DISCLAIMER: Forgot this is chapter one. I don't own Mulder, Scully, the X-Files, Skinner, Kersh, CSM, or anyone else you've ever seen on the show. ;-) They belong to Chris Carter, 1013, FOX, and the actors and actresses who portray them. If those people are going to sue me, I say go for it! Maybe I'd get to meet some of em, and I'd probably make the news. It'd brighten up my dull life, really. Even if they won, I don't have many nice things to lose. ;-)

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I still remember the way the late afternoon sun came in through the tiny basement window. Mulder and I were completing some expense reports when the office phone rang. Correction, I was doing the expense reports, he was chucking pencils at the ceiling. It was almost better off that way, since although he was an Oxford educated, extremely intelligent man, my partner was absolutely terrible with paperwork. I always ended up redoing his anyway. I reached for the phone tiredly, and answered with a standard "Scully."

"Agent Scully, this is Kimberley. AD Skinner wants to see you and Agent Mulder right away," said the voice on the other end.

"Hm, okay. Any idea why?" I asked curiously. Kimberley had always been nice to me, and one of the very few who hadn't passed judgment on Mulder and I.

"Nope, sorry Agent Scully. Seems urgent, though, he wanted you up here now."

"Okay," I replied, "we'll be right there."

I hung up and looked to Mulder.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"Kimberley. Skinner wants to see us. Now."

"What did we do now?" he sighed.

I smiled at him weakly, and we headed for the elevator.


That was one of the few time Kimberley ushered us straight into his office, without a wait. She closed the door behind us, and we sat down in the chairs we seemed to be in all too often. Skinner, to my surprise, did not look angry. Rather, he looked worried. After sitting in front of this man's desk for years, I could tell the difference. I had a bad feeling about this right away. I glanced at Mulder, who seemed to be reading the situation the same way I had.

"Agents," Skinner began, "AD Kersh just had a word with me, demanding I speak to you."

"What about, Sir?" I asked.

"As both of you know," he said, pausing. He was having a hard time getting this out. "Fraternization between partners is frowned upon, and often grounds for breaking partners up."

"Sure, Sir, but what does that have to do with us?" Mulder asked, feigning ignorance.

"Kersh says you're romantically involved--"

"How would *he* know?" I found myself asking, angrily.

"It doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter if you *are*, really. Agents, I like you. You know that, but there are plenty of people around here who don't. Kersh says he saw you," another awkward pause, "kissing. In the stairwell on work hours."

"And he has proof?" Mulder asked.

"He said he'll get the security tape. Now, I could care less what you two do with each other--honestly. If this was something I stumbled upon, I would simply ignore it. You're a good team, romantically involved or not. To be honest, I think it's ridiculous we're even discussing this," he exhaled deeply. "But, Kersh doesn't. He believes this is hindering your work."

"Hindering our work? With all due respect, Sir, we have one of the highest solve rates in the Bureau. Maybe it ought to be that partners *have* to fraternize with each other--"

"Agent Mulder!" Skinner scolded. "The walls may have ears. Anything you say can be used as a confession."

"Well you can testify, Sir. Tell them that we're a good team, and our," I paused, searching for words, "romantic status, shouldn't matter."

"It would be my word against Kersh's," Skinner said.

"And? You know us better," I said.

"They'd use that against me. They'd make me out to be your protector. And Kersh's word is valued above mine. He's the Director's golden boy," Skinner sighed, "and on the fast track to Deputy Director. It's just a matter of the paperwork, they're saying now."

"So, we don't have a shot," I sighed.

"No, but you have options," Skinner said.

"What are they?" Mulder asked.

