From: Louise Marin <mibosh@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 20:52:28 -0700
Subject: NEW: Guilt By Association (1/1) by Louise Marin
Source: xff


Title: Guilt By Association
Author: Louise Marin
Email: mibosh@earthlink.net
Rating: R
Category: SR
Keywords: MSR
Spoilers: all things; Jersey Devil
Disclaimer: Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, belong to CC, 1013, and 
Fox.  Uhmmm...don'tsueme.  Also, though it may be non-graphic, this 
story is meant for adults and is rated R.  Children, behave 
yourselves.
Archive: Yes, but please tell me so I can come visit.  Seriously.
Feedback: Yes, please.

Summary:  Scully accepts her alternative lifestyle.  

Little Notes:  It's an 'all things' story.  Hey, everybody's doin' 
it!


Guilt By Association - by Louise Marin


Scully comes home tonight when she lets her head fall against 
Mulder's shoulder.  She closes her eyes, unafraid; for the first 
time in as long as she can remember, she is sure and at peace.

Mulder continues to ramble about their being meant to be there 
together, enjoying each other's company and his warm couch.  But 
Scully is on the verge of sleep.  She's not really listening, and 
Mulder doesn't take long to shut up.  She hopes he too realizes 
that there's nothing to say, that it's time to just be, together, 
in this moment, at this crossroads, to which all their singular, 
correct actions have led.

He's sitting so close.  She can feel his eyes on her, searing her 
brow, her nose, her cheeks.  She can feel his breath, warm on her 
lips.  It is his turn to choose.  She wonders if he will leave her 
be, of if he will get her up and send her home; she wonders if he 
will kiss her.  Still she is not afraid, knowing now that whatever 
his decision, it will be the right one.

He shifts on the couch, and Scully feels his fingertips brush up 
her cheek to her hair.  She thinks he actually will kiss her, but 
he tucks her hair behind her ear for her instead.  His touch is so 
tender that she aches for it when he withdraws.  But he just sits 
there, breathing on her, breathing her in, for the longest time, 
and then he makes his decision known by pulling a blanket over her 
and fussing with it until it covers her just right.  He is taking 
care of her, she realizes.  And still she is not afraid.  

A moment later, she feels him stand, hears him take their tea cups 
from the table.  The soft sounds of china clinking and water 
running in the kitchen sing her to sleep.

When Scully wakes it's to the feel of large hands curling around 
her shoulders.  She opens her eyes to find nothing but black.

"It's okay, Scully.  It's me," Mulder says.

"Of course it's you, Mulder" Scully murmurs.  Everything in her 
world leads always to Mulder.

Now that she's awake and sitting up on her own, his hands leave 
her.  The couch sinks as he sits down, his thigh pressed tightly 
against hers.  He pulls at the blanket until it covers them both, 
and then he slips an arm behind her shoulders.  

Before she can reconsider her choice, Scully turns toward him and 
settles into his side.  She feels him sigh against her, relaxing 
into her.  His face is so close in the darkness that she can feel 
his breath stirring the hair around her ear.  

Slowly, feeling her way, she slides her hand up his shoulder and 
neck to caress his cheek.  Her lips seem to flutter in slow motion 
against his ear as she whispers, "You kept me."

She feels his slow, slow smile with the pad of her thumb.  "You 
chose to stay," he whispers back.

She rubs her cheek back and forth against his, creating a tingling 
friction between them.  "Mm.  Mulder, I don't date married men."

Mulder's only response to this is to turn his face so that his 
lips press to Scully's neck just below her ear.  He continues to 
breathe on her, to breathe her in, to breathe in her...

She wonders if he knows what she means by married.  She wonders if 
he knows that as far as she's been concerned he's worn a ring on 
his finger in the shape of an X ever since their third or fourth 
case together, when he told her that the hairy she-devil he found 
in the forest was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

"What do you want, Scully?" he finally asks.

Scully's chest tightens, and she has to fight against the sting of 
tears in her eyes.  She slides her hand around to the back of 
Mulder's head, lacing her fingers in his hair, caressing his scalp 
with her fingertips.  "What I learned today is that you and I are 
both married...to the same thing."

Mulder stops breathing.  "And?" he rasps.

