Title: Small Sound Black Dreams 6

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 6: Movement And Adaptation

by Amatia

"Hey Scully, you think you could make this box any heavier?" Fox Mulder called. "What do you have in here, your kitchen plus your mother's and your great-aunt's?"

"My great aunt lives in Colorado, Mulder," Scully replied. "Besides, you're supposed to be in shape. I carried it to the truck myself, you know."

Mulder gave what Scully supposed was a manly grunt and hefted the box into the moving truck. Then her attention was drawn away from him by the appearance of Starling in the doorway, carrying another box. "Here's the last of it, Dane."

Scully took the box from her girlfriend. "Didn't I tell you to stop carrying boxes when you brought out the last one?" she scolded, but her tone was teasing.

Starling grinned at her, and ran her hand over her stomach. "I'm not that far along."

"Still, you should take it kind of easy," Scully said, leaning over to snatch a kiss.

Mulder grinned fondly at them. In the three months since Scully had told him about Starling, he'd had dinner with them several times, and he was glad that Scully had found someone that she held no doubts about. She deserved it, after all she'd been through. He took the box from her as she approached. "Alex came to see me last night," he said quietly, sliding it into the truck.

Scully leaned against the bumper and brushed a strand of firey hair from her eyes. "And?"

"He said that maybe next time he could stay longer," Mulder sighed.

"Mulder," she said softly, "be honest now. Are you in love with him?"

He rested his head on the stack of boxes in the truck. "I think I am, Scully."

Starling came up behind Scully, and slid her arms around Scully's waist. "Am I interrupting?"

Mulder looked at his partner. "Does she know about Alex?"

"Yeah," Scully replied, embarassed. "I'm sorry, Mulder."

He shook his head. "No, it's ok. And you're not interrupting, Clarice."

"I think you need to tell him, Mulder. Or he'll never have a reason to make up his mind. Unless he loves you, too." Scully spoke honestly.

Over Scully's shoulder, Starling nodded. "He doesn't sound like the kind of guy who stays anywhere for long unless he's got a reason," she said.

Mulder nodded reluctantly. "I suppose you're both right. When - if - he comes back, I'll tell him."

"Easier said than done," Scully said with a gentle smile. "Remember when I first told you I loved you?" she asked Starling, who nodded and hugged her. "Thought it was going to take me all night to say those three words."

Mulder grinned at them. "I envy you two, really I do."

"You try coming up with a credible reason for moving in with someone of the same sex who lives a half hour away from your job, see if you envy me that." Scully chuckled and shook her head. "I know Skinner didn't believe a word I wrote on the change of address form. Damn FBI, so nosy."

Starling let go of Scully and stepped up beside her. "We better get going if we're going to get all this stuff unpacked before dark."

"Hey, I don't have that much," Scully laughed. "All right, Mulder, you know how to get there?"

"Yep. But I'll follow you, Dr. Scully. See you there."

"See you there, Mulder," Scully and Starling replied, and got into Scully's loaded car. Mulder got into the U-Haul, and waited until they were ahead of him to pull away from the curb.

Scully looked back at her old apartment building for a moment as they drove away. Then she felt Starling's hand cover hers, and she smiled at her lover. "Just kind of sad to say goodbye," she said by way of explanation.

Starling nodded, and smiled. "I felt the same way leaving my place in Utah." She squeezed Scully's hand. "But I wouldn't go back for anything."

"I'm glad," Scully replied softly, braking for the light. "If Mulder wasn't watching us like a hawk, I'd kiss you," she said.

Starling burst out laughing, then leaned over and kissed Scully. "Poor Mulder just needs someone to love."

"Someone who doesn't show up only once a month," Scully sighed. "I feel so bad for him. I know whatever's between him and Krycek, it's got to be strong or Krycek wouldn't keep coming back, but Mulder deserves better than that."

"Better than Krycek or better than a monthy one-night stand?"

"Better than Krycek," Scully admitted, putting her foot to the gas again. "I have no love for that man. But it's not my place to tell Mulder. And if he loves Krycek, well, he'll have to find out what's right for him."

"I wonder if I'll ever meet this Krycek," Starling said.

"Probably not," Scully replied. "So how was Quantico yesterday?"

"It was Quantico." Starling shrugged. "Aside from other instructors continuing to ask if I'm married, it was a normal day."

"And what do you tell them?" Scully's voice was teasing.

"I say my pregnancy a result of a clandestine affair with a man from another planet named Luke Skywalker," Starling chuckled.

"You could always say it was an X-File," Scully suggested as they got on the freeway. "Wait, that was an X-File."

"Then they'd assume I was sleeping with the wrong Agent."

They shared a knowing grin across the gearshift. Earlier in the week, they'd gone to dinner with Mulder, and the elderly woman at the table next to them had assumed that Starling and Mulder were together, and that the baby was Mulder's. None of them had had the heart to correct her, and Scully had hardly been able to contain her laughter as her lover and Mulder had pretended to be a couple.

"I hope Ardelia is home like she said she'd be," Starling said after a few minutes of silence. "I swear, that was an act of God that I got that duplex."

"That's the fifth time you've said that," Scully chuckled. "And knowing Ardelia, Clari, if she said she'd be there, she will be."

"All those new recruits are driving me mad," Starling groaned.

"Well, a few more months and you'll be on maternity leave."

Starling checked the passenger mirror to make sure Mulder was still behind them, and waved at him. Then she leaned back against her seat. "You realize we already sound horribly domestic, Dana?"

"I like it," Scully said with a smile. "Do you realize I've laughed more in the past three months than I think I have in three years?"

"And I like that."

They parked on the street in front of Starling and Mapp's duplex behind Maggie Scully's car, letting Mulder pull into the driveway. Maggie and Ardelia stood on the front stoop, waiting.

It took them an hour to carry all of Scully's belongings into the duplex, most of the furniture had been left in her old apartment. When Mulder set the last box down in the living room, Mapp immediately shepherded them all into the shared kitchen for a late lunch. Maggie sat down next to Starling and began asking questions about how her pregnancy was going. "I hope you have an easier time of it than I did, Clarice," she said. "Four of them, each labor longer than the one before it. With Charlie, I thought it would never end."

Scully saw the look on Starling's face. "Mom, you scared her," she said teasingly. "Clari, they'll most likely give you an epidural so you won't feel any pain." They shared a look, wondering if they should tell everyone the news yet. Starling shook her head almost imperceptibally, and Scully nodded.

Mapp slid paper plates with sandwiches on them in front of everyone, and sat down as well. "I have to say I'm glad you're here, Dana. Clarice may be an efficient housekeeper, but she's not a meticulous one. Maybe you can get her to finally recycle all those piles of magazines."

"I was always planning on getting around to it," Starling grumbled, but with a grin. "But I was always getting sidetracked."

"More likely the magazines were a sidetrack that you didn't want to take," Mapp laughed. "And since you're here, Dana, I'll reiterate my offer to babysit whenever you girls need a break. Just come bang on my door."

"Thanks, Ardelia," Scully replied. "I think that offer will come in handy."

Much later, Scully and Starling sat alone on the couch, surrounded by boxes on their side of the duplex, and with the television casting an eerie glow over them. They were snuggled close together with their arms around each other, watching Unsolved Mysteries. "I've seen this one before," Scully murmured in her lover's ear. "Mulder showed it to me once, tried to convince me it was an X-File."

Starling covered her mouth to keep from laughing. "That is so not an X-File. D'you think maybe Mulder was drunk when he made you watch it?"

"That's entirely possible," Scully sighed, tightening her hold on Starling. "I love you, you know."

"Yes, I know. And I love you, too." Starling twisted so she could brush her lips across Scully's. As they kissed, Scully's hand skimmed down Starling's body to rest on her lower abdomen. "Do you think we should tell them it's twins?" Starling asked as they parted.

"I think we should wait and see if Mulder can figure it out for himself," Scully chuckled. "We can drop him little hints. But as for Ardelia and my mom - it's up to you, love."

"They're your children just as much as they are mine," Starling whispered.

Scully swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. She had told Starling all about Emily and the pain she'd felt knowing that there might be other children out there that had been concieved of her ova. "Thank you," she whispered against Starling's hair. "That means a lot to me."

"I know it does, Dane." Starling turned over so that they lay full-length against each other. "It means a lot to me that you want to be part of this."

"How could I not want to be part of this and yet still love you? I can't fathom that. It all goes together for me." Scully caught Starling's lips with hers and kissed her deeply.

When the kiss ended, Starling flipped off the television, and slid off the couch. "Let's go to bed," she said, her hand finding Scully's in the semi-darkness.

Neither of them thought for a moment that out in the mailbox, in the sheaf of mail that they'd forgotten to pick up that afternoon, was a mauve envelope addressed to Special Agent Clarice Starling in a fine copperplate hand.

--end--