Title: Happiness - The Adjustment Period
Author: shawntaw
Category: MSR, AU
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Still not mine and not likely to be anytime in the future.

Summary: The rumors are flying...

Previous stories in this series or WIP (I'm not up on the 
terminology*L*):

"Happiness"
"Happiness - The Morning After"
"Happiness - The Secret"
"Happiness - The Secret II"

This one is the most serious so far, but by no means SERIOUS. If ya 
know what I mean..



Note To Mayle: "The Truth is out there." 
Thanks for the heads-up!:)

**********************************************

The rest of the day was strange. Everywhere she went, people 
commented on her ring.

"Oh, what a pretty ring, Agent Scully!"

"Wow! Is it your birthday?"

"Who got you the lovely ring, Agent Scully?"

She was beginning to regret wearing it. 

Scully hadn't thought to concoct a cover story for the obvious 
addition to her jewelry and so spent the time stuttering "Thank you," 
and "No, it isn't my birthday," and "Oh, a-a friend gave it to me."

She didn't realize it would be such a big deal.

The rumor mill was spinning.

******************************************************

Mulder was getting annoyed.

Anonymous e-mails kept appearing on his computer account.

Well-meaning people telling him that Agent Scully had reportedly put 
in for a transfer and did he know?

Well-meaning...right.

Interested parties speculating that Agent Scully was secretly engaged 
and was leaving the F.B.I. and did he know?

*Sigh*

One from someone who wanted him to know that there was a betting pool 
on whether HE was the one that gave the ring to Agent Scully or not 
and whether it meant something or not, and did he know?

Mulder ground his teeth together.

****************************************************

Scully and Mulder worked in silence in the basement office.

It had been a long week. A slow week in terms of cases, but a week 
full of paperwork and flying innuendo from practically every agent 
they came into contact with in the halls of the J.Edgar Hoover 
building.

Scully's computer dinged.

She stretched her back from where she'd been hunched over an expense 
report, took off her glasses, pinched the bridge of her nose, and 
leaned over to her computer screen to see who the e-mail was from.

She had already decided if it was from "Anonymous" she was going to 
delete it.

It was from Kimberly, A.D. Skinner's secretary.

Scully clicked on it, curiously.

The message was short and to the point:


"Agent Scully, please see attached. I think you and Agent Mulder 
will find it very enlightening. However, I have been asked to tell 
you that an UNOFFICIAL bias still exists and would recommend 
discretion in the extreme if you wish to retain your current 
situation.

Kim "


Scully read the attached with a swiftly arching eyebrow.

Kim was right. Very interesting reading, indeed.

And Scully knew who the source of the information was, even without 
big hint of who was Kimberly's boss - Skinner. His fingerprints were 
all over this. She smiled warmly at her new view of the man.

She wrote a brief message of her own to Mulder, attached the e-mail 
from Kim and sent it.

She then composed a quick thank-you message to Kim and sent it as 
well before shutting down her computer for the day.

Mulder's computer dinged.

He lifted his lanky legs from the top of his desk and put them on the 
floor in front of them. He put down the files he'd been reading and 
sneered suspiciously at his computer through his glasses.

"I swear, if I get one more e-mail today, I'm gonna throw the 
computer in the trash can."

Scully smiled and waited patiently as she watched Mulder's eyes widen 
in surprise when her name appeared as the sender.

He leered suggestively at her. "I wonder what kind of e-mail my 
partner could be sending me-" he waggled his eyebrows at her as he 
opened it.

His face went from surprised, to serious, to pleased and back to 
serious again.

"Well," he said, leaning back in his chair and putting his legs back 
on top of his desk. He crossed them slowly at the ankles and 
regarded Scully across the room where she sat primly with her hands 
clasped over her crossed knees.

"Well," she said back.

"So, there's no OFFICIAL policy against assigned partners getting 
married," he said to the air.

"Looks that way," Scully responded.

"But they could screw us over if we push it. Try to find a way to 
separate us. Suddenly need you at Quantico. Suddenly need my 
services at the VCU. Perhaps even use it as an excuse to shut down 
the X-files, saying that our relationship is adversely affecting our 
work. Am I reading this right?"

"Looks that way," Scully repeated.

"So, really, it changes nothing," Mulder said with a sigh.

"Not unless we are willing to make a big fuss about it legally," 
Scully agreed.

The two looked at each other, deep in thought when a knock came at 
the door.

"Fox? Are you in there?" The doorknob began to turn and the leggy 
brunette strode in.

It was Diana.
****************************************************

AND THE SAGA CONTINUES...:) I KNOW IT IS A LITTLE SHORT, BUT I 
THOUGHT - SUSPENSE-WISE - THAT THIS WAS A GOOD PLACE TO 
PAUSE..ANTICIPATION IS HALF THE FUN!:)