SquidgeWorld Archive

Beginnings
by Angela W

"If there's iced tea in that bag, this could be true love," Special Agent Fox Mulder said with a tired smile.

Special Agent Dana Scully gave a slighty perkier smile as she drew the contents out. She handed him first a sandwich, then a can of iced tea; after an entire year of working as his partner, she knew Mulder better than many wives knew their husbands.

Mulder reached over and touched Scully's face, turning her so that she was looking directly at him. He moved his mouth very slowly toward hers -- she realized it was to give her time to turn her head or jerk away -- but instead she held still until their lips met.

The kiss was tender and questing, rather than passionate or demanding. Scully sighed when it ended. "Fox," she began hesitantly.

"Shh!" he whispered, placing his fingers lightly on the lips that were still warm from his own breath. "If this is something we have to talk about, we'll do that some other time. For now. . .for tonight. . .just let it be. Okay, Dana?"

"Okay," she said softly.

***

A few days later, Tooms had met a gorey death and the casefile had officially been closed. Mulder and Scully were sitting together in their basement office when she said quietly, "Mulder, there is one other. .

.issue we need to discuss. That night. . .what happened in the car. . .it can't happen again."

"Ever?"

"Well. . . not as long as we're partners. There are rules against that sort of behavior between agents in the same division; you know that as well as I do."

"Yeah, and you know my feelings about always following the rules and playing by the book. In all honesty, though, I know your feelings on following the rules, too. You already bent them once this week for my sake. I guess it's too much to ask you to break them completely."

"Mulder, I want to be very clear on this: in any other circumstances, I'd have no problem dating you. In fact, if you'd like, I'll ask for a transfer back to Quantico and we can. . . explore the possibilities of a

romantic relationship together. But we can't do that as long as we're partners. It's your call, Mulder. Would you rather have me as your partner or your girlfriend? I'd be happy either way, but it's got to be one or the other; I won't be both at the same time."

"Shit, Scully! That's a hell of a choice for you to force me to make!"

Scully quietly waited for him to speak again. Finally he said, "I just feel like I'm so close -- closer than I've ever been -- to finding out what happened to my sister. So much of it is due to your help. Unless I get

that issue resolved, I don't think I'd be very good in a romantic relationship anyway. So, for now, I guess it's better for us to remain working as partners. But I want to be clear on this, too, Scully: it's not because

I'm not attracted to you. I am. Given my choice, I'd have my cake and eat it too; work with you *and* play with you. But that's not the choice you've offered me and until I have proof of what happened the night Samantha disappeared. . .as much as I might *want* you in another role in my life, I *need* you as my partner."

"All right, then. I'm glad we cleared the air on that. I'm going home now. I'll see you Monday morning," Scully said.

Quite frankly, Mulder would have been glad to have left the issue clouded. But he murmured, "See you later," to his partner and watched her walk out the door.

***

Melissa Scully handed another tissue to her sister as Dana continued to bawl. It has been years since she'd seen Dana this bad; not since the guy she'd had a crush on all through her sophomore year of high school had referred to her as 'one of the guys'.

"It's worse than being told 'Let's just be friends'. Mulder basically told me 'Let's not let a little thing like love get in the way of a great working relationship'. I mean less to him than his stupid quest to find his

stupid sister," Dana sobbed out.

"But Dana, sweetie, it sounds like you *asked* him to make that choice," Missy said calmly.

"I offered to quit my job for him!" Scully said. "Not to quit working for the bureau completely, but to ask for a transfer out of his division, so that we could pursue a romantic, rather than a professional, relationship. He turned me down flat. Said the work we did together was more important that our feelings for each other."

"Dana, it sounds like he's just trying to be honest with you. From everything you've told me about him. . he was being truthful about needing to get some closure about his sister before he can move on and have a

healthy, mature sexual relationship. And you pushed him into a corner; you *could* have taken a 'screw the rules' attitude and just gone ahead and screwed him, too."

"Missy!" Dana said, not sure if she was horrified or amused by her sister's phrasing.

"Just give it some time," Missy suggested.

***

Dana Scully burst into the doorway of the research station in Puerto Rico. Mulder's unconscious body was on the floor. Even as she hollered out "Mulder, it's me," and tried to rouse him, she couldn't help noting how good he looked. During the year they'd worked together, she'd mostly seen him in suits and ties, and always cleanly shaven. Now he was in blue jeans, a T-shirt with the arms ripped off that exposed his bulging biceps and he had a couple of days worth of beard stubble covering the lower part of his face.

