From: twins@twinparadox.org
Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2001 16:20:47 -0000
Subject: xfc: HAVOC 11: Let It Snow (Sagan&Rah)
Source: xfc

Title: Havoc 11: Let It Snow
Authors: Sagan & Rah
E-mail: sagan@twinparadox.org & 
rah@twinparadox.org 
Summary: Oh, the weather outside is frightful...
Classification: completed series (not a WIP); RST, MSR
Rating: R
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. 

Note: For previous segments of this series, visit our website at 
www.twinparadox.org

X

HAVOC, Part 11: Let It Snow


XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXX

Scully tossed on her pillow, pushing the covers away as another 
clammy wave of nausea gripped her. She breathed deeply and 
waited for it to subside. 

She shouldn't have eaten so late. It had been after midnight 
when she and Mulder had dug into the food he had brought 
back, and now the fried chicken salad she had traded Mulder for 
wouldn't sit still. She pushed herself up on her elbows and  
wiped the back of her hand across her mouth. She was 
sweating.

Mulder slept quietly next to her, apparently untroubled by his own 
dinner. She watched his back rise and fall gently, and wondered 
if she had any Tums in her makeup bag --

Her stomach lurched ominously, and she got up. She made it to 
the bathroom just as the bile roiled into her throat. 

Flushing the toilet to mask the noise, she shut the door with her 
foot and fell to her knees in front of the bowl, thinking weakly that 
this was the first time she'd ever been *glad* that the seat had 
been left up. She fumbled for the handle to flush again, and she 
felt a warm hand brush past hers to hit the handle. 

He stood over her, feet planted on either side of her hunched 
back, and took a washcloth from the rack and ran it under the 
cold-water tap. Sweeping her hair away from her face, he laid the 
washcloth on the hand that gripped the side of the commode. 
Taking a seat on the side of the bathtub, he leaned over and 
rubbed her back. 

She sat back on her heels and brought the washcloth to her 
face, breathing in its cool bleachy smell. Running the cloth along 
her face, she wobbled as she tried to stand up.  He held her 
steady as she grasped the side of the sink. She gave him an 
embarrassed grimace. 

"*Great* dinner, huh?" he said as he put the lid down on the toilet 
had a seat. 

"I don't see *you* feeding the turtles." 

Mulder scooted out of the bathroom behind her to grab his 
shaving kit. Taking out his toothpaste, he handed it to her. 

"I told you the chicken-fried-steak had your name on it," he said, 
walking back out into the room. "If I had eaten that salad, it might 
have been me doing the technicolor-yawn there." 

She swished a glass of water around her mouth and spat it out, 
checking her reflection in the mirror. Her face was an even gray. 
She tapped her toothbrush against the sink and turned the light 
off. Mulder was putting his shaving kit back in his bag.

"Damn it's cold in here," he said, rubbing his hands up and 
down his arms. He crossed the room and leaned over the 
unused cot to look out the window. "Ahhh -- come and see this, 
Scully," he said, motioning for her to join him. 

She knelt on the cot and pushed the drapes aside. The snow 
was blowing straight across under the lights in the parking lot, 
and it looked like at least four inches on the ground. 

Mulder opened the door on the heating unit, and cranked the 
knob to 'high'. Hot air started to billow the curtains and he 
stepped behind her. Slipping his arm around her, he rubbed her 
stomach gently.

"Come on back to bed, sickie," he said, pulling her backwards. 
They climbed back under the covers, which were still warm.

x

Scully drowsed, watching through half-closed lids as the drapes 
shifted and swung in the draft from the heater. The snow outside 
cast a ghostly brightness that reflected through the sheer  
curtains, throwing everything in the room into dim relief. Spooned 
behind her, Mulder was sleeping, his breaths coming slow and 
even, each exhalation warming a spot just behind her ear. 

Her cheek rested against the smooth inner skin of his upper 
arm, their hands entwined on the pillow above her head. His 
other arm circled her waist protectively, his hand resting in a 
loose fist below her breasts. Her knees fit over his perfectly. 

Turning her head slightly inward, she laid a light and lingering 
kiss on the arm beneath her head. The arm around her waist 
tightened in response.

x

She moved slowly from Mulder's sleepy grasp and padded softly 
to the bathroom. Looking back, she saw him stir for a moment 
and settle again. 

