a/n: I'm a woman of my word, here is the chapter that was requested following the warm reception of the first! Thanks everyone

I'm afraid Scully and Mulder would not get hot'n'heavy for me this time around. Instead, they're doing their typical thing of beating around the bush! Still, I'm sort of pleased with how this came out. I am building toward more 'heavy romance' (eep). In the mean time, what could be hotter than ~ character development? I've decided to stage my little scenes of them falling together against the back drop of Arcadia, because I'm not original and it's convenient!

Thanks again to storybycorey, I highly, highly recommend reading her stories. Left me 100% inspired/aroused (*****)

Content warning: Nothing you need to worry about if you just read the first chapter, Jesus. Other than spoilers for Arcadia [ep13;sn06]

OUR LADY OF SORROWS PRIVATE HOSPITAL

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Fox sat in his car, staring out into the parking lot of the clinic and ruminating on his fate. He couldn't just pretend like nothing had happened. 'I'm going to get you through this um, this session, Mulder.' Everything she'd said was as clear in his mind as if she were saying it to him all over again. She'd been crystal clear. This phone call never happened.

Son of a bitch, what had he agreed to? What had he been thinking?

'Are you hard for me, Mulder?'

The arousal returned then, unbidden. Every ridiculous fantasy he'd ever summoned up regarding Scully paled now in the wake of her words. Words she had actually spoken. How could he sit across from her now, drive around with her, fucking copulate in a petri dish with her?!

'Off the record, alright?'

He rested his head on the steering wheel and willed himself to relax, already only moments away from humping his hand all over again.

Somewhere in his mind he was replaying the sound of their office door locking over and over.

Click.

He was doomed.

Click.

'You're so confident, you tell me that I'm going to come for you.'

Click.

'You make me believe it.'

He ground his palm over the bulge in his trousers, seeking relief. "Unh," he grunted. Shit.

Fox inhaled deeply and blew out a shaky breath. He then morosely removed his hand from his demanding erection and planted it on the steering wheel. Trying to get a hold of himself before he was charged with public indecency.

Get a hold of himself — poor choice of words.

To think, this had started with him not being able to get a boner.

What had she reduced him to?

FBI HEADQUARTERS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

There was a knock on the door which made Dana jump where she was sitting in the basement.

"Agent Scully?" A familiar voice called through the door.

"Yes, hold on!" She replied, hopping up from behind Mulder's desk. Her legs still felt like lead. She opened the door, it was AD Skinner.

"Agent, why was this door locked?"

"Oh, it… would you laugh, sir? If I told you that I was so used to only visiting this room on a clandestine basis that I locked the door as a matter of habit? Is everything alright?"

Skinner seemed to buy this. "Everything is fine, I'm just coming to inform you and agent Mulder that you have a case."

"Oh, well, do you mind if I ask what makes this case so urgent that we couldn't have a meeting in your office?" Dana asked, and Skinner looked blindsided by this.

"I suppose having the two of you back under my command in a manner which is transparent to the bureau once more is going to take some getting used to." He smiled.

"Am I to understand it that you've come down here to deliver this news personally for much the same reason as motivated me to lock the door?" She said, equally bemused.

"I'm afraid so, would the two of you please join me in my office in the next hour?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," she replied.

Skinner nodded promptly and then made to leave before pausing in the doorway. "Where is agent Mulder?" He asked, glancing at the empty room behind her.

Dana hoped rather vainly that her expression didn't give her away as she replied; "He's at the hospital, he had an appointment. He should be back in time."

"Very well. Oh, and happy birthday!"

"Thank you, sir."

Dana sighed as she shut the door behind her reinstated boss. She wasn't going to miss working under Deputy Kersh, but she did like the way Kersh could never keep up with her and Mulder when they were up to something. Skinner, on the other hand, was far too good of a detective.

Dana figured that she ought to call Mulder to make sure that he was back in time, but the thought filled her mind with dread and other feelings that she wasn't prepared to address.

She hadn't touched her cell phone since the phone call that never happened about a half hour previous. She'd been whiling away the time righting herself, feeling smug, and sighing.

Eventually, she bit the bullet, picked up the landline on Mulder's desk, and called him direct from the office.

He took his time answering.

"Mulder," he said, and she knew immediately that he already knew it was her. One of his little miracles that he managed, even though the number she was calling from was withheld.

"Mulder, it's me. We have a meeting with Skinner about a case in the next hour. Will you make it, or do I need to reschedule?"

"I'll be there," he replied. She could hear that he was driving.

"Okay, good. Goodbye, Mulder." The rush of relief she felt was too good to be true.

"Scully, wait, wait, wait!" why, Mulder?

She felt her heart jump into her throat. "What?" She asked. Her knuckles probably white on the receiver.

"Oh, nevermind, it's nothing. I'll talk to you about it when I see you."

"Bye then," she said, and hung up before he could interrupt her again. She let out a shaky sigh and put her face in her hands. What had she done?

FBI HEADQUARTERS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Fox saw Scully turn into Skinner's office and took the chance to go down to the basement, only for a minute.

Just standing outside their office was like a religious experience, he stepped inside and lightly closed the door. Taking a quick breath in, he turned the lock.

Click.

"Fuck," he grumbled aloud, resting his head against the now locked door.

He was already nursing a semi, and was marveling at the effect she was having on him. It was like those early days all over again.

Christ, her cell phone was sitting on his desk, positioned as if she'd taken a call in his chair. She was a goddamned sadist.

Biting his tongue, he picked up her cell phone. He was surprised that it felt so ordinary, considering how much power it had over him when it was in her hand.

FBI HEADQUARTERS

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Dana sat in AD Skinner's office with her hands crossed in her lap. Skinner stood behind his desk, rifling through a filing cabinet to his left. Mulder was very nearly late, but just as Skinner pulled a manila file from the drawer, the office door opened.

God help her, Mulder looked completely different somehow, and yet heartbreakingly unchanged.

"You forgot your cell phone," Mulder said smoothly, holding it out to her. When their eyes met, she managed to keep her expression neutral, but no will on earth was going to keep the flush out of her cheeks.

She reached out and took it without a word, careful to avoid the tips of his fingers.

He bit his lip and took the seat next to her.

Skinner turned to them, either oblivious to the tension between them or used to it.

"Nancy and David Kline, married couple, missing persons presumed dead," Skinner said, dropping the case file on the table.

Mulder reached for it without preamble and frowned at the serial number. "This isn't an X file," he pointed out, rifling through the report nonetheless.

"I never said it was," Skinner replied, taking a seat at his desk and leaning forward. "These two, along with two other couples, have disappeared from The Falls gated community in California since it was established in 1991."

"California?" Mulder asked. "You want us to take our first case in California, and it's not even an X file?"

"Is there any further connection between these missing persons cases?" Dana asked, ignoring her partners typical obstinance. "Other than the location?"

Mulder was turning pages in the file, but he was looking at her.

"The houses — which are assumed crime scenes — were all found immaculate. Background checks on the victims revealed each of them to be professionals with clean records, I want you two to investigate," Skinner explained, he turned to Mulder. "Is there something you would like to ask agent Scully?"

"What? Oh, there's just a spot — a spot on your shirt, Scully," Mulder invented. He'd been caught staring. He reached across to wipe off the non-existent mark on Dana's shirt, but seemed to think better of it. He retracted his hand.

For the sake of her partner's dignity, she humoured the charade and wiped at her unmarked sleeve. "Thanks," she said, wishing he would just reach out and touch her. Touch her until his fingers were wrinkled like he'd gone swimming.

Skinner cleared his throat, watching them through narrowed eyes. "I'm going to put you two undercover in the house of the most recent victims," he said. "Pick a name, you're getting married."

"Undercover? In California?!" Mulder was aghast. "You just said you wanted us to investigate."

"Yes, an undercover investigation. I think it could be… fruitful," Skinner extrapolated.

Dana felt like she was at the centre of some mad conspiracy, like Mulder was conspiring against her and Skinner was in on it.

She gulped. "As a couple?" She confirmed. She scrambled for a way out. "I have no experience with undercover work as yet, sir."

"They're only civilians, somehow I think you'll find a way to convince them," Skinner smiled a tight smile.

Mulder groaned and she all but flinched at the zip the sound sent down her middle. Her partner threw the case file onto her lap and stood. "Come on, honey. Let's go pick out some rings."

"Mazel tov," Skinner mumbled, clearly meaning it as a dismissal. He turned his focus to some other papers on his desk. "What are your names?" He called as an afterthought.

Mulder was already halfway out the door. "Mr and Mrs Petri… Petrie," her partner replied. Casually confirming that he was the root of all evil.

"Fine," Skinner said, immune to Dana's plight as her mouth fell open. "Dismissed."

She nodded vacantly, stood, and followed the bastard out the door in a state of shock.

Undercover… married. She wondered if it wasn't too late to resign.

DOBSON'S BAR & RESTAURANT

SAN DIEGO, CA

"He asked: What are you wearing?" Dana said, fanning herself with a cocktail menu.

