Thanks once again to WildwingSuz for beta-ing as fast as she could during a busy few days. Her dedication and attention to detail are, as always, greatly appreciated.

It's Thursday night. My first night back in my apartment after Pfaster escaped and came after me. I'd stayed at my mother's house for a few days up to this point as she was away visiting family. Mulder met me at my apartment almost every day after he got off of work to help clean up and repair. I had taken the week off at both he and Skinner's 'suggestion.' Oh well, I had vacation time to burn. I could have joined my mother, but even more than I hadn't wanted her to worry, I hadn't wanted to see the look on Bill's face when they saw my bruises and split lip.

So my apartment, once again, more or less resembled the safe haven I call home. It's strange, how many monsters and mutants have violated my personal space and I still feel safe here. Maybe because the thought of moving every time I was attacked here gave me a headache. Or maybe I found safety not in a place but in a person. No matter how many times these walls were breached, if my own training and will to live failed me, Mulder would be here. One part of me thinks it's foolish to put that much faith in someone else. The other, the part that has relaxed my eyes on the pages of this book and tugged at the corners of my lips while thinking of him, tells the first voice to be quiet.

The phone rings and I feel the sensation of butterflies as I pick up the cordless handset from next to my leg on the couch. I take a breath as my thumb hovers over the answer button, taking a moment to calm myself. I find it all at once ridiculous and amusing that I even feel this way.

He kissed me. I'd had had no idea that's how we would ring in the year 2000. Not that it was that much of a surprise. There had certainly been a shift in our relationship. Slow and nearly imperceptible, but a shift nonetheless. Perhaps it started with the almost kiss in his hallway that summer. I've turned it this way and that over in my mind, and it looks different every time.

I had never planned on the two of us kissing in the first place. I remember the first time I met him. I recall standing in front of the basement elevator afterwards, processing that first meeting, excited and anxious about the unknown adventure that laid ahead, squashing down the thought of how handsome he was. After Daniel and after Jack, I decided within ten minutes of meeting Mulder that I would not get romantically involved with anyone in my professional life ever again. Not that Mulder had given me any indication that he found me the least bit attractive, despite his propensity to invade my personal space and look at me with eyes more smoldering than any man I'd ever shared a bed with. I chalked it up to his intense nature, not romantic interest. That speculation was all but validated when I'd dropped my robe for him to examine those marks on my back and he'd barely touched me, hardly given me more than an investigative glance.

He'd let me in, though. Every day after that I realized how uncommon that was for him and I'd wanted to prove time and time again that I deserved that trust. Eventually I learned that he, too, must have decided to keep me at arm's length based on his past. Phoebe, Diana, maybe even his mother, had all done numbers on him. If he'd had any fleeting thoughts of romance or even just fooling around as early as I had, perhaps he made the same decision as I did for perhaps the same reasons, more or less. I could only speculate. This was Mulder's field of professional expertise.

Looking back now, I can't decide when he decided to let his guard down. The first few seconds of this year is when he decided to jump. Different than that desperate close encounter that summer I'd almost left him. In hindsight I'd always felt like he was grasping at straws then. This time was just a friendly New Year's midnight kiss. While not unpleasant, that first kiss was, for lack of a better word, lackluster. It was sweet, but it was a fizzle. The thrill of the unknown passed within moments, and a feeling I couldn't quite label in that moment came over me. I saw what must have been the same look fall on his face like a veil as his proud, lopsided smile faded.

It was not until a few minutes later in the car that I realized what had happened. It had felt, in some strange way, like kissing a stranger. After this many years together, after all we'd been through, I knew the man's darkest family secrets and his deepest fears. Yet, I didn't know the little things: the things that don't matter but somehow matter at the same time. Those little, trivial details were exactly the things I didn't want to talk about for years. I could care for him, fiercely even, as a coworker and a friend. The last thing I needed, however, was to find some little tidbit that made him completely endearing. So when he kissed me, I decided, too much of that wall I (perhaps we) had built up remained. Did I want it to come down? Did he? Was there even room in his life for giving 'more' a chance? Or was that just another thing we did, now? Our track record showed that displays of affection were for dire situations. Were holidays included now? I hadn't gotten that memo.

When I'd dropped him off a short time later, he'd hesitated before getting out of the car. I'd asked him if he needed help getting inside and he'd said no. He'd asked me if I would come back over later that day. I'd told him sure, we could get started on our report and he'd smiled at me in a way I'd never seen before, looking down and pulling at the tag or something on the sling holding his injured arm.

"No, not for work. Just...come over," he'd said. Completely endearing. In the early morning hours of January 1, 2000, I physically felt Mulder remove the first brick in that proverbial but altogether real wall. I felt it in my chest and in the first stirrings of the butterflies in my stomach. After all the innuendo over the years, him simply asking me over 'just because' had me feeling like a schoolgirl.

In the weeks since, he'd asked me out for drinks or dinner after work several times. He didn't talk shop, instead we talked of trivial things. As I'd feared in the beginning-but to my surprise and with a exhilaration I'd never admit to him-I discovered he was, in fact, endearing. That I knew of his dedication and drive towards our work made it all the more surprising and delightful that he could focus, or perhaps even just let that intensity go for a few hours.

I got a glimpse into the possible future in the few cases we'd investigated during this time. Work was work and our personal lives were just that, 'and never the twain shall meet,' I remember thinking. We both still had a job to do but it didn't always have to be the first priority.

Mulder's voice fills my ears and I realize I've been pulled so deep in thought I let him go to the machine. "Hey, Scully. I guess you went-"

I press the answer button and put the phone to my ear, nearly dropping it on my chest in the process. "I'm here."

"Oh, hey."

"Hey." I wonder if he can hear this soft smile in my voice. I cover my mouth with the back of my fingers for a moment, trying to tame it.

"What are you doing?"

"Just starting that book I was telling you about." I use the inside of the flap as a bookmark and close it, looking at the cover.

I can hear his sigh over the telephone line. "You know, Scully, I still don't understand how a classy, educated woman such as yourself can read that garbage written for the masses."

My smile widens. As fun and, dare I say flirty it was, I have no desire to rehash the conversation we'd had over drinks recently. "What are YOU doing, Mulder?"

"I'm packing."

"Oh," I wince at the disappointment I didn't filter out of my voice. I clear my throat in an attempt to disguise it. "What variety of the unnatural is it this week? Aliens? Crop circles? Killer computers? All of the above?"

"I'm going camping."

"Wow…that certainly is unnatural."

"Come with me."

"Mulder…" Today had been the first day I wasn't entirely sore from my encounter with Pfaster, and also the first day I hadn't felt the weight of what I'd done. Mulder had been hovering, trying to pull me out of the depths of it for days. I'd needed to work through it on my own, though, and had just finally done so. I had intended to relax, take a minimum of two baths, and maybe invite him over for dinner Sunday night, all before having to report for my mandatory psych eval Monday morning. "Mulder, it's too cold for camping."

"I've had an eye on the forecast all day. They say it will be 'unseasonably warm.' Something from the south, which is the direction we're headed. Come on, we'll give it a try. And if it's too cold for you, my fair Scully, maybe I can warm you up."

I've noticed he's cut way back on the innuendo lately, while we've been…spending more time together. Dating? Old fashioned courtship? Anyway, my mouth falls open before I find myself biting the back of my index finger, trying to come up with a response. Damn these butterflies!

"...I mean, I'll give you an extra blanket. And if it's still too cold we can ditch the state park and we'll get a hotel room. Or two." He's smiling, I can hear it. "Scully?" There is both persuasion and a plea for salvation in his voice.

"Mulder," I say with less conviction in mine.

"You're coming, aren't you? Yeah, you're coming with me. I'll pick you up at 9. We'll get breakfast before we head out."

"Mulder…" I say one last time, imagining he'll go off and get distracted by some X-File.

I can just picture him stop what he's doing and sit down on the bed or the couch. "Scully, I just thought it would be good for you to get out of there for the weekend. This place sounds nice. Yes, it will be a bit chilly but going so early in the season," he chuckles, "or before the season really starts, it'll be great. Just you, me and nature. No children, no noisy tent neighbors, no mosquitoes…"

"All right, Mulder. But I'm not going to chase Sasquatch with you."

"Well you know I think most, if not all, sightings in these parts are hoaxes...but that's beside the point. Bigfoot can stomp right up and invite me to dinner, and I'll tell him I'm busy. See you in the morning." He hangs up before I can put up anymore resistance.

"That I'd have to see to believe." I say to myself.