Part 3 of 3

Mulder and Chee, then Chee and Bernadette, each
changed shifts without incident. When it came time for Bernadette to switch with Scully, however, she had to smile. Although they'd done their best to maintain an aura of professionalism during working hours, the agents had slipped up during sleep. Scully had scooted over - sleeping bag and all - to pillow her head on Mulder's chest. He had wrapped his arms around her in a possessive, protective gesture.

"Dana," Bernadette whispered.

"Hmm?" she answered, burying her face in her husband's neck.

"It's time for your shift."

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

Scully tried to dislodge herself from Mulder's arms
without waking him, but didn't succeed. She shivered
as she got out of the sleeping bag. As soon as
Bernadette was bedded down, Mulder got up and joined
his wife.

"Go back to sleep, Mulder," Scully said. "I've had six hours of sleep; you only had four."

"You know I have problems with insomnia, Scully."

"You used to have problems. I haven't noticed too much wandering around or restless tossing and turning since our marriage."

"That's because you're beside me. I can't sleep
without you in my arms," he stated this flatly, as a
fact, with none of his usual teasing.

"Mulder, I'll be just over here."

"Doesn't matter. For years you were just on the other
side of a connecting door in all those motels, but I
still couldn't sleep. Only when we're actually in the
same bed. Or sleeping bag."

"You sound like a four-year-old talking about a teddy
bear!"

"Mmm. Well, I like doing things with you that no
preschooler would ever do with a stuffed animal."

"Well, if you're going to stay up, sit so I can lean
back against your chest. We'll be warmer that way."

***

Jim and Bernadette woke up just before dawn,
apparently by some sort of unspoken signal. Wonder if
they have that same almost-psychic connect with each
other that Scully and I do?" Mulder thought. The two
Navajos moved slightly away from the campsite and
began a series of morning chants or prayers in their
native language.

As the four of them were reloading the two vehicles,
Bernadette said shyly to Scully, "I hope we didn't
make you feel awkward or embarrassed by our morning
rituals. It's a tradition of our people."

"You didn't, at least not in the way you mean. If I'm
embarrassed at all, it's because I'm not as devout in
my own religious practices as you are in yours. It
reminded me of - well, do you know what a rosary is?"

"Beads, right? That Catholic Christiains hold when
they pray?" Bernadette asked.

"Yes. Except, technically, the rosary is the prayers
themselves. The beads are only a way of remembering
which ones you've done and in what order they go in.
Anyway, my mother prays the rosary every night before
she goes to sleep. She always has, ever since I was a
small child; probably since she was a young girl
herself. I should bring the same level of devotion to
my prayers as you and my mother do."

"Excuse me if this next question is too personal, but
your husband. . .he's not Catholic, is he?"

"No. He comes with me to Mass sometimes, but he's not
Catholic."

"That's allowed? For a non-Catholic to attend?"

"Certainly. Anyone is welcome; perhaps you'd like to
attend a Mass yourself one day. Only Catholics can
participate in Communion, however."

"Does it bother you?" Bernadette asked. "I can't
imagine being married to anyone but a traditional
Navajo. And I know lacke of shared beliefs led to the
break-up of at least one romantic relationship for
Jim."

Scully smiled and shook her head. "No. Perhaps it has
something to do with the fact that, as I've said, I'm
not quite as devout as I probably should be. But I
think it has more to do with the fact that - well, I'm just absolutely sure that Mulder is the man God
intended me to spend my life with. Despite our
differences, that's one thing I'm certain of."

"Look, ladies, this is supposed to be a homicide
investigation, not a gossip session," Chee said,
although the twinkle in his eye belied the sterness of his words. "Can we get moving?"

***

Several hours later, the four of them entered the
F.B.I. field office in Phoenix. Scully had called
ahead on her cell phone to let the local agents know
they'd be in and what they wanted.

When they arrived, they were greeted by Carstairs, an
agent Mulder had gone through the academy with and one who was personal atagonist of Chee's.

"My, my," Carstairs said. "Look who's here. Spooky
Mulder and Jim Chee. Or should I start referring to
you two as The Lone Ranger and Tonto? And you've
brought your little girlfriends with you. Isn't that
sweet?"

"Stow the racist, sexist bullshit!" Mulder snapped.
"Do you have the information we need? Or does being a
jerk keep you too busy to do any actual work?"

Carstairs shoved a computer printout at Mulder and he
sat down at a vacant desk to spread it out so that
Jim, Bernadette and Scully could see the information,
also.

"What do you two," Carstairs indicated Scully and
Bernadette with a sweep of his hand, "see in them
anyway?"

"Oh, I don't know," Scully answered, her tone
deceptively mild. "The fact that they see us as
partners, fellow professionals and friends instead of
their quote little girlfriends unquote, maybe?"

Mulder looked up and gave a wiseass grin at Carstairs. "You never are going to forgive me for coming in first - just a few points ahead of you - in our class at the academy, are you? Be warned, Chee. The fact that you outsmarted him once has already pissed him off. The fact that you'll undoubtedly do it again if he stays in this field office for much longer may drive him completely around the bend."

"Listen, Spooky," Carstairs began, only to be
interrupted.

"No, you listen!" Mulder snapped, springing out of his seat. "You don't like me. Fine. At least it's a
personal dislike, based on who I am as an individual.
But I will NOT sit here and listen to you insult my
partner because of her gender or local law enforcment
officers because of their race. One more remark of
that kind and I'm filing an official report againsst
you."

Carstairs mumbled something under his breath, but shut up.

***

Later, after a late lunch, the four of them discussed
a strategy for the upcoming evening.

"We want to be here and here," Chee said, indicating
two locations about ten miles apart on his large scale map of the Navajo reservation. If the information is accurate, those are the most likely spots for a meeting."

"Which pair should take which location?" Scully asked. "And can we stop by a motel or someplace for a shower and a change of clothes before we go back on
stakeout?"

"We can stop by my place," Bernadette said
unexepectedly. "It's right on the way. Jim can go back to his own trailer for a little while, but if nobody's a water hog, there should be just enough pressure for the three of us to take showers at my cottage."

"Okay," said Chee, slightly embarrassed that he hadn't made this gesture of hopsitality himself. "As to who should take which stakeout site. . .you two here," he pointed to one area, "while Bernadette and I go here."

"All right," Mulder agreed. "Any particular reason
why?"

"Yeah, a couple. We're going to need to swap out
vehicles. You can drive my pickup truck and we'll take the rental SUV you guys have. But this location," Chee indicated the area he had chosen for himself and Bernadette, "will require us to be out in the open. As belagana, you two would stick out like sore thumbs. Bernadette and I will blend right in."

"What about this area where we'll be?" Scully asked.

"You can stay in my truck until or unless you actually see something. It's a local make-out spot. Steam up the windows a bit and nobody will be able to see in. That's the second reason. I figure, since you two are already married, you won't be embarrassed by being up there together. You'll need to take my truck because, generally speaking, anybody who could afford a vehicle like the one you're driving could afford a motel room, too."

Bernadette didn't know if she should be amused or
angry. Sure, Jim's reasoning made sense, but did he
actually believe she wouldn't be able to control
herself if they were the ones parking together?
Sometimes she thought, for all of his admirable
qualities, that the man had a bit of an ego problem!

***

As they dressed in clean clothes in the privacy of the bedroom, while Bernadette waited for them in the
living room, Mulder pulled a full-cut cotton skirt out of their suitcase and tossed it on the bed. It was a pretty garment in a shade of soft teal. Scully had already put on her underwear and a white,
short-sleeved shirt that buttoned up the front when
she turned around.

"I want you to wear that," Mulder said, gesturing
toward the skirt.

"Mulder, I don't think it's appropriate for our
stakeout. I don't know why I even packed it. I guess
in case we went out to eat at a nice restaurant in
Alberquerque or something during our last night out
here."

