It had been one hell of a week. After their return from Antarctica
and a too short recovery period they had been back in the basement office as if nothing had happened. Filling out paper work and attempting to return to their normal lives (or as close as they ever got to normal). But already the steady workday had begun to tire. After only a week Mulder had begun to search for a simple case that would get them back out in the field. Something easy with nomonsters to chase or little gray men. This little trip to Iowa had seemed just the thing. Residents had been reporting strange lights at the edge of town for the past year but no one had bothered to take it seriously until a more publicised case in Des Moines captured the media's attention. Now suddenly everyone had a "glowing ball of light" or "strange floating colors" story that they were dying to share with anyone who asked. Mulder shook his head ruefully. Too bad it had just turned out to be some farmer with a weird idea about the affect of different colors of light on the growth patterns of corn. He chuckled to himself remembering the look of irritation Scully had flashed him when the farmer said he'd gotten the idea from an acid induced flashback.
It was nearly dark by the time they'd made it back into town to find a hotel. Surprisingly it took them another half hour just to find one with a vacancy. The local fall harvest festival was this weekend one of the hotel clerks had told them. Almost everything in the area was booked solid. Luckily he seemed to remember that one of the small inns at the edge of town might still have a couple rooms open. Ten minutes later they were standing in the office of the Cozy Court Motel. The bored looking attendant informed them that while they had two rooms open, one had been reserved.
Mulder was just warming up to the task of trying to convince him to rent them both the rooms when Scully interrupted him:
"Mulder, let's just take the one room," she said.
"But, Scully..."
"Look, it's not worth the hassle and all I want to do is take a nice hot bath an climb into bed."
"Oooh, Scully..."
She gave him the don't-start-with-me-Mulder look before turning to
the attendant. "Does one of the rooms have a couch?"
"Yeah," the clerk grumbled checking the records. "I'll have to charge you double occupancy, though."
"Fine, whatever. We'll take it." Scully said reaching for the keys.
A few minutes later...
"How do I let you drag me to these godforsaken places?" Scully asked wearily as they entered the room.
"Because life would be unbearably boring with out me," Mulder said with a boyish grin as he collapsed on the couch.
Scully snorted in mock annoyance as she headed for the bath room.
Two hours later found Scully asleep in the bed and Mulder channel surfing on the couch. He glanced over his shoulder at her sleeping form and repressed a sigh of longing. It was hard enough getting any sleep at night in his apartment. At least there all he had were his shadowy memories of her to keep him up. Having the genuine article just feet away made sleep an impossibility. Before he realised he'd moved he was standing at the side of the bed looking down at her. God, she was beautiful. Her red hair fanned out like a halo around her, framing ivory skin that seemed to glow in the dim light of the TV. Even the light tint of frostbite that still tainted her cheeks and forehead couldn't detract from her ethereal beauty. Now here was a real X-File: What was this gorgeous, intelligent woman doing hanging out with a self obsessed jerk like him? He wondered for the ten thousandth time why she hadn't just called it quits and left him yet. 'Ugh, what am I doing?' He asked himself while rubbing his face in his hands. 'If she wakes up to me looming over her I'll be lucky if she doesn't shoot me. Again.' He chuckled at the thought and resumed his position on the couch. He was just starting to get into an old episode of the Twilight Zone when she called out his name.
'Did I just hear what I thought I heard?' Mulder wondered to himself.
'Naw, Scully never calls me Fox, must've just been wishful thinking.'
"Fox...don't leave me..."
'Now, I know I heard that!' Mulder thought as he leapt over the
couch to the bed. "Dana?" He called out tentatively as he reached her side. Scully had managed to cocoon herself in the sheets and as she struggled to free herself tears flowed down her face. "Fox..."she cried out again pitifully and Mulder felt something inside himself break. Disregarding all protocol, he swept her into his arms and rocked her against his chest.
"Shh, Dana honey, it's okay. I'm here, it's okay," he murmured into her hair. As soon as he'd taken her into his arms she clung to him weeping like a lost child. This was a side of Dana Scully he'd never seen before.
"Wake up, Dana, it was just a dream..."
Slowly Scully came back to herself. 'Dana, he never call's me Dana'
"Mulder," she said weakly as she pulled back a little to wipe the
tears off her face, "what's going on?"
"So we're back to Mulder now, huh? You were calling me Fox a minute
ago." He said with a tired grin as he looked down into her tear
streaked face.
"I was?" she asked, feeling hazy.
"You were having a bad dream and you called out for me. Do you
remember what you were dreaming?"
A flash of desire in hazel eyes, soft-spoken desperate words, the promise of a kiss... She shook her head against the memory. "No...no,I don't remember."
"Are you sure?" he asked while wiping away some more of the drying
tears with his thumb as he cupped her face in his hand. "It usually helps to talk about it."
"Voice of personal experience, or is that Dr. Mulder's clinical opinion?" Scully snapped at him and immediately regretted it. He was
after all, just trying to help. If only he wasn't holding her so close...
Mulder just smiled wryly at the snap and brushed it off with a chuckle.
"Well, I guess you could say it was a little bit of both. So wanna talk about it?"
"I'm just fi-" she started, breaking off as she looked up into his eyes. 'God, I could die when he looks at me like that. All wide eyed concern and sweet boyish intensity. How can I lie to him when he looks at me like that?'
"I was dreaming about that night in the hallway." She finished quietly.
'I can't believe she actually told me' "Oh." He chuckled and gave a self depreciating sneer.
"Yeah, I can see how the thought of kissing me would give you nightmares."
"If I was calling out for you then doesn't that alleviate the possibility that you were the part of the dream I was trying to escape from?"
'Uh-oh, what did I just say?' Panic shot through her body as she realized what she'd just insinuated. 'I've got to get out of his arms!' she thought as she tried to push Mulder away, but instead of releasing her he just held her tighter. 'Oh, god, does she mean what I think she means?'
"What were you trying to escape from then?" he said in a husky voice as he looked down into her deep blue eyes. 'Please, let me be right about this'
"Mulder, let me go." She said quietly as she tried to avoid his gaze.
"You haven't answered my question yet." He reached down and pulled her chin gently up to force her to look at him.
"If you weren't running from me or the kiss then what was it, the bee?"
"I wasn't running from anything." She said, sidestepping the question. 'How does he know me so well? Mulder just let me go!' Every second she sat there in his arms she became more and more aware of him physically. At this point he was holding her so tight she could feel his chest nudging her breasts with every breath he took. 'How could anyone resist such a sweet torture?' She closed her eyes for a moment to fight down the desire she felt surging up inside of her. He scarcely noticed her evasion as his eyes caught hers. He could see the need he felt for her reflecting in the ocean of her eyes. When she closed those eyes to dampen the flames of the fire he knew she felt burning inside her his control snapped. 'No, don't deny it!'
"Dana..." he murmured before he captured her lips with his own.
Warning alarms went off inside her head when she heard the strange quiet way he said her name, but before she could react his kiss was already on her mouth. Her eyes snapped open in shock and she froze. 'what-should-I-do-he's-kissing-me-oh-god-don't-stop-I-have-to-stop- this-oh-Fox' Conflicting emotions flashed through her head like lightning but still she hadn't moved. To his credit, it didn't take Mulder too long to realise the woman in his arms was being about as responsive a block of ice. 'Oh no, what have I done? How could I have been wrong?! I know what I saw in her eyes!' But doubt had begun to blossom in his heart alongside the terrible certainty that he'd just made the stupidest mistake of his life. He awkwardly broke off his embrace and released her. He stood up from the bed and ran a shaky hand through his hair as he headed for the couch.
"I'm sorry, Scully. I don't know what came over me." 'nothing much but love' he thought miserably. "It won't happen again, but I'lL
understand if you want to put in for a transfer or file harassment charges when we get back." 'Dana...don't leave me...' he thought.