From: susannastarz@hotmail.com   
      
   TITLE: Predisposition (2/?) rated R   
   AUTHOR: Susanna Starz   
   EMAIL: SusannaStarz@hotmail.com   
      
   Other disclaimers and notes in Part 1   
      
   *   
      
   Part 2   
      
   *   
   6:35 AM   
      
   	The first glimmers of the sunrise were beginning to brighten   
   the shadows in the far corners of the motel. Mulder stirred on the   
   bed, his arms instinctively tightening around Scully. They were both   
   naked, having collapsed into the bed only a few hours earlier in a   
   frenzied tangle of limbs, desperate to reaffirm that they were both   
   alive and well and still together.   
      
   	Now that morning had come, and she'd had a few hours sleep   
   to process everything that had happened, he knew she'd be mad. Hell,   
   he'd be lucky if she didn't whip out her gun and shoot him between   
   the eyes.   
      
   	Scully stirred slightly in her sleep, her eyebrows furrowing   
   into a troubled expression. He combed his fingers through her hair   
   and waited rather nervously for the moment of truth. Within seconds,   
   her eyes had opened and he found himself staring into two drowsy   
   blue pools. He savored that brief moment of confusion, where all   
   that mattered was that she'd woken up in his arms and then--   
      
   	"Mulder, we have to go." Awareness hardened her face and she   
   stood up, pushing back out of his embrace. Shadows played across her   
   bare back as she reached immediately for her robe, tightening it   
   around her body, all business. "We have to get as far away from New   
   Mexico as we can."   
      
   	He sat up reluctantly. "I don't think we should leave just   
   yet."   
      
   	"You don't think we should leave?" she asked   
   incredulously. "Mulder, do you have any idea what could have   
   happened last night? Best case scenario, we were heading back to   
   prison--"   
      
   	"But we're fine," Mulder insisted.   
      
   	Her eyes flashed. "Why didn't you leave? We had a plan,   
   Mulder."   
      
   	He didn't answer, instead cast his eyes down at the ground.   
      
   	"Mulder."   
      
   	Dammit, she wasn't letting it go. "I couldn't leave you with   
   her."   
      
   	"That's a load of crap and you know it. You came back before   
   you realized that the woman with me was…whatever she was."   
      
   	"She was my sister, Scully."   
      
   	The look on her face was pitying. "You know she wasn't."   
      
   	Mulder groaned and leaned back against the pillows. Emotions   
   he'd thought he'd left behind in a clearing illuminated by starlight   
   had come back with a vengeance, thoughts twisting their way through   
   his head. *What if?* a little voice in the back of his mind kept   
   asking.   
   	   
   	"I don't think we should go far until we know exactly what's   
   going on," he said finally.   
      
   	Scully looked dumbstruck. "We're sitting ducks here."   
      
   	"She's obviously a part of this somehow."   
      
   	"Which is exactly why we should be running."   
      
   	Mulder nodded slowly. It wasn't fun to disagree with her any   
   more; the stakes were too high. The things they'd seen and done   
   recently made their former assignment to the X Files seem like a   
   cakewalk. What was cancer and some unscheduled brain surgery when   
   compared to three months spent moldering in a coffin, being   
   sentenced to death by lethal injection and going on the run while   
   cutting yourself off from all contact with family and friends?   
      
   	She had every right to be pissed, he knew. She'd given up   
   everything for him. Because she believed in him. Because in spite of   
   everything that had been taken from her, she still thought he was   
   worth a damn. And he just kept risking her life over and over again--   
      
   	"Mulder," her voice was soft as she approached him, her hand   
   warm on his cold skin. "Don't think I haven't considered the   
   possibilities. But what's to say that we wouldn't be reacting   
   exactly how They want us to if we stay? Perhaps They counted on you   
   becoming entangled in this mystery, planned this as a diversion to   
   stop you from moving forward--"   
      
   	"Some girls get angry when their boyfriends think they're   
   the center of the universe," Mulder cracked. "You seem to encourage   
   that delusion."   
      
   	Scully couldn't mask the smile that touched her lips. "Did   
   you just call me your girlfriend?"   
      
   	He snorted. "Doesn't sound right, does it?"   
      
   	"Not at all."   
      
   	"We'll keep moving," he said, reaching out to trace her face   
   with his index finger.   
      
   	"I'm on your side, Mulder," she said quietly. "If I thought   
   for one second that this could end well for us, you know I'd--"   
      
   	"I know."   
   	   
   	Mulder leaned a little closer, his fingers toying with the   
   edge of her robe. He wondered if he'd ever know what it felt like to   
   make love with her without the constant threat of death hanging over   
   their heads. There had been a time, years ago, when that had almost   
   been possible…but the memory of those fleeting nights seemed ghostly   
   now, as though they might never have existed.   
      
   	After all her musings about wanting to "get out of the car",   
   it was ironic that the two of them would wind up on the road,   
   fugitives forever, never able to call a place home for more than a   
   few days.   
      
   	"Shut up, Mulder," Scully murmured against his skin, her   
   lips finding his.   
      
   	"I wasn't talking," he said, his voice gruff.   
      
   	"You're thinking too much," she said, and then cut off his   
   reply with a soul-shattering kiss.   
      
   	He smiled and snaked his arms around her, pulling her close.   
   Her hair brushed against his face and he inhaled the scent of her   
   shampoo. It wasn't a perfect romance. There would be no white picket   
   fences or romantic proposals, not even the certainty of growing old   
   together.   
      
   	But it was enough.   
      
   *   
      
   	"No, no, no, you guys don't even know the half of it. One   
   time she convinced me to go along with her to check out this phone   
   call she got--some informant claiming to know something or other   
   about that double murder from last summer--so we get to the house,   
   and this fucking lunatic is standing there in his fuzzy green   
   bathrobe and bunny slippers, claiming the double murder was done--   
   not by drug dealers, as we'd originally thought--but by vengeful   
   radioactive fluke worms that somehow came up through the toilet. And   
   you know what she has me do? She has me get down on my goddamn knees   
   and start plunging the toilet at the crime scene. I've never been so   
   humiliated in my life. The day she finally gets the axe I'm gonna   
   pop open a bottle of Dom Perignon and get drunk at my desk, let me   
   tell you--"   
      
   	"Ahem." Miller rounded the corner and cleared her throat,   
   crossing her arms across her chest in a defensive position. The men   
   gathered around the water cooler shifted uncomfortably. "Slater, if   
   you had half the arrests that I've got, maybe you'd actually be able   
   to *afford* that Dom Perignon."   
      
   	The officer nearest her narrowed his eyes at her for a   
   moment before stalking off.   
      
   	She scanned the other faces in front of her, the majority   
   looking abashed now that their rather vocal leader had departed. She   
   spied Greene, leaning against the side of the cubicle, his face   
   flushed. He steadfastly refused to make eye contact.   
      
   	"Officer Greene, could I have a moment?"   
      
   	He looked up at her, his expression glum. "Sure. Fine." She   
   heard his footsteps dragging as he followed her into her office.   
      
   	"They were just--" he began weakly as she sat down at her   
   desk.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)