~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

UNIVERSAL INVARIANTS

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Chapter Eleven: Go Fish

By syntax6

Sunday morning Scully awoke to the strong smell of black 
coffee.  She shifted towards the scent and found Ethan 
standing there with mug in hand.  "Morning," he offered, 
taking a seat near her hip.  "I thought you might like a 
fresh cup before I head out."

Scully made a humming noise and inched up against the 
pillows.  She accepted the hot mug and blew over the top.  
"Thanks.  Where are you off to so early?"

"Work.  Melinda and I have a piece on tonight." He smiled 
and stroked her leg through the blanket.  "I should be back 
before dinner."

"Mmm.  Dinner's at Mom's tonight.  I'm going over there 
later to help her with some of Dad's things."

"How's she doing?"

"Better," Scully said, because she hoped it was the truth.  
Getting her mother to talk about her feelings was never 
easy, and since Ahab's death she had been all business.  
Today they were packing up his clothes to give to charity.

"That's good.  I'll come by when I'm finished then."  He 
toyed with her fingers.  

Scully caught him looking at her naked ring finger.  
"Ethan..."

"Hmm?" he said, not meeting her gaze.

"I want to say thanks...again.  For being patient with me."

Ethan did not pretend to misunderstand.  He gave an 
accepting shrug.  "I didn't expect you to leap into my arms 
with joy.  Hoped, maybe.  But I didn't expect.  You're not 
exactly the impulsive type.  I know you like to think about 
decisions for a long time before you make them.  I figure 
this one shouldn't be any different, right?"

"Right."  She smiled at him.  "Still, thank you.  I know 
I'm not the easiest person to deal with when it comes to 
this stuff."

He leaned in and kissed her.  "Careful.  You're talking 
about the woman I'm going to marry."  He eased off the bed.  
"Call you later, okay?"

Scully waved good-bye and leaned back against the pillows, 
sipping her coffee and contemplating her empty hand.

~*~*~*~

Margaret Scully rose every morning at six, and apparently 
the day she was giving her husband's belongings away was no 
exception.  Scully arrived to find boxes already stacked 
two deep in Maggie's living room.
  
"Dana, hi."  Her mother wore a pink bandana and an 
oversized shirt, looking at least a decade younger than her 
fifty-five years.  "It's good to see you, dear.  Do you 
want coffee?  I have a fresh pot in the kitchen."

"No, thanks."  Scully surveyed the boxes.  "You've been 
awfully busy.  It looks like you don't even need my help."

"I can't carry all this to the Salvation Army myself."

Scully opened the nearest box.  "You're giving away Dad's 
bowling ball?" She hauled the case out of the box and 
unzipped it.  Inside sat Ahab's solid fourteen pounder, 
round and smooth as his head had been.  Scully stroked the 
marbled surface.

"Neither of your brothers wanted it."

"Yeah, but I can't believe you're giving it away.  Dad 
loved this ball.  He won that trophy in seventy-eight, 
remember?"

Her mother looked at her tenderly.  "If you would like the 
ball, it's yours, honey."

"I don't want it," Scully protested.

"Well, neither do I."  Her mother zipped the case on the 
ball and lifted it back into the box.

Scully watched as her mother folded the flaps over again.  
"You're not keeping anything?"

"Of course I am."  Her mother straightened up.  "I have all 
the photos we took -- hundreds of them.  His medals, of 
course.  I would never give those up.  Billy took his golf 
clubs and some of the clothes.  Don't you think it's better 
than these things go to someone who could use them rather 
than sit around in one of my closets?"

Scully cradled the box closest to her.  "I guess."

"Dana."  Her mother rubbed her arm.  "These things aren't 
your father.   They were your father's things.  He doesn't 
live in them anymore.  He only lives in here."  She touched 
Scully's chest, and Scully made an effort to smile.

"You're right.  Of course you're right."

"Your father gave me thirty-six years of marriage and four 
beautiful children.  That's all I need to remember him."  
She hugged Scully tight.

Scully sniffed as she pulled away.  "You should have had 
more."

"I wish so too, but that's not the way it worked out.  I 
just have to be thankful for the time I did get with him."  
She brushed her daughter's hair out of her eyes.

"Mom, how did you know Daddy would be a good husband?"

Her mother laughed.  "Oh, I didn't."

Scully looked up sharply.  "What do you mean?"

