Dana Scully stretched as the sunlight touched her
face. It was very early - barely dawn - but this was
their first morning in Hawaii and her body clock was
still on Eastern Standard Time, by which she'd slept
until nearly noon.

Dana turned to look at her husband, who was sleeping
on his side, one arm draped loosely over her body. Fox Mulder was one good-looking man, she mused. Smart, too. And sweet. Well, at least to her, she amended silently, knowing that most people wouldn't agree with that particular assessment. And definitely, er, skillful, she thought, remembering their activities immediately before falling asleep the previous evening.

She toyed with the idea of waking him up for another
demonstration of his skill, but decided that could
wait until this afternoon. It was Sunday, after all,
and what better way to spend Sunday afternoon than a
nice, long, leisurely lovemaking session?

Slipping out from beneath his arm, she made her way to the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth and
showered. Wearing a short robe, she busied herself
unpacking their suitcases and putting things away. She was just finishing when he woke up. Scully could tell he was confused at first, wondering where he was, then his eyes focused on her and he smiled.

"Good morning, sweetheart."

"Good morning," she said, pushing a final drawer shut.

"Come back to bed?"

"Can you wait 'til this afternoon or do you really
need me right now?"

Mulder was torn. He wanted to make love to her now.
There was no question about that. And, if he pushed
the issue, he knew she'd agree. But she obviously had
other plans for this morning and since they'd made
love three times in less than 48 hours during the past two days, he supposed it wouldn't kill him to wait. Besides, anticipation could be fun.

"I'll wait," he replied, sitting up in bed. "What did
you have planned for this morning?"

"Well, I've finished unpacking, so I thought it would
be nice to go to Mass, then maybe go out to brunch
someplace. After that, we'll definitely need to swing
by a supermarket. This place makes your old kitchen in Arlington look well-stocked. There's coffee, creamer and sugar in the kitchen and that's about it."

"Sounds good to me," he answered, swinging his long
legs out of bed.

"You'll come to church with me?" she asked, surprised. While her husband respected her religious beliefs, he didn't exactly share them. At home, she usually attended Mass alone.

"If you don't think the building will fall down when I enter."

"It'll be great to have you."

Later, during Mass, Mulder snuck a look at his wife's
face. He knew he should have been paying attention to
the priest, but he preferred to look at her. Always
pretty, when she was in prayer Dana was beautiful. He
wasn't sure that he really believed in a personal God, but he'd been granted the miracle of her life and love, so he sent up a tiny, silent prayer of
gratitude.

After church, they went to one of the many beachfront
restaurants and enjoyed a sumptuous buffet, full of
tropical fruits and juices, as well as coffee and more traditional breakfast fare. They were hungry, since they'd last eaten on the plane ride out, almost 18 hours earlier.

Still later, they roamed the aisles of a large
supermarket, deciding what they needed to stock the
apartment that would be their home for the next six
weeks or so. While they were doing so, Mulder mused on how much he enjoyed this aspect of married life and how much that surprised him. He'd always known he'd enjoy making love with Dana. That was a given. But he was basically a loner and he knew she'd want to share more of his life than just the sexual and professional parts. In some ways, though, he enjoyed the intimacy of the small, trivial things they did together - grocery shopping, laundry, watching TV - almost as much as the more physical aspects.

At home, after the groceries were put away, Dana went
out on the balcony. Mulder came out after her, closing his hands on her shoulders. Just as he was bending his mouth to her neck, they were startled by a loud crack of thunder, followed immediately  by a pattering of randrops.

"That came up suddenly," he said.

"Storms do that in the tropics," she replied.
"Although it does seeem a shame to have rain on our
first full day in paradise."

"Oh, I don't know. I can think of lots of very
interesting things to do with you on a rainy Sunday
afternoon. Besides," he murmured, pressing up against
her back, "the storm's not the only thing that's
suddenly come up."

