Old Growth Forest
Chapter 4
I couldn't begin to fathom what Mulder might think was important enough to interrupt our love-making at this point. He never ceased to amaze me. Just when I thought I had him pegged, he would do something like this, making me stop and re-evaluate everything that I thought made him who he was.
"Well, what is it? What did he want?" I asked breathlessly.
"Before I tell you I want to be sure that you understand that what he said in no way influenced what is happening between us, Scully."
"What on earth did you two talk about?" He had piqued my curiosity.
"Well, it might have given me some extra courage," he continued.
"Mulder!" I protested impatiently.
"It took me a long time to figure it out, Scully, but it seems like that drink that he gave you can cure infertility."
"Mulder," I said gently. "Nothing can cure my kind of infertility. I can't spontaneously generate new ova. Maybe if it had been some other kind of problem..."
"I know, Scully," he answered softly. "But I had to tell you. Omiga gave me strict instructions to come in here and boink your brains out."
"I would've liked to have seen that," I giggled. The mental image of *that* game of charades already forming in my mind.
"It was a little embarrassing when I finally figured out what he was saying," Mulder chuckled as he began to nuzzle my neck, his few days' growth of beard tickling me.
"Bless his heart," I sighed. "With everything that he's done for us, he still wanted to give us more."
"I just thought you should know in case he starts asking questions tomorrow," Mulder said, lifting his lips from my neck.
"You could've told me later," I pointed out.
"I was worried that I might get distracted and forget," he admitted.
"So you're free to be distracted now?" I began to squeeze his ass again.
"Oh yeah," he breathed before his mouth covered mine again.
As his soft lips caressed mine, my hands found their way to the leather laces on the sides of his breeches. While I worked away at them, Mulder was busily working at removing my panties. Soon, but not soon enough, there were no more barriers between us.
Mulder's penis was pressed against my opening, but he wasn't moving. Through the darkness I could hear his labored breathing.
"Is something wrong?" My voice was barely a whisper.
"Wrong? God, no! Everything is so right." His voice was low and gravelly. "I'm trying to remember every nuance, Scully."
"I know - I've wanted this for so long, Mulder. Now I want to know what it feels like to have you inside of me, instead of only dreaming about it," I confessed.
Groaning in response, Mulder finally began to ease into me. The sensation was exquisite; being slowly stretched and filled by him.
"Oh, Mulder," I sighed.
"Okay?" The concern in his voice touched me.
"Yes," I breathed. "Better than okay - fantastic."
"Mmmnn." The sound came from deep within his throat.
Once he was completely inside of me taking slow, gentle strokes, his lips found their way back to mine. We kissed each other greedily, as if we might be able to make up for lost time. My hands were in his hair, keeping him close to me; trying to get him closer. My legs were wrapped around his thighs, but we were moving independently, yet meeting with every stroke.
My thoughts were swirling. I, too, was having trouble believing that this was truly happening, but it was. This was Mulder making love to me. I loved the feel of him, the smell of him, and the taste of him. Every time that I realized anew that it was really him, another jolt of pleasure would surge through me.
"Promise me something, Mulder," I asked breathlessly, after freeing my lips.
"Anything, Scully," he panted.
"Promise me that we can do this in the morning. I want to be able to see you love me."
"God, Scully," he breathed and began to thrust harder.
"Does that mean you promise?" The sultry sound of my voice surprised me.
"Yes, I promise." His voice had taken on an earthy quality of its own.
Without breaking his rhythm, Mulder adjusted our position by moving forward slightly. It had an effect instantaneously. Now every time our bodies met, my clitoris grazed against him. Gasping at the sensation, I lifted my hips and moved against him, prolonging the contact. Mulder must have realized what I was doing, because he slowed his pace slightly and exaggerated the rotation of his hips on every stroke.
With each revolution, I could feel myself getting closer to my peak. My hands moved from his hair to his shoulders, and I clawed at him in my desperation for release. Our lips had parted, our need for oxygen too great, but his face was only inches from mine; his breath mingling with mine.
It seemed like Mulder had slowed his pace further, creating even more friction between our bodies. I was torn; wanting him to go faster, anticipating my climax, but also wanting to enjoy the sweet agony of the journey for as long I could.
Above me, I could feel Mulder's body begin to shake. Knowing that he must be close too, I clenched my muscles around him. As he called my name, our bodies met again, but this time I held him close to me longer. The increased contact was enough to send me over the edge. My body quaked and throbbed against him and he pulsed inside of me.
