Scully was the first to wake as the morning light filtered down through the dark spaces between the buildings and into Mulder's apartment. She sighed with an unfamiliar contentment and stretched her legs as she slowly came awake. She was so warm, comfortable and..........safe.

That was it, that was what felt so very different. When had she last woken in such a secure cocoon? She couldn't remember, but the arms wrapped tightly around her naked body were reawakening memories of the previous night. She smiled as the warmth of Mulder's body suffused every part of her.

He still slept, his head curled onto her breast, holding her, owning her, unwilling to let go even in sleep. He was so peaceful. His warm breath brushed her skin. The dark lashes resting on his cheek made him look so.....vulnerable, innocent.

She savoured these moments as they both lay on Mulder's couch wrapped in the sleeping bags. It was unusual for her to stay so still on waking, but as much as their lovemaking had exhausted them, she felt somehow soothed and more at peace than she had in a long time.

Her thoughts turned to languid contemplation of their lovemaking as she gazed at her ...lover. The word made her toes curl and her pelvic muscles contract with the memory of holding him deep inside her, relishing the effect she had on him. The low ache returned to her belly as she remembered the tasting, the touching, the feel of his skin under her tongue, of his mouth on her face, her breasts, her lips, her body.

There had been tears, too, from both of them as they finally took total possession of the other, holding and clinging desperately to the truth that both of them had spent years denying. The doubts, the uncertainty had fallen away in complete surrender as they had each discovered finally what it meant to give totally to the other. No awkward shyness, no wondering what the other wanted, no holding back, no pretence - just more honesty and openness than either of them had ever given to another human being.

At some point in the dark hours of the night he had reached for her again, murmuring her name softly against her neck, his large, warm hands stroking her, both of them only coming to full wakefulness the moment he entered her again. Afterwards he had pulled her back to the couch as though seeking its familiar comfort in the darkness for both of them, needing to pull her close to him, not wanting to risk the possibility that he might, at some point in the night, lose contact with even a small part of her. They had clung to each other, together escaping the demons that usually occupied their night-time hours. Now, for the first time in her life, Dana Katherine Scully had awakened to a life where she was finally bound to the missing piece of her heart, her soul, with invisible threads as strong and secure as any chain.

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In another apartment block, another woman woke and turned to the empty half of the bed she occupied. She hadn't slept very well but then, she never did. For most of the night she had raged at the thought of the red head who, no doubt, now lay in the arms of the man "she" intended to reclaim.

Diana needed Mulder. It was vital to all of them that she once more win his trust, his professional admiration, maybe even his love. She was not used to rejection and she was not about to let Dana Scully spoil the plans that had been put in place when she first left Fox Mulder. Ultimately, she knew she held a trump card but it was tenuous and fraught with danger, a card she must only play if all else failed.

She would have to be careful. The events of the previous night concerned her.

She allowed herself to think of the one armed man. His body was firm and lean. She sensed the passion with which he would take what or whoever he wanted. She smiled to herself as she thought of Fox Mulder. He had never understood how things worked. He was so needy, always ready to recoil like a beaten puppy if you slapped him with the smallest hurt. In this life you took what you wanted from whoever had it. Right at this moment, Diana needed Fox Mulder. But she wanted a man, a powerful, dangerous man, like the man with no arm to be on the other side of this bed.

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She had drifted back to sleep but woke to the feel of gentle fingers in her hair. Scully suddenly hit normality mode as her eyes shot open. "What time is it?"

Mulder chuckled, feeling her body relax as she remembered where she was and the worried frown turned into the precious sight of a rare, radiant Scully smile. "Well if you intend to make a habit of coming over here and seducing me, Agent Scully, then I would say that for both our sakes, its time I bought a bed. Citizens with good habits are one of the mainstays of society and I would hate to be the one to impede your personal development." Mulder grinned at her, anticipating her retort.

"Actually Agent Mulder, there really is no need to be in any rush to buy a bed on my account."

"Scully, is this your way of telling me you think we should wait another five years before we try the wild thing again?"

She gave him a delicious, exaggerated roll of her eyes and a heavy sigh "Mulder, have you every considered that perhaps you should open your mind to more extreme possibilities?"

Scully quickly halted his indignant protest. "To you Mulder, the kitchen table fulfils a utilitarian function connected to the consumption of food. But what if it could provide something more than that? Has it never occurred to you it could also provide a source of other, equally satisfying pleasures? A bath full of warm water has a functional role in personal hygiene. But is it not possible that it opens itself to the realms of the fantastic when shared by two? Popular conception tells us that many have found washstands to have other, quite ....plausible uses. Your perception of a hallway may be merely a means of functional access to your door. Perhaps you should allow yourself to consider the thrill, the extra spice achievable by the risk of imminent public exposure. All you have to do Mulder is open your mind and be willing to make that small shift in your beliefs."

Wide blue eyes looked up at him with feigned innocence and her pert little chin thrust impudently towards him. "Extra spice!! Mulder spluttered. "Getting a little full of yourself this morning aren't you Agent Scully?" He could hardly suppress a chuckle at this wonderfully flippant Scully.

She answered him in a flash, enjoying this early- morning banter. "If memory serves me correctly Agent Mulder, you have just spent half the night ensuring that the only thing that fills me this morning is essence of Mulder!"

"Oh I see, I get dirty talk in addition to your razor-edged wit Agent Scully? Have you every considered that you might learn to show a little more respect to your senior partner? A long overdue lesson in Bureau protocol is called for." With that, his long fingers found just the right spot on her waist to totally disable her with some serious tickling.

"Mulder! no stop it. Don't you dare tickle me. That's not playing fair," Scully writhed, squirmed and screamed helpless peals of laughter as he refused to let up. "No, no please no, Mulder I mean it. Mulder. I'll have to hurt you!" she cried frantically trying to escape his relentless fingers.

He caught her flailing arms and pinned them to her sides "Hurt me? Oooo now you're really talking Scully. What do you think, should that be before, during of after we've spiced it up on the hallway floor? I had no idea you fantasized about me like this Agent Scully. You really should have said something. I might have decided not to make you wait so long!"

Scully lunged at the one area she knew she had to grab to stand any chance of defending herself from him. Mulder's quick, instinctive reaction tipped them both off the couch landing them on the floor, in a laughing, giggling heap of tangled arms, legs and sleeping bags.

"OK, OK , truce Scully, truce" Mulder managed to choke out as Scully continued to wriggle and squirm in his arms. It was so good to hear her really laugh. The sound delighted him, made him realise how rare it had been.

She was still grinning at him "Watch yourself Mulder, any more of that senior partner crap and I might just have to show you whose going to be the boss around here."

Moving quickly to avoid the cushion that was aimed straight at his head Mulder sat back, grinning. The tousled sight before him was a world away from his cool, calm, sophisticated FBI Scully. He couldn't believe how beautiful she looked, could not believe that she was rolling around on his floor, naked and rumpled, flushed and pink and white, laughing at him and with him.

Feeling his gaze on her, she suddenly felt strangely shy, as she remembered her nakedness. She pulled a sleeping bag around her and shuffled across the floor to sit with him, happy to return to the arms that opened for her. "Penny for them Mulder? What wicked thoughts are going through that mind of yours?"

He pulled her close and placed a kiss on top of her head. "I was thinking that I had never seen you look as beautiful as you do right now." There was no sign of their earlier banter in his voice. "I wish I could lock away the last twenty four hours and keep each one safe. In a little while you will have to become Special Agent Dana Scully and I will be Special Agent Fox Mulder and everything will change again."

Laying her head on his shoulder she wrapped her arms tightly around him, "No it won't Mulder, nothing is going to change, not for us, not for how we are right now, not for what we've become."

She heard the tremble in his voice and felt a small echo of fear in his next words "I can't go back Scully, I couldn't survive a day of it again without you, without us, I don't know how I ever did."

"You won't have to Mulder, you will never have to, never again."

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The cold in the Spartan room and the night chill had brought on the pain in his phantom limb. Grimacing, he shifted his position, sending the forgotten, nearly empty scotch bottle crashing to the floor.

He felt like shit. The liquor had done little to stop the twisted paths his mind wandered night after night. Pulling himself up from the chair, he thought of the two agents across the city. Were they still sleeping in each other's arms, or had they already awakened to an encore of the previous night?

Why had he found it so erotic listening to the two of them? Probably the sudden realization that they were screwing each other for the first time. But there had been something else as well though, something about it that had been almost pure, almost virginal.

He shook himself, wondering where such whimsical thoughts had sprung from. Virginal it might have been but there hadn't been much of the ice queen about Dr Scully last night. Oh no. Women - they were all the same. They all wanted the same thing, no matter how hard they tried to hide it.. Geez, he had to hand it to Mulder. The guy must have wanted her bad, to wait five years and then sit and listen to her though all that confessional box crap. But of course he had wanted her. "You shouldn't let her do it to you Mulder," he said out loud. "Bad, bad, move buddy, you're making the biggest mistake of your life".

Screwing her was one thing. But Mulder loved her, and sooner or later he would pay a price. Either she would do it to him or someone else would, because of her. One day Mulder would wake up with his balls wrenched off and a twisted knot in his head that would eat away at him day and night.

It had everything to do with her. The Englishman had known how important Dr Scully was but he hadn't yet trusted Krycek enough to explain it all. He would find out, little by little. He knew how to pull the pieces together. The vaccine, her DNA and something else-all of it was connected. Mulder was involved, and provided another connection he didn't understand. Whatever it was, it had alerted the medical scientists of the Consortium to the possibility that Dana Scully could pose the worst threat yet to their plans. The irony was, that she could also provide them with the ultimate bargaining tool.

He knew that he had been really getting somewhere with the old man. The Englishman had been starting to trust him. Christ, the old guy had really believed in all that Resist or Serve crap. In his desperation he'd pulled Alex in, needing somebody like him to duck and dive, to play the heavy and to watch his back. The question was, could HE now believe? And if he didn't, if he chose not to, what future was there for the resistance movement?

For the first time in years, the old man had reached something in him that Krycek had thought was dead and buried. Something of why he had joined the FBI all those years back, before it had all turned rotten and sour. The feeling troubled him, raised a voice in the back of his head that questioned him all the time. Memories of how he had been pulled into the mire of corruption drove him to blot it all out again with as much liquor as it took.

He had learnt long ago that no matter what came next, no matter which voice finally won out, he would need to arrange useful insurance policies by gathering little secrets he could use to his advantage. No, the old man had not told him all of it. But Alex Krycek knew enough. Agent Scully was turning into a very valuable commodity to both sides and for the moment that was all he needed to know.

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The warm water felt wonderful as it cascaded over her body. Closing her eyes, Scully allowed herself to bask in the sensation. The clanking noises in the kitchen had stopped. For a moment she hoped that Mulder would join her in the shower.

The reality of the working day had loomed all too quickly, rapidly encroaching on this precious time they were sharing. Mulder had suggested tackling breakfast and she had ruefully agreed. She didn't want any of this to end and had been hoping he would contrive a reason for them to stay out of the office for the day.

Holding her head to one side she listened. The phone was ringing. Damn! She heard it stop but couldn't hear Mulder speaking. "Phones," sometimes she hated them. She felt a small twinge of guilt at the thought of their cellphones. Mulder had deliberately shut them in her laptop case and then thrown it into his excuse for a bedroom. She smiled, how could she blame him after that phone call from his Mother! Scully sighed and abandoned thoughts of a precious day together. Sooner or later they had to face the full consequences of their admission to Skinner.

She ran her fingers though her hair enjoying the sensation of the running water on her neck. Reaching for the shampoo she felt a small blast of cold air. A low voice in her ear said "No Scully, I want to do that."

Mulder stood right behind her in the shower. Turning to look at him, her breath caught at the look of pure love that shone in his eyes. A dark angel, the thought sprang to her mind. "My dark angel." She stood still and silent, unable to shift her gaze from the beautiful spectre of his muscular body, his dark stubble, the shimmer of the water over his olive skin.

His fingers were wonderfully gentle as he carefully washed her hair. He held her as though she was a fragile and precious object, something he might break if he didn't take the utmost care. All the time he was silent, but the gaze of his green gold eyes held her transfixed.

Laying her back into the flow of water he carefully rinsed her hair, cupping his hands, anointing her with the warm water and smoothing the hair back from her face. Scully reached for him as he pulled her upright again, wanting to caress him, hold him, kiss him. But he pulled back, refusing to let her touch him. "No Scully, I want this to be all about you. All for you, just for you. Please, you have to let me do this."

Dropping her hands to her sides she bit her lip, realising the meaning of his words. Mulder's eyes never left hers as he reached for the shower gel. Starting with her face, cradling it in both of his hands, his thumbs gently circled her cheeks. Scully fought the urge to take him into her arms, knowing instinctively that he needed to lead the way.

She studied his intent expression as he worked on every inch of her face and then repeated the same wonderful circular massaging on her arms. Standing before him, she suddenly felt almost childlike as she watched him work foam up and down each arm. She had known, deep down that her betrayal of him with Ed Jerse could not be laid to rest easily. Even after all of the healing that had taken place between them, she had still sensed his fear that morning.

He took both her hands and pushing his fingers in between hers, gently stroked and massaged the lather into them. His eyes never left her face and the only sound came from the trickling water.

She meekly allowed him to turn her around so that he was behind her again. Sliding both of his hands around her waist he worked the gel into a foam on her flat stomach. Scully sighed and gave herself over to this intent, gentle, Mulder knowing just how badly she had wounded him all those months ago.. She had seen his pain again last night, still so raw and had tried so hard to tell him, to explain. Only Mulder with his endless capacity for guilt would need this atonement, need to find a way to show her that he understood his part in her betrayal of him, when all the guilt should be hers.

Moving his hands up to her breasts, he spread the bubbles over them, cupping and lifting them with those gentle hands. Scully felt her nipples begin to harden under the tugging and pulling of his fingers and leaned back into him. Resting her head on his chest, her breath started to quicken with the pleasure of his touch. His hands were lower now, working the foam into the curls between her legs as he placed a kiss on her shoulder. Moving up her neck, he dropped kisses as he travelled.

His fingers, slippery with gel pushed her folds apart, found what they were searching for and gently circled it. Swaying slightly, as a lazy arousal seeped through her, she felt Mulder's erection moving against her and leaned back further into him. He bent over her, the slow working of his hands rapidly becoming her only point of focus.

Sensing her response to his touch he gently eased her forward, pushing her away from his growing hardness. She stretched her neck, relishing the feel of his fingers as he kneaded her shoulders, working the foam over and over into her skin. Moving down her spine, he massaged every part of it with the lather, his hands spreading over the rest of her back, fastidiously washing every part.

Scully closed her eyes. The feel of his hands gently rubbing her back unlocked every muscle in her body. Circling the small scar on her neck with his finger he placed soft kiss there before he moved both hands to cup her bottom.

Again, she felt same almost hypnotic circular massaging, clutching and kneading each cheek until he slid his hand between her legs. As he rubbed her from front to back with the palm of his hand, Scully allowed a soft moan to escape her lips, the first sound that either of them had made in several minutes. She had realised that somehow, this cleansing of her was more important to him than her arousal.

She stood still and silent as the washing ritual continued. As his hands reverently stroked, rubbed and massaged, she felt his fingers run down the inside of her thighs and calves. Just as her body threatened to betray her sensations again he turned her to face him, seeking and finding her eyes. In his she saw a question and she knew that she had not yet fully understood.

This was about more than her cutting words to him that had held those grains of truth. But she didn't break the silence, couldn't ask him why he needed this. She had to come to complete understanding without the need for any words, knowing with certainty that he needed that from her.

Dropping to his knees with her standing before him, he held her small hips in his large hands. Pressing a gentle kiss to her stomach, he pushed her back against the wall of the shower. Resting on his knees he placed her foot in his lap, starting the same methodical process of washing all over again, paying as much attention to each individual toe as he had to the rest of her body.

Looking down at his dark head lowered in deep concentration, the image he presented, kneeling down before her, struck her with the full force of its significance. Suddenly she fully understood this ritual cleansing. He was trying to wash it all away- five years of pain, every hurt, all the suffering he felt she had borne because of him. He was trying to cleanse her of if all. He was washing away the past, rinsing away the dark places that had nearly claimed them. He needed to put her back together again, repair her with his love so that they could both emerge clean, fresh and new, leaving nothing that could pull them back to the place where they had been for so long.

Tears sprang to her eyes. Bending forward she cradled his face in her hands, struggling to find the words under his intense gaze. "Mulder, you don't need to do this." Her breath caught as she tried to go on.."You have to believe me, there has never been anything or anybody in my life that has given me what you have. Nothing else matters now except that I love you. I've loved you for the longest time. It's always been you Mulder. I don't even want to begin to imagine what my life would have been like without that. Without you."

Mulder inhaled sharply and bit his lower lip. "Scully, I just need you, ....I need you to know, I, I love you so much." Somehow he choked out he words through the cascading water and tangle of emotions that threatened to drown him.

"I know you do Mulder, I know that more certainly than I have ever known anything. If there was never anything more for us than this last 24 hours, I'd push back the walls of that box, my life. I'd make them wider than they have ever been before and I would lock this away inside it. It would be enough to carry me through, to save me."

Mulder smiled at her, finally knowing that she had understood the things he could never fully find the words to tell her. He knew now that the previous night had all been real, not some cruel illusion that would shatter the moment they walked out of his door. She was his, she belonged to him, she was the centre of his reality and there was nothing to fear. "Scully, I promise you there will be more for us, so much more."

Lifting one foot he placed a kiss on the inside of her leg, just above her ankle. A tingle of sensation ran though her. Suddenly he was kissing, and sucking the inner flesh of her legs, clearing a path in the droplets of water with his tongue, switching from one leg to the other until he knelt up before her again.

She entwined her hands in his hair. He rested his head on her stomach and slid his arms around her hips. They held each other, swaying gently, water cascading over both of them. Then he turned and kissed her stomach, alternating kisses with the soft murmuring of her name.

He kissed her gently, gradually working his way down to the small crop of curls between her legs. Hearing her small gasp, he nuzzled further and further into the curls, his tongue seeking the way, sliding into her folds.

Moving his hands down and under her bottom, pulling her legs slightly apart his tongue moved over and around and finally suckled the little mound of flesh into his mouth. Scully quivered and trembled as white hot tendrils of pleasure snaked from her core, spreading over her belly and down her limbs. The waves of sensation made it almost impossible for her to stand.

He heard her soft cry as he nuzzled further into her and drew his tongue slowly over her opening, gently exploring it with the tip, then pushing and thrusting, he explored a little deeper. He drank in the taste of her, the scent of her, the feel of her muscles contracting as she moved in the age old rhythm.

Seeking the fleshy mound again he ran his tongue gently over her then tugged and nipped and sucked feeling the heat building at her core. Holding her to him, allowing her no escape, he felt her urgent push towards him, her hands clutching at his head, pulling him deeper and deeper, harder and harder. Then he pulled back from her grasp and stood to look at her.

The sight took his breath away as it burned forever into his memory. Her eyes were half closed and her face, framed by tendrils of wet hair, was beautifully flushed. Her full pink lips were parted and ragged breaths fell from them. She turned her face to him and reached out to take him into her hand, already starting to bend her head.

He caught her hand, "No Scully, that's not how it is supposed to be. This is for you, all about you."

Bringing his mouth to hers he kissed her deeply. With both hands under her bottom, he lifted her to him. Her legs snaked around him and her arms clung to his neck as she savoured the kiss he had denied her until now. Sliding one hand backwards and forwards between her legs, easing his fingers in and out of her, he rubbed hard against her engorged clitoris then pulled it gently between his thumb and forefinger.

Pushing her back against the wall of the shower, still supporting her weight, he bent his head to her breasts. Running his tongue around the edge of first one hard, taught nipple and then the other, he greedily sucked and pulled it into his mouth, pinching it between his lips and flicking his tongue backwards and forwards across it.

Scully arched her neck. She was lost. All control was being driven from her body by her desire for him. Her arms wouldn't hold him any more and her legs trembled and shook, everything centred on her need for him. It filled her. Every part of her cried out for him as she bore down harder onto his hand. The ache in the centre of her body sent screaming waves across all of her taught, quivering nerve endings. Her pelvic muscles clenched, sending the message of their desperate need as her breath came faster and faster. She tried to speak but her shuddering body betrayed her "M....M....Mulder, pl....plea....please."

He searched her eyes, holding them in his gaze as he entered her with a long, slow, deep, thrust pushing into her, pulling her legs even wider apart. Scully felt her core explode and shatter into a thousand electrifying ripples that raced through every part of her body. She heard her own sobs as she bucked and arched her back, pushing herself further and further down onto him, grinding and moving with him. Wave after wave of something that was almost painful in its sweet intensity, flowed through her, devouring all her normal senses and threatening all conscious thought. For Scully, now and as it always had been, everything was all about Mulder, only Mulder, always Mulder.

In the steam filled bathroom her soft cries and moans mingled with Mulder's murmured, repeated, "for you Scully, always you Scully." The combined sounds whispered and echoed round the small bathroom, sounding like a strange and ancient liturgy that only the two of them would ever understand. It continued to rise and fall, peak and dip until, with a last soaring chant, gradually, slowly, it began to fade and finally stilled.