By FatCat
FatCat33047@yahoo.com
 

Website:         Please visit the wonderful home Donnilee has
                 created to house my stories at
                 http://donnilee.tripod.com.  Just follow my
                 name to find my stories.  While you are
                 there, take a peek at Donnilee's great
                 stories and those of the other authors that
                 she has at her site.

                 Thank you Donni!
 
Rating:          R

Category:        MSR, Post Episode

Classification:  V, RST

Spoilers:        No Requiem, Season 8 or Season 9 in this
                 world, but you will find bits and pieces of
                 "all things"

Archive:         As you wish, but please keep my name attached
                 and let me know where to visit.

Summary:         Scully's emotions erupt after a case
                 following her meeting with Daniel in "all
                 things".

Disclaimer:      They aren't mine nor anyone's but CC, Fox,
                 1013, DD and GA own the characterizations.
                 These works are used without permission, no
                 infringement intended.

Author's Notes:  What?  This old thing?  It's just an old
                 ditty that I found on my disk and cleaned up
                 for posting.  Spring is here, but I long for
                 our California summer nights.

                 Feedback always appreciated.

                 Thanks to Donnilee for the beta!

XXXXXXXXXX

ROUTE 16,
WEST OF JACKSON, CALIFORNIA
ON ROUTE TO THE SACRAMENTO, CA AIRPORT
JULY 21, 2000

Dana Scully sat in the passenger seat of the rented Taurus
with her eyes shut.  Fox Mulder, her ever-talkative partner
was doing what he did best, talking as he drove, continuing to
expound on his latest theory about the case they had just
wrapped up.

"Mulder!  Shut up, PLEASE!"  Scully nearly shouted, glaring at
him.  "I just cannot discuss this case right now.  Okay?"  She
had tried to tell him with out resorting to this confrontation
that she didn't want to talk since they pulled away from the
Jackson City Jail.  He had remained oblivious until her
outburst.

"Sure, Scully, okay."  Mulder glanced at her with a look of
surprise and concern on his face. "You feel okay?"

"I'm fine.  I just need some downtime," Scully said as she
shut her eyes again, turning her face towards the side window.

"Um, okay.  Just let me know if you want to stop.  Do you mind
if I play the radio?"

She shook her head no.  Some music might be just the thing
now.

On they drove, past dinner time, trying to get out of the
Sierras to Sacramento in time to grab a night's sleep before
boarding their flight home early the next morning.  The sun
was setting when they finally pulled into a motel that looked
as if it met FBI standards ... cheap.

Vince's Trattoria the sign said.  They chose this particular
motel from a row of other inexpensive motels that lined Folsom
Boulevard because it had a fairly decent looking restaurant up
by the front office.  Scully sat in the car while Mulder
checked them in.  She had not spoken two words to him the
entire drive after asking him to shut up.  He, for once, had
complied with her request.  Not a word had passed through his
beautiful lips during the entire afternoon.

He climbed back into the car and drove around to their rooms.
He handed her the keys and moved to unload the trunk.  She had
both doors open by the time he dumped their luggage in their
respective rooms.

"Scully, they have room service here if you don't want to go
out to the restaurant to eat," he offered.

She nodded and started to turn away but stopped.  "I ... I
want to go to the restaurant to eat after I get cleaned up."
Her voice sounded rusty, as if she had not used it for years
instead of hours.

"Okay, just knock when you're ready," he said.

The rooms were surprisingly nice.  They were spacious, clean,
and freshly decorated.  Within the hour she gave a soft rap on
the door joining their rooms.  He pulled it open so quickly
she knew he had been waiting for her knock for some time.

They walked through the soft California night toward the
restaurant.  The parking lot was crowded but there wasn't a
waiting line.  The restaurant looked small from the outside,
but when they stepped into the main dining room they could see
that it really was a series of small rooms that had been
opened to accommodate a surprisingly large seating capacity.

They were ushered into a small alcove-type room tastefully
decorated and dimly lit.  The tables were covered with
sparkling white tablecloths with the prerequisite Italian flag
colors of green, red, and white dominating the table settings.
Linen napkins and a small floral arrangement with a candle
flickering in the middle of the table, created a very nice but
unexpected ambiance.

