Title - The Twig Series:(3) Yes, Mom, It's True Author - Megan Sullivan E-Mail address - lessa1@geocities.com Rating - PG Category - S R H Spoilers - None, really. Keywords - Mulder/Scully Romance Summary - Third story in the Twig Series: Scully and Mulder cook dinner for themselves and tell her mother that they are an item. Well, here it is. Story number three in the Twig Series. You may want to read the first two before reading this story, but of course, it's not absolutely necessary. All follow the same timeline. Don't forget how much I love feedback. It's the only salary I get from this writing. So please send me some kind of feedback, in whatever form you desire. Praise, flames, hate mail, just so I know someone's reading. Oh, and just so you know, this series was begun before I saw the episode that introduced Tara Scully, and it's probably become an alternate universe story because of this. The Twig Series: Christmas Mayhem The Twig Series:(2) To Dance "A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives the right to dream." - Gaston Bachelard Ok, the plot idea is mine, but not too much else is. All X-Files characters are the property of Chris Carter, Fox, and 1013 Productions (and probably some other people). I have no malicious intent when using these characters. I'm not making any money off of this story and neither is anyone else. And now, on to the story - June 24, 1998. The Twig Series:(3) Yes, Mom, It's True by Megan Sullivan *********** January 16 *********** "Hey Mulder, can you grab the flour? It's in the pantry." It had been exactly eighteen days since Mulder had told Scully he loved her. And so far, he didn't regret saying a word of it. He had never loved anyone the way he loved her. Hiding that love was difficult enough, trying to remain sane while concealing it was torture. Openly loving Scully was the best thing in his life. And she returned that love more than he could have ever expected. He was constantly amazed that someone could love him as much as she did. But she had amazed him from day one. They had decided to keep their relationship secret for a while, at least from the FBI. Though anyone who wanted to find out wouldn't have any trouble. They didn't hide the fact that after hours, they spent quite a lot of time together. They could frequently be seen together at a restaurant or at the movies or at the other's apartment. Yesterday after work, they had spent the entire evening curled up on his couch with take-out Chinese food and a movie. As usual, they were forced to partially rewind the tape and replay the ending, since they had been too preoccupied with each other to pay attention to the movie. Scully had fallen asleep in Mulder's arms and he hated to wake her, but he didn't want to raise anyone's suspicions if they were to see Scully leaving his apartment in the morning. Why give anyone reason to think they were sleeping together when in reality, they weren't. This afternoon, Mulder was at Scully's apartment. She was going to teach him how to cook a good Italian meal. Actually, they were just making spaghetti, but they were going to attempt to do it all from scratch, including the noodles. He found the bag of flour and got an idea. "Hey Scully?" She turned around. "Hmm?" "Catch!" he laughed, tossing her the 5 pound bag of flour. She shrieked but easily caught the bag. "Mulder," she asked, trying to keep from grinning. "Do you have any idea what my kitchen would look like if this had hit the floor?" He paused for a moment, then a grin spread across his face. "Like you left the windows open during a blizzard?" She laughed. She couldn't help it. "Exactly." He shrugged, eyes sparkling. "Then it's a good think you caught it. Wouldn't want to have to clean up that mess." "Well one of us would have had to do it. Remember, my mother's stopping by to drop off the suit I left at her house. And I don't want her to think a blizzard hit in here. Or a tornado or a hurricane or any other natural disaster." "How about little green men?" "Oh, I don't think that would phase her." "Scully, why is your mom coming by? Aren't you going over there anytime soon?" "Sure, probably, but she said it wasn't out of her way. So she's just going to drop it off." She shrugged. "I wasn't going to ask." He paused for a moment, setting the bottle of oil next to the flour. "Scully, have you told your mom yet?" "About what?" she asked innocently. He poked her in the side, aiming for and hitting her ticklish spot. "About us. She might want to know." She swatted at his hand. "Might want to know? Mulder, she's been telling me I should go for it with you for years. She'll be thrilled." "Then why haven't you told her?" She grinned. "Because I don't want to hear her say 'I told you so.'" "Can't stand it that she was right, can you." She laughed. "No." He began to tickle her again, then stopped. "Wait a minute, she's been telling you this for how long?" She blushed. "Years," she said as a smile creeped onto her lips. "And why didn't you listen to her?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist. She shrugged, returning the embrace. "I don't know, but I'm beginning to wish I hadn't waited so long," she grinned, sliding her hands up the back of his shirt. As her cold hands touched his bare skin, he yelped, grabbing for her hands. "You, woman," he said, leaning down to gently kiss her lips, "are evil." She grinned against his kiss. "I try," she said, quickly kissing him back. Then she looked towards the counter. "And unfortunately, we have a meal to cook." She pulled away from him and glanced at the list she had made of things that had to be done. "How about I work some more on the sauce and you start the dough for the noodles?" He glanced at the list. "Hmm... sure. That sounds fair. You take the one with all the ingredients and measuring and I'll do the other one," he grinned. She laughed. "Plus I know you'll enjoy kneeding the dough." He wrinkled his nose. "Sure, sticking my hands in something sticky and gooey sounds like a lot of fun to me." "Well, if you do it right, it won't be sticky and gooey." He stuck his hands into the sink and flicked water at her in response. *********** "Hey Scully, is this what the dough should look like?" Scully peered around Mulder and laughed. "No, Mulder. You need more flour. That wouldn't go through the pasta machine. It'd stick to everything." He nodded, tossing in a bit more flour, then tossing a pinch of flour in her direction. She brushed it off as she watched. "There, that looks good. You ready to run it through the machine?" "Sure," he replied, glancing at the machine. Scully didn't own an automatic pasta machine. It was a shiny silver hand crank machine, which her mother swore made much better pasta. "Though I've got to tell you, this reminds me an awful lot of one of those Play-Doh machines." She laughed. "I sure hope it tastes better than Play-Doh pasta." He wrinkled his nose at her. "Are you saying you eat that stuff?" She rolled her eyes and looked as if she was going to respond when the doorbell rang. She stuck her tongue out at him and went to answer the door. As she had expected, when she opened the door, she discovered her mother standing on the other side. "Hi mom," she grinned. Maggie Scully pulled her daughter into an embrace, then stepped back, looking at her curiously. She reached her hand into Dana's hair and pinched a section of it between her thumb and forefinger, sliding the fingers down the hair. She looked at her fingers, rubbed them together and began to grin. "Dana, you're supposed to put the flour in a bowl, not in your hair. Thought you were going prematurely grey there for a moment." "Hey Scully?" Mulder called from the kitchen. "Is this thing supposed to shoot goop all over?" Scully blushed and grinned. "Yeah, well, you never know," she said in reply to her mother, glancing towards the kitchen. "That's enough to cause a few grey hairs on anyone." Maggie began to chuckle. "Just what are the two of you doing? I don't think there's an X-File in your kitchen. At least, I should hope not." Scully rubbed her eyes. "No mom, it's just Mulder. We're making dinner." Both women glanced towards the kitchen where it sounded like pots were being banged together. "At least we're trying," she amended. Maggie turned to her daughter, eyes full of curiousity. "Oh?" she asked, eyebrows raised. "You and Fox are cooking dinner? May I ask what?" Scully rubbed the bridge of her nose. She knew what was coming next. "Spaghetti." A huge grin spread across Maggie's face. "Really Dana? That is quite a romantic meal, you know." Scully bit her lip to keep from grinning along with her mother. "We know." Maggie's grin grew even wider. "We? Dana, are you and Fox...." She trailed off suggestively, widening her eyes. "Well we're not..." Scully chuckled, trailing off as her mother had. She took a deep breath, preparing for her mother's reaction. "But yeah, we have decided to 'further our relationship'." As her eyes widened to amazing diameters, Maggie began to laugh. "Oh Dana!" she cried, pulling her into another hug. "I'm so happy for you two!" Mulder chose that moment to walk in the room, drying his hands with a dishtowel. "Hi Maggie," he said, smiling at the beaming woman. He glanced at Scully, who was blushing and grinned widely. "Took my advice, did ya?" Scully rolled her eyes again. "Yes, Mulder, I did." Maggie was beaming. "Fox, I am so glad that you and Dana have finally realized what the rest of us have known for years." He just smiled coyly at her. "I'll tell you a secret," he said, leaning in closer to her and glancing at Scully. "So am I," he whispered just loud enough for both women to hear. Maggie grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a kiss on the cheek before pulling away again. "Kisses from two Scully women in one day. What a deal." "You're a lucky guy," Maggie replied. She looked at both of them. "I want you to both to know that you're invited to the twins' birthday celebration at my house next Saturday." Scully glanced at Mulder and grinned. "Sure, Mom. We'll be there." "Great!" she said, slipping her coat on. "Dinner's at six-thirty, but you're welcome to show up anytime." Mulder grinned and helped her into her coat. "If you're cooking, I'll be there." Maggie shot a glance at Scully and grinned at Mulder. "Such a gentleman you are. I'll leave you two kids to your cooking. Don't burn the place down and I'll see you on Saturday." "Bye Mom." "Enjoy yourselves," she replied as she left, closing the door behind her. Mulder turned to Scully and grinned at her. "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" She walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting the side of her face on his chest. "No," she murmered. "But now she's going to go tell everyone that her little Dana has a boyfriend." "And is that a bad thing?" "Not at all. I like hearing it myself." He laughed. "Well, if we don't get that food made, your boyfriend may starve to death." She sighed into his chest. "Yeah, that would be one of those bad things." She pulled away from him and smiled. "Now, did I hear you say something about shooting goop all over my kitchen?" A sheepish grin spread across his face. "I think I cranked it a bit too hard. Don't worry, I cleaned it up. Though I've got to say, I've never cleaned raw dough off of walls before." "Consider it a learning experience. Might be useful in a case someday." "You know, the scary thing is that really is possible. Hopefully not in your kitchen though." "I should hope not," she said, pulling him towards the kitchen. *********** Scully leaned back in her seat with a moan of contentment. She placed her hand on her stomach and chuckled. "Mulder, that proves it. We can cook." Mulder slurped up the remainder of his spaghetti and grinned at her. "Mmm hmm," he grinned as he wiped his mouth with his napkin. "Think the work was worth it?" She laughed. "So far, yes. But we still have to do the dishes." "Well, two of us will make the work go twice as fast. I'll wash, you dry?" "Sounds like a deal. And I'll make coffee afterwards. Decaf, of course." Mulder feigned a shocked look. "You mean you don't want to stay up all night with me?" She raised an eyebrow at him and grinned widely. "Well, it sounds nice, but I just don't think so." He began to pout, sticking out his lower lip as he stood and began to clear the table. Scully stood to follow him and pulled out the bottle of dish detergent, setting it next to him on the counter. As he turned, she caught sight of his face. His lip was still stuck out in a pout. She stood on her tiptoes and captured his lower lip between her lips, gently sucking. He leaned in and wrapped his arms around her waist, increasing the intensity of the kiss. She returned the embrace, running her fingers in his short hair, reveling at the softness. Mulder slid his lips away from her mouth and began to concentrate at the base of her neck, causing her to tilt her head to the side. "Mmm," she sighed. "Mulder, we really shouldn't do this. Dishes should come first." "But I've already gotten to suck on the dishes," he mumbled. "Now it's your turn." "As much as I am enjoying this, I really think the dishes should come first. Nothing's worse than scraping dried pasta off of dishes." "Not even flukemen?" "Ok, well, maybe flukemen are worse," she said, gasping as he bit gently against her neck. After a moment, he stopped, pulling back. "All right. Dishes. Then dessert." Completed on July 11, 1998. Ok, so it's not the best ending, but I've been working on this story way too long. Comments on this story and the others in the series are most welcome. I'm off to start the next story. Hopefully someone is still reading. And you can always reach me at lessa1@geocities.com.