"Honey, I got lucky.  Your dad and I married when I was 
only nineteen years old.  What did I know about picking out 
a husband?  I could barely pick out an outfit."

"You must have known something."

"I knew he looked good in uniform."

"Mom.  I'm serious."

"Mmm, so am I."

Scully shook her head.  "Okay, then pretend you knew then 
what you know now.  What did Daddy do that told you he was 
the one?"

"Dana, I wish I could tell you.  Really, I think I just got 
lucky.  He seemed like a good man, and it turns out he 
was."

"So that's it?  Marry the first good man you can find?"

"They're not as easy to come by as you think."  Her mother 
touched her cheek.  "What's with all these questions about 
marriage?"

"Nothing," Scully said, pulling away.  "Just curious."

"I think..."  Her mother stopped and folded her arms.  "I 
think the best you can hope for is that you never run out 
of things to say to each other."

"Not never-ending romance?" Scully teased.

"Honey, after thirty years of marriage, if you're saying 
more than, 'Pass the salt' at the dinner table, that *is* 
romance."

~*~*~*~

Ethan arrived in time to help with dinner preparations.  
"Here, you can wash the lettuce," Scully told him as she 
put her slicing and dicing skills to work on a tomato.  

"Always say yes to a woman with a knife," Ethan said to 
Maggie.  He kissed Scully's head as he passed.

"Did you and Melinda finish the piece?" Scully asked.

"Yup.  It should be airing in--"  He checked his watch.  
"Five minutes."

"Then we should hold dinner until after it's on," Maggie 
said as she stuck the pot roast back in the oven.

"Oh, that's so not necessary.  It's just a quickie piece on 
the new tax bill.  Hardly worth interrupting this delicious 
dinner."

"I'd like to see it," Maggie replied, wiping her hands on a 
dish towel.

Scully and Ethan followed her into the living room.  While 
Maggie adjusted the channel, they took a seat on the couch.  
"I hate watching myself on TV," Ethan confessed.  "I look 
twenty pounds heavier and my hair is always sticking up in 
back."

"Oh, it does not."  Scully smoothed his hair.  "I think 
it's cute."

Ethan put a hand over his paunch.  "I should get back into 
running with you."

"Running -- isn't that how two you met?" Maggie turned with 
the remote in hand.

"Yup," Ethan said as he put an arm around Scully.  "When I 
tell people your daughter is a catch, I mean catch.  I'd 
watched her run by a dozen times and figured I'd better 
work at it if I had any chance to keep up with her."

"You did okay," Scully answered, looking sideways at him.

"That's because I put in two weeks of practice before I 
even attempted it.  Didn't want to try to introduce myself 
amid huffing and puffing."

"Look, it's your piece," Maggie said, shushing them.

"See?  It's totally sticking up in back," Ethan said.  
Scully hid a smile.

They watched him go over the details of the new proposed 
tax bill.  When he had finished, Maggie said, "I don't care 
how many of these bills they pass.  My taxes only go one 
way -- up!"

On the TV, the news switched to a breaking story about a 
police chase in Maryland.  The cops had shot the suspect 
just before he jumped into the harbor, but so far the 
police had not been able to recover a body.

"It'll turn up eventually," Ethan said, moving to rise from 
the couch.  

Maggie snapped off the TV.  "I'll get dinner on the table."

Scully's cell phone rang, and both Ethan and her mother 
turned to look at her.

"Do you have to answer that?" Ethan said with a sigh.

"Is something the matter?" Maggie asked.

"Only three people ever call that phone," Ethan told her.  
"And you and I are standing in the room with her."

Scully ignored him and went to her phone.  "Scully," she 
said.

"Scully, it's me.  Can you meet me at the office right 
away?  There's something I need you to look at."

Scully peeked over her shoulder.  "Can it wait?"

"Hey, if you're busy, forget about it.  I'll catch you up 
in the morning."

"No," she said quickly.  "I'll be there."

He hung up without saying goodbye.

~*~*~*~*~

"Mulder, you've been through this tape a hundred times. 
What exactly are you hoping to find?"

"I don't know."  Mulder printed out a still picture from 
the videotape of the crime scene.  As far as they knew, 
police had not yet recovered the body despite the narrow 
search area.  Mulder's "friend" Deep Throat thought this 
was of some significance."

"And all he told you to was to watch channel eight?"

"Yeah, that's all he said."

Scully's stomach growled.  All she'd had to eat was a few 
carrot sticks on her way out the door.  "Do we even know 
why the suspect was being chased?"

