushi?" The end NOTE!- No fish were harmed in the making of this story. Well, My first fanfic! FEEEEEEEEEEED MEEEEEEEEEEEEE! mrs_mulder1121@yahoo.com Sorry it ended so quickly, but I just couldn't think anymore, and I never know how to end these things