Got you under my Skin
Disclaimer: I do not own and characters from the X-Files, I do however own this story but am not making any profit from it.
N.B - This story reflects characters childhoods as being different in some ways to those of the show.
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Fox Mulder had known the Scully family for quite a while, he was good friends with Bill and Charlie and could often be found at the Scully resident playing sports or just hanging out. Bill and Charlie's youngest sister Dana always wanted to join in with any activities that the boys pursued and they didn't really mind. She had proven herself to be just as tough as any of them and quite up to scratch to play any of their games and sports. In the eyes of the three boys she was one of them.
Mulder (as he preferred to be called) had first met the Scully youths when he had started high school, he was in Bill's year and made easy friends with him and his brother, often playing practical jokes on the teachers and being the clowns of the class.
Bill knew what he wanted to do, he was going to follow in his father's footsteps and join the navy and Charlie was starting to look like he was going in the same direction. Mulder was still unsure of what profession he wanted to join, but was leaning towards psychology and maybe forensics. His original idea was to apply for Oxford college in England, but recently he had found something that made him want to stay closer to home.
That something came in the form of the tomboy sister of his best friends. Dana, who had nearly caught up with he and her brothers in school by skipping whole grades at a time had made the decision to go to a local college, and they had gotten so close recently that he knew he couldn't bare to be parted from her.
It had taken quite a few years for Mulder to see Dana as any more then one of the guys, but when he had it had been surprisingly sudden. Since he was so close to the family and he didn't have a lot of family of his own Mulder had often gone away on vacation with the Scully family. Normally it was the brothers, Dana and he who fooled around together, went exploring and played games while Melissa, their older sister lazed around in the sun working on her tan or reading new age books, if she wasn't on the phone to her friends.
Melissa was more Mulder's age, but he didn't know her nearly as well as he did Dana. Or as well as he thought he knew Dana. On one such vacation Bill, Charlie, Mulder and Dana had gone for a walk around the shore of the small island they were staying on. While Bill and Charlie had decided to go exploring in the neighbouring forest Dana sat down on the smooth, warm sand of the beach. She pulled Mulder down with and laughed. He loved her laugh- it was so familiar and always managed to cheer him up.
" Don't you want to go exploring with your brothers Miss. Scully?" Mulder asked
Scully screwed up her face at him and squinted into the sun " Not particularly."
" Rather go for a swim with me?" Mulder asked, stripping off his shirt and leaving it on the sand
" Your on!" Dana yelled after him as she pulled off her shorts and ran into the water in her swimsuit
She was shorter then Mulder and he quickly caught up with her, lifting her around the waist and carrying her into the depths.
" Mulder!" She yelled, an edge to her voice that both Mulder and her brothers knew well, " Put me down"
" Okay" Mulder agreed, dumping her unceremoniously into the ocean.
Dana came up spluttering, a new conviction in the timber of her voice as she exclaimed, " That's it!"
Laughing again she half ran, half swum after Mulder and grabbed him around the middle, pulling him under with her. When they both surfaced Mulder grinned at her, " That the best you can do?"
" Oh trust me Mulder" Dana proclaimed, " When I get you for real, you won't know what hit you."
She had never said a truer word in her life.
Suddenly he realised that he was staring at her, not just staring but gazing at her. At his best friends little sister. 'When had this happened?' Mulder wondered, 'Since when had Dana been anything but a friend and a sister to him?'
It had taken a full moment for him to realise that she was staring back, probably wondering what the hell he was doing. But to his amazement she must have read his thoughts and somehow agreed with them because before he knew it her lips were on his and then just as suddenly they weren't and she was gone.
He blinked, wondering if what had just happened was real, it was then that he heard her infectious giggle from the sand and he most definitely remembered her lips on his, no matter how briefly, and she had left him wanting more.
He turned towards the giggle and saw Dana smiling at him from the shore; he also saw Bill and Charlie emerging from the trees not far to her right. Rapidly he realised that this situation was a lot more complicated then he'd thought. 'How was he going to explain this to Bill?'