My Spooky Valentine

By: Starbuck223

The usual disclaimer applies. Mulder and Scully aren't mine, I only own their action figures and about a trillion episodes, magazines, and photos of them. I'm not obsessed...nooo, not me!

Starbuck: Hello hello loyal readers everywhere! I'm so glad you clicked on my fic. The last one that I wrote was so well received that it got my muse in great spirits and I've been spouting out poetry and short fiction, and a really weird post-modern type work...it's only fair to get some fanfic out too! The idea for this fic leaped into my head one night really randomly, and I found it to be really easy to write, so I just poured out a ton of stuff. I'm still going to post in chapters, as usual, but hopefully they'll be more regular than usual. I still have a rough schedule, so I apologize about any waiting! Enjoy!

Special thanks goes always to my beta buddy Jen, and all of the support that she's given me in my writing and otherwise. Also, to all of you readers, you make my life so great because I feel like I'm actually successful and not just stealing someone else's characters and using them for fluff. :)



Chapter 1

Dana Scully walked along the sidewalk on a brisk winter morning. It was still dark out, but the city was alive with activity. She observed several people rushing around with gifts and candy before realizing the date. February 14th....Valentine's Day, of course.

Scully thought about the whole concept of a day devoted to love as she entered the J Edgar Hoover FBI building. It was nice for couples and lovers, but the rest of society? To her, Valentine's had been completely forgotten, showing how insignificant and irrelevant the holiday was in her life. For her there was no significant other, unless you counted Mulder, which she didn't. Her big plans for the day - it was a Friday - included nothing more than going to work, taking a nice long bubble bath and relaxing with a bowl of chocolate chocolate-chip ice-cream.

The elevator doors parted and Scully made her way silently to the X Files' office.

Mulder wasn't there to great her, as he usually was. He must have gone out for some coffee, Scully thought, as she took off her coat.

Just then her glance fell to the office's lone desk. On top of it, front and center, sat a gorgeous bouquet of red roses. A perfect dozen sprinkled with baby's breath.

Scully wondered absentmindedly if they were for her, then had the terrifying thought that they weren't. What if Mulder had gotten them for another woman? Scully was hurt immediately by the thought, though she chided herself for it. What right did she have to begrudge her partner a valentine? She and Mulder were what they were, and nothing more. There wasn't any reason that the flowers shouldn't be for another woman...

But they weren't.

Scully spied a small white tag arranged among the crimson buds. Scrawled in a calligraphers hand was one word: Scully.

She approached curiously, delighted that the bouquet was really meant for her. She wondered if it was wrong to read the tag without Mulder present, but she'd already seen the flowers...what was the card's importance anyway? She couldn't stop herself from snatching it and reading its contents eagerly, her eyes lighting over each word.

Scully, with hair as red as wine...

Won't you be my Valentine?

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise, but her skeptical brain took control immediately. It was merely a joke; a nice gesture on Mulder's part, intended to cheer her up.

Mulder's voice coming from the doorway took the stunned Scully by complete surprise.

"So what's the verdict?" He asked, entering with two cups of coffee.

So she was correct in guessing why he wasn't there...

Scully stammered, not knowing how to respond to that particular question.

"I'll admit, I make a lousy poet," Mulder said, grinning. "Your hair is red, my tie is blue, you don't have plans for tonight, do you?"

Scully examined her partner curiously, then glared at him mockingly. "What do you mean I don't have any plans? Is that what you think?" Scully asked incredulously. "Why wouldn't I have plans on a Friday night that happens to be Valentine's Day as well?"

Mulder swallowed his coffee, taken aback. "I'm sorry, I guess I just hoped that you didn't...." He saw her smiling and realized the joke was on him. "Just what are your plans, Ms. Scully?" He emphasized the Ms.

Scully looked wonderingly at the flowers. "I take it you actually have something to do tonight?" She asked.

Mulder flashed her one of his charming smiles. "Of course, m'lady!"

Scully rolled her eyes. "Alright start talking because all I've got is a hot bath and a gallon of ice cream in store for tonight," she admitted.

Mulder looked triumphant. "Well, you don't think those flowers were purchased for you just out of the kindness of my great bit palpitating heart, now did you?"

"I had my doubts," She shot back, though she was a little disheartened by the fact that that wasn't really the reason behind the flowers. "What're they for?" She asked, curious despite her defeat. "Skinner?"

Mulder let out a choked laugh. "No, they are for you. They're a means of persuasion...glorified bribery."

Scully raised an eyebrow. "Mulder, I don't know what kind of stories you've heard about me..." She began sternly.

"Its not all bad, trust me. I really do want you to be my valentine. I'm going to a real-live fairytale ball and I'd look pretty lame entering without a date on this wonderful day of love."

Scully was surprised. "What, no case? No monsters, or ghosts? No aliens, government conspiracies, nothing? You're going to a ball?" Dana Scully asked incredulously. "Oh my God...you're going to a ball..." She mumbled.

Her thoughts bounced from seeing him writhing in pain as the music and finery went on around him to just picturing him in princely attire. It was a nice image for her brain to muse on.

"And so are you!" He said with fake exuberance. "If you want to at least. And actually, it gets better." He was proud that he'd managed to completely surprise his partner. "This party is going to be one swell shindig...the box social to end all box socials," he kidded, rambling on and dragging her away from her happy mental images.

Scully smiled at his lame attempts at humor, still not fully on to his game.

"It's going to be tuxes and ball gowns, up do's and finger foods. It's going to be the biggest, richest, fanciest party of the evening, and we are going on special invitation."

"Oh?" Scully asked, finally understanding. "And what's the catch that's sure to accompany these invites?"

Mulder stopped smiling for a minute. "Can't you guess?" He asked, seriously.

Scully thought for a moment. "Special assignment from Skinner to bust tax-evading rich people?" She asked.

Mulder crowed at the thought of it. "Jeez, Scully, do you think I'm that pathetic?"

She grinned, expecting such a response. "Alright, what then?"

"The Lone Gunmen are tracking the activities of some big money men in the corporation who are putting on the show. Something to do with conspiracies and crimes against voting citizens everywhere is taking place...I didn't get too many details, because with the gunmen, it can be better not to know."

"That doesn't sound like you," Scully interjected. "You always know details."

Mulder smiled wryly. "I was just happy to score tickets for the two of us to have a romantic Valentine's Day evening."

"How did you manage to get tickets for all of us anyway?" Scully asked, wondering about the fine details as usual. She wasn't at all surprised by the fact that they were invading a ball for some conspiracy theory. Her brain was busy pondering something else....something that didn't quite fit.

"They know three people who work on the inside and who already have tickets. The difficult part was scoring the extra two for you and yours truly."

That was the part she hadn't been able to put her finger on. Balls were a couples affair.

"You mean the Lone Gunmen found dates?!" She sputtered.

Mulder laughed. "Actually, they did...don't even ask me how."

"Remind me to ask them," Scully said, giggling.

Somehow the only image she could conjure up in her head was of the three well-known conspiracy geeks arriving with tall, beautiful super-models. Frohike, Langly, and Byers....with women, and normal, good looking ones. That image disturbed her greatly.

"So..." She began. "You, me, the Lone Gunmen, and three..." She paused, recalling the photo she'd created in her mind's eye. "Three whoever-they-are-s, busting some corporation on Valentine's Day." She paused. "That sounds fitting."

"Will you go?" Mulder asked, hopefully and still without an answer to that burning question.

"Of course I'll go," Scully answered with a calm smile. "This is going to be waytoo interesting to miss."



Thoughts? Ideas? Hope you all like it! It's been a little while since I've written new stuff, and I actually have a list of things that are in line to be written (have them mapped out but not written out) and this one just popped into my head and jumped to the front of the line. Wiley little fic! The next chapter is really fun. Hope you'll REVIEW and stick around for more!