Title: Twist of fate (1/1) January 15, 1999
Author: Tanja
E-mail address: voet@tanja-myrna.demon.nl
http://www.angelfire.com/oh/xfshippers/index.html 
Ratings: PG-13 (a few suggestive remarks)
Category: S, R
Spoilers: few remarks about "Emily"
Keywords: Mulder/Scully Romance (married)
Summary: Pretending to be a couple, things change between Mulder and 
Scully!

Archive: This story can be posted anywhere, but please tell me and leave 
my name and address on it!

Disclaimer: Mulder, Scully, Skinner and Maggie Scully belong to Chris 
Carter, 1013 productions and Fox Network. I'm only using them for this 
story. Thank you Mr. Carter!

Author's note: Mulder and Scully are forced to get married, but in the 
end things turn out different. Have fun with it!

Twist of fate (1/1)

It had been a quiet morning. They had been working on a couple of old 
reports, when the phone rang.

Mulder picked it up, listened for a moment, then said, "OK sir, we'll be 
right there."

Scully looked up from her work, a questioning look in her eyes. "Was 
that Skinner?"

He sighed. "Yes. He wants us to come to his office. He has a case for 
us."

"Well, let's go see what he has then." Scully sighed too: it had been a 
hectic week, and all she wanted to do right now was to go home and have 
a nice quiet evening, but it seemed like that was not going to happen 
tonight.

When they arrived at Skinner's office, he welcomed them and asked them 
to sit down.

"You're probably wondering why I called you down here," Skinner started. 
They nodded in reply.

"We have been trying for months to catch a big drugs dealer in Florida. 
However, we haven't succeeded, despite everything we've tried, like 
infiltrating and spying. The man is pretty hard to catch: everything in 
his environment looks normal, nice house, family, friends, 9-to-5 job. 
He just escapes us every time because he's so clever. Now, I know this 
is not one of your usual cases, but I would like you to go there and try 
to catch this guy."

Mulder frowned. "And what makes you think that it's going to work this 
time?"

"We are going to approach it differently this time," Skinner said.

Scully asked, "How differently?"

"We rented the house next to his. We want you to move in there, 
pretending to be a normal couple. Make him trust you, and maybe then 
we'll be able to arrest him."

"We have to pretend we are a couple?" Now Scully frowned.

"A married couple," Skinner added.

"And you really think he's going to buy that?" Mulder asked. "What if he 
wants to see pictures or something like that?"

"Don't worry, we're going to take care of that. We need you to get 
married for the time being. Of course, we will arrange that the marriage 
will be ended as soon as the case ends, but this way, there will be real 
papers. We'll also take some pictures." Skinner looked from Mulder to 
Scully.

Scully nearly choked, and Mulder's jaw dropped, when they heard what 
they had to do.

Mulder found his voice back and asked, "When will this marriage be?"

"Tonight. After that, we're sending you to Florida."

"And what about our names?" Mulder asked.

"We can't change them completely because of the papers, so you will have 
to go by your middle names." He looked at Scully. "You're going to be 
Katherine Mulder, and you," he looked at Mulder, "will be Bill Mulder."

"Great, just like my father," Mulder murmured to Scully, who still 
didn't know what to do with all this.

"OK, I'll see you tonight," Skinner said.

They left the room, still shocked by the whole situation.

"Well, guess you're going to be stuck with me for a while, Scully," 
Mulder joked.

"Guess so. My mother will be thrilled when she hears I'm finally getting 
married." She grinned at him. "I'm going to go home to get my things 
packed. See you tonight".

"Yeah, see you tonight."

LATER THAT NIGHT

The wedding ceremony was quick, done by someone who knew the reason for 
their marriage.

They also had to take some pictures. The photographer obviously liked 
his job. Running around them, he told them how to stand and took the 
pictures.

"Maybe also a picture where they kiss each other," he suggested 
teasingly.

Skinner quickly said, "I think we have enough pictures now. We've got to 
go or you'll miss your plane."

Skinner brought them to the airport himself, wishing them good luck on 
the case, and said goodbye.

They checked in and walked to their gate. Mulder noticed that Scully was 
looking a little pale.

"Are you alright, Scully?"

She looked at him, seeing his concerned face and smiled assuringly. "I'm 
fine, Mulder. Flying is just not my favorite thing to do."

He squeezed her hand, saying, "It'll be fine. The weather's going to be 
good, so don't worry too much, OK?"

"Thanks." She smiled.

