TITLE:   Conhouse - Chapter Two
e-mail Address:  ErinStone1@aol.com
RATING:  PG-13
CATEGORY:  Scully/Slash
SPOILERS: None
Keywords:  Scully Slash/Other Romance
Summary:  none

Disclaimer: Fox, Chris Carter and 1013 own them ALL, except Lena Conhouse,
she's mine. I'll say it again - please don't hurt me.

Comments are welcomed. Please send them to ErinStone1@AOL.com

________________________________________

The autopsy was complete, finally.

"And cleanup's a breeze." Conhouse said as she shut the door on the slab that
now held the body of Mrs. Lang.

"What time is it?" Scully asked.

"Um, about 8:30 I guess. Kinda late huh?"

"Time flies ..."

"Yeah, my dog is gonna be pissed."

"Uh Oh. What kind of dog do you have?"

"Lab/shepherd mix, she's from the pound, rough trade, you know?"

Scully smiled. "She must be starved."

"Oh yeah.  If she had opposable thumbs she'd be dialing the phone right now,
calling the ASPCA..." 

"What's her name?"

"Wanda."

"Cute."

"Do you have any pets?"

"Just Mulder."

Conhouse laughed hard at that one. Scully was pleased with herself.

"I feel like a bad mamma. I really should head home and tend to Wanda."

"Aw - and I wanted to take you two to dinner," Mulder was standing in the
doorway.

He was smiling, apparently having not heard the pet comment Scully had made,
much to her relief.

"I'd love to, really, but my dog is probably crossing her little legs, woofing
my name in vain."

Mulder seemed to deflate.

Conhouse caved a little.  "Tell you what, why don't we make dinner at my
house?  It's not too far from here.  Of course, I can't cook for shit, but
between the three of us we can probably avoid giving ourselves food
poisoning."

"Scully can cook." Mulder stated, matter-of-factly.

Scully raised a brow at him.

"That true missy?" Conhouse asked.

Scully looked slightly dyspeptic, but nodded none the less.

"Yippee!" Conhouse yelled and sprung toward her office. "I'll get my jacket
and you two can follow me home."

"Sorry." 

"Sure you are Mulder." Scully said, looking up at him. "It's probably a good
idea actually, we have some information to go over with you. Did you find
anything out on your end."

"Oh yeah. Lots."

"Good." She was surprised.

"Let's go hoodlums."  Conhouse held the door open for them.

******************************************
Conhouse drove the 20 minutes home. The two agents followed her separately in
their own respective cars. She wove through the tree lined streets near her
cabin. It was a beautiful night. Not quite dark yet, but nearly. Stars had
begun to reflect off the lake. The weather was perfect, breezy and warm.

Scully was directly behind Conhouse, lost in her thoughts as she drove.  She
was intrigued by the possibility of seeing Conhouse's home. Actually, she was
intrigued by Conhouse, period. She thought again of the look the woman had
given her in her office. The 'in bed' look.  Scully had thought she was
flirting with her, but she just wasn't sure. She seemed to be. Maybe I'm was
just reading too much into it, Scully thought, but the possibility that it was
flirting made her stomach warm. 

I should be freaked, she thought.  No, wait, that's premature. I don't know
that it really was flirting. Maybe she jokes with everyone that way. She
hadn't joked with Mulder, but then, he'd spent much less time with her than I
did. 

Her thoughts turned to her sister Melissa. She had had an affair with a woman
while she was in college. It didn't last more than a couple months, but Missy
always said that it was more intense than anything she'd ever felt before. She
had said that making love to a woman was amazing.  Scully hadn't asked for
details, she wasn't sure she wanted the blow by blow. Melissa was such a free
spirit. Scully could never be as uninhibited as Melissa was. God, she missed
her.

She would have loved Lena. They would have gotten along like sisters
themselves.  Scully suspected that Lena was a lot like Melissa - loving, warm.
Probably not judgmental either, there had been no sign of that so far. She
really was a piece of work. Scully smiled. 