"Well, you can deny the claims. They'd bring you into an OPR investigation. They'd dig up everything they could on you--the videotape, and they'd go through your entire personal lives. Nothing is off limit to these people, agents. They'd go through whatever they could get their hands on. Your chances of winning against there are very slim." He regrouped his thoughts for a moment, and continued. "There is another option. You could allow yourselves to be split up. One of you could remain on the X-Files. If you risk the OPR investigation, there is good shot both of you will be removed from the X-Files, and split up anyway. If one of you voluntarily is transferred to a new unit, the one who remained of the X-Files would likely get a new partner. Neither of your records would be tarnished the way they would under an OPR investigation. I must say, Agents, I *strongly* urge you *not* to undergo an OPR investigation. These are powerful people. You'd never get out of there with the X-Files."

Mulder and I said nothing.

"I want you to know that I don't want to do this. Kersh called me, demanding I do my job. If I don't, we're all screwed. I like you two. In fact, if you are together, which is none of my business, I'm thrilled for you both. If I don't do this, Kersh will handle it exponentially harsher than I will. We'll all have a problem, then. I can't believe we're even having this conversation…"

"Can we, uh, have some time to think about it?" Mulder asked.

"Of course. I'll need an answer soon, agents, preferably tomorrow."

"Yes, Sir. Thank you," I said.

He nodded mutely.

"You can head home Agents, it's getting late."

We silently stood up, slowly processing the information he had hit us with. God, how could this happen? One tiny kiss? We had been so damn careful! Kersh was there? My mind reeled, and underneath my cool exterior, I was panicking. This was not happening, I told myself over and over. Everything between us was so perfect. Now all of that was jeopardized: our work, our partnership, our friendship, our relationship...

"Agents," Skinner said, before we reached the door. We turned to look at him. "I'm sorry."

"Me too," Mulder said. I nodded silently, and we walked out of the office.

We walked down the hallway silently. Once we reached the elevator, our eyes finally met. I saw fear in his eyes, and knew that they mirrored my own. We *were* afraid: afraid we'd lose our work, our friendship, our partnership, and our newfound romance. Finally, I couldn't take the silence anymore.

"We have to talk about this," I said.

"Not here, it's not safe," he said.

"Yeah. You think our places are?" I asked.

"Don't know. I'm going to call the Gunmen and have them sweep for bugs at both of our apartments. For now, we'll meet elsewhere. In Alexandria, there's a coffee shop around the block from me. It's a trendy place, I can't think of the name," he said.

"I know where it is. I'll meet you there, we have to take separate cars."

"Yeah," he said. As the elevator doors opened to the parking garage, he added, "We'll be okay."

"I hope so," I replied with a weak smile.

I pulled up outside of the coffee shop. It was a big college hangout, but a lovely place. It was called The Muddy Cup, and the inside was rather large. I pulled up, and noticed that Mulder's car was already there. I shut my door forcibly, for the first time expressing the anger that was rising within me. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fucking fair.

I walked in to see him sitting at one of the tables with two cups of coffee. I sat at the chair across from him. I sunk into the comfy chair, wishing I had the state of mind at the moment to sit back and enjoy a cup of coffee with my lover. He slid the large mug of coffee towards me. I sipped it silently. Light and sweet, just the way I like it. I loved that he knew these things. I didn't have time, however, to enjoy that.

"What do you want to do?" he asked.

"I don't know," I faltered. "The OPR investigation is so risky, Mulder. I don't want to risk having both of us removed from the X-Files. It would end the work, and also damage our standing with the Bureau further than it's already been damaged."

"Well, then, I guess we have no choice. We'll have to split up."

"Yeah," I said, sadly.

"At least they can't split us up outside the office," he offered, gripping my hand across the table. "Now, as for who is going where..."

"I'll leave the X-Files, Mulder. I know it means a lot to you."

"Yeah, but so do you. Will you be okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," I replied. "I'll ask to be transferred to Quantico. I'll go back to teaching."

"Thank you, Scully. You have no idea how much this means to me, honestly."

I smiled weakly and said, "As long as we're together *somewhere,* Mulder, that's all that matters. At least one of us will be on the X-Files."

"And now we can kiss wherever the fuck we want, because we're not partners anymore," he added, his voice sarcastic.

