TITLE:   Conhouse - Chapter Eight
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, and of course, Wanda, who is mine in the literal sense.***

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





Scully awoke to the sound of soft snoring and reached over, in a sleepy haze,
to stroke it's creator. She was not surprised to feel a cold wet nose nuzzle
it's way into her hand, a contented sigh emitted as she rubbed Wanda's soft
head.

"Hello sweetie."

Wanda turned onto her back, all four legs in the air, trying to entice Scully
into rubbing her belly. It worked, and she was rewarded with belly rubs and
kisses. Wanda gave a contented dog's long scratchy sigh.

"Where's your momma?" Scully noticed that the sun was coming up, shining
brilliantly through the windows. "Is she outside?"

The word 'outside' sent Wanda wiggling for a foothold. She stood up on the
bed, gave Scully a sloppy lick on the chin, and jumped on the floor, her whole
hind quarters shaking from the violent wagging of her tail.

"My my, someone's in a hurry, huh?"  She swung her legs over the bed and
stood. Rubbing her head she went into the bathroom and stole one of Lena's
robes from the hook on the back of the door.

"Come on Wanda, wanna go outside?"  She went out into the hall, to the back
door and let Wanda out.

She walked to the stairway and made her way up, but stopped when she heard
Lena talking.  She waited a few seconds, waiting for another voice. When none
came, she realized that Lena was on the phone and went up the rest of the way.

Lena was sitting on the couch, a pad of paper in hand. When she saw Dana she
patted the spot next to her. Dana came over and sat down, then curled up and
laid her head in Lena's lap. Lena ran her hand through Dana's hair, looking at
her as she listened to the caller.

"Ok Laverne, lets have that list."

She scribbled some things down on the pad, then turned it around so that Dana
could read it.

Bran Flakes
Raisin Bread
Milk
FE Iron Tablets
Roses


Dana look up at her, her brow furrowed.

"Ok, see you tomorrow. I'll try to come right after work, so probably around
6."

"Yep, love you too, see you soon."

"I won't forget."

"Bye."

She leaned over carefully and put the list on the coffee table.  Then sat back
and resumed Dana's head petting.

"That was Laverne."

"Oh." Scully said, not wanting to admit that she was dying to know who was on
the phone.

"She's 87."

"Oh." Scully was relieved, very relieved.

"When she runs out of raisin bread... well... it's not pretty. It's best to
just not let it happen."

"Is she family?"

"No, I met her at the grocery store actually."

"Pickin up babes?"

"No, picking her up, she wiped."

"As in 'out'?"

"Yep, as in 'surf's up'."

"Jeez."

"That's what she said.  She was carrying this loaded bag of groceries, trying
to maneuver a cane at the same time and she fell. I helped her up, talked to
her, ended up finding out that she's on a fixed income and refused to have a
doctor check her out...  Long story short, I followed her home, checked her
out, and I've been doing her weekly grocery shopping ever since."

Dana was looking up at Lena while she spoke. When Lena finished explaining,
Dana reached up and pulled her face down to kiss her.
She released Lena and continued to stare into her eyes with a look that was...
well, moony.

"Did I just score some points?" Lena asked, smiling.

"Oh yeah, big points."

"You like the whole 'helping hand' thing?"

"Very much."

"Did I mention that I clean for her too?"

Dana laughed and reached up for another kiss.

"Did the phone wake you up?"

"No, Wanda the wonder dog did."

"She wasn't on the bed was she?"

"Would she be in trouble if I said 'yes'?"

"I'd have to put her down."

"She was definitely =not= on the bed."

"Good thing." Lena said, giving Dana a tough girl look that made her laugh.

They sat quietly for a while. Lena watched her fingers as they ran through
Dana's hair.

"Should we talk now?" Lena asked the question because she'd been anxious about
having this discussion with Dana. Part of her just wanted to get it over with.

"Probably."

"How do you feel Dana?"

"Better than I have in years."

Lena smiled, "Super, me too. Glad that's out of the way."

Dana smiled at her, "But..."

"Oh."

"This is sort of a first for me. And I'm guessing, but I'd say I'm not your
first. True?"

"True."

"So, I should be concerned about public opinion, what my Mom will think, our
ability to work together..."

"And are you?"

"Yes."

