TITLE:      The Easiest Thing in the World (1/3)
AUTHOR:     Rafferty
FEEDBACK:   rafferty@highstream.net
RATING:     R for sexual situations and a few explicit words
CATEGORY:   MSR
SPOILERS:   Millennium, all things, Hollywood A.D, Brand X, Je 
            Souhaite, Requiem, Per Manum, Three Words, Existence;
            basically the second half of S7, some S8--
            specifically dealing with the M/S relationship
KEYWORDS:   Mulder/Scully Romance, First Time
ARCHIVE:    Please email me so I'll know where it's going
DISCLAIMER: These characters belong to the collective geniuses
            of Chris Carter, 1013, FOX, David Duchovny and
            Gillian Anderson.  No money is being made.  Yadda 
            yadda yadda.
SUMMARY:    Mulder and Scully experience the natural progression
            from a platonic relationship to acknowledgment and
            demonstration of their deeper feelings.  Sounds kind 
            of dry, doesn't it?  What can I say.  It's my first
            summary.  I promise the story is better than this.
NOTES:      I'm a fanfic author virgin.  If you choose to read 
            this, you'll be sharing my first experience with me,
            and I am grateful. 
            
            In my convenient XF world, Mulder's neurological
            disease, or whatever it was, is a non-issue
            because he had found a doctor in NC who 
            was treating him to stabilize it and this 
            treatment wasn't recorded in the medical records 
            researched after his disappearance.  He went out of 
            town weekends during May to receive treatment.  This
            frees him up to enter into a relationship guilt-
            free.  Also, S9 doesn't exist for me either.  

            This story is one of hundreds, maybe thousands, 
            attempting to fill in the gaps of an implied 
            relationship in S7/S8.  Also, I'm as vague about
            timelines here as Chris Carter was.

            Part 1 is probably only PG.  The yummy stuff happens
            in parts 2 and 3.

FEEDBACK:   Is the only way I guess I'll know if I did something
            right or wrong, so please, please let me know what 
            you think.  And please be gentle with the criticism
            ;-).  Thanks!!!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Easiest Thing in the World (1/3)
By Rafferty



Mulder's Apartment
March 2000

She went to him in the middle of the night.  

She had nodded off on his shoulder while they were waxing 
philosophical about where their respective paths had taken them.  
When she awoke to a room lit only by the bright glow of the fish 
tank with a crick in her neck and cold feet, she had padded to 
the bathroom where she faced the decision of whether she was 
going to go home and sleep in her own bed, or sleep with him in 
his bed.  It came as no surprise to her when she made her 
decision and realized that she had never really considered going 
home an option.

He had looked so peaceful as she quietly approached his bed in 
the dark.  His long masculine form partially hidden by covers 
represented to her all that was warm and safe.  She noticed a t-
shirt he had laid out for her at the end of the bed and took a 
moment to turn her back to his sleeping form and remove 
everything but her underwear and slip the shirt over her head.

When she finally got up the courage to approach him and sit 
gently next to him, his eyes slowly opened to focus on her.

"Hi," he whispered in a sleepy voice.  

"Hi," she replied with a tender smile.

For a few moments they simply stared at each other as he waited 
patiently for her to let him know why she had awoken him.  She 
swallowed down a hot lump of nerves that had suddenly risen up 
her throat.

"I can't sleep on your couch," she informed him huskily.

He took a few seconds to absorb that statement before he scooted 
his body back about a foot and folded back the covers to indicate 
she could crawl into bed beside him.

She could smell his intoxicating maleness and feel the heat 
radiating from the spot he offered her.  Her eyelids lowered and 
raised in a languid blink as she reconsidered whether or not 
sleeping with Mulder was a good idea.  He was her best friend, 
she rationalized.  They were both mature adults.  She was too 
tired to drive home at this hour.  She was getting pretty cold 
and knew his vacated spot on the bed would be so warm.  She had 
pretty much convinced herself that it would just be wrong *not* 
to sleep with him.  

She was only human after all.

She crawled in and laid her head down to face him on the pillow 
he was sharing with her.  He brought the covers over her up to 
her shoulders.  When he felt her cold feet instinctively pressing 
up against his chins he wrapped one long leg around hers, an arm 
about her waist, and pulled her up against him.

She was both relieved and a little disappointed to find that he 
wasn't naked under there--he was wearing boxers.

He hissed when she tucked one ice-cold hand underneath his torso 
and the other one between his upper arm and his side.  She had to 
smirk at him, silently questioning whether or not he was going to 
whine, but he didn't complain.  He took it like a man.

"Cold hands, warm heart, right Scully?" he said tightly.

"You know it, Mulder," she responded with a smile in her voice.

After a few minutes, they both had warmed back up and were 
relaxed again, hazel eyes searching blue as if they held all the 
mysteries of the universe.  He brought his hand up to brush a 
strand of hair behind her ear.

"I've missed you," he whispered.  They both knew that he wasn't 
really referring to his recent trip to England, but rather to the 
tense couple of weeks prior that they had spent after she had 
voluntarily disappeared with Spender.  During that time they had 
fought like cats and dogs, neither willing to compromise their 
positions.  

"I've missed you too," she echoed with an unsteady voice.  "I'm 
not...happy...when we're fighting."

His eyes searched hers as he processed the meaning behind what 
she had admitted.

"I can't lose you, Scully,"  he said quietly, this justification 
being the bottom-line defense for him, for his behavior.

She wrapped her arm more fully around him to embrace him and told 
him both the truth and what she knew he wanted to hear.

"I'm not going anywhere, Mulder."

He graced her with a grateful smile, then raised his head to 
bring his mouth to hers in a slow and moist but still relatively 
chaste kiss.  He nuzzled her nose briefly with his own, then 
tucked her head under his chin.

"Go to sleep," he gently ordered.

She was already being lulled into dreams by the warm cocoon he 
had wrapped her in.

"I promise I'll behave," he added.

Her last thought before she drifted off was, *When did I ever ask 
you to behave, Mulder?*

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


A Couple of Weeks Later
Hollywood, California


They went out to dinner, courtesy of the bureau credit card of 
course.  They made it a nice one, complete with candles and wine 
and an intimate little half-circle booth tucked away in their own 
private corner of the elegant restaurant.

He had continued to lament the way that the bungling Hollywood 
idiots had portrayed them in the movie.  She teased him about the 
way both Tea Leoni and Garry Shandling were ogling him all 
evening.  Of course, she neglected to mention how badly she had 
wished she had her weapon with her when Miss Leoni had linked her 
arm through Mulder's and proceeded to whisper God knows what into 
his ear as she drew him into the theater.

They had finished their meal and paid the check and were sitting 
back in the booth, barely twelve inches separating their bodies, 
enjoying their last glasses of wine.  Neither was drunk or even 
tipsy, they were just feeling very relaxed and content.

"So, Scully.  You don't really have a thing for A.D. Skinner, do 
you?" Mulder said out of the blue, referring to the on-screen 
romance between her character and that of Skinner's.

To her credit, Scully kept a straight face as she replied, "Why 
wouldn't I, Mulder.  He's intelligent, educated, well-built..."  
Mulder drew his lower lip between his teeth in concern as she 
went on...and on, "professional, handsome, well-mannered, a 
perfect gentleman as a matter of fact."

Scully pretended not to notice that Mulder was starting to pout.  
Teasing him was so much fun.

"There's only one thing he's missing to be the perfect catch in 
my book," then she left her statement just dangling out there.  
Of course he took the bait.

"Don't just leave me hanging here, Scully.  What's he missing?"

She had to grin like the cat that caught the canary.

"A sense of humor, Mulder.  There's nothing sexier than a man 
with a sense of humor."

He didn't even skip a beat.

"So," he began.  "A priest, a rabbi, and Satan go into this 
bar..."

She rolled her eyes and moaned, "Mulderrr..."

"Oh, so you've heard that one?" he asked innocently.

She just chuckled softly and shook her head at him.  He was such 
a pro at flirting--she could barely keep up.

"What?  You aren't impressed by my sexy sense of humor, Scully?"  
He was grinning at her.

Her chin dipped and her smile smoothed into one of gentle 
tenderness for him.  She was feeling emboldened by his 
playfulness, so she lightly placed her left hand on top of his 
right one, which was resting on the table.  She began to stroke 
the backs of his fingers with her index fingertip.

He watched fascinated as her hand caressed his.

"Mulder, you don't have to work that hard to get my attention," 
she informed him in a husky voice.

Blue eyes rose languidly to meet hazel. 

"You already have it," she confessed in a hushed whisper.

He searched her gaze intently for the meaning behind her words.  
Slowly he turned his hand over under hers until their palms were 
touching.  He flexed his fingers out to capture hers between his, 
then closed his fingers around hers so that their hands were 
touching at every available quarter inch of skin.  He began to 
caress the back of her hand with his thumb.  Both of their 
nervous gazes were now watching their entwined hands on the 
table.

His voice had dropped a full octave when he said, "Well, then I'm 
the luckiest man on earth."

When she raised her eyes to meet his, hers were full of wonder 
and hesitancy.  Her heart was beating triple-time and she was 
having a hard time breathing.  She searched his face desperately 
for signs that he meant what he said and what he implied by 
holding and caressing her hand.  What she found in his features 
was nothing but affection and honesty so she allowed one corner 
of her mouth to tilt up in a smile.

He leaned toward her slightly and attempted to make her feel a 
little more comfortable again by lightening the mood.

"Whadda ya say we blow this joint, Scully?"

Her half-smile turned into a full-fledged grin and she nodded her 
agreement that it was time to go.  He squeezed her hand gently 
before releasing it and escorted her from the restaurant with a 
familiar hand at the small of her back.

XXXXX

The ride in the car from the restaurant back to their hotel was 
short and silent.  They hit only one red light on the way, and 
while they were stopped there Mulder glanced over at Scully to 
evaluate the emotional climate, so to speak.  She was gripping 
her purse in her lap and staring out the passenger side window, 
so he assumed she was fine but just unnerved by what transpired 
at the restaurant.  

God knew, he was a bit in shock himself.  He had flirted with her 
pretty much constantly for the last seven years, but tonight, for 
the first time, he actually got a response out of her.  A 
positive response.  A hand-holding, I-admit-I'm-noticing-you kind 
of response.  He had to work very hard to pay attention to 
traffic rather than do a giddy victory dance right there in the 
car next to her.

He had meant what he had said.  If he had read her right, and he 
usually did, she had admitted tonight that she was attracted to 
him, and if so, he really did believe he was the luckiest man on 
earth.

Of course he knew she cared deeply for him.  He also had been 
fairly sure that they had opened up a door to a possible whole 
new dynamic for their relationship during the past few months 
with the IVF attempt and their meaningful yet platonic 
reconciliation in his bed a couple of weeks after she had gone 
off with Cancer Man.  But for her to admit verbally that he had 
her "attention" was quite a milestone.  

He couldn't quite believe that he felt this attached, this 
intimate with a woman he had never dated or slept with, or even  
really kissed.  Hopefully that would change tonight.  Oh, he knew 
she wasn't ready for physical intimacy, he doubted *he* was 
actually ready for that with her, but he had high hopes that they 
might seal this deal tonight with a Real Kiss.

Hey, a man's gotta have dreams, right?

XXXXX

They were in the elevator of the hotel on their way up to their 
floor.  Not a word had been exchanged since they had left the 
restaurant.  Actually, she had been so unprepared by what had 
transpired at dinner that she had barely had the nerve to look at 
him since.  The few times she had glanced at him, it had been 
like sticking her finger into an electrical outlet--the hairs on 
the back of her neck stood on end, she suddenly couldn't keep her 
hands still, and her eyes would involuntarily dart down to his 
mouth for some unknown and wholly embarrassing reason.  

Needless to say, so far she wasn't handling this whole situation 
quite as maturely as she usually prided herself on being.  Not 
good.  Not good at all.

Of course, the entire time they had been in the elevator she had 
felt his steady gaze on her.  *Isn't this affecting him at all?  
Maybe this just doesn't mean as much to him as it does to me.  
Maybe he's just toying with me.*

*Okay, I need to get a grip* she admonished herself.  *He's my 
best friend, the person I trust most in this world.  He would 
never purposely take advantage of how I feel about him.*

Once she remembered this it was easier for her to relax at least 
a little more and actually look at him fully.

His head dipped in an unconscious effort to bring his eyes more 
level with hers.

"What are you thinking, Scully?" he asked.

*Ooooh, wouldn't you like to know, Mulder?  I'm thinking about 
how much I want to touch you and kiss you, and how just thinking 
about it makes me so nervous that I feel like a 16-year-old 
virgin all over again.*

Nope.  Couldn't tell him all that.

So, she opted for an entirely different tactic.

"I'm thinking about Associate Producer Skinner," she informed him 
cheekily.

She had to hide her grin when she saw his jaw drop just as she 
exited the elevator onto their floor.

*Take that, Mulder.  I told you.  I'll always keep you guessing.*

XXXXX

*Associate Producer Skinner?*  He didn't buy it for a second.  He 
gave her what she expected, a properly indignant response, but he 
knew her too well to believe she'd been thinking about Skinner.  
She'd been thinking about himself.  About them.  

Just as he had.

He didn't even try to pry his gaze from the womanly sway of her 
hips as he followed her to her hotel room door.  He fervently 
tamped down the brief surge of lust which had suddenly pooled in 
his loins.  This was no time to go animal on her, not even at the 
thought of what just might happen if she let him into her room.

Besides, she deserved so much more than that.  More than him.  
He'd known that for years, which was partly what kept him from 
pressing for more from her, but now that he knew that she might 
be actually *choosing* him, he was just too selfish not to 
explore all the possibilities.

If she cared enough for him to overlook all of his many faults, 
all the times he had put her in danger, all the times he had 
wittingly or unwittingly caused her pain, then the least he could 
do was be patient enough to let her set the pace.

But that wasn't going to stop him from trying out a little 
friendly persuasion.

She had removed her card key before she even came to a stop in 
front of her door.  His room was right next to hers but 
unfortunately they didn't have connecting doors.

How would he respond if she asked him why he had followed her to 
her door tonight?  Something utterly witty like, 'Because I need 
to check under your bed for flukemen,' or maybe, 'Because you 
look like you need to be tucked in.'

Thank God she didn't ask.

But she stopped the movement of her hand, which was just about to 
insert the card key into its slot.

Mulder leaned sideways against the doorjamb beside her to more 
fully see her face.  She shot him The Eyebrow in response.

He couldn't help it.  Her hesitation contrasted by the brave 
little eyebrow thing was just too irresistible.  It brought out 
all manner of testosterone-driven urges.   The urge to protect, 
the urge to meet a challenge.  

Most of all, the urge to pursue.

His voice was low and persuasive when he gently commanded her, 
"Invite me in, Scully."

XXXXX

Scully only paused a moment before inserting the card into the 
slot and turning the handle.  True to form, Mulder raised an arm 
from behind her and pushed the heavy door out of her way so that 
she could enter the room before him.  

She would never, ever admit to anyone how much of a thrill it 
gave her every time he ushered her into a room.  It always made 
her feel cherished.

She crossed the room and removed her jacket to lay it neatly on 
the bed.  She took a moment to steel her nerves, then turned 
around to find him standing only about two feet from her.  His 
nearness made her feel flustered all over again.

"This is natural, isn't it?" she began in an unsteady voice.  She 
cleared her throat before continuing, "I mean, we've known each 
other for seven years.  Practically lived in each other's 
pockets."  A bright red flush spread from her chest to her 
forehead.  

Her eyes searched his for agreement.  "We've saved each other 
countless times.  Care...deeply...for each other.  We've even 
tried to create a baby together.  So it's natural that we would 
feel some attraction to each other at some point in our 
relationship."

He took a step closer so that only inches separated them.  He 
lifted a hand, tenderly slipped his index finger about an inch 
inside her sleeveless sweater's armhole at her shoulder and 
lightly ran that finger from her shoulder to the outer swell of 
her breast in one slow, sensual caress.  

He had watched his finger against the pale creaminess of her skin 
during its entire journey.  When he heard her breath catch, he 
dropped his gaze briefly to the unsteady rise and fall of her 
breasts, where her nipples had suddenly hardened into visible 
peaks.  

Then he met her gaze.  "It would be the easiest thing in the 
world to become involved with you, Scully," he told her 
intimately.

They stood there staring at each other, no longer touching in any 
way, communicating in that magical silent method they had long 
ago perfected.  Her eyes asking him if this was really happening.  
His eyes telling her that it was, and that he was with her every 
step of the way.

"Have you...thought about this before?" she quietly asked.

Mulder tenderly tucked a tendril of hair back behind her ear as 
he responded softly, "Thought about it.  Dreamed about it."  

His eyes took on a naughty gleam briefly, "Fantasized about it."

His expression turned serious again as he paused.  "Ached for 
it."

Scully was breathless at his admission.  She was overwhelmed by 
the response her heart, her entire body, was having to what he 
was telling her.

Mulder slowly caressed her lower lip with his thumb.  "I want you 
to start thinking about this too, Scully," he told her in a soft 
yet commanding voice.  "Think about how we're going to make this 
work.  I won't risk losing you...so I need you to be very sure 
this is what you want."

She couldn't verbally respond.  Her eyes were swimming with 
unshed tears, her throat burning with emotion, so she gave him 
her ascent with an almost imperceptible nod of her head.

Before she could even process the enormity of what was happening, 
he was leaning down to gently brush his lips against hers in a 
chaste but breathtaking kiss reminiscent of the ones they had 
shared on New Years and in his bed a couple of weeks ago.

"Goodnight, Scully.  See you in the morning," he whispered 
against her lips before he turned and began to leave.

His hand was on the knob by the time she had gathered her wits 
about her and had found her voice.  "I've thought about it too, 
Mulder," she confessed in a husky alto, and he turned around to 
face her, one eyebrow raised and a slight smile of approval on 
his face.

"Good.  You'll let me know when you're ready then," he answered.

She merely smiled an entirely womanly smile as he left.

*Ready.  I've been ready for about six and a half years.  I'm so 
ready that I think I'll go insane if I have to wait just one more 
day.  I know I didn't come off as self-confident as I would have 
liked tonight, but that's just because he caught me off guard.  
Well, now I'm ready.*

*Really.*

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


A Couple of Weeks Later
Hoover Building, X-Files Office
Friday, 5:15pm


They had spent the past couple of days in the office catching up 
on paperwork.  It had been a couple of weeks since they had 
attended the Hollywood premier of the movie, since she and Mulder 
had basically admitted their attraction to each other and Mulder 
had asked her to think about how they were going to work "this" 
and to let him know when she was ready.

Of course, she had thought of little else in the days since.

She had felt ready to start something that night in L.A., had 
actually felt like she could be ready for more for years now.  
But being the analytical woman that she was, not prone to rush 
into anything, especially something this monumental, she had 
taken the time to ponder the ins and outs of how she believed 
they could make this work.

And now she was ready to discuss it with him.

She had studied him in silence from across the room for the past 
several minutes, trying to figure out how she was going to 
approach him about this.  Finally she decided that it was now or 
never, so she shutdown her computer, got out her purse, and 
crossed the room to his desk.

He looked up at her, a hint of awareness in his eyes, as she came 
around to his side of the desk, leaned against it as she crossed 
her ankles, and looked him squarely in the eyes.

"I've been doing some thinking, Mulder.  I was wondering if you 
have some time this weekend so we could discuss our...situation."

He obviously knew which "situation" to which she was referring.  
His expression was at once hopeful and hesitant.

"How about dinner.  Tomorrow night," he offered.

Scully released a pent up breath she hadn't realized she had been 
holding.

"Sounds fine.  Seven o'clock.  I'll cook."

He quirked an eyebrow at her display of self-confidence.  He gave 
her a slight, knowing smile before she turned to leave the 
office, saying on the way out, "See you tomorrow night, Scully."


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Saturday, 6:55pm
Scully's Place


Mulder had gotten back into town with just enough time to run 
home, shower, shave, and grab the bottle of wine he had picked up 
on his way home yesterday.  He couldn't quite believe he was 
standing here, just outside Scully's apartment door, about to 
enter and have the most important conversation he had ever had in 
his entire life.  The Talk.  About whether or not they were going 
to become a Couple.

Damn, but he was nervous.

Part of him, the insecure part that never forgot that he hadn't 
had sex with another person in about six years, was sure she was 
going to tell him all the reasons they shouldn't start something 
between them.  Another part of him, the more optimistic and 
reasonable one, kept telling him that she wouldn't have strung 
him along for weeks letting him think she was considering it if 
she really wasn't.  After all, when she had invited him to dinner 
yesterday, she hadn't exactly looked like a woman with bad news 
to impart.

No matter what, though, even if she told him they needed to just 
remain friends, he was convinced he could accept that, because 
her friendship was as essential to him as breathing.  He would do 
*nothing* to screw that up.

He refused to even think about what would happen if she told him 
they couldn't become involved *and* she didn't think they could 
be around each other anymore because of the tension.  That way 
laid insanity.

He lifted his hand to rap out his usual knock on her door.  As he 
waited, his feet shifted restlessly and the hand that wasn't 
holding the bottle was in his front pants pocket jingling change.

He darted a quick glance down the front of his body in a last-
minute inspection.  White t-shirt not on backwards--check.  No 
drool or food on the black Henley he was wearing over the t-
shirt--check.  Jeans fly zipped--check.  Socks match--check.

Jesus, what was taking her so long?

Suddenly he heard her deadbolt scrape and the door opened and 
there she stood, looking all flushed and soft and so womanly it 
was almost painful just to look at her.  

His eyes began a slow perusal down her body, starting at her 
delicate collarbones peeking out of the neckline of an incredibly 
sexy white, fitted, long-sleeved blouse unbuttoned far lower than 
he was used to seeing on her.  His gaze followed the trail of 
buttons down the blouse to find below it those soft, faded jeans 
that he loved.  The ones that cupped her ass exquisitely and made 
her look about twenty.  God bless Levi Strauss.

When his perusal reached her feet, he noticed she was wearing 
light blue fuzzy terrycloth slippers with stars and moons 
embroidered on them.  Awww.  He could just eat her up she was so 
sexy and adorable.

His eyes took on a wicked gleam as he wondered what she would do 
if he just scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom.  
Probably sock him one.

When he finally returned his gaze to hers, she was doing that 
thing with the eyebrow that never failed to bring him to 
attention.  And there was a smirk on her face.

Ooops.  Too much gawking.  It was a shame, really, because she 
was so very gawk-worthy.

"Are you going to stand there all night staring, Mulder?"

He put on his most endearingly boyish smile and held the bottle 
out to her as he stepped across the threshold.

"I may stare all night, Scully, but I can do it from inside your 
apartment if you'd like," he quipped.  She took the bottle and 
headed toward the kitchen with him following, but not before he 
noticed the little smile his comment had brought to her lips.

She turned her back to him and lifted a lid off a saucepan to 
stir what looked and smelled like a mushroom sauce.  

"It was nice of you to bring wine, Mulder.  I already have a 
bottle opened, but I have the feeling we're going to need another 
one before this night's over."

He studied her back intently for a moment before responding, 
"Nervous?"

She replaced the lid and turned to face him with a rueful smile 
on her face.

"Yeah.  I am," she confessed.

"It's just me.  As long as you're not telling me you're 
transferring to Utah, we should have no problem," he said in an 
attempt to ease her anxiety.  

Then his voice lowered intimately, "If it makes you feel any 
better, I'm nervous too."  

This earned him a full-fledged Scully-grin.  "Thanks.  That does 
make me feel better."  Their gazes locked for a moment before she 
snapped out of it and went back to work over the stove on dinner.

He looked around the orderly kitchen, took mental note of the 
table already set with cloth napkins in rings, water glasses full 
of ice water, a wine glass at one of the settings, and a couple 
of thick candles already lit in the middle of the table.  
Whatever she was cooking smelled heavenly.  She smelled heavenly 
too.  Not like perfumes or creams or powders, just like warm pure 
Scully.  Yummm.  He picked up his wine glass and filled it from 
the bottle on the kitchen counter.

"Anything I can help with?" he offered.  She put him to work 
finishing up the salads.  As he bent over his task, he ruminated 
briefly over how cozy this felt, preparing food quietly together 
in her kitchen, the soft sounds and smells of 'Home' surrounding 
them.

He closed his eyes for a moment just soaking it all in, allowing 
the emotions inside him momentary free rein to clog his throat 
and swell his heart.

God, he ached for this.  For her.

XXXXX

Twenty minutes later they were sitting down at the table eating 
bowtie pasta with creamy mushroom sauce and chicken breast, salad 
and French bread.  Actually, Mulder was eating with gusto since 
his body was always so starved for real home-cooked food.   
Scully, however, was picking at hers, eating only the occasional 
bite, the butterflies that had taken up residence in her stomach 
sometime yesterday afternoon not quite calm enough to allow her 
to feel hungry.

"Are we going to discuss this during dinner?" Mulder abruptly 
asked.

Scully looked up from her plate to notice that his was nearly 
empty and that he was studying her intently.  She opted to 
temporarily ignore the question.

"There's more if you want it," she evaded.

This time it was Mulder's brows that headed north.  "I'll take 
that as a 'no'."

"I'd prefer to wait until after dinner, if you don't mind," she 
finally answered quietly.

"No problem."

They finished their dinner in silence, Scully acutely aware that 
Mulder was watching her every move.  When they were done, he 
offered to help her clean up and she accepted, both moving 
efficiently around her small kitchen and dinette until the rooms 
were spotless.

After she finished drying her hands on the dishtowel, she turned 
to find Mulder effectively blocking her exit from the kitchen.

"Scully, you're killing me here," he stated softly as he tenderly 
tucked a loose curl behind her ear.  "Are we going to do this or 
not?"

Well it wasn't eloquent, but it was honest.  The least he 
deserved was an honest answer.

"Yes, I think we are," she informed him.  She worried her lower 
lip between her teeth as she watched a wolfish smile slowly 
spread across his face.  He was obviously pleased with her 
answer.

"We are," he repeated.

"Yeah.  Unless you've changed your mind."

He looked at her as if she had just sprouted another head.  Then 
he got a predatory gleam in his eye as he took a step toward her.  
His head dipped to come closer to her level.

"Whadda ya say we seal this deal with a kiss then," he proposed 
with a gleam in his eye.  

She held up a hand to stop him in his tracks about a foot from 
her.  "First we have to discuss the rules."

"The rules?"

"We can't let this interfere with our work," she began.

"I think that goes without saying, Scully."

"I just don't want any misunderstandings.  Also, we have to be 
honest with each other, Mulder.  If things start going...if one 
of us wants to stop this we have to agree to tell the other 
before it gets ugly.  That's the only way we can preserve what we 
have now."

He was studying her seriously as she spoke.  He nodded his 
agreement.

"And I want to take this fairly slow.  It's been a while since 
either of us have been involved with anyone and I think we might 
be rusty."  She added that last part with a self-deprecating 
smile.  

"You mean it's not like riding a bike?" he asked in mock 
innocence.  She gave him The Brow.  "We can take this as slowly 
as you want, Scully," he assured her.

Then he tilted his head a little more toward hers as he warned 
her in a low tone, "But I'm not going to promise that I won't try 
a little....persuasion."

*Mmmm*, Scully thought, already caught in the spell.  *Persuade 
me, Mulder.  Please.*

She paused for a moment, suddenly fascinated with his beautiful 
lips.  When Mulder realized she was done enumerating their Rules, 
one corner of his mouth lifted in a smile.  She smiled in return 
as her gaze shot to his and her eyes began to sparkle as if they 
were partners in crime about to embark on the heist of the 
century.  Which to them, they were.

When he took a step to close the space between them to mere 
inches, she inhaled the heady masculine scent of him.  God, he 
was just so....Male.  Her heart rate began to speed up and she 
knew she must be blushing from her head to her toes, but she 
didn't care.  This was Mulder, her Mulder, and suddenly she had 
the right to touch him.  To kiss him.

God, she'd be lucky if she didn't swoon.

XXXXX

His heart was pounding hard as he brought his hands up to gently 
cup her face.  He had honestly never seen anything as beautiful 
as the way she was looking at him right this moment.  He had 
thought about kissing her so many times over the years that now 
that the moment was actually upon him, he was almost paralyzed by 
anticipation and performance anxiety.

He slowly brought his face very close to hers and she reached out 
to grab handfuls of his shirt to steady herself.  Both their eyes 
closed as he began to nuzzle her nose softly with Eskimo kisses, 
inhaling her unique scent, taking in each little breath that 
puffed out of her slightly-parted mouth in an irregular cadence.  
Jesus, it was so intimate, breathing her in this way.  He could 
almost taste her.

"Seven years is a long time, Scully," he whispered a scant 
quarter inch from her lips.

She chuffed a little laugh in agreement against his lips.  "Yes, 
it is."

He caressed her cheek with his nose one last time, then felt a 
smile lift the corners of his mouth as he teased, "Be gentle with 
me."

When her lips parted from surprise at his statement, he closed 
the small space between their mouths and covered hers gently with 
his own.  Her lips were bare and warm as he brushed his own back 
and forth slowly across hers, getting them both used to the 
sensation.

He felt a hot surge in his groin when she held her breath as he 
ran his tongue just along the inside of her upper lip.  He had 
coveted that upper lip for years, and now it was finally his to 
conquer.  He sucked on it tenderly for a moment before moving on 
to further uncharted territory.

His tongue forayed just past her lips, silently searching for its 
mate.  He didn't even realize he'd been holding his own breath 
until her tongue finally stroked against his hesitantly and he 
let out a low groan.

"Mmmmm hmmmm," was her response as she began to tangle her tongue 
with his more enthusiastically.

That's when everything else around him disappeared and the tastes 
and textures of their joined mouths became his entire universe.

XXXXX

*Oh, God,* she thought.  *I feel like my bones are melting.*

Scully snaked her arms up Mulder's chest and around his neck so 
she could literally hang on him since her legs seemed to have 
lost the ability to hold her upright.

The kiss had quickly segued into something not quite wild, yet 
not quite tame either.  What it was, she decided, was seven years 
of wanting finally rearing its needy head.  

