Scully laughed as Mulder’s fingers dove for her ribs. “Mulder, stop it!”

“I don’t think so, Scully…”

The tickling went on for what seemed like hours as Scully tried to kick and beat him away from her. Mulder got a little careless and one of her flailing legs caught him in a terribly sensitive spot. He collapsed onto the bed with incoherent groans, curling up protectively and closing his eyes tightly.

Once the pain subsided to a dull throb, he stayed there, expecting her soothing hands and voice to come any moment with an apology. But they didn’t. He opened one eye carefully to see her face flushed, her hand clasped over her mouth, her eyes tight shut and her shoulders shaking with what sounded like muffled sobs.

“Hey… hey, Scully, it’s okay…” he said quickly. They had joked that they knew each other’s pain, but this was a little over the top. “I’m all right, really.”

At that, her hand slipped down to grasp her bare shoulder as she drew in ropy breaths. It was then that his concern for her turned into indignation.

She was laughing at him.

Laughing so violently and uncontrollably that her face was actually turning purple from lack of oxygen. He’d never seen her this way, and had it not been at his expense, he might have thought it terribly amusing.

“And just what is so funny?” he demanded. “I am in serious pain here – your fault, I might add – and you’re laughing at me!”

“My fault!” she managed to gasp. She shook her head, correcting, “Your fault!”

“It was not,” he maintained, trying to hold onto a shred of dignity, considering he was completely nude and vulnerable, being laughed at by a women he’d made love to only scant minutes before.

She finally managed to calm her laughter down to girlish giggling, sliding down beneath the sheets and pulling them up over her nose, her blue eyes peeking mischievously over the top.

He sighed with resignation and relaxed against the pillows.

“Mulder?”

Her voice was curious, with a slight upward intonation at the end that meant she had something in contemplation she wanted to spring on him.

“Yeah, Scully?”

“Let’s talk.”

Well that was odd. “What do you mean?”

“I mean… every time we try to have a serious conversation, we end up … here.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, except I’d like to talk, and now seems like the perfect time.”

“Why?”

She gave him a “you-must-be-joking” look and smirked. “I’d say you’re gonna be out of commission for at least twenty minutes, you big baby.”

Mulder pouted, but relinquished. This could be fun. “All right. What do you want to talk about?”

“Our sex life.”

His eyebrows went up into his hairline at that. “Why, Agent Scully!”

“Shut up, Mulder.”

“I thought you said you wanted me to talk…”

“Oh God. You’re impossible.”

“Impossible?”

“Difficult.”

“Difficult?”

“Hard to live with.”

“Oh I’m hard all right.”

“Mulder, shut up.”

“And here we are again, right back where we started.”

She chucked a pillow at him, which he caught and held in his lap. “So, Agent Scully, where shall we begin? A trip down memory lane?”

“Oh that might be fun.”

“Remember the first time?”

“Oh do I! How could I forget?” Mulder’s face started glowing. And then… “You left me high and dry halfway through!”

She almost laughed as his face literally fell with shock. “I did not!”

“You did so! You jerked off, fell asleep, and left me hanging.”

A shadow crossed Mulder’s face and he looked genuinely distressed. “I did?”

She nodded once, firmly. “Yes you did.”

He blushed then, truly chagrined. “Scully, I… I’m sorry…”

She laughed. “You don’t remember that?”

He shook his head vehemently. “No, I swear! I remembered it as being… well, perfect.”

“Well I mean it wasn’t the worst experience of my life.”

“Not the worst? You mean you’ve been treated worse than that? Worse than the guy falling asleep on you?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Really? By whom?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Okay, so maybe you’re right. But how? That I do want to know, out of pure curiosity.”

Scully bit her lip. “Well… one guy… in college… it was over almost before it began… he was in and out in like a half second almost… it was rough, it hurt, and then he told me I was enough to turn a man gay…”

Mulder sat straight up in bed. “What!? And you didn’t chop his balls off for that?”