She pulled her car in behind Lena's in the large driveway. Mulder was there a
second later.

As they walked through the door of what appeared to be a small cabin Scully
gasped slightly in surprise. It was really quite large inside and the back of
this room was all windows.  The lake sparkled over a deck that ran the length
of the house.

"Lena, this is beautiful."

Lena smiled slightly and turned to look at Scully. "Thank you." Then, "Hey,
you called me by my first name. I like it." Her face was soft, thoughtful.
Scully flushed - now that was flirting, she was sure of it.

"Wow." Mulder remarked as he walked up to the two women. "What a dump."

Lena smirked at him, "Wanda, come here Buddha!"

They heard a series of thumps and a large blonde dog appeared at the head of
the steps that lead downstairs. Her tail was wagging profusely and she saddled
up to Lena to get stroked.

"Hello baby, I am so sorry that I'm this late. But, the good news is that I
brought some new crotches with me."

Wanda made her rounds, sniffing crotches and looking up at the other agents.
They both tried in vain to protect themselves against her inquiries. Mulder
seemed to get the brunt of it. Eventually she settled down and sat next to
Scully, slowly wagging her tail, looking from agent to agent.  Lena said
"let's go potty little bear" and headed for the steps. "Be right back." 

Mulder took the opportunity to hand some folded papers to Scully. "Look at
these." He was speaking softly.

"What is this Mulder?" Scully eyed him, following his lead and lowering her
voice.

"Bureau employment records for the good Doctor."

"Why?" Scully was thoroughly confused, her brow furrowing.

"I have reason to believe she has extra sensory perception."

"Have you lost your mind Mulder?" Scully was incensed.

He gave her a 'hush' look and took the papers from her, stuffing them quickly
into his jacket's inside pocket.

"Ready to forage for food?" Lena was back upstairs, Wanda on her heels.

"Yes." Scully shot Mulder a look and followed Lena into the kitchen.

Mulder sat down on the large comfortable couch and flipped on the TV.

"Okay, we have pasta, garlic, tomatoes - some chicken, and a pack of gum. What
does that make?" She shot a smile at Scully.

Scully smiled back at her. 'She's like a little kid.' "Well, lets see here.
Something, I guess. We may be able to save the gum for a whole other meal...
Let me work on it."

"I have some play clothes downstairs Dana." Scully warmed at Lena's use of her
first name. "Maybe you'd like to change before slinging foods that aren't the
color of this blouse?" She reached over and pinched some of the fabric of the
blouse that hung between Scully's breasts. She looked into Scully's eyes. "Ya
think?"

Scully found she couldn't speak, just nodding. Lena let the fabric loose and
rubbed out the pinch mark with her fingertips. "Whoops, sorry, I didn't mean
to leave a mark." 

Scully thought briefly of Melissa. Her hand came up to rest on Lena's. She
squeezed her hand quickly then let go. 

"It's okay, I'm not worried about it." 

"Let's go get you some play clothes."

They walked through the living room and found Mulder on the couch with Wanda,
her head in his lap. He was watching a baseball game. "Is this okay?" He
looked like he'd been caught doing something that was against the rules.

"That's perfect Mulder. She likes you."

"I like her." He said, rubbing her head.  

"You want some comfy clothes?"

"Na - I'm fine."

"Okay. Be right back."

Scully followed Lena down the steps and into the closest bedroom.

"This is the guest room. I keep all sizes in here. Go ahead and fish through
the drawers. Put on whatever you'd like. I'm gonna go change." She left her
there to dress.  Scully looked through a couple of drawers and picked out a
pair of navy sweatpants and a gray sweat shirt with what she thought was a
college logo on the front. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it said
"Betty Ford Center".  Figures, she thought.

She left her skirt, blouse, nylons, blazer and pumps neatly piled on a chair
and walked barefoot into the hallway.

"Lena, you still down here?"

"Yep, last room on the right."

Scully walked down toward the voice and slowly pushed the door to Lena's
bedroom open. The room was beautiful, with a large bed covered in pillows.
There was a chair and table in a sitting area off to the side. Floor to
ceiling windows everywhere. Scully could see part of the master bath, and a
large tub from where she stood. Lena was sitting on the bed, brushing out her
hair. She put her hair into a ponytail, then slid a black baseball hat onto
her head.  She was wearing a pair of black stretch pants and an oversized
black sweatshirt with the words, "Runs with Scissors" on the front in stark
white printing.

"Piece of work." Scully said, and shook her head at Conhouse.

"You should talk - Betty. Lets go cook something."




Dinner was long gone and the agents were finishing a second bottle of wine.

"So, speak to me of hospitals Mulder, what did you come up with today?" Lena
cocked her head in his direction.

"Well, to be honest, not much."

Scully looked at him, "Mulder, I thought that earlier you said..."  she let
the sentence fade on her lips. She was wondering when Mulder would confront
Lena about the ESP thing. Looks like it was now. God he made her crazy.

"Nothing with the hospital records showed up. No fishy pharmacists. I hate to
say it, buy I'm concerned that we're sitting here drinking wine and this guy
could be out there harvesting more organs."

"No, not tonight." Lena shook her head slowly. She put her elbows on the table
and placed her head in her palms, pulling the bill of her hat down almost over
her eyes. "He's taking the night off. We'll be able to pick him up tomorrow,
long before he plans to get another one." She let go of her hat and lifted her
head to look at Scully.

Scully was surprised. "How can you know that?"

Lena stood up and strolled to the spot where Mulder had laid his jacket. She
reached inside and pulled out the papers he had tried to show to Scully
earlier that evening.

Mulder tried in vain to hide his embarrassment. Lena came around his side of
the table and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's ok Mulder, don't feel bad,
really." 

She handed the papers to Scully.  "I know all of that because of this." 

Scully took a few minutes to look through the papers. She did not understand,
at all, what all of the employment files had to do with their case. At least,
not until she got to Conhouse's superiors notes. She then understood what
Mulder was talking about. It was an exceptional record, but then, it wasn't
impossible to maintain a solve rate that high just by using your normal
abilities. Or was it?

Lena spoke, "Mulder figured it out. ESP I guess you'd call it. I could see the
guy, barely, but a little, from the episode I had at the motel. But during the
autopsy, I saw him clearly. His name is Harold Harley. He's a lab tech at
Mercy General.  When we search his residence we'll find the organs in a
freezer in his basement. The hard part will be getting a warrant, we'll have
to figure out some story that can prove intent, motive. That's always the hard
part for me, trying to convince a judge that I have evidence to warrant a
search, when all I'm really going on are visions and feelings."

"Jesus." Mulder was shocked. 

Lena smiled softly at Mulder. "You don't think I'd sit here drinking with you
two yahoos if I thought another life was in danger, did you Mulder?" She
winked at Scully. Scully looked at her, dumbfounded.

"It never occurred to me. How long have you been able to do this, this...
thing?"

"All my life."

"Can you read thoughts all the time?"

"No, I can't. It's hard to explain but, I can't read anything that's blocked.
If there is something a person doesn't want me to know, I won't know it. That
doesn't make much sense does it?  It's so hard to explain.  A criminal rarely
gives me anything to go on, unless they want to be caught. In most homicides,
however, the other party, the victim, leaves his or her thoughts behind, like
an electrical current. At least that's how I picture it, that's how it feels.
I can read final thoughts. Most of the time they're terrifying."

"So, can you read the thoughts of people around you? The ones that aren't
blocked?"

"Yes."  

"Really. Can you tell me what I'm thinking right now?"

"Yes. If you take a moment, think about it, and stop talking."

"Ok." Mulder shut up and stared at Lena. She looked back at him, occasionally
lowering her eyes.

"To your first question, yes, I have a pontoon tied up on my boat dock. The
second question is also a yes, you're welcome any time Mulder. You and Scully
both."

Mulder raised his hand to his mouth, covering it. His eyes were wide. When he
dropped his hand he revealed a huge smile. "Incredible. Scully, I asked her if
she had a boat, and if you and I could get a tour of the lake sometime."

"Scully, would you like to know what I got from you tonight?"  Scully nodded
slightly. "You were thinking about your sister, Melissa, earlier, briefly, in
the kitchen."

Scully stared at her in complete disbelief, her eyes widening. "My god."

"That's all I've really gotten from you so far. You're a quiet little thing.
Mulder, however, has been an open book all night." She looked at him, "I could
hardly hear myself think over your racket, mister." Lena flicked some wine at
Mulder.

He yelped a little and tried to dodge the sprinkles.

"Do I have to tell you how important to me it is that only you two are aware
of this?" Lena looked seriously from one to the other. "I can't afford to be
'outted' if you will."

"Of course." Mulder said.

Scully looked at her, "yes, of course."

"My being in DC isn't coincidental. I requested the DC bureau because you two
were here. I knew, due to the nature of your case files, that you two would be
likely to believe me, and not be too freaked out about it.  We can help each
other. I think."

Mulder nodded, squeezing her hand.

Scully finally spoke. "It must be horrible for you to see killings first
hand."

"I can't say I enjoy it."

They sat in silence for a while.

"I'm going to call the DC police and have them pick Harley up. I'll just tell
them that I have circumstantial evidence from the autopsies. When they find
the organs in his freezer we won't have to explain ourselves further."  Mulder
stood and went to his jacket, pulling out his cell phone.

"Good point." Lena knew that Mulder was dying to know if Harley was really
their killer. She thought that it would make them all feel more secure with
one another when the organs were found in his possession. She was also certain
that he would confess to the crimes. He never wanted to do the killings in the
first place. They would find a group of people linked to Harley that put him
up to crimes. Mostly low end criminals looking for new ways to make money.

"Are you okay Lena?"  Scully scooted her chair a little closer.

"Yeah. I am now. You two have lifted a huge burden off of my shoulders. Or, I
guess, you're now helping me carry it. In essence, you're saving me. I think a
'thank you' is in order. You have no idea how good it feels to part with that
secret."

Mulder walked into the room, hanging up his cell phone as he came. "They're
gonna call us after they pick him up.  If all goes well, the DC police can
take over the rest of this case and we're off the hook."

Lena let out a long sigh. "Well, I don't know about you two, but I could use
some coffee. Why don't I make some and we can go out to the pontoon and sit
under the stars for a while. It's a beautiful night, let's take advantage of
it. Mulder, bring your cell phone with."

"Sounds good to me."

"Actually, I'd like more wine." Scully looked a little pale.

Lena laughed, "Better yet. I'll bring a bottle down with us, just take your
glasses with you."

A few minutes later they were rocking gently with the waves, each stretched
out on the long seats of the pontoon boat, looking up at the stars. Wanda lay
in the middle of the pontoon, on it's carpeted floor, snoring gently. Lena sat
up and sipped from her wine glass. "I love it out here."

"It's a perfect night." Mulder added.

Scully lay on her back looking at the stars. Her mind was a confused blend of
admiration and disbelief. She would look at Lena for a few seconds, shake her
head almost imperceptibly, then turn her gaze back up to the sky. 

Mulder's cell phone rang shrilly in the dark.

"Mulder." He listened for a while and ended the call by saying, "Thank you
Officer, it's all yours."

Looking at Scully he said. "Harley was picked up at 11:46 p.m. at his
residence in Georgetown. He confessed immediately and led police to a freezer
in his basement that housed all of the harvested organs. He's currently giving
the DC police the names and addresses of all those involved in the crimes."

Every hair Scully had was standing on end.

"We are no longer involved in the investigation. They will take the
prosecution proceedings from here."

Scully was in shock.

"I've got more questions for you Lena. Ready for a little q & a?"  Mulder
picked up his wine glass and took a sip.

"Shoot."

They talked until 2 in the morning. Scully remained lying on the pontoon seat,
looking at the stars. She said nothing, just listened quietly to the
conversation. Mulder finally excused himself from the boat to go inside and
lie down. Wanda padded after him.

Scully sat up slowly, looking at Lena. "I'm sorry."

Lena turned her head towards Scully. She knew exactly what she meant. She
looked down at the floor of the boat, tears filled her eyes.

Scully stood and walked to Lena's seat, sitting down next to her. She draped
her arm over Lena's shoulders.  "I'm tired Lena, you must be too."

"Yeah."  

"Come on, lets go inside."

Scully thoroughly expected to see Mulder on the couch upstairs. He wasn't,
however, so she went back down the steps and pushed the door of the guest room
in slightly. There he was, Wanda tucked under his arm, sprawled out on the
guest-room bed.

Lena appeared behind her in the doorway.  "He's such an angel when he's
sleeping."

They stood watching him a moment longer.

"You can sleep with me Dana, my bed so big we may not even be able to see one
another from opposite sides."

Scully followed her into her bedroom.

"I have got to brush my teeth. My mouth tastes like I ate a sock." Lena ran
her tongue over her teeth. "I think I have an extra toothbrush, would you like
it?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"I'll leave it on the sink when I'm done." Lena went into the bathroom and
shut the door. Scully could hear the water start to run.

She sat on the bed and inspected the photos on Lena's nightstand. 'That must
be her parents' she thought, looking at a picture of a gray-haired man and
woman, their arms around each other.  On a whim, Scully shut her eyes and
pictured the gray-haired couple laying in bed together, in a romantic embrace.
She imagined the man's hand running over the hip of the woman...

The bathroom door shot open. "Stop that right now."

Scully jumped, a startled look on her face.

Lena tried to look upset, but a smile was threatening at the corners of her
mouth. "I'm serious, now cut it out, it makes me queasy and... uncomfortable."

Scully erupted in laughter.

"Yeah, you're a real hoot." Lena muttered as she shut the bathroom door.

"Unbelievable." Scully said to herself, smiling. "Unbelievable."


Scully took her turn in the bathroom then walked to the bed and striped off
her sweatpants. She climbed in to bed, pulled up the covers and stretched out.

"Dana?"

"Yes?"

"I have nightmares once in a while. They can be... bad."

Scully understood. "It's okay."

"I just felt like I should warn you... in case..."  Lena sighed heavily.

"It's ok Lena." Scully said softly. 


Scully woke to the sound of sobbing. It took her a moment to get acclimated to
where she was, but when she did, she instinctively reached across the bed. Her
hand came in contact with Lena's back. She scooted over towards her and rubbed
her hand over Lena's back in slow circles.

"Lena..." she whispered.

She wasn't waking up, now just crying softly.

"Lena..."  Scully pulled gently on her shoulder and the crying woman turned
over and into her. Scully wrapped her arms around her, pulling her close. She
was on her back with Lena's head resting on her shoulder. She could feel the
tears soak into her tee shirt. "It's okay..." she whispered soothingly, "it's
okay."  She stroked the dark hair with one hand and continued to rub lazy
circles on Lena's back with the other. She laid her cheek on top of the other
woman's head. "Ohhhh Lena, how can you not cry with what you've seen." 

Lena eventually grew quiet, her arm drifted up to rest across Scully's hip
bones. Scully didn't move, she didn't want too. It felt too good to be able to
comfort her. She didn't think that Lena had even woken up through it all. She
suspected that if she had, embarrassment would have gripped her, and she would
have moved quickly to her side of the bed.

Scully fell asleep with her hand running up and down the arm that Lena had
resting across her abdomen.

-end-