He looked so sexy that part of her was tempted to jump him, rather than administer medical care to him.

After driving down the side of the moutain -- Mulder gave new meaning to the phrase "off road driving'' -- they checked into a small hotel; one with separate units, rather than one large building.

"Scully, they are trying to take you away from me!" Mulder hollered once the were in the privacy of their bungalow. "And I trust you, I need you, I can't live without you!"

"Well, whoever 'they' are, Mulder, 'they' aren't succeeding. I'm here, aren't I?"

"They've closed down the X-Files. They've prevented us from working together!"

"Don't you think that might be for the best, Fox?"

"How the hell could it be for the. . ." Mulder stammered to a stop, confused by the look in his partner's eyes. It took him a moment to interpret the look, another one to accept the reality that it was directed at him. It was a mixture of love and arousal, with just a hint of exasperation mixed in.

Mulder moved quickly, hauling Scully into his arms and kissing her. Hard. Unlike the one they'd shared three months earlier, this kiss was demanding, passionate and possessive.

When they finally came up for air, Mulder said, "If you don't want this, tell me now. Otherwise, it's all over. I love you, Scully. I'll back away if you ask me to, but once we cross the line I'm in your life forever. You'll never, ever get rid of me."

"I've already noticed you have an obsessive personality, Mulder. I know what I'm getting myself into."

Mulder began kissing Scully again. This time it was gentler, but just as deep. "You're not going to go all Catholic on me and insist we save the good stuff we're married, are you?" he asked as he nuzzled her ear and nipped at her neck.

"No. Are we getting married?" Scully asked with a sigh.

"Yes. I told you that I love you and that you'll never get rid of me. What else could it lead to?"

"Soon?"

"Tonight, if you want."

"Weddings take a little longer to arrange than that. You have to meet my mother and my siblings, I have to meet your parents, we have to talk to a priest and all that stuff."

"Okay. Whatever you want, my darling Dana."

"I want you to do -- oh, yeah, do that! -- some more!"

Several hours later, Scully placed a kiss on Mulder's bare, sweat-dampened chest. "By the way, Fox, I love you, too. I may have forgotten to mention that."

Mulder dropped a light kiss on her forehead. "It's nice to hear the words, Dana, but actions always speak louder. I knew you loved me when I woke up in that tracking station and found you bending over me. What else but love would tempt you to risk life and career like that?"

***

Mulder stood stoically in Skinner's office, getting his ass chewed out. He responded with 'yes sir', when told to return to his wiretap post.

A few hours later, Mulder was chewing sunflower seeds and slowly going out of his mind with boredom, when there was a knock at the door. Scully poked her head in the door and smiled. "Want company?"

"If it's you, Scully. . .always!"

Sitting down beside him, Scully reached over and squeezed Mulder's hand. He lightly traced her bare finger and then said, "What kind of ring do you want?"

"I've always wanted a sapphire. Maybe a sapphire surrounded by tiny diamonds?"

"Sounds beautiful. It would match your eyes." He leaned over and kissed her.

"Mulder, stop that! You're supposed to be working and I'm not even supposed to be here."

"Okay, okay, I'll be good."

"My Mom's expecting us for brunch on Sunday. My sister will be there, too."

"Did you tell them?"

"I didn't actually come right out and say we're engaged. I thought there might be less. . .pressure if they met you in the guise of my partner-turned-boyfriend, rather than my future husband. They've been anxious to meet you, anyway. Even before you proposed, I talked about you quite a bit."

"I'll try to arrange a weekend in New England sometime next month; that way you can meet my parents."

"Will it be both at the same time or separately? I mean, you've mentioned that they're divorced."

"For the initial meetings, it would probably be better to do separate functions; lunch with one and dinner with the other, or something like that. But they're perfectly capable of behaving in public with each other, if that's what you're asking. They both attended my graduations from high school, Oxford and Quantico without causing a scene. They'll be fine at the wedding. Sometimes I wish. . ."

"What, Fox?"

"Okay, I guess it sounds kind of immature for a 33-year-old man to be thinking this way, but I still wish sometimes that they'd get back together. Neither one of them has ever remarried, you know."