"I'd like you to wear it tonight. Please?" Mulder
repeated, giving her a devastating smile.

Scully smiled, sighed and put on the skirt. She was
pretty sure she knew what her husband had in mind, and was also sure that it would involved activities a
couple of federal agents on stakeout - even agents
married to each other - ought not to be engaging in.

An hour later, as the three of them met up with Chee,
he and Mulder traded keys. "I doubt anything will
happend much before midnight," Chee said. "But if you
don't get up there shortly after dark, you might miss
getting the prime parking spot right at the edge of
the mesa."

"We've been on plenty of stakeouts over the years,
Jim," Scully said. "We know how to handle the routine, even the boredom."

"Scully, when you get bored, you usually just go to
sleep," Mulder said. "How many times have I had to
wake you up over the years?"

Mulder was treated to the infamous "Scully-look" for
that one. He laughed and let his gaze wander up his
wife's backside as she sauntered to the truck and
climbed in the  passenger door.

"Mulder?" said Chee, with a hint of a smirk on his
face.

"Yeah?" Mulder asked warily.

"Try not to get any body fluids on my seat covers,
would you?"

Mulder was startled for a moment. Chee had been so
serious up to now that he was surprised to realize the other man was actually teasing him. "We won't," Mulder assured him.

Scully let her eyes slide up her husband's long legs
as he drove toward the stakeout spot. Damn, but he was absolutely yummy in jeans! During all the years they'd worked together before their marriage, she'd managed to keep herself under control, more or less, when he was wearing a suit.  But there were two things that had almost made her lose it more than once over that time period. One was when he wore his glasses. That was an incredible turn-on. The other was when he wore jeans. She was damned lucky he had never worn jeans and glasses at the same time; she would have given in and attacked him!

"What are you thinking about?" Mulder asked as they
parked and shut off the engine.

Scully debated giving him a "that's-for-me-to-know"
type answer, but decided it would be more fun to hit
him with the truth. "Your body," she answered.

"Whew! Scully, I didn't know good little Catholic
girls had thoughts like that!"

"When it's about our own husbands, we're allowed to."

"What particular aspect of my body is drawing your
attention?"

"Just how fabulous you look in jeans. Before we got
married, it wasn't THAT hard to maintain my
professionalism when were at the office and you were
wearing a suit. I mean, you look good in your suits.
Attractive and all that. But in jeans you're so damned sexy that I almost lost it more than once."

"Really? Such as when?"

"Lots of times. One that pops into my mind right at
the moment is. . .remember that time we went to
investigate the goings-on at a volcano research site
in the Cascade Mountains?"

"Sure. It was right after I got you back. You were
only a week or so out of the hospital and I wasn't
sure you should be going out in the field."

"After a few hours up there, I wasnt sure I should be
either. But I wasn't sick. It was just that. . .you
were being SO sweet to me! Mom and Missy had told me
how you'd barely left my side the whole time I was in
the hospital. And you were were wearing your jeans the whole time and it took every ounce of self- control I had not just to reach out and. . "

"And what, Dana?"

"I don't know. Grab your ass, nibble on your neck,
press my body up against yours. I just wanted you
BAD!:

Mulder gave her a cat-that-ate-the-canary look. He
knew his wife loved him, wanted him. But she was
rarely this blatant about it; especially about how
LONG she had wanted him.

"Want to know the first time it was really, really bad for me? I mean, I've always wanted you, since our
first case when you had me check your back for
mysterious marks. But want to know the first time I
came within a hair's breadth of just caving in and
begging you to go to bed for me?"

"Yeah. When?"

"Remember, when they separated us the first time? Sent you back to Quantico and me back to violent crimes?"

"Of course."

"Well, there was one evening when you came out and sat by me on a park bench near the river. I was in trouble for something and you were just. . .there for me. I realized then that, no matter what happened
officially, we were always going to be partners. That
it went soul-deep. And I realized I wanted us to be
more than partners, more than friends. I wanted to be
inside your body so bad I was practically shaking with desire. The thing of it was, we weren't even,
technically, partners anymore. Hell, we weren't even
in the same division! We wouldn't have had to keep it
a secret. We could have moved in together, whatever."