He tasted exactly as she had always thought he would--dark, rich, 
masculine.  He kissed her like he was making love to her mouth, 
the way she had always wanted to be kissed.  Slowly.  Sensually.  
With passion.

She barely even registered that his hands were smoothing down her 
back and waist until they ventured south to mold around the curve 
of her buttocks.  He had no way of knowing this yet, although she 
suspected he was a quick learner about this particular subject, 
but her backside was her big weakness.  Feeling Mulder's big, 
warm, strong hands curled around her rear made her center 
suddenly feel very hot and open.

Of course that also could have something to do with the fact that 
their mouths were currently having what could be considered hot 
sex.

When she felt his hands slip a little lower to the backs of her 
upper thighs and start to lift her she broke the kiss out of 
surprise.

"Mulder...," she questioned as he turned and sat her down on the 
countertop, with him ending up standing between her spread legs.

She gave him a knowing smile when she realized he was just trying 
to make them more comfortable.  His hands were back on her ass 
now and he slowly slid her toward the edge of the counter, toward 
his body, until she came up fully against him and could feel the 
hard ridge of his erection press against her aching core.

"Much better, right, Scully?" he asked with a wicked gleam in his 
eye.

Knowing that she had him this aroused gave her the heady feeling 
of being a seductress.  She was proud of her boldness as slowly 
rolled her hips against his once causing him to suddenly sober 
and inhale on a hiss.

"Mmmmm....much better, Mulder," she crooned in reply.

Mulder groaned as he rested his head in the crook of her neck.

It was her turn to sport the slightly wicked smile.  She splayed 
her fingers through his hair and coaxed his head back up to hers.  
"I think you can handle it, Mulder," she informed him just before 
she brought his mouth back to hers for another thorough 
entanglement.

His hands began roaming again, and she began to squirm slightly 
against him in an unconscious attempt to get closer to the one 
thing within reach that could ease the growing ache inside of 
her.

Both of them lost track of all sense of time and space.  There 
was only the two of them and an endless melting of mouths and 
souls as they finally showed each other all they meant to one 
another after years of keeping it pent up inside.

When Scully felt Mulder's hands stroke down the sides of her 
back, his thumbs straying forward to trail down the outsides of 
her breasts, a little shiver went through her and goosebumps 
broke out over her body from head to toe.

Mulder broke the kiss when he felt her shiver and leaned his 
forehead against hers as they both tried to regain their breath 
and their bearings.  His head shifted against hers as he looked 
down at their bodies, specifically hers and the way here nipples 
were now standing out like little pebbles for all the world to 
see.

"God, this is going to be so good," he groaned.

She only chuckled and wrapped her arms around him to pull him 
fully against her in a hug.  After a few moments, he backed away 
from her a few inches and ran a hand over his chin as he looked 
at her like she was some kind of bewitching goddess or something.

"If this is slow, Scully, I don't think I'm going to survive it," 
he said mock-ruefully.  He stroked her bottom lip with his thumb.  
"As painful as it is to say this, I think I'd better go before I 
drop to my knees and start begging pathetically for something 
you're not ready to give."

One corner of her mouth quirked up in understanding as she nodded 
her agreement.

He leaned toward her once more, carefully keeping his lower body 
from pressing against hers, as he gave her a chaste but sweet 
kiss.

"Goodnight, Scully," he breathed intimately against her mouth.  
"Dinner was wonderful, and the company was....breathtaking."

With that, he gently brought her knees together and lifted her to 
stand on her own on the floor.  She followed him to the door 
where he picked up his jacket and keys, and watched him leave her 
apartment, not quite looking back at her, but sporting an obvious 
erection.

When she turned around to face her apartment, she didn't really 
see anything around her.  Her mind was still back on their 
kisses, and his hands, and him pressing against her between her 
legs.  She could feel her own moisture pooling in her panties, 
and her breasts felt heavy and tender.  She felt like she was 
sixteen again and had just spent two hours in a heavy makeout 
session in the backseat of her current crush's car.  It felt 
wonderful, actually.

*He's right,* she thought.  *This is going to be sooo goood.*

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Several Days Later


"You can sheathe your claws now, Scully," Mulder leaned toward 
Scully and informed her as they were descending the stairs.  

Scully stopped dead in her tracks, both feet firmly planted on 
the next to last step before the landing.

*Oh, no.  I don't believe he just said that.  Am I that 
transparent?*

They had arrived here this afternoon in B.F.E., Nevada, and had 
just finished talking with the local pathologist who had done the 
autopsy on their current case earlier in the day.  Of course, the 
pathologist just happened to be a female with impossibly 
luxurious long brunette hair, a chest that all but demanded "pet 
me", and legs practically up to her chin.  And she obviously 
thought Mulder would be a nice little diversion after a long day 
cutting up a dead guy.

Mulder had stood there tongue-tied, drinking in every technical 
term that Dr. Busty threw his way, and now he had the nerve to 
accuse her of being jealous?  What, has he got a death wish?  
Even if she was jealous, that was information she fully planned 
on taking to her grave with her.  Deny everything.

In the past few days, Mulder had treated her practically the same 
as he had most everyday for the past seven years.  Except there 
had been a few more meaningful touches, a few more intimate phone 
calls late at night, and one more kissing session that had left 
her breathless and aching for more.  She was just becoming secure 
in the knowledge that Mulder was becoming hers.  And already, 
barely four days into their "involvement," someone was trying to 
come between them.

She was, of course, also ignoring the fact that she had started 
her period today and thus was feeling slightly irrational.  But 
only slightly.  The rest of this was entirely justified.

*Sheathe my claws, indeed.*

"What are you talking about, Mulder?" Scully queried in a tone 
that would freeze lava.

Mulder had stopped on the landing and turned around so that they 
were now on eye level with each other.  He was looking way too 
much like the cat-that-ate-the-cream for Scully's tastes.

He leaned over conspiratorially, as if about to confide some 
secret with her, "You were jealous back there."

"I.  Was.  Not," she replied with all the sincere deadpan she 
could muster.  *Just because that hussy was flagrantly flirting 
with you, giving you bedroom eyes, laying her hand on your arm--
with me standing right there next to you--why would I be 
jealous?*

*Besides, I have no right to be jealous.  Do I?*

Mulder wasn't buying her denial.  "You.  Were.  Too."  And then 
he really risked a serious ass-kicking by leering at her and 
stating, "And I just can't seem to muster up regret that I'm so 
turned on by it."

Scully's jaw dropped and she was speechless for a moment.  
Finally, she came back to her senses, decided the best course of 
action right now was to not encourage him, and calmly demanded, 
"Let me by, Mulder.  We have work to do."

She wasn't entirely surprised when both his arms spread to grasp 
the handrails on either side of them, trapping her from 
continuing down the stairway.

"Real mature, Mulder."

"Talk about the pot calling the kettle..." but he didn't get to 
finish his sentence since she had promptly turned her back on him 
and started going back up the stairs.

Of course, he went up after her, snagging her hand, turning her 
around to face him.  They were a stair tread apart, once again on 
eye level, although by the look she was giving him right now he 
kind of wished he wasn't in so direct a path for the glare.  He 
was still holding her hand, not taking any chances that she was 
going to flee again.

"Scully, if you want to drop this, we can drop it.  But first I 
want you to think about something."

He gave her a moment to protest, and when she didn't he went on.  
"I did nothing back there to encourage her.  I was as surprised 
as you probably were by how blatant her advances were, especially 
right in front of you.  But I *didn't respond*."

Scully remained quiet, eyes darting from one of his eyes to the 
other, searching for any sign that he wasn't being honest with 
her.  God, she didn't want to be angry with him.  She didn't want 
to be a crazy jealous monster either.  She had never been jealous 
with any of her previous relationships so this feeling was 
totally foreign to her, and beneath her in her own opinion.

And if she was really honest, he hadn't flirted with her.  He had 
looked like he was just as surprised as herself at the 
unprofessionalism of the pathologist.

Finally, she calmed down and let out a big sigh.  Mulder's grip 
on her hand loosened a little and his other hand came up to 
cradle her nape and pull her head toward his.

He spoke gently against her ear, "We've known each other for 
seven years.  You know you've spent more time with me than 
anyone, and you know that some beautiful women have crossed our 
paths throughout the years.  But in all that time, have you ever 
seen me come on to anyone?  Anyone besides you, Scully?"

Scully raised her head to search his face.  *God he's so 
beautiful.  How could someone that beautiful want plain old me?*  
She was having a hard time believing he would prefer her over 
someone like Matreya or Dr. Busty.  

Then she remembered something.  Something painful.  It was so 
mortifying to reveal her insecurities this way, but she needed to 
know if he was turning to her because he was pining away for 
someone from his past, or if he really did feel something for 
her.  So she gathered up her courage and went for broke.

"I saw you kissing Phoebe.  And you were very....close...to 
Diana."

XXXXX

He exhaled a heavy sigh of resignation and ran a frustrated hand 
through his hair.  He had known they would have to have this 
conversation eventually.  He just didn't know it was going to be 
here in this sterile stairwell, in the middle of some God-
forsaken case. It was so early in this delicate bud of a 
possibility of a romantic relationship.  He was seriously worried 
that whether or not they really became involved relied completely 
on the next few words out of his mouth.

Well, he reasoned if she was going to be brave enough to bring 
this up, then he could be brave enough to give her an honest 
answer.

"The last time I saw Phoebe was what...seven years ago, Scully.  
I barely knew you then, and I'll admit, I was...lonely...and 
allowed myself to wax poetic about the history we'd had."  

He offered her a self-deprecating smile.  "It didn't take long 
for me to remember why Phoebe and I were a bad combination.  And 
I haven't, for one minute, thought of her since."

He carefully studied her face for signs of understanding as he 
continued.  "And as for Diana...I know you don't want to hear 
this, but you and Diana were alike in some ways.  When we 
were...together...I was attracted to her intelligence, our common 
interests with the paranormal, and what I thought was integrity.  
It took me a long time to figure out that she wasn't quite as 
loyal as I had thought.  And when she came back, I didn't feel 
the attraction I had felt before, but I did have hopes that she 
had changed and that we could be allies."

His voice took on a sad tone, "I have so few people on my side, 
Scully.  It was easy to hope."

He looked regretful now as he raised a finger to trace her 
eyebrow.  "I'm sorry that I treated you badly during that time, 
Scully.  I can be such an ass sometimes.  I feel its only fair to 
warn you in case you haven't figured that out by now."

Her eyes were sad too, and her expression was rueful, but she 
tried to lighten the situation out of reflex, "Well I know 
*that*."

He had to chuckle.  She was such a balm for his pathetic, 
bedraggled soul.

Now that he had all that off his chest, knowing he wasn't really 
off the hook, but that she would need time to chew on all the 
information, he felt the need to reiterate his earlier point.

"So, if we discount Phoebe and Diana for a moment, have you ever 
heard me ask anyone else if we should be picking out china 
patterns?  Or tell them they're my one in five billion?  Or that 
they're my touchstone?  Or blurted out "I love you" in slightly-
drugged vulnerability?"

He had to smile at her look of surprise that he had remembered 
that last one.  Obviously she had thought he was doped to the 
gills when he had let that one slip out.  In reality, he had only 
just started feeling the effects of the medication, just started 
feeling his bones growing warm and his heart feeling free when he 
had told her he loved her.  He had meant what he had said, but 
obviously she hadn't thought so.

"Yes, Scully, I was well aware that I said that.  And I meant it 
too."

When her eyes welled up with unshed tears he gently kissed her 
forehead.

"Mulder, I don't know what to say," she admitted hoarsely.  He 
was right.  She had never seen him really flirting with anyone 
but her.  Could it be that he had felt this way about her for 
years and never said anything, never done anything about it?

His eyes roamed over her face.  God she was the most beautiful 
person he had ever seen.  And he knew he would always feel that 
way.

"Just tell me that we can work through this.  I need to know that 
you realize that you're the only one I want."

For a moment she just looked at him with such love in her watery 
eyes that he felt his heart swell to almost bursting.  Sometimes 
it was so painful just to look at her.  

Then she placed her hands on each side of his face and brought 
his lips to hers for a kiss that was both apology and 
forgiveness.  He greedily drank every drop of emotion she poured 
into him through her kiss.  He actually started to tip to the 
side like a drunken fool, which is what his head felt like right 
about now, and used one hand to grab onto the handrail.

Of course, his other arm snaked around her waist of its own 
accord and pulled her against him so that they were touching from 
chest to calves.  He could really get used to kissing her on 
stairs--the way it brought their mouths to the same level was 
definitely something to appreciate.

He could have cheerfully gone on kissing her there all day, but 
eventually she broke the kiss and gently swiped her fingertips 
across his lips in an attempt to erase lipstick smears.

As for her, he thought she looked just fine the way she was.  
Hair slightly mussed, face flushed with desire, and her sweet 
pouty lips smudged and even more swollen than usual.  Yep, she 
looked like she'd just been kissed and kissed well, and it made 
him feel like Superman to know that he had put that look on her.

He guessed they were okay now, because she tenderly took his hand 
and laced their fingers.  Then together they descended the stairs 
in silence, breaking apart only when they exited their private 
little stairwell into the public hallway.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Continued in part 2

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Easiest Thing in the World (2/3)
By Rafferty



Several Weeks Later
Mulder's Apartment


He turned off the tv and started the tape rewinding.  It was 
suddenly very quiet in the room after the noise of Caddyshack 
disappeared.  All that could be heard was the whirring of the 
tape rewinding.

Mulder set the remote down on the coffee table, then crossed his 
right leg over his left as he turned slightly to angle himself to 
face Scully.  He placed his elbow on the back of the couch, 
leaned his head on his hand, and took a quiet moment to study 
her.  She looked relaxed and peaceful, in no hurry to leave, and 
it was all he could do not to pull her to him and bury his nose 
in her neck.

It had been a few weeks since their last little "encounter" in 
the stairwell.  They had been busy with work, and he had gotten 
that gross nicotine beetle illness which had laid him up for a 
couple of weeks.  

He would never forget the time that he was at home in bed on 
doctor's orders, only a few days home from the hospital, with 
Scully sitting beside him trying to coax him into eating chicken 
noodle soup.  He had wanted to go back to work immediately, and 
so was pouting because the doctor had forced him to take two 
weeks off work.

"Mulder, you need to keep up your strength," she had coerced.  
Then her already incredibly sexy alto dropped even lower to what 
he privately thought of as her bedroom voice when she added, "I 
have big plans for you when you're well."

He didn't think he'd ever enjoyed chicken noodle soup with such 
relish before.

And now he was feeling better.  Had fought off a cigarette habit.  
Found a genie, learned what insanity living in a world without 
Scully in it was for about 45 minutes, and now she was here with 
him in his apartment.  Safe, warm, healthy.  Sitting next to him 
on the couch looking all cozy and impossibly womanly.

He enjoyed the feeling of his body hardening as he watched her.

She really didn't stand a chance.

XXXXX

He reached up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear as he 
said, "Are you still with me?"

Scully smiled slightly, turned her head and rested it on the back 
of the couch as she studied him.  She lazily trailed her eyes 
down his face to his mouth, then back up to his eyes.  No doubt 
about it.  Mulder was infinitely more pleasurable to look at than 
Bill Murray.

