-MULDER-

She asked that question and instantly I felt my heart swell with love for her, wanting desperately to answer with the obvious truth. She was the only one that I had cared so deeply for, so strongly for. The intensity of my feelings for her frightened me, scared me senseless. But I couldn't tell her that. Ever. The risk of rejection was too great, too likely.

I stared at her blue eyes, open wide and gazing at me curiously. "Well? Are you going to answer, or do I win? This game is easy!" She said, the ever present teasing glint that we had come to associate with each other ever shining.

"Not so fast. I'm not giving up that easily!" I said, lowering my voice. She giggled. "I think I would be lying if I said that I had never had more than friendly feelings for all the girls I have housed with." I said, knowing as well as she that I had nothing to answer her question. I had simply been talking in a circle, as I often did, but she was clever enough to keep me from spinning it. I seemed to keep forgetting that.

"What crap is that? Answer the question!" She demanded, her smile downplaying her words.

"Once. There was a girl, two, three years ago. She had long brown hair that billowed, like branches of trees dancing in the wind. But her family found out and to stop it, got rid of me and washed their hands of us. It was tragic really," I said, pulling a picture of her out of my memory, filling myself with her. At once, this would have been enough, but now, after Scully, it did nothing. Nothing.

"What was her name?" Scully asked, interrupting my internal exchange.

"You already asked a question," I said, repeating her earlier alibi. She had wriggled out of my question and I was only being difficult to prove to her – and to myself – that I could just as easily wriggle out of hers.

"I'm not asking another question. I'm adding onto my first one." She said, countering my counter, her words stopping my wriggling.

"So are you changing the rules now?" I asked, wriggling once more, more furiously than before.

"Of course not. That would be cheating, and I never cheat. Except when I'm playing with Charlie." She said, her vice-like grip ceasing my wriggling permanently. She smiled and as she did, her shining face almost lit the room. "I am making an amendment to the rules. You made them up so I have 'make an amendment, get out of jail free' cards. So what was her name?"

I smirked. Well, wasn't she witty? "Yes." I answered my own internal question. "Her name was Diana."

"See, now wasn't that easy?" She asked, recovering quickly from her shock at such an easy victory.

"All right, Little Miss Sarcastic, it's my turn. And since the addition clause has been initiated, this could take a while." Scully looked ready to protest, but she must have realized she had brought this upon herself because she closed her open mouth. Smart girl.

"Seeing as how you have such amazing insight into the male mind, you should see this coming." She did the signature eyebrow raise; left brow up, lips pinched. I wonder if she knows how cute I found that, how cute I found her. Could she feel my hidden feelings? Could she feel the profession of love that was disguised as insult, affection that masked itself, shielded itself, for fear of rejection, fear of the love being unrequited? God, I hope not.

"Will you just ask already? Don't prolong the agony any longer!" She begged, laughing as she feigned anxious impatience.

"You asked for it. Tell me about your first time and I mean elaborate, gory, juicy, dirty details."