TO CATCH THEE
Notes:
Written for the Fluff X-Files Fanfic Exchange - February 2020.
This story is dedicated to the master Alfred Hitchcock.
There are references of his work in the story, especially about the movie "To Catch A Thief". It's not necessary to have seen the film to understand my fanfic, but if you have the opportunity I recommend you to watch this great glamorous movie before (while eating a quiche Lorraine and drinking some French red wine).
Quotes of the movie are written in italic.
"Sex on the screen should be suspenseful, I feel. If sex is too blatant or obvious, there's no suspense." Alfred Hitchcock, interviewed by François Truffaut.
CHAPTER 1 - Young And Innocent / Spellbound
YOUNG AND INNOCENT
Episode Theef - USF Medical Center - March 2000 - 10:23 AM
Scully was standing next to Peattie's hospital bed, the Appalachian black magician intubated and unconscious, when Mulder entered the room.
"Lynette Peattie's body is on its way back home to Indiola, West Virginia," Mulder told Scully.
"She's going back to her people after all," Scully replied. "You know, Mulder, I would've made the same call... as a doctor... if I was certain that I couldn't save her life and she was in that much pain... I would've done what Wieder did."
"Mm-hmm. It seems pretty clear-cut."
"Except maybe it's not."
"You're wondering if maybe Peattie could've saved her life?"
After a few seconds staring enigmatically at Mulder as an answer Scully left the room without a word.
"You do keep me guessing," Mulder whispered to himself once she had closed the door.
SPELLBOUND
Days later - Friday Late afternoon - Scully's apartment
Mulder knocked at the door, tuning with his knuckles a short singsong he would only perform for Scully's nest. There were a few variants in his long practiced melody for other entrances such as doors of motel adjoining rooms or even the bathroom ones -they were now more often overstepping one another's privacy- his own apartment door when he knew that Scully was already in waiting for him, more recently their office door -Mulder's way to titillate Scully's mood for their new immoderate flirty banters in the basement.
His hand was on the knob and he was already about to open the door when he heard Scully's muffled voice yelling one single word.
"Open!"
He finished his movement and entered not even noticing that he had unconsciously intended to penetrate Scully's home without her consent.
"Scully?" Mulder ritually asked while moving towards Scully's bedroom. No answer came but the door being ajar he stepped into the room, finding Scully finalizing to dress up in front of her free-standing mirror. He settled close to her back and bent his head, putting his lips on her right cheek -brushing slightly and chastely the far corner of her mouth- and resting his hands on her hips. He lingered there while locking eyes with Scully's in the mirror, inhaling and tasting her flavors.
"Could you help me zip my dress in my back?" Scully asked softly.
Mulder happily obliged, wondering if it was a women's trick to make men learn how to efficiently undress them.
Scully then turned around and faced him, each one appreciating each other chic outfits. They had for once planned to dine in a highly stylish restaurant, an unspoken and implicit agreement that they were dating for real. Mulder didn't remember how it came out in a recent conversation nor who had proposed first.
New habits and practices were just appearing and happening between them, in so impromptu yet natural steps that they weren't conscious that another thick layer of intimacy in their relationship had been crossed. None of them seemed aware of the existence of many details in their behaviors denoting for sure that a radical change had occurred in their friendship. However, the ultimate borderline remained to be transgressed as they were now standing on the edge of the cliff that would precipitate them in the kingdom of consummate love. For both of them the recognition of their new status and the will to jump into bliss could emerge at any time in their heart and soul, becoming as evident and organic as the air they were breathing. For that, they would only require a little help from a Cupid's arrow, or a simple trick of fate, or maybe just an expressive look or an insightful remark of someone who knew them enough to have noticed those changes -their boss Skinner, one Lone Gunmen, or the most perceptive Maggie.
As they were speechlessly staring at each other, a sudden loud knock on the entrance door followed by a call made them startle.
"Dana, it's already me!"
Scully's eyes and mouth opened widely as she was instantly recollecting facts she should have not forgotten.
"Damn it! It's my mom. We had planned to go to the movies tonight," Scully said in a very low tone.
"Do what you want, Scully. You can ditch me for your mom, I won't be upset," Mulder whispered in Scully's ear.
"Coming, mom!" Scully shouted in the direction of the entrance.
She was thinking fast to manage the situation the best way. She didn't want to cancel the engagement she and Maggie had scheduled two weeks ago -how she had failed to remember it was beyond her comprehension right now- and she didn't want to let her mom suspect that she was about to dine out with Mulder -Scully was sure that Maggie would immediately call off and return home.
"I'm very sorry Mulder, I'm going out with mom... And I want you not to show up. Don't move," Scully whispered back in his left ear, tiptoeing and brushing his right cheek with her fingertips.
On these words she stepped out of the bedroom, closing the door behind her.
Mulder was a bit taken aback by Scully's last words as he was always pleased to see Maggie. He didn't bother to find an explanation, preferring to let things happen their own ways and willing to let Scully keep him guessing about the denouement of the evening. He didn't even eavesdrop on the women's exchanges arising in the living room. He decided to let his mind and eyes wander, taking in the whole room as if they were discovering it for the first time, absorbing Scully's presence through his senses. If she asked him to stay there all the evening, idly waiting for her reappearance, he would comply without a doubt or a mere thought. He suddenly noticed that the top drawer of the dresser was opened, filled by delicate clothes. He couldn't resist the temptation.
When Scully came back into the bedroom Mulder was holding a silk scarf close to his face, appreciating its smell and its satiny texture. He had had the decency to not touch any of the nice underwears laying in the drawer and thus he didn't move an inch or say anything, not at all feeling embarrassed.
"I'm going to... To Catch a Thief," Scully whispered when she had reached Mulder's body closely enough.
"Theef with two e as in Agent Mulder?" he murmured in a much lower tone, bringing his head even closer and showing her the cloth he was holding.
"It's the title of the movie we're going to watch. And what you have stolen is exactly what I intended to wear tonight," Scully said while taking the scarf from Mulder's hands.
"Oh, I see. Never wear any jewelry? Except your cross, of course," Mulder bantered.
"I don't like cold things touching my skin," Scully replied, glad to display the extent of her knowledge about some famous lines of the film.
"With your science you could probably invent some hot diamonds," Mulder persisted, lifting his fingertips up to the base of her neck, touching and softly rubbing the bare skin just above the cross.
"I'd rather exploit it to experiment more tangible excitement," Scully kept on, bringing her left hand on Mulder's tie -the right still holding the scarf- squeezing and stroking along its fabric and sliding her thumb around the knot.
"What do you get a thrill out of most?"
"I'm still looking for that one."
"Give me a woman who knows her own mind every time."
"No one gives you that kind of a woman. You have to capture her."
"Any particular method?"
"Yes. But it's no good unless you discover it yourself... Mulder..." Scully ended up, her voice quivering as she pronounced the last words.
The flirty witty banter had suddenly electrified and heated up the atmosphere wrapping them, thrilled their bodies and increased their heartbeats. Mulder's fingers were still lingering between Scully's collarbones -warming the spot and its surroundings- and Scully's hand was still toying with Mulder's tie in an unconscious suggestive way. They were both lost in each other intensified and widened gaze and for a few seconds that seemed hours completely oblivious of Maggie's presence outside the door.
"It's okay, Dana?" Maggie asked aloud from the living room, immediately breaking the spell that had been cast on them.
"Yes, mom! I couldn't find my scarf!"
Then, Scully quickly stepped back and left the room, leaving Mulder once more alone and stunned -but more surprisingly without any instructions for the evening.
The last things Mulder heard were cryptic words shouted emphatically by Maggie -'Roger Thornhill is a smart resourceful man!'- followed by a barely audible Scully's answer -something like 'But, mom, we won't see North by Northwest!'- and the sound of the entrance door being closed and locked. And then, silence and emptiness.
CHAPTER 2 - The Man Who Knew Too Much
THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Later in the evening - Golden Theater - Silver Spring, Washington DC suburb
When Mulder caught the two Scullys raising their head and eyes upon him as he was entering the lobby of the Golden Theater, he knew for sure that he had made the right choice -Maggie mildly nodding her head in agreement, Scully giving him a huge smile and playfully winking at him. He stopped, smiled back and shrugged.
Earlier in Scully's apartment, as soon as the two women had left him behind, he had reached the kitchen, poured water in a glass and seated at the table. He then had tried to make sense of what had just happened. First, his thoughts had been circling over and over to the most flirtatious allusions he had shared with Scully and to the sensations and fantasies she had aroused in his whole body when caressing his tie. Toying with this piece of clothing -stroking it as if it was the intimate part of him that craved the touch of her hand- was a game she was lately practicing very often. Actually, whenever she was facing him and launching teasing banters. He had even bought new ties, carefully choosing the silkiest and softest ones, so that Scully's fingers would linger on them as long as possible. Yet, reliving these thoughts and fantasies were pointless to figure out his course of action for the rest of the evening. Thus he had stood up, grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl and paced the living room while eating and thinking. Scully had said through Grace Kelly's voice that he would have to capture her and to discover how to do that. He would assume that it was what she really wanted for him to do. It wouldn't be hard to find her and her mother, he knew the title of the movie. He also guessed that there must be only one place scheduling a retrospective of Hitchcock's films in the area. He then had reached Scully's desk, wanting to grab her phone and maybe use the phonebook to make his research. And, all of a sudden, noticing a notepad and a pen beside the phone, Maggie's enigmatic phrase became crystal clear. It was obvious that her words had been shouted out loud just for him. Roger Thornhill had once used one trick to find out where Eve Kendall had gone. He would do the same and would incarnate Cary Grant pursuing his red-head ideal. 'How exciting!' Mulder had thought as he had picked up the notepad and the pen in his most Grant's gracious style.
