Part 2 of 5

"That bad, huh?"

She smiled and nodded, watching as he stripped off his clothes with a quick economy of movement. He has such a wonderful body, she thought. Really, his build was only hinted at when he was in his habitual suit and tie. She got a better idea of what it was like when he wore jeans and a T-shirt, but nothing was as good as this!

"Take off your clothes, Scully," he said, his voice
low and husky as he stood before her, naked.

"Okay," she whispered. Standing, she rapidly peeled
off her jacket, blouse, skirt and half-slip. Now she
was down to her bra, panties and garter belt, along
with her stockings and high heels.

Mulder blinked at the array of lacy black lingerie
encasing his wife's figure. "Damn, Dana! I had no idea you were wearing that underneath your suit!"

"I know. I put it on while you were in the kitchen
making coffee."

"I don't think I've seen this one before."

"Nope. Bought it last week when I was out shopping
with my Mom."

"Hey, you said you didn't get anything interesting!
You little liar."

"If you'll recall my exact words, lover, all I did was ask you if you thought I'd buy something like this in front of my mother! It was hardly my fault you thought I wouldn't."

"If I had known this was under that business suit you
had on all day. . ."

"What?" she purred, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"We wouldn't have gone to the Lone Gunmen's" he
growled bending his lips to hers so they could kiss.
After a long time, he came up for air. "In fact, we
would have left the office around three in the
afternoon. No, skip that, we would have take a long,
early lunch!"

Mulder moved his hands to her back and unsnapped her
bra, tossing it toward the dresser. Then he knelt down and slid off her panties, letting her balance one hand on his shoulder as she stepped out of them. Scully put a hand to her garter, intent on removing her stockings, but felt his hand gently lift hers away.

"Leave those on?" he asked. "Your heels and the garter belt and the stockings?"

"Sure, if you want me to."

He lay back on the bed and pulled her down on top of
him. He lifted her above him so that his mouth could
find her breasts and suckled first one, then the
other.

"Mulder, why do you almost always want us to make love like this?"

"With you on top, you mean?"

"Yeah. I thought most guys preferred the missionary
position."
 
"I'm not a missionary."

"Be serious."

"I don't know. Couple of reasons, I guess. For one
thing, it gives me complete access to your whole body. I can use my mouth on your breasts and put my hands on your ass at the same time. . .all while feeling you riding me. Also, because you're so tiny. I think that was the main reason I was able to refrain from taking our relationship to a sexual level for so long. I used to fantasize about you, but I also used to really worry about the difference in our sizes. I was honestly afraid I'd hurt you, and I still worry that I might sometimes when I'm on top. This way, you get to set the pace."

"You never hurt me, Fox. You're so gentle, it's
amazing!" she whispered, leaning down to lick his neck and place a kiss at the base of his throat.

"Dana," he growled, a pleading note in his voice. She
paused for a moment to savor the feeling of his big
hands gliding up and down her sides and across her
back, then scooted down and sheathed him inside her.

Dana wiggled and moaned and pushed back on him. She
leaned down to kiss him and whisper sweet nothings in
his ear. Spreading her legs wider as she sprawled on
top of him, she whispered, "Fox?"

"Yeah?"

"I want. . "

"Yeah?" a big smile on his face. He loved it when she
told him what she wanted. He knew it was difficult
sometimes for her to verbalize her sexual desires, but did his best to encourage her.

"Bend your legs and bring your thighs up so I can push back against them."

"Like this?" he asked, following her request.

"Yes! Just like this!" She pushed against him,
wiggling wildly. It felt so good to feel his firm
thighs against her bottom while feeling something
else, even firmer, deep inside her. When he latched on to one of her breasts and sucked hard, she moaned his name and climaxed.

Mulder waited until she was finished, watching the
delightful array of emotions that passed across her
beautiful face. Then he began to move inside her and
soon his own groan of ecstasy was bouncing off the
walls.

"Lover?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I take off my shoes now?"

"Want me to do it?"

"Mmm. Please."

