Date sent: Sun, 07 Jun 1998 18:00:18 -0500

From: Claudia Simone Phillips <cphilli@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu>

Subject: "By the Water"-Lilith

"By the Water"

by Lilith

Spoilers: None really

Classification: VR, Scully/Mulder romance

Rating: NC-17

Notes, Disclaimers, etc.: see below

Summary: A find and a celebration.

"Hey there, Sleeping Beauty, wake up." I roll away

from the noise and pull the blanket tighter around me.

"Scully, come on, wake up," he pleads, shaking my

shoulders.

I push through the clouds of comfortable sleep and

peer up at him drowsily. He looks so happy. I have to

smile. I can't help it; he's infectious, we've been smiling all

day. Mulder is practically bouncing with energy, even

though it's two am and everyone else in the house is

exhausted and fell asleep hours ago. One look at his face

though and I feel my energy returning.

"Come on outside and play with me, Scully," he

requests happily.

Happy, we are both so happy that we are giddy.

And with damn good reason because you see, today we

found her. Actually, I found her but that is rather beside the

point. At the time, it struck me that I should have been

frightened, but instead I felt stronger than I've ever been,

holding her sodden body to me as she murmured confused

words into my coat.

"Mom? Is that you, Mom?"

She was so disconcerted when I pulled her out of

the water. We nearly lost her forever, but they hadn't

counted on the Mulder family's natural proclivity in the

water. She managed to swim almost all the way to shore,

which is where I found her, and waded waist deep into the

water, and resuscitated her, and her red eyes and water-

logged mind confused me with her mother. On the shore,

she grabbed my hand and kissed my cheek and said with

certainty, "It's ok now."

down by the water

{down by the water}

i took her hand

{i took her hand}

just like my daughter

{just like my daughter}

see her again

{see her again}

I could still hear that snippet of a song in the back

of my head as Mulder drew her away from me and she

started laughing with delight. And so did he. And so did I,

and in the waiting room of the hospital, we called Skinner

and his mother and the gunmen and we laughed some more.

It was only when I was standing at the foot of her bed

reading the medical charts that confirmed that she was

human and the PCRs that showed she was definitely related

to Mulder that he realized he hadn't introduced me. She

just laughed and said, "Oh, I know who she is, Fox silly."

She turned to face me. "I have a lot of things to tell you,

Dana Scully." Then we took her home, at last. She fell

asleep with her mother hours ago in the master bedroom of

this absurdly lush house.

"It's beautiful outside, Scully. Come on."

"Okay, Mulder. Let me get dressed."

He shakes his head. "No no no, Scully. No one's

going to see you but me."

That doesn't matter anymore, does it? It won't

soon. The inevitable that can't come soon enough is

hanging over us still, but now it is the anticipation of

Christmas morning and not an unpredictable cloud

formation lurking on the horizon. I smirk and throw off the

covers. He grabs my hand and we scurry down the stairs,

glancing furtively at each other like a couple of kids

sneaking out at a sleep-over and so afraid they'll get caught.

He pulls me outside, drops my hand, and runs off the porch

right into the summer rainstorm. He throws his head back

and laughs. "Isn't it beautiful, Scully?"

I have to laugh because there isn't any other

appropriate response to this question. Yes, it's beautiful.

Mulder half naked in the rain, smiling like a blissful child is

intensely beautiful. Mulder has always seemed childlike

where his sister is involved, usually in a frightened helpless

way. Tonight he is simply happy without a need to worry

about anything but his own happiness. Yes, it is beautiful.

"Scully!"

He is positively frolicking out there now. There is no

other word for it. He is spinning around in circles in the

rain, tossing his head from side to side. Droplets of water

are flung from his hair and run down his chest. I envy them.

He runs back up alongside the porch and lifts his arms up

to me and says, "Dance we me Scully." I let him lift me

from the porch and spin me around, soaking me through. I

drop barefoot onto the wet clover and I grin at him. He

grins back and pulls me tight against his chest. Without

music, we are dancing in the rain, tangoing.

He dips me low, then pulls me back up so quickly

my head spins. "Tell me I'm crazy, Scully," he shouts over

the clap of thunder.