Scully turned in his arms and walked him backwards
into the living room, then stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him. The kiss went on for a long time, growing deeper by the minute. While Dana kept her arms wound around his neck, the part of her mind that wasn't focused on the delightful things his mouth was doing to hers could feel his hands moving down her body;. They roamed across her shoulders, then drifted down her back, finally coming to rest cupping her bottom.

"Do these interesting things you have in mind involve
our bed?" she asked with a smile.

"Well, maybe."

"Maybe?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I want to make love. It's just that. . .we've got a
whole apartment to ourselves. We don't have to limit
ourselves to the bed, unless that's more comfortable
for you."

"What'd you have in mind?"

"I don't know. . . the couch, the bath tub, the
kitchen table, the chairs, the floor, up against the
wall. . .name your pleasure."

"Wow! Sounds like you've got a busy afternoon planned
for us," she murmured. She could feel her face growing warmer and knew her eyes were probably dilated with passion. He talked damn good sex and she knew from experience that his actions spoke even louder than his words.

Mulder chuckled and kissed her again, lightly. "Well,
I wasn't planning on using all those locations today.
Although if you keep looking at me like that, I might
try!"

"Mmmmm, hold me on your lap and kiss me again while I
make up my mind."

He complied, sitting down in the living room's lone
easy chair and pullling her on top of him. This time
it was her hands that wandered, first through his
hair, then down his chest where she deftly unbuttoned
his shirt, and ending up massaging the bulge just
beneath his belt buckle.

After another long kiss, he moved his mouth to her
neck, where he began his way down with a nibble, suck, kiss sequence that made her squirm with delight. "Sweetheart, if you don't make up your mind soon, I'm not going to be able to move," he said.

"Let's just stay here," she replied, swinging her legs over the side of the chair and arching her back so that he could continue working his way down her body in that delicious fashion.

"Can I get up long enough to take off my clothes?"

"Mmmm. . . no. I think I can get you undressed without us moving from here."

"Yeah?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. He was wearing a look she'd seen many times before in their years
together. Basically, she was being dared to follow
through.

"Yeah," she asnwered, changing position. Now she was
facing him, straddling his lap. She pushed his already open shirt off his shoulders and tossed it onto the floor.

"Well, that part was easy," he pointed out. "It's the
rest of me that I'm not sure we can do without getting up."

"Mulder, you already are up!"

"I meant. . .Geez, woman, you have a one-track mind!"

"Yeah. You." She reached to unbuckle his belt and
unzip his pants. She wedged one of her knees between
his thigh and the side of the chair and hooked her
other leg over the arm of the chair. Slipping her
fingers inside the elastic of his shorts and pressing
her thumbs against the outside of his slacks, she
murmured "Lift your hips." He complied and she was
able to push his pants down to just below his knees.

"I think you can handle it from there."

He nodded and kicked his legs until he was completely
naked.

"I think somebody around here has too many clothes
on," Mulder said.

"Well, obviously not you!"

Mulder began flicking open the buttons down the front
of her dress, then reached for the hem and pulled it
up over her head. She was wearing nothing but a satin
ivory bra with a matching pair of tiny, high-cut
panties. He unhooked her bra and tossed it in the
general direction of her dress, then bent his mouth to her breasts and began the nibble, suck, kiss sequence again. He took his time, flicking his tongue against one nipple, then the other while she moaned her approval. That was one of the many, many things he loved about her. She was so verbal in her appreciation of what he did to her body. There was no attempt to be coy or undermine his sexual self-confidence. His wife loved the way her made her feel. And it just made him hotter, longer and harder to see her like that, her eyes glazed with passion, her lips parted with longing, her glorious hair streaming out over her shoulders.

"Fox, I think you forgot to remove one article of my
clothing."

He moved his hands lower on her body, tracking the
lacy edges of her panties with one finger. "Oh, did
you want these off, too?"

"Mulder!" she moaned with a soft, demanding tone.

"Ooooh! You call me Fox when you're trying to ask
nice, but it's always Mulder when you start making
demands!" He slid two fingers into the crotch of her
panties and pulled them down her legs and off her
ankles. "Good night, Dana, your panties are soaked!"

