A Binding Between Worlds (Part 1 of 1) By: Diana Alexander dmulder@softhome.net DISCLAIMER: The characters in this piece of fiction that are recognizable from Chris Carter's insane piece of work known as the X-Files belong to him, his company Ten-Thirteen Productions and Fox Broadcasting. Anything else, characters, situations or otherwise, belong to this very insane author. RATING: NC17 CLASSIFICATION: SA KEYWORDS: Mulder/Scully romance, Requiem post-ep (well, kinda) SPOILERS: Anything up through Requiem URL: http://troublexf.homepage.com/diana/smut/binding.txt FEEDBACK: always welcome at dmulder@softhome.net ARCHIVE: Anywhere's fine... Gossamer, Xemplary, Ephemeral... yeah... whatever... *grin* SUMMARY: Mulder and Scully, after fighting things for seven years, experience each other completely. AUTHOR'S NOTE: at end of the story... ******************************* "There's so much more than this." --Mulder, "Requiem" ******************************* Ever since she had gotten Daniel out of her life and made amends with the role that he had played in the person that she currently was, Scully found that many of the things that had held her apart from Mulder were gone. After that realisation sank in, she found that the dynamics of their relationship were changing. Yet, at the same time, they were the same two people that they'd always been. It was almost as though they had been experiencing a binding that had built over the duration of their partnership, and finally, they had stopped fighting it, and simply allowed it to happen. By the time that they curled together in a bed in a hotel somewhere in Bellefleur, Oregon, the binding was nearly complete. Somehow, it seemed fitting for it to complete itself there. It was, after all, where they had begun this, some seven years ago. From that base they had built all that had followed, the ups, the downs, and the times that fell somewhere in between the two. After all the near-misses, and the stumbles, it was time. He had murmured his worries about her condition and all the things that had happened in her ear while she listened to his reasons why she shouldn't stay there, about how it wasn't worth it. It didn't take any words for her to tell him that she didn't care about any of the reasons. She was where she needed to be, and he knew it. He wanted to protect her from what he knew was to come. He wanted to protect her, and himself, from what would happen if she was taken again. It had nearly killed him once, but to lose her now would be like losing himself. For her, there had been times over the past seven years where she thought him gone away from her for a lifetime, separated by cruel twists of mortality. Something was going to happen, and they clung together that night fearing it. For without each other, they were lost... By some odd twist of fate, it was via Krycek and Marita's intervention that brought it back to Bellefleur where it had all begun. From the beginning of the tale of the story they had to tell, Scully knew that something was going to happen, just a knowing like she had had numerous times over the years, particularly when it came to her partner, and in the middle of the explanation given by some of the people that she had come to call friend over these past seven years, she had to leave the room. She paced restlessly outside the door without a reason for her agitation, her certainty that it was a bad idea to go back there. Moments later, she heard the door open and watched Mulder leave the room and close the door before she launched into a protest that was never allowed to truly form. When he explained his reasons for not wanting her to go, she found that if she was to explain to him the reasons why she didn't want *him* to go, they'd be the same. They were walking on the same line this time, and she was scared. She held him close to her, worrying that it would the last time she felt his body against hers in that way for a very long time. Shortly after she told him "I won't let you go alone," she moved to release the necklace from around her neck, and saw his eyes widen, ever so slightly. "Scully..." "If you won't let me physically be there with you, Mulder, at least let me go with you in spirit." "You're not expecting me to come back, are you?" his eyes sought hers. She didn't answer for a moment, tried to hedge away from the thought that she had been trying to avoid, but finally, raising her eyes to him once again, told him, "No, I'm not. Mulder, I don't want to be right, but just in case..." He pulled her towards him and in the middle of that hallway, bent and kissed her. It was long and deep, like he was savouring the taste of her. It was the action of a man who anticipated a famine, and wanted to make sure he could remember the taste of that which he craved. She was the same as she drank in the taste of his mouth, the feel of his body against hers. Despite his attitude otherwise, they both knew he wasn't going to be coming back for a long time. "Scully, I love you..." he murmured. "I know... Mulder, I know..." she placed a finger against his lips as she tried to regain her composure. "We're going to have to go back in there." "I know," she nodded, and squared her shoulders. Mulder couldn't help but smile when he saw the facade of Special Agent Dana Scully fall back