PART 7: (PG-13)

I woke up cradling her against my chest. Her leg was thrown over mine, her head on my arm, tucked beneath my chin. I don't think I've ever been this happy in my entire life. I don't recall ever feeling this content. It's 6:00 AM, Monday morning and I have to get up, but I'm loath to disturb her.

I slowly extricated myself from her and slid out of bed. She mewled in protest, but I tucked the covers around her to keep her warm and trotted out to the kitchen. I couldn't leave yet. I picked up the phone and hit the Speed Dial 2. My cell phone was Speed Dial 1. That little fact made me unreasonably happy. The phone rang 3 times and then he answered, "Skinner here."
"Sir, it's Mulder."
"Mulder, where the hell have you been?"
"Taking care of some personal business, I was away from my place for most of the weekend."
"I know, I've been trying to reach you."
"Sorry about that. Listen, how big of a hassle would it be for you if I took a week off? I have three weeks accumulated."
"Now?"
"Yeah, now, this week."
"Umm. Well, the case I gave you needs some immediate attention."
"It's not an X-File."
"I know that but your profiling skills are needed on this one Mulder. Most of the folks in behavioral unit are tied up."
"Well, then could you send the computer file over by e-mail and I'll do a profile and send it in for their use."
"From home?"
"Yeah, why not. Then they can get started on it, have something to work with, and I can take the rest of the week off."
"What's going on Agent Mulder?"
"Some personal things I need to iron out. Came up suddenly."
"Uh, huh. This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that Agent Scully is on vacation, would it?"
"Uh,..."
There was silence on the line.
"Alright, Mulder, we'll do it your way. You can't concentrate and you aren't worth shit when she's not here anyway."
"Thanks, I think."
"Your welcome. I'll e-mail the stuff over right now."
"Oh, sir?"
"Yeah?"
"Umm, can you e-mail it to Scully?"
Silence again. I hear him exhale a breath forcefully.
"Yes. Is that where you are?"
"I'd rather not say, sir."
"Well, O.K., you know what? I'd rather not know."
"Thanks again, sir. I really appreciate this."
"You owe me one."
"Yes, sir. I'm sure you'll find some heinous task for me to perform to make it up to you."
He chuckles. "You bet I will. Bye for now."
"Yeah, good bye." The line went dead.
I went back to the bedroom and just stood watching her sleep for a while. I had a whole week off. God, I hadn't taken a week off in over six years. I crawled back under the covers carefully and wrapped her in my arms. She mumbled, "Time for you to get up yet?"
"Shhh, no, go back to sleep."
"K."

I wake up and look at the clock. Some habits die-hard. 9:00 AM. Oh, god, 9:00AM!!

"Mulder, Mulder, wake up!"
"Huh?"
"It's 9:00, you have to get up. You are already two hours late. Skinner is going to be furious."
He is smiling lazily at me.
"Mulder, this isn't funny, you can't keep doing this."
He gives me that feral grin. "Yes I can."
"What are you talking about, you have to..."
"I took the week off."
Silence.
"You what?!"
"I said I took the week off."
"You never take a week off."
"Just did."
"When?"
"About three hours ago. Got up, called the boss and told him I wasn't going to be in this week."
"You're crazy. Why?" I got the 'you can figure this out' look again. "Me?"
"Yup. Not ready to leave this little universe just yet. I do have to whip up a profile though for the Behavioral Science group."
"The case you had when I visited on Friday?"
"Yeah."
"You don't have anything from the file, you'll have to go in anyway."
"Nope. He's e-mailing me the information."
"Oh, well, then, we'll need to go to your place and get it."
"Nope."
"Mulder! Would you just tell me the whole story?"
"He's e-mailing it to you."
"Me?! You told him you were here?!"
"He guessed."
"Shit."
"He didn't seem upset about it. Told me I wasn't worth shit when you weren't there anyway."
"He did NOT."
"Did too."
"No kidding?"
"Yup."
"Mulder, you were calling him at 6:00 AM! He's going to think you spent the night here.
"I did."
"I know that! But I don't want him to know that!"
"Well, he can't know for sure."
"So now what?"
"What would you like to do Agent Scully?"
"I'm hungry."
"Breakfast?" I nodded. "My specialty."
"Let's go out."
"Out?"
"Yeah, you know, put on some clothes, go down to the diner a few blocks down, sozzle coffee and eat breakfast."
"I have to put clothes on?"
"Well, I'm not really prepared to share you yet. I'd rather you didn't start handing out free shows."

"Really? Are you getting possessive of me Agent Scully."

I growled and leaped up to straddle him. I leaned in for a kiss and he captured my mouth in one of those thorough, slow, lazy kisses that melts my insides. I came up for air. "Yeah, I might be."
"Well now, I guess I can live with that."
I was quiet for a moment. "We need to talk about work."
He sighed. "I know. I was putting it off."
"We probably shouldn't."
"Let's talk about it over breakfast, not here in bed."
"O.K."
"Shower with me?" He looked hopeful. I chortled at his expression.
"If you promise to behave yourself."
"Not a chance. I'll never look at showers the same way again."

Breakfast was fun. I was finding such delight in doing the simplest things with her. Everything was new, just because she was with me. She been with me on many occasions in the past, but she'd never been with me. In public, she was such a lady. But she'd never been my lady. It was hard to reconcile this proper lady with the tiger in my bed. Her many facets continued to intrigue me. She was slowly opening up. She started telling me personal things about her life, her family, her interests outside of work. It was enlightening. She knew almost everything about me already. She knew my family, my history. I'd really had no other interests besides my sister and work, until now.

I supposed there were some things she didn't know. Mostly, though, whatever she didn't know pertained to my feelings about her, my fantasies about her. Those could wait. I wanted the work discussion out of the way. Then I could enjoy the rest of the week without that looming over our heads.

"So, about work," I began.

She sighed, "Yeah."

"We should decide how we want to handle this, as long as ...

"As long as?

"You want this to continue.

"Of course I do! You didn't think this was a fling, did you? If I wanted a fling, I could have done it with someone a lot safer.

My face must have fell hearing those words.

"I didn't mean that the way it sounded, Mulder.

"I know, but it's true.

"I just meant someone who I didn't work with, without those complications. I wasn't referring to anything else.

"O.K., well, no, it certainly isn't a fling for me either. I think you know that. I just wanted to make sure that you were sure.

"Yes, I'm sure. As weird as it may seem, I've never been more sure of anything in my life. For all the fear and misery I put myself through worrying about it, now, it seems, O.K.

"You don't know how happy that makes me. I never dreamed any of this was possible.

"Me neither. Ironic, isn't it? All this time we wasted.

"I know. I thought of that too, but I don't want to dwell on 'what ifs.' I want to think about a future...with you in it. God, that's sounds surreal when I say it out loud!

She smiled, that sexy smile where one corner of her mouth turned up a little higher than the other. "So, public or private?

"Meaning?

"Do you want to be my lover in private or in public?

"Public holds some interesting possibilities.

She blushed as she realized how I'd intentionally misinterpreted her. I was leering at her in mock consideration of the possibilities going through my head. "I meant, do we keep this to ourselves in general or do we let people know that we are together?

"Are you talking about work or otherwise outside of work?

"I guess they are separate.

"Depends, whatever you want to do, Scully, I'll go along. Really, I don't care either way, just so long as you stay with me. I don't care about the ramifications at work. I used to because that was my only excuse to spend time with you. And I knew I wanted to keep you in my life as much as possible. And yes, I want to keep working together. I think we make a great team. But as long as you are my ... girlfriend? She chuckled. Well, the rest doesn't seem important anymore.

"Girlfriend, huh?

"Is that the PC term nowadays or is there another one? It's been so long, I wouldn't know. But I don't want to go around introducing you as my lover. That would be tacky."

"I like 'girlfriend', girlfriend works for me.

"Well then, girlfriend, what do you want to do about this new situation?" She was silent for a few moments.

"Well, I feel the same way you do."

"That's a first."

She laughed. "Stop it! I don't want to hide from everyone or anyone. However, I do want to keep working together. Sooo...I guess we should be circumspect and professional at work. To be open at work would be like handing them a reason to split us up. I don't want to do that. They have been looking for a reason all along. I don't want to give the bastards the satisfaction!"

Her voice was rising in volume as she continued. "I would go crazy if you were taking off on some case with another partner, or me with a new partner. I don't think I could handle it. Us going in separate directions all time on different cases. I want to be with you, all the time, not just in between cases."

I gave her my best 'you are amazing look.' "Do you have any idea how much I love you? Any clue?" Her smile was radiant. "So, what about when we're not at work?"

"Hmmm. Well, I don't want to hide but we should probably be careful in D.C. We could run into a lot of people we know from work around here and it would only take one gal to see us behaving inappropriately and blow the whistle."

"Gal?"

"Yeah, one of the many female agents or secretaries that has the hots for you."

I'm laughing out loud now. "What are you talking about? Every single guy in the place wants to take you out but your reputation for adhering to the rules holds them back. They are always asking me, 'What's it like to work with such a beauty? Telling me what a lucky bastard I am to have you as a partner. How did I get so lucky? Me, Spooky Mulder. Not fair. And, my personal favorite, 'How in the hell have you kept your hands off her for nearly seven years?' I never know how to answer that one, because I have no earthly idea."

"You're crazy. You're making this up."

"Most certainly am not."

"Well, neither am I. God, every time I heard one of the mewling rookies talking about your body parts like you were a hunk of meat, I wanted to slam them in the kisser!"

I'm grinning from ear to ear. "So possessive, Agent Scully, that you would contemplate violence on my behalf. I like it." I paused. "So what body parts?"
"Never mind."
"Oh no, spill it."
"You don't want to know."
"Yes, I do."
"Why? So you can get a swelled head?"
"Not me. That's never going to happen." She chuckled. "Besides, I don't believe you anyway, that's why you won't tell me. You are the one making up stories!"
"You don't believe me? Alright, Mr. Nosey but don't say I didn't warn you."
I raise my eyebrow in question, waiting for her answer.
"O.K. I've lost count of the comments I've overheard about your perfect backside and what they'd like to do to it."
"No way."
"Yes, way. Shall I catalogue them? Let's see. Questions I've gotten. 'Have you ever seen him with his shirt off? Lucky bitch. What's he hiding under those suits? Don't you want a piece of that? You guys are more than friends, aren't you? Is that ass as perfect as it looks unveiled as it does with pants on it? Oh, yeah, then there are the speculations about the size of certain parts of your anatomy. How big are you? Can you use it well? How they would love to borrow it for a night."

I could feel the blush creeping up my neck and I looked away. Was she serious? The anatomy thing, there was only one person who could have started that rumor. Diana. Damn her. Now Scully is chuckling and enjoying my obvious embarrassment.

"Well, well, Mulder. Never thought I'd see the day when some sexual innuendo would rattle your cage.
"Well, that's pretty sacred ground, Scully. Don't you think?
"I warned you.
"Yeah, you did. Got me. So let's drop this now and pick up where we left off. We got side tracked here waving flags for the mutual admiration society."
"Maybe I should try to remember all the things I've overheard or been asked. I rather like the state this discussion puts you in." She is suppressing a giggle.
"Scully..." I tried to put my best warning into that one word.
"O.K. Where was I? Oh yeah. D.C. I think we should just play it by ear on the outside. Be careful in D.C. When we are out of town, well, then..."
"O.K., sounds good to me. Basically, if no one related to work is around, all bets are off. If there's even a chance of something or someone getting into the work loop, be discreet. Does that cover it?"
"Yes, O.K."
"O.K.
"So what about Skinner?
"What about him?
"Do you think he knows?
"No. He suspects, but he's in the 'what I don't know won't hurt me category'. Besides, he has no proof and he knows how tactless it would be to ask me. After all, I have behaved myself for nearly seven years, despite the rumors. He knows we have a weird relationship. He doesn't understand it but he respect it."
"Weird how?"
"Well, to him, yeah. We are closer than most partners. We are more involved in each other's personal lives because of what we have gone through. He knows we are each other's best friend and confidante. But, he also knows that our convictions and beliefs are fundamentally different."
"Not so much anymore."
"Yeah, but he also knows how professional and level-headed you are. So, even if he doesn't quite trust me to behave, he counts on our differences and your professionalism to keep me from crossing the line."
"Level-headed, huh? If he only knew. Do you know this or are you just guessing?"
"I'm guessing, partly. But truthfully, I really think he's on our side...in all things. If he were to discover we were..."
"Lovers?"
"Lovers. That sounds so weird, still. Good weird. But weird. Yes, anyway if he found out, I think he would keep it to himself."
"Well, whatever happens, we'll deal with it. If they split us up though, I'd leave the bureau."
"You would?"
"Yes, if I can't work with you, I don't want to be an agent. After you, nothing else would measure up."
"Thanks. You really feel that way?" She nodded. "What would you do? Open a medical practice?"
"Too tedious and time consuming. No, I think I'd probably try to become a medical examiner or something and work regular hours doing autopsies. Then I could take time off and travel with you if you had to split with some new partner to parts unknown."
"You've really given this some thought.
"Yes. Some of it before we...before this weekend." I smile in response. She is so cute in her awkwardness. It is a rare thing to see and I drink it in with my eyes. Thoughts of me can make her shy. That knowledge just gives me a warm fuzzy."
"God, how I wish that I had known."
"Yes, well, you said it earlier, Mulder, we just have to look to the future."
"Fox."
"Oops. Fox."
"Actually, it really only matters to me when I'm touching you."
"Yeah, we'll have to be careful not to slip at work."
"Yeah, that could be tough." I raised my O.J. glass. "A toast, to the future, Dana. I really feel like I have one now."
"To the future, Mulder. Ophelia is definitely cured."