Scully slides her cheek along his until her lips touch the corner 
of his mouth.  She can hardly breathe herself.  "And, Mulder, if 
that's the case, then we might as well be...I mean, we should..."  
Lost, Scully turns a bit more and catches his mouth with hers.  
Their suckling lips are dry, but their mouths are open and soft 
and full of love.  

In a moment, they part and press their foreheads together.  Mulder 
is shaking as though this was the first kiss he's ever had, and 
the arm he's slipped Scully's waist holds her tight, and tense, 
and possessive.  Scully's cheeks are wet with tears.

They sit like this for a long time, quiet and still, until 
Mulder's shaking becomes too much for Scully.  She begins to rub 
his back, trying to calm him.  It doesn't really work.

"So, it's guilt by association for us, huh Scully?" he jokes in a 
quivering voice.

"Something like that.  Is that a problem?"

Mulder moves both his hands up to the base of Scully's skull, 
cradling her head.  "Not at all," he replies before he presses his 
lips to her brow.  "I've always wanted to be part of a threesome."

"Mulderr." 

Scully can feel his tiny grin as he kisses the bridge of her nose 
and then each of her cheeks.  His lips are gentle and tender.  He 
is still shaking.  She hopes it's not out of fear.

"I had other visions today," she says.  "I saw you.  Always 
running, always wanting me to follow.  She led me to the temple.  
She made me open my eyes."

"Wait, Scully.  She?"

"She was a woman.  Dressed like you, like I found you on the mall.  
She was the part of me that is you.  Or the part of you that is 
me..."  Confused now, Scully shakes her head and begins to absently 
brush her fingertips over the hair at the back of Mulder's neck.

Mulder drops his forehead to Scully's shoulder.  The sound he 
makes is half chuckle and half purr.  "I'm starting to think the 
reason I didn't find an X-file in England was because you didn't 
come with me."

Scully looks down at Mulder's lap, which she finds is hidden by 
the darkness.  "I'm glad I didn't," she whispers.

"So'm I, Scully," Mulder says.  Scully isn't insulted, but he 
fumbles with an explanation anyway.  "I mean I wanted you to come.  
I really, really wanted you to come.  But you seem to have, well, 
what I mean is...uh."  

Mulder swallows his words as Scully trails her knuckles down his 
belly and over the bulge in his jeans.  He turns his face into her 
neck, and she can feel him struggling to breathe.  "Don't look 
now, Scully, but I think your yin is touching my yang," he 
whispers.

Even Scully can't keep from laughing at that one.  "I think it's 
always been that way," she says after a moment, and then she tugs 
on Mulder's hand in the darkness.

Scully begins to strip off her clothes as she finds her way to the 
bedroom.  A moment later she can hear the rustle of Mulder doing 
the same behind her.  

They are naked when they climb into bed.  They are silent as 
Scully guides Mulder to her.  It has been so long for them both 
that his entrance is slow and sweet and painful.  He stretches her 
to her core, and as he finally settles between her legs, Scully 
realizes he's been stretching her for seven years.  And she likes 
what she's become.  

Without reservation, Scully buries her hands in his hair, presses 
her face into his neck, and wraps her legs around him so tight 
even she can barely breathe.  They begin to move together, slow 
and intense and perfectly natural.  They are crying when they 
come.  And then, still joined, they rest, saying nothing and 
everything, always together.

In the morning, Mulder is at peace, finally.  Scully leaves him 
that way and goes home to dress for work, confident that she can 
and will carry the X-files while he sleeps.  Always.


-fin-


More Little Notes:  I really don't write the traditional post ep.  
This is my first, actually.  Obviously 'all things' begged for all 
of us to 'fill in the blank.'  So this was my version.  Did I like 
the ep?  Hells yeah.  Do I think Mulder and Scully did the deed?  
Yes, I do.  I think it was time, and though Mulder seemed to want 
to leave the final decision up to Scully, I think they both knew 
it.  Do I think they'll do it again?  Yup, but not right away.

Special Thanks to Gillian Anderson for giving us so much to think 
about and for allowing this new intimacy between Mulder and Scully 
to be ours in any way our imaginations see fit.  

Thanks for reading!

Louise Marin - mibosh@earthlink.net - www.angelfire.com/la/xspot