Title:  There Comes a Time (1/1)
    by Dyann Zimmerman
Disclaimer:  The characters of Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Walter 
    Skinner, Margaret Scully and the Lone Gunmen... belong to 
    Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, Fox, whoever, whatever, etc.  
    No infringement is intended.
Category:  MSR; Angst; RST
Spoilers:  Several episodes, but nothing anyone reading this 
           hasn't already seen.
Rating:  NC-17 for sexual content and language.  Some violence.
Archive:  Go for it.
Summary:  Mulder and Scully get together amidst their everyday 
    life with a tangential case as an excuse for them to do 
    something other than hit the sack.
Feedback:  Welcomed at philer@onemain.com 


THERE COMES A TIME


HITCHCOCK'S PUB
WASHINGTON, DC
FRIDAY, 6:18pm
Five days into his two-week suspension, Fox Mulder was 
impatiently waiting to meet his partner at Hitchcock's Pub, a 
location way too smoky and intolerably too crowded for his usual 
tastes.  But he was anxious to see her.  Already bored with his 
forced exile from work, he found himself needful of more than 
their multi-daily telephone conversations.  As he sipped 
at his pint of Guinness, his eyes scanned the mostly male crowd 
for her distinctive red hair.  "Shit.  Friday afternoon happy 
hour in a Bureau watering hole.  Why did I pick this place?" he 
mentally mumbled to himself, impatiently checking his watch for 
the tenth, twentieth...hundredth time before reminding himself 
that it was he who was early, not she who was late.  

The relationship between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully didn't often
extend beyond their work as Special Agents for the FBI.  Over
their seven-year partnership they had been out for drinks or 
dinner at various times and, as he remembered fondly, to a 
couple of movies on an errant Saturday night, having even 
celebrated a few holidays together. But if they weren't on a 
case, they seldom socialized---especially not in public and, most 
certainly, not in a place so close to the J. Edgar Hoover
building where they might be seen by someone eager to add fodder 
to the office rumor mill. 

There were enough wild tales flying around FBI circles about Fox
Mulder and many of them included his female partner.  He would 
have been satisfied to just thumb his nose at such notions and 
regard them for what he knew them to be---inconsiderable 
ramblings by petty people.  But he had become sensitive to that 
kind of talk because of his awareness of his partner's 
understandable defensive reaction to it.  Despite her medical
degree and her impressive years of experience with the FBI, she 
was still absolutely driven to be perceived of as nothing less 
than equal to her male counterparts.  She regarded the 
water-cooler comments as an affront to her professional 
competence and her personal dignity and he had to admit,possibly 
because of her association with him, that she was probably right. 

As she entered the pub and made her way through the maze of suits
and clamorous laughter and conversation, her eyes and ears 
struggled to adjust as she focused on searching for Fox Mulder.  
Being diminutive rarely had any advantages and looking for 
another person in a crowded bar was certainly an instance when 
that fact was most evident.  However, after spotting a pair of 
crossed trouser legs below a copy of `The Lone Gunman' newspaper, 
she moved toward the empty chair across the table from them.  

"Hey," she said, getting his attention as she touched his arm.  

"Hey, Scully,"  he replied as he returned her smile over his 
newspaper before standing to move the chair for her to sit.  
"Good to see you!"  
 
"Good to see you, too, Mulder," she replied as she waved for a 
waiter.  She ordered a vodka tonic as Mulder folded his paper and 
devoted his attention to his partner.  "So, Mulder. What's up?" 
she asked.  He knew he was staring at her and grinning fairly 
much like an idiot, but in only a few short days, he had missed 
seeing her and his face mirrored his feelings.  Noticing his 
penetrating gaze, she nervously laughed, "What?" 

"Uh, sorry if I'm staring, Scully.  I'm just really glad to see 
you," he said as he looked down somewhat sheepishly.  

"God, Mulder.  You are really starving for some human interaction,
aren't you? Haven't you been out of your apartment all week?" she 
laughed. Hurriedly, he interjected that he was very anxious to hear 
about her new case, garnering a smiled reply from her that seemed 
tinged with some disappointment at thinking that seeing her might 
not be his only reason for their meeting.

Despite the infrequency of the occasions of their purely social
contacts, they were together most of the time anyway---working.  
They had never been romantically involved with each other, and, 
since becoming partners, not with anyone else for that matter.  
But something, some kind of unspoken need had seemed to be 
bringing them closer, not physically, but certainly emotionally.  
They had been there for each other through more illnesses, 
injuries and family tragedies than most married couples ever 
weathered together in a lifetime and the two instinctively knew 
that they were the most important person in each others' lives.  
Their comfortable raport with each other was rare, even with 
lovers; the obvious connection between them often mistaken by 
some as romance.  On the other hand, some people thought the two 
merely tolerated each other.  Only the two of them knew the 
strength and depth of their real relationship.  If there was a 
physical attraction, neither of them had admitted it---to each 
other or to themselves so that anyone would notice.  Their shared 
trust for each other was unquestionable, but their true need for 
each other had never been audibly expressed.  

If Mulder had known that carrying on any kind of conversation in 
this bar would have been such a challenge, he would have suggested 
another place, so they kept the topics trivial enough to be 
suitable for a low yell in case others would hear.  After only a 
few sips of her drink, Scully had wearied of the dull interchange 
forced on them by the atmosphere and the watchful eyes of several 
familiar co-workers.  She stood as she tilted her head to motion 
Mulder toward the door.  

Scully slipped her coat over her shoulders and waited outside in 
the January air while Mulder paid the tab.  As he exited, she 
rubbed her already smoke-reddened eyes and remarked "I couldn't 
endure another breath of that place, Mulder.  Let's go somewhere 
we don't have to scream at each other through cigar smoke and 
teenaged FBI agents."  

Smiling, he took her left elbow in his hand as he checked the 
traffic before steering her across the street to the parking 
garage.  "Scully, you got time to maybe get some dinner?"  he 
asked hopefully.  

"Dinner?  Really?  Wow, Mulder, you really are starved for human
contact."  Smiling, she continued, "Actually... I'd love to.  But 
after the week I've had, carry-out and my coffee table sound 
better than another attempt at finding someplace quiet around 
here." 

DANA SCULLY'S APARTMENT
GEORGETOWN, VA
FRIDAY, 9:12PM
They both sat conversationless on the floor finishing their meal 
from opposite sides of her coffee table.  It was cluttered with 
leaking take-out containers and a bottle of half-empty red wine 
sat just at the reach of Mulder's right hand.  The television was 
muted to yet another non-descript news channel and a Pat Metheny 
CD soothingly provided unnoticed background music. After 
devouring a large Caesar salad and seconds of seafood-mushroom
fettuccini, Mulder leaned back against the couch and finished the 
last swallow in his glass of Bordeaux.  "Damn, Scully.  A `1981'?  
Maybe you should've saved it for a special occasion."   

"What occasion could possibly be more special than you grilling 
me about this case?" she said facetiously.  "Mulder, if all you 
wanted was to find out about my case, why didn't you just ask me 
during one of the three occasions you called me at the office 
today?  And just think, it would have saved you the price of this 
meal."

"Well, you see Scully, I actually planned this whole scenario 
just to mooch some of your expensive wine.  And, to see... well, 
if... maybe... you might need my help on your case or..."   His 
voice trailed off as he seemed embarrassed by his stammering and 
his fear that she was beginning to realize he had absolutely no 
reason for asking to meet her other than just to be with her.

And she did realize it.  And although she was surprised by his 
effort, she was quietly gratified by his motive.  She had missed 
him too.   

The case she had been working on had been fairly routine in 
nature, but her experience with it had been nothing short of 
distressing.  The attitude of the local detective in charge had 
been so licentious that she had felt compelled to confront him 
about it.  Her very presence in the male realm of law enforcement 
had always elicited backhanded comments of varying degrees that 
often doubled as silent wolf whistles or condescending hints 
aimed solely for the purpose of testing for a reaction.  Her 
unprecedented self-control and cool unflappability had taught her 
to generally ignore the looks and remarks to avoid giving them 
credence.  But this particular man had crossed her line of 
tolerance.  She had made her boundaries clear---she would let it 
drop if he steered clear of her.  If not, she would report him 
and file charges.  He had reacted so angrily to her confrontation
that, at one point, she thought he was going to become physical 
and felt the force of his breath on her face as he yelled 
threats at her before she could move away from him.  But after a 
repeated warning, he had seemed to accept her stand and backed 
off.  She hadn't mentioned the incidents to anyone else or taken 
any formal action since her involvement in the case appeared to 
be finished.  She just wanted to get back to Washington and forget 
about it.

Since the case itself was essentially solved, she had almost put 
the whole matter out of her mind but Mulder had kept questioning 
her about the case.  "Mulder, this case is no big deal and it 
isn't anything close to being an X-File," she began.  "It 
initially appeared to be a suicide.  The victim, an over-achieving 
college sophomore, while seemingly the perfect co-ed, had a
long history of self-mutilation, most likely a manifestation from 
her childhood, which had been dominated with physical and sexual 
abuse," she continued, poking her fork at a few remaining pieces 
of her salad.  "The victim's sorority sister stated the girl had 
recently split with her boyfriend and had become despondent.  She 
said the victim had indicated that she was going home to stay with 
her mother for awhile, but the girl didn't show. The subsequent 
search found her desiccated corpse rotting in a $20-a-night motel 
room," she said with raised eyebrows for punctuation to her blunt 
description.  Noticing his expression of distaste, she moved her 
description back to the investigation.  "Suicide looked to be the 
plausible cause of her death---until I completed the autopsy."  
Scully continued her account of the case as she lifted her wine
glass toward Mulder in a gestured request for a refill. He poured 
her glass half-full and she took a sip, only momentarily 
interrupting the recounting of her week's activity.  

"During my examination of the body," she continued, "I discovered
multiple puncture wounds in various obscure areas of the girl's
body---inside the nasal cavity; between the toes; the perineum; 
under her tongue.  Further lab tests indicated a pervasive 
virulent infection that proved to be the actual cause of her 
death.  Mulder, evidently she met her boyfriend in a microbiology 
class and he had just enough knowledge to, essentially, make a 
home-brew of lethal bacteria from a multiform of ingredients, 
most notably rodent excrement, with a little human waste for
flavor," she added with a flippant tone she seldom used.

