Part 2 of 3

"Thank you. I'm glad you think I'm a brave boy. I did
try to take care of Samantha, because she was littler
and because she was a girl."

Again, Mulder was startled by Gibson replying to a
thought before it became speech.

"Son, do you have to do that all the time?"

"Pretty much. I can't turn it off, except when I watch TV. Samantha didn't mind. I taught her how to do it, too."

"You can teach people how to read minds?"

"Sometimes. Not grown-ups, but other kids. If they
really want to and have some sort of natural ability
to begin with. Samantha learned real quick."

They were both quiet for several minutes. Mulder kept
trying to digest this new information, but his
thoughts kept drifting back to Scully.

"When did you get married?"

"What?"

"You're thinking about your wife. She's the red-haired lady who was with you before. Dana.  But she wasn't your wife before."

"You told me once I had a dirty mind, Gibson."
"That was before. What you're thinking now, it's not
dirty. Just how much you love her. And how you sort of hope, but at the same time don't hope, that she's
going to have a baby." Mulder hadn't even been aware of that thought, but he guessed it must have been lurking in the depths of his subconscious.

"Yes, of course I know how babies are made," Gibson
replied to the question that had darted across
Mulder's mind. "But if you love each other, and you're married, that's not dirty."

Mulder felt a need to speak, even though he knew
Gibson would hear him regardless. "You're right. It's
not."

Scully let herself into the hotel room a few minutes
before seven a.m. After spending several hours
coordinating with local law enforcement, Agent
Gonzalez had insisted she come back here for a few
hours rest before meeting with him again at 10 a.m.
This was why she had suggested they return to her room the evening before. The maid hadn't been here yet and she could still smell Mulder, catch a whiff of the passion they'd shared in the rumpled bed.

Kicking off her shoes, Scully lay down. She knew she
wouldn't sleep, but instead closed her eyes to hear
his voice more clearly in his head, echoes of the six
years they'd shared together. "Nobody down here but
the F.B.I.'s most unwanted." "Scully, you're the only
one I trust." "Shh, it's okay." "You know what I
like." "Keep going, F.B.I. woman." "You have to
believe me." "You're my one in five billion." "I don't want to do this without you." "You've saved me, made me a whole person." "I love you."

Oh, God, please, PLEASE! she prayed. Let me have him
back. I don't care about my cancer, whether it's
really gone or only in remission. I can live with my
inability to bear children. Just let me have my
husband back. Please.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. It was something
Samantha had said about herself and Gibson. "We didn't talk much with our mouths. But we did with our minds."

"WE did!" Scully thought, sitting up in excitement!
That suggested Samantha and Gibson had some sort of
psychic connection. Perhaps she could use the girl to
reach Gibson and, presumably, Mulder, too!

Scully sprang out of bed, noticing her muscles were
twinging in places they hadn't in years. Mulder had
been exquisitely gentle with her, but three times in
one night, after six years of celibacy, was bound to
leave a little tenderness in its wake. Not that she
was complaining.

Scully sat in the living room of Samantha's house,
surrounded by Agent Gonzalez and the girl's parents.

"I can't believe you even believe this crap!"
Samantha's father said angrily. "I thought the F.B.I.
used modern, up-to-date scientific methods to hunt
down suspects. But you want to use my daughter to
establish some sort of telepathic link with the other
hostages? Hasn't she been through enough?"

"Sir, I understand your concern, but cases of psychic
phenomena have been well-documented. Especially in
children and especially under cases of severe stress," Scully replied. He sounds like me, she thought resignedly. And I, in turn, sound like Mulder.

"We are using all available technology, sir," Agent
Gonzalez said. "But a lot of our work still involves
plain, old-fashioned, low-tech methods. Like finding
informers and eye witnesses. If your daughter could be of any use to us. . ."

"Please, Daddy, let me help," a small voice said from
the doorway.

"Samantha! I thought you were sleeping, sweetheart."

