From: msnsc21@yahoo.com   
      
   ok to post to newsgroup; I'll post to Ephemeral and Gossamer.  Thanks!   
      
   10/30/05   
   Title:  Time is Fleeting   
   Author:  ML   
   email:  msnsc21@yahoo.com   
   feedback: better than candy!   
   rating: MSR, adult situations and conversations   
      
   Synopsis:  Things are not always as they seem.  But   
   sometimes they are.   
      
   Disclaimer (to the tune of "You Don't Own Me"):  I don't   
   own them, I'm just borrowing for a while.  Please don't   
   blame me, I just wanted to make you smile.   
      
   =====   
      
   Time is Fleeting   
   by ML   
      
   South Lake Tahoe, California   
      
   She might have known Mulder would go AWOL as soon as her   
   back was turned.   
      
   Fortunately, he'd only stepped into the shop next to the   
   Starbuck's.  She hadn't seen him go in, but the vintage   
   Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff posters in the window were   
   Mulder magnets for sure.   
      
   Truth to tell, they drew her in, too.  She loved old horror   
   films.  She pushed at the shop door with her elbow, juggling   
   the two coffees.   
      
   Instead of a jingling bell, screams announced her entrance.   
   She shouldered the door shut, weaving her way through the   
   fake spider webs (with fake spiders, she hoped), a light   
   string of little plastic skulls, and a fake coffin filled   
   with a display of horror films.   
      
   Halloween was just around the corner, but it didn't seem   
   like it on this sunny, mild October day.  Scully peered out   
   the shop window to the tall pine trees across the road and   
   the lake glinting in the distance.  She sighed.  It would   
   have been nice to spend some time here when not on a case.   
   Instead of being out in the crisp mountain air, or better   
   yet, cruising across the lake, they'd spent most the week   
   holed up in a "honeymoon cottage," spying on a would-be film   
   director.   
      
   Mulder turned and smiled at her.  "Hey Scully, Luke here   
   says that there's been a lot of ghostly manifestations around   
   the lake."  He stepped closer to her and lowered his voice.   
   "Maybe enough to scare up another case while we're here, huh?"   
      
   Scully handed him his coffee and raised her eyebrows.  "I'll   
   say this for you, Mulder.  You're not a quitter."   
      
   "I wouldn't let a little thing like getting locked in a   
   basement overnight faze me."   
      
   "Evidently not," Scully replied.  "Even being locked in the   
   basement *naked* hasn't done it, and I'd say if anything   
   could, that would do the trick."   
      
   "Yeah, and it was *cold* down there.  At least he could have   
   left me a blanket."   
      
   "Being duct-taped to a headboard wasn't any picnic, either,"   
   she pointed out.  "Lucky for us our would-be kidnapper   
   wasn't very good at improvising."   
      
   "At least you could get loose," he said.  "No humiliating   
   rescue for you.  And I notice that you didn't bring me a   
   warm blanket, either."   
      
   Luke looked bemused at this whispered exchange.  He could   
   only hear a few words, but the words were "naked" and   
   "duct tape" which made him shudder.   
      
   Scully could see Mulder's enthusiasm waning for a new case   
   as he remembered the circumstances of the one they'd just   
   closed.  "Never mind, Mulder.  I didn't mean to bring up   
   a sore subject.  I just meant to say that it would be nice   
   to have a reason to stay here without it having to be   
   official business."   
      
   "Well, why not?"  he asked.  "Do we really need to head   
   back right away?  I know for a fact that we both have   
   plenty of personal time available."   
      
   "What are you suggesting, Mulder?"   
      
   "What do you think I'm suggesting?  Let's play hooky."   
      
   "No ghost hunting?  No investigation of supernatural   
   phenomena?  And especially, no cold basements?"   
      
   Mulder rolled his eyes and sighed, as if making a huge   
   concession.  "If you insist."  He leaned in and whispered   
   in her ear.  "But I wouldn't rule out naked."   
      
   Scully blushed but smiled.  Luke looked envious.   
      
   x-x-x-x   
      
   Scully put Mulder in charge of finding them accommodations   
   while she assembled a picnic lunch.  She thought fleetingly   
   that it might have been better the other way around, but she   
   trusted Mulder to do the right thing for them.   
      
   It did feel a little like playing hooky.  It wasn't very   
   often that a case took them to a spot like Lake Tahoe and   
   it seemed wrong not to take advantage of it.  Away from the   
   prying eyes of the Bureau and what was left of the Consortium,   
   they could finally have some of the privacy that they craved.   
      
   Chores done, they walked hand in hand down to the lakeshore.   
   As beautiful as it was, October was the slow season for the   
   area -- in between summer and skiing.   
      
   "What'd you get us?" Mulder asked as they chose a picnic   
   table in the sun.   
      
   "Wait and see," she said.  She opened the bag from the deli   
   and spread napkins over the weathered surface of the table.   
   Out came several small packages wrapped in white butcher paper   
   and two iced teas.  She handed them to Mulder one by one and   
   took out a small cutting board, two apples, and bread.   
      
   "'A loaf of bread, a jug of iced tea, and thou,'" Mulder   
   misquoted happily.  He unwrapped the packages of meat and   
   cheese.   
      
   They ate, enjoying the mild sunshine and the smell of warm   
   pine needles.   
      
   "I hear there's been some early snow back East," Mulder   
   commented.  "Hard to believe, isn't it?  Right now I'd say   
   the temperature here is in the mid-70s.  It's great, isn't it?"   
      
   "As long as you keep your back to the casinos," Scully   
   remarked.   
      
   "Can't have everything, I guess."  He sipped his iced tea.   
   "But much better than being locked in a basement."   
      
   "I'll say.  Even if, on the surface of it, it seemed like   
   the perfect case for you:  investigating a would-be porn   
   director, and almost getting to star in one of his movies --"   
      
   "Without any of the porn-star type benefits," he pointed out.   
      
   "Can't have everything, I guess," she replied.   
      
   "I'm not complaining.  Not at all," he said, and put his hand   
   over hers.  "If I knew we'd have a day like this at the end   
   of the case, I'd do it again."   
      
   "Even the naked in the basement part?"   
      
   Mulder narrowed his eyes at her.  "Agent Scully, you seem a   
   trifle obsessed with one particular aspect of the case.  May   
   I ask why?"   
      
   "Maybe I just like to tease you," she said.   
      
   He shook his head.  "We've come a long way, haven't we?   
   You were so different when I first met you."   
      
   "Different how?"   
      
   "You were, uh, sort of uptight," he said, and raised his   
   hands as if to ward off a blow, grinning.   
      
   Scully grinned back.  "Maybe I wasn't.  Maybe I just wanted   
   you to think that," she said.   
      
   "Are you saying you haven't changed over the years?"   
      
   "Not fundamentally.  But how you see me has changed.  First   
   impressions are tricky things.  When I first saw you, I'd   
   never have pegged you as someone who liked headbanger   
   music."   
      
   "Who says I do?" Mulder asked.   
      
   "Remember Ellens Air Force Base?  The tape that those two   
   stoners gave you?  First impressions, Mulder."   
      
   "Maybe I was just yanking your chain."   
      
   "It works both ways, you know," she said.  "I had to prove   
   myself to you, and I had to get past your defenses.  You   
   weren't easy."   
      
   "Neither were you," Mulder replied.  "Not that that's a bad   
   thing.  I can never resist a challenge."   
      
   "That makes two of us.  You could have pretended to   
   cooperate and still have gone your own way.  Instead,   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)