Title: Straddling the Sea-Saw
Author: Gina Rain (ginarain@aol.com)
Category: MSR
Rating: R
Spoilers: Dreamland (Yes, at long last! The non-
awaited, never asked for sequel [of sorts] to The 
Last Picture Before the Fork in the Road. Haven’t 
read it? Don’t worry. I provide a quick summary 
before you even hit page 2).
Summary: A man, a woman, a waterbed and the fine 
art of practicing bondage. What more can you ask 
for?
This smut - er, story - is dedicated to: Two 
lovely ladies - my beta, Sybil, who has been 
after me for some good old fashioned action for 
many moons without reward, and Sdani - for 
providing much needed waterbed expertise and 
feedback that never fails to make me smile. Thank 
you both.

XXXXX

In the filing cabinet of his mind, Fox Mulder 
officially slammed the drawer containing the Area 
51 incident shut. It wasn’t an x-file. Their 
informant never showed and it was somewhat of an 
unsolved mystery. Both he and Scully experienced 
a sense of imbalance since their return. But the 
beauty of it all was he no longer cared about the 
whys and wherefores. He only cared about the 
outcome. Whatever forces were at work, it had 
finally knocked them in the right direction, 
toward each other.

After their return and a particularly colorful 
ass-chewing session, AD Kersh “punished” them by 
sending them on a fertilizer check to Florida. A 
trip by car. A fourteen hour and forty-five 
minute trip where he could have sworn Scully was 
checking him out more than usual. He dismissed it 
as a case of rampant egotism but began to rethink 
the diagnosis when she started snapping pictures 
of him.

She told him she wanted his picture but gave him 
no real excuse as to why. It was unnerving. 
Scully could usually explain away anything but, 
this time, she was going for the less is more 
approach. 

And then came the touching. At that point, if he 
weren’t so intrigued, he would have turned the 
car in a westerly direction and not come back 
until they had answers to their “imbalance.” But 
intrigued he was.  She touched his face. His 
nose. No one ever touched his nose with such 
affection.

It was the damndest thing.

Although nothing was as odd as when she kissed 
him. And it was odd because it wasn’t really odd 
at all. It felt so natural and wonderful. But it 
was cool, calm Scully who initiated it and it was 
during a very casual moment when nothing huge was 
happening so it couldn’t even be attributed to 
the stress or drama of the moment. 

So, he kissed her back and when they finally 
decided to stop kissing in *public* (another 
oddity) he had no idea what, if anything, was 
going to happen next. He more or less expected a 
return to the old routine: a “gee, that was 
swell,” type of reaction but “now it’s time to 
put on our super-hero trench coats and save the 
world from Morley-smoking menaces.”

Instead, they stood before their motel room doors 
to clean up before their trip back and Scully 
tugged at his hand.

“Help me wash off the sand?” she said, looking at 
him with an expression that was part coy, part 
shy.

She didn’t have to ask twice. Just like that, 
they were in the shower together. No, he did not 
press Scully up against the bathroom wall. They 
actually rather silently stripped, never breaking 
eye contact, and then got in under the water. She 
picked up the tiny motel soap and ran it over 
Mulder’s body and he soon returned the favor. 
Slow and methodical. It could be construed as 
either an endless caress or some very detailed 
cleansing ritual with natural physical 
repercussions. But when she swiped her lower lip 
with her tongue while glancing down at his ...  
repercussion, he decided to throw caution to the 
wind, and Mulder scooped up her warm, rosy body 
and carried her over to the bed. 

He skipped many of the maneuvers that filled his 
fantasies and settled in for the main event. And 
the way Scully wrapped her legs around his hips, 
he was pretty sure she didn’t miss the fancy 
stuff this time either.

The second time around, there had been time for 
foreplay.

Mulder let out a little breath.

Foreplay.

He was not fond of the word. It was a strange 
mixture of the clinical and the frivolous. What 
they did ... how they felt ...

“Mulder?”

He opened his eyes. He hadn’t been sleeping but 
his eyes had been closed as he thought of their 
twelve-hour mini-vacation. He wanted to follow up 
that time with more of the same but Kersh finally 
got his wish. The drive back had been torture. 
Fifteen hours and fifteen minutes of not being 
able to touch Scully in the way he wanted to, 
time and again. And fifteen and a quarter hours 
with the dreaded thought Scully might have 
finally come to her senses and life would return 
to normal, even though his world could never be 
the same again.

“Mulder?”

“Huh? I’m awake.”

“I know that but where *are* you? You’re not here 
in the car with me.”

“No, I’m not in the *car* with you,” he said with 
what he hoped was a sexy smile but knew was 
probably a smarmy sneer.

“Well, why don’t we go upstairs then and we can 
both find a place we’d like to be?”

He looked out the passenger’s window. They were 
in front of his apartment house. He really had 
spaced out. If he hadn’t, he would have objected 
since he didn’t even have a ... oh, yes, he did. 
And that explained why they were at his place. It 
must have been the lure of the waterbed that 
brought her here.

They exited the car and he grabbed both their 
bags out of the trunk.

The waterbed. He never had sex–well, not *with* 
anyone–on a waterbed. Frankly, since he found it 
in his apartment, he had only slept on it for a 
few hours. The damned motion made him a little 
queasy. Still, if that’s what Scully wanted, 
never let it be said that he wouldn’t give it the 
old college try.

And she did seem to want it since the minute he 
unlocked the door, she made a beeline for his 
bedroom. She stood in the doorway and looked 
inside. “Well, well, well. You do have a bedroom 
in here.”

“Of course I do. I just never used it as one 
before.”

“You didn’t have a bed?”

“Nope. I used it as storage basically. Besides, I 
have an extreme attachment to my couch.”

“Who wouldn’t?”

She went over to the bed and pressed the mattress 
with her finger. It wobbled beneath the pressure 
and she frowned slightly.

He approached her slowly. “Speaking of attaching 
... “

She slipped from his outstretched arms and 
climbed on the bed. She went straight toward the 
headboard. Gotta admire a woman who knows what 
she wants. But as he was ready to drop his pants 
and join her, he noticed her fiddling with 
something on his headboard.

Oh, shit.

“Scully, I can explain.”

She took the side of the handcuffs that was open 
and tugged at it. The other side was still 
secured to the bedpost. “You can?”

“Well, actually, remember how I told you the bed 
was just here? Well, so were the handcuffs - just 
as you found them. That’s why I suspected the 
guys.”

“Uh, huh,” she tugged at the cuffs. “Standard 
issue. Your key didn’t work?”

“No. I meant to take a saw to it but I haven’t 
had a chance yet.”

“Okay,” she said, still fiddling. She reached 
behind her and pulled something out of the side 
pocket of her holster. Within seconds, the 
handcuff was released. She did not snap it shut 
but let it dangle from her index finger. “Well, 
what do you know?”

Mulder stood there and stared at the shiny silver 
cuff.

The file cabinet of his mind sprung open of its 
own accord. “Now you *see* why it’s important to 
find out what happened to us?”

“Why?” Scully asked. “Because my key fit the 
handcuff?

“Yes. Exactly. Don’t you find that odd at all?”

“Mulder - even if, as you theorized yesterday, we 
‘lost’ time - we were still practically on the 
other side of the country. We were not here 
practicing bondage on your brand new waterbed.”

“Practicing bondage?”

“I’m sorry. I’m not as proficient at sexual lingo 
as you apparently are. But you know what I mean.”

He frowned. She was right. They were not in town 
when the bed, and its accessories, arrived. So, 
they had not slept with each other and 
conveniently forgot. He could never actually 
forget something so ... He was doing it again. 
Since yesterday, he’d spent half of his time 
trying to convince himself that Scully would run 
off at the first opportunity she had and put this 
down to a once in a lifetime (well, twice) 
occasion; the other half was waxing poetic about 
a life of love together. It was like straddling a 
seesaw. He could sit there forever unless the 
other person was willing to take him where he 
wanted to go. And if she did–there was that 
incredible moment of flight–of being light, 
carefree and full of life. But it was Scully’s 
choice. He could give her a tiny bit of 
encouragement but he wouldn’t take her on a trip 
if she wasn’t ready for it.

“I don’t care about the terminology,” he said. He 
took a step forward and stopped. If she did want 
this, he had to think fast. That freaking bed was 
a seesaw unto itself.

Missionary position? If he didn’t thrust down 
while she was thrusting up, he could end up ... 
disengaging himself and trying to ... realign ... 
while the bed was moving would not exactly 
reinforce the suave image he was going for.

Doggie style? Definitely out. Two people trying 
to balance on all fours (sort of) while the ocean 
was in motion? And on only their third time 
together. Uh-uh.

Scully on top? Well, at least he could shift the 
blame on her for any disengaging that might occur 
(“Scully - you got off - and not in a good way.”) 
Of course, the jiggle factor would be a bonus. 
But he still wasn’t crazy about the idea.

Maybe just side to side with them both holding on 
*real* tight.

Scully was walking toward the end of the bed on 
her knees and having a really difficult time not 
tilting over to one side. “Not that I don’t think 
you have a point, Mulder - I do believe some 
further investigation is necessary. I think you 
need to find out who delivered this bed, who paid 
for it, and perhaps even take a sample of the 
water inside. To make sure it *is* water. Just to 
be on the safe side. We can do that later. I was 
actually surprised you didn’t go to greater 
lengths to pursue this since you are, by nature, 
slightly paranoid.” 

Finally, she made it close enough to the edge of 
the bed to leap off. She smoothed her hands over 
her jeans and straightened her blouse and hair. 
Then, she grabbed the comforter and draped it on 
the floor. God, he loved this woman. She grabbed 
a couple of pillows, which went on top of the 
comforter. She looked up finally. “I hope you 
don’t mind.”

He shook his head softly. 

“I just want it to be us this time,” she said. 
“We can experiment with that contraption some 
other time. Besides, I think it needs more water. 
There’s undulation and then there’s 
*undulation.*”

Mama.

He stepped forward and this time, she let him put 
his arms around her. He pulled her close and just 
held her against his chest for a moment. It was 
still so new. 

“Why, Scully?” he asked, running his hands slowly 
up and down her back. 

“Why, what?”

“Why did you ask me to join you in the shower 
yesterday?”

“Sand, Mulder.”He felt her smile against his 
chest.

He smiled in return. She didn’t want to answer 
and that was fine. He ran his hand under the back 
of her blouse and touched her warm skin, then 
pressed her a tiny bit closer to him.

She sighed. “Once I kissed you, going back would 
be dishonest.”

He stepped back and looked at her. Her big blue 
eyes looked right into his. The picture of 
honesty. The portrait of beauty. The reflection 
of love. Lord, but did he have it bad.

“Lift,” he tickled her under her arms until she 
lifted them above her head. He pulled her blouse 
up and over and then dropped it on the floor. She 
fiddled with his belt buckle and finally opened 
it and unzipped his pants. They fell to the floor 
and he tried to shake them off but his sneakers 
got in the way. He grimaced and sat on the bed to 
pull them off. She stood there and removed her 
own pants while he was busy, then lay back 
against the pillows, wearing only her black bra 
and panties. He watched as something on the floor 
got her attention and when he looked up after 
finally getting the sneakers and pants off, she 
was holding the open cuffs in her hand again.

“Scully? Are you practicing bondage again?”

“No, I guess this dropped while the bed was 
heading for shore.”

He quickly pulled off his shorts and joined her 
on the floor, lightly resting his body over hers.

“You have two articles of clothing that really 
should go,” he said, planting the softest of 
kisses just below her ear.

“Should they?”

“Yes. You want me to help?”

“Sand *and* clothing removal? Wow. Do I know how 
to pick them or what?”

He pushed himself off to her side and sat on his 
haunches. He leaned forward and lifted her upper 
body and slid his hands behind her to disengage 
the fastener of her bra. As he leaned her back, 
he moved his hands forward and slid the garment 
off. She smiled. “Smooth move, Mulder.”

“Thank you. I’ve been practicing in my mind.”

He wiggled her panties down her hips and she 
shifted so he could pull them off. Then he got 
back to the position he was in before, lightly 
resting his body against hers while leaning on 
his elbows. 

“We really have to invest in breakaway clothing,” 
he said and she lifted her hand and cupped it 
against the back of his neck.

“We waited a really long time. Undressing gives 
us time to recall the olden days.”

“If you say so,” he breathed deeply and she 
sighed again. A kiss. He needed a kiss. She 
lifted up a bit and pressed her lips lightly 
against his. This wasn’t a twelve-hour mini-
vacation from reality. This *was* reality. As odd 
as it was, they were alone together - in his 
bedroom - and she didn’t come to her senses or 
reason away what they felt. Instead, she was 
embracing it all. In fact, Scully had initiated a 
good half of it. He needed to catch up.