"I was, but I want to help find Gibson. And Dana's
partner, too. Gibson helped me not be so afraid. And
Dana's partner, he went with the bad man, so they
would let me go with Dana. Please, Daddy!"

The Cigarette-Smoking Man stared at Mulder, the two of them alone in a room.

"Mr. Mulder, I have been quite patient with you, due
to the fact that I'm an old friend of. . .your family, shall we say. However, my patience is not
inexhaustible. You have been a thorn in my side since
you first discovered the X-Files, almost eight years
ago. I admit, part of your persistence has been due to an error in judgment on my part. The person I assigned to spy on you, to debunk your work, turned out to be your greatest ally. I do take some blame on myself; had I known you and Agent Scully would develop such a devotion to each other, I would have chosen someone else for that mission."

He took a long drag on his cigarette and continued.
"In any case, she is negligible. You are the problem.
I'm through playing games. You can join me and learn
what you want to know. Or you can die. The choice is
yours. I'll give you to sunset to make your decision."

Back in the room with Gibson, Mulder replayed the
conversation in his head. Spender Senior had said
Scully was negligible, so, hopefully, that meant she'd be okay after he was dead. He also realized that, in a sick sense, he ought to be grateful to the smokey old bastard, since Spender Senior had been the one to choose Scully as his partner. But, like a lot of men over the years, he'd underestimated her. Scully was as devoted to the truth as Mulder himself was.

"You really do love her a lot, don't you?" Gibson
asked.

"Yes, I really do," Mulder replied.
 
Based on Samantha's "conversation" with Gibson, the
forensic information they had gathered from her
clothes and the cryptic phrase "37 minutes" that kept
recurring in Samantha's report, Scully and Agent
Gonzalez thought they had a lead. They were on their
way out to an industrial complex at the edge of town,
with a car full of federal marshals following them.
Scully hadn't eaten or slept in over 24 hours, except
for the short time she'd dozed in Mulder's arms, but
she was too edgy to be bothered by such trifling
details.

"Well, Mr. Mulder, have you made your decision?"
Spender Senior asked.  This time Krycek was in the
room as well.

"Why don't you let him pull the trigger?" Mulder said, nodding toward Krycek.  "Maybe he can get some sort of award from the International Association of Bad Guys for pulling off a father-son hit."

"You choose death?"

"I choose not to join you. If that means I die. .
.well, I've been aware of the risks all along."

"Oh, Krycek will kill you, all right. But not with a
gun. This time, he'll use a knife. And you'll be found in the bed of a prostitute in a local bordello. She'll be dead, too. Strangled. And we'll have our associates back in Washington break into your apartment and augment your video collection. Instead of including only acts of consensual sex between well-endowed adults in your erotica, you'll be found to have an extensive collection of very vile films featuring all kinds of kinky, sado-masochistic acts. It will be presumed that you died while fulfilling one of your nastier fantasies. You won't go out as a hero, but as an embarrassment to the F.B.I. Even your pretty partner will be in a hurry to sweep it all under the rug."

Mulder was quiet, not letting his face give his
feelings away. Well, hell, he didn't want to die.
Naturally. Especially in such unappealing
circumstances. But he was grateful anew for what he'd
shared with Scully the previous evening. Because she
would know. Not just in the sense that a loving wife
knows her husband is faithful. But in the sense that,
as a medical doctor, she knew what the human body was
capable of and that he'd reached his maximum potential with her. Embarrassing though it might be for to explain to an F.B.I. oversight committee exactly how she came by her knowledge, between her medical degree and her personal testimony, they'd have to acknowledge that it would have been just plain impossible for him to have been with another woman less than 18 hours later.

The bald-headed man snapped cuffs on Mulder. Then he
and Krycek led Mulder outside. Mulder got his first
glimpse of where he'd been kept, a warehouse in the
desert. "Any last words?" Krycek asked snidely.

"Yeah, is this the only way you get off? If so,
Marnita must be in for a good time tonight."

Just as Mulder felt the knife plunge into his ribs, he heard a familiar voice scream, "Freeze! Federal
agents!"

Mulder woke up in a hospital. Shit, his side was
killing him! He felt groggy, but whatever drugs they'd given him weren't powerful enough to counteract the pain of the knife wound.

Scully was there, smiling gently at him, her fingers
entwined with his. "Hey, lover. You back with me,
now?" she whispered as she saw him blink. He squeezed
her hand and murmured her name before going under
again.

When he woke again, the pain was still there, but
slightly less intense. Scully was still there, too,
and their hands were still joined. But her head was
resting on the bed near their hands and her eyes were
closed.

"Scully?" he whispered.

She jerked her head up. For some reason, he noticed
with mild amusement, she always seemed embarrassed
when she woke up to find him looking at her. She'd
better get used to it, he thought gently.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like somebody stuck a knife in my ribs."

"Are you in a lot of pain? I can get the nurse to get
some more medication for you."

"In a minute. I've got questions first."

"Just a few, Mulder. You need to rest."

"Krycek. What happened?"

"We've got him and Marnita both. Eyewitness accounts
by two federal agents and four federal marshals that
he was trying to kill you. Got her on an accessory
charge. Both of them on the kidnapping, with both kids willing to testify. Last I heard, they were busy
trying to sell each other up the river to save their
own hides."

"Gibson?"

"He's fine. He's staying with Samantha's family until
his own parents can get out here to pick him up. He
and Samantha are trying to teach Alex how to read
minds. Apparently it's the wave of the future."

"Spender Senior and Baldy?"

"I'm afraid they got away. He's still out there."

"Can't win 'em all, I guess. At least we got Krycek."

"Yes. Mulder, you need to rest."

"Not yet, Scully. I've saved the most important
question for last. Us? Did we really?"

She smiled and reached for the necklace around her
neck. He was still wearing her cross necklace, so he
didn't realize at first what she had on. The chain was longer than the one for her normal necklace, whatever was on it suspended not against the base of her throat but between her breasts. She pulled it out. Their rings.

He smiled. Thank God, it hadn't been just another
fantasy, a drug-induced dream of the way he wanted it
to be between them.

"Dana?"

"Shhhh! You need to sleep now, lover."

"Just one more, I promise."

"All right, what?" she asked, smiling down at him.

"Three times in under eight hours?" he asked with a
grin.

She rolled her eyes, smiled, blushed and nodded. The
she leaned down to kiss him gently on the lips and
whisper, "Go to sleep."

When Mulder awoke a third time, the doctor was there.
The doctor checked him over and gave him more
medication. Scully conferred with him, letting him
know that she had a medical degree and didn't need
things put in layman's terms for her to understand.

Mulder tuned out the conversation. He trusted Scully
to take care of him. She was his partner, his best
friend, his wife and the love of his life. He allowed
himself the pleasure of just looking at her.

"Scully?" he asked, when the doctor had left.

"He says you're doing real well. You should be out of
here the day after tomorrow, at the latest, but you're going to have to rest for a day or two at the hotel before we go back to Washington."

"Tell him to let me out tomorrow. Tell him you're a
doctor and you'll take real good care of me."

"Mulder, you need to rest. If we go back to the hotel, there might be more disturbances."

"I'm disturbed by being in this bed instead of one I
can share with you."

"That's another thing."

"If the doctor says we can't. . .okay. Just being able to hold you would be better than this. For one thing, I'm betting you haven't slept more than a few hours since this whole ordeal began."

"I'm okay. You're the one how's been through the
wringer."

"Bullshit, Scully. Being the one to wait is ten times
worse. I've been there, remember? While being held
hostage by Krycek and Spender Senior doesn't rate as
one of my all-time favorite experiences, it wasn't
nearly as bad as the times you've been snatched and I
didn't know if you were alive or dead."

She lifted their entwined hands and to her mouth and
kissed his knuckles. "I'll see what I can do."
 
Scully and Agent Gonzalez helped Mulder down the
corridor and into the hotel room.

"You two okay from here?" Gonzalez asked. "Skinner
will have my hide if I let anything happen to either
one of you."

"We're fine," Scully assured him. "Assistant Director
Skinner knows we'll be here for the next couple of
days if he needs to reach us."

As soon as Gonzalez had left, Scully turned to Mulder
and said, "Let's get you undressed and into bed."

"Seems like you had that same idea the last time I was in here."

"Be serious, Mulder," she murmured as she unbuttoned
his shirt and slid it off his shoulders.

"Actually, I am. Seriously, did you ask the doctor?"

"Yes."

"And. . .?"

"No more than once every 24 hours and only if I'm
gentle with you. Those were his exact words."

"I want you undressed and in bed, too, then."

"If we make love now, we'll have to wait until
tomorrow evening before we can again."

"I'm not taking any chances. The way our luck runs,
you'll be abducted by aliens on the way to the ice
machine or something. Now."

She grinned, easing his slacks off as she did so, but
leaving his black boxer shorts in place. "Lie down,
Mulder."

He leaned back against the pillows with a smile on his face. He had no objections whatsoever to letting her take the lead. Shoot, she could play doctor with him anytime!

"Scully?"

"Yeah?"

"Strip for me. Real slow."

Scully  blushed as she reached for the top button of
her blouse. She didn't know which of them was getting
more turned on; him by watching her slowly remove her
clothes, or her by watching the bulge barely contained in his shorts grow each time she took off an article of clothing.

Finally, when she was naked, she crawled up beside him on the bed. He reached for her, but barely grazed her breasts with his fingertips as he touched their rings. "Let's put these back on."

She nodded and removed the necklace. They slipped the
rings on each other's fingers again, just as they had
in their wedding ceremony a few evenings earlier. He
touched her cross necklace, which was still suspended
at the base of his throat. "Why don't you put this
back on, too."

She leaned down to unhook the necklace from him,
noticing his sudden, sharp intake of breath as her
bare breasts brushed his skin. She refastened the
necklace on herself, then smiled down at him. He
reached up to trace the outline of her lips. " Dana?"

"Mmm?"

"Why don't you use that luscious mouth of yours for
something other than sass and medical advice, huh?"

"You mean you want me to. . ." she glanced down at his shorts, which now seemed on the verge of having their seams split by the force of his erection.

"You don't want to?" he asked gently. He'd dreamed of
having her mouth on him like that, but the last thing
in the world he wanted to do was force her into
activities she felt uncomfortable with.

"I want to. It's just that, um, I never have before."

He grinned. Hot damn! To think he'd be the very first
man to be pleasured by her pretty, pouty mouth like
that.

"Just go real slow, baby. You'll figure it out."

She leaned down and kissed him on the mouth, then
began trailing her lips down his neck and chest, then
on past his navel to the waistband of his shorts. She
hooked her fingers in the elastic and pulled them
down, setting him free. As he kicked off the shorts,
she lowered her mouth tentatively to him, touching the tip of her tongue to his shaft. The moan he gave out startled her at first, causing her to glance up, but once she saw his face, she realized she wasn't doing anything wrong. She carefully stretched her lips over her teeth and fastened her mouth around his tip, sucking gently.

He stroked her hair, murmuring, "Dana, sweetheart,
yeah, that's the way," before stopping to groan again.

This is great, she thought dazedly, tasting him
against her tongue. She'd never wanted to do this with a man before, always assuming it was something men insisted on purely out of selfishness. She could tell she was giving her husband pleasure, but what
surprised her was how much pleasure it was giving her. She could feel herself growing wetter by the minute.

"Honey, you need to stop now."

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked softly.

"Not a damned thing. It was great!"

"Then why do you want me to quit? I like doing it."

"Because if you don't, I'm going to be finished before we really get started."

