Special Agent Dana Scully flipped open the cell phone
that had rung just as she was stepping out of her car
in the parking lot of her apartment complex.

"Scully."

"Dana, it's Mom."

"Hi, Mom! What's up?"

"Are you and Fox going to be in town next week?"

"As far as I know, Mom, but you know how it is with
us. We never really know where we'll be sent or when.
Why, what's up?"

"Thanksgiving, silly. I was hoping the two of you
would be in town and could come over for dinner.
Chuck's still out at sea and Bill is going to his
in-laws, so it would just be the three of us."

"Sounds good to me, Mom. Pencil us in, but remember:
if aliens land, we won't be there."

"I wasn't a Navy wife for over 30 years without
learning to be flexible, dear."

"I love you, Mom. Bye."

"Love you, too, sweetie. Bye."
 
By the time she'd finished the conversation, Scully
had reached her front door. She turned the knob and
walked in, just in time to hear her husband saying,
"Bye, Mom," and see him hang up the phone.

"Was that your mother?" she asked.

"Yeah. She wants us to come up next week, have
Thanksgiving dinner with her and spend the night. I
told her that, alien abductions and mutant psycho
vampires notwithstanding, we'd be there."

Fox Mulder was surprised at the look of amusement and
bewilderment that crossed his wife's face. "You don't
want to go? I know my Mom's not the easiest person in
the world to get along with, but it would only be for
one night. And New England is really beautiful this
time of year."

"It's not that, Fox. It's that I just got off the
phone with MY mother. I mean, JUST now. She called me
on my cell. And I told her we'd come to HER house for
Thanksgiving."

"Oops! Is this where we do one of those newlywed
argument things about which set of in-laws to spend
the holidays with? If so, how soon can we get to the
kiss-and-makeup part?"

Scully shrugged out of her suit jacket and put down
her briefcase. "We're not going to argue, Mulder.
We're going to look at it logically and decide what to do."

"Why don't you just tell me? It'll probably save
time."

Scully sighed. "We should probably go to your Mom's.
My Mom lives right here in town, after all. We see her more often, so I guess it would only be fair to spend Thanksgiving with your mother. It's not like my Mom will end up all alone. The boys are busy, but she's got friends from church, other Navy families, her sister. . .somebody is sure to invite her to join them for Thanksgiving dinner."

"I've got a better idea. Why don't I call my mother
and ask her if your mother can come with us? They
really ought to meet each other. In most marriages,
the parents meet each other *BEFORE* the wedding."

"Mulder, you're a genius!"

"Nice of you to finally notice after all these years!"

Thanksgiving morning dawned bright and clear. Dana and Fox were up early. They did their last-minute packing, then went to pick up Maggie Scully. Mulder figured they'd be at his mother's house no later than noon.

"It was kind of your mother to invite me along, too,
Fox," Maggie said as they started up the interstate.

"She's lookign forward to meeting you, Maggie. I think she relishes the idea of discussing my strange career with someone who can actually understand!"

As the traffic thinned and Dana turned partially
around in her seat to talk with her mother in the
back, Mulder reached his had over to rest on his
wife's leg. It was a habit he'd developed since they'd married: he only did it when traffic was light and usually only when she was wearing a skirt or shorts, rather than pants. Today she was wearing an Irish fisherman's sweater, a denim skirt and knee high boots. It was a different look for Scully, who usually wavered only between the extremes of the severe business suits she wore to the office and the
tomboyish jeans paired with T-shirts or sweatshirts
that she wore during their off hours. As always, he
thougth she looked absolutley delicious. The skirt had big buttons down the front and by accident - he'd
swear it hadn't been intentional - one of his fingers
slipped inot the gaps between the buttons. He was
surprised when he encountered the silky, bare flesh of her inner thigh. He knew she was wearing knee socks with the boots, but he'd assumed she had on stockings as well. He flexed his finger slightly to be sure. Yep. No barrier. Skin on skin.

Dana fought the urge to squirm as her husband touched
her thigh. This was unreal. The only point of contact
between their bodies was the tip of one of his fingers and a tiny point on her leg. But she was still turned on. And her mother was in the backseat and her mother-in-law was waiting for them!

Mulder caught Scully's eye and he smiled at her. She
grined back. Oh heck, who cared. They'd figure out
something. They always did.

