Author's Notes: Yes, another piece dealing with all things. I know, I know, but at least I'm not alone in my obsession!

The title comes from the Eric Clapton song, one of my favorites for many years now.

Spoilers: all things. Of course.

Thanks Stephen—glad you don't mind being kept busy.

Edge of Darkness
Rated R
By Suzanne L. Feld

I had never felt so good in all my life.

Laying there dozing in the twilight zone between awake and asleep, listening to Scully moving around in the bathroom, I felt like I was sinking into the mattress beneath me. For the first time in I don't know how long I felt fully satisfied, my body and mind thoroughly relaxed and at peace.

Although with the way my heart had jolted and then nearly stopped when she'd crawled into my bed a few hours ago, I'd been afraid for a moment that I wouldn't survive the night.

I had hoped she'd stay afterward and wake up with me but I also knew that for Scully, it would be too much like a commitment this early in our new relationship. It had to have taken a lot for her to come in here and join me in my bed, to break our unspoken fourth wall, and I suspected that I had to let her take it at her speed or risk losing this. Though it was all I could do I didn't stop her from getting up, didn't even let her know I was awake. I had been dozing off after the second time but the movement of the bed when she'd quietly gotten up had awakened me just enough that I hadn't dozed off yet.

I felt/heard a whisper of material through the air and knew she was putting on her jacket, though I hadn't heard her come back into the bedroom. Then there was total silence although I could sense her presence nearby; we always knew where the other was. Those bonds had been forged in the early days of our partnership, when we'd stood soaking wet and laughing in a cold rainy graveyard, and when I'd held her shaking body after her narrow escape from Eugene Tooms among other incidents.

She stood by the side of the bed for a few moments and I could feel her eyes boring into me, studying my sprawled limbs outside the covers in the dim light. God, how I hoped that she liked the way I looked, and that I had satisfied her in bed, though I had little doubt on the former and even less on the latter. If I hadn't satisfied her then she was a better actress than Meg Ryan. However, a guy could never be completely sure if they didn't talk about it afterwards, and we hadn't. There had been little talk between us, mostly gasped love-words and brief instructions, which I loved that she did. In bed, unlike in our day-to-day interactions, she never kept me guessing.

Though I had been up for a second bout very shortly after the first, I had pretty much passed out after that. So we hadn't talked about this nor would we for a while, probably, since tomorrow was a workday; I could only hope that we didn't have to travel and could sit in the basement alone for the day to enjoy our newfound togetherness. Tonight, I hoped, we would again sleep together. Hell, even without the sex I just wanted her in my bed for the night. Preferably until the morning, but this time I'd let her go.

Finally I heard her footsteps moving away from the bed, then in a few moments the soft click-clack of her heels after she put them on. The outer door closed and latched and I sat up, feeling my face stretch in a grin like a five-year-old on Christmas morning when he's discovered that Santa did indeed come, and there were presents under the tree instead of coal in his stocking.

Scully and I had finally had sex—fucked each other's brains out—balled 'til the bed bounced—made the beast with two backs—bumped uglies—done the wild thing—made love in its purest and most beautiful form when it all was said and done.

I wrapped my arms around my ribs, hugging myself, feeling the wrinkled sheet beneath me and drawing in deep breaths of the bedroom's musky air, which was scented with our lovemaking. I couldn't recall being this happy ever before in my life and I reveled in it, enjoying every second. Hell, I wasn't sure I'd ever sleep again and miss one moment of this rare, wonderful happiness, no matter how tired I was. I'd have been even happier if she'd stayed, but for once I had no worries that she was leaving me for good; the hours past had cemented our relationship like nothing before and I trusted that Scully was with me in a way that no one else in my life ever had been, or probably would be again.

I knew she'd need her space and mentally braced myself for more mornings like this, knowing she wouldn't be able to stay with me all night every time but hoping that she'd work her way towards it. Hell, we had a lot to talk about and that would be—

A loud click, the front door's deadbolt being shot back, sounded in the quiet of my apartment and I immediately went on red alert, reaching for the quilt and about to throw it back and get up silently. My gun was in the top drawer of my dresser on the other side of the room, but I was quick enough to—

Click, clack, click, clack. I knew that sound and felt my grin return. Naked, I got up and went into the bathroom before she finished crossing the living room and by the time I came out, there was a redheaded, pale-skinned vision in my bed. "Thought you'd left," I murmured as I slid in, noting that she'd straightened out the sheets and quilt.

"I did. I got all the way out to my car and wondered why in the hell I was shivering in the cold, dark morning air when I could be cuddled up in your nice warm bed with you," she said, snuggling against me as we came together under the covers. She was as naked as I and if I wasn't completely exhausted between jet lag and two bouts of sex in less than three hours after a six-year drought, I'd have been all over her. However, cuddled with her under the covers I realized how drained I was, the exhaustion hitting me all at once. I rolled her over and curled around her soft form with my nose in her thick, fresh-smelling hair, reveling in the feel of her slender, curvy body. She snuggled back against me, her soft yet firm bottom pressed warmly against my groin and arms crossed over the one of mine that was around her softly curving waist.

"God, you feel good, Scully," I muttered from the edge of sleep, no longer able to resist its siren call. "Glad you came back."

"Me too," she murmured, sounding just as sleepy and content. "No weirdness tomorrow, kay?"

"Kay," I hummed, and then took one long, last, deep breath of her delicate scent to last me before I slid down the chimney into true sleep. The edge of darkness engulfed me but that was perfectly all right; Scully would be here when I woke up in the brightness of a new morning.

finis