"Oh," she murmured. She could feel herself blushing
again. I'm a doctor, she thought, I ought to be able
to have conversations like this without getting
embarrassed. But she wasn't functioning in her cool,
clinical mode now. She was hot, aroused, and eager to
please and be pleased.

"Sweetheart, you said you'd never done that to a man
before. Have you ever had it done to you?"

"No."

"Can I?"

"Yes, please. I want you to."

"You're sure?"

"Mul-der!" she moaned his name, drawing it out.

"Okay, okay," he said with a smile. "Lean back,
sweetheart."

She felt his mouth on her inner thigh, a few inches
above the knee. He worked his way up to the top of her thigh with tiny, nibbling kisses, then started at the same place on her other leg, repeating the process. It reminded her of the scene in the shower a few days earlier. He was drawing it out as long as possible, making her moan before he'd even really started. "Fox, please," she begged. She felt him smile against her as she opened her legs wider. Then he dipped his tongue into her. It felt like an electric shock going up her spine, the pleasure was so intense. She wiggled and whimpered as he flicked his tongue within her, one hand running through his hair, the other grasping the bedspread.

Damn, she was hot!  He didn't know what was turning
him on the most - the taste of her, the silky feel of
her inner thighs wrapped around his neck, or the sound of her moans as she alternated calling out his name with inarticulate whimpers and whispers. Or maybe the knowledge that he was the first man who'd ever done this to her.

"Fox, you need to stop now."

He lifted his head to gaze up at her. "Why?"

"Same reason you had me stop when I was doing you."

"But I'd like to make you come this way. Unless you
really don't want to. Then I'll lay back down and let
you have your way with me like a good patient."

"Um, okay." It was a toss-up, she thought
semi-coherently, which part of his body inside her was able to give her the most pleasure. When he started again, this time sucking as well as licking her, she went over the edge almost immediately. Dana turned and bit the pillow to stop herself from screaming and wrapped her legs more tightly around his neck as she convulsed against his mouth.

When she'd stopped pulsating, he slid her legs off his neck and lay back. He was beginning to think he might achieve some sort of medical first and come just from watching, tasting and hearing her, with her touching his arousal at all. Eyes glazed with passion, she straddled him and slid back to engulf him all in one smooth movement.

"Oh, God, Mulder, that was. . .I've never," she
gasped, wiggling on him and flicking his nipples with
her fingernails. "I love you."

He grinned. In a way, it was almost hard to believe
this was actually his Dana Scully, the same woman he'd worked with for the past five years. He'd guessed over the years that she'd be warm under her demeanor of cool professionalism; he'd even been exposed to brief flashes of that warmth at the times she'd let down her barriers to comfort him or let him comfort her. But he'd never - even in his most X-rated fantasies involving the two of them - believed she'd be this hot!

"I love," he stopped to moan as she rocked back on
him, "you, too." He managed to complete the sentence
before he climaxed.

She was still on top of him and he reached out for her breasts almost reflexively. He'd barely touched them and certainly a little bit of afterplay wouldn't be against the doctor's orders, he thought sleepily. He was surprised when she drew her breath in sharply as he stroked her. A glance up at her face confirmed what he was thinking. He took one nipple in his mouth and sucked hard, while pinching her other nipple lightly. He was rewarded by feeling her come again, clenching him before he had completely shrunk back.

"Mulder?" she said as she tumbled down to rest her
head on the pillow next to his.

"Yes, baby?"

"I. . . I came again!" she said in a voice filled with wonder.

"I noticed." He knew he sounded smug, but he just
couldn't help it. Pushing the hair away from her face, he gazed into her wide blue eyes. "That's never
happened before?"

"No," she whispered.

Did she know what she was doing to him, how good it
made him feel to know that so much of what they were
doing was new to her? In all his previous
relationships - and there honestly hadn't been all
that many, despite the fact that Dana had occasionally teased him about them - he'd been the younger or less experienced one. In one, which hadn't lasted long, he'd felt reduced almost to the level of a boy toy, his twentysomething body used only as a tool for the pleasure of a woman well into her thirties. This feeling of being the teacher rather than the taught was intoxicating.