Every time I thought that it had finally subsided, my body would shudder again - it seemed endless, beautifully endless. Once he had stopped shaking, Mulder began to kiss me softly - my lips, my nose, my chin, chuckling each time my body shook beneath him.
"You like that?" My voice was still smoky.
"Mmm." He pressed his lips against the tender skin below my ear. "I'm particularly fond of how it feels inside of you."
It hadn't occurred to me that, with every aftershock, my muscles must be rippling around him. The thought of our bodies still being joined began to arouse me again, but the narcotic effect of my orgasm was more powerful and I felt myself sinking towards sleep.
"Sleepy," I mumbled to Mulder, running my finger along his bottom lip.
"Me, too," he told me, rolling to his back and taking me with him.
"I thought you'd want to spoon," I said through a yawn as I snuggled up against him.
"Well, I liked the way it felt this morning when I woke up and you were sleeping on top of me. But I couldn't really enjoy it the way I wanted to." I could hear the grin in his voice.
"I thought you were sleeping." My face was flushing even though I had no reason to be embarrassed now.
"It felt so right, so perfect to wake up that way, that I drifted back to sleep," he explained, giving my ass a gentle squeeze.
"It does feel right," I agreed drowsily, snuggling up to him again, as if the action could get me any closer than I already was.
Mulder's contented sigh was the last thing I remember hearing before sleep overtook me.
Late the following morning, I woke spooned up to him. As I let myself enjoy the way he was holding me, I recalled how, at the first light of dawn, I had woken him to make love again. As much as I enjoyed how he felt and tasted and smelled, seeing the desire in his eyes and the ecstasy on his face as we moved together gave me more pleasure than everything else combined.
My eyes had drifted shut as I let a mental image of Mulder at my breast float through my mind, when a rustling noise near by startled me. Opening my eyes, I caught Wanik trying to leave quietly after bringing our breakfast.
"Wanik," I said softly, making her look up in surprise.
Her expression turned apologetic at once.
"It's okay." I used reassuring tones. "Thank you," I smiled.
Smiling shyly, she murmured something before backing out of the wigwam. Turning in Mulder's arms, I lay my head on his shoulder. While he continued to sleep, I began to tickle his chest.
"Breakfast is here," I smiled when he eventually opened his eyes. "Why don't we eat it while it's warm?"
We were delighted to find that the raspberries that I'd helped to pick yesterday had been added to the porridge. After all of our recent activity, we were both hungry. When we'd finished, Mulder lay back down and pulled me with him. At first I thought that he wanted to make love again, but he seemed to be content just holding me. I, too, was perfectly happy to simply lie in his arms.
"So?" I said finally.
"Mmm?" He began to caress my hair.
"You think we're in the past?" It might not be the best time to have this discussion, but I didn't think there would ever be a good time.
"Yup." He was running his fingers slowly down my neck.
"Maybe it's just some kind of holographic projection," I suggested.
"Holograms can't touch you, Scully," he pointed out.
He was right and I didn't believe what I was saying anyway. I was just trying to play the devil's advocate.
"Well, there *is* still plenty of wilderness in Canada. Maybe Dr. Mettler drove us there." I tried another angle.
"I thought of that, too, but there weren't any tire tracks, Scully. How would he have gotten us there? And how would he have made it past the border check?" he countered. "I also considered a biosphere experiment, thinking that it might not be as big as it looked - the vast distances being a holographic illusion. But then we stumbled into this village and that theory got blown out of the water."
"I still need something more to go on, Mulder. I can see why you believe that, but I need proof."
"You can't just believe me, Scully," he sighed. "What? You thought that all of a sudden I would be a completely different person; believing everything you say, no questions asked?" As I spoke, his hand slipped down my back, and he began to gently caress my ass.
"Yeah, I thought you'd say something like 'How could I doubt a gorgeous hunk of man like you?'," he chuckled, giving my ass a firmer squeeze.
"Well, I guess you didn't successfully boink my brains out then, Mulder," I laughed. "Because I still have enough to form opinions of my own."
"Maybe I'm not done yet." His rich, dark voice sent chills through me. Then he startled me by quickly pulling me on top of him.
"Maybe you'll never be able to," I murmured as I began to place feathery kisses on his chest.
"Then I'll die trying," he breathed, sliding me up his body. "I'll gladly die trying," he whispered again before our lips met.