"Mmmm, shit soup.  Lovely," he grimaced.  "Sorry, I missed it."

"Anyway... clearly, after drugging her to the gills,the boyfriend 
had repeatedly injected her with his potion, which had time to 
putrefy further, over the course of several days.  Because of 
the organic ingredients, he assumed the bacterium wouldn't be 
discovered in autopsy and the real cause of her death would never 
be discovered---it would appear to be a typical OD/suicide.  The 
local authorities are looking for him as we speak...so...my 
involvement in this grim tale is essentially over.  Done.  
Finished," she reiterated with an affected satisfied grin.  
"So, you see Mulder, you haven't missed a thing.  No aliens.  
No clones.  No conspiracy between the boyfriend and a global 
consortium trying to kill off mankind one by one.  Nothing that 
would make the FBI regret they ever suspended you and, therefore, 
beg you to come back," she said smiling a small, knowing 
grin at him. "Sorry...but,the best thing about this case is...now  
I have a weekend off without any work hanging over my head and 
muddling my mind.  Kind of like your situation...but not," she 
teased. 

Mulder's hope for his method to interpolate himself into Scully's
case, and thus her weekend, now seemed to be lost as he resigned 
himself to spending the weekend and the rest of his `sentence' 
alone and bored. Recognizing his disappointment, Scully caught 
an urge to laugh and, instead, gave him an exaggerated pout.  
"Sorry, Mulder.  Looks like you're doomed to another week of 
sleep, relaxation and... the good fortune of being able to evade 
Skinner's requital.  You know, he's pissed at me, too. 
Guilt by association, Mulder.  You know how he can be."   
He got her point. It wasn't easy on her end either.

FRIDAY, 11:15pm
After yet another installment of `20/20' and seconds of cheese 
cake topped with an enormous portion of blueberries, Mulder 
slowly stood from his spot on the floor and stretched.  "Damn, 
Scully.  I'm getting old.  I creak," he said with a pained look 
on his face.  He picked up their dishes and took them to her sink 
as she followed, carrying their empty wine glasses. "Well, I 
guess I'll go," he yawned as he retrieved his coat from a 
neighboring chair.  He turned to look at her as he put his hand 
on the knob to her front door.  "So, what `cha doin' tomorrow, 
Scully?  Wanna go hit a few baseballs?" he said jokingly.  

Through her smile, she answered "Actually, I would, Mulder.  But 
I'm going to my mother's for the weekend.  I'd really rather lay 
around here and vegetate for the entire two days, but our caseload 
has been so chaotic lately that I need to take advantage of this 
break and spend some time with her." 

Dejectedly, he smiled as he opened the door to leave.  "Talk to 
you next week sometime, Scully.  Enjoy your visit with your 
mother," he said and closed the door as he left.  He paused in 
front of her door until he heard the deadbolt turn and the chain 
lock slide, once again accepting the probability of another 
weekend alone.  As he started to move down the hallway, he 
recognized a repetition of the same sounds he had just heard 
from her apartment and turned to find Scully peering around the 
edge of her opened door.   

"Hey, Mulder," she said somewhat shyly.  "If you aren't busy 
tomorrow night, why don't you come to my mother's and join us 
for dinner?  She doesn't have anything special planned, but, as 
you know, her culinary talents are considerable."

He didn't want to seem too eager, but immediately agreed.  "What
time?" he asked.  

"We'll probably eat around seven, but come earlier if you'd like. 
We're just hanging around the house," she said.

"Should I bring anything?" he said, nervously stuffing his hands 
into his coat pockets.

"Just yourself," she smiled and moved back into her apartment, 
again locking the door behind her.  

Scully knew that Mulder had been at loose ends since his mother 
died and since his realization and acceptance that his sister, 
too, was dead. He had been characteristically quiet about it all 
but she noticed a kind of sad cloud covering him since then.  She 
had offered to talk and even suggested that seeing a therapist 
might help, but he had become openly annoyed at her overtures so 
she hadn't mentioned it further.  She had also come to a 
realization of her own---she was all that Mulder had now. And 
while she grieved for him and his seemingly sad station in life, 
she had guiltily admitted to herself that she found some 
emotional comfort in her new status as Mulder's only significant 
other.  Even though her role thus far in his life wouldn't appear 
to conform to the usual interpretation of that expression, she 
felt it was her purpose because she knew he saw her that way too.  
He had seemed so disheartened upon leaving her apartment that 
she had hoped he might find some solace in the company of her 
mother and being included as part of her family, such as it was.  
It seemed apparent that he felt so too since he had so readily 
accepted her amiable invitation.  

MARGARET SCULLY RESIDENCE
SATURDAY, 12:20pm
Margaret Scully's house was crisply neat and clean and tastefully
decorated in a relaxed, homey way.  She could make it look more 
formal ifshe was entertaining, but the overall look had softened 
a bit since her husband had died and as she found herself 
entertaining less and less.  The house still seemed like home to 
her daughter and Scully had felt nostalgically comfortable as 
soon as she had arrived.  She liked coming here and immediately 
felt more like Dana and less like Scully as soon as she walked 
through her mother's door.  Every time she visited, she always
ended up promising herself it would not be so long between 
visits...next time. 

Scully had arrived at her mother's shortly after noon and had 
been greeted with the usual hugs and kisses.  Her mother's 
generous greeting helped somewhat to soften what generally came 
next---observations about her weight (or lack of it) and comments 
about how long it had been since she had last visited as well as 
the usual questions about work and, invariably, about Mulder.  

The two women talked, catching up on family news while enjoying 
tuna salad on melba toast, pretty much their staple lunch during 
Scully's visits to her mother's house despite her mother's 
oft-stated view that her daughter didn't eat adequately.  Scully 
would have felt something was missing if her mother had prepared 
anything different.  Since mentioning her invitation of Mulder 
for dinner, Scully had noticed that her mother seemed like she 
had just received news of an impending wedding.  However, after 
more fully explaining the reasons behind her invitation, her 
mother's reaction suddenly altered.

"What?!" Margaret exclaimed.  "Dana, I can't understand what Fox 
could have possibly done to warrant a suspension."

"Mom, you don't want to know," Scully sighed.  "But, trust me, he
deserved it.  To say that Mulder can be a bit impetuous and tend 
to go his own way even when he has been given a direct order not 
to is a monumental understatement.  Anyway, deserved or not, his 
suspension just seems to have exacerbated his blue mood, so I 
thought it would be better if he didn't stay at home alone and 
subsist on pizza all weekend."  

Along with her daughter, Margaret had attended Mrs. Mulder's 
funeral and was well aware of Fox's current emotional 
difficulties.  Even though they seldom saw each other, Fox Mulder 
and Margaret Scully seemed to have a bond that was only understood 
by them.  Scully had surmised that it developed during their time 
together during her abduction years ago, but neither her mother or
Mulder had been forthcoming about any particulars.  Actually, 
Scully kind of liked it that way.

After unpacking her things in the guest bedroom and bath, Scully
relaxed on the couch to read something mindless while her mother 
began working on the preliminaries for the evening's meal.  It 
had only taken a few pages for Scully's eyelids to begin to seem 
heavy and, within a few minutes, she closed her eyes to sleep.  
Her mother covered her with an afghan and found satisfaction 
seeing that her daughter still felt a comfortable familiarity 
that allowed her to feel at home on her couch.  The book was 
abandoned and Scully discovered she had been sleeping for 
almost two hours before she awoke to her mother's voice.

"Mom..., I fell asleep.  What time is it?" Scully asked groggily.

"Yes, you did and it's almost four.  What time did you tell Fox 
to be here?" she asked.

"Expect him anytime.  Predictability is not part of Mulder's 
psyche," Scully confessed as she got up and folded the afghan 
over the back of her mother's couch.  "I need to freshen up and 
change," she said as she smoothed at her hair and noticed her 
sleep-wrinkled sweater.

"I need you to run an errand to the market, so don't be long,"her
mother interjected.

Scully had taken a shower and exchanged her jeans and black 
turtleneck for a light blue v-neck sweater and black pants.  She 
had left her hair to air dry and her mother felt a twinge of 
melancholy at how much the natural waves and curls made her 
daughter look like she did as a child.  Noticing her mother's 
change in mood, Scully moved to her and inquired, "Mom, what
is it?"

"I like your hair like that, Dana.  You look like...,"she sighed, 
her voice starting to quiver before she could finish her 
statement.  But Scully had an idea what her mother was feeling, 
as always remembering her and her late sister, and gave her a 
reassuring hug.  

"I'll surprise you with something great for dessert," Scully 
promised speaking closely to her mother's ear as she held her 
embrace.  As Scully put on her coat she reminded her mother,  
"Leave the salad and the table for me.  I'll take care of them 
when I get back.  If Mulder arrives before I return, just feed 
him and he'll be happy."

Walking down the driveway to her car, Scully sensed something, 
almost like someone was watching her.  As she looked around, she 
instinctively reached her right hand to her hip despite not having 
worn her gun. Noticing nothing particularly unusual, she moved to 
unlock the car door. It was already unlocked.  She hadn't 
remembered leaving it that way and again a wave of uneasiness ran 
through her.  Giving her car and the area around it one last look, 
she got in and started the engine.  As she pulled from the drive, 
she laughed to herself, "Dana you've been around Fox Mulder
way too long.  You're getting as paranoid as he is."  As she 
concentrated on remembering what her mother needed from the 
market,her earlier concerns quietly disappeared from her thoughts.

SATURDAY, 5:54pm
In her well-equipped kitchen, Margaret Scully busied herself 
preparing the evening's meal.  Scully was washing the spinach and 
mixing a hot vinegar dressing for the salad as she heard the 
doorbell ring.  She picked up the towel to wipe her hands as she 
moved to answer the door.

"I'll get it, Dana," her mother said with a slight grin.  Scully 
acquiesced and returned to her work on the salad.  She had set the 
table in the dining room with everyday dishes despite her mother's 
protests, explaining that Mulder needed to feel like part of the 
family, not like a guest, and her mother understood.  Scully lit 
a couple of candles on the table in spite of her attempt not to 
do anything too obviously special.

Margaret opened the door to find Mulder, complete with a bottle 
of wine and a handful of fresh flowers.  "Fox, I'm so glad you 
could come," she said as she hugged him around the shoulders.  
Stepping away, she motioned him in and kidded, "Flowers and wine?  
Are you trying to impress me...or Dana?"  She took the gifts he 
offered and instructed him to put his coat in the entry closet.  
As they both entered the kitchen, Scully was putting the finishing 
touches on the salad.  

"Mulder, you made it.  I hoped you wouldn't back out since we have 
all this food to get rid of," she chided.

"Good to see you, too, Scully," he replied with a wry smile.  
"Something smells great, Mrs. Scully."

Margaret retrieved a cut-glass vase from the china cabinet in the
dining room and returned to the kitchen to fill the vase with 
water.  "Fox brought wine...and flowers,"  Margaret noted to her 
daughter with a smile.

"Jeez, Mulder.  Are you trying to brown-nose my mother?" Scully 
said feigning semi-disgust.  

"Eddie Haskell was my hero, Scully," he dryly replied.  

"Have a seat, Mulder," Scully said as she motioned him to a chair 
at the kitchen table.  "You want something to drink?  You can open 
the wine you brought if you'd like."  She looked at him with a 
friendly smirk before asking "Do you need a corkscrew or is it a 
twist-off top?" As she sarcastically grinned at him, he captured 
her hand as he reached for the corkscrew she already held out at 
him, moving closer to her and, in a voice deliberately audible 
enough for her mother to hear, whispering into Scully's ear.  
"Scully, please be nice.  I wouldn't want your mother to discover 
your real personality."  Margaret laughed, taking mental notice 
of the interactions between the two as she retreated to place the 
vase of flowers on the evening's table.  	

Dinner had been delicious and the conversation had been light and 
fun. Mulder had been a bit more quiet than usual, but seemed to 
have a good time in spite of his frame of mind.  Margaret rose 
from the table and began to clear the dirty dishes.  "Here, Mrs.
Scully, let me help with those," he offered as he reached toward 
the dishes in her hands.  Scully grinned a
knowing smile as she knew all too well her mother's next words.

"Fox, I will take care of this.  You and Dana make yourselves
comfortable in the living room and don't give any of this another 
thought. I mean it," she said pointedly toward her daughter and 
her partner.

"Come on, Mulder.  There is no point in arguing with her.  You 
won't win," Scully  replied.  "Anyway, I need to work off some of 
this meal. What do you say we go for a walk," she suggested, more 
a statement than a question.  Scully's idea elicited a satisfied 
smirk from her mother which soon faded as she noticed a warning 
in Scully's stern look in response. Mulder helped Scully with her 
coat as they departed into the fresh evening air.

Leisurely walking along the modest, well-manicured street, the 
couple were quiet until Scully broke the silence.  "Mulder, you
okay?" she asked softly.  He nodded, but not very convincingly 
she noticed.  "Come on, Mulder.  What is it?"

"Nothing, really.  I certainly enjoyed the meal, Scully, and
particularly the company," he smiled.  "But it just served to 
remind me that there were never any evenings like that in my 
house.  Our family meals weren't about making conversation, but 
more about avoiding it," he related despairingly.  Catching the 
mood veering toward melancholy, he quickly added, "Think your 
mother would adopt me?"

Scully stopped and turned to him, looking sympathetically into 
his eyes for several long seconds, absorbing his sad expression.  
She placed her right palm against his chest as she struggled for 
words that didn't come.  Instead, as her head brushed against the 
lapel of his coat as she turned to his side, she slipped her left 
arm around his waist and resumed the momentum of their stroll.  
His gesture of draping his right arm over her shoulder was 
rewarded with her warm hand reaching up to grasp his. They walked 
like this in silence for what seemed like an eternity,each 
thinking their own thoughts about their lives and their 
relationship.They both seemed to sense that something was changing.

Mulder was the first to interrupt the stillness between them when 
he suddenly stopped, abruptly turning to take Scully in his arms.  
He hoped that his heavy winter coat made his trembling 
undiscernible to her, thus disguising how absolutely afraid he was 
of the possible effects of his actions.  He was only slightly 
relieved to feel her return his embrace, knowing that she, too, 
was participating in what could be an immutable course.  She 
released her hold around his waist to step back and look up into 
his eyes, finding herself confused as he registered a look that 
she couldn't read.  Before she could speak the words she wanted 
to say, he bent to kiss her softly on her parted lips.  Time 
seemed to stand still as the kiss deepened and the intensity of 
the moment proved to be too much to sustain and as their lips 
finally separated, Mulder returned his arm to its position over 
her shoulders.  They resumed their walk back to the Scully home, 
neither of them having uttered another word.

They returned to the house to find it quiet and Margaret already
asleep in her bed. Realizing it was almost midnight,Mulder looked 
at Scully and noted, "Nothing like having a dinner guest that 
doesn't know when to leave, huh, Scully?"  As they stood face to 
face in the darkly lit living room, Scully found herself unable 
to move her gaze from his deep expression.

"Stay, Mulder.  You can sleep on the couch in Daddy's old study. 
There's no reason for you to drive home at this hour... and Mom 
would love to see you in the morning," she said in an automatic 
response to disguise her real thoughts for wanting him to stay.  
Her feelings where Mulder was concerned had always been confused 
enough and, despite the fact that she didn't want to add to her 
already mixed up emotions, she found herself continuing. "Mulder, 
sit down," she said as she removed her coat and shifted to the 
couch.  She sat down on the end cushion and gently folded her 
hands into her lap. She contemplated her swirling emotions as she
watched him sit down next to her.  He leaned forward shifting his 
weight onto his forearms as they rested on his thighs, leaving his 
hands to dangle between his knees as he stared at the floor.  When 
she began to speak, he turned his head back to look at her,finding 
the deep sincerity in her expression both frightening and 
comforting.  Sometimes her honesty and directness could be 
disconcerting and, on many occasions, she had made more than a few 
unfortunate suspects uncomfortably realize that fact.   

Scully continued with a soft deliberateness that he had never 
before witnessed from her.  "For reasons I am not quite 
comprehending, I'm feeling that if I let you leave me tonight, 
there will be important things that might never be said about what 
happened earlier," she began.  "And I don't want that to happen."  
He was touched by the depth of her expression and noticed a hint 
of tears beginning to well on her lids.  

"Scully..." he said with a sad resignation clearly evident in his 
voice.

"Mulder, I know you have been feeling lost and alone lately and
despite a couple of attempts to talk,I feel I haven't really been 
there for you.  But I want you to understand it isn't because I 
haven't wanted to be," she said as she looked at him through 
unacknowledged tears.  "You can't know how much I have wanted to 
take you in my arms and hold on to you for dear life."   He took 
her left hand in his and touched it to his face. She unfolded her 
hand from his grasp and touched her fingers to his cheek
before returning her unsteady hand to the safe haven of her lap.  
She needed to stay grounded.

Almost as if being startled from a comfortable sleep, Mulder 
suddenly stood, breaking the intensity of the moment.  "Scully, 
I really need to go."

"Mulder, please.  Please don't do this.  Something is going on 
here and we need to sort it out. I know you're scared---I am, 
too.  Actually, I am absolutely petrified.  But..."  She stopped 
in mid-sentence as she watched him grab his coat and move toward 
the door in one fell swoop. "Mulder..." she said with more 
pleading in her voice than her pride generally let her display.  

"Thank your Mom for dinner, Scully," he said, purposely avoiding 
her gaze as he exited without another word.  She stood, stunned, 
in the middle of the living room, unable to fully comprehend 
what may have just happened.
 
FOX MULDER'S APARTMENT
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA
SUNDAY, 7:35AM
Fox Mulder knew that his abrupt exit from Dana Scully last night 
would probably prove to be the most stupid thing he had ever done 
in his personal long line of stupid things.  Hell, he had plotted 
to put himself in the very situation that he ended up running away 
from.  But then, he was almost as good at making rash decisions as 
he was at chastising himself.  Last night, he had Scully in his 
arms returning his kiss and less than eight hours later, here he 
was sitting on his well-worn couch in his underwear...alone.  

Contrary to his promise to himself to never give up looking for 
his sister, he had accepted that she was indeed dead.  He grieved 
for his mother, but he felt some guilt at grieving more for what 
she had never been than missing what she was.  It seemed that 
after her daughter had disappeared and her marriage had dissolved, 
his mother had shut off most of her emotions except those that 
she had to have. Being with Scully and her mother last night only 
magnified his awareness of what his life had been missing.  He 
needed to belong.  And he realized, albeit belatedly, he wanted 
to belong to Scully.  There were times over the years when he had
given serious thought to feelings that went way beyond their 
mostly platonic partnership.  Some of his thoughts were graphic 
enough that he could barely look her in the eye the next day in 
the office.  But, following her lead, he told himself, he never 
really acted on any of his real emotions and here he sat 
regretting every damned one of his missed opportunities.  But, he 
decided, he wasn't going to let his greatest opportunity go 
missing.  Not this time.

MARGARET SCULLY RESIDENCE
SUNDAY, 7:35am
As she lay on her side wide awake in the fresh sheets of her 
mother's guest bed, Scully felt the recurrence of tears that had 
plagued her throughout the previous night.  Her mind was whirling, 
struggling to sort out her feelings about what had happened 
between her and her partner, realizing that the real struggle 
would be in determining what to do about it.  She startled at her 
mother's presence at her bedside not having noticed her enter the 
room.

"Dana...you're awake?" she questioned.  "I thought you were still
sleeping."

Scully sat up, covering her eyes with her hands hoping that her 
mother perceived her movements as an attempt to rub the sleep 
from her eyes rather than as an attempt to elude detection of 
her tears. 

"The coffee is ready and I've got fresh blueberry bagels," her 
mother said opening the bedroom blinds to the winter sun.  

"Okay, Mom.  Just give me a few minutes and I'll be in," Scully 
said as she headed for the bathroom.  Upon seeing herself in the 
mirror, she knew that the prospect of her mother not having 
noticed that she had been crying was remote.  She looked like 
hell.  Last night, she hadn't felt like removing her make-up and 
her mascara had smeared below her swollen eyes. She really didn't 
feel like talking about the events of the preceding night so she 
worked to freshen her look before again seeing her mother and 
still holding out hope that her tear-stained face hadn`t been 
noticed.

Margaret Scully's insight and perception had been of considerable
assistance to Scully at many times in her life.  But this time, 
she wished it wasn't a talent her mother possessed.  Scully could 
sense that her mother was suspicious the minute she entered the 
kitchen and after pouring a cup of welcomed coffee and spreading 
her bagel with cream cheese, she retreated to the kitchen table 
to await her mother's inevitable questions. Upon reading a 
slightly speculating look in her mother's eyes, Scully blurted, 
"Mom, I can just about guess what you're going to say, so please
don't.  Please.  Not right now."                     

"Dana, I'm not trying to pry into your personal business but you 
look terrible. I'm concerned. I know something must have happened 
between you and Fox last night...," she said sensitively.             
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                         

"Mom, you have always inferred more into my `relationship' with 
Mulder than has ever existed.  We work together and we're friends.  
That's it. Okay?"

Margaret emitted a slight laugh through her disbelieving smile. 
"You know I love you, Dana, but for such an inquisitive person, 
sometimes you can be so... unaware.  If you can't see that Fox is 
in love with you and if you don't realize that you are in love 
with him, then I think I'm going to have to give up," she said 
as she stood to go answer the ringing phone.

"Saved by the bell," Scully muttered under her breath as she 
seized her opportunity to end the conversation by retreating to 
her room to shower and dress.  

She refilled her coffee and as she headed down the hall, she was 
startled by her mother's voice, "Dana, it's for you."  A dull, 
discontenting wave moved through her stomach as she saw the 
apprehensive look on her mother's face and knew instinctively 
who it was on the phone.  

"I'll take it in the bedroom," she sighed.

Scully sat down on the edge of the bed and took a deep breath to
settle herself before picking up the receiver. "I've got it,Mom," 
she said, waiting for the click of her mother hanging up the other 
phone before saying anything further.  "Yes...," she responded as 
a cue to the voice on the other end to begin.

"Scully, it's me," Mulder replied, more a sigh than actual voice. 
"I guess we need to talk.What time are you planning to head home?" 
he inquired.   

Hesitating several long seconds before responding, she replied, 
"Mulder, I'm not sure what...uh...I need to do here...with this.  
I agree that we need to talk...sometime...soon---I'm just not 
sure it can be today. I need some time.  Umm...I'll call."

"Promise?"

"Yes," Scully said genuinely and hung up the receiver.  Her 
shoulders fell in a physical sigh as she tried to collect her 
myriad thoughts into something she could understand.  Immediately 
weary from the process, suddenly, all she could think about was 
losing herself in a gourmet bath. She gathered her things and 
headed for the sanctuary of a tub full of hot, soothing water. As 
the steaming water began to fill, she thought she heard her mother 
enter the bedroom.  She was relieved that her mother had decided
not to disturb her and as she slowly slid into the tub, she began 
to relax within this small haven inside the eye of her exhausting 
emotional storm.  

DANA SCULLY'S APARTMENT
SUNDAY, 8:01pm
Scully had left her mother's house without really discussing the 
phone call or Mulder at all, for that matter.  Of course, her 
mother had inquired, but, of course, she had also respected her 
daughter's plea to leave the subject alone, for now.  Upon 
returning home,she felt like she just wanted to close the door and 
shut out the rest of the world. She unpacked and checked her phone 
messages unsure of whether she wanted to find any from Mulder. She 
found none, only an unusually long string of clicks from unknown 
callers who never waited to leave a message.  She fought her 
feelings of both disappointment and relief and changed into her
pajamas to settle on the couch with a pint of mint chocolate chip
ice cream.  If she was going to be miserable, she would at least
be comfortable.  

There was nothing on TV; she had made herself half-sick with too 
much ice cream; and she couldn't concentrate long enough to read 
anything. Emotionally drained, Scully lay on the couch, in the 
dark, staring at what was left of a crackling fire, allowing her 
thoughts to overtake her.  A sensation of numbness pervaded her 
entire being as she had examined her thoughts and feelings beyond 
what she felt was the limit of her endurance---until she thought 
she would internally combust.  "What a fitting end...," she 
managed to smile to herself.  And as she clenched her eyes shut 
for, seemingly, the millionth time, she imagined an image of her
sister ethereally appearing amidst her darkness, reciting 
epiphanic guidance: "Dana, don't analyze things that shouldn't be 
analyzed. Just trust your feelings and they'll lead you the right 
way."  The image was so startlingly clear that she was shocked out 
of her desperation---and sat up to reach for the phone.

As she hit the speed dial for Mulder's number, she was interrupted 
by a knock at the door, a knock she at once recognized as his. She 
felt as if her heart rate doubled in the few steps it took to 
reach the door.  Calming her breath, she opened the door to what, 
she thought, may well prove to be the rest of her life.  

"Hey," he said plainly, taking in the sight of her in her pale 
gray pajamas.

"Hi.  Come in," she offered.  "Um..., have a seat.  I'll be right
back." She retreated to her bedroom realizing she needed her robe. 
Returning to the living room, she watched as he fidgeted with the 
things on her coffee table in a very obvious outward display of 
his internal nervousness.  "Can I get you something to drink?" 
she asked.

"Um, no.  ...Yea, what ya got?" he stammered.

"How about a glass of wine?  Or maybe some tea," she said as she
thought better of her offer of alcohol.  He followed her into the 
kitchen and leaned against the counter as she began making the 
tea.  She could feel him watching her and turned to meet his gaze.  
"So, Mulder, you start," she said abruptly.

Remembering Scully's propensity for getting to the point, he 
wasn't surprised by her statement.  "Scully, I...I guess, first, 
I need to apologize for running out on you like that last night."

"Yes. Yes, you do," she replied with a distinct seriousness.  "And
I'll accept your apology if you explain why you did that, Mulder."

"I don't exactly know why I did that, Scully. It could be because 
I'm stark raving crazy and I always screw up anything good that's 
about to happen in my life. Or it could be because I felt my only 
options at the time were to either run away from you or to make a 
move that I couldn't take back.  It just seemed easier to leave."

"Easier for whom?" she said with a hint of the pain his decision 
had caused her.  She poured the hot water into the two mugs she 
had set on the counter.  Handing him his tea, she looked up 
directly into his eyes.  They stood there, looking at each other 
before she finally said, "At this very moment, Mulder, I don't 
know whether to take you in my arms and kiss you or get my gun 
and shoot you."  

"Well,if you shoot me,it would probably be considered justifiable 
homicide, you know, Scully," he added apologetically.  "But I'd 
rather you'd choose the other option," he said as he took a step 
toward her.

She set her mug on the counter and, putting her hand on the back 
of his neck, she pulled him to her and kissed his lips.  As her 
other arm wrapped low around his waist, he gathered her in to 
return her kiss.  Their kiss grew increasingly passionate until 
they finally parted to catch their mutual breath.  She moved her 
other arm to encircle his waist as she laid her check against his 
pounding chest.  

"Mulder...," she delicately sighed.

"What?  What, Scully?" he said quietly, stroking her hair.

"Nothing.  Just, `Mulder'," she said as she closed her eyes and
tightened her embrace.

He pulled away to take her by the hand and led the way to her 
couch as the tea was forgotten.  Her heart was pounding so that 
she felt as if it would just stop, right there within her chest 
and she would collapse without taking another breath.  She sat 
down leaning against an overstuffed pillow to steady herself and 
reclaim some emotional balance. As she moved to sit cross-legged 
to face him, he took her legs and laid them loosely over his lap.  
He played with the fingers on her hand as they looked at each 
other contemplatively.

"I didn't sleep last night, Scully."

"Well, you only got about two hours less sleep than I did then," 
she smiled empathetically.    

"Scully, I'm not sure I understand what I want or need from 
you...from us---and I sure as hell don't know what you expect.  
If you just want things to stop here, I'll try to understand and 
accept it, I guess," he said, almost already expecting defeat.  
"But that isn't what I want---I think. Or at least I think 
that's what I think..., I think," he added
smiling his skewed smile that she found so endearing.

"I have always told myself, Mulder, that I would never lie to you. 
But I now think, in a way, I have.  But, not nearly as much as I 
have lied to myself.  Or at least denied things to myself," she 
carefully spoke. "Mulder, I have feelings for you.  I always have, 
I think.  But I've never allowed myself to expand those feelings 
or, heaven forbid, act on them. And to be honest, there are times 
when I have wanted to," she finally allowed herself to audibly 
admit.  	

Stunned, he looked at her intently before speaking. "God...
Scully...I can't believe I am hearing those words come out of 
your mouth. I've always thought that, basically, you considered 
me as pretty much a big pain in the ass."

"Oh, Mulder, you don't really think that?!" she interjected,
actually surprised by his view.  "While that is occasionally 
true...," she smiled as she continued,  "Surely you have known 
how important you have been to me...how important you are to me.  
I've always thought I was essentially satisfied with my 
relationship with you.  I knew that I loved you on some 
level, I've always thought I was essentially satisfied with my 
relationship with you.  I knew that I loved you on some level, 
but never really allowed myself the thought of being in love 
with you.  And why now, after all this time, I'm finally acting 
on this... I have no clue," she said focusing on her trembling 
hands.  Finally lifting her eyes dirctly to his, she continued,
"Maybe I finally feel you need me."

"I have always needed you, Scully.  But maybe you are just now
realizing it...or accepting it.  And I just think it's time.  For 
both of us,"he said,turning to face her, wrapping his arms around 
her shoulders and moving to meet her lips.  She touched her lips 
to his, closing her eyes as his mouth pressed more firmly on hers.  
She moved her arms to clasp his neck as she began to lose herself 
in the sensations that she couldn't believe mere kisses were 
causing.  Moving his arm lower to grasp her hip, Scully sighed 
into his mouth as he lifted her fully into his lap.  

"Scully, I need you so much," he breathlessly said as he finally 
broke their kiss.  He moved his hand up to cradle her head as he 
laid her on her back against the pillow on the couch to resume 
the contact of their lips. Her tongue became more insistent, 
reaching deeper into his mouth in response. She withdrew,lightly
touching her tongue over the outer edges of his lips before 
resuming her kiss.  He thought to himself how he had never really
felt what kissing for kissing's sake was like before---it had 
always been, more or less, a means to an end.  

