Defying Gravity

After a fruitless day of bagging evidence, looking for prints, and yelling at other officers, Mulder and Scully came up with nothing, and the only lead was the mysterious biker Mulder had seen.

By the time Scully got home she was exhausted, she and Mulder had grabbed some chinese and she went to bed leaving Mulder sitting placidly on the couch remote in hand. Once she got in bed, however, she tossed and turned for hours contemplating the events of the past couple of days. She conceded defeat and went into the kitchen for some water and to finish typing her notes for her report. She was at the tap when she heard a small sound behind her. She instinctively reached behind her for her weapon, not finding it there she looked around the kitchen for something to use for a weapon, but she was too late.

"Damn it, Scully," he growled hoarsely "Tell me when you are going to wander around in the middle of the night!"

She was startled by the picture he presented more then by what he had said. There in the middle of her kitchen was Mulder in his boxer/briefs he wore, feet spread apart for balance, and his Smith and Wesson pointed at her head. He was a man ready for battle, it was such a contrast from the 'city-boy in suits' image he usually presented her with, that it made her gasp.

He was still talking to her she realized and she tried to concentrate on what he was saying rather then his physique. "When I found your bed empty I thought...Never mind what I thought. Hell!" he exclaimed as his hand visibly tightened on the hilt of his gun and Scully could see that he was making an effort to relax.

"Sorry. I couldn't sleep. Why did you check my bed,Mulder?" she asked.

"Because I heard noises and went to see if you were okay."

"I'm fine, just restless." she then preceded to buzz around the kitchen, getting herself a cup of cacao. She stopped in the middle of her ministrations to ask if he wanted a cup.

"Sure." He said still a little shaken. He then set his gun on the table and put his head between his hands and sighed. < God, how she had given him a scare tonight. > He looked up at her and watched as she made hot chocolate. She made it the old fashioned way, he discovered, none of the vanillaiated stuff in the packages. She went about in her usual methodical way of things, never missing a step and making sure everything was just right.

She set the cups on the table and sat down not looking up at him, she started going through the mail.

He was still watching her. She was wearing her maroon satin pj's and her white terry-cloth robe. Her hair was rumpled by the tossing and turing of restlessness. God she was so beautiful even now in the middle of the night. She was so strong in the face of this danger. Why then was he so scared. It must come from habit, he thought all throughout their partnership she was always being taken by some unseen force leaving him to wonder. Now in the face of this new enemy she didn't even flinch. How did she do it? he wondered to himself. How can she stay so damn calm while all they can do is wait for this person to take *his* Scully away. He was never good at waiting, but now he had someone to wait with and all of a sudden the situation didn't seem so helpless to him. he watched as her hand came to a manilla envelope and turn it to see who it was from.

"Huh, no return address." she muttered.

The minute she said that Mulder stood saying "Don't touch that" She dropped the envelope surprised as watched as he grabbed a napkin out of the drawer and proceed to open the envelope.

"My God" was all Scully could manage when she read the letter.

AGENT SCULLY,YOUR BEAMS DESTROYED MY GRAVITY SO THE COMPUTERS CAN TAKE OVER MY MIND. I STOPPED THEM. IF YOU START AGAIN I WILL STOP YOU FOREVER.

"Mulder?"

He made no answer, but looked disturbed and instinctively put his arm around Scully's shoulders.

"What do you make of this?" she asked.

"Well..." he said going back his investigator's frame of mind. "This could be the work of many things, It could be just a red herring, meant to divert us from something bigger or it could be the work of a sick mind in this case- a paranoid schizophrenic."

"I agree, this person definitely seems to be paranoid, which is a common delusion among schizophrenics-thought insertion is also another trait, the thought of someone or something putting thought in his mind gaining fear of these voices that causes him to react to these fears and trying to destroy them. Also if you ask family members of schizophrenics they say the sufferer is really quite normal and rational, they live their lives and carry on with life just like you or I. It's the delusion they are under that makes others belive they are insane otherwise they are perfectly sane."

She said her scientist way of telling him the facts like a text book always amazed him, and for some reason never failed to turn him on. Noticing that was still in his underwear and that she was having an effect on him he tried to cover the part of his anatomy that held the tell-tale signs of arousal."Yes, but aside from that fact, this guy still believes he's hearing voices,or" he added quickly "he is under the delusion that he's hearing voices that are telling him to act out his fears, and those fears are us or more precisely you since I don't happened to mentioned in the letter."

"I'm fine, Mulder. Really I am." She said it as if it were a reflex.

But despite her words Mulder knew she feared this guy and so did he. "Well, no matter what I'm not leaving your side, not after this."

"Fine." she said in no mood for an argument. She walked back to her bedroom,leaving Mulder at the table looking after her. "And Mulder if you cook those eggs again tomorrow, I'll kill you. She said going back to bed.

The Next Morning

Today was Saturday, she loved Saturdays, a day to lie around the house and do nothing. As he had promised Mulder did not make eggs and wake her up with the noise of it. She got up and padded down to the kitchen for some coffee, indeed Mulder was not even awake yet, but at her kitchen table a sleep just as she had left him the night before. He must have fallen asleep after she had gone to bed, she mused. She saw his prone form lying with his head crocked to one side lying on his arms and his weapon still in his hand. He looked so childlike and peaceful there, just sleeping on her table. She walked over to him and smoothed a stray lock of his brown hair away from his forehead, she was surprised when a slow smile crept it's way to his face and then it relaxed in sleep. < Mulder, smiles in his sleep. > she thought, and that made him appear even more childlike and that thought was something she never really considered about him. It was all too easy to remember when she had known she loved him, it was that night on the stakeout for Tooms. That night was permanently branded in her mind and heart. Though she knew she could never express her love she loved him anyway. But as he had said in that hotel room on their first case together, nothing else mattered to him except finding out the truth. She had seen the passion for the search to find the truth many times and hoped to see many more it was one of the many things she admired in him, the strength and passion that has driven him on this quest was so strong and though she had seen his faith waver from time to time it was always there just underneath the surface.

She mused and thought as she made the coffee, lost in reminisceance, she did not notice e that Mulder had awakened.

"G'morning," he said, smiling at the picture he had woken up to. There was Scully absently stirring a cup of coffee, apparently lost in thought.

She jumped, startled by the voice of the man she thought asleep.

"Hi." she said and smiled back at him.

He stretched and yawned a little. "Mmmm. That smells good." he said as she placed a cup of coffee in front of him. "So what is on the agenda for today?" he asked.

"Hopefully nothing though I do have house work to do." she said as she sat there on this morning, her and Mulder together.