Title: Jack and the Hill Author: Sandee Rating: PG? Dunno. Spoilers: None. Distribution: Anywhere. Feedback: jellybean5000@hotmail.com Summary: Some fluff. A weird allusion to a nursery rhyme I've been reciting to my niece recently over and over. Disclaimer: Am I CC? Am I Fox? Am I 1013? Am I Gillian Anderson or David Duchovny? No? Well then, I guess that these characters aren't mine. Author's notes: I love Cherry, she loves doing my betas. And Thal, if you're reading this, why can't I seem to contact you? And Love, the Valentines Dance is nearing. Would you happen to want to go out with me? Not to the dance, hell no. No way on earth I'm wasting my Wednesday night there. Shakey's at 8, don't be late. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Jack! Oh my God, Jack? Are you alright?" Agent Higgins exclaimed, running to her partner's side. "Are you hurt? Did that bastard hurt you? Speak to me, Jack!" The head of the male agent was just lolling back and forth lifelessly until, amazingly, his eyes slowly opened. Lazily, his eyes focused on his worried partner. "You... you... you killed him..." he murmured. "Oh Lord. You killed him." "I'm sorry," she said sadly, stroking back her partner's bloodied hair. "He was my brother." "He would have killed you. I'm sorry. Agent Scully is checking if he's still alive." Agent Higgins looked both frightened and unhappy at the same time. "He would have killed you, Jack. I'm so sorry." Jack was silent for a few moments. Then, as Agent Higgins waited for a response, they both heard Agent Scully call out: "He's alive." The female agent exhaled loudly. The male agent was saying something. "I want him alive..." "I know..." "So that I can kick his ass." A small breath of air turned into the two, beat-up, tired and drained agents sharing one of the first laughs of many. Giggling, smiling and chuckling. Never had they been happier. Except of course, for a certain day, three years ago... "How can I ever repay you for this?" the man muttered sadly. "How? There is no way in hell I could ever give everything you've given me back." The woman smiled, as Agent Mulder hovered over them, checking if they were alright. "He's fine, Scully!" he yelled. "He's just got a tiny wound on his forehead and his hair looks like little woodland creatures have been nibbling on it; oh and Agent Higgins' manicure is ruined!" "That's extremely professional of you!" she replied loudly. "Repay me?" Agent Higgins told the man lying almost lifelessly in her arms. "Just give me fifty bucks and buy me dinner at that Italian place beside the Mall, and we'll call it even." "Professional!? You call walking up to the suspect and shooting him in the back 'professional? At least I actually completed my profile, unlike you, walking out on your autopsy!" Man, these two nuts were really childish. "Spooky, innit?" Jack told his partner, attempting to sit up. "What is? I mean, who, Mulder?" "No," he muttered, reclining against the wall. "The fact that they sound exactly like us... before we were married." ***** "I thanked Jill Higgins personally yesterday at the hospital ER for their assistance during the Higgins case, sir." Mulder old AD Skinner the following day. "I have to admit though, sir, she was a bit shaken up." Skinner glanced at the file on his desk briefly and then turned to Scully. "Well, it was her brother-in-law, was it not? Agent Scully, is what's in this report true?" "Yes," Scully said, bobbing her head. "The brother, John Higgins, was suffering from a common psychological disorder which caused him to experience violent impulses towards someone whom he envied." Their boss looked confused. "Envied? From what I'm reading right here, Jack Higgins wasn't really someone who was to be envied." Scully nodded her head again. "Yes, sir. But it also states in our report that who the brother was envious of was the wife. Agents Jill Meritt and Jack Higgins were married three years ago to date, much to John Higgins' dismay. The day she shot Jack Higgin's brother was their third wedding anniversary and their eighth partnership anniversary." The older man's brow furrowed. "Eight years? You mean it took them *five* years to... to... oh, forget it. I'll have this file stuck down the bottom of the VCS' drawer, to keep the dirt away. Send my regards to the Higgins. Dismissed." ***** "That was one, crazy case, huh, Scully?" Mulder commented once they were back in their office, and he began unlocking their office door. "I mean, talk about insane." "I know," Scully replied. "John was totally--" "I was talking," Mulder interrupted "about Jack and Jill... hey, I just got that." Scully furrowed her brow and perched herself on the edge of Mulder's desk, much like when they were debating a case. "Mulder, what in the name of hell are you talking about? There was nothing even remotely crazy about them." "What in the name of hell are *you* talking about? Of course there was." "Oh, then what, pray tell?" she said sarcastically. "The fact that it took them half a decade to... 'get it on', as you often so colorfully put it?" "No, of course not," Mulder sounded incredulous. He perched himself next to his partner. "Jack told me when we met five years ago that he was already in love with Jill. What takes me is that... well, it took him so long to tell her." Scully muttered something so quietly and disgruntledly that most people would not have understood it, but Mulder did. "What? Don't tell me you don't believe in love, either, because if you don't, this whole skeptic thing is never going to get you a boyfriend." Without even trying... Scully thought to herself, smiling a bit. "I didn't say I didn't believe in love, what I meant was that I didn't believe in love at first sight." She could swear to the Heavens above that she saw his eyes widen and his mouth drop open. But he covered so quickly, another person could just as easily swear that he hadn't. "Really?" he asked monotonously, betraying no emotion. "Why not?" Shrugging, she rubbed her shoulder against his. Their postures mirrored each other's. Arms crossed over their chests, and eyes facing forward, balanced on the edge of the table. Yin and Yang, buddy. In every belief there is a bit of doubt, and in every doubt there is a bit of belief. "I just think," Scully finally said. "That handing over your heart and soul to the person, claiming you know them more than any other, believing with your heart that you love them and then actually considering spending the rest of your life with this one person whom you've never even spoken to... is just not really realistic." His brow wrinkled. "That is *not* love at first sight, Scully." "What?" "That's just the Hollywood version. I'll tell you what it's really like." This, somehow, managed to elicit a chuckle from Scully. "Mulder? You? How would you know what it's like?" "I know from experience," he said snootily. A pang of sudden envy struck her stomach, for no apparent reason. "Do you want to know or not?" "Okay. Sure. So I'll know it when I see it." "It starts," he began slowly, motioning every so often with his hands thereafter. "With sweaty palms. Really sweaty palms. You know, when it feels like there are rivers running down your hands and dripping down to your toes. Your heart starts beating triple time, and you get so nervous you think she can hear it. "And then... and then you get so weak in the knees, you can hardly speak, you lose all control and something took over me. I was caught in this... daze... and I didn't speak until she began speaking. It felt like doom. "At first, it wasn't really romantic love. It was more like one had for a best friend or a neighbor's dog. I fell into a sort of abbreviated sort of love. But I'll come back to that later. "And then, quickly, these... these... these flashes. Me with her. On my couch watching TV; taking kids to school--" "Wait," Scully interrupted, holding her hand up. "No sex?" "What do you think we were doing while watching TV?" "Oh," Scully murmured quietly as Mulder continued his tirade about bodily functions gone haywire. To be truthful, she really wasn't really listening to him anymore. She realized something then and there. This was Mulder, of all people, and he believed in Santa Claus, for crying out loud. Love at first sight? It was bullshit. But then... Mulder never spoke of his heart, or his feelings, hardly ever, if nothing was to be lost or to be gained. But here he was speaking about his experience and what he felt when he first met a woman he fell in love with right away. This wasn't Mulder, she thought. This was Fox, Fox, who was in love. Then, he began speaking of how his love for this individual evolved over several years from friendship to respect to trust to the final realization that he would die for her. Ick. Too bad her gun was in her coat. "Do you still love her?" she asked, not realizing she interrupted him again. She smiled a little in apology and his eyes accepted it. "I mean, if what you're saying is true, then if what you just said really does happen, it seems that if you fall in love at first sight, it would be quite... difficult to get over that someone." His confused look surprised her. "What do you mean?" Baffled, her mouth fell open. "You aren't still seeing her, are you?" Oh, okay. Mulder was beginning to get this. "Seeing her?" "Well," Scully said. "I'm assuming you told her of how you feel--or felt. Or something." Mulder shook his head sadly. "I never, ever told her." A smirk mad itself known on her cheek. "Why not?" "Because I told you," he murmured quietly, slipping his hand in hers. "She's my friend. If I told her, do you know how screwed up things would become?" his gaze was on her, not oppressive, but soothing. They caressed her features softly, as if delivering a message to her. Who, me? she tried to say. Yes, you. he silently replied. Scully's brain froze, like she'd been drinking too much of a cold drink, too fast. She couldn't think, couldn't feel couldn't *breathe*. Was he saying... "But sometimes I wonder," he said, rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb. "If maybe that was a stupid idea." She couldn't speak. But he could. "I really don't have a good reason for not telling you this, Scully, and I'm not sure if you reciprocate my feelings, but do I know that telling you is probably one of the most important things that may ever happen in my life. In light of this, I'd just really, really like to tell you that... I love you." Her hand slapped over her mouth. Oh my. They had spoken together. Who? Me? his eyes asked. Yes. You. her eyes replied. ***** "When I saw the Higgins together," she said finally, after a few hugs and a peck on the cheek. "I--" "Kept seeing us? Wondering if we'd be in the same position in a year or more?" he supplied, which was precisely what she'd wanted to say. "Same here. But, I knew it was coming." he said confidently. "Why?" "Because." His arm went around her shoulders and he pulled her to him. Their noses were close, and her breath, shortened, but her eyes remained steady. "Just because." He began nuzzling her nose with his. Her eyes fell shut. "Because you knew we were like Jack and Jill?" she asked, arms rising to grasp his neck. "Yup," he replied. "Just make sure I don't fall off the hill." "And if you do," Scully told him, one second before their lips touched. "I'd save you." ***** Bored? I'm bored. Are you bored? You must be if you've reached this part. Tell me if you liked it... or not. jellybean5000@hotmail.com And, in the rare occasion that you *did* like it, and are in the mood for more fics by me, visit www.geocities.com/surefinewhatever00