A Woman's Touch
by Leyla Harrison

NOTE: STORIES ON THIS SITE ARE INTENDED FOR ADULTS ONLY.

Disclaimers: The characters of Fox Mulder, Dana Scully and Walter Skinner do not belong to me, although I wish they did!!! I have used them without permission, but don't sue me; I don't have a dime. The character of Lisa Anderson/Washington is my creation, and is not based on anyone, so any similarities are unintentional.

WARNING!!!! This story is not what you are expecting!!! It will never make it onto the Mulder and Scully romance archive, although I wish there were an archive just for experimental stories like this one. And I will repeat: This is an experiment!!! I want to make that clear because I don't want to make anyone mad or upset by the content of this story.

I didn't think I could write a story like this, but I think I have briefly overdosed on Mulder and Scully romance stories. If you could see what is on my hard drive...you would be amazed that I have covered the topic of Mulder and Scully in love in more ways than even I thought possible!!!

Anyhow, this story is going to be a romance, sort of. It does contain lesbian sexual content, which may or may not be rated NC-17 (yet to be decided at this point in the writing), so this will bother or upset you, STOP READING NOW!!! If you are willing to look at this as an experiment, as I am, and are willing to read it, I would appreciate it very much. I would really like feedback on this story - all feedback, positive and negative (but please make it constructive - I am very sensitive).

If you are able to put aside your own personal beliefs and judgments about this topic, please read on. Although Scully does have a lesbian encounter in this story, her romantic and sexual feelings about Mulder are also dealt with to some degree. Don't get me wrong: I am a die-hard relationshipper, but I had to write this story. The rolling car down the embankment scene was part of a dream I had the other night, and the rest just came flowing forth from the creative mind that I call hell sometimes.

So...I hope you get something out of this story...God knows, I don't think I did, but I wrote it anyway!!!

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A Woman's Touch by Leyla Harrison

"Mulder," Scully said urgently, and he looked. The car was still slipping down the embankment, slowly, but it was slipping nonetheless. Any more and it would gather speed, and then it would coast backwards down the embankment, and it would go faster and they wouldn't be able to keep up with it.

Mulder saw the car moving. Slowly. The windows were rolled down and he instinctively reached out and grabbed onto the car, holding onto the inside of it, his arms through the window. Scully did the same on the passenger side, following his lead. He knew it would be a waste of their energies, but he had to do something. Couldn't just stand there as the car rolled its way down the hill, gathering speed and finally crashing into the side of the hill at the bottom.

"Mulder," Scully repeated. "It's not doing any good." She was holding onto the car fiercely, as he was, but it was still moving.

"Lisa!" Mulder yelled loudly at the young woman who was sprawled out unconscious in the driver's seat. "Lisa, wake up!" Out of the corner of his eye he sensed movement from Scully's side of the car and he glanced up. Scully was climbing in the passenger window. "Scully!" he called to her sharply, but she ignored him until she was in the car completely, trying to twist her body around to pull at the limp form of the driver. She looked up, her face a mixture of guilt and fear.

"I can get her out," she said to him earnestly, hoping it sounded convincing enough.

"Shit!" Mulder yelled, supressing the urge to pound his fists against the car. How the hell was he supposed to hold onto the car alone? "Scully, I can't hold it for long." She pulled at the emergency brake, yanking it up from between the seats but nothing happened. The feeling of rolling backwards in the car was almost uncanny. It was nothing like putting a car in reverse and backing up. This car was being propelled by gravity. "Damn it, Scully, get her out of the car!"

A million thoughts flashed through his head. He could just see the car slipping out of his grip, rolling backwards down the hill until it crashed, exploding, killing Lisa and Scully. He gripped the car tighter, as if it would prevent that image from happening. His face pleaded with Scully's for a split second.

'Don't leave me' it said. 'I love you.'

Scully couldn't answer. She pulled at Lisa's body and struggled to get herself back out of the car. She pulled at the door handles, forgetting for a moment that they didn't work. She climbed up on the seat, dragging Lisa across into the passenger seat with her. She forced her legs and hips out the car window, and pulled Lisa's body with her. Mulder debated dashing around to the passenger side to help her, but knew that he was needed more where he was, trying to keep the car moving at a slow pace.

It was almost impossible. He was no longer walking but jogging, fighting the force of gravity with all his strength. "Come on!" he yelled to Scully.

She managed to pull herself out through the window, and she was still holding onto Lisa by the shoulders. She gave a strong tug on the body just as she felt her feet dragging against the ground, and Lisa's body responded by slipping out through the window easily. Scully let herself fall to the ground, feeling the warmth of Lisa's body on hers as they both tumbled to safety. Mulder let go of the car.

He watched it as it gathered speed, and moments later, it rolled down the hill and into the side of the mountain. The crunching of glass and metal was over in a second, and then the car burst into flames.

Scully was still on her side on the ground. She heard the explosion, and she closed her eyes. She had one arm around Lisa, and the woman's face was close to her own. She could feel Lisa's slow breath on her neck. Scully opened her eyes and looked down at Lisa's face. The bruises were still prominent, and Scully forgot all about the car for a moment.

"You don't want me like this," Lisa had told her, just hours before. "I'm a victim."

"Lisa, listen to me," Scully had told her, taking her by the shoulders and forcing the younger woman to look her directly in the eye. "It doesn't matter to me."

"It matters to me," Lisa answered, her voice cold.

"I don't care," Scully repeated.

Lisa had stared at her. "Why would you want me?" she finally asked. "Besides, you're hot on your partner."

Scully had waited a moment before answering. "How can you say that after last night?" she finally asked.

Scully held Lisa close now, the fire nearby still at a distance to her. The previous night was like no other in her life. Her arms were around Lisa's now, almost as they were last night. It still early in the evening when Scully had finally felt her eyelids beginning to fall, almost without her control. Her last waking thought had been that Lisa had such smooth skin, like silk, and she tightened her grip a bit and fell into a light and dreamless sleep.

"Scully?" Mulder was asking now, coming to her side, disentangling the two women, breaking the spell. Scully opened her eyes, feeling annoyance that he would disturb her thoughts, but then she saw the concern in his eyes, and brought herself back to the situation, and so she pushed that angry feeling down as well. Mulder turned Lisa over on her back and gave her a quick once over. "She's breathing shallow. Her pulse isn't very strong. We'd better get some paramedics up here." He reached for his cel phone and dialed. He watched as Scully sat by Lisa's side helplessly, a look of utter hopelessness on her face.

Dana Scully would never forget the day she met Lisa Anderson. The day had started out badly. She and Mulder had picked up a story about people in a town aboutjust outsider of Chicago who were dying from a strange virus. Local police reports were vague, and it was suggested that the virus was being spread through an unknown host. Other reports hinted at a person in town who was capable of infecting people just from looking at them. Regardless of the cause, seven people had died and all of their bodies were incinerated before an autopsy could be done.

As Mulder looked into the case more, he decided that there had to be a human link. Someone was spreading this virus deliberately without the use of telekenesis. Scully was surprised. He usually didn't find logical explanations so quickly. Even Skinner was surprised. But he still gave them the authorization to go and check it out, if they wanted to. For once, Scully took the reins of the believer and decided that she and Mulder should check it out. She and Mulder were due to leave the following morning.

Scully had gotten a call that morning from a young woman from the town of Evanston. Her cel phone had caught her grabbing a bagel out of the toaster as she was trying to walk out the door. She assumed it was Mulder.

"Agent Scully?" the decidedly female voice asked.

"Mm, yes?" Scully answered, swallowing a bite of her bagel.

"You shouldn't come to Evanston."

Scully stopped in her tracks. "Who is this?"

"My name is Lisa Anderson. I'm the chief medical examiner."

"How did you get this number?" Scully asked.

"That's not important. I know that you're a medical doctor, and from one doctor to another, I can tell you right now that the virus that is spreading through this town is nothing more than an aberration of nature. It's a biological virus. There's no other underlying causes of this virus, or its spread."

Red flags were going up in Scully's head. It was pretty standard that when someone didn't want something investigated, it was definitely worth investigating. Usually more than worth it. Why was this woman telling her to back off?

"My partner Agent Mulder and I were going to come out there anyway, just to check it out. We were given jurisdiction," Scully answered.

There was a long pause. The young woman on the other end of the phone sighed heavily. "You can do what you want, of course. But you're making a big mistake." Scully opened her mouth to ask why or what, but was unable to put together a sentence for some reason. "If you come out here, Agent Scully, you'll be way in over your head."

The connection was broken and Scully was left holding her cel phone to her ear, listening to the dial tone. She finally pressed end and then after a moment's hesitation, grabbed the cordless. She dialed Mulder's number at home, getting the machine. Frustrated, she dialed his cel number. No answer there either. She redialed one last time, as she headed into the bedroom to pack an overnight bag. "This is Agent Scully," she said once the phone was picked up at the ticket desk at Bureau headquarters. "Agent Mulder and I had reservations on a flight to Chicago tomorrow and I was wondering if those could be changed to a flight this morning."

Scully had packed her bag and jumped into the car, deciding to check Mulder's apartment and then the office for him. She was on her way to his apartment when she realized that she was low on gas. She pulled into the next service station she saw and got out of her car. A moment later, just as she was unscrewing the gas cap, another car pulled into the gas station alongside of hers. Mulder got out of it.

"Mulder!" she called. "What are you doing here? I tried calling you--"

"I was on my way to your place, and I saw you leaving. So I followed you. Didn't you see me tailing you?"

Scully shook her head, not wanting to admit that her mind had been a bit cloudy during the drive. "Mulder, I got a call--"

He cut her off again. "I know. I did too."

"I re-booked our flights for this morning. Something is definitely going on down there, and we should get down there to check it out."

"No, Scully, that's why I was following you. I don't think we should go."

"What?" she asked, surprised. She pushed the gas pump into her tank, squeezing the handle to get the gas flowing.

"We shouldn't go. It's a waste of time. That woman who called us, she's known in town to exaggerate. She's somewhat of a psych case. Wants to play everything up for dramatic effect."

"Mulder, I think we should at least go and check it out." Scully replaced the gas pump and re-capped her tank.

"There's no reason, Scully. The virus has stopped spreading, and there's no way to prove that anything paranormal had anything to do with it."

She was surprised at his response. She was also a little upset. Every case they were on, he pushed her. Believe, Scully, he would say, throwing the evidence in her face and giving her a million reasons why a scientific explanation did not apply. But when she did believe, in those rare cases, he not only didn't open his mind and believe in the unexplained, but he didn't believe her. And frankly, although it had only happened a few times, she was sick of it. "Mulder, I'm going out there. There's a 10am flight to Chicago and I'm going to be on it. If you want to meet me at the airport, fine. If not, fine too. I'm going out there."

He watched her as she got back into her car and floored it, driving away amidst a squeal of tires and the faint smell of rubber on pavement.

Scully stood at the boarding gate for her flight until the last moment. Mulder never showed up. Fine, she thought angrily, as she boarded the plane and found her seat.

As soon as they were airborne, she plugged in her modem and logged onto the FBI network. She scanned over her e-mail and sent a quick message to A.D. Skinner letting him know where she was headed. She was about to move on to the internet hookup when she paused. She opened her mail server again and sent Mulder a short note.

She sent the message, and leaned back in her seat. She wanted to get a little more information about Lisa Anderson.

Scully landed on time at O'Hare International Airport and walked through the terminal, carrying her overnight bag and her laptop with her. She was amazed at how modern the airport looked; the last time she had been in Chicago was years ago, and the airport had been loomingly large back then, but nothing like it was now. The terminal building was now made almost completely of glass, and acted as a skylight.

Scully got to the rental car counter and picked up her car, checking the maps she had been given, trying to find the fastest way back to Evanston. She wanted to drop off her things at the hotel and get something to eat. She left the airport in a silver Nissan Sentra. It wasn't at all flashy, but it didn't scream federal agent like the cars Mulder usually chose.

She left the airport, watching the signs for the exit for I-294, which would lead her past the city and into the suburbs.

About an hour later, Scully was approaching Evanston. It had a population of about 80,000, and was a college town, with Northwestern University right in the heart of the city. The Holiday Inn was a few blocks off of downtown, and Scully pulled in to the parking lot and went inside to check in.

Once she was settled in her room, she set up her laptop and checked her mail again. Something told her that Mulder had sent her a message.

Her intuitions were right.

Scully re-read the message a few times. She caught Mulder's use of the word `together' and was a bit unsettled.

She logged off and decided to go down to the restaurant in the lobby for a quick bite to eat. She wasn't sure if the ache in her side was from being hungry or angry.

She pulled up at the Medical Examiner's office branch around 2pm. The building was brick, and loomed a good seven stories over the ground. She made her way up the front steps and inside. Upon inquiring, she was told that Lisa Anderson's office and autopsy bay were on the sixth floor. Scully found that the only elevator in the building was the service elevator and was used to transport bodies. Any other movement between floors was accomplished by a darkened stairwell with old creaking wooden stairs.

By the time Scully made it to the sixth floor, she was a bit winded and paused on the landing. A voice startled her.

"Are you all right?"

Scully looked up to see a petite woman about her own size, with shoulder length blond hair and striking features. Scully wanted to ask. Her eyes were a pale shade of gray, and her hair hung like a veil over her ears and her neck. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a black sweater. No jewelry, except, Scully noted, a glimmer of some kind of twisted gold band on her finger. Scully took this all in very quickly.

"It's a long way up here," she commented, smiling.

"You're telling me; I go up and down them every day," the woman replied, returning the smile, and with those words Scully immediately knew who she was.

"Lisa Anderson?" she asked, and the woman's face hardened immediately. She studied Scully's face and looked her simple black suit over.