They went on board and took their places. After about an hour, Scully 
fell asleep against his shoulder. For a while, Mulder just enjoyed 
watching her, until a stewardess came to him.

"Would you like to drink something, sir?"

"Ehm, yes, I would like a beer," Mulder whispered, not wanting to wake 
Scully.

"And your wife?"

Mulder didn't react immediately, but then he remembered the role he had 
to play.

"Maybe later. My wife is sleeping right now, but thanks anyway." Mulder 
didn't notice that Scully had heard the whole conversation and smiled in 
her sleep.

She sighed in her sleep and leaned a little bit closer to Mulder. Mulder 
didn't mind. He just pulled her closer in his arms, loving the feeling 
of holding her like this. After a while, Mulder fell asleep also, and 
they didn't even notice the stewardess putting a plaid over them.

They only woke up when they were almost there. Scully slowly awoke, not 
completely realizing where she was, but when she did she quickly looked 
up, right in the eyes of a smiling Mulder.

"Hi."

"Hi." She smiled too, then the stewardess came to them to tell them they 
had to fasten their seatbelts.

After they had landed and picked up their luggage, they were picked up 
by somebody from the FBI who brought them to the house where they were 
going to stay for a while.

The house was beautiful, not too big, with a garage and even a small 
swimming pool. They walked through it, until they reached the bedroom.

"Ehm, Mulder?"

"Yup?" He walked in right after her. "What's wrong?"

"Is this the only bedroom in this house?"

"I think so, yes. I didn't see any other bedrooms, why?"

She pointed at the bed. "Well, this is the only bed in the only room. 
Guess you know what that means."

"We'll have to share?"

"Guess so. Well, there are worse things in this world. Besides, I think 
at least three people could fit in this bed."

"Jeez, thanks for the compliment, Scully." Mulder pretended to look 
hurt, but then he grinned.

They unpacked and walked to the living room, seeing that there were 
already pictures of the "wedding" standing there.

"I think I'm going to take a dive," Mulder said. He went upstairs and 
changed into his swimming clothes. After that he walked to the swimming 
pool and jumped in it.

Scully, who had installed herself near the swimming pool, got wet too.

"Thanks a lot, Mu..." Suddenly she saw the neighbors walking to them. 
"Bill," she finished. Mulder looked at her, wondering why she called him 
Bill, but then also saw the neighbors walking to them. He quickly 
climbed out of the swimming pool.

The woman introduced herself first. "Hello. I'm Michelle Davids and this 
is my husband Jonathan."

Mulder shook her hand. "Hi. I'm Bill Mulder and this is my wife Sc..., 
ehm, Katherine." He slipped his arm around Scully's shoulder, while they 
all shook hands to introduce themselves.

"Do you have children?" Michelle asked. Mulder looked at Scully whose 
face slightly fell, but she quickly brought back a smile on her face.

"No, we just got married," she answered.

"Well, congratulations then. We only dropped by to introduce ourselves, 
and to invite you over for dinner sometimes this week, right, Jonathan?" 
She looked at her husband who nodded in agreement.

"Thanks for the invitation. We'd love to come over for dinner, wouldn't 
we, Bill?" She looked at Mulder, who was staring at her.

"Bill?"

"Huh, yes, we'd love to," Mulder quickly answered, not knowing what this 
was all about, because he had been too busy staring at Scully.

Michelle laughed. "How about tomorrow night?"

"Sure, great," he answered.

"Well, we'll leave you alone now," Michelle said smiling, then walked 
away, her husband following her.

When they had left, Mulder asked Scully, "Where are we going tomorrow 
night?"

She looked at him skeptically. "Having dinner at their house. They just 
invited us. Didn't you hear what she said?"

"Ehm, no, I was thinking about the case." Mulder quickly lied to her, 
hoping he wasn't blushing.

"Oh well, at least we have an entrance now in this case, although I must 
say that that man didn't look like a big drugs dealer to me," Scully 
said, not even noticing Mulder's red face.

"Same here, but let's wait and see what happens," Mulder answered.

"Wanna have some dinner?" Scully asked him.

"Sure, but what? We don't have groceries yet, do we?"

"Skinner said that there were going to be some things already. I'll see 
what I can make of it." Scully said.

"Need some help?"

"No, don't worry, it'll be fine." She turned around and walked to the 
kitchen.

During dinner, they discussed the case, still not knowing what to think 
of it.

After that, they watched some television, and later that evening, 
Skinner called to ask how everything was going.

Mulder explained that they had met their neighbors, and that they were 
going to have dinner with them tomorrow night. After that, he ended the 
conversation and hung up the phone.

