Tell Me No Lies

Author: PhileyX 
E-Mail: phileyxback@yahoo.com 
Web-site: https://www.angelfire.com/id/phileyx 
Rating: PG 
Category: UST 
Spoilers: A slight reference to the famous New Year's kiss
Disclaimer: Only two characters belong to me in this story. No prizes for guessing the obvious. 
Author's note: It started on a whim and before I knew it, it was nineteen pages long. Do disregard any inaccuracies in the explanative details of the definition of auras, it's representation of them in colours or its capability to affect others. And I spell words like 'colour' and 'favour' with a 'u' as a result of my Commonwealth Education so please bear with me.

XXXXXXXXX
Tell Me No Lies 

Dana Scully raised an eyebrow. "Mulder, tell me again how this is an X-file?"

He smiled as if he expected her question. "It's not." Passing the file in his hand to her, he explained. "We're just doing a favour for someone. Skinner won't tell me who but he promises, it'll get us an extra few years the next time they find an excuse to shut us down."

She almost smiled. These days it seems that this is all they have been doing, sucking up to the big guys. "So what do we have to do?"

"Talk to her and find out how the hell she does it?"

"Does what?"

"Win." He leaned closer and tapped the edge of the file. "This Megan Thomas has never lost a single case in the whole of her seven year career."

"You're kidding?"

"I'm not." Smiling, he watched as a spark of curiosity lit up her eyes. He loved the way the unexplainable momentarily evolved her from a skeptic to an investigator. "Maybe I should get her card for the next time I drive a stake into a fifteen year old vampire…." He joked.

She glanced through the list of cases. "Mulder, these are really hot cases here. Drug dealers, senators and even the mafia…."

"Uh-huh. And she put every single one of them in the slammer."

"How is that possible? Money makes the world go round. These people are no Bill Gates but they're close."

"I don't know what to tell you, Scully. Either she's really good or she's…." He waggled his eyebrows. "….spooky." 

She rolled his eyes. "I see the relevance of assigning it to us now."

"Come on, it'll be a nice change. Slip into something nice and we'll make it a night."

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well the FBI can't be officially checking up on the other party's attorney, can we?"

"You mean we're on the other side?"

"Duh! If we were on hers, do you think we'll be having this conversation?"

Her sense of honour and principles protested. "Mulder, this is not right. It's against the whole judicial system!"

"We only have to talk to her, not threaten to kill her. Look, according to Skinner this guy is way up there. He's probably made all the necessary arrangements, as we are perfectly aware of the FBI track record in cover-ups. But her perfect wins are making him a little queasy so…."

She continued for him. "….we just talk to her and find out if she's really spooky."

"Yeah. Maybe they're beginning to take us seriously now?"

"And what makes you think she'll talk to us unofficially?"

He shrugged. "I helped to catch one of her bad guys about eight years ago. The man refused to say a word all throughout the interrogation. But we had enough witnesses to bring him down so we brought him to trial. Then, the weirdest thing happened, he blundered everything out on the stand." He shook his head to indicate that he still could not figure it out. "Anyway, I thought maybe I could start the conversation from there. And to keep it unofficial, I'll need a date."

She sighed and studied his face. It was clear that her partner wasn't comfortable with the deviousness of this assignment either. But he was desperate to salvage their sinking ship, especially after their previous escapade that earned them two weeks of desk bound paperwork. The least she could do was chip in. Decided, she told him. "Okay, only if you're buying."

He grinned. "Deal."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

She whispered to him while eyeing a lady at the bar. "Is that her?"

He nodded. "Let's get it on, partner." Trailing his hand gently down to the small of her back, he led her towards the bar. 

They sat down about two seats away from her. Mulder ordered both of them drinks and began a feeble conversation with his partner in an attempt to get into his role. Five minutes later, he casually turned to Megan Thomas and pretended to just recognize her. "Miss Thomas?"

She peered at him. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

He smiled at her. "Probably not. My name is Mulder. I was one of the FBI agents that were involved in the capture of the serial killer, Bret Kent?"

She looked thoughtful for a while and then nodded. "Oh, you were?"

