Title: Crystal Moonlight Author: Elizabeth L. Iacono Rating: PG Category: Story, Romance Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance Spoilers: The Unnatural, The Sixth Extinction: Amor Fati, The X-Files: Fight The Future, Demons, Talitha Cumi Summary: Mulder and Scully get caught in a snowstorm at the Mulders' summer house in Rhode Island. This was written for Tanja's Fanfic Challenge of The Millennium. I hope it works out and you like it! The story is from Scully's POV. Archive: Gossamer and Spooky's, anyone else just tell me where's it's going. Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully are not mine. That is a given. They belong to CC, 1013, and Fox. Feedback: Please? My addy is RhiaRamsay@aol.com BTW, my website is finally up, so give it a visit and sign the guest book, please? http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Meteor/7124/index.html Crystal Moonlight Elizabeth L. Iacono February 2, 2000 Quonoquotaugh, Rhode Island As I sat staring out the ice crystal-encrusted window, I realized I had never seen a snowstorm like this before (What happened in Antarctica doesn't count, I was out of it for most of that adventure). I guess that comes from growing up a navy brat on the west coast, dividing a good portion of time between San Diego and San Francisco. We were rarely on the east coast, and if we were it was usually spending a few months at Annapolis, near the Navy academy. I'd never experienced a real New England snowstorm before, but now I was sitting in the middle of one, in a little town in Rhode Island. What had happened was Mulder and I were on our way back from a case in Boston, and since the flights out were canceled, we decided to drive home, wanting to get out of the area before the snow got any heavier. But we didn't get far. We'd made it down into Rhode Island, but by that time the wind was blowing the snow around to the point that driving was getting hard. Rather than staying in the car until the snow let up Mulder dug out the map to see if his parents' summer home was anywhere nearby. Thankfully, it was. From that point it took us a couple of hours to get to the summerhouse. Along the way we'd stopped to grab some supplies at a local supermarket, because Mulder had assured me that the house had no food in it. The first stop when we got to the summer house was to turn the heat on and start a fire in the fireplace, soon it was warm in there. I'd decided that this was a much nicer place to spend the night rather than a rental car. The next morning when I woke up the snow was still falling as steadily as the night before. As far as I could see the snow had to be at least two and a half feet high and piling up by the minute. Definitely better than the rental car, I thought. That was this morning. Now, it's three in the afternoon, I'm looking out the window and Mulder's getting a little bit of cabin fever. He's been going through all his old things that were left here and trying to find something to do. He already tried to connect his laptop to the Internet, but since the battery's dead that has to charge and he moved onto his old things. Personally, I don't mind it. I'm happy just sitting in the window seat reading a book I picked up at the supermarket yesterday night. Of course, having Mulder here is a definite added benefit. I'm looking at this little snowstorm as an opportunity for Mulder and me to have the honeymoon we couldn't go on a few months before. Oh, did I forget to mention that Mulder and I got married last November? We'd been a couple since that spring (I will hold a special place in my heart for baseball from now on) but Mulder's run in with the government ending up with me finding him in a operating room where someone had just performed brain surgery on him kind of pushed us into action. So we made it official. One night we went down to the hall of records and had a judge perform a small civil ceremony. Afterwards though, it felt like nothing had changed. I thought that when we finally took that last step into marriage that something would change between us, but it was still the same. And you know, that actually told me that we'd made the right decision, that it was right. We haven't been able to tell anyone yet. My mom, Mulder's mom, The Gunmen, none of them know. We're happy actually keeping it between us. It's our little special secret. The Bureau is another story, although I know that we're not the first set of partners who've gotten married to each other. It's also a Bureau rule that they can't separate or punish us because of our personal relationship. We've been good though, we haven't gotten out of hand anywhere we could get caught. (Okay, it only happened at the office once. Thank God we'd gotten the bug out of the smoke detector the day before.) So when the time comes that someone from the Bureau does find out (hopefully it will be Skinner first, I think he knows us better than the other agents do) we'll be okay. I heard Mulder come up behind me and sit down on the window seat. I looked up at him, slouched against the window, looking a little tired from his rooting through the attic. "Find anything interesting?" I asked. Mulder grinned. "Nope, unless you count a few years worth of Mad Magazines." He reached over, grabbed my hands and pulled me to rest between