Part 1 of 5

Note: The characters of Michelle and Austin are from a VERY shortlived TV show of the late 80s called
"Probe". I may have been the only person who ever
watched it! They weren't married in the show, but they got further with each other in six weeks than Mulder and Scully have gotten in six years, so I have them married in this. I'd especially appreciate feedback from anybody who actually saw the show.

***

Special Agent Fox Mulder stretched as he surveyed the
files piled on the desk in his basement office at
F.B.I. headquarters. The reports of random deaths
throughout the Southwest might be an X-File. On the
other hand, they could turn out to be nothing more
than a waste of time.

"So, what do you think, Scully?" he asked his partner
- and wife - who was sitting on the other side of
their office.

Special Agent Dana Scully raised her head and smiled
at him. Just a little smile, the kind she could get
away with at the office without blowing their cover.
"I don't know, Mulder. The victims were of different
ages, races and genders and found in three  different
states."

"Each one found in front of a computer screen," Mulder reminded her.

"Well, there have been documented cases of television
programs inducing epileptic attacks by the frequency
of light pulses. Maybe something similar happened
here. Of course, all the victims would have to share
some sort of underlying medical condition. Television
can't cause epilepsy, just trigger the seizures in
someone who already has the disease," she stated.
"What I'd really like to know is why we got this
case."

"Why  not? Mysterious deaths are what the X-Files are
all about."

"Yeah, but these killer computer things aren't really
our area of expertise. I know we've dealt with them
before, a couple of times actually, but I just don't
know why Skinner assigns them to us. I mean, you're a
psychologist and I'm a medical doctor. Mutants,
aliens, serial killers. . .those we understand, at
least as well as anybody can. But the bureau has
dozens of agents more technologically savvy than we
are when it comes to computers."

"I think you've been hanging out with me too long,
Scully," he said with a smile. "What you're saying is
that you'd rather have a nice case involving alien
vampires or psychic mutant clones than a case in which it might actually be possible to find a rational, scientific answer that will hold up to scrutiny by the F.B.I. oversight committee."

"Well. . ." Scullly had the good grace to look
slightly embarrassed.

"Honestly, I think that's exaclty why Skinner throws
us these cases once in a while. He's on our side, as
much as he possibly can be given bureau regulations,
but he has his own superiors to answer to. The fact
that he can point to the occasional non-mutant serial
killer we've captured or malfunctioning computer
program we've disarmed gives him some sort of
credibility when he argues for the continuing
existence of the X-Files."

"So, where do we go from here?" she asked.

"Well, we could go home and. . ." he let his words
trail off with a smile.

"Don't even start, Mulder," she said. Then, catching a glimpse at the look on his face, she added, "And quit looking at me like that!"

"Come on, Scully. I never promised not to LOOK at you
when we were in the office. Just to keep my hands to
myself."

"Well, you never looked at me like that before we got
married!"

"Sure I did. I was just damned careful not to let you
CATCH me looking at you like this," he said with a
chuckle.

Their banter was interrupted by a soft knock on the
door. Holly Patterson, the researcher who often
assisted them in their cases, peered around the door.

"Hey, Dana. Hey, Mulder," she said with a small smile. "I brought you another file. Assistant Director Skinner said for you two to look it over and see if it matches the criteria in the other ones."

"Thanks, Holly," Scully said with a  smile. "You know, I haven't really mentioned it since we've been back, but we do appreciate all your help."

"Sure, anytime," Holly answered.

As Holly walked back upstairs, she pondered the
relationship between the two agents she'd just left.
The exact nature of what went on between Scully and
Mulder when the two of them were alone together had
been the source of much bureau gossip and speculation
for years. Most people thought they slept together,
but a small, vocal minority insisted they were just
good friends and dedicated partners.

Since Holly worked more closely with them than just
about anyone else at the bureau, she was often pumped
for her insight. For years, she'd been in the camp
that held there was nothing sexual going on between
the two agents, but just recently she'd begun to have
her doubts. There had always been a great deal of
tenderness, respect and affection between them, as
well as absolute trust in each other. Lately, though,
a new element had been added. There was a. . .heat, an intensity in the way they looked at each other that had been absent before. She'd first noticed it after they came back from an assignment in Nevada that had led to the capture of a rogue agent named Krycek.

Shortly after that, the agents had been away from
Washington for almost two months, working on an an
assignment where only Skinner knew their whereabouts.
Now they were back, and the way Mulder had been
looking at Scully when she opened the door. . .
 

Mulder flipped through the file Holly had left and
said, "I think we need to go out there, Scully. We can swing by Skinner's office and let him know where we'll be, then get the travel office to get us tickets on an early morning flight to. . .well, Austin, Texas, I guess. That's where the most recent death occurred and it would probably be easier to jump into an ongoing investigation than reopen one that's already been closed. Besides, if you look at all the deaths, Austin is more or less in the epicenter of them. Also, it's supposed to be a really high-tech, happening kind of town - sort of the Texas version of Seattle - so we ought to be able to hook up with some sort of computer hotshot down there without too much trouble."

"Maybe be we could catch a redeye instead," Scully
suggested. "It's only 4 p.m. and that would still
leave us plenty of time to get packed. That way, we'd
be in Austin first thing in the morning instead of
wasting half of tomorrow on travel."

"No, Scully."

"Why not?"

"Two reasons. First, I think we need to talk with the
Lone Gunmen tonight, see what insight they can give us into these killings. You were right when you said
these sort of cases really aren't our area of
expertise."

"And the second reason?"

"Because," he said, lowering his voice as he bent his
mouth to her ear, "unless you've recently developed a
streak of exhibitionism of which I'm unaware, you
don't want me attempting what I've got in mind for
tonight on an airplane."

Mulder laughed as she blushed and rolled her eyes.
He'd always enjoyed flirting with her, teasing her,
making an occasional innuendo when he felt he could
get away with it. But ever since their marriage, he'd
practically become addicted to it. Scully was such a
contrast! When he said anything even faintly
suggestive while they were at work, she acted as if
she were offended. But this was the same woman who had been known to literally rip his clothes off when they were at home. The same one who had dragged him down on top of her in beds, bathtubs and beaches and begged - or demanded - that he do to her what he was dying to do anyway.

As the agents entered Skinner's office, Scully felt
Mulder's hand resting lightly against the small of her back. Okay, that's allowed, she thought. Even before we were married, long before we'd ever even kissed, he used to put his hand there. It was a gesture that managed to be polite and, at the same time, vaguely possessive. She liked it.

"Sit down, agents," Skinner said. "So you think you
can get to the bottom of these deaths out in Texas and the surrounding states?"

"Yes, sir," Scully answered. She quickly gave him a
brief overview of her theory.

"Do you have a conflicting theory, Agent Mulder?"
Skinner asked.

"Not at this time, no sir," Mulder replied.

"Okay, get out there, let me know what you find out,"
Skinner replied, shooing them out of his office.


An hour later, Scully and Mulder entered the
headquarters of the Lone Gunmen, also known as
Frohike, Langley and Byers. Or, as Scully was prone to refer to them as, the three most paranoid individuals on the face of the planet. Mulder had seen them since their marriage, but she hadn't. She was actually slightly nervous about facing Frohike. The diminutive man had always let it be known that he had a crush on her and had asked more than once if Mulder was the reason she refused to go out with him. She'd denied her attraction to her partner several times - mainly because she wasn't sure her feelings were reciprocated - and now here they were, married to each other. She honestly liked Frohike and was afraid the news of their marriage had hurt him.

Her fears proved unfounded. Frohike opened the door
with a smile on his face and said, "Hey, if it isn't
my favorite couple! How you doing, guys?"

"We're fine, Frohike," Scully answered with a smile.

"Do I get to kiss the bride?" Frohike asked.

"Only if you remember that the groom is right here
watching and that I'm armed," Mulder replied.

Scully smiled as Frohike brushed her cheek lightly
with his lips. Then he said, "Hey, we got you a
wedding present! Hold on."

"I wonder what they got us?" Scully murmured as
Frohike disappeared into the back of the building.

"Depends on who picked it out," Mulder deadpanned. "If Byers chose, it's probably a blender. If Frohike did, it's an illustrated version of "The Kama Sutra". And I don't even want to contemplate what they got if
Langley did the shopping."

Frohike returned in a minute. He was carrying a small, flat box and was followed by Langley and Byers.

"Hey, congratulations, Scully," said Byers. "Or
condolences, as the case may be."

"Watch it," said Mulder with a smile.

"Um, yeah, we're happy for you guys," Langley
interjected. "Go ahead and open your present."

Scully smiled and reached for the box. Undoing the
paper, she lifted out a heavy silver frame. Inside was a picture of herself and her husband, smiling into each other's eyes.

"It's. . .it's beautiful guys, it really is!" Scully
said. She was amazed that they had found such a
thoughtful gift. "But when. . .?" She didn't remember
ever posing for the picture.

"A couple of years ago," Langley answered. "We were
trying out some new surveillance equipment and caught
you guys when you weren't watching. We kept it as a
memento of our two favorite F.B.I. agents. Frohike
kept wanting to airbrush Mulder out of the photo and
digitalize an image of himself in, but Byers and I
wouldn't let him."

"Thank you," Mulder said.

"Okay, enough chitchat," Langley said. "What do you
need?"

"Do you know anybody computer savvy in Austin who
might be willing to talk to us about a possible X-File in that area?" Mulder asked.

"Austin?" Byers repeated. "I know exactly who you need to talk to. Have a seat."

Byers sat down in front of the computer and pushed a
couple of keys. The large screen showed the image of a pretty woman in her early thirties.

"This is Michelle James," Byers said. "She works - or
rather, used to work - for a company down there called Serendip."

"And she knows a lot about computers?" Scully asked.

"Actually, no," Byers replied. "In fact, I'm not sure
that Michelle is capable of successfully programming a VCR.  She's the single most technologically
incompetent person I've ever encountered in my entire
life."
 
"Then why. . .?" Mulder asked.

"Because," Byers said, "contacting Michelle is the
only way you get to speak with her former  boss - and
current husband - Austin James. He IS a computer
genius. In my opinion, he's right up there with Bill
Gates and Steve Apple, although he's so publicity shy
only a handful of people have ever heard of him."

"His name is Austin AND he lives in Austin?" Mulder
inquired.

"Hey, I've got an Aunt Virginia who lives in
Virginia," Frohikie answered. "It happens."

Byers hit a couple more keys and another picture
showed up. This one had obviously been taken from a
distance. It showed Michelle again, this time with an
attractive man in his mid-40s.

"That's him?" Scully asked.

"The one and only," Byers replied. "The man has such a thing for privacy, he makes the three of us look like exhibitionists!"

Scully jumped slightly as Mulder poked her gently in
the ribs. She knew that word had triggered his memory
of their earlier discussion about which flight to
take. She rolled her eyes at him.

"You mean he's paranoid, too?" Mulder asked.

"Actually, no," Byers answered. "He just doesn't like
people. Except for Michelle. And Parker, I suppose."

"Who's Parker?" Scully inquired.

"Their son."

"They seem like sort of an odd couple," Scully said
slowly.

"In some ways, they remind me a little bit of the two
of you," Byers said. "Except that the roles are
reversed. Michelle believes anything is possible -
telepathy, direct intervention in human lives by
angels, UFOs  - for all I know, the woman believes in
the Easter Bunny! Austin, on the other hand, has never yet met a bizarre occurrence he couldn't come up with an underlying scientific base to attribute it to."

"Sounds like my kind of guy," Scully said.

"Watch it, sweetheart," Mulder growled into her ear,
"or I'll go into my cave man mode right here and now."

Scully leaned up to kiss him lightly on the jaw, then
turned back to Byers.

"You know how they got together?" she asked.

"Actually, yeah, I do, more or less," Byers said.

"Hey, you never told us," Frohike said.

"Everybody get comfortable; I'll explain how they
ended up together," Byers said.

"See, Austin was one of the founders of Serendip, but
he never wanted to actually come into the office. He
preferred working out of his. . .well, it was sort of
a place like we've got here, actually. Combination
home, office and lab. Others at the company dubbed it
the bat cave. Company execs kept assigning him
secretaries and research assistants and stuff like
that, and he kept firing them. Said he preferred to
work alone. Until about eight years ago, when Michelle was assigned to him. He tried to fire her, too, at first, but she was tenacious. Not to mention a big help to him. Austin is brilliant, but his people skills leave a little to be desired. . .in the sense that he makes Frohike look like Mr. Popularity!"

"Hey, I resemble that remark," Frohike said.

"Anyway, the two of them ended up working remarkably
well together. . .almost as well as the two of you,"
Byers said, with a glance at Mulder and Scully. "He
had the genius and she had the common sense and
politeness. Although, I must admit, they were never
particularly polite to each other."

"What do you mean?"

"They argued all the time. I don't mean just about
cases, like you two do sometimes. About everything!
Austin was always hollering at Michelle that if she'd
think with her brain instead of her pulse points, she
might make sense. She was always screaming back at him that he didn't have pulse points, because he didn't have a heart! It was like watching a Hepburn-Tracy movie."

"She stayed with a man who treated her like that?"
Scully asked.

"Austin's bark was worse than his bite. I just think
Michelle was the only person who ever realized it. The funny thing was, despite the fact that he was always yelling at her, Austin could be amazingly tender with her, too. Just not very often."

"Like how?"

"Well, Michelle has this thing about thunderstorms.
They terrify her. I don't mean just unnerve her, I
mean truly freak her out. Austin understood that and
whenever one rolled through, he'd hold her hand. I've
heard that he once left a business conference
involving a multimillion dollar deal because he head
thunder and knew Michelle would be in the outer
officer cowering. Once, I was at the bat cave with
them when a truly hellacious storm rolled over. It
pretty much scared me, too. Austin held Michelle in
his lap the whole time it was going on. She buried her face in his shoulder and he stroked her back,
murmuring to her that it was going to be okay. Then,
the minute it stopped raining, he pushed her off his
lap and started demanding she make sense out of some
theory she'd propounded just before the storm began.
It was just plain weird!"

"So, how did they end up getting marred?" Mulder
asked.

"Well, eventually Serendip assigned this other,
younger computer tech to work with them. He was close
to Michelle's age and kept flirting with her. Austin
hated having the guy around. I suggested he was
jealous, and he admitted that was exactly his problem. I meant professional jealousy, of another genius taking over his boy wonder mantle, but that's not what Austin meant. He was sexually jealous; he didn't like the way this guy flirted with Michelle, complimented her, things like that. It turned out that in this one instance, Austin's instincts were right. The guy was an industrial spy. He worked for a a rival company and was trying to steal an encryption code Austin was in the process of designing. He ended up kidnapping Michelle and demanding the disk with the code on it as ransom."

"What happened?" Scully asked.

"Austin gave him the disk. I went with him to make the trade."
 
Was he mad? At Michelle, I mean?" Scully asked.

"No. I thought he would be. I watched as he handed the disk over to the guy and reached for Michelle. I
expected fireworks, yelling, him berating her for
being so stupid as to trust the guy. . .the whole
works. You have to understand, this was a project
Austin has spent years working on and just as it
reached the point of commercial viability, he had to
let someone else get both the profit and the acclaim."

"I can see where he might be somewhat perturbed."

"He didn't say a word," Byers continued. "He just
walked her back to the car. Then he tossed me the keys and got in the back seat with Michelle. He was holding her on his lap again, like he had during the storm. For the longest time, nobody said anything. Finally, Michelle said, 'I was so scared.' and Austin answered, 'I know. I was, too.' . Then, after another long silence, Michelle said, 'I want to go home.' . Austin asked if she meant home to her mother; she lived with her mother. Michelle said, 'No, with you.'  So, I took them home. To the bat cave. I left and I think maybe after that there might have been fireworks of a sort, just not the kind I had been expecting, because a couple of months later I got an invitation to their wedding."