As my tongue delved into his mouth, I felt his cock grow hard beneath me. I was about to raise my hips, so that I could lower myself onto him when the sound of someone clearing their throat made me freeze. Mulder and I both turned in the direction of the sound to find Omiga crouched outside of the entrance to our wigwam, staring at the ground. Slipping off of Mulder toward the back of the shelter, I quickly covered myself.
Muttering apologetically, Omiga held a bowl out to Mulder.
"Day-na," he nodded towards me.
"Not more," I whined, vividly recalling the bitterness of last night's concoction.
"Day-na," Omiga chastised, apparently recognizing the tone of my voice.
"Fine," I sighed, taking the bowl from Mulder. I was pleasantly surprised, though, when I brought the bowl to my lips. This mixture had a fragrant, almost flowery smell and a faintly sweet taste. Licking my lips when I was finished, I had Mulder pass the bowl back to Omiga.
"Do you think that was supposed to be another fertility potion?" I asked Mulder once the healer had shuffled away.
"Could be, or maybe a maternity vitamin," he smiled softly at me.
"Please don't do this to yourself, Mulder," I implored him. "If Native Americans had found a way to regrow ova, don't you think it would be all over the news?" I pulled him into a hug.
"I just want this so much for you, Scully - for us."
"I want it too, Mulder. And there are ways for us to have a baby that don't involve magic potions," I assured him.
"Like what?" he mumbled into my hair.
"Adoption?" I suggested. "Or an ova donor, they do exist. We could use your sperm and I can still carry a child."
"You'd be willing to do that?" he asked softly.
"As long as we are both happy with the idea, I would. That's as close as I'll ever come to having our child, Mulder."
Knowing now that Mulder loved me, I looked back at his reaction to my infertility in a new light. I'd thought that he'd grieved with me as a friend, not as the father of the children I could no longer have. Knowing that he wanted our child as much as I did, made the ache in my heart even more keen. It was a long time before Mulder relaxed his hold on me.
As much as Mulder and I wanted to, we decided that we wouldn't be given enough privacy to stay inside and make love all day. So we reluctantly dressed and emerged to face the day.
Bathing in the stream together, we discussed what we should do now that my feet were better. For once we agreed on something; we needed to find some English-speaking people. Our reasons differed, but Mulder and I had often proved that when we worked together towards a common goal we were practically unstoppable.
"How are we going to explain that we have to go?" We were dressing beside the stream.
"I think using pictures, we should be able to get our point across. I'm more worried about how this is all going to go over," he admitted.
"What do you mean?" I didn't understand his concern.
"They've taken us in, fed us, clothed us, healed us and I'm fairly certain adopted us and now we are going to ask them to take us somewhere else. What if they think we weren't happy here?"
"We'll have to show them that we are happy here," I said simply. "Then try to explain that we need to leave, but we don't want to."
"That is a subtle difference to express playing pictionary and charades, Scully," Mulder said, taking my hand as we headed back to camp.
For the rest of the day, my heart was heavy as I thought about what Mulder had said. How were we going to explain the difference between want and need? All afternoon I helped the women in any capacity they would allow. Mulder fetched and carried for them, played with the kids and flirted with the grandmothers. We did everything that we could think of to show everyone how happy we were; complimenting the food, oohing and awing over the arts and crafts and admiring the skins that were being tanned.
Before long I could tell that almost everybody was slightly bemused by our behavior. Every chance we got, Mulder and I tried to think of some way to explain ourselves, but anything we thought of seemed far too complicated. My mind was racing trying to come up with an easy way to explain the difference between want and need, when the answer finally became clear.
"I'll teach them English."
"What?" Mulder looked up from playing cat's cradle with a young boy.
"And I'll start with two words, want and need," I heaved a sigh of relief.
"You think you can?" Mulder sounded doubtful.
"We have to try something," I shrugged, intent on figuring something out to explain our actions.
In the late afternoon before it was time for the evening meal, I gathered as many adults and teenagers as were willing. They all watched me expectantly as I picked up a twig and began to draw in the packed earth. Mulder sat off to the side playing cat's cradle by himself and watched.
To my right I wrote the word 'WANT' in large block letters and circled it. Then a few feet away to my left, I did the same with 'NEED'. Everyone peered curiously at the marks that I'd made.
"Need." I pointed to the word, and then I repeated it. Looking at Wanik, I pointed to the word again. Her brow furrowed immediately.
"Need," I said again. When I looked to Wanik a second time and pointed to the circle on the left, she repeated the word slowly.
Smiling, I nodded vigorously and repeated the word again. Going around the circle, I got everyone to say it. They all seemed pleased that they could please me so easily. When I moved on to 'want' they understood immediately and repeated the word right away.
"Now you just have to explain what they mean," Mulder said from the sidelines.
"Oh, ye of little faith," I chided him.
Seeing a pot of venison and wild rice simmering on the fire, I took a bowl, filled it, and placed it in the need circle.
"Need," I said firmly.
Walking over to Mulder, I snatched his string away, making several of the women guffaw.
"Want," I told them as I placed it in the appropriate circle. Turning to Mulder again, I asked him to run and get a deerskin from our wigwam. When he handed it to me, I placed it in the need circle. Removing my gold cross, I placed it with Mulder's string.
I had one more idea I was going to try before I tested them to see if they were grasping what I was saying. Dancing around, I began to squirm like a child who had to pee. Mulder began to laugh and everyone joined him.
"Need," I said loudly to get their attention.
Crooking my finger at Mulder, I got him to stand beside me. Then standing on my tiptoes, I surprised him with a passionate kiss. When I pulled away, Mulder looked a little dazed, making the women giggle.
"Want," I smiled at them.
With everyone watching, I ran to the stream and filled another bowl with water, held it between the circles and then looked at them questioningly.
"Need," they all said enthusiastically. I smiled smugly at Mulder. Spotting an elaborate design on Migisi's moccasin, I motioned for her to give it to me and then asked everyone where it should go.
"Need," some of them said decisively, dashing my hopes. I couldn't bring myself to turn and see the 'I told you so look' on Mulder's face. As I was wracking my brain to come up with something else, I was surprised to hear Wanik's voice.
Shaking her head, she took Migisi's moccasin and put it in the want circle. Then she took her own plain moccasin and put it with the needs.
A confused murmur ran through the on-lookers. So she picked up Migisi's moccasin and pointed to the design. "Want," she said clearly. In her own tongue she said something as she pointed to her plain one. "Need," she said proudly, grinning at me.
"Yes," I clapped my hands as everyone began to nod in understanding.
"Good work, Scully," Mulder smiled, sliding his arm around my waist. "Now comes the hard part."
Walking over to the stream, we sat down and I dangled my feet in the cool water. My head was pounding - it had been a long time since I taught anything, and I'd never found any class at Quantico that challenging. I stretched my neck from side to side trying to ease out the kinks.
"It will make things easier, I'm sure," Mulder reassured me as he scooted behind me and began to rub my shoulders.
"But I don't think any of us will be any happier about it," I sighed, leaning back against his hands. "At least now they'll understand that we don't want to go."
Mulder was silent for a minute as he continued to work on my tense muscles. "I was wondering, Scully," he said finally. "What will it take to convince you?"
"I'm not sure, Mulder. How far in the past do you think we are?" I avoided answering his question.
"After the French and Indian Wars there weren't supposed to be any Fox Indians left in Wisconsin, so that would put us around the 1750s or '60's. If that's the case, we'll have a hard time finding any English-speaking people. There weren't any white settlers here until the 1830's, if memory serves. If we're pressed I might be able to speak passable French."
"Then what? What if there aren't any settlers around here?" If Mulder was right, and we were in the past, this could be the 1600s. French missionaries had been in this area that early. Their influence could explain the presence of European tools in the village.
"So you believe that we're in the past?" Mulder whispered in my ear.
"I don't know what to believe," I groaned. "My head hurts too much to think about it."
"Well, we'll find out shortly." He began to massage my temples.
After we'd eaten dinner, Mulder gathered everyone around again. The sun was setting and dusk was filling the camp, so we stood beside the fire for the added light. He began by drawing a little village by a stream. Pointing at the encampment first, he then pointed to his picture. Everyone nodded in understanding. Then he lengthened his stream and pointed to the end away from the village. One of the men took the stick from Mulder and using his foot erased part of the stream. Then he showed the little stream flowing into a much bigger one that he'd represented with two lines. Mulder then lengthened those lines and tapped his stick at the end again. Taking the stick back, the same man then drew two circles - lakes.
"That's Madison, Scully," Mulder nodded towards the picture. Taking the stick again, he crouched down and drew some buildings between the two lakes and then looked up at the man questioningly. He nodded immediately.
Mulder stood up and put his arm around me. "Dana, Mulder, need," he said emphatically, pointing towards his representation of Madison.
There was some quiet murmuring and then my heart sank as silence fell over the suddenly somber people around us.
End chapter 4