"Scully, I'm going to meet with this guy, see if he
has anything worthwhile to tell us. Personally, I
think he's just a nut, but fifteen minutes of my time
is not that big a deal."

Dana Sculy looked at her husband, who was seated on
the other side of the office they shared.

"Want me to come with you?" she asked.

"Nope."

"Okay, Mulder, what's up?" she inquired, suddenly
suspicious.

Mulder sighed. There was only one negative consequence of working with your wife, as far as he was concerned. As he he had learned at Christmastime, it made surprise gift-buying a real hassle.

"Have you checked the calendar?"

"It's the middle of February. What's the significance
of. . .oh. Valentine's Day?"

"Yes. Tomorrow. Don't go poking into any packages you
might come across in the car, the office or at home."

"Mulder, we've been together almost eight years, one
way or the other, and I have NEVER known you to even
acknowledge the existance of Valentine's Day!"

"Looks like I've got a lot of making up to do, then.
See you later."

After meeting with the informant - the guy was so
crazy, the Gunmen would have seemed normal in
comparison - Mulder made stops by a card store and
florist shop. He promised he'd be in to pick up the
bouquet he ordered before they closed at six the
following evening. He would have loved to just have
the florist deliver the flowers to the office, but
that would definitely NOT be discreet and if he and
Scully wanted to continue to work as partners - which
they did - Skinner insisted that they be discreet
about their personal relationship.

Debating for only a moment, Mulder made one last stop
before returning to bureau headquarters. It was an
establishment that had been mighty familiar to him in
his single days, but he hadn't entered it for almost a year. There hadn't been any need.

"Why, howdy stranger," the middle-aged bleached blonde at the counter greeted him. "Haven't seen you in these parts in quite a  while."

"Hey, Trixie," he returned the greeting affably. He
walked quickly past the videos and magazines, to the
store's gift section. Some of the items were, he
thought, perverted. But his eidetic memory helped him
find the two things he was looking for with a minimum
of fuss. He brought them to the front counter.

"Oooh," said Trixie as she rang him up. "I take it
you've moved from spectator to participant?"

"How much?" he asked, ignoring her question.

"You know, hon, we've got some new videos you might be interested in. They' re more soft-focused, actually have a semblance of a plot. Especially designed for couples viewing."

Mulder nodded. "Maybe later. Right now, I need to get
back to work."

Stashing the presents under an old blanket in the
trunk, next to the card he'd chosen, Mulder returned
to work.

***

As they were leaving the office later that day, Mulder asked Scully, "You want me to make reservations for tomorrow night and surprise you or did you want to choose the restaurant?"

"Know what I'd really like, Mulder?"

"What?"

"Let's just swing by the supermarket tonight and pick
up some steaks, a bottle of wine and something gooey
from the bakery. I'd like us to have dinner at home
tomorrow."

"Why?"

"Three reasons," she said, ticking them off on her
fingers, "One: restaurants are always mobbed on
Valentine's Day. Unless we want to eat at five in the
afternoon or after nine at night or at McDonald's,
it's probably too late to get reservations at a nice
place at a normal hour. Two: there's always the
possibility that somebody from the bureau could spot
us, and having a candlelight dinner together on
Valentine's Day would hardly come under the heading of "discreet" which is what we have to be if we want to continue working together. Three: We've been on the road a lot lately, eating out almost every night. We were home this weekend, but we had Sunday dinner over at my Mom's. I'd really like to cook for you."

"I can think of a fourth reason," he said with a grin.

"What?"

"If I get carried away and start acting out on my
romantic feelings at the table, we won't get
arrested!"

She gave him a Scully-look and punched him lightly on
the arm.

***

The next morning, Scully was up and dressed before
Mulder woke up. This was unusual for them, as she was
generally the sleepyhead.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Into work early."

"Why?"

"So I can leave early, come home and get dinner
started."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I kind of want to be here waiting for you," she said softly. "It makes it seem. . .I don't know. . .more romantic, I guess, than if we walk in together."

Actually, this fit in quite well with Mulder's own
plans, since he had to swing by the florist on his way home. "Okay. We're each taking our own car in, then?"

"Yeah. I may have to go out to Quantico this
afternoon anyway, so it'll work out."