Shuffling back into the room, she realized that the temperature 
had dropped again. There was no sound from the heating unit. 
The drapes hung motionless, no longer moving in the updraft. 
Walking closer to check the heater, she caught the faint odor of 
burning wires. The heater was cold. She opened the control 
panel and turned it off. No need to bring out the fire department 
again, she thought. 

She peeked out the window again, half delighted with what she 
saw, half anxious. The snow was still swirling furiously, piling up 
over the silent world outside. She turned and looked at Mulder, 
resting placidly on his side, the blankets pulled up around his 
shoulders. Driving wouldn't be easy today, she thought. It was 
good he could sleep. She walked back to the bed as quietly as 
she could, but before she could pull the sheet and blankets 
back, he lifted them for her. 

She smiled, snuggling back against him as his arms enveloped 
her. 

"You okay?" he asked, kissing the back of her head as she 
pulled his arm around her. 

"Mmmhmm...fine. But the heater quit. And it's snowing worse 
than before," she said, relaxing into his chest. 

Mulder held her around the waist and scooted closer to her back. 
"Then don't move, Scully.  We'll need to conserve our body heat," 
he said, smiling through the kisses he left on her shoulder. 

x

A distant *chirp-chirp* worked its way into Mulder's 
subconscious. Opening one eye, he tried to focus on the little 
travel clock on the bedside table. The diffused light from the 
window belied the actual time. The skies shone as dim as 
dawn, but it was after eight. He reached out and turned the 
alarm, pulling his arm back into the warmth trapped under the 
covers.

Looking down, he found Scully turned to face him, arms wrapped 
around his waist and her face buried in his chest. He kissed the 
top of her head, relishing for a last moment the exquisite heat 
that surrounded them in the otherwise cold room. Slipping one 
foot out from under the cover, he extricated himself from her 
arms. 

He relieved himself quickly in the cold bathroom, and hurried 
back to the bedroom, stopping to look out the window.  He could 
hear truck engines and the heavy scraping of plows coming from 
the parking lot, but he couldn't anything through the near 
white-out. Picking up the television remote control, he climbed 
back into bed. 

Scully rolled back over and snuggled into him again, pulling the 
covers up to her chin. Rubbing her back, he turned on the 
television.  Live, local and late-breaking news showed a 
snow-encrusted anchorwoman clad in a UNC jacket and ski-hat, 
reporting live from the junction of I-40 and I-95: 

"Road crews are out and travel is slow, so leave in plenty of 
time..."

Mulder scanned the channels until he found his buddies on the 
Weather Channel. He dropped the remote behind him and 
pulled his arms under the blankets. Scully turned over, sneaking 
under his arm and laying her head against his shoulder to watch 
the local forecast. The latest Doppler imaging tracked jerkily 
across the screen, giving them a better idea of the extent of the 
storm. The snow blowing across Fayetteville was only the 
leading edge of a massive block of white and purple moving 
steadily northeast. An emergency weather advisory ticked across 
the bottom of the screen.

He breathed deeply, sinking down in the bed. "Well, would you 
look at that," he said hazily. "We're in a snow emergency."

"If we're going to make it home today, we need to leave," she 
said. She rolled against his side, wrapping her arm around him 
and burying her face against his chest. "Now," she said.

"What?"

"We should leave *now*," she said, her voice muffled against his 
t-shirt.

"Yeah," he nodded. "I guess so."

Neither of them moved to get up. Mulder's hand had drifted down 
Scully's shoulder and over her breast. His fingertips grazed 
casually over her nipple, running a little circle around it. 

"Mulder."

"Hmm?"

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing," he said. His hand spread out over her breast, 
caressing her. "Why?"

"We have to get up."

"I know."

"We have to leave soon."

"I know."

"That's not helping," she smiled, rolling away from him. He rolled 
with her, pinning her against the pillows. 

"I know," he said, covering her mouth with his own. 

x

Scully pressed her head back into her pillow, breathing deeply 
for the first time in several minutes, her face flushed and feeling 
slightly abraded from Mulder's morning beard. She was smiling 
a wide, open-mouthed smile as he slid his mouth along the 
curve of her throat. 

