Pinned

The warehouse door squeaked in protest as Scully eased it open and she winced. //Damn// she thought, pissed off that her presence was exposed. She slipped through the narrow opening and left the door as it was. One squeak could be brushed off but a matching sound as the door closed would ruin any small chance she had of remaining unnoticed.

The warehouse was not completely empty; flats piled high with boxes were scattered throughout the large open room. Skylights in the roof let in pools of dim light from the streetlights outside.

Scully drew her gun from her small-of-back holster but left the safety on. Quietly she ghosted across the first open space and ducked into the shadow of the closest stack of boxes. There she froze and listened, breathing silently through her open mouth. For several moments she strained her hearing towards all corners of the room but could sense nothing. She tipped her head back slightly and drew a long slow breath through her nostrils but smelled nothing but cardboard and concrete dust.

Finally feeling herself safe enough to take up another position in the room, she moved to take a step to her right and froze again when her trench coat brushed the box behind her. The softest hiss of cloth on cardboard sounded deafening in the silence of the building. Making a hasty decision she shed her coat as silently as possible, rolled it up into a bundle and stashed it carefully in a gap between the boxes at her back. Beneath the coat she wore a simple black sweater tucked into an old pair of black jeans.

Gun once more in hand, she eased from her hiding place and darted into the next shadow. She paused, listening for any hint of another presence, then moved on to the next haven, keeping to the dark as much as possible, taking longer routes through the room to avoid the revealing skylights.

The warehouse was, indeed, only half stocked. The back half of the building was vacant. Scully crouched for long, tense minutes in her final bit of cover, not trusting her own senses that she was truly alone. She knew she would have to break cover for events to move forward. The tiny hairs stood up on her arms as she secured her double- handed grip on her gun and prepared to move out.

Gun held low, she stalked out of hiding and into the open vastness. As she moved further out she began to feel an increasing sense of vertigo. //This is wrong!// her mind shouted. She should never have left the safety of cover. //Back! Back!// But before she could retreat she felt something small and hard nudge her right side. //Too late!//

For one endless second Scully froze. She felt minuscule air pressure changes around her as a large body stepped in closer to her back. Her brain made a snap decision and determined it was pointless for her to go up against a superior strength one-handed. In one fluid movement she tossed her gun to the side, stepped back inside the reach of the gun arm on her right and drove her elbow solidly under the ribs of her opponent. As the air left his lungs in a *whoosh* she grappled his gun arm and unerringly delivered a stunning blow to his wrist. The gun spun off into the void and their odds evened a little more.

She shifted her grip on his arm and twisted around his body, intending to bring him into an arm lock where his strength and height would be useless, but he followed her movements around and brought them face to face, up close where she could smell Leather and Man and cinnamon on his panting breath.

The fight was on. She used every trick she knew, every pressure point and vulnerability, to break from his grip but he always managed to keep her within arms reach. They moved and spun like dancers on a stage through the spotlights from the skylights. It appeared oddly choreographed until her partner changed his steps and tangled up her feet. He pulled her off balance, bore her to the ground and followed her down. Still she fought and they twisted and rolled across the floor and Scully knew it was inevitable that he would soon have her pinned and this would end.

With a sense of horror, Scully began to feel something well up inside her. It tensed her diaphragm and clenched in her lungs. It bubbled up inside and she knew she was going to lose control. She fought it and him until he managed wrapped her legs up in his own and pulled her hands above her head. She was pinned and she couldn't control it any more.

With a gasp the giggle escaped, a high-pitched girlie giggle that destroyed all sense of dignity. The large body above her sagged and the dark head sank to her shoulder. "Dana!" Alex groaned in protest.

"Damn it, Scully," Mulder's equally exasperated voice burst from hiding.

"I-hi'm so-horry," she sniggered. "I to-hold you thi-his would ha- appen!" She pulled her hands from Alex's loosened grasp and wrapped them around his shoulders. A series of 'he-he-he's bounced his head on her shoulder.

"How the hell did you get through defense training," Alex asked, "if you lost it every time you were pinned?"

"That was se-herious," she gasped, sifting her fingers through his hair. "When I know it's no-hot then I just ca-han't help it!"

"Oh, this isn't serious?" Mulder demanded. He stood above them, hands on his hips. "How am I supposed to 'revenge your rape' if you won't cooperate?"

Alex raised himself up on one elbow and twisted to squint up at Mulder. "I suppose a gag would help with the giggling problem," he suggested.

"And when are you supposed to work in getting a gag on her when you can barely manage a few rolls before she starts braying?"

"Hey!" Scully protested the braying comment.

"I could go after her in the middle of the night," Alex continued. "Tie her down on the bed and gag her," he offered, hopefully.

"But I like the stalking," Mulder pouted. "Didn't you like being stalked, Scully?" he asked.

"Yeah, Mulder, it was hot," she answered. "But I'm liking the bed idea too. This floor is really hard and really cold." Alex apologized and scrambled to his feet, helping her up. She slapped at the more obvious smears of white on her black clothes but the cement dust was ground in good. The three of them started for the door, covering the distance in a much shorter time than Scully had taken creeping in.

"Well, the bed idea does sound good," Mulder gave in, "but none of us has a head board that will accommodate tying someone up," he pointed out.

Scully stopped to fish her coat out of hiding and pulled it on over her ruined clothes. "Who says we need to use a head board," she said. "All mattresses come with two handles on each side. It's much more comfortable being tied with your arms out to the sides than above your head."

Mulder stared at her. "I'm very curious about how you know that, Scully."

She ignored him. "I'll show you where I keep my silk scarves, Alex."

Mulder followed and the door squeaked shut behind them.