Title: Small Sound Black Dreams

Author/pseudonym: Amatia

Fandom: X-Files/The Silence of the Lambs

Paring: Dana Scully/Clarice Starling, implied Mulder/Krycek

Rating: Overall R. Individual parts vary.

Status: WIP

Archive: Yep.

Disclaimers: X-Files characters are the property of 1013. Clarice Starling in the creation of Thomas Harris, movie rights are Orion's.

Summary: An old love of Scully's returns.

Warnings: Spoilers for XF - "Fire", "The End", "The Red and the Black".

Spoilers for "The Silence of the Lambs" (movie) and slight ones for "Hannibal" (book).

Notes: This series was started over a year ago, and it's still growing. Thanks go to Hth for planting the seed for this all with her fic, "Thank You For Not Smoking". All parts have now been given a Roman Numeral designation for easy identification and ordering. :-)

Small Sound Black Dreams 2: Morning After

By Amatia

It was the sunlight floating lazily across her face that woke Dana Scully the morning after Clarice Starling had returned to the East coast. Sunlight, and the smell of coffee.

Scully turned over in the bed, nestled in a warm cocoon of blankets. The sound of gentle footsteps made her raise her eyelids and sit up. Starling stood in the doorway, wearing one of Scully's nightshirts, holding two mugs of coffee. "Want one?" she asked.

"Definately," Scully replied. "But only if you come sit next to me."

"Did you think I wouldn't?" Starling asked in mock horror, and Scully grinned.

She came over to the bed and handed Scully a mug. "Careful, it's hot."

Scully took the offered coffee, and Starling lowered herself onto the bed, being careful not to spill her own coffee. "Funny how so much of a morning revolves around coffee," she commented with a chuckle.

"Yeah," Scully replied, leaning her head against Starling's shoulder. "Clari...I've got to know...do you regret it?"

"No. Do you?"

"No. I've missed you too much to regret it," Scully sighed, and sipped her coffee.

Starling set hers on the nightstand. "Does Mulder know about us, Dana?"

Scully shook her head. "No. You...you were always too personal to me. There has to be some things in my life that he doesn't know about. I wouldn't be able to stand it if he knew everything about me, just as I know he wouldn't be able to stand it if I knew all his secrets."

Starling slipped her arms around Scully's waist. "Am I your secret?"

"You are for now," Scully replied in a seductive tone, nuzzling Starling's neck.

Starling whimpered softly and snuggled closer to her. "I like being your secret," she whispered. "But let me brush my teeth first, hmm?"

Scully laughed and released her one-armed embrace. Starling unwrapped her arms from around Scully's waist and slipped out of the bed. "I can't wait for the coffee-and-toothpaste taste," she said , a trace of sarcasm in her voice. Then her tone softened. "But I don't want to kiss you with morning breath."

Scully, too, had slid out of the bed. "In that case, I better brush mine, don't you think?"

They went into the bathroom, and Scully found an unopened toothbrush in the cabinet. "I'd let you use mine like we used to, but I have to brush, too," she chuckled, handing it to Starling.

Starling ripped open the package and dropped it in the waste basket. "Thank you, my dear."

They brushed their teeth in silence, then took their coffee into the living room. "Thank God, it's Saturday," Scully said, "Work is the farthest thing from my mind today."

"Good," Starling replied with a chuckle, sitting beside her on the couch. "Did you have any plans?"

"No. Mulder wanted me to go over to his place and maybe have a pizza together - which, in Mulderspeak, means go over our latest case. I was planning on telling him I had to clean."

Starling rolled her eyes. "Doesn't he know by now that you're the cleanest woman on the face of the earth?"

"Well, he hasn't been here lately. Somehow I always end up going to his apartment. So, he could have forgotten. He tends to forget personal stuff like that."

"From what they say about Spooky Mulder at the Academy, I don't doubt it."

"I bet I get mentioned around there now too, working with him."

Starling shook her head. "Not really. Occasionally I'll hear 'Spooky Mulder and his partner...', but I don't even know if they know it's you. Although all the instructors should, you were working there when you got pulled out to work with Agent Mulder." She squeezed Scully's hand. "But I don't know for sure what was said when I was at the Salt Lake office."

"Anything interesting out there?"

"Interesting from an X-Files point of view, you mean?" Starling grinned. "Nope, just your ordinary homicides, patricides, fratricides and grand theft auto."

Scully chuckled. "No more Buffalo Bills?"

"No. And you would have heard about it if there had been."

"They probably would have wanted Mulder to profile him," Scully said with a grin.

"Hey!" Starling exclaimed. "I wrote the original profile, remember? With a little help from my friends."

"I know, I was just teasing you." Scully set her coffee on the table, and reached up to caress Starling's face. "I'm glad we can make light of it now," she said seriously. "It was such a dark time, Clari. It was dark for you, and it was dark for us."

Starling nodded, then leaned in and kissed Scully gently. "Remember how I used to come home and take you on the floor because I needed you so much?"

Scully smiled in remembrance, and licked Starling's ear. "You were wild, Clari."

"I can still be wild."

Scully raised an eyebrow, causing Starling to burst out laughing. "You still do that damn eyebrow thing," she said.

"Of course. How else can I convince Mulder of my skepticism?" Scully replied sarcastically, then grinned. "So, what do you want to do today?"