"Get used to it, honey," he murmured before snuggling
closer to her and drifting off to sleep.

Dana woke up in the darkness, conscious of a warmth
surrounding her. Mulder, she thought happily. She
flipped onto her back and turned her head to look at
him, half-expecting to find his eyes open, watching
her as they had been so often when she awoke near him. But this time he was the one who was sleeping and she was the one who had the pleasure of gazing at her beloved while he slept. He looks younger when he
sleeps, she mused. Like he did that first year we
worked together, before his father's death and my
cancer and some of the other things he's had to get
through in the last few years.

"What time is it?" he asked, opening his eyes to focus on her face in the dim shadows of the room.

"I don't know. Why?"

"I'm hungry."

"Mulder, we can't. Doctor's orders."

He laughed. "You've got a one track mind, Scully! I
meant for food, not for you."

"Oh!" she could feel herself blushing in the dark but, strangely, she wasn't really embarrassed. She didn't mind letting him know just how insatiable her appetite really was. She felt like Sleeping Beauty, awakened to the more sensual pleasures of life after more than 30 years of mostly mental stimulation.

"What do you want? I could call down to room service."

"Nope. I want junk food."

"Sunflower seeds, right?"

"If they have them in the vending machine, sure. Also
chips, candy bars and big cans of ice cold Cokes."

"May I ask why we're going to be consuming this
monument to empty calories?"

"Because," he said pulling her closer and kissing her, "one of my tamer fantasies over the years has been to cuddle up with you in bed while we eat junk food and watch scary movies. Since you and Dr. Frankenstein have forbidden any more of the fun activities 'til tomorrow, I guess this one will have to do."

"I'll get dressed and go hunt down the stuff. Just
don't tell any of my medical colleagues that I agreed
to this meal; I think doctors have lost their licenses for less!"

She switched on the lamp and bent down to pick up the
panties she'd tossed away earlier that evening. She
was startled by the sound of his wolf-whistle.

"Wow! What a view!"

"Now who's the one with the one track mind?"

He just smiled at her. She hurriedly pulled on her
clothes and grabbed her purse and room key. "I'll be
back in a minute."

When she returned, laden with enough junk food to feed five teen-agers, he'd turned the TV on and was
flicking through the channels.

"Good heavens! I forgot that's one of the things I'm
going to have to get used to now that I'm married.
Watching fifteen different TV shows a minute."

"Take your clothes off and get in bed, Scully."

"Damn, your bossy," she replied, even as she dumped
the food and sodas on the bed and hurried to remove
her clothes.

He grinned. God, he loved her! He couldn't believe it
had taken them six years to get to this point in their relationship. On the other hand, maybe they'd needed every one of those days together to get to the point where this was right.

When she climbed in beside him, he stopped channel
surfing on a slasher flick.

"Are we really going to watch this?"

"The hotel has an all-adult movie channel. Want to
switch to that?"

"No!" she replied vehemently.

They were quiet for a few minutes, eating, drinking
and watching the movie.

"Do you want me to dump them?" he asked when a
commercial came on.

"What?"

"All those videos you're always teasing me about. I
will, if they make you uncomfortable."

"I don't know. I guess I'd like you to pare it down,
for sure. Maybe you could keep a couple of them."

"Watch one with me someday?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

"I don't really need them anymore. Now I've got the
real thing."

She yawned and snuggled up to him. "I love you."

"Me, too."

They slept 'til nearly noon the next day, exhausted by all the experiences- good and bad - they'd been
through during the past few days. When they'd finally
managed to get up, shower (separately, because Mulder
didn't trust himself to be good if Dana was in there
with him) and get dressed, Dana poked her head out the door and saw the hotel maid a few rooms away.

