Thank you to all of you who read the story, got alerts, listed it as a favorite, and especially those who left reviews! I love writing for you. It's been a very encouraging experience, especially from one who has never written any real fiction. It's tough to complete a story! But here you go. I hope you have enjoyed it.

Final Chapter.

Dana Scully wakes up to the sound of the fish tank and relishes its pleasant familiar sound. How many times has she passed out on his couch and woken up with a blanket and a fluffy pillow from his bed? All those previous times she had taken for granted this little gesture of affection because she was too rushed or too afraid to feel. Tonight she takes a slow deep breath to experience her senses at full force. She feels like a woman loved.

The past two days had been strangely liberating. When she chanced upon Daniel at the hospital, she left his side thinking it was a sign that her life had to move on beyond Mulder. It didn't help that Mulder was ordering her around like his page while she learned that Daniel had given up his life to follow her in D.C.

It was easy for her to recapture the intensity of her feelings for Daniel when she held his hand. He was still as intelligent, dignified, gorgeous, and generous with his feelings. When she was young and impressionable, she was shocked to find herself falling in love with a married man. Thinking she needed a good way to meet nice single men her age, Dana took Argentinean Tango classes. She wasn't much of a dancer but she had been told it was like walking. She could do that, she thought.

First thing she learned at Tango class was to never break contact with her partner. Doing that leads to breaking the second, but most important rule: follow the lead (a.k.a. the man). He goes forward, she goes back. He leads sideways, she goes sideways, and so on. She had gotten quite comfortable with the Tango, perfecting the walk with three inch heels that later came in handy when she worked at the FBI and had to run in pumps. The distraction of the dance however, did not save her from the powerful hold of Daniel. She needed to do something more drastic.

So she went to the FBI only to fall into the arms of yet another man who led her around like a puppy dog. That was what infuriated her about her relationship with Mulder. He orders her around and she finds herself too willing to follow, in spite of herself. When she tries to break away, he throws her a bone, slyly keeping her in his orbit. And because she knows deep down he loved her, she held on despite him being a man obsessed with his quest for the Truth. But the sad truth, she later realized, was that he needs her beside him in the basement, not the bedroom. They had foolishly been playing with fire and almost got burned. Any hint of impropriety would be enough ammunition for their enemies to shut them down. She didn't want to do that to him.

When she saw him again, Scully felt perhaps she could regain a semblance of a personal life with Daniel while she fought aliens alongside this man she had grown to love passionately. Her love for Daniel will return, she thought. But after her talk with Maggie, it didn't feel right. When she saw him that one last time, Scully confirmed it. She had changed. Mulder had zealously chiseled away her hardened Vulcan-like façade and made her a person who can stare down a brain-eating mutant and still appreciate the complexity of humanity and the beauty in life. She likes that about herself.

Through sleepy eyes, Scully slowly realizes that while he may have been leading her, he made her shine.

Suddenly, she does not care if she comes first, second or last on his list. The fact is he loves her. And she loves him. It didn't matter what the FBI did to their partnership. What mattered was what they do to theirs.

Scully ponders a moment on the past week and briefly regrets her foul behavior. She dislikes being ordered around, and yet got cranky thinking it was always she initiating the intimacy. She silently curses the irony. Scully may be a modern woman, but she still has an old-fashioned romantic streak in her. Is a night out with good food too much to ask? She sighs and gets up from his couch to make her way to the shower where he is softly humming an Elvis tune.

"Hey," she says from the door of the bathroom.

"Hey. Hope I didn't wake you," he replies as he shuts it off and ties a towel around his waist.

"No, you didn't." She pauses awhile, lazily watching him take another towel to dry his hair. Then she speaks so quietly, ashamed she is even bringing it up. "Why haven't you asked me out?"

"Excuse me?" He looks at her with curious eyes.

"Why haven't you asked me out?" Her courage is returning and she boldly adds, "Like on a date."

He looks at her quizzically. "I, uh- I just did." He says this as if she should have known.

"When?!" She is incredulous. She hopes it isn't one of those times he just randomly showed up at her apartment. Wouldn't that be anti-climactic?

"Last Saturday. I had the mood music going, the tickets to England that I paid for myself, a reservation at the –"

"Last Saturday? Your presentation on crop circles was you asking me out?" Either this man is totally clueless, or I am, she thinks.

"I thought it would be good to get us out of the city. Besides, we just work together, remember?" He air quotes 'work together' to let her know it was her terminology. "I had to work around that."

Then realization dawns on her. He may have been leading her all this time but it was she who chose the music, which set the tone and tempo of this dance. How could she have been so obtuse? Scully looks at him with her sad, blue eyes and almost whispers, "You know I love you, right?"

Mulder contemplates on the rhetorical question and gives out a big sigh. "If this is the 'I love you but I'm not in love with you' talk, I should really get dressed." He walks towards her to get out of the suddenly stifling bathroom. But she stops him with a hand on his chest. And very carefully tiptoes to plant a sweet lingering kiss on his lips.

"There's no need for that."

***

Fin!