"I don't think that's immature, Mulder. Everybody -- no matter how old they are -- has a wish for their parents to be married to each other. Missy and I were talking about that just a week or two ago; my Dad has been dead for nearly a year now and my mother's only in her early 50s. She may choose to remarry at some point, and I honestly don't know how I'd handle that."

"Just so long as she doesn't set her sights on my Dad; that would be too weird even for me, you ending up as my stepsister."

Scully smiled and squeezed his hand.

***

Scully walked into the room, her hands clasped in front of her. As soon as she sat down opposite Skinner and the others, she folded her right hand carefully over her left one.

"Agent Scully, have you had any contact with Agent Mulder during the past week?" Skinner asked.

"Yes sir."

"But you and Agent Mulder are no longer assigned to the same division," Blevins pointed out. "What could you have to discuss with him?"

"Any number of things, sir. During the year we worked together, Agent Mulder and I became close. Just because our professional partnernship has come to an end, that doesn't mean that our. . .relationship is over."

"Has the nature of your. . .relationship with Agent Mulder changed now that you're no longer his partner?" the creepy man with the cigarette asked.

"Yes sir."

"Would you mind elucidating on that, Agent Scully?" Skinner asked.

"Let me preface my remarks by saying that Agent Mulder and I are both fully aware of the rules prohibiting romantic or sexual relationships between agents in the same division. During the year we worked as partners, we developed a friendship. As I'm sure all of you are well aware, Agent Mulder

is a man and I'm a woman. We're both unmarried, heterosexual and approximately the same age. What may not be apparent to you gentlemen

--

since you are all male -- is that Agent Mulder is a very attractive man. Without meaning to sound egotistical, I think it's fair to say that I'm a reasonably attractive woman.

"When we worked the X-Files, we often spent long hours in each other's company, quite frequently with no other people present. There were certain. . .feelings that arose between us. We were aware of these feelings, we even discussed them at one point, but we agreed that as long as we were working as professional partners it was imperative that our relationship remain platonic. However, as of about a month ago -- due to the decision of you gentlemen here in this room -- that restriction was lifted. Agent

Mulder and I aren't partners any more. We no longer even work in the same division. Thus, we are free to pursue a relationship that is more. . .personal."

"Are you saying you and Agent Mulder are sexually involved?" Blevins asked.

Scully lifted her hands and placed them both flat on the table, so that the brilliant sapphire and diamond ring on her left hand was clearly visible. "I'm saying that Agent Mulder and I are engaged to be married."

"I see," Skinner said.

"Thank you for your time, Agent Scully. That will be all, you're free to go," the smoking man said. "Oh, and Agent Scully?"

"Yes sir?" she responded, although it was hard to keep the proper tone of respect in her voice. The smoking man, who's name and title she had never learned, gave her the creeps.

"Congratulations. Extend my congratulations to Agent Mulder, also. I hope the two of you enjoy and long and happy life together."

***

As soon as Scully had left, the smoking man turned to Skinner and said, "You may go as well, Assistant Director Skinner. I'm sure you have other duties to attend to."

When Smoking Man and Blevins were alone, Blevins said. "I thought you said she was going to spy on him, discredit his theories and make him lose interest in his work. Instead, she fell in love with him."

"I admit," the smoking man said, taking a long draw on his cigarette, "that things worked out somewhat differently than I had envisioned. But then, I never have been able to fathom the peculiar attraction that men of the Mulder family seem to have for women. Nevertheless, I would say we have accomplished our objective."

"How so?"

"Agent Scully is a devout Catholic; a healthy young woman who comes from a close, loving family. She'll undoubtedly expect her marriage to Agent Mulder to include children. Contrary to her own statement, she's not a 'reasonably attractive woman'; she's an extremely attractive woman. A pretty wife,

a child or two, the struggles to meet the emotional, physical and financial needs of a young family. . .that should be more than enough to distract Agent Mulder from his quest."

"So Agent Mulder is no longer a problem?"

"Not as I see it. Reassign him to violent crimes. The man is a brilliant criminal profiler; there's no reason to waste his talents on routine wire taps and surveillance duties."

***

Special Agent Sean Pendrell tried to gear up his nerve. Scully, the pretty patholigist who worked just across the hall from his lab at Quantico, had been in an extremely good mood the past week. Nervous though he often was in social situations, he'd decided to ask her if she'd like to go out to dinner tonight. Just as he was thinking how to phrase the question, Scully herself came into his lab.