He rolled her gently off his body and slid down the
bed until he could reach her feet. He pulled her shoes off and dropped them on the floor, then unsnapped her stockings and slid them slowly off first one leg, then the other. Reaching up to touch the garter belt still around her waist, he lifted her slightly so he could slide it down her hips and pull it off.

"Hey, Dana?"

"Mmm?"

"You still hungry?"

"God, Mulder, are you crazy? I couldn't do it again
right now if my life depended on it."

He laughed. She seemed to think everything, even his
most innocent comments, contained some sort of sexual
innuendo; maybe because the majority of them did. But
that honestly wasn't what he meant at the moment.

"No, sweetheart. I mean for food. I wouldn't even let
you eat dinner. You want me to go make you a sandwich
or something?"

"Mmm. No, but thank you for offering. I just wanna
snuggle. We can eat a big breakfast in the morning."

Mulder reached up to turn off the light, then drew her drowsy body back into his arms. He was on the verge of sleep himself. Insomnia? Ha!

The plane ride to Texas was blessedly calm. Thank you, God, Scully whispered softly as they circled Austin's brand new airport. Although she didn't mind flying, any hint of turbulence would have disturbed her after the huge breakfast her husband had fixed for them. The only thing she was disturbed about at the moment were the looks a certain flight attendant kept flashing at Mulder. Not that he was paying any attention. Despite the fact that he'd been somewhat of a flirt before their marriage, he literally never seemed to notice any women other than his wife now. He lifted their entwined hands to his mouth and dropped a soft kiss on the inside of her wrist, causing her pulse to jump slightly under his lips. When she met his eyes, he smiled at her. "Just wanted to," he whispered in reply to her unspoken question.

As they headed towards the outskirts of Austin in
their rental car, Scully used her cell phone to call
the James' house. She got a terse, electronically -masked voice telling her to leave a message. "This is Special Agent Dana Scully with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. My partner and I would like to speak with Austin James about some computer oddities in this area. I believe Byers, er," she glanced over at her husband for help. She'd gone blank on Byers' first name.

"John," Mulder mouthed. "John Fitzgerald."

"John Byers," Scully continued, "has e-mailed you
about this; we'll be at your house in approximately 30 minutes and would appreciate your cooperation."

When they reached the house, Mulder punched in the
gate password they'd received from the gunmen.  Soon
they were pulling up in front of a large house with a
well-manicured lawn. There was an annex to one side,
with a breezeway connecting it to the rest of the
house. Scully was willing to be that was Austin's lab.

Ringing the front doorbell, they were almost
immediately greeted by a pretty, obviously pregnant
woman with a toddler on her hip. Scully recognized her from her picture as Michelle James.

"Hello, we're with the F.B.I.," Mulder said as he and
Scully flashed their badges.

"Oh, yeah, hi! I'm Michelle and this is Parker. We got your messages; the e-mail one from John and the phone one from you, Agent Scully. Come on in and have a seat."

As Scully and Mulder sat down in the living room, they looked around. It was basically clean and the
furniture was obviously high quality, but it was
equally obvious that this was a house inhabited by a
small child. There were toys scattered across the rug
and a collection of picture books were piled
haphazardly on an end table.

"Can I get you anything to drink? Coffee or a soda?"
Michelle asked pleasantly.

"Actually, Mrs. James, we really need to speak to your husband," Mulder said tersely. "It's a matter of some urgency. Is he available?"

"I'm here," said a quiet voice from behind Mulder's
shoulder. He and Scully turned and found themselves
face-to-face with Austin James. He was several years
older and several inches shorter than Mulder, with
brown hair that was going silver at the temples. The
most noticeable feature about him, however, at least
to Scully, were his eyes. They were an intensely deep
blue and shaded by lashes that most women would envy.

"What do you want?" Austin asked. His voice wasn't
exactly rude, but it certainly didn't match the polite cadence of his wife's tone.

"Are you aware that six individuals in Texas and the
surrounding states have died in front of their
computers during the past two weeks?" Mulder asked.