"As far as I can tell, he wouldn't pull over for a moving 
violation. There's got to be something here. Some detail. 
Something we're not seeing."

"How do you know he's not just yanking your chain, this 
Deep Throat character?"

"Why would he do that?"

"Well, he has lied to you by his own admission."

"I don't think he'd call if there wasn't something here... 
something I was supposed to see. Something he wants me to 
see."

~*~*~

Scully listened to Mulder's chatter on their way to view 
the suspect's car at the police impound.  "I think it's got 
to be related to the suspect, Scully.  Maybe he's wanted 
for something else, and that's why he ran."

"Could be."  She was looking out the window at the passing 
scenery.

"If we only had a name, we could run him through the 
system."

"Maybe he just stole the car and that's why he was 
running."

Mulder considered.  "I don't think Deep Throat would get us 
involved for a routine auto theft."

"You mean get you involved."

"Huh?"

"He only talks to you, Mulder.  I don't get midnight phone 
calls or notes slipped under my door."

Mulder grinned.  "What can I say, Scully?   He likes to 
rendezvous in the men's room."

Scully shook her head, amused.  Her cell phone rang.  She 
looked at the caller ID and switched the phone to "off."  

Mulder watched her with interest.  "Obscene phone call?"

"Ethan."

"Oh."  He drove in silence for a moment.  "Trouble on the 
home front?"

"No."  She smoothed her pants leg and debated whether to 
continue.  "He asked me to marry him."

The car swerved ever so slightly.  Mulder shifted in his 
seat as he righted them again.  "Uh, I don't see any big 
diamond ring..."

"I haven't said yes."

Awkward silence stretched between them.  "Hey, whatever 
makes you happy, right?" Mulder said finally.  "You can't 
chase mutants with me forever."

"I'm not talking about quitting my job, Mulder."

"No, of course not.  It's just--"

"Just what?" she prompted when he did not continue.

"Well, you know.  Marriage.  Babies.  Mutants.  Like the 
song goes, 'one of these things is not like the other...'"  
He turned into the impound lot and stopped the car.  "I 
think that's the car over there.  The silver one."

"Mulder," she said.

But he had already moved on.  The door slammed and she 
watched his black coat flare in the wind as he hurried 
over, always chasing the next big clue.

~*~*~*~

Mulder pulled his car up outside his building.  He scrubbed 
his face with his hands before getting out.  Twelve 
straight hours of chasing your tail, he told himself.

As he approached the walkway, a man appeared from out of 
the shadows.  Mulder recognized the shape immediately and 
kept on walking.

"Calling it a night, Mister Mulder?"

You think he does this stuff because he gets off on it? 
Mulder had asked Scully.

"No," she had said.  "I think he does it because you do."

Mulder jangled his keys and faced Deep Throat. "My mother 
usually likes me home before the street lights come on."

"I'm surprised at you. Your level of commitment seems to 
have diminished."

Mulder scoffed.  "My level of commitment?"

"I should have expected that you'd be working through the 
night trying to put the pieces together."

God, maybe Scully was right.  "Well, maybe if you'd given 
me something more to work with."

"Under the circumstances, I've given you all I can."

"A news report?"

"And where has it led you?"

"You know, from day one, this has always been on your 
terms. I've gone along. Been the dutiful son. But maybe 
this time, we can just cut out the Obi-Wan Kenobi crap and 
you can save me the trouble."

"I fear you've become too dependent on me."

"Let me tell you something. I've got plenty to do without 
chasing down your vague leads or trying to decode your 
circular logic. Maybe it's you who's become too dependent 
on me... on my willingness to play your games."  Mulder 
turned to walk away.

"Mister Mulder? Don't give up on this one. Trust me. You've 
never been closer."  Deep Throat, his maddening message 
complete, melted back into the shadows.

"Closer to what?" Mulder yelled after him, but his voice 
echoed back off the concrete, unanswered.

~*~*~*~*~

Whatever Doctor Berube was doing with his monkey pee, 
someone thought it was damning enough to have the good 
doctor commit suicide twice.  As Mulder had said, "There's 
kill, and then there's overkill."

So Scully took the would-be monkey pee for analysis while 
Mulder paid a visit to Berube's house.  She spent the night 
at the microbiology lab as Doctor Carpenter struggled to 
identify the mysterious substance labeled "Purity Control."

"Under any other circumstances, my first call would be to the 
government," Carpenter told her.  "It's a fifth and sixth DNA 
nucleotide. A new base pair. Agent Scully, what are you looking 
at... it exists nowhere in nature. It would have to be, by 
definition... extraterrestrial."

At dawn, Scully tried calling Mulder at home for the 
fiftieth time. Her knees went weak with relief when he 
finally answered.

"Mulder, where on God's earth have you been?  I've been 
trying to call you all night."

"I had a situation.  I left my phone in the car."

"Mulder... that bacteria I had analyzed... they're saying 
it doesn't exist in nature.  They're saying it could be 
extraterrestrial."

"Scully..."

"What?"

"How soon can you get here?  I've got something I want to 
show you."

Scully arrived at Mulder's door in under an hour.  She 
knocked softly.  "Mulder?"

Listening, she heard no sound from the inside.  After a 
moment of hesitation, Scully took out her key.  She opened 
the door slowly.  "Mulder?"

The only light in the apartment came from the brightening 
day outside the windows.  Scully tucked the key back in her 
pocket and took a few steps towards the quiet living room.

She stopped when she saw Mulder asleep on his couch, still 
wearing his suit and his shoes.  Scully covered her mouth 
with her fingers, hiding her smile.  Behind his head, his 
fish swished back and forth in their tank, anticipating 
breakfast.

Scully crossed the room and obliged them.  "Hi guys," she 
whispered as she dropped the food inside.  "Hungry this 
morning?"  She bent down and watched them gobble the 
flakes.

As she put the can of food back and turned, she spotted a 
small collection of framed photos.  She recognized his 
sister, this time missing the braids as she frolicked on a 
sandy beach.  Scully picked it up and smiled at it.  There 
was also a silver-framed photo of his mother -- a formal 
posed portrait taken in a studio.  Scully looked, but she 
did not see a picture that could be Mulder's dad.  
Grandparents, perhaps.  He had one that looked like it 
dated back to the 1930s.  

Scully went to replace the photo of Samantha and her hand 
brushed against an unframed picture lying flat on the 
bookcase.  She scooped it up. 

The photo was of her and Mulder bent over a crime scene.  
Scully recognized Doug Burhle's body sticking out of the 
tall grass.  She was saying something, and Mulder had 
leaned his head in close to hear.

He stirred on the couch, startling her, and Scully hurried 
to slip the photo back into place.

"Hey," she said, and he jerked his head around to see her.  
"I knocked but there was no answer."

"Sorry about that," he replied as he stretched.  "I was 
having this dream.  You were getting married on the Death 
Star and walking down the aisle to the Darth Vader music."

"And who was I marrying?  The evil Emperor?"

"No, Chewbacca."  He sat up and put his feet on the floor.

Scully tilted her head.  "Mulder, if I did get married, 
would you come to the wedding?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On whether the Yankees are playing that day."  He stood up 
and grabbed his keys from the coffee table.  "Come on, I 
want to show you what I found.  You're not going to believe 
it."

He took her to an area of town she had never been to 
before.  Buildings had worn down.  Graffiti decorated 
dilapidated fences.  Mulder turned down an alley marked 
"Pandora Street."

They parked and Mulder started toward a warehouse.  "Wait a 
second.  Mulder?"

He turned.

"I just want to say that I was wrong."

"It's all right.  Don't worry about it."  Mulder squinted 
at her, as though he couldn't quite make out her shape.

"No, um, if you had listened to me, we wouldn't be here 
right now.  I should know by now to trust your instincts."

"Why?  Nobody else does."

"You know, I've always held science as sacred.  I've always 
put my trust in the accepted facts.  And what I saw last 
night... for the first time in my life, I don't know what 
to believe."

"Well, whatever it is you do believe, Scully -- when you 
walk into that room?  Nothing sacred will hold."

He dug out the keys he had lifted from Berube's home and 
opened the door to the warehouse.  Scully followed him into 
the dim building.  The hall was quiet and the main 
storeroom was totally empty.  

Mulder paced the cement floor.  "There were tanks here and 
five bodies suspended in solution.  There were computers 
monitoring them.  They were alive, Scully, under water."

"What happened to them?"

"God only knows," said a voice from the darkness.  Scully 
recognized Mulder's cloak-and-dagger man, Deep Throat.  
"Most likely they've been destroyed."

Why didn't you stop them? Scully wanted to ask.  But she 
held her tongue.