"Did you go?"

"Yes, I went.  It was amazing. Michelle has all these
friends and this huge extended family and she'd
invited all of them, plus most of the employees of
Serendip. I didn't think Austin would ever agree to
such a lavish production, but he showed up. Now that I think about it, he must have footed the bill, too,
because Michelle's Dad was dead and there's no way she and her mother could have afforded such a splash.
Anyway, I've never seen a man so in love with his wife - at least not until just now," Byers said with a smile at Mulder and Scully.

"So," Byers continued, "he came for the wedding, he
and Michelle stayed for about thirty minutes of the
reception, then they left. The rest of us partied for
half the night."

"His dislike of people was so intense he wouldn't even stick around for his own wedding reception?" Langle asked. "Even I'm not that weird!"

"Actually, I don't think that's the reason he left in
such a hurry," Byers replied. "Michelle's an extremely devout Catholic. My bet is that their wedding night was the first time they were going to. . ."

"What is it about you Catholic women?" Mulder murmured in Scully's ear. "That's the exact same reason I sprinted out of the Little Chapel of Eternal Love in Las Vegas so quickly."

"Hey, I'm not the one who insisted we get married
right then and there," she whispered back.

"Sweetheart, you offered to do ANYTHING I wanted that
evening. Did you really think I was so stupid I was
going to waste an opportunity like that on just making love with you for one night? I wanted you legally obligated to keep showing up every night," he said softly.

"Uh, do you two need some privacy?" Frohike asked.
"This is our place, but I suppose we could leave."

Mulder laughed and pulled Scully closer to him,
resting his chin on top of her head.

"Okay, okay, we'll stop flirting. Do you have a way we can contact Michelle and thereby Austin?"

"Let me run it for a minute," Byers said. "Austin
doesn't like anybody contacting him and he has the
computer savvy to set up a pretty complex code.
However, since Michelle keeps giving out their
passwords to her mother, her grandmother, her aunts,
all nineteen of her cousins and her two dozen best
friends, I should be able to tap into somebody's data
base and. . .here it is! This is their home telephone
number and e-mail address. I'll give you the main
number at Serendip, too, but it's honestly not going
to do you much good. Now that Michelle doesn't
actually work for the company anymore, I'm betting
Austin only checks his messages about once a month. If that often."

"Why doesn't she work there anymore?" Mulder asked.

"Michelle's a pretty traditional kind of lady," Byers
replied. "She quit her job right before Parker was
born in order to be a full-time mother. Really, I
can't see that it makes much difference to them either way. Austin's a millionaire several times over from all his patents and stock options, so they've got plenty of money. On the other hand, he works almost completely out of their home and he still bounces his theories off Michelle all day long, which is the exact same thing he did when she worked for him, so I guess a pretty good argument could be made that she's still doing the same job, just not getting paid for it."

"Do they still live in the bat cave?" Scully asked.

"No, they moved. It's still sort of isolated, but it's a brand new house. They designed it together, with Austin having say-so on his lab area and Michelle making choices about the rest of the house. Anyway, I'll e-mail Michelle and tell her you're on the way. Here's directions to the house, too, and the password to their gate. Just let them know I sent you, and don't be put off too much by Austin. Convince Michelle he has to help you and leave it to her. That man would do anything for his wife."

"Sounds like somebody I know," Scully whispered in
Mulder's ear.

"Are you guys going to start that again?" Frohike
asked. "Don't you run out of stuff to say, being with
each other all the time?"

"Nope," Mulder replied.
 
"Hey, you sleeping okay?" Langley asked Mulder.

