Disclaimer: I heart the X-files. Characters and such belong to the big bad producer dude and all the kick-ass writers. I simply lust after them fruitlessly.

Synopsis: This is my version of what happened between the scenes of the episode "all things." I think you all are daft with your stories of Scully leaping into bed naked with Mulder and/or Mulder pouncing lips-first on his partner, especially if the story contains one or the other or both agents crying. They are fun little stories, but in my opinion highly unlikely. This is more along the lines of what I think of as a believable encounter between the two of them. And, (bonus points) it's not smutty and no one cries. Except you.

This picks up right after the episode goes to credits and there's no recapping. So, if you haven't seen it, you suck, but it won't spoil anything. Cheers!

Scully awoke with a bad pain in her neck and her left armpit as her under wire was sticking into her. She had no idea what time it was, nor where she was, until the scent of Mulder's blanket reached her and her eyes fell on the blue glow of his fish tank. The mugs of tea were still sitting on the coffee table in front of her and Mulder had long since gone to bed. She put her feet on the floor and leaned forward, pulling the blanket off of her and running her fingers through her hair to help her wake up. After standing and stretching, she folded the blanket and placed it neatly on the back of the couch, and then crept into Mulder's room.

She watched him twitch and sigh in his sleep for a minute before she bent down and kissed him on the cheek, waking him.

"Scully?" Mulder slurred sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

"Mulder I'm going home, I just came to tell you goodnight." In every reality she was too tired to go anywhere, but her main goal was to get out of that bra before it bruised her. There was a reason you're not supposed to sleep in them.

"No," he said, which didn't surprise her. "It's too late for you to be driving. Just stay here. I'll take the couch." He began to get up but Scully put a firm hand on his shoulder and kept him in bed.

"It's alright, Mulder, I'll take a cab," she assured him, just now realizing she had been stroking his hair and his cheek since she got in there. She leaned down and kissed his cheek again. "I'll see you on Monday." Scully turned and walked out of the room.

"No," Mulder said as she reached the doorway. This time he was up and coming toward her. "Scully I think you should stay."

She was annoyed but she didn't disagree with him completely. "Mulder, I've got nothing to sleep in." She whined, immediately surprised that was the best excuse she could come up with.

So was Mulder. "You can wear one of my shirts," he said helpfully. "C'mon Scully, at least stay until it's light out, you're exhausted."

"Alright but come dawn I'm leaving and I'm not giving you another good-bye kiss."

"Fair enough." Mulder led her into his bedroom and got into his closet. He pulled out a blue long sleeved button-up shirt and handed it to her.

"Mulder the tags are still on this." She said.

"Yeah I know, it was a gift from someone when I was at Quantico and it's always been too big. It should make a good nightgown though."

"You've had this since Quantico?" Scully asked, laughing. "Mulder, that was almost 11 years ago."

"So? It's coming back in style."

Scully gave him a half smile and made her way into his bathroom to change. Being as self-preserved as she was, it was her first thought to leave her bra on so as to avoid feeling completely naked under the enormous button-up. But that particular bra, having shed itself of good manners and trying very hard to impale her through the heart, was removed with a sense of hesitation mixed in with great relief. She hung her suit on the hanger the shirt had come from and hung it on the back of the door. She felt ridiculous in Mulder's shirt. It hung almost to her knees and the sleeves were too long by about a mile.

When she emerged from the bathroom minutes later, Mulder had made the bed and then fallen asleep on it. Scully smiled as she shuffled past him and into the living room, where she took the blanket off the back of the couch and curled up beneath it.

About twenty minutes later she heard the bed squeak as Mulder stood up off it, and her breath stopped for reasons unknown. When she heard the bed squeak again she breathed, realizing he'd given up and simply climbed under the covers. Another twenty minutes passed before she realized exactly why she'd held her breath. She lay awake, very still, for another forty minutes before she threw the blanket off and snuck slowly back into Mulder's room. Every muscle in her body was trembling and she made each step in slow motion to avoid losing her balance or tripping over something on Mulder's floor.

Mulder didn't stir a bit while she turned the covers down on the opposite side of the bed and slid in slowly, carefully, so as not to wake him. She was certain of what she was doing there, she just wasn't certain what his reaction would be and it made her heart bang against her chest like it was trying to escape. His eyes opened, confused as she slid in closer to him.

"Scully?" Mulder asked, concerned.

She smiled at him in a way he'd never seen before, in a way that made her seem like a dream, filling him with a warm, pure light. "Hi Mulder," she whispered, reaching up to touch his cheek and "accidentally" graze his mouth with her thumb.

After a few moments of stilled astonishment, his hand came up to move her hair away from her cheek and then rested on her shoulder for a few seconds. He picked his head up off the pillow, never taking his eyes from the soft confidence and joy which radiated newly from the ethereal blue eyes of his partner. Slowly but purposefully he slid his hand down her side until it reached the graceful dip of her waist, turned back to cover the small of her back and pulled her whole body securely into his. His mouth brushed hers lightly before she gently pulled him closer to her with her hand at the back of his neck and showed him what a fool he was for waiting seven years to get to this point. A few moments later they broke the kiss and lay there content to just look at one another in the darkness.

"Scully, you're shaking," Mulder said, as though coming out of a dream and suddenly concerned again. Maybe he'd misinterpreted her actions and moved too fast. Maybe she'd changed her mind.

There was that smile again. "So are you, Mulder." She softly kissed him again, smiling. Mulder had no idea how tensed his muscles had gone until they sighed and relaxed at the touch of her lips. She leaned back, watching his eyes change in the dark.

He didn't say anything. He was only good with words on certain unexpected occasions and this didn't happen to be one of them. Instead, he found her mouth again and showed her what a fool she was to have waited seven years to show him what he didn't know he knew. His hands were memorizing her every turn and touch under the material of his shirt. Longing to feel the warm satin of her skin on his he deepened the kiss and felt her change as goose bumps appeared all over her skin. Her fingers were testing every curve of muscle in his chest, snaking through them with need and curiosity, falling in love with every contour of his body.

There was nothing rushed about their time together, nothing frenzied or blurred. They took the time to learn every inch of the other's vulnerable form, secrets they never would have known even if they'd worked together for thirty years before now. But not only did they learn the secrets, they took the time to worship them, to shower them with adoration and compassion and praise. Every scar was mapped, every freckle counted, every inch of skin touched and loved like they'd never known. And when the moment came where they explored their innermost parts and felt their souls blur into one enormous entity, neither were at all interested in the inevitable end, or how this choice may change the future forever.

Because on that night there was just one choice, and all the other ones were wrong.

:)