***

It was after four when Scully left the labs, so she
convinced herself it would be okay to just head
straight home. On arrival, she took a shower and
dressed in a slinky midnight blue dress that she knew
Mulder loved. She also filled the large plastic heart
she'd bought with a bag of sunflower seeds. Okay, so
sunflower seeds weren't exactly the normal Valentine's Day gift from a wife to her husband. But when had there ever been anything normal about the life she shared with Mulder?

Scully put the rolls and potates in the oven to bake,
seasoned the steaks and tossed the salad. Then she put in a CD of romantic music, set the table and lit the candles. She'd wait until Mulder got home, let him help her grill the steaks. Was there anything else? Oh, yes. She was already wearing the earrings he'd bought her shortly after they were married and she'd slipped her wedding ring on her finger the moment she walked in the door, out of habit. But she hadn't wanted to wear the bracelet he'd given her for
Christmas while she was cooking, so she hurried into
their bedroom to retrieve it.

Pausing by the mirror to check her reflection after
putting on the last item of jewelry, she noticed a
piece of paper on the floor near the dresser. Looked
like a receipt of some kind. Scully picked it up and
scanned it to see if it was for a personal item or a
business-related expense. After glancing at it, she
felt heartsick.

Scully had seen these receipts before. On two
different occasions during the years she had worked
with Mulder before their marriage, such receipts had
inadverdently gotten mixed up with the ones from their frequent business trips. Both times, she'd handed them back to Mulder and commented dryly that she didn't think Skinner would approve the expense.

Mulder had never exactly made a secret of his
pre-marital pornography habit, and Scully had always
had mixed feelings about it. She didn't really like
the idea of women being reduced to sex objects in
dirty videos and magazines. On the other hand, she had always assured herself that if a man as attractive as Mulder was spending all that time watching simulated sex acts, it was probably because he wasn't actually involved in an intimate relationship. She'd become very adept at not analyzing the situation further, never asking herself why it made her so happy to know that her partner slept alone.

Shortly after their marriage, Mulder had given
virtually all his magazines and videos to Frohike.
He'd kept a few copies of "Playboy" - strictly for the articles, he insisted - and a couple of videos.
However, he'd promised her that he would be acquiring
any new ones.

Scully took a deep, shaky breath. Although not a
virgin when she married, her premarital sexual
activities had been few and far between. Very few and
far between. Both of the lovers she'd had prior to her wedding had complained about her lack of spontanaiety, her inhibitions. So, she'd entered the marriage convinced she was a lousy lay. Mulder had blown that idea away - literally, she thought with a small smile - within less than a month. He was patient, gentle, passionate and incredibly approving.

By now, the newness of their marriage had worn off.
They'd finally dispelled the sexual tension that was
the inevitable result of a normal man and a normal
woman being emotionally, but not physically, intimate
for a period of years. She had to face the facts.
Apparently, Mulder now needed something else besides
just her presence to get turned on. She tried to make
herself view it the way she had before their marriage. It wasn't as if she'd discovered her husband was being unfaithful, for crying out loud! So his idea of a romantic Valentine's evening was the two of them watching X-rated videos together. So what? But she still felt a wave of horrible, crippling inadequacy. Just then she heard the front door open.

"Dana? Sweetheart, I'm home!" Mulder called. He was
doing a juggling act, trying to return his keys to his pocket while not dropping the bouquet of red roses he was holding in one hand or the gift bag in the other.

"In here," she called from the bedroom.

Oh, boy! Mulder thought as he hurried through the
apartment. Dare he hope they were going to have
dessert before dinner? One look at his wife's face,
however, dispelled him of that notion.

"Dana, what's wrong?"

Scully knew she was overreacting. She wished she'd had a few more minutes to adjust to the situation before he came home. Without a word, she simply handed him the receipt.

"What's this?" he asked.

"I thought we agreed," she said softly, trying not to
cry. "I mean, I understand, I really do, why you
needed that sort of. . .entertainment before we were
married. You've explained how you felt you couldn't be with me in that way, but you couldn't stomach being with anyone else either and that you had to have some way to release the tension that sometimes arose between us. I know I agreed to you keeping a few of the milder magazines and videos after we married. But you promised you wouldn't be buying any more. You said you didn't need to. Am I not. . . pleasing you anymore?"

Mulder felt awful. This was a typical Fox Mulder
screw-up, he thought. Leave it to him to ruin the
first Valentine's Day he and Scully spent together as
a couple. Good thing he had a lot of experience in
sleeping on the couch, he thought wryly.

"Sweetheart," he said softly, laying the flowers and
gift on the dresser and cupping her face with his
hands, "they sell other things besides videos in those stores. Of course you please me. Always. In every way. Mentally, emotionally, sexually. I love you."

Scully was undergoing the most complicated mix of
emotions she'd ever experienced in her entire life.
She was glad her husband didn't find her inadequate,
but didn't even want to contemplate what the gift
might be if it wasn't a video. She might be relatively inexperienced on a personal level, but she was both a doctor and an F.B.I. agent, so she certainly wasn't naive about various sexual. . . devices.

"You mean like toys?" she asked, her voice coming out
in a squeak.

"Good Lord, Dana! No, of course not. Here," Mulder
said with a sigh, "why don't you just open the damned
thing. But if you don't like it, that's okay. Maybe
all those years of watching videos have given me kind
of a warped idea of what women actually enjoy.

Scully slowly sifted through the tissue paper and
brought out a hard, plastic, cylindrical item. She
breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was a bottle of lotion. She unscrewed the cap. It had a minty scent.

"It's supposed to heat up when you rub it in," Mulder
explained.

"Thank you. I'm sure we can put it to good use," she
said, then stretched up to kiss him lightly on the
jaw.

"There's something else in the bag," he added.

"Scully peered into the bag. She hadn't felt anything
other than the tissue paper when she picked up the
lotion. But there it was. Some sort of black. .
. thing. Mulder had given her a blue teddy for
Christmas, which she had on now under her dress, but
the teddy was demure compared to this. It was the same sort of garment, but so high cut and see-through that it was practically insubstantial.

"Look, sweetheart, you don't have to wear it. I know
it's kind of tacky. I guess I just. . .I don't know.
Call it an impulse buy." Mulder reached for the
garment, but she yanked her hand back.

"Hey! You gave it to me. Now it's mine. You're gift is in the living room," she said with a smile.

"You're not mad at me?" he asked.

Mad? Scully thought. Her husband had just reaffirmed
the fact that, in addition to viewing her as an
intellectual equal, professional partner and soulmate, he also thought she was some sort of. . . sex goddess. It was a good feeling for a woman who'd spent most of her life convinced that her mind was her greatest, maybe even her only, asset.

"No, Fox. I'm not mad at you. I just want you to see
your present."

"But I'm not finished with yours yet," he protested.
"I got you flowers and a card."

She lifted the bouquet to her face and inhaled.
"They're gorgeous, lover. Let me go put them in a
vase. Then I'll look at the card."

Scully sat in her husband's lap to look at the card.
On the outside, it was a picture of a beach at sunset. The was no pre-printed verse inside, just two lists in Mulder's handwriting. One was titled "Things I've said that are true" the other was "Things I've said that are false". The first list included half a dozen phrases he had spoken to her over the years, some of them long before they'd married, such as: "You're my one in five billion",  "You know what I like", "You've saved me, made me a whole person", "You're the only one I trust" and, of course, "I love you".

The other side included such lines as "Agent Scully
and I have a purely professional relationship", "I do
not gaze at Scully", "She's my partner, not my wife,"
and a few others.

Scully leaned in to kiss him. She went slowly, first
brushing his lips with hers, then deepening the kiss
by slipping her tongue inside his mouth. As always, he tasted faintly of sunflower seeds, but more strongly just of himself. They kissed for a long time and, seated as she was in in his lap, Scully could feel Mulder's growing excitement. Finally, she came up for air and buried her face in his neck while he slid his hand up her thigh. For good measure, she wiggled a little and felt him twitch beneath her bottom.

Scully reached across the table and handed Mulder the
card and present she'd bought for him. His card had a
pre-printed poem inside, but she'd added the phrase
"This has been the best year of my life" before
signing her name with love. He grinned when he opened
the plastsic heart full of sunflower seeds and kissed
her again.

"I've got to go check on the potatoes and rolls," she
said as she slid reluctantly off his lap. Taking the
rolls out of the oven and slipping them into a covered basket, she decided to turn the oven down and leave the potatoes in for a few minutes longer. Scully knew that Mulder had followed her into the kitchen. She could feel the heat radiating off his body as he stood just a few inches behind her.

Turning to face him, she asked, "Are you hungry?"

"Would you consider me an absolute pig if I answered
'Yeah, but not for dinner!'?" he inquired with a
wicked smile.

Scully flipped the oven off. "No," she whispered.
"Let's go into the bedroom." She gave a little squeal
of excitement when Mulder picked her up and carried
her into the other room. Before her marriage, she'd
always thought that wasn't something men really did,
that it was just an invention of writers and movie
producers. But she loved it.

Mulder slid her slowly down his body so she stood
between him and the bed. He began to shrug out of his
suit coat, but she stopped him. "No, let me. I want to undress you."

"Okay."

Scully pushed the jacket off his broad shoulders and
let it land on the floor. The she carefully undid his
holster and placed it and his gun on the dresser. She
moved her hands to his neck and made quick work of his tie, then began slowly unbuttoning his white dress shirt, peppering his chest with kisses as she went.

"Bet you don't remember the first time I ever
undressed you," she said with a smile.

"Sure. On our wedding night."

"Nope. You're off by several years. It was right after your father had been killed and you came to me burning up with fever, drugged and frightened."

"I don't even remember arriving here. I remember my
father being shot and I remember knowing that I HAD to get to you. I knew you were the only one I could trust and that you'd take care of me. The next thing I remember is waking up in your bed wearing just my
briefs. I guess if I'd taken the time to piece it
together, I would have realized you must have
undressed me, but I had other things on my mind," he
said.

"Mmm, I know. I've always felt a little bit guilty
about that night."

"Something happen that you forgot to tell me about?"

"Only in my mind. You needed me as a doctor, your
partner and, most of all, your best friend. I listened to you tell me about your father, helped get your fever down. I was doing my best to be sympathetic about your loss, professional about your malady. But a tiny part of me couldn't help enjoying the feel of your bare skin under my hands, the warmth of your body next to mine in bed."

"You slept in here with me?" he asked, surprised.

"Yeah. I told myself it was a necessary medical
precaution and maybe it was. But I also just. .
.wanted to," she confessed.

"Why Agent Scully! I'm shocked," he said in a teasing
tone.

By this time, Scully had finished with his shirt and
he had shifted to kick off his shoes. Now her hands
went to his belt buckle and she deftly unbuckled,
unzipped and slid down his slacks in one smooth
movement, snagging his socks, too, as she pulled off
his pants.

"The difference is, this time I get to see what's
UNDER the briefs," she said with a grin, freeing him.
She dropped a soft kiss on the tip of his arousal.

Mulder moaned. "Maybe it's a good thing you waited for the rest of the show. Since I was suffering from both grief and the drugs that had been introduced into my water system, I doubt the sight would have been particularly impressive. By the way, you have WAY too many clothes on."

"Well, that's you job," she pointed out.

Mulder's hand slid the zipper down at the back of her
dress and she shimmied her hips to let him pull it
down to her ankles, then she neatly stepped out of it. All she had on now was the teddy.

Mulder let out a low wolf-whistle. "I take it you like what I got you for Christmas?"

"I like every present you've ever given me, Fox.
Including the key ring."

Mulder's long, agile fingers quickly released the snap that kept the teddy fastened between her legs,
lingered there for a moment caressing her, then pulled the garment off over her head. He lay down on the bed, pulling her beside him.

They kissed for a long time, letting their hands and
lips roam over each other's bodies. Mulder stroked her back, squeezed her bottom, teased her nipples and
finally, when she was squirming against him, slid one
finger back down to the juncture of her thighs. She
responded by nibbling his neck, letting her fingers
dance of the bare skin of his back and biceps and,
eventually, taking his arousal in her hand and gently
stroking him.

When Scully began to whimper, Mulder sat up, pulling
her with him. He braced his his back against the
headboard and helped her straddle him. She grasped his arousal and slowly lowered herself onto him. They both moaned at the contact.

"I'm feeling in a lazy mood tonight," Mulder said with a smile. "You get to do all the work."

Scully braced her hands on his shoulders and began to
rock on him. They often made love with her on top, but usually her husband was flat on his back beneath her. She enjoyed that, but this was was fun too. Kneeling above him, the penetration was deeper. Within a few minutes, she felt her body tense and she moaned his name as she climaxed. The feel of his wife's internal muscles pulsating around him triggered Mulder's own climax and he came only moments later.

As they came down from their mutual high, Mulder
shifted them so they were lying beside each other,
Scully's head pillowed on his shoulder. "I love you,"
she murmured sleepily.

"Love you, too," he answered softly.

***

About an hour later, Mulder's eyes drifted back open.
Scully was still sleeping, breathing soflty in his
arms. His stomach rumbled a bit. Oh, yeah, he thought. We never did get around to having dinner. He carefully lifted his wife's arm off his chest and slid out of bed. She mumbled a bit and rolled over a few inches to the part of the bed still warm from his body, but didn't fully awaken. He pulled on his briefs and a T-shirt, then went into the kitchen to finish making dinner.

The smell and sound of sizzling meat woke Scully a few minutes later. Oops! she thought, with just a smidgen of guilt. Wasn't she supposed to be cooking for her husband tonight, not vice versa? She didn't really feel bad though. She knew her husband would rather have make love with him than cook for him. She slid out of bed and debated about what to wear for only a moment, then reached for the item he'd given her earlier in the evening. It was certainly. . . revealing, she thought as she studied herself in the
mirror. She decided to grab Mulder's dress shirt off
the floor and wear it over the gift.

Mulder nearly dropped the steak he was grilling when
she walked into the room.

"I was just about to wake you up," he said with a
smile. "Dinner's ready."

"Mmm, I know. I could smell it."

As they sat down, Mulder said, "Dana, please tell me
you've got something on under that shirt. Because if
you don't, I'm not going to be able to do justice to
our meal."

"Oh, I do. I promise," she said with a small smile.

They chatted amiably all through dinner. Mostly they
talkes about past cases, but the ones that had been
funny, or at least had their light-hearted moments.

"Remember the time I got barbecue sauce smeared on my
face?"

"Wasn't that the same case where those teen-agers
referred to you as my "little wife", then started
backpedaling when they realized we were both armed?"

"You always used to tease me about drooling on you
whenever we were on a stakeout and I fell asleep on
your shoulder."

"I know, but I loved it."

When they were finished and had cleared the table and
loaded the dishwasher, Mulder backed Scully up against the wall. He placed his hands on either side of her head, effectively trapping her between the wall and his body.

"Okay?" he asked, just a hint of concern in his voice. Scully knew why. There had been too many incidents in her past when she'd been trapped or cornered against her will by people intent on doing her harm. He wanted to make sure their position wasn't triggering any bad memories. It wasn't. She trusted this man with her life, her heart, her very soul. Mulder's size, his possessiveness, the sheer masculinity of him - they never frightened her. In fact, she enjoyed them.

"Okay," she agreed.

"You know, Dana," he said slowly, a mischievious lilt
to his voice, "I always believe you. Only you. So I'd
hate to think you were lying to me when you said you
weren't naked under my shirt." He began toying with
the buttons.

"I wouldn't lie to you, lover. Why don't you open up
the shirt and see?"

Mulder began unbuttoning the shirt with one hand,
keeping the other by the side of her face. He let out
a wolf-whistle when he saw what she had on under the
shirt.

"I take it you like my present?" he asked, droppling
kisses along her neck and collarbone.

"Mmm, yeah," she said slowly, "but I don't think I
want to keep it on all night."

"God, Scully, don't you EVER get enough?" he asked in
mock horror. "I have to work tomorrow, you know."

"Oh, yeah. We both do. I wouldn't want to tire you
out, poor baby, especially after you cooked and
everything tonight. Maybe we should just get some
sleep." With that she slipped deftly out of his
embrace and sauntered toward the bedroom.

Scully made it as far as the doorway before a stunned
Mulder had time to react and rushed up behind her,
tackling her and pinning her beneath his body on the
bed. She laughed up at him and whispered, "Gotcha!"
before nibbling on his lower lip, then drawing his
head down so they could kiss long and deep.

When they finally came up for air, she murmured, "As a matter of fact, Fox, no. I don't."

"Don't what?" he asked dazedly, clearly more
interested in the way she was moving her body against
him than what she was saying.

"I don't ever get enough of making love with you," she said.

"And I don't ever get enough of you, either," he
replied.

"You on top this time?" she asked with a smile.

"Mmmhmm," he replied.

Neither of them said anything coherent for a long
while after that.