Part 3 of 3

Mulder climaxed with a speed that was almost
unbelievable. He'd never come that fast, he realized.
Not just with his wife, but ever. Even years ago, in
his first sexual relationship, which began when he was only nineteen, he'd been able to last longer than
that. He didn't know whether to be amazed or
terrified.

"Sweetheart, do you want to come? I didn't mean to hog all the fun. I can. . ."

"No, it's okay," she interupted. "I just want you to
hold me while we go back to sleep. Women don't always
have an orgasm everytime, you know. Learned that in
medical school."

"Oh, I don't know about that. Guess I'll just have to
make sure I double your pleasure next time," he
growled into her ear.

***

When Scully woke up again, it was morning and she was
alone in their bed.

"Mulder. Where are you?"

"I'm here, sweetheart. How are you feeling?" he asked, sitting down beside her.

"Um, okay. A little bit of a headache, but not too
bad. Why are you smiling at me like that?"

"Why don't you go brush your teeth and get some
asprin, then come back. I'll explain."

Scully returned a few minutes later and lay back down
beside Mulder, who was now stretched out on the bed
with one hand propping up his head.

"Okay, Mulder, out with it. I obviously did something
last night that you want to tease me about. What was
it?"

"How much of last night do you remember?"

"Well, I remember being out at the Laus' house and the drive home. After that, it's kind of a blur. I know we made love. Twice, I think. Once was real slow and sensual. The second time, I think you were going for some sort of speed record."

"Yeah. I didn't mean to be so quick. I don't know what came over me."

"It's okay. You needed me. I like it when you need
me."

"So that's all you remember?"

"I guess. What did I say, Mulder?"

"Well, you were a mite bit confused as to some aspects of our relationship."

"Mulder, if you're going to try to convince me that I
thought you were somebody else, it's not going to
work. Even in my fantasies, I've only been with you
since the day we first met."

"Oh, you had the "who" down pat Scully. Also the
"what" and the "why". It was "where and when" that you were a mixed up about."

"Where did I think we were?"

"Home; specifically, my apartment in Alexandria."

"Okay, so I got drunk and forgot we were in Hawaii.
That's mildly amusing, but I don't think it's all THAT hilarious."

"Scully, can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. What?"

"Remember when you had to shoot me, then you drove me
out to New Mexico and left me with a Navajo healer,
then you thought I had died in that fire?"

"Of course I remember, Mulder. It was the worst
experience of my life. I thought I'd lost you. Why are we. . ?"

He gave her a grin that would have put the Cheshire
Cat to shame. "Scully, if you and Skinner hadn't been
holding guns on each other playing cops-and-robbers in my apartment when I got back, exactly how were you
planning on welcoming me home?"

Scully turned red. Completely. She could feel her face flaming.

"I thought you had just come back?" she asked.

"Mmmhmm. Apologized for shooting me at least a dozen
times. Between kisses. Begged me to make love to you.
If I'd known that was what you had in mind, I would
have just shot Skinner. We could have made love over
his dead body. I mean, I do remember you were awfully
glad to see me. Kept smiling and touching me. Told me
you'd had a very strong feeling that I was still
alive, which I found amazing coming from my skeptical, scientific partner. But, baby, I had no idea you were THAT glad to see me!"

"You came to me," she said softly.

"I came in you, sweetheart. Twice."

"I don't mean last night and I don't mean our bodies.
Our souls. When I thought I'd lost you, you came to me in a dream. Reassured me that you'd return. If you'd walked in then, without Skinner there, I wouldn't have bothered to beg. I'd just have attacked you. You would have had to peel me off your body and used handcuffs or a firehose to keep me away!"

"Dana! You never told me any of this before."

"Well, it sounded so weird. Dream communication is the sort of stuff you believe in, not me. And then,
afterwards, with Melissa dead it didn't seem right. I
desperately wanted to comfort yo over your father's
death and have you comfort me over Melissa's - and we
did do that, to a certain extent - but climbing into
bed together when we were both grieving and our
careers were in jeopardy didn't seem right."

"For a man who is supposedly intelligent and a trained observer, I sure as hell missed a lot of signals, didn't I?"

"Well, it took you a while," she admitted with a
smile. "But we eventually got to where we wanted to
be."

***

The weeks in Hawaii passed with a sort of dreamy
contentment for Scully and Mulder. They were working,
of course, but only 40 hours a week, sometimes even
less. It was a marked contrast to the 60-hour
workweeks they'd routinely pulled previously.

During their off hours, they went to the beach to jog, swim or windsurf. They also hit various tourist spots. John Lau had become more than their supervisor, too. He and Marnie were their friends. Because Scully and Mulder were older and more experienced than the other agents in the Honolulu Field Office - and because they were only there temporarily - Lau had relaxed the barrier that normally would have existed between them.

Not that it was quite perfect. Dana missed her mother, for one thing. She had been used to talking to her at least once a week and seeing her a couple of times a month. The distance wouldn't have been so bad, if they could have called each other or even written letters, but because of the secrecy needed to protect the agents that was forbidden. She could also tell that Mulder was growing restless and bored with routine surveillance work. Her husband was anxious to get back to the X-Files.

One day, after a particularly dull assignment, Mulder
finally voiced his dissatisfaction. "Do you think
Skinner is ever going to call and tell us we can come
back to Washington? I'm beginning to think this is a
permanent reassignment! Maybe it was just a sneaky way of closing down the X-Files, something less obvious than  burning down our office. Send Scully and Mulder to Hawaii and hope they'll be too busy making love to notice their careers just went up in flames!"

"Skinner doesn't know we're doing that," Scully
pointed out in an amused voice.

"I don't think he'd be completely shocked. I still
remember the look on his face when we both reassured
him that we had no problem living together in the same apartment while we were out here."

"You're not happy here?"

"Dana, I love being with you. You know that. It's
great that we don't have to hide our relationship from Lau or our neighbors. And I'm glad we have lots of time to be alone together. Our sex life is fantastic! I'm certainly not complaining about that aspect of our stay in Hawaii. It's just that, career-wise, I'm beginning to think we've hit a dead end. Besides, I know you miss your Mom. It's hard for you, not even being able to phone her, isn't it?"

"Yeah," admitted Scully with a sigh. "I miss her.
Believe it or not, I kind of miss the Lone Gunmen and
Skinner, too. I love being out here and I know once we leave I'll really miss Marnie and John and Aaron. But it's like summer vacation when you're a kid. You can be having a great time, but sometime around mid-August you start getting eager to get back to school, to get +back to work. It's hitting me, too."

When they arrived home, Mulder said, "I'm going out
for a run. You want to come?"

He was just being polite, Dana realized. Usually they
jogged together, but it was obvious tonight that
Mulder needed to run hard enough to rid himself of his frustration. Dana was in top physical shape - she
jogged or swam almost daily - but there was no way she could run fast enough to keep up with him when he was in this mood.

"No thanks, lover. I'll just stay here and get supper
started."

Mulder ran along the hard packed sand near the water's edge until he was near exhaustion, then turned around and slowed to a jog as he headed home. He felt better now, able to put their situation in perspective. In a way, he felt like a jerk for even voicing his complaints to Dana. But sharing his thoughts with her was second nature by now. For years, the only feelings he'd ever hidden from her had been his sexual fantasies of the two of them together and now even that barrier had crumbled.

Could he adapt to living in Hawaii permanently?
Amazingly enough, he realized he probably could. It
was the not knowing that was the problem. If they were going to be out here for the rest of their lives, they needed to know. They needed to be able to let their families know where they were.

Another thing, he thought as he reverted to an earlier topic that had flashed through his head, he had had to stop jumping Dana every single night. He never let up, except for the few days of the month when nature demanded it. Hell, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if he was restraining himself only to nights. But there were occasional early mornings and weekend afternoons, too. It couldn't be good for her. She was strong, of course, but physically tiny. And it hadn't been that long since she'd recovered from her fight with cancer. It wasn't like she ever objected to his advances. On the contrary, she was so eager it shocked him sometimes. Still. . .

He had left the beach by this point and was jogging
slowly down the sidewalk that led to their apartment
complex when he passed a teen-age boy selling flowers. It occurred to him that this would be a nice gesture. He'd never brought her flowers when she was healthy before, just a couple of times when she was in the hospital. He'd never courted her at all, really. Just spent years dragging her around the country investigating aliens and mutants, then demanded that she marry him when she'd been fool enough to laughingly agree to whatever he wanted one evening when they were in Las Vegas. It didn't seem to bother her and she knew that he loved her, but sometimes it bothered him a little bit.

Arriving home hot, sweaty and clutching a bouquet of
flowers, he opened the door. An aroma of spices and
sizzling meat hit him. He had no idea what she was
cooking, but it smelled delicious.

"Hey, sweetheart. I brought you these," he said,
thrusting the flowers at her.

"Thank you, Fox. But, uh, it's not my birthday or
anything."

Mulder sat down to remove his shoes and socks while
she looked for something to put the flowers in.
Lacking a vase, she stuffed them into a pitcher they
usually used for iced tea.

Standing up to strip off his T-shirt, Mulder said, as
he pulled his head free, "Didn't we have this
conversation a few weeks ago, in regard to your
earrings? I'm your husband. I have the right to buy
you things."

Scully was smelling the flowers and smiling at him. "I know. Now I want to say thank you."

"You just did," he replied, puzzled.

"Not like I want to." She set the flowers down on the
table and reached for him. Standing with her back to
the wall, she hooked her fingers into the waistband of his shorts and pulled him up against her. He flattened his palms on either side of her face to keep from crushing her as she stood on tiptoes to kiss him. Not a chaste little smooch of gratitude, like he was expecting, but a deep, wet kiss that went on and on.

"Dana, I'm all sweaty."

"I know. I like it."

"Let me go shower first. Better yet, you come shower
with me."

"It's a tempting offer, but no. Right here, Fox. Right now."

She pushed his jogging shorts down, snagging his
underwear with them. It was no use him telling her he
was interested in what she was suggesting. It was
blatantly obvious that he was.

"Just like this, sweetheart? Up against the wall?"

"Just," she paused to kiss him, "like," another kiss,
"this."

Scully guided his hand to her panties beneath the
short skirt she was wearing so he could tug them off.
Then she guided him into her. He lifted her up as he
surged into her. It was quick, sweaty and messy, but
they both climaxed soon and virtually simultaneously.

Afterwards, lying entwined together on the living room rug, both of them naked now, Mulder asked a question. "Dana, just for future reference, is it me being all sweaty and half-naked that turns you on, or is it the flowers or a combination of both?"

"Ooh, I don't know. I guess you'll just have to find
that out by trial and error. Like, for instance,
sometime you'll have to bring me flowers when you're
fully clothed. And sometimes you'll have to come in
all sweaty and start stripping off your clothes when
you haven't brought me flowers. And sometimes. . ."

"Sweetheart, why do I get the feeling that in each of
these circumstances we're going to end up making
love?"

"Am I becoming that predictable?"

"Scully, there are many words I'd use to describe you, but predictable is definitely not one of them!"

Just then, the phone rang. "Probably John, wanting us
to work, or Marnie, wanting us to come over for
dinner," Dana suggested.

"Or somebody trying to sell us something," Mulder
replied, as he reached for the phone. "Hello?"

"Agent Mulder?" the voice was Skinner's.

"Assistant Director Skinner? Isn't it about midnight
back where you are?"

"Yes, it's quite late here. Why do you sound so out of breath?"

"Oh, I was out running. Just came in, as a matter of
fact."

"Well, is Agent Scully there?"

"Uh, yeah, she's right here." He handed the phone to
his wife.

"Yes, sir?"

"You sound out of breath, too. Were you exercising
with Agent Mulder?"

"Yes, sir," Scully replied, trying to keep a straight
face. Or at least keep the laughter out of her voice.

"Well, then, let me talk to him again."

"Yes, sir," Mulder asked, wondering if they were just
going to pass the phone around all evening.

"I take it you've finished up with whatever Lau
originally needed you out there for?" Skinner asked.

"Weeks ago. We've just been doing routine surveillance and investigative work for the Honolulu field office lately."

"Well, get your bags packed and get yourselves on the
next possible flight back to Washington. Krycek was
convicted this afternoon and various forces seem
convinced that if anything were to happen to you and
Agent Scully, it would cause more problems than the
two of you do poking into things. Besides, you're
needed here. We've got a werid case that no one else
wants to touch."

Mulder had been holding the phone slightly away from
his ear so that Scully, leaning in, could hear also.
"We're on our way," the agents said together.