"So, what did you do?" Tara Scully asked. Tara happily agreed to join her sister-in-law Dana for a drink to celebrate her birthday when the FBI agent flew into town out of the blue. Tara always had a lot of respect for Dana, a doctor working in law enforcement, she was so accomplished. Tara particularly felt attached to Dana after witnessing what a determined mother Dana was to Emily, her poor late daughter.

It had broken Tara's heart that her beloved son Matthew had been born just in time for Dana's daughter's funeral, but it had forged a connection between the two women. A certain understanding, mother to mother.

They'd spoken on the phone regularly in the year since, but nothing Dana had told her prepared Tara for the story she was hearing now.

"I told him," Dana replied, sighing. "And I ended up with my hand up my own skirt." She started to blush, hiding her expression in her drink.

Tara thought it would never happen!

Dana and her partner, over the phone no less. In that moment, Dana was openly pleased with herself. Almost as though she were still momentarily heady with the afterglow of her exploits.

"Dana! I've never seen you like this, you swore up and down it wasn't like that between you two. What a difference a round of tequila makes!"

"S'not the tequila, Tara. It's never been like that. He was different."

"And maybe you as well?"

"The way he spoke to me. Maybe it was the excuse he needed, I don't know. He usually just teases me here and there, but not with any real follow through."

Tara wasn't sure if the story was romantic, or just salacious. She also wasn't sure how to point out to Dana that her partner's sudden follow through was likely motivated by Dana's atypical reciprocity.

"What did he say when you saw him after?"

"He said: 'You forgot your cell phone.' And then he handed it to me right in front of our boss."

"The nerve! And you say the problem here is his shyness?"

"Ugh, I can explain… Or I could if I was able to tell you about anything that happens in work. Let me just try." Dana took a sip of her drink. "He… once we had a case where this man… well, he looked like Mulder a bit — a lot actually — and Mulder found us together in my apartment."

"Dana!" Tara was impressed. Tara entertained the fact that as interesting as Dana was, the FBI agent would have quite a few more stories to tell if she wasn't constantly bound by nondisclosure.

"No, no, nothing happened! But the man told Mulder he was a 'loser by choice'. That week, the way Mulder was, it was like it occurred to him that the reason he wasn't with me could be as a result of his own choices."

"Maybe not just his choices, Dana. What happened today… you could have laughed him off, but you didn't and you see where it led you," Tara said, choosing her words carefully.

Dana's posture became very guarded. "He was helping me, and he needed help… and he called me."

Tara recognised that she was on thin ice here. "Just, maybe he's not been teasing you all this time. Maybe he's… he's actually trying to communicate something. Think about it." LISTEN TO HIM! Tara was dimly aware that Bill would throw a fit if he knew she was pushing his little sister into a relationship with 'that son of a bitch', but the way Dana talked about the man from her work. They belonged to each other.

"How does it feel to be away from Matthew tonight?" Dana asked, clearly unwilling to discuss her complex relationship with her partner any further.

"Strange," Tara replied, it was only her third night away from her baby boy.

US NAVAL STATION

SAN DIEGO, CA

After mercifully taking a separate flight over, Fox now found himself in the dreaded position next to Scully in a hot car. He was collecting her at the residential section of the San Diego Naval Base before they had to stop in the field office down the road. From there it was a thirty minute drive into the suburbs before starting their assignment.

He was going to get friction-burn on his dick from pulling one off every chance he could get like a teenager, including twice in the plane's cramped wash closet. God knows how many times he'd come when he'd gotten home from work the night before, he'd practically fallen asleep mid tug. Somehow, the short span of time passed since his most recent orgasm wasn't enough to save him as Scully climbed in on the passenger side and pursed her lips around a paper cup of coffee. She was as intoxicating as ever.

A familiar feeling of inadequacy seeped into his stomach as he gazed at her. The day previous, Scully had as good as told him that in her fantasies, he could get her off purely by convincing her that she would come for him. Had she meant it? A dangerous thought. If he was that guy, that confident version of himself, maybe she'd already be his. Maybe she'd be his a hundred times over, but he had to believe that there would always be one more shot with her. He had to. Had to believe he wasn't destined to die a loser who'd never even kissed his 'wife'.

"Ready to start our lives together, Scully?" He grinned.

She reached into her coat and pulled out a pair of sunglasses to hide behind. "Let's get going, I want to be in my pajamas by seven." She cracked the window as he pulled out of the naval base's residential area where Scully had taken the chance to visit with her brother. "And call me Laura. You picked the name, you may as well use it."

Fox raised his eyebrows. "Has my bride-to-be had one too many g&ts at her bachelorette party?"