"What stopped you?"

"The fear of losing the best friend I've ever had. The worry that you didn't feel the same way. Strangely enough, I wasn'tworred so much that you'd say refuse me as that you'd say yes, but it would be for the wrong reasons. Because you felt sorry for me, because you wanted to comfort me and ease my loneliness. And the last thing I wanted from you was a pity fuck."

"It would have never been that, Mulder!"

"Yeah, I know that. Now. Hey, Scully," his voice,
which had been serious a moment eariler, took on a
teasing quality.

"Yeah?" she asked warily.

"Did you ever want to make out on a stakeout?"

"Every damned one of them! We did that one time. Right before we got married. Remember?"

"I'm not likely to forget, Dana! It was the first time I ever got to hold you on my lap, the first time I heard you moan in my ear."

"We were pretending to be a couple of high school
students at a local lovers lane. I got jealous, later, wondering who your high school girlfriend had really been."

"Want to know the truth?"

"Of course, Mulder. I always want to know the truth."

"I didn't have a girlfriend in high school. I was
considered kind of a geek. I was tall, which was the
one thing I had going for me, so to speak. But back
them I was skinny; I'm still lean, but now I've got
some muscle on me. Also, I was real smart and, even
then, I had some odd ideas about things like aliens
and parapsychology. A lot of the kids knew about my
sister, how she'd just. . .disappeared. All the girls
kind of felt sorry for me, but the few times I
actually worked up the courage to ask one of them out
on a date, they suddenly had plans for the weekend."

"Oh. Is that why you got together with Phoebe once you hit Oxford?"

"Yeah, I guess so. You know, the funny thing is, I
never LIKED her. I mean, she was always kind of a
bitch and I was always aware of it. But I was a horny
college freshman who'd never so much as kissed a girl
and she was interested in me. I'd filled out some the
summer after I graduated high school and, looking
back, there were probably other girls, nicer girls,
who would have gone out with me at Oxford if I'd asked them. But, at the time, I figured beggars couldn't be choosers. I was desperated for some sort of sexual experience and Phoebe was more than willing to provide it, so I took what she was offering. What about you? Who was your high school boyfriend?"

"Are you kidding, Mulder? With two brothers, there
were always boys hanging around our house, but the
only Scully sister they were interested in was
Melissa. She was the pretty one, the popular one. I
was the quiet, gawky-looking, bookish one. I can count the number of times I went out in high school on one hand. I didn't have what could really be considered boyfriend until I started college. And I was a virgin until I was in my  20s."

"Melissa wasn't prettier than you. I did see her,
Dana. She was pretty; I mean, she was your sister, she looked sort of like you, so of course she was pretty. But not like you."

Scully smiled at ther husband. "I'm glad you think I'm pretty."

"I think you're sexy, too. Why don't you come closer?"

"Are you coming on to me, Agent Mulder?"

"Big time, Agent Scully."

Mulder reached over and began to unbutton his wife's
blouse and was startled when she began to giggle.
"What?" he asked with a soft smile on his face.

"It's just," she giggled again and and took a moment
to compose herself, "what you just said, and the fact
that we  were talking about being in high school and
then looking down at your hands."

"Sorry if I'm being dense here, sweetheart, but I'm
not getting the joke."

"Well, Melissa always said - and I heard this from
other girls, too - that you could tell the size of a
guy's, um, private parts by the size of his hands.
Later, in medical school, they assured ust that was
just an old wive's tale. In your case, though, I'd
have to say that generations of teenage girls had it
right and the med school professors had it wrong. I
mean, your hands are HUGE, Mulder. And so is your..."

"You know, Scully, if you keep complimenting me like
this - telling me I look yummy in jeans, waxing
ecstatic over the size of my organ - you're going to
give me a swollen head!"

"That's not the part of your body I'm hoping is
swollen, Mulder!"

"Scully!" he actually sounded shocked.

She leaned up and kissed him, then began to lean back, taking him with her. Soon they were stretched out on the bench seat of the truck, his big body atop her smaller one.

"Are we really gonna do this?" Mulder muttered into
her ear while raining tiny, nibbling kisses up and
down her neck.

"Do you think we can? I mean, as much as I want to, I
don't want to screw up a homicide investigation just
to indulge our desires."

"I think it's okay. We've got hours yet. And I've got
pretty good stamina, but I don't think I'm capable of
doing it for anywhere near that long."

"Yeah, but we'll be sleepy afterwards," Scully said.
At the same time, she moved her body seductively
against his and ran her hands up and down the muscles
of his back, having already tugged his shirt free from the waistband of his jeans.

"I'll sit up and crack a window; that will be enough
to keep us awake. You can go ahead and sleep. I mean,
you probably would anyway and this way at least you'll have a smile on your face."

"That's for damned sure! Fox, do you have any idea how MUCH I enjoy making love with you?"

"Dana, all I know is that if it's even half as much as I enjoy it, you're having the time of your life!"

They kissed again then. Long, slow and deep. When they finally came up for air, Mulder smiled down at his wife, then finished unbuttoning her blouse. He popped the front clasp of her bra open and began to play with her breasts.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

"I can't believe we're doing this. I mean, we're in
our 30s, we're federal law enforcment agents and we're married. Yet here we are, going all the way in the front seat of a borrowed pickup truck like a couple of teenagers."

"Do you want to quit?"

"Are you out of your mind?"

"If you keep doing that I will be!"

By this time, Scully had managed to get his shirt
unbuttoned as well, and was running her hands up and
down his back and butt while he carressed her breasts. At the same time, he lowered his mouth to her neck and began to suck. Gently at first, then with increasing pressure.

"Mulder, what are you doing?"

"Giving you a love bite."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I want to. I guess because we're doing
all the stuff we didn't get to do in high school. Want me to quit?"

"No, but if you do it to me, I get to do it to you."

"Of course, Dana. We're partners, right?"

"In every way, lover."

After a while, though, Mulder got tired of pretending
to be a teenager. He wanted grown-up pleasures and
began moving his mouth down his wife's body.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Scully squealed. "I get to give
you a hickey. We agree. I like your neck too, you
know."

"Okay, okay," Mulder mumbled.

"Can we sort of. . .reposition ourselves? You weren't
kidding when you said you've filled out some since
your high school days. You're heavy, Fox!"

"Oh. Yeah. Sorry." He rolled onto his side and braced
one foot against the door of the truck, then finished
flipping them over onto his back. He actually liked
having Dana on top of him better, anyway. She wiggled
up his body and latched her mouth onto his neck. Just
as he had selected a spot far enough back so that her
hair would cover it in most situations, she was
considerated enough to get down low, right at the
juncture of his neck and shoulder, so a shirt would
cover the mark during business hours.

He let his hands wnader down her back to her bottom.
He squeezed it, first through the material of her
skirt. Then he let his hand go even lower, to her
knees, and begin wandering back up her legs under
skirt. When he reached her bottom, he began molding it again, this time with only the skimpy material of her panties between their skin.

Then he slipped one finger beneath the panties,
between her legs, and she responded by biting down
gently on the place where she had been sucking. He
smiled and slipped another finger in. She lifted her
head and smiled down into his eyes, wiggling back
against his hand. Her breasts rubbed against the hair
on his chest, the friction delighting both of them. He continued to play with her until she climaxed, gasping and moaning with her face buried in his neck.

"Wow, Mulder!"

"Oh, that was just a preview, Scully. Now we get to
the main event."

She smiled. "You want back on top?"

He shook his head. "No. I like it like this. Why don't you sit up for a minute and unzip me?"

Scully complied, backing up until she was straddling
his thighs, then slipping off her own sandals and
panties. After which, she unbuckled, unsnapped and
unzipped him, being careful of his already raging
erection. When she tugged at hs jeans and
boxer-briefs, he lifted his hips to help her. Grasping his arousal, she crawled back up his body and guided him into her.

They made love for a long time, despite the cramped
conditions. Mulder was determined to hold out long
enough to bring her to a second climax and he could
tell she was getting close from the rapid sound of her breathing and the fluttering of her internal muscles.

"Mulder, you're spoiling the make-believe of us being
a couple of teenagers, you know," she whispered in a
teasing tone.

"How's that?"

"Well, I don't have any personal experience having sex with teenage boys, but I don't think they ever last this long!"

"Some things improve with age, Scully."

She didn't answer; just whimpered, moaned and, to his
delight, came. He followed almost immediately
afterwards.

"Come on, Scully," he murmured a few minutes later.

"What?" she asked sleepily.

"We need to sit up and get all our clothes back on.
Then you can go to sleep and I'll keep watch."

"Oh. Yeah. Okay."

Within a few minutes, she was nestled in his arms and
he was sitting up, having cracked the window a bit.
Mulder divided his time between scanning the horizon
and gazing down at his wife. The scenery was
spectacular, but she was much more beautiful.

***

Several miles away, Chee and Bernadette were hanging
around the outskirts of a cermonial being performed
for one of her distant relatives. These events were
part religious ceremony and part social get-together
for the Navajos. The two officers weren't in uniform
and they blended right in. Chee did feel vaguely
guilty, though. Showing up here like this with
Bernadette - out of uniform and in a purely social
situation - was only likely to strengthen the rumors
that they were involved with each other in a romantic
sense. It was the Navajo equivalent of a belagana
couple attending a wedding together. Still, it was
necessary for them to remain undercover, at least
until they could determine whether or not a meeting
was taking place.

It was almost midnight when Chee noticed something. It was doubtful anyone else would. Just shadows, really, in the moonlight. About halfway between where the Navajo officers were and where the feds were
stationed. He flipped out the cell phone he'd borrowed from headquarters and punched in Mulder's number.

"Mulder."

"I think we have something. About three miles
south-southwest of where you two are."

"Okay. How do we get there?"

"About a mile south of where you are right now there's a road - well, what passes for a road out here, anyway - more like a gravel path. You can take that for another mile. You'll have to walk the last mile, both because the road becomes inacessible at that point and because bringing the vehicle closer might alert them by the sound. Bernie and I will come up the other way and do the same thing. Can you recognize the sound of an owl? I mean the actual sound the real bird makes, not the "whoo, whoo" they do in cartoons?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. I'll make that sound - twice - when Bernie and
I are in position."

"Deal."

***

Something went wrong however; some misstep of timing
or misjudgment of the consequences by the sometimes- impetuous Chee. Because, by the time Scully and Mulder slipped slowly up the side of the mesa, the
two Navajo officers were already there. Chee was
standing with his back to them, his weapon on the
ground a few feet in front of him, as if he had tossed it. Another Navajo was facing him, holding a knife to Bernadette's throat. In the background, the agents could just make out the glowing tip of a cigarette.

Mulder looked at Scully, then motioned with a sweeping movement of his hand. She nodded. They would circle around; Mulder toward the Smoking Man and Scully behind the man who had Bernadette hostage.

Chee was talking in a calm, rational voice. "Come on,
Martin, you don't want to do this. You know you don't
want to hurt Bernadette. You've just had a little too
much to drink."

"I'm not drunk, Chee," the other man answered. "I want to know what the hell you two are doing out here?"

"We told you," Chee replied.

"Yeah, I heard. Looking for a place to make out. From
anybody else - any other Navajo on the whole rez - I
just might believe that. But not you, Chee. At least,
not with her. You wouldn't take advantage of a woman
who worked for you. You're too damned noble."

"Jim," Bernadette whispered. She was frightened. She'd only been with the police force a couple of years and she'd never befor been in a situation this dangerous. She was amazed to realize that what frightened her most was not that she might be killed but that Jim might be forced to witness it, powerless to save her life.

Mulder came up to the place where Smoking Man had
been, only to find out that the bastard had vanished.
Again. Well, maybe now they could at least pin
something on him, if the Navajo would talk. Scully
slipped up behind Martin and said quietly, "Drop the
knife. I'm a federal agent and I'm armed."

At the same moment, as Mulder joined Scully in
disarming and cuffing the suspect, Chee moved forward
to take Bernadette in his arms.

"I'm all right," Bernadette said, trying to move away
from his embrace. For both personal and professional
reasons, she tried to resist the almost overwhelming
urge to let herself relax against his strong, lean
body.

"Yeah, well, I'm not," Chee growled. Then, regardless
of the fact that they had an audience, he lowered his
mouth to hers in a long, sweet kiss.

***

The next morning, the four of them met at the jail
located in Navajo Tribal Police headquarters. So far,
the only thing they had on Martin was his attack on
Bernadette. They hadn't  - yet - been able to link him to Eric's death.

"It's up to you," Mulder said reluctantly to Chee.
"The name of the man we saw with Martin last night is
C.B.G. Spender. At least, that's the name we know him
under. Quite possibly, it's an alias. I'd like nothing more than to have Martin testify to Spender's
conspiracy in Eric's death. It would be our first
chance to actually nail the bastard. But to do that,
we'd probably have to offer Martin a deal. Probably
immunity from prosecution in his attack on Bernadette. And she's your. . .officer. I'll understand if you're not willing to make the deal."

Chee was surprised. In his experience, the feds made
announcements, not requests. "I'll have to think about it; talk to Bernadette about it. You say yu've
encountered this Spender before?"
 
"Yes," Scully replied grimly. "But he always manages
to slip through our fingers. We've never been able to
find anyone willing to testify against him."

"We'll be in touch," Chee responded.

"I'm going to go on out, say goodbye to Bernadette,"
Scully said. "I'll meet you back out at the car,
Mulder."

When the two men were left alone, Chee said, "It's
been a pleasure working with you two. And believe me,
that's not something I usually say to F.B.I. agents."

"Thanks," Mulder answered. "We've enjoyed working with you and Bernadette, as well. Look, Chee, if I'm out of line here, forgive me, but based on your actions last night, I assume you have more than just professional feelings for Bernadette?"

"I. . .don't know. I think I shocked myself more than
I shocked her."

"All I know is, I spent a lot of years bending over
backwards not to become involved with Scully in a
romantic way. Not because I didn't want to, but
because I thought I was protecting her, being noble by not asking to become her husband or lover. Because I thought having her as my partner and best friend was already way better than I deserved. The thing of it is. . .all I was doing was upsetting and confusing
her. So, all I'm saying is - if you have feelings for
Bernadette, don't think you're doing her a favor by
not acting on them."

"I'll take the matter under consideration."

"Right. Goodbye."

***

In the outer office, Scully leaned close to
Bernadette.

"You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," Bernadette reassured her. "I mean, aside
from the fact that I'm going to kill Jim."

"Don't be too hard on him, Bernadette."

"But it's so confusing! For over a year, he's rejected any offers I've made to ease our relationship into even slightly more personal territory. Then, out of nowhere, he starts kissing me like. . ."

"I know. I'm not saying it's easy. All I know is, it
was the same way with Mulder and me. Three steps
forward and two steps back. For years. Hang in there.
For me, it was worth the wait. I have the feeling it
would be for you, too. Jim's one of the very few men
I've ever met who matches up to Mulder's level of
integrity and decency. There aren't a lot of them out
there. I think that's probably just as true among the
Navajo as among the rest of the world."

"You're right, Dana. There aren't. I'll be in touch.
Bye."

***

Mulder and Scully walked out ot the station smiling
at each other, then got in their vehicle to head home.