Part 2 of 3

"Okay. Will it disturb you if I turn on a lamp so I
can read?"

"No, that's fine. Just don't leave."

"Never, Scully."

Mulder shucked off his clothes and crawled under the
sheet with a paperback book he'd had the foresight to
toss in while packing. Scully sighed and wiggled
closer, hooking one of her legs over both of his.
Mulder abandoned all pretense of reading and just
looked at her. She reminded him of the nursery rhyme
about the little girl who was either very, very good
or horrid. Not that she was ever horrid. But when
Scully guarded her heart and decided to maintain an
aura of cool professionalism she was very, very
guarded and very, very cool. And when she stopped
doing that and let him into her heart, she'd done it
completely. No holds barred. No pretending she didn't
love him, didn't need him, wouldn't do anything for
him. Just persistent demands that he stay with her,
talk to her, make love to her and a willingness to do
the same - always - for him. How did one man get so
lucky?

By Friday afternoon, the case had been cleared up and
Mulder and Scully were looking forward to another
weekend in paradise. This one unencumbered by jet lag.

"Scully, Mulder, you got a minute?" Lau asked from the doorway of his office.

The agents glanced at each other. They couldn't
possibly be in trouble. Another case? They got up and
followed Lau into his office.
 
You have plans for the weekend?" Lau asked.

"We were just going to do the tourist thing," Mulder
replied. "You know, the beach, maybe some shopping or
tour Pearl Harbor."

"Marnie wanted me to ask you two over for dinner
tomorrow night."

"Marnie?" Scully asked.

"My wife. We usually have the new agents out to dinner sometime in the first couple of weeks they're here. I realize this is only a temporary assignment for you two, and if you'd rather not, that's fine."

"No, we'd love to," Scully said. "What time?"

Once the details had been arranged, Scully and Mulder
left.

The next morning, Scully awakened to the smell of
coffee. That wasn't unusual, because Mulder was often
awake before she was, but this time it smelled like
the coffee was right under nose. Maybe it has
something to do with the beans being grown right here
in Hawaii, she mused sleepily. Or maybe, she realized
as she became more fully awake, it was because the
coffee was right next to her instead of in the
kitchen.

"Wake up, kitten. I brought you breakfast in bed."

"Mulder, you do realize that if any other man every
called me "kitten" I'd probably shoot him?"

"Yep. Of course, if any other man ever called you
"kitten", I'd shoot him first."

Dana smiled and stretched. "It smells delicious.
What'd you bring me?"

"Coffee, a bagel with cream cheese and pineapple
chunks."

"Mmm," Dana sat up and reached for the tray. She ate
the bagel and drank the coffee, then looked at the
pineapple chunks.

"Lover, I'm going to need a fork or something to eat
the with. Otherwise, I'll get all sticky."

"No fork, Dana. Two choices. Either I feed them to you or you do get all sticky and I'll lick you clean
afterwards."

"Fox!"

"What, you don't like your choices?"

"No, but they both sound so delightful that I can't
choose."

He grinned down at her. "Sweetheart, after breakfast
will we be able to. . ."

She smiled back. "Mmmhmm."

"Here." He held a piece of the juicy fruit between his fingers. She took the fruit between her lips and
slowly used her tongue to slide it off his fingertips
and into her mouth.

"Keep it up, Dana, and breakfast time will give way to playtime whether you're done eating or not!"

Dana reached for a piece and popped it into her mouth, then traced her finger along the trail of juice that had dribbled down her neck. "See, I told you I'd get sticky."

Mulder removed the tray from the bed and pushed her
back against the pillows. He ran his tongue along her
fingers and forearm, then all the way down from her
lower lip to the lace at the top of her nightgown.

"Better?"
 
"Well, I'm not sticky anymore, but now I'm wet."

"Where?"

"Certainly an F.B.I. agent of your undoubted ability
is capable of conducting an investigation into that
matter!"