At that moment, Scully stood up. "I don't know about you, but I'm tired. 
I'm going to bed."

"You go ahead, I'll be there in a minute." Mulder smiled at her and just 
sat there for a while, thinking that he really didn't mind playing this 
husband and wife game with Scully. After a while, he got tired too, so 
he walked upstairs to the bedroom, changed into pajamas and pulled the 
covers of the bed away.

Scully was already sound asleep, and stirred a little when he climbed 
into the bed. Mulder wasn't prepared for what happened next. Scully 
rolled to him, in her sleep, reached with two hands until she found him 
and laid her head against his chest, arms around his waist, smiled in 
her sleep and didn't even wake up at all.

Mulder was too surprised to do anything, so he turned off the light and 
moved his arms around her. That's how he fell asleep, a smile on his 
face.

When she woke up the next morning, she realized she wasn't lying on her 
part of the bed, but in the arms of a still sleeping Mulder. She had no 
idea how she got there, but she did know that she didn't mind at all. 
She looked at him for a while, until he suddenly woke up.

She quickly turned away, trying not to blush.

"Morning Scully."

"Morning. Ehm, Mulder, when I went to bed I was lying somewhere else. 
What happened?"

"Well, when I got into the bed, you rolled down to me in your sleep, so 
I couldn't go anywhere else without waking you up, and I had to leave my 
arms somewhere," he said, a completely innocent look on his face.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, now blushing furiously.

"That doesn't matter. I must say, I haven't slept this good in a long 
time." He grinned at her.

Scully didn't know how to react to that, so she said, "I'm going to take 
a shower," and quickly slipped out of his arms, leaving a still smiling 
Mulder behind.

During the day, they tried to read through papers about the case, but 
they both had a hard time concentrating with the other one around.

At the end of the day, they went to the neighbors. Just before they 
knocked on the door, Mulder grabbed Scully's hand. She looked surprised, 
then realized why he did it and smiled. Michelle opened the door.

"Hi, come on in. I'm glad you could make it," she welcomed them.

They followed her to the living room where Jonathan was playing with two 
children.

Jonathan said, "Hi, meet Jessie and Danny." To the children, he said, 
"Why don't you two go say hello to our new neighbors?"

The children did so. The boy quickly went to play with his toys, but the 
girl just stood there, staring at Scully.

Scully leaned down to the girl. "Hi, I'm Katherine. How old are you?"

The little girl showed 3 fingers, then proudly announced, "But I'm 
almost four."

Mulder followed the whole conversation. It reminded him of the times he 
had seen Scully with Emily. The thought of that brought a look of pain 
in his eyes, while he continued looking at them.

Suddenly Scully looked up at Mulder, and saw the look in his eyes. She 
knew what he was thinking of and smiled at him. She walked to him. "She 
looks a lot like her, don't you think?"

"Yes she does." Then, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, really," she assured him.

Michelle looked at them, seeing the looks they exchanged. She asked, "Is 
something wrong?"

Scully turned. "No, everything's fine. Jessie just reminds me of my 
daughter."

"I thought you didn't have any children."

"Emily died last year. She was only 4 years old, but she was too sick. 
They couldn't do anything for her."

"I'm sorry to hear that. It must be terrible to lose a child."

Scully nodded. "I wouldn't have known what to do without Bill." She 
smiled at Mulder, really meaning what she said. He just squeezed her 
hand.

Michelle said she was going to take the children to bed and then they 
could have dinner. The children protested a little, then said goodbye 
and went upstairs.

"So, why did you move here?" Jonathan asked them.

"We both found jobs in this neighborhood, so that's why we decided to 
come here," Mulder answered.

"What do you do?"

"Katherine is a medical doctor in the hospital and I teach psychology 
course at the university, but we have a couple of weeks off before we 
start our new jobs."

Right then, Michelle walked in, just before Mulder could ask Jonathan 
what he did.

"Everybody ready for dinner?"

They had dinner, and the rest of the evening, they talked about all kind 
of things. They found out that Michelle and Jonathan were both teaching 
at a school in the neighborhood, had been married for 8 years and had 
been living here for 5.

Later that evening, they said goodbye and walked home, hand-in-hand, 
both convincing themselves that they were only doing it to look 
convincing to the neighbors.

For the next two weeks, they built up some sort of a routine, working on 
the case, sometimes eating with the neighbors or playing with Jessie and 
Danny in the swimming pool.

