1Spring 2003
Scully looked in the rear view mirror with a smirk, as she watched Mulder leaning over the backseat, searching through the bags in the very back of their sedan. He sighed loudly, turning around to look at her.
"You're sure they're back there?" he asked, in a frustrated tone.
"Uh huh."
"Well, I didn't find them."
"Then you weren't looking hard enough."
He leaned over the backseat again and she was treated to a wonderful view of his denim clad ass, as she flicked her eyes from the road and back to the rearview mirror.
"I still can't find them," came his muffled voice. "Oh no, wait. Here they are, I found them." He righted himself and she hummed in displeasure, no longer able to see his ass.
"Do you want anything?" he asked, catching her eye in the rearview mirror.
"No, thanks. I'm fine. Well, maybe a bottle of water."
"Oh, some water. That's a good idea."
He leaned back over the backseat and she made sure to watch him as much as she could, without putting them in danger.
Grabbing the water bottles, he crawled back over the seats and sat beside her, setting their bottles of water in the cupholders. He opened up the bag of sunflower seeds and popped one into his mouth, turning to her with a smile.
"So, where exactly are we?" he asked, spitting out the shells, and tossing them out the window. She shrugged and he gave her a look, shaking his head.
Opening the glove box, he took out the map and unfolded it with a heavy sigh, as she smiled.
"Somewhere near Dallas, right?" he asked and she shrugged again, honestly not sure where they were. "Scully…" He sighed again and she chuckled.
"As if it truly matters, Mulder. I know that we're in Texas. Does that help you out at all?"
"Considering that Texas is super tiny?" he asked sarcastically. "Yes, that helps me out immensely, Scully." He rolled his eyes, looking at the map again.
"Here we are," he said, pointing to the map. "Huh…"
"What?" she asked, glancing at him.
"Well, I think we're actually closer to Chaney than Dallas. Chaney, Scully. Maybe we should pop in and see if we could find your buck toothed boyfriend," he said, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.
"Mulder… how many times must we discuss this? He was not buck toothed, and you know it."
"I know nothing, aside from what I saw," he said with a shrug.
"He did not have buck teeth, which I know you did see."
"Say what you want, but the jury is still out on that," he said, popping a few more sunflower seeds into his mouth. She shook her head, breathing out of her nose, as she pictured Sheriff Hartwell and his non-buck toothed smile.
"We should stop and stay there for the night," he said, folding up the map and putting it back into the glove box.
"Why would we stay there? We can still drive for a few hours," she said and he laughed.
"To quote you, Scully, 'as if it truly matters,'" he said with a grin. "We have nowhere else to go, no place in particular to be, so why not?" He winked to her and she knew she would be relenting, but she wanted to tease him a bit more.
"I think we should just keep driving. We still have some hours of sunlight left," she said with a shrug.
"That place had the magic fingers that you like," he said, raising his eyebrows seductively.
"You mean like that one place did in Oklahoma? When it stopped, breaking down before I…?" she raised her eyebrows and he laughed.
"As though I didn't help you out when that happened," he reminded her and she took a deep breath at the memory of how he had done just that; making her toes curl as she moaned his name.
"We have all those quarters," he said in a singsong voice.
"For showers. At campsites."
"Or for beds with magic fingers…" He wiggled his eyebrows and her body responded. She took a deep breath to avoid pulling off the road and yanking him into the backseat.
"Turn left," he said smugly and she turned on the blinker, glancing at him, her eyes roaming over his body.
Driving into the small town that they had come to years ago, was like a sense of déjà vu.
"Everything looks almost the same… except for the lack of vampires, of course," he said and she laughed.
"Did you expect to find them walking around wearing their black cloaks?"
"They didn't wear black cloaks, Scully, you know that."
"Just like you know Sheriff Hartwell didn't have buck teeth," she said under her breath, turning down the main street and heading toward the motel.
"Woman…" he muttered and she smiled.
