A Woman's Touch (Part 2)
by Leyla Harrison

WARNING: Here we go into some slightly NC-17 territory. You've been warned...

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A Woman's Touch by Leyla Harrison
Continued from Part One

Scully drove back to the Holiday Inn. She debated leaving Lisa in the lounge in the lobby while she went up to her room for a minute, but then decided against it. "I'll just be a minute," she told Lisa, who obligingly followed her upstairs.

In the hotel room, the laptop was still set up on the desk, and the mail icon was flashing. Scully clicked on it.

Scully minimized the window as Lisa crossed the room. Her heart was beating wildly, and she coulndn't even recall what she had come up to the room for in the first place. Lisa had come over to the chair next to the bed and sat down. Scully was barely aware of her presence until she spoke. "Are you OK?"

Scully looked over at her. She wanted to laugh. She felt as if she was going to cry. It was a rush of feelings that she never thought she would be able to admit to herself. She never thought he would admit it to her. "I'm fine," Scully answered.

"I just have to tell you two things," Lisa said. "First of all, and I know you're going to think I'm crazy, but I'm in love with you."

Scully's heart went into her throat, and she struggled to speak. "What?" she managed to get out.

Lisa wouldn't look at Scully in the eyes. "It's why I left Quantico."

"But I thought you said you were in love," Scully stammered.

"I was. With you. And I knew you didn't go that way. You were dating Jack Willis. And I couldn't very well come out while I was trying to land a top forensic position at the Bureau. So I left." Lisa was still looking at the floor.

"You marriage..." Scully stammered again.

"To a man, who I didn't love. He's an alcoholic. Everything else I told you is true." Lisa finally looked up at her. "I know it sounds insane. I know you haven't seen me in years. But I still feel the same way about you now as I did back at Quantico."

Scully's head was spinning. 'I need to talk to you, Scully. I love you.' 'I'm in love with you.' She didn't know what to say, or think. She stared dumbly at the young woman before her.

"It's your partner," Lisa said, her tone low. "You're in love with him, aren't you?"

Scully shook her head. "Lisa, I don't know what to say."

"It's OK. I kind of figured it would be like this. And I should have never called you." She stood up to leave.

Scully jumped up from the desk where she was sitting, the e-mail from Mulder momentarily forgotten. "Lisa, I haven't seen you in years. I hardly know you." She didn't want to crush her completely, just let her down easy. She did feel sorry for her, though. She was worried about the violence that was being inflicted upon her.

"I know," Lisa said, very matter-of-fact. "Please, don't pity me."

"It's not that. I don't pity you, Lisa. I'm worried about you. I want to help you if I can."

Lisa walked over to Scully, faced her. "I would like that," she said, her voice low again. "But you can't. Please, Dana, let me do just this. Let me kiss you."

Scully didn't even have a moment to respond. Lisa was so close to her that all she had to do was lean her head forward and catch Scully's mouth with her own. Immediately, Scully was struck by the fact that she had never been kissed by lips that were as soft as Lisa's were. The kiss, although gentle, sent an electrical charge through Scully's body. She could feel Lisa's arms around her. For a moment, she responded. There was no way she couldn't have. The kiss was fierce and made her stomach get fluttery.

Then Scully pulled away. "Lisa--"

"Does your partner kiss you like that?"

At the mention of Mulder, Scully colored. She had only imagined how he would kiss her, and in her fantasies, it was gentle, like this kiss she had just received, but different. There was something exquisitely different about the kiss she had just shared with Lisa, something about it that she liked.

She glanced across the room at the clock by the bed. 4:45pm. Lisa asked again. "Does he kiss you like that? Dana, does he touch you like this?" Lisa reached her hand out and brushed her fingers along Scully's jaw and neck, her fingertips lightly tracing Scully's lips.

It was too much, too intimate, and Scully was the initiator this time, kissing Lisa. She had never known that she could kiss a woman like this, but she was doing it. She could feel Lisa's hands on her again, her breathing fast, and Scully could feel her own breaths coming raggedly. It was getting very warm in the room, and Scully could feel Lisa tugging the zipper on the skirt down, from the back, untucking the shirt.

"Wait, wait," Scully whispered.

"What?" Lisa asked breathlessly.

"I don't know...I've never..." She didn't know how to explain it.

"Shh," Lisa soothed. "It's OK. It's easy. I won't go too fast." These words were spoken in between kisses on Scully's neck and forehead, her eyelids. The kisses felt cool and soft, and Scully tried to hold back a small satisifed sigh. This all felt so good.

What about Mulder?

Oh God, she thought suddenly, panicked.

But then Lisa's hands were on her breasts, and she could feel her skirt sliding down, off her hips, and Lisa was leading her to the