"Hey, Pendrell, look," she said, holding out her hand.

"What am I looking at?" he inquired, as she didn't seem to be holding anything.

"My ring! Jeez, Pendrell, you may be a brilliant scientist and all that, but you're as clueless as most men when it comes to subtle -- or not-so-subtle, in this case -- clues of romance."

"Ah. Agent Mulder, I presume?"

"Yes. He proposed last weekend, but he's been doing surveillance work and last night was the first time we had a chance to go shopping."

"Congratulations. When's the wedding?"

"Probably in January or early February. We haven't set an exact date yet, but you'll be invited."

"Uh, that's okay, Scully. I'm not big into weddings."

"You'll be invited, Pendrell. And I'll expect you to be there."

"Okay, Scully." Pendrell replied. He was too busy sending up a fervent prayer of thanksgiving that she'd told him about her engagement before he'd embarrassed both of them by asking her out to object any more.

***

Special Agent Dana Scully turned to her brand-new husband, Fox Mulder, with a bemused look on her face. They'd returned from their honeymoon earlier that afternoon and she'd just finished a couple of "checking in" phone calls; the first to her mother and the second to her sister, Melissa.

"Fox, you're never going to believe who hooked up and started dating after meeting each other at our wedding."

"Hey, Dana, this is *me* you're talking to. I always want to believe and I'm a fan of extreme possibilities."

"Okay, go ahead and guess."

"Frohike and Skinner?"

Scully laughed. "Okay, it's not *that* weird! As far as I know, both Frohike and Skinner are heterosexual. This relationship at least involves one represenative from each of the major genders."

Mulder was quiet for a moment, pretending to concentrate. "Your mother and Langley?" he suggested.

Scully laughed again. "Okay, okay, you win! Maybe this match-up won't seem as weird to you as it does to me; it's certainly not as bizarre as suggesting my mother would date a man younger than most of her children."

"Are we going to play twenty questions all night, Dana? Because, quite frankly, I can think of more exciting games for us to play. Why don't you just tell me?"

"Missy and Pendrell."

Mulder was quiet for another moment, then said, "I'm not sure I consider that to be less weird than your Mom and Langley. I guess I can see why Pendrell might try to make a date with Missy; you know I always thought he had a bit of a crush on you and since you're officially 'taken' now, I suppose he might think that dating your sister would be the best available alternative. She does kind of look like you, even if she's not as pretty."

Scully smiled at that. She'd given up on trying to convince Mulder that Missy was the "pretty" Scully sister while she was the "smart" one. As far as Fox Mulder was concerned, his wife was both the most brilliant *and* the most beautiful woman on the face of the planet.

"However," Mulder continued, "I can't understand what Missy could possibly see in Pendrell. In all honesty, I could see Langley appealing to her more than Pendrell. I mean, they're both geeks, but Langley is geeky in a sort of sci-fi-punk-rockish-alienated-rebel type way; Pendrell's geeky in a science-nerd-pocket-protector type way."

"Pendrell's a never-married, heterosexual man with a good job," Scully pointed out. "He also shares Missy's religious faith and -- while he's certainly not the type of man to make woman stare at him with

undisguised lust, the way they do with you -- he's reasonably nice-looking; as an FBI agent, even one who just works in the labs, he has to keep himself in decent shape. I don't think you quite realize how rare it is for a woman over the age of 30 -- even a pretty, easy-to-get-along-with woman like Missy -- to find a man who has all of those qualities and is interested in dating her. Most of the guys Missy meets at her job are either married or gay and her last two boyfriends were a twice-divorced Jewish father of two and an

agnostic who worked -- *when* he worked, which wasn't often -- as the lead singer in band. Compared to either of those guys, Pendrell's a dreamboat; at least she could, theoretically, bring him home to my mother without worrying that he'd cause Mom to have a heart attack."

"Okay, so where did they go on their dates? I picture Pendrell as the type who take his dates to. . .oh, I don't know, a science museum or something."

"They've only been out once so far, but they've got another date set for tomorrow night. It was just a normal date; dinner and a movie, Missy said. She enjoyed herself -- said Pendrell, or 'Sean', as she called him, seemed a little shy and that she did most of the talking, but pointed out that a lot of people are a bit nervous on the first date -- and she's looking forward to seeing him again tomorrow."