He volunteered to go in and get their room. She watched him walk in front of the car and to her left, again admiring the way his jeans fit him. When he walked inside, she looked around at the crappy motel, and shook her head.
"What had I called it? Oh right, the Davy Crockett Motor Court," she whispered to herself, with a chuckle. "The Sam Houston Motor Lodge... God, it's like stepping back in time." She shook her head again and smiled.
He came out of the door a couple of minutes later, a huge grin on his face and got in the car.
"I got them to give us the room you had before," he said excitedly and she shook her head. Only he would be excited about something like that. She started the car and they drove to the room, backing in, in case a hasty retreat was needed.
Taking only the necessities from the car, they stepped into the room and she was hit with a wave of memories: how tired she had felt after that first autopsy, the ache in her feet, how her stomach had rumbled as she waited for the pizza to be delivered, and when Mulder had arrived, covered in mud.
"Whoa, the place is exactly the same, even down to the smell. It sure takes you back, huh?" he smiled and she nodded in agreement. The room definitely had a certain dank smell about it.
Setting their bags down, he searched the room, the bathroom, and the small closet. It had become standard procedure any place they stayed. They could never be too careful and they were always on their toes.
As he checked the room, she looked around. It was the same. The longhorn coat rack was still attached to the wall. The chairs that read "Howdy partner" were sitting against the wall. Even the bedding seemed to be the same. She was not sure if it made her feel good, or a bit creeped out.
"Phew, no vampires," he said in relief, as he stepped out of the bathroom, a hand at his chest. She laughed as she shook her head and he pumped his eyebrows at her.
"Is that what you were looking for?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Of course," he said, with a frown. "But, I've checked, and we're in the clear. Man… I'm hungry. We should've gotten some food. Now we'll have to go out again, " he sighed.
"Or we could always order a pizza," she suggested with a shrug and he looked at her aghast.
"Are you trying to get me drugged? Again?" he asked, grabbing the room key and stepping out the door.
"Can you dig it?" she teased in a low voice.
"Shut your mouth. I did not, Scully," he said, with a mock sigh as he shook his head.
"Jury's still out on that, as well as the buck teeth, it seems," she said with a smirk, getting in the car as he locked the room door, laughing under his breath.
After a delicious meal of Mexican food and a couple of beers each, they returned to the motel.
Humming as he opened the door, she smiled at him, happy from the evening they had spent together. She stared at his profile and took a deep breath, shaking her head. God, he was handsome, so very sexy. How she waited so long to sleep with him, she would never understand.
"You and me both, Scully," he said in a low voice and she realized she had said that out loud. His eyes roamed her body, as he pushed the door open, allowing her to enter first.
She was breathing hard as the door closed and locked, but when she heard the pile of change hit the dresser, she nearly forgot to breathe.
Turning around, she stared at him as he lifted his shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor. His hands went to the buttons on his jeans and she could see that he was already aroused. Desire coursed through her as she began to take off her own clothes, dropping them to the ground.
He stepped toward her, causing her to back up until her legs hit the bed and she sat down, scooting back further onto the bed. He grabbed a handful of quarters and walked to the side of the bed, setting them in neat stacks of four.
"Fifty cents for two minutes… I've got five dollars worth of quarters here. I think we're good," he said, climbing onto the bed and over her.
"Twenty minutes… yeah I think that will be sufficient," she breathed, her core throbbing for him.
He kissed her, and her arms went around him as he lay on top of her. He was so warm and she could feel him hard against her, making her throb once again. His lips traveled down her body and she became wetter. His tongue trailed across her stomach and she gasped.
"Mulder…" she breathed and he kissed the scar from her bullet wound, and traveled back up her body.
He stopped at her breasts, taking his time at each of them, using only his mouth. He sucked at a nipple, and she arched into him. As he bit down lightly on the nipple, the bed suddenly began to shake violently.
She shouted out a laugh of surprise, and he lifted his head from her breast, his eyes wide in shock.
