~~~~~

July 13

Mulder rolled over, his hand automatically reaching out to touch her, but she wasn't there.

Instinct kicked in, despite their few weeks of peace here on the island. He was out of bed and pulling on a pair of shorts before his conscious mind could catch up. If his gun had been lying nearby instead of tucked in a dresser drawer, he probably would have had it in his hand, too. But by then he was awake enough to think, and immediately he knew where she was.

She was visiting her father.

~~~~~
It took them a solid day, almost 12 hours of work, to barrel through the Luther Lee Boggs case. Mulder tried more than once to draw Scully out about her father's death, but she gently deflected all his efforts. Instead, she discussed only the facts relevant to the case. Mulder was both gratified and sorrowful when she admitted, with clear reluctance, that for a moment she'd believed Boggs' claim that he could deliver a message from her father. But she refused to dwell on the subject, immediately driving ahead with the facts of the investigation. Mulder hadn't pressed her, knowing it would all bubble up eventually.

Seemed eventually came at 3 a.m. these days.

~~~~~

He made his way carefully through the darkened house to the back deck, which overlooked their little stretch of beach and the ocean beyond. Another small tropical storm was passing some distance away, not close enough for them to even see a cloud, but near enough to kick up some turbulence in the water.

Scully sat on the top step leading down to the sand. She had put one of his t-shirts on, though he couldn't tell if she'd bothered with anything else. Her knees were pulled up under the shirt, her arms holding her legs close to her body. Her hair drifted around her face in the soft, natural waves she'd adopted since they'd arrived.

He hadn't told her so, but he felt privileged that she'd dropped her physical masks so completely with him. She'd worn makeup only twice since they arrived, and he felt a little thrill every time he saw her freckles and mole bared to him. Sometimes he was more taken by those than by the rest of her body, although not by much.

He let his bare feet slap against the wood floor of the deck a little, just in case she hadn't already sensed him coming. He thought she had, and he was proven right when she said, without moving, "It took you long enough to find me."

He chuckled as he lowered himself to sit behind her, his legs on either side of her. "Oh, I knew where you were," he said, his tone teasing. "I was just making sure I didn't incur any serious injuries finding my way around the furniture."

He leaned forward into her, wrapping his arms around her and scratching his chin against the top of her head. She took in a deep breath and released it slowly, relaxing against him.

"Tell me about him, Scully," he murmured.

She leaned against him even more. "My father," she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice. "My father thought he ruled the roost, and Mom let him believe it. It wasn't until I was grown that I figured that out. In fact, I think maybe it wasn't until after he was gone.

"Dad would be gone for weeks on a ship, of course, and Mom would handle everything while he was away. She was a good Navy wife, staying at home with the kids and taking care of everything from grocery shopping to making sure all the bills got paid on time. Everything was kept ship-shape, especially us kids.

"So when Dad came home, it was like a party to all of us. We always got a nice dinner, and he'd usually have a couple of days leave that he'd almost always spend with us. Mom would send us off to the park or the zoo, and Dad would indulge us with an ice cream or some other treat."

She laughed then. "I remember one time when Charlie was ... maybe five? Anyway, Dad took the four of us to a new ice cream shop, it might have been a Baskin-Robbins, but it had at least 31 flavors, which was more than any of us had seen in one place in our lives. It took us all forever to pick what flavor we wanted, even Dad. But when it was Charlie's turn, he ran back and forth along the counter, propping up on his toes to peer in at first one bucket and then the other. Finally, he looked up at the man behind the counter, gave his best canary-eating, 5-year-old grin, and said, 'I want them ALL!!'"

Mulder laughed out loud. "I remember that feeling," he said.

Scully nodded against his shoulder. "It was classic Charlie," she said. "I remember Ahab laughing so hard he had to sit down to catch his breath. I couldn't figure out what was so funny about it at the time, but then, I was probably too absorbed in my rocky road to worry about anything else."

"Mmmm, a chocolate woman even then."

"Always." She shifted in his arms. "Anyway, I was probably five or six when we started reading 'Moby Dick' together. I know that's kind of young for a book like that, but Ahab loved it, and he was always careful to explain anything that might upset me or that I might not understand. We read the book to each other for years, whenever we had the chance, and we'd talk about it. He didn't go to college; his family was just so poor that the Navy was the best way for him to do something special. But he really was a very smart man, very well-read. It's part of the reason he moved up the ranks so quickly."

Mulder rested his head on the crown of her head. "Scully," he said. "Have you ever considered that ... that maybe one reason he disapproved of your going into the FBI was that he was, well, a little jealous? He worked hard so you could have the education he never had; he had to feel protective of it, at least on some level."

She nodded slowly. "I hadn't thought of it quite that way, but that's probably true," she said. "He was always interested in medical topics; I was a little surprised he hadn't gone into the medic corps. I guess there was a little vicarious living going on there when I chose medical school, and when I decided not to practice, he lost out for the second time."

She fell silent, and they simply sat and watched the water for a few minutes, until Mulder had an idea. He tipped Scully forward until she was sitting straight, then clambered up off the deck and reached for her hand.

"Come on, Scully," he said, grinning down at her. "Let's go get up close and personal with Ahab's great blue sea."

She cocked an eyebrow but took his hand, allowing him to pull her down to the edge of the water. The light waves from the distant storm crashed small breakers on the sand, and Mulder pulled them right into the froth so the bubbles tickled at their feet. Scully laughed and kicked at the surface, sending up a plume of water that caught Mulder across one leg.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, grabbing her around the waist and spinning them both in circles before dropping onto the sand, drawing her down on top of him, both of them laughing. Still smiling, Mulder lifted his head to press a quick kiss on Scully's lips, and her grin widened.

"Acting out old movies, are we now?" she said.

"Only the kissing parts," he retorted, wrapping his hand around the back of her neck and pulling her in for a real kiss. His tongue stroked against hers, remapping all the places he'd visited so often ... when suddenly the largest wave yet crashed across them.

They pulled apart, gasping at the sudden drenching. Mulder shook his head to dislodge the faceful of salty water, then looked up to see Scully's hair half soaked and sticking out on one side. She was also grinning the same canary-eating grin he imagined had been on 5-year-old Charlie's face when he'd claimed an entire store full of ice cream.

"Well," Mulder said. "I guess now we know how Captain Scully feels about me pawing his daughter!"

~~~~~