over her. She paused, "But Mulder... I'd like to ask one thing of you." "And that would be?" "Prove me wrong. That's all I ask. Just prove me wrong." Mulder and Scully stood there looking at each other, seven years of experience between there. Before, there had been many times that he had done exactly that, without her asking. Now that she was asking, he wasn't sure he was going to, and she knew it as well as he did. Her head bowed slightly before she straightened and once more walked into the office. After a moment, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair before he followed her. ******************************* Against her better judgement, Scully stayed in Washington, looking over the evidence of the previous Bellefleur abductees with the Lone Gunmen while Mulder and Skinner went to check out the information that Krycek and Marita had given them. She had requested that Skinner go with him in the hopes that he could keep Mulder out of trouble. Although, in retrospect, it should have seemed to her an impossible task. If *she* couldn't keep Mulder out of trouble most of the time, how on earth could she expect another to? With a shake of her head, Scully brought her mind back to the task at hand instead of worrying about how Mulder was doing. She knew that Skinner could be trusted with him, but still, something about the whole situation didn't feel right. She frowned as she looked through the files, then her mind caught onto a similiarity that set her further on edge... "This can't be..." "What are you looking at?" Frohike asked as the Gunmen gathered around her. She held up the files as she explained the similiarities between the brain activity that Mulder had experienced earlier in the year and the activity other Bellefleur abductees had also experienced and realised that the evidence to back up the intuition she'd had about what was going to happen was in her hands. When she realised it, she just stopped in the middle of her sentence, allowing Frohike to complete it. Moments after he said it, before she could move to go after her partner, the room swam around her, and she felt herself falling to the floor. Before everything went completely black, she heard the Gunmen asking if she was okay, only she couldn't open her mouth to tell them. It seemed to only take moments before she found herself standing in the woods of Bellefleur from seven years ago. The light that she had seen that she couldn't explain then was present, only she found herself looking up at a craft hovering above her head before spiriting off into the distance. Faintly, Skinner's voice came to her, calling Mulder's name before going silent. A hand fell on her shoulder, and a familiar voice came to her from behind, "You were going to tell them you were fine, weren't you?" She turned in surprise to find Mulder standing behind her. "Mulder, I thought you..." "Well, let's just say that when they tried to take me, they forgot something." "What did they forget?" He looked down at himself, and then back up at her, "Well, um... they took my body, but they kind of forgot to take me with it." "How can that be?" "It was like watching a train wreck, Scully," he shook his head. "I felt my body being pulled into the forcefield, and walking into the group of abductees, and all I could do was watch. Why am I still here? *How* am I still here?" She moved to embrace him, and she murmured, "I don't know how, or why, but I'm glad you are." He held her close for a moment before pulling away, and a boyish expression formed on his face even as she watched. It only made her want to know what he was up to this time. "You know this place, it's not a physical reality, don't you, Scully?" "Mulder..." "No, really, I'm serious... I'd be willing to bet that your last memory was of your being in Washington, possibly doing something similar as to what you were doing when I left. Looking over files, maybe?" "Actually, yes..." "Then how did you get here?" She paused for a moment, thinking about it, "I don't know. One moment, I was looking over the files with the Gunmen, discussing the possibility of you being in more danger than I would have been in, then the room kind of went black. I was having another one of my dizzy spells, and the next moment, I was here." "Scully, what if I told you that your body is still in D.C..." "Then this is some sort of shared hallucination? We've had those before," she smiled. "I think this is more than just a shared hallucination. What do you know about the astral plane, Scully?" "Mulder..." "Shh," he grinned at her teasingly. "In seven years, how many times have I been wrong? Really, Scully..." She pursed her lips. "Not often, Mulder, I have to admit, but what does that have to do with this? I mean, this doesn't exactly look like the astral plane to me, Mulder. I've always heard it described as a place with no sight, no sound, no substance that would be recognisable as itself..." "Melissa talked about it, then?" Scully smiled slightly, "She always wanted to experience lovemaking on the astral plane and said that she'd heard that it was the most intense experience... and to tell you the truth, I was kind of curious myself." "So was I. I heard it mentioned a lot in the parapsychology courses I took in college, and some people said that it was so intense that you'd never forget it. I always wanted to try it..." "But?" "But I wanted to do it with the right person," he nibbled at his bottom lip thoughtfully. "And I heard that the astral plane, how it's seen is entirely up to the people there. If you see yourself with a body and in physical surroundings, that's what you perceive. If you want to be a ball of energy that combines with another... that's what you perceive. It's different for everybody." Silence hung tight between them for a moment before he spoke again. "Scully?" "Yes?" He grinned, "Would you want to?" "Here?" "Yes." Scully couldn't help but smile as she moved further into his embrace, "So you really think I'm that right person, do you?" "I know you are," he told her, placing a kiss upon her nose before pressing his forehead against hers, much like he had in a hallway two years ago. "So, shall we?" She lifted her lips in a smile of challenge. "Lets." In response, he let out a soft groan and moved to kiss her deeply. Neither of them noticed that the world around them seemed to shift into an indistinct fog. He lifted her up against him as he had done numerous times in the past, and she wound her legs tightly around his waist. Pulling away from her, he looked around in surprise. "Mulder? How did we get here?" she asked him, sounding mildly amused. "I wished us here." She arched one eyebrow slightly at him, "And that works?" "Why don't you try wishing for something, and see?" he challenged her. She closed her eyes and the world seemed to twist around them again. When it stopped spinning, Mulder found them both standing naked in the middle of the bedroom in his apartment. She opened her eyes, looked around in surprise, but a small smile tugged at her lips nonetheless. "Now that we've stopped arguing about where we're going to make love, can we actually stop talking and do it?" he teased. "I'm not stopping you. In fact, Mulder, I'm encouraging you. And make it one to last... because I don't know when the next time I'll see you will be..." He reached out and pulled her against him, "No matter where I am, I'm always with you, you know." "I know," she smiled up at him, "but it's one thing to know you're here, and quite another to reach out and touch you, or to turn and just be able to see you forming a sarcastic retort even as I watch you." He caressed her face softly before moving to kiss her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed her fingertips to play with the ends of his hair. She moaned into his mouth as she moved her hands downward to rake her nails along his back. She pulled away, chuckling softly as she pushed him onto the bed, following shortly behind him, and he looked up at her in surprise as it rippled and flowed beneath them. Somehow, he wasn't all that surprised to see that the mirror that he'd had in place about a year ago was there. She leaned in, murmuring, "I've always been interested in this waterbed of yours, and I found that I was disappointed when you had to replace it with something more conventional." "Sounds like you were more interested in the bed than you are in me," he pouted at her, and she bent to kiss the pout away, rubbing her breasts against his chest in the process. "Never think it, Mulder. I cannot remember a time when I wasn't interested in you. Even if there were times when I thought it was going to be either me beating you senseless or jumping you," she grinned as she pulled away from his lips. "Ooh, I just got really turned on," he murmured, shifting his hips slightly, Scully pressed her lips against the patch of skin above the cross that she had given him prior to his departure, and ignored his comment for a moment. Then she pulled away from him and moved her hips back against the heat of his arousal and hummed under her breath, "So I see." "Aren't you facing the wrong way for that?" he grinned. "Do you think I have to look anywhere other than your face to know how turned on you are? After all, you do have a very expressive face, Mulder." In response, he took a grasp on her hips, caressing the bare skin as she tilted her head back and let out a soft moan. Encouraged by her response, he skimmed his hands higher to the breasts that seemed to beg for his attention. She let out a sigh and moved into the caress. Mulder watched her and found that simply from her reactions, and from the gathering heat and dampness that he could feel against his abdomen, he was getting more aroused. That's when Scully took a hold on his arms and pulled him on top of her, then found herself grinning at their reflections in the mirror above her head even as she thrust up into him. For the briefest of moments, he met her eyes in the mirror above their heads, then he began to move his lips against her skin, tasting again the many places that he had enjoyed tasting in the past. He watched her face for every sigh, every moan in order to learn again what brought her the most pleasure. It didn't take very much longer for her to grasp at his hair, pulling his lips away from her. "Mulder. I need you inside. Now." With nothing more spoken, he moved between her parted legs, and thrust deep within her body, then gritted his teeth against the pleasure of it. He never remembered it being this intense before, but then again, they had never taken it to this level either. He felt her legs wind around his waist, moving him deeper within her body. "Wait... wait..." "Why?" "Need to..." He remained still within her body for a few moments more, feeling her arousal and his build with the stillness before they began to move. It didn't take long for both of them to feel like they were just one being moving together toward an unknown destination. At some point, he stopped watching their reflection in the mirror, as did she. And behind closed eyelids, they experienced each other as brilliant beams of light, blue and green, coming together and melding into something completely different. When they finally reached that pinnacle that they had been striving for, neither of them noticed that their surroundings had faded away. All that they felt and knew was each other, and the supernova of intensity that had just been experienced. ******************************* When she awoke, Scully found herself using Mulder as a full body pillow in that place between worlds that she had only seen glimpses of before, and was too afraid to believe in. However, that's where she found herself, and as she watched Mulder continue to sleep, she knew that this time, this special moment that they had shared was almost over. Her body would soon be beckoning her back, and away from him, and it was for that reason that she clung to him so tightly. Already, she could almost feel him slipping away from her. With a sigh, she leaned into him again, "Mulder..." "Our time's almost up, isn't it?" he nibbled at his bottom lip as he opened his eyes to look at her. "I think so... Mulder, I don't know..." "Shhh..." he murmured to her, anticipating the worries that were already filling her mind. "I'll be there when you wake up. I promise." "But it won't be the same, Mulder. You said yourself that they have your body... You'll still be gone..." "But you'll find me, Scully. I *know* you will." She made a sound halfway between a laugh and a cry. "You sound so sure of yourself." "That's because I am, and I know how you are when you're determined to do something. Sleep, Scully. It'll be okay. I promise." For a long time, he lay there in that space between worlds, watching her sleep with her hands entwined in his, and knew that he couldn't be far away from her. They were part of each other, and it had been that way for as long as he could remember. Still, it nearly tore his heart apart when he found that the body that he was holding close to him was starting to fade away. He watched until he could no longer see her fingers entwined with his own, then he closed his eyes with the pain of it. He had thought it was bad some five years ago when she had been gone missing for months, but that was before they had realised how deep the connection between them went. Now, it was like having part of himself torn out to be separated from her. Closing himself off from the pain, he allowed himself to drift to wherever she was. That was where he needed to be. When he opened his eyes, he was standing against a wall, watching her sleep in a hospital. Georgetown Memorial again. He let out a soft sigh as he watched. They both spent far too much time there. It didn't take long for her to awaken, and her eyes swept the room even as she sensed him there. A smile lit her entire face as she saw him standing there. Her thoughts had made themselves apparent to him. *Mulder, you're here...* *Didn't I promise?* At that point, Skinner walked down the hallway, and, catching sight of him, her entire expression subdued. She knew what he was coming to tell her, from the way things looked. It was no great surprise when he entered the room and started trying to find the words that despite the fact that Scully had entrusted him with Mulder's safety, he had been lost in the craft. The sound of Scully's voice saying that they would find him, that she had to nearly broke his heart. Then, he found himself holding onto her next words as much as Skinner was... However, the instant the words, "I'm pregnant" escaped her lips, Mulder found himself losing awareness in what would normally be called a faint, and ever so faintly, he could almost hear a mixture of a laugh and a sob that was Scully. ******************************* AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'm baaaack. *grin* I thought this was a nice way to come back after my long absence. Sorry if this resembles other ideas or stories that has been posted. I've been working on this all week, and it just now got approved by my beta reader. (Thanks, C!) Now, I don't presume to even remotely know what I'm talking about on the subject of lovemaking on the astral plane. And if I'm wrong about the details, then I'm sorry, and feel free to correct me. However, I could see it happening in that space between Scully fainting and her waking up in the hospital. I am still trying to do the episode justice with this... but I *needed* to see this done. And besides, I had to find a way to keep Mulder around somehow even while he was gone. I miss him already ;-) ******************************* -End- == "Lonely rivers flow To the sea, to the sea To the open arms of the sea Lonely rivers sigh Wait for me, wait for me I'll be coming home, wait for me.." -- from Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers