TITLE:   ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
AUTHOR:  CYBILL & DONNILEE
E-MAIL:  donnilee@snet.net
         cybill@pacbell.net 

WEBSITE: http://donnilee.tripod.com
         http://www.cybillxfilesopus.com
RATING:  NC-17
CATEGORY:  MSR, CASEFILE
CLASSIFICATION:  ANGST, RST
WARNING: There is a rape in this story between original 
characters (not our dynamic duo). We've tried not to be too 
graphic but still get our point across. However, if this 
sort of thing bothers you, you've been warned.  
SPOILERS:  Tiny one for Triangle; mention of Cancer.
TIMELINE:  Near the end of Season 6.

SUMMARY:   Mulder and Scully investigate a series of murders 
in a small town and find out something is affecting everyone
there.

DISCLAIMER:  All characters used from the show, The X-Files 
are the property of Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions, and 
Fox Broadcasting.  No copyright infringement intended.  No 
money made here.

THANKS:  To our beta reader, FatCat, who dutifully whipped out 
her fine-tooth comb. Thanks, darling.

XXXXXXXXXX
PROLOGUE 
XXXXXXXXXX

SLOANE STANLEY MUSEUM
ROUTE 7, KENT, CT 
MAY 21, 1997
WEDNESDAY - 3:58 PM

I was finally getting off work in a couple of minutes. For the last 
quarter hour, I'd been able to see him standing out there on the 
sidewalk, trying to look casual. He was leaning against a big oak 
tree that stood sentinel next to the concrete sidewalk. The town 
was like that, a curious mix of the old and the new.

His name was Ron and he was my boyfriend's best friend. I never 
really figured out why. The guy gave me the heebie-jeebies, but I 
tolerated him for Johnny's sake. They'd always done everything 
together. They grew up together, both lived here in town and both 
went to college at Western Connecticut State University in 
Danbury. Here, everybody knew everybody. That could be good, 
but it could also be bad. It seemed that someone was always in 
your business.

I sighed and closed the door behind me, turning the key and testing 
the door to make sure it was locked.  I took a deep breath and 
plastered a smile on my face before turning around. "Oh, hi, Ron!"

"Hey, Rebecca."

"Where's Johnny? He was supposed to pick me up."

"He got stuck doing something for his mom. He called and asked 
me to pick you up. Said he'd meet us up at the cabin above 
Macedonia."

"Oh, okay then." I tried to keep the disappointment out of my 
voice. The cabin was an old run down thing in the woods above 
Macedonia Park. It had been used as a hunting cabin long ago. 
Now, all we local kids used it to party in.

I slid into the passenger seat of his Honda Civic, laying my purse 
on my lap and my bag at my feet. We drove in silence for a while. 
Fortunately the ride was only a couple of miles. When we turned 
into the Macedonia State Park entrance, he said, "We already 
brought stuff up to the cabin earlier."

"Oh that's good. It will save time."

"I'm looking forward to tonight," he said. Something about the tone 
of his voice made me look at him. I wanted to see Johnny. I'd been 
hoping we could sneak off after a while. I didn't really know why, 
but I'd been horny as a bed bug lately. Of course, Johnny wasn't 
complaining. I'd bought a new three pack of condoms just for 
tonight.

We parked and I threw off my work shoes and took my hiking 
boots out of the bag I'd brought from home. I put them on, with my 
feet hanging out the door. He waited patiently and offered me a 
hand up when I was done.

Just the feel of his hand in mine made me shiver, and not in a good 
way. I forced another smile and slammed the car door. "Let's get 
going."

Somehow it seemed that if when we were moving, he didn't bother 
me so much. We reached the cabin all too quickly and Ron shoved 
open the door. He went to the fireplace and started the paper ablaze 
that they'd set up earlier, getting the fire going. I observed his back 
while he wasn't looking.

He wasn't a bad looking man, just not my type. He was six-feet 
tall, and had sandy brown hair and blue eyes. He had the well- 
toned body of an athlete, just like Johnny.

Once the wood was catching, he stood and turned to me. "Actually, 
I'm glad we're here alone. I wanted to talk to you about 
something."

"What?"

He walked up to me and put his hands on my shoulders.  "This is 
hard for me to say," he began. "Johnny's my best friend and all, but 
he doesn't deserve you, Rebecca."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, trying to pull away.

His hands only grasped me tighter. "Rebecca. I can give you 
everything he can and more. I know this will shock you, but I've 
been in love with you for a long time."

"Ron! This is ridiculous. Let go of me!" I wrenched my body to the 
side, breaking his grip and started toward the door.

He was on me in seconds, wrapping his arms around my waist. 
"Oh, no you don't!" he growled.

He began walking backwards, pulling me with him. He shoved 
open the bedroom door of the cabin with his back. I jerked when I 
heard it slam against the wall.  "Ron! Johnny will be here soon. 
Stop this nonsense!  I like you as a friend, but that's all. I'm sorry!"

"Sorry?  Oh, you're going to be sorry, all right. I tell you I love you 
and you tell me I'm ridiculous!  Well, I don't think my love is 
ridiculous. I'm going to show you what you've been missing!"

"You're crazy! You're not yourself right now. Don't do anything 
you'll regret," I begged.

He merely laughed and shoved me until I fell onto the bed face 
first. I tried to scramble away, but he grabbed my ankles and 
yanked my body back to the edge of the bed. Jesus, he was strong.

He pulled down my wool slacks, popping the button off the front 
of them. I screamed and squirmed, trying to get away, hoping 
someone would hear my scream.  'Where was Johnny?' I thought 
frantically.

From out of nowhere, he came up with a belt and tied my hands 
together tightly and then awkwardly moved me up the bed. He tied 
the other end of the belt to the headboard. I could smell the musty 
scent of the mattress and wondered why I had never noticed that 
before.

Once he had me secured, he proceeded to yank off my hiking boots 
and pull my pants off. I screamed again and tried to kick him. He 
easily subdued me with the weight of his body. I was really 
panicking now. He was actually going to do it. "Ron, please! Let's 
talk about this!"

"No more talking! I told you I loved you. If you can't accept that 
then I'm going to show you. I'm going to make you love me!"

"You can't make someone love you, Ron! I like you.  Please, let 
me go. I won't say anything to anyone. I promise!"

During my little speech, he'd obviously gotten his fly down. I was 
still wearing my shirt and he hadn't bothered to disrobe at all. I felt 
his hot erection against the back of my legs and began to fight in 
earnest.

Pain exploded in my skull as he punched me in the back of the 
head. Then searing pain ripped through my abdomen as he forced 
himself into my bone-dry sheath.  I screamed.

"Shut up!"

I couldn't help it. It hurt so badly. I screamed again, sobbing and 
began to beg. "Ron, please! Stop hurting me. I'll do whatever you 
want! Please!"

"Shut up!" he bellowed. He was thrusting hard, jamming himself 
inside me. He was probably average sized but in my dry sex, he 
felt huge.

I felt dizzy from the pain. The last thing I remember was 
screaming, "Jjoohhnnyy!"

That brought another blow to the back of my head and everything 
went black.

XXXXXXXXXX

MACEDONIA STATE PARK
KENT, CT 
MAY 22, 1997 
THURSDAY - 3:00 PM

"Jesus Christ! That's Rebecca Stowe!"

I looked at Deputy Harrison and swallowed the bile rising in my 
throat. She'd been stabbed repeatedly.  Judging by the fact that her 
pants were missing, I was going to assume she'd been raped.

"What do you want to do, Sheriff?" Deputy Harrison asked.

"Call the coroner in New Milford and the State Police Barracks. 
Get a major crime squad out here. This is way over our heads."

"Yes, sir!"

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 1 
XXXXXXXXXX

HOOVER BUILDING 
BASEMENT OFFICE 
WASHINGTON, D.C. 
MAY 27, 1997 
TUESDAY - 8:00 AM

"Morning, Scully," I greeted.

"Morning," she said, her voice subdued.

I watched as she set down her briefcase and opened up her laptop 
on the table. She wouldn't look directly at me, but she looked 
awfully pale. Her movements were swift and to the point. There 
was no easy glide to her walk, no softly sweeping her hair back as 
she dug into her briefcase. It didn't take a genius to figure out that 
something was very, very wrong.  "Scully, what's wrong?"

She cleared her throat and turned to me, wetness pooling in her 
eyes. "I have something to discuss with you. Give me a minute to 
get set up here."

"Okay. Are you all right?" I asked. It was rare to see Scully near 
tears. When she was in pain, I was in pain. It had been that way for 
a long time now.

"I'm fine," she said, giving her standard response.

I waited patiently while she booted up her computer, printed out a 
couple of e-mails and opened her briefcase, extracting a manila 
folder. She came over to my desk and stood next to me. "What's 
up?"

"I want to investigate a case."

My eyebrows rose. Scully rarely took the initiative to investigate a 
case. I usually picked them, or A.D. Skinner assigned them to us. 
"What have you got?"

She took a deep breath and set the folder in front of me. I opened it 
and began to read while she stood there quietly. Her unnatural 
stillness was unnerving me a bit. I read two police reports and two 
autopsy reports on women that had been murdered in Kent, 
Connecticut.

One, Rebecca Stowe, was a 22-year old that had been raped and 
stabbed to death. There were no suspects.  The second one was a 
35 year-old pediatrician who had also been raped and murdered. 
Her name was Christina Fuller. Her boyfriend, Brad Crane, was 
being held for questioning.

I looked up at Scully after skimming the contents.  "I don't get it. 
Where's the X-File?" I asked.

She shook her head slightly. "There isn't one."

"Then why do you want to investigate these deaths?"

She then laid the two e-mails that she had printed in front of me. 
One was from a nurse, Maggie O'Connor, at New Milford Hospital 
informing Scully of Christina Fuller's death including the details of 
her obituary. The other was from a Brad Crane, telling her nearly 
the same thing.

"Dr. Fuller was raped and stabbed to death. I knew her, Mulder. 
We went to med school together.  Her family was from Danbury, 
so after she graduated, she moved back to Connecticut. We didn't 
keep in contact constantly, but we still sent each other birthday and 
Christmas cards every year and gave each other updates on our 
lives. She started dating Brad around Christmas time. She'd 
mentioned it in her Christmas card. He's a male nurse at New 
Milford Hospital. She had her own pediatric practice, but was 
affiliated with the hospital there."

"She lived in Kent, though?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said, her voice barely a whisper. "I want to know what 
happened. If it's the same killer, it doesn't make sense."

"Do you think Brad killed Christina?"

"I just don't know. I only met him once a few months ago when 
she came down for a medical conference.  We had dinner together 
while they were in town. That's the point. If he did, was he also 
responsible for killing the other young woman just three days 
earlier?"

Now I understood. It was personal. It was rare that Scully asked 
anything of me, let alone to investigate a case for personal reasons. 
We didn't have anything else pertinent going on right now and I 
had no reason or desire to say no. In fact, it might be good to get 
out of town. I was getting restless doing paperwork and going over 
old, unsolved cases. Scully didn't need to say anything more for me 
to see how important it was to her. It was written all over her face. 
A friend of hers had been murdered.  "Let's talk to Skinner."

She nodded and gave me a close-lipped smile that let me know she 
appreciated me not arguing with her about it. I grabbed my suit 
jacket and pulled it on, grabbing up the little information she had. I 
followed her out the door with my hand on her lower back.

My attraction for my partner had grown over the years. I knew it 
wasn't a one-sided thing.  Somehow, we'd managed to ignore the 
sexual tension between us for about four years now. It had started 
shortly after she was returned from her abduction. Although she 
drove me to distraction sometimes, I was unwilling to risk doing 
anything that might send her running for the hills. She was too 
important to me.  If I could help her solve the murder of her friend, 
maybe in some small way, that would atone for all the shit I felt I'd 
put her through over the last six years.

XXXXXXXXXX

A.D. SKINNER'S OFFICE 
HOOVER BUILDING - 3RD FLOOR 
WASHINGTON, D.C. 
MAY 27, 1997 
TUESDAY - 8:30 AM

Skinner was surprisingly amenable to the investigation. I think he 
felt that we could use a break from the weird stuff as well. A good 
old-fashioned investigation might be just the thing we needed.

He signed off on the 302 and the travel plans. He even made a call 
to the local Bureau in Hartford, Connecticut, letting them know 
that we would be coming into the state and asking permission to 
use their facilities if they were needed. They quickly agreed.

Permission in hand, we rose to go. Skinner stopped us. "Agent 
Scully."

"Yes, sir?"

"Good luck. I hope you find out what happened to your friend."

"Me too, sir. Me too. Thanks for being so understanding about 
this."

"You're welcome. Go find this bastard."

She smiled gently at him. "We'll do our best, sir."

"I know you will; you always do."

With that we left and went downstairs to pack up whatever 
supplies we might need. While she did that, I called the Travel 
Department and booked our airline reservations. We were soon 
booked on a flight for Bradley International leaving in three hours.

We went home separately and packed. I had a feeling there was 
more here than met the eye and it wasn't going to be a quickie 
investigation. With that in mind, I packed a week's worth of suits 
and plenty of casual clothes.

I picked her up and we headed for the airport. She didn't say a 
word during the entire trip. Once boarded, she turned to me and 
said, "There's more to this."

"What's that?" I asked.

"I didn't mention this to Skinner because I have no idea if it's 
related.  It's probably not, but my friend also sent me a scan of a 
recent newspaper article about a recent population boom in that 
area."

"That's odd," I remarked.

She opened her carry-on and handed me a copy of the article. I 
skimmed through it, noting that the boom had started several 
months ago. Women in Kent, Cornwall, Warren and a couple of 
other small surrounding towns were turning up with a remarkable 
number of pregnancies. The ratio of births to the population was 
too high to ignore. One obstetrician had mentioned it to a patient 
that was a reporter. Very soon, it was front-page news.

Speculation about good living and screwing during winter storms 
were all posited as possible reasons for the recent boom. I handed 
it back to her. "We'll have to keep that in mind. Maybe we can put 
talking to that doctor mentioned there on our list of things to do."

"Sounds good."

"Where are we staying, by the way? I didn't even ask."

"There are no hotels in the town and I didn't want to stay in the 
next town over, Gaylordsville, so I booked us rooms at the Cooper 
Creek B&B."

"A bed and breakfast? All right, we'll be living it up!" I teased.

She laughed softly and I was glad to see her smile.  "Hopefully it's 
a nice place."

"I'm sure it's better than our usual accommodations in rat motels," I 
commented.

She grinned and then followed it with a yawn. I suddenly noticed 
just how exhausted she looked. The death of her friend had to be 
hard on her. We've both lost so many people in our lives. The only 
solace I had was that it didn't have anything to do with our sordid 
past in the X-Files.

She looked over at me and tried to hold back another yawn with 
her hand. "I'm going to try to take a nap.  I didn't sleep well last 
night."

"Go ahead and catch forty winks. I'll wake you when we're 
landing."

She hunkered down in her seat, and laid her head back. Without 
opening her eyes she said, "Mulder, I appreciate you doing this. I 
know it's not an X-File."

I smiled at her. "Anytime, Scully. I'm happy to do it."

"Are you?" she asked skeptically.

"Of course. Don't you know I'd do anything for you?" The words 
were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

She opened her eyes, looked at me and then laughed. "Drop the 
panic face, Mulder. It's all right. I'd do anything for you, too."

I breathed a sigh of relief and then chuckled softly; glad she wasn't 
going to make a big deal out of it.  We rarely talked about our 
feelings for one another.  I don't know why it was so hard for me. I 
guess I figured the less I talked about them, the less they would 
hurt me. The old 'move a muscle, change a thought' theory in 
action. If I kept busy, it left little time for me to dwell on all the 
things I didn't have in my life, or all the risks I was unwilling to 
take.

Little did I know, in a matter of days, our relationship would 
change forever.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 2 
XXXXXXXXXX

SHERRIFF KEN HARTLEY'S OFFICE 
KENT, CT 
MAY 27, 1997 
TUESDAY - 3:30 PM

We walked up the rickety steps of the small building that housed 
the town's only law enforcement office. The weathered boards 
creaked with age, as if each pound weighed heavily on its wooden 
surface.

Mulder pulled the gentlemen card by opening the heavy, thick 
door, which had seen better days from the looks of it. Upon 
entering, my nose was immediately overwhelmed with the smell of 
cigar smoke. Small town, old habits. They didn't worry about 
secondhand smoke or labor laws that prevent smoking in any 
governmental facility within the United States. Who was I to crack 
down on them?

I crinkled my nose in discomfort and Mulder swiped at the air. It 
was a futile attempt at removing the stench that was now creeping 
into the fabric of our clothes. It would take one hell of a dry 
cleaner to remove the lingering stench I foresaw in the near future.

"Excuse me, anyone here?" Mulder asked to the empty room. We 
heard something that sounded like a grumble coming from around 
a corner.  Mulder and I slowly walked towards it. The stream of 
smoke billowing in the air was like a beacon in the dim room.

We turned the corner to find the profile of St. Nicholas himself. 
Except, it wasn't exactly a jolly fat man in a red suit we saw.  It 
looked more like a fat man in a burlap sack with his tan uniform. 
His big feet were up on his desk, a newspaper open wide over his 
round belly, and the offending cigar dangling from his wet lips.

Mulder cleared his throat to announce us. I sighed with irritation. 
The fat man looked at us over his wire-rimmed glasses with a 
detached interest.

"You those FBI agents who came to look into the Fuller murder?" 
He wasn't exactly rude but his tone and demeanor did border on it.

"Yes, we are. Fox Mulder, and Dana Scully," I announced, 
introducing us. The man slowly folded up his paper and set it on 
his desk. He removed his feet from the gritty surface and stood. 
Leaning back and stretching, his stomach protruded over his belt 
buckle. I was losing my patience with every tick of the clock.

"Look, Sheriff," I began. I looked at his nametag and continued, 
"Hartley. We came all the way from D.C. to look into this case. Do 
you still have Brad Crane in custody? We'd like to speak with him 
as soon as possible."

"Nope, we don't have him anymore. He's been released," the 
Sheriff announced.

"Released! Our headquarters were told that he had been picked up 
for questioning about Christina Fuller's murder. He was supposed 
to be held until we were able to interrogate him upon our arrival." 
My fury was starting to take over. Lack of sleep and grief could 
bring out my fiery Irish temper.

Mulder placed a gentle hand to my forearm. The gesture took away 
some of my frustration but not much.

"Sheriff Hartley, why was Mr. Crane released?" he asked in a calm 
but firm tone.

"He didn't kill, Christina." He sat on the edge of his desk, as if 
holding up the weight of his belly was too much for his spindly 
legs to take. If he had been a woman, he would be eight months 
pregnant right now.

"Then who did?" I asked in the nicest voice I could muster. We 
were getting nowhere with the man.

"Don't know." He shrugged.

Was he for real? Could he string together more than a couple 
words at a time? Jesus! Christina was a wonderful doctor and my 
friend. How could he be so uninterested? I couldn't believe that her 
death was being investigated by a caricature of a law official.  Law 
and Order, my ass.  This was more like Mayberry, RFD.

"Would you like to expand on that for us, Sheriff?" Mulder was 
amazing. He was standing there with a bland expression on his 
face and a hand in his pocket, leaning his lanky frame against a tall 
file cabinet. If you didn't know him, you'd think he was ambivalent 
about finding out about Christina's death, but I knew better. He 
was trying to show the Sheriff an aura of trust. He was not holding 
a defensive pose, like the one I was sporting right now. He was 
calm and collected and the Sheriff was buying it.  Sometimes it 
paid to have a psychologist for a partner.

"Like I said, he didn't kill her. There were fingerprints all over the 
woman's body and not one of them were his."

"How is that possible?" I asked, frustrated. "He was her fiance; 
surely, he touched her at some point that day?"

"Because he left their house before Christina took her morning 
shower. She was killed after work. We figure the murder took 
place some time between going to the grocery store after leaving 
her office, and right before making it home to Mr. Crane that 
evening," he said.

Finally, we were getting somewhere.

"So, where are you with the case?" Mulder chimed in.

"We're interviewing the grocery store attendants and trying to pin 
down the exact time of death. There had to be a reason she pulled 
over to the side of the road. We figure she must have known her 
assailant, or she was picking up a hitch hiker."

"She wouldn't do that," I said softly. "Pick up a hitch hiker, that 
is," I clarified.

"You know, Agent Scully, I get the impression that you knew Ms. 
Fuller," he said kindly.

"Yes, I did, Sheriff."  That was all I was going to say about that. 
Mulder's eyes met mine. They held a hint of sympathy within them 
and I looked away quickly. I couldn't break down here.

"Would it be possible for us to get copies of everything you have 
on this case to date?" Mulder asked the Sheriff.

"I guess it couldn't hurt." He moved with more speed than I 
thought possible to make the copies for us.

I was sure he just wanted us to get the hell out of here. I'd bet he 
was thinking that us big fibbies who came into small towns and put 
their noses and fancy suits into the mix just mucked everything up. 
A small laugh escaped me before I could tamp it down.

Mulder looked at me and grinned. He's thinking the same thing.

Just as the Sheriff returned with the copies, a young man briskly 
entered the small office.

"Sheriff! We got him!" My heart jumped in anticipation.

"Who, Deputy?" It was the first speck of animation we'd seen from 
the Sheriff since we entered.

"Ronald M. Graceson!" he exclaimed.

"Ronnie? Deb's boy?"

The young deputy nodded his head excitedly.

"Now what did he go and do this time?" the Sheriff asked.

"He killed Rebecca Stowe!" The young man's wide smile couldn't 
be tamed even by the subject matter. My hopes for Christina sank.

The Sheriff's eyebrows shot up. "You're kidding! Are you sure? 
You have to be sure or his Mamma is going to have the entire town 
trying to string us both up by the balls."

"We have a full confession. We're bringing him in now." The 
young man jittered from side to side, clearly there was too much 
adrenalin running rampant through his system.

Mulder and I stood to the side, silently watching the debacle 
unfold. The young man's face finally registered that someone else 
was in the tiny room. He hooked a thumb at us. "Who are they?"

"Feds." Apparently Mulder and I didn't need an introduction.

Mulder held out his hand anyway, "Fox Mulder, and this is my 
partner, Dana Scully.  Your name is?"

"Oh, sorry! Andy Harrison, sir."

After we shook hands with the overwhelmed deputy, Mulder asked 
about the new development. "So, is it possible that this Ronald 
Graceson character killed Ms. Fuller as well?"

"Um, maybe. I hadn't really thought of asking him about 
Christina." 'He didn't think of asking about a woman who was 
raped and murdered three days after Ms. Stowe was killed in a 
similar fashion?' I thought as I gripped my fists tightly. I thought 
my nails were about to break the skin of my palm.

"Well, we'd like to review the case reports and the confession." 
The Sheriff nodded at Mulder hesitantly. "Scully and I would also 
like to interview Mr. Graceson after he's been booked for Ms. 
Stowe's murder."

"Now, wait a minute here," the young deputy hedged.

Mulder was about to stake a claim on the case when the Sheriff 
jumped in. "It's alright, Andy. They just want to talk to the boy 
about Christina."

"But, but this is my case," he stumbled over his protest.

"Andy," the Sheriff said in warning. "One call to Washington and 
we'll have us a whole slew of suits running around here. They don't 
want to take over your case. They're here to help find out what's 
happened."

The young man stilled and nodded at his superior.

Mulder and I nodded in unison at the Sheriff's proclamation. 
Mulder added, "Andy, we just want to help. You knew the girl, 
right?"

"Yes, sir. Awful thing seeing her torn up like that."

"Well, Agent Scully went to medical school with Ms. Fuller. They 
were friends. You can understand her wanting to find out what 
happened, can't you?"

"Absolutely! I'm sorry, Ma'am," Andy responded, tipping his hat at 
Scully.

I smiled. Mulder knew when to play the personal cards, all right. In 
most cases, that would work against us. Here, however, I had a 
feeling the personal aspects were going to endear us to the locals, 
rather than be a burden.

"Okay. Come back in the morning. We'll book him this evening 
and you can have at him bright and early tomorrow," Sheriff 
Hartley promised.

I was about to object when Mulder lightly touched my back. "That 
will be perfect. Thank you for allowing us to work with you on 
this. Ready, Scully?"

I looked at him with daggers in my eyes. He knew damn well that I 
was not done here, but for some reason, he was agreeing to their 
terms. I thought we had completely reversed roles.

He ushered me out of the smoke pit and to the front of the 
building.

"What the hell was that, Mulder?"

"Scully, clearly these people are not happy about us being here."

"So what? When has that ever stopped you before?" I was 
becoming furious.

"No, that wouldn't have stopped me before but you would have."

I was not following where he was going with his line of reasoning.

"Right now, Scully, you're personalizing this case."

I opened my mouth to speak and he cut me off, putting two fingers 
over my lips.

"What you need to do is step back from your emotions and see that 
these are nice people. They may not be college graduates, but they 
know their own kind. We need to hang back and investigate on our 
own.  Antagonizing them or being condescending is not going to 
get us where we need to be."

He had a point there. Too bad he didn't use the same line of 
thought more often.

"We should only connect with the locals when necessary. We're 
going to need them though. We need their records and if they get 
lucky, we're going to need access to the suspects.  We're both 
aggravated and you are over tired. You know as well as I do that 
it's a recipe for disaster to start out a case this way."

I couldn't argue with that. He guided me by the arm to the 
passenger side of the car. I turned swiftly and grabbed the keys 
clasped in his hand. "Fine, but I'm driving," I said. I knew I was 
acting petulant, but I was still somewhat upset at the events that 
transpired with tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum.

We got into the car and headed off towards our hotel, actually, the 
bed and breakfast. I couldn't believe Mulder and I were staying in a 
B&B. How pathetic was that? I was finally getting away for the 
weekend, staying in a beautiful bed and breakfast, and of course, it 
was under less than desirable circumstances. Just once, I'd have 
liked to be in a nice place with a handsome man in tow for more 
pleasurable reasons. I wondered if my life would ever be normal. I 
looked over at my partner who was trying to give me space by not 
engaging me in conversation.

Nope, normal just wasn't in my cards.

XXXXXXXXXXX

COOPER CREEK B&B 
KENT, CT 
MAY 27, 1997 
TUESDAY - 5:30 PM

The Bed and Breakfast was beautiful. When I made the 
reservations, I really wasn't expecting something so quaint and 
well, lovely. Mulder and I entered the colonial-style house, 
complete with large white pillars donning the veranda. There was a 
large maple desk straight ahead at the back of the entrance hall. A 
small, frail-looking woman, who looked to be in her 70's, was 
talking softly on an old-fashioned, antique phone. Her hair was tied 
up tightly in a bun. She had pink, pointed glasses tipped on her 
nose. She looked up and smiled as we set our luggage on the 
gleaming, wooden floor.

Mulder was looking at the large living room to the right of the 
entrance. On the left was another large room. A long, matching, 
maple table with fabric-covered chairs sat in the middle of the 
space. There was a huge bouquet of daisies sitting in the middle of 
the table. I could smell the flowers from here; quite the contrast to 
the smoke-filled sheriff's office we had exited earlier.

The woman finished her call and rose to greet us. "Oh my, you 
must be the newlyweds from New York," she gushed.  Her smile 
was wide and her wrinkles were set deep in her face. She must 
have smiled a great deal in her life. "Aren't the two of you the most 
handsome couple?" she cooed.

Mulder smiled wickedly and waggled his eyebrows at me.

"Uh, I believe you're mistaken," I said, laughing.

"Oh deary, you needn't be embarrassed. You're husband is quite 
the looker and you!" She paused. "Oh, you are probably the most 
beautiful thing I ever did see in all my 74 years," she continued.

I swiped the hair from my eyes and smiled at the sweet, old 
woman.

"Now young lad, isn't she the prettiest thing you've ever seen?" she 
inquired. She was almost sickening in her sincerity.

"Or ever known, ma'am," Mulder replied, without missing a beat 
and without a hint of facetiousness.

I looked at him, shocked. Mulder thought I was pretty? No, 
actually, he said 'ever known' to her question. He thought I was the 
prettiest woman he'd ever known? How was it possible that this 
opinion had escaped my notice?

"Mulder," I scolded. I tilted my head to gauge whether he was 
being serious or not.

He just looked at me and shrugged his shoulders as if it were 
obvious. His look said, 'Why are you looking at me funny?'

I just shook my head and looked away, unsure of how to take his 
response. 'What was this shift happening between us?' I asked 
myself. It was as if we were letting out little secrets without 
warning. That was just not like us. I suddenly remembered his 
comment from the plane; that he would do anything for me. I 
wondered exactly what that meant.

"Well, let me get the two of you registered. I am sure you have 
better things to do with your time than shoot the breeze with an old 
woman." She winked at me and went back behind her desk, sitting 
down slowly. "My name is Alice and I'll be here to take care of 
you. If you need new towels or sheets," she continued.

That was it! Enough. I cut her off. "Alice, I am Special Agent 
Dana Scully and this is my PARTNER, Agent Mulder.  We're with 
the FBI. Remember when I made reservations with you yesterday? 
I requested separate but connecting rooms, if they were available."


She looked at me and her eyebrows climbed her small forehead. 
"Oh my! I apologize for my behavior. You just looked, I don't 
know. You just looked like you two belonged to one another. I'm 
sorry. Silly me. Yes, I do have your rooms and they connect 
through the bathroom. I hope that's acceptable."

Mulder grinned at me. There was laughter in his hazel eyes. Now I 
had to spend God-only-knows-how-long sharing a bathroom with 
the man. He had enjoyed her mistake immensely, purely because it 
made me uncomfortable. Damn him! I knew I hadn't heard the end 
of this one.

"That will be fine. Thank you, Alice. No apology necessary." I said 
with a sigh.

Of course that was when Mulder chose to partake in the 
conversation. "It happens to us all the time. You're not the first and 
you won't be the last," he said, trailing off into soft laughter.

'Now what am I supposed to think when he goes and says 
something like that?' I mused. Damn, I was confused, not to 
mention, hungry. When was the last time we'd eaten?

"All right, well, here are your room keys. If you need anything, 
just holler. I'll probably be in the kitchen. Breakfast is served 
promptly at seven, lunch at twelve, and dinner at six. If you need 
me to keep a plate warm for you in the evening, just let me know."

"Thank you, Alice. Don't fret over us. We tend to keep long days 
and even longer nights," I said tiredly. "Can you recommend a 
good place to eat in town?"

"Sure. The best place in town, besides here of course," she said, 
pausing.

Mulder nodded encouragement at the sweet woman.

She continued, "Is The Fife and Drum. The food there is 
exquisite." She smiled at me and grabbed my hand. "You really are 
a beautiful woman, honey. Although, you're too skinny. You need 
a little meat on those bones. One week here with me and we can 
fix that right up."

I pulled my hand away lightning-fast. Ever since the cancer, I'd 
been a little touchy about my weight. I didn't need anyone, 
especially a little old lady, reminding me of my doubtful 
appearance.

"Okay, time to go."  With that, I turned around, grabbed my 
suitcase and headed up the stairs to my room. I could hear Mulder 
whispering something to Alice. Whatever. I didn't care. All too 
soon he caught up to me and nudged my suitcase with his.

"Hey," he said shyly.

I stopped in front of Room #2. Mulder's room was #1. Wasn't that 
ironic? He always got top billing.

"Do you think I'm too skinny?" I asked without turning around. I 
couldn't bear to see his face during my moment of weakness. A 
strong hand crept around my waist and pulled. I felt my back lean 
against his chest.

His voice was but a whisper against my ear. "Scully, you're alive. 
To me, you couldn't be any more perfect."

I sighed. "Thank you, Mulder. Thank you." He pulled away and 
went to his own room.

XXXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 3 
XXXXXXXXXXX

FIFE & DRUM RESTAURANT 
KENT, CT 
MAY 27, 1997 
TUESDAY - 7:10 AM

"Mmmm," I moaned with delight as I chewed and swallowed. 
"This is wonderful," I added. I was thoroughly enjoying my 
salmon.  It was crusted with almonds and brown sugar and laying 
on a bed of white, fluffy rice. I was armed with a fork in one hand 
and a hunk of fresh-baked bread, slathered in butter in the other.

I didn't get a response from Scully, so I looked up to find her eyes 
riveted on my face. I thought it was my face. A second later, I 
realized she was staring at my lips. Her fork was raised halfway to 
her mouth.  It was as if she was caught in suspended animation.  
"How's your stuffed shrimp?" I asked.

She shook her head slightly as if suddenly becoming aware of her 
surroundings. Her food dropped off her fork to make a small 
clunking noise on her plate.  "Oh geez!" she exclaimed. "Sorry, 
Mulder. I drifted off there for a minute."

I couldn't help the shit-eating grin that spread across my face. 
Scully had been checking me out.  If I called her on it, she would 
deny it till the cows came home, but she couldn't foolme. "I asked 
how your stuffed shrimp was," I stated.

"Oh! Great, it's great. It has this wonderful bread stuffing. How 
about yours?" She looked down at her plate, letting her hair 
partially hide her face as she began to pick another shrimp from its 
shell. I watched the pink rise up in her cheeks and grinned even 
wider.  She knew she'd been caught.

"Judging by the moaning I was doing, I would have thought you 
gathered that I think this is some of the best salmon I've ever had," 
I replied.

She cleared her throat. "Yeah, I guess so. About those noises," she 
began.

"Noises?"

"Those noises, moans you make. I don't remember you being so 
vocal when you eat," she said.

"I don't remember having food this good," I shot back. I couldn't 
resist teasing her. "Why?  Does it bother you?"

"A little. I don't know, not really. Oh, forget it," she stammered out 
in rapid speech.

I was really disconcerting Scully; it was quite fun. While I usually 
took great delight in seeing her off-balance, there was more to it 
tonight. I think Alice's comments about us being a couple had 
disturbed her more than she was willing to admit.

Hell, if I was honest, they had disturbed me much more than I was 
willing to admit. If Scully ever really came on to me, I would be 
doomed. There was no way in hell I would be able to resist her. I 
sighed, remembering that I didn't have to worry about that 
possibility any time soon. I wondered why my attraction for her 
was so unsettling.

Every move she made was turning me on; from the way she slid 
her food off her fork with her teeth, to the way she tipped her head 
back slightly as she took another large swallow of white wine. I 
watched the muscles undulate in her throat as she swallowed and 
felt my groin tingle. God, it would be a miracle if I made it through 
dinner without embarrassing myself.

I stood up, throwing my napkin on the table. "I have to use the 
Men's Room," I explained to her upraised eyebrow.

"Okay," she said simply.

I practically trotted to the bathroom, hoping some cool water 
dousing my face would put an end to the slow burn that was 
gathering in my groin.

Emerging several minutes later, I peered into the other side of the 
restaurant that housed the bar and dance floor. It was noisy with 
mating sounds and young twenty-somethings grinding against each 
other on the dance floor. I was never that carefree in my twenties. 
If I stood and watched that it wasn't going to help my arousal level. 
I hurried back to the table, eager to pay the check and get out of the 
place.

XXXXXXXXXX

COOPER CREEK B&B 
KENT, CT 
MAY 27, 1997 
TUESDAY - 9:00 PM

Shit. It was ridiculous. I couldn't take my eyes off her ass as we 
proceeded up the long staircase to the second floor.

Furtive glances had been the after-dinner drink of choice as we 
rode in silence the short distance from the restaurant back to the 
B&B. I'd felt sexual tension around Scully before, but this was 
totally out of hand.  If I didn't do something to relieve myself, I 
was going to spontaneously combust.

I watched as she slowed and reached toward her door with her key. 
I was seized with a sudden case of the 'fuck-its'. I wanted her and it 
was about time she knew about it, too. There were probably a 
thousand reasons why I shouldn't spring it on her. I was guessing 
there were probably a thousand more she would think of, that had 
never crossed my mind.

For some reason, I was drawing a blank at the moment.  All I knew 
was the lure of her body, the curve of her hip, the swell of her 
breast under her lightweight sweater, the dip of her hair where it 
turned under against her neck.

I was behind her in two long steps and slid my arms around her 
waist, leaning down to place my chin on her shoulder.

She shuddered visibly in my arms and jerked in surprise. "Scully," 
I croaked out, alarmed at the gravelly, low pitch of my voice.

"Mulder, don't," she said, twisting the handle of the doorknob and 
shoving it inward.

"Why not?" I walked her into her room, kicking the door shut 
behind me.

She jumped at the sound and that set something loose inside me. I 
whirled her around to face me, putting my hands on her shoulders.

"Mulder, what's going on?"

"I don't know but don't even tell me you don't feel it," I replied.

She looked up at me, her eyes wide, maybe even a little frightened. 
"We shouldn't do this," she whispered, her voice breathy.

Being the pig I am, I couldn't take my eyes off the rise and fall of 
her breasts as her breathing grew heavy. I spoke to her breasts, 
"Give me one good reason why I should keep suppressing the urge 
to kiss you until you don't know your own name anymore?"

I was surprised to hear her whimper. It was unexpected enough to 
pull my eyes up to her face.

Her eyes were large in her face, and her mouth opened and closed 
but no sound came out. "Mulder," she tried, obviously at a loss for 
words. Perhaps she was drawing a blank too.

"Too late," I muttered, and stepped closer, lowering my mouth and 
laying it over hers in an open-mouthed kiss.

She moaned and was kissing me back in two seconds flat. My 
hands wound around her again, pulling her tightly against me. 
When my hardness pressed into her soft belly, we both broke the 
kiss and groaned.

"Oh God," she whispered.

"Gotta have you," I mumbled, and proceeded to lift the hem of her 
sweater up and over her head.  "Can't wait anymore. Want you so 
bad," I whispered.

She lifted her arms to help as I walked her backwards toward the 
bed.

One hand landed on her breast and squeezed. I guess that shredded 
the last of her resistance. We were in a sudden flurry of arms and 
legs, tearing off our clothes and kicking off our shoes.

Once naked, no time was wasted as we literally fell onto the bed. I 
landed heavily on her body but she didn't seem to mind. Grinding 
my iron-hard shaft into her mound produced more moaning and the 
bucking of her hips against mine. What the hell were we doing?

We were both crazed. It was not going to be slow and easy. It was 
not going to be tender and sweet.  I wanted to ravish her like I'd 
never wanted to ravish a woman before in my life. Raising myself 
up on one arm, I took her hand and led it to the throbbing mass 
between my legs.

She gasped, "Oh dear God!"

My voice was raw with arousal and emotion. "Feel what you do to 
me. All the time, Scully. Sometimes I can control it. I've been 
controlling it for years, but not tonight. No more, not tonight," I 
repeated.

Her legs spread wide and she positioned me at the gates of 
paradise. I could only groan as I jammed myself deep into her hot, 
wet tunnel.

The look she gave me was primal and full of lust.  For a moment, I 
felt like a diver in a shark cage. I ground against her, angling for 
every millimeter of depth. It felt so good I thought I might die from 
it.

Her hot, little hands landed on my hips, urging me to move and 
pulling me deeper even though I could feel the head of my cock 
knocking at the entrance of her womb.

She lifted her legs even higher. With her knees spread so wide, 
nearly pointing out at right angles, I was afforded maximum 
penetration and I took full advantage, thrusting hard and deep.

I felt the strong, tight ring of muscles clamping on my rigid flesh 
and imprisoning it inside for seconds before I would pull back and 
slam home again.

She was serenading me with a symphony of sounds that drove me 
close to insanity. I looked down at her and realized I was passing 
up a great opportunity. I hunched up on my knees, and bent so that 
I could reach her breasts. I suckled her, pulling her flesh firmly 
into my mouth. Her back bowed up off the bed.

Her sex played a rapid rhythm of spasms on my cock and I as she 
came. I hissed with bursting arousal and the desire to hold on for a 
longer show. It wasn't going to happen.  I slid one hand down to 
cup her ass and yanked her pelvis toward me in a frenzy of strokes, 
wanting my own release.

I ground against her and she shrieked, her walls squeezing me 
again for the second time. I howled in triumph and felt my cock 
expand in her snug hole, then my own climax burst forth. Hot seed 
poured out of me in a nearly steady stream. I vaguely sensed that 
my body was jerking atop hers in the throes of the most intense 
orgasm of my life.

I felt blackness tickle the edge of my vision and sucked in a noisy 
breath, trying to gain my equilibrium as my dick throbbed and 
continued to fill her to the brim.

"Scully," I managed to croak out, just before my vision went black.

XXXXXXXXXXX

MAY 28, 1997 
WEDNESDAY - 6:45 AM

I woke to find the bed empty. In a moment of panic, I looked 
around, quickly realizing I was still in Scully's room. Damn, what 
was I going to say to her?  I glanced at the clock. It was already 
6:45 AM.  Breakfast was at 7:00. I needed to shower and I could 
hear the water running in the bathroom. The temptation to join her 
was nearly overwhelming but I didn't think she'd appreciate it.

She'd been as horny as I was last night, but I'd been the instigator, 
no doubt about that. I gathered up my tossed clothes and slipped 
them on haphazardly. I went into the hall and let myself into my 
own room, gathering some clean clothes. I sat on the bed, waiting 
to hear the water shut off.

'What was she going to think of me? Had I ruined the best thing 
that had ever happened to me? Was she going to be angry, sad, 
thrilled?' I just didn't know. I wasn't usually such a Neanderthal 
with women. These questions circled my brain until I registered 
that the water had stopped. Shortly, I heard the door on her side 
close.

I rose and made my way into the bathroom. The room was steamy 
and redolent with her scent, which I inhaled unashamedly. I turned 
on the water and stepped beneath the spray, sighing in pleasure as 
the water beat on my head and back.

I chuckled, feeling the soreness in my legs. I'd used muscles last 
night that I'd forgotten I owned. I wanted this to be a turning point 
for Scully and I.  The problem was I had no clue as to how she was 
going to react.

Being the consummate gentleman that I was, I'd gone and passed 
out cold on her immediately following getting my rocks off. That 
was going to play well I was sure. Great move, Mulder. It was a 
wonder she didn't kick me out of bed onto the floor.

I quickly shampooed my hair and washed up, getting out and 
toweling off. I was hungry and didn't want to miss breakfast.

XXXXXXX

MAY 28, 1997 
WEDNESDAY - 7:00 AM

After dressing and combing my hair, I went back into the bathroom 
and knocked gingerly on her door that led to her room.

"Come in!" she shouted.

I opened it up to find her standing by the bed, fully dressed in a 
navy-blue suit and white blouse. She had papers from the case 
spread out on the bed and was putting them in some sort of order. 
"Scully, about last night," I started to say.

"Let's have breakfast, Mulder. We have a full day ahead of us," she 
said briskly. "We need to see Ron Graceson. I've already made a 
call to the Troop L, the local State Police Barracks in New Milford. 
Surprisingly, Andy Taylor actually called in a Major Crime Squad 
on Rebecca Stowe's murder scene. I wouldn't have given him 
credit for that. They said they faxed their reports to his office 
yesterday, something he obviously neglected to tell us and didn't 
include in the copies he gave us."

She was chattering like a magpie in an obvious attempt to avoid 
discussing our liaison last night.  I sighed with disappointment. It 
was going to be a long day.  We were going to have to talk about 
it.  On the other hand, I could respect her need to process the 
events and come to terms with them. I wasn't, however, going to 
let it go away.  Not this time.

I was not going to be able to pretend that it never happened. I 
loved her too much. We'd crossed a big, fat, black line last night. 
Now that it was crossed, though, I knew there was no going back 
to holding hands, so to speak. Not for me. "Scully," I tried again.

"So we need to get over there and get those reports as well as talk 
to Ron Graceson."

"Scully!" I barked.

Her head snapped up from her organizational task, looking at me 
for the first time. "Yes?" she asked, as if nothing was going on and 
it was just another day. It almost pissed me off.

"I'm not going to push it."

"Good, that's settled then," she said crisply, jamming papers into 
her briefcase. "Let's get some breakfast."

I sighed loudly. It was the only protest I lodged as I followed her 
out the door and downstairs to see what Alice had cooked up for 
breakfast.

XXXXXXXXXX

We gorged ourselves on bacon, eggs, and toast made with fresh- 
baked bread and jelly. How I could be so hungry after the dinner 
I'd had last night was beyond me, but I was. What surprised me 
though, was the amount of food Scully packed away.

Alice fussed over us, refilling our coffee cups as we ate and 
chattering to some of the other guests. It appeared that there were 
four others staying at the house at the present time. I didn't spare 
them much of my attention.

The biggest thing I noticed was Scully's studied effort not to look 
at me. Finally, she stood and I followed her lead, waving good-bye 
to Alice. "So, what do you want to do first?" I asked, steering us 
onto neutral territory.

"Let's go get those Major Crime Squad reports from Sheriff 
Hartley. I'm a little miffed he didn't tell us about them yesterday."

"He gave us copies of all their work on the case."

"Yes, but he conveniently forgot to include those.  Why do you 
think that is?"

"I don't know, Scully, but I doubt he's intentionally trying to screw 
up our investigation."

"Are you sure about that?" she said, more harshly than I thought 
necessary.

I gave her a look of confusion as I slid into the passenger seat of 
the rental car, knowing she would want to drive. She started the car 
but then sighed and sat back after hooking her seatbelt in place.

I stared out the window. One thing I didn't want to do was fight 
with Scully. "I'm sorry, Mulder. I'm on edge about this case. I'm 
seeing bogeymen everywhere."

"Don't worry about it. You're right. We have a lot to do. Let's get at 
it."

A look I couldn't interpret flitted across her face and then was gone 
an instant later. She turned to face the windshield and I resumed 
my stare out of the passenger side window.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 4 
XXXXXXXXXX

KENT FALLS
KENT, CT 
MAY 28, 1997 
WEDNESDAY - 7:30 AM

"Wow, Jennifer, look at this one!"

I watched as Mark adjusted his camera angle and was delighted 
with the picture he captured.

"Oh, yeah! That waterfall is spectacular. I'm so glad you were able 
to come out today." I looked up at him adoringly.

"Sure, what are friends for? I love hanging out with you, Jenn." He 
gripped my shoulder and we made our way through the picnic 
tables and continued on into the brush.

I steered him off to the right as we took in the rays from the sun on 
such a beautiful day. "How about here? It's quiet and no one will 
see us from the beaten path," I said timidly.

He looked at me with a tilt to his head, looking as if he did not 
quite understand my reasons, but not really caring. "Doesn't matter 
to me. I can't wait to eat. I skipped breakfast."

"Me too, I didn't want the food from Fife & Drum to go to waste. 
You know how the portions are so large and all." I set out the thin 
blanket and kicked off a shoe to hold each side down.

He smiled and kicked off his own running shoes and plopped 
down. I sat down and opened the large backpack-style picnic 
basket.

"Damn, Jenn, you've got a ton of food in there. It didn't feel that 
heavy when I was carrying it."

"That's because you're a big, strong man," I said, stroking his ego. I 
tipped my head, hoping I looked sexy as I pulled out the steaming 
box holding the turkey. "You know, this is kind of a special day for 
us, Mark."

His eyebrows knit together. "How's that, Jenn?"

I pulled out the small loaf of homemade bread and the carving 
knife I packed from home. The blade nicked my thumb as I 
removed it from its casing. "Ouch, shit!" I hollered as I stuck my 
thumb into my mouth.

"Be careful, Jenn. That knife is really sharp. How deep is the cut?" 
he asked in a worried tone.

I pulled my wet thumb out of my mouth. "Just a small cut. I have a 
band-aid right here," I informed him as I opened the small pocket 
of the backpack.

He offered to help me put it on and I wasn't going to say no. I was 
easily getting lost in the way his hair fell over his forehead and the 
sweat that trickled down the side of his neck. I involuntarily licked 
my lips.

"As I was saying, this is a special day for us, because it's been one 
year since we first met," I reminded him. I looked up and smiled at 
him. Mark Johnson was the sweetest, most handsome man I'd ever 
met in my entire life. Our lunch was so much more than just a 
celebration. I wanted Mark, and I wanted him to know how much I 
truly cared for him, as more than friends.

He grinned in reply. "Well what are we waiting for?  Let's eat."

I nodded and dished out the meal. We ate in companionable silence 
for a while, just enjoying the view of the falls and the trees on such 
a blue-sky day. The meal was amazing. The thick, homemade 
bread slathered with warm turkey and mustard tasted heavenly to 
both of us.

After we finished the meal and the sun was beginning to set, I 
approached him with the real reason I brought him out there. 
"Mark, what would you say if I told you that I cared for you?"

He looked at me nervously and then smiled. He must have 
remembered that it was all right; we'd been best friends for the last 
year.   "I care for you too, Jenn," he finally replied.

I took that to mean 'other than friendship'. I was in excellent shape 
and strong for my size. I toppled his form to the ground, my mouth 
covering his. At first, he didn't know what to do. My hand came 
down and skipped underneath his running shorts to stroke his dick 
in maddening swipes.

"Jenn, we shouldn't be doing this," he warned as he pulled away 
from my lips.

I didn't listen. I moved my mouth from his and pulled down his 
shorts taking his dick into my hot mouth. I did it so quickly, he had 
no time to push me away. As I sucked on him, I shimmied out of 
my own elastic-waist shorts and kicked them off.

"Jenn, we can't," he tried to protest.

I sat on his lap and shoved his length into my hot center.

He groaned and laid back as I pumped up and down over him.

XXXXXXXXXX

I knew it was wrong and that it would change our relationship 
forever, and probably not for the better. However, at the moment, I 
couldn't fathom telling her to stop in my lust-induced haze. Girl or 
no, it felt fantastic having her core around my cock.

"Shut up and enjoy this," she said with slight irritation, continuing 
her movements until I was moaning and out of control. She 
hunkered down and ground her pelvis into mine. She was a 
Jennifer I didn't know; wanton, out of control, and just a bit scary.

I screamed out as my orgasm overtook me.

She yelled her own pleasure right on the heels of mine. Once 
finished she fell atop me and hugged me fiercely. "Happy 
Anniversary," she said in a mushy tone.

Oh no. It was exactly what I didn't want. I'd hoped it was a one-off. 
Shit. I had to get out of this. Somehow, I had to make her 
understand that we could never be an item. I wasn't interested in 
her like that. Hell, if I were honest with her, I'd tell her that I wasn't 
exactly all that interested in women all together. They served a 
need in me for companionship but that was it. There was nothing 
special about women to me in the romantic sense. Now that guy, 
Jack that I met the other night was a sight for sore eyes. He made 
women look like hags in comparison.

"Jenn, this can't happen again," I said, trying to lift her off of my 
cock, but she wasn't budging.

"What do you mean, Mark?" She tipped her chin onto my chest 
and looked into my eyes.  She really was clueless.

"Jenn, there's something you don't know about me. I'm sorry I 
didn't tell you before."

"You have a, a girlfriend?" she muttered, the tears already pricking 
her eyes. I could see the anger starting to rage within her. This was 
exactly why girls were too much trouble.

"No, Jenn. I'm not interested in girls that way. I'm gay," I said with 
finality, biting the bullet, and just telling her.

"That's bullshit! You just don't want to be with me! If you were 
gay, then how did I just fuck you right now?" she screamed. She 
lifted up but didn't disengage from my lower body. We were still 
stuck together.

"Jenn, it's the truth. Enough stimulation and anyone gets hot; but 
my head wants a guy."

XXXXXXXXXX

My head turned from side to side looking for something, anything 
to make him feel as mortified as I did. The knife's blade glinted off 
the side of the backpack, easily in reach.

"I'm not lying to you, Jenn," he continued. "Really. You're a sweet 
girl."

I couldn't bear it. Why didn't he just shut-up! A sweet girl? Who 
was he fucking kidding? I'd show him a sweet girl. My cold hand 
found the handle to the knife and slipped it behind my back.  Rage 
coursed through me, out of control.

"How dare you lead me on? You just want someone else!  Some 
other girl who's prettier than me! That's what this is. I'm not good 
enough for you, eh. I'm so undesirable that you have to lie and say 
you're GAY! That's really low, Mark. Well, I'll tell you what; if I 
can't have you, no one can!" I screamed.

As I screamed at him, I lifted up. His sticky penis slipped out of 
me. Without thinking, I grasped it with one hand, and sliced it off 
with the other! Blood gushed out of the open orifice. His hands 
came down and held the area tightly.

"OH MY GOD, WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?" Mark 
screamed at the top of his lungs. He was clearly panicked and now 
it was making me panic.

I couldn't handle the screaming.  Someone was going to catch us. 
"I'm sorry, Mark. I loved you, so much it hurt.  I had to hurt you 
back, don't you see? Don't worry, I'll make it better," I promised 
him. The solution was suddenly so clear. "You won't suffer any 
more," I whispered into his ear as I brought up the knife and sliced 
his neck from ear to ear. The line looked like a smile as it poured 
blood over my knees.  I backed away from him, the copper smell 
invading my nostrils.

He fell over on his side holding the bloody hole where his penis 
once was. His eyes went wide and rolled behind his head.

I grabbed the blanket we'd used for our picnic and threw it over 
him. I couldn't stand to look at him. I suddenly realized what had 
happened. "Oh, my God!  What have I done?" I whispered. I had to 
get out of here.

XXXXXXXXXX

SHERIFF KEN HARTLEY'S OFFICE 
KENT, CT 
MAY 28, 1997 
WEDNESDAY - 8:30 AM

I convinced Scully to let me approach the Sheriff about the Major 
Crime Squad reports. With her present attitude, even she knew she 
would probably piss him off. We couldn't afford that this early in 
the investigation. We had no real evidence that they had botched 
the investigation. Sheriff Hartley calling in a Major Crime Squad 
at least said that the man wasn't stupid in his arrogance. He was 
willing to ask for help when he needed it.

Playing the role of law enforcement mano-y-mano, I was able to 
extract copies of the MCS reports on both murders in a matter of 
minutes. I thanked him kindly and we chatted about the Knicks for 
a few minutes.

Scully was waiting for me outside. I emerged and she asked, "Can 
I see them?"

I handed them over without protest. We sat in the car while she 
read the reports, handing them to me one sheet at a time as she 
finished so I could read them too. "What do you think?" I asked.

"I need to think about it. Where do we go to see Ron?  Man, he 
better be there," she added unnecessarily.

"I'm sure he is. We have to travel to New Milford.  He's being held 
in a county jail there. They have nothing but an overnight drunk 
tank here, three cells."

"Gee, what a surprise," she said sarcastically.

I bit my tongue, hoping that her attitude would improve. I wasn't 
going to be able to handle this level of tension between us for very 
long.

XXXXXXXXXX

COUNTY JAIL PARKING LOT 
NEW MILFORD, CT 
MAY 28, 1997 
WEDNESDAY - 9:30 AM

We sat outside in the car and briefly discussed our strategy. We 
decided on good cop/bad cop. 'Scully, with her present attitude, 
would do nicely as bad cop,' I thought. I failed to mention that I 
thought so to her. I valued my balls, even if she didn't.

We were about to go inside and conduct the interview when she 
asked, "Does it seem a little too convenient that Brad Crane was let 
go so early?"

"Well, technically, they could have held him for 72 hours without 
charging him with anything. On the other hand, why bother if there 
was no evidence against him? Why?"

"I don't know. He just seemed like the most likely candidate.  The 
answers he gave the police were a little too neat, don't you think? 
After reading that report, I noticed that he's the one that mentioned 
she took a shower after he'd left that morning. First off, why would 
you mention a shower?"

"He was concerned about the finger prints?" I offered.

"Maybe, but if you were a distraught boyfriend, I doubt that would 
come to mind."

"It's hard to say. People respond strangely to stress sometimes. As 
much as the job of profiling fascinates me, I've learned that the 
human animal has a tricky way of protesting any attempts we make 
to fit him into a neat, predictable package." I caught myself 
segueing into a lecture and stopped. She totally missed that I was 
talking about us as well.  Either that or she chose to ignore it. 
Either one didn't bode well.

"True, something about it bothers me though. The interview was 
too short. There were plenty of questions that weren't asked. His 
car wasn't even examined by a crime scene tech."

"Well, we can ask that it be done. We can talk to him too. Ron isn't 
our only lead. We want to talk to Brad anyway, and make sure his 
story hasn't changed.  I'd also like to see the house. I always like to 
get my own feel for people."