"Yeah." He answered. "I'm glad you nailed him." Megan nodded and smiled, wishing the handsome agent was alone. He seemed to catch her gaze towards his date and hastily turned to introduce her. "Oh, this is Dana Scully. Dana, Megan Thomas lawyer extraordinaire…"

Scully raised an eyebrow at being called by her first name but graciously shook the other's hand. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Thomas."

"Same here." She released the smaller woman's hand and hesitated, not really knowing what to say. "So, do you both come here often?"

Scully shrugged. "No, not really. We don't really go out much." Her partner shot her a look to which she coolly ignored. "How about you?"

"Always. My office is just upstairs."

The male agent grinned. "That's convenient." Megan smiled back in response and held his gaze for a second.

His date cleared her throat, destroying the moment. "I wonder what's taking our drinks so long?" She then muttered. "We can't all wait around and look at each other, can we?" 

'My my, aren't we getting a little territorial?' Megan mused.

Mulder too seemed a little disconcerted by his date's seemingly innocent remark but covered it with a fake beaming smile. He composedly put his arm around her and pulled her closer. "Hear that, honey? They're playing our song!" With an exaggerated sweetness, he leaned to her ear and whispered into it.

"What are you doing?" He softly hissed in her ear. "Be nice. You're playing the part of my girlfriend."

She kept her adoring smile and hissed back. "What did I say? I am being nice." Surely she had not whispered her last thought aloud, she wondered.

They parted with an obvious put on lovability that made Megan wonder maybe Mulder would soon be single after all. Or maybe, there's more than meets the eye with these two. 'Oh well, it shouldn't be that difficult to find out.' She thought and asked them. "So how did you both meet?"

They answered together. "We're partners." He said. "We work together." She said. Then they both raised their hands to their mouths at the same time, both seemingly horrified with what they had uttered. 

Megan's eyes widened. 'Hmm…. this is getting interesting.' She thought.

Mulder recovered first. "What we meant was… that… we met as partners at work. But we don't ww…" He frowned and tried again. "We don't wo…" It was just no use; he just could not bring himself to say the words he was thinking.

His partner was staring at him like he was retarded. "Mulder, what is wrong with you?" 

"I don't know." He softly admitted, looking so miserable that Megan bit her lip to suppress a laugh. 

Thankfully for the duo, the drinks arrived. The distraction provided a chance for Mulder to compose himself while Scully picked up from their blunder. "What my part… I mean … my colleague is trying to say is that we ….." She struggled but the same thing happened, the words just wouldn't come out. She stared blankly him, beginning to understand his agony a moment ago.

Mulder interrupted quickly. "….work in the same building." Relieved that he was finally capable of finishing a sentence, he grabbed his gin and gulped it down in one shot.

Megan played along, obviously rather amused. "Oh really?" 

Meanwhile Scully caught the glare of the waiting waitress and sighed. "Once again, I'm paying…" She muttered under breath and fished for her wallet in her handbag.

With alcohol streaming in his blood, Mulder began to feel a whole lot better. So he ordered another shot of gin. The pretty, luscious waitress gave him a sultry look. "You might want to slow down, mister. We need you on your feet when you get out of here." Mulder grinned his thanks, his gaze falling appreciatively at her generous cleavage. 

His partner caught his evident admiration and rolled her eyes. Finally finding her money, she put it on the tray. "Thank you," she told the waitress. As the latter sashayed her ass away, the former snorted softly. "For God's sakes Mulder, they're not even real…"

'Scully being bitchy?' Mulder looked at her in utter astonishment. "Meow!"

Scully looked at him stunned and wide-eyed. "Did I say that out loud?"

"Uh huh." He told her solemnly although slightly amused.

She looked absolutely mortified and this time Megan could not hold back her laugh. It never ceased to amaze the power she had over people. Deciding to end the charade once and for all, she asked. "Mr. Mulder, why are you here?"

He looked at her suspiciously and then his face cleared as if all the pieces of puzzle in his head had come together. He surprised her as he revealed her secret. "We can't lie to you, can we?"

Scully looked at him, flabbergasted. "Mulder, what the hell are you talking about?"

He turned to her. "Can't you see? We can't lie to her. Every time we try, the truth comes out or we can't say anything at all!"

She frowned and gave him an annoyed look. "You mean like the Jim Carrey movie?"

He caught her scarsam and muttered. "Here we go again. Why do I always have to prove her wrong before she believes?"

Megan watched as Dana Scully's temper rose. "What did you say?"

He froze and Megan answered his unasked question. "Yes, you said it aloud."

He blinked. "I did?"

His partner ignored his bewilderment and took a dangerous step closer to him. "Mulder, if I weren't around to set you straight on some of your absurd beliefs, you would be in a loony bin by now!"

"I know, Scully." He sighed. "I didn't mean it. You just drive me up the wall at times."

"Well, same to you, Mulder." She snapped back.

He sighed in frustration. "You know I love you and appreciate all you've done for…." He suddenly stopped talked, as if just realizing what he had said. 

His partner's eyebrows rose high as she stared at him in shock. He blushed slightly and fidgeted with his collar. "Well after seven years, you love me too, right?" He asked, trying to make light of the L word.

She nodded dumbly. "Yeah." Then, they looked at the ground, both seemingly lost in thought. They stared so long that Megan found herself joining them and wondering what was so fascinating about the floor of the pub. 

Suddenly they both shot their heads up and glared at her. "What?" She asked, a little intimidated with the undivided attention she was getting all of a sudden.

"What have you done to us?" Mulder asked first.

"Is his theory right? We can't lie?" His partner added.

Megan sighed. "Why don't we get a table and have a drink, agents? You'll need it."

After they were seated comfortably at a corner of the establishment, Megan asked Mulder a question she was just dying to know. "How did you guess? Most people take forever to figure it out. It took me years myself."

"A lucky guess." He grinned and shared a look with his partner.

Scully rolled her eyes. "Don't mind him, he's just spooky." Her countenance became serious. "How do you do it?"

Megan shrugged. "I don't know. People just can't lie in front of me. My presence itself disables them to lie. I can't explain it."

"How long has this been going on?"

"For as long as I can remember. I guess I should have taken the hint at age three, when my mother gave me the low down on Santa Claus."

Scully leaned closer in amused curiosity. "Does it affect you? I mean, are **you** able to lie?"

Megan grinned. "Well, luckily for me, I don't have any power over my conscience. Yes, I can tell any tale I like." 

"It's amazing." The former muttered under her breath.

She sighed. "You won't think so when your dates start telling you all the skeletons in their closest without you asking. I guess it's probably the reason why I'm single."

"Does anyone else know about your ability?" Mulder asked.

"My parents, my brother, my ex-husband and maybe a couple of my friends, I don't know…"

The agents looked at each other and shared a look that she couldn't understand. "So, now may I ask why you were trying to chat me up?" They looked unsure and she warned. "No use trying to lie to me, you know."

Mulder grinned. "It has something to do with your latest case."

"Which one?"

His partner admitted sheepishly. "We're not sure ourselves. We're from a special department in the FBI. We deal with extraordinary events and unexplained circumstances. Our assignment was to check you out."

He nodded. "To find out the secret of your straight consecutive wins."

She nodded, finally understanding why the two agents were sent to investigate her. Her current workload included a case with serious implications with the FBI. However, not enough without the witness that seemed to have disappeared since two days ago. "Who gave you the assignment?"

He shook his head. "We don't know. Our superior refused to tell us."

Sighing, she figured. "My guess would be Assistant Director Kelvin Aske."

'So Aske is the man Skinner refused to tell him about.' Mulder thought. Looking at his partner, he whistled. "You sure know how to pick your cases, Miss Thomas. He's a fine one to bring down."

"I know." She gazed at them speculatively. "What I don't know is whose side are you two on?"

Mulder and Scully blinked. They were so preoccupied with the phenomenon before them that they had forgotten about their sucking up. Something told them that the favour that they were supposed to do for the AD was about to blow up in Skinner's face. Finally, Scully answered for both of them. "The truth's."

The attorney smiled. "In that case, I'm your girl."

XXXXXXXXXXX

"So what do we do now?" Scully asked her partner after Megan had excused herself to the ladies. 

"I don't know, Scully. I guess we could go back to Skinner and tell him the truth or..." He waggled his eyebrow. "…we could just tell him we can't find anything extraordinary about this woman and let justice take it's course."