"Aren't we going to dinner with Missy and your Mom on Sunday?"

"Yep; we can hear all the details then."

***

Two days later, Dana tackled her sister on the subject of Special Agent Sean Pendrell while they were in their mother's kitchen.

"I didn't want to say anything in front of Mom, because we both know how she gives the third degree to any of her children who discuss their romantic interests, but how did your date with Pendrell go last night?"

"First of all, I'm not going to discuss anything with you unless you can refer to him as 'Sean'. I know you and Fox had that weird last-names-only thing going the whole time you worked as partners, but I think that's just strange!"

"Okay, okay," Scully said with a laugh. "How did your date with Sean go last night?"

"Very nice, thank you."

"Oh, come *on* Missy! This is me, your little sister; I expect more details than that!"

"We went to dinner and a movie and afterwards I invited him up for a cup of coffee. The dinner was delicious, the movie was hilarious and he seemed to like my coffee."

"Did he talk more? You said he was really shy on the first date."

"Yes, he talked more. He even said -- and I thought this was kind of sweet -- that the reason he was so tongue-tied last week was that he was worried I wouldn't like him and the fact that I'd agreed to a second date boosted his self-confidence."

"Did you offer him anything more than coffee?" Dana asked. During her younger days, Missy had been the more sexually spontaneous of the Scully sisters, although a recent recommittment to her Catholic roots had made her less free with her favors.

"I didn't offer and he didn't ask," Missy said. "And, believe me, I appreciate that. *You* always seemed to be able to attract men who would happily spend the first six months of the relationship doing nothing

more than gazing soulfully into your eyes and occasionally squeezing your hand, but most of my previous boyfriends or would-be boyfriends have suggested sex on the second or third date."

"So nothing. . . physical happened?"

Missy smiled. "Nothing I couldn't discuss in front of Mom. He put his arm around me in the movies, held my hand on the way back to the car and kissed me goodnight before he left; which was an improvement on last week, because all I got then was the goodnight kiss. And, I'll tell you something. . .that man can KISS!"

"Pendrell?" Dana demanded in astonishment.

"Yeah," Missy replied smiling again. "In fact. . .I'll tell you a secret if you promise never to tell him."

"I promise. What?"

"Up until right before he left last week, I was planning to be 'busy' if he called and asked for another date. I mean, he was *so* quiet and I may be a bit chatty, but I don't really like having to carry the entire

conversation ball by myself. But then he kissed me and it was just. . .unbelievable."

"Pendrell?" Dana said again.

"Yeah," Missy said. "And I'm really, really glad we went out again. Not just because of the kissing; he talked a lot more this time around."

"So I take it you two are going to see each other again?"

"Yeah. We made kind of a tentative date for dinner on Tuesday. He told me he'd call me that afternoon, but warned me that things can get hectic at the labs and he might not be able to make it and please not to be offended if it turned out he had to work late. I told him I'd had my sister break off enough shopping trips and dinner dates with me in the last couple of years to understand that the FBI can play havoc with its agents' social lives."

***

The next morning Scully got into the lab early. Although she'd earned every one of the vacation days she'd taken, she wanted to make sure she was at work in plenty of time on her first day back after a two-week honeymoon.

"Hey, Scully," Pendrell said, when he came in a few minutes later. "Nice to have you back."

"Hey, Pendrell. I hear you're dating my sister."

"Yeah, Missy told me she'd told you."

"So, do we get to do the whole junior high type thing where I ask you how much you like her and you ask me how much she likes you and stuff like that?" Dana asked with a grin.

"As fascinating as it might be to take part in a rite of adolscence that I missed out on due to the fact that I was a shorter-than-average-science-nerd in junior high. . . no. Any discussions as to how much Missy and I like each other will take place directly between the two of us, thank you very much."

"You're no fun!" Dana said, wrinkling her nose up at him.

"Believe me, Scully, you're not the first person to make that observation," Pendrell said, but he was grinning as he said it. He was still awed by the fact that Melissa Scully, an absolutely gorgeous woman, had gone out with him twice, let him kiss her goodnight both times and had happily agreed to see him again tomorrow. His only really serious girlfriend prior to now had been an intense fellow student during his grad school days and she'd been nowhere near as good-looking as Missy.

***

Tuesday evening around six, Pendrell called. "It looks like I'm going to be tied up here for at least another hour, Missy. We can do something simple and late for dinner tonight or we can just wait 'til this weekend to see each other again; your call."