At night, they would fall asleep, rolling into each other's arms, 
pretending it happened in their sleep, and, in the morning, excusing 
themselves to each other, although they both knew they wanted it.

One thing, however, was not working out. After two weeks, they had 
investigated everything about their neighbor's life, followed Jonathan 
wherever he went, but still they hadn't found any evidence that showed 
Jonathan to be the criminal their boss had said he was.

Sitting in the car once again, Scully sighed. "Mulder, I really don't 
think Jonathan is the guy we are looking for. I mean, we've been 
investigating this for the last two weeks. We've seen him going to 
school, buying groceries, going to the cinema and having dinner in a 
restaurant, but no sign of him being a big drugs dealer."

"I think you're right. Tomorrow, we'll call Skinner and tell him what we 
think."

"OK, let's do that," she answered.

But during the night they woke up to the sounds of screaming and a gun 
shot. Mulder woke up first, wondering what he had heard. Then he 
realized something was wrong at their neighbor's house.

He tried to wake Scully.

"Scully, wake up. I think we might finally have some action at the 
neighbors'."

"Hrm." she stirred a little in his arms, then realizing what he had just 
said, she woke with a start. "What did you say?????"

"I heard a gun shot and screaming next door. Come on, let's go check it 
out."

They quickly dressed and grabbed their guns.

When they arrived at the house, they heard a voice they didn't know 
screaming at Michelle and Jonathan. They could also hear the children 
crying.

Mulder looked from Scully to the door. "OK, let's go in on 3."

She silently nodded, getting her gun ready for some action.

Mulder whispered, "1... 2... 3." and together they stormed inside, 
pointing their guns at the man who was pointing his gun at the children, 
screaming, "FBI, put down that gun or we'll shoot!"

The man was so surprised that the only thing he could do was listen to 
them. Scully quickly handcuffed the man while Mulder called for back-up 
on his cell phone.

"Are you alright?" Scully asked Michelle and Jonathan. They nodded. She 
quickly checked how the children were doing, then asked, "What 
happened?"

"He," Michelle pointed at the man with the handcuffs, "has been 
terrorizing our lives for the past year. Ever since we divorced last 
year he has been doing that, threatening to hurt the children if we 
didn't do what he said."

By that time, Mulder had finished his conversation and put away his 
phone. "Drugs?" he asked, frowning.

"Yes, but how did you know?"

"The FBI has been looking for this guy for a long time, only they have 
been going after the wrong guy all this time. Did you have any idea they 
were chasing you?" Mulder looked at Jonathan.

"What, they thought that I...?"

Mulder nodded, then the other agents arrived to take away the 
ex-husband. Mulder and Scully talked with them shortly, to explain what 
happened, before they left.

Jonathan looked at them. "I suppose you are not the people we thought 
you were."

"Not completely," Scully said.

"Well, we know that you work for the FBI, but who are you?" Michelle 
asked looking from Mulder to Scully.

"I'm Fox Mulder and this," he pointed at Scully, "is my partner Dana 
Scully. She *is* a medical doctor and I... well, I studied psychology. 
We both work for the FBI in Washington."

"And I guess you're not married?"

"We are. They thought it was better to have real papers, so they married 
us for the duration of this case. It'll be ended afterwards," Scully 
said, not looking at Mulder.

Mulder decided that it was time to go, since it was still in the middle 
of the night. He said to Scully, "Let's try to get some sleep." They 
said goodbye and walked back to their "own" house.

He opened the door and turned on the light in the living room. "Want to 
drink something, Scully?"

"I could go for some tea." She wanted to stand up to make some, but 
Mulder told her to sit down.

He made the tea and handed it to her.

"I still can't believe they were stupid enough to chase down the wrong 
person, can you?" Scully said.

Mulder laughed. "No, and they had their best people on this case, really 
unbelievable."

"If we'd known that, it wouldn't have been necessary for us to get 
married." Scully grinned, but Mulder's face suddenly became serious.

He looked at Scully for a long time without saying anything. She didn't 
say anything either, just looked back, wondering what he was thinking.

Suddenly he began to speak. "I don't want this to end".

Her jaw dropped and she stammered, "What?"

"This, us, this marriage. I like being married to you, waking up in your 
arms in the morning." Hoping he had made his point clear, he looked at 
her expectantly.

She was still too speechless to say anything. She had expected anything 
but this.

"Scully?"

"Yes?"

"Well????"

"Huh, oh, I'm sorry Mulder," she said, realizing he had been talking to 
her. "I don't want it to end either. I... I love you."