"Was it always this shaky?" he asked, his voice bouncing along with his body.
"I don't know," she said, watching his hair shaking as the bed seemed to speed up. They stared at each other and then they began to laugh.
"I put in a dollar's worth," he said with chagrin, and she laughed even harder.
The vibrations slowed and they looked at each other with hope in their eyes. It was short-lived however, as the bed ramped up and she held tightly to him, fearful she would be bucked from the bed entirely.
"It's only four minutes. Can we stand it?" he almost shouted, as the bed slowed and then sped up again.
"No!" she laughed and they moved, him pulling the comforter off the bed and laying it on the floor.
As they rose from the bed, their weight seemed to have been quieting the vibrations, because but once they were off, it became louder, the very screws of the headboard threatening to loosen.
Her head fell back as her body shook with laughter, the vibrations rising and falling in turn. Obviously something was wrong with it, and all she could do was laugh.
He pulled her to him and then down to the blanket on the floor. Surprisingly, or not, he had not lost any steam as they had left the bed. The bed continued to rumble and she could feel it down her spine and to her core.
Yes… this was much better…
The bed was finally silent, after running noisily for longer than the dollars worth of quarters. Mulder lay heavily upon her, both of them sweaty and tired, but happily so. She ran her fingers through his hair, smiling as she looked up at the ceiling.
"Is this what you saw when you lay here before?" she asked him. "All of these dots on the ceiling and that watermark above the bed?" He chuckled against her throat and she grinned wider.
"I was drugged, remember? I don't remember much about that moment."
"Aside from Ronnie coming at me like a flying squirrel?" she teased and he laughed.
"Aside from that, yeah."
"Hmmm."
The bed gave a sudden violent shake and they both froze, before she started to laugh.
"This was your idea. As if almost being killed by a "vampire" in this room wasn't enough, we were almost attacked by a vibrating bed."
"I can hear you putting air quotes around the word vampire, Scully," he said, and she laughed. "But, yes the bed was a bit of a miscalculation."
"A bit? A bit?" she said, tugging at his hair and making him look up at her. "I felt like I was laying on top of a jackhammer. It was just..." She demonstrated how it felt to shake around and he said nothing. "You know? It was so rough."
"Sorry, I was distracted by the beautiful bouncing breasts in front of me," he said, shaking his head, as if to clear it, causing her to laugh. He winked and kissed her before he pulled back and stood up.
"What are you doing?" she asked, shivering a little, at the loss of his warm body.
"I'm going to see if I can unplug the magic fingers," he explained, walking over beside the bed. "If I can't, well then…"
She turned on her side, her head resting on her elbow as she watched him search for the plug. Again she admired his ass, this time completely nude.
"I can't find where the goddamn thing is plugged in,"he said, grabbing the pillows off the bed and tossing them toward her, the bed jerking once more.
"So, we're sleeping on the floor tonight?" she asked, trying to stop her smile.
"It looks like it," he said, pulling the sheets off the bed, and covering her. He turned out the lights, stepped over her, and lay down beside her, adjusting the pillows and blankets.
"And to think I wanted to keep driving…" she teased and he huffed.
"Shut up," he breathed as the bed shook, causing her to giggle, and she laid her head on his chest.
They lay in silence, aside from the occasional shake of the bed, until she could not hold it in anymore.
"Who's the black private dick who's a sex machine with all the chicks?" she said in a deep voice.
"Scully…"
"No, Mulder… it's SHAFT!" She sang in a high voice, before succumbing to giggles. He exhaled and then she felt him laughing, his chest moving.
"Go to sleep, Scully."
"Shaft," she sang again, laughing softly as she wrapped an arm around his waist.
"Woman…"
The next morning, a bit sore from their night on the floor, and tired from the bed shaking and waking them up, they showered and dressed, both moaning as they stretched their tight muscles.
She cleaned up their makeshift bed, as Mulder packed up their clothes and gathered the quarters from the bedside table. The bed shook again as he walked away and he jumped in surprise.