his legs, my back against his chest. "I can't believe it's still snowing. It's got to be at least three feet deep by now." "There's no way we're going to be getting back to D.C. anytime soon," I said. "Not that I mind," I continued with a grin, "it's almost like that honeymoon we never got a chance to have." "Damn FBI," Mulder muttered jokingly. We both knew that the way our work schedules were left no time to take a vacation. "Mulder, did you ever have a snowstorm like this when you were a kid?" I asked. I felt him sigh behind me and said, "Sometimes. The Vineyard was an island so it was rare that we ever got this much snow, but sometimes it would just pile up over night, and they'd cancel school the next day or until the plows could get through," I could hear his voice take on a nostalgic tone. "And then when that happened we'd spend the day outside, building forts, getting into snowball fights, sledding. When it got too dark to see anymore we'd head back inside to someone's house, there was always a bunch of us out there together, and their mother would open up some hot chocolate and marshmallows and we'd camp out in front of the fire until someone would start up the car that had the snow tires on them and take us all home." I twisted in his arms and rested my cheek against his chest. "It sounds like a lot of fun," I said. "It was," Mulder agreed. "Sometimes I wish we'd get that much snow down in D.C." "You just want to get me with a snowball," I giggled. "But then we can snuggle up in front of the fire afterwards," he whispered mischievously, which told me I'd better watch out whenever we were outside for the duration of our trip. Suddenly a fierce gust of wind blew outside, rattling the window and sending a draft inside. I shivered slightly in reaction. Mulder's arms tightened around me. "You cold?" "A little," I admitted. The house was old and it was a bit drafty. To my surprise Mulder stood up, scooping me up in his arms. "What the hell are you doing?" I yelped, mostly from surprise. Mulder laughed. "I'm getting you warmed up," he said, making me wonder what exactly he had in mind. He set me down in front of the fire but then got up again. Before I could spend too much time wondering though he came back with the heavy comforter from the bedroom. Mulder sat down next to me and tightly wrapped it around both of us. "Mmmmm, nice," I smiled as I snuggled in close to him. "That's not all I've got in mind," he grinned as he leaned down to kiss me. I wrapped my arms around his neck as I got the second part of his plan and lucid thinking went flying out the window. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX By the time Mulder had finished...ahem...warming me up about all we had left on was the comforter wrapped around us. Now I laid on my side facing the fire with Mulder resting between me and the couch, the comforter covering both of us. "I think I'm warmer now," I mumbled. "Good," Mulder said against my shoulder. As we laid there I began thinking about one of the most important things I'd found out in the past few months. On a routine checkup with my doctor I learned that I could have children again. She couldn't figure it out, especially since she was the one who had discovered I was infertile in the first place, but after running tests and taking X-rays everything looked normal, as if nothing had ever happened. Needless to say I was shocked. I kept thinking that it was something 'They' did, as was probably the case. I wondered if they had done something to me also, if they had genetically altered the ova, but the doctor had run as many tests as she could have thought of and everything was perfectly normal. So that introduced another aspect into our relationship. Mulder knows I want to have children, I think he does too, but he hasn't been as open with his feelings about children as I have. I think it's nervousness, from what I can tell about his family he hasn't had the greatest role models in his life. I'm sure he'd be a great father though. He's still a pretty big kid himself. I don't think I'm ready for a child just yet though, personally I like having Mulder all to myself right now. We just have to worry about birth control, meaning that I go for a shot every three months just in case. It never hurts to be careful. I rolled over and rested my head against Mulder's collarbone. I could feel his body nice and relaxed against mine. I looked up and saw him smiling down at me. Before I could say anything though a sudden grumbling from the region of his stomach distracted us both. "I guess you could say I worked off all the food I ate before," he smirked. He reached for our clothes and we both got re-dressed quickly, the wind was blowing again and it was drafty once more. We moved into the kitchen, deciding that neither of us wanted to cook and the best option would be just to heat up a few cans of soup. While that was happening I wandered over to the window to look out at the now dark sky. "I think it's stopped snowing," I said, looking up at the sky. Mulder came over to stand next to me. "It looks like it's clearing up. You can see the stars out now." "We're still going to be stuck here for a bit though," I said, looking down at where the snow had drifted to the height of Mulder's waist against the building. Mulder