"I'm sleeping fine. Never better. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I just wondered. I know you sometimes have
problems with insomnia and now that you're married. .
.I mean, I remember that Diane use to complain that
you. . ." Langley noticed that Byers, Frohike and
especially Mulder were glaring at him, while Scully
was watching him with an amused, quizzical expression
on her face. "I think I'll shut up now," he said
quickly.

As they left the Lone Gunmen's place, carrying their
present and the information Byers had supplied them
with, Scully shot an amused glance at her husband. She knew how much he hated her bringing up any of his past romances, but this was too good to pass up.

"Okay, Mulder, out with it. What did Diane complain
about?"

"Listen, Scully, I don't want to talk about it."

"I know, but I do. What was it? If I have to spend all night getting it out of you, I will. And that would be a shame, because I had so many better ideas of what we could do tonight. If you really want me to spend all night long repeating the same question over and over again - while remaining fully clothed, of course - I can do that. But if you'd rather. . ."

"Okay, okay," said Mulder as they got in the car.
"It's not really that big a deal, anyway. She just
used to complain that I wouldn't actually sleep over
at her place. After we had, uh, finished, I'd get up
and go back to my own place to sleep. Not immediately; I did have the good manners to stay for a little while, but then I'd leave."

"Why?"

"So I could sleep! That's what I'm trying to explain.
I can't - well, that is to say, I couldn't - actually
sleep in the same bed with another person! If I tried
- and I honestly made the attempt several times, both
with Phoebe and Diane - I just ended up lying awake
staring at the ceiling. Or wandering around the
apartment all night. I was working violent crimes, for God's sake! I needed a good night's rest so I wouldn't shoot somebody by accident the next day!"

"But you don't have that problem with me," Scully
said. "In fact, I think you sleep better with me than
you did before we were married. You used to call me in the middle of the night or show up at the door at all hours to discuss cases!"

"Of course I sleep better with you in my arms than I
did before we were married! I'm not worried that
somebody's trying to take you away from me!"

"Is that what kept you awake all those nights?" she
asked softly.

"It used to be Samantha," he said. "I couldn't sleep
because of her. Then, after the Duane Barry incident,
it began to be you and her both, mixed up together.
After you got cancer, it was just you."

"Do you know why this kept you from sleeping?"

"Yeah, I think so. See, when Samantha and I were real
little we used to sleep in the same bed sometimes. Mom made us stop that a couple of years before she was taken, when I turned 10. But I think, subconsciously, I always felt that if we had been sleeping together, she would have been okay. I could have protected her. Later, I felt the same way about you. If I'd been with you when Duane Barry came that time. . ."

"Mulder, you saved me," she put in softly.

"Want to know the first time since I was a
pre-adolescent kid that I actually spent the whole
night sleeping in close proximity to another human
being?"

"When?"

"That time we were in Florida on the trail of the
mothmen. I was cold, I was hurt and and I was lying on the ground with my head in your lap. It should have been impossible for anybody to sleep under those
conditions! But I zonked out completely and had
wonderful, sweet dreams about singing bullfrogs and
raining sleeping bags and getting lucky with a
beautiful woman who came into my hotel room carrying a bottle of wine."

"Really?"

"Yep."

Scully smiled at her husband. Lord, how she loved
this man! It made her feel so special to know that,
while other women may have had the benefit of his
considerable sexual skill, none of them had had the
pleasure of having him fall asleep next to them night
after night.

When they got back to their apartment, Scully headed
for the kitchen. "What did you want for dinner? I
can," she was stopped by her husband's hands around
her waist, turning her to face him.

"Wrong room, Dana. That is, unless you wanted to try
something really innovative involving the kitchen
table."

"Mulder, I'm hungry!"

"Me, too. For you."

Scully smiled. There was no way she was going to win
this argument and, to tell the truth, she didn't
really want to. It was obvious how much he needed her.

"Well," she purred, rubbing up against him, "since you obviously have a more, er, pressing need. . ."

He scooped her up and quickly transverse the short
hallway to their bedroom. "You wanna undress me?" he
growled into her ear as he lowered her to the bed.

"Might be quicker if you did it yourself."