Now, moving forward in long strides, Mulder was preparing his mind and his face for the act he would have to play in front of the two women.
"Hey, so happily surprised to see you two, Mrs Scully," he said when he reached them.
"Fox, you're here? I'm so glad you had the same idea as us," Maggie expressed while hugging Mulder.
"Aren't we all Hitchcock fans?" he replied to Maggie. "Don't you think so, Scully?" he added, turning his face to her.
Then, he grabbed Scully's shoulders and conspicuously kissed her on the cheeks, two times for each one.
"French tradition, Scully. I'm putting you in the mood of the Riveria," he justified, amused by Scully's expression of surprise.
"Look at you, both of you!" Maggie interrupted in complete awe. "So stylish and chic in your outfits. What a glamorous and beautiful couple you form tonight! That's too bad I don't have any camera. I could swear you had made a dress code arrangement together for the occasion."
To these words Mulder and Scully flushed in unison and shared a heavy connoted glance. However, as a great improviser, Mulder wasn't impressed by the challenge to keep on the script they were in.
"We surely were unconsciously on the same page, Scully and I. How could we not celebrate one of the most glamorous Hitch movie, aired in this stylish Art Deco theater, the most beautiful in the area?" Mulder told Maggie in a very convincing way.
"You're so right, Fox. Well, let's go and find seats," Maggie said, starting to lead the way to the theater.
"Wait, Mrs Scully. I don't want to intrude and impose my presence on your sweet mother-daughter moment," Mulder declared.
"Fox, you're so courteous! Don't be stupid. Now that I've found a Cary Grant to match my Grace Kelly you are bound to stick with us."
She then linked arms with both of them, Mulder on her left side and Scully on her right, and walked proudly and happily toward their auditorium. Mulder was obviously sharing Maggie's mood but, realizing that Scully had said nothing at all, he remained speculative about her thoughts -always keeping him guessing.
CHAPTER 3 - Vertigo
VERTIGO
Main Auditorium of the Golden Theater
Maggie skillfully managed to find seats in a discrete part of the auditorium and make Scully settle between her and Mulder. She even tactfully tried to give Mulder and Scully more privacy, intending to leave an empty seat that would separate herself and her daughter, but Scully didn't let that happen. After exchanging evanescent small talk before the screening they remained quiet for the first twenty minutes of the movie, the three of them enjoying a lot its old-fashioned charm.
All gradually changed when Grace Kelly -while applying sunscreen on her gracile bared arms- laid and kept eyes on Cary Grant stepping out of the Mediterranean Sea in his red-plaid bathing suit. Mulder clearly felt Scully's body stiffen beside him at that exact moment. Ten minutes later he sensed her arm -the one close to his- lightly shivering. He was also pretty sure to have witnessed a soon aborted movement of her hand attempting to reach his own. What he had missed was the catalyst of Scully's reaction, the sigh Maggie had let out in direction of her daughter's face when Jessie Royce Landis had launched her forthright lines to Grace Kelly about Cary Grant's character: 'Hmm, handsome. I wouldn't mind buying that for you.'
A moment later Mulder tried to lighten the tension lingering in the air by whispering in Scully's ear a witty comment involving a bullfrog, in reaction of the firstname Jeremiah pronounced in the film. That was actually a slippery move as the two of them were now remembering sweet memories of a warm embrace in a dark forest leading to a hotter fantasy taking place in a sleeping bag. The coup de grâce was given a few minutes later when the icy reserved Grace Kelly surprisingly and passionately kissed Cary Grant on the threshold of her hotel room. Without a word Scully suddenly stood up and passed over Mulder as she was leaving their row, brushing briefly his tie in her way out.
Still confused and unsure about how to interpret and react to Scully's departure, Mulder was in need of an advice or a mere stimulation. He then felt a hand laying on his shoulder. Turning his head he saw Maggie leaning toward him.
"Fox, would you be nice to bring me some popcorn? And don't forget to find and ask Dana if she is interested too," she said to him.
"Sure, Mrs Scully," Mulder replied, hurrying to leave the room.
CHAPTER 4 - Frenzy
FRENZY
Within the Golden Theater
Mulder found Scully in the nearby ladies' room, leaning against the sink and unfathomably facing the mirror. He reached her and settled behind her back, his hands on her hips. They stood there still and speechless, once again locking eyes in a mirror and spellbound by their mutual intense gaze. Both of them wanted to break the silence and had the intention to finally spill out their inner and true feelings. They obviously craved to cross this huge line of demarcation that was always preventing them to let their bodies act on their own.
When Scully inhaled deeper, prompt to say out loud the words waiting for so long to be thrown away, a woman entered the room and overtly stared at them. Mulder and Scully shrugged and smiled in unison.
"Caught red-handed," said Mulder. "Come on Scully, let's find a more suitable place."
He then grabbed Scully's hand, left the restroom, headed up to the closest theater and led her in the left corner of the quiet dark room, behind the last row.
"Scully, let's stop this cat and mouse game. Scully, for so long, I... we..." Mulder began.
Lights and sounds suddenly came to life in the room, trailers of movies starting to be projected on the screen.
"Well, if it has to be us against the odds..." Mulder said, resigned.
He moved closer to Scully, faced her, grabbed her right hand in his one and laid the two on his tie.
"Just admit that your hand doesn't want to play with my tie," Mulder told in her ear, while moving down their intertwined hands and letting them suspended in the air less than an inch from his crotch.
"Just admit that you want to catch my... that you really want to..." Mulder added with a husky voice.
"Shut up, Mulder," Scully interrupted. "Just admit that your mouth and tongue don't want to tell me what I want to do."
On these words she put her lips on his and her trapped hand on his groin.
Finally making out frantically in the corner of the theater, moaning, touching and caressing each other bodies over their clothes, they became oblivious of their surroundings and deaf to the sounds and dialogues coming from the speakers. They didn't catch the display of the Lazarus Bowl raising sniper zombies from the dead, nor the mention of a flashlight that triggered laughs in the audience, nor the declaration of love in a coffin that had waited seven years for just the right moment.
CHAPTER 5 - EPILOGUE - Family Plot
FAMILY PLOT
Saturday - Noon - Scully's Apartment
Fresh showered and wearing a towel around his waist, Mulder was making coffee in Scully's kitchen when the telephone rang. He didn't try to call Scully -he could still hear the water pouring from the shower- but listened to the answering machine that was soon activated.
"Dana, it's mom. I expect not to bother you, I just wanted to thank you for the pleasant evening and also..."
"Good morning, Mrs Scully," Mulder panted as he had rushed to pick up the phone.
"Fox? Good morning. Am I waking you? Or Dana?"
"No, it's okay. She's still in the bathroom. Do you want me to give her the phone? Or..."
"Don't. I can say it to you. Dana has planned to visit me next Saturday and I'd want to set her free from the obligation. I guess you'd have better things to do."
"Oh, you sure?"
"Don't worry, Fox. But feel free to come by me whenever you wish, you two."
"Thank you, Maggie."
"I'm so delighted that you have made a pass at my daughter, Fox."
"I'm glad too, Mrs Scully. And many thanks, without you I couldn't have done it, I needed the help of a woman."
"Don't be silly, you were the leading character."
"I needed the help of a scriptwriter. I guess I'm not the lone wolf I thought I was, Maggie."
"Smart Fox! Well, have a nice day. And take care of Dana."
"I will. You too, Mrs Scully."
As Mulder hung up the phone Scully entered the living room.
"Is it my shirt you are wearing?" Mulder asked, already aroused by the vision of Scully clearly naked under his own unbuttoned shirt.
"That was mom on the phone? What did she want?" Scully replied while lasciviously buttoning a few buttons.
"First, she recalled me that yesterday I had forgotten to buy her some popcorn," Mulder lied.
"Popcorn? Mom dislikes to eat popcorn in a movie theater."
"Maybe you don't know her so well. Second, she explained to me the scenes of the film we had missed."
"Any important?"
"Not at all, we were back in time for the major ones. We only disappeared for ten or fifteen minutes. But true that we were very distracted once we came back, overtly busying ourselves under Maggie's nose."
"Are you telling me the truth? Weren't you rather talking about the end of the movie? Lone wolf?"
"Well... Not exactly that movie, Scully."
"Really?" Scully asked breathing her word on Mulder's neck.
During their exchange she had moved forward at a slow pace, voluptuously undulating her hips and her eyes fixed on his mouth, heading straight to his chest.
"Let's... let's drink some coffee... and I explain to you... Scully... There are so important things we still have to discuss about us..." Mulder succeeded to tell as Scully had seized his body with her mouth and hands -tasting the savor of his bottom lip, enjoying rubbing his morning stubble and appreciating the firmness of his abs.
"What about later? There are so many things I still want to experiment."
"To Catch Thee, that was the title of my movie," Mulder managed to say before completely diving into lust.
THE END