"You must be Agent Dana Scully," Lisa said, unsmiling now. "Where's your partner?"

"I came alone," Scully answered. "Is it possible we could go somewhere privately to talk?"

Lisa Anderson led Scully silently down the hall to a small office at the end. It was overflowing with books and papers, but Scully was intrigued to see that everything was organized and in place. There were the usual specimens in glass jars of formaldehyde on the desk; Scully idly wondered if any medical examiner's office didn't have a specimen of some kind. Scully peered closer at the smallest jar, trying to determine what the specimen was.

Lisa sat down behind the desk and indicated for Scully to sit in one of the chairs across from her. "It's the tip of a finger," Lisa told her.

"Any signifigance to it?" Scully asked.

"Yes," Lisa answered sharply, and held up one of her own hands. "It was mine."

Scully tried not to stare at the missing tip from Lisa's ring finger. "I'm sorry," she said.

There was something about her, this Lisa Anderson, that had Scully intrigued.

Lisa dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "If I don't look at the jar, I hardly can remember that it's gone," she said. "Look, Dana, I'll be straight with you. Your investigation is pointless. This virus is under control."

"Who burned the bodies?" Scully asked. She didn't even question Lisa's use of her first name. It sounded natural, even as if she had heard Lisa say it before.

"I'm not sure, Agent Scully, but I believe that would be a matter that you should take up with the police."

"Why did you tell me that I would be over my head if I came out here?"

Lisa's answers up to this point were spoken in a cool tone of voice. At Scully's last question, though, her face froze up. It was a good minute before she answered. "Look, I don't think you remember me. That's probably a good thing." Scully stared at Lisa, trying to place her face. "I was the one who sent the report in to you about the virus. I thought you would be able to help me. But it all got worked out."

Scully was still trying to place the woman in her memory. The only Lisa that came to mind was a brunette named Lisa Washington who Scully had taught at Quantico a few years back. She studied Lisa Anderson's face and imagined her with darker hair. The eyes were the main thing that had caught her attention years ago, as they did now. It was the same Lisa.

"Why didn't you tell me who you were?" Scully asked.

"I don't know," Lisa confessed.

Scully strained to recall details about her student. Lisa had quit the FBI Forensics training after only six months, but when she was in Scully's class she had been attentive and obviously highly intelligent. Lisa had asked a lot of questions, and they had all been smart ones; so why had she quit? "You left Quantico," Scully started, and Lisa finished for her.

"And I got married."

"Congratulations."

"Then we separated." Scully was silent again, just as she had been when Lisa had identified the finger as her own. "Look, I'm in the middle of a really rocky period right now. I've been separated for over a year, and things have been pretty bad. When this case came into my office, I figured I needed someone who really knew their stuff to help me out. And you had said to me when I was in your class, that if I ever needed a friend, someone to talk to...I figured this would be killing two birds with one stone."

Scully remembered now. Lisa had come to her, telling her that she was leaving the Academy, because she had fallen in love, and Scully had urged her to stay, but Lisa would hear nothing of it. Scully had complimented her intelligence and wished her luck, and made the offer to Lisa, expecting that she would never see the attractive young woman again. And now here she was. "So why didn't you tell me that instead of dropping a lead, and then telling me not to come here?"

"I told you, things have gotten bad. They've gotten violent." Lisa pushed her hair back from one ear to reveal dark bruising along the side of her jaw. "I didn't want to put you in the middle of anything," she offered by way of explanation, letting her hair fall back down over the bruises, hiding them. She then gestured at the jar. "More fun and games."

Scully felt a wave of nausea pass over her. "Have you gone to the police?" she asked.

Lisa shook her head and stood up. "I appreciate you coming out all this way, and I hate to say this, but I think you wasted the trip."

Scully stood also. "Lisa, I'd like to help you," she said.

Lisa stared at her. "You don't even know what's going on. You have no idea--"

Scully cut her off. "I don't need to know anything else. What you just showed me was enough."

Lisa smiled, a sad smile. It was the same sad smile she had given Scully the last time she had seen he. "I guess you're right. But if you're going to stay, there are a few things I guess I have to tell you. Maybe we can get out of here and get something to drink."

Scully nodded. She could not look down at the jar on the desk, and could not look at Lisa's face without seeing the bruises in her mind's eye again. No one deserved that kind of abuse. "I'm staying at a hotel near here. There's a lounge."

Lisa nodded and they headed for the office door. Lisa gestured for Scully to exit first. As Scully passed through the doorway, Lisa touched her shoulder briefly, in a friendly gesture. Scully felt Lisa's fingertips as if they had been directly on her skin instead of through the material of her suit. The touch was light and quick, and for some reason it sent shivers up Scully's back.

Continued in Part Two…

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