"Snapshot 20:Pillowtalk" Disclaimer: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, and any other tangentially mentioned characters were created by Chris Carter, and remain the copyrighted property of him, TenThirteen Productions, and Fox Television, a unit of 20th Century Fox, Inc. All characters are used without permission, and no infringement is intended. Archivists : Sure. Just make sure to keep my email address and this entire text as is without changes. Feedback : Please. Positive, negative, what have you. Address is drambo@sonic.net Summary : The chapter title says it all, folks. This is a short little one about Our Favorite Duo's first night in the new house. Classification : MSR Rating : PG Geographical Note : There is no Court County in Montana, to the best of my knowledge, nor is there a town called Pave Creek. Readers that hail from Big Sky Country, I have created the entire town, it's population and customs out of whole cloth for the needs of this story. I have put Pave Creek in a place where there is no city, or if there is one there, it doesn't show up on my Rand McNally map. :) Enjoy! ----------------------------------------- 22 Mon Bar Road Pave Creek, Montana 0451 Hours Mulder was dreaming. He knew he was dreaming, but that didn't make a difference at the moment. What he could see, or what he thought he could see, was hazy, hard to make out. He was running down a beach that he had never been on before, and because he wasn't wearing any shoes, the sand was burning his bare feet. In the dream, he was out of breath; he could tell that he'd been running for a while. He could see his destination ahead, but no matter how hard he ran, he couldn't make up any distance. Samantha. He could see her, waving at him. She was older now, and she was waving frantically at him, making "Come on!" gestures with her arms. Oddly, in the dream, Sam was surrounded by suitcases, as if she'd been on a very long trip, as Fox knew she had. In the dream, Fox tried running harder, but he felt tired, out of breath...drained. A voice to his left, in the dream, called out. Without stopping, he turned and looked towards the water. Scully. Dana was in the water, floundering. She was screaming at Mulder, begging him to save her, to rescue her from the water. Something was pulling at her, pulling Scully under the waves. She would vanish for a second, her head vanishing beneath the water, and then she would pop up again, a garish jack-in-the-box, her arms waving harder and harder, her screams growing more and more frantic as she started to lose the battle with whatever was dragging her under. Mulder stopped running. He looked at Samantha, then back at Dana. Sam wasn't waving anymore. She was pointing towards the water, motioning Fox to go after Dana, to save her. Mulder turned back towards the water. Dana was gone. He turned and ran towards the water, stripping his shirt off, and then, in the odd logic that seemed to exist only in dreams, he was naked and in the water, floating, is arms waving back and forth across the surface of the water to keep him afloat; he couldn't feel the bottom, and as he turned to look for Scully, the beach vanished. He was in the middle of the ocean, with no land in sight, and he was tired, so, so tired. He just wanted to close his eyes and float, drift away to whatever came next. It would be so easy, the dreaming Mulder thought. So easy just to close my eyes and forget about everything. Sam appeared in the water, still fully dressed. Mulder noticed with that odd clarity that only existed in dreams that Sam was wearing Scully's small gold cross. When she spoke, it was with Dana's voice. "Don't stop, Fox. Don't stop looking." He tried to answer her, tried to tell Sam/Dana that he had to make a decision, and that Scully had been in immediate danger, that he had to save her. His mouth wouldn't work. He willed himself to speak, to open his mouth and talk, but the harder he tried, the harder it became. "Rescue her," Samantha said, and then her face morphed in front of his eyes, and it was Dana again, naked, swimming, her eyes filled with fear. "Rescue me!" she screamed, and went under again. "NO!" Mulder screamed, snapping awake and sitting upright in bed. He was panting with the fear and exertion of the dream, his body bathed in sweat. Scully was there, awake, moving to him, her arms coming around his shoulders from the side. "What is it?" she asked groggily. "A dream?" "Nightmare," he affirmed, his voice shaky. "God...it was so real!" "Shhhh," Scully