"Right, well, let's put that on our list of things to do as well."

"Okay. First things first; let's get this joker out of the way."

"You don't think he did it?"

"I doubt it. Why would a twenty-something college kid kill a 
thirty-something pediatrician?"

"Why did he kill his best friend's girlfriend?"

"Good point," I conceded. "We're doing too much speculating. 
Let's get some facts."

With that, we got out of the car. The air in there was getting 
stifling anyway.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 5 
XXXXXXXXXX

COUNTY JAIL 
NEW MILFORD, CT 
MAY 28, 1997 
WEDNESDAY - 9:45 AM

The young man looked scared. His head was bowed as Mulder and 
I entered the tiny room. He was sitting at the metal table, the sole 
overhead light making him glow a sickly yellow color. From the 
looks of it, the New Milford police were going for the vintage, 
interrogation room look that you see in so many dated cop 
programs.

There was only one chair sitting across from the perpetrator. 
Because I was to play the bad cop, I had taken up a position 
against the far wall. I opened the buttons holding my blazer closed 
and crossed my arms high against my chest. It would leave an open 
space for my gun to protrude. I kicked up my right heel against the 
back of the wall and leaned silently. I wanted the kid to know I 
was there but not be able to see me easily.

Mulder stood next to the table and pulled the chair out. It made a 
scraping noise against the concrete floor, mimicking the sound of 
nails on a chalkboard. Graceson cringed at the noise. Mulder did it 
on purpose to get the kid on edge. Mulder slapped the thick file on 
Rebecca Stowe onto the table, casually letting the crime scene 
photos slip out. Graceson gasped as her bloodied body came into 
view over the slick surface.

"You look surprised," Mulder said gesturing to each photo. He 
methodically placed each one in front of Graceson. It was creating 
the desired affect. The guy was sweating. His hands twisted in 
their cuffs in his lap.

"I, I don't, I didn't," the guy trailed off.

"You didn't what? You didn't rape, stab, and kill Rebecca Stowe?" 
Mulder said with a hint of sarcasm.

"I didn't mean ... I loved her!" the guy practically yelled.

"Well spit it out already. You loved her?" Mulder played into the 
guy's twisted mind perfectly.

"I didn't mean to kill her! I loved her. I loved her so much! Johnny 
didn't deserve her. No one did!"

Mulder pulled out one of the most gruesome of the crime scene 
photos. The one that showed Rebecca's face in unbelievable pain 
and her body laid open, stab wounds everywhere. The girl's hair 
was matted against her scull, red and brown with dried blood.

"Oh God, oh God, why?" The guy started crying now.  He looked 
more like a boy than a young man.

"You tell me, Ronnie. Why did you do that to Rebecca if you loved 
her the way you said you do?" he asked softly.

"Because, I couldn't stop myself! She wouldn't see that I was so 
much better for her than Johnny. I loved her more than he ever 
could!"

"Did you ever do drugs, Ron?"

"What? No! I swear. I don't know what happened. It was like I 
wasn't myself. I was so full of lust and rage. I know it sounds 
stupid and lame, but I literally couldn't control myself."

'Damn, that sounded familiar,' I thought. Only I hadn't killed 
anyone. I'd merely lost my mind and fucked my partner.

My thoughts shifted toward Mulder as he stared Ron down, 
planning his next move. I looked at the way his body sat in the stiff 
metal chair. He was so big, so masculine. Every inch of him oozed 
sex appeal; from the tip of his shiny Kenneth Cole's, up his lean 
runner's legs, over his tight ass, along his muscled chest, against 
his long silky neck, all the way to the top of his thick mane of hair. 
Damn, he was a gorgeous man.

I had that man. Boy, did I have him. Just the thought of his thick 
cock within me brought goose bumps to my flesh. 'Did it get hot in 
here or is it just me?' I wondered. 'Shit. Focus on the case, Dana,' I 
chastised myself. Mulder shuffled through the photos, as I looked 
my fill at his long fingers. Oh, those fingers. The things his strong 
hands had done to me last night. Jesus. 'Damn it, Dana, cut it out,' I 
groaned internally.  Once again I tried to focus on the here and 
now of the case.

Mulder looked over at me. I could see that he had noticed my 
quickened breath and heaving chest. It felt like I couldn't get 
enough air in the tiny room. He stared at me for a moment. I think 
he may have forgotten what we were doing here. His gaze moved 
from my face down to my breasts.

I felt as though he was undressing me with his eyes. 'What the hell 
is going on here?' I asked myself.

He shifted in his chair, his body pointed towards me. He looked 
over at Graceson. Ron wasn't paying attention. He was looking at 
the photos and stroking Rebecca's face while chanting over and 
over again, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Mulder's eyes made it back to mine and one of his hands gripped 
his thigh reflexively.

I looked up his thigh and noticed the unmistakable bulge tenting 
his slacks. Jesus, not again. He made sure I noticed his discomfort 
when he abruptly crossed his legs, hiding his desire.

I just about whimpered. All right, enough was enough. We had to 
get through the interview and out of here before we did something 
inappropriate.

"Did you know Christina Fuller?" I asked. The boy's head didn't 
lift from the picture of Rebecca.

"Who?" he asked through his tears.

"Christina Fuller," I said, using my tough-as-nails tone.

He looked over at me. "The name's familiar." He looked away as if 
he was thinking of something. "Yeah, I knew a lady with the last 
name Fuller. She's a doctor."

I nodded for him to continue.

"I think she delivered my baby sister a few years ago."

"Yes, that's her. You know her then?"

"Kinda. Not really. I went with my Mom to the hospital when she 
delivered Megan. Dad left us before Mom had Meggie, and I was 
the only one there for her."

"Where were you three days after you killed Rebecca?" Mulder 
chimed in.

"Hiding, man. I didn't know what to do. I don't know what came 
over me. It scared the shit out of me." The boy began sobbing 
again.

"So then, you haven't seen Dr. Fuller since your mother gave birth 
to your sister a few years ago?" Mulder asked.

Ronald looked confused. "No, why? What the hell does this have 
to do with my Rebecca?" He wiped his nose with the sleeve of his 
shirt.

"Christina Fuller was killed three days after you killed Rebecca. 
She was raped and bludgeoned to death.  That's how this involves 
you!" I yelled him as he continued sniveling.

"What? You think? I didn't kill her! I admit to killing Rebecca but I 
didn't have anything to do with Dr. Fuller's death! I swear to God, I 
didn't!" He pushed back his chair and it hit the wall behind him. 
Nowhere to run.

"Its okay, it's okay, Ronnie," Mulder said calmly. "We just have to 
ask the questions, that's all." Mulder looked over at me with those 
deep hazel eyes. He tipped his chin. That was my sign to back off. 
I had done my bad cop routine. This guy hadn't had anything to do 
with Christina's death.

Back to square one.

The rest of the interview continued, us receiving nothing more 
from the kid. He killed his best friend's girlfriend in a lust-frenzy. 
He was remorseful but guilty as charged. Mulder was actually 
giving the kid a break. Normally, when a man rapes and stabs a 
girl that many times, Mulder was less coddling. There must be 
something I was missing because he was going really easy on him.

I kicked off the side wall just as Mulder said, "We're done, here. 
That will be all, Ronnie. Thank you for cooperating with us." I 
wanted to either smack that generosity off his face or kiss it off. I 
hadn't quite decided which I'd prefer to do more.

We left the building in silence and entered the car. Mulder didn't 
even ask to drive.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Well, that was a big, fat waste of time," I said as I turned the 
engine over and put the car in gear.

"Not really. We did find out that he didn't mean to kill Rebecca," 
Mulder stated casually.

"He was remorseful, yes, but he raped and stabbed that girl to 
death, not to mention the beating she took while being raped," I 
reminded him.

"I'm not disagreeing with you, Scully. I just find it interesting that 
he said he didn't mean to kill her and that he loved her. I've seen 
sick people before. The guy is just a kid. I actually believed him 
when he said he didn't have control while he was committing this 
crime. He has no record of any kind, not even jaywalking."

I looked over at him sitting coolly in the passenger seat. "Neither 
did Jeffrey Dahmer," I reminded him.

"There's nothing to link him to Christina except our supposition. 
That guy is not a serial killer."

"You're kidding me, Mulder. You think he was temporarily insane 
and committed a one-time murder?"

He shook his head.

"Then what? Don't tell me you've found some type of X-file here. 
It's a straight forward crime of passion." I looked at him and he 
pulled that plump bottom lip into his mouth and bit the edge. No 
fair, that's what I wanted to do. I harrumphed.

He was grinning from ear to ear. He must have picked up on my 
irritation. I pulled off to the side of the road to set this right with 
him.

"Look Mulder, this is not an X-file. We're here to investigate 
Christina's murder. That's all that's happening; a good old- 
fashioned murder case. There's nothing in here that would suggest 
otherwise."

He unbuckled his seat belt and turned towards me, so I followed 
suit.  "What if he really didn't have control over what he was 
doing?" he asked, serious as a heart attack.

I couldn't believe he was trying to find an X-file here. 
"Possession?" I replied lamely.

"Could be.  Good thought."

I laughed out loud.

"No, I'm not sure. I was thinking it was more like an out-of-body 
experience," he continued and quirked his head towards mine, a 
devilish grin adorning his face. "I do believe I've had an out-of- 
body experience in the past twenty-four hours. Maybe it's 
catching?"

"That's rich, Mulder! An out-of-body body experience." I laughed 
at him again.

His hand came over and landed on my thigh. 'Oh, that kind of out- 
of-body experience,' I realized. I gulped, suddenly not sure the 
conversation was going where I had originally planned.

"Are you going to deny that you've had one too?" His hand crept 
up a little higher.

I swallowed audibly. I gave up. "Uhhhh, I don't know what you 
want from me." I admitted. It came out more as a breathy whisper.

"What do you want from me?" He asked coolly.

His hand slid up my leg, over my hip and gripped my waist. I 
couldn't deny it. I couldn't sit here and tell him that I didn't want 
him. Damn, I did want him. I wanted everything I could get my 
hands on. I didn't know why my outburst of desire was coming out 
now; all I knew was that it was coming out in full force. 'Watch 
out, Dana, there be dragons here,' I chanted in my head. I lost my 
mind and answered his question with an honesty I didn't know I 
was capable of when it came to Mulder.

"Everything," I whispered back as I yanked his head to mine and 
stuck my tongue as far down his throat as it could go. I wanted to 
swallow him whole. I forgot everything we'd silently agreed upon 
over the years and took what I wanted. Him.

His hands attacked me. They were everywhere at once. Sliding 
down my back, cupping my ass, and pinching my nipples through 
the silk of my blouse. I couldn't get enough of him.

"Jesus, I need you," I said into his opened mouth.  I nibbled his lips 
and groped at the bulge in his pants. My fingers made quick work 
of his belt buckle, laying it open. He groaned into my mouth as I 
latched onto his lips again.

"Scuulllyyy."

I let go of his lips so he could speak and moved on to kissing his 
salty neck.

"Shouldn't we take this back to the hotel?"

"Nuh uh," I mumbled into his ear. "Can't wait that long. Need you, 
now. God, I just want to fuck you."

He tried to make a half-hearted attempt to get me to stop. "But 
we're right next to, mmmm of uh, the road. Anybody could see."

I moved over the console and straddled his legs. I held the sides of 
his face and looked deep into his eyes. I was getting angry with 
him. Why? I didn't know. However, his resistance was suddenly 
like a slap or rejection and I felt white hot rage burn through me.  I 
shook his head slightly and growled, "Do you want to fuck me or 
not?"

"Oh God, more than life itself."

I felt my anger drain away as though it had never existed.

He hiked my skirt up to my waist and was surprised to find that I 
was wearing stockings and not pantyhose. "You're going to be the 
death of me," he muttered into the space between my breasts. His 
nose rooted around and miraculously popped open a button to my 
blouse with his teeth.

"Now that's what I'm talking about." 'Who the hell was that and 
when did she take over my voice?' I thought stupidly.

His talented nose pushed down the satin covering my right breast 
finding his target. His tongue came out and swirled around the 
tight peak making me moan like a porn queen.

I moved my hand between us and opened the button on his slacks, 
sliding down the zipper.

He moaned around my breast and bit down as my hand encircled 
his length.

I screamed out into the car, holding his head to my breast with the 
hand that wasn't holding my prize. "Now, Mulder, right now!" I 
pulled his penis through the hole in his boxers.

The second the cool air reached our over-heated sexes I impaled 
myself on him. I smiled and moaned. Finally he was inside me. I 
realized that I'd been thinking about it since I'd woken this 
morning. My imagination paled in comparison to the real thing.

Meanwhile, his hand came up and pushed aside the satin of my 
panties. He groaned and tipped his head back.

"So good," I whispered between too-dry lips. I began to pump up 
and down, setting a steady rhythm.

His hands held my hips and helped me move with him, his pelvis 
tipped up at every downward thrust. It was maddening.

I'd never in my life felt my inhibitions run out the window. I'd 
never even had sex in a car before. 'What would make me want 
him so bad I couldn't wait until after our investigation? Or at least 
until we got back to the B&B?' I wondered idly as I moved over 
him. As soon as the thought came, it too flew out the window. The 
fire in my sex started to undulate within me like hot lava ready to 
explode. I covered his panting mouth with mine for a deep 
lingering kiss and started to move faster above him.  Everything 
else in the car and outside on the road turned into streaks of light as 
my orgasm started.  "Mulder, I'm gonna, I'm gonna," I stuttered.

"Oh fuck, Scully, yes," he muttered in return.

His hips jerked up into me hard. As the waves of my orgasm 
crashed over me, his hand came down on my little bundle of 
nerves between my legs and started spinning in tight circles. The 
effect was instantaneous. I bucked above him wildly, coming down 
on his cock so hard I feared I might have actually hurt the man. He 
didn't complain. He just screamed out, "Oh fuck, Scully, oh shit!" 
My final orgasm completed and his began shooting into me. The 
feeling was heavenly.

I fell over him like a lump, sweaty and satisfied. It was the first 
time since I'd woke this morning that I'd felt happy, but this was 
Mulder, again. This was also happening on the side of the road, not 
five miles from the police station. Shit! What was I thinking? I was 
having a déjà vu because I believed I'd asked myself that before 
within the past two days. How could I have let this happen again?

"Shit, shit, shit," I said out loud.

He grumbled into my neck in reply.

I slid off him, and moved back to the driver's seat.  I grabbed the 
tissue box from the car's floorboard and cleaned myself up. I 
handed him the tissue box without making eye contact so he could 
do the same. I rearranged my panties in the most dignified way 
possible and adjusted my skirt into place. I looked down to fix my 
blouse and noticed that Mulder and sucked my left breast through 
the fabric, leaving a big wet spot. I just gripped the sides of my 
blazer and buttoned it over the proof of our torrid interlude. I 
looked into the rearview mirror and pressed my hair back into 
place.

"We have to interview Brad," I said, sounding loud in the too-quite 
car. I rolled down my window to help the windows defog and 
started the engine.

"Scully, we have to talk about this," Mulder stated firmly.

"Later. We have work to do." With that I checked my mirrors, 
stepped on the gas and peeled out onto the road. I flicked the 
switch on the radio and turned it up loud enough to drown out the 
rapid beating of my heart.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 6 
XXXXXXXXXX

HOME OF BRAD CRANE & 
CHRISTINA FULLER 
KENT, CT 
MAY 28, 1997 
WEDNESDAY - 11:00 AM

Mulder stood behind me, shifting his weight from one leg to 
another. It was the only sign of his discomfort over what had 
happened minutes earlier in the car. I knew I'd hurt his feelings this 
morning when I'd brushed him aside.  I just couldn't face him yet. I 
needed time to sort out my own behavior.

I knocked hard on the whitewashed door. The car ride over was 
uneventful; if you started from the time after I'd literally jumped 
him with no warning.

"Dana! Oh, thank God, you're here!" Brad opened the door in a 
rush and embraced me. I'd only met the man once before, but that 
was under better circumstances. I returned his hug. He pulled back 
and I saw that there were large, dark circles under his eyes.  His 
hair was a tangle of curls, and he looked exhausted. My heart went 
out to the guy; he had just lost his fiancé. I couldn't imagine what 
I'd look like if I lost Mulder. I shook the thoughts from head.

"Brad, this is my partner, Fox Mulder."

Mulder reached out to shake Brad's hand. "I'm very sorry for your 
loss." Mulder said as he released the grip he had on Brad's hand.

"Thank you. Come in, have a seat." We entered the living room 
and sat on the love seat across from the chair Brad sat in. The room 
was cozy. There was an impressive, brick fireplace along one wall 
with bookshelves from floor to ceiling. Christina always did love 
to read, I remembered fondly.

"How are you holding up, Brad?" I asked him solemnly.

He looked at me as if he was about to break down any second. "It's 
so hard, Dana. Chris was, she was my entire world." He sniffed 
and wiped his eyes, trying to keep his emotions in check.

"I know, Brad. She truly was an amazing woman. We will find the 
person responsible for this. I promise you," I stated with all the 
conviction I had within me. It would be a promise I was going to 
keep.

Mulder looked around the room and settled on a picture of 
Christina. He got up and stood next to the mantle looking at the 
picture with great interest. I had forgotten that the only pictures 
he'd seen of her were the crime scene photographs. The picture 
showed her happy and full of life, a stark contrast to what was 
shown of her last moments here on earth.

"Brad, did Christina have any enemies?" he asked without turning 
from the mantle. He took his time going over each photograph 
displayed. There were so many of her and Brad, hugging, kissing, 
and smiling. They looked to be the perfect couple.

"Not that I know of. Everyone loved Chris." He put his hands over 
his face and his elbow on his knees.

"Did anything out of the ordinary happen within the past few 
weeks or months that could be helpful to our investigation? It 
could be anything," Mulder continued as he checked out the 
bindings of the many books they had on their shelves.

I believed he was trying to get a feel for who they were and what 
they were interested in.

"Yes, actually. There are a couple things I wanted to run by you, 
Dana." He pointed to me as he answered Mulder's question. He got 
up and went over to the small writing desk that held their mail and 
other miscellaneous items. "She had received a couple calls about a 
month ago. At the time we didn't think anything of it."

"What type of calls?" I asked, my interest piqued.

"A man. We didn't know who it was, and according to the Caller 
ID, they were coming from the hospital. She picked them up 
thinking it was a patient going into labor. She was on call 
constantly."

I nodded in understanding.

"But these calls disturbed Chris a little. She told me it was nothing, 
just a crush."

"What did the caller say to her?" Mulder asked as he settled beside 
me on the love seat again.

"According to her, the caller complimented her on how pretty she 
was and said that he'd fallen in love with her. It was the same type 
of call both times." He sighed and leaned against the desk. "I 
should have paid more attention. We'd both been so busy at work 
and I was up for a promotion. She should have told me it was more 
serious than a couple calls."

"What do you mean, Brad? What would make you think it was 
more serious? Maybe she didn't know it was more serious." I 
turned to Mulder to see what he'd thought so far. His face was a 
complete blank. He was in profiling mode. He'd heard what was 
happening but was making his own leaps and strides.  I could see it 
in his eyes.

"Well, I was going through the desk here to find our address 
book," he said, taking a deep breath. "I found these letters. 
Apparently this guy had more on his mind than a little crush and 
shy-boy phone calls. God, it's my fault, I should have been there. I 
was her fiance! I was supposed to protect her!" he said as be broke 
down and began to sob again. He couldn't control his grief any 
longer. He handed the letters to me.

I skimmed one and passed it to Mulder, going through them 
quickly.  I stopped on the last one.

Mulder commented, "These look like pretty standard love letters, 
Scully. All hearts and flowers. A love poem, a quote from one of 
Shakespeare's Sonnets."

I nodded as I reviewed the most recent letter. "Mulder, look at this 
one. It's dated the day before her murder."

**Christina,

The wait is over.

Our time has come.

I want you.

You will be mine.

Don't try to fight it.

We are meant for each other.

Soon.

It was signed with a heart, nothing else.

"Jesus, Mulder," I gasped.

He shook his head sadly.

"I'm going to go make some coffee," Brad said abruptly. I had seen 
how our reading the last note affected him. The poor man was in 
shambles.

"Scully, Brad had nothing to do with this. We don't need to ask 
him any questions. We have his testimony of his whereabouts the 
night of her murder, from the New Milford police. I don't think 
they missed anything," he added quietly.

I nodded in agreement.  Mulder and I swapped notes and quickly 
reviewed them. The rest of them were run-of-the-mill. It was the 
last one that was disturbing. Mulder went out to the car and 
grabbed an evidence bag to hold the letters.

For the next hour, Mulder and I sipped coffee and let Brad talk of 
fonder times with Christina and how they had plan to wed in the 
spring. We again promised Brad that we would bring her killer to 
justice. He thanked us and we took our leave.

As we walked to the car, I tossed Mulder the keys. He caught them 
in midair.

"Well, at least we have a small lead," I said with a sigh as I entered 
the passenger side.

"We know that a male who either works or has regular access to 
the hospital sent her those letters," he confirmed.

"I want to have these couriered to the D.C. lab for fingerprinting. 
Maybe we'll catch a break."

He nodded and moved the car out into traffic.  "Where to now, 
partner?" Mulder queried as he made the turn towards the highway.

I looked down at the clock.  It was already 6:20 PM.

"The B&B," I stated very matter of fact.

"Really?" He grinned.

"To eat, Mulder. I'm famished and Alice did say that dinner is 
available promptly at 7:00. I believe we'll make it right on time. 
We can call for a courier to pick up the letters when we're done 
eating."

Mulder's stomach growled. "I wonder what's on the menu for 
tonight?"

If he was making a reference to last night's festivities, it was lost 
on me. My mind was swirling with thoughts of my dear friend, and 
my body was doing summersaults trying to figure out how I could 
avoid talking to Mulder. 'Maybe I could eat quick and head to my 
room before Mulder even finished his dinner. Yeah, that should 
work.

Little did I know that my plan a big chink in it.

His name was Mulder.

XXXXXXXXXX

COOPER CREEK B&B 
DINING ROOM 
KENT, CT 
MAY 28, 1997 
WEDNESDAY - 7:00 PM

Dinner was chicken and dumplings. The dumplings were out of 
this world. I asked Alice what was in them.  She merely smiled and 
said it was a secret recipe and she couldn't go giving it out to 
everyone.

I was still contemplating our impromptu fuck-fest in the car. It had 
surprised the hell out of me. At the same time, I had been 
delighted, if a bit confused.  It was so unlike Scully to throw 
caution to the wind.  If she ever gave me a chance to talk to her, I'd 
tell her how thrilled I was to discover this side of her.

Therein lay the problem. As skillfully as she was cranking my 
libido into high gear, she was avoiding any sort of discussion about 
our relationship. We'd had hot monkey sex twice in two days. Now 
she wouldn't even look at me.  'What's up with that?' I wondered.

It was just like us to avoid talking about certain subjects. On the 
other hand, once we decided to do something, it wasn't like Scully 
to avoid analyzing it in all its facets. Once convinced that 
something was inevitable, she would face it head-on, with 
determination and courage.

I was at a loss as to why the situation was so different. I wasn't 
stupid. I knew it was above and beyond anything we'd ever had to 
deal with of a personal nature. Still, it hurt a bit that she was so 
unwilling to talk to me. She almost seemed afraid, and that hurt 
even more. I couldn't figure out why she would be afraid of me, or 
afraid to talk to me.  It wasn't like I'd rejected her; quite the 
opposite.  Therefore, I didn't know what she feared.

After her taking the initiative this afternoon, I was feeling 
somewhat better about my mauling of her last night. From the time 
I'd woke up this morning, I'd been afraid that she would feel I'd 
taken advantage of her, or pushed when I should have retreated.

I was terrified that she would think it was a mistake. During the 
interview with Ron was the first time I'd gotten a hint that she 
wasn't as unaffected by our midnight bop as I'd thought. She'd been 
flushed and uncomfortable. There was no doubt that she'd taken 
note of my most uncomfortable erection.

Now, I was a horn dog of the tenth degree.  I was the first to admit 
it, but even I could usually control myself while I was working. 
While Scully had given me any number of spontaneous erections 
over the years, it usually didn't happen while I was trying to break 
down a suspect, especially one who had committed such a sexually 
heinous crime.

I ate slowly, hoping to come up with a strategy that would block 
her in a corner without making her end any further exploration of 
this facet of our relationship. We had to talk about this new thing 
between us. I cared for Scully too much as a partner, and I loved 
her far too much as a woman, to merely be her fuck-buddy.  That 
wasn't going to be nearly enough for me. I didn't want to just fuck. 
I wanted to make love to her. I didn't feel like we'd done that yet. I 
hoped I would get the opportunity.

I also didn't want it to come between us. That thought sounded 
ridiculous. Sex generally brought people closer. In our case, 
however, it had the potential to drive an enormous wedge in our 
partnership and friendship if we were not both on the same page. 
'What the hell did she want?' I asked myself. I had yet to pry that 
nugget of information out of her. 'Everything' is what she'd said in 
the car this afternoon. What did that mean?

She sat back in her chair and sighed, putting her hands on her 
stomach. "Good, huh?" I asked stupidly.

"Mmm, it was great. I'm tired though. I think I'm going to turn in 
early."

"I'll go with you."

"Take your time, Mulder. Don't let me rush you," she said, as she 
stood up and turned on her heel.

"Wait!" I called to her, raising my voice and attracting the attention 
of several others at the table.

"I'm tired. I'm just going to shower and go to bed," she concluded. 
Then she was gone like a puff of smoke.

"Damn it," I muttered under my breath. I stood up and threw my 
napkin on the table in a childish gesture of frustration.

Alice was suddenly at my side and asked, "Is everything all right, 
Mr. Mulder?"

"Yeah, Alice. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make a scene."

"Problems with your lady friend?" she asked with an astute gleam 
in her eye.

"You could say that," I admitted, walking away from the table.

She followed me out into the hallway. "Maybe I can help," she 
offered.

"No, I don't think so. I appreciate the offer but this is something we 
need to work out for ourselves."

She pursed her lips slowly and eyed me up and down.  "Let me 
guess. Things have gotten more intimate between the two of you 
and you haven't taken the time to talk about it. So now you've both 
got your panties in a twist cause you don't know what the other one 
is thinking."

I stared at her in disbelief as she rattled off her incredibly accurate 
spiel. "How in the world did you know that?"

She tapped a finger to her temple. "I haven't lived this long without 
learning a thing or two about reading people, Mr. Mulder."

"Can't argue with those results," I teased.

She smiled then, showing her dentures. "Which one of you is 
dodging the talk?" she inquired.

"She is. I've tried to talk about it twice now and she's found some 
reason not to discuss it with me."

"Do you love her?" she asked bluntly.

I swallowed noisily and nodded in the affirmative.  "Yeah, I do. I 
don't think she knows that though."

"Oh, I bet you're not giving her enough credit. On the other hand, 
sometimes in these situations, you can write a note or letter rather 
than facing them head on. It eases you into things."

I cringed, thinking of Christina's 'love letters' from her twisted 
admirer. Letters were not my communication of choice on a good 
day. Today, the thought really turned me off. It must have shown 
on my face.

"Scratch that.  I can see you're not keen on that idea. The only 
thing I can tell you is not to push too hard. Let her know you care 
in any way you can.  She'll come around. I've seen the way she 
looks at you."

"Thanks, Alice."

"Anytime, sonny," she said cheekily.

I chuckled and waved at her as I made my way to the staircase and 
took the stairs two at a time.

XXXXXXXXXX

MULDER'S ROOM 
COOPER CREEK B&B 
MAY 28, 1997 
WEDNESDAY - 8:30 PM

I entered my room and changed into more comfortable clothes; 
sweatpants and a tee shirt. I decided to forego underwear and socks 
since I didn't plan on being up for long. If Scully wouldn't talk to 
me, I was going to go to bed. I wasn't up for a night of watching 
second rate porn on Pay-Per-View, or sitting up going over case 
notes. I just couldn't concentrate on anything but her right now. 
Who was I kidding?  I had to see her.  I wouldn't be able to stand 
being alone right now.

I gathered my resolve and entered the bathroom, walking to her 
door. I stood there for a few moments trying to figure out what I 
was going to say. Before I could formulate a plan, the door swung 
open.

Scully gasped, finding me standing there on the other side. "Geez! 
You scared me!"

"Sorry, I was just about to knock."

"I need to use the bathroom."

"Okay, I'll wait in here," I informed her, pointing over her 
shoulder.

"No, Mulder. Just go to bed. We have to track this guy down in the 
morning."

I stared at her, feeling a bubble of anger rise up inside me. "No, not 
this time. Dodging time is over. We WILL talk about it."

Her chin lifted in stubborn refusal. She was gearing up for a fight, 
and that wasn't what I wanted at all.  I laid my hands on her 
shoulders.

I felt her shiver and watched her look away from me.  "Scully, 
don't be afraid."

"I am NOT afraid. Jesus, you can be an arrogant pig sometimes!" 
she said, raising her voice, and pushing past me.

My arms fell to my sides. "You're right, I can be," I agreed.

She turned and her head snapped up to look at me.  She looked 
frightened and confused.

Being careful not to raise my voice, I said gently, "I would never 
hurt you, Scully, not intentionally."

Her face softened. "I know Mulder."

"Do what you have to do. I'll wait over here."

She nodded briskly.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 7 
XXXXXXXXXX

SCULLY'S ROOM 
COOPER CREEK B&B 
MAY 28, 1997 
WEDNESDAY - 9:00 PM

I stepped farther into her room, closing the door behind me. 
Making my way to the bed, I sat down on the foot of it and leaned 
my elbows on my thighs. I took a deep breath, rubbing my hands 
through my hair as I made a futile attempt at arranging my 
thoughts.

About a minute later, she finally emerged wearing navy blue men's 
pajamas.

I sucked in my breath at the sight of her. God, she almost looked 
ethereal sometimes. Against my will, I felt my groin tingle and my 
cock start to harden.

She walked to her suitcase, and threw her work clothes on top of it. 
Then she turned to face me.  "Say what you need to say," she 
blurted out.

I raised my eyebrows at her.  "You act as if you're going before a 
firing squad."

She took a few steps towards me but stayed well out of reach. "I 
guess I feel that way. Look, Mulder. I have no excuse for my 
behavior. It was the most unprofessional, moronic thing I've ever 
done. I have no explanation. I'm sorry. I don't know why I couldn't 
control myself," she babbled, her hands waving in the air to 
emphasis her words.

I stood up and stepped toward her.

She stepped backwards so quickly that she lost her balance.

I lunged for her, watching her arms windmill in the air as she 
attempted to right herself. Before she could fall, my arms were 
sliding around her waist and pulling her up against me. Without 
any warning, my throat opened and a low-pitched moan wound out 
of my mouth at the feel of her curves against my body.

She hissed, whether in pleasure, pain, or disgust, I wasn't sure. Her 
hands landed on my chest and she attempted to push me away.

I pulled her tighter against me. I used one hand to capture her chin 
and force her to look up at me. Her breasts were plastered to my 
chest and she was breathing heavily. My cock was at full mast 
now, doing the wave against her soft belly, nudging insistently.

She whimpered, "Please, Mulder."

I whispered, "I don't give a damn about professional and 
unprofessional, Scully. I'm not upset that you couldn't control 
yourself. Hell, neither could I.  Neither CAN I. Jesus, you're 
driving me crazy!"

"What do you care about then?" she ground out through clenched 
teeth.

"You," I breathed out.

She opened her mouth to respond but I was all done talking.  My 
mouth fell over hers and I pulled on her lips, slipping my tongue 
between her warm lips.

She moaned and I felt her resistance fade, her body melting into 
my chest. Her tongue danced with mine and the kiss turned frenetic 
in a matter of moments.  I crushed my lips to hers, wanting to 
swallow her whole.

Somehow, we managed to stumble to the bed. I pulled her top off 
over her head, not bothering with the pesky buttons. Watching her 
full breasts bounce into view nearly took my breath away.

She pulled on the drawstring of my sweats and they came loose, 
sliding down my legs and pooling silently around my ankles.

I spun, sitting on the edge of the bed and yanked down her pajama 
bottoms. I sucked in a surprised breath, seeing that she had also 
gone commando. "Oh Scully," I breathed out.

I pulled her to me, kicking my sweats off the end of my feet as she 
yanked my tee shirt over my head and tossed it behind me. "What 
are we doing, Mulder?" she cried out.

"We're losing our minds."

"Again?" she asked.

I laughed out loud. I couldn't help it. The smile it brought to her 
face made me giddy with happiness.  "God, we really do need to 
talk," I mumbled.

"I know," she whispered.

I pulled her forward and buried my face in her stomach, growling 
in mock frustration. "Talk," I said.

"Later," she clipped out, pushing me onto my back.

With no preliminaries, she straddled my hips and impaled herself 
onto my raging erection for the second time that day. "Ah, Jesus!" 
I cried out, feeling her walls envelope my throbbing cock. My legs 
were still hanging off the bed from the knees down and I couldn't 
have cared less.

She posted up and down, steadying herself with her hands on my 
shoulders. Her hips swiveled, grinding her clit into my pubic bone 
and she shouted, "Oh!"

I met her thrusts, rising up to meet her, bucking hard. Then I felt 
her orgasm ripple through her sex, squeezing my shaft with divine 
pressure and I bit my lip, not wanting it to be over so soon.  I 
couldn't believe she'd come already.

I felt the tightening in my sack and sat up.

She wrapped her hands around my neck and her legs around my 
waist as I stood up and turned, lowering her to the bed. This time 
she was far enough up that we could both be all the way on the 
mattress.

I grabbed one of her legs behind the knee as I loomed over her, 
supporting my weight on my other arm. I began thrusting into her, 
feeling myself sink deep and hit the back of her tunnel. "So good, 
Scully. Oh God, you're so small," I managed to croak out.

"Come on, Mulder.  Come for me."

"Oh Christ!" I shouted, continuing to drill into her like I was 
digging for oil. I could feel myself swell and knew I was climbing 
quickly to my own release.

She raised her head and sucked on my nipple. I bellowed and felt 
my balls spasm. Her muscles began hugging me again like a child 
sucking on a thumb, trying to hold me inside.

I felt it rise up in me and my head spun. My orgasm was blinding 
and I squeezed my eyes shut as lights burst behind my eyelids and 
my cock erupted like Mt. Vesuvius, pouring hot seed into the 
deepest depths of her body.

She was practically gurgling as she moaned, the sound coming 
from deep in her chest, her hands clutching at my biceps. I slowed, 
still tumescent and flexed inside her, pressing and releasing my 
hips, unwilling to let go of the tremendous pleasure just yet.

At least I didn't pass out this time. When our breathing slowed, I 
raised my head from where I had buried it between her neck and 
shoulder. I met her gaze and kissed her softly.  "Should we talk 
now?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I'm too tired," she mumbled.

"Scully, please."

She just looked up at me. "I promise I'll stop running.  Just give me 
tonight, okay. Stay here; hold me."

"It's a deal," I agreed. I rolled off her and lay on my back.

She scooted up to my side as I held out my arm, inviting her closer. 
She put her head on my shoulder and I hugged her tightly. After a 
moment she mumbled, "It's good, Mulder."

"Good?"

"Great, fantastic, the best I've ever had," she said, her tone almost 
shy.

I smiled at the top of her head. "Me too."

In minutes we were asleep. There were no words of love spoken. 
No promises were given, other than the promise to stop running 
and to talk. I felt better though. As long as she didn't shut me out, 
we could work things out. I needed to work it out. I couldn't let it 
go much longer without knowing where we stood.

If I wanted Scully to be forthright, I was going to have to find my 
own courage. She needed to know how I felt about her. As I drifted 
off to sleep, I vowed that another day wouldn't go by without her 
knowing that I loved her.

Easier said than done.

XXXXXXXXX

The piercing sound of the hotel phone jerked me into wakefulness. 
I shook my head, pulling myself out of the fog of sleep. Scully 
stirred beside me and rose up on her elbow.

I reached over to the hotel phone on the bedside table as I looked at 
the clock. Christ it was only 5:00 AM. "Hello," I croaked into the 
receiver.

"Agent Mulder?"

"Yes, that's me," I said, shaking my head again.

"Oh, sorry. Thought this was Agent Scully's room.  They must 
have mixed them up. Doesn't matter. Anyway, we got another one, 
sir."

"Who is this?" I asked, finally awake enough to rub two brain cells 
together.

"Oh sorry! It's Andy Harrison, the sheriff's deputy," he reminded 
me, as if I wouldn't remember who he was.  Barney Fife to 
Hartley's Andy Taylor.

"Another murder?" I asked.

"Yeah, hiker found him on the trails up by Kent Falls this 
morning."

"Who the fuck hikes at this time of morning?" I heard myself ask 
indignantly.

The deputy guffawed, obviously thinking that was the funniest 
thing he'd ever heard. "I agree. Health nuts. What can you do? Can 
you come out?"

"Of course. We're on our way."

"Great, I'll tell the sheriff."

"Wait!"

"Yes, sir?" he asked. They grew them polite around here, I thought 
inanely.

"How do I get to Kent Falls?" I asked.

"Oh yeah!" he responded, laughing again. "That would help, 
wouldn't it? Got a pen?"

XXXXXXXXXX

KENT FALLS 
KENT, CT 
MAY 29, 1997 
THURSDAY - 6:00 AM

The place was gorgeous. Rolling green lawn stretched out in front 
of us as we parked our car in front of wooden parking rails. How 
quaint. We exited the car to find the sheriff, Deputy Harrison, and 
the other deputy of this well-rounded police force. Judging by his 
nametag, his name was Brandon McKenna.

I looked to the left and took in the site of the Falls, surrounded by 
thick greenery. You could hear the rushing water from here. We 
introduced ourselves to Deputy McKenna. He in turn introduced us 
to a nervous looking man standing off to one side.

Turns out he was our hiker, John Cable. I judged him to be 
hugging 50. His hair was thinning on top. One arm was wrapped 
around his ribs, the other patted his head as if he needed 
reassurance that some hair still remained.

The sheriff instructed him to 'lead on'. We followed the intrepid 
hiker as he started up the trail flanking the falls. The trail was steep 
and wooden steps were inlaid into the soil in a haphazard fashion 
as we rose higher on the trail.

There was wooden fence all along the trail. I imagined that was 
supposed to be some sort of safety feature although it wouldn't be 
hard to jump over it.  We passed several lookouts on our way up. I 
was sorry we didn't have the time to just stop and stare.


We were nearly to the top, when he veered off sharply to the right. 
We wove our way through several picnic tables that were set up in 
a clearing and entered another tree line. A mere two feet or so 
back, we saw him.

He lay crumpled on his side, his eyes open in stark surprise or 
terror, I couldn't tell which. The hiker told us he'd been covered 
with the blanket, which he'd removed from his face and then 
thrown away from the rest of his body when he'd been shocked at 
what he saw. There was blood all over his running shorts and tee 
shirt.  So much in fact that I couldn't even tell what his injuries 
were. "Anyone move the body yet?" I asked.

There was a chorus of, 'nopes.'

Scully pulled gloves out of her trench coat and tossed me a pair. 
We snapped on the latex. It was time to go to work, even if her ass 
as she bent over was the most alluring distraction. 'Eyes on the job, 
Mulder,' I chided myself.

Damn, it was going to be another really long day.

XXXXXXXXXX

KENT FALLS
KENT, CT

Scully left the scene with the coroner that had been called in and 
rode with them to the New Milford Hospital. Kent did not have a 
hospital or any facilities suitable for doing an autopsy.

Upon closer examination, it was clear where all the blood had 
come from. Whoever killed him had sliced the poor boy's 
equipment off. All the men at the scene were involuntarily crossing 
their legs in sympathy. I was no exception.

I mean, really. How pissed off did you have to be? That was just 
plain cruel. For most men, they would rather be dead than be 
mutilated like that. He'd been young too. I wondered how much 
he'd even got to enjoy the pleasures of sex. My heart went out to 
him.

I combed the area and found a small piece of red fabric, about an 
inch square. I bagged it along with a fork, a glass, and what 
appeared to be bits of turkey or chicken that were found on the 
ground. It looked as though someone had stopped here to eat.

Whoever killed the kid had made a hasty retreat and hadn't tidied 
up as well as they should. "Whoever did this was panicked 
afterwards," I said out loud.

The sheriff peered at me as I knelt down on my hands and knees, 
examining the ground. "Why do you say that?"

"It wasn't a professional. They didn't clean up after themselves."

"Lots of picnics up here. No telling whether those things are from 
our killer or someone who had lunch up here at another time."

"I think it's recent. The bits of turkey aren't spoiled. If this glass 
was here a while, it would be more soiled. I can see the 
fingerprints on it. I'll check them out. I'm hoping it's our killer and 
not our victim who left those prints."

The sheriff nodded sagely, trying to look thoughtful and wise in 
front of his deputies. 'It wasn't working,' I thought ruefully. 
Another fifteen minutes and I was fairly confident that I'd found 
everything there was to find.

"Are we done here?" Deputy Harrison asked, his legs still pressed 
tightly together as he leaned against a tree.

"Yeah, that's it for now. We'll see what Scully turns up on the 
autopsy. Meanwhile, I'm going to go the hospital as well and 
interview some staff members."

"What for?" the sheriff asked.

I pinned him with my gaze and he tried hard to stare me down, but 
he couldn't. He looked away and I said, "Because Sheriff, in case 
you've forgotten, we still don't know who killed Christina Fuller. 
Now, we don't know who killed this kid."

"Mark Johnson," Deputy Harrison supplied.

"Right. Mark Johnson. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to depersonalize 
him."

The Deputy nodded in acknowledgement. I liked him more than I 
had at first. He was still a wide-eyed rookie, but he had potential, 
unlike his boss. He hadn't acted giddy at the crime scene as he had 
when Ron Graceson had come in. Of course, he hadn't been staring 
at the reality of violent crime at the time.

I sighed, knowing I should cut them some slack. In a small town 
like this, murders were not a regular occurrence and now they'd 
had three in a matter of a couple weeks.

"Tell me, Sheriff. Has anything significant changed in the town 
lately?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. Anybody new in town? New businesses, that sort of 
thing."

"Not that I can think of. Old biddy Cranston opened a new flower 
shop but I think that's it. Alan that runs the hardware store hired a 
new kid last week. I don't think he lives here in town. Never seen 
him before. Why? You thinking we have a drifter or new person in 
town doing the murders?"

"I'm not sure. The strange thing is that these murders were all 
committed by different people."

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"Different methods, different signatures," I said absently.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm a profiler. The method in which a killer kills is 
called the M.O.  It stands for," I began.

"Modus Operendi," the sheriff answered. "I know you think I'm a 
total hick, Agent Mulder, but I did go through the police academy. 
Granted, it was many years ago. Just because we don't have 
murders every day like you do in the big city, doesn't mean that 
we're morons," he chastised me.

"I'm sorry, sheriff. I didn't mean to make it sound that way. I really 
didn't. I just get in an investigative mode and forget to whom I'm 
talking. Sometimes talking out loud helps me."

"All right. I'll take that. Go on. What else are you thinking?" He 
waved at me to follow as we began the long hike back down the 
trail to the picnic area. We talked as we went.

"The good news is that I don't think you have a serial killer."

Deputy Harrison was following behind us, along with the other 
deputy, whose name had already escaped me.  "That IS good 
news," he said. "I was wondering about that."

"No, Andy," I replied. "Generally a serial killer will have what we 
call a signature. They will kill the same way every time and leave 
something at the scene to mark it as theirs. They want credit for 
their crimes. Sometimes it's a way they pose the body, sometimes 
it's an item, like a playing card or something significant to their 
reasoning. In these cases the M.O. is different in each one.

"The first one was bludgeoned and stabbed to death with 
something. These last two were killed with knives," the sheriff 
reminded me. "Knives, all three times."

"True, but Rebecca was also beaten with a fist, which indicates a 
couple of things. One, her attacker was experiencing an uncommon 
amount of rage. It was unnecessary to beat her, he just did it 
because it gave him some sort of satisfaction and released that 
rage. Ron fits that profile of a stronger man with an anger 
problem."

"That's sick," Deputy Harrison mumbled behind us.

"Yes, it is. In addition, Rebecca experienced what we call the blitz 
attack. She was surprised by the attack and the killer was in a 
frenzy, hitting her multiple times, many more than was needed to 
kill her. That also indicates out of control rage. She was also bound 
and immobilized. Another part of the M.O.  Judging by the 
wounds, her attacker was larger and stronger, meaning it was a 
man. I have no trouble believing Ron did this it?

"I'm with you so far," the Sheriff said.

"Okay, then we have Christina Fuller. According to her autopsy, 
she was somehow lured to the side of the road and dragged from 
her car. Different M.O.  No blitz attack here. He used a con. There 
was a struggle, meaning she put up a hell of a fight before she went 
down. Rebecca never got the chance to fight.

"Christina was stabbed in the back, indicating that she was running 
from her attacker. Therefore, we can assume he didn't bind her in 
any way. He didn't immobilize her. Although she was stabbed 
three times, only one killed her, the blow that hit her heart. The 
other two were misses; one in her shoulder blade and one that 
bounced off a rib. It also indicates she was trying to get away and 
struggling. If she were a bound or immobilized target, he wouldn't 
have missed.

"Once she was dead, he left her there over the bank, near the 
entrance to the reservoir and left. Judging by the depth of the stab 
wounds, I'm still thinking it was a man, although not one as strong 
and big as the one that attacked Rebecca. Not a total frenzy of 
overkill here. He didn't stab her more times than necessary, just 
enough to kill her. Probably to shut her up or because he panicked 
when he couldn't subdue her or con her. He underestimated 
Christina."

"No blitz attack or frenzy there," the Sheriff commented, picking 
up on my line of thought.  "Ron is a big boy, for sure."

"Exactly. Now you have this one. He has his throat slit and 
somebody pulled a Lorena Bobbit on him. No struggle. He was 
surprised, but not beaten, panicked but didn't run. He wasn't 
stabbed multiple times and he wasn't stabbed because he was 
fleeing. He knew his attacker."

Deputy Harrison coughed behind us, clearly still disturbed at this 
aspect of the case. I almost smiled but managed to contain it. "So 
what do you think about this one?" he asked.

"First off, there was surprise for sure. Any man who knows 
someone is heading for his penis is going to protect himself."

"True," the sheriff said blandly.

"Second, his throat was slit after his penis was cut off, meaning the 
killer wanted him to suffer. We're dealing with someone different 
in this case than the others. There was anger for sure, but the 
blanket covering him shows some remorse. There seems to be 
much more control than the previous two. I'm thinking more a 
crime of passion here."

"Crime of passion. You think that strapping young lad was gay?" 
the sheriff asked, laughing at the mere thought of it.

I looked at him. "Stranger things have happened, but no, that's not 
what I meant."

"What did you mean then?"

I hooked my thumb over my shoulder. "Your assuming the killers 
are all male. This killer was a woman."

"WHAT?" he cried, stopping suddenly. I skidded slightly on the 
dirt in my dress shoes but stopped with him.

"Yes, Sheriff. Cutting a throat doesn't take much strength, unlike 
stabbing, which does. Cutting off a penis is a woman's domain. By 
the looks of the wound, a very sharp knife was used. She probably 
wouldn't have been strong enough to stab him through the chest. 
He would have been able to overpower her. She surprised him by 
cutting off his penis. While he was going into shock from blood 
loss and panicking over the loss of his most precious body part, she 
slit his throat.  It's almost like she wanted to put him out of his 
misery."

Everyone stood there staring at me, stunned at the revelation. It 
had never occurred to them that their killer was a woman. I wanted 
to shake my head in amazement at their naivety but again, 
managed to refrain.

"Jesus Christ!" the sheriff swore. "You sure about that?"

I nodded. "I can't be one hundred percent sure, but yeah. If I had to 
place a bet, I'd say we have a third killer. That's unprecedented 
around here. Something is going on. A peaceful town like this 
doesn't all of a sudden produce three separate killers."

"What do you think it could be?" he asked.

I shrugged.

Deputy Harrison mumbled, "Must be something in the water."

"What did you say?" I asked.

"I said it must be something in the water. I was being sarcastic, 
didn't mean it literally."

"He might have something there. Can you have your water supply 
tested?"

"Are you serious?" the sheriff asked.

"Yes. Can't hurt. Maybe there's some sort of drug being put into 
the town water supply that makes certain people violent."

"Town water supply?" he asked as if I'd made a really odd request.

"Yes.  Is that a problem?"

"Yes," he said, and offered no more.

"Why is that, sheriff?" Geez, it was like pulling teeth to get a 
straight answer sometimes. I was in no mood.

He smiled. "Cause we haven't got any town water supply. This is 
the country, Mr. Mulder. Everybody has a well."

"Even the businesses?" I asked.

He nodded, still smiling; glad he'd gotten one up on me. The 
Deputies were smiling too. The sheriff threw open his arms. 
"Welcome to God's country."

We all chuckled and made our way to our cars. Before entering our 
cars, I asked, "Why did you use that phrase though?"

The deputy shrugged and said, "I don't know. It's been on my 
mind, I guess. Me and the little woman been rocking the springs 
lately, if you know what I mean." He chuckled at his own 
innuendo. "I asked what got into her all of a sudden and she just 
laughed and said, 'must be something in the water'."

"You weren't 'rocking the springs before'?" I asked.

"Well, sure, sometimes. But lately, she's insatiable." He grinned 
from ear to ear. "I'm not complainin'!"

Everyone chuckled. I paused, getting a bad feeling.  I looked at the 
other deputy and the sheriff and asked, "You two married?"

"Yeah," they both said in unison.

"Same thing at your houses?" I pushed.

The younger deputy blushed. The sheriff just gave me a loopy 
smile. "Yeah, now that you mention it. The wife has been pretty 
frisky lately. Me too. We hadn't gotten it on in months. Then about 
three weeks ago she started getting frisky. The fact of the matter is 
that since she went through menopause, I'm used to begging for it," 
he admitted with a self-deprecating grin.

Deputy Harrison creased his brow. "That's about the time Charlene 
started tickling the ivories too." He looked at me. "You think 
there's something to that?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. It seems like an awful coincidence, 
though. Don't you think?"

"What about you?" Deputy Harrison asked.

"What about me?" I responded.

"You're trouser snake been getting any action?"

These people were bold. I bit my lip. Then again, I was asking 
them about their sex lives. I supposed it was a natural question. On 
the other hand, Scully would probably kill me if I told anyone 
about our new relationship. Hell, I didn't even know what was 
going on yet. "I'm not married," I replied.

They all grinned at each other. "So?" the sheriff responded.

"I'm going to the hospital," I told him again as we reached the 
parking lot. "I have my cell phone if anything turns up."

"All right," the sheriff replied. "Go get 'em tiger," he said 
playfully. I heard him snickering as he mumbled, "Town water 
supply!" Then his head disappeared into his cruiser.

I sighed and backed the car out, and headed out onto the main 
road. At the center of town, I turned onto Route 7 and took in the 
scenery as I rode through the outskirts of Kent, into and through 
Gaylordsville, skirting through a corner of a town called Sherman 
and finally arriving in New Milford.

I saw the Veteran's Bridge coming up on my left. It was one of the 
landmarks given on the directions that I'd gotten from the coroner 
before he left with Scully. I turned left and crossed the bridge, 
glancing down at the wavy waters of the Hudson River.  Once 
across, I was delayed while a train whizzed by on the tracks that 
cut straight across the main road.  Once past, the gates rose and I 
proceeded into the center of New Milford, taking in the town park, 
and white washed porches. I swung left onto Route 202 and went 
two blocks or so before coming to a light. New Milford Hospital 
loomed large on my left just through the intersection. Well, at least 
it hadn't been hard to find.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 8 
XXXXXXXXXX

NEW MILFORD HOSPITAL 
ROUTE 202 
NEW MILFORD, CT 
MAY 29, 1997 
THURSDAY - 11:30 AM

Three hours and fifteen interviews later, I was sick of hearing 
myself talk. The only productive thing I'd accomplished was to 
confirm how well-loved Christina Fuller had been and that no one 
could imagine wanting to hurt her.

I also managed to get a list of hospital employees.  After returning 
to Kent, I would see if the Town Hall could cough up a list of 
residents. I had a feeling that although Christina's secret admirer 
was an employee of the hospital, he was a resident of Kent, just 
like she had been. Something was happening in that town and it 
was starting to creep me out. I wanted to find out what it was 
before more people died. It was just a hunch, but I was sure all our 
killers were residents of Kent.

Only one employee had raised a red flag with me. His name was 
Bernard a/k/a Bernie Schultz. He'd called in sick since the date of 
Christina's death and no one had seen him in over a week. He was 
also a resident of Kent. Definitely someone to track down and talk 
to.

I considered brainwashing cults, devil worship, and drug problems. 
None seemed to fit these scenarios. I was stumped and I hated 
being stumped. It made me really cranky.

I decided that I would grab a sandwich, realizing we'd skipped 
breakfast in our haste to get to the crime scene. I had grabbed four 
of Alice's hot fresh rolls from the table on our way out and put 
them in a plastic evidence bag. My stomach was rumbling and I 
imagined that Scully's was too. I went out to the car and retrieved 
them, and then made my way through the labyrinth of hallways to 
the cafeteria.

There I made Scully a hearty salad including cottage cheese and 
chickpeas. I got myself a gyro stuffed with lamb strips and 
peppers, and oozing sour cream out the top.

I licked some sour cream off my finger as I made my way to the 
elevator, balancing my purchases. The lady had been kind enough 
to put two iced teas in a bag for me. The bag was dangling off my 
ring finger precariously as I used my elbow to press the button, 
which summoned the elevator.

Somehow I managed to make my way to the morgue in the 
basement of the hospital without dropping anything.  My arrival 
was announced by a swishing of the hydraulic doors into the 
autopsy bay.

"God, it's cold in here," I said.

Scully didn't look up from her perusal of the boy's insides. "It's an 
autopsy bay, Mulder. What do you expect?" she said blandly.

I chuckled, setting down my parcels on the steel counter next to the 
washing sink.

Her head came up and she sniffed the air dramatically. "What is 
that I smell?"

"My gyro. I come bearing gifts."

Just then her stomach rumbled loudly. Her eyes went wide with 
surprise and then we both laughed. "It wants me to feed it," she 
said solemnly.

I grinned. "Well, take a break. Let's feed that monster."

She peeled off her cap, gown and bloody gloves, disposing of them 
in a biohazard container. Once stripped of her apron, she came to 
the counter wearing just her scrubs and paper booties.

I grinned at her. "You look so cute in scrubs," I said as she washed 
and dried her hands.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, they're a real fashion statement."

I just smiled and handed her the salad I'd made.  "Oh, this is great 
Mulder."

"It gets better. Guess what I pilfered on the way out of the B&B 
this morning?"

"What?" she mumbled around a mouthful of lettuce and cottage 
cheese.

I held up the evidence bag.

"Please tell me that's not confiscated from the scene," she said in a 
droll voice.

I gave a bark of laughter. "No, even I'm not that bad. These are 
fresh from Alice's breakfast table."

"Oh, yum. Hand it over, you thief," she teased.

We munched contentedly for several minutes in silence. I'd eaten 
my gyro and both my rolls by the time Scully finished her salad 
and started on one of the rolls, dipping it in the ranch dressing 
floating in the bottom of her salad bowl.

"So did you get anything from the interviews?" she asked.

"Not really. Everybody loved her. There is one guy that interests 
me. He hasn't been in to work since her death and he lives in Kent. 
Name is Bernie Shultz. I intend to go to the Town Hall when I 
leave here and get a list of residents and compare it to the list of 
hospital employees I have here. It will be interesting to see if there 
are any matches other than Bernie."

"Sounds like a good plan. I have to finish up here and order the 
toxicology although I'm not sure what I expect to find."

"All right, we can meet back at the B&B. I'll go do my gumshoe 
routine, and you can finish here."

"You take the high road, and I'll take the low road," she teased.

"And I'll be in Scotland afore yee!" I teased back. I watched her eat 
and felt the familiar rise of lust building up in my body. She caught 
me staring at her as she finished her roll and turned to stare back.

"Mulder?" she questioned.

"Do you have any idea what you do to me, Scully?" I said in a low, 
raspy voice.

She swallowed noisily.  "Oh God.  Mulder, we're working," she 
said in automatic protest. She must have detected the lecherous 
intent in my eyes.

"We were working yesterday too when you jumped me in the car."

"That was different, we weren't in a public building."

"Hypocrite," I accused her gently.

She looked down, blushing and I reached out, pulling her close by 
the shoulders. "Mulder, this is very unprofessional."

"Since when have I ever been concerned with being overly 
professional?"

"Just because things have changed doesn't mean we can just go 
around groping each other whenever we feel like it."

I didn't bother answering her, I just leaned down and kissed her.  I 
tipped her head for the perfect angle and began devouring her 
mouth. I couldn't get enough of her, plain and simple. I'd been 
wandering in a desert, and Scully was my oasis. I was going to 
drink my fill, and damn the consequences.

XXXXXXXXXX

NEW MILFORD HOSPITAL MORGUE 
NEW MILFORD, CT 
MAY 29, 1997 
THURSDAY - 1:00 PM

The minute his lips touched mine I was a goner. He expertly turned 
my head from side to side, ratcheting my desire up a hundred fold.

I remember thinking how utterly ridiculous we were reacting to 
each other and out of character our actions were. It was one thing 
for a relationship to slowly move to another level, but our 
overwhelming desire for one another coming about so quickly was 
disconcerting. Nevertheless, I knew I'd wanted the man from the 
moment I'd laid eyes on him. Who wouldn't? He was gorgeous, 
and had a way about him that drove women wild with lust; me 
being no exception. The man was hot. Hot in that, 'Oh my God, 
how can I be expected to work with such eye candy, day in and 
day out?' way.

The one question that could not be ignored was about the 
recklessness that we were both displaying. It bothered me to 
extreme proportions. I couldn't understand why we suddenly chose 
that moment to let our inhibitions run rampant. What was it about 
this town and this case that drove us to a physical manifestation of 
whatever it was we had between us? I'm sure it had always been 
lurking under the surface of our professional veneers, but why 
now? Was it love? I didn't know. Why couldn't I control myself?

I'd never let myself consider the possibility of love. We were 
partners and best friends. In our jobs, we didn't have time for love. 
It was almost an unspoken agreement between us that we would 
never take our special bond to another level. To do so could be 
disastrous to our goal, to the truth we'd spent years searching for. 
How could we risk it all for something that might break us up in 
the end?

My thoughts were blasted from my mind as his tongue circled 
around my left nipple, his hand holding down the cup of my bra. 
When had he removed my scrub top?

"Jesus, Mulder. We're in the morgue, anyone can come in here and 
find us," I'd complained.

He looked me in the eye and nodded with finality. He turned 
around towards the door and I'd thought maybe he was going to 
leave. I was so wrong. "Don't move," he said over his shoulder.

I'd been butted up against the metal counter next to the sinks. I 
obeyed his request, not knowing what the hell to do with myself. I 
think I may have been in shock, and the tone he used was 
demanding. I couldn't see what he was doing. The sinks were in a 
small cove off the bigger room of the autopsy bay.

I heard two clicks and realized his intentions. He'd locked the 
double doors. Oh shit. My mind swirled with fear as it dawned on 
me that we really were going to fool around here; at the same time 
I could feel my lower extremities soften in preparation to receive 
him.

He entered the small area. His jacket and tie were removed; where 
he'd set them I wasn't sure. He moved towards me like a panther 
and I was his prey. My knees trembled. His gaze was feral and his 
hands were unbuckling his belt, and undoing the button and zipper 
on his pants.  They drooped on his lean hips and I wanted to touch 
him there with a desire that was nearly crippling.

His hands reached out and cupped my cheeks reverently. I was 
nervous. For whatever reason, I was nervous and believed he could 
see it in my eyes. "I can't wait to have you, Scully."

I nodded not knowing what to say. He slid his pants down, taking 
his boxer briefs along for the ride, and shoved them down to his 
knees, exposing himself.  He slowly took a hold of his engorged 
flesh and I gasped.

"This is what you do to me," he said as he lightly stroked his 
length.

I licked my lips and looked down. In our previous encounters, I 
hadn't really had the chance to fully see his equipment; I could 
only feel how huge he felt when he was within me. He seemed 
even bigger under the fluorescent lights above us. I watched him 
continue to stroke himself slowly. A small drop of pre-cum 
appeared at the tip of the large head.

I licked my lips and bit the bottom one. I don't know what came 
over me but I had to taste him.

He looked at me, his eyes were completely dilated and a sly grin 
adorned his beautiful face.

I looked from his eyes to his penis. He watched me while I waged 
war within my own mind. Did I want to kiss him or wrap my lips 
around his cock? In the end, his cock won. I fell to my knees in a 
whoosh. I gripped his hips keeping him steady and licked the tip, 
tasting the forbidden fruit. I slid my tongue all over the head, 
teasing him.

"God, Scully," he said as his hands came out and grasped the 
counter behind me for balance.

I smiled around his member as I took as much of his length as I 
could manage deep within my mouth. His hips tried to move from 
the kung fu grip I had on them to control his movements. He 
groaned loudly. I removed my lips from his length. "Mulder, you 
better keep it down or someone will hear us." I used my stern, 
don't-mess-with-me tone.

He nodded and I went back to work on him. I did everything I'd 
ever fantasized about. I let my tongue slide up and down his 
length, sucking hard on the head during my retreat and rubbing my 
lips around it.

I brought my hand up to cup and massage his balls, rolling them 
around like huge marbles. His breathing picked up to the point 
where he was shaking. I was able to get one last long suck of his 
cock when he suddenly pulled away. I looked up at him and 
frowned.

He gripped my underarms yanking me up and I fell against his 
body. His mouth came down on mine hard and fast. He gripped my 
hips and pushed me against the metal counter, my back biting into 
the edge.

"Ughhh," I grunted in pain.

"Are you alright?" he said between pants. His hands were kneading 
my hips.

"Uh huh, just the edge," I said as I rubbed the tender spot on my 
back.

"Do you want to stop?"

"Hell no! Are you kidding me? You do not get me all hot and 
bothered and then stop because of a little bruise." I was dead 
serious when I spoke. I wanted to be fucked and fucked now.

He waggled his eyebrows and gripped my hips tighter. His thumbs 
entered the edge of my scrubs and swiftly pushed them and my 
panties down to the floor. I stepped out of them and before I knew 
it he had lifted me up and set me on the cool metal counter top. His 
hands came around my ass bringing me to the edge. Our centers 
matched up perfectly. "You're all hot and bothered, huh?" he 
asked.

He was teasing but I could see the need for reassurance as his gaze 
held mine. "Yes, damn it.  You're driving me crazy."

The counter was freezing cold but I didn't care. I felt silly with just 
my orthopedic shoes and paper booties on for Christ's sake!  All I 
could focus on was his cock caressing my sex. It was divine.

"Scully, I don't know what's wrong with me. I want you 
constantly," he whispered in to my ear.  "I can usually control 
myself, but lately, God, woman.  You're driving me to distraction. 
I've never felt desire like this."

I wanted to tell him the feeling was mutual but he took that 
moment to fondle my opening with his fingers. I moaned and 
tipped my head back, leaning against the cabinets above the 
counter. "Mulder, now, please," I begged shamelessly.

He centered his cock at my entrance and shoved into me. I cried 
out in pleasure. He tipped my hips and moved in and out of me 
with long thrusts. The tempo was maddening.

"Harder.  More, mmmm," I egged him on.

He clenched my hips and started pounding into me, relentlessly. 
His body shook with the effort.

I held the edge of the counter as if I would fall off at any moment 
and arched my back, offering him the potential to push deeper 
within me.

His mouth came down on my neck and nipped the smooth skin.

I jutted my breasts closer to his face and he took the bait.

His tongue reached out and licked each puckered tip without losing 
the momentum in his lower body. He played me as if I was an 
instrument, instantly knowing which cord to pluck and when.

The symphony of our bodies came to a crescendo and I screamed 
out with the intensity of my orgasm. He covered my mouth with 
his, swallowing the sound.

The walls of my sex squeezed and clenched him as my heels dug 
into his lower back.

He groaned loudly and spilled into me. I found it amazing that our 
bodies were so in tune with the other that we would reach our 
peaks at the same time. Even in physical pleasure we were one. 
After the fireworks abated and our breathing slowed, we leaned 
against each other in a dreamy state of bliss.

"Mmmm, thank you, Scully," he said through small kisses to my 
cheeks, forehead, and anywhere else that struck his fancy on my 
face. "I needed you."

'Who knew he'd be so tender and sweet?' I thought.

He moved away from me, his penis slipping out. I bit my lip, 
trying not to whimper at the loss.

He moved over two feet to the sink next to us. He wet a couple of 
paper towels and came back. Without thinking I let him wipe me 
clean and then pat me dry. He tossed the paper towels into the 
nearby trashcan and lifted me off the counter, settling me on my 
wobbly legs. Everything he did seemed to be for my benefit. He 
was not the same man that ditched me and left me to my own 
device. He was different somehow.

He grabbed a couple more paper towels, cleaned himself up, and 
fixed his pants. He turned around and walked out of sight. Was he 
leaving, without saying anything to me? I chastised myself for the 
glum thoughts when he came back with the top half of my scrubs, 
handing it to me with a shy smile. I realized then that we had just 
screwed in the morgue and he was fully clothed save for his tie and 
jacket. 'Should I feel cheapened by our actions? No, it was 
Mulder,' I reminded myself.

I quickly put my scrubs back on and smoothed my hands over my 
hair. We left the little cove.

He sat back down where our lunch was and took a long drink of his 
iced tea while he handed me mine.

I gulped down several deep swallows of the cool drink.

"So Scully, you have more to do here, right?"

"Yeah, I still have the organs to weigh, close the body and provide 
the samples for the toxicology screen. I'd also like to get on the 
county intranet and review some information on the other two 
bodies."

He nodded. "Okay, well I'm going to head over and get the list of 
residents in Kent that work at the hospital." He stood up and put 
his jacket on. His dress shirt stretched against his chest reminding 
me of what I didn't get to touch during our current loss of control. 
"Do you want me to pick you up when you're done here?"

"No, that's okay. I'll call for a ride and meet you back at the B&B, 
unless something else comes up."

"Sounds good."

He picked up his keys from the small bench and came over to me. I 
had no idea what his intention was and lifted my eyebrows.

He slid his hand around my neck and kissed me. It was just a small 
pressure as he brushed his lips against mine. His thumb brushed 
my cheek in a wistful fashion. Then he pulled back and went to the 
door.  "Talk to you later." Then he was gone.

Okay, it was one thing to lose control during the heat of the 
moment, but it was another thing entirely to kiss your coworker 
goodbye. The scary thing was that he'd done it without a goofy 
smile or facetious grin, but a tender smile on his face. It was 
almost as if it was normal, like a husband kissing his wife 
goodbye, before he left for work in the morning. That had never 
been the case with us.

For some reason his gesture of affection bothered me more than 
the four times we'd lost control the past few days. That little kiss 
and thumb stroke indicated volumes about a relationship that I 
didn't know if we were ready to have. I sighed in frustration and 
went back to Mr. Johnson.

"What can you tell me that I don't already know?" I spoke to the 
lifeless body.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 9 
XXXXXXXXXX

NEW MILFORD HOSPITAL MORGUE 
NEW MILFORD, CT 
MAY 29, 1997 
THURSDAY - 9:00 AM

I pulled off my cap and protective glasses having completed the 
autopsy on victim number three, Mark Johnson.

I sat down at the small desk in the office and booted up the 
computer. While it woke from its slumber, I pulled out the files on 
Rebecca Stowe and my friend Christina Fuller from my briefcase. I 
reviewed the autopsy findings and compared the victims. The only 
thing that seemed remotely interesting was their stomach contents. 
All three victims had eaten bread within a few hours of dying. That 
connection however, wasn't uncommon. All American's eat bread 
on a regular basis, and often with every meal. No wonder obesity 
was an epidemic in this country.

I pulled out the toxicology reports from Rebecca and Christina. 
Mark's wouldn't be back until later on tonight. Everything looked 
normal. Rebecca had been taking Loestrin, a birth control pill, and 
Christina and been on Deprovera. A standard headache medication 
was found in both, antacids in Christina's, and a small trace of 
THC in Rebecca's.

Looked as though Rebecca liked to have the occasional joint of 
Marijuana. She was a college student. That wasn't unusual. They 
both showed traces of ginseng; probably iced tea drinkers. 
Although, a closer look revealed that the levels of ginseng 
compound were a lot higher in Christina's results than in 
Rebecca's. Much too high for a couple glasses of iced tea. What 
caught my attention though was the substance called yohimbine. 
I'd never heard of that before.

The computer was finally booted up. I was glad to see that New 
Milford Hospital wasn't that behind in technology and had a high- 
speed Internet connection.  I immediately began a search for 
information on the organic make-up of ginseng.

I reviewed the information and found nothing extraordinary except 
that it was considered an aphrodisiac. However, that theory had 
been debunked a hundred times over. There was no scientific 
evidence to support that theory. I then did some research on 
yohimbine. It was one of the other substances that showed up in 
both Rebecca and Christina. Yohimbine and a human hormone 
called LH.

Yohimbine was an alkaloid. It could be found in Rubaceae and 
related trees. These were generally found in Africa, which didn't 
make sense.  This substance was most likely imported. That could 
be a lead. If we could track down the importers, distributors, and 
subsequently, the buyers of this substance, it might be significant. I 
continued to read about yohimbine but stopped when something in 
the last paragraph caught my eye.

There was evidence that human pheromones elicited changes in the 
hormone levels of other humans. No conclusive proof that human 
pheromones altered hormone levels in other humans was available 
prior to 1996. However, in 1992, a scientist named 'Kohl' first 
presented evidence in a journal article called, 'Luteinizing hormone 
(LH), the link between sex and the sense of smell.'

The report also continued with the interesting information that 
male axillary extracts effected pulsatile secretion of luteinizing 
hormone [LH], which in turn, affected the mood of female 
recipients.

In short, what all that mumbo jumbo meant was that these victims 
all had elevated levels of ginseng, the alkaloid, yohimbine, and the 
hormone, LH, in their systems. That was simply too weird. If I'd 
learned one thing from Mulder, it was that there was no such thing 
as coincidences.

'Now why would both women have high levels of this in their 
system?' If Mark Johnson turned up with the same things, we could 
be on to something. I didn't remember Christina being an avid 
health food eater. Although Rebecca's levels were much smaller, I 
wondered if she could have been into ginseng tea. Nothing added 
up.

I picked up my cell phone and hit the speed dial.

"Mulder," he said cheerfully.

"Why are you so happy?" I asked, rubbing the knots out of my 
neck. Leaning over a dead body and the recent sexcapades with 
Mulder had done nothing for the tension in my muscles.

"Well, two hours ago I had a hot little redhead's heels digging into 
the small of my back. That's a pretty good reason to be happy." He 
laughed and waited for my comeback.

Oh, that reminded me of my own battle with the counter and I 
stretched. My back was still sore. "Is that right?"

"It was so right, Scully," he said like a lovesick puppy.

I giggled before I could contain it.

"What was that I just heard? Was that a giggle? My Scully 
giggles?" he teased.

'His Scully? Since when?' I wondered. I had to turn this 
conversation around to a more work-related and safe topic.

"Mulder, I found something interesting in both Rebecca and 
Christina's toxicology findings."

"Oh yeah, what did you find? Don't take the smile off my face. 
Give me some good news."

"Well, it seems that both women had ginseng and a substance 
called yohimbine in their system, which is a alkaloid found in 
African trees in the Rubaceae family. There is also a pheromone 
called LH that has been known to alter a female's moods, and 
excite males."

"Ginseng, yohimbine, and a pheromone?"

"Yeah."

"I'm going to start drinking Green Tea with Ginseng from now on, 
how about you?" he joked.

"Mulder, be serious. Something is affecting these people and if this 
isn't it, I'm at a loss for what it could be," I said.

"Ginseng is used in hundreds of things. It's also been cleared by the 
Food and Drug Administration long ago. It's a standard herb you 
can get in any health food store. How could that possibly turn 
someone into a murderer?"

I sighed completely frustrated. "I don't know. I only know that both 
women had larger amounts than can be explained by a couple 
glasses of iced tea. Maybe they were taking supplements?"

"That's possible."

"The most likely explanation is that this combination of 
pheromone, alkaloid and herb is producing some unusual mood 
levels. In some people, that turns out to be a good thing. In the case 
of our perps, it's turned out to be a bad thing. I'll know more when 
I get the tox screen from Mark Johnson. So what have you found? 
Anything?"

"Actually, I've got the list of residents and have compared it to the 
hospital employees. There are only a few people that commute to 
New Milford from Kent." His tone sounded confident.

"Lay it on me, partner," I requested.

"I thought I did that earlier," he said in a perfectly calm tone.

"Mulder, be serious. What did you find out?"

"Alright, I'm sorry, Scully. Well, the other four employees, besides 
Bernie Schultz, all have ironclad alibis during Christina's time of 
death. Three of them were doctors, and the other a nurse. They 
were all working at the hospital at the time."

"And where was Bernie?"

"According to the employees I spoke to earlier, he left after a staff 
lunch that day. He claimed he wasn't feeling well."

"Sounds pretty suspicious to me. I think we should have Sheriff 
Hartley bring him in."

"You're right, Scully. We don't exactly have probable cause, 
although, we can question anyone in a murder case. The most 
interesting thing about Bernie is that he's called in sick since that 
date. Hasn't returned to work."

"Hiding out, you think?"

"Could be.  We need to talk with this guy."

I nodded to myself and started gathering my things. I needed to 
shower and change. The smell of formaldehyde was everywhere. A 
clicking noise rung in my ears. "Ah, Mulder, I have another call. 
I'll talk to you later."

"Who? Your boyfriend?"

"Very funny, Mulder. I'll see you in a few hours." I clicked over to 
the other line.

"Scully," I said briskly as I walked towards the faculty showers.

"Agent Scully, this is Sheriff Hartley," he said in greeting.

"How can I help you, Sheriff?" I stripped off the bottoms to the 
scrubs I was given, juggling the phone as I pulled the top over my 
head.

"I wanted to let you and your partner know that we have Mark 
Johnson's killer in custody. Her name is Jennifer Schmidt."

"Really? That's great news. How did you find out that it was her?" 
I asked, surprised at the quick resolution.

"We didn't. She turned herself in. Said she couldn't live with the 
guilt of what she'd done. To be honest, I can't believe it myself. 
She's a nice gal, this Jennifer. You'd never think her for a 
murderer," he said somberly.

"Well Sheriff, not all murderers look like John Wayne Gacy."

He chuckled. "You're right about that, Agent Scully.  So, I imagine 
you and Agent Mulder would want to interview her."

"Yes we would, thank you for asking. We also think a hospital 
employee by the name of Bernie Schultz may have had something 
to do with Christina's death. He's been out sick since her body was 
found and went home ill after lunch on the day of her murder." I 
grabbed a towel from the rack and wrapped it around my body then 
sat on the bench outside of the shower stalls.

"We've compared records and he's the only hospital employee who 
seems suspicious," I finished.

"Okay, we'll pick him up. I'll have one of our boys fax you her 
written confession tonight. You can interview Ms. Schmidt and 
Mr. Schultz tomorrow morning, provided Mr. Schultz doesn't give 
us any problems."

"We appreciate that, Sheriff. We'll see you then. Thank you."

"Evening, Agent Scully." He hung up.

'Tomorrow ought to be an interesting day,' I thought as I stepped 
into the steaming shower.

XXXXXXXXXX

All showered and changed, I exited the locker rooms. As I walked 
down the halls, I saw a man and a woman in white coats practically 
mauling each other against the wall. They were grinding their 
bodies against one another. I chuckled on the inside. They must not 
have realized that there were people working in the dungeon of the 
hospital.

I walked by at the exact moment the man hiked up the woman's leg 
and put his hand down her pants. Woo boy! They didn't even care 
that I was within three feet of them. It reminded me of what 
Mulder and I had done earlier. Just the mere thought of our noon 
dalliance made my mouth water.

I had it bad and I had no idea what to do about it. I'd called a cab 
earlier. It was waiting for me as I exited the hospital. I told the cab 
driver where to go and we were off. I watched the scenery pass by 
as I contemplated my relationship with Mulder.

We'd been together for years now. It was natural that our 
relationship would reach this stage at some point. I just didn't 
expect it to happen abruptly as it had. I was still concerned with the 
how's and why's, especially while on this case. It just seemed so 
out of character for us. Who was I kidding? It was out of character 
for me, more than Mulder. He'd always been a passionate man. I, 
on the other hand, have never been as passionate as he.

I'd prided myself on how in control of my actions and emotions I'd 
been able to be around him. I truly couldn't fathom how this had 
happened between us so quickly. One moment we were partners, 
friends, and confidants. The next we were fucking like rabbits. I'd 
even gone so far as to jump the man in the car for heaven's sake! 
How in the hell had I gotten the nerve to do something so 
outrageous?

Every question led to more questions.

The cab driver stopped in front of the B&B to let me out. As I 
walked up the pathway, I could see two people making out on the 
porch swing. They hadn't a care in the world as I clunked up the 
steep stairs. I found it odd how two couples, in various parts of 
town and within less than half an hour, would have such blatant 
disregard for public exposure.

This guy had his hand on her breast and was squeezing it while his 
tongue invaded her mouth. I shook my head at the display. Then 
again, who was I to judge? I had spent a part of my day going 
down on my partner in an autopsy bay.

What was it with this town? I entered the building and went 
straight to my room. I was exhausted and Mulder and I had a long 
day ahead of us tomorrow. I debated calling him for a moment, and 
then decided I'd better not. It could wait until later.

XXXXXXXXXX

COOPER CREEK B&B 
KENT, CT 
MAY 29, 1997 
THURSDAY - 3:00 PM

When I left Scully, I'd gone to get the list of residents from the 
Town Hall in the center of Kent.  It had been a productive 
endeavor. It nothing else, it highlighted Bernie Schultz as a prime 
candidate in Christina's murder.

Scully had called me before I could visit the OB/GYN that was on 
my list of things to do. Her information was most interesting; I 
needed to discuss it with her.

I didn't believe in coincidences. One person having some odd 
culinary tastes was one thing. Two or more was significant. I 
would have to also discuss that in greater depth with her later. 
While she'd brushed off my innuendo, it hadn't been with the 
exasperated, acidic tone that I was used to.

She had softened in the last few days. Making love agreed with 
her. Hell, it agreed with me as well.  Despite the harrowing reason 
for our presence here, I would never forget this investigation. It 
would forever be etched in my memory as the place where I finally 
lost my mind and Scully went along for the ride.

I was concerned that we still hadn't really talked.  She'd actually 
seemed surprised when I'd given her a kiss good-bye. I supposed it 
was unusual. However, after what we'd just shared, I couldn't just 
walk away. Wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am was not my style. I 
wanted her to realize that this was about more than the sex, for me 
anyway. I wondered if she'd gotten the hint.

Hinting hadn't always worked with Scully in the past.  She liked 
her empirical evidence, the spoken or written word. I was willing 
to give her that. Thus far, however, she'd been unwilling to listen. 
That bothered me a great deal.

My interview with Dr. Elizabeth Happle had been brief. She'd 
advised me of what I already knew from the newspaper article 
Scully had shown me before we left Washington. Women in Kent, 
Cornwall, and Warren, had suddenly turned up with and 
unprecedented amount of pregnancies. Since these were small 
towns with populations of between one thousand and two thousand 
residents each, the percentage of pregnancies was an anomaly. Dr. 
Happle serviced a lot of women for their health needs in the area, 
not just in Kent, and had never seen this happen before.

She'd gone on to say that not all the pregnancies were in women 
who were married. The number of teen and young adult 
pregnancies was taking an alarming trip up the statistics scale as 
well. While these pregnancy statistics might be normal in the big 
cities, it wasn't common around here. The people here weren't 
stupid. She went on to explain that they weren't exactly caught in a 
time warp, either.

On the other hand, most of the locals were folks with simple 
lifestyles and churchgoers that taught their kids old-fashioned 
values.  Small populations meant that these children and teens 
received a lot of individual attention from teachers, parents, and 
friends, right up through their senior year of high school. True bad 
apples were rare and promiscuity among the younger members of 
the population was even rarer.

While many married couples were thrilled, many irate parents were 
not. She'd compared charts of quite of a few patients and could 
find nothing that linked them together in their medical histories. 
She'd began questioning her patients about recent activities and 
life's events as well, finding no common ground. She was stumped.

So was I.

Something was niggling at the back of my brain. I knew I was 
missing something important. I just hadn't made the connection 
yet. I hated it when that happened. I shook my head, knowing that 
the harder I tried, the farther away the elusive connection would 
run from me.

I pulled up to the B&B and parked the rental car.  I had no idea if 
Scully had made it back yet. I hoped so. Although we'd had lunch 
together and only a few hours had passed since then, I was eager to 
see her.  We needed to talk. No more putting it off. Last night had 
gone awry when my dick took over the conversation.

If I had to put Mulder Jr. in a vice tonight, I would. We WOULD 
have this conversation. No more avoiding the issue. She'd 
promised. The call to Kent Falls had delayed everything. God, I 
wanted to solve this case and go home. This town was driving me 
nuts. While it had its charms, I found driving a half hour to get gas 
an inconvenience I couldn't put up with for the long-term.

I hit the door at a trot, smiling at the couple making out on the 
bench in front of the B&B. What was it with people lately? The 
sheriff and his deputies reported higher incidents of intimacy with 
their wives, people were making out on the sidewalks, Scully and I 
were fucking in an autopsy bay! What was the world coming to?

Wait a minute.

If I were a cartoon character, screeching noises would have been 
heard as my brain skidded to a halt.

Increased sexual activity in at least three closely-located towns.

Married people getting their groove on again after months of 
abstinence.

Teens and young adults boinking like bunnies.

Ginseng, LH pheromone, yohimbine in two, possibly three, 
victims, which has been stated to increase moods and excite males 
sexually and make them more aggressive and less inhibited.

'Come on, Mulder! Put it together!' I admonished myself.

"Something in the water," Deputy Harrison had said.

NO! Not the WATER. The FOOD! Oh my God. Why hadn't I 
thought of it before? It was so obvious. It had to be some locally 
purchased food item.

I chewed on this idea as I took the stairs two at a time. There was a 
lot of food around here, even though it was a small town. That had 
to be it. I knew Scully would want her scientific proof. I was onto 
something, though. I could feel it.

The bounce returned to my step by the time I reached the second 
floor. Screw sleep. I had to talk to Scully. I knocked sharply on her 
door three times.

I heard her murmur and then the door was swinging open. She 
stood there waving me in. She'd changed and was wearing loose 
fitting cotton pants with an elastic waist with a scoop necked shell. 
She looked sexy as hell. I looked down and saw her painted 
toenails sticking out from the hem of her pants and was shocked at 
the bolt of arousal that flew through me.

'No,' I thought. 'I was going to control it this time.' I looked back 
up to her face and found her smiling at me, clearly amused.

"Mulder, what's up? I'm glad you're back. I'm starving. Are we 
eating downstairs or going out?"

"We're not eating here tonight," I said with finality and brushed by 
her to enter the room. I turned as she closed the door.

"I was napping, but now I'm hungry," she said.  It was stated 
simply, but it struck me as adorable.  She was practically pouting 
as she spoke.  However, I didn't think she would be amused by my 
observation.

"I think I figured something out, Scully."

"What?" she asked immediately, her interest peaked.

I sat on the end of her bed and she came over, sitting on the side of 
the bed and curling one leg underneath her to face me. I twisted so 
I could see her face, mimicking her pose. "It's the food."

"What?"

"I had a conversation today with the sheriff and the deputies. 
Deputy Harrison said something interesting that I forget to 
mention. He and his wife have been having a lot of sex lately."

"Married couples do have sex, Mulder," she said sarcastically.

"I know that," I growled. "His exact words were that 'she was 
insatiable lately'.  A little prodding got the other deputy and the 
sheriff to admit that their wives have been extraordinarily horny 
lately."

"They said that?" she asked incredulously.

"Not in those words. I won't repeat the ones they actual used. The 
point is that their behavior has changed. I was talking to Dr. 
Happle and she said that all her case comparisons on the rash of 
pregnancies in Warren, Cornwall, and Kent have yielded no 
common denominators."

"You're losing me," she said quietly.

"Stick with me, Scully. So Harrison made a comment about 
'something in the water'. I asked about a town water supply."

Her eyebrow rose. "I hadn't thought of that."

"It was a bust. They laughed at me. There is no town water supply. 
Everybody has a well around here, but then as I was contemplating 
all this, it fell into place. You found those chemicals in the tox 
screens in two victims. I'm a betting man. I'd bet you find the same 
things in Mark Johnson. What I'd like to know is if our alleged 
murderers have the same elements in their system. If so, it could 
easily be something in the food."

"There are a million food items, Mulder. It would be impossible to 
track down something that vague. We might be able to trace 
distributors of yohimbine or even ginseng, but even that's a long 
shot."

"Maybe not. Think about it. It's only happening here and in a few 
nearby towns. It's got to be something purchased and eaten locally; 
something that isn't distributed out in the big, bad world."

Both eyebrows went up this time. I knew she was intrigued when 
both eyebrows went up. "Okay, I see where you're going now. I 
still don't know how we can determine which food it could be.  We 
don't know at this point if it's even an edible food product that's 
causing this."

"How many food items are going to have those ingredients?" I 
asked.

"Good point, but where do we start?"

"I'm not sure. I'm thinking maybe it's not a staple item. It's got to 
be something that you don't get everywhere, so that narrows it 
down a little. Maybe we should check with the local grocery and 
see if they buy any products from local manufacturers, rather than 
established companies like Coke and Pepsi, for instance."

"It's a start. We may be trying to find a needle in a haystack, 
though. However, the only common major food item both victims 
had in their stomachs was bread."

"Maybe it's some sandwich meat product. I don't know, but it's all 
I've got at the moment. I can't tell you why but I just know it's 
something in the food."

She nodded. "I trust your hunches, Mulder."

"You do?" I asked with surprise.

She smiled. "Yes, I do."

"Well, well. You learn something every day," I teased.  She 
chuckled and I felt my groin tighten.  Shit, I had to get out of here. 
"Why don't we go to New Milford or somewhere close and find 
someplace to eat?" I suggested.

She frowned. "I'm hungry," she said again.  My God, she was 
pouting.

I grinned. "I know, but now that I think it's the food, I'm hesitant to 
eat here in town."

She groaned. "I don't want to drive all the way back to New 
Milford. It's at least twenty minutes!" she complained.

I was getting a kick out of this. Scully was whining!  It was so 
cute! I didn't think she'd appreciate that observation either. "Trust 
me. I'll drive, you can continue napping if you want."

"All right, but let's go now. I'm starved."

I stood up. "Let me change into something comfortable."

She groaned again in mock indignation.

I laughed. "I'll be two minutes. I'm not like you.  It doesn't take me 
an hour to get ready to go somewhere."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, not sure whether to be 
insulted or not.

I leaned over and planted a quick kiss right on her lips. "It means 
I'm a man, and you're a woman," I stated simply.

"Astute observation, Agent Mulder," she said wryly.

"That's why they pay me the big bucks," I shot back at her.

She was smiling when I exited through the connecting door, 
already ripping my tie off. True to my word, I'd simply stripped 
my suit and left it lying on the bed. I yanked on a pair of jeans and 
my sneakers.  Rather than a tee shirt, I pulled on a clean dress shirt. 
I wasn't sure where we were eating and I didn't want to be dressed 
like a bum. I rolled up the sleeves and slipped my glasses on my 
face. I was finding I needed them more and more to drive, 
especially at night.

I knocked on the connecting door and she swung it open. Her eyes 
frankly raked me up and down. I felt my body respond with 
tingling and ruthlessly suppressed it. "Let's go," I said, waving her 
ahead of me.

We were in the car and headed back to New Milford in under five 
minutes. I'd snagged a brochure in the lobby of the B&B that listed 
area restaurants. Scully was scanning it with the dome light on as I 
concentrated on the road.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 10 
XXXXXXXXXX

THE BISTRO 
31 BANK STREET 
NEW MILFORD, CT 
MAY 29, 1997 
THURSDAY - 7:30 PM

We ended up at a quaint little place called The Bistro. Scully 
ordered chicken cord en bleu and I ordered a New York Strip 
steak. The food was delicious and reasonably priced. We were both 
impressed.

We ate in silence for a while till the bulk of our hunger was 
satisfied. As we slowed down, I said, "We need to talk, Scully."

"Mmm. Yeah, I was thinking about it. Trying to come up with a 
strategy about how to approach this food thing. Maybe Alice can 
give us a list of local grocery stores and places that sell foods 
produced by local cottage industries."

I sighed, tamping down my exasperation. "I meant about us, 
Scully."

She stopped in mid-chew, staring at me. After a beat, she finished 
chewing slowly and swallowed. She took a drink of her seltzer 
water and patted her lips with her cloth napkin.

I waited, never taking my eyes off her face. Finally she lowered 
her head for a second as though gathering herself and then looked 
up to meet my gaze. "Okay, talk."

"You're acting like I'm the firing squad again," I said. Even I could 
hear the hurt in my voice and I cursed internally. As much as I 
hated looking weak in front of Scully, I couldn't help it sometimes. 
Our relationship was too important, and her constant denial that it 
existed, except when I was buried inside her or had my tongue 
down her throat, was really starting to irritate me. What did she 
think I was going to do? It was like she was forgetting that we 
were friends.

"I'm sorry. I don't know what you want me to say."

"This isn't about what I want you to say. I want you to tell me how 
you feel about this. Every time I've broached the subject," I began.

"We've ended up having sex," she completed the sentence for me.

I nodded. "When we've been together, Scully, its felt right," I 
admitted. I hung my head, looking at my unfinished steak and 
feeling a lump form in my throat. I cleared it loudly and shook my 
head, a bit embarrassed.

"I agree there's something between us, Mulder," she said quietly.

"Something?  That's it?" I asked.

"Damn it," she swore softly.  "I'm not good at this."

"I'm not grading you, Scully. Relax. I'm just saying that we can't 
keep sleeping together and then not talk about it, like there's 
nothing unusual going on here. We've been partners for a long 
time."

"Over six years," she stated the obvious.

"You've turned into more than my best friend, Scully.  You're my 
confidante, the only one I trust."

"I trust you too, Mulder. I guess I'm confused as to why this is 
happening now. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like it's all 
happening so fast."

"Well, the physical part is, but you have to know it's not just about 
the sex." I paused. "Don't you?"

Her face softened into a close-lipped smile. "Same here, Mulder. I 
guess I never allowed myself to think of us as a couple," she 
admitted.

I smiled sadly. "Not true for me," I admitted in return.

"No?" she asked, encouraging further explanation.

I guess if I wanted her to be forthcoming, I was going to have to do 
the same. Somehow, I felt like I was opening Pandora's Box. If I 
didn't handle this just right, I could screw the pooch in a big way. 
No pun intended. "I've thought about us a lot."

"Really? What, exactly?" she asked.

"You, me, together," I clarified.

"Could you be more specific? Together how?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "How can you be so 
blind?" I said, nearly under my breath.

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, her voice curt.

Uh oh. Pay attention, Mulder. Screwed pooch approaching. "I just 
mean that it's nearly incomprehensible to me that you don't know 
how I feel about you."

She stared at me for so long that I didn't think she was going to 
respond. I opened my mouth to continue, but finally, she said, 
"How would I know, Mulder?"

I guess she had a point there. Although I clearly remembered the 
time after a brush with death in the Bermuda Triangle where I'd 
told her I loved her.  I later realized her less than reciprocal 
response was because she thought I was drugged to the gills.  I 
was, but I had been sincere. The drugs had just loosened my 
tongue and my inhibitions.

She continued, "I mean, we obviously work well together, and if 
the last few days is any indicator, we play well together too."

I grinned and waggled my eyebrows. It fell flat but she smiled at 
my lame attempt at levity anyway.

"At the same time, I just don't get it. Why now?  After all this 
time?"

"Maybe the time was right. Maybe we needed to be in a place 
where neither of us was in a life or death situation." I paused. 
"Neither one of us was were injured, drugged, or emotionally 
needy."

Her head snapped up suddenly. "Wait a minute!"

"What?" I asked.

Her brows scrunched in concentration. "Maybe we were drugged," 
she suggested.

"What?"

"You said yourself that you suspect that it's something in the food. 
We've been eating there. The sheriff and his deputies are having a 
holiday with their wives revived libido." Her voice rose slightly as 
she warmed to her theory. "People are all over each other. I don't 
know if you saw them outside the B&B, but there was a couple 
going at it right there on the bench. There was another couple at 
the morgue that was groping each other like it was their last day on 
earth.  They were so involved in one another they didn't even 
notice me walk by. Christ! I'm a professional. You, well, you're a 
professional too, most of the time," she qualified.

I frowned. Now it was my turn to not be sure whether to be 
insulted or not.

"Even I couldn't control myself!" Her voice lowered to a fierce 
whisper in an attempt not to attract the attention of other diners.

"Even you, huh?" I said sarcastically.

"We fucked in an autopsy bay, for Christ's sake," she hissed.  "We 
couldn't control ourselves while we were on a case, while we were 
in the middle of an investigation. Jesus, while I was literally on the 
job!" she finished.

I felt the backs of my eyelids sting. My eyes pooled with tears and 
I blinked rapidly to keep them from falling. I couldn't look at her. 
Obviously this meant a lot more to me than it did to her.

"What's the matter, Mulder?" she asked, suddenly concerned.

I raised my hand and signaled for the waiter, forestalling my 
answer. He approached and handed me the check. I handed him 
my credit card and he walked away.

"Mulder," she said, trying to get my attention as I stared at my lap.

"Give me a minute," I hissed through clenched teeth.  She just 
didn't get it. We weren't on the same page at all. I had that sinking 
feeling I always got when I got to close to a woman. I'd thought 
Scully would be different. Maybe it was too much to hope for. 
Unfortunately, I was afraid she was going to do the same thing that 
every other woman I'd allowed close to me had done.

She was going to break my heart.

Damn me for a fool. I was going to let her do it. I was helpless to 
stop it. Knowing how I felt about her, this one was going to hurt 
worse than all the rest put together.

The waiter appeared and I scribbled my name on the slip and 
handed it back to him. I grabbed the receipt and shoved it 
unceremoniously into my pocket and stood up.

She followed me silently to the door with a puzzled expression on 
her face. Jesus, she didn't even know what she was doing to me.

Once outside and away from nosey patrons, she grabbed my 
forearm to stop me.  "Mulder, what the hell? I'm trying to talk to 
you and you suddenly clam up on me. What's going on?"

"How does it feel, Scully?" I snapped.

"Damn it, I'm trying!" she cried.

I skidded to a halt and spun so fast that she was startled and took a 
step back, releasing my arm. I nearly growled at her. "Maybe YOU 
fucked in the autopsy bay," I shot at her.

"What?" she asked, clearly confused. "Was I the only one there?" 
she asked, now indignant. "If everyone is being drugged somehow, 
then so are we, Mulder. It's as plausible an explanation as any," she 
finished coolly.

"That would be nice and convenient for you, wouldn't it?" I spat at 
her.

"What the hell are you talking about? Those are the facts, Mulder!"

"Yeah, and you love your facts, don't you? Well, let me tell you 
something, Ms. I've-Got-It-All-Figured-Out. If you think our trip 
to this town was the first time I dreamed about sleeping with you, 
you are sadly mistaken."

"What are saying? We weren't drugged?"

I pressed my lips together and swallowed noisily. I tried to make 
my voice calm, despite the roiling emotions inside me. "I don't 
know what you were doing, Scully." I paused, deciding to go for 
broke.  I had nothing left to lose anyway.  If she was going to 
break my heart, there was nothing I could do to stop her. "So what 
if we were drugged? That isn't the point, Scully!"

"Then what is the fucking point?" she yelled.

"The point? The point is that I wasn't FUCKING. I was MAKING 
LOVE to you," I hissed.

Her eyes went wide in her face. I couldn't look at her. I spun and 
took off down the sidewalk, zeroing in on the car. After a moment, 
I could hear her trotting to try and keep up.

I got into the car and popped the locks without saying a word. She 
slid in silently next to me. When she turned her face to the 
window, avoiding me, I knew I had my answer. She hadn't been 
making love to me. This was just physical for her. She'd been 
fucking me.  She was horny and I was a nice hard piece of 
satisfaction. While I wasn't against a good, satisfying fuck now and 
then, that wasn't the extent of it for me. I was in love with her. Was 
it only yesterday I'd said to myself that I couldn't be her fuck- 
buddy? Would I be able to keep that resolve?  How could I resist 
her?

I drove back to the B&B with a heavy heart. The entire twenty- 
minute trip was made in total silence.

XXXXXXXXXX

COOPER CREEK B&B 
KENT, CT 
MAY 29, 1997 
THURSDAY - 9:30 PM

When the car came to a halt in front of the B&B Mulder jumped 
out and took the steps to the entrance two at a time. I tried to keep 
up but his much longer legs left me in the dust. He opened the door 
and slammed it behind him before I could enter myself. 'Fine, he 
wants it that way, he can have it that way,' I thought to myself. As 
I entered, he shot up the stairs to our rooms. I could hear his door 
slam behind him.

Alice was sitting at her post and cringed when she heard the noise. 
"Troubles, deary?" she questioned.

Great, just what I needed.

She made her way slowly from behind her alcove and took my 
hand. "Why don't we have a little tea in the kitchen?"

I almost told her that I was too tired to have tea but she wasn't 
having it. "Your fella there will be fine on his own. Just give him a 
little time."

The old woman ushered me through the dining room and into the 
kitchen where a small breakfast table sat invitingly. I sat at one of 
the wooden chairs, placed my elbows on the table and clasped my 
head in my hands. I sighed loudly.

I sincerely had no idea how I was going to handle the situation 
between Mulder and me. I was honest with him when I'd said that I 
wasn't good at this sort of thing. I'm not. I've never been good at 
relationships. There was always something more important 
happening in my life at the time, whether it had been my schooling 
or my career goals. I was good at using these as excuses for not 
working on personal matters.

I had never really considered settling down with any of the men in 
my past. It just didn't seem to be in the cards. Then when I was told 
I was unable to have children, the point was moot from then on 
out. In my mind, half the purpose of marriage was to have 
children.  While I wasn't against having a relationship, if I couldn't 
have children, I didn't really see the point in getting married.

What the hell did he mean when he said he made love to me? Was 
he trying to say that he really was IN LOVE with me? I knew he 
was fond of me, and now that I thought about it, he had been more 
open since the case began. I'd taken his reciprocation as a man 
happy to be having sex again after a long draught. That didn't mean 
that I was willing to change our relationship after six years because 
of a few rolls in the hay.

'Now Dana, you know he means more to you than that. Even if you 
were drugged it didn't magically make you desire the man. That's 
been there all along,' I chided myself.

If I were honest with myself and Mulder, I'd tell him how strong 
my feelings were for him. That the mere possibility of him not 
being in my life makes me feel like I'm going to have a heart 
attack. Whenever he's had a run-in with death, I've had earth 
shattering panic attacks.

The fact was that no man in my entire life could compare to the 
amount of pleasure emotionally, spiritually, and most recently, 
physically, that I'd received from Mulder.

I was knocked out of my reverie by Alice setting a steaming cup of 
tea in front of me. "Thank you, Alice." I took a sip.

She nodded. "Do you want to talk about it?"

I shook my head.

"I often find that when you can talk about your problems with 
someone else, you can better understand how to handle the 
problem yourself." She looked at me with sincere blue eyes.

"It's nothing personal, Alice, but I'm a very private person."

"I understand."

"I don't normally discuss my private life with anyone."

"Maybe that's the problem."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that nobody's an island. We all need somebody sometime. 
Do you have any girlfriends you might talk with?"

"No, our work keeps us pretty isolated most of the time. I have my 
family, but my social life suffers for the job.  I've never minded 
that, really. I've never been a social butterfly."

"Hmmm. Now you're obviously upset though. I know we don't 
know each other well, but I'm willing to listen. Sometimes it's 
easier to talk to a stranger. Besides, who am I going tell? You'll 
leave here once you solve your case."

I stared at her for a moment before deciding to give in and try her 
way. "Okay, well, my partner and I are fighting," I said with a sigh.

"And is that unusual for the two of you?"

"No, not at all." I chuckled. "We often disagree on a great many 
things. It's part of who are, and it balances us when dealing with 
work-related things."

"But this isn't a work-related problem, I'm assuming." She smiled.

"No, it's not," I said glumly, not knowing how to continue.

She took mercy on me. "So, then you're having romantic problems 
with the young man?"

I nodded.

"And you're not used to this? Is your relationship new, honey?" she 
asked without any hint of prurient interest.

"Yes," I said miserably.

"Well, what's the problem? You can tell me, sugar."

Her kindness did me in. Before I knew it I was sobbing into her 
arms as she patted my back comfortingly.

"I don't know what's wrong with me. He practically told me he 
loves me and I reacted horribly." I sniffed and she handed me the 
tissue box on the table.

"Do you not love him?" she asked softly.

"I do. I know I do, but it's so hard for me to admit it to him. Our 
relationship has never been like that, and all of a sudden I'm 
expected to just come right out and admit everything I've spent the 
better part of six years hiding from him!" I sobbed.  I was 
embarrassed by my loss of composure.

She was not surprised at my outburst. She just stroked my arm 
soothingly. "Sugar, you're going to have to tell him if you don't 
want to lose him."

I nodded. "I know Alice, and that's all he wants from me is my 
honesty. It's just, we've been through so much together, and I have 
a hard time risking what we already have. It means the world to 
me. He means the world to me, and if I were to lose him, I don't 
know what I'd do."

"I know, sugar, I know. You don't have to worry about that. He 
told me that he loved you."

"He did?" I was shocked. Apparently Mulder didn't have a problem 
sharing information about his personal life.

"Yup. Right after you stalked out from dinner the other night. I 
thought that it might have been my cooking but he told me 
otherwise."

"Oh Alice, your food is amazing. All of the places around here are. 
We especially enjoyed that restaurant, what was it again, Fife and 
something?"

"Fife & Drum. Of course it's great food. My nephew owns the 
place and uses all my homemade recipes for just about everything 
on the menu." She puffed with pride. "Now back to you, that man 
up there loves you. Why are you so afraid to love him back?"

That was the question of the century. What was I afraid of? "I don't 
know, Alice. When I was younger I never really thought of myself 
as the type that would settle down. I rejected my mother's lifestyle 
as a Navy wife. Don't get me wrong, I adore my mother and 
always appreciated her loving support. I just never thought I would 
be able to be that selfless. I chose to put all my efforts into my 
career.

"After finding out that I was barren a couple years ago, I was 
surprised how undesirable it made me feel. I guess I didn't realize 
how much that meant to me as a woman until the choice was taken 
away. I'm a professional woman. I replaced my desire for a 
husband and family with my career. Or, I thought I did. It also 
made me reevaluate the value of marriage. My partnership with 
Mulder is everything to me."

Boy was that hard for me to admit. I'd never told anyone of my 
fears before now. I didn't know why I was telling her but she just 
felt like a grandmother of sorts.

"Honey, does this fella upstairs want to have children?" she asked 
her question hesitantly.

I imagined she might have been afraid to ask after realizing the 
severity of what I'd told her.

"We haven't discussed it. He's never mentioned having children 
before."

"So then, might it stand to reason that he's unconcerned with such 
trivial things?" She paused. "Seems to me you've made a lot of 
assumptions.  One being that he cares whether or not you can have 
children.  Two, that he feels that this makes you undesirable. Just 
because you feel undesirable doesn't mean you are undesirable. If 
what he said to me was any indication, he desires you plenty."

I looked up at her stunned. How could she think that having 
children was trivial?

"Don't you think there's more to life than a family, Sweetie?"

"I guess."

"My Ollie and I were married 45 years before he passed, and we 
never had children. We were too much in love with each other and 
too selfish to give up what we had to raise children. Sometimes it's 
just about choices. Other times it's about dealing with the hand 
your dealt. Either way though, I think you're not being fair to your 
young man. You're making assumptions and you don't even really 
know how he feels about these things."

"You've got a point there," I said.

"Listen to me. Children are great for some people, but they aren't 
for everyone. Do you believe in fate?"

I grinned because she almost sounded like Mulder for a second 
there. "I'm not sure."

"Well, I think everything happens for a reason.  Maybe you can't 
have children because you're simply meant to do other things. 
There's a whole big world out there. Children aren't the only legacy 
a person can leave, you know? Think of Einstein! Think of 
Christopher Columbus, or Emmeline Pankhurst!"

I thought hard and remembered Emmeline Pankhurst and her 
daughters, Christabel and Sylvia.  They were the founders of the 
Women's Social and Political Union in 1903.  The members were 
later called suffragettes after a term first used in a British 
newspaper.

It was hard not to be sucked in by her enthusiasm.  "I don't think 
I'm destined to be a great scientist, discoverer, or suffragette," I 
replied ruefully.

"Maybe not, but the point is that you don't know what you're meant 
to do. You just have to go out there and do the best you can. That 
means with relationships too. I might not have children, but I have 
this place, I have a wonderful nephew, and I have secret recipes!" 
she declared proudly. "Sometimes we make our own future."

"Are you saying I have to make my own happiness?"

"I'm saying that I think you're fighting it."  She tapped my sternum 
lightly. "Look in there. You'll know the right thing to do. Tell him 
how you feel, sugar. There's no reason for the two of you to be 
alone. I can see it in the way that you look at each other that there 
could never be anyone else. Why put yourselves through life alone 
when you can have so much more?" She leaned forward and kissed 
the side of my cheek just like my grandmother used to do when I 
was a kid.

"Thank you, Alice. I'll do just that."

"If you don't believe in fate, then how about God's will?" she asked 
softly.

"I have a strong faith," I said immediately.

"Do you?  If so, then you also believe that everything happens for 
a reason. Maybe you're just not meant to know what that is yet. 
That's always the hardest part of doing God's will for me."

"What's that?"

"Accepting the answer he gives me."

I nodded in understanding. With my resolve settled, I was off to 
talk to Mulder. Hopefully after everything I've put him through the 
past few days he can see through it to forgive me and we can start 
over.

Lord willing.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 11 
XXXXXXXXXX

COOPER CREEK B&B 
KENT, CT 
MULDER'S ROOM 
MAY 29, 1997 
THURSDAY - 10:00 PM

I knocked on his door until his muffled voice filtered though, "Go 
away, Scully."

'Fine I will,' I thought.

I entered my own room and went to the bathroom where our rooms 
were connected. He never locked the connecting door and I wasn't 
willing to let him refuse me. Alice had made things so clear to me. 
I realized that I didn't need to fight this change between us. It was 
inevitable. This was just another portion of my life that I had to go 
through.  Hiding from it or denying it wasn't going to make it go 
away.

I turned the knob to his room. Just as I thought, it was unlocked. I 
opened the door. He was lying on the bed on his stomach, his face 
buried in a pillow. Only one of the bedside lamps was on. An ice 
bucket and a glass of what looked like whiskey in a tumbler sat on 
the end table. To my relief, it didn't look like he'd even touched the 
drink. Almost as if he'd dropped the ice into the glass, poured it 
and then forgot about it.

"Scully, some privacy please. I really don't want to see you right 
now." The pillow muffled his words.

I went to the bed and sat down on it. I lifted my hand to his head. 
He flinched at my touch. I realized I had a lot of making up to do. 
I'd hurt him and this wasn't going to be easy.

"Mulder, I want to talk to you." I wisped my fingers through his 
scalp hoping that the caress would make him realize that I wasn't 
here to make things worse.

"I thought you said all you needed to say at the restaurant. Look, 
its okay, Scully, you don't need to do this. I'll be fine. You don't 
need to coddle me." He turned around so that I wasn't touching him 
any longer. "I'm a big boy, really. I'm not in high school anymore. 
I think I can handle the girl I have a crush on not wanting to wear 
my ring." He was trying to be cool but it wasn't working.

"It's not like that, Mulder," I said with a sigh.

"Then you tell me what it is, Scully?" He got up and started pacing 
the room. "You've never admitted your feelings to me. You always 
have to be so strong. Why can't you be honest with me?" he 
questioned. "What?  I'm good enough to fuck but I'm not good 
enough to trust with your feelings?"

I really didn't have the answer he was looking for. I didn't know 
why I felt this need to hide things from him, or never let my true 
feelings show. "Mulder, it's not you. It's always been like this for 
me. I've never been able to easily let my guard down with men."

"I'm not just any man, Scully. I'm your partner. You and I have 
been through hell and back. The only thing that kept us from losing 
everything time after time was each other. You and me." He 
pointed his finger between us to emphasize his comment.

"I know Mulder, and I'm sorry. All of this has been so sudden," I 
started and he cut me off.

"It's been six years! It's not as if I woke up yesterday and thought, 
'I love Dana Scully. What do you know?' I agree with you that the 
physical part started recently. Yes, we may have been drugged but 
it only brought out our desire, not created it.  It just lowered our 
inhibitions.  It's not as though that desire wasn't there before we 
stepped foot in this town."

I nodded.

"If you're going to break my heart by saying that you've never felt 
that way before, I'd rather we didn't drag it out, all right? Just leave 
now."

"No, I wouldn't say that. It's been there for me too," I admitted.

"It has? You have? You've desired me?"

"Yes."

"Then what is so wrong about wanting more and taking that next 
logical step in our relationship? What is it about me that scares you 
so much?" He sighed and collapsed into the chair across from the 
bed.

"Mulder, you are so passionate, so all encompassing.  I'm afraid I 
won't be able to keep up sometimes."

"Passionate is a bad thing?"

"For me, yes. I could so easily lose myself in you. Everything 
we've worked so hard to achieve could be lost."

"Scully, we're still the same people. Just because we choose to 
spend our nights and weekends together, as well as our workday, 
doesn't make us any less driven towards the truth. It actually might 
make us more driven to find the answers we so desperately seek. 
Without the constant sexual tension, I might add." He clasped his 
hands around his knees and looked at me.

I was shaking uncontrollably. I knew I wanted to tell him 
everything I admitted to Alice but it was so difficult.  "It would 
change everything."

"Only for the better. I can believe in just about anything. You 
know that, but I can't believe that loving you is wrong. I won't 
believe it. You're the best thing that ever happened to me.  Damn 
it, Scully, it hurts so bad when you shut me out."

My breath hitched as he once again mentioned loving me. I 
decided now was the time to take that risk. Lord help me, for I've 
fallen.  "I want to wear your class ring, Mulder," I said softly.

He looked at me, confused, then his eyes squinted with 
uncertainty. His earlier statement must have dawned on him and he 
gazed at me as if I'd grown horns. "Scully, don't. Just don't get my 
hopes up." He got up from the chair.

"I'm so sorry, Mulder." I bowed my head in shame for putting him 
through all of my teetering back and forth between wanting to take 
the plunge and being to afraid to.

He strode back to me, daggers in his eyes. "Sorry for what, Scully? 
Sorry that you hurt me? Sorry that you're breaking my heart? What 
else is new? Every woman I've ever been with has broken my 
heart. It would only make sense that the one woman I really loved 
and wanted to love me back, didn't!"

"But, I do," I whispered as tears rolled down my cheeks. I swiped 
them away quickly not wanting him to see me cry and bowed my 
head from his prying eyes.

"What did you say?" He tipped my chin and forced me to look into 
his eyes.

I shook my head, once again afraid to tell him the truth.

"No Scully, no fucking hiding! What did you say?"

"I said that, I, I do love you," I stuttered.

"Don't say it because you want me to feel better or you somehow 
want to mend this rift between us." His hands came down on my 
shoulders.

"I wouldn't lie to you, Mulder. You know that," I said.  I closed my 
eyes. I'd lost the battle with my tears and they slid down my face 
unchecked. I was leaving myself open and raw to him. He would 
understand the gesture.

He kissed each of my tears away. "You love me?"