Mulder kissed her back and felt the warm 
sweetness of the inside of her mouth. He slowly 
rubbed against her. Chest against chest, her 
nipples slid against his sparse chest hair, 
hardening in response. Groin against groin, he 
was the one to further harden against her 
softness. 

“Now, Mulder,” she whispered on a sigh. They were 
both doing a lot of that lately. Soft moans, 
sighs ... His slide into her was smoother than it 
had been the night before but just as surprising. 
He had forgotten how wet and warm a real woman 
could be. She wrapped her legs over his thighs 
and moved her upper body up a little so she could 
reach forward to hold onto his hips.
There was no disengaging or realignment 
necessary. He moved his hips in a leisurely 
fashion until he heard her breaths coming quicker 
and he shifted a bit. His thrusts came faster and 
harder. The only problem with making love on the 
floor seemed to be traction. He was sliding 
forward a bit and Scully was sliding up against 
his night table. She didn’t seem to want to let 
go of his hips, though. He put a hand on her 
shoulder and tried to push her down while sliding 
himself in the same direction but in an effort 
not to break his own rule of disengagement, he 
didn’t use enough force and they barely moved an 
inch.

Scully grimaced. Apparently, it was an 
uncomfortable inch since she finally let go of 
his hips. She put her hand under her head and 
held up the handcuffs again. Both of them gave it 
the dirty look it deserved. That thing had an 
uncanny way of showing up where it didn’t belong. 
He let out a bit of his anger against the 
inanimate object in his next thrust, pushing 
Scully forward just as she was about to toss the 
cuffs on the mattress and her hand went down with 
the force his body transmitted into hers. The 
cuffs were history and she returned her hands to 
his body, this time to the middle of his back. He 
reveled in the feel of her fingers tracing long 
patterns down his skin and kept up a steady 
rhythm of thrusting until he felt her muscles 
clench around him. Ah, success. As her orgasm was 
dying down, she moved her hands down and grabbed 
onto his hips again. A few meaningful squeezes 
and he concentrated on his own release. Nothing 
else seemed to matter as he emptied himself in 
her. Wet. His wetness meeting her wetness meeting 
their wetness ...

Their wetness?

Why were they wet in strange places? He lifted 
his head up off her shoulder to find her already 
staring at the hole on the side of his waterbed. 
A small hole. About the size an opened handcuff 
being slapped with force against a mattress would 
make. He watched as the steady trickle of water 
passed from the mattress out the small hole in 
the sheets and onto them.

“If we could get hold of a test tube, Scully,  
we’d have our sample.”

He felt her laugh against his skin and he joined 
in before turning them both over and further away 
from the bed. She was lying on him now. Scully on 
top. And not even on the wobbly mattress. 

“Mulder, we have to stop the leak or it will go 
through your neighbor’s ceiling.”

“In a minute. I just wanted to tell you ... ” Oh, 
now he went and did it. He stopped straddling and 
was trying to take off himself. Full blown 
maudlin stuff. If Scully wasn’t ready, he’d soon 
be returned to the earth with a hard thud.

“What?” she asked.

“I’m glad it was your key that fit the handcuff.”

“We did *not* do this before yesterday, Mulder.”

“I know. I’m still glad though.”

“Why?”

How could he say what he wanted to say without 
actually saying it?

“It’s just the nature of our relationship. 
Between the two of us we tend to find the key to 
some of life’s mysteries. Life’s mysteries, 
love’s mysteries - can’t be much different, can 
it?” 

There. That was a happy medium. Sort of.

“I guess we’ll find out,” she said, and kissed 
him once again.
									
A half-hour later, they were awakened by the 
sound of Mulder’s downstairs neighbor knocking a 
broom against his ceiling.


~The end


Author’s note:
Christmastime is here. Well, almost. And since 
I’m the only one on this particular seesaw, I can 
jump whenever I want. So, I just wanted to thank 
you all from the bottom of my heart. Writing for 
you has given this old girl a lot of pleasure. 
You’ve all been so wonderful and generous in 
letting me know you are out there. I wish you a 
very blessed holiday and all the very best in the 
upcoming year.