SEARCH PART FIVE



	Lil shut the door to the garage carefully before stepping into the 

"mudroom" to remove her boots and gear, dropping it where it fell.  She'd 

deal with it in the morning.  Chaser and Moppet snuffed quietly at each 

other and her - she'd quickly forestalled their usual woof-fest on her 

entrance.  Finally wearing only a t-shirt and sweatpants - both somehow 

still soaked through, despite all the layers - she padded into the living 

room holding her breath.  <Huh.  She did stay.>  Lil smiled down at the 

dozing Scully for a second before walking on into the kitchen towards the 

box visible in the dim light from the house lights out front.  She peaked 

in to see three kittens in a sleepy puddle of fur, feeling her heart drop 

at the obvious loss of one.  She sighed, then went to let the dogs out for 

a minute, and then to take a shower and bathe the Mop before bed.  <I won't 

wake Dana until I have the bed made up for her, poor thing is probably 

exhausted.>



	Scully woke suddenly, not sure what had awakened her or where she 

was.  Blinking in confusion, her eyes fell on Chaser and the big brick 

fireplace in the center of the room.  <Oh, right.  Lil and the river 

search.>  Yawning, hand to the back of her mouth, she sat up stretching, 

frowning as she heard the shower running.  She rose and walked back towards 

the one bathroom, knocking and calling out, "Lil?  Why didn't you wake me?"



	"What, Scully?  Oh, I didn't want to until I had the bed ready.  

Whoa, watch out!"  Steam and a large black furry object both went streaming 

out of the bathroom as the door burst open full width.  Scully yelped as 

Moppet took advantage of the opportunity to escape and knocked her back 

into the laundry pile.  Lil, yelling for the dog to come back, immediately 

followed, tripping and knocking Scully back into the linen closet as she 

tried to rise, landing on top of her.



	"Hey, watch it!" Scully, still half-asleep, grabbed Lil's wet 

forearms and tried to push her slightly dazed friend up.  Her wet, naked 

forearms.  Scully's eyes widened, suddenly wide awake, as she realized that 

she'd just been pinned to the ground by one hundred and thirty-five pounds 

of very nicely shaped naked female human.  <Much better than my usual run 

of naked bodies.  Of course, she's alive.  Very much so.>



	"Whoa," moaned Lil sitting up next to Scully and putting her hand 

to her forehead, which she'd apparently banged.  "What the h…"  she paused, 

looking down at herself, then at the still staring Scully, "Umm.."  She 

smiled in an embarrassed sort of way, then suddenly, confoundingly, she 

flushed a deep rose-gold.  Scully watched in fascination as it traveled up 

her whole body, from rounded belly to full breast to tops of her ears.  <I 

knew I did that, but I've never seen anyone else do it> she thought, then 

realized that she was still staring and handed her one of the towels she'd 

landed on.  



	"Thanks." Lil managed, hastily tugging it around herself, only to 

fall forward again into Scully's lap as Moppet, apparently feeling 

apologetic, nosed her hard from behind.  Scully, just as surprised, finally 

just gave in and relaxed, giggling as she put her arms around Lil, "We 

might as well just give up.  How are you today, Ms. Ramos?"



	Lil turned and buried her face in Scully's warm shoulder, mumbling, 

"Just fine, said Mrs. Lincoln about the play."  Scully started snickering 

again, hugging her harder as they were suddenly squashed by the wet Moppet 

and by Chaser, neither wanting to be left out.   



	A few minutes later, they both crawled out of the closet, still 

snickering every few breaths, trying not to trip over the dogs again.  

<Crawling out of the closet, how apropos> thought Scully wryly as she 

looked at the still flushed Lil.  She'd realized months ago that she was 

becoming emotionally attached to her friend to a degree she didn't recall 

ever happening with any of her friends before, with the possible exception 

of Mulder.  Although that was different, somehow.  Over the past few weeks 

she'd begun to realize that her attraction wasn't all emotional.  <And now 

-- oh, hell, Scully, just say it.  You really are physically attracted to 

her.  You want to pull her back down on those towels and kiss her.  Kiss 

her?  You want… Oh, hell!>  Scully gulped, slotted this away with the many 

other things she would think about LATER, dammit, and grabbed the dog's 

collar.  "Why don't you finish with your shower and his bath while I go 

make us something to eat?  It's too late to order pizza."



	"Yeah" managed Lil, "don't bother with food unless you're hungry; I 

can never eat after all that.  Help yourself to any pajamas or so forth 

from my room, third drawer on the left."  She took Mop's collar from 

Scully, possibly flushing a little deeper as their hands brushed, and still 

smiling a little wildly, escaped back into the warm mist of the bathroom.



	Scully stared at the now closed door for a second, then turned and 

walked into Lil's bedroom to fish out some sleepwear.  She smirked a little 

at a pair of soft flannel pajama pants with dancing penguins on them, then 

dismissed them in favor of a matching set of Star Wars PJs.  < I always 

wanted to be Princess Leia, I guess little starfighters are as good.  These 

had to be a gift.  Shower and food before I change.  Good thing I'm off 

tomorrow, it's almost morning.>   She left the chosen pajamas on the soft 

peach comforter and continued on into the kitchen.  Her hands found an 

apple, some peanut butter, and yogurt almost automatically, mind busy 

elsewhere.  <Alright.  I love her.  Of course I love her, she's my friend, 

one of the best I've ever made.  The question under analysis here is, HOW 

do I love her?>  She chopped the apple as she thought, spreading peanut 

butter on the slices.  <Posit A: Subject 1 is happy when with subject 2. 

(And when am I happy, of all people?)  Posit B: Subject 1 frequently thinks 

things like "I have to tell her…" and "I wonder what she's…" and "I want to 

get her to go here with me…"  These things are all potentially compatible 

with friendship, no worries there.  Of course, there is also the way I 

touch her all the time.  I never touch people, but I do it with Lil all the 

time.  Sweet Jesus, I even hugged her tight when she fell on me.  Fell on 

me naked.  And that's one I can't ignore, like I can the physical 

"affection" and those dreams.  Dreams like that are normal, of course, but 

not about your friends.  Stop, Dana, digression.  You're ignoring the point 

again.  You have never, in your entire life, not the first time you made 

love nor the last, felt like anything like you did just platonically 

holding your naked friend in your arms, smelling her warm clean skin, 

feeling her weight against you.>  She sighed, munching tastelessly on the 

apple, staring at the bugs batting equally mindlessly at the bluish outdoor 

lights.  <If I hadn't laughed, I might have kissed her.  And would it have 

been so wrong if I had?  Elspeth and Serenity, and the other gay men and 

women I know, aren't evil sinners.  If God doesn't approve of love like 

that, he isn't the God I've been praying to.  There's the Bureau, but 

they've damn near kicked me out as it is.  As things are, I don't have much 

of a career to protect.  My mother… well, she's dealt with worse and 

weirder with me.  I don't think she cares anymore as long as I'm alive.  

Okay, we've established that it's alright to feel the way I already do.  

Now what do I do about it?  She isn't necessarily going to want me in 

return, especially in light of the whole Caroline celibacy thing.  When she 

finally did talk to me about that, it was pretty obvious she was pretty 

badly hurt by it, still.>  She licked the last of the peanut butter off her 

thumb, and moved on to the yogurt, continuing to debate herself in her 

mind, finally just sighing and giving up.  <Anyway, it's both too early and 

too late to be worried about this.  Later, later, later.>



	"Hey, aren't you going to change?" 



	"Ahh!  You startled me.  Yes, after a shower."  Scully jumped, then 

moved away from the warm hand on her shoulder to throw away the yogurt 

container, not quite ready to look her friend in the eye.  



	"Sorry.  Help yourself to shampoo and stuff, I'll go clear off the 

futon in the guest room."



	"Thanks."  Scully finally looked at Lil, finding herself smiling at 

the other woman's freshly scrubbed look.  She looked very young, her dark 

hair slicked back, eyes slightly unfocused without her contacts.  They 

stood there for a few seconds, looking at each other, before Scully turned 

to go grab the Star Wars jammies and head off to the waiting bathroom.



	Liliana stretched, yawning as she walked into the study that served 

as a guestroom.  She was so tired it took her a second to realize what she 

was seeing as she stared into the shadows. "Mop-pet! You bad dog, get 

down!" she yelped as she rushed forward to grab the huge wet beast off of 

the bed.  He barked and rushed into the kitchen, tail between his legs.  

Lil cursed under her breath as she checked the bed only to find that, yes, 

the dog had indeed soaked the bed through.  <Great, now I have to sleep on 

that damn lumpy couch.  Can't make Dana sleep there.>  She turned and 

glared accusingly at the huge black nose and paws that were all that were 

visible of her dog under the table, then sighed a little and went to drop 

down next to him.  "Miserable night, huh, buddy-boy?  Can't really blame 

you for acting up a little…  I know you don't like death any more than I 

do.  Perro pobre triste, poor sad dog…"  Liliana crooned endearments to her 

dog as she sat on the floor, smiling at his heavy sigh.  She rubbed his wet 

head for a few minutes, leaning against the heavy table leg, the exhaustion 

finally hitting her all at once.   



	Scully came out of the bathroom, clad in the little starfighters, 

to find her slumped there on the floor staring sightlessly away as Mop 

licked her hand.  "Hey, what's this?  You can't go to sleep on the floor." 

 She reached down past the hand Lil extended for a lift to catch her around 

the back, pulling her up to lean against her.  



	"Hmm, must be more tired than I thought." Lil smiled, pulling away 

somewhat reluctantly, Scully thought.  "Mop's damage didn't end with the 

linen closet, so unless you enjoy a waterbed with the water on the outside, 

you'll have to take mine.  I'm for the couch, soon's I remember where it 

is."



	"Don't be ridiculous, your bed's big enough for both of us."



	"Umm, Scully, don't you remember I'm gay?"  She'd found out months 

ago that Scully knew, bringing her great relief as she'd been trying to 

tell her without having to explain why she hadn't before.  She'd told 

Serenity that she didn't know why she hadn't made it obvious from the 

beginning of their friendship, only to be startled when Wren burst out 

laughing.  She still didn't quite know what was so funny, or at least she 

didn't want to know.



	"And that makes you an animal?"



	"Of course not! I just didn't want you to be unco.."



	"Sorry, bad joke.  I'd be a lot more uncomfortable with you on the 

couch, especially that one, which has enough lumps that it could almost 

qualify as a vertebrate.  Come on, you're half dead with exhaustion."



	"'Zat your professional opinion, Ms. Pathologist?" mumbled Lil 

somewhat grouchily as Scully pulled her towards the bedroom, tired enough 

to be miffed that she couldn't make her generous sacrifice.  She sighed and 

settled down into her bed, finally turning to smile sheepishly at Scully.  

"Thanks, Dana."



	"You're welcome.  Good night."  Scully reached up and pulled the 

light switch, then settling into her side of the bed.  She turned to look 

at Lil as her eyes adjusted to the slight gleam of light from outside, her 

own smile softening a little as she saw that her friend was already asleep, 

within seconds of hitting the pillow.  She lay like that for quite awhile, 

watching Lil sleep, before she joined her.