From: twins@twinparadox.org
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 22:44:23 -0000
Subject: xfc: HAVOC 5: Pleasure Island (Sagan&Rah)
Source: xfc

Title: Havoc 5: Pleasure Island
Authors: Sagan & Rah
E-mail: sagan@twinparadox.org & 
rah@twinparadox.org 
Summary: Mulder and Scully get funked up.
Classification: Series (not a WIP); humor, UST
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: for the purposes of this series, 
Requiem and everything after do not exist; 
several general allusions to other episodes.
Archive: Auto-archive, KTF, & Spooky's ok; 
others, please ask.
Feedback: Always cherished.
Disclaimer: Never were. Never will be. Shit. 
Notes: (important) at the end

X

HAVOC, Part 5: Pleasure Island

XXXXX XXXXX XX

Scully drew her legs up in front of her and set her chin on her 
knee. She was perched on top of a wooden chest at the foot of 
Mulder's bed, watching him sleep. 

She hadn't been there long. She had sneaked into his room with 
the idea of stealing a towel from his bathroom, and the sight of 
him sprawled across the coverlet had been too much 
temptation. It was easy, when she saw him like this, to imagine 
how he must have been as a boy. He was shirtless, lying mostly 
on his stomach, with one leg drawn up and a pillow clutched 
under his head. He was completely dead to the world, had not 
even flinched when she had drawn his bathrobe up over his bare 
shoulders. Knowing how seldom he was able to sleep 
peacefully, she felt vaguely privileged to witness his slumber.

With that thought in mind, she knew she should get up and let 
him sleep while he could. She smiled at her own reluctance to 
move, feeling very cozy and self-satisfied. She had spent most of 
the last two hours primping leisurely after a cool shower, and 
had even walked downstairs out to take a closer look at the 
boutiques in the hotel. She had come back with a filmy gray 
slip-dress (a novel indulgence for a woman who paid little 
attention to the clothes she wore) that felt perfect against her 
sunburn.

Mulder came awake with a jerk, sitting up immediately. He 
rubbed his eyes with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, 
and blew out a breath that he seemed to have been holding. 

"Hey," he said, not seeming at all surprised to find her sitting at 
the foot of his bed. "How long have I been asleep?" 

Straightening up, Scully smiled at him.  "Oh, about --" she 
glanced at her watch, "four hours, give or take those few minutes 
before your head actually hit the pillow. It's quarter to nine." 

"Wow," he said. He noticed the robe that had been carefully 
draped over him, and slipped his arms into it. "Give me a few 
minutes to take a shower and get ready," he said, his voice raspy 
with sleep. "Then we can hit the night life." 

x

Mulder walked out of his room, fastening his watch onto his 
wrist.  A low whistle of appreciation came from behind the wet 
bar. He looked up with a smile that was only slightly 
self-conscious. 

"Clean up pretty well, don't I," he said. 

He looked fresh and crisp in a white button-down and khakis. 
His hair stuck up damply and his face looked smooth and clean. 
Scully licked her thumb and pressed it to her hip with a *hiss*. 
"Hot stuff," she said, walking around the bar. 

"Look at you --!"  Mulder said, noticing her new dress. He 
frowned. "You didn't pack that for the seminar --?" 

Scully blushed and smoothed the dress over her hips.  "I did 
some shopping while you were asleep." 

Mulder crossed to her and took up both of her hands, holding 
them wide so he could look at her. The pink glow of sun across 
her cheeks made her eyes seem lit from behind, brilliantly blue. 
"You look beautiful, Scully," he said. He glanced at her feet. 

"I hope those are dancing shoes," he said, sweeping her into 
ballroom stance.  "'Cause we're gonna party like it's 1999 --"  


XXXXX XXXXX XXXX

A heavy bass-line thumped through the walls of the 8TRAX 
dance club, causing quite a bit of sway among the people 
queued up outside. Mulder and Scully had been waiting quietly in 
line for several minutes. Scully moved absently to the beat, 
watching the other tourists in line, unaware that Mulder was 
watching her with obvious delight. He tapped her shoulder, 
striking the classic 'Tony Manero' pose when she turned to look. 
She gave a loud snort of laughter. 