"Destroyed by whom?" Mulder wanted to know.

"I don't know."

"I don't believe you," Mulder replied, and Scully gave him 
an inward cheer.

"There are limits to my knowledge," the man said.

Scully looked away.  Limits to his willingness to get his 
hands dirty was more like it.  He sent Mulder in to do the 
dirty work.  He put Mulder's life on the line.

"There were three men last night," Mulder was saying, as if 
to prove her point.  "I was chased."

"Hmm," Deep Throat said.  "If you were chased, you would 
have been killed."

Apparently Scully was the only one who had a problem with 
this.  Mulder and Deep Throat looked thoughtful, not 
alarmed.

"I didn't anticipate the speed and precision of the cleanup 
operation," Deep Throat said.  "Without the evidence, you 
two have no case.  You must find Doctor Secare before they 
do.  I'll have no further contact with you on this matter."

He disappeared the way he had come in, silent as a panther. 

"I'm going to find Doctor Secare," Mulder said.

"Where?" Scully asked.

"I don't know.  I'm going to trust my instincts."

~*~*~*~

In bed that night, Scully's instincts were saying "trouble." 
She reached for the phone again.  Mulder's line rang and 
rang with no answer.

Ethan sighed.  "Maybe he has a date."

"You don't understand."  Scully held the phone between her 
breasts.  "These are dangerous people, Ethan.  They've 
murdered twice now to cover their tracks."

"To cover what?"

"You know I can't say."

"But you're convinced Mulder's found something worth 
killing for."

"Two doctors are dead, Ethan!"

"A suicide and a car accident. That's what you said."

Scully got out of bed and started getting dressed. "I said 
that's what they wanted it to look like."

"Who is this they?  Do you even know?"

Scully ignored him and began lacing up her boots.

"Where are you going?"  Ethan asked.

"Mulder's."  She grabbed her keys and her gun.  "I want to 
make sure nothing has 'accidentally' happened to him."


Scully found she was not the only one concerned about 
Mulder.  Deep Throat appeared from the bushes as Scully 
started up Mulder's path.  "He's not home," he told her 
tersely.

"Where is he?  He's been gone all night."

"I wish I knew."

"Something's happened to him."  Scully's heart turned to 
lead as Deep Throat did not disagree.

"They won't kill him."

"How do you know that?"

"He's become too high-profile and you've got evidence that 
could expose them."

"I don't have any evidence.  They took the evidence and may 
have killed in order to get it."

"Listen to me.  Evidence still exists.  It might be 
difficult to obtain but with your medical background, I 
might be able to get you inside."

~*~

Deep Throat glided the car to a stop outside the high 
security containment center at Fort Marlene.  He handed her 
the badge that would get her inside.  "What you're looking 
for is on the top floor.  Cryology." 

Scully pinned the ID to her shirt and prepared to leave the 
car.  Deep Throat grabbed her arm.

"Be very careful, Miss Scully.  If they catch you, they 
will kill you."

Scully swallowed and opened the door.  Her legs felt like 
jelly but somehow she managed to walk across the parking 
lot to the front door.  She passed her security card 
through the reader and the doors slide noiselessly open in 
front of her.

Scully crossed the threshold and the heavy doors closed at 
her back.  She stood inside a sterile white tomb.  The only 
sign of life was a security guard sitting inside a tiny 
cubicle.

"Password?" he asked her.

Scully faltered.  Deep Throat had said nothing about a 
password.  

"Password?" the guard tried again, eyeing her with more 
suspicion.

Scully licked her lips.  "Purity control."

He let her inside.  Scully went straight to cryology, where 
she found the container marked "purity control."  She 
opened it as one might lift a coffin lid in a horror move.  
Swirls of fog from dry ice rose from the metal cylinder.

Scully came face-to-face with an alien fetus.

~*~*~*~

Scully waited in her car, feeling like an alien herself on 
the dark bridge at night.  Who was this woman who walked 
out of a government facility with stolen property under her 
arm?  Scully took a deep, steadying breath.  She grabbed 
the container from the seat next to her and exited her car.

"You're late," Deep Throat said as she approached.  "Did 
you get it?"

She showed it to him.

"Good.  They're willing to make the exchange."

"You spoke to them?"

"Yes.  I'll take the parcel."

"No, sir.  I'll make the exchange."

"I made the deal, Scully.  They're expecting me."

"I don't trust you."

"You've got no else to trust."

A van pulled up at the other end of the bridge.  Scully 
imagined Mulder inside, maybe hurt.  Maybe dying.  She gave 
up the package.

Scully went back to her car. Blood was rushing through her 
so fast it made her dizzy.  She clutched the wheel and 
watched Deep Throat approach the van.

A shot shattered the quiet night.

Scully jerked open her car door, already running before her 
feet touched the road.  "Mulder.  Mulder!"

A body rolled from the back of the van.  It roared away.  
Deep Throat lay dying in the street.

Scully checked Mulder first and found his pulse strong.  
She hurried to Deep Throat, but he had been shot dead 
center mass.  They had not wanted to make a mistake.

She lifted his head. 

"Trust.. no one," he told her, and was gone.

~*~*~*~*~

Mulder sat in the ER sporting chemical burns around his 
eyes.  Scully stood between his legs and gently examined 
the tender skin.

"I'd say it was an acid of some sort," she said.

"I couldn't see what was doing it," Mulder replied.  "It 
stung like a sonofabitch, though.  Either the chemical
was in the gun these guys had or--"

"Or what?"

"Or it was in Dr. Secare himself."

"At least your vision hasn't been affected."  She rested 
her hands on the tops of his thighs.  "You're very lucky, 
Mulder."

"Yeah.  Lucky.  Our best source is dead and they have the 
alien fetus back.  We have no evidence."

Scully bent her head.  "At least we have the luxury to keep 
on looking," she said quietly.

Mulder touched her wrist with one finger.  "Hey," he said, 
waiting for her to look at him.  "I don't mean to sound 
ungrateful.  What you did, Scully -- it's incredible."

"Come on," she answered, drawing back.  "I'll drive you 
home."

Mulder sat with his eyes closed on the long, silent drive 
back to his apartment.  Scully parked the car and unbuckled 
her seatbelt.

"No, you go on," Mulder told her.  "I'll be fine."

"At least let me walk you in."

He shook his head.  "You come in with me, and you'll never 
leave."  Scully opened her mouth to protest, but he kept 
talking.  "Go home, Scully.  I'm a big boy.  I can take 
care of myself."

"I know.  I just--"

"What?"

"I just want you to know you don't have to.  Not anymore."

He smiled, bruised skin crinkling around his eyes.  "Thanks 
for the lift.  Night, Scully."

"Night."

~*~*~*~

Scully awoke sharply, jolted from a dreamless sleep by 
something she could not name.  She sat up dazed, but the 
house was quiet and Ethan lay dead asleep beside her.  She 
checked the time -- eleven twenty-one -- and settled back 
down onto her pillow.

The phone rang.  She grabbed it before it could wake Ethan.  
"Hello?" she said, her voice rough from sleep.

"Hey, Scully it's me."

"Where are you?"

"They're shutting us down, Scully."

She shifted, paying attention now.  Her heart froze.  
"What?"

"They called me in tonight, and they said they're going to 
reassign us to other sections."

"Who said that?"

"Skinner.  He said word came down from the top of the 
executive branch."

"Mulder--" 

"It's over, Scully."

Robby Tinsbury had said almost the same thing when he broke 
up with her in ninth grade.  Mulder's voice held the same 
chilling finality.

"Well, you have to lodge a protest.  They can't..."

"Yes, they can."

Scully braced herself.  "What are you going to do?"

"I'm not going to give up.  I can't give up.  Not as long 
as the truth is out there."

Then he hung up on her.

I, he had said.  Not we.  Mulder was on his own again.  
Scully wondered what Blevins would say, if Blevins had even 
orchestrated the split.

Scully lay down again in a bed that suddenly seemed too 
large.  She shivered against her pillow.  Ethan stirred, an 
arm coming out to wrap around her.

"Was that the phone?"

"Yes."  She turned in his embrace, burying her face in his 
shoulder.  He sleepily rubbed her back.

"Who was it?"

"No one."

"Mmm."  She could feel him drifting back to sleep.

"Ethan?"

"Hmm?"

She held on tight, squeezing her eyes shut.  "I'll marry 
you."

~*~*~*~*~

End chapter eleven.  Continued in chapter twelve.

Many thanks to Amanda for the speedy beta!  Any 
remaining mistakes are mine alone.

What's the phrase?  It's always darkest before the dawn?
;-)

Feedback welcome at syn_tax6@yahoo.com