Disclaimer: The X Files is not mine

Peace

Mulder walked into the morgue and was greeted by the sight of Scully pulling guts out of a course. Whenever he watched the autopsies it was with a mix of interest and disgust. Scully always kept her cool while sorting through a dead persons insides. He found it sexy in an odd way.

"Hey doc what did you find?" He came up next to her to see the body.

"Nothing conclusive. You saw her skin but that alone doesn't seem to have caused the death and if it did it would have been amazingly fast. I still am not sure what kind of chemical could have possibly cut through flesh so quickly and how it would only have affected certain specific areas." She removed the organs from the scale, "On the inside things seem mostly normal. I sent her blood to be tested so we will not know too much more till we get those results."

"How long will that take?"

"Early morning maybe? I imagine they will try to move fast considering it is about the murder of an agent. I also sent in tissue samples to see what could have eaten at the skin like that. Find anything in the room?"

"Not really. Some kind of fancy makeup and lotions that she uses a lot of. I have been wondering if whatever did that to her was put into the stuff I found."

Scully looked at him thoughtfully, "Seems unlikely. Whatever did this did it fast and she would have been wearing that makeup all day. Why would it have suddenly destroyed her like that?"

"Well I don't know. It's just an idea. I sent them to the lab to be looked at."

"Did the makeup and lotions look well used?"

"They seemed pretty new actually."

"Well they would have been applied to the affected places. Did you talk to her partner and the Assistant Director?" She had removed her goggles and was now leaning against the table facing him.

"Yeah… Nothing new really just that he was sleeping with her and not treating her well blah blah blah. But I think we might have a hard time getting them to help us out."

"Why?"
"They both seemed ok until I started questioning them and then they started the customary X files mocking."
"What kind of questions did you ask?" She looked at him flatly.

"What does that have to do with it?"

"Well if you came in and just started asking weird questions it probably made them uncomfortable."

"I guess the questions might have seemed odd to them. I just asked if they knew of any changes she was making in her life as far as things like makeup, clothing, diet, etc. and they both got irritated about it."
"What did they say?"

"Cannon said she was trying to reel him in by getting into better shape and getting all new stuff. I have to say it seemed that way based on her suit case."

"Why did she feel the need to 'reel' him in?"

"He claims he was going to break up with her but I think it was because of a pregnancy scare they had a few months ago that ended in him talking her into an abortion. One that, according to her partner, Traci did not really want to have. I think he wanted to break things off cause he sensed that she wanted a family with him."

"It sounds like he had plenty of motive. We should probably check out his wife too."

Mulder sighed, "I doubt it will be that easy Scully."

"Most of the time in murders are committed by partners or spurred lovers. They are not all vampires, flesh eating insects, and mind controllers."

"Does this look like a run of the mill murder to you?" Mulder said crossing his arms.

"Mulder all of the cases we handle are more than 'run of the mill' murders but that doesn't mean a motive always has to be something so far out as cannibalism or incest. How about we wait for test results before we jump to it being paranormal?"

"Fine. How much do you have left?"

"Just finishing up actually. Just need to mark down the attributes of the organs and I'm done." She turned back toward the table to finish her work.

"Skinner wants us back in D.C. by tomorrow morning. I got us tickets we will need to be on the way to the airport in…" He glanced at his watch, "about 3 hours."

"At least we don't have to drive." Scully said with a sigh.

She stopped her work when two hands were planted on the table on either side of her. She sighed once again and pretended not to notice until he began to move his head close to her neck and became impossible to ignore.

"Mulder…" She said warningly, "Remember what we discussed?"

"What? I'm just observing."

"Why don't you head back to the hotel and start to get our stuff together? I think you are getting a little antsy around here." Scully continued to pretend to be doing her work but was very distracted by his proximity. She felt an odd mix of arousal and irritation.

"No I don't want to miss any interesting discoveries."

Scully rolled her eyes and turned around to face him intending to begin to push him toward the door. He of course took this as a sign she appreciated the moves he was making.

"Mulder we are in a morgue. There is a dead body literally right behind me. Not to mention the many others around the room."

"I fail to see your point."

She gently pushed against his chest and turned him around to face the door from which he had entered.

She steered him toward the door, "Go on you can start getting packed I will be there within the hour and we can eat before we go. Sound good?"

"No it does not sound good but I will accept it in exchange for airplane bathroom sex." Though she could not see his face she knew he was wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Sure. Fine. Whatever. That sounds great now here you go." She opened the door for him as he had been dragging his feet the whole time like a child.

He turned toward her, "Promise?"
"I do not make promises I won't keep." She tried to keep the laughter from her voice and instead pointed out the door. "Now go on before you do something that will get us into trouble."

He smiled at her and went on his way.

Scully sighed for what felt like the hundredth time in the past five minutes and went back to finish her work.

By the time they were in the air Scully was dead asleep mouth slightly open and head on Mulder's shoulder.

Mulder smiled down at her sleeping form. It always amazed him how she could just fall asleep like that on plane rides or in the car when he could hardly get to sleep in his own home (mysterious waterbed or otherwise). She looked so young when he slept. With all of the careful control that she held over herself during the days gone she seemed peaceful. He knew she had nightmares, just as he did, but during these naps she took she was able to achieve a measure of peace and he, by extension, felt that peace.

Even the sleeping beauty next to him could not keep his mind from straying to the current case. Mulder mulled over everything in his mind, taking a mental inventory of what they knew so far. He just wanted the plane to land so he could start some proper research into the beauty company that supplied Agent Wells with her cosmetics. Bombe…. He recognized the name and he could not figure out from where. Sitting under the seat in front of him was a brief case that held information on the case but he could not get it without disturbing Scully. It wouldn't do any good anyways; he had been over it all at least five times already with nothing. What he really was interested in seeing was the deceased agent's past and current caseload. While he and Scully's assignment was very dangerous every day on it's face white collar crime came with it's own set of dangers and definitely was a department that made many powerful enemies.

Mulder sighed internally. He would not be able to get his hands on her cases until morning most likely but there was no way of informing his brain of the futility of sorting and resorting at the current junction. His mind never rested it was always going in a million directions and never slowing down. Some called it brilliance but he called it torture.

A soft noise from Scully drew his attention from the case for a moment. He watched her shift trying to find a comfortable place. A soft smile found his lips and he slowly lifted his arm as he used his other hand to pull up the armrest in between them. He then put his arm around her and pulled her close to him. They didn't know anyone on this flight plus he just couldn't resist. She melted into his chest and was still again within moments.

Although his brain would not rest Mulder felt some peace as he rested his head on the top of hers.