Dina, the daughter of the owner, seated them.  She was a
slender girl with long, curly, brown hair, laughing brown
eyes, and a ready smile.  She turned this smile on Scully who
could not help but smile back as Dina explained the specials
of the day.

Scully glanced over at Mulder and was shocked by the look on
his face.  He obviously had been watching her exchange with
Dina and did not expect her to look at him.  His expression of
pain surprised her.  She thought, at first, he was staring at
Dina.  The young woman bore a marked resemblance to Mulder's
sister, Samantha.  Scully immediately assumed that she
reminded him of sister.  She dismissed this thought as he
guiltily looked down at the menu when he caught her stare.

Her mind reeled.  He had been looking at HER with that pained
expression.  She caused his pain.  'What now, Mulder?' she
wondered.  Then she deliberately chose to ignore it.  Today,
she had her own burden to carry.  She wasn't sure her size
four shoulders were up to assuming any more of his burden
today.

Their dinner was as exceptional as the delicious smells
emanating from the kitchen hinted it would be.  Scully had the
minestrone soup and hot sour dough bread.  Mulder had the
heart attack on a plate ... a dish called Land, Sea, and
Italy.  It came with a generous salad, followed by a huge
platter with a small steak, a fried cod filet, and a big
serving of spaghetti with meat sauce.

The homemade soup was the best minestrone she had ever had.
It came with small round loaves of sour dough bread, hot from
the oven.  It was served with a lovely house wine that Dina
had suggested.  It was a local wine and neither of them had
heard of the brand before.  Scully took note of the name.  She
would look for it when she got home.

The delicious food worked as a panacea, melting away the
stress of the day.  'Of course, the wine probably helped the
most,' Scully thought.  Mulder offered her a taste of his food
and when she voiced her pleasure at the wonderful flavors of
it all, began feeding small bites to Scully.  She was
buttering bread for them both and was soon reciprocating by
feeding Mulder bites of bread and butter dipped into her soup.
Neither noticed when the room began to clear and they were
left alone.  They had fallen into their long pattern of
conversational ease.  They both had brilliant minds and were
capable of playing devil's advocate on a wide variety of
subjects.  A casual listener would be shocked to learn that
they were not lovers.  They sounded like any garden-variety
couple out for a dinner date.

"Are you ready for some dessert?" Dina asked.  "We're closing
the kitchen in a few minutes, but we have plenty of time for
your dessert."

"What do you have?" Scully asked, as she smiled at her again.

"We actually have a limited dessert menu, but we feel we have
chosen the best of the best.  We have a triple chocolate cake
served with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce or we have
authentic Italian spumoni ice cream.  What will it be?"

Mulder glanced at Scully and then up at Dina and asked if they
could have one of each.  He also ordered another bottle of the
wine they had been drinking to go.

Dina smiled and said she would see what she could do for them.

Minutes later they were walking back toward their rooms,
desserts, wine, corkscrew, and glasses in hand.

"Wait a minute, Scully.  What's this?"  Mulder pulled her over
to the side of their building.  A redwood gate opened to
disclose a huge, swimming pool and patio area.  The only
lights on were the underwater fixtures in the pool.  They cast
an aqua glow over the entire enclosed area.  "I think we're on
to something here," he said as they walked through the gate,
shutting it behind them.  He smiled and pulled out a chair for
her at a nearby table.

Scully shook her head as she smiled and toed off her shoes,
walking to the edge of the pool.  She bent over and rolled the
legs of her jeans up above her knees.  She walked down the
steps into the water and sat down on the side of the pool,
swishing her feet back and forth.

"I'll take my cake here, if you please."  She grinned up at
Mulder.

He for once seemed to be at a loss for words and merely handed
her the cake, a fork and a glass for her wine.

Scully stared up at the stars and breathed in the fragrant
night air as Mulder opened the bottle of wine.  "I miss living
in California.  When you're back east you forget about how
wonderful the weather is here during most of the year.  I fell
in love with this state when my dad was stationed in San
Diego.  I can't believe I didn't relocate here after I passed
my boards.  Mom always said she and Dad wanted to come back
here when they retired," Scully's voice trailed off.

Mulder concentrated on her words.  His profiler's mind trying
to make a connection, trying to understand her mood using the
clues she'd given him today.   A look of sudden understanding
flashed over Mulder's face.

