Summary:

Caught *almost* in the act... There is a question on the table. Only the bold can answer...

Notes:

Took a mini vacation to a wonderful beach. Tanned and relaxed, I'm back. Need your help though...

Chapter 9 – Off Stage Fee*

The knock at the door startled them. The agents scrambled to straighten themselves up and Scully was turning beet red. She was the one who wasn't wearing any underwear and her skirt was one of her shorter ones. Mulder gathered up the spilled files while she grabbed her purse and took out her perfume, spraying a little in the air. The knocking grew more insistent and the knob was turned.

"I'm glad I locked it." Mulder whispered, breezing past her to get the door. "I'm coming!" Mulder yelled. The word choice struck him and he turned back to his partner who was wearing a small smile as she leaned on her desk in a casual pose.

The door swung open and Scully hoped her blush had tamped down especially because she was going to have to face…SAC Tom Colton. That man had terrible timing. Colton had never visited them in the basement—ever. Their meetings were usually in Skinner's office or outside of the workplace. Besides, this Special Agent in Charge was on suspension. How did he even get in the building?

"Tom? What are you doing here?" Scully crossed her arms.

The agent's quick eyes scanned the room. "So this is the famous den of the X-Files. Kinda messy—isn't it?"

"I knocked some files over." Mulder said ensuring the man recognized his presence. "What do you want?"

Colton pinned Scully with his gaze. She was trying not to get self-conscious. There was no way he could know that she just had hot gorilla sex on Mulder's desk and she wasn't wearing any underwear. *Just act normal*

"I came down to offer Agent Scully my apology for my unauthorized promotion of her excellent performance to uh…many interested parties."

*That's an apology?* Scully just wanted to get rid of him. "Thank you, Tom. As you can see we have a lot of work to do and you should leave before Skinner finds you here." Colton came closer to her. She watched Mulder stiffen by the door.

"I also came to ask the lovely, Agent Scully, if she would like to have dinner with me tonight. Consider it a 'thank you' for working *under* me on this assignment."

Scully didn't like the way he said 'under'. She was about to turn him down when Mulder did it for her. That was a mistake.

"She's busy, Colton." Mulder said approaching. Scully tried to catch his eye and tell him to back down, but he refused to take his glare off the other man.

"Is she?" The other agent turned to Mulder. "How would you know?" He looked around again. "This is a nice, cozy, PRIVATE office, Mulder. I bet you could do a lot of things down here and no one would find out about them. Is Dana *busy* because you are taking up all of her time—on and…off the job?" Mulder opened his mouth, but Tom barreled on. "Is that perfume, I smell? I wonder how much of that is all over *you*, Spooky."

"That's enough." Scully intervened. "We didn't request your presence and it isn't welcome. No, I do not want to go out to dinner with you, not now or ever and I am asking you to leave."

Colton whirled back to her. "Agent Scully, I came down here in the spirit of friendship, but I think I stumbled upon something else. That door was locked for a reason. Files are scattered all over, perfume in the air…you aren't wearing pantyhose. I think I know exactly what was going on in here and fraternization is a breach of FBI regulations. I could breakup your partnership with just the allegation. Now, I could go to A.D. Skinner with my surmises or we could have a deeper discussion of this issue over dinner. Which one suits you?"

Scully quickly moved to block Mulder and gave him a look. "Agent Colton, you are already on suspension for distributing confidential material about my assignment. An attempt at blackmail will not only put another mark against you—it will also be believed because you are such a snake. My advice is to retract that statement and leave."

The deep red color on Colton's face was rewarding and the picture of his ass walking out the door was—vindication. She closed the door and Mulder didn't have to do anything. Thank god. Scully was afraid of what he would do.

"Scully…" Mulder began. "Colton…if he…"He was seething.

She hugged him briefly. "I know, but that was close. He still might tell Skinner just out of spite. We will have to be a lot more careful and not lose control like that again."

"That's hard to do around you, Scully." Mulder said completely serious. "We need to finish what we started if you expect me to behave..." The phone rang and Mulder picked it up with annoyance. "Mulder." Scully watched as he listened for a minute. "I'll be right there, Sir." He sighed. "Skinner wants me to pick up a case file for review. We will go over it tomorrow morning. I don't want another case right now. I was hoping that I would have some time alone with you."

"We will, Mulder." Scully just got a brilliant idea. "Would you mind if I took the rest of the day off? I have some errands to run."

"Scully!" He whined. "I can't sit here alone! I'll spend the rest of my day looking at my desk with a hard on."

"I think it would be worse if I was here. I need to get re-outfitted and we both need to cool down. Besides, you have to review the file for our meeting tomorrow. Come over for dinner when you get out."

"Yeah." Mulder was sulking as she had stolen his puppy again. However, after Scully makes her arrangements—Mulder isn't going to be sad tonight…

XXXXXXXX

Mulder watched his partner walk out the door. Her swaying hips had a whole new meaning. That was the most spontaneous, erotic and hottest sex he has ever had. They almost tore each other's clothes off! Smiling to himself, he patted his pocket where the scrap of lace was. When he got Scully alone tonight, he was going to tie her to the bed with it and try to top this afternoon.

He went and got the file from Skinner. The man was back to his usual gruff self. The nervous person that he was with his partner was out of character for him. It turned out that another reason for him to come up was that Mulder forgot to sign his statement from that evening at the strip club. Fine. The FBI and paperwork go together like peas and carrots. He searched his pockets and didn't find a pen. Skinner shoved one at him with irritation and he signed.

He would have rather spent the last few hours staring at Scully and reliving the moment, but he was going to see her soon. He couldn't wait. Mulder reviewed the new case and it looked routine. A town was experiencing a rash of unpredictable behavior and they think it might be aliens. Naw, someone probably just put LSD in the water—hell, worked for him. Anyhoo, they would be on the road and that meant hotels with connecting rooms! Man the battle stations!

Now that he thought about it, just showing up in his suit from today wasn't special enough for dinner. He was going to go home and change first.

*Off Stage fee is when strippers prefer to work 'off stage' to make more money. They do lap dances and back room…services, but they have to pay management a fee for the privilege.

Author's Note: What surprise do you think Scully has in store for Mulder? Is Mulder planning a surprise of his own? The two agents have taken the edge off and now they can explore their desires. If there is something you would like to see? Review or message me. I'm cooking up a little something, but I take commands…I mean direction well. What's your M&S fantasy? (Is that a Freudian slip I see?) I think I gave a hint to mine… ;-) I don't think I'll do a shades of grey on this story, but I'll know when the time is right…