She giggled.

He looked up. "Something funny?" he asked. She shook her 
head, curling her hand behind his neck and guiding him back 
down. "Oh no --" she said, "don't stop."

He had barely touched his lips to her when she laughed again -- 
a full, throaty laugh. He sat up, staring at her with a wary look of 
amusement. "What?" he asked. She continued to laugh, her 
eyes twinkling merrily at him.

"I just *love* it when you do that," she said, grinning. "I love it 
when you kiss my neck."

"What, like this?" He leaned closer and put his mouth against 
the spot below her ear, sliding his tongue down to the bend in 
her neck. She arched toward his touch, cat-like, and moaned. 

"Oh *God* yes --"

Mulder let out a long breath, letting the wave of arousal called up 
by the sound of her voice crash over him and ripple along his 
nerves. He sat back, blinking down at her, unable to move for a 
moment. Her fingers crept along his jaw, tickling his chin as she 
gazed back up at him.

"You're so handsome," she murmured, tracing the contours of 
his face with the tips of her fingers. She seemed to realize what 
she had said and smiled at herself. She brushed her thumb 
lightly over the mole on his cheek. "So handsome," she said 
again, smiling softly.

He laughed, surprised to find out that he was still capable of a 
blush. She noticed it too. "When was the last time someone told 
you that?" she asked.

He grinned and glanced away. "I'm sure it's not the first adjective 
that comes to most people's minds," he said. She laughed.

"Well," she said, leaning up to kiss him. "There are so many to 
choose from --"

"Oh?" he asked against her lips.

"Sure," she said. She ran her tongue along his lower lip. 
"Brilliant... funny..." Her eyes glinted. "*Sensitive*..."

"Ewww," he groaned. "Sensitive? Anything but *sensitive* --"

She laughed. "Oh yeah -- you can't fake it," she said. 

He pressed forward and kissed her. "Well, I hardly know how to 
accept such flattery," he said, nuzzling her nose. "I suppose I 
could heap *you* with compliments --"

She kissed his chin. "Oh?"

"-- go into raptures about your classic beauty --"

She kissed his throat below his jaw. "Yeah?"

"-- your unparalleled intellect --"

She kissed the knob of his collarbone. "*Really*..."

"-- your unique talents --"

She looked up at him. "My 'unique talents'," she repeated, tracing 
the edge of his lips with hers. 

"S-sure," he said, his breath hitching slightly. She had reached 
down between them and was doing something incredible with 
her hand.

"Ohhh, Mr. Mulder --" she said against his open mouth. "I've got 
talents you don't even *know* about..."

x

Mulder lay on his back, eyes closed, lips slightly parted, taking 
short, shallow, and uneven breaths.  His head was clear of 
thought. 

There were no images flashing across the backs of his eyelids. 

He had no awareness of sound, or time, or space. 

Everything in him, each fiber and nerve -- every cell in his body 
was completely and perfectly focused. 

This was... *sublime*. 

A little lower on the bed, Scully raised her head, hair falling 
across half of her face.  Watching the look on Mulder's face, she 
smiled to herself, eyes glinting. Oh yes, she thought, she was a 
very talented girl...

x

She crawled back up his body, kissing a lazy trail that ended at 
his mouth. His breath was still halting. 

"Scuh -- God --" 

He reached up weakly to swipe away a strand of hair that clung 
to her face, letting his arm fall over her. He closed his eyes, 
smiling hazily. Finding her hands, he brought them to his lips 
and kissed her fingertips. 

"Wowww," he said, taking a deep. "Guess you showed me."

She smiled. "You all right?" she asked. He nodded, opening his 
eyes and leaning up to kiss her. He tightened his arms around 
her and rolled her gently onto her back. She sighed as he kissed 
her cheekbones, her eyelids, her nose. She closed her eyes, 
content just to float on the sensation as his lips touched hers. 

x

"-- as well the snow emergency that has been declared for 
Harnett, Cumberland, and Sampson counties. Motorists have 
been asked to stay off of local roads, and are warned that all 
state and county highways are closed except to emergency ve ---" 

*ZAP** 

The television went dark with a crackle of static. 