"Mulder, what are we doing?" she said breathlessly, barely 
moving her lips from his.  

"Do you want to stop?" he asked without interrupting his 
movements. 

She seemed to contemplate the enormous ramifications of what they
were doing in only a few seconds before looking at him, responding 
with a simple, "No."  He pulled on the sash of her robe, loosening 
the knot. As her robe gaped open, before he could move, she took 
his hand and placed it on her breast.  He felt her erect nipple 
through the softness of her pajamas before moving his hand up 
under her top to feel her ignited skin.  She moaned to herself at 
the contact, feeling utterly female at allowing the touch of his 
powerful hand against the sensitive flesh of her breast.

Scully separated from their kiss, moving her lips to his neck and 
the soft area behind his ear as his hand continued to move gently 
over her breast.  She could feel her emotions start to wet the 
area between her legs feeling him beginning to move on top of her 
in a progression she welcomed.He opened one button on her pajamas, 
kissing her skin before moving on to the next one.  Craving the 
feeling of her hands on his skin, she lifted the hem of his 
sweater and slipped a hand beneath it, rubbing gently across his
stomach around to his back.She could feel the perspiration of his 
desire beginning to form on the small of his back.  Only when her 
top lied open did he finally stop kissing her and move up,
searching her eyes.  It was his look at that moment that made her
realize she had surrendered her tight hold on the life she had 
known before.                      

"Mulder...," she said softly.

"Scully, you feel so good," he murmured.                          

"Mulder...  Let me up..., please."

"Scully...?" he responded fearing that she had changed her mind
and wasn't going to let things go any further.

She moved to get up from the couch,holding her hand out to his as 
she stood.  Noticing the somewhat puzzled look on his face, she 
smiled, "Mulder, I do have a bedroom---Unless you prefer doing 
this kind of thing on the living room furniture," she quietly 
teased.	

"Well, it does kind of make me feel like a teenager."

"If that's really your goal, then I guess we could continue this 
in the back seat of your car...," she said dryly, turning out the 
light as she led him into her bedroom.

They stood beside the bed looking at each other uncomfortably 
before they both laughed a slight laugh at their awkwardness.  
Mulder moved his hands to her shoulders and lowered her robe and 
the unbuttoned pajama top down the length of her arms.  She felt 
a shiver of modesty as she stood bare in front of him for the 
first time, moving into him to wrap her arms around his waist.  
After a moment, she moved back, pushing upward on his sweater 
until he reached to pull it off over his head.  She ran her hands
over the soft hair covering his chest before following her hands' 
path with soft kisses.  

"Scully, I want you so much," he said as he lifted her onto the 
edge of the bed.  She reached for the button of his jeans and he 
could literally see the eager throb of her pulse moving under the 
sheer flesh of her throat.  Scully's eyes were already dark and 
heavy-lidded as he helped her remove his jeans and stepped forward 
between her legs as she reclined backward onto the bed.  As he 
leaned over her, he began kissing and caressing her breasts as 
she ran her hands through his hair and over his shoulders.  She 
gently stroked his forearms while he reached to lower the 
waistband of her pajamas, lifting her hips slightly as he pulled 
them down off her legs.  He moved her further onto the bed, 
crawling up her body until they were again kissing and stroking 
everywhere they could reach. The mere touch of the soft hair of 
his chest against the bare skin of her breasts enflamed her so 
that she felt as though she couldn't go on.  

"Oh, Mulder.  I don't think I knew how much I wanted you...like 
this," she whispered.

"Scully, I knew how much I wanted you like this," he replied 
tenderly.

She knew he noticed the scent of her arousal as he moved off her,
slightly to her side, to slip his hand into her ivory-colored 
panties. His fingers brushed against her pubic hair softly as she 
delicately sighed anticipating what she knew was coming next.  He 
stopped as she put her hand over his signaling him to remove her 
only remaining clothing.  She reached for him, rubbing his
erection through the fabric of his boxers.      

"Mulder, take these off," she said quietly, looking at him with 
a look of desire he could barely withstand.

Her golden cross shimmered against her skin, flushed and moist 
with a sheen of perspiration that, he thought, made her look 
beautifully surreal. "Scully, you are so beautiful," he said 
against her lips.  

"Being here with you...like this...is beautiful," she answered 
as she traced his velvety mouth with her soft lips before kissing 
him again.  She trembled at the light touch of his strong hands 
as he stroked her stomach moving slowly down to the soft skin of 
the inner sides of her legs.  He eased a hand between her thighs 
moving her leg slightly to allow him access to her.  He brushed 
his thumb across her outer lips, parting them with his fingers, 
rubbing her folds slowly and smoothly before his fingers settled 
into her fervent center. 

"Mmmm, Scully," he moaned at feeling how wet and wanting she was.  
She buried her head in the crook of his neck as her hips began to 
move against him as if she was barely aware of what her body was 
doing.  Her breath became serenely uniform as she was lulled by 
the rhythm of his fingers. Then she reached for him, encircling 
his erection with her hand, stroking him as she tightened and 
relaxed her fingers.  He wasn't sure he could hold out much 
longer.  As if reading his mind, she moved to spread her legs
apart against his hips, bringing him between them as she placed 
her feet flat on the bed.  

"Oh... Mulder...," her voice sounding more like a moan. She bent 
her knees further up and wrapped her arms around his back.  He 
recognized her clear invitation and began to push into her slowly 
before stopping at her sharp intake of breath. She was undeniably 
aroused, but it didn't stop the twinge of pain that made her gasp.  

"Scully...'you alright?" he asked, concerned she wasn't ready. 
"Relax...I'll, wait as long as you need to." 

"God...Mulder," she said almost panting. "It's just that... it's 
been a long time.  I want you so much, Mulder.  Just take it 
slowly...," she spoke gently as her hands moved up and down his 
sides and over his hips. He gently moved her ankle a little to 
open her further as he slowly entered her again.  

He moved in only slightly before withdrawing all of the way out. 
He entered a little further with each stroke until he could feel 
her relaxing and moving to meet his rhythm.  Scully closed her 
eyes and turned her head away as her exhaled breaths kept time to 
his movements.  Her legs moved as she rubbed her feet along the 
backs of his knees and thighs before she wrapped them around his 
hips to allow his thrusts to deepen.  He kissed her face and her 
neck and nipped at her skin where her collarbone curved 
gracefully to meet her shoulder while they continued to meet each 
others' thrusts.  Her muffled sighs and feminine whimpers merged 
to speak his name, "Ummm...Mulder.  ...Ahuuhh, God, Mulder...."

He felt the slick inner walls of her body begin to tighten around 
him as he thrust harder and faster toward the inevitable 
culmination of their lovemaking.  He groaned her name and was 
holding on as long as he could, waiting for her.  As their 
frenetic movements became increasingly forceful, he felt her body 
shudder with spasms of pleasure as her inner muscles squeezed him, 
over and over and then again as her orgasm exploded. 
Simultaneously, he came into her with a succession of thrusts so 
intense he collapsed onto her, struggling for breath.  

They seemed unable to stir from their motionless position until 
she finally put her hand gently on his chest and he pulled out 
of her, both of them sighing. He rolled off of her onto his back, 
letting his arms fall limply back over his head as he tried to 
catch his breath. "Scully...," he managed to say, almost laughing.

"Mulder, God...," she said as she rolled halfway over to blanket 
her leg over his waist.  She looked up and smiled at him sleepily 
before laying her head and her hand on his chest.  "I need to feel 
you," she murmured contently, rubbing her body against his.  He 
could feel their fluids, warm and sticky, on her mound and her 
legs and the intensely sensuous pleasure it gave him was 
unanticipated, but wondrously contenting.

"Scully, did what I think happened just happen?" he asked in a 
voice somewhere between astonishment and self-satisfaction.

"Yes, it happened and I've never had it happen before," she said.  
He felt her smile against his chest as he laid his arm and hand 
along the length of her body and reached to grasp the sheet and 
quilt to cover them.

"It's a first for me, too, Scully. It must mean we did it right, 
right?"

"Mmm hmm."

"Scully.  Were you okay...with this?  You were kind of...um...
quiet...," he said somewhat questioningly.

"I'm not really...vocally demonstrative, Mulder.  But if you 
consider volume your barometer for whether I liked it or how good 
you made me feel-then I'm leaving to go scream over the PA system 
at Yankee Stadium," she said dryly.

"I'd rather take your word for it and keep you right where you 
are," he said as he stroked her cheek with the backs of his
fingers.  

She moved up to give him a light kiss on the mouth."'Night, 
Mulder."

"Scully, do you have to go to work in the morning?" he asked in 
his best little boy voice.

"Not on your life."

MONDAY, 6:10am
As she slept, he woke from his comfortable sleep suddenly 
remembering where he was and what had happened the previous night.  
She looked almost breakable as he watched her sleep, lying on her 
stomach with her arms against her sides,her hair tousled,her body 
seemingly still glistening with a shimmer of sweat and fluids. He 
reached to smooth her hair away from her face to discover a 
sleepy, replete smile.  As he moved toward her on the bed, she 
opened one eye and smiled, "So, Mulder.  Do you still respect me 
in the morning?"

"I'll show you just how much respect I have for you," he said with
a smile as he moved to lay half over her and began nuzzling and 
kissing the back of her neck, reaching his hand around her to 
find her breast.  She turned under him to face him, drawing his 
mouth to hers.  

"Don't I get a good morning kiss first?" she teased.  

"I guess we could start there...," he said as he kissed her and 
began kneading her breast.  

"Mulder," she said as he continued his intentions, seemingly 
oblivious to her voice.  "Mulder, stop.  I need to go to the 
bathroom."

He stopped, leaning up on his elbow to look at her.  "Make it 
snappy, FBI woman," he joked as he kissed her quickly on the lips.  
She stood, bending to retrieve her robe from the floor.  "Scully, 
you don't really need that, you know.  I like the view as it is." 

"I do have some sense of modesty left, Mulder," she said only
half-seriously as she disappeared into the bathroom and closed the 
door. He fell back onto the pillow, staring at the ceiling 
reveling in the satisfaction of where his life had led him in the 
last 24 hours.  He heard the shower start and gave thought to 
joining her, but had the impression that maybe she needed some 
time alone.  Suddenly, the phone rang.     

"Scuuully," he called to her.  Knowing that she wouldn't hear him 
from the shower, he reached to answer.  "Hello."

"Agent Mulder?" questioned a surprised voice he immediately 
recognized as his boss, Walter Skinner.

"Oh, shit!," he thought to himself.  "Um... Yes, sir?" he finally 
said into the phone.

"Agent, I'm trying to reach Agent Scully.  Did I dial the wrong
number?" he asked---rhetorically, Mulder figured.

"Just a minute, I'll get her," he said flatly.  He knocked on the
bathroom door as he covered the portable receiver with his hand.  
"Scully," he said as he knocked again.  He opened the door and as 
he opened the shower door, she startled slightly, and then smiled.  

"I wondered how long it would take you to find your way in here to
join me."

"Scully, the phone.  It's Skinner," he said.

"Shit!"

"My sentiments exactly," he said, laughing, and handed her the 
phone.

She turned off the shower and took the phone,"Good morning, sir."

"Agent Scully, there has been a new development in this `coed' 
case and I need you in here ASAP-or before," he said emphatically.

"Sir?  All that was left on that case was for the local Bethesda 
PD to apprehend the suspect," she said surprised.

"Well, Agent, they did just that yesterday morning---and there 
were two more murders last night that we suspect were from the 
same cause. So I need you here... now," he said.

"Yes, sir.  I'll be right there," she said, turning off the phone 
and slowly looking at Mulder.  "I have to go in.  There have been 
two more murders in that case I was working on."  She reached up 
and put her hand on his check and gently kissed him. "I'm sorry."

"Not half as sorry as I am. Well, so much for best laid plans...," 
he said dejectedly, but none the less indulging himself in the 
sight of her standing in front of him wet and naked.  She smirked, 
acknowledging his double entendre as she wrapped herself in a 
towel.  She retreated to the bedroom to change into one of her 
proverbial tailored suits as Mulder disappeared into the kitchen.  
After finishing her hair and her slight make-up, she was greeted 
with a kiss to her neck and a cup of hot tea. "For the road," 
he said sweetly.

"Mulder, I'll try to get this wrapped up as quickly as I can.  
Where will you be when I get off work?"

"Here..., if you want me to be," he said as he bent to kiss her.  
"Call me. Let me know what's going on, okay?"

"I will.  We need to talk, Mulder. When I get home?" she asked as 
he nodded.  She put her hand on the back of his neck and smiled 
intently into his eyes before kissing him. "And... for the record, 
I am much more than half as disappointed as you are," she said as 
she grabbed her keys and her coat and put her cell phone in her 
pocket before turning to look at him one more time before leaving.

WASHINGTON, D.C.
MONDAY, 7:31am
After her briefing from Assistant Director Skinner, along with 
the other agents assigned to the case, Scully headed for the 
Quantico morgue to complete the autopsies on the two new bodies 
which had been delivered from Bethesda.  She had learned that 
despite the fact that the suspect had been in custody, two more 
bodies were found dumped in a deserted area in the motel parking 
lot.  She could determine fairly easily if the cause of death
had been the same---if they had been poisoned by the same 
concoction that had been used on the other victim.  But she would 
need to closely identify the time of death, which she knew to be 
notoriously difficult to quantify,especially if the body had been 
exposed in the cold, open air.  

As she worked on the bodies, another agent completed necessary 
tests in the adjoining lab as she requested. She heard the door 
to the autopsy bay open, but, continuing her work, didn't 
physically acknowledge it---until she heard the voice of her
visitor speak.  

"Well, Agent Scully.  I thought maybe you might be back on this 
case." She turned on her heels to find Det. Martin leering at her 
and immediately flashed back to his threatening actions toward her 
at their last encounter. He was the animate epitome of the word 
`creep', she thought, puffy in the loud clothes too small for his 
overweight frame but still perceiving himself as the lady's man he 
may have been twenty years before. He was a big man, probably a 
former athlete to whom the passage of time had not been kind and 
whose lifestyle had accelerated time's effects.  Even his scent
was excessive, with too much cologne coupled with a pervasive 
smell of yesterday's hangover. She remembered thinking to herself 
on their first meeting that he was a walking example of what bad 
taste and an inflated ego can do to a person.  As she refocused 
her thoughts, she turned back to her work, ignoring him."I thought 
I'd give you a chance to apologize and reconsider, baby," he said 
as he moved closer to her, invading her personal space. "Contrary 
to your reputation, I have this feeling that you would
actually like a big strong man," he grinned, placing his hand on 
her back. 

She stopped, stepping back as she turned to look him squarely in 
the eyes."Detective, I've said this once and now I am saying this 
for the last time.  Stop with the crap.  I will report you if you 
don't get the hell out of here right now," she said as 
unemotionally emphatic as she could.  

"Report me?  For what?  You fucking FBI people come in to my case 
like I don't know how to do my job.  Especially you...big fucking 
important doctor, huh? Well, I know you aren't the perfect little 
virtuous agent you portray yourself as and you mess with me and 
I'll have your career!" he said as he grabbed her arm, pulling her 
toward him.  She jerked her arm from his grasp, stumbling away 
from him.  She moved around the stainless steel table where the 
female body lay open and moved directly to the telephone.  

"I need Security in autopsy three," she said calmly into the 
receiver.

"You fucking bitch!" he said as he lunged at her.  

"You so much as touch me again, you bastard, and I'll add 
assaulting a federal officer to the charges!" she said glaring 
sternly at him.  "I may anyway!"

"You mess with me...Look, I know what you're doing and who you're
doing it with you self-righteous...," he screamed as two large 
security officers entered through the double metal doors.  

"Is there a problem, Dr. Scully?" the older one inquired.  

"This man needs to be removed from the premises---now," she said
professionally.  Before they could move toward him, he turned to 
leave. 

"I'm leaving.  But I'll be seeing you again, Agent Scully," he 
said as he stared at her on his way out.  

"Should we stop him?" the security guard questioned.  

"No, I know where to find him," she said, glaring at the swaying 
steel doors. 

FBI HEADQUARTERS
OFFICE OF AD SKINNER
MONDAY, 6:42pm
"Agent Scully, why didn't you report this last week?" her boss 
asked pointedly.

"Sir, I thought the case was over and I would never have to deal 
with him again. I just wanted to forget about it and not call any 
attention to the situation---or myself.  I thought it had been 
handled," she answered with a slight bit of embarrassment to her 
voice.  

"Well, he's been picked up and charged with assault and they will
be waiting for your report on the harassment charges to handle 
internally," Skinner said matter-of-factly as he thumbed through 
the pages of the file. "He's denying everything as you may have 
guessed.  But, evidently, Martin has had a problem with this kind 
of thing before.  You should've reported him before this got out 
of hand, Agent Scully."

"Sir, with due respect, if every female agent reported `this 
kind of thing' every time it happened, it would quickly become 
your full time job," she said calmly.  He got her message.

"What did you find in the autopsies?" he asked, changing the 
subject.

"The second woman was, indeed, killed by the same lethal bacteria, 
but with injections in more obvious areas of the body than the 
first woman. However, I found no points of injection on the third 
victim, but he did indeed die of the same infection.  The 
approximation of the time of death for both victims would 
indicate, sir, that they died within hours of each other. But 
they had been dead for, at most, six to eight hours, so it isn't 
possible that our suspect could have killed them also.  Sir, my
suspicion---my fear---is that our third victim somehow contracted 
the infection from the second victim, probably through body 
fluids. They were living together. I think our suspect may have an 
accomplice or someone else has gotten his hands on the bacterial 
solution.  It appears it has become a much more aggressively 
virulent strain, working extremely fast, since the third victim 
seems to have contracted it from the second and he died so quickly 
after the probable time of contact.  I think it is important, sir, 
that you afford all efforts in locating this accomplice, or this 
other person,as soon as possible or we may be finding corpses--and
the bacteria, all over the place."

"We have all available agents on the case, Agent Scully.  We're 
hoping to get more information out of the suspect, but if this is, 
as you fear, a situation where someone unrelated in any way to our 
suspect has gotten his hands on this... bacteria, then we're 
really at a loss on this.  We would have no place to start, except
maybe with the bodies."

"Sir, if Agent Mulder were...," she began, knowing that Mulder 
would certainly be the best person to establish a possible profile 
of another suspect.

"That'll be all, Agent Scully.  Please remain available on this," 
he said dismissively.

DANA SCULLY'S APARTMENT
MONDAY, 7:05pm
She opened the door to her apartment and was surprised to find it
dark---and unoccupied.  She had called Mulder earlier in the day
to let him know she thought she would be only a bit late, not too 
late, so she had expected to find him there---no, she had 
anticipated it.  Her every free thought all day had been about 
nothing except anticipation of another evening---another night---
with him.  All day at work, remembering last night had made it
more than difficult to prevent her mind from wandering before 
catching herself, hoping that no one had noticed her concupiscent
flush.

She tossed her keys on the table and turned on the small lamp next 
to her phone as she pressed the button to listen to her messages.  
Only one from her mother, "Nothing special, Dana.  Just wanted to 
see how things were going. Call me soon." Scully removed her coat 
as she headed for her bedroom. She questioned herself again about 
Mulder's absence when suddenly she was grabbed from behind and 
thrown to her bed.

"Dammit!!" she yelled.  "Dammit!!  Mulder, you scared me!!"

"You didn't think I wouldn't be here, did you Scully?" he 
laughed into her hair, still laying on top of her.  	

"Actually, no Mulder.  But I didn't expect you to tackle me in 
the dark either," she said more calmly.  "Let me up."

"Only if you let me tackle you again later..."

"Oh, I think that can be arranged...," she said as he climbed off 
her, rolling onto his back on the bed, watching her as she stood.  
"...if you live that long!" she laughed as she smacked his thigh 
before jumping on top of him.  Slipping her arms under his 
shoulders, she began kissing him, moving from his lips, to his 
face then down his neck before moving back to his lips.  She 
kissed and licked his face and under his chin and nipped at
his neck until he lifted her face to look at her.