"Are you aware that at least twice that many people
have probably died in the same area and timespan from
heart attacks suffered during sexual intercourse?"
Austin challenged. "I don't see the F.B.I. out here
investigating those mysterious deaths. You people are
just techno phobic. As computers become more common, as people spend more time in front of them, it's going to become more natural to find people dead in front of them. The typical computer user isn't a teenage boy anymore. Plenty of people with heart problems use computers. If they happed to access something that excites or upsets them, the stress can cause a heart attack. It's sad, but hardly calls for criminal investigation."
 
"Mr. James," Scully broke in, "four of the six
individuals were under the age of 40. Two of them were women under the age of 35, a group that, statistically speaking, has an almost zero chance of suffering fatal heart attacks. There's also the minor matter of five of the six victims having no previous history of heart problems."

"And the sixth victim?" Austin asked.

"He was a 52-year-old man who had suffered a minor
heart attack eight months previously," Mulder replied. "It's possible that he really did see something online that upset him to the point of causing a heart attack. If so, his death is probably just coincidental and not linked to the others."

"So you're willing to accept the fact that one of your mysterious deaths may be a natural occurrence?"

"Yes, if the evidence so indicates," Scully answered.
Mulder nodded.

"Okay," Austin said after several moments of silence.
"I can work with you, then. Just wanted to make sure
you weren't so boxed into a theory you were unwilling
to look for alternative explanations."

"Believe me," Scully said, "Agent Mulder is always
willing to look for alternative explanations."

"Where do we go from here?" Austin asked.

"The latest victim was found right here in Austin. I'd like you to come with us to the death site, see if you can run a back trace through his computer and see what was going on - both in terms of access and electric pulsations - right before he died," Mulder told Austin.

"I'd like to get a look at the body, as well," Scully
added. "I guess I'll need to contact the local coroner for that."

"We can probably help you set that up," Michelle
interjected softly. "He's a friend of ours."

After the necessary arrangements were made, Austin
turned to Michelle. "Are you coming with us? You know
I always welcome your input."

"No thanks, honey. It's almost time for Parker to have lunch, then I think he and I will probably both go down for a nap. Either that or I'll try to finish
cleaning out the closet in the nursery."

"You rest," Austin stated firmly. "We'll work on the
closet over the weekend. I'll take my cell phone with
me; you call when you wake up and I'll fill you in on
what's happening."

Bending to scoop up the small boy, Austin said,
"Daddy's going out for a while, Parker. You be a good
boy and don't give Mama a hard time." He bent his head to the child's chubby cheek for a soft kiss.

"Bye-bye, Da-Da," the boy responded, opening and
closing his small hand in the semblance of a wave.

"Bye, sweetheart," Austin said, bending his head to
Michelle's for a long, sweet kiss. Both were obviously unfazed by the fact that they had an audience, which caused Mulder to turn away in amusement, shepherding Scully out the door.

Scully bit back a sigh of bittersweet longing. She
wished she and Mulder had that freedom - to kiss each
other openly, no matter who was watching. Only a
handful of people knew about their marriage and, if
they wanted to continue their professional
partnership, it would have to remain that way.

"I'll get in back," she said as the trio reached the
car. "You two guys can have the front."

As Mulder opened the door for her, he managed - just
subtly - to blow in her ear. When she glanced up,
startled, he winked at her. She smiled. Maybe having
to be careful in public had its advantages, after all.

After dropping Scully at the coroner's office, Mulder
and Austin proceeded to the latest death site. Scully
met the local coroner, a man in his mid-sixties who
was named Dr. Thomas. The two of them completed the
autopsy he had begun earlier in the morning. It looked not as if the victims had been killed through a power surge so much as if something in the computer had altered the electrolyte balance in their bodies to the point where they had gone into shock.
 
Mulder and Austin, meanwhile, were at the death site.
Mulder was interviewing the victim's family members
while Austin ran a backtrace through the computer
itself.

"Be careful," Mulder warned the other man. "It could
still be malfunctioning."