"Yeah. Except that something seems to have, er, come
up."

"Where?"

"Certainly an F.B.I. agent of your undoubted ability
is capable of conducting an investigation into that
matter!"

The smiled into each other's eyes, trailing their
hands down the other one's body. By mutual consent and years of learning their partner's pace, they reached their goals at the same time. It was a long time before they finally got out of bed.

"So what are we going to do today?" Mulder asked. He'd long since turned complete control of his personal life over to Scully. Whether she announced they were going to scuba dive or scrub the bathroom, he'd happily go along with it.

"Shopping in the morning, then a light lunch, then the beach, then out to John and Marnie's for dinner."

"Shopping again? Do we need more groceries already? I
mean, I do appreciate this scheme of actually keeping
food in the house, but. . ."

"Not that kind of shopping. I want something new to
wear tonight. Skinner made us pack in a hurry,
remember? I've got work clothes, a couple of pairs of
shorts and T-shirts and one Sunday dress with me.
Nothing that's appropriate for going over to
somebody's house for dinner."

"Okay."

They walked along the streets of Honolulu, ducking
into first one seaside shop, then another. Finally, in a small boutique, a soft ivory-colored dress caught Dana's eye. They entered the shop and she tried it on, emerging from the fitting room to show it to Mulder. She loved the way it swirled around her legs. It reached almost to her ankles, but the cut and fabric made it fairly casual.

"Like it?" she asked.

"Sure do."

"Excuse me, sir, ma'am," interupted the sales clerk.
"We've got a pair of earrings that would go quite well with that dress, especially considering the lady's coloring."

"Let's see them," Mulder answered.

"Fox, I,"

"Shh! Let's just look at them, Dana."

The earrings were pearls. Not especially large, but
amazingly lustorous. Dana slipped the plain gold studs she was wearing out of her ears and tried them on. They did look lovely against her creamy skin, but. . .

"We'll take them," Mulder said.

"Fox, we don't even know how much they cost!"

"Doesn't matter."

"Fox," Dana began again, only to find herself silenced by his fingers on her lips.

"Shh! You can quit arguing, Dana. If you don't let me
buy them for you today, I'm just going to sneak over
here one day when you're in the lab and get them for
you anyway."

"Okay," she said.

Scully emerged from the fitting room a few minutes
later to find her husband holding a shopping bag.

"Ready for lunch?" he asked.

"I have to pay for the dress first," she answered.

He held up the shopping bag. "Already did it. Come
on."

Dana waited until they were out on the street, then
voiced her objections. "Fox, I didn't expect you to
pay for the dress and the earrings!"

"I know. You wanted to buy the dress yourself and
leave the earrings in the store. But I'm your husband, for crying out loud! I've got a right to buy you presents once in a while!"

"Well, well sure you do, Mulder. It's just that I
don't expect. . ."

He brought a hand up to her face. "I know you don't
expect me to buy you things, Scully! Considering that
up 'til now in our relationship the only presents I've ever given you have been a Super Bowl highlights tape, a key chain and a couple of bouquets of flowers - and that most of those were get-well gifts when you were in the hospital - I think that's pretty damn obvious!"

"Mulder, are you mad at me?"

"No, sweetheart, not at you. At myself, a little,
maybe."

"But why?" she was thoroughly confused.

"For not treating you better. Making more of an effort to be sweet to you. Buying you presents, taking you out dancing, remembering your birthday on a consistent basis. Most women expect stuff like that."

"You took me dancing one time. And I'm not "most
women". Anyway, you've just got other ways of showing
your love."

"Like what?" he asked, beginning to sound slightly
mollified.

"Like rescuing me from cannibals, serial killers and
assorted loonies on a regular basis," she said,
standing up on her tiptoes to kiss him quickly on the
lips. "Like maintaining a vigil at my bedside whenever I'm in the hospital." Another kiss. "Like being there for me when my father and sister died." Another kiss. "Like dropping everything, anytime, to run across town or fly across the country whenever I call to say I need you." A deeper kiss this time. "Is a pattern emerging here, or do I need to go on?" she murmured huskily when the last kiss ended.

"Can't I do all that stuff and still buy you
presents?"

"Sure, if you want to."

"Okay, then."

After lunch and a stop by the apartment to change into their bathing suits, they spent the afternoon at the beach. They swam for a while, then Dana persuaded Fox to try windsurfing.

"Have you ever done this before?" he asked dubiously.

"A couple of times. When we lived in California while
I was in high school."

"If you tell me you had a surfer-dude boyfriend, I'm
going to turn green with jealousy!"

"Not me. Melissa. His name was Chris and he really was an amazingly nice guy. Sometimes he'd invited Chuck and me to tag along when he and Melissa went surfing. He taught us all how to windsurf. Eventually, he and Melissa graduated to actual surfboards, but Chuck and I just stuck with the windsurfing."

"I'm maybe going to turn just a very pale shade of
green, because it does sound like you were a little
overly fond of this guy, even if he was your sister's
boyfriend."

"Nope. He wasn't my type at all. I just thought he was a good guy and good for Melissa."

"So what is your type, Agent Scully?"

"Tall, dark and handsome. Super, super smart.
Incredibly sexy. And maybe, just a little. . .Spooky,
shall we say? What's youre type, Agent Mulder?"

"Tiny, red-headed and gorgeous. Super, super smart.
Incredibly sexy. And very, very, loving, understanding and patient."

They leaned in for a kiss, which seemed to go on and
on. "Mmm," said Dana, when she finally came up for
air. "You're not going to weasel out of this, you
know. We're going windsurfing."

After pushing the board out to waist-deep water,
Mulder asked, "Okay, how do we get on this thing?"

"Well, when I did it with Chuck, we stood side-by-side on the board. But I watched Chris and Melissa and she would stand in front, right up near the sail, and he would stand behind her; sort of straddling her, you know?"

"Oooh, that sound a lot more fun than standing beside
you!"

After several mishaps, they finally got the board to
stay upright and skimmed along the top of the water
for an exhilarating ride. Despite never having done it before, Mulder's natural agility and superb upper body strength let him control the sail fairly easily. The rhythm they'd developed with each other over the past six years meant that she followed his movements easily as he leaned back, forward or to one side.

"You're right, Dana. This is a lot of fun. Of course,
any activity that allows me to rub up against you like this while you're wearing that tiny bikini is bound to be enjoyable!"

"Down, boy! We're going to our boss's house for dinner in a little bit and we're not going to arrive late and out of breath!"

After a quick shower, Scully changed into her new
dress and jewelry. She was checking her appearance in
the mirror when Mulder came up behind her.

"The earrings are lovely, Fox. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Considering I never even bought you
an engagement ring, I thought they'd be a nice choice. Not that I won't be more than happy to buy you a ring, too, if you want one."

"Mulder, our engagement lasted all of twenty minutes!
There wasn't time for a ring!"

On the way out to the Laus' haouse, Scully asked a
question that had occasionally puzzled her during the
last month. "Mulder, when we were out in Las Vegas,
why did you want us to get married right then?"

"Because I love you, of course. Haven't I made that
clear by now?"

"What I mean is, most couples nowadays. . .I mean I
would have been happy to. . .It wasn't like I'd never. . ."

"You would have been happy to just go back to the
hotel and make love with me without  us getting
married first? Is that what you're trying to say?"

"Yes! I mean, I love being married to you. But we
could have just gotten engaged then and waited until
later to actually get married."

"We can have another ceremony, a Catholic one with
your mother there, when we get back to Washington. I
know you want that and I certainly don't object."

"Good, but I'm still not exactly clear on why you felt an overwhelming need to marry me right then."