The Thanksgiving dinner had been delicious.
Considering that Mulder could barely boil water,
Scully honestly hadn't expected his mother to be such
a terrific cook. Now, as they all finished their
slices of pumpkin pie, she pushed back from the table.

"Mrs. Mulder, since you cooked, I'll be happy to clean up," Scully said.

"Oh no, dear, that's all right. And why don't you call me Tina? After all, you're a "Mrs. Mulder", too, now."

"I've got a better idea," Maggie suggested. "I'll help Tina clean up. It will give us more of a chance to visit. Fox, you must be tired from all that driving. Maybe you and Dana could go take a nap."

Mulder grinned in amusement. For some reason, Maggie
always seemed to think he needed encouragement to
ravish her daughter. Heck, all he needed was a
location!

"Actually, I though Dana and I would go for a walk,"
he replied. "I want to show her my secret hideout. It
has a sign that says 'No Girls Allowed', but I
figured, for her, I'd make an exception."

"Seriously, Fox?" Dana asked, sounding skeptical.

"He means his treehouse in the woods," Tina said. "He
really does have one; or did. I haven't been back
there in years. It might have blown down by now."

"Okay, let me get my coat," Dana answered.

As they walked through the woods, holding hands, Dana
thought how wonderful it was to be doing something
this normal with her husband. For once, they weren't
chasing aliens, trying to figure out government
conspiracies, conducting autopsies or profiling serial killers. It was great!

"Hey, here it is!" Mulder said, stopping at a huge oak tree. "Look, the steps Dad and I nailed in are still there. I bet the rest of it's still there, too." He craned his head back, looking up. "Yeah, enough leaves have fallen that I can make out the platform. Let's go on up!"

"Um, I don't know, Fox. It's awfully high."

"So?"

"I don't really like heights."

"Oh, come on, Scully! I've seen you climb things
higher and less stable than this!"

"Well, when it's work-related, sure. I mean I COULD,
if I had to. It's just not my idea of fun."

Mulder stared down at her. He didn't know what amazed
him more. The fact that he'd known her for all these
years and was just now finding out that she was scared of heights or the fact that after putting up a tough, brave front for so long she was finally admitting it to him.

"Okay," he said softly, running a finger down her
cheek.

"Okay, what?"

"Okay, we won't go up to the treehouse. God knows, I
put you in enough dangerous situations during our
professional hours. I don't need to be scaring you
unneccesarily during our free time."

"Um, well, what did you want to do up there, anyway?"

He grinned. "Come on, Dana! What do you think?"

"Mulder, don't you ever think of anything else? Or
does ALL your mental capacity go toward imagining
variations for our sex life?"

"Not ALL of my mental capacity. Probably only about 98 percent."

"You function amazingly well with the two percent left over."

"Hey, what can I say?"

Scully looked up again. "It's outside, Fox!"

"We've made love outdoors before. What about that time on the beach in Hawaii? Or the time at the summer house?"

"Yeah, but those times were at night. It's broad
daylight now!"

"We'll be up in a TREE, Dana. Nobody's going to see
us. But we don't have to if you really don't want to."

She sighed. The problem was, she didn't know which
would be worse - climbing up in a treehouse to make
love or going back to his mother's house to announce
they were going to "take a nap" and seeing the knowing looks on her mother's face. Of course, the problem could be solved by simply waiting until tonight. Except that wasn't a realistic solution anymore. Not with the way her husband's hand was roving up and down her back and bottom.

"You'll stay with me? Right behind me?"

"Of course, sweetheart. If you get scared before we
reach the top, I'll help you get down. You know you
can trust me, Scully."

"I know, Mulder," she answered. "You make me brave."

"Well, you keep me sane, so it's a more than even
trade."

They started up the tree. Mulder hadn't been kidding
when he promised to stay close, she thought with a
smile. He was using his long arms and legs to
practically engulf her. There was only one slightly
frightening moment, when they reached the top step and she had to swing herself over an open space into the treehouse itself. But she did it.

Mulder climbed in behind her and stood up. He reached
his hand down and entwined their fingers, drawing her
to her feet.

"Wow!" Dana said, looking around. The view was
absolutely breathtaking, the surrounding trees a
panorama of beautiful autumn colors. "I'm glad we came up here."