I opened my eyes and nodded. "You love me?" I turned the 
question around on him.

"With everything I am, Scully."

"Show me."

When I asked him to show me, I rather expected this encounter to 
be as quick, fast, and hard as the last few were. He wasn't having 
any of that.

His fingertips moved from my shoulders and skimmed up the sides 
of my neck, over my hairline, down my cheekbones. His thumbs 
settled on my lips. I kissed each of them.

"Scully, if we do this, there's no going back to before. I can't be a 
fuck-buddy. I can't just have sex with you anymore. It has to be 
more."

"I know, Mulder." I grabbed his forearms and pulled him over me. 
He came down on me with a grunt. "You're worth the risk," I told 
him.

He nodded and straddled me.

I pushed myself to the center of the bed so that my legs didn't 
dangle off the edge.

He unbuttoned my blouse one button at a time. His fingertips 
barely touched my sternum and down over my navel in light 
feathery caresses. He pushed aside my blouse and I lifted onto my 
elbows so that I could take it off. I wanted nothing between us this 
time, full skin on skin action. He pulled down the zipper to my 
skirt.

I kicked off my heels and shimmed out of the skirt and my nylons 
the best I could, with a one hundred and seventy pound man 
straddling me. There I laid in a baby pink cotton bra and panty set.

His eyes roved over me as if I was a veritable feast in front of him. 
Truth be told, I loved it when he looked at me as if I was a piece of 
meat he couldn't wait to take a bite out of. It made me feel 
feminine, desirable, wanted. The feelings were such a stark 
contrast to the very buttoned-up Agent Scully. He made me believe 
I was beautiful, with just one feral look. When I considered it, it 
sounded chauvinistic to me, but I'd never had a man look at me in 
such a way. It made my head spin and my mouth water.

He took his time staring at me. I was sure I made one helluva 
vision, almost bared in front of him, chest heaving, mouth open, 
sucking in air as if each breath was my last. It would be 
embarrassing if it weren't Mulder. I trusted him enough to let 
myself be vulnerable.

Finally his hands unbuttoned his own shirt. His eyes didn't leave 
my body. It seemed as if he were cataloging all of my body parts. 
Knowing Mulder, it very well could be what he was doing. He 
dropped his dress shirt to the floor and tugged the undershirt over 
his head. He tossed it to the growing pile of clothes by the bed. He 
stood, unbuckled his belt then dropped his jeans and boxers in one 
big heap at his feet. He nudged his shoes off and pulled off his 
socks. He never took his eyes from my body.

Talk about visions. He was the most stunning specimen of a man 
that I'd ever seen.  He had a beauty you'd never get tired of seeing. 
At the same time, he was like the sun. If you looked at him too 
long, you'd go blind. My mouth opened but no words came out. 
His entire body from the top of his head to the tips of his toes was 
utterly fascinating. Nothing should be that gorgeous.

I finally licked my lips and whispered, "Damn, I'm one lucky 
woman!"

"I'm the lucky one, Scully," he said reverently as he crawled back 
over my body straddling me once again.

I scraped my nails through the fine hairs on his large, muscular 
thighs. He practically purred. His hands settled on the sides of my 
head as he curled into a position where he could nip and kiss at my 
neck easily. He licked my neck. "Mmmm salty," he whispered.

He kissed his way down to my right breast and blew on the cotton 
fabric making my nipple visible through the cup. He then put his 
mouth over my breast and the material, sucking as much of my 
breast into his mouth as he could. The friction of the wet fabric on 
my sensitive tip made me moan loudly.

"Silky," he mumbled through the fabric. He continued to pluck 
each tip with his fingers as his lips lightly dragged along the skin 
of my belly stopping at my navel. He dipped his tongue into the 
tiny crevice and swirled it around. I'd just about rocketed off the 
bed. Thank God he was holding me down. I'd never known that 
was an erogenous zone for me. No one had ever found it before.

"Sweet," he said as he nipped around the tiny edge.

"Jesus, Mulder." I tried not to sound too wanton but I don't believe 
I succeeded in that venture.

He just looked up at me and grinned that cat-that-ate-the-canary 
smile. His mouth started moving down from my naval, his teeth 
lightly biting and grazing the tender skin. It was driving me 
absolutely insane with lust. Every pinch of his teeth was sending a 
flush through my entire body. I was so heated for him; I could 
hardly wait for him to just take me.

"Mulder, I need you," I whispered. He was hovering over the tiny 
cotton panties covering my sex.

"You have me, Scully," he said, kissing the triangle of fabric.

"No, inside me," I said with a groan.

"Not yet. Slow, Scully. I want you crazy for me. I want you to the 
point where you couldn't fathom this act again unless I'm a part of 
it. I want to make love to you like nobody ever has. I want to erase 
the memory of every other man that's ever touched you."

I sucked in a huge breath of air and tried to control the emotions 
spilling to the surface for this man. I whipped my tears away 
quickly then laid back and tried to take calming breaths as he 
kissed each ankle.

His tongue licked up the inside of my leg sending goose bumps 
everywhere. I felt cold and hot at the same time. God, what he did 
to me! He repeated the same action with the other leg. His hands 
reached under me to cup my ass. It seemed as though he knew 
everything to do to bring me to the edge but not push me over it. I 
wanted him to do something, anything, to speed up this wonderful 
torture. I wanted it to last forever.

His thumbs finally hooked into the sides of my panties. 'Oh God, 
please,' I thought.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Show me," she'd said. Oh, Scully, be careful what you ask for. 
She looked like Venus or Aphrodite laid out there; my own 
personal goddess.  She was so beautiful.

I reached back into my memory for every bit of information I'd 
stored over the years about how to excite a woman. I found the 
pressure points in her ankles, nipping gently and feeling my heart 
soar as she moaned and tipped her head back in pleasure.

How many times had I envisioned scenes just like this? "So 
beautiful," I murmured.

"You make me feel beautiful, Mulder."

"You are beautiful. I've never understood why you don't think so."

She chuckled but didn't respond.

I couldn't stand the undergarments anymore, as lovely as they 
were. After divesting her of her panties, I reached up and flicked 
the clasp on her front loader bra. The cups sprung open and her 
milky breasts spilled out. I gasped and reached for them with 
trembling fingers.

I kneaded gently and she hissed through her teeth.  Unable to resist 
the lure, I bent down and took one hardened nipple in my mouth, 
feeling it bead up harder against my tongue. My fingers found the 
other peak and scratched it lightly.

She moaned and pressed her breast into my mouth.  "Oh God!" she 
cried, arching up.

I decided I had to taste her and made a slow journey back down her 
stomach, placing kisses along that way. I reached the treasure 
between her legs and settled in, putting her legs over my shoulders. 
We'd been so hurried and frantic before; I hadn't gotten a chance to 
do this properly. I breathed gently on her glistening sex and she 
whimpered. The sound went straight to my cock.

I licked her thoroughly, exploring the dips and valleys of her labia 
and then stabbing my tongue inside. I inhaled the exotic fragrance 
of her juices and felt my cock twitch in response. My dick was hot 
and heavy, crushed between my stomach and the bedspread.  I 
teased her until her whimpers were strained and a bit shrill. I slid a 
finger inside and suckled on her bulging clitoris.

"Aaaawwww, Mmuullddeerr!" she groaned and I felt her walls 
contract on my finger. She pushed her hips into my face and I 
didn't mind at all, riding it out with her, licking her from stem to 
stern.

When she calmed, her eyes opened. They were hooded and she 
looked sated. "Get up here," she whispered.

"Not yet."

She whimpered again and I smiled. I knew once I was inside her, I 
wasn't going to last long, so I wanted to do all I could before I got 
to that point. I gently coaxed her over onto her stomach.

She hugged a pillow beneath her. I lowered myself to her; feeling 
my chest drag along the exposed, cool flesh of her back. One hand 
slipped beneath her to palm her plump breast. The other slipped 
down over her hip and slid down until I found her sex. I cupped 
her entire juncture in my hand and loved how wet it was. I began 
to gently caress her bundle of nerves with my fingertips.

My hips rocked involuntarily in response to my arousal and the 
feeling of her baby soft skin on my shaft. I burrowed gently 
between her legs and teased my shaft over the cleft of her lips, 
dragging it back and forth, intentionally bumping her clitoris from 
behind.

She moaned and I stretched, digging two fingers into her vagina as 
deep as I could go and flicking her clit with my thumb. I kissed the 
back of her neck and nipped at her shoulders, licking the salty 
sweat off her skin. In another thirty seconds or so, she was bucking 
her ass into my pelvis and coming all over my fingers again.

"Mmm, Mulder, please!" she begged.

"What? Please, what?" I whispered.

"I need, I need you inside me," she huffed out between labored 
breaths.

I sat back on my haunches and turned her onto her back again. She 
reached for me and I stopped her with a hand on her wrist. I moved 
her hands next to her head, pinning them there and lacing my 
fingers through hers. I leaned down to take my weight on my 
elbows, still on my knees.

Her legs rose up and wrapped around my hips. She used her heels 
on my ass, trying to pull me toward her.  "Relax," I whispered.

"Damn tease," she gritted out.

I chuckled then. I couldn't help it. "Look at me," I commanded.

Her eyes snapped up to mine. "I want you to keep your eyes open. 
I want you to see me, know it's me making love to you."

"I do know."

I shook my head. "Watch," I growled.

I poked at her entrance, seating myself. I stared at her, letting her 
see everything. How much I loved her, how much I needed her, 
and how much I respected her.  I felt energy flow out of me toward 
her and felt it hit me in return. "Jesus," I hissed and pushed 
forward.

"Oh God!" she cried out again. I looked down between us, 
watching her swollen nether lips whiten from the strain of 
engulfing my shaft. Then I was sliding deep. My cock was steely 
and her tunnel felt steaming hot.

"You ready to be loved?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Say it."

She hesitated but then whispered, "Please, love me, Mulder."

Not fuck me, love me. I groaned and thrust forward embedding 
myself deeply and knocking at the door to her womb. I looked 
down again. Below my flat, hard stomach, I could see my shaft 
buried inside the most beautiful woman I'd ever known.

She twisted and churned her hips against me, angling for 
maximum depth. I moaned feeling her muscles quiver around me 
in a snug embrace. I let my legs straighten out underneath me and 
felt myself sink incredibly, deeper, pressing against her cervix and 
stretching it. She held me in a delightfully constrictive embrace as 
I began to pump.  I kissed her slowly and deeply but then retreated 
to watch her face.

"Oh God, it feels so good, so different," she panted.

"Different how?" I asked, determined to get her talking about how 
she felt from now on.

"I don't know. It's a pleasure I've never felt, something to do with 
the size of you I'd imagine."

I chuckled again and kept my pace slow, wanting to draw this out 
as long as possible. Before long, I couldn't resist the urge and sped 
up. I hurled myself into her with banging thrusts that rocked her 
tiny body on the mattress.

She let out the cutest, little grunts each time we collided together. 
"Oh God, I can feel you, Scully.  Your growing tighter and 
tighter."

I bit my lip, hoping to hold on. I wanted to make her come again. 
Knowing how spectacular it had felt the other times, I wanted to 
feel it on my cock.

We stared into each other's eyes as we became one thrusting, 
groaning mass of pleasure. The sensations ripped through me in 
waves and I could see her struggling to keep her eyes open. Her 
breasts were crushed between us and I laid my mouth over hers to 
drown out the noise I knew was coming. She screamed into my 
mouth as she came, her eyes rolling back in her head.

I released her mouth and shouted as I felt my cock expand and then 
shoot a torrent of sperm deep inside her. I didn't go soft right away. 
I continued to pump her leisurely, enjoying the trembling quiver of 
her muscles on my shaft as we rode out the aftershocks together.

Finally, she hissed in discomfort and I stopped, pulling back gently 
until my spent equipment flopped out of her onto the bed. I kissed 
her again and then whispered, "I'm so in love with you, Scully. 
Promise you'll try to make this work."

She blinked away tears and cupped my face in her hands. "I 
promise. I love you too, Mulder, I really do."

I kissed her again, but felt sleep pulling at the edges of my mind. I 
was exhausted, physically and emotionally. "Need to sleep," I 
muttered.

She nodded. "Can you get to my room?"

"Why?" I asked.

"I have no wet spot."

I laughed out loud then and she laughed with me. We dragged 
ourselves up, cleaned up in the bathroom then made our way 
through the connecting door to her room.

We curled up under the covers and I spooned up behind her. "Love 
you, Scully."

"Love you too," she mumbled and was asleep like someone had 
flicked a switch.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 12 
XXXXXXXXXX

COOPER CREEK B&B 
KENT, CT 
MAY 30, 1997 
FRIDAY - 6:00 AM

We woke in the morning to the sound of something being 
crammed under the door. I sat up quickly and then steadied myself 
as I felt my head swirl with dizziness. I looked toward the door and 
there was a manila envelope on the floor. "Shit," I muttered, rolling 
out of bed.

I picked it up and opened it. It was the tox reports from the latest 
autopsy, along with the typed confessions of the two perpetrators 
they had in custody. I went to Scully's little desk and stuffed it in 
her briefcase. She rolled over and asked, "What time is it?"

"Early, it's only 6:00 AM."

"What's that?" she asked, waving toward her briefcase.

"Looks like the sheriff faxed over the confessions, and the lab 
faxed over the tox screen on Mark Johnson."

She groaned.

"We don't have to get up yet," I informed her.

She sat up. "Might as well. I won't go back to sleep now anyway. 
Besides, I'm hungry."

"Yeah, we need to keep your strength up."

She smirked. "Shower?"

"May I join you?"

"Of course."

We managed to shower without getting too out of hand, although 
some serious groping was involved. When we emerged, we 
decided to dress in casual clothes and go rummage in the kitchen 
for a snack. Breakfast wasn't until 7:00 AM and neither of us 
thought we could wait that long. Plus, we were scheduled to meet 
up with the Sheriff at the station to interview Bernie Schultz and 
Jennifer Schmidt the newest perp as soon as possible.

It would be amazing if we could have this case closed by the end 
of business today. Scully needed to mourn her friend before she 
went back to work. I wanted to have an entire weekend alone with 
her so that we could get used to the concept of being a couple. A 
couple. The thought of being attached to Scully for life just made 
me euphoric.

The place was quiet as a church as we made our way downstairs. I 
figured Alice must be up if she was the one that had stuffed the 
faxes under the door.

Scully went into the pantry off the kitchen and found some cereal 
and peaches. I found plenty of milk in the fridge and a couple of 
spoons. We settled down at the kitchen table and ate.

I heard an odd rattle, and looked over to the side of the sink. 
"Where does that go?" I asked, pointing at an old wooden door 
recessed into the wall between the industrial size double sink and 
the pantry door.

Scully shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe it goes out back."

I stood up and walked toward it.

"Mulder, what do you think you're doing?" she whispered fiercely.

I winked at her and turned to the door. It had one of those old cast 
iron latches that fell down into a grooved metal piece. There was 
no lock on the door.  I lifted the latch and tugged on the door. It 
swung open easily and I peered into utter darkness.

The pungent smell of dirt, herbs and spices wafted out from the 
dark. I felt around on the wall and found a light switch. Turning it 
on lit up a dim bulb that barely illuminated the stairs. I started 
down the steps.

"Mulder!" Scully hissed again, but I heard her get to her feet to 
follow me. "Mulder, we can't just go snooping around here!" she 
scolded.

I saw the vague outline of a switch on the wall near the bottom of 
the stairs and swiped my hand over it. I gasped at the sight that 
came into view.

It was a root cellar, a big one, with dirt floors.  It must have 
spanned the entire length of the B&B underground. There were 
waist high planters filled with various herbs that were being grown 
under artificial lights.

I walked down one aisle and felt my heartbeat accelerate. "Scully, 
look at this."

She came up behind me and I pointed to an open planter about five 
feet long. There were green plants with odd brown colored roots 
sticking out of the dirt. Scully broke off a small piece of one and 
sniffed. "Ginseng."

We looked at each other and both moved at the same time to look 
at each of the planters. It was like a green house down here only 
there was no sun. At the far end, I came to a wooden hutch. I 
opened the double doors and gazed at the shelves inside. There 
were rows of jars and baggies along with a mortar and pestle. I 
picked up some of the small jars and read the labels. Some were 
marked, 'yohimbine', others were like ampoules of insulin. They 
were marked 'luteinizing hormone'. There were several other 
common herbs there too.

I turned to stare at Scully, holding up a jar of yohimbine and an 
ampoule of the hormone. "Jackpot," I said.

Her eyes widened and her face paled. "No, it can't be.  Why would 
she do this?"

I didn't want to believe that sweet Alice meant any harm either, but 
the proof was hard to ignore. "I think the real question is, would 
each of our killers and victims have eaten at the B&B? The 
residents of the town would have no reason to eat at a bed and 
breakfast." The whole thing was confusing but it had to add up.

"Not exactly, Mulder. Alice mentioned to me that she not only had 
secret recipes but that her nephew owned the Fife & Drum 
restaurant. She said he has been using her recipes for years!" she 
exclaimed.

"Well, that is one of the hot spots in Kent. It would make sense 
that the victims and the killers had eaten there, and probably more 
than a once. Then again, this hasn't been happening for years."

"Maybe she gave him a new recipe recently," she reasoned.

Just then we heard footsteps on the stairs. We turned to see Alice 
watching us as she descended the stairs.  "What are you two 
youngin's doin' down here?" she asked calmly.

XXXXXXXXXX

"We should be asking you what it is you're doing down here, 
Alice." I couldn't believe that this sweet woman would 
intentionally concoct a product that reacted lethally on the 
population in the area.

"I don't understand your question, deary?" She looked from Mulder 
to me in a confused manner.

"Alice, what are you growing down here?" Mulder asked, even 
though he knew the answer to the question.

"Herbs. What does it look like I'm growing down here? I don't 
have no funny plants that the youngsters are growing in these parts, 
if that's what you're suggesting," she said clearly irritated.

"No, we didn't suggest that at all, Alice." I changed tactics to get 
her off the defense. "This is quite a setup you have here. What 
have you used these herbs for?" I asked in a non-threatening tone.

"I've used them in my recipes for years. Mostly in my homemade 
breads and rolls. Pretty much all things breaded. I also send over 
bushels to my nephew to use in some of the items on the menu at 
the Fife & Drum."

Mulder and I looked at each other in silent understanding.

She continued, "These fresh herbs and a dash of extract give 
everything that extra oomph food needs." When speaking of the 
oomph, she gestured the way you see Italians making a point, by 
tipping her hand up and pinching her fingers together.

"A dash of extract?" Mulder spoke up.

"Well yes, the cabinet that you're looking at now. There are all 
kinds of little extracts I add into the mixture. Just a couple drops 
though. Wouldn't want to put too much, it might make the bread a 
little doughy, you know?"

God, this was going to be so difficult. Unless this woman was an 
Oscar winning actress, she had no idea what she was doing.

"Why do you call them extracts, Alice?" Mulder asked.

"Well, my Ollie made them for me for years and years. He would 
just continue to make them and put them in that cabinet for me to 
use. He was raised in Africa when he was boy, you see, and was 
told by a tribe's medicine man, that the extract from the ginseng 
plants, roots and other trees, blessed anyone who consumed it."

Mulder and I nodded our heads in understanding. She looked off 
into the distance, almost as in a dream state and continued, "His 
Mama took to the tribe's ways. They were missionaries, and 
believed in the people and their culture. They showed his Mama 
how to cook with it, and told her that whoever ate from the earth in 
such a way, would be blessed with an uncontrolled love for their 
fellow tribesman." Alice smiled repeating the story her husband 
must have told her a thousand times before. "So, my Ollie taught 
me and I am in turn, teaching my nephew," she said with pride.

"Have you changed anything recently?" Mulder asked.

"Well, I did run out of the tree bark extract for a while after I used 
up what Ollie had made. I just went on without it until I finally 
found his receipts. I hadn't known where he purchased it. Once I 
did, I ordered some up."

"Alice, did your husband ever tell you of a side effect to these 
particular herbs and extracts?" I asked.

She grinned widely. "Well, I was told that the tribes people were 
very active in their love for one another." She winked at me. 
"Supposedly, all the women were pregnant most of the time Ollie's 
parents were there, so that's gotta tell you something." She sat 
down on a crate near the steps.

I blew out the breath I'd been holding. How the hell were we going 
to arrest this woman when she didn't know what she'd done? I took 
a deep breath. Mulder and I sat on a wooden bench near Alice. 
There was no easy way to put it, I had to just suck it up and tell the 
poor woman what she'd done.

"Alice, the herbs and chemicals you've been adding to your 
recipes, as well as the food at the Fife & Drum, have been reacting 
unfavorably on some of the people in the area," I said in one long 
breath.

"What do you mean, unfavorably, sugar?" she questioned 
sincerely.

"What Scully is trying to say, is that we think that the herbs you've 
added to the food here, and at the Fife & Drum, has contributed to 
the death of three people."

She gasped. Her hand came up to her heart and she looked 
confused.

"Alice, ginseng and the chemicals you've been adding to the food, 
are known to alter behavior and sex drive in humans. We have 
reason to believe that this additive has changed the behavior in 
people who would have otherwise not reacted violently," Mulder 
said as neutral and calm as I'd ever heard him. "We're investigating 
three deaths at this time."

"You're saying that my cooking may have killed three people!" 
Tears sprang to her eyes and she pulled a handkerchief from the 
sleeve of her robe to pat her eyes.

"Not exactly," I clarified for her. "We'd have to do some tests to be 
sure, but we think this mixture has altered the personalities in at 
least three people, leading them to react lethally towards the 
opposite sex."

Mulder added. "My theory is that while under the influence of the 
mixture, if the love is returned, all is well. Perhaps Ollie's 
tribesman had open relationships. Here though, if someone is 
shunned and unable to release the sexual tension these chemicals 
cause, it makes them angry; generating a lethal rage."

Tears fell from her eyes as she twisted the handkerchief with her 
knarled fingers. "Nothing like this happened when Ollie was 
making it."

"Could you have mixed up the proportions or something?" Mulder 
asked gently.

She nodded. "I guess anything is possible."  After a moment of 
silence, she sobbed, "You mean, that nice doctor was killed 
because of me?"

"We don't think it's your fault. She was most definitely killed by a 
madman but we don't know all the details yet. She was being 
stalked beforehand," I added. "We don't know about the other 
two."

I rushed over to Alice and pulled her into a hug. She held onto me 
as if I was the last soul on earth. She was distraught and at her old 
age, I was worried about her health.  Could she physically handle 
being involved in three murder cases?

I felt Mulder nudge my shoulder. "Scully, I think we're going to 
have to call Sheriff Hartley," he said sadly.

I nodded.

Alice pulled from my embrace. "No! I will get dressed and I will 
take myself to the Sheriff. If I had anything to do with what's 
happened to these poor innocent souls, I want to turn myself in." 
She stood and straightened her robe. She sniffed and wiped her 
eyes and nose of her tears. Maybe she would come out of this okay 
in the end. I could only hope.

"We'll drive you, Alice," Mulder suggested quickly. She nodded 
and turned to the stairs. This was going to be another long and 
tragic day for us, and the people of Kent. I hoped to hell and back 
that Bernie was responsible for Christina's murder. I couldn't wait 
to get home.

XXXXXXXXXX

KENT POLICE STATION
KENT, CT 
MAY 30, 1997 
FRIDAY - 8:00 AM

The car ride over to the station was somber. I looked back at Alice 
a few times through the mirror on the sun visor. She seemed utterly 
distraught over the situation, and with good reason. I was unsure of 
her fate. The odds were high that she would be charged with 
second-degree manslaughter.

However, because it was not her hand that killed these three 
people, nor was her contribution premeditated or intentional, she 
might get off with something as simple as a misdemeanor or 
community service. One could only hope.

Mulder parked right in front of the police station. He held Alice's 
arm as we climbed the stairs and entered the building. Mulder had 
called Sheriff Hartley while Alice changed and apprised him of 
events, as we knew them. He informed him that we'd be driving 
her in for questioning, she had insisted on turning herself in.

Bernie Schultz was already being questioned in New Milford about 
his whereabouts during the time that Christina was murdered. 
Jennifer Schmidt was being held at the same location, awaiting her 
arraignment.

As we approached the Sheriff's office, Alice sighed in defeat. 
Mulder knocked on the door to the small office and the Sheriff 
looked up as he opened the door. His face was etched with lines. 
He looked like he was suffering from lack of sleep, if the bags 
under his eyes were any indication. He stubbed out a thick brown 
cigar.

"Alice," he gestured towards a chair in front of his desk.  "Agents," 
he greeted us.

"We're going to go talk to Ms. Schmidt and Mr. Schultz," I said 
from the doorway.  "Update us when you have a chance."  He 
nodded and we exited the office to give them privacy.

I worried about what was going to happen to Alice after her 
questioning. Verification of the presence of her additives to the 
food in the blood systems of the killers would be easily acquired. 
She was such a sweet old women. She really had no idea that she 
was essentially creating a mind altering drug, if it could, 
technically even be considered a drug. I sighed at the absurdity of 
it all.

Mulder grabbed my forearm. "Scully, it will be okay. I have a 
feeling that Alice will make it though this without having to serve 
any time. They'll go easy on her."

I nodded and straightened my back, putting my professional armor 
firmly back into place. We exited the building and entered our 
rental. The drive to New Milford was a complete blur to me. I was 
demoralized by the events of this case. We came here to figure out 
what happened to Christina and another murder took place before 
we'd figured it out.  In the end, there wasn't even a real villain.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPTER 13 
XXXXXXXXXX

NEW MILFORD POLICE DEPARTMENT
 ROUTE 202 
NEW MILFORD, CT 
MAY 30, 1997 
FRIDAY - 10:00 AM

After signing in, we were escorted to the small cells toward the 
back of the station. "Here's your gal," said the gruff police officer 
as he unlocked her cell.

Jennifer Schmidt looked up in horror. There were deep purple 
shadows under her eyes. Her already pale skin was ghost white. 
She sat on the small cot with her knees pulled into her chest. She 
was rocking herself back and forth in a self-comforting motion.

Mulder sat on the edge of the cot next to her while I leaned against 
the cold concrete walls. A chill ran through my body.

Unexpectedly, Jennifer looked over at Mulder and spoke. "I didn't 
mean to do it," she whispered.

"Kill Mark?" Mulder questioned.

She nodded her head as tears slipped down her cheeks.

"Then why?" Mulder asked softly.

"I don't know. I loved Mark more than life itself. He was 
everything to me." Mulder nodded and waited. I could tell by the 
way Jennifer looked at Mulder so intensely that she trusted him. 
"Something came over me. We were having a wonderful day, 
hiked through the Falls like we always did. I'd planned a huge 
picnic, you know?"

Mulder and I both nodded.

"I was hoping that he would see me differently. As more than just 
his best friend."

"Go on," Mulder encouraged.

"After we picked our picnic site, we set out our blanket and I 
dished out the food."

"Did you make the lunch yourself?" Mulder asked.

Her eyes lit up just a glimmer. "Oh no, I can't cook very well. I 
ordered it from our favorite place and picked it up before I met him 
at his house."

"Your favorite place?" Mulder asked.

"The Fife & Drum. They have the best food and I knew Mark 
would love it."

Mulder looked over at me and I met his gaze.

I nodded my head answering the question he didn't have to 
verbalize.

"Then what happened, Jennifer?" he prompted.

"I reminded him of our anniversary that day and how I thought of 
him as more than a friend.  Then one thing led to another and we 
were, uh, you know, um, having sex. It was amazing."

We both looked at her in understanding but Mulder and I for 
different reasons. We knew how it felt to go from best friends to 
lovers so suddenly. It felt as though reality had slipped away and 
you were the only two people left on earth.

She stopped talking and put her head down on her knees.

"Its okay, Jennifer, you can tell us. We know it's difficult," Mulder 
said softly.

She lifted her head from her knees and daggers were in her eyes. 
"Then he told me that what happened between couldn't happen 
again. He actually told me that he was GAY!"

"Gay?" I gasped. She looked over at me.

"Exactly! You two seem close." She pointed between Mulder and 
I. "Probably been partners for a long time, right?"

We nodded not knowing where she was going with her 
questioning.