"What did you expect, lover?"

"I expect exactly what I'm about to get!"

She grinned and positioned herself above him, sliding
gently all the way down onto his shaft until she could feel his balls bouncing softly against her bottom.

"Oh, Dana. Oh, baby! That feels so good!"

She began to move on him; not only up and down but
from side to side. He wrapped his hands around her
bottom, helping her move so that she wouldn't have to
bear all her weight on her legs.

"You like this, lover?"

"Damn, Dana! It's incredible."

She began to bounce more frantically and make the
soft, whimpering sounds in the back of her throat that Mulder had learned to recognize as a prelude to her climax. He decided to help things along by using his tongue to trace a trail along her ear, down her neck and across her breasts. When he took one of her
nipples in his mouth, the suction was enough to send
her tumbling over the edge. He felt her clench him
tightly as she gasped out his name. His own climax was only seconds later.

"Mmmmmm, I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Explain to me again why we waited so long to. . ."

"Because I'm a moron. Here," he said, standing up with her, "let's move to the couch so I can stretch my legs out." He lay down in almost the same position they'd been in on the chair, her naked body sprawled
decadently atop his.

"It's stopped raining. Did you want to go to the beach again today?"

"Mmmhmmm. Around sunset. We can walk hand-in-hand in
the surf and gaze into each other's eyes."

She felt his chest rise and fall quickly beneath her
and raised her head to look at him.

"What, too corny?"

"Nope. It sounds terrific. I'll even hum one of the
songs from Elvis' "Blue Hawaii" album if you want."

"Really?"

"Well, I was sort of joking. But if you honestly want
me to, I'll give it a try."

"Sing to me, Fox. Now, not at the beach."

"Dana, I can't carry a tune in a bucket."

"Come on lover! Your voice can't possibly be any worse than mine is and I sang to you once."

"Okay, sweetheart, okay. Hold on just a minute while I think of something."

He began a low, husky rendition of "Love Me Tender" as she smiled and snuggled closer. Okay, so it was pretty clear that her husband wouldn't be giving up his career with the F.B.I. to become an Elvis
impersonator, but she actually didn't think his voice
was half bad.

Dana had drifted off to sleep in her husband's arms
while he was singing to her. Mulder was surprised to
find his own eyelids growing heavy, as well. He hardly slept even at night and, outside of a hospital, it had been years since he'd taken a nap. Well, correct that, he thought. He hadn't slept much in the years before his marriage. During the past month, he'd been sleeping like a baby. No nightmares, no restless wandering, nothing. Just the satisfaction of knowing she was safe in his arms and the soporific effect of the best sex he'd ever experienced.

Dana woke to a low rumbling. It's raining again, she
thought with a tiny tinge of disappointment; we won't
be able to go to the beach after all. Then she
realized that the sound was coming not from outside
but from beneath her. Mulder's stomach was growling.

She raised her head to smile at him. "Hungry?"

"I seem to have worked up an appetite. Want to go hit
a restaurant and then the beach?"

"I'll cook. We just went to the grocery store,
remember? I know the concept of actually having food
in the house is going to take a little getting used to for you, but. ."

"I don't expect you to cook diner for me every night," he protested.

"Well, if I left the cooking up to you, we'd either
starve or die of food poisoning! Besides, I'm not
going to cook every night. I probably won't want to on the days we're working. But today I feel like it. What do you want?"

"You're lying on top of me naked and you have the
audacity to ask a question like that?"

"Mulder, you're a maniac! I meant for supper. We can
have dessert after the beach. As a matter of fact,"
she said, scooting up on him so that she could lean
down and press her forehead to his, "I seem to
remember somebody promising me that we could make love in the shower again."

"Scully, keep talking like that and we're never
leaving this apartment again!"

She laughed and got up to enter the kitchen. "How
about I broil a couple of these chicken breasts and
heat up this broccoli-rice casserole we got in the
frozen food section?"

"Sure. Can we discuss this dessert idea in more
depth?"

"No. Why don't you come make some iced tea? As much of that stuff as you drink, it must be one thing you can do in the kitchen."

"Okay, in a minute." He settled back on the couch to
watch her. She seemed entirely unconcerned with  the
fact that she was naked. He always thought she was
beautiful and it always turned him on to see her nude, but up 'til now that had always been in the bedroom or the bathroom and, let's face it, those were places where a man could reasonably hope to see a naked woman. At least if he were lucky. He sure as hell had never seen a naked woman in a kitchen before. She was moving about with surefooted grace, removing items for the refrigerator and freezer, stretching up on her tiptoes to retrieve baking dishes, bending down to pop things in the oven.

She returned to the living room and smiled at the
obvious sign of his arousal. "Oooh! Did I do that?"

"Yep. You know, Dana, I take it back. If you make a
habit of cooking in the nude, I DO expect you to make
me dinner every night."

"I'll go ahead and put my bathing suit and cover-up
on, so that we can make it to the beach."
 

After a lovely late afternoon at the beach, they
returned to their apartment just as full darkness
fell. Mulder didn't even bother to turn on the lights
in the living room; he just walked straight through to the bathroom and turned on the shower.

"Dana, I know I'm a maniac. If you don't want to do
this again, we don't have to."

"Mulder," she murmured, stepping closer to him, so
that the spray cascaded down on both of them, "have I
ever, in all the years we've been together, been shy
about voicing opinions that differ from yours?"

"No, but. . ."

"If I didn't want to, I'd tell you. Here," she said,
picking up a bottle of shampoo, "will you wash my hair for me?"

Dana sighed as she felt his long fingers move through
her hair. It felt so good. Of course, she thought, it
always felt good when he touched her. It always had.
Even in those long years when they were both striving
so depserately to keep their relationship on a
professional basis, she had been able to live for
weeks on a single soft caress to her face, a minute or two of holding his hand. But now she wanted more. So much more. And so much more often.

Her eyes were closed, but she could feel him moving
around her, tilting her chin up so that the suds could rinse out of her hair. He backed her up against the tile and kissed her. Hard and deep, but over too
quickly for Dana's liking. She could feel his arousal
rubbing up against her, but she wasn't quite ready for that yet.

"Your hair's all sandy, too. Can I wash yours, since
you did mine?"

"You're not going to be able to reach."
 
"I could if you'd kneel down."

He nodded and followed her suggestion. He enjoyed the
feeling of Dana's small, strong hands weaving through
his hair, but what he enjoyed even more was the part
of her anatomy this position but him on eye level
with. Mouth level, too, he thought with a smile.

Mulder waited until she had finished with his hair,
then made his move. Sliding one hand up to the middle
of her back, he used the other hand and his mouth to
simultaneously capture both of her breasts. He was
rewarded by hearing her give a little scream of
thrilled delight. After lavishing both breasts with
the attention of his tongue, he settled back on his
heels and moved his mouth lower.

Mulder kept up the pace until he could tell she was
just on the brink of climax, then stood up and entered her in one smooth movement. The difference in their height meant he had to hold her, supporting all of her weight with her legs wrapped around his hips and her arms around his shoulders. Pressing up against the wall and into her, he climaxed immediately and realized she was doing so, also.

Later, lying in bed, he smiled down at her. "Ready to
report to the local field office tomorrow morning?"

"I guess so."

"You don't sound too enthusiastic."

"I don't want to go to work. I want to stay home and
play with you."

"Ooooh, you're pouting, Dana! I love it when pout."

"Go to sleep, Fox."

Mulder awoke early the next morning. He was dressed
and had coffee on before he went in to wake up his
wife. It was safer that way, he figured. If he
attempted to wake her up when he was anything less
than fully clothed, God only knew what time they'd
make it into work.

"Um, Mulder?" Dana said as she sat down at the table
and reached for her coffee. She was fully clothed in
her usual professional ensemble, the only slight
condensacion to the tropical weather a skirt instead of slacks.

"Yeah?"

"Nature's mandating that we take a break from our
sexual activities for the next few days."

"Oh. That time of the month, huh?"

"Yeah," she said with a sigh.

"By the weekend do you think we should be able to?"

"Probably."

"Maybe it will help us keep our mind on work this
week."

"Really think so?" she said with a smile.

He shook his head. "Probably not."

Mulder and Scully drove to the local field office,
giving themselves plenty of time to fight the traffic
and figure out the unfamiliar route.

"How can you possibly pronounce all these names?"
Mulder asked in surprise as Scully directed him to
turn onto yet another street with a vowel-filled
Hawaiian name.

"I lived here when I was little, remember? The sounds
got hardwired into my brain, I guess."

They reached the field office well before nine and
presented their credentials to the head of the
Honolulu division of the bureau. He was named John
Lau, a large man of obvious Polynesian ancestry. He
was slightly taller than Mulder, but much heavier.
Although the same could have been said about Skinner,
their boss in Washington, the two men were in no way
the same type. Skinner, despite being nearly fifty,
had the hunky build of a well-toned athlete. Lau was
younger, probably only a few years older than Mulder
himself, and just big. Not exactly fat, but not
exactly well-toned muscle, either. Still, one look
into his intelligent, observant eyes and it was
obvious he ran his office with the same diligence that Skinner ran his division.

"Glad to have you aboard, agents. Which one of you is
the pathologist?"

"I am, sir," Scully answered.

"Good; we had another mysterious death last night.
I'll call over to the morgue and tell them to let you
perform the autopsy. Maybe you'll find something the
local coroner has missed. What is it you do,
primarily, Agent Mulder?"

"Primarily, I'm a profiler. I used to work in violent
crimes."

"But now the two of you work as some kind of
independent investigative unit out of headquarters,
right?" Lau asked.

"Yes, that's right," Mulder replied.

"Investigating what, exactly?"

Mulder and Scully glanced at each other. They were
both slightly surprised that Lau didn't already know
about that. Usually when they were sent to a field
office, no matter how remote, his reputation as
"Spooky" Mulder and, lately, hers as "Mrs. Spooky" had preceded them.

"They're called the X-Files," Scully said. "Basically, we get anything that doesn't seem to fit in the parameters of a typical F.B.I. investigation. In some cases, it's not even for certain that a crime has been committed, as in these mysterious deaths you're dealing with here."
 
And in others?" Lau prodded.

"In others," Mulder answered, "there are allegations
of the occult, paranormal phenomena, alien
interventions. . .things for which there appears, at
least on the surface, to be no rational explanation."

"Do you find such an explanation?"

"Sometimes."

"Let me make that phone call, then we'll drop you at
the morgue, Agent Scully, and Agent Mulder and I will
go out to where the latest victim was found. Then we
can all meet for lunch and bat around some theories."

As the three agents finished lunch - not having come
to any conclusion about the cause of death - Lau
leaned back in his chair. They were on the open air
deck of a local seafood restaurant.

"You two mind if I ask you a couple of slightly
personal questions?"

"No, sir," Scully replied.

"How long have you been partners?"

"Six years."

"Either of you ever had any other partners?"

"A couple," Mulder answered. "No one I worked with for nearly as long as I've been with Scully, and certainly never one I worked as well with."

"Not me," Scully said. "Before I teamed up with
Mulder, I taught out at Quantico."

"You're both staying in the apartment the bureau
maintains for mainland agents?"

"Yes, sir."

"And your respective spouses don't have any problems
with this arrangement?"

"Our. . . ?" Scully was puzzled for a moment then she
followed Lau's glance. Her hand. Mulder's hand. In
Washington, they were both scrupulous about
remembering to remove their wedding rings before going into the office. This morning they had forgotten and both rings gleamed in the sunlight.

"We don't have respective spouses," Mulder answered.
"Just each other."

"You're married to each other?" Lau asked in surprise.

"Yes," Scully answered.

"The bureau's letting partners do that now?" Lau
sounded skeptical.

"We've only been married a few weeks," Mulder
answered. "We haven't exactly gotten around to
informing our superior at headquarters yet."

"Usually we take off our rings before going into
work," Scully explained. "This morning we just forgot. If it's a problem, I can step away from the
investigation and. . ."

"Don't be silly, Scully," Mulder interrupted. "You're
the scientist, they need you on this one. If there's a problem, I'll be the one to step away. I've got some vacation time coming to me; I can always stay out here in that capacity."

Lau smiled at the volley of your-career-is-more- important-than-mine that the agents were engaging in, then held up a hand for silence.

"It's not a problem, agents."

"It's not?" they asked in surprise.

"Look, let me explain a couple of things. First of
all, things are just. . .looser here in the islands.
I'm an employee of the federal government and I
maintain absolute loyalty to my country, but that
doesn't meant the standards that are appropriate in
the capital are always going to work out here.
Secondly, the two of you are hardly going to be the
first pair of agents I've had to supervise who are
romantically involved with each other."
 
We're not?" Scully asked.

"No. Actually, you two are a relief. You're both in
your thirties and you're already married. Since you've been partners for six years, you've obviously worked out a way to maintain your professionalism on the job; I would never have guessed your relationship was more than that by watching your behavior so far today," Lau said.

"What are you used to dealing with?" Mulder inquired.

"Look, the majority of my agents are good-looking kids in their twenties, fresh out of the academy. They come out here and they're thrown together with other good-looking kids in a setting that combines the adrenalin rush of danger with the romanticism of some of the most beautiful scenery on earth. So many of my agents have paired off that sometimes I feel more like the captain of the Love Boat than the director of an F.B.I. field office!" Lau said.

"Well, then," Mulder said, obviously relieved.

"I've only got two rules as far as my agents' personal involvements go, but I expect them to be followed to the letter."

"What are they?" Scully asked.

"The first, which hardly seems to apply here, is that
you'd better be absolutely sure whatever is going on
is 100 hundred percent consensual. I don't tolerate
sexual harassment. Since the two of you are married,
I'm going to assume that you've both mutually agreed
to an intimate relationship."

"And the second?"

"You don't touch each other at the office. I mean
that literally. Not a pat on the back, not a clasping
of hands - nothing. Are we clear on that, agents?"

"Yes, sir," Scully and Mulder answered simultaneously.

"In that case," said Lau, signing for the check,
"let's get back to work."

Mulder and Scully got home late that evening, another
victim having been found in the afternoon and Scully
having performed yet another autopsy.

"Ugh!" she said, stretching. "I hate doing more than
one complete autopsy in a single day. My shoulders are killing me."

"Come on in the bedroom, Scully, and I'll give you a
back rub."

She sighed as she felt his hands moving across her
shoulders and down her spine. His long, sensitive
fingers knew just where to press her aching muscles.

"This is great, Mulder. But you do realize it's, uh,
not going to lead anywhere?"

"You know, Scully, I am occasionally capable of being
nice to you even when it's not going to get me laid!"

"Sorry," she murmured.

"It's okay, baby," he said softly, dropping a kiss on
her cheek.

God, I love that! Dana thought. If any other many had
ever called her "baby" she probably would have kneed
him in the groin, but from Mulder she loved it!

"If you keep that up, I'm going to fall asleep," she
said.

"Want to, or did you want to get up and eat
something?"

"No, I'm not hungry. How about you?"

"Nope. I grabbed a bite with Lau when we were on our
way back from the second death site."

"Just let me get up and got to the bathroom and get
changed. Then will you do it some more?"

"As long as you want."

When Scully had drifted off to sleep under his hands,
Mulder propped himself up on an elbow and looked at
her in the last rays of the setting sun. Lord, she was beautiful! Finally, he rose from the bed, intent on watching a little TV before coming back for sleep, but her voice stopped him.

"Don't leave."

"I'm just going in the living rooom to watch TV for a
bit."

"I want you here by me."