Scully let the remote slip from her hand onto the floor at the foot 
of the bed. Already flat on her stomach, she let her head fall onto 
the mattress, arms dangling over the edge. She glanced back 
over her shoulder. 

"This is your fault," she said. Mulder smiled serenely and 
continued his methodical perusal of the skin on her lower back. 
He had the hem of her t-shirt folded back, and was conducting 
small but leisurely experiments to see which spots were most 
sensitive to the touch of his mouth. 

She squirmed as he found just such a place.  Sitting up, Mulder 
rolled her over to see what he could do about her stomach. 
Bringing her arms back up on the bed, she propped herself on 
her elbows. 

"Did you hear that? Ohhh --" 

He traced a tiny circle around her belly-button with his tongue. He 
glanced up briefly. 

"Hear what?" 

"The highways are closed," she said. "We're snowed in." 

"Yeah, I heard something 'bout that," he said, looming up toward 
her. Leaning over her on both arms, he pushed her back against 
the mattress with a kiss. 

"So what..." she gasped between kisses, "do you propose... we... 
do now?" 

Mulder stopped for a moment and leaned back. 

"Do you have a problem with what we're doing right now?" he 
asked. Scully felt herself melting under his stare. She shook her 
head like someone hypnotized, and closed her eyes as he 
moved closer, fastening his mouth on her neck. Reaching up, 
she slipped her hands beneath his shirt. 

"Yeeow --!" He pulled away, arching his back.  "Scully, your 
hands are like ice --!" 

"Sorry," she said, unable to contain the laugh that bubbled up. 
"Cold hands, warm heart," she offered. He smiled and kissed 
the tip of her nose. 

"You're freezing, aren't you?" he said.  Before she 
could answer, he was off the bed and rummaging through his 
bag.  He came back and dumped a sweatshirt and a pair of 
fleece-lined track-pants on her. Stooping to pick up the 
bedspread that had slipped off earlier, he added that to the pile. 

"Put those on and get under the covers," he told her, shoving his 
feet into his shoes.  He started toward the door. "I'm gonna go 
downstairs and see if we can get anybody to do something 
about the heat."

x

He was back not ten minutes later, standing on the threshold to 
the room. He could only stare. 

Scully. 

In his clothes. 

There was something about seeing Scully snuggled up in his 
favorite Nicks sweatshirt and black track pants that just about 
knocked the breath from his lungs. 

The fact that they were several sizes too big for her petite body, 
obscuring the dip of her waist and the curve of her breasts, didn't 
register. Had he known she would look this good, he would have 
dug out a dress shirt for her to wear. And dared her to button it. 

"What?" she asked, watching him stare at her from the doorway. 

"Shhh," he said as he toed off his snowy tennis shoes and came 
forward slowly, not breaking eye contact. "I'm making a memory."

Pulling her feet free of the blankets, she crawled on all fours to 
the end of the bed and stood up on her knees. She pushed up 
the outsized sleeves of the borrowed sweatshirt and put her 
arms around his neck. An easy smile came to her lips as Mulder 
leaned down and rubbed noses with her. 

"A memory?" she asked as she nuzzled his chin and neck.

"Yup, a memory," he nodded, fingers playing in her hair. He slid 
a knee between hers and lowered them both to the bed. 

She broke their kiss briefly, arching against his chest. The 
paperback she had been reading was poking into her back. 
Mulder swatted it from beneath her and set her down again.  
Leaning over her, his fingers rested in her hair as he stroked her 
cheeks with his thumbs. 

"I told them our heater broke," he said. "I guess the whole hotel 
is having --"

She had leaned up and kissed him. Bringing her knee up, she 
pushed him sideways and rolled him onto his back. She sat up, 
straddling his waist.

"Push-over," she teased. She leaned down to kiss the soft skin 
below his ear. 

"They said -- ahhh," he tried, distracted by her mouth. "They said 
they'd send a repairman... right up..."

Tugging his earlobe between her teeth, she untucked his shirt 
and ran her nails through the tiny hairs on his stomach. 

"S-Scully -- the heating man's -- coming --"

"Oh yeah?" she chuckled. "Who's *he* with?"