"It's your dad's birthday, isn't it, Scully?" he said.
"That's why you were so ..."

"Bitchy?" she offered, cutting him off, as she nodded.  "This
morning was particularly hard.  We had been interviewing all
those elderly couples at the casino where the murders occurred
and I almost lost it.  I kept asking myself why those people
survived and my Dad didn't.  Why did those women remain with
the love of their lives and my mother was left so lonely?"
She took a sip of her wine and said, "And then it got really
weird, Mulder.  I began to ask myself why it seemed I would
never have what they had, someone in my life that had been
there with me through everything.  I just lost it in the car.

I'm sorry," she finished quietly.

His silence scared her.  He was kneeling next to her, gazing
into his cup of spumoni with such intensity she thought he had
found the answers to all the questions of the universe in
there.  She touched his arm.

When he finally looked up at her the look of anguish she had
seen on his face was back.  "Mulder, what is it?"

"Scully," he stopped, suddenly without words.  He swallowed
and tried again.  In a low voice he said, "I know you want a
normal life, Scully.  You want the husband and the kids and
the palm trees in the back yard.  So much of what has happened
to you since we met has removed that dream from the realm of
possibility.  I'm sorry for all the things that have happened
to you since we became partners.  I feel I am to blame for
many of those rotten things, if not directly, indirectly.  The
very fact you are my partner has made you a target of sorts.
I would give up my life to give you back Melissa, or Emily, or
the ability to have a child, even if it was with someone else.
I've known this for some time but I've ignored it."

She stared at him as he spoke.  Her face placid, not giving
away for a moment the thoughts that were racing through her
brain.  'What did he mean, *even if it was with someone else*?
Did that mean he'd thought about having those things with
her?' she wondered.

He hesitated before going on and then said, "I haven't wanted
to think of my life without you.  We both know I'm a selfish,
self-centered jerk at times, but my need to continue on the X-
Files isn't the most important thing anymore.  It's what you
need that's important to me.  You need the stability of all
the normal things and you're not going to find them while we
work together.  I love you enough to want you to be happy,
even if it's not with me.  You should consider quitting the X-
Files, maybe even the FBI."  He finally stopped rambling and
stared into the water.

His shoulders were hunched as if he were expecting a blow.
Throughout his speech she had sat still, listening intently.
"Mulder, just when did you reach this brilliant conclusion?"
she finally asked, sounding disgusted.

He stole a glance at her and then turned fully to face her.
She was calmly eating her dessert.  He became mesmerized as
she swirled the spoon in the container and picked out each
bite.  Just enough chocolate cake, just enough vanilla ice
cream, just enough fudge sauce and up to her mouth.  He
watched as she closed her eyes in pleasure and hummed as the
combination of flavors spread over her tongue.  She opened her
eyes and smiled as she let her small pink tongue run over her
lips to capture the final taste of chocolate then flick over
the spoon again, seeking every morsel.

He swallowed hard and said, "While we were in the car, you
were so upset it gave me time to think.  I realized that you
don't smile much anymore, Scully.  You smile at strangers more
readily than you do with your friends or family.  You have a
beautiful smile and I miss it.  If someone else could give you
happiness, so be it.  Maybe Daniel ..." he stopped abruptly.
Had he gone too far?  He watched her eat for a moment and her
actions began to arouse him.  "Is that dessert as good as you
make it seem, Scully?" he finally had to ask.

'There it was again. 'If someone else could give you
happiness, so be it.'  Why did he continually think that
someone else could give me happiness and he couldn't,' she
wondered.  'Maybe because he doesn't know how you feel about
him,' the small voice of her conscience told her.

She swept her gaze over him before speaking. "How ... valiant
of you," she said sarcastically as she took yet another bite.
This time her small white teeth scraped the spoon as she
pulled the chocolate into her mouth.

Mulder was getting more and more uncomfortable.  He shifted to
give his body relief from confines of his tight jeans.  Here
he was trying to do the noble thing and let her go and all she
could do was tease him with her erotic actions.

"Scully, say something!  I just spilled my guts to you and all
you're doing is eating that dessert as if it's the most
important thing in the entire world."

"Mulder," she said playfully as she carefully scraped the
carton and stuck the last perfect spoonful of the dessert into
his mouth. "Shut up."  She stood up, walking out of the pool
to the corner to throw away her container and spoon.  He took
advantage of her inattention and stood up to adjust his
arousal to a more comfortable and hopefully less observable
position.

The bougainvillea vine covering the fence smelled heavenly and
she inhaled deeply.  The air was warm and dry and a slight
breeze wafted through the fencing.  California nights were so
beautiful just like she remembered from her childhood.  She
turned and walked back towards him.

"Have you ever seen a comedian named Gallagher?" Scully asked,
suddenly breaking the stillness of the night.  "He used to
have a whole bit about Californians.  Let's see.  I think it
went something like:  'Californians are like breakfast cereal,
them that aren't fruits or nuts are flakes.'"  She laughed
softly before saying, "I always thought that the state
government had secretly hired him to make California less
attractive to immigrants.  Too many more people and the beauty
of this state will be ruined."  She stretched her arms up to
the heavens and threw her head back.  The cotton of her blouse
pulled against the surprising fullness of her breasts.

"I love California, especially at night.  Can you smell all
the things in bloom here?  Did you know that they use
geraniums for fences out here?  There are flowers blooming
here every month of the year.  I've always felt freer here
than anywhere else in the world.  Who knows?  Maybe I'm just
one of those nuts at heart."

She turned and faced Mulder.  The look of surprise on his face
only increased as she began to slowly unbutton her blouse.
She striped off her clothing, piece by piece, and tossed them
into a pile a few feet from the edge of the pool.  She stood
poised on the edge of the pool before him, naked, more
beautiful than even his wildest imagining.

She gave him a saucy wink.  Then she gracefully made a shallow
dive into the deep end of the pool, surfacing in the middle of
the pool and treading water as she slicked her hair back out
of her eyes.  She smiled up at him.  He was standing as if
fixed in place, staring at her, trying to sort through all the
signals she had given him.

"Scully?" he choked out.

She shook her head to silence him.  "The only thing I want to
hear from you, Mulder, is the sound of your clothing hitting
the ground and your body diving into this water.  It's my turn
to talk and you're too far away from me."  She smiled as
realization washed over his features.  "Do we have an
understanding?"

"Yes, Ma'am!"  He grinned as he quickly stripped and dove in,
stopping less than a foot from her.

"Mulder, this is hard for me so I want you to just listen for
a moment," she said holding up her hand as he reached for her.

He nodded and backed up a few inches, trying desperately to
keep his eyes on her face.  Her skin glowed like a pearl in
the underwater lighting of the pool.

"Mulder, I have what I want in life.  I don't deny when I was
younger, I thought I wanted the husband and the kids and the
house with the palm trees, but then I grew up.  I am an adult
woman who has made every choice in the past seven years
voluntarily.  I realized when I saw Daniel last month that I
am happy with my life in almost every way.

"I chose medicine, I chose the FBI, and I chose to stay with
the X-Files and with you.  I don't want to change a thing
about my life except the fact that you and I are two
incredibly stubborn people.  We seem to be bent on keeping our
feelings for each other secret while everyone in the world
around us makes bets on whether or not we're in love."

She floated over to him and put her arms around his neck,
easing her entire body against his.  She could feel his breath
on her face, his heart beating rapidly, his arousal pressing
between their bodies.  She raised her eyes to meet his and
smiled as she leaned in and licked a small smear of chocolate
from his lip.

"I don't want to feel like I am walking this path alone.  I
need a lover and soul mate as well as a professional partner,
someone who will stay with me forever.  I want that person to
be you, Mulder.  I love you, too," she said, finally
responding to his earlier declaration.  She closed her eyes,
suddenly shy after revealing her thoughts to him.

He hugged her tightly, reveling in the feel of her bare skin
against his before speaking.  "Why don't you and I use our
considerable brain power to figure out a way to open up to
each other and fool the world instead of the other way
around?" he suggested, as he smiled back at her.  "God,
Scully!" he exclaimed as she slid her silky arms around him.