"Jesus Christ," he exclaimed, staring at the bed, shaking his head as Scully laughed. "That scared the shit out of me."
Still laughing, she got in the passenger seat as he put their bags in the car, and drove over to the office to drop off the key. She watched him walking away again and she smiled.
Driving out of town, he reached for her hand and she squeezed it as she looked out across the vast openness before them.
"Oh look at that," she said, a few minutes out of town, leaning forward and looking to her left. "Wait, isn't that the cemetery?" He turned his head and let out a breath of disbelief.
"Yeah, it is," he said quietly, slowing down to a stop. He glanced at her and she smiled at him, letting go of his hand and opening her door.
They stood at the gateway to the cemetery and stared at each other, before Mulder pushed the gate open, its hinges creaking from lack of use, and they walked inside.
"What…?" Scully said, looking around. "How… how is this possible?" She reached out and touched a sunflower, one of many, the golden flowers reaching toward the sun.
Glancing at him, she found him standing in the middle of a large cluster of them, a happy and amused grin on his face.
"Mulder?"
"I think… I think I did this…" He looked at her, somewhat unsure, but almost certain, and she raised her eyebrows at him. "When I came out here on my own with the sheriff, I dropped sunflower seeds along the ground in here to slow the vampire down if he showed up. I don't know… could I have done this?"
"I don't know, but it's entirely possible. However and why ever it happened, though, it's here and I love it. It's beautiful," she said, walking over to him.
He nodded as they looked at the sunflowers that had grown in the cemetery. Meeting his eyes again, she grinned and he shook his head with a disbelieving smile.
She turned around and headed back to the car, Mulder trailing behind her. They walked through the gate, shutting it behind them with another squeaky screech.
"Mulder," she said, turning to face him, but the words died on her lips, as she discovered him holding a couple of the stalks of beautiful sunflowers. Handing them to her with a shrug and a smile, she kissed his cheek as she took them from his hand.
"Mulder…" she said with a soft smile, looking at the flowers and then at the cemetery again. "Just look at what your overly knowledgeable brain created. It's amazing." He looked over his shoulder and nodded, looking back at her with a smile.
"Well, I am quite clever," he replied with a wink and she laughed softly.
"Except when it comes to staying in once occupied rooms with malfunctioning vibrating beds," she countered and he shrugged with a smile. "But look at what we would have missed, Mulder, if we had kept driving; happiness growing in an otherwise sad and desolate place."
"So you're admitting that I was right?"
"I wouldn't go that far," she replied, rolling her neck. "I have quite a few sore muscles who would disagree with your decision to stay here." He laughed and she touched his chest as she stepped closer to him.
"But, a cemetery full of accidental sunflowers… that is a very you thing to do; adding a small amount of light into the darkness." He shook his head as he touched her cheek and she smiled.
"Not me. Not hardly. But you, smiling at me that way, holding those sunflowers… well… that's enough sunshine and happiness to power the earth."
"Hmm…" she said, with a half smile. "I'm inclined to say that's almost too much, but…" She looked down at the sunflowers and then back at him with a one shouldered shrug. "I'll allow it." He snorted with a smile, kissing her loudly as he smacked her on the ass.
"You'll allow it… I swear woman…" he muttered as he pulled back, shaking his head and staring at her. She grinned and he kissed her again. "Come on, you. Bring that sunshine with us and let's get going."
She smiled and took his hand as they walked to the car, a happy light feeling in her heart. Some days, living the way they were at the moment, it took its toll on them both, and dragged them down.
But then, there were days like today. Days when finding a cemetery full of sunflowers, from seeds scattered years ago, absentmindedly but also hopefully, was enough to keep the worry and darkness at bay.
For a little while anyway.
She turned once more and looked at the cemetery with a smile. Only Mulder would have inadvertently created a patch of beauty in such a broken looking place.
Of course he would.