He put his hands on her shoulders as she turned back toward 
the front of the line, and moved her back and forth to the familiar 
beat.  "Are you stayin' alive here, Scully?" 

"Sure," she laughed, letting herself go a little limp under his 
hands. "Although, I will admit that it's a little weird *gettin'
down* 
to music that was popular when I was in junior high." 

"Oh, man --" Mulder laughed ruefully, dropping his hands. "Junior 
high? I was at college when I bought this album." 

"You *bought* this album?" 

"Sure. Didn't everyone?" 

Scully gave him a look that indicated clearly that *she* hadn't. 

"Oh, right," Mulder said. "You were probably too busy scarfing up 
glitter-rock albums. Or no, no --- you were a punk rocker,
weren't 
you?" 

Scully stuck out her tongue and gave him a two-fingered 
"up-yours," Sid-Vicious style. "And what were *you* listening to in 
the seventies, Mulder?" 

"Well, *my* junior high experience was all about Zeppelin," he 
told her. "But then I discovered girls, and Stairway to Heaven was 
just too damn hard to dance to." 

She laughed. 

"Then I got into folk-rock for awhile," he continued, putting on an 
exaggerated air of nostalgia.  "You know, the whole 
singer-songwriter thing -- James Taylor, Carol King, Jim 
Croce..." 

Scully was still laughing. 

"Would you believe that at one time I knew all of the lyrics to all
of 
the songs on Simon and Garfunkle's `Bookends'?" he asked. 
She shook her head, grinning. He nodded in grim affirmation. 
"*And*," he added importantly, "I might still be able to play a few 
chords of 'Peace Train' on the guitar."

Scully's laugh had become helpless giggling. She wiped the 
tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. Mulder continued 
with his narrative, enjoying her unconstrained mirth.

"But then I discovered George Clinton and Parliament," Mulder 
said, "and it changed my life." 

They had made it to the top of the queue, and the door man was 
waving them in.  Mulder turned to his partner, who was having 
trouble catching her breath. "Come on, Scully," he said. "Time to 
get the funk out."

x
 
"I can't believe I'm dancing to this!" she shouted over the din of 
kids singing along to 'Y-M-C-A'. "I *swore* I would never dance to 
this again --"

"Ahhh --" he laughed at her. "Never say never, Scully!"

The DJ continued to play an endless stream of disco favorites. 
They had been dancing non-stop for nearly an hour, their bodies 
limber with the beat and the heat, a fine sheen of sweat on their 
faces and arms. Scully let out a howl when Rod Stewart came on 
with "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," and Mulder sang along all the way 
through 'Brick House' and 'Superstition.' Things got a little rowdy 
when AC/DC came on, but everyone stopped dead for a moment 
at the opening chords of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." The 
whole club sang along.

Scully let out a quick gasp as Mulder grabbed her around the 
waist and held her close, swaying gently as a classic ballad 
slowed the jumping club. 

*...She turns to me and asks, 'do I look all right?' and I say 'my 
darling, you look wonderful tonight'...*

He brought her hand up to rest on his chest, and slung his arm 
around her waist. He lay his cheek against her temple for a 
moment. 

"Now, I *know* you had this one in your record collection," he 
said against her hair. She stepped in closer, resting her head on 
his chest beside their entwined hands. 

The swaying couples who had remained on the floor continued 
through the next song change, and now they had Lynyrd Skynyrd 
coming through the sound system. Scully picked her head up 
and surveyed the crowd with a nostalgic smile. Kids who hadn't 
been born when Ronnie VanZant's plane were behaving as their 
parents might have, lighters in hand overhead, flames flickering 
and bodies swaying.

Scully's smile deepened, and she let her head sink back against 
him. "Freebird," she said softly into his chest. She sighed 
wistfully. "Talk about the most exciting level of my extracurricular 
activities."  She felt him smile against her hair. 

"Oh yeah?" he asked, leading her skillfully around the dance 
floor. 

"I danced to this song at my junior high graduation." 

"What was his name?" he asked, still smiling, eyes closed. 

