Spoilers: very slight "E.B.E.," "Tooms" and "Nisei" (sorta) spoilers, "War of the Coprophages"

     Time Frame: Anytime after "Nisei" but before "Leonard Betts" when so much about their relationship got so serious.

     Rating: PG for UST

     Disclaimers: Fox Mulder and Dana Scully belong to Chris Carter, 1013 Productions and the Fox Network. I am just borrowing them cuz they're so darn entertaining.

     Note: This was the first story I ever wrote, two years later I went back and re-read it and decided that it needed a lot of work. So I am reposting a completely revised version. If you've read the original story, I hope you will check this one out and perhaps find it a bit more entertaining.

     Archive: Anywhere you want as long as I get credit :)

     Comments? Questions? Love Notes? Flames of 6th Degree Burns? Insane Musings on Cancer Man? Send 'em here -- arabian@ite.net

     The car was a non-descript blue and make, begging not to be noticed. It wasn't, standing out on the nearly empty street no more than the lampposts did. The car lights were out and there was no moon so one would have to walk fairly close to the vehicle to even notice its two occupants.

     Agent Fox Mulder sat in the front seat before the steering wheel, absently chewing on some sunflower seeds. His partner, Dana Scully, tried (without success) to find a comfortable position on the passenger seat she had been slumped in for the last five and a half hours. A sigh, heavy with frustration and boredom, emerged from her lips every so often.

     "I really don't like stakeouts," she declared suddenly. "Sitting in a car for lord knows how long with nothing to do." She turned to Mulder, who'd jumped slightly when her voice rang out in the silence, "have you ever had any luck on a stakeout?"

     He yawned lazily and set the bag of sunflower seeds down between his legs. Unconsciously Scully's eyes followed the downward movement of his hands. Her mouth parted slightly as her gaze rested for a moment on the slight swelling in his pants. She flushed slightly and looked away. Not noticing, Mulder stretched, his arms reaching behind his head. He turned to his partner with a smile, "depends. You wanna hop in the back seat and make out?"

     Her eyes met his quickly, guiltily for a moment and then she took in his exaggerated leer. She released a sigh of relief. She looked out the window, shaking her head slightly and rolling her eyes.

     "Sure, Mulder," she responded dryly. She looked back at him and did her best to ignore the light that flared in his eyes for a timeless second. There was the slightest hint of a flutter in her voice when she continued, "I've never been arrested for indecent exposure."

     He let out a light laugh. "Aw Scully, you lift up my hopes," among other things, he thought wistfully to himself with an inward smile, "only to cruelly dash 'em to the ground."

     She smiled in the darkness and turned her attention back to the empty street. They sat in companionable silence for a few moments. Mulder sent a glance in her direction, admiring her profile, the soft glow of the lamplight on her red hair.

     "Scully?"

     "Hmm?"

     He was quiet for a second. The leather of the car seat squeaked as he shifted positions.

     "Mulder?" she prompted.

     "Oh," he sent a quick smile her way. "I was just wondering, curious thoughts passing through one's mind while time floats by --"

     "Mulderrr," she almost growled. He shifted his position again at the sound. "What did you want to ask me?"

     "Do you find me attractive?" he shot out.

     Scully turned towards him, her glance betraying a faint color of surprise. Mulder shifted again, turning to face her more fully, his hands folded over one another on his lap. She shook her head slightly, a smile in her voice.

     "Why?"

     "Are you avoiding my question?" He tried to make it a joke, but she could hear the note of seriousness underlying the words. His next words confirmed it. "No seriously, I wonder. Do you? I'm," he paused, and shrugged, "curious." When she didn't answer again, he added, once more going for the joke and doing a much better job of it this time.

     "I think you're awful purty, Scully," he drawled in a horrendous cowboy accent.

     She turned back to the window before answering.

     "Yeah, sure, you're cute." She smiled softly in the darkness, accurately guessing his reaction.

     "Cute?!" he cried out, mock incredulity coloring his voice. She grinned even more, fighting the laughter bubbling up inside of her. She would not encourage him.

     "Okay, okay, you're so blindingly handsome, I go weak in the knees every time I see your gorgeous visage. How's that?" She turned to look at him, her lips twitching only slightly.

     He smiled, a considering look on his face. "I like that. Yeah, blindingly handsome. Got a pen? I wanna write that down." He grinned at her.

     "I'm sure you can recall it with no problem," she responded dryly.

     His discomfort of only a few moments ago gone, Mulder rested his arm across the back of the car seat and spoke conversationally. "You know, Scully, my parents must have known ..." he left the sentence dangling in the air, waiting for her to pick up the bait, knowing she would be unable to resist.

     "Known what, Mulder?" She asked warily, knowing she would regret it.

     "They must have known," he paused, his grin transforming into that lazy, sensuous smile that never failed to turn her blood into honey, "cuz they named me Fox."

     She blinked at him, her mouth falling open. She shook her head, "Mulder!" She laughed, and then in a sudden change of subject, "Why did you let Bambi call you Fox?"

     Mulder faked sudden whiplash. Scully ignored him.

     "What? Who? Bambi?" "Very good," she shot him a quick grin, "Bambi the entomologist." She couldn't help the note of derision in her voice when she said the name 'Bambi.' She couldn't hide the note of wistful jealousy, either.

     "Oh well, that, ahem," he shifted in his seat again, squirmed is more like it. "That was because, you see, I thought that," he paused and looked out the window, away from Scully's gaze, "you know, man, woman, sexual attraction, something could happen." He looked at her quickly, a stab of guilt in his eyes, "you know," he repeated.

     She didn't respond. He looked away again.

     Valiantly he continued, sounding more and more flustered with each word. "And first names do tend to breed more of an air of intimacy than do last names."

     He turned to face her, a slight blush on his features, barely indiscernible in the darkness. "I mean, can you imagine calling out in the heat of passion, 'Oh, Scul--'" he broke off, laughing softly; the flush on his face grew in leaps and bounds. Scully felt her own face turn a bright red. They looked away from each other quickly.

     She didn't say anything. After a few moments of silence, he cleared his throat noisily and attempted another shaky laugh.

     "What I meant to say was, can you imagine calling out 'Oh, Mulder?'"

     Yes, her silent mind cried.

     "I mean, the last name just doesn't seem to flow with the," he paused, desperately trying to find the words to end this conversation. "the, uhm, act."

     She still didn't say anything. He joined in her silence. They sat there, the quiet a long vacation away from comfortable. He tapped a finger on his knee. She studied the tiny insects gathering on the windshield. They both tried to ignore the tension thickening in the air about them. They failed to do so, but they both certainly tried.

     Finally, Mulder spoke, "ah, those Freudian slips, gotta love 'em."

     Scully turned to look at him, an eyebrow raised slightly. "I thought you weren't Freudian?" she responded, her voice almost as dry and as deadpan as she had wanted it to be.

     Feeling her gaze on him, Mulder turned to look at her once more, a wry smile crossing his features.

     "Well, technically, I'm not. But . . ." his smile broadening, "he sure comes in handy every now and then."

     "That he does," Scully agreed softly.

     The darkness around them was broken by a lone car driving by. A cricket chirruped not far from them. Mulder cleared his throat again.

     "Scully?" he asked hesitantly.

     "Hmm?" she replied back just as hesitantly.

     "Did I embarrass you or just myself?" His voice sounded incredibly earnest in the dark, almost like a little boy who fears, because of a careless remark, he has lost some brownie points.

     Shaking her head, a smile, wistful and hidden in the dark played along her lips. "No, Mulder, not really." Her smile deepened and relaxed, evident in her voice now. It was okay, this was Mulder. "I've always known that you secretly lust after me."

     There was another suspended moment of silence, Scully feared that he had not taken her comment as the joke she had intended. Then she heard it, in the darkness, clearly audible in the silence, a sigh of relief emerged from the driver's side of the car.

     In mock horror, Mulder turned to her. "Damn! My cover's blown."

     She breathed her own sigh of relief.

     "You know," he continued. "Frohike, Pendrell and I get together every Friday night and compare notes. See who has the best Scully fantasy." He looked at her, a smile on his face, and said in feigned seriousness, "gotta say, Frohike has some doozies. You really outgha give him a chance."

     Scully laughed and then straightened up, shooting him a quick look. "Mulder? Pendrell? You mean Agent Pendrell from the lab? Where did he come from?"

     "You really don't know?" At her negative head shake, he sighed. "Our esteemed Agent Pendrell is one of the charter members of the "I'll-Die-Happily-For-One-Smile-From-Dana-Scully" league."

     "You're not serious," she scoffed.

     "Yesss," Mulder drawled. "He thinks you're hot, too."

     "Too?" She mentally smacked herself for the question, but found herself unable to hide the wistful note in her voice.

     Mulder caught it and held on, his voice soft, belying the light words. "Yeah, you know, Frohike thinks you're hot, too."

     Scully nodded, a silent "oh" forming on her lips. She smiled half-heartedly, "yeah, Frohike. Right."

     The partners were quiet for a few moments and then the moments were dragging into minutes. Mulder reached for the radio knob and rap music boomed in the air for a space. He played with the knob, looking for a decent station before giving up and turning it back off. A heavy silence loomed between them again, tension crackling in the air. Mulder looked over at her. She let out a deep breath, her chest rising and falling.

     He found himself riveted, unable to look away. He leaned a little closer and licked his suddenly dry lips. Scully unconsciously did the same. Mulder's eyes flitted to her lips and he felt a tightening in his nether regions. He shut his eyes tightly, demanding control of himself.

     He opened his eyes and found her sitting there, looking as delectable as she had before he'd closed them. He looked away, he had to. As he dragged his gaze from her, he noticed intently for the first time, her deliciously, form-fitting blouse. He exhaled loudly in the silent night.

     "What?" Scully breathed. She looked at him swiftly, her eyes locked on his blindingly handsome, gorgeous visage. She suddenly felt weak in the knees and her breathing became a little erratic. He turned to look at her once again and his breath caught in his throat. She was looking straight at him, her blue eyes luminous and soft, arousal clear in their depths; her lips, still stained with the rose cream of her lipstick, were moist and parted slightly. A shock of desire coursed through him. He shifted uncomfortably in the seat again.

     Shaking his head, he muttered softly beneath his breath, "what the hell."

     "Mulder?" her voice was high and slightly breathless.

     "Dana," he paused and licked his lips, finding them inexplicably dry. He took a gulping breath of air. "Dana," he repeated softly, his voice a husky whisper. "Murray and Wills should be relieving us in just a few minutes," he paused and then spoke in a rush, "why don't you come to my place when we're done here?"

     She opened her mouth to speak and then stopped. She found herself unable to tear her eyes from his. She pressed her lips together briefly before parting them once again in the barest of whispers. Her eyes locked with his.

     "Mulder ..." she trailed off, not sure of what to say.

     "Fox," he said softly in those hushed tones he only used with her. "Call me Fox, Dana."

THE END