Life Matters - By Black Ripple

Rating: T/M for language and scenes of a sexual nature

Disclaimer: This is a work purely of fanfiction. I do not own the X-files and make no money from anything that is posted here.

Summary: It's time for Mr and Mrs Petrie to make another appearance. But will Mulder and Scully's second assignment as a married couple prove more challenging, and indeed dangerous, than the last? And when the hell will they finally admit to how they feel about each another?! Featuring Innuendo!Mulder, Horny!Scully, cottage cheese, hot tubs, drunken conversations, late night water fights and much, much more…


4/15

Chapter 3 – Crazy talk

'I swear,' Scully growled from beneath her casual smile. 'If you don't take that hand off my butt you're not gonna see it again for a long time, buster!'

Mulder quickly removed his hand.

'Just trying to stay in character, my sweetness,' Mulder muttered.

It was 1pm and Mulder and Scully had trailed around the neighbourhood, seemingly on a romantic stroll. In actual fact they had been checking the place out for any suspicious behaviour. But so far, they'd seen nothing that warranted any investigation.

They had met a few of the local people and introduced themselves as Rob and Laura Petrie. Everybody had seemed very nice; no obsessive rules and regulations to be seen anywhere, Thank God!

But then, all in all it was looking like this might be a bit of a dud assignment.

After catching a spot of lunch at a local restaurant - recommended by Bob and Mary Jeffers from down the road – Mulder and Scully had decided to head back to their house. Scully was going to do some grocery shopping while Mulder took the mystery note off the forensic lab in the city to be analysed.

He would be gone fore a good 4 hours, which , Scully thought to herself smugly, would give her plenty of time to start her report and get some housework done.

As they turned the corner back onto their street, Scully caught a glimpse of something white in the corner of her eye. She turned her head and looked across the road. A cold sweat suddenly breaking out across her forehead. Standing there, staring at her with deadened eyes was somebody who could not be there.

Scully stopped dead in her tracks, her breathing desperately shallow. The urge to run was overwhelming.

Mulder turned from where he had walked on. As soon as he saw her face, his eyes grew serious and he stepped closer to her.

'Laura, what is it?'

Scully turned her gaze away from the figure and glanced at Mulder with eyes unseeing. She raised a trembling hand and pointed to where the figure was standing, her gaze locked on Mulder's face.

He turned his head in the direction she was pointing and frowned.

'Sweetie, there's nothing there,' he said, clutching at her sleeve.

Scully's head whipped around, desperation bubbling in her chest.

'He was there,' she coughed. 'I s-saw him Mulder. Oh God he's back, he's back. No…not this time it won't happen again!'

Scully reached for her gun in the back of her jeans. But her arm was suddenly gripped firmly by Mulder.

'Not here, Scully!' He warned lowly. 'And it's Rob!' He muttered in an undertone.

Mind still reeling from what she saw, Scully let herself be lead back into the house. Once the door was firmly closed Scully fell apart.

'It WAS HIM!! Mulder we have to call somebody!' She yelled pacing around the room.

Mulder simply stood in the hallway staring at her with a calm expression. Scully hated that; she wanted to tear it off of him, make him cuss and bleed and feel. Just like her.

'Scully…' he murmured in that tone that she really didn't want to hear. 'It can't have been him. You know it can't have been.'

'But-'

'But nothing!' Mulder raised his voice. 'You're tired, stressed and you think you saw something, when in actual fact your mind was playing tricks on you.'

Scully was still pacing, her mind a whir. She knew Mulder was trying to talk sense into her. She knew he was probably right. The mixture of stress, and not enough sleep had caused the chemicals in her brain to produce a hallucination. It was typical.

But damn it she could have been sure.

'How can you be sure?' She whined in a tiny voice, looking up at Mulder with hazy eyes.

She saw him crumple; his stern exterior giving way to a concerned expression as he closed the distance between them.

'You know why I'm sure Scully.' He simply said. 'You know it.'

With that said he pulled her to him.

She melted into his embrace. God she needed this. The urge to let out a sob was overwhelming, but she buried her face into Mulder's jacket and quelled it, instead focussing on the sound of his heartbeat.

When she felt calmer, she glanced up at him. The concerned expression was still present, but there was something else hidden behind his eyes.

'Since when were you the voice of reason?' She joked, her voice cracking horribly.

Scully winced.

Mulder chose to ignore it, instead drawing her down onto the couch to lean against him.

They sat for a while in comfortable silence, him grazing his fingertips up and down her arm, she listening to the sound of his heartbeat.

After a moment Mulder broke the silence.

'Would you prefer me to call Skinner and get someone else on this?' He all but whispered.

Scully tried to pull out of his embrace, but Mulder had seemingly anticipated this and held her fast.

'NO! God, Mulder. It's just stress! I'm perfectly capable of doing my job!'

'Ok, ok!' He said soothingly.

She settled against him once more and they fell again into silence.

'Can I lie down for a while?' Scully said, after a while with an embarrassed smile. She was starting to feel incredibly tired.

Instead of answering, Mulder pulled her closer against him and manoeuvred his body so that he was lying on the couch with her on top of him.

'Mulder,' Scully tried to protest. 'I'm squishing you!'

'Stop it woman!' Mulder calmed her once again. 'You couldn't squish anybody.'

Scully could hear the smirk in his voice when he said, 'You're pint sized,' under his breath.

'At this moment in time I'm too comfortable to hit you, but that comment was noted,' Scully muttered.

'Oooh, I'm scared!' Mulder laughed.

'You will be,' Scully replied.

They lay comfortably for a while, each listening to the other's breathing.

Scully loved the feeling of Mulder surrounding her, encasing her. It just felt right. She shivered as his fingertips brushed the bare skin of her back where her top had ridden up.

Mulder's hand faltered momentarily before continuing its journey up and down her spine. But something had changed in his touch.

There was more than just comfort in the contact he was giving her. This was a caress. And, Scully thought, it was having the desired effect on her.

Scully lifted her head to gaze into Mulder's eyes. They were dilated and filled with some kind of emotion she was sure she was imagining.

'Scully,' he breathed, his fingertips disappearing beneath the hem of her top.

Scully moaned involuntarily as his warm hands danced across her naked flesh, leaving a trail of goose bumps. His hands stroked up and down her back, before curling around her sides. His fingers grazed against the back of her bra and Scully's breathing went desperately shallow.

No touch was close enough in this moment and Scully slowly slipped a knee between Mulder's parted thighs, delighting in the sound of his shaking breath-

'-NOW HAND OVER TO MIKE ROBERTS IN THE WEATHER OFFICE FOR AN UPDATE ON TODAYS WEATHER.'

Scully shrieked, twisted and tried to sit up all at the same time, which resulted in her falling off Mulder and the couch onto the floor with a bump.

For a moment the room was filled with only the tinny sound of Mike Roberts discussing how there were rain clouds rolling in across the west coast; until Mulder plucked the cursed remote from between his thighs and turned the TV off.

There was a stunned pause…which lasted all of 5 seconds until Mulder looked down at her, where she sat on the floor in a heap, snorted and let out the deepest belly laugh Scully had ever heard him utter. He clutched at a cushion and rolled around the couch, kicking his legs.

Scully pouted.

Mulder stopped laughing.

That is until he looked down at her at her again, bit his lip, then gave in and started laughing uproariously again; beating his fists against the cushion, tears of mirth rolling down his cheeks.

'Oh laugh it up, chuckles,' growled Scully, heaving herself off the floor and rubbing the sore spot on her butt as she made her way to the kitchen.


Scully's butt still hurt as she wandered up and down aisle 10 of the local supermarket three hours later, looking for sesame seeds for Mulder.

After Mulder had composed himself enough to stand up, he had taken their mystery note off to be analysed at the city office. Not liking the idea of staying in the house alone, after her hallucination, Scully had wandered down to the local store to pick up some supplies, like she had planned.

But now, looking at her shopping list, she could see that Mulder had added a few of his own ideas as to what food they should have in the house. 'If you can call it food,' Scully muttered to herself as she looked over the scribbled words, ice-cream, jello, sesame seeds and tequila.

Well, Tequila she could handle.

'Did you say something?'

Scully whirled around and saw a middle aged woman with bleached blonde hair looking at her curiously.

'Oh…I, uh- I was just looking over the additions my husband added to our shopping list,' Scully muttered, handing the list over for the woman to read.

The woman grimaced.

'Let me guess…newlyweds?' She said with a raised eyebrow.

Scully desperately tried to think back over their cover story.

'Uhhh…kind of… 3 months.'

'3 months?!' The woman exclaimed in mock shock, 'I would've thought you'd have had him well trained by now.'

Scully chuckled, and the woman joined in with a deep giggle.

'I'm Ellis,' she extended her hand. 'Ellis Skinner.'

Scully took her hand and shook it daintily, in a way she hoped defined femininity and shyness.

'Laura,' she replied quietly. 'Laura Petrie.'

'It's lovely to meet you Laura,' said Ellis. 'I take it you just moved in on Church Drive?'

'Yes, yes we did, just yesterday.' Scully replied.

'I'm almost done, here Laura, but I was wondering if perhaps you'd like to come over for some coffee? Get to know the neighbours? Well…me at least.'

Ellis looked so earnest that Scully found herself agreeing without thought. In fact, Scully found she was quite looking forward to it.


A/N: Sooo, the plot thickens. I know it's all quite secretive at the moment, but all will be revealed in time! In the next chapter: Mulder's POV, arguments and dinner parties and some sneaky investigations. Thanks to all who reviewed! Keep reading and keep those reviews coming. Even if it's just to tell me that this story sucks X)

Squisshes x.