Mulder sighed. "Because the other way would have left
too much room for misunderstanding. Too many chances
for one of us to say it was an aberration, that it was the result of the stressful situation we were in; to decide that we couldn't be both lovers and partners. And I knew, Dana, that if I ever made love with you, it couldn't be a one-time thing. I managed to control myself for all those years because I was only imagining how good it would be between us. I knew that once I KNEW how good it was, there'd be no turning back."

"Oh," she said softly, reaching out to entwine her
fingers with his.

When they arrived at the Laus' house, John opened the
door and waved them inside. "Come on in. Marnie's
upstairs, trying to get our son settled down quietly
in front of a Barney video."

"Do you just have the one child?" Dana asked.

"Just the one, but he's a handful," said a voice
behind them. "Hi, I'm Marnie. You two must be Dana and Fox, right?"

"Right. Please to meet you," Mulder answered. Dana,
meanwhile, was too stunned to speak for a minute. When she'd pictured Marnie Lau, she'd assumed the woman would be of Polynesian descent, as her husband was, but probably much smaller. She'd also guessed John's wife would be with in a few years of his own age, which seemed to be somewhere between 40 and 45.

Instead, the woman now smiling at them in welcome was
Caucasian. She was almost as tall as Mulder, which
mean she wasn't too terribly much shorter than John.
Most surprisingly of all, she was obviously several
years younger than Scully, probably still in her late
twenties.

Recovering herself, Dana smiled. "We really appreciate you inviting us to your home. It's lovely."

During dinner, Marnie commented, "John tells me the
two of you only recently got married?"

"Yes, about a month ago," Scully replied.

"And it's sort of hush-hush, huh?" Marine asked.
"That's romantic, like something out of an old movie."

"Most of the bureau brass in Washington aren't as
lenient as your husband when it comes to partners
getting, er, personally involved with each other to
the extent we are; and we don't want to quit working
together," Scully said.

"How long have you two been married?" Mulder asked.
 
"Nearly ten years," John answered.

"Ten years!" Scully could keep the amazement out of
her voice. "But certainly, I mean. . .you look so
young, Marnie."

"I had just turned nineteen when I met John. I was
twenty when we got married."

"You should have seen the look on her Dad's face when
she brought me home for the first time! Horrified is
too kind a word to describe it," John said with a
chuckle.

"John, you're making Daddy sound like a bigot!" Marnie protested. "He's not. He was just surprised -
understandably I think - that you were Polynesian.
People of your ethnicity are not exactly common in
central Kansas, you know!"

"That's true enough. I felt like some sort of museum
exhibit the whole time I lived in that state. To be
fair to your father, I really think our age difference disturbed him more than my race. I was thirty-two already and you had only just finished your freshman year in college."

"How did you two meet?" Mulder asked.

"I was investigating a case in which Marnie was a key
witness. I took one look at her and I was gone. I
mean, just completely blown away," John said.

"Me, too," Marnie agreed. "John gave new meaning to
the words "tall, dark and handsome". I absolutely
couldn't believe it when he asked me out on a date!"

Dana smiled at the other woman's obvious enthusiasm
and love for her husband. "Why not?"

"Well, for one thing, no one ever had before!" Marnie
said.

"I find that hard to believe," Mulder put in
gallantly. "You're a very attractive woman."

"Thank you, but the boys in Kansas didn't seem to
think so," Marnie replied with a smile.

"I've explained this to you before, Marnie," John
said. "They were boys. You're tall, smart, beautiful
and you don't take crap from anyone. Undoubtedly, you
scared them out of their wits!"

"Mama always said I'd attract more boys if I'd stop
flaunting my intelligence, but I could never bring
myself to do that," Marnie said.

"I couldn't either," Dana put in. "My sister could,
somehow. I mean, she was just as smart as I was when
it came to schoolwork, but she'd act so dumb when boys were around it was unbelievable! I didn't know whether to gag or turn green with envy everytime she went into her act and pulled another guy in."

Mulder chuckled.

Later, when they were in the living room, Marnie
asked, "Who's the designated driver for you two
tonight?"