"This will have to wait, Scully.  I've got a surprise that can't 
wait. Slip into something more comfortable, or slip out of 
something uncomfortable, and give me a couple of minutes... 
in the kitchen," he grinned at her.

"Kitchen?  You?  Surely, you're kidding," she said incredulously,
almost laughing. 

"Now, you've hurt my feelings," he said faking a pout as he left 
her bedroom.

She changed out of her suit and removed her make-up, trying to 
give him more time---she didn't want to spoil his big surprise. 
She peeked around the corner into the kitchen and almost gasped 
at the sight before her.  The table was interestingly set, 
complete with flowers in water in an empty olive jar he'd 
obviously retrieved from her recycle bin and a candle lopsidedly 
burning in a salad dressing cruet.  A bottle of champagne was 
chilling in the sink filled with ice and a small package wrapped 
in yesterday's copy of `Doonesbury' sat next to one of the 
plates.  Without turning around from his place at the counter, 
but sensing her watching eyes, he said, "Come on in, Scully.  
I'm ready."
     
"Mulder...," she said as she walked up behind him, putting her 
arms around his waist.  "I think I'm in shock.  I didn't know you 
had these kinds of talents," she said, only mildly facetiously, 
impressed by his thoughtful improvisation.
    
"Gee, thanks Scully. It's nice to know you think of me as nothing
more than a pretty face,"he said as he turned to carry the dinner 
to the table.  "Have a seat.  This is my thing here, you don't 
have to do anything."
     
She picked up the wrapped box, shaking it. "For me?" she said 
with a playful glint in her eye.
     
"That's dessert," he said taking it from her hand and setting it
back down on the table.
	
He opened the champagne, pouring each of their glasses full and 
raised his to hers for a toast.  "Here's to, unquestionably, the 
most intelligent, genuine, truehearted, honorable... beautiful 
woman on this, or any other, planet... whom I love and who is 
the best friend I could ever... ever have in my life," he said as 
he looked straight into her eyes.  He touched his glass to hers 
and they sipped a drink before he moved to kiss her lightly
on the lips.  He could see the tears starting to form in her eyes. 
"Scully, the last thing I wanted to do was make you cry..."
	
"Oh, Mulder.  I'm just...I don't know what to say," she said, her
voice trembling.

"Don't say anything.  Just know that I absolutely mean every word 
I said."

"I guess that's just it.  I know you do and it almost scares me.  
Only twenty-four short hours ago, I had more questions than I 
thought I could ever find answers for in my life.  And it scares 
me that just having you seems to have answered everything. I can't 
imagine being any more happy or content than I am with you at 
this exact moment.  And if something would happen... to change all 
this... what we've discovered in each other...well, I don't know 
if I could... ever... recover," she said as she put her hand over
his.  "And that scares me, too."

"Nothing is going to happen, Scully.  Nothing.  I promise," he 
said as he gave her a comforting smile and another soft kiss.  
"Come on, let's eat. I slaved all day cooking this dinner and 
I'd hate for it to get cold."  She smiled at him, saying nothing, 
but knowing that he knew that she knew he'd ordered the meal at 
LeMagines.  

As they finished their meal, she refilled their glasses.  "So, do 
I get dessert now?" she said looking at the box still lying on
the table. 

"Ummm.  Define `dessert', Scully," he winked at her.

"You can turn anything into sex, can't you Mulder?" she said 
trying her best to suppress a full-out giggle.

"Well, I guess we'll find that out later...," he said fluttering 
his eyebrows at her.  "Actually, it's just a little something 
that I saw today... and wanted you to have... from me," he 
smiled shyly as he handed the box to her.

"Mulder, you've really been busy today," she smiled as she tore 
the paper from the box.  As she opened it, she almost gasped as 
she looked at him.  "Mulder.  They're beautiful!  Mulder...," she 
said, obviously moved by his gift.  They were small gold hoop 
earrings with a diamond at the bottom of each ring.  He had 
spotted them at a jewelry store downtown and wanted something 
special for his first gift to her.  She removed the earrings she 
was wearing and put her new ones in their place, watching his
reaction.  "I hate to be cliche', but you shouldn't have, Mulder.  
Really," she said as she placed her palm against his face before 
moving to kiss him. She looked at him sincerely, whispering 
"Thank you," before kissing him lightly twice more.  Touching the 
earrings again, she said somewhat sadly, "You know, Mulder, I 
can't wear these to work.  They're larger than regulation."

"I know, Scully.  That's why I bought that particular pair.  I 
don't want you to wear them to work.  They're just for when it's 
us... you and me."  She moved over to him and sat on his lap, 
looking at him for several seconds before wrapping her arms around 
his neck and kissing him---hard, on the lips.  He embraced her, 
drawing her to him as he returned her impassioned kiss.  He put
his hands up under her sweater, rubbing her back as they continued 
to kiss.

She moved her kisses across his face, along his jawline to his 
ear, then whispered "I want you, Mulder. Right now."  He placed 
his hand under her knees and stood to carry her as she continued 
kissing and licking his neck and face.  

They were silent as they moved to the bedroom.  He laid her on 
the bed, moving on top of her as they continued the frenetic pace 
of their kissing.  She moved under him as a sign for him to move 
off of her.  As he rolled over on his back, she climbed on top of 
him continuing her kisses. He reached to pull her sweater off and 
she moved off him to stand at the side of the bed.  She removed 
her sweater and reached to push her slacks off before putting her
hand out to him as he moved to get off the bed.  He pulled his 
shirt off and reached to undo the button on his jeans, slipping
them off in one quick movement.  They crawled back on the bed 
together and she resumed her position on top of him, stroking his 
hair as she looked into his eyes.  

"Mulder, I love you," she said clearly.  "I love you."

"And I love you, Scully.  More than I could ever say."

They continued to kiss and he reached around her back to undo her 
bra and she pulled it off over her arms and hurriedly tossed it to 
the floor. Her passion was intensified upon feeling his erection 
beneath his boxers.  She wanted him and didn't want to have to 
wait through too much foreplay.  Not this time.  She tugged at 
his underwear and as he reached to remove them, she rolled off him 
and removed her own.  She moved back over on him, rubbing his 
penis lightly with her soft pubic hair.  

"Scully, you keep that up and this isn't going to take long."

"That's what I'm hoping.  Mulder, now.  Please."

"Are you ready?"

"I've been ready since six o'clock this morning," she cooed.

He put one arm up her back and one around her hips as he rolled 
her over onto her back.  She opened her legs and he slid into her 
quickly.  She moaned faintly as she wrapped her arms around his 
sides, stroking his back to the rhythm of his movements.  He 
pulled out of her to move down to kiss her breasts.  But she 
didn't want that, she wanted him inside her, she needed him 
inside her.  

"Mulder, that isn't what I want right now...," she said, almost
panting.  He smiled at her, entering her again, this time with 
more thrust. He propped himself up on his elbows, sliding his 
hands under her back holding on to her shoulders as his thrusts 
became more powerful and intense.  Her body rose up and down in a
rhythm that made him realize he had found the right spot.  

"Oh.  Just.  Like.  That," she whispered breathlessly.  Her eyes
closed as her head turned away and he could see that she was
trying to keep some semblance of control.  But she couldn't hold 
back any longer.  Her body shuddered as her toes curled and her 
feet splayed out further on the bed.  Her breasts heaved in 
symmetry to the arch of her back as she struggled for breath.  

"Mullllderrrr...," she cried out.  "Jesus...Mmmm... Mmmm... God! 
Mulder...."  He continued thrusting as she struggled to continue 
moving with him in anticipation of his release.  She could feel 
him pounding her cervix as he finally came with deep lunging 
moves that almost lifted her off the bed as she exhaled a 
guttural sigh at the familiar warmth of being filled.

"Scuulllly... Scuulllly... Scuulllly...," he groaned amidst his 
grunts and ragged breathing.  She pushed herself against him 
again and the feeling of his pubic hair against her engorged 
clitoris made her come again, almost as intensely as she had 
only minutes earlier.  He felt the furious spasms of her inner 
muscles as his mind floated amidst the resonance of her 
voiceless purrs.  

He collapsed on top of her unable to hold his weight on his elbows 
any longer.  "Scully, I think I can die now," he managed to say as 
he regained some capacity over his body.  He started to pull out 
and roll off her but she held him to her, spreading her hands 
across his shoulders.  

"Don't.  Stay there... for a little bit," she whispered as she 
kissed him.  He ran his fingers through her hair, returning her 
tender kisses.  He moved within her only slightly and he felt her 
quiver, her muscles beginning to throb again around him in a more 
slight, but unmistakable orgasm.  

"I love you so much, Scully.  You are so beautiful like this," he
spoke into her ear as he continued to nuzzle her neck.  "You are 
the most responsive woman..."

"It's you, Mulder.  This isn't my usual physiology.  Once is 
usually a struggle for me."

"You make me feel like I almost know what I'm doing, Scully."

"I just hope you can feel how much I love you," she murmured 
quietly. She clamped her internal muscles purposely as she moved 
upward just enough to give him a slight tug.

"Jesus, Scully.  Where'd you learn that little maneuver?!"

"I do know a bit about anatomy, Mulder," she said as she did it 
again.

"You keep that up and we may never get out of this bed," he said.

"And, that's a problem?" she said, grinning at him through 
half-opened eyes.

"Yeah, right now it is 'cause I gotta go clean up the stuff from 
dinner," he said as he kissed her lightly before moving off her.

"Mulder, leave it...leave it."

"Scully, I need to at least put out the candles and make sure the 
apartment is locked," he said as he leaned back over her to kiss
her."I won't be long," he said almost into her mouth as he kissed
her again.  He looked back at her, sprawled naked on the bed 
looking at him with a loving smile he could feel as well as see.  
"Don't go anywhere," he teased as he left.

After cleaning up the dinner mess and putting the leftovers away, 
for breakfast he thought, he checked the front lock and turned out 
the lights before rejoining her.  He thought she was asleep when 
he came back to the bedroom, barely having covered herself with 
the sheet and spread.  He joined her under the covers, wrapping 
his arm and leg over her before nuzzling and kissing her neck.  

"Mmmm...is that you, Seymour?" she said deadpan before giggling 
when he put his tongue in her ear.