"Which would you rather do?" Missy asked.

"I'd like to see you," Pendrell said with blunt honesty. "And I do have to eat, at some point, anyway. It's just that I might not be very good company and by the time I get finished here, come by to pick you up and we get to a restaurant it's going to be late. Unless you'd like to just meet me some place?"

"I've got a better idea. Why don't you just pick up something on your way to my place -- a pizza or Chinese food -- and we can eat here? If you call before you leave Quantico, it should be ready by the time you get to my neighborhood, and then we can eat as soon as you and the food arrive."

"That would work out great! But are you sure? I asked you out to dinner; showing up at your place bearing takeout Chinese food doesn't really qualify as a 'date' in most women's eyes."

"It's fine. Next time I'll cook for you, then we can go out to a movie or something afterwards. I like to cook, but I don't have much in the way of ingredients in the house right at the moment."

"Okay, then. I need to get back to work. I'll see you; probably around eight or a bit after."

***

When Pendrell arrived, Missy had the table set and drinks poured. He decided to risk a quick kiss to her cheek by way of greeting and was relieved to notice that she didn't seem to mind.

As they ate, Pendrell explained what he'd been working on in the lab. It was a case Mulder had asked him and Scully to look into and, like virtually anything Mulder got involved with, it was offbeat.

"I don't understand," Missy said shaking her head. "But then, I've never been very good in science."

"I can simplify it for you a bit," Pendrell said. "Sometimes I forget that not everybody in the real world has medical licenses or master's degrees in biochemistry. What did you major in during college, by the way? Business?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Well, you work in a store," Pendrell said with a shrug. Missy was currently employed as an assistant manager at a gift-and-candle shop in a large shopping mall, although she hadn't had the job long. "Of course, not everybody has a job that pertains to their college major."

"I was an English major, but I didn't graduate."

"Why?"

"I was never a very good student. I majored in English because I was somewhat better at that than math or science, but it seemed sort of pointless. I knew I didn't want to teach and there's not much else you can

do with a degree in English. So when I got offered a full-time job at the place where I was working part-time, I took that and quit school."

"Any regrets?"

"Not really. Half the people I've worked with over the years have had degrees of one sort or another but, as you said, most of them were working in fields that didn't really pertain to college majors."

"So did you take chemistry in high school?"

"Yes, but I didn't do very well in it; I just barely passed. Why?"

"I'm trying to get a grasp of how much I need to simplify what I was doing in the labs this afternoon in order for you to understand it. That is, if you honestly do want me to explain it to you and weren't just making polite conversation."

"I really do want you to explain it to me, but I think we should probably wait until we've finished eating. One thing about having a sibling who went through medical school is it teaches you there are certain subjects that don't make good dinner table conversation."

After the table had been cleared, they moved to the living room. Missy provided a pencil and a pad of paper, they sat next to each other on the couch and Pendrell began explaining the scientific basis of the work he'd been doing that day. Missy paid close attention and asked an occasional intelligent question, but mostly she just let him talk.

Finally, Missy said, "Okay, I think I understand now." Then she yawned and added, "I hate to kick you out, Sean, but it's almost eleven and I have to open the store tomorrow."

"Jeez, I didn't realize it was that late. I need to be in early tomorrow, too." He placed his hand on her face, then leaned over and kissed her. The fact that they were sitting side-by-side on the couch gave a slightly

more intimate feel to this kiss, as all their previous ones had taken place at her doorway, while they were both standing up. "Goodnight, Missy," he murmured against her lips.

They stood up and she walked him to the door. Missy was tempted to lift her face for another a kiss -- he was absolutely the *best* kisser she'd ever met in her life -- but was afraid he'd get the wrong idea. . .or maybe the right idea, as she was almost to the point where she didn't know whether she'd resist if he suggested spending the night. But he just touched her hair gently, said, "Bye" and left.

***

The next morning, Scully noticed that Pendrell was being unusually quiet in the labs. He was never particularly talkative, except when he got excited by some intriguing discovery, but now he was responding only to direct questions, and answering even those with monosyllables. She wondered whether or not he'd kept the tenative date he'd made with her sister the previous evening and whether whatever had happened between the two of them was the cause of his silence. Not that she exactly wanted to joke around either; apparently her body was rebelling against returning to work after two solid weeks of sand, sun, sea and sex, because she felt oddly tired and, just very faintly, queasy.

Things brightened up when Mulder came into the labs just before noon. "Hey, Scully, you up for lunch?"

That netted a chuckle from Pendrell. "Even now that you're married to her, you still call her Scully?"

"He only does that around the FBI," Scully said. "At home he calls me 'Dana'."

"You two have fun at lunch," Pendrell said.

"You're coming with us, Pendrell," Scully said in a no-nonsense voice.

"I am?" Pendrell asked.

"He is?" Mulder echoed.

"Yes," Scully said decisively.

Mulder looked at Pendrell and shrugged. He had no idea what was going on, either.

When the three of them were settled at a table in a nearby restaurant and had place their orders, Scully said, "Okay, Pendrell, what gives? You've been moping around the labs all morning like you just lost your best friend."

"I am, without a doubt, the biggest geek in the entire world," Pendrell said.

Mulder opened his mouth to agree with the other man, noticed the stern look of warning his wife was shooting at him, and decided he did *not* want to sleep on the couch that night. So instead he said, "Uh, I think Frohike and Langley could give you a run for your money. What's the matter?"

"You two knew I was supposed to have dinner with Missy last night?"

"She said you had a tenative date, but that you were going to call to confirm," Scully said. "Since you were still working after I left, I'd assumed you decided to wait until another evening."

"No, we saw each other. It was late when I left the labs, but I'd called and she suggested I just stop by and pick up something on my way to her place and we could eat there. So I did and that part -- dinner -- was fine. It's what happened next that I'm kicking myself for."

"Did you ask her to let you, er, spend the night?" Scully inquired. She remembered Missy saying a few days earlier how much she'd appreciated Sean not pressuring her for sex.

"Huh? No! God forbid I do anything as relatively normal as ask a beautiful woman to sleep with me. No, what I did was spend the entire evening -- from the moment we finished dinner to the time when she finally told me that she had to be up early the next morning and politely asked me to leave -- explaining scientific theories and chemistry formulas to her."

Both Mulder and Scully were quiet for a moment, then Mulder asked, "Why?"

"Well, she'd asked me to. She asked what I'd been working on, and I tried to tell her during dinner, but she couldn't follow it. So, after dinner, I told her I'd simplify it for her and explain it to her if she wanted me to. She said she did but, looking back on it, I'm sure she didn't expect a two-hour discourse on the basics of scientific principles."

"You must have had to *really* simplify it for Missy to understand it," Scully said.

"You say that like she's stupid or something and she's obviously not. She'd told me during dinner she majored in English during college, so I understood that she wouldn't have the same foundation that people like you and I would, but after a couple of hours of me putting things in layman's terms, she pretty much knew what I was talking about."

"Well, that's. . .good, then, right?" Scully suggested.

"No, it's *weird* that's what it was! Most women don't expect their dates to turn into impromptu chemistry tutoring sessions!"

"It's a little odd," Mulder allowed. "But I've heard of stranger things."

"Mulder, if this is going to turn into a story involving you and and your college girlfriend and Sherlock Holmes' gravestone. . ." Scully warned.

Mulder started to point out that Sherlock Holmes was a fictional character and it had been the grave of the author who had created him, Arthur Conan Doyle, but then decided he'd be better off keeping his mouth shut.

Pendrell said, "Scully, I know I said I didn't want to turn this whole business of me working with you and dating your sister into a junior high soap opera, but if you happen to talk to her during the next couple of

days, could you kind of. . ."

"Find out her feelings about last evening?"

"Yeah," Pendrell replied. "I'd like to know if I qualify as a guy who gets a little overly enthusiastic about explaining his work but can still basically be considered a normal human being, or if I've been reassigned to a category that lumps me in with robots and other synthetic life forms."

Before any more could be said, the waiter appeared with their food and Scully's cell phone beeped. "Gee, a call from someone besides you, Mulder! Wonder who it is?"

"Scully."

Scully's eyebrow went up in surprise, she mouthed "Missy" at both men, then got up and walked into the foyer, shaking her head and her husband and co-worker when they made as if to follow her.

A few minutes later, Scully returned to the table.

"Okay, I hate to put you in the middle of all this, but I'll be a basket case all afternoon if I don't ask," Pendrell said. "Was I mentioned at all?"

