Chapter One

Scully pulled her coat off the hanger in their office and draped it over her arm. She turned away from Mulder who was busily reading a file, and began to leave the small room, it had been one very long day.

"Have a happy fourth tomorrow," Mulder looked up from his file with a smile. Scully turned around and nodded, "you too." She watched him for a minute, while he went back to his reading, then left the office.

It was only a few hours later that Mulder began to pack his things. He threw some files into a new briefcase that Scully had given him, locked his office, then headed home. He was listening to music on the radio when his phone went off. The first few rings he didn't hear because of the loud music but he managed to answer in time.

"Mulder!" he hollered over the music.

"Mulder?" Scully seemed confused and he quickly turned off the radio.

"Scully, what's wrong?"

"Nothings wrong Mulder…" There was a long silence over the phone.

"Ok… so you just couldn't bear going on without hearing my skin-tingling voice?" Mulder growled. Scully let out a giggle, "well besides that, I wanted to know if you were busy tomorrow evening?"

"Oh? Is the Dana Scully asking me out?" Mulder asked, still driving.

"In a way… my mom always makes a big deal out of her 4th of July party, and I thought if you weren't busy, you'd like to join me in some hot dogs, swimming, and some cold beer," Scully flirted a little more then she had intended to.

"Oh, well that sounds wonderful…"

"But?" Scully rolled her eyes.

"Well you see, a Ms. Maggie Scully has already invited me to this party as her date."

"What! My mom already invited you!" Scully's mouth hung open.

"…But, looking at my calendar, I'm free for a date in… let's see… two months from now. What holiday would that be? September… oh its self-improvement month, I guess I would be improving myself by dating a woman who's actually beautiful and intelligent…"

"Oh shut up," Scully shook her head, "I'll see you tomorrow, Mulder."

"Hey Scully?"

"Yeah?" she held onto the phone, scooping a spoon of yogurt into her mouth.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow afternoon, we can get there early and help out."

"Sounds good, Mulder. Night," Scully cut him off short by hanging up. Mulder held the phone to his ear an extra moment, hoping she hadn't actually. Then finally he muttered to himself; night.

TBC