"Well, I've been living as a lesbian since puberty."

Dana was surprised. "Has it been hard for you?"

"Yes. I can't lie about that. The hardest part was work. I generally don't
come out at work. I find that it sometimes taints people's viewpoints whether
they like to think it does or not. I'm one of those 'get-to-know-me' queers.
You know, get to know me first, then I'll tell you in confidence and hope like
hell you keep your mouth shut."

Dana had a look of concern on her face that broke Lena's heart.

"At Quantico, it was widely known that I was a lesbian. I was respected, in
spite of that, and I have reason to believe the same will happen here in DC.
In other words, you won't see me with a "I'm not a lesbian but my girlfriend
is" tee shirt on at the office, but if I'm asked, I won't lie."

Dana looked at her solemnly. "I could be saying something that is very un-PC
here, but I have to say that I never would have known that you were a lesbian.
That is, if you hadn't flirted with me." She smiled, "You are such a =girl=
Lena."

Lena laughed out loud. "That's funny."

"I'm serious."

"Well, be that as it may, I'm still a lesbian."

"So you always knew you were gay?"

Lena looked at her seriously, a rare occurrence, Dana was discovering. "Pretty
much. I had a wicked crush on Mrs. Gardner, my kindergarten teacher. We used
to lay down for nap time and I would lay on my little towel on my back, hoping
to get a peek up her skirt when she walked around to make sure we were
asleep."

Dana sat up. "Sick little twist, weren't you?"

Lena chuckled. "Horny, I guess, even at 5."

"Dana looked at her for a moment, took a deep breath and said, "I had a crush
on my 7th grade English teacher. Her name was Ms. Howe."

Lean tried to not look shocked, "Really?" 

"Yes." Dana nodded slightly. "She was smart, pretty. She was getting a divorce
that year, and I rationalized it by thinking that I felt sorry for her. You
know, wanting to comfort her. When I think about it now, I realize that it
wasn't just that."

"Did you have other crushes?"  Lena broached the subject carefully, not
wanting to push.

"One or two." Dana threw her a half smile, remembering.

Lena sat quietly, hoping she would elaborate.

Dana thought for a moment, then continued, "In college, I had this friend, her
name was Sheila. She lived in the dorm next to mine my freshman year. I met
her in a class and when we found out that we lived so near each other we
decided to walk to class together. We ended getting really close. We would go
to dinner together on Sunday's. The dorm didn't serve dinner on Sunday.
Anyway, she had long dark hair, a little taller than me, and she was
incredibly funny." 

Lena smiled, she noticed that the parallels between her and Sheila were not
lost to Dana.

"We got together on her birthday, it was a Saturday night. Her dad had been up
to see her, and had bought her a six pack for her birthday. I think he knew
that between the two of us we couldn't do much damage with that amount of
beer." Dana smiled wryly. "We went to the college gardens, it was by a river,
and sat on a blanket in the dark with her six pack. We hadn't even gotten
through one beer a piece, and she leaned over to me, we were lying down, and
pretended to pull something out of my hair, like a fuzzy or something, and she
kissed me."

Lena felt her heart flutter. She loved first kiss stories, even though this
one involved Dana, it was so long ago that there was no jealousy, just the
feel of the sweetness in the actions of two young women.

"What did you do?" Lena asked softly.

"I kissed her back." Dana said, looking down. She ran her fingertips over the
fabric of the couch.

"And?"

"And continued to kiss her for another hour or so..." she looked up.

Lena smiled. She was delighted with Dana's openness, but tried to contain it.
It was soothing to her to know that she wasn't the first woman to try reeling
Dana in. That meant that Dana had considered the consequences of her feelings
toward women at least once already. Maybe that fact would make the process
easier for her now. Lena hoped.

"Does this story have a happy ending?"

"No. Sheila couldn't cope. I mean, I wasn't coping either, really, but she
felt so good to me that I was willing to at least play the coward and hide a
relationship. She ended up standing and pacing. I was confused, like, 'come
back down here'. She was terrified. We walked home, went our separate ways.
She wrote me a letter and delivered it the next day. It said, for the most
part, that she was sorry. That she was just home sick and confused, and that
it wouldn't happen again. It gave me the perfect 'out' really. She blamed the
whole thing on herself so I was off the hook.  We went back to walking to
class together, but the Sunday dinners stopped. The next semester we just sort
of lost touch with each other. I have no idea what happened to her."

"Were you devastated?"

Dana shook her head. "Not really. I was confused. I guess I just figured, 'ok,
well, it was just her', like I wasn't a lesbian, she was just too
persuasive... or something. I even rationalized it by thinking that one beer
screwed up my judgement, that was a reach." Dana shrugged. "How about you? Who
was your first?"

"Sheryl Richie, 11th grade."

"Started young eh?"

"Yeah. She was a shrew. I still contend, to this day, that she took advantage
of me. She knew =exactly= what she was doing."

Dana rolled her eyes. "Ya, I believe that."

Lena gave her a mock look of indignation. "But it's true."

"Tell me."

"She was in my choir class. She had reddish hair." Lena leaned over and gave a
strand of Dana's hair a soft tug. "And this beautiful complexion. One of those
rare red heads that still tan." She rubbed Dana's tanned cheek. "And, she sat
next to me. She kind of announced, when she walked into class, that she wanted
to sit next to me because  I was so beautiful. Which was funny, because I had
braces, slight acne, and really bad hair; a real ugly duckling. I figured she
was making fun of me. So, of course, I didn't believe her, and it totally
rattled me. I was afraid of her for a while, because she always said
inappropriate things to people. She seemed older than the rest of the 11th
grade, but she wasn't, she just... had this way."

"Go on..." Dana looked amused.

"Well, I was painfully shy. I mean, speaking to me was like a random act of
violence against me, from my point of view, anyway. So Sheryl seemed to
recognize that, and she was gentle with me. She noticed that I would draw
little pictures in my notebook, so one day she came in with a small drawing
pad for me. It had a little bow on it. She just handed it to me, not saying
anything. I was thrilled. For two reasons. One: it was the first important
gift I had gotten from anyone that wasn't family, and Two: because when she
handed it to me I got this image in my mind of myself, except, I saw myself
through her eyes. I hadn't fully developed my 'insights' yet, so the images
were blurry, but the way she saw me was quite a bit different that the way I
saw myself. I thought of myself as mousy, insecure. She saw... well... beauty,
I guess. She seemed to focus on my eyes and lips, the two parts of me that
weren't ravaged by acne and braces."

Dana was absorbed in the story. She became aware again that Lena wasn't like
the other 'kids', as she had put it. She realized that it was easy to forget
that the woman was a mind reader.

"That's when the crush began. She continued to give me little gifts, and
little touches along with them. I got progressive images of her touching me,
kissing me, and some other things that I couldn't even see on late night
cable." Lena looked at Dana and winked. "So, one day during class she tells me
that she asked her mom if I could spend the night at her house. She said that
they had a camper parked in the driveway and that her mom said we could sleep
in that. She asked if I could call my Dad and find out if I could do it, then
if I could, I could just ride home with her. I was freaked, but also, a
walking bag of active hormones. The thought of having her to myself,
regardless of the outcome, was just to much to refuse. I called my Dad at work
to ask, and he was on to the whole gig immediately."

"What do you mean 'on to'?"

"Well, he knew all of my friends, and I had never mentioned Sheryl around him,
knowing that he would feel my attraction to her, so he was a little concerned.
And, he just =knew=. He knew where I was leaning, I had had many crushes on
women throughout my childhood. I think he was aware that I was feeling
something about Sheryl that was 'crush' like. You see, he's a little different
than the other kids too."

"Ohhhhh." Dana said, drawing it out. Then the implications of the statement
really hit her. "Wow... he's..."

"Yes. But he's better at it than I am."

"You'll need to elaborate on that when you're done with this story." Dana said
to her, in all seriousness.

"I will, there's a lot I need to elaborate on. My family is odd."

"I don't doubt that a bit. Now finish telling me about Sheryl."

"Well, Dad knew something was up. He didn't seem upset, exactly, just
unnerved. He wasn't opposed to my lesbianism, I think at that point he had
expected it, but he hadn't had to put a face on it. He agreed to my spending
the night at Sheryl's, nonetheless, and I went home with her after school. Her
mother was wonderful. I was brought up without one, for all intents and
purposes, and when Mrs. Richie found out that it was just my Dad and I left at
home, Brian was already in college, she doted on me. She fed me, gave me lots
of momma-style hugs. I swear, she was nearly in tears half the time thinking
about me not having a mother.  I'll elaborate on that later too."