said. "Shhhh...everything's all right. I'm here, Mulder." "You were drowning," he whispered. "In the water. Naked. You were Samantha, and then you were you and then you were both of them, and you were drowning..." "Shhhh...it's over now." Slowly, Mulder lowered himself back to the bed. He turned, his arms coming around Scully. She was nude. He felt her pressing against him, her soft, warm body molding against his perfectly. He sighed, releasing the last of the demons. "Now you know why I sleep on the couch," he joked. Scully smiled in the darkness. "I always knew why, Mulder." "God, I hate sleeping in beds sometimes." Her hands were stroking him softly, teasing the hair on his chest. "Want to tell me about it?" "About what I dreamed, or about what it meant?" "Either. Both." He considered it for a second. "Not right now." Scully nodded against his chest, accepting his decision. "Then hold me, Mulder, OK? Just hold me and forget about the demons of the night." "Oooh, Scully...very slick. I like that. The demons of the night." Silently, they held each other, drawing warmth and comfort from the closeness. Mulder closed his eyes again, unable to believe how lucky he was. Having a naked Scully in bed next to him was just as perfect as life could get. He let his hand slide from the middle of her back down to her buttocks, cupping the warm, supple skin. "Have I ever told you what a great ass you have?" She chuckled. "No." "A terrible oversight. You have an incredible, Grade-A, one-of-a- kind butt, Scully." "Why, thank you, kind sir." He felt her hand mirror his actions, felt her nails lightly scratching him on the tush. "Not too shabby yourself, Mulder." They smiled at each other. "This is nice," Mulder announced. "Why wouldn't it be?" Dana wanted to know. "That's not what I meant," he explained. "I mean...well, when we started....when we became lovers, there was so much pent-up passion, so much strangled emotion that we were expressing for the first time that we usually just collapsed after making love. This seems like the first real quiet time that we've had since this started. It's just nice being here and holding you." Scully smiled wider. "Are you telling me that the famous, no...the notorious Fox William Mulder is a closet snuggler?" "Yo," Fox said, "don't be dissing my snuggling." "Oh, anything but," Scully said softly. "Anything but that." "We never did decide all that important stuff." "Oh...right. Well, where did we go on our honeymoon?" Mulder snuggled closer, wanting to wrap Scully's body around him like a blanket. "Where do you want to go?" Scully felt the warmth of his embrace, the gentleness of his touch, and gave the only answer that came to her mind. "I'll go anywhere with you, Mulder. Where do you want to go?" He laughed softly in the early-morning darkness. "Well, wherever it is, I want to make sure that there's no X-file lurking around the corner. How about Japan?" "Japan?" "Sure...you'd fit right in. Everyone over there is your height." "Very funny, Mulder. Hilarious." She punched him, gently, on the shoulder. "How about Greece?" she suggested. "Hm...Italy! Venice!" "London!" "France!" "Australia!" "Wow...well, we need to come up with something...." "Well, where..?" Softly, he said, "Well, when we get married, where do you want to go?" The room was suddenly very silent. Mulder could hear the soft ticking of the clock on his bedstand. "Mulder...." she started, her voice soft and very small. "Scully...let's be real about this. It may not happen tomorrow or next week or next month. But we both know it's going to happen. We may have never actually said it out loud, but we have both known for a long time that we're going to be together forever. Let's just agree that the truth is the truth, and we can make plans." "Mulder..." He silenced her with a soft kiss, his hand sliding from her ass to her hip, and then sliding between their bodies. The backs of his fingers traced the gentle, soft swell of her tummy. "When I think about the possibility of...our child...inside you...I just....want...." "I know," Scully whispered. There was a long, long moment of silence. Finally, Scully said, quietly, "Yes." "Yes? Yes what?" She grinned. "Mulder, you are such a guy sometimes. Don't you know that I just agreed to marry you?" "Good thing, considering we're already married." "Mulder...David and Karen Edwards are married. This is Dana Scully agreeing to marry Fox Mulder, you dolt." Now it was Mulder's turn to be silent. Finally, all he could think to say was, "Thank you." "Thanks for