She smiled. "Aske was one of the directors in VCS that kicked your butt when you went a bit too far in one of your personal crusades, wasn't he?"

He grinned. "You know me so well."

She rolled her eyes but not angrily. "All right. Besides, the last thing I want on my conscience is Megan Thomas being whisked away as a interrogation officer in our military camps."

He looked at her in surprise. "Be careful partner, you're getting more paranoid than I am."

Smiling she was about to take a sip of her drink when she caught sight of the glint of metal beneath a man's coat as he walked by. Her instincts roused her suspicions and she watched as he made his way to the back, towards to rest rooms. "Mulder, I'll be right back."

He nodded, not really paying attention. She strode quickly in the man's footsteps. Standing in front of the ladies room, she heard a muffled scream that proved her instincts right. She removed her gun from her upholster and barged through the door. 

Another scream made her jump as her eyes gathered the efforts of her unintentional attack. The armed man behind the door was knocked unconscious by her storming in. She quickly checked to see if the occupants of the room were unhurt and then removed the gun from the assailant's hand. 

"Thank God you're here!" Megan gushed her gratefulness. "He was trying to kill me." The two other shaking ladies in the room agreed with quiet nods.

Scully knelt down to check the man's pulse when her partner suddenly pushed his way through the growing crowd at the doorway. "What's going on? Scully?"

"Someone was trying to kill Miss Thomas."

"Megan, please." She rolled her eyes. "It's unnerving the way you two call each other with your last names. I feel like I'm in a old cop show or something." She nodded towards her attacker. "Is he dead?"

"No, just knocked out." She looked at her partner. "Call the police."

He nodded and deftly fished out his phone. She turned towards the lawyer. "Looks like someone is catching on with your ability."

"It wouldn't be the first time." Scully rose an eyebrow so she explained. "I was stalked by the mafia once."

Surprised that she got away from a bloodthirsty organization such as that, she asked. "What happened?"

"I stalled them. Made them confess sins they wouldn't even tell a priest until help came. After that first attempt on my life, I was put under police protective custody."

Despite the severity of the situation, Scully had to smile. 

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Dana Scully sighed and impatiently tapped her feet on the carpeted floor of the association. She could hardly believe that Mulder had talked both Megan and her into this. 

After wrapping up the red tape with the police, her partner had deftly persuaded the police to let them have custody of the endangered lawyer for the rest of the night, promising to return her in the morning. Then waking his friend up for a favour, she and Megan suddenly found themselves in the building belonging to the Institute of New Age & Karma, DC.

The lawyer was standing behind a glass window looking nervously at the large daunting piece of machinery in front of her. She gave a pleading look through the one-way pane, hoping that one of the agents would catch it and allow her to leave the room before the noisy contraption before her zaps her into an insect or something.

Scully pitied her. Walking over to her partner and his very eccentric friend, she whispered in Mulder's ear. "Can she come out of there now? She wants to, desperately."

He ignored her request. "Scully, look at this." He pointed towards the colourful screen. 

"What am I looking at?"

"Megan's aura." He said simply.

"Her aura." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Okaaay."

Frank Theng glanced at her and took over. "Everything in the Universe is just a vibration. Every atom, every electron, every elementary particle, even our thoughts and consciousness are just vibrations. And these vibrations define an aura. Aura around the living such as people changes with time, sometimes very quickly. Auras around non-living objects are essentially fixed."

He pointed towards the machine beyond the glass partition. "That is a spectrophotometer. It measures mix of the vibration frequencies in the range corresponding to wavelengths from 0.3 to 0.7 micrometers. And as we perceive as colour, from purple to red."

"And this is what I see on the screen?" She asked.

Frank nodded. "They represent the frequency range and intensity of the aura. The shades and brilliancy, especially around and above the head have very special meanings. As always, lighter colours or bright, clean aura represent good whereas a gray or dark aura signifies someone with unclear intentions."

She studied the screen and frowned. "I thought you said that the aura around people change frequently. I've been standing here five minutes and I don't see much of a change."

"Exactly!" Mulder declared triumphantly.

His partner looked at him dubiously. "I don't get it."

"Her aura shows a strong electric blue. Very, very rarely seen." Frank explained. "People usually have light blue auras. And maybe streaks of electric in between but never totally brilliant like hers. The electric blue is believed to be able to override any other color in the aura. It works almost as if transmitting the energy telepathically. They say Hiltler had rings of this kind of blue amidst his murky aura."

"And that's how Megan Thomas does it." Mulder concluded. "Without her even knowing it, her intense electric blue aura overrides anyone in her presence, forcing them to only utter the truth." He smiled. "How's that for scientific proof?"

'He calls this scientific proof?' Scully blinked. "Okay Mulder, you had your fun. Megan and I are getting out of here." And with that, her heels clicked towards the glass door.

"But Scully…?" He called and strode after her.

She opened the door and Megan almost wanted to hug her. "Thank God! Finally, I can get out of here."

"Not yet." Mulder walked in and crushed her happy look. "Frank needs to capture an image." 

Scully rolled her eyes and spun around to face him. "For what, Mulder? A bunch of colours on paper is not going to prove anything."

He looked disturbed. "I'm surprised at you, Scully. It's not like I'm hitting you with anything new…."

Meanwhile, Megan groaned. Something told her that this was leading to a lengthy argument. She decided to butt in as soon as she could and propose a vote. Two against one and she could be out of this room.

"People were able to see auras a long time ago. Buddha, Christ and the saints were painted with golden haloes around their heads because some artists could actually see them. You can even find prehistoric cave paintings in remote Australia, depicting people with golden haloes."

Megan jumped at the chance when he stopped. "Right, can we go now?"

Scully obviously didn't hear her as she took a step towards her partner. "I'm not refuting that, Mulder. Modern science does tell us that the human organism isn't just a physical structure made of molecules but like everything has an energy field, or as you prefer to call it, an aura…."

At this point, Megan gave up and sunk into the only chair in the room. Might as well make herself comfortable, she thought. With the rampage of bombastic words fired to and fro, she wondered if the two agents truly understood what the other was talking about. She was partially right because despite the attentive face he wore, Mulder was beginning to drift away to more pleasant thoughts.

"….. But it's just an expression of universal energy, a luminous force that surrounds the physical body, emitting its own specific radiation. I even believe that this field is more closely connected to the personality than is to the material body making it representation of psychosomatic reactions. But what I don't believe is that one's bio-energy is able to effect another in its presence."

Mulder started slightly when he realized that his partner had finished her narrative. Whisking a perfectly sound argument from the air and hoping that it hadn't already been explained while he wasn't listening, he argued back. "Bio-energy is radiation of energy. And radiation is energy traveling through space. Isn't is possible that Megan's intense aura radiated to the people around her enables her energy to be transmitted as well?"

"No, it's not! As Frank said, the aura…." She reasoned back.

And Mulder was relieved. 'Good, she has more to say.' He thought and contentedly continued his admiration of her lush red lips, wet periodically by a quick endearing flick of her tongue. 

"….are just vibration of particles. Maybe they look infinitely powerful represented by colours but in reality, they are just dull electromagnetic fields. They do not have the force or the ability to radiate to that extent, be it electric blue or light blue!"

She sighed. "I have not dismissed this alternative idea entirely, Mulder. Russians scientists have been studying auras for the past 50 years, how could I deny it's very importance? But the truth is, these forces, spanning from microwave, infrared to UV light are comparatively non-existent in …."

Whatever else Scully was about to say was abruptly interrupted when her partner unexpectedly leaned down and kissed her. The sudden silence as a result of the kiss did not remain unnoticed. Megan looked up and gasped. Was she dreaming or did she just see Mulder's lips leaving Scully's? 

Before anyone of them could react, Frank suddenly popped his head in and called out. "Mulder, got a minute?" 

The latter nodded at the queer man and immediately left the room. Neither the ladies could move or talk for about half a minute. And when she could, Scully could only mutter breathlessly. "W...hat the…?"

Megan's conscience began to prick. She had a feeling that her prowess was at work beyond her will again. Softly, she confirmed the event. "He kissed you."

Scully nodded absently. "Yes… that's what I thought happened…" Her shock seemed to turn into bewilderment within moments.

Eager to omit herself from guilt, she teased. "Oh come on, you act as if he has never kissed you before."

Shaking her head slowly, the other proved her suspicion. "Only once, last New Year's Eve…"

Megan frowned. "You mean you two aren't…?"

Scully looked at her. "No." 

Closing her eyes, she yielded and reluctantly took responsibility. "It must be the side effects then."

"What side effects?"

Megan sighed. "The more you're around me, you not only say the truth, you also act on it." Frowning as she thought about it more, she added. "Although I have to say, I very rarely produce that kind of profound effect. He must be thinking it very hard."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Mulder must have been wanting to kiss you very badly, so badly that he unconsciously took action on it."

Scully forehead creased as the words sunk in. "Do you mean to say that the whole five minutes, I've been bleeding my brains out convincing him why that stupid machine is not a justifiable scientific proof of your ability, all he could think of was kiss me?"

Megan grinned. "Pretty much, yeah!" To her surprise, the other did not seem to think the event very flattering or comical. In fact the scowl setting on Scully's face told her that Mulder was in serious trouble, although for the life of her she could not think why. The man was a fox! 

"I swear to God, that man is insufferable!" Scully mumbled angrily under her breath and stalked out of the room. 

On her hasty way out, she bumped rather ungraciously into the man in question. "Scully?" He asked in surprise but she paid him no heed. Mulder turned to Megan. "What happened?"

'This is turning into a nightmare!' She grimaced and told him. "You kissed her."

He started to laugh, then stopped abruptly. As her eyes told him that she wasn't joking, he shook his head slowly. "No, I couldn't have… Impossible!" He studied her closely. "I did?"

"Uh huh. Just another side effect of being around me too much."

He looked horrified. "Shit!" And he left the room after his partner.

Megan sighed sadly at the mess she had created and walked slowly out of the room. Hopefully by the time she made it to them, they would have made up, made out or whatever they do in circumstances such as these.

"Where's Mulder?" Frank suddenly appeared beside her. 

She nodded towards the exit. "Gone after the missus." She joked.

He grinned as if he understood. "Here's the print and here are the colour codes."

She looked at the colourful print-out suspiciously. "There are three figures on this print."

"Yeah, I captured the picture with Agents Mulder and Scully in the room." He pointed to the two figures on the far left-hand side.

Looking carefully at the brilliancy of the shades, she curiously asked. "What do these bright wisps of red signify? I don't seem have them but they do."

"Usually, people have one or two dominating colours in their aura. In addition to these colours, the aura reflects thoughts, feelings and desires, which appear like "flashes", "clouds" or "flames", usually further away from the head, like these. They're kind of 'in-the-moment' colours. You know, colours that represent the feelings at that split second. They're hard to capture because they change as quickly as the thought goes." Suddenly smiling mischievously, he added. "The red signifies passion or desire." He then lowered his voice and whispered. "UST."

Megan frowned. "UST?"

He grinned. "Unresolved Sexual Tension."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The ride in the car was chillingly quiet and Megan took a wild guess that the duo had not talked the 'kiss' issue out yet. It was strange to her that two people with such obvious attractions towards each other should try so hard to ignore them. 'What were they afraid of?' She wondered. Maybe it was because they were partners, she decided. Rationally there would be policies disallowing intimacy between partners in the FBI. Giving up on the mystery at the moment, she broke the eerie silence. "Where are we going?"

Scully replied. "My place. I have an extra room. We'll try to get you a team tomorrow. They'll protect you until the trial's over."

Megan nodded, leaned back into the seat and sighed. "Sometimes I hate this ability."

"Don't worry, you'll be fine." Mulder told her softly.

By the time they reached Scully's house, Megan was ready to jump into bed. "The bathroom is over there. Why don't you wash up first?" Scully suggested and she readily obeyed.

The host then disappeared to prepare the spare room while her partner made himself comfortable on the couch. Five minutes later, she appeared with a small stepladder. 

Opening the storage room door and setting stepladder on the floor, she pulled at a bulky quilt at the top shelf. Mulder watched silently, resisting the urge to tell her to be careful.

The quilt seemed too heavy for her. "Mulder I need a hand." She called out and he immediately went to her side, hoping to score points in his favour. Although his intentions began noblely, his thoughts soon wandered again as he found himself face to face with his partner's lovely rear.

Meanwhile, Megan had come out of the bathroom. She took one glance at the quilt-struggling Scully and the ass-enraptured Mulder and grinned. 'Here we go again!' She thought.

Mulder's gaze moved from the firmness of Scully's butt to the fairness of her thighs, courtesy of the high slit in the skirt. And his body began to respond accordingly. A thought suddenly hit him and he turned around. 'Shit!' He thought. 'The grinning Truth Defender is in the room!' If he didn't get control of his thoughts, he would be in very big danger of acting out his actions again. 

Oblivious to her partner's worries, Scully was having troubles of her own. The heavy quilt threw her off balance and she threatened to fall. Thankfully, Mulder graciously came to the rescue, one hand around her hip and another rather clumsily on her ass. 

Too preoccupied with the comforter to take any notice of where his hands were, she told him. "Grab it, Mulder."

He misunderstood her and held her tighter. She almost yelled in frustration. "Damn it Mulder, I said grab it!"

"I am grabbing it!" He raised his voice as well.

Only then did she realize that his hand was firmly cupping her rear. "I meant the quilt, you idiot!"

"Oh." He grimaced and took it from her before she fell over. 

When she stepped down the ladder, she snatched the comforter from him and strode into the spare room without a word.

Megan, who was watching the whole production, was trying her best to keep a straight face. Mulder sighed and turned to her. "This is all your fault, you know."

"Hey you were who fantasized about kissing her on the job, buddy. Don't lay it on me!"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Scully reluctantly woke and turned off her alarm. It was still early but she reminded herself that she wasn't alone so she had better lay her claim to the bathroom before the other two rose.

Gathering herself together, she started out her bedroom, intending to make the all-important coffee first. As she passed her living room, she heard a soft hum of the TV. 'Mulder left it on again.' She thought, looking at the man lying on her couch in annoyance. She looked about for the remote but could not find it. So she leaned down to manually switch it off. When she turned, she found her partner awake.

"I was watching that." He told her and she smiled, her irritation and mission to the kitchen momentarily forgotten. 

She seated herself on her coffee table, facing him. "Sorry I woke you."

He shook his head slightly and asked after a moment's pause. "Still mad at me?" 

She sighed playfully. "No, you know I can't be mad at you for more than six hours." Her eyes twinkled. "Which is good because you piss me off like four times a day."

"It was just a kiss." He grinned. "Most women would be flattered."

"Mulder, I'll be flattered if you remembered my birthday. We were on the job!"

"Haven't you heard the joke about men and where their brains are?"

She rolled her eyes but half a minute later became serious. "I've been thinking about Megan." He nodded in encouragement so she continued. "In the court of law, man is innocent until proven guilty. But in Megan's case, the bad guys always loses. It just seems like an unfair advantage."

He frowned. "But isn't that the whole point of a trial? To find the truth? To put the bad guys in jail and let the good ones go free."

"Yeah, but how about the balance of it all? Life **is** unfair. Sometimes the bad guys do win. Won't her ability tip the scale?"

"You mean like Yin and Yang, the balance of two opposites?"

"Exactly. We tend to worry whenever the bad overcomes the good but we never think how the opposite would affect us."

He shrugged. "It wouldn't. If anything, the scales of life are more likely to tip in favour of evil than what you're worried about. Man is greedy by nature; never happy or satisfied, no matter how fortunate they already are."

She looked thoughtful. "Maybe you're right."

"I am right, Scully. Look at us, how many times have we gotten so close to the truth only to witness it being buried right in front of our noses?"

She smiled. "I guess we make up for Megan's straight wins."

He laughed. "Yeah." When he sobered, he asked. "Would you want her ability?"

"And spend every waking moment of my life holding you off from all your desirous thoughts?" She teased. He gave her a mock hurt look and she laughingly decided to answer him sincerely. "No, Mulder. I'd rather not have that power. There are some truths better left unknown." He looked surprised but she refrained from explaining. "I suppose you would?"

"Definitely. Maybe I've been lied to so much all my life that the novelty of **only** hearing the truth is too delightful to pass off." She didn't know how to respond, knowing that he was thinking about his tragic childhood. He seemed to realize it too and hastily changed the subject. "What time is it?" He asked and sat up on the couch, his dark hair sticking out comically in all directions.

'God, what a disaster!' She thought and smiled. "Nearly eight." Mulder grunted and rubbed his eyes with his hands. She was still studying his unruly locks and soon without even realizing it, leaned closer and gently ran her fingers through his hair.

Mulder froze at the feel of her gentle contact, ruffling affectionately through his hair. 'What the…?' Scully never touched him so intimately unless he was lying in a hospital bed, dying, he thought. But he remained quiet, enjoying the indulgence and hoping it would last for some time. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't long before his partner retracted her hand abruptly. He took the courage to look up.

Scully stared at her hand ferociously. 'How did that happen?' She asked herself. Sure, she was thinking it but…. The answer suddenly hit her.

"Megan." She muttered and was surprised that Mulder had chorused with her. She looked at him for a moment and then the duo directly spun their heads towards the spare room. Sure enough, Megan was looking back at them sheepishly.

'Damn, my fault again.' She thought, getting awfully fed up of taking the blame for actualizing their hidden desires. "Sorry, I wanted to use the bathroom. But I think I'll just go back to bed and pretend to sleep some more." Sighing, she disappeared quickly behind the door.

Scully blushed, trying her best not to look Mulder in the eye. He felt her embarrassment and thought hard of a subject to ride over the moment. Nothing came to mind.

"I'll make the coffee." She finally told him.

"'Kay." He nodded and watched her scurry away. Only after she had gone, Mulder smiled.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

'Give me a call one day.' Dana Scully smiled as she replayed Megan's last words to her on the phone. "Fat chance." She muttered to herself. That lawyer was trouble and she and Mulder were going to stay as far away as possible from her.

Maybe all that aura crap that Mulder and Frank Theng theoritized was true. Maybe she had the ability to radiate her energy towards those around her. But it still didn't explain where the electric blue electromagnetism originated.

It didn't matter anymore though. Passing Megan safely to custody of the local police, they had gladly omitted her powers in their reports to Skinner in an attempt to protect her from further danger. And now, everything was back to normal.

The door of the basement opened and her partner walked in. He nodded briefly at her and sank in his chair without a word, too preoccupied with the document in his hands. Not wanting to go back to her report, Scully found herself studying his profile across the dark room.

Suddenly he looked up and caught her. Her first instinct was to look away but she knew if she did, he would perversely take it as a compliment. So, she coolly kept her gaze, hoping he wouldn't be able to make out the blush on her cheeks from way over there.

Mulder smiled. "I've been thinking about Megan."

The awkwardness was immediately forgotten. "Oh?"

"Yeah." He looked down at the top of his table and slowly made out the words. "Maybe you're right. There are some facts that should be left alone."

His partner's suspicions rose. The tone of his voice reflected more personal insinuations than professional ones. She cautiously asked. "What are you afraid of? The truth?"

"No." He shook his head and looked up into her blue eyes. "I'd like to know the truth. But I'm terrified I wouldn't know how to deal with it….." He shrugged and added. "That I'll blow it and never get a second chance."

Her stomach did a tremendous flip-flop, wondering if her interpretation of his words were accurate. Was he really talking about their obvious attachment to each other, courtesy of Megan's divine ability? Composedly, she asked instead. "So you rather not know?"

Reminding her, her very own resolve, he told her. "You wouldn't." She nodded and smiled. It was strangely comforting to know that they both shared the same fears. 

Mulder returned the smile. "You did surprise me though. I thought you'd be trilled to have the world scale tipped in favour of the truth?"

"Who wouldn't? But I've always been a realist." She raised an eyebrow. "And you, the idealist."

His brow followed hers. "Me, an idealist? I never saw myself that way."

"You believe in something and never give up on it."

"A realist and an idealist." He stated simply and looked thoughtful for a moment. "The Yin and the Yang."

She added softly. "Maybe we are made for each other after all." 

Their gazes remained locked for another half a minute before they hastily returned to their respective responsibilities.

XXXXXXXXXXXX
End of Tell Me No Lies 

Author: PhileyX 
E-Mail: phileyxback@yahoo.com 
Web-site: https://www.angelfire.com/id/phileyx