"Yes, I'd like to see more, Ms. Scully," he murmured into her ear, 
feeling himself starting to stiffen again.

"Mulder...?" she questioned, not believing she was feeling him 
growing so soon again against her hip.  

"I can't believe this is happening," he said as he kissed and 
licked her face.  "Damn, Scully. What you do to me."

"Mulder, are you sure you're as old as you say you are?"she said, 
smiling at him in pleasant anticipation of what his quick recovery 
time was going to lead to. "Let me help," she said as she reached 
for him and began stroking him softly, yet firmly.  He kissed her 
soundly, then, moving on top of her as she guided him to her 
opening.  He moved into her with a long steady push, with a low 
moan that made her shiver.  Almost simultaneously, they began to 
move in slow, measured movements.  She moved her hands over his 
hips, pulling him deeper as he moved.  He moved himself up on his 
hands, pushing into her with more force as she moved up, grasping 
his upper arms, almost sitting, before cradling his face in her 
hands.  

"I love you," she said deeply into his passionate eyes. He moved 
back onto his ankles, reaching behind her to take her with him.  
Straddling his lap, she continued to push and rotate, harder and 
harder until he jerked with several short,powerful thrusts coming 
into her, grunting her name between his panting breaths.  He laid 
her back down, managing to move within her a few more times to 
bring her to yet another orgasm.  

He looked at her, breathless, "I think I'd better pull out.  I 
can't do this a third time!"  He felt the vibration of her 
laughter against his chest before rolling off her.  He reached for 
her, pulling her over to him as she crawled halfway over his body, 
resting her head on his shoulder, nuzzling his neck.  He loved the 
feel of her bare breasts against his damp body, the feel of her 
leg on his groin.  

She moved up to kiss him lightly.  "Mulder, I want to tell you
something...I mean, I just want you to know...,that at this exact
moment, I feel more like a woman than I ever have... ever in my 
life.  I have never been more fulfilled or felt more loved than I 
do right now... because of you."  He embraced her more firmly and 
she laid her head back down against his shoulder before he covered 
them with the blanket as they both drifted off to sleep.

TUESDAY, 1:10am
The bedroom was still except for the quiet resonance of his 
breathing as she awoke, chilled from being only half-covered. She 
lovingly watched his sleeping for only a few minutes before her 
pleasure was interrupted by the ringing of her bedside phone. She 
reached over him and stabbed her hand at the receiver.  

"Hello?" wondering who would be calling at this hour.

"You will pay, you fucking bitch.  Count on it!" the voice 
screamed at her before she heard the click on the other end.  

"Who was it, Scully?" Mulder asked sleepily, putting an arm around 
her body as she still lay over his chest.

"Umm, nobody.  Go back to sleep," she told him with a soft 
kiss as she moved off him.  She knew full well who it was but it 
wasn't the time to explain things.  She rolled over on her side, 
pillowing her head on her arm to return to sleep, dreading having 
to deal with the problem on the other end of the phone when she 
returned to work. She felt him move over to her, wrapping his arm 
around her middle and kissing her ear and her neck.  

"Scully, `you awake?"

"Umm-hmm."

"You know I love you."

"I'm becoming convinced of it,yes," she smiled as she turned back 
to look at him, his face lit by the soft moonlight filtering in 
the dark bedroom.  He propped his head on his hand, stroking her 
stomach with his other.  She liked the feeling of his strong hand 
on her skin and realized she was covered with gooseflesh merely 
from his touch.  She rolled over on her back reaching her hand to 
his cheek, rubbing him with her thumb before moving up to kiss 
him.  He tenderly returned her kiss as they again began their 
newly familiar dance of lovemaking.

TUESDAY, 6:50am
Dressed and ready for her day of work, Scully paused for a moment 
to watch him sleep, thinking to herself what a beautiful man he 
was.  She bent to touch his ear with her tongue before whispering, 
"Mulder, I'm leaving." He began to stir but didn't wake prompting 
her to kiss him lightly on the lips. "See you later. I love you," 
she said as she turned to leave.  But as she turned, he grabbed 
her arm, pulling her off her feet and onto the bed.  "Mulder!" 
she laughed as he wrapped his arms around her, covering her
with his body, kissing her neck.

"Morning, Scully," he said as he continued kissing her face and
nuzzling her neck.  "You weren't going to leave me, were you?"

"Mulder, please.  I have to go to the office.  Please don't do 
this," she said laughing, only half struggling to move away from 
him.  He continued kissing her, reaching for the buttons on her 
suit jacket. "Mulder, no. Come on, really. I have to go in today."  
He continued what he was doing, seemingly paying no attention to 
her weak protests.  Almost before she realized it, she found 
herself returning his kisses, kneading the back of his neck with 
her hungry hands.   As he moved his hand up under her wool skirt, 
she grasped his arm to stop him.  

"Mulder, hand me the phone.  Let me at least tell Skinner I'll be
late..."
	
FBI HEADQUARTERS
TUESDAY, 9:06am
"Agent, did you think the scheduled briefing this morning did not
include you?" AD Skinner said sternly to her without looking up 
from his desk as she entered his office.

"No, sir.  I notified your assistant that I would be late," she 
said plainly hoping he didn't pick up on the slight self-conscious 
blush in her expression.  She sat down in one of the chairs in 
front of his desk, "Are there any new developments in the case?"

"Had you been here earlier, you would already know there have been
several," he said finally looking at her.  "But that isn't my 
biggest dilemma this morning, Agent Scully," he stated before 
standing and moving around to the front of his desk to speak to 
her more closely.  "I received a call earlier and it seems that 
Det. Martin has well-placed friends and is causing some trouble 
in relation to your charges against him."

"What kind of trouble?" she asked with a careful tone.  Skinner 
handed her a manila envelope with what she read as a rather 
embarrassed glance as he moved back around to sit behind his desk.  
When she opened it, several 8X10 color photographs slid out, 
causing her to stiffen as she shifted in the leather chair.  She
couldn't believe what she was seeing---pictures of Mulder going 
into her apartment building with packages and flowers and of the 
two of them kissing.  She leafed through several pictures before 
getting to the last one, a grainy, moonlight-lit picture of a man 
and a woman very obviously in the throes of sex.  Had the picture 
not been included in this package with the others,their identities 
probably wouldn't have been discernable.  But in this context, it 
was obvious who the two people were---and she certainly recognized 
them.  There was even a typed ledger summarizing the times he went 
in to and out of her apartment in the last four days---or maybe 
more to the point---the times he didn't come out of her apartment. 
She closed the envelope slowly, finally looking up at him, saying 
nothing through a derisive smirk.

"Scully, this isn't something I wanted to be involved in but this 
was handed to me.  I have a meeting with the Bethesda Chief of 
Police, Martin's attorney and an OPR rep in less than one hour. 
Martin's attorney is using these pictures as evidence that you 
have a predisposition for... um...involving yourself with your 
co-workers and that your charges are your retaliation for him 
spurning your advances.  Now, Scully, I will, of course, take you 
at your word, but I need a modicum of information to deal
with them on this---to defend your position."

"To defend my position...?!" she said incredulously.  "There is no
position to defend.  I cannot believe this is happening," she said 
almost to herself as she shook her head.  "This arrogant bastard 
has harassed me---no---threatened---and assaulted and stalked me!!  
And again as recently as this morning, might I add!  And now I am 
being accused of...I don't even know what!---because he has a few 
`well-placed friends'?!!  I have resisted intimidation by greater 
forces than this man can ever muster!"  Regaining her control, she 
continued, "Although my personal business is my own, I realize it 
could become a potential issue for me within the Bureau, but it 
has absolutely nothing to do with this situation with Det. Martin.  
Nothing.  And I will not dignify this...this crap with a response.  
If you need to follow-up on the subject of these pictures later, 
then I understand and respect that.  At such time, I will speak to
that--- Agent Mulder and I will speak to that.  But I will not in 
relation to my charges against Det. Martin.  I will not."

"Is that what you want me to tell them?"

"Sir, you tell them any damn thing you want.  But in the end, no
matter how they try to divert the focus from the real issue, the 
charges against him will stand," she said as she rose from her 
chair.  "Is there anything else, sir?"

"Check in with Agent Clark about the case.  They'll need you for
another autopsy," he said plainly.    

"Yes, sir."

MORGUE, FBI ACADEMY
QUANTICO, VIRGINIA
TUESDAY, 4:46pm
The autopsy on the fourth victim had shown pretty much what Scully
expected---same cause of death but different evidence of delivery.  
Lethal doses of barbiturates were found in the victim's system so 
the injections were overkill, totally unnecessary to get the job 
done.  The injection areas had been prominent, so easily located 
that it almost appeared as though someone wanted them found---that 
they wanted someone to recognize that these murders were connected 
to the others, or at least think so.  Later in the day, a fifth 
victim was found and Scully had located injection marks on this 
one, too. And again, in very obvious places.  But the fifth victim 
also had his head bashed in, most likely, by a large metal object 
such as a flashlight or a metal bat or pipe.  There were also 
defensive wounds on his arms, as if he had made some attempt to 
fight back.  She theorized that possibly the killer was caught in 
the act of killing the fourth victim by the fifth victim and was 
forced to kill him, as well.  
 
Agent Clark had relayed that he had made very little progress in
discovering any accomplice or any relation between the victims for 
that matter.  The fourth one had been a prostitute well-known to 
the police department and they speculated that maybe the man had 
been her `John'. Scully was relieved,for a change, that she wasn't 
actually out on the field investigation---that essentially, her 
only duty on this case was to complete the autopsies and to try to 
discover some, if any, connection between the victims and the way 
the bacteria was being spread.  So far, it almost looked like the 
bacteria had been spread by two separate, unrelated suspects---the 
suspect in custody who had tried to inject his girlfriend
surreptitiously and another person who was injecting the others 
to be obvious. 

Again, she wished Mulder was on the case and felt that Skinner 
was cutting off his nose to spite his face by not relenting and 
returning Mulder to duty.  But after the events of this morning,
she wasn't about to ask again. She left her preliminary reports 
and her cell phone number with Agent Clark and headed for home.  
She hadn't had a chance to call Mulder all day and they needed to 
talk.  And she was dreading it.