"It's not exactly like you were 'mentioned', Pendrell. It's more like you were the focus of the entire conversaton."

"As in, 'You won't believe what that geek co-worker of yours subjected me to when we were supposed to be on a date last night?'"

"No, more along the lines of 'Dana, you won't believe how wonderful Sean is. He spent the whole evening discussing his work with me and explaining all kinds of scientific stuff so I could understand what he was talking about. And he didn't even hint at sex, which is such a relief from all the guys who seem to feel that once they've reached the third date, sex is pretty much something they're entitled to.'"

Both men were silent for a long moment, digesting both their food and her words. Finally Mulder said, "You're joking, right?"

"No. Pendrell took Missy seriously. He assumed she wanted to know what he did and that she was capable of understanding it if he put it in simple terms."

"Which she was," Pendrell pointed out.

"The thing is, Missy tends to attract guys who. . .well, a lot of them are mostly interested in her body. When we were teenagers, I used to get jealous of the fact that most guys would rather make out with her and talk to me. But now that we're older, I understand that I was the lucky one. I've always had guys who were my friends and eventually, with one very special guy," she smiled and reached over to squeeze Mulder's hand, "the friendship turned into love."

"So. . .she's not upset with me?" Pendrell asked.

"Well, she's just very slightly upset about one minor thing," Scully replied.

"What?"

"She said that early on in the evening, she had suggested you come over this weekend and she'd cook for you. Which you won't be sorry if you do, by the way, because Missy's an excellent cook. But, anyway, she said you left without telling her when you'd see her again or without even saying you'd call her or anything. So now she's worried that you're mad at her or upset with her."

"She's worried that I. . .?" Pendrell didn't seem able to complete his sentence. Instead he reached over and removed the cell phone Scully was still clutching in her hand, calmly pressed the *55 feature and then said, "Hi, Missy. It's Sean". He got up from the table at that point and walked into the foyer, taking Scully's cell phone with him.

"Pendrell stole your cell phone," Mulder said.

"Also, apparently, my sister's heart."

"I think that's a little premature, don't you, Dana? They've been out three times!"

"You didn't hear Missy alternating gushing and panicking into my ear, as she told me how wonderful he is in one breath and then told me how afraid she was she was never going to hear from him again in the next. That woman is smitten."

"Pendrell seems to have it pretty bad himself. He looks even geekier than usual."

"Can I speculate on something else that I may be a little premature even discussing?"

"Sure."

"I think I might be pregnant."

Mulder had graduated with honors from Oxford and at the top of his class at the FBI Academy. He felt, however, that it was a greater accomplishment for him not to spew iced tea all over the tablecloth at that announcement.

"Dana, we just got married! It hasn't even been a month yet."

"I know, but my period should have started a couple of days ago and it hasn't. Also, this morning when I was performing a lab anaylsis the smell of some of the chemicals made me queasy."

"But you're not sure?"

"No. Fox, you will be. . .okay with it if I'm pregnant, won't you? We did talk about it during our engagement and agreed that since I'm already 30, and we want children, we wouldn't take any precautions."

"Dana, if you're really pregnant. . .it will be the second best thing that's ever happened to me."

"What was the first?"

"It's a tie: either having you walk into my office almost two years ago or having you marry me a few weks ago."

"I love you, Fox."

"I love you, too, Dana. However, Pendrell is headed back our way, grinning like a buffoon, so let's table this discussion for the moment."

***

Skinner's secretary, Kimberly Johnson, dropped by the labs late that afternoon. Scully happened to be removing her gloves at that moment and Kimberly caught sight of her engagement ring.

"Wow, that's a really pretty ring, Agent Scully. I don't think I've ever noticed it before."

"Well, I didn't have it during the year I worked at headquarters. Mulder and I only became engaged after they shut down the X-Files and we weren't partners any more."

"Sapphire is a lovely and unusual choice for an engagement ring," Kimberly

said.

"It's what I've always wanted. My sister and I used to talk about it when we were girls. Neither of us liked traditional diamond engagement rings; I always wanted a sapphire and she always wanted an opal."

Agent Pendrell, intent on his microscope at the other end of the lab, gave no indication that he was paying any attention to the conversation the women were having. However, he tucked a certain piece of information away. . .just in case he was lucky enough to need it at some point in the future.

END

Author's e-mail addy: tapw63@hotmail.com