"It's possible I may have been out last night, Mulder."

He gave a low whistle and she winced. Son of a bitch, he'd broken Scully. While he had spent their hours apart furiously masturbating, she'd been drinking herself into oblivion. Had the aftermath really been so bad for her —

"Did I miss something?" He asked, and though her sharp, blue eyes were behind dark lenses, he could tell they were narrowed.

"Other than my birthday? No."

Dammit. He should've known there was a reason she'd flown ahead, she tended to avoid her brother without additional motivation to touch base.

Well — naturally — silence fucking reigned for a while after that.

Fox drove, feeling like the self-absorbed asshole he was, and Scully dozed beside him.

At one point, he nearly crashed the car on the interstate just to take a prolonged look at her beautiful face without suffering her scrutiny. That was usually enough to cheer him up. She smelt like… he inhaled —

A set of passing cars honked on their way past. "Eyes on the road," she warned in a stupor. He felt his ears heat up.

Fucking coward.

"Hey Laura, if at any point you feel compelled to rehearse our wedding vows, just say the word."

"I'd run through it with you now, Robert, but I'd rather not die in a fiery wreck."

"You're so much cuter when you're sleeping, you know that?"

"Just drive."

"I'm sorry about your birthday, Scully."

She didn't reply right away, and from the corner of his eye she appeared to have the strangest expression on her face. "Don't be sorry," she said. "I had a good day, and I'm still very grateful for your... help." He realised she looked smug.

"You bring a whole new definition to the cat that got the cream, Mrs. Petrie." He smiled as she rolled her eyes in feigned disgust. "And if by help you do in fact mean sperm, then allow me to emphasize that you are very welcome."

"Bleck, Mulder."

He laughed.

She turned away, but she was smiling.

FBI FIELD OFFICE

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

"Don't look at me like that," Mulder complained, placing his hands over his chest as if to cover imaginary breasts. "I feel so violated."

Mulder was reading Dana perfectly, in typical fashion. Truthfully, she did feel like she was seeing him naked. It just wasn't natural to see her partner decked out in pastels, his yuppy transformation was complete. He was going to pass perfectly as Robert Petrie, gated community resident incarnate.

"You make it look so easy," she accused, tugging at the sleeves of the most muted clothing option that had been presented to her. It looked like Mulder had gone the other way and chosen the loudest possible combination.

"Says the woman who makes a tracheotomy look easy with a butter knife and a pen lid," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's in the past, I'm a kept woman now," Dana said, and then made a show of putting on the wedding ring the undercover team had given her. She grabbed a bottle of water before heading out to their new minivan.

Climbing into the passenger seat, she closed her eyes and heaved a sigh. She was nearly recovered from the hangover caused by her birthday drinks, but her other actions from the day previous left her suspended in a less navigable fog.

'You're going to come for me, Scully.'

She took another deep breath, and a hand on her arm made her jump.

"You have goosebumps, you can't be cold?" Mulder asked, pushing up her sleeve to examine her skin.

Quite the opposite actually. She gently tugged her arm from his grip. Her skin tingling pleasantly.

"You startled me," she defended weakly.

He hopped in and turned the keys in the ignition.

"I startled you by noticing your goosebumps? There's a paradox of causation there, Laura," he explained, pulling out.

"Are you aware that you are always on, Mulder?" She accused.

"Are you aware that it's a full-time job being as off as I am?" He asked, and she put her sunglasses back on as an alternative to rolling her eyes.

"I feel like you're constantly trying to solve me," she continued, folding her arms and making fast peace with the increased cleavage offered by her yuppie disguise. Occasionally, she lived to tease Mulder.

"You're a puzzle worth finishing. Worth finishing more than once, I'm willing to bet," he replied. She tended to forget to prepare for his giving as good as he got.

"You're not gonna let this drop, are you?" She asked, maybe hopefully. Are you?

"I don't know what you mean."

Of course he knew, the whole damn world was so transparent to Mulder. Nothing and no one was safe from his quest for the truth, and she always believed that one day he'd completely expose her.

If she didn't beat him to it.

'Maybe not just his choices, Dana (...) you could have laughed him off, but you didn't'

THE FALLS GATED COMMUNITY

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

"Now, I know it's very exciting that we're going to play newlyweds, Scully, but I am going to have to ask you to keep your hands to yourself," Fox explained, as he pulled up to the Klines old house.

A woman was standing outside of it with a large basket in hand.

"No can do, hot stuff," Dana commented dryly, reaching over and pinching his cheek.

Fox had to double take, but she promptly stepping out of the car.

Well, that was different.