TITLE:  Afternoon Chat
AUTHOR:  Flyin Monkey
SUMMARY:  A cup of coffee and a greatful former Genie.
SPOILERS: Big ones for "Je Souhaite" (US Season 7x21)
THANX:  A big thank you to Jean for taking an ugly,
unedited story (which I wrote around midnight) and
knocking a little bit of sense into it.

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

There was a knock on Scully's door.  It was Saturday
afternoon and she was trying to read her book.  Jinn was
standing in her hallway, looking pleasantly surprised.
Scully noted that she no longer had the blue gem below
her eye.

"I'd like to thank you for knocking sense into that
partner of yours.  I got a glimpse of that 'wish' he was
writing on his computer.  If you hadn't convinced him
otherwise, that would have been really ugly."

Scully was surprised.  "How did you know I told him not to
make that wish?"

Jinn grinned.  "You could say I was eavesdropping.
Thank you, all the same."

Scully stepped aside and motioned for her to come in.
"Would you like some coffee?"

"Yes, thank you."  Scully poured them each a cup and they
sat together on the couch.  They sipped quietly for
several moments, neither feeling inclined to break the
companionable silence.

"So are you going to tell me what his first two wishes
were?"  Jinn looked at Scully in amused surprise.

"You mean you don't already know?"

"No.  When I asked, he just turned red and avoided the
question."  Jinn laughed.  It was an amazingly sweet
laugh; it reminded Scully of the toddlers laughing in the
park.  It was the kind of laugh that made you want to
protect the laugher.

"He wished for 'Peace on Earth.'  Unfortunately, it didn't
turn out like he planned."  Scully groaned and burst out
chuckling.

"Wait, let me guess.  He suddenly discovered he was the
last man on Earth, no pun intended."  Jinn had given in
to the giggles, too.  She held up a hand to forstall
Scully's next comment.

"No, it gets better.  He tells me that he wished he
hadn't made his first wish, and then proceeds to berate
me.  The only problem is that he was standing in his
boss's office--"

"Skinner's office?  Oh my God, that must have been a sight!"

"His name is Skinner?  Well, Mr. Skinner was having some
kind of board meeting and there were several people in
the office.  He doesn't see me, so he naturally assumes
that Mulder is talking to HIM!"  Jinn had to stop talking
because she and Scully had both collapsed in a fit of
helpless giggles.

"Oh, poor Mulder..."  Scully gasped through her laughter.
"He must have been so embarrassed!"

"What's worse,"  Jinn was barely able to speak through
her mirth, "is that he didn't seem to learn anything
from the first two disasterous wishes!  He then proceeded
to try to 'beat the system' by typing it out with such
precision that it should have qualified as a legal contract!
If he'd actually made that wish, I would have felt obligated
to let my rug fall in YOUR path in hopes that you'd have
sense enough to straighten everything out!"  Jinn calmed
down and looked at Scully with confusion.  "What in the
world do you see in a guy like that?  You've stuck around
for who knows how long and put up with God knows how many
stupid stunts.  Why?"

Scully leaned back to think.  She knew that Jinn would
want something more than the brush-off she gave her
brothers and some of her co-workers.  Jinn would see through
those as being shallow cover-ups.

Watching Scully concentrate, Jinn figured out what Mulder
probably found so attractive.  When Scully was thinking,
she was oblivious to the world.  Her forehead crinkled
slightly and she looked so... focused.  From what Jinn knew
of Mulder, that probably drove him up the wall.  Scully
snapped back to reality with a sheepish grin.

"I don't really know why I'm still around.  I like the
chase, but I like the challenges even more.  I used to
be an instructor at Quantico, showing new agents what a
decent crime lab should be able to do.  When I first
found out I was transferred, I wasn't particularly
thrilled.  I wasn't against it, but I hadn't requested
the transfer.  That's the way the Bureau works sometimes.
They send your paycheck to another field office, and if
you want it you have to go to the new office to pick it up.

"I still remember the first time I walked into his office.
It was more sparsely decorated then that it is now.  He
took one look at me and figured out what it was my boss
expected me to do.  He called me a spy, and I was, though
I'm not anymore.  Now he trusts me and no one else.  On
our first case, I didn't know what to make of the facts I
was presented with.  It was all very confusing and very
frightening.  So frightening, in fact, that I fled to his
hotel room in the middle of the night, more terrified than
I had ever thought possible.  He didn't even ridicule me.
In fact, he just about poured his heart out explaining
his reason for being assigned to the X-Files."

Scully suddenly realized just how much she'd said and she
stopped and turned red.

"If you can't find one reason for my sticking with him
from all of that, I guess I could sum it up by saying,
well, that..."

"You love him."  Scully looked at Jinn in surprise.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Pretty much, yeah.  Though you do have to remember that
I've lived for a little more than 500 years and I've
gotten rather good at reading people."  They sat in
silence for several more moments.

"So, Jinn, what are you going to do with your new life?"
Jinn grinned.

"I'm going to go back to school, get a job.  Who knows?
Maybe I'll apply to work for the FBI."  Scully laughed.

"Well, I have a feeling you'd be a welcome addition to
the X-Files Division if you did.  In fact, you'd probably
be more likely to accept Mulder's theories than I would."

"I don't know.  You seemed to like the idea of an invisible
man just fine.  Watching you examine the body was like
watching a kid with a new toy."  Scully looked embarrassed.

"You were watching that?"

"Yes.  I wanted to see what you'd think of that particularly
unenlightened wish."

"I didn't think much of it.  It was really embarassing,
however, when you took the body from my LOCKED morgue just
before I brought in a team of Harvard doctors to validate
my findings."  That sent Jinn into a new fit of giggles.

"I'm so sorry!  It wasn't really my choice.  You looked
so much like a confused and broken-hearted child when you
realized the body wasn't there."  Jinn looked up at the
clock on the wall.  "Well, it's been wonderful chatting
with you, Dana, but I really must go.  I don't want to miss
a minute of my new life."

Scully escorted her guest to the door.  Once in the hallway,
Jinn paused and mentioned one more fact before waltzing down
the corridor.

"You do realize that Mulder is completely in love with you?"
Scully smiled a small, knowing smile.

"Yes."

"Good."  With that, Jinn walked out of Scully's life forever.
Scully was surprised to find that she was sad to see Jinn go.
She wished Jinn would find nothing but happiness from now on,
and it was a wish she was not afraid to make.

~End~

Feedback greatly appreciated at Scully_Dana_K@yahoo.com