Her voice was low and husky as she replied, "I think I've seen 
enough gophers to last me a lifetime, Mulder." 

"Never enough gophers, Scully," he said with a smile that 
actually showed teeth.

They were in a rather intimate pose together on the couch.  If 
she moved her face about six inches toward him she'd be able to 
find out if he tasted as good as she remembered.  She could smell 
his cologne or aftershave.  Whatever it was, it smelled like him, 
and she had the stray thought that he must have worn it for 
years, because it was something she instantly recognized.  It 
gave her comfort and made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside to 
be this close to him, with his familiar smell wafting around her, 
the heat radiating off his body enveloping her in a cocoon.

Scully was so relaxed that she closed her eyes, silently 
memorizing the way she felt at that moment, with a content smile 
on her face.

"Are you sleepy?" Mulder asked softly, his voice seeming to have 
dropped an entire octave.

She slowly opened her eyes and focused on his.  "Not really.  
Just very, very comfortable.  *And* relieved the movie's over."  
She added with a wicked grin.

He continued to watch her for a moment.  She knew he was thinking 
about something big, could almost hear the gears grinding in 
there.  The VCR chose that moment to stop rewinding and the room 
suddenly became completely quiet.

"What's on your mind, Mulder?"  This brought a slightly wicked 
gleam to his eye.  Uh oh, she should know better than to ask 
Mulder what he's thinking about when he's looking at her like he 
could cheerfully lick her from head to toe and back again.

He leaned toward her a couple more inches, lifted his hand to 
trail a finger around the outside of her ear.  "I want you to 
stay.  Spend the night with me."

The satisfied smile instantly disappeared from her face.  She 
couldn't really say she was surprised.  They had been dancing 
around and up to this particular point for weeks, even months 
now, after all.  But she did seem to be in some mild state of 
shock.  Her heart rate had suddenly sped up.  Her eyes had shot 
to his and held there unblinking while she considered his request 
and all that it implied.  He watched fascinated as her lips 
parted for her to draw in the oxygen that her body suddenly 
needed much more of than it was getting.

"Spend the night," she repeated in a whisper.  "Here."

"You've slept here before, Scully."  But they both knew that 
wasn't what he was asking of her.  

Mulder realized he had been holding his breath, so he exhaled in 
a long slow stream through his nose.  The finger that had trailed 
around her ear came up to gently trace one of her eyebrows.

"I didn't bring anything to sleep in," she mentioned inanely.

He leered comically as he replied, "Clothing is optional, Scully.  
But if you insist, I could probably find you a t-shirt to sleep 
in."  His voice was low and intimate, the one that made the hairs 
on the back of her neck stand on end and her nipples perk up and 
pay attention.  

He could see in the liquid pool of her eyes how much she wanted 
this.  And how nervous she was.  He silently willed to her the 
mantra *Be brave, Scully.  Be very, very brave.*

"What ever happened to going slowly?" she asked breathlessly.

He paused for a moment as he considered his answer.

"I'm just not ready for you to leave yet, Scully.  I'm not going 
to lie to you and say I wouldn't like to make love to you," he 
actually watched her pupils dilate at this admission.  "But 
nothing's going to happen here tonight unless you want it to."

He traced a fingertip delicately down the edge of her jaw to her 
chin.  "I've waited seven years," he whispered.  "I can wait as 
long as you need me to."

He watched her as she mulled the weighty decision over in her 
more than adequate mind.  Suddenly, she placed one hand on his 
knee and the other on the edge of the cushion beside her, pushed 
herself up and began walking toward his bathroom.  His heart gave 
a little leap of victory when he heard her call to him, without 
even turning her head his way, "Find that t-shirt, Mulder."

He grinned like a kid on Christmas morning.  *Yes, ma'am.*

XXXXX

While Scully was in the bathroom, Mulder worked off nervous 
energy by cleaning up the popcorn bowl and beer bottles on the 
coffee table, putting the few dishes from the sink to the 
dishwasher and starting it, and straightening up the bed.  He was 
proud and relieved to realize he had actually washed the sheets 
in the last week.

He had conveniently forgotten about the t-shirt by the time she 
came out of the bathroom, her face scrubbed clean, freckles and 
mole showing in all their fresh glory.  He gave her plenty of 
room in the hall to work her way toward the bedroom before he 
entered the bathroom himself.  He had the brief thought that it 
must be love when he had to brush his teeth with a wet 
toothbrush, one which Scully had obviously just used, and he 
didn't have the slightest problem with it.

He was only in the bathroom for couple of minutes, but he'd been 
gone long enough for her to root through his drawers and find a 
clean t-shirt, which she had brought to her nose and was smelling 
when he entered the bedroom.  She quickly brought the shirt down 
to her side as if she had been caught with her hand in the 
proverbial cookie jar.

"Is it okay if I wear this one?"  she asked nervously.

Mulder gave her a rueful smile before responding, "Remind me to 
burn all my t-shirts tomorrow, Scully."

She just smiled smugly, then spent an uncalled for amount of time 
arranging the t-shirt on the edge of the bed.  Mulder walked over 
and sat down on the bed by the t-shirt and looked at her 
patiently.

One red eyebrow arched as she said, "Are you going to watch me 
change?"

XXXXX

His voice slid over her like a warm blanket when he responded, 
"Do you mind?"

Did she mind?  Mind wasn't exactly the right word.  
"Uncomfortable" was more like it.  Yes, he had seen her naked 
before a couple of times, but never in this context.  Now, he was 
sitting there on his bed two feet from her, looking into her eyes 
intently.  She knew if she asked him to leave or turn his head he 
would, but the fact that he wanted to watch her made her feel so 
wanted, so womanly, that she made the decision to let him watch.

She didn't say anything, just slowly began to unbutton her 
sweater starting with the top button, watching his face the 
entire time.  From the moment she started unbuttoning, his eyes 
had dropped to watch the path her hands were taking.  When she 
had finished undoing the last button, she paused and his eyes 
swung back up to hers.  She just wanted to make sure he was still 
with her and not lost in some fantasy induced by one of those 
videos he didn't own.

She slowly slid the sweater down her shoulders and off her arms 
and laid it on the bed next to the t-shirt.  Mulder's eyes 
meandered their way down from her face, to her neck, to the 
delicateness of her collarbones, to the lacy, white pushup bra 
she was wearing.  She spared a brief moment to thank God she had 
worn pretty underwear today.  She could swear she felt her 
breasts swell until they might spill over their scant encasements 
as she watched him watching her.

At this point, she might have chickened out or become offended if 
he had been ogling her or making light of this situation in any 
way.  But he wasn't.  He was looking at her with the same sense 
of awe and revelation that he reserved only for UFO's and 
missing-link forest women.

She was brave, but she wasn't that brave, so she picked up the t-
shirt and donned it over her bra.  She avoided looking directly 
at him because she didn't want to see the pathetic little boy 
pout she was sure he was sporting right now.

She unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans and efficiently slid them 
down her legs and off, making sure the t-shirt came down over her 
panties before he could see them.  She removed her socks and laid 
them on the bed with the sweater and jeans.  When she chanced a 
glance his way, he was now looking at her legs.  Another prayer 
of thanks went up that she had shaved that evening in the bath 
she took before coming to Mulder's apartment.

When he realized she was watching him and not moving, Mulder's 
attention was brought back to her face.  She could swear he was 
telepathically communicating to her a single thought...*the bra, 
Scully*.  She brought her arms around behind her back and 
unsnapped her bra right through the t-shirt.  Next she pulled one 
strap through one t-shirt sleeve and off that arm, then pulled 
the entire bra off and out through the other sleeve.

When she was all done, she lifted the pile of clothes off the bed 
and moved them over to rest on top of his dresser.  She had to 
let out a little chuckle when he said, "And I thought that bra 
trick was hot in Flashdance."

She was standing at the end of the bed, looking at it like it was 
a huge lake she had to cross and she was trying to figure out all 
the currents and depths and safety factors involved.  Finally, 
she looked directly at him and said, "Where do you want me?"

XXXXX

*Where do I want you, Scully?  How about completely wrapped 
around me?  Under me...on top?  Come on, Scully, don't ask me 
such a loaded question.*

He knew she realized instantly how her question sounded when he 
saw the flush that spread from her forehead to the nether regions 
below the neckline of the t-shirt.  He had to smile.  She was so 
adorable.

"Come here," he lifted his hand to her.  She came around the bed 
to stand directly in front of him and take his hand.  Her hand 
was slightly cold.  He knew she was nervous--she fairly oozed it 
from every pore.  He'd have to see what he could do about warming 
her up, in more ways than one.  He'd been hard as a rock since 
she had started on the first button.  She had a lot of catching 
up to do.

He parted his feet on the floor a little more to make room for 
her to stand between his thighs and gently pulled her to within 
an inch of his body.  He wrapped his hands around her hips, laid 
his head against her ribcage and whispered, "Thank you."

He felt the quick rush of air that she exhaled stir the hair on 
his head before she splayed the fingers of both hands gently 
against his scalp.  He looked up at her and she tilted her chin 
down to look him squarely in the eyes, one eyebrow slightly 
raised of course.  If he read her expression correctly, which he 
almost always could, she was wordlessly saying, 'Well, now what 
are you going to do with me?'

He lightly and slowly trailed the fingertips of one hand down her 
hip to the back of her thigh, then lower still to the back of her 
knee.  The blood in his veins surged in a last ditch effort to 
fill his erection even more when he felt her shiver.

He wrapped his hand around the back of her knee and began to 
gently pull her leg up and over his.  She had to place her hands 
on his shoulders to keep her balance.  She didn't put up a single 
protest when he brought his other hand to the back of her other 
knee, silently suggesting that that leg be brought up too so she 
could straddle his lap.  He was elated when she complied without 
protest and he found his lap full of Scully, up close, warm, 
open.  Most definitely open.

"This is very....intimate," she said breathlessly as she looked 
down at herself spread-eagled on his lap.

He looked down too, couldn't have stopped himself from looking if 
a little gray alien had suddenly appeared right next to him and 
asked him to go for a ride.  The t-shirt had ridden up her thighs 
by necessity.  He couldn't actually see her panties, had yet to 
see them so far at all, as a matter of fact, but he knew they 
were less than an inch beyond the now scandalously high hem of 
the t-shirt.

When he finally brought his eyes back up to her face, he saw that 
she was smirking.  She knew what kind of effect she had on him, 
and she loved it.  God this was going to be so good.  

He could smell her.  The perfume she sometimes wore that never 
failed to bring him to attention at a mere whiff.  Her breath, 
which was always sweet to him, mingled with the mint from his 
toothpaste that she had pilfered.  And underneath it all, the 
heady smell of woman, opened to him like a gift.  Combined, it 
was completely intoxicating and he had to mentally snap his brain 
back to attention so he could focus on how to get closer to the 
tantalizing flesh sitting so sweetly in his lap.

By now, his erection had caught the scent too, and its head was 
attempting to peek out of his underwear, still covered by his 
pants, trying to spot the prey it had sensed was coming near.  
*Down boy*, he mentally chastised.  

He looked down at her thighs, spread for him, so white and soft.  
Utterly irresistible.  He brought both of his hands down, one on 
each perfect thigh, and slowly stroked his palms up and around 
her hips, bringing them to rest on her rear.  Then he looked into 
her eyes as he slowly pulled her across his lap toward him, not 
stopping until he brought her right up against his erection.

She had been holding her breath from the moment he had touched 
her thighs, and had stiffened at the point of contact.  Now, he 
felt her consciously relax her body against him, which made her 
slide down against his raging hard on in a sinfully delicious 
way.  He inhaled the sharp sigh she let out at the friction of 
hard against soft.

With his hands still holding each side of her rear, he brought 
his lips to within an inch of hers and answered her earlier 
innocent yet loaded query.  "*This* is where I want you."

XXXXX

Scully could hardly stand all the stimulation.  His hands were on 
her ass.  Her thighs were spread about as wide as they could 
possibly get to accommodate him, and between said thighs, the 
center of her was pressed up against his very impressive, very 
hard erection.  She was pretty much overwhelmed--the smell of 
him, the feel of him, the vulnerability of her current position--
she knew she had very little control of her own actions anymore.  
Mulder was playing her like an instrument, and they both knew she 
would sing as sweetly or as loudly as he wanted.

She was hardly aware that she had raised her hips once more 
against him until she felt the sharp tingle of impending orgasm 
on her way back down.  He moaned an anguished, "Scully," against 
her collarbone and she felt his fingers flex into her backside as 
he tensed up.  She started to raise herself against him again, 
she had to feel that again, had to hear him moan again, but 
before she could move more than an inch, his hands had wrapped 
around her hips and he held her still against him as he breathed 
heavily against her.

He brought his mouth up to her ear, and in the lowest, harshest 
voice she had ever heard come out of his mouth said, "Scully, if 
you keep doing that, I'm going to embarrass myself."

She was already violently aroused, slippery wet, and he hadn't 
even kissed her yet.  Really had barely even touched her.  She 
willed her body to calm down.  *Relax, slow down, relax, slow 
down*.  It became a mantra in her head.  

He began to stroke her back with both hands under the t-shirt.  
She buried her head in his neck as he lulled her with the new 
sensation of feeling his skin against her skin.  Slowly, her 
breathing became less erratic, and she relaxed again in his lap, 
her head on his shoulder and her mound pressed snugly against 
him.  

When she felt his thumbs stroke down her sides from her armpits 
to her waist, dangerously close to the sides of her breasts, she 
let out a little shiver.

"Are you cold?" he whispered softly in her ear.  Her nose was 
still against his neck, so she just shook her head.

"Good.  Then I guess we won't be needing this."  He began to lift 
the hem of the t-shirt up, over her hips, under her arms, and she 
automatically lifted her head and raised her arms so that he 
could remove the shirt the rest of the way.  Her arms came back 
down to her sides as he tossed the t-shirt into some dark corner 
of the bedroom.

He didn't immediately drop his gaze to look at her body, though.  
Instead he looked straight into her eyes, gauging her reaction to 
being bared before him.  She was self-conscious about the size of 
her breasts.  Based on the women he had been with in the past she 
knew that larger breasts must be his preference.  But she was 
confident enough in the way he felt about her to be brave enough 
to go on.

She didn't cover herself up with her arms, she didn't say a word, 
but she did return his look with a slight tilting up of one side 
of her mouth and, of course, she raised one eyebrow.  It was a 
challenge, to be sure.  Thank God Mulder never backed down from a 
challenge.

XXXXX

Mulder gave her a few seconds to flee, but when she quirked her 
mouth and sent him that look, he knew he'd been given the green 
light to look and touch to his heart's content.  It was all he 
could do not to lick his chops and rub his hands together with 
greedy glee.  But he was determined to take this slowly.  He was 
a starved man who had been offered a feast, but he wasn't about 
to gobble it all down in one bite.  He was going to savor this.

His heated gaze began a languid exploration of all the skin he 
could see.  He started with her neck, which he had seen countless 
times but still held endless fascination for him.  It was so 
smooth and white, so graceful.  He unconsciously pulled the side 
of his lower lip between his teeth as he fantasized about 
nibbling on her beautiful neck.  But there would be time for that 
later, and just now he had further terrain to discover.

He reached out one finger to gently trace her collarbone from 
shoulder to shoulder, amazed at how delicately she was built, how 
incredibly small-boned she was.  When his finger traced over a 
scar on her shoulder he brought his finger to his lips, kissed 
it, then pressed that finger-kiss into the scar.

She laid her hand over his idle one that was resting on her thigh 
and squeezed it to thank him.  He brought that hand up to his 
lips, looked into her eyes as he tenderly kissed her palm, and 
placed her hand back on her thigh. 

Then he put both of his hands on her hips at the top edge of her 
panties.  He slowly smoothed his palms up her sides until his 
thumbs rested just under her breasts.  He took a moment to tease 
them both by caressing his thumbs up the undersides of her 
breasts, on a direct path to, but not quite reaching, her nipples 
before skimming them back down to rest underneath.  

He then brought his hands around so that his thumbs came together 
on her breastbone and trailed them down her torso.  He stopped 
when he reached a scar that was still faintly pink right in the 
center of her stomach.  A brief look of pain crossed over his 
face as he remembered the bastard who had been assigned to watch 
her back and instead had ended up shooting her at close range and 
almost killed her.   He snapped out of his dark reverie when he 
felt her fingers splay through his hair in an effort to comfort 
him.

He continued down, stopping next at her belly button, one of his 
thumbs dipping inside, then swirling around it.  That same thumb 
then swooped down to the ultra soft skin between her belly button 
and the top of her lacy white bikini underwear and stroked back 
and forth several times.  His reward for being so bold was Scully 
curling one hand around his neck to bring his forehead to hers as 
she raised and lowered her hips against him and exhaled a 
breathy, "Mulder," against his lips.

He wrapped an arm around her hips in an attempt to keep her from 
rubbing up against him like a cat again.  God, she made him feel 
like he could crush steel with his bare hands.  He gently 
captured her upper lip between his own and ran his tongue slowly 
just inside her upper lip from corner to corner.  He carefully 
schooled his voice not to sound harsh or commanding, but what he 
said next ended up coming out deep and slightly commanding 
anyway.   "Lean back and put your hands on my knees, Scully," he 
said against her open mouth.

XXXXX

It took her a few seconds to mentally process his request, then a 
few more seconds to decide whether she wanted to make herself 
even more vulnerable to him than she already was.  She did once 
again what she had been doing periodically since he had asked her 
to stay the night.  She looked into his eyes, reconnecting with 
him, reminding herself that this was Mulder, the person she 
trusted most in this world.

So she did as he asked, bringing her arms behind her and leaning 
back slightly to rest her hands on his knees.  She watched as his 
eyes raked over her, finally, finally settling on her breasts, 
which he'd had yet to directly look at since he'd bared them by 
removing her t-shirt.

Her back involuntarily arched a bit under the heat of his gaze.  
Her breasts felt so full, so round, and her nipples had been hard 
and sensitized for so long that she was becoming afraid it might 
hurt if he ever actually touched them.

He reached both hands around her to place his fingertips on her 
lower back, and raised his eyes to hers.  The color of his eyes, 
usually hard to pin down, was definitely a smoky green.  Scully 
had come to the conclusion over the years that when his eyes 
looked mostly green, he was at his happiest.  

"You're so beautiful," he breathed in reverence.  She valiantly 
blinked back tears and swallowed down more emotion than she could 
be expected to handle.  The way he was looking at her made her 
feel like the most beautiful woman in the universe.

Goose bumps broke out all over her body and she squirmed a bit as 
he began to stroke his fingers up her back in a feather soft 
touch.  At the same time he began to lean toward her.  A corner 
of his mouth hitched up as he realized she was ticklish on her 
back.  "No wiggling," he instructed in a mock-stern voice, and 
she instantly tamed her wiggling to a mere tremble.

When his fingers had skimmed up to her shoulder blades and his 
mouth was within inches of her breasts, he looked down, then 
lowered his mouth over a pebbled nipple.  The breath expelled out 
of her body in a rush and she began that erratic breathing thing 
all over again.  She could feel his tongue swirling around and 
stroking her nipple and it was sending electric shock waves 
through her body.  She hadn't had this kind of a response in her 
breasts since high school.  She had sadly chalked it up to some 
elusive grand sensation only virgins get to experience because no 
one had ever made her feel it since.  Until Mulder.  She should 
have known he would be talented with that tongue.  God knows he 
certainly exercised it enough--talking incessantly, sucking on 
seeds, gnawing pencils, you name it.

He had brought one arm down her back to still her hips, which had 
started grinding against him again.  The other hand had come 
around to her side underneath her arm to stroke the outside of 
the breast he had been neglecting.  

When he lightly trailed his fingertips across that nipple, her 
hips shoved against him forcefully enough to generate some much 
sought after friction and they moaned in unison.  His grip around 
her hips tightened, and he stopped tonguing her long enough to 
drop his forehead to her breast and plea with her, "I'm barely in 
control here, Scully.  Have a little mercy."

Her hips stilled again and he then went back to playing, this 
time with the other breast.  The hand that was now free began to 
stroke down her stomach, his thumb again getting distracted with 
her belly button.  He left his hand there, thumb moving in and 
out of her navel, mimicking the age-old dance that both their 
bodies were prepared for and desperate to enact.  She was still 
trembling and squirming against him as much as he would let her, 
and the abdomen muscles under his hand were working overtime.  

He continued laving her nipples, occasionally kissing and licking 
around them or nibbling a path from one to the other.  She was 
becoming desperate to touch him, but in this position she really 
couldn't touch him since her hands had to support her at this 
angle.  She spared a brief moment to lament the fact that he 
still had his shirt on so she couldn't even rub her stomach 
against his.  She appeased herself with the thought that, at the 
rate they were going, they would probably be at this for a long 
time and there would be plenty of opportunity to run her hands 
all over his gorgeous body later.

She hadn't realized his hand had been on the move until she felt 
his thumb dip inside the top of her underwear.  He was caressing 
her skin, just above her triangle of hair, and suddenly she was 
very aware of that hand.  Mulder must have sensed that she had 
become preoccupied with the happenings down below because he had 
stopped toying with her breasts and was now sitting up watching 
her with eyes turned dark gray with desire.

His thumb was slow but relentless, stroking just a tad lower each 
time it made a sweep.  He had reached the top of her auburn 
curls.  It suddenly hit Scully just how monumental this moment 
was.  For some reason it was okay for him to touch her everywhere 
else, but for him to touch her here was so intimate it took her 
breath away.

Once again, she tried to look into his eyes and see her Mulder, 
reconnect with him.  But he chose that moment to finally sweep 
his thumb across the slickness over her clit, and she was 
instantly, completely lost.  She was dimly aware that she moaned 
a husky, "Oh, God," then she allowed her head to drop back and 
submitted to his ministrations.

XXXXX

*Jesus H. Christ*.  She was so damned hot and wet it was making 
his head spin.  Who the hell's bright idea was it to take this 
slowly, anyway?  Most of his hand was inside her underwear, his 
thumb alternately stroking her clit and sliding down to burrow 
inside her, which is exactly what his rock hard cock was begging 
to do.

But, God, she was beautiful, all spread out on display before 
him, basically letting him have his way with her.  He had 
fantasized about this at least a thousand times, but it hadn't 
come close to preparing him the reality of it.  Her creamy soft 
body flushed pink with arousal.  Her nipples rock hard and 
pointing right at him.  Her smooth white thighs clenched around 
him.  And here, at the center of her, she was hot and swollen, 
smelling like one hundred percent woman, slick and wet in total 
readiness to receive him.

She really was a feast, and he was really trying to savor.  
Honest, he was.  But it was hard not to give in to his baser 
needs, bury himself deep inside her, and pound against her until 
they both forgot their own names.

She was moaning now and he was unable to keep her writhing hips 
still while he was concentrating on her response, so he was just 
gritting his teeth and bearing it while he stroked her torso and 
breasts with his free hand and allowed her free rein to move as 
she pleased.  And move she did, right up against him, the crotch 
of her panties saturated, stroking him rhythmically into 
insanity.

Then her movements slowed and her body had tensed up, drawn tight 
like a bow.  She was concentrating on her approaching release, 
and he suddenly had the urge to taste her, to really taste her.  
Although he had high hopes about a repeat performance in the 
future, he wasn't positive he'd ever be here again, so he had to 
memorize her own unique flavor so that he could draw on it during 
future fantasies.  Also, he wasn't sure if she was the kind of 
woman who could orgasm more than once during love-making, and he 
was determined to feel her come apart with himself buried deep 
inside of her at least once in his lifetime.

He stilled the movements of his thumb against her clit and she 
whimpered and brought her head up to look at him in shock.

"Easy, Scully," he gentled her.  He soothingly caressed her 
stomach and sides in an effort to calm the raging going on 
inside.

He wrapped an arm around her to pull her to him and brought his 
mouth to hers in a deep kiss that was a promise of pleasures yet 
to come.  While he kissed her, he rose and turned to lay her down 
on the bed, her legs dangling over the edge.  When she began to 
pull at his shirt, he broke the kiss and allowed her to whisk it 
off over his head and send it flying to the floor.  

She pulled his face back down to hers and whispered urgently 
against his mouth, "Mulder...".

He didn't give her a chance to finish her thought.  He dragged 
his tongue across her lower lip.  "I want to taste you," he 
whispered into her open mouth as he slowly peeled her panties 
down and off her body.

His intentions became clear when he parted her legs at the end of 
the bed with one of his knees and began to retreat down her body.  
Instantly she tensed, pulled him back up to her and began her 
protest, her voice raspy with unsuppressed desire,  "No, Mulder.  
I don't need that."  Her hands shot down to the waistband of his 
pants.

He grabbed her hands in one of his and slowly pulled them up over 
her head to rest against the mattress.  "I do," he said as he 
leaned over her.  "I need to taste you."

She studied him, his eyes intently focused on hers, his 
expression gentle yet determined as he silently willed her to 
allow him to do this.

When she finally whispered, "Okay," both his heart and his cock 
heaved in a surge of gratitude, and a wide and wicked smile 
spread across his face.  He reached over to snag a pillow and 
released her hands as he placed it under her head.  "So you can 
watch if you want," he quietly explained.  His grin made a 
reappearance when he noticed the sudden blush that spread from 
her forehead to her chest.

"I'll be bock," he teased in his best Schwartzenegger imitation, 
then his smile transformed into the look of a predator as he 
crawled his way down her body to kneel on the floor between her 
legs.

She squirmed a little as he began kissing and nibbling his way up 
the inside of one of her thighs.  Her scent was strong now, and 
it was drawing him like the scent of fresh clean water draws a 
man who has been lost in the desert for forty days.  His hand 
rose to caress up the other thigh, stroking up and around her 
pelvic bone area and coming to rest on her lower belly just 
brushing her delicate curls.

He kissed his way to her juncture, around the perimeter of her 
triangle of auburn curls, and then buried his nose against her 
and took in her very essence in one long inhalation.  He paused 
for a moment and shuddered, struggling to regain control, before 
breathing, "Scullleee," in a hot rush of reverence against her 
core.  

XXXXX

When he sighed her name against her flesh, Scully swam through 
the fog around her brain to bring her head up and watch him.  He 
raised his head to look at her and she almost whimpered at the 
fierce passion in his eyes.  If she didn't know better, she would 
say he looked drugged--eyelids drooping, jawline tense, pupils 
dilated so that his eyes looked almost black in the dim lighting 
from the bedside lamp.

He held her gaze as he lowered his mouth to her opening, his 
tongue snaking down to take his first sample of her.

Her head dropped back to the pillow and her back arched as she 
moaned, "Ohmigod," at the first touch of his tongue to her.  He 
very slowly dragged it up her center to stop at her clit and 
circle lazily around it once before retracting his tongue back to 
his beautiful mouth to discover her taste.

"Delicious," he mumbled against her as he went back down for 
more.  Her restless hands were now buried in his hair, 
alternately stroking and fisting handfuls as she writhed beneath 
his attentions.

The storm was building within her again and she felt powerless to 
stop it.  She was completely at his mercy.  *He owns me* was a 
distant thought in her head.

He continued to lick and nibble on her as he brought one index 
finger up to circle around her opening, sliding in the hot juices 
he had summoned from her body.  She was so hot, so swollen, 
so....God, so *horny*.  If he would just stick with any one spot 
down there for about five seconds she knew she could shoot off 
like a rocket, but he continued to unhurriedly sample her 
everywhere, teasing her to the point where she was about to beg.

When he slowly dipped his index finger inside her up to the 
second knuckle, her back bowed and she moaned out loud.  "More.  
Please, Mulder.  More," she pleaded huskily.

With his finger still inside of her, he grew still.  His other 
hand had slid under her to grasp her one of her buttocks, and she 
felt the fingers of that hand tense and begin to dig into her 
flesh slightly.  He laid his forehead against her curls in 
worship and breathed several deep but unsteady breaths against 
her in an obvious attempt to regain a semblance of control.

She was breathing rather shallowly herself.  She tugged slightly 
on his hair to get his attention.  She had to bite her own finger 
to keep from crying out as he rewarded her by slowly withdrawing 
his finger, circling slickly around her opening once more with 
that finger, then rising to stand above her.  His focus was so 
intent on her that she felt like she was being hunted.  

She would never in a million years admit what a primitive thrill 
she got out of feeling like his prey.

He was just staring at her, right into her eyes, as if he was 
waiting for her to say something so he could go on.  She raised 
up onto her elbows, thinking that she might have to speak to him 
to snap him out of his reverie, but he chose at that moment to 
place one of his knees on the bed beside her thigh, reach behind 
her to snag the pillow and toss it away, and wrap an arm 
underneath her hips to lift her and drag her more fully onto the 
bed.  She rose up onto an elbow to watch as he began to drag his 
pants and boxers down his body and off to land in a heap on the 
floor.

*Okay, this is it*, she thought with only a small amount of 
panic.  *The main event.  The big one.  Literally.*  She had 
known that he was proportionate all over, she *had* seen him 
naked a couple of times.  She'd even caught a few glimpses of a 
hidden erection over the years.  But she'd never seen him both 
naked and erect at the same time, and the combination was...well, 
it was downright captivating.  God he was magnificent, the most 
beautiful man she had ever seen.  And he was hers, at least for 
now.  She would worry about more permanent arrangements later.  
Just now, he was looking at her with such love and desire in his 
eyes that she was certain she had been singed by the heat.

He was crawling up to settle his body gently over hers, covering 
her in a living blanket of warmth.  They both took a moment to 
relish the new sensation of full body contact, skin against skin 
everywhere, from head to...well, toes in her case, shins in his.  
He was rock hard against her softness and was trembling with the 
effort to not immediately start moving against her.  

He gave her a small appreciative smile when she parted her legs 
to accommodate him better and wrapped them around his so that her 
heels could settle against the backs of his calves.

"Mulder, your feet are hanging off the bed," she gently 
admonished him, as if he didn't already know that.  

With a wicked leer, he responded, "Scully, in a few minutes, I'm 
going to be buried so deeply inside of you that I won't even know 
or care what feet are."

*Ohhhkaayy*.  

XXXXX

Her mouth popped open in surprise at his audacity and his smile 
grew to a full-fledged grin when he realized he had rendered her 
speechless.  She was so cute when she was off balance.  Then it 
was his turn to be off balance when her expression changed to 
naughty and sensual as she sighed, "Promises, promises."

*Christ, she was going to kill him before this was over.*  He 
brought his forehead down to rest next to her head on the pillow 
as he released a soft chuckle.  

There was a moment of silence while they both adjusted to the 
enormity of what was about to happen.

"This is so profound a moment that I can hardly wrap my brain 
around it," he mumbled into the pillow next to her ear.

She turned her head to nuzzle her nose into his ear and saucily 
replied, "That's probably because there's no blood left in your 
head to operate your brain, Mulder."

Goosebumps zigzagged their way down his spine and he chuckled 
again into the pillow.  Just to remind her who was in charge 
here, he flexed his hips against her, reveling in her sharp 
intake of breath in reaction.

He raised his head to look at her.  He could see so much love in 
her eyes that it instantly sobered him.

"Are you ready for this?" he whispered, studying her face for any 
signs of apprehension during this last moment before takeoff.

She had caught the serious mood too, and her eyes were glittering 
pools of sapphire as she told him without words that she was 
touched by his concern.  She curled a hand around the back of his 
neck and slowly nodded as she whispered, "I'm ready."

His eyes dropped to her lips briefly before returning to her 
loving gaze.  "You know how I feel about you, don't you?"

She graced him with that tender smile she seemed to reserve only 
for him, and smoothed the hair back from his forehead in a 
gesture that he had long ago equated with a declaration of love 
from her.  Then she brought that hand to lie against the side of 
his face as she tenderly stroked his eyebrow with her thumb.  

"I know, Mulder," she whispered.  "I know."

He lowered his lips to hers in the most exquisite of kisses, his 
heart near to bursting as he wordlessly professed his love for 
her in the only way he currently would allow himself.  She 
responded whole-heartedly, making love to his mouth like he had 
never felt before from anyone.

The feel of her tongue tangling so sensually with his had caused 
his erection once again to start throbbing impatiently.  He 
gently broke the kiss and raised his hips away from her a couple 
of inches.  His eyes never left hers as he placed a hand on the 
inside of her thigh behind her knee and drew her leg further up 
and out to open her more fully to him.  She brought her other leg 
up into the same position of her own accord.

Still focusing intently on her shimmering blue gaze, he lowered 
himself until his tip was gently probing at her slick entrance.  
God, she felt like his own private Heaven, all slippery and hot 
and ready for him.

His eyelids dropped closed involuntarily when a wave of 
tenderness rushed over him and brought tears to his eyes and left 
him trembling.  He felt her hands smooth down his shoulder blades 
and he opened his eyes to once again gauge her reaction.  She 
looked so beautiful, so sensual, with a look of serenity on her 
face and her mouth parted to draw in unsteady puffs of air.  He 
was in such awe of her.  He linked the fingers of both his hands 
with hers and brought their joined hands up to rest beside her 
face.  

Then he began to enter her.  Slowly.  So slowly.  Carefully 
watching her for any signs that she might be uncomfortable.  She 
was incredibly tight and so small all over that he had to wonder 
if he might be hurting her.  He didn't think he was really huge, 
it's just that he *was* a much bigger person than she was.

So far she seemed to be doing okay.  She was gripping his hands 
like a lifeline, but he was pretty sure she wasn't even aware of 
it.

When he reached about three quarters of the way into her, her 
eyes rolled back into her head as she moaned, "OhMyGod."  Her 
fingers flexed open between his as she adjusted her hips a 
little.  He had stopped moving and could feel her trying to relax 
around him.  He couldn't tell if she was in extreme pleasure or 
pain.  He only knew that she was gripping him like a vise and it 
was all he could do not to forcefully bury himself deep inside 
her.

It must have dawned on her that he had stopped moving and was 
waiting for her because she raised her head off the bed to suck 
his lower lip into her mouth and bite it.

Here husky demand for, "More," almost sent him over the edge.  He 
let go of her hands and moved his to cradle each side of her head 
as he slowly buried himself the rest of the way inside her.

Her muscles were rock hard with tension, and he could swear he 
could feel her heartbeat all around his cock, rhythmically 
stroking him until he thought he might burst.  He remained still, 
buried to the hilt, as he lowered his forehead to hers and 
breathed heavily against her.  

"Are you with me, Scully?" he rasped.

No answer, but he could feel her once again relaxing around him, 
becoming accustomed to the invasion he brought upon her.

"Scully?"

Her eyes opened, and he was stunned by how dilated her pupils 
were.  A complete look of contentment washed over her features 
and she smiled that sweet little Mona Lisa smile.

"I'm so with you, Mulder."

He raised his head to smile approvingly at her.  What a trooper.  
He leaned down to gently bite her earlobe, then lick the spot in 
apology.

He grinned against her ear as he said, in his best suggestive 
70's swinger voice, "Well then, let's get it on."

XXXXX

She let out a throaty laugh at his comment, then sucked in a 
sharp breath when he raised his head to watch her as he withdrew 
halfway and slowly plunged back inside her.

She had never felt so full, so complete in her life.  So far, 
this was so much better than she had ever imagined it, and she 
was feeling a little giddy at the enormity of it all.

She flashed him a wicked grin as she flexed and gripped her 
internal muscles around him once, and was rewarded with a sharp 
hiss from him.

"I'm not going to last five seconds if you continue to do that, 
Scully," he warned against her parted lips.

She snaked a tongue inside his mouth to stroke around the inside 
of his upper lip.  "Just making sure you're paying attention, 
Mulder," she informed him cheekily.

He raised his head and his eyes were glittering with mirth and 
appreciation as he replied, "Believe me, Scully.  You have my 
complete, undivided attention at this moment."

Then he began to move inside of her in an agonizingly slow rhythm 
and her light mood disappeared under the assault of the sensation 
of being possessed by him.  The fever deep inside her core was 
getting hotter and hotter.

Most of the time, she couldn't keep her eyes open, the pleasure 
was too intense.  But occasionally she would open her eyes to 
seek him out, and he was always right above her, watching her 
reactions, moving against her and into her in relentless pursuit 
of mutual ecstasy.

She tried to speed him up, frantically running her hands over his 
back and down to his buttocks to grip and pull.  But he was 
having none of that nonsense.  He made it very clear that at 
least for this moment, he was driving, so she settled in to enjoy 
the ride.

He placed his hand on one of her knees and raised her leg to rest 
against her body.  *Oh, God.  Yes, Mulder, there.*  That must be 
her g-spot.  She had read so much about it, but hadn't thought 
that hers was very sensitive because she had never felt it 
before.  But, oh, this was definitely it.  On every downstroke he 
was literally taking her breath away by rubbing against that 
magical, elusive spot.  And he was pressing against her cervix at 
the end of every thrust, the timing of which was still 
maddeningly slow and hypnotic.  

She reasoned that it didn't matter how fast they went, because 
whatever he was doing was working just fine.  She had begun to 
moan in time with his movements, mostly saying things like "Mmm" 
or "Yessss" or "Mulderrr", to which he responded, "I'm here, 
Scully.  I'm with you."  He brought her other leg up and braced 
his arms behind both her knees to help support her new position, 
then began to plunge with a little more urgency and more 
forcefully into her.  He began to end each thrust with a little 
twist of his hips that effectively ground against her clit in a 
wholly captivating way.

It was too overwhelming.  It was torture.  It was like being 
tickled to death.  She didn't know if she wanted him to stop or 
to go on forever.  She raised her lids enough for a sliver of 
vision to peek through, which was all her over-sensitized body 
was willing to allow her, and saw him still watching her, his 
lower lip between his teeth in concentration, gracefully pumping 
against her for all he was worth.

She forced her eyes to open a little more and began to run her 
palms up the sides of his face, to his temples, through his hair, 
restlessly roaming around his ears to his throat then up again to 
his cheeks.  He leaned on one elbow as he continued pounding into 
her, and raised his hand to bring one of her palms to his mouth, 
in the center of which he placed a wet, open-mouthed kiss.  She 
turned her hand over and gently gripped his jaw and chin as she 
ran her index finger along his lips until he opened up and let 
her finger inside.  The feeling of him sucking on her finger 
brought her dangerously close to the edge.  

She could feel her body readying for release under his heated 
gaze.  He continued to suck her finger while her body went still 
and quiet and rigid underneath his.  She could feel it coming.  
God, it was going to be huge.  A few more strokes and she was 
going to come apart.  

Stroke one.  She curled a hand around his neck and brought his 
mouth down to hers.  Stroke two.  She snaked her tongue out to 
capture his in a short but heated dance.  Stroke three.  She 
breathed, "Don't stop," against his parted panting lips.  Stroke 
four.  Her back arched high and she ground her hips against his.

"Oh, God....Mulder," dragged out of her throat and she sailed 
right over the edge of the cliff.

XXXXX

*Jesus H. Christ.*

He ground his teeth together in a valiant effort not to explode 
deep inside of her.  The first clenching of her body around his 
rock-hard cock nearly sent him over the edge with her.

He watched her face as she came apart all around him.  She looked 
like she was in intense pain, but he knew by her throaty moans 
and the way she was twisting against him that she was having one 
hell of an orgasm.  He knew he would hear her crying out to God 
and "Mull...Mulda" (which he assumed referred to himself) in his 
dreams for the rest of his life.

Her internal muscles were gripping him over and over for all he 
was worth.  It felt like she was trying to suck his very soul 
right out through his groin.

Christ, she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.  He took 
mental snapshots of her in all her glory before he began to feel 
himself start to slide under with her.

He couldn't fight it anymore, didn't want to.  She was still 
coming hard on him, and he could feel his own impending release 
start to gather in the base of his spine.  He could hear his 
blood pounding in his head as well as feel it in his erection.  
He continued to grind against her, prolonging her climax and 
rushing his own along as well.  He knew one or two more strokes 
and it was a done deal.

He buried his face into her neck and wasn't even aware that he 
bit her not-so-gently as he felt his cock fill in a heated rush.  
One more stroke and he was there, shouting out her name into her 
neck with the first spurt of his seed deep into her body.

Her walls continued to milk him, and he shuddered violently as 
wave after wave of scalding fluid burst from his body to be 
received by hers.  He was moaning nonsense into her neck by now 
in his delirium.  He distantly felt her legs wrap around his hips 
and her arms rise to enclose him in a tight embrace while he 
repeatedly spilled himself into her.

After a few more seconds of unimaginable pleasure, the storm was 
over and he was left trembling.  He slumped against her, panting 
into the pillow in an attempt to draw in oxygen for his overtaxed 
body.  He turned his head more toward Scully's on the pillow to 
allow himself more fresh air.  

He could hear her labored breathing next to him.  He tried to 
tell her that he would get off her and let her breathe in just a 
minute if she could wait that long.  It came out sounding 
something like, "Jushaminuhscull." 

So he gave up and surrendered to the complete and utter bliss of 
lying spent wrapped in Scully's warm embrace.

XXXXX

Lying underneath him, wrapped around him, Scully's heart was 
filled to overflowing with such all-encompassing love that it 
brought tears to her eyes.  Her breathing had returned to mostly 
normal, although occasionally she would have a flash back to 
Mulder riding her through the most incredible orgasm of her 
entire life and her breath would give a little hitch and her 
internal muscles would contract around him.

She lowered her legs, which had become stiff, and began to stroke 
his back while he regained awareness of his surroundings.

"I think I just ruptured something," he stated lazily next to her 
ear.  She had to let out a little chuckle at that and she felt 
his rapidly shrinking penis start to slip out of her a little 
bit.

He raised his head to look at her, and said, "Ah oh.  I think 
Elvis has left the building, Scully."  This earned him a quick 
grin in sympathy.

"Ahhh.  But he put on quite a show, didn't he," she teased.

His mouth swooped down to hers for a quick but tender kiss before 
he withdrew and rolled off her to lie on his back beside her.  
She turned sideways to try to minimize the wet spot on the 
comforter and snuggled up against his side with his arm around 
her.

Her body was so relaxed that she knew it was only a matter of 
minutes before sleep dragged her under.  She started to rise from 
the bed to go clean up but he brought her back down with a hand 
on her arm.

"Stay here.  I'll go get something."

So she waited in his bed, lying naked on top of the comforter.  
He returned after a few seconds with a warm wet washcloth and sat 
down on the bed beside her hips.  She was slightly embarrassed 
when she realized his intentions and unconsciously scissored her 
legs together.

Hazel eyes met blue, and he gently ordered, "Open up for me, 
Scully."

They had a battle of wills for a moment before she relented 
simply because she was too tired and satisfied to protest.  She 
laid back on the pillows, parted her thighs enough to give him 
access, and allowed him to slowly and gently clean her up.

He got up to take the washcloth back to the bathroom and returned 
with a glass of water for her, which she drank from greedily.  
All that heavy breathing sure could sure make a girl parched.

She had watched him walk around naked and un-self-conscious 
throughout the whole washcloth/water exercise.  In a way, this 
seemed almost as intimate as making love did earlier.  Suddenly 
she had the right and the privilege to view his body in all its 
masculinity.  He was built so beautifully.  It should be a crime 
to make a grown woman work with such a specimen for seven years 
without ever getting to play with him.

He pulled back the covers and she scooted under them before he 
crawled in beside her.  He set his alarm for work the following 
morning, then turned off the lamp and snuggled down next to her.  
They lay facing each other on a pillow, legs entwined, his arm 
underneath her head.

He raised his hand so that he could tuck a curl behind her ear.  
"We're okay with this, aren't we?"

She had to smile at his insecurity.  "I can't speak for you, 
Mulder, but I'm *very* okay with this."

His teeth flashed against the dark in a grin.  "Yeah.  Me too."

He brought his mouth to hers in a sweet, post-coital goodnight 
kiss.  She released a contented and sleepy sigh.

His voice was soft when he confessed, "I know I've never told you 
this, Scully, but I think you're the most incredibly beautiful, 
amazing woman on Earth."

Her heart skipped a beat at this admission, which meant so much 
to her that it brought tears to her eyes.  She gave him one more 
sweet kiss to thank him, then grinned as she informed him, "Hmmm.  
And it only took you seven years to figure it out."

He just chuckled softly, then tucked her head into the crook of 
his arm.  "Go to sleep, Scully," he ordered.

And they both succumbed to the deep slumber of the truly 
exhausted and satisfied.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Continued in part 3

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Easiest Thing in the World (3/3)
By Rafferty




About Two Weeks Later
Bellefleur, Oregon


"There has to be an end sometime, Scully," he whispered raggedly 
next to her ear.

He was breaking her heart.  She knew he didn't mean an end to 
their new involvement, but rather he was talking about her 
quitting the X-Files.  But even that was painful to contemplate.  
It would mean they wouldn't be able to see each other nearly as 
often, she wouldn't be able to watch his back for him, take care 
of him when he was hurt out in the field.  He would be out of 
town on cases constantly and she would be left home to miss him.  

She knew he would miss her too.  It had been two weeks since the 
night he had asked her to stay with him and they had made love.  
Since then, he had been effectively courting her, taking her to 
real dinners at real restaurants, calling her just to tell her he 
was thinking about her, holding her hand when they were alone, 
and kissing her socks off every chance he got.  They hadn't made 
love again since that first time--both of them seemed to be 
uneasy with such a quick transition from a relationship where 
they had no sex, to one where they had it constantly.  So, they 
were both enjoying the deliciousness of mutual anticipation, 
knowing that it would happen again spontaneously at some point 
soon.

Ironically, Mulder's incessant and blatant flirting had toned 
down quite a bit, indicating to her delight that he was taking 
their new arrangement seriously.  They had talked about more 
personal things--their previous relationships, their upbringings, 
a few secrets each had never told anyone else.  She could now 
honestly say he knew her better than anyone and vice versa.

And now he was asking her to walk away from the one thing that 
brought them together.  Why did there have to be an end sometime?

She turned over to face him.  "Why now, Mulder," she whispered, 
tears clogging her throat.

He thought about it a moment, touching a fingertip to her 
cheekbone in a tender caress, before replying quietly, "Because 
for the first time since we met, my overwhelming selfish need to 
have you with me constantly has been eclipsed by my desire to see 
you happy."

A couple of tears escaped to trail down her cheeks.  Her heart 
was swollen with suppressed emotion.  She couldn't leave their 
work, couldn't bear to, because she knew now with certainty that 
her own selfish need to be with him was eclipsing her own pie-in-
the-sky dreams.  She was now convinced happiness wasn't possible 
for her unless Mulder was a huge part of the picture.

Not to mention the fact that he needed her in their work, to keep 
him safe, to keep him sane.  And she knew too much now to go back 
to the blissfully ignorant existence of the 9-to-5 world.

"You don't know what would make me happy," she choked out.

"I know that you want to have a child.  That you would be the 
best mother in the world," he told her gently.  When more tears 
started to escape and run down her face in rivulets, he wiped 
them off with his thumbs and went on.

"And I can help you with that.  We can find a way together."

God, what she wouldn't give to have a child with this man.  She 
was speechless, drowning in glimpses of a future she wanted so 
badly she could taste it, knowing from their recent IVF attempt 
just how futile these hopes were.

"I need to know that you're safe, Scully.  And....and fulfilled.  
That you're not wasting your future because of me."  

He traced her eyebrow with his thumb. "We can do this, Scully.  
We can have a halfway normal life.  We just have to make a few 
adjustments, that's all." 

He bent his head to hers in a tender kiss.  "Just promise me 
you'll think about it," he entreated softly against her lips.

She didn't answer, was incapable of words at the moment.  She 
didn't want to think about leaving their work, walking away from 
their history, forgetting all of the trauma they had suffered 
together.  All she wanted was to pull Mulder completely around 
her and lose herself in him forever.  

"Hold me, Mulder," she whispered.

His look became intense.  They both were well aware she hadn't 
promised to think about the subject at hand, but she knew he 
wouldn't push her.  

So, he crawled underneath the covers next to her, wrapped her in 
a cocoon made up of his entire body and held her as reality 
slowly drifted away to be replaced by dreams of an alien ship in 
a dark forest, searching for something incredibly important in a 
hot desert, and of holding a tiny, sweet smelling baby in her 
arms.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


The Next Evening
Mulder's Apartment


Mulder had just finished packing his suitcase and was about to 
call Scully when he heard her distinctive footsteps in the 
hallway outside his door and a familiar anticipation swept over 
him.  It was starting to feel like he wasn't even complete unless 
she was with him.  Hell, who was he kidding.  He'd felt like that 
since practically day one.

He opened the door before she finished knocking.  She offered no 
smile, no greeting, just stood there looking sad and tired, with 
that little crease between her brows that she always got when she 
was worried or agitated.

After a few seconds of silent communication, he reached out a 
hand, she accepted it, and he pulled her into the privacy of his 
apartment, shutting out the world beyond his front door.

He didn't let her hand go, just began walking toward his bedroom, 
Scully trailing quietly behind him.

"I just finished packing.  Need to make sure I didn't forget 
anything," he informed her as he let go of her hand and indicated 
she should sit on his bed.

She looked down in resignation at the contents of his suitcase, 
then watched him prowl through one of his drawers in which he 
kept electronic devices which he had either stumbled upon 
himself, or the Gunmen had rigged for him in the past.  He liked 
to call it his Spy Stash.

When he was sure he had everything he might need for his return 
trip to Oregon, he zipped up his suitcase and put it in the 
hallway outside his bedroom door.  Then he returned to Scully, 
who had been silent the entire time, and knelt in front of where 
she was sitting on the bed.

He placed his hands on hers where they rested in her lap, noting 
that they felt like ice.  Her face looked pale, too.

He reached a hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear as he spoke 
gently, "I need to ask you something.  And I don't want to hear 
that you're fine as an answer.  I want to you to give me an 
honest answer."

He took her continued silence as acquiescence so he went on.  "Do 
you think your dizzy spells might be an indicator that your 
cancer is coming out of remission?"

She offered him a tired, worn smile as she reassured him, "No, 
Mulder.  I don't.  I haven't had any nosebleeds, and it doesn't 
feel the same as when I was sick before."

He released a pent-up sigh of relief.  "I think you should call 
your doctor and have some tests run.  Just in case."

She just nodded slightly, and they just continued to watch each 
other.  He had a very odd feeling that he wasn't going to see her 
again for a while, so he was trying to memorize every detail of 
her lovely face.

"Mulder, I have a very bad feeling about this," she finally said.

"About what?"

"About this trip.  This...case."

When she didn't continue, he waited patiently, knowing she was 
trying to find words to express a feeling she didn't quite 
believe in.

"I don't know how to explain it, except that I think I'm having 
some kind of premonition," she finished, gesturing with her hand 
in a frustrated manner.

*Did Scully just say she was having a premonition?  Damn, there's 
never a tape recorder around when you need one.*

"You know Skinner's going with me, Scully," Mulder reassured her.  
Then, just to see her smile, he added, "No one messes with the 
Skinman and lives to tell about it."

He was rewarded with a small smirk from her.  But it was 
fleeting, and she sobered quickly.

"I want to go with you," she said in a husky voice.

He closed his eyes, afraid he would capitulate at the desperate 
pleading in her expression.  In all sincerity, she could probably 
still go, although he thought she'd have a hard time convincing 
Skinner that she should since he was now informed of the 
situation.

When he opened his eyes again, he could see hurt resignation on 
her face.  "We've been through this before Scully.  They're 
targeting people who have been abducted, and they're not 
returning them."  He paused for effect.  "And *you've* been 
abducted.  I won't risk losing you."

She just turned her head slightly and stared at his bedside lamp, 
her lower lip caught between her teeth as she tried not to cry.

Jesus, he felt helpless.

He watched her as she carefully removed her cross necklace, then 
as she reached up to put it on him.  When she was done, she spent 
a few seconds arranging it over his collar.

"I believe it's kept you safe before.  I have to hope it will 
again," she explained huskily.

His fingers came up to toy with the cross.  He was unbearably 
touched by her actions.

Then she placed a hand on the back of his neck and pulled him to 
her so she could brush her lips across his softly.  He let her 
take the lead on the kiss, and groaned when she began to nibble 
on his lower lip.

There was desperation in her actions.  He recognized it because 
he was feeling it too.  Something was about to happen.  Something 
that might change their lives forever, and he had a terrible 
feeling it wasn't going to be a change for the better.

This woman, this breathtakingly beautiful woman in his arms 
completely owned him.  He knew with certainty, had known for 
years, that if they ever parted, she would haunt his heart 
forever.  He just wanted to drown in her, and she was kissing him 
as if she might let him.  Kisses that were tainted with the salt 
of a few stray tears she hadn't been able to keep at bay.

"Shhh, Scully," he entreated against her lips.  "When I come back 
we'll talk.  We'll make plans."

She pulled back a few inches to look at him with a serious 
expression.  "You'd better come back, Mulder," she threatened in 
a watery tone.

"I will.  And I need you to take care of yourself while I'm 
gone," he countered.

That earned him a soft smile.  "I will."

They continued searching each other's eyes for a few moments, 
silently communicating unspoken promises and an enduring bond in 
the method they had perfected years before.

"How much time do you have?" she finally asked.

He glanced at his watch.  "I have to leave to pick up Skinner in 
an hour."

She placed her fingertip on the cross where it rested on his 
collarbone.  Her eyes followed as she traced the chain up one 
side to where it touched his neck below his ear.  She absorbed 
the way it felt when he shivered slightly at her delicate touch.

When she returned her gaze to his, his eyes were heavy-lidded 
from desire.  "Make love to me, Mulder," she whispered.

He searched her eyes, looking for all the world like that was the 
best idea he'd heard all day.  "You deserve more than an hour, 
Scully," he whispered back.

One corner of her mouth tilted.  "I'll take what I can get."

XXXXX

He certainly wasn't going to argue.  

Here he was, kneeling on the floor by his bed, between her legs, 
still tasting her kisses on his lips.  He'd only been intimate 
with her once, weeks ago, but he could still remember the way she 
felt, the way she sounded and smelled.

It suddenly wasn't as important to catch the first flight to 
Oregon as it was to once again show this woman how he really felt 
about her.  To lose himself in her and forget this nagging sense 
of danger he felt was waiting for him in the woods outside 
Bellefleur.

She had changed clothes before she came over, and was now wearing 
jeans and presumably the same button-front blouse she had worn 
with her suit earlier.  He began to unbutton her blouse, 
memorizing every creamy white curve and plain he revealed as he 
went.  When he reached the bottom, he unbuttoned the cuffs at 
each wrist before slowly peeling it off her shoulders and down 
her arms.

God, she was exquisite.  So pale--dainty freckles on her 
shoulders and between her breasts, which were cupped lovingly in 
a plain but pretty copper-colored satin bra.  He forgot about 
time and UFO's and even the X-Files as he softly trailed the tip 
of his index finger along the edges of the cups, traversing small 
but round curves so perfect the sight of them could make a grown 
man weep.

 "You're so beautiful, Scully," he breathed, his voice an octave 
lower and sounding like it was filtered through gravel.  

He brought his eyes back to her face to find her pupils dilated 
and a healthy flush had spread across her cheeks and forehead.  
He felt a rush of heat center in his groin when he noticed her 
lips were parted and her breath was definitely unsteady.

*I do that to her,* he thought.  *And she let's me.  Wants me 
to.*

She began to remove his already-loosened tie, then proceeded to 
unbutton his shirt, pulling the tails out of his pants when 
necessary to reach those last buttons.  When she was done, she 
didn't remove it, just left it hanging open on his shoulders as 
she ran both hands up his stomach, splaying her fingers gently 
through his chest hair.

He took a moment to appreciate the way her hands felt caressing 
him.  Then he took another moment to curse the fact that they 
were limited to less than an hour for what would be only their 
second time making love.  He felt like he could continue touching 
her and feeling her touch him for days on end.  Weeks probably, 
but that wasn't in the cards today.  His only solace was that 
there would be plenty of time for more of this when he returned 
from Oregon.

He would make damned sure the trip to Oregon didn't last one 
second longer than necessary.

While he admired the femininity of the bra, he ached more to get 
at what it was hiding from him, so he reached both hands around 
her to deftly unhook it.  His gaze burned into her chest as he 
focused intently on the skin he revealed as he slowly pushed the 
straps down her arms.

Her nipples were rose-colored and erect.  He could swear they 
were pointing straight at his mouth, begging for him to lick 
them.  He traced around one with his fingertip, an unconscious 
and slightly feral smile gracing his lips as he watched that 
nipple grow even tighter in response to his teasing.

He very slowly drew the fingertips of both hands lightly down her 
breasts, around her ribcage to her back where he trailed them 
softly up to her shoulder blades.  Then he brought his mouth to 
hers, his tongue drawing hers out to play, circling and thrusting 
with the rhythm of an age-old dance.  He kissed a moist path 
across her cheek, stopping briefly to run his tongue along the 
edge of her jawline, before reaching her ear.

"Speak to me, Scully.  Tell me what you want," he demanded in a 
low rumble against her ear.  His hands soothed down her back to 
warm her when he felt her shiver and the sudden appearance of 
goosebumps.

"You, Mulder.  Just you," she whispered huskily.

He never tired of hearing her voice.  He suspected she could read 
footnotes from an article about fungus in one of her medical 
journals and he would be turned on by it.  But this...her saying 
that she wanted him, her voice laden with arousal, nearly undid 
him.  He found he wasn't immune to goosebumps either.

He inhaled her scent, here in the curve of her neck where it was 
strongest, before licking and nibbling his way down the side of 
her throat to the hollow of her shoulder.  He loved this spot.  
He could feel her pulse just beneath her skin.  He imagined it 
was beating in time with his own heart's unsteady cadence.  He 
nuzzled the tip of his large but very sensitive nose into this 
sweet spot before venturing further south.

She placed a hand on his shoulder for support when she leaned 
back a little to give him better access as he kissed a trail to 
her breast.  She actually whimpered when his mouth closed over 
the nipple, and he felt his entire body tighten in response.

Yet still, he was gentle with her.

As he laved at the nipple he had discovered, one of his hands 
lowered to wrap around her hip, thumb caressing dangerously close 
to the button-fly of her jeans.  His other hand found its way to 
the breast which had been heretofore neglected, fingertips 
lightly toying with the nipple.

When he moved his mouth to the other breast, he brought that hand 
down to grasp her hip, then he pulled her lower body to the edge 
of the bed, right up against his aching lower region.  At the 
same time, he leaned into her to encourage her to lie down on the 
bed, which she did.

He sat back on his heels to look at her, topless and supine on 
his mattress, so strong yet also so vulnerable to him right now.  
He treasured these rare moments when she let down her guard with 
him, allowed him to see that part of her that she never let 
anyone else see.  Allowed him to be the strong one for both of 
them.

He slowly ran his hands down her torso, over the hot region 
around her button-fly, down her thighs, before reversing the 
procedure to bring his hands back up to rest on the top button of 
her jeans.  Her stomach muscles convulsed underneath his hands as 
he unsnapped the first button.  The jeans were old and well-worn, 
so the remaining buttons practically slid right out of their 
holes of their own accord, with only slight encouragement from 
him.

He took a second to admire the matching copper-colored hipster 
panties she was wearing before he slipped both index fingers 
inside the elastic at her hipbones and began to tug down.  She 
obligingly lifted her hips for him as he removed underwear and 
jeans in one long motion.

And now she was completely bared before him.  Good God, he was a 
lucky bastard.

XXXXX

Scully was having a hard time keeping from squirming under his 
scrutiny.  He was up fully on his knees now, between her parted 
thighs which were still hanging over the edge of the bed.  Mulder 
was looming over her, an intense look on his face as he watched 
her like he was about to devour her.

*Hell, in this position, he literally **could** devour me*, she 
thought with a naughty thrill.

He lowered his head and began to trail his open mouth against the 
incredibly sensitive skin between her belly button and the dark 
auburn triangle below.  She couldn't help but squirm now, lower 
stomach muscles jumping to escape the exquisite torture.  She 
thought for an insane moment that she might start giggling 
hysterically if he didn't stop soon.

And then he bit her.  Right above her hairline.  Not hard, just 
enough so she could feel teeth, and her upper body popped up in 
involuntary response to the onslaught of erotic sensation.

"Mulder?" she breathed in a panic.

The smile he gave her in response reminded her of a wolf.  
Suddenly she felt like Little Red Riding Hood.  The liberated, 
independent woman in her was astonished at the feel of warm 
lubrication pooling between her legs in response to the primitive 
image.

He had gone back to kissing her stomach, trying to gentle her 
with his hands on her ribcage as she watched.  When her heart 
rate had slowed from the speed of sound to simply a high rev, she 
consciously relaxed her body and reclined back down on the 
mattress, closing her eyes to better enjoy the sensations.

Then she felt nothing.  His mouth was gone, his hands had moved 
up to brace himself on the mattress at the sides of her hips and 
now they were no longer moving.

She was about to speak when she felt it.  Moist hot air between 
her legs.  His breath.

"Oh, God," she moaned, and placed her hands on his head.  He 
hadn't placed his mouth on her, at least not yet.  Apparently he 
was just...inhaling her.  She opened her eyes and looked down her 
body at him.  His eyes were closed and his face held a look of 
reverence as he breathed in her scent.

"Next time, Scully," he began, his voice low and rough, lips 
tickling the hairs covering her mound.  "The next time we do this 
we'll take our time.  I promise."  Then he lowered his head to 
press an opened-mouthed and all-too-brief kiss against her 
center.

She just caressed his head with her hands in response.

She felt his hands slip underneath the small of her back, then 
urge her to sit up.  As she rose to a sitting position on the 
edge of the bed again, she noticed he was still wearing his 
shirt, albeit unbuttoned, and his suit pants and belt.

"Mulder, you're wearing too many clothes for this," she teased.

He flashed her a wicked smile before responding, "I'm about to 
remedy that, Scully."

He began to unbuckle his belt and open his fly as she watched.  
When he hooked his thumbs inside the elastic of his boxers and 
pulled them and his pants down enough to fully expose his member, 
she got quite an eyeful.

It was so....intimate...to look at him this way.  On his knees 
before her, his penis hard and swollen with desire for her.  She 
couldn't quite comprehend the magnitude of the thought that this 
was the same man she had fought with, laughed with, cried with, 
and saved countless times in seven years.  And now she was seeing 
him at his most basic level.  Instead of seeing him as a friend, 
a partner, a coworker, now she was seeing him as a man.  A lover.

She supposed she hadn't had quite this reaction the one other 
time they had made love because she hadn't gotten this long and 
this close-up of a look at him aroused.  Well, now she did, and 
she definitely approved of what she saw.  Smooth, symmetrical 
(which the orderly part of her brain valued and was applauding), 
and it looked so...strong.  So powerful.  Lord, but she was 
losing it to hormones.

Her thoughts must have shown on her face.  He had been watching 
her during her scrutiny, and now had one side of his mouth tilted 
up in a half-smile, almost like he was embarrassed, or like he 
wasn't sure of her reaction.

"We fit together last time," he offered.

She met his gaze and gave him a sensual smile in return as she 
replied in a throaty purr, "Mmmm.  Yes.  We most definitely did."

Now his smile covered his entire face.  After a few moments of 
staring at each other, each remembering flashes of the last time 
of them "fitting together", Scully finally wrapped her arms 
around his neck and rubbed her body up against his suggestively.

"Are we going to have this party up on the bed?" she breathed 
against his mouth as she nuzzled his nose with her own.

His mouth captured hers for a brief but thorough kiss before he 
replied, "No.  I'm going to have you right here."

Before she could form a mental picture of that, he had cupped her 
rear in his hands and pulled her off the edge of the bed, flush 
against his body to straddle his lap.  He sat back on his heels 
as she repositioned her feet flat on the carpet to help support 
her weight and give her some balance.

Then he was entering her slowly, smoothly.  His arms were 
straining at the effort of going so slowly, but neither really 
noticed.  They were too focused on the feel of a particular brand 
of Heaven felt only one other time before in either of their 
lifetimes.

Scully's back arched slightly to take him in at a more 
comfortable angle.  He breathed in heavy but controlled breaths 
and watched her face closely for signs of discomfort.  She tried 
to watch him too, but the intense pleasure/pain of his invasion 
overwhelmed her and her eyes slowly closed.

"Jesus Christ," she heard him rasp.

She opened her eyes halfway, gave him a lazy, lusty smile, and 
slurred, "Ohhhh, Mulder."

And then he hit home, filling every inch of her completely, and 
they both paused a moment to regain their equilibrium.  Then he 
rose up fully onto his knees and leaned her back against the side 
of the mattress.

"Rest your elbows on the mattress," he instructed, and she did 
so, finding that this gave her more control over her movements 
and allowed him to remove his hands from supporting her weight so 
that he could roam them over her body.

He grasped her hips and began to raise and lower her onto him as 
he slowly stroked against her in counter movements.  She was 
quickly lost in sensations for which she had no words to 
describe.  The only coherent thoughts in her head were hard, 
full, hard, mmm tickles, so long, so hard.

She knew he'd been with other women in the past, many other 
women.  Many other beautiful women who probably knew a lot about 
sex and probably taught him all of this wonderful stuff back when 
he was young.  Well, now she was reaping the benefits, and 
preferred to think of what he was doing to her, the way he could 
bring her so high so much faster than anyone else ever had, as 
natural talent coupled with mutual affection rather than a skill 
he might have honed on Phoebe or Diana.

In all honesty, she had never had sex like this.  Ever.  Not even 
with Daniel, whom she had thought she was in love with at the 
time.  This was powerful.  Magical.  Unbelievably sensual.  
Everytime he delved into her he stroked her ultra-sensitive g-
spot.  Everytime his body came into full contact with hers he 
ground against her clit.  Everytime he withdrew, well she wasn't 
sure technically what it was, but it had its own magic.  Put it 
all together, in an ever increasing and intensifying rhythm and 
she was feeling like she was having an out of body experience.

*Boy wouldn't Mulder love to hear that.  He'd probably open an X-
File on it or something,* she thought with a light head.

When she felt him lick his way from her chin down her neck and 
around to the curve between her shoulder and neck, then bite her, 
she knew it was all over for her.  A couple more seconds and she 
was having the most massive orgasm of her life.

XXXXX

Mulder loved this position.  Had fantasized about it for years.  
It was kind of like having her up against a wall, another one of 
his favorite fantasies, but slightly better because her feet 
could touch the floor so she could support herself and free up 
his hands, but their body parts still aligned perfectly.

He had actually almost come the moment he had felt himself buried 
to the hilt inside of her, nestled so snugly in her heat.  He had 
mentally recited the Pledge of Allegiance and the names of all 
the past Supreme Court Justices he could think of in an attempt 
at delaying the inevitable.

Then he had begun to move inside of her, feeling her wrapped 
around him like a hot, wet fist.  Better than that actually.  He 
decided sex with Scully was better than it had ever been with 
anyone else because this time his heart was involved.  Instead of 
fucking her, he really was making love to her.

She was moving against him, back arched against the mattress, 
leaning on her elbows which made her breasts thrust out at him 
and jiggle each time he ground against her.  It was mesmerizing.

Her eyes were closed most of the time, although occasionally she 
would raise her head to watch at him with heavy lids, but it was 
never very long before she moaned and her eyes would roll back 
into her head and her head would drop back in surrender.

Jesus Christ, she really was trying to torture him.  Maybe after 
they'd made love about four hundred times he'd be able to watch 
her writhe and listen to her moan without losing it, but now, on 
only their second go at it, he just didn't have the stamina.  He 
could already feel the familiar tingle of release gathering in 
his balls and his spine.  If she didn't come soon, it would all 
be over for him.  He could always try to finish her after, but 
what was the fun of that?  He wanted to feel her come around him.

His eyes fixated on her neck.  It was arched and bared before 
him, so he started to nibble on her chin, ran his tongue down her 
throat and to her shoulder, then gave in to the urge to bite her.  
He had always been a biter.  Guess it was the latent animal in 
him.  And her flesh was particularly delicious.

Suddenly he felt her entire body tense up.  She stopped moving 
against him and was just still for a moment as he continued to 
move against her while he sucked on her neck.  Then, just as 
unexpectedly, she was coming around him, moaning his name and 
calling out to God, just like last time.

He raised his head to watch her, captivated by the look of 
rapture on her face, the flush that covered her entire body, the 
way her nipples suddenly became hard as rocks during her climax.  
Then he closed his eyes as he focused on the sensations of her 
body pulsing around him, squeezing him, trying to draw him out.

He had a sudden picture of her tomorrow, at work, walking around 
all day with his seed still living inside her, and he was 
overcome with a sense of possession of her.  She would be his, at 
least for 24-48 hours while his sperm lived.  It didn't matter to 
him that she had no egg to fertilize.  He knew it was 
chauvinistic and it made him sound like a pig but it didn't stop 
him from responding to the image of her carrying around a piece 
of him alive inside her.  

So he let go.  He poured himself into her, straining with the 
effort to bury himself as deeply inside her as possible.  He 
didn't hear his hoarse shouts of release, didn't even realize he 
had voiced his love for her out loud.  All he knew was that for 
now, and for the next couple of days, she was his.  She would 
carry proof.  And that's all he needed to know.

XXXXX

Afterward, Scully came up off her elbows and wrapped her body 
completely around Mulder's still mostly-dressed form.  She was 
trembling and cooling off rather rapidly, but those facts barely 
even registered.

She was still hearing his hoarse, "Love you," that he had groaned 
against her chest during his release.

She knew better than to hold anyone responsible for words uttered 
during sex, much less during orgasm, but that didn't stop her 
heart from skipping a little at the idea that he might have 
really meant it.

After all, he had told her the other day on the stairwell that he 
had meant it when he said he loved her in that hospital years 
ago.  But that could have been the love you have for a close 
friend.  He might not have meant that he was *in* love with her.

This second guessing was silly, actually.  She knew he loved her.  
Was ninety nine percent certain he was *in* love with her, the 
other one percent was convinced that if he wasn't, he soon would 
be.

They had plenty of time after his trip to Oregon to let this 
relationship evolve naturally, let the I love you's just happen.  
She wasn't going to worry about it.

For now it was enough that he just made love to her for the 
second time, and once again, it was the most incredible sexual 
experience of her entire life.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Several Months Later


Scully had had plenty of time to reminisce on the stolen moments 
that had been the beginnings of their budding relationship.  
Since they had last made love for only the second time months 
ago, Mulder had disappeared, presumably abducted to an alien 
space ship, she had found out she was pregnant, Mulder had been 
returned--dead--and she had buried him, mourned him, tried to go 
on without him.  Then they had effectively resurrected him.

Since they had brought him back and his health had miraculously 
returned, they had spent a lot of time together, but their 
relationship was basically as platonic as it was before they had 
become involved.  Actually, they were slightly more distant than 
before.

But not for lack of trying on her part.  She had thought her 
world was coming to an end when she had buried him.  She imagined 
that her heart had stopped beating when his had.  When they dug 
him up and they had found he was alive, she was so overcome with 
gratitude and joy that it was all she could do not to become a 
blubbering idiot right there at his bedside in the hospital.  
During the days when he was recovering, she was right there by 
his side, helping him, touching him, silently loving him.  She 
had even tried to talk to him about it, reestablish the bond they 
had forged just before he had been abducted, but he was strangely 
cold with her.  It broke her heart all over again, but she tried 
her best to understand that he had been tortured literally to 
death and surely had some major psychological issues to deal with 
before they could even approach the subject of their 
relationship, much less discuss the possible origins of the tiny 
little being growing inside of her.

Their baby.  That was an issue they had danced around like the 
pros that they were.  He had congratulated her on *her* pregnancy 
and offered to accompany her to childbirth classes, much in the 
same way a best girl friend might have.  He hadn't asked who the 
father was, and she had been so terrified that the baby might not 
even be fully human that she didn't broach the subject either.  
She lived in constant fear for the lives of everyone around her, 
including those of herself and her unborn child.

Indeed, in the last few months she had been through the most 
painful emotional wringer.  But somehow, by some miracle, here 
they were.  The three of them.  Mulder, herself, and between them 
their newborn son, William.  They were at least temporarily safe, 
all of them alive, and for that she was so thankful that she 
could barely speak for the emotions clogging her throat.

As she watched Mulder holding their son, for she was convinced 
that he was theirs even though they hadn't performed a paternity 
test yet, she searched Mulder's eyes for a connection.  For the 
truth.

He didn't disappoint.

He held their son so gently, smiled at him like an angel, with 
awe and wonder on his face.  She was unable to hold back the 
tears that sprang to her eyes, although she valiantly fought to 
keep them from running down her face.

He finally seemed open, if only for a moment, so that she could 
voice the fears she had harbored for months.  Then he focused on 
her, spoke of possibilities, and then for the first time since 
his abduction, he kissed her and it was like coming home.

XXXXX

He lost himself in the taste of her, in her familiar and long-
denied smell.  He told her silently with his kiss that even 
though everything had changed, really nothing had.  Not for them 
anyway.  When he broke the kiss and pulled back a few inches she 
used the end of her sleeve to wipe the stains of tears that had 
broken through to trail down her face.  She had missed a streak 
and he tenderly wiped it away with his thumb, then glanced down 
again at the baby that was now asleep cradled in his arm.  So 
tiny.  So perfect.  So...human.

"He's mine, Scully," Mulder whispered as he returned his gaze to 
hers.  "You and I ... we made a baby together."

Then his expression turned to one of regret.  "I'm so sorry I 
wasn't there for you."

She was too, he knew, but she tried not to let it show on her 
face.  Instead, she reached up to cradle the side of his face in 
her palm, silently communicating her understanding.

"I know I'm no prize...," he stated with a self-mocking half 
smile, "but if the two of you will have me, I want to be here.  I 
want to be a part of your lives."

She smiled slightly and nodded.  He could almost see the wheels 
turning as she ran that statement over in her head.  All that it 
could imply.  And all that it didn't promise.  He felt a pang of 
remorse that he had never given this woman the security she so 
deserved.  Couldn't even give her the words properly.

"Let me rephrase that, Scully.  I want to be a *permanent* part 
of your lives."  The word permanent still wasn't enough, but they 
both knew that words weren't really what they relied on in their 
relationship.  He saw acknowledgement on her face, that she 
understood and accepted what he was offering, which was 
everything he was, everything he had in him.

She didn't say a word as she carefully took William from him and 
laid their son gently in his bassinet by her bed.  She took a 
moment to tuck the receiving blanket around him and smooth her 
hand slowly across the top of his tiny head.

When she turned back to face him, the was so much love emanating 
from her that he could have sworn she literally was glowing.  She 
was so beautiful it took his breath away.

Her eyes never wavered from his as she slowly took the four steps 
that separated them, until she was right in front of him, inches 
separating them.  She reached a hand out to hold one of his.  At 
that moment he saw everything he had ever wanted in her eyes.  He 
saw their future together, and it called to him like a siren.

"Then stay, Mulder.  Just...stay with us," she said in a soft but 
matter-of-fact voice.

And it was the easiest thing in the world to do just that.


XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


The End -- The Easiest Thing in the World