wrapped his arms around my waist and I leaned back against him. "Well I've got food, a warm house, and you, I'm set forever," he said. I grinned and stretched my head up to kiss his jaw. "You're so sweet," I said with a grin on my face, knowing that Mulder was not usually one to make sappy comments. I looked out at the stars and moon once more, now turning the snow covered ground into a magnificent landscape, like one out of a fantasy story. The light sparkled and reflected off of the snow crystals. "It's beautiful out there." In Mulder's silence behind me I could practically hear the wheels of thoughts in his head. He was planning again, I just knew it. "Let's go outside," he finally said. "What?" I practically yelled, whipping around in his arms. "It's got to be twenty below with the wind chill and the snow is waist high! You're crazy!" I said, knowing that I was probably the only one who could get away with calling him that. All Mulder did was grin at me. "Bring your mittens," he smiled. I think it was the smile that did me in. Mulder's got the nicest smile, the rare occasions he does it lights up his face like I've never seen before. I also noticed that he'd been smiling a lot more since we became a couple. We went and got parkas (picked up in Boston because it was so cold), gloves, scarves, boots, and a hat for me because I knew my ears would freeze. Mulder made sure the soup was shut off and we headed outside. My first step outside I was thigh-high in snowdrifts. Mulder took my hand, and I could feel the warmth of his even through the thick gloves. We wandered around outside, practically wading through the deep drifts. Soon we were under the trees, and I bumped into Mulder as he stopped walking. "Look up," he whispered, not willing to shatter the stillness of the night. I looked up and saw the bare tree branches, heavy with snow and ice. Reflecting off those was the light from the full moon, sending little shards of white light dancing over the ground. Crystal moonlight, that's what it seemed like. Little crystals taking the moonlight and spreading it all over the snowy ground. "Wow," I whispered, resting my chin against his back and tightening my grip on his gloved hand. We continued our nighttime walk, and eventually we found ourselves at the bank of the pond on the Mulders' property. There was a better view of the moon from here, white and full reflecting off the water, which was just large enough not to totally ice over during the storm. We stood there for what felt like hours, Mulder's arms wrapped around me and me leaning back into him so far that I couldn't tell where I ended and Mulder began. Then Mulder spoke again. "I just want to thank you Scully," he said softly. I twisted my neck so I could look up at him. "What for?" I asked. I couldn't think of anything that he had to thank me for. "For making this place better for me. Every time I've been here there's been a bad memory associated with it. Mom's stroke, my attempt to get back those memories, hell, even those events back from before Samantha was taken, every time it hasn't been something I wanted to remember. But now, even just being here with you for this one day, it's made me look at this place in a whole different way. Now it's not where all these bad things have happened, but where you and I spent a few days lounging around, playing in the snow, just being together on that honeymoon we finally got around to having. And I wanted to thank you for that." I turned around in Mulder's arms and looked up at him. I wasn't expecting to hear that from him, I had to say. But I was happy to hear it. I was happy to hear that I could make something right in his life, erasing the past events that had scarred him and replacing them with happy ones. I raised my gloved hands to cup his head in them, my thumbs stroking behind his ears. Looking up at him in the moonlight, I saw (not for the first time) that Mulder was an incredibly handsome man. His expressive hazel eyes, turned silver from the moonlight, the full lips that at times I just had the urge to nibble on (which now I could indulge myself in, unlike before we became involved), the nose that while he thought was oversized blended in perfectly with his face, and the dark hair that was so silky against my fingers. There was only one thing I could say. "You're welcome," I whispered, and pulled his head down to kiss him. Our chilled lips brushed against each other gently at first, but soon they warmed up nicely, a pleasant side effect from our kissing. And I realized once again that getting stuck in this snowstorm was not at all a bad thing. It was a good thing. Very good. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX That's all folks! I'm debating whether I should do a sequel, more likely than not dealing with the Scully can now have children bit I tossed in there. Please tell me if it's worth it or I should just leave this alone at RhiaRamsay@aol.com XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 'True love, it's the greatest thing in the world.' Miracle Max The Princess Bride XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX 'Men will fight bravely and be heroes, but for a last ditch defense against any odds, get a mother.' Lightbringer High Wizardry XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX