Title: Step #6: The Scent of a Man
Author: Susan Frankovich
E-mail: sus...@ticnet.com or filesfa...@yahoo.com
Classification: vignette
Spoiler: post all things, references to various
episodes from the first seven seasons
Archive: No.
Disclaimer: These characters belong to each other,
not me.

Author's notes: This is the sixth in a series of
vignettes occurring late in season seven that
chronicle the start of Mulder and Scully's romantic
relationship.

*********************************************************

Step 6: The Scent of a Man
by Susan Frankovich
~~~~~~

Where do you go when there's someplace else you want
to go, but you know you can't go there?

In my case, it's the park.

After I left the office, it was all I could do not to
head to Scully's apartment, knowing that even though
she said she wouldn't be there, that she probably was.

But as difficult as that was, when I got to the exit,
I forced myself to keep going straight and went back
to my own place instead.  And once I got there, I did
what I usually do when I really need to think.

I put on my jogging stuff and went out for a run.

There's a park not too far from my apartment that I
like to go to, and it has some good running trails,
each of them about a mile long.  

According to my watch, it's only been about a half
hour since I started running on one of them, but
with the way my hips and inner thighs are protesting
right now, it feels like I've been running a marathon.

Huffing and puffing and stumbling over to a bench,
I plop down on the wooden seat and bend forward,
my forearms on my knees, my head tilted down.

And as I'm trying to shake out my leg cramps and
catch my breath, it suddenly occurs to me why my
groin area now feels like it's been put through
the yoga class from hell.

It's from having sex.  

It's been so damn long since I've gotten laid that
I actually forgot what my body usually feels like
the morning after.

The stiff upper arms, the achy hip joints, the
glorious after-burn that comes after a night of
vigorous lovemaking.

And it certainly was vigorous, that second time.

Our inhibitions gone after the gentleness of the
first time, it was fast and frenzied our next time
together.

And incredible.  God, it was incredible...

"Excuse me, but is this seat taken?"

I don't have to look up to know whose voice it is.

"It depends," I reply, straightening myself up from
my hunched over position and resting my left arm
along the back of the bench.

"On what?" she says, her feet nervously shifting
back and forth the same way mine had when I was
talking to Skinner before.

"On whether or not you mind sitting next to someone
who's a bit ripe," I reply, catching a whiff of my
sweaty armpit.

I quickly put my arm back down and hope she's not
too offended by my current odor.

Then again, she's smelled me when I've been a lot
worse than this.

The night after I took a swim with Flukeman.  The
night we got bombarded by manure at the waste plant
in Miller's Grove.  The night I cried beside my
mother's bed smelling like gasoline.  

A couple months ago when I was attacked in a basement
by zombies...

"Well, I'll take my chances," she says as she sits
down, and I can't help thinking back to nearly six
years ago when she said the exact same words to me.

We were separated then.

And now here we are again, sitting on a different
park bench, under different circumstances.

And we're together this time.

At least I think we are anyway.

"How'd you know I was here?" I ask, taking note of
the fact that her leg is pressing against mine.

"You always come here when you want to think...or
you go to the office," she says simply.

She looks down and starts picking at a loose thread
on the seam of her jacket.  "You went there this
morning, didn't you?"

"I got your note."

"Oh," she says, awkwardly looking up at me.

I look back at her, and I feel awkward too, but I
know what I have to do.

Nervously tugging on a tiny rip on the knee of my
sweatpants, I quietly say, "I just want you to know
that it's okay, Scully...If you need to get away
for awhile, thing about some things, well...I'm not
going to stop you."

There, I said it.  

Actually, I don't know how I was even able to say
anything, considering the huge lump that seems to
have taken up residence in the middle of my throat,
but I said it and I meant it.

Now I just hope I haven't blown it.

She looks at me again, but this time I don't see
the uncertainty in her eyes that I saw before.

"I'm not going anywhere, Mulder," she says, leaning
over and surprising me with a kiss on the cheek, then
slipping her hand into mine.  "Except maybe to your
place."

"What are you saying, Scully?" I ask, both confused
and excited by this sudden turn of events.

She squeezes my hand, looks at me with her beautiful
blue eyes, and smiles. "I'm saying I want to go home
with you."

"Are you sure?"

Leaning over and surprising me with another kiss, this
time on the lips, she gives me her answer.

And I happily take it.

~step six completed~

Steps Series (so far)

#1: The Unexpected Curve Ball
#2: The Realness of Red Hair
#3: The Power of the Shower
#4: Lonely Man Walking
#5: A Bad Case of Jet Lag
#6: The Scent of a Man