"How would you react if you were in love with him and after you 
make love, he tells you he's gay?" She got up from the cot and 
began to pace in small circles. "I fucking loved him and gave him 
everything I could. Now, I shouldn't have reacted the way that I 
did, but I was so angry. I went crazy. I couldn't see straight. I don't 
ever remember being that angry. I was humiliated, too. I felt so 
used. Like he was humoring me, like I was so bad, he had to say he 
was gay to make sure it wouldn't happen again."

"We understand, Jennifer."  He paused.  "Say, would you be 
willing to submit to a blood test?"

"Why?"

"We suspect there may have been some agents in your food that 
lowered your ability to control your emotions."

"What?" she asked with a confused look on her face.

"It might help your case. Will you let us do a blood test?"

"Sure, whatever."  She shrugged.

"Thank you for speaking with us," Mulder said as he stood.

'That's my cue,' I thought. I banged on the cell bars. "Officer," I 
yelled.

The same person that brought us back opened the cell door. I took 
one last look at the girl. She had taken up her position on the cot 
again, rocking back and forth. She was chanting in a small little 
voice, over and over again. "Why couldn't he just love me?  Why 
couldn't he just love me?"

"Officer, when will we be able to speak to Bernie Schultz?" I 
asked the man.

"I don't know. He's been in there for a long time. According to the 
officer in charge, they finally got him to admit killing a baby 
doctor here in town. It might be awhile," he said sadly.

My heart soared. He did kill Christina. Thanks to Mulder's 
investigative skills we'd gotten our man. I smiled so wide I thought 
my face would permanently stay that way. I looked at Mulder and 
his expression mimicked mine.

"Let's go get some lunch, Scully."

"Absolutely," I said, happier than I'd been in the past week, with 
the exception my time with Mulder.  Bernie Schultz's arrest didn't 
bring Christina back, but at least justice would be served this time. 
Whether Alice's concoction had contributed or not, Bernie was a 
stalker of the first degree. He was headed down that road for sure, 
with or without help.

XXXXXXXXXX

THE BISTRO CAFE 
31 BANK STREET 
NEW MILFORD, CT 
MAY 30, 1997 
FRIDAY - 12:00 PM

We ended up at the same little cafe as the night before.  Located 
right in downtown New Milford, it was a charming little place. It 
was constructed of bricks, and a dark chocolate trim around the 
windows and door. There were lovely lace curtains adorning each 
window. We chose a table in the corner. The place wasn't packed 
but had a steady stream of customers entering, ordering coffee to 
go, and exiting. There weren't many patrons who actually stayed 
and enjoyed the atmosphere, which suited us just fine.

"Looks like we got our man," Mulder said in a low voice.

"That we did. I can't wait to read his confession so that I can 
provide Brad with the closure he needs to move on with his life."

Mulder nodded and sipped his coffee. "I can't wait to go home." He 
looked at me and caught my attention. "I want to be alone with 
you." He winked and waited for my come back.

I gulped my own coffee and patted my lips with a napkin. This was 
so hard but I knew for Mulder's sake, and my own, I had to try to 
be different. I had to get used to the fact that I wasn't alone 
anymore.

"That would be nice." I figured that sounded promising.

He grinned. "I want to take you home, wine and dine you, and 
make love to you in every possible way imaginable."

That time I almost spit my coffee out. "Jeez, Mulder." My cheeks 
turned rose-colored as I envisioned exactly what we'd be doing in 
the comfort of our own homes. The possibilities were endless. "A 
little warning would have been nice."

He chuckled and shifted in his seat. I couldn't tell if he was doing it 
to make himself more comfortable, or because he was hiding 
something.

"Is this the kind of talk I have to look forward to from now on?" I 
teased.

His face went completely serious. He leaned over and tilted his 
chin for me to come closer. I leaned as close to him as my small 
stature would allow.

He whispered, "Scully, you have no idea the levels of pleasure you 
have to look forward to. This week was a beginning, if you will; a 
small taste. When I'm done proving my love for you, you might 
need a week's vacation to recover."

I opened my mouth in awe.

He grabbed my neck and laid one helluva a kiss on me.

I was stunned for a minute. After he was through with me, I could 
hardly breathe. He let me go and I plopped back into my chair, 
breathless. I wiped the moisture from my lips and looked around. 
The rest of the customers quickly looked away. We must have 
given them quite a show because their cheeks looked almost as 
crimson as I imagined mine were.

"Mulder, you don't have to prove your love to me. I know it. I feel 
it."

He smiled wide and waggled his eyebrows. "But isn't proving the 
truth extremely rewarding?"

I laughed and sipped my coffee. "That it is; that it is," I agreed.

"So tell me, Scully, what did you think of Jennifer?"

Our food came the moment he asked the question. I waited until 
the waitress set down our sandwiches and left.

"Actually, I got a strange feeling from that girl. I think she was 
regretful, however, the anger about what happened between her 
and Mark was still there just under the surface.  She wasn't like 
Graceson who was truly baffled and remorseful.  His anger was 
gone, hers wasn't."

Mulder nodded his head and took a huge bite of his food. At least 
now we didn't have to worry that our food had something strange 
in it.

"It was almost as if the girl had a split personality. It seemed as 
though the food wasn't the only thing that she had against her," I 
added.

Mulder smiled around a mouth full of sandwich and nodded his 
head. "It will be interesting to see what a psych panel on her will 
say." He wiped his mouth. "I wouldn't be surprised at all if she had 
her lawyer plead temporary insanity as her motive."

It was my turn to nod around a mouth full. "However, the way she 
killed him, said a lot about how much rage she had in her. For 
someone to actually slice off a vital organ and then slit that same 
person's throat goes a long way towards proving insanity. Any 
jury, if half of them are male, will definitely agree to the insanity 
theory."

"Rage doesn't equal insanity, though remember," he offered. "She 
definitely has some mental problems, maybe borderline 
personality, or schizo-affective disorder, I would guess, from our 
short conversation. That doesn't make her legally insane either. 
However, if she has a disorder, wasn't being treated, and was under 
the influence of the additives in the food, that might make a 
temporary insanity plea stick."

"I'm just wondering what's going to happen to Alice." I set down 
my food and laid my chin on my hand, elbow resting on the table. 
Not exactly lady-like, but it fit the mood.

"It's too early to say, Scully. We probably won't know until well 
after we've already left Connecticut.  I told the Sheriff to go easy 
on her and I think he will. He'll know there was no intent there."

We ate the rest of our meal in a comfortable silence. Both of our 
minds were going over the events of the case. At least we were 
both safe in the knowledge that all responsible parties were being 
questioned and held under policy custody, without the option of 
bail.

XXXXXXXXXX

NEW MILFORD POLICE STATION
ROUTE 202 
NEW MILFORD, CT 
MAY 30, 1997 
FRIDAY - 1:30 PM

We went back to the police station after lunch and found out that 
they were finally through booking and interviewing Bernie. We 
asked to see him and he agreed to talk to us.

I glanced at Scully as we went down the hall to the cells once 
again. This time, we stopped at the first one, two cells away from 
Jennifer. The cop opened the door and we went inside, sitting on 
the two folding chairs they'd provided for us.

"You feds?" he asked.

I nodded. "I'm Fox Mulder. This is my partner, Dana Scully."

He nodded, his eyes floating up and down Scully's body. I saw her 
stiffen and I glared at him until he looked down. "Can you tell us 
what happened?"

He coughed and didn't bother to cover his mouth. I was glad we 
were sitting several feet away. His hair was receding on the sides 
at the top of his forehead, but the rest of the brown patch covered 
his pate.  His eyes were watery and his nose was red. I guessed he 
would be about five feet, ten inches tall if he stood up. He was in 
decent shape although not overly muscular.

"I loved her," he said.

"Did you know she had a boyfriend?" Scully asked.

He snorted. "That panty-waste? Yeah, I knew."

I looked over to see Scully's cheeks darken with anger. "Let's leave 
the insults behind, okay?" I suggested. "How long did you know 
Christina Fuller?"

"A couple of years. I worked at the hospital."

"We know that. We also know you'd been harassing her," Scully 
added.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"Letters, phone calls, that sort of thing," I supplied.

"That wasn't harassing, that was wooing."

"You thought you were courting her?" I asked.

"Sure."

Scully nearly spit. "Once a woman says no, she means no, and that 
should be the end of it."

He eyed her with amusement. "Really?  How long did lover boy 
here take to get into your pants?"

I was out of my seat and had him by the shirt collar in seconds. I 
spun him and slammed him into the bars.  The cop peeked in but 
did nothing to interfere.  "Let's get one thing straight here, Bernie. 
You're the murderer. My partner and I are the FBI agents that put 
your sorry ass in this little jail cell. Now you either cooperate and 
tell us what we want to know, or I'm going to make your life 
fucking miserable. A lot more miserable than it already is. You 
speak to my partner with respect, or I'll make sure you go to the 
worst federal pen I can find."

I released his collar and he shrugged his shoulders and retreated 
back to his seat on the cot. "Now, let's try again.  Tell us what 
happened."

He licked his lips, but put up no further protest.  "I'd wanted her for 
a long time. I was getting tired of waiting. That day the staff 
ordered some sandwiches for lunch. They asked me if I wanted 
one, so I took one. It was free food and besides it was delicious. I 
saw the doc there and heard her say she was leaving for the day.

"I don't know what happened. It's not like I really planned it, but 
something inside me snapped. I had to have her. I left the hospital 
ahead of her and sped all the way back to Kent. I knew where she 
lived, so I parked on one of the side roads leading there, knowing 
she would pass me on the road. I got out to make sure she would 
recognize me.

"She did. She pulled over and asked if I needed a ride. I said yes, 
and when I got into her car, I pulled a knife and made her drive 
further down the road. There's a turn around there, less 
conspicuous.  That's where I'd left my car.

"She fought me and it pissed me off.  I was angrier than I'd ever 
been. I thought I just wanted to kiss her but it got out of hand. I 
ended up yanking her out of the car and putting her in the back 
seat." He paused and looked up at the ceiling.

"Then what?" I prompted.

His head came down and he looked right into my face.  "I had sex 
with her. I tore off her pantyhose and went to town."

"You raped her," Scully spat.

He looked at her again, but his gaze slid back to me.  "Then I 
panicked and put her in my car, drove to an even more remote spot 
on the road to the reservoir where there are no guard rails." He 
paused again and then said, "I pitched her down the embankment 
and ran."

The entire story had been told with no emotion and no visible signs 
of regret. I could feel the waves of anger and pain emanating from 
Scully. I reached out and put a hand on her forearm. I didn't want 
her to lose it here. He wasn't worth it.

She took a deep breath, but continued to be silent.

"You didn't go to work."

"I was afraid to leave the house. It hit me later what I'd done."

"Don't you think that made you look guilty?"

"I wasn't thinking about that."

"All right then. You wrote all this down for the cops upstairs?"

"Yeah."

"We're done here," I shouted, standing up and banging on the bars.

The cop appeared and unlocked the cell. As it clanged shut behind 
us, Scully turned and stared at him. "I hope you burn in hell."

XXXXXXXXXX

Mulder picked up a couple of copies of Bernie's confession and 
asked that we be kept apprised of the progress on the case. 
Assurance in hand, we went back to Kent and stopped at the police 
station.

We were relieved to find out that the Sheriff had called all three of 
the victim's families and explained the situation. None of them 
wanted to press charges against Alice. Since she couldn't go in the 
reports and go unpunished, the Sheriff had set up a hearing with 
the local district attorney.

"What will happen to her?" I asked.

Sheriff Hartley smiled. "She'll be okay.  We'll get her in front of 
Judge Mulharen and he'll give her community service or 
something. Attorney Weinstein lives here in town.  He said he'd 
represent her at the hearing for free. He's already postulating that 
her little potions wouldn't have affected these people adversely 
unless there was already something wrong with them to begin 
with. I'm sure the lawyers will all insist on psych exams anyway, 
before we're done."

"That's good to hear. We'd be glad to be character witnesses if she 
needs them," I informed him.

"I'll be sure to let her know that."

"Where is she?"

"Alice? I released her on her own recognizance. I don't think she's 
a flight risk," he deadpanned.

We chuckled and said our good byes. As we headed for the door he 
stopped us.  "Agents."

We turned and he said, "Thanks, by the way. It wasn't bad working 
with you after all."

"Same to you, Sheriff."

We left to go back to the B&B. We were met by Alice who 
showered us with hugs and thanks for 'putting in a good word for 
her'. She promised us she was throwing out all her yohimbine and 
other extracts. She would only use things she was sure were safe 
from now on. We assured her that her food would still be delicious.

We had some time to relax, so we went up to the room and 
watched some silly movie on TV, cuddled up on his bed. After an 
early dinner at the Fife & Drum, where we were assured none of 
the food was tainted, we decided it was time to go see Brad.

XXXXXXXXXX 
CHAPER 14 
XXXXXXXXXX

HOME OF BRAD CRANE &
CHRISTINA FULLER 
KENT, CT 
MAY 30, 1997 
FRIDAY - 5:30 PM

We knocked on the door, having waited until we knew he'd be 
home from work.  He opened the door and smiled at us. "Come 
in."

"I guess you've heard," Scully said.

He waved at the TV that he had turned down low.  "Yeah, it's all 
over the local news. I'm relieved."

"We wanted to make sure you knew and to answer any questions 
you might have."

"Will he fry?"

Scully gave him a sad smile. "Probably not.  Connecticut has the 
death penalty, but they don't use it much."

"Yeah," he said sadly.

I said, "I think we can safely say that he'll be behind bars for a long 
time. With or without the tainted food, this guy was stalking her. 
We've given our statements to the police and I'm sure they'll want 
yours. We all might be asked by lawyers to give depositions. At 
this point, he's not remorseful. I don't think they will be as lenient 
with him as the others. He already had a pattern of stalking."

Brad nodded. "I'll be following the case for sure, believe me. They 
called to release her body to me," he whispered. "Her parents came 
out from San Diego.  They didn't want to stay here. They're at the 
Heritage Inn."

"When's the funeral?"

"The wake is tonight, family only.  The funeral is tomorrow 
morning.  That's for everyone."

Scully looked at me, and I said, "I can move our flights to a later 
time."

She nodded. "I want to go."

I squeezed her hand. "Of course."

"Well, sit down you two. Sorry, I'm not much of a host these days. 
Can I get you some coffee? I just made a fresh pot."

"Sure," we said in tandem.

He smiled and left to get it for us.

We spent an hour there talking about everything and anything. 
Brad and Scully exchanged stories about Christina and made each 
other laugh. I think it was cathartic for both of them. "I'll miss her," 
Scully said, her voice strained.

Brad nodded. "We all will. I have to get ready to go to the wake."

"Take care. We'll see you at the funeral tomorrow morning."

"It's at the St. Andrews Church, right in the center of town. You 
can't miss it."

"Did you want to go to the wake, Scully?" I asked.

She hesitated but then said, "No, let Brad have time with the 
family."

"You are family," Brad said.

She smiled and stood up to kiss him on the cheek.  "We'll see you 
in the morning."

He nodded, and we left, making our way back to the B&B. I was 
tired and glad we were staying one more night.

XXXXXXXXXX

COOPER CREEK B&B 
KENT, CT 
MAY 30, 1997 
FRIDAY - 6:30 PM

Once back at the B&B, I called the airport and made reservations 
for a 3:00 PM flight out of Bradley. It would take us at least an 
hour to get to the airport from here and I wanted to leave some 
extra time so we didn't have to rush.

We packed up everything except what we would need in the 
morning and climbed naked into bed. Without a word she turned to 
me and pulled me on top of her, her mouth meeting mine.

I kissed her tenderly. Her hands came up to cup my face.  She let 
her fingers trail over my eyebrows, my nose and cheeks and her 
thumb brushed my lips. "I don't know what I would do if I lost 
you," she whispered.

She was thinking of Brad's loss. It was the fear we all had, losing 
the thing that was most precious to us. "Me neither," I agreed. "I 
don't even want to think about it."

I kissed her again and she eagerly accepted me. Her legs wound 
around my waist and urged me closer. I moaned at the feeling of 
her skin against mine. I reached down to play in the folds of her 
sex until she was wet and ready for me. I decided suckling her 
breasts while I was at it, wasn't a bad idea either.

She gasped and said, "I'm ready."

I braced myself and stared down into her eyes as my shaft pushed 
gently inside her, just a couple of inches. She moaned as I slowly 
proceeded to impale her fully. Her hands gripped my biceps firmly 
and she began squirming and rolling her bottom against the sheets. 
"Eager?" I teased.

"Shut up and make love to me, Mulder."

"Yes, ma'am," I said through my grin. I began to thrust and throaty, 
unintelligible sounds came out of her mouth. I kept pistoning in 
and out of her until I was plunging into her with a strong rhythm 
and she was meeting me stroke for stroke.

"Oh God, it's never been like this before, Mulder."

I tried to keep my pace slow but it was no use. I felt tingling and 
pressure in my groin. I knew I was ramping up to my climax. "I 
love you, Scully, so much," I whispered and kissed her again.

I began swiveling my hips, making my cock move around inside 
her core and the new movement seemed to hit something sensitive 
inside her. A few strokes later she was moaning and arching her 
back off the bed.  "Oh God! Yes!" she cried out.

I continued pushing my entire length in and out of her. I wasn't far 
behind. The sensation of her muscular walls fluttering over me was 
too much. I groaned and buried my head in the crook between her 
neck and shoulder. "I love you, love you, love you," I chanted as I 
released myself deep inside her.

We stayed that way, locked together for a minute or so. I carefully 
rolled to the side and moaned with displeasure as I emerged from 
her warm cavern.

She got up and returned with a wet washcloth.  After cleaning up, 
we curled up together again. I couldn't remember ever being this 
content. "Do you want to talk?" I asked.

"Not now. I'm sleepy. Let's get some rest. We'll talk after the 
funeral, on the way home, okay?"

I nodded and kissed the top of her head where it lay on my 
shoulder. "Sleep, baby. I've got your back."

I felt her lips smile against my chest. "Love you," she whispered.

"Love you, too," I mumbled, feeling sleep tug at me as well. That 
was the last thing I remembered before Scully's travel alarm woke 
us up the next morning.

XXXXXXXXXX

ST. ANDREW'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
1 NORTH MAIN STREET
KENT, CT 
MAY 31, 1997 
SATURDAY - 10:00 AM

Reverend Roger Whittaker presided over the ceremony.  It was a 
touching service. He'd obviously known Christina personally. 
When it came time for people to say eulogies, we were surprised to 
see striking woman in her early thirties advance to the microphone 
instead of Brad.

"Hello everyone.  My name is Maggie.  I am a nurse at New 
Milford Hospital and Christina was my best friend."

I figured this must be the Maggie O'Connor that had sent Scully 
one of the original faxes about the death of Christina.

I focused on her as she continued. "It's an honor for me to stand 
before you today to celebrate the life of Christina Fuller. She was a 
daughter, friend, fiancé, and godmother. There are probably those 
more qualified to be here talking about Christina, others who knew 
her before I was born. Nevertheless, I'd like to share my thoughts 
and feelings on Christina's life with you."

"It seems we were meant to share part of our lives together. We 
have shared many adventures and many confidences in the years 
that followed our meeting, just after she moved here to Kent. 
When I was asked to do a eulogy, my first thought was, 'What can 
I say that won't sound trite or superficial? There really are no 
words to express the love one has for a daughter, best friend, 
fiance, and a godmother. She dedicated her life to helping others 
and every soul that touched hers walked away better for it. There 
are no words, but there are memories to keep us company in the 
days ahead."

"Christina took pride in her heritage. She was Irish to the bone!" A 
few giggles were heard at that comment. Scully had never 
mentioned that she was Irish. It was one more connection they had 
shared.  "When I think of Christina, I think of her baked beans, her 
doing the Irish jig in the hospital cafeteria, and the only woman I 
ever knew who actually said, 'Just a wee bit.'"

There were more snickers.  She continued.  "Her joy for life and 
her love for her friends was expressed in so many ways, they're too 
numerous to list. None of us will forget her parties though, her 
hospitality, or the gentle touch of her hands on our sick children. 
She was there through countless picnics and charity events, lending 
a hand wherever it was needed."

"She was a secretary for the Lions Club and the town's volunteer 
fire department. She never hesitated to pitch in and give all she had 
to give. Her favorite question was, 'What should I bring?' And our 
favorite response was always, 'Bring your baked beans!'"

"She showed her joy of life in her enthusiastic holiday decoration. 
Who could decorate like Christina? Be it Easter, Thanksgiving or 
Christmas, no one missed the pilgrimage to the Fuller/Crane house 
to see the spectacular decorations, telling the world that, 'Here, 
here we celebrate."

She removed a tissue from her pocket and dabbed her eyes. I heard 
Scully blowing her nose beside me but tactfully did not stare at 
her. I put my arm over her shoulders and hugged her instead.

"For many, Christina was a pediatrician, one that was trusted and 
liked. For whom could you trust more?  Where could your child be 
more safe, be more loved, than with Christina? She drove two 
hours to be at my graduation from nursing school. My thanks 
brought only a wave, a shrug and an, 'Oh Gosh, Maggie. Wouldn't 
miss it, wouldn't miss it.'

"When someone is taken too soon, too young, the first thing we 
ask is, 'Why?' It seems so unfair. Life gets so complicated, but our 
children still see the world with child-like simplicity and faith. 
When my husband, Joe, asked that very question in my kitchen, 
my son, who is 7 years old said, 'I think God needed more angels, 
so Christina went to live in God's house and be an angel for God."

This elicited more than a few sniffles. Even my eyes got teary. 
Scully was openly weeping now and holding a tissue to her eyes.

"I believe God needed more angels. Angels of mercy. And why 
wouldn't he want Christina, the wild Irish rose? She was surely 
OUR angel. She cared for all of us at some point, even at expense 
to herself.  Loyal, generous, hard working, and compassionate -- 
these are the words that come to mind when I think of Christina. 
What better qualities for an angel?"

"We will miss her, and there is a hole in our lives now. How do 
you replace someone like Christina? You can't," she said with 
finality. "However, we can honor her. I don't wish to dwell on the 
hard times or her death. I wish to honor her by remembering the 
good times and the laughter. She will live in our hearts, for the 
love she gave away cannot be erased and it stays in the heart 
forever. She is in a place of peace and serenity now."

"She has her new wings. She's probably sewed shamrocks on them, 
but I'm sure she has wings."

There was actually a smattering of applause at the end of her 
speech. I was touched and I hadn't even known her. A man stood 
up and walked to the podium. "I'm Ryan, Christina's brother, for 
those that may not know. I would like to read a poem by A.L. 
Frink," he began. "It's called, 'The Rose Beyond the Wall'."

**Near shady wall a rose once grew, Budded and blossomed in 
God's free light, Watered and fed by morning dew, Shedding its 
sweetness day and night.

As it grew and blossomed fair and tall, Slowing rising to loftier 
height, It came to a crevice in the wall Through which there shone 
a beam of light.

Onward it crept with added strength With never a thought of fear 
or pride, It followed the light through the crevice's length And 
unfolded itself on the other side.

The light, the dew, the broadening view Were found the same as 
they were before, And it lost itself in beauties new, Breathing its 
fragrance more and more.

Shall claim of death cause us to grieve And make our courage faint 
and fall? Nay! Let us faith and hope receive - The rose still grows 
beyond the wall,

Scattering fragrance far and wide Just as it did in days of yore, Just 
as it did on the other side, Just as it will forevermore.**

The ceremony concluded with some scripture and we joined the 
procession to the cemetery where the reverend read the 23rd Psalm 
and invited everyone back to Brad's for refreshments.

We said our good-byes at the cemetery and headed for the airport. 
Scully was quiet and I didn't push her to make conversation. She 
needed her time to grieve.  The investigation had put grieving on 
hold. She would talk when she was ready.

I found an oldies station and turned it low. I listened to the music 
and concentrated on the road for the rest of the trip to Hartford.

XXXXXXXXXX

UNITED FLIGHT 451 
SOMEWHERE OVER THE EAST COAST
MAY 31, 1997 
SATURDAY - 3:30 PM

The silence was finally broken after we settled into the plane and 
had taken off.

I took her hand in mine and squeezed it gently, pulling it into my 
lap.  "I'm here when you want to talk," I said softly.

She turned to me and flashed a sad smile.  "I know, Mulder. God, 
life is so fragile sometimes. I always forget that, even doing what I 
do. Somehow, we never think it's going to happen to us, do we?"

"I guess not. I'm more aware of my mortality than when I was 
young, but it still doesn't stop me, so I guess I still don't really 
believe I could die suddenly."

"Every time I lose someone, I remember how precious life is, how 
important it is to not leave things undone. It shouldn't take that to 
wake me up, but it does."

"I think that's human nature, Scully. None of us likes to think about 
dying, or losing anyone. I love you. You know that now. I don't 
ever want to think about losing you. I know I'd go mad."

She squeezed my hand in reply and laced our fingers together, 
setting them on the armrest between us.  "I've been thinking, and 
not just this morning."

"Uh oh," I teased.

She chuckled. "This thing is so new between us."

"Yes, but I think it's a good thing, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. I was worrying so much about what I was going to do 
once we got back."

"In what way? Juggling the relationship with work?"

"Yeah, and telling my family, and all sorts of things."

"Come to any conclusions?" I asked.

She leaned over to me and kissed me on the nose.

I smiled at her, waiting to see what she would say.  She was rarely 
this forthcoming without prompting.

"Yes, I've decided that I'm going to make a concerted effort not be 
such a worry-wart, and not to be such a tight-ass."

I couldn't stop the bark of laughter that shot out of me. I looked 
around but it didn't seem that I had disturbed anyone. She was 
grinning when I looked back at her. "Is that so?" I asked, trying to 
keep a straight face.

She smiled. "I realized I don't enjoy my life enough.  Being with 
you has brought that into stark focus. We could both use more fun 
in our lives."

"You'll get no argument from me," I said.

"We still have to work together," she added.

"Yes, but I think we can handle it. We're professionals, Scully. We 
worked all right on this case and it was full of personal stuff, your 
friend, and our new relationship. We still solved the case.  We got 
the bad guy. We're going home."

"You don't think this will interfere?"

"Will you stop questioning my theories with science?"

"No," she said emphatically.

"Will you stop covering my back?"

"No!" she said, almost indignant now.

"Will you stop being there when I need you?"

"No."

"Will you have hot monkey sex on the desk with me in the 
basement?"

She laughed this time. "No!"

"Damn," I said, snapping my fingers.

"What's the point, Mulder?"

"The point is that we are still the same two people, Scully. We're 
still the same agents. Loving you isn't going to change that. I'm not 
going to stop investigating the paranormal. You're not going to 
stop being a scientist. In fact, I think it will remove a lot of tension 
that we've had to deal with up until now. Or at least, I have."

"What kind of tension?"

I looked into her eyes. "I've worried about losing you.  I've been 
jealous every time some lecherous cop checked out your ass."

She was shaking her head in exasperation now.  "Mulder," she 
scolded, her cheeks turning pink.

"What?" I asked, blinking innocently.

"Don't give me that look!" After pausing, she asked, "Were you 
really jealous?"

"Constantly. Now though, you're mine, baby," I declared, and 
leaned over to kiss her.

She kissed me back and I tried to keep it less than obscene. We 
were on a public plane after all. "We can do this," she said.

"Yes, we can. As long as we're together, Scully, we can do this. 
We can do anything."

THE END.

AUTHORS NOTES

Donnilee:

Cybill: Wow. This was quite an experience. Donni girl, you are 
amazing. Believe it everybody, this girl writes FAST! Donni, you 
are truly a gifted writer. I appreciate you for enduring my 
insecurities, issues with "raunchy" terms, <for lack of a better 
word> and for rooting me on when I really didn't feel as though I 
was good enough. The experience was well worth the journey my 
friend. Thank you.

Donnilee:  She's too modest for her own good.  This entire story 
and plot line was her idea and she had the whole thing mapped out 
and outlined before I ever put a word on paper.  So don't let her 
fool you.  I keep telling people the fast writing is an illusion, but 
alas, no one will believe me.  ~sigh~  This was a bucket of fun 
from start to finish.   Thanks for giving me a chance to partner with 
you.  No, no, thank YOU.