She raised his arms and slipped the shirt over his head, kissing 
him. He put his arms around her, pulling her down to him and 
smiling into their kiss. 

There was a knock at the door a moment later. They both 
groaned, and Scully rolled slowly off of him and stood, 
smoothing her hair and pulling the sweatshirt down. She picked 
up Mulder's shirt and tossed it at his chest. 

"Make yourself decent," she said with a little eyebrow wiggle. He 
got up and followed her, slipping the shirt back over his head. 
She caught his hand as he stepped into the bathroom.

"Don't go far," she said, looking up at him through provocatively 
lowered lashes. "I'm not done with you..." 

He grinned, kissing her until the bathroom door closed between 
them.

She turned and opened the door to the hall. A very thin man in a 
crisp, short-sleeved dress shirt and a tie was standing outside. 
In his hand was a small metal toolbox.

"Hey there," he said with a smile. "The folks at the front desk said 
ya'll are havin' trouble yer heater. I'm yer repairman." 

He held out his hand, and Scully shook it, stepping aside to let 
the man in. 

"It just stopped sometime in the middle of the night," she said as 
he made his way around the bed, nudged the cot out of the way, 
and knelt in front of the heating unit. 

"Yeh," he said brightly, glancing over his shoulder at her. "This's 
the fourth one a'these I worked on today. These old things don't 
get this kind of a workout too often. This weather we're havin 
sure is somethin, idn't it -- oh --! Hey there --" 

Mulder had just come out of the bathroom, and the repairman 
got up, leaning across the bed with his hand outstretched. 

"Hey." Mulder stepped forward to press the offered hand briefly. 
The man smiled and went back to his work over the heater. He 
pried the outer case from the unit and looked closely at the inner 
workings. 

"Can you tell what's wrong with it?" Scully asked, setting one 
knee on the corner of the bed. 

"Yeh," the man said after a moment. "I see it." 

Mulder and Scully both watched intently as the man chose 
expertly from his toolbox and began the repair. He realized he 
was being watched after a few moments, and looked up with a 
self-conscious smile. 

"This might take awhile," he told them. 

"How long?" Mulder asked. He was standing behind Scully with 
his hands on her shoulders. 

"Ohhh," the man laughed, glancing between the two of them, 
"longer than ya'll are gonna like." He smiled at each of them. 
"The hotel's puttin' on a little 'shut-in' party downstairs --- in
the 
conference center? Ya'll could go down there and get warmed up 
while I work on this. *Unless*," he added with a wink, "ya'll 
happen to love the smell of burning soldering wire." 


XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX

Conference Room B had about two dozen people in it, milling 
around in singles and pairs.  Most people were gathered around 
a small table that had been set with coffee urns, cups and 
saucers, and a basket of muffins. Padded metal conference 
chairs had been pulled into impromptu seating areas in the 
center of the room. 

Mulder and Scully wandered through, wincing slightly at the 
garish florescent lighting and the atmosphere in general. 
Mulder's hand squeezed the back of Scully's neck gently as they 
got in line for some coffee. 

"Talk about instant karma," he said in a low voice. She looked up 
at him, eyebrow cocked, and he grinned at her. "Looks like we 
didn't miss the seminar after all."

x

Mulder's stomach rumbled loudly as they waited in line for 
coffee. The man standing next to him gave him a sympathetic 
smile.

On his other side, Scully was chuckling to herself. "Hungry?" she 
asked.

"And I don't think a muffin's going to do the trick," he said.

x

The Waffle House was all but deserted. A couple of truckers 
were hunched over cups of coffee at the counter, but the tables 
were empty. A waitress leaning behind the counter looked up 
with a smile as Mulder pulled the jangly door open.

"Well I guess y'all can sit wherever you like," she said. "Coffee?"

Mulder held the door open for Scully, stomping the snow from 
his shoes and sniffling. "Please --" he said.

Scully shook the snow from her hair and clothes as he led the 
way to a nearby booth. The waitress came up behind her with 
two cups of coffee. She put them down on the table and pulled a 
handful of creamers out of her apron pocket, plunking them 
down too.

"Holler when yer ready," she said.