asking." "Thanks for saying yes." "Mulder, I said yes years ago. You just hadn't asked yet." He grinned. "I asked years ago. You just didn't hear me." "Oooh, our first fight," Scully teased. They fell silent again. They snuggled closer. "What is your favorite color, anyway?" Mulder asked. "Blue." "Hmm...maroon for me." "Favorite musical group?" "Don't laugh." "At you? Never." "The Village People." She felt the tremors in his body as he tried to contain the laughter. "Oh, go ahead," she finally said, and Mulder burst out laughing. "The Village People? Why on EARTH?" "Well...that song. `In The Navy.' My father loved that song. Until I told him about...the Village People. On his last command, the Farragut, he used to play that song over the ship's PA system as a motivation tool for the crew. When I told him about the group... oh my God, it was the funniest thing you could ever imagine, Mulder." "I could see Ahab being a little...upset at discovering the alternative lifestyle choices that he was advocating by proxy." "Upset is an understatement, Mulder. He never heard the end of it from Melissa." "I can imagine." They fell silent. "Who's your favorite group?" she asked. "Harry Chapin, I guess. I know he's not a group..." "That's OK. Favorite song?" "Too hard to pick. `Taxi.' Maybe `Sequel.'" "Movie?" "Star Wars." "I might have guessed." "What's your favorite movie, Scully?" "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid." Again, Mulder was stunned. "What?" "That leap off the cliff, the ending. That great line when Butch blew up that train. `Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?'" "Author," Mulder asked. "Patricia Cornwell." "Might have guessed," Mulder admitted. "No, don't tell me...let me guess," Scully said, her hand flat against his chest, her fingernails tapping his skin. "Whtiney Striber." "Good guess, Scully, but wrong." "Oh! I know! I know! Robert Heinlein!" "Right...how'd you-?" "Because you must have read `Stranger in a Strange Land' about six thousand times since we met." "Only about five-thousand, six hundred-" "Stop it. You know what I mean." "Television show," Mulder prompted. "Hmm...don't get a chance to watch much TV. I'd have to say `NYPD Blue.' Jimmy Smits....mmmmmm...tasty." "Tasty? If he's `tasty' what does that make me?" "He's a snack, Mulder. You're a meal. A buffet." "Sure...pay one price, come back as often as you want." "You know it, pal. What's your favorite show? No sports." "Hmm...hard one. Nova, I guess." "Boring, Mulder. Very boring." "Play," he prompted. "`Our Town.'" "Figures. Wilder." "You?" "`Speed The Plow.'" "Madonna or Jessica?" "Jessica, of course." They fell silent one more time. "Well, I guess that's enough for now." "We never made the decision about the honeymoon, Mulder." "Wherever you want to go, Scully." "Greece it is," she said. They snuggled tighter, and slowly fell asleep, Mulder first. Listening to his even, steady breathing in the darkness, Scully felt a sense of peace and contentment stealing over her as she drifted off and joined him in slumber. ------------------------------------- END CHAPTER 20 End Note - Missing Chapters & Mailing Lists - If you are on my mailing list for "Snapshots" and wish to be, please send a email from any feedback you may or may not care to give. The SUBJECT of this email should be "SUBSCRIBE" without the quote marks. My thingie will take care of it from there. I'm trying to automate this because I get between 30 and 40 requests for missing chapters every day, and I want desperately to keep up with the volume. So, if you are missing a chapter, I will please ask as nice as I can for you to send a separate email message for each chapter you are requesting, with the subject line as "Request 01" or "Request 03" or "Request 09" or whatever. Please remember to have a TWO DIGIT chapter number. My autoresponder thingie that I wrote myself only likes two-digit numbers. Since there ain't no freakin way I'm gonna be able to write more than 99 chapters, we should be fine. If, however, you don't mind getting a big-ass ZIP file with chapters to date in a single zip file (the zip file expands to 16 separate files,) send an email message with "REQUEST 00" as the subject line, again . The .ZIP file was created with a Unix version of ZIP, but it WILL unzip with DOS PKUNZIP 2.04g or WINZIP. I have tried it myself and it works. Macintosh users, you are currently out of luck as far as the .ZIP file goes unless you have a utility you KNOW works on DOS/Unix ZIP files and want to try anyway. :)