"I don't think so," Austin said slowly. "In fact, if
I'm reading these pulsations correctly, this machine
never malfunctioned at all."

"What did you mean back there?" Mulder asked as the
two men got into the car.

"Okay, it's just a theory and a pretty bizarre one at
that," Austin answered.

"Hey, bizarre theories are what I live for."

"There have been rumors," Austin said slowly. "For
years, there have been rumors in the computer
community."

"Rumors of what?"

"A suicide site."

"What?"

"A specific site, a website, that when accessed
triggered death by a combination of light pulses,
electric impulses and subliminal suggestions. A sort
of internet version of Dr. Kervorkian."

"You think these deaths were suicides, then?"

"Some of them might have been," Austin said. "It would be the perfect way to commit suicide for someone who didn't want it known - say, for insurance purposes - that their death was self-inflicted. A scarier possibility is that some or all of these people accidentally accessed the site while they were surfing the web."

"Let's go talk to Scully, see what she thinks," Mulder suggested.

While the two agents were conferring with Dr. Thomas
and Austin, Austin received a phone call. After
talking for several minutes, he turned to the rest of
the group.

"It's Michelle. She wants all of us to come back to
our place for dinner, finish discussing the case over
there."

"Is she on one of her craving kicks again?" asked Dr.
Thomas.

"Yeah. Apparently it's Italian tonight," Austin said.

"What do you mean?" Scully asked.

Austin sighed. "Other pregnant women get food cravings and are content to send their husbands out in the middle of the night for Chinese food. Not Michelle. She feels compelled to actually cook whatever it is she wants. Don't ask me why. I had to eat chocolate chip pancakes for lunch everyday for three months when she was pregnant with Parker. Anyway, she is currently cooking a meal which can feed all of us tonight, or the two of us for the next week. I'd honestly consider it a favor if you'd come home and help me eat this stuff."

"Is Michelle a bad cook?" Mulder asked, suspicious.

"No," answered Austin and Dr. Thomas simultaneously.

"She's a great cook," Austin amplified. "I just don't
like leftovers and she doesn't believe in tossing
anything out."

"Just a moment," Mulder said, gesturing for Scully to
step outside into the corridor with him. When they
were out of earshot,  he backed her against the wall
and put a hand on either side of her head, leaning
down so their noses were almost touching.

"Scully, do we give off married couple vibes or what?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Six years, Scully. We were partners for six years
before we got married and nobody ever invited us over
for dinner. Now we're the most popular dinner guests
since Demi Moore and Bruce Willis broke up! We haven't been on a case since we got married that we didn't end up going to somebody's house for dinner."

"So. . .what?" Scully asked. "You don't want to go?"

"I guess we'd better. Austin seems to have some
interesting insights into this case and Michelle may,
too. Byers told us she has a way of seeing the obvious that Austin often misses. I just think it's weird, that's all."

"Maybe we do give off vibes. Or maybe people are just
more observant than you think. I noticed what you did
when we were getting in the car earlier."

"What?" Mulder asked, his face a picture of choir boy
innocence.

Scully smiled. She could have told him, but she was
always one to believe that actions speak louder than
words. Luckily, Mulder was bent over her so they could talk quietly or she would never have been able to reach her target. Even with him putting his face down near hers, she had to stand on her tiptoes to do what she had in mind. "This," she said, blowing softly into his ear, then winking at him when he turned his face to hers.

"Scully, do anything like that again and we are
returning directly to the hotel," he said.

Scully debated. It had already been almost twelve
hours since they boarded the plane in Washington that
morning and her fingers were literally itching to
touch him. But they were working and she damn sure
wasn't going to start letting her hormones interfere
with her job at this point in her career. There was
also the fact that she honestly liked Michelle and
didn't want to hurt her feelings by refusing.

"We'll go," Scully said. "I'll even be good. At least, until we get in the car to head back to the hotel."

Mulder opened the door to where Austin and Dr. Thomas
were waiting. "Count us in," he said.