"C'mon, let's go downstairs to the restaurant for
lunch. The maid needs to get in and clean the room
and, while you are supposed to be taking it easy, a
short walk down the corridor won't kill you," she
said.

On the way back to their room after lunch, they passed a sign labeled "Jacuzzi".

"Think that would be good for my side?" Mulder asked.

"Yeah, actually, it probably would," Dana agreed.
"Let's take a peek inside, then go back to the room
and get our suits. Whoops, it's locked. Well, we can
call down to the front desk and ask about it."

When they got back into the room, however, the phone
rang just as they closed the door.

"Scully."

"How is he?" the voice was Skinner's.

"He's doing pretty well, sir. Want to talk to him?"

"Yes, put him on for a minute."

"Mulder."

"You okay?"

"Ribs are still bothering me a little bit, but I'll
survive."

"Okay. Let Scully fuss over you a little, if she
wants. She was real frantic when you were gone. I'll
see you and your partner when you get back into town.
I must say, I think this is the first time the
bureau's ever solved two kidnappings and captured a
rogue agent all in one fell swoop."

"Thank you, sir."

"I called about the Jacuzzi. They reserve it by the
our for the private use of the guests. We've got it
from four to five this afternoon," Scully announced as Mulder emerged from the bathroom.

"Wasn't four about the time we checked in yesterday?"

"Yeah, I guess. Why?"

"Feel like being gentle with me in the Jacuzzi today?"

She smiled. "I think that's probably a very good idea. Especially since I checked my suitcase and realized that I didn't even bring a bathing suit!"

"You didn't bring one?"

"Mulder, I thought we were coming out here on a
business trip! If I'd known it was going to turn in to a honeymoon, I would have packed a lot differently!"

"Oh, I don't know. I think failure to bring a bathing
suit was pretty good planning!"

"Sit down, Mulder. It's barely two now and we need to
talk."

"Okay, about what?" he asked, settling in the chair
opposite her across the small table.

"What are we going to do when we get back to
Washington?"

"About what?"

"Mulder, you know the bureau doesn't allow married
couples to work as partners."

"Oh, shit, yeah. I didn't even think about that."

"I've come up with a couple of ideas."

"Such as?"

"Well, I could go back to Quantico. Or we could just
forget to tell them."

"Agent Scully, are you suggesting a breach of
protocol? Forgetting to mention vital personal
information to our superior?" he asked with a grin.

"Mulder, I don't want you to think it's because I'm
embarrassed by our marriage. It's not like I don't
want people to know. It's just that we're so close! We caught Krycek! To turn it over to someone else now. . ."

"Scully, the last thing in the world I'd ever believe
is that you're trying to distance yourself from me. I
mean, you've put up with that ridiculous "Mrs. Spooky" nickname for years, as well as pretty much trashing your hopes of career advancement in order to run around the country chasing aliens and monsters with me."

"It's your choice, Mulder. To be honest, I guess I
have a hard time dealing with the idea of someone else being your partner. If they assigned another woman agent to work with you, it would be horrible! A male agent I guess I could deal with better, but I still wouldn't like it."

"Scully, there's something you need to know. It may
make you more likely to stay on as my partner or,
conversely, it may make you more likely to go public
with our marriage and transfer back out to Quantico."

"What?"

"I'm not working the X-Files without you. That's our
baby; it's what brought us together. If you go back to Quantico, I'm requesting reassignment back to violent crimes. In a way, you'll have accomplished exactly what you were originally assigned to do: reign me back into the bureau mainstream."

She was quiet for a minute. Without her even having to ask, he'd given her the reassurance she'd been
seeking. Scully was torn. One part of her wanted to
announce their marriage - practically wanted to shout
it from the rooftops. The other part wanted to keep it a secret, at least for a little while. She wasn't
ready to give up traveling around the country with
him, investigating unexplained phenomena. Especially
not now, when they'd have something interesting to do
in all those motels in all those podunk towns!

"Um, so, if we just didn't mention it, where would we
live?" she asked tentatively.