They ordered their food, smiling as the waitress calling their 
orders out to the cook who was standing less than two feet from 
her. "Two over medium, toast, bacon, no grits, scattered, 
smothered, covered, chunked --" 

Scully collected their menus and slid them back behind the salt 
and peppershakers, taking a few packets of sugar from the rack. 
"How long do you it would take us to get back home?" she 
asked, shaking the packets back and forth. 

"We're about 300 --" 

A series of tones cut their conversation short. The screen on a 
small television in the corner of the restaurant changed to red 
and they turned to watch. The waitress noticed too. "Turn that up, 
Dale," she asked the cook as she refilled the cups of the truck 
drivers seated at the counter. 

"...to the Outer Banks and all points north, the entire state of 
North Carolina should be bracing for the full effect of this 
enormous storm front. Back to you in the studio, Paul." The 
Weather Channel field reporter was replaced by a graphic map 
of the southeastern US, focusing on the Carolinas and Virginia. 

Scully hunched her shoulders and held her hands over her 
coffee cup to warm them. Mulder reached over and took her 
hands in his. 

"We're about 300 miles out," he said again. "It shouldn't take 
more than about 6 hours." He sighed. "I wonder if this storm will 
hit DC? I hate the idea of going back to the office on Monday." 

"If it continues up the coast like they're saying it will, we won't 
have to worry about being at work on Monday, Mulder. We'll be 
stuck in Fayetteville." 

"Where're ya'll from?" their waitress asked as she brought their 
plates of food to the table. They pulled their hands apart as she 
set large oval plates of food in front of them and topped off their 
coffee cups. 

"Thanks," Mulder said, reaching across the table for more 
creamer. "We're from DC."
 
"Well, it's supposed to snow clear on up to Boston," the waitress 
told them. "Hope ya'll got a room for a few days ---" 

Scully caught his eye over the brim of her cup and raised an 
eyebrow. He winked back and she licked the corner of her 
mouth. Mulder cleared his throat with a rueful look in her 
direction. "Actually," he said to the waitress, "we really need to 
get back home..." 

The waitress set the coffee carafe down and scribbled on their 
tab. Ripping it from the tablet, she left it on the table and gave 
them a look of concern. "Well, you two'd be half crazy to try to 
drive north in all this stuff. Enjoy your meals, and I'll take the
bill 
whenever you're ready." 

Mulder bit into a piece of bacon. "Never let it be said I'm not 
half-crazy," he said. 

She smiled at him. "Crazy or not, we need to decide how we're 
going to get home. I don't exactly relish the idea of having to call 
Skinner next week and explain why we're snowed in, in North 
Carolina." She poked a wedge of toast into the yolk of her eggs. 

As they dug in, a shadow fell across their table. One of the truck 
drivers who had been sitting at the counter now stood next to 
their booth. Mulder put his fork down and looked up at the man. 

"Hi there," the burly driver said. "I couldn't help but overhear you 
talking about heading north. If you want, you can follow me. I'm 
maxed out at 80,000 pounds, so that should help keep the road 
behind me pretty clear. You can drive in my tire tracks, and if you 
have any trouble, I'm there to help. I'm in the blue Freightliner out 
there." He indicated an 18-wheel tank truck through the frosty 
window. "Maybe we'll run out of storm once we get closer to 
Richmond." 

Mulder and Scully exchanged glances. "Scully?" he asked, taking 
another sip of coffee. 

She shrugged. "I guess we could try it. What other choice do we 
have?" 

"None, really. What do you say?" 

She nodded at both of them. "Sure, why not? Thank you for the 
offer, Mr. ---?" 

"Webb," he said, extending his huge hand.  "Jeff Webb." 

"I'm Fox Mulder, and this is Dana Scully," Mulder said. "We'll have 
to dig the car out, but we can be ready to go in a few minutes
---" 

"Naa, ya'll take your time, go ahead and finish your lunch there, 
and I'll be out in the truck." 


TO BE CONTINUED

X
Look for HAVOC 12: Ten Four (R) to be posted (we hope!) on 
Groundhog's Day.

Notes: for previous segments of this series and information 
about it, visit our website at: http://www.twinparadox.org/