"Gee, Dana," he said with a grin, "we didn't come
yet."

It took her a moment to grasp the innuendo of his
statement, then she took a playful swing at him. They
tussled for a moment, then he bent his mouth to hers.
The kiss was long, slow and deep; just the way she
liked it. After a while, though, she could feel the
tension begin to creep into the muscles in her neck
and legs. That was the problem with kissing while they were standing up. He was so much taller than she that it eventually got uncomfortable.

Finally, they broke the kiss and gasped for breath,
looking into each other's eyes. Slowly, Mulder sat
down and pulled her into his lap. They were facing
each other and she could feel the very obvious result
of their kissing and flirting as she straddled him.
They kissed again, this time more comfortably.

"How are we going to do this?" she murmured when it
ended.

"Let's take off our coats and make sort of a bed with
them. It's actually pretty warm today."

"We're going to be cold once we take off all our
clothes," she said.

"So we won't take them all off. We'll just remove or
open a few strategic items!" He shrugged out of his
trenchcoat and placed it on the ground beneath him,
then reached around and removed hers, as well. Leaning back onto their makeshift bed, he reached up
underneath her sweater and unhooked her bra, then
slowly slid his hands around to her breasts. He spent
a blissfully long time playing with them, letting his
long fingers tease her nipples until she was so wet
she was squirming.

"Uh, Dana, I know I said we weren't going to take all
our clothes off, but I do think at least a few more
items need to be removed or pushed out of the way!"

"Such as?" she asked with a teasing smile. She was on
top of him, her hands on his shoulders, her knees
straddling his hips.

"These, for starters," he said, sliding his hands up
under her skirt and pulling down her panties until
they were halfway down her thighs. Then he pulled open all but the top three snaps on her denim skirt. "You know, Dana, this outfit is perfect. Did you dress like this on purpose?"

"Sure, Mulder. When I got up this morning, I said to
myself, "I think I'll wear an outfit that will allow
me to make love without completely removing all my
clothes, just in case my husband takes it into his
head to make love to me in a tree today!"

Mulder laughed against her lips. Then he whispered,
"Why don't you unzip me?"

Scully moved her hands between their bodies, first
unbuckling his belt and unsnapping his jeans, then
slowly pulling down the zipper. That done, she slipped her small fingers inside and pulled his swollen member out through the open fly of his boxers. She ran her hand up and down him, delighting in the silky texture of his skin over his long, hard heat.

Mulder moved his hand down her bottom and between her
legs. Geez, she was wet! he thought as she wiggled
against his hand.

"Dana?"

"Mmm?"

He raised an eyebrow and looked at her, then removed
his fingers from her core and placed both hands on her hips and exerted a gentle downward pressure. "You
ready or you wanna play some more?"

"I'm ready," she murmured, using her hand to guide him inside her body.

They both closed their eyes and moaned at the contact. Scully was afraid she was going to come right then and there, just from being penetrated, before they even began to move. Mulder kept her perpetually aroused, so by the time they actually got around to making love, it was almost always as if they had engaged in hours of foreplay.

She rocked back on him and bit her lip to keep from
climaxing while he surged into her. She wasn't able to last long; after a few thrusts her inner muscles began to contract violently around him. He smiled up at her when she had finished pulsating.

"You are so gorgeous! Do you know you hair is the same color as the autumn leaves?"

"Thank you. You want to switch positions?

"No, I'm fine like this. Can you sit up more on me?"

"Mmmhmm," she murmured, leaning up to comply with his
request. He thrust into her for quite a while, using
their intertwined fingers to move her up and down,
finally coming with a moan of her name.

They lay together, sated, afterwards, dozing in the
cool autumn air.

Back at Tina Mulder's house, she and Maggie Scully
smiled at each other as they settled in the living
room with their cups of tea. The brisk hum of the
dishwasher sounded in the background.

"I've never seen a married couple flirt with each
other the way Dana and Fox do," Tina said.

"I'd never seen Dana flirt with anyone until she met
Fox," Maggie said. "Even then, most of it's been since they've married. She's the polar opposite of my other daughter. Melissa began flirting when she was about eleven and didn't stop until the day she died."