"Damn, it sounds so final," I sighed.

"I know," he said. "I know."

"God, Mulder, it isn't fair," I said, vocalizing my earlier thoughts.

"Nothing ever is. I can't believe we got caught," he sighed.

"It shouldn't matter, Mulder. They're acting like our parents or something. Jesus, I feel like I'm sixteen again and being punished for making out in the backseat of a boys car."

He smiled a bit and said, "Ahab didn't go for that, did he?"

"No," I smiled. "And neither does Kersh."

"It's all just to slow down the X-Files, Scully, but I won't let that happen."

"We can't," I sighed.
As we finished our coffee, Mulder's cell phone rang. It was the Gunmen, reporting back on their search for bugs. Apparently Langley said it was "negatory," so we could head back home. We got in our separate cars and agreed to meet at my apartment.

We pulled up within seconds of each other, and walked inside. I hung up our jackets and opened the fridge, looking for something to make for dinner. Finding nothing, we agreed to order a pizza. Half pepperoni, half mushrooms. The usual; but nothing was usual. Things had changed. We weren't partners. How was I going to get used to that? How could I fall out of my routine of wandering down to those basement offices like I used to?

After dinner, we lounged on the couch together. We had said nothing about our current situation since we left the coffee shop. My head was swarming with emotions: anger, grief, guilt, sadness, fear, love, hate... I didn't want to think anymore. I grabbed the remote and clicked the television off. I turned to Mulder, whom I was basically laying on.

I turned my body around so that I was looking down into his eyes. Silently, I brought my lips down to his own. The familiar feel of his kiss calmed my raging mind. There was nothing there except for his big, made-to-kiss lips, his soft, probing tongue, the slight five o'clock shadow on his face feeling scratchy against the soft skin of my cheek, his hands in my hair... For a moment, everything was right again. He pulled his lips away from our passionate kiss to speak.

"Are you okay, Scully?" he asked.

"Yeah. Fine," I said, kissing him again. I wasn't fine, but it didn't matter. I needed him now.

He pulled back and said, "Please don't hide anything from me. Not now."

"I'm upset about our…situation, but that doesn't matter now. We're here together now. I love you, Mulder."

"I love you too," he responded.

That was what I needed for the time being. All I wanted was to kiss him, to hold him, to be with him. We rose from the couch silently and proceeded to the bedroom. He ravished me, making me feel good. That was what I needed. I was hating myself, blaming myself for what happened. I needed to feel okay again. To feel loved, needed, wanted...happy. That was what he did for me.

I never realized how deeply our work would affect everything else.

We reported to Skinner the next morning. He seemed just as upset as Mulder and I. Both of us knew it was really out of his hands, but it was easy to see that he still felt guilty. He agreed to transfer me to the academy at Quantico, effective immediately. My first day there would be in the morning. Agent Mulder would remain on the X-Files and receive a new partner by next week.

"Agent Scully," Skinner added, "you may no longer be any part of the X-Files. This means no autopsies or paperwork for Agent Mulder. You will do only what is assigned to you at Quantico. This means not accompanying Mulder on any trips that may have to do with an X-File. Whatever you do on your own time is fine, but Agent Scully must have *nothing* to do with the X-Files, or it is likely they will be taken away from you, Agent Mulder."

I nodded and said, "I understand." I did understand, but I didn't want to accept it.

"Okay, Agents, you can go."

I walked out, smiling nostalgically a bit. No more reports to Skinner. No more reports. No more field work. Just teaching new cadets, and some "slicing and dicing." Quantico. Back to fucking Quantico. Sure, it had satisfied me *then,* but that was before. Before the X-Files, before Mulder. Before I knew how passionate the job could get. I sighed out loud, thinking that at least they couldn't take Mulder away from me now.

I grabbed his hand as we walked towards the elevator. I may have been going out, but I was going out swinging.

Life went on, and I had to live it.