As they entered the James house for the second time
that day, Scully was struck by the beauty of the
setting . The late afternoon sun highlighted the
gently rolling countryside and sent beams of gold
dancing along the hardwood floors. She was also
uneasily aware that she didn't know if she should
behave as if this were a business dinner or a party.
Mulder had been right, she mused, that ever since
their marriage they had developed a knack for getting
themselves into situations that skirted the line
between business and social. First there were all
those dinners at the home of John Lau, their acting
boss in Hawaii. Now this. Scully could handle herself
in either business or social situations and for years
she had dealt easily with the "more than professional
but not quite personal" relationship between herself
and Mulder. Yet she didn't know if she ought to stay
in the living room to discuss the case with Mulder and Austin, as her professional instincts demanded, or go into the kitchen and offer to help Michelle, the way a polite dinner guest would.

Luckily, Michelle solved the problem for her, by
calling out from the kitchen, "Austin, if you say one
word about the case before we sit down to dinner, I'm
dumping this pan of lasagna on your head! I want to be in on what's going on. Send Dana in here with me and take her, uh, partner and show him your
new-and-improved bat cave; I'm sure John Byers will be pumping him for information when they get back to
Washington."

"What about me?" Dr. Thomas asked.

"Whichever you want," Michelle replied.

Dr. Thomas elected to join the other men in the lab,
leaving Dana with Parker and Michelle in the kitchen.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Dana asked
politely.

"You can set the table or hold Parker for me,
whichever you'd prefer," Michelle said.

"I'll take him, if he'll go to me," Dana said,
reaching for the child. He went to her and she
balanced him on her hip while they smiled at each
other.

"You seem to like children," Michelle said as she
reached for the plates.

"Yes, I do. I have a nephew about his age," Dana said. 

"How do you manage all this?"

"All what?"

"Well, putting together a dinner for six while caring
for a toddler and obviously in an advanced state of
pregnancy. You didn't even trash your kitchen, either! It's all I can do to prepare a simple meal for two adults and even then, my kitchen usually looks like a tornado hit it."

Michelle laughed. "We all have our talents, I guess.
It's like me asking you how you manage to be both a
doctor and an F.B.I. agent."

Michelle bustled about the kitchen and in and out of
the dining room, while Dana bounced Parker on her hip
and cooed to him. Finally, when the table was set and
the drinks were poured, Michelle untied her apron and
reached for her son. "Come on, let's go find our
fellas," she said.

At dinner, the other adults filled Michelle in on
their theory.

"So you're saying a computer could actually induce
someone to commit suicide?" she asked her husband.

"Not just induce, honey," he replied. "I'm saying the
computer actually creates a biochemical reaction in
the body which causes death."
 
"But why would someone do that?" Michelle asked.

Mulder, the psychologist in the group, elected to
answer. "If you mean why would someone commit suicide, Michelle, that's a question that's been puzzling philosophers for centuries. If you you mean why would they choose this particular method. . .well, it's quick, presumably relatively painless, not messy and easily available to anyone who has internet access and knows the password."

"Do you really think we can stop these deaths?" Dr.
Thomas asked.

"If people are really intent on committing suicide,
there's probably no way to stop them," Scully said
softly. "On the other hand, anything we can do to
prevent it from being easy may save some lives."

"In any case, " Austin said, returning to what, for
him, seemed to be the salient point, "I'm not so
worried about people who are deliberately seeking
death as people who may be stumbling onto the site by
accident."

"Could that happen?" Scully asked.

"Sure it could. Haven't you heard the stories about
kids trying to access educational sites and
accidentally logging on to pornography? It could be
the same type of thing. It's easy to do on the
internet. One wrong stroke of the keyboard and you're
miles away from what you intended."

"I guess our next step will be to look into the
backgrounds of all the victims, find out if any or all of them were indeed suicidal," Mulder said.

"That can be first thing on the agenda tomorrow,"
Scully agreed.

"Austin, we may contact you tomorrow afternoon to try
to figure out more about the computer connection, but
I think right now we need to go back to our hotel and
look over the case files, then spend tomorrow morning
doing some old-fashioned leg work; interviewing all of the victims' families and friends," Mulder said.