A big smile spread across his face. He walked to her, moved his face to 
hers and whispered in her ear. "I love you too, Agent Scully." Then he 
leaned down and kissed her softly. She quickly reacted, throwing her 
arms around his neck and kissed him back passionately.

Suddenly he stopped. She protested, until he picked her off the floor, 
carrying her upstairs.

"Let's finish this upstairs, Mrs. Mulder," he said teasingly.

"You know, sometimes you have really good ideas." She kissed him again 
while he opened the bedroom door, walked in and closed it.

NEXT MORNING

They woke up because of the phone. Mulder slowly picked it up, still 
half asleep. "Mulder."

It was Skinner. He congratulated them for solving the case, and ordered 
them to enjoy a well-deserved day off. He would see them back in the 
office after the weekend, then he hung up.

Scully was awake now too. "Who was that?"

"Skinner. He congratulated us for solving the case and said that he 
wants to see us in his office first thing Monday morning, but to enjoy a 
day off first."

"So, we don't have to do anything today?"

"No."

"Well, in that case, I know a few things we could do." She grinned, 
pulled him closer and started to kiss him.

LATER THAT DAY

That afternoon, they were swimming in the pool when Michelle and 
Jonathan came by with the children.

They didn't see them coming at first, because they were to busy staring 
into each other's eyes.

"Ehum."

Still no reaction. "Ehum!"

Suddenly they realized they weren't alone anymore.

Mulder waved at them. "Hi!" He climbed out of the pool and pulled a 
red-faced Scully out too.

"We came by to thank you for everything," Jonathan said, "but it looks 
like we're disturbing you."

Scully turned even redder, and Mulder grinned. "No, of course not, have 
a seat."

"So, you're still getting that divorce?"

"Ehm, no, we changed our minds. We realized it would make no sense to 
get a divorce first and get married again later."

"That's great! Congratulations."

"Thanks, let's just hope our boss is also going to react this positively 
when he hears we don't want the marriage to be ended." Mulder sighed.

"Why?"

"Never heard of the FBI's most famous rule? Do not touch your partner."

"So, what would they do about it, shoot you?" Jonathan joked.

"I don't know, maybe close down our division?" Mulder said. "Then again, 
they asked us to get married, so it's their own fault".

"Let's just wait and see what happens." With that Scully ended the 
discussion. They went out to have dinner with them.

Next morning, they packed, said goodbye to Michelle and the children, 
and were brought to the airport by Jonathan, who thanked them once again 
for everything.

When they arrived in Washington, they brought their luggage to Scully's 
apartment first, then decided to go tell her mother the good news.

She saw them coming and opened the door.

"Dana, Fox, hi. Come in. You just got back from Florida?" She hugged 
them both and walked to the living room.

"So how did it go?"

"Good. The drugs dealer has been caught and it appears they'd been going 
after the wrong person for almost a year," her daughter told her.

"And when will the marriage be ended?"

"Never." Scully smiled.

"Never? You mean you two...?" Maggie looked from her daughter to Fox.

"Mmm-hmm." They both nodded enthusiastically.

"Well, congratulations! I must say you two are really doing it the other 
way around, but I'm really happy for you." She hugged them again.

J. EDGAR HOOVER BUILDING
A.D. SKINNER'S OFFICE
MONDAY MORNING

"Agent Mulder, Agent Scully, come in." Skinner welcomed them. "First of 
all, my congratulations for solving this case. Everybody is really happy 
about it. Secondly, don't worry, we'll take care of the divorce papers 
immediately."

"That won't be necessary, sir," Scully said carefully.

"Not necessary, why not?" He looked at them, pretending he didn't know 
what they meant.

"We don't want a divorce," Mulder said.

"You want to stay married?"

They nodded, not knowing what would happen next.

"Well, my congratulations then!"

"You're not mad?" Scully asked, a surprised look on her face.

"No, we expected the two of you to end up together sooner or later 
anyway. That was also one of the reasons you were asked to take this 
case.

"Oh," was all they managed to say.

"Well, let's go on with our work," Skinner said, meaning that they could 
go.

When they had left his office, they still didn't know what to say.

"That went well," Mulder said.

"Yes, who would have thought it," Scully responded.

After that, they walked to their office, still the same work and the 
same agents, only married now, and all because of a simple twist of 
fate.

The End

This was it! Feedback always welcome (please, please, please?) at 
voet@tanja-myrna.demon.nl.
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http://www.angelfire.com/oh/xfshippers/index.html, there are more 
stories there!