"I am, I guess," Mulder answered.

"Considering that I have to wrestle the keys away from you whenever I want to drive, that's a logical
assumption," Scully said dryly.
 
"Hey, I let you drive sometimes!"

"Yeah, about once a year."

"I let you drive all the way out to New Mexico that
time!"

"Mulder, you'd just been shot and you were doped up
with painkillers. It wasn't like there was much
alternative!"

Marnie laughed. "You two sound like John and me. All
men seem to feel there's an unspoken vow in the
wedding nuptials to let them do all the driving."

"Oh, he was bad about it even before we got married,"
Scully said with a smile.

"Is there a point to this conversation?" Lau asked
with a grin.

"Yeah," answered Marnie. "I'm going to make up a
pitcher of my super-duper double strength Pina
Coladas. Since we had wine with dinner, I figured only whoever wasn't driving should have one."

"Those fruity drinks aren't my thing, anyway," Mulder
replied. "But Dana loves them."

"Mulder, you're making me sound like a lush in front
of our boss!"

"I didn't mean," Mulder began.

"Forget it," John said easily. "I'm sure you don't
have an alcohol problem, Dana. These drinks Marnie
makes are delicious but they do seem to appeal to
women more than men."

As John, Marnie and Dana sipped their drinks and
Mulder told a story involving one of their less
spectacular (and hence, more believable) cases, a
toddler wandered into the room.

"Why Aaron, baby, I thought you were asleep," Marnie
said, reaching out to pull him into her lap.

"Not a baby, Mama! Who dat?" the little boy said,
pointing at Mulder.

"That's Mr. Mulder, Aaron. He works with Daddy,"
Marnie said.

"Who dat?" he asked again, pointing at Scully this
time.

"Mrs. Mulder. She works with Daddy, too."

Dana nearly choked on her drink. She'd never been
referred to as "Mrs. Mulder" before. Once she got over her initial astonishment at hearing the name applied to her, she decided she liked the sound of it. Sure beat the hell out of "Mrs. Spooky"!

"Come on, son, I'll take you back to bed," John said,
reaching out to swing the small, dark-haired child up
onto his shoulders.

As John and Aaron left the room, Marnie turned to
Dana. "You don't mind me having him call you Mrs.
Mulder, do you? He's too young to understand the
concept of people in the same family having different
last names. I know you still use Scully
professionally, but most women who do that use their
husband's last name socially."

"It's fine," Dana replied.

As they left the Laus' house later that night, Mulder
wrapped an arm around Dana to keep her from stumbling
down the steps. There was an impossibly full, bright
tropical moon lending its light to the night.

"Scully, you're drunk," Mulder said as he helped her
fasten the seat belt she was obviously having trouble
with.

"I know," she replied.

"I don't think I've ever seen you really drunk before. Tipsy a couple of times, sure. Like that time with Eddie Van Blundht."

"I thought that was you!" she protested.

"I know, baby, I know."

"Anyway, I was already afraid to get drunk around you
before we were married," she said.

"What, you were afraid I'd take advantage of you?" he
asked. That stung. He'd always thought Scully trusted
him.

"No, I was afraid that you wouldn't."

"Huh?"

"Mulder, it wasn't your behavior I was worried about.
It was mine."

"Explain yourself, Agent Scully," he said with a
smile.

"My control around you was always. . .ten you, ten
you," she groped for the right word.

"Tenuous?" he suggested.

"Yeah, that. It was tenuous at best. Even when I was
sober. I figured if I ever got really drunk and you
came over to my apartment or into my motel room -
wherever we were - that I'd just throw myself at you.
Beg you to make love to me. And that you probably
wouldn't. Because I'd be drunk and you wouldn't want
to take advantage of the situation. So I didn't. Get
drunk, I mean."

"Dana, if you throw yourself at me tonight and beg me
to make love to you, believe me I'll take full
advantage of the situation!"

"Promise?"

"Oh, yeah. Actually, though, it seems sort of like we
ought to go home and make love in the missionary
position with the lights off. I mean, we just had
dinner at our boss's house. How long has it been since we've done anything that normal?"

"Oooh, I like that idea!"

"I was just teasing, sweetheart. You know I like the
lights on. I like to be able to see you. To watch the
look in your eyes when you get excited. And you're so
little, I really prefer it when you're on top, too."

"Nope. Not tonight, Romeo. Our bedroom's not that dark anyway, especially with a full moon. And I'm not even going to do anything to you. I'm just going to lay back and enjoy it."

That'll be the day, Mulder thought dryly. He'd be
willing to bet a month's salary that there was no way
Dana could keep her busy little hands still or her
marvelous mouth from moving over his body once he
started touching her.

"You planning on closing you eyes and thinking of
England?" he asked.

"Nope. I'm just going to close my eyes and concentrate on the wonderful things my husband is doing to my body with his big, gentle hand and lovely, sensual mouth."

"Keep it up, Dana, and I'm pulling over and making
love to you in the backseat."

"Gee, you're in a retro mood tonight! First you want
to make love like a 1950s married couple, now like
1950s teenagers!"

When they finally made it back to their apartment,
Mulder opened the door and swung Dana up into his
arms. It seemed the quickest way to get them to the
bedroom. Besides, he was beginning to realize that his pretty wife - who could find a scientific explanation for anything and insisted on absolute equality when they were at work - liked it when he went into what could only be termed his "cave man" mode at home.

Dumping Dana somewhat unceremoniously on the bed,
Mulder began to remove his clothes. Dana lifted her
new dress over head and tossed it toward the dresser,
then began to attempt to divest herself of her
brassiere. Mulder, who was now completely naked, sat
down beside her. "Need some help with that?"

"Mmm. Please."

He undid her bra with deft movements, then slid her
panties off as well. Suddenly, a noise from outside
their window startled him. "Hold on a minute, Dana, I
want to see what that was."

Mulder slipped his pants back on, grabbed his gun and
walked cautiously toward the doors leading to their
balcony. He had suddenly remembered that the reason
they'd been sent to Hawaii wasn't to have fun, or even merely to assist Lau in a peculiar case. Part of the reason they were here was because sinister, powerful forces were extremely unhappy with some of the things he and Scully had discovered in the past couple of months. Skinner had temporarily reassigned them to the Honolulu Field Office because the Assistant Director thought they'd be safe there. But if his years of working on the X-Files had taught Mulder anything, it was that absolute safety was a myth. Even here, in paradise, they needed to be on their guard.

Reaching the doors, Mulder crouched down and peered
out.

There seemed to be a drunken brawl going on out in the parking lot. It was apparently unconnected to Scully and him and didn't really concern them. On the other hand, he was a law enforcement official - a federal agent who had jurisdiction anywhere in the United States. He couldn't just stand by and watch a crime being committed, no matter how much he was longing to go to bed.

Sighing, Mulder picked up the phone and called the
local police precinct. Then he quickly pulled on jeans and a T-shirt and went down to try to keep the peace until backup arrived.

It was nearly half an hour before he was able to
return to the apartment and even then it was only
because he had promised to come into the station and
give a statement as early as possible the following
day. Just as he had feared, Scully was sound asleep.
She was sprawled languidly in the middle of their bed. He stripped off his clothes and looked at her. The moonlight showed shape and shadows, but no colors. Looking at her naked body was enough to arouse him, but he had no interest in making love to her if she was too out of it to enjoy what they were doing.

As he watched, she began to whimper and thrash. A
nightmare, he realized. They both had them at times,
the result of the dark side of all they'd been through in the past five years. More than once, he'd slipped through the connecting door of their motel rooms to comfort her until she'd fallen back asleep. She'd done the same for him occasionally, too.

They hadn't had any in the past month; maybe because
what haunted both their nightmares was losing their
partner and they'd been sleeping in each other's arms.

Mulder sat down on the bed and touched her face
gently. "Scully? Hey, Scully. It's all right. I'm
here."

"Mulder? You're okay? You're here? It's really you?"

Scully launched herself into his arms with a force
that was born not only of love but of relief. Winding
her arms around his neck, she kissed him desperately.

"I love you. I'm sorry I shot you. I'm so glad you're
not dead."

Scully was time traveling, Mulder realized. She did
that, sometimes, in her dreams. Occasionally, it was
even back to beyond the time when they'd first met,
but more often it was to an earlier time in their
partnership. Now she was obviously reliving a painful
episode when he'd been drugged and she'd been forced
to shoot him and shortly thereafter believed he had
died in a fire.

"I love you, too. It's okay, I know you had to. Thank
you for taking such good care of me afterwards. I'll
always come back to you, Scully." Mulder didn't even
try to convince her that it had been years since she'd shot him. Better, he thought, to go along for the ride.

"You do?" her voice held a quiet wonder. "You do love
me, too?"

"Yes, Scully, I love you, too." It was true, he
realized. Even then, he'd loved her. His one thought
had been to return to her. He should have told her
then, not waited until three more years had gone by.

"Make love to me, Mulder. Please! I need you to."

"Shhh! I will, Scully. Lean back."

Scully leaned back against the pillows without
unwrapping her arms from his neck, dragging him down
on top of her. He propped himself up with his forearms to keep from pressing too heavily upon her. They kissed again and again, Scully moving her mouth all over his face and then returning to his lips.

"You taste so good," she murmured.

"You feel so good," he answered, running his hand
across her breasts.

"I like that." They continued to kiss as he explored
her body with his hands. By now, she was delightfully
familiar territory to him, but he realized that in her dreamy, drunken state she thought it was the first time they were making love.

"Mulder, please. I'm ready. I want you to."

He didn't bother to tease her this time, to insist
that she be explicit in her desire for him. He simply
nudged her thighs further apart and began to enter her very gently, going as slowly as possible. "Feel good, Scully?"

"Oh, Mulder, yes! Even better than I imagined it
would!"

"You thought about us a lot like this, huh?"

"Mmmhmm. You, too?"

"All the time, Scully. Every night."

After that, she began to moan and wrapped her legs
more tightly around his hips. Obviously beyond the
point of coherent conversation, she ran her
fingernails up and down his back, scratching him
gently. He paced himself to her rhythm, holding back
until she was ready, then letting her climax trigger
his own.

"Don't leave," she murmured as he rolled off her.
"Stay with me tonight. Sleep beside me."

"I will, Scully. I'm not going anywhere. Not without
you. Not ever again."

Later, she woke up to his hands running up and down
her body, his face buried in her hair while his tongue traced the outline of her ear. "Mulder?" she asked sleepily.

"I need you again, Scully. I'm sorry. I'm trying not
to be a pig, but I have to." In truth, Mulder didn't
know what had gotten into him. It had only been a few
hours since the last time they'd made love, but he was so hard he hurt.

"Don't apologize, lover. It's okay."

"You want on top?"

"No, too sleepy. You go ahead." She wiggled beneath
him and opened her legs wider, running her hands up
and down his arms as she did so.

Mulder slipped a finger into her, trying to make sure
she was ready. He didn't want to hurt her. Convinced
she was okay, he entered her and began moving. Fast
and hard.

Scully moaned. His need must be intense for him to
take her this way, she realized. He wasn't exactly
being rough, but he wasn't making the effort to be as
gentle as he usually was. For once in her life, she
realized, she was seeing Fox Mulder totally out of
control. For her, she thought with a small, smug
smile. It wouldn't be much fun if he was always this
quick when they made love, but there was a heady
feeling of power in the fact that she, Dana Scully,
had just managed to turn an Oxford graduate whose
self-control was legendary into a rutting animal.