Summary: just a little bit of fun, after watching 'The Unnatural' again.

Dedication: to those wonderful fanfic writers who have decided to keep spinning the tales, and for everyone who keeps on reading.

"Shut up, Mulder, I'm playing baseball."

And then the two of them just did that, giggling and laughing, striking baseballs towards the stars. Wordlessly, for about an hour, until all the balls were gone. The last ball having been put into the machine and smacked out of the park, poor boy disappeared, as quietly as he had arrived.

They stood together, still, watching the last ball ascend. And, then, not missing a beat, Scully let go of the bat, turned in Mulder's embrace and kissed him. Full-on, smooch. When she pulled away he had dropped his hold on the bat, and was standing, eyes closed, mouth slightly agape.

She stepped back, giggling, and then leaned in to wipe a little lipstick off the corner of his mouth. He grabbed her hand away from his face, and looked her straight in the eye, before letting out a slightly quizzical, slightly exasperated, "Scully?"

"Oh Mulder, what did you expect? You think that I was going to stand here all night, you gently grinding your "hips before hands" into me and not feel turned on? God, I've been wanting to do that since I walked up here and saw you swinging that baseball bat. Jesus, I've been wanting to do that for years." She loved what this was doing to him. He looked lost.

"But, Scully, the dance..."

"For Christ's sake, Mulder, what good is the dance if you don't actually dance? Let's really dance if we're going to dance. Let's get out of the car."

Mulder was slowly backing away from her, until his back hit the chain link fence where he sunk down until he was sitting on the ground. The whole while the puzzled look on his face just left her beaming.

"But I love this, Scully. I love that we have this crazy partnership that defies categorization. I love the innuendo. I love that I tease, and you resist, and you tease, and I resist. I love knowing that you are always going to be here..."

"Ah, so there it is." Scully smiled, and then sat down next to Mulder on the ground. Moving one of her feet over his, so that they were slightly entertwined. "You think that if we move "this" whatever "this" is, somewhere else, that I'm going to leave? What, do you think that if we started sleeping together I was going to learn things about you I didn't already know? I know everything about you, Mulder. I know your habits, I know your flaws. I know your obsessions and your idiosyncracies. I know your friends, your co-workers, your family. The only thing I really don't know, is what it would feel like to wake up every morning in your bed. What it would feel like to have you ..."

Mulder interrupted her, almost terrified to know what her next words might be, despite having fantasized this very moment for years. He started at her intently, "What have you done with the real Scully?"

Scully laughed. "When I got your message tonight, Mulder, inviting me out here, I just thought this was it. This was the moment. When I caught you reading those newspapers yesterday, I realized that your love of baseball is something I don't know, and I don't share. And, then, I got home and there was this message from you, asking me to come and meet you at the baseball diamond. You wanted me to know this part of you too. And I realized, listening to the message, that I could never imagine, in my life, being with anybody else."

Mulder was still staring. They were so different in so many ways, and yet she knew him to the core. He wanted to say something clever, something that displayed his inner cool. He wanted to say the words that he had been planning to say, thinking and rethinking for years. But he was absolutely speechless.

"Well, Mulder?"

"Well, what?"

"Well, do you want to keep trying to drive me away with the next little gem of a secret, or do you want to really see how good we could be together?" And, then she giggled again. A careless abandon of a giggle that had been cascading from her ever since she walked up to the ballpark. "Take me home, Fox Mantle, or lose me forever."

"Are those my only options, Scully?" His words sounded way more serious than he intended.

"Oh, Mulder. Of course not." Scully stood up and brushed the dust from her jacket and pants. "This isn't quite how I imagined it, but it just feels right. Let's stop the car, Mulder. Let's get out of the car wherever we are, and embrace the magic of this. Be with me."

Mulder stood too, and walked towards her. Honestly, the light, the way her hair was falling about her face, it was unbelievable. He had never seen anyone who looked as beautiful as she did in that moment. "I don't think you really know what you're asking for, Miss Scully."

"You're right, Mulder, I don't. What I do know is that "the truth" is this." Stepping towards him she pressed her hand against his heart. "Tell me, you've found what you are looking for. I know I have..."

Mulder shut the book.

"O.K. son, time to go to sleep."

"But grampa..."

"It's just kissing, you don't want to hear it."

"I don't mind so much. Please?"

Mulder looked down at his eight-year old grandson, pushing a titian-coloured hair out of his eyes. He quickly glanced over his shoulder to the right and then again to the left. "O.K," he said with a wink, "But promise me, you won't tell your grandmother that I read you the ending." With that he opened the very large book, blew some dust off the final old and yellowed page, and proceeded to read the end of this particular chapter.

"Since the invention of the kiss, there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind... The end."

With that he snapped the large book shut, and with it all the tales of monsters and magic that graced its pages. At least until tomorrow.

"Good-night, grampa."

"Good-night, little one."

Mulder stood and was turning for the door, book in hand, when he heard a small voice beckoning him back.

"Grampa, tomorrow will you read me the story about the time you, Gramma and dad saved the world from aliens?"

Mulder smiled, as he shut off the light, "As you wish."

The end...

End note: a small gesture to a favourite movie, The Princess Bride...