Authors Note: This story came from watching Season 1 on DVD in order after my wonderful friend Silke gifted me with it for Christmas 2008. The question that Mulder asks Scully occurred to me, hence I figured it would occur to him as well; I am totally and utterly ignoring the fact that Mulder's supposed to be red-green colorblind (what the heck, I'm pretty sure it's never mentioned again after "Wetwired"). Live with it, and enjoy the fluff.
Natural Redhead
by Suzanne Feld
Rated R for adult situations
"There's been something I've wanted to ask you for a long time, Scully, but I don't want you to get angry at me."
She was sprawled at his side, sweat slowly drying on her slender, naked body. He was in the same condition and nearly the same position. Stretching, she rubbed her foot against his calf. "Right now I don't think there's anything that could make me angry at you unless you're going to tell me that we have to go back to just being partners."
He grinned over at her. "Are you kidding? I've barely gotten started with you. No, what I want to know is..." he rolled onto his side, reached over and brushed a hand over her mound of soft auburn curls, causing her to shiver-- "if you're clearly a natural redhead, why did you have light brown hair when we first met?"
Scully bolted to sit upright, turning to stare down at him. "Wha-a-at?!"
"I warned you!" He rolled onto his back and put his hands up in self-defense, only later realizing he should have covered another part of himself. Luckily she didn't appear to think of violence despite her sharp action and shocked tone.
"Now I know you claim to have an eidetic memory, but--"
"I do have a photographic memory. I remember exactly what you looked like the first time we met in that first basement office they had me in, before they moved me to the one with the windows. And you had absolutely adorable but rather mousy brown hair."
"Interrupt me again and you're going to be sleeping in said basement office."
"But we're in my apartment!"
"And I have a key to both, handcuffs, and my gun. Don't push your luck, Mulder."
"Okay, okay. Are you trying to tell me that your hair wasn't brown when we first met?"
She looked away, crossing her legs Indian-style and dragging a bit of the sheet into her lap. "It, uh, maybe wasn't quite as red as it is now," she said hesitantly. "But it wasn't really brown per se."
"Besides remembering when you walked up to me oh-so-confidently with your hand out, I've also seen your Bureau graduation picture at your mom's. Along with high school and med school graduation pictures that have your hair the same color it is now."
Scully groaned. "Cripes, I told her to put those away."
"Brown, Scully. And as your brand-new, presently-sated but still-eager lover I can't wait to hear why."
"Mulder, I was barely twenty-five years old and fresh out of med school when I was recruited. Women in the Bureau often aren't taken seriously at first."
He raised his eyebrows at her, having difficulty trying to keep the conversation on track when the sight of her bare body sitting only inches from him was much more fascinating. Especially as casual as she was being about their nudity. He knew it wouldn't be long before he'd be ready for Round Two, and he really wanted an answer to this question before she distracted him from it by doing nothing more than being blissfully naked. "What's that got to do with your hair color?"
She heaved a sigh, noting how his eyes followed the movement of her breasts and sneaking a peek of her own at the part of his anatomy that fascinated her. There was some movement there, a twitch or two, and she felt her body respond.
"Scully, focus." She looked up to see him smiling at her and felt her face warm a little, but he snaked out an arm and drew her down on his chest so that their faces were only millimeters apart. "C'mon, just tell me. You know I won't think any less of you no matter why."
"Oh, fine." She decided to just blurt it out, knowing he'd keep at her until he got the truth and with her not being a very good liar, that could be a while. "When I first went to Quantico, every other man I had to deal with either called me 'Red' or made remarks about my red hair, you know, being a firebrand or having a temper or something along those lines."
He nodded understandingly. "The same things you hear now."
"Oh no, Mulder, not like I did at first. I'm sure my insecurities showed and it seemed to amuse the instructors and my classmates to no end to torment me. So at the end of my first month I.... I dyed my hair."
His eyebrows went up. "You dyed this gorgeous titan hair brown? In God's name, why?"
"Because most of the men I had to deal with didn't take a five-foot-tall flaming redhead seriously," she said, frowning slightly. "You wouldn't believe how differently I was treated when I toned it down. I hated the dyed color, but I kept it for years just because of what a difference it made. Sometimes I didn't use the right type of dye or I rinsed it too soon or whatever, and the red would show through and I swear, they started with me again. Once, shortly after we met, I mistakenly bought ash blonde instead of light brown and kept my fingers crossed that you wouldn't notice as it lightened my hair by a good two or three shades."
He frowned slightly, thinking. "Was it... around the time we went to Atlantic City and almost caught the Jersey Devil?"
"Mulder, it wasn't--"
"No, it was later. The office building with the intelligent and homicidal computer?"
"That wasn't the Jersey Devil! It was an insane woman who escaped from an asylum somewhere."
"Then why didn't they ever find out anything about her?"
"That's not the point, Mulder. The point is that you really don't remember--"
He snapped his fingers behind her back. "Icy Cape! It was when we went up to Icy Cape and had to deal with the territorial alien worms that wouldn't play nice with each other."
She stared at him. "I'll be damned. You do remember!"
He grinned lazily at her and ran a finger down her spine, causing her to shiver deliciously. His other hand was curled around her small waist, inching gradually towards her hip. "Scully, when it comes to you, I remember everything," he said confidently.
"Really?" she said, cocking an eyebrow. "So when did I stop dyeing my hair and let it go back to its natural color?"
"Hmn, the first time I remember seeing it noticeably red was when we met the Litchfield Eves for the first time," Mulder said thoughtfully. "But I think the first time I saw it the way it is now, your real color, was right around the time of the Fluke-Man. And I know it was this color when you were taken because I used to dream about you."
"You are a charmer when you want to be." She raised an eyebrow at him, bracing her arms against his broad chest even as she felt her heart melt. "So what would you have done if you'd found that I wasn't a natural redhead?"
Instead of answering he flipped her over and covered her body with his, kissing her deeply. It wasn't until later, much later, after he was asleep and she was dozing in the physically-sated twilight zone between awareness and unconsciousness, that she remembered her last question. And decided that she really didn't want to know.
finis