"That sounds like a good idea," she said.  "But first, Mulder,
why don't you just shut up and kiss me."  She pulled his head
down and captured his lips in a kiss so hot he expected to see
steam rising from the water.  Their tongues dueled as they
deepened the kiss.  Only a lack of oxygen and an imminent
threat of drowning caused them to separate.

Mulder held her to him with one arm and used the other to
bring them into shallow water.  He moved his hands to grip her
thighs, lifting her legs.  She got the hint and wrapped them
around his waist as he slid into her.  Her groan of pleasure
almost made him lose control before they even started.

She wrapped her legs around him tighter and began to slide up
and down on his cock as if posting a trotting stallion.

Mulder spread his legs to give them a measure of stability and
held on for dear life.  He used his hands and mouth on every
part of her body that he could touch.  He liked this position.
Scully was significantly shorter than he was and if they had
been in bed he would have not been able to reach all the parts
of her that he longed to kiss and tongue and suckle while he
stroked into her.  Her groans became louder and longer and the
long steady stokes of their rhythm increased and became
choppy.

"Oh, God, love you Mulder," she moaned as she clenched her
inner walls harder on him, reaching for her release.

He slid his hand in between them to stroke over her clit
gently.  One, two, three strokes, and she gasped, freezing in
place for only a second before she began to quake and shiver
in his arms.

Her release pulled him over the edge and he began to thrust up
into her, bellowing his love for her as he came.

"Scully," he groaned as he once again found two brain cells to
rub together in his speech center.  "I think I need to sit
down."

"Mmmrmnph ..." she said as she clung to him.

Mulder moved towards the steps and fell down, still holding
Scully tightly wrapped around him.  They clung to each other
as their hearts slowed and their breathing calmed.

"So, Scully?"

"Yeah?"

"Want to transfer to the Los Angeles Field Office?"

"Whatever for, Mulder?" Scully pulled back to try to follow
his thinking.

"I like this new, freer Dana Scully," he teased.  "I'd take a
transfer to the West Coast if it means that she'll stick
around."

Scully smiled and hugged him again, snuggling in to kiss his
neck.  "I don't need California nights to make me wild,
Mulder."

"No?"

"No, you drive me crazy wherever we are," she said, suddenly
completely sober.  "I don't want to go back to the way we've
been, Mulder.  I was being honest when I said I wanted you for
my lover."

"I know you were; I want the same thing.  I love you Scully.
I don't think I could go back to being just partners again."

They clung together for several minutes until a noise alerted
them that they might not be alone.

"Did you hear that?" Mulder whispered in her ear.

"Yes.  We need to get out of here."

Before either of them could move they heard a small voice say,
"Daddy?  Can we go swimin' Daddy?  Mommy wants to know why you
didn't come back to get us."

A male voice coughed and cleared his throat before answering,
"We can't go swimming right now, Pumpkin.  There's ...
something in the water right now."

"What's in the water, Daddy?  Can I see?  Is it a frog?  A
fish?" the sweet little voice asked.

"No, honey, we can't use the pool right now because there are
... chemicals in the pool.  We have to wait until morning.
Now let's get back to our room and let Mommy know that the
pool is closed."

The sound of retreating footsteps and the patter of the young
child was all that was heard in the still of the night until
Mulder's laughter began.

"Mulder ..." Scully warned.

"I can't help it, Scully," he continued to laugh.  "Something
in the water ..."

Scully climbed off Mulder's lap and marched over to her pile
of clothes.

"Come on, Scully.  It is funny," he said as he embraced her
from behind. "All those years of sticking to the rules while
being scrutinized constantly and the first time we step over
the line, we have a stranger playing peeking tom."  His soft
chuckle was contagious.

Scully turned in his arms and smiled up at him.  "Get dressed,
Mulder.  We still have to make it across the parking lot to
our rooms.

"But Scully?  What's the use now?" he teased.

"Shut up, Mulder," she growled.

"I mean, after all, how many others do you think could be up
at this time of night?"

"Mulder, I'm warning you, not one more word."

"Ohhhh, what are you going to do, Agent Scully?  Get physical
with me?" he taunted her.

"No, that's what I'm NOT going to do if you don't get dressed
and back to our rooms right now," she said ominously.

"But Scully ..."

"Mulder," she reached over and kissed his beautiful lips,
effectively cutting off his next words.  "Shut up."

And so he did.

THE END