"You'd better."

"So it got late and Sheryl and I retired to the RV. Her Dad, who was also
golden, had hooked up the electric and water for us, it was like our own
little world in there."

Lena stopped. She was smirking a little, shaking her head.

"What happened?" Scully prodded her.

"She was on me like white on rice."

Scully laughed. "Just like that huh?"

"Yep, barely got out of there with my life." Lena said, laughing.

"Well, my goodness. You poor thing."

"I know... tainted so young."

"How long did it last?"

"Until I met a boy and started going steady with him. Scott was his name."

"Ok, I'm confused now."

"Well, I had always liked him. I thought he was cute, and he ignored me
through most of high school. Then the summer before my senior year I somehow
lost my baby fat, got my braces off and my skin cleared up."

"And he noticed you?"

"Yeah. And I was flattered and wanted to see what boys were like. I still
regret the way I told Sheryl. I just said, "Sorry, I'm straight now, see, this
is my boy...  I think she's married now..."

"Did you sleep with Scott?"

"Yes. But he had to work for it. I wasn't easy..."

"Unlike now..." Scully whispered under her breath.

"Dana!" Lena said emphatically, scolding her.

"I knew that'd get ya."

"I had to try boys at least once. Well, in Scott's case, about 30 times..."

Scully raised a brow at her, smirking slightly.

"He was like a Dapper Dan Doll. I could undress him, bend him this way and
that. Make him lie still or move around... he was an angel, really. He put up
with a lot from me. He made me confident around men, which I hadn't been up
until that point."

"So you liked the intimacy?"

"Yes, I did. But I didn't get much out of the other 90% of the deal."

"Oh."

"And I think I felt guilty about Sheryl for the entire 12th grade."

"You wrecked her."

"Oh don't say that." Lena placed her hand over her heart. "That would be
awful."

"I'm kidding, sorry." Scully leaned up and kissed her.  "What happened to
Scott?"

"I broke up with him my first semester in college. I fell in love with the
girl across the hall and came out with a vengeance."

"I suppose you broke his heart too?"

"Doubt it. We were going to different colleges and I had heard rumors that he
was seeing some little slut named Jennifer."

Scully snorted laughter. "You are something else Conhouse."

Lena let out a full laugh. "You know what?"

"What?"

"I love it when you say stuff like that."

"Really? Why?"

"I have no idea, but I love it." She smiled a goofy smile at Dana, shrugging
her shoulders.

"Hmmmm, well, get used to it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really." Dana was thoughtful for a second, then continued. "I can't
promise you that things will be smooth. In fact, I can probably promise you
that they'll be tough. I mean, I don't know how I'll behave tomorrow at work,
if I'll be able to tell my mom right away, or any of that. But I do know that
I'd like to see where we go together.  I have a history of crushes on women,
it's time that I got the courage up to find out what it's about."

Lena was gazing at her intently. She could tell that Dana was talking to
herself as much as to Lena. Trying to convince herself, maybe, as she tried to
convince Lena, that this was the right thing for her to do. 

"I love your company. I love your peacefulness and stability. I love your
sense of humor. I love your dog." Scully said, smiling, as she looked into her
eyes. "I know this won't be easy for either one of us, but I need to take the
risk at this point in my life. I've squandered so much time already Lena,
wasted it. I don't want to be alone anymore, I haven't for a long time. But, I
haven't come across anyone who makes me feel like you do."

Lena still hadn't responded and it was making Dana nervous. "Do you want to
take this chance? On me, Lena?"

"Yes." Lena reassured her. "Yes I do. It's just... I don't want to screw it
up. I'm worried that I'll push too hard or that you'll realize this isn't
right for you."

"If I thought that would happen I wouldn't be here now. I can guarantee you
that you'll never meet anyone more cautious than I am. I put so much thought
into every move that I make that it sometimes gives me a migraine. Honestly, I
wouldn't be here if I felt that it was wrong for me. I'm all together too anal
for that."

At that, Lena stated, matter-of-factly, "I have to take you to bed now."

Scully laughed in surprise. "What?"

"The bed, now... please."

-end-