"Thank you for a delicious meal," Scully said. "Can I
help you clean up?"

"You two go ahead," Dr. Thomas said affably. "I'll
help Austin clean up while Michelle gets Parker ready
for bed."
 
Once they were in the car, Dana turned to her husband. "Did you really want to look over the case files when we get back to the hotel?"

"Maybe for about five minutes," Mulder answered. He
lifted one hand from the steering wheel and slid it
along her thigh, up under her skirt.

Scully whimpered.

"You like that?"

"Yes. Mulder, put your hands back on the steering
wheel."

"I can drive with one hand. What do you think I'm
doing all those times when I call you on my cell phone while I'm in the car?"

"I don't. . . .Mmm!  Fox, really, I think you'd better quit."

"I like your legs, Dana. Is it just my imagination, or are you wearing skirts a lot more often now than you did before we got married?"

"Uh, yeah. It started when we were in Hawaii. It just
seemed more natural to wear skirts there and I haven't really switched back."

"Don't do it on my account. I like your skirts
better."

"You don't like the way I look in pants?"

"Depends on the pants. The ones you wear to work don't do much for you. Now those jeans you wear sometimes, the ones that are real tight across your. . ."

"Mulder!"

"Anyway," he said with a grin, "those are nice."

Scully decide to grab her husband's hand and hold it
with both of her own. In a nice demure spot down near
her knees. She was afraid if she didn't, they'd end up pulled over by the side of the road, making love in the backseat like a couple of teenagers, instead of getting back to the hotel . She wasn't embarrassed by the fact that he turned her on so intently. They were married, after all, and she knew she had the same effect on him.  She just wanted a little more privacy when they started ripping each other's clothes off.

"Hey, Scully?" there was a teasing, challenging note
in Mulder's voice.

"Yeah?" she asked warily. Every time he got that look
in his eyes, she ended up doing something she'd never
dreamed of doing before. . .something she would have
sworn no sane person would ever do. For most of their
relationship, that had meant chasing after alleged
extraterrestrials, vampires and mutants. More
recently, it had resulted in them doing something
sexually adventurous.

"Want to play a game?"

"What kind of a game?"

"Just a little bit of make believe."

"What, Mulder?" Scully was already almost certain she
was going to agree to whatever he had in mind. For one thing, she trusted him completely and knew he would never suggest anything that would hurt her, either in an emotional or physical way. For another, she loved him and wanted to please him. But it wouldn't hurt to keep him in suspense for a few minutes. And to find out a few more details about whatever she was getting herself into.

"Well, we've got separate rooms at the hotel, right?"

"Sure, with a connecting door. Just like always."

"You've grown you hair out some since we've been
married, too, haven't you? It's about the same length
now as it is when we first met."

"Yeah, it probably is. You've never said, but you seem
to like it longer. You're always playing with it."

"I do like it better this way. The first year we were
partners, before they closed down the X-Files that
first time, you used to pull your hair back in a
ponytail sometimes. Remember?"

"Sure. You want me to do that tonight?"

"Yes, but that's only part of the game. I want us to
pretend. . "

"What, Mulder? That we're a couple of 1950s high
school kids?"

"No, but that has interesting potential. We'll save
that one for another night. What I've got in mind for
tonight. . ."

Dana was pretty sure she saw where her husband was
going wtih this, but if he didn't complete one of
these sentences soon, she was going to shoot him.
Again.

"What, Fox? You can tell me."

"That we've only been partners a few months. That it's before all the crap! Before your abduction and your cancer, back when your sister and my father were still alive. Before we'd realized exactly what a hornets' nest we were stepping into and what hell they were going to put us through for daring to search for the truth! I want you to come into my room, like you used to do, when you were scared or worried about me or just wanted to discuss some aspect of one of our cases."

"Is that what we're going to do?" she asked softly,
with a smile on her face. "Discuss the case?"

"No," he answered gently. "This time we're going to do what I wanted to do each and every time you burst into my hotel room over the years."