Scully laughed weakly. “No… I was… I was too drunk to even sit up at that point…”

Mulder nearly jumped off the bed at that. “You were drunk? Then… Scully… he raped you!”

“No, no he didn’t,” she shook her head. “I… he … he was the captain of the swim team… and I had wanted him for awhile… I went to that party with plans to lay him… but… I was too scared and had to get drunk first.”

She looked down at her hands, not speaking for awhile. Then she glanced up at Mulder, her eyes sad and bright at the same time. “So I don’t mind being left unsatisfied once or twice, as long as it’s done by someone I love, and who loves me back.”

He leaned over and kissed her cheek softly. “I am sorry.”

“For what?”

“Well… for… the first time, and for the guy in college.”

“It’s not your fault, Mulder… well, okay, so maybe the first one was. But definitely not my stupid college decisions.”

“Okay. Well, I mean, you did get me back the next day.”

“How?” she demanded, glad to once again get back into their light sparring.

“How? You don’t remember that hideous insult? And I was trying to be sensitive and romantic!”

“Oh… you mean…”

“Yes, I mean!”

“Well, I’m sorry, Mulder but that was just a silly question.”

“Why was it a silly question? I wanted to know if you’d rather be called Dana. I know of no other couples who call each other by their last names.”

“We’re unique. I like it that way. Besides. What was the insult again? I’m not sure I quite remember it.”

“Like hell you don’t.”

“It was something like… I said that you didn’t have to call me Dana because I wasn’t going to call you Fox… since you didn’t even like your mother to call you Fox…”

“And I told you that you weren’t my mother.”

Scully snickered. “And that’s when I told you I was glad you realized that, otherwise I would have had to call you Oedipus.”

“See? You were mean.”

“Not really.”

“I think you were.”

“Well I still think it’s repulsive that you could even think of your mother while we were in bed.”

“I didn’t think of her while we were in bed!”

“Oh yes you did. Where do you think that conversation took place? The morning after. We hadn’t even gotten up yet.”

“And you were still pissed at me… I couldn’t figure out why, I thought it was because you thought we’d ruined the friendship… now I know it was just cos I was a bad lay.”

“You were still the sexiest man I’d ever laid.”

“Really? You think I’m the sexiest man you’ve ever laid?”

She could practically see his chest swelling with pride. “Well, I mean, yeah. The guy in college was the first, and I mean, obviously I had to get drunk before I’d sleep with him… Daniel was next, no big competition there… and then there was you.”

“You’d only slept with two guys before me?”

“Yep.”

“What about Jack? And Ed Jerse?”

“Oh God, Mulder, you don’t think I actually slept with Ed Jerse?”

“Well, I mean…”

“Well, what about you? What about all those chicks on cases?”

“Hey, we weren’t talking about that.”

“Well we are now.”

“Well I don’t want to.”

“Why not.”

“Because. It’s just… not something I feel comfortable with.”

They fell silent for a minute, not looking at each other. Mulder felt the bed shift and felt anticipation growing in his belly, certain that she was going to lean over and kiss him. But when he felt no contact from her, he peeked out of the corner of his eye to see her moving to get out of the bed.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“You stopped talking,” she told him rather coldly. “So I assumed the conversation was over.”

“No, wait… Scully…” She turned away from him and walked toward the bathroom. “Scully, wait! Dana, please.”

She turned then.

“Dana?” she asked delicately, arching an eyebrow.

“I… I had to get your attention…” he floundered. “I’m sorry… I’ll… talk… just, please don’t leave me.”

The look in his eyes was so tragic that she felt herself softening, and began slowly coming back toward the bed. “Mulder, I’m never going to leave you. You know that. I would never leave you, ever.” She wasn’t addressing her immediate actions, for she knew that subconsciously he hadn’t been either.

He was still scared he didn’t deserve her and she was going to wake up and realize that someday.

“You know you’re right,” she said finally, addressing his unspoken thoughts. “You don’t deserve me.” She held up her hand to stop whatever comment he thought he was going to make on that. “But in some twisted way, you do deserve me based simply on the merit of your need for me. You need me, Mulder. I know you do. You need me like I need you. We couldn’t live without each other.”

He nodded, slowly, then licked his lips. < Oh, that’s not fair! > she thought. < That’s my job… licking that lovely lower lip… >

“So, do you really want to know about all my past relationships?” he asked with obvious trepidation.

“No, not really,” she answered smilingly. “Just so long as I’m not eventually included in that long list.”

“Long? How do you know it’s long?”

“Well, it’s long by my standards. I mean, okay, let’s name them. Diana, Phoebe, Detective White, Bambi,” she spat out the name with disgust. “That… that wolf woman… Kristin Kilar…”

“Wait, how’d you know about Kristin?”

“Read the file.”

“That wasn’t in the file,” he accused.

She blushed. “You talk in your sleep,” she murmured finally.

He blanched. He hadn’t remembered having any dreams of Kristin after he’d started sleeping with Scully. God he hoped he hadn’t said anything incriminating! “What… what did I say?” he asked, licking his lips again, which were suddenly dry.

Fortunately for Scully, he had no idea what that did to her. Her eyes were rather transfixed on his mouth. She shook herself. “You were in the middle of another nightmare… I could tell, because you were nearly squeezing the breath out of me, holding me like you’d die if you let go.”

“I would,” he said softly.

She chose to ignore that for the time being and continued. “Anyway, you were mumbling at first, and I couldn’t really understand you… but then I could tell you were talking to me. You were apologizing to me for sleeping with Kristin while I was missing. You said it made you feel terribly guilty every time you thought about it, but you couldn’t forget it.”

Mulder looked away, refusing to meet her eyes.

“Hey, look at me,” she told him, finally coming back to the bed and kneeling on it, turning his face to hers with one finger. He complied, and again his eyes were so tortured that she wanted to cry. “Listen to me. I love you.” He began shaking his head in weak protest, his eyes filling with tears. “No, listen! I love you so very much.” He looked away again, so she took his face in both her hands and forced him to look at her.

“Pay attention, this is very important.” He complied, reluctantly. When she was sure she had his full attention, she enunciated very slowly, “I forgive you.”

She knew it wouldn’t do any good to tell him that it didn’t bother her. He wouldn’t want to hear that, and besides, it was a lie.

But she didn’t hold it against him, and that’s what he needed to know.

“Thank you,” he said softly.

“So. Fox.”

He glared at her. “Yes, Mom?”

“Ew!” she protested, whacking him playfully with a pillow.

He caught her wrists and held her, kissing her soundly on the mouth. “What, Dana?”

“How ya feeling? All better now?”

He looked thoughtful. “Actually,” he said, covering a yawn. “I think I’m all talked out.”

She struggled against his vice-like grip on her wrists, trying to smack him. “No, no sir. You are not going to sleep on me this time,” she giggled.

He growled ferally and rolled her under him, still holding her wrists captive between their chests. “I am gonna be the best lay you ever had,” he told her in a wicked, husky tone.

She smiled and kissed the tip of his nose. “You already are,” she said softly. As he nuzzled into the curve of her neck and shoulder, nipping and sucking, he thought he heard her murmur, "Of course, that's not saying much."

He pulled back quickly so he could look at her sharply. "Wha..." he began, obviously hurt and a little trepidatious.

"Oh shut up Mulder," she laughed as she pulled his head down forcefully to meet her lips. "You're mine. Don't think, just kiss."

His laughter was wicked, delighted. "Hey Scully--"

"I said shut up. Now kiss me, Mulder."

The End

*~“You see in the end, our truest opinions are not those we have never changed. They are those to which we have most often returned.” (-The Misadventures of Margaret) ~ *