"Robby. Robby Young. Oh God, I had such a crush on him! I 
almost fainted when he asked me to dance the last dance that 
night." 

"One of the great make-out songs of all time," he said. She 
laughed.  "Even at the end, when the song speeds up, nobody 
ever danced any faster because they were too busy necking." 

She chuckled.  "Yeah, well -- that's when Sister Celestine and 
Father Lyman would come around and pull all the couples apart 
-- 'Leave room for the Holy Ghost!'"

"*Danceus Interruptus*, eh?" he snickered. 

"Yeah," she sighed. 

"Well?" 

"Well, what?" she asked, looking up at him through half-lidded 
eyes. 

"Were you and Robby pulled apart? Did you get to make-out with 
the object of your desire?" he asked, looking back down at her 
sunburned cheeks, his pupils dilated in the darkness of the club. 

Dropping her forehead forward onto his chest, she sighed again 
and shook her head, *no*. 

"Unrequited love?" he asked, smiling and twirling them. "Oh, 
Scully -- that's the worst thing there is." He took his hands from 
her back and pulled slowly away from her. "How about a drink 
and some fresh air?" 

Dropping her hand from his chest, she made a small sound that 
was half laugh, half whimper. "You're worse than Father Lyman, 
Mulder."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he laughed, taking her hand 
as they left the dance floor. She shook her head.

"Nothing," she murmured, glad that the darkness of the club hid 
the blush that was creeping over her cheeks. *Danceus 
Interuptus*, she thought.


XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX

Mulder leaned into the bar and pulled Scully close, out of the 
traffic and crowd moving just beyond the area. She stepped 
between his legs and he put an arm around her waist. 

"What'll it be, folks?"

"Margarita on the rocks, with salt --" Mulder looked to Scully, 
eyebrow raised in question.  She smiled her approval. "And a 
Bud Light bottle." 

Taking their drinks, they stepped into the humid night. Scully led 
them across the blissfully deserted patio to an open table near 
the railing.  Taking a taste from her margarita, she sighed 
contentedly, licking the salt from her lips. 

Mulder slid onto his stool. They sat quietly, absently sipping their 
drinks and watching the party going on in the club. Smiling 
people of all faces and ages came and went from the patio, 
leaving the dance floor flushed and elated, or getting up to rejoin 
the music, faces upturned with excited anticipation. Scully found 
herself wondering about the people she was watching, 
conjecturing about their lives. Who were these people when they 
weren't guests of some Orlando resort? Her eyes slid over the 
strangers' faces, wondering whether anyone else there was 
playing hooky from a demanding job, pretending -- just for a few 
days -- to be somebody they were not...

She took a taste of her drink and watched as the young couple at 
the table next to theirs got up to leave. The woman reached for 
her companion, who caught up her hand and brought it to his 
lips with an easy smile before they slipped back into the dancing 
crowd. Scully glanced away, feeling bashful, and caught Mulder's 
eyes briefly. He had witnessed the romantic exchange too. She 
hid her sudden blush behind another sip of her drink.

He continued to watch, waiting for her to recover from her blush. 
His eyes glinted into hers when she looked up from her glass. 
He took a sip from his beer without breaking eye contact. 

"You know," he said, leaning over the table on his elbows, "if we 
had gone to the seminar, we'd be swapping buddy stories with a 
bunch of strangers right now." 

"Oh, we'd be tucked in already," she said, leaning in toward him. 
"Lights-out at seven-thirty, I think --"

He laughed softly. "I think that this was a much better idea," he 
said. 

"Yes," she nodded slowly. "I'm glad I thought of it." 

She smiled at him, enjoying the incredulous look that flickered 
across his features. He nodded minutely. 

"Yeah," he said, one eyebrow raised. "So am I." 

He reached across the table and gave one of her fingers a 
squeeze. She pushed her hand against his, twining their fingers 
together. Looking up at him, her eyes sparkled under the 
hundreds of fairy lights around them. 

"This is nice, Mulder," she said. "Really nice."

He tightened his hand around hers. Her voice had taken on a 
low, dreamy quality, and she spoke with a deliberation that made 
him wonder what she was thinking. He smiled. "What is, Scully."

She took a sip from her drink. "Spending time with you like this. 
Away from work, away from everything," she said. She dropped 
her eyes from his and looked down at their hands, woven 
comfortably together on the table between them. "I can't 
remember the last time we spent this much time together 
without a case being involved."

"I don't think we ever have," he said, following her eyes with his 
own. He rubbed his thumb over her knuckles. "Not like *this*..."

He spoke softly, wary of breaking the spell that seemed to hang 
in the air around them like a shimmering bubble. She smiled, 
watching his thumb as it glided over hers. "No," she agreed 
contentedly. "Certainly not like this."

She looked up, and their eyes met again, lingering this time as 
each of them watched for signs of what would come next. Scully 
blinked slowly, sweeping her thumb under their joined hands 
and along the hollow of his palm. "Truth or dare, Mulder," she 
said. 

He grinned and took another swig from his beer. "Truth," he 
laughed. "I think."

Her smile widened. "Tell me what you're thinking," she said. 
"Right now."

"Ahhh," he sighed, leaning back in his seat. His eyes narrowed 
slightly, and for a moment, Scully wondered if she was ready to 
know what was on his mind. "Well," he said, disentangling their 
hands and grasping the ends of her fingers. "I was thinking that 
if Human Resources could see us now, they might just take an 
entirely different view toward 'Team Building' --"

She laughed, slipping her hand out of his. She brought her 
fingers to her upper lip in an unconscious gesture, dropping her 
eyes as she laughed. He reached out on impulse and touched 
her cheek briefly, causing her to look up again.

"Hey," he said. "I'm just about grooved out for tonight. What-say 
we finish these off and head back to the hotel, huh?"

She nodded and picked up her glass. "Maybe George can scare 
up a guitar for me and I'll play you something from 'Tapestry,'" he 
finished. The mental image this created brought a snort of 
laughter from her, and she held her drink up to him in salute. He 
lifted his bottle and clinked it against her glass. 

She downed the last of her margarita in a single gulp and 
slipped from her stool, licking the last bit of salt from the rim of 
the glass with a wiggle of her eyebrows. His eyes went wide and 
a quirky half-smile popped onto his face. 

"Jesus, Scully..." 

He closed his eyes and tipped back the last swallow of beer and 
stood up from his stool. He took her hand in his. 

"I probably won't be able to move tomorrow," he lamented as 
they left the syncopated pandemonium of the club behind. They 
walked along the promenade toward the exit. "I haven't danced 
like that in -- in a *long* time."

She grinned. "Me neither." Her attention was drawn by a 
gathering of people around the Pavilion at the center of the 
Island's main thoroughfare. "What do you suppose this is 
about?" she asked. Music coming from the Pavilion's bandstand 
was turned down as a deejay's voice boomed across the park's 
sound system. 

"It's five minutes till midnight, ladies and gentlemen --! Come on 
down to the Pavilion and help us count down and celebrate a 
HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

Mulder smiled a little as they continued toward the exit, but Scully 
had stopped in her tracks. He turned to see what had held her 
up.

"You coming?" he asked, watching her eyes track the throngs of 
people merging into the Pavilion. 

She tugged his hand.  "What's five more minutes?" she asked, 
eyeing the vendors selling cans of Silly String and glo-stick 
necklaces. Mulder shrugged and followed her into the crowd. 
Hidden amplifiers pumped a funky baseline through the open 
space. People all around were dancing to the disco beat. Scully 
laughed. 

"Didn't we hear this one already?" 

"Yeah, I think we --" Mulder's jaw dropped as they neared the 
bandstand. "Wow!" he exclaimed. "Take a look at that --" 

Taller than most of the crowd around them, he had an easy view 
of the bandstand. He grinned back at Scully. "It's really them --!" 
he said.

"Really *who*?" she asked, using his shoulders for leverage as 
she strained on tiptoe to see. Mulder stepped behind her and 
picked her up, quickly boosting her above the crowd in a move 
that she hadn't tried since high school cheerleading. She let out 
a whoop of surprise, putting her hand on his head to steady 
herself.

"Watch it up there!" he cried, laughing. She moved her hand to 
his shoulder and looked up toward the bandstand.

KC and the Sunshine band were 'shakin' their booties' to the 
delight of the raucous crowd. Everyone was singing and 
dancing, couples grinding into each other, Silly String floating in 
the air and landing on unsuspecting revelers. 

*-- do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight... get 
down tonight --*

"Okay -- you can put me down now," Scully laughed, tapping 
Mulder on the shoulder. He swept her down, holding his hands 
on her hips until her feet touched the ground. She grinned up at 
him, smoothing her dress back down over her waist.

The music was infectious, and the crowd around them was 
pushing from all sides. Scully caught the groove of the people 
dancing next to them and began swinging, moving to the beat. 
Mulder joined her, putting his hands on her hips again. He 
turned his body to the side, moving her body opposite to his, and 
brought their hips together in a bump. She watched as he moved 
them to do the same on the other side. She caught on, 
chuckling. 

"I haven't done 'the bump' in years!" she shouted above the 
roaring crowd. "I'd forgotten about it!" 

He laughed and kept his hand on her hip as they got a little 
fancy, staying on one hip, bumping and lowering themselves 
down a few inches, bumping again and lowering farther still, 
then rising slightly and bumping again. 

Then the music stopped abruptly, and the deejay's voice 
boomed over the crowded square. 

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen, here we go --! TEN -- NINE -- 
EIGHT --" 

Mulder looked down at Scully. She was watching the countdown 
on one of the huge screens by the stage, smiling and shouting 
in unison with the crowd. She looked up at him.  He hugged her 
tight against him from behind, returning her smile. 

"-- SEVEN -- SIX --" 

Mulder stepped back and turned her around in his arms. Their 
gazes caught. Cradling her face with his hands, Mulder looked at 
her smiling mouth. His heart was beating so strongly he could 
hear it above the crowd -- 

"--- FIVE! --- FOUR! ---"

Scully's eyes followed the buttons on his shirt to where it was 
open a little lower than usual. His hand caressed her face, his 
thumb sweeping along her cheek. She leaned her face into his 
palm, allowing his fingers to tangle in her hair. 

"-- THREE! -- " 

A thrill of electric anticipation ran through them, and as Scully 
rose up on her toes, Mulder leaned down. Her hand snaked 
around his shoulder, sifting through the hairs on the back of his 
neck and drawing him closer. His right hand slipped around her 
waist, pulling her up and closer. "Deja vu, Scully," he whispered, 
barely loud enough for her to hear. 

"Second time's a charm, Mulder," she breathed.

"--- TWO! -- " 

They spoke at the same time:

"Mulder -- "  

"Scully -- " 

"--- ONE!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!" 

The square around them erupted in a cacophony of 
noisemakers, confetti and delirious howls and whistles as they 
bent toward one another. Barely a whisper separated their lips. 

Instead of the kiss she expected, Scully got a faceful of silly 
string. 

Her head fell back, and she laughed.  Mulder swiped the clumpy 
string gently from her face and tried again. This time, amid the 
noise and jostling elbows, they made contact -- 

*KA-BOOOOOM* *POP!* 

The fireworks display exploded overhead. Scully smiled against 
Mulder's lips, and leaned in deeper.  Third time's the real charm, 
she thought. 

Mulder broke away first, smiling into her eyes, and pulled her to 
his chest, pressing his cheek against her hair.

"Happy New Year," he said. "*Again*."

"Mulder," she said into his ear, "you're sweet." 

He dropped a small kiss on her hair. "And you're salty," he said, 
licking his lips. Her laughter slipped under his collar and 
warmed his neck. Wrapping his arms tightly around her, he 
picked her off of the ground so that their eyes were on a level.

"C'mon, Scully," he said, and kissed the end of her nose. "Let's 
go." 


TO BE CONTINUED

X
Look for HAVOC, Part 6: The Balcony Scene (PG-13) to be 
posted on Saturday, January 20, 2001.

NOTES: For links to previous parts of this series and information 
about how it came to be, go to www.twinparadox.org.