Tina was silent for a moment. "I'd forgotten you'd
lost a daughter, too. It's hard, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's been hard on any of us. It wouldn't have
been easy at any time, of course, but it was
especially hard on Dana losing both her father and
sister in such a short time span. She was so close to
both of them. Dana's more like her father; Melissa was more like me."

"Do you ever wonder why? I mean of all your children,
why you lost her and not one of the others? I know
it's haunted both Fox and me since the day Samantha
disappeared. Why her and not him?"

"I have. After a lot of grief and prayer, I came up
with an answer, of sorts, for myself. I don't know
that it would apply to your loss, of course, since
Samantha was still a child when she was taken from
you."

"What was it?" Tina asked.

"I don't want this to come out wrong," Maggie said
slowly. "Because I loved Melissa very much; as I said, of all my children she was the one most like me. Dana loved her, too, as did her brothers. But. . .Melissa was always my drifter. The other three have
challenging careers they've dedicated a good portion
of their lives to. Melissa had a new job every six
months or so. My oldest son was already married at the time Melissa died and now he and his wife have a son. Charles isn't married even now, but he's my baby and it's not at all unusual for men not to get married until they're past 30. And even years ago, when Melissa was still alive, it was already becoming
apparent how much Fox needed Dana to make him whole.
Melissa didn't have anyone who felt that way about
her. I'm not sure she ever would have. The only
explanation I've ever been able to come up with is
that when Melissa died it was a horrible tragedy, but
it was only a single tragedy. If Dana had died, it
would have effectively killed Fox as well."

"I'm not sure there would have bee anything
"effective" about it," Tina said softly. "I think if
Fox ever lost her, he'd kill himself. I used to worry
about him becoming suicidal sometimes, when he was a
teenager, once it became apparent that Samantha
probably wasn't coming back. It took him over twenty
years to love someone again and I don't think he's
strong enough to bounce back a second time."

"He won't lose her," Maggie said with a smile. "Dana's tough, like her father."

Later, Fox built a fire and he and Dana curled up on
the couch in the living room, their mothers occupying
armchairs on either side. "There's room for someone
else on the couch," Dana murmured sleepily, as she
drew her legs up and snuggled closer to her husband.

"We're fine, dear," Maggie assured her. She was
revising her opinion of Dana being the child least
like herself. Dana looked so relaxed and lovemaking
had always left Maggie in the same condition - wanting nothing more than hours of afterglow cuddling and dozing with her husband. Not always an easy mission to accomplish with four children in the house!

"William always used to," Maggie began, only to be
interupted by her hostess.

"William?" Tina asked.

"Dana's Dad was named William, too, Mom," Fox
explained. "Just like Dad. So is her older brother."

"You know, Fox, I'm surprised you never tried to make
an X-File out of the fact that both our fathers had
the same name!" Dana teased gently.

"Uh, I think it's just a coincidence, sweetheart. If
was a pretty common name for men of their generation."

"At least if we ever have a little boy, we won't have
to argue over which of his grandfathers to name him
after," Dana murmured.

"Do you two plan to have children?" Tina asked. Before either Fox of Dana could answer, she added, "I'm so sorry. That's the ultimate nosy mother-in-law
question, isn't it? Please forget I said anything."

"It's okay, Mom," Fox said.

"Really, Tina, I don't mind you asking," Dana said.
"The answer is: we'd like to, but I don't know if it's possible. I've had some health problems in the past and the doctors seemed to think that I probably
wouldn't be able to conceive under ordinary
circumstances. So, we'd probably be looking at medical intervention to achieve a pregnancy."

"And ONLY if the doctor feels it would be safe for
Dana," Fox added. "I'm not going to put her life or
health in jeopardy just to reproduce my genes.
Adoption's always an option we can look into if
pregnancy doesn't seem feasible."

"Dana, dear," Maggie said slowly, "forgive me if I'm
the one being nosy now, and I don't mean to embarrass
you, but are you saying that you and Fox aren't. . .I
mean you've never taken any measures to prevent..."

"No, Mom. But we've been married just short of seven
months now and nothing's happened. You were, what?
Already in your third trimester with Bill Junior at
this point in your own marriage?"

"I had your brother nine months and nine days after
our wedding. You know that, dear."

"Goodness," Tina gasped, "we were married for four
years before Fox came along."

After their mothers had gone to bed, Mulder shifted
his position so that he was lying flat on his back,
stretched out on the couch with Scully on top of him.
"Decisions, decisions," he murmured.

"Such as?" she asked, propping her chin up on his
chest to gaze into his eyes.

"Such as which fantasy to fulfill? The one about
making love to you in front of a fire, or the one
about making love to you in my old bedroom?"

"Considering that both our mothers are upstairs, I
think I'd prefer to make love in a room with a door we can actually close!"

"Where's your sense of adventure, Scully?"

"I used up my daily dose in the treehouse!"

He smiled and rolled them over, so he could slide off
the couch and stand up. "Come on, he said, reaching a
hand down to her.

She shook her head and held up her arms. "I want you
to carry me."

"Carry you?" he said. "My room's upstairs!"

She just continued to smiled at him and hold open her
arms until he sighed, shook his head and scooped her
up. He had to admit she was making it easy for him,
wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around
his waist. Much easier to carry her this way than as a dead weight thrown over his shoulder, as he had in the antarctic over a year ago.

When he sat her down on the bed, then turned to lock
the door, she gave him a saucy grin.

"Do I get to take all my clothes off this time?"

"Nope. I get to take all you clothes off. C'mere."

She moved willingly into his embrace and he began to
undress her slowly, stopping to kiss and touch after
every article of clothing he removed. When she was
stark naked before him he smiled. "Wow! When I was a
teenager, I used to dream about having a beautiful,
naked woman in my room with me, but you're much better than any of my fantasies!"

"What were you going to do with this fantasy woman?"

"Well, after she took my clothes off - which I notice
you seem to be doing in a hell of a hurry - I was
going to make love with her until we both collapsed
from exhaustion!"

"Sounds like a plan, lover!"

Putting his hands to her face, his voice turned
surprisingly serious as he said, "You're the woman who fulfills all my fantasies, Dana. Because even as a horny teen-age boy, I didn't just want to get laid. I wanted to be loved."

"I do love you, Fox. So much."

"I know. I love you, too, Dana."

Quite a while later, Maggie Scully - who was sleeping
in the guest room next to her son-in-law's old bedroom - was awakened into a state of semi- consciousness by a long, soft sighing sound. It took her a moment to realize where the sound was coming from and why. She smiled and turned her face back into the pillow. Yes, her daughter might be a dedicated career woman while Maggie has always been just a housewife, but the two of them definitely had some things in common.

As his wife curled up beside him, Mulder stroked her
face gently and whispered, "Dana?"

"Mmm?"

"I've been thinking about what my mother said
earlier."

"What?"

"Well, you know, about her and Dad being married four
years before I was born. Then there were another four
years between me and Samantha. A lot different from
your family; your folks had you, Melissa and both the
boys before their eighth anniversary."

"So where are you going with this, lover?"

"I'm just wondering if maybe. . .I mean, we've always
assumed the reason we're able to make love so
frequently but you never get pregnant is because of of YOUR past medical problems. But what if it's not you? What if it's me? What if I'm. . .shooting blanks, so to speak?"

"Fox, we agreed that we'd wait until after our first
anniversary, right? We didn't really want to have a
child right away, like my parents did. Then, if I'm
not pregnant, we'll get some medical tests done,
decide if we want to pursue fertility treatments or
look into adoption. I don't see that we need to alter
that plan in any way. I always assumed we'd have a few basic tests run on you, as well, just to make sure. I doubt you're incapable of fathering a child. If the problem is simply that you're a little on the low side, there is a very simple way of remedying that. You're not going to like it much, though."

"What?"

"We slow down."

"Huh?"

"Reproductive medicine isn't my specialization, but I
do know this much: more sex doesn't always increase
the chances of conception. If a man is sort of. .
.borderline. . .his wife is more likely to get
pregnant if they only have intercourse two or three
times a week. Twice-a-days, which seem to be what you
prefer, sort of. . .dilute things, so to speak."

"Oh."

"I still say we wait until after our first
anniversary. And maybe until we quit working together
everyday. Because, with the way you flirt with me all
the time a work, I'm not going to be able to limit
myself to every third night."

"Why, Agent Scully! Are you coming onto me?"

"All the time, Mulder," she murmured sleepily. "All
the time!"