Disclaimer: X-Files and its characters are owned by 20th Century Fox and Chris Carter.I just borrowed them for a few hours :)

Author's Note: I wrote this story and my other X-Files fanfic a number of years ago and thought it time to upload to this community. Thiswas my first attempt at fanfic, written way back in 1996, so be warned!

Satisfying Curiosities

Mulder sorted through the endless files and paperwork on his desk. It was late on a Sunday night and Skinner had called him and Scully in to wrap up work on a case. Mulder had been staring at his computer screen for so long, he began to wonder if his screen saver of "the truth is out there" was permanently burned in his eyes. There was no way he could continue working like this. Hell with Skinner, he thought. He rubbed his eyes then turned to look at Scully who seemed to be asleep at her desk. "Hey, Scully," he tried calling her. No response, so she was definitely asleep. "Scully," he whispered while he walked over to her slumped form. She seemed so peaceful, so pleasantly content, so pretty. Partners, partners, partner, he chanted to himself. He leaned over her, placed his hand on her shoulder and squeezed it.

"Hmmmm," she breathed slowly. A smile spread across her face. That feels so good. She sighed and opened her eyes finding herself face to face with Mulder. The smile left and she chewed her lower lip nervously.

"Nice dream?" Mulder asked.

"Yeah, well, you know, it was just a dream." A really nice dream. She stood and stretched. "Hey, Mulder, do you mind if we get out of here? I want to go home and get some sleep."

"Great minds think alike." I doubt, though, that Scully's thinking about how her stomach is peeking through the buttons of her blouse while she's stretching. "Uh," his voice crackled, so he tried clearing his throat. "Do you want me to take you home?"

"Sure."

Mulder placed his hand on her back to lead her out the door. For a second, it felt like he completed a circuit. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

X X X

"Mulder, why does the car seem to be slowing down?"

In his offer to drive her home, he neglected to mention that he'd noticed the battery in the car he'd requisitioned was dying. He'd expected to make it another day or two, but the car apparently didn't want to cooperate. He pulled over to the side of the dark road and thrust his hand through his hair, trying to think of a way to explain it to her. He decided on simplicity. "The battery died."

"What?" Scully jerked her head in his direction.

"The battery died."

"Oh, Jesus, Mulder, what the hell are we supposed to do now?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Wait."

She rolled her eyes. "It's after midnight on a Sunday. There hasn't been a car in sight for the past 15 minutes. Just who do you intend to wait for?"

He sighed. "Well, someone's bound to come by sometime, Scully."

"In the meantime?"

"In the meantime, we just have to keep ourselves occupied."

Occupied, she thought. What in the world could they do in a car to keep themselves occupied? "How?" she decided to ask.

"Talk." He tried to think of something else to say, but he was at a loss for words. He watched Scully staring out the window, glassy-eyed and obvious that she didn't want to be there. Am I really that boring? he wondered. There had to be something besides the X-Files that they could talk about, but he couldn't think of it at that moment. Perhaps a part of his problem was the intense interest he had taken in Scully's form, silhouetted by the dim lights outside. They outlined her in a way he'd never seen her before. "Hey, Scully," he whispered. He had to say something to break her apparent boredom. "Did you ever make out in a car?"

She turned her head, her eyebrows risen. "Excuse me?" Well, that's certainly one way to occupy yourself, she conceded in her mind. Stop it, Dana. He's your partner.

Where the hell had that come from? He really had to explain his way out of this one. "Well, I just got to thinking about when I first got a car when I was young, you know. I just wondered if you did the same kind of stuff. Childhood memories, that's all I was talking about. You know what I mean."

She couldn't resist smiling. He was cute when he was flustered, especially that he still hadn't stopped explaining why he'd asked the question. "Mulder, you can stop now."

He pursed his lips together. "Sorry."

"It's okay." She thought about whether she should answer his question. She watched his face, staring ahead with a strong look of defeat in trying to initiate conversation with her. "Yes." She'd considered telling him the story, but felt strange about it. A simple 'yes' would have to do for now.

He turned around and looked at her, slightly surprised to hear 'yes.' "You, Scully?" He suddenly regretted the question as images of making out with Scully flashed through his mind. He wondered if she ever had the same thoughts about him. Should I ask? nah, she'll think I'm a sicko. Then again. . .

X X X

Mulder shifted in his seat. Their previous conversation had died a half hour ago, specifically since Mulder hadn't been able to focus on anything more than asking Scully if she'd ever thought about him that way. "Hey Scully," he began, not quite sure how to ask the question, but knowing if he didn't he'd permanently lose the courage to do it again. "Did you ever think about us and. . ." He couldn't get the words out, so he made some swirling hand gesture in the air. "You know," he added with a quick smile. He glanced at her to gauge her reaction.

Scully stared out the window, half-surprised and half-not about what he asked. She wasn't sure she could tell him--after all, there was nothing in his question to admit that he thought about her that way. But then that he asked the question was something in itself. She didn't turn her head, but moved her eyes sideways to see what he was doing.

Bad move, because he was staring right through her. She felt a bolt of heat shoot through her chest. Damn him for having those unbelievable eyes! But she still wasn't giving him the pleasure of answering. "Mulder, we're partners, even friends," she said, hoping it would lead him off the topic.

"You didn't answer my question."

She then realized that by not answering, she did answer, and that he knew it. She wasn't giving that to him, so she turned around, looked directly in his eyes and summoned every bit of strength she had in her, which wasn't much. "Okay," she granted him, "I have thought about us and. . ." she repeated his earlier hand gesture. She couldn't let him get away without feeling some form of embarrassment, so she decided to turn the tables on him. "What about you?"

"Hmm?"

She drove it straight to the point, crossing her arms and tilting her head in a defiant gesture. "Did you ever think about sleeping with me?"

His mouth raised in a mischievous half grin. This could be fun. "Who ever said anything about sex?"

Scully swallowed hard and felt her entire face flame up. Oh god oh god oh god. "But you asked me if. . .you said that. . ."

"I was merely referring to kissing."

She pursed her lips together and stared ahead out the windshield, in complete embarrassment at what Mulder now knew about her fantasy life and that it involved him and the fact that he had evaded revealing anything as personal as she had.

"Why Dana Katherine Scully," he drawled. A red color had spread over her face so much, it seemed to extend to the tips of her ears and down her neck to the curve where her breasts began. It was absolutely beautiful. Mulder was more than grateful that his life had allowed him to witness Scully look the way she did now. But with the implications of her answer in his mind, he shifted in his seat a little, perhaps more grateful that he'd worn his baggy jeans. "So you've been having sex with me in your mind."

Scully threw her face in her hands. "Mulder, just leave me alone."

Mulder realized he'd teased her a little too much. "I'm sorry if I hurt you." He lightly caressed her hand with his fingertips, then pulled away. "I didn't mean it to be this way." He let down the defense of sarcasm he so often used. He had to. "I just wanted to know if you had ever thought about the same things I had."

His touch sent shivers through her arm. Did I just hear what I thought I heard? She raised her head towards him. "So you have thought about. . ." Again, she made the hand gesture. Now that it didn't seem like a joke anymore, she couldn't say the words.

He simply stated, "Of course."

"Of course," she repeated, her voice lower than she intended.

Silence filled the car for a few moments. Their revelations made everything slightly awkward, both of their minds reeling with thoughts of what the other had been thinking.

Scully finally asked, "So what should we do?"

Mulder ran his hand through his hair, knowing exactly what he wanted to do, though he couldn't actually propose that to Scully right now. "I don't know. Should we try a kiss? I mean, just to satisfy our admitted curiosities."

"Well," she whispered, locking her eyes with his, "just to satisfy our curiosities." Yeah, though kissing wouldn't exactly satisfy your desire to know just how big his curiosity is.

Well, this is going much farther than I even intended it to. "Okay, then. Here goes."

They both leaned in to kiss each other at the same time and ended up colliding noses. They stifled laughs.

"Seems we're a little anxious," Mulder smiled. "One more time?"

Scully nodded.

"I'll go that way," he said, pointing to the left.

She nodded again, too shocked and excited about what was happening to speak. She closed her eyes and leaned her head towards Mulder, then stopped, waiting for him.

He pressed his lips against hers, a friendly kiss, unsure of how far she would let this go. But he wanted to feel so much more of her, to know how she tasted, so he tentatively let his tongue glide across her lips, a wordless way of asking her where she wanted to go.

The sensation of his kiss made her heart race and every nerve ending in her body tingle. At the touch of his tongue, she parted her lips, letting him explore her mouth while she slid her tongue against his. Just satisfying curiosities, she convinced herself. She broke the kiss for a second to catch her breath, then closed her mouth over his lower lip, gently suckling it. When he responded with the same action, a surge of warmth spread over her body like hot water.

Mulder broke the kiss completely this time, wanting to see Scully's face. He stared at her, still inches from him, feeling her warm and ragged breath against his face He was amazed at how aroused he was from just kissing her--their hands hadn't even moved the entire time. He tried speaking. "Well, that was, uh. . ." When had he lost his vocabulary?

"Certainly was," she breathed.

Mulder brought his hand to her face and ran his thumb across her soft cheek.

Scully sighed. I suppose that's it, she thought. Well, it's certainly enough fantasy material to cover me for at least 2 years.

But, with his other hand, Mulder undid his seatbelt, and then hers, never moving his hand from her face. He smiled, then lowered his face to her neck, nuzzling it and leaving trails of soft kisses there.

Oh God! Scully raised her hands in the air, surprised at Mulder's actions. Then, she dropped them to his waist, letting them rest there. "Mulder," she whispered. Oh God! They'd only agreed to try kissing, just to see, but now, his warm, wet kisses were dangerously close to that spot on her neck that left her completely vulnerable to. . ."Mulder, oh God!" He'd found it. And when he did, her fingers gripped the bottom of his shirt so tightly, she'd pulled it from the waist of his pants. Uh oh.

"Scully," he whispered in her ear. But, somehow that didn't seem right. "Dana. . ."

Her fingertips grazed the soft skin of his sides, tickling him.

He slid his hands down her spine to the small of her back and pulled her closer against his body. He could feel her trembling. "Dana, are we. . ." He looked in her eyes, loving the spark he saw there.

She knew what he was asking and wanted to be the voice of reason, but at that moment the sexual center of her brain seemed to have taken over that function. The only thing on her mind was his breath on her face and his hands holding her firmly against his chest. "We really shouldn't." Not exactly a 'no,' but. . .

He grinned at the way she averted a complete 'yes' or 'no.' "In some cultures we already have." He slowly, methodically slid his hands under her shirt. Using his hips, he pushed down on her until she was underneath him.

"Have we?" she breathed.

"Besides," he said, "my curiosity isn't exactly satisfied yet." He closed his mouth over hers and pushed his knee between her legs.

She let out a soft groan. Running her hands up his back, she pushed his shirt over his head, then helped him remove her own. She threw her arms around his back, her body jerking at the electricity when their bare skin met. It was difficult to keep her eyes open, but she wanted to see him, watch his body move with her own, take in the heat in his eyes.

Scully was so absorbed with him that it took her a while to register the knocking and the face at the window. "Mulder, what was that?"

"What? This. . ." He bit at the skin near her shoulder.

She whimpered. "No, there's someone at the window."

"Holy shit!" Mulder gasped. He pulled himself off Scully and both tried to sit upright in their seats, but their limbs had been so intertwined that pulling apart became as awkward as a game of Twister. Mulder rolled down the window and tried to regain a semblance of his usual cool exterior, but the sight of the police officer's face, glaring at Scully's foot between Mulder's legs and her attempt to cover her near-naked chest, betrayed what they were doing. "Hi," Mulder choked, still out of breath.

"Registration, please."

"Excuse me?"

"Registration, please." The officer's voice grew gritty.

"We were just having a little car trouble," Mulder tried to explain.

"Look," the officer growled, "I don't give a damn about your car

trouble--I just need your registration so I can write you a ticket." He ended the sentence with a smug smile.

"What are you giving us a ticket for?" Scully asked.

"Public indecency."

"Wait," Mulder said as he fished through his clothes looking for his badge. "We're with the F.B.I."

The officer laughed. "I don't give a damn if you're the President. When you do what you two were doing on a public road, you get a ticket."

Mulder sighed. He found the registration in the glove compartment, gave it to the officer and waited for the ticket. After a minute, he took the ticket from the officer and remembering that there was no other way of getting home, decided to ask him for a ride.

The officer nodded and walked to his car.

"Oh God." Scully's face reddened while she fumbled to rebutton her shirt. Then her eyes widened with a sudden realization. "Oh God, Mulder."

"What?" He slipped his shirt on and took the keys from the ignition.

"Th-the car--they'll tow the car."

"So."

Scully got out of the car and let the door slam. "Mulder, it's a Bureau car--needless to say, a now ticketed Bureau car, and Skinner may find it rather interesting when he finds out who had the car requisitioned, why it was towed and why the ticket was issued."

Mulder grinned across the car to Scully. "Oops."

"Mulder, we almost did it in a business car and all you can say is 'oops'?" She felt her cheeks flush as the scenes of what they'd done ran through her mind.

Damn, she's cute when she's embarrassed. He walked around to her, and slid his arm around her shoulders. "No regrets?"

She looked at the ground and smiled. "No. . .you?"

"Only that we got caught." His mouth slid into a mischievous grin. "And that I'm still a little curious."

THE END