The series is as follows :

Mama Scully’s Party …. Morning … Underwears … Maps … Nachos … Foul Ball … Promises … Stay … Phone Calls … Flannel Interruption … Awakening… Friendly Compromises … Scrabble … Apart …  A Long Week … Lightning … Missing You … Interim … Stuff … Waiting … Going … Hands … Unsteady … Fear … Fast … Slow … Regardless … Into the Dark … Light … Surfboards … Curbs … Showers … Borders … Canyons … Soaked … Ice Cream … Never Happened … Deep South … Almost … Blue-Suede Shoes … Unwelcome … Remarkable … Stars … Doorbells … M&Ms … Knees ... Home

___________

The next morning really should have been awkward. It should have been quiet and stunted and embarrassing and downright pathetic.

Instead, Scully kneed Mulder in the balls.

Totally on accident of course, but it happened.

In a half-dream, Scully was chasing some bad guy who looked an awful lot like Pat Sajak when Alex Trebek took her on from the side. Sajak got away but Scully had the wherewithal to grab Trebek by the shoulders once she scrambled up and place patella against testicle in a decidedly forceful manner.

Mulder curled immediately, having been woken from some pleasant dream about working in the M&M factory. “What the fuck?!?”

Scully was awake instantaneously, knowing Mulder’s swearing anywhere, “oh, my God … shit … oh, my God, I’m sorry!” Sitting back on her heels, hand over her mouth, she watched Mulder rock back and forth, hands cupping himself, agony etched on his face. Once he slowed his groaning, she tentatively reached forward, touching his arm, “do you want me to go see if we have any ice? Maybe I can get you one of the pudding cups? It’ll be cold at least.”

Opening one eye in her direction, “I am not putting a pudding cup on my balls.”

All she could give him was a tight-lipped smile, eyebrows scrunched in sympathy, “I didn’t mean the actual pudding. I meant just while it’s in the cup.”

He cut her off, “yes, I realize you didn’t mean spreading chocolate pudding all over my parts.” Opening the other eye finally, he stopped looking like he was dying, “why the hell did you knee me? What kind of dream were you having?”

For all she’d done to him, it was the idea of telling him her dream that had her going red, “um, well, I, uh, I probably shouldn’t have watched ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Jeopardy’ while waiting for lab results last night. In the dream, I was chasing Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek blindsided me but I took Trebek down by,” indicating Mulder’s groin, “well, you were on the receiving end of my solution to that one.”

With the pain subsiding, he removed his hands, pulling himself upright, cast now hanging off the edge of the bed, “no more game shows for you, young lady.”

Scully put her hand on his knee, squeezing it lightly then patting it, “you have no idea how sorry I am.”

Crooking his finger in her direction so she’d lean forward, he kissed her, “it’s fine. I wasn’t going to be using them in the next few days anyway.”

“Are they that bad?”

Mulder reached for his crutches, twisting then grimacing, “you did a number on ‘em. I’ll be walking funny for a little while so no making jokes at my expense.”

“I would never.” Watching him swing his way to the bathroom, “if I make breakfast, can we call it even?”

The look he shot her over his shoulder made her grin.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

Another gorgeous day presented itself to them and taking advantage of it, Scully first dragged down two chairs, then Mulder, helping him as far as he could go before she told him to wait. Setting up the chairs at the edge of the waves, she held Mulder as she undid his boot, then carefully helped him lower his foot into the sand, cold waves lapping at his toes.

He dropping his head back against the chair, looking up at her, “this feels so good, you have no idea.”

“I thought it might.” Sitting down next to him, “figured you might want to be able to say you were in two oceans as well.”

“Three, Scully. Three oceans.”

“I’m not having that conversation again.” Wiggling her own toes in the water, “I wish it was warm enough and you could swim.”

Reaching over, he found her hand, wrapping it securely in his, “this is perfect. Thank you.”

They were quiet for a few minutes, roasting in the midday sun before, “I hate to bring it up but we should probably start thinking about when we want to head home.”

“How does never sound? We could just stay here. We’re only 5-6 hours away from Maggie and the guys and the rest of your family. I can make it up to my mother in a day if I push it. I say we plunk it down and buy some electric blankets for the winter.”

Mirthless chuckle abounding, “I’m serious, Mulder. We’ve been gone, what, almost … six weeks? We might be still employed if we beg Skinner.”

“Maybe we should quit. I can write books and be a P.I. and you can be one, too or you can be the resident genius body cutter-upper and cruise the coast in search of the sharpest scalpel and the weirdest death.” One look at her raised eyebrow made him smile, “yeah, I know. We’d need a house first.”

This time, her chuckle was real, “maybe we just keep renting this place. It’s a good size for us. Needs a few things but I think we could do it.”

Mulder eyed her, half-distracted by her tousled-hair, tanned, relaxed demeanor of one who should never have to do anything but sit on a beach all day and be naked all night, “You like this place that much?”

“Are you kidding? I love it. We’re hidden but still in town. It’s small but there’s enough room for you to get away from me when you’re annoying. What’s not to love?”

Contemplating for a moment or three, “how’s this? I’ll call up and book this place again for maybe … September? The water will be warm by then and my leg will be better and we can just surf the day away and swim and make love in the sand and christen the house like it should be.” Her mischievous expression and smirking cheeks made him laugh outright, his shoulders shaking, “too far away?”

Fake thinking for a few moments, “Much, much too far away. I was thinking a nice weekend in July.”

“I’ll call when we get back inside.”

“So, back to the original question. When should we head home?”

“Well, tomorrow’s Sunday and if we leave early enough maybe we can make it for Sunday dinner. Maggie would be happy.”

Dropping her head against the back of her chair, “I don’t want to leave, Mulder.”

As he reached across for her hand and squeezed it, “I don’t either.”

&&&&&&&&&&&

The rains moved in early evening, confining them to the house, which was fine for both. It gave them more time to lay in the shadowed bedroom, rain pounding on the windows, lightning flashing above while Mulder cuddled up behind her on the bed. Talking softly into her neck, “can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“Are you nervous about us?”

“Nervous? You mean ‘cause we’re going to have wild, crazy sex in the near future and continue to have wild, crazy sex for as long as we both walk this Earth?”

Amused by her description, “well, yeah.”

She stopped to think while she figure-8’ed the knuckles of his hand on her belly, “no, actually, not really. Are you?”

Licking the scar on her spine, he then kissed it, sucking lightly, wondering if he could give her a small hickey without her killing him, “no and it’s a little unnerving. You’d think we’d be all worried about how we’ll work together after we get back and have finally seen each other sweaty and naked. I mean, by all rights and purposes, you should have freaked out at least once by now and I should have done something completely asinine to warrant an angry fight ending in slammed doors and a shiton of angst.”

“That was a really detailed answer, Mulder.”

Laughing into her skin, “maybe once we actually have the sex, we’ll have the meltdown but right now, I think that we’ll have the sex and it will be earth-movingly astonishing, then we’ll have some kind of breakfast and take showers and go to work and I’ll leer at you like always and you’ll sneak looks at my ass when I lean over the filing cabinet and then we’ll talk to Skinner and fill out paperwork then go back and have more of the sex.”

“I like how you call it ‘the sex’.”

Using his nose to push the strap of her tanktop over a little, he kissed her shoulder blade, “what do you think will happen?”

Lulled by his diatribe, she felt comfortable enough to yawn before answering, “well, I’m still going to argue with you, I’m still going to be my skeptical self, I’m still going to throw things at your head when you irritate me, I’m still going to demand to drive sometimes and I will most definitely be calling you names when necessary.”

As she said this, she snuggled back a little more, molded to him as he smiled, “how in the world have I kept my hands off you all these years?”

Slipping into a well-deserved nap, she shrugged, bumping his chin, “my accuracy with any type of firing weapon.”