I throw my own head back and drink a mouthful of

rain. "Mulder, you're crazy!"

He spins away into the rain again and calls back

gleefully, "I am, and I don't care!"

"Neither do I," I yell back.

"Scully, you're a wonderfully rigid angel," he

informs me, beaming at me from under the clumps of wet

hair clinging to his forehead.

"You're an impetuous, brilliant pain in the ass,

Mulder."

He seems to like this remark. He spins me around

once more and lets go of my hand. When he is in facing me

he calls out, "I love you, Scully!" I can't move. Because I

know he's serious, that he expects nothing from me, that he

merely needed to say it for the same reason he needed to

call me an angel. We both know, in the most honest parts

of ourselves, that we are free after today. His arms open

slightly and I march into them. "I love you," he repeats as I

rest my cheek against the moisture gathered on his chest.

"I know, Mulder," I say. One hand brushes my hair

away from my forehead and is replaced by his lips. He

repeats the same ritual on my cheek and my temples. Then,

at last, he kisses my mouth. Then he kisses me again, and

again, and my hands clench in his drenched hair as he leans

down to me. He pulls back and smiles at me in utter

amazement. His hands leave my shoulders and wander

down to my breasts. He cups them I feel my nipples harden

against his palms through the practically nonexistent

material of my wet pajamas. He feels it too. His reaction

against my stomach sparks a buried ember of a fire I could

never quite bring myself to douse.

"Wow," he says genuinely, as though he's truly

amazed at the effect he is having on my body. I smile at

him, lean against the support beam of the porch, and

unbutton the pajama top. I want to feel the lines of his

hands against my skin. He examines my skin inch by inch

with his eyes before he touches me again. He is staring at

my face, gauging my reactions as he runs his hands over me

experimentally, over and over me. I nod at him, praying he

won't stop. He doesn't and neither does the electric tingle

that is coursing through me. He drops his mouth to my

chest and I moan. I can't help it. Not when he's got his lips

wrapped around my nipple and he is sucking hard as his

tongue laves over the tip. Satisfied by my verbal response,

he repeats the action. The sound of his name on my lips

stops him and he takes my mouth again before he moves

downward to press his mouth into my stomach, anointing

my skins with kisses as his fingers hook into my pajama

pants.

Oh my god.

In the backyard of his parents' house, in the middle

the pouring rain, Fox Mulder is making love to me with his

mouth and I am barely able to hold onto his shoulder and

remain standing. I'm not even certain what I'm moaning.,

only that it sounds remotely like his name and god yes he is

groaning against me in response. I am shaking and there is

a fire all through me as his tongue continues to pleasure me.

I have to watch him. His eyes meet mine and I feel him

smile against me...oh. Mulder. I throw my head back,

letting the rain caress me as his hands hold me firmly against

his face and I feel my orgasm crash through me.

I drop onto his chest, still thrumming. I reach for his

nipples with my teeth. My hands are ruthless as they

explore him. I have to learn every inch of his chest, every

crevice, every line. He mutters `yes yes yes' over and over

as I strip off his pants and stroke him. "Oh god Scully."

My mouth is on him immediately. I need to hear him do

that again. He goes one better. He wraps his hands

through my hair and jumps just slightly as my tongue swirls

over him. One hand claims my breast again, kneading it as I

move up and down him.

"Scully, you're perfect," he manages after several

attempts at speech,

I lift my face from his groin and he covers it with

kisses as he rolls me beneath him. "Yes," I sigh as his

strong arms pin me to the ground. Under my back I can feel

the warmth of the earth and smell the new grass and sweet

crushed clover and above me there is nothing but Mulder's

wet eyes and the flashes of his skin in the lightening.

"Now." I am losing myself in this as my body searches for

his in the darkness, my insides pulsating.

"I love you," he reminds me as he slips inside... oh

god. I'm not even sure who's inside who anymore. I can't

localize the sensation. It feels as though my entire body is

being stroked at once as he moves languidly in and out,

caressing my face with one hand. His eyes are gleaming. I

wrap my legs around him and pull him closer, basking in it.

"More," I order breathlessly.

He is pounding me into the earth now, with quick

deft strokes that rip little gasps from my body. "Good?" he

whispers shakily as he captures my mouth for one violent

kiss.

"Mulder." I groan.

He growls. I repeat his name, he growls again,

crushing me against the grass, moving faster and faster.

"Tell me," he commands.

"Better than you expected and better than you

hoped, Mulder," I manage breathlessly, thrusting up against

him. I am close again, so soon. He leans down and nibbles

at my earlobe. "My Scully," he declares.

I am gone. Fireworks? Orchestral melody? No,

nothing so cliche could quantify this moment.

When I come back he is still moving, desperately

searching for release, whimpering slightly, his face

burrowed into my neck. "I love you, Mulder," I say and

that is all he needs. Three more quick strokes and he lets

loose a nameless cry and collapses against me.

My breath comes in quick sharp gasps as the

aftershocks wisp over me gently. Raindrops pelt my face

and run off his hair into my hands. I can feel the blades of

grass against my skin where the pajama top has clumped

away from my body. I can still feel him inside of me and

above me and around me. He is everywhere, and I like that

thought. He sighs peacefully in my ear and runs one hand

through my damp hair. I am delirious with contentment.

"Say it again, Scully?"

"I love you, Mulder."

He squirms delightfully above me before rolling us

over so that I am lounging on his chest. "You look

incredible in the rain, Scully."

"So do you, Mulder."

He almost seems embarrassed. "We should

probably go inside though."

"Yes, Mulder, we probably should. But let's stay

here just another minute," I request, kissing his chin. He

groans his assent.

A few hair strokes later, he says. "Let's go inside,

Scully. I'm sleepy."

I huff a laugh at him. "What Mulder, you don't

want to sleep out here in the rain with me?"

He laughs too. "Actually, I do. But this is a nice

neighborhood and if the area patrol man finds us here in the

morning, we're going to be in great big trouble."

"Mulder, we are in a constant sate of great big

trouble," I needle him , even as I stand up and shake back

my wet hair. We don't bother to put our soaked garments

back on. In fact, we drop them on the porch and run up to

his bedroom, towel off, dig out new cloths, and curl up

together in his childhood bed. He pulls me close to his

chest and I fall asleep with his hand over my heart.

"Fox, Fox, wake up!" I lift my sleepy head from

Mulder's chest and see Samantha standing above us, smiling

broadly. Mulder sighs and pulls me closer.

"Hey dork face!" she calls out, leaning over him.

"Get up already!" Mulder shifts again, then strikes out with

his hand and tugs playfully at her hair.

"Okay, I'm up, butt munch. I'm up."

"Hey, telling Mom you've got a real live girl in your

bed is going to be much more fun than telling her about the

girlie magazine I found in it."

Mulder chuckles. "You never told Mom cause I

bribed you with my famous marble cake. And watch it

Samantha, people who refer to Scully as a `girl' tend to end

up in hospitals."

"No one in the world makes a marble cake like you,

big brother."

I have to sit up at this. "He baked?" I ask

incredulously. Girlie magazines at twelve...that I can

believe, but baking? She smiles. "You baked? Mulder,

there's never anything but an expired milk carton in your

fridge."

"I have all kinds of secrets, Scully," he informs me

casually.

Samantha runs her eyes over us and Mulder

reluctantly throws back the blankets. "Mom's not up yet,

but I made pancakes," she adds.

Mulder makes a face and says, "Good thing I

brought a doctor." She grins and bites her lip in order not

to express her first thought. He wraps one arm around her

and says, "Come on little sister, let's get some coffee into

Dr. Scully," he suggests, holding his hand out to me.

"Yes," she says, glancing pointedly at me. "There is

so much I have to tell you."

I have a feeling I'm not going to require any coffee

to jolt my system this morning. Her voice promises truths

that are going to keep me awake for many nights to come,

but now I won't have to spend them alone.

Notes: This fanfic intended for entertainment purposes only

No infringements intended. No foxes were harmed in the

making of this story. Big thanks to the ladies at the Haven.

Song credit: PJ Harvey's "Down by the Water."

Feedback: Yes please. This is my first post, and I'm

nervous as all hell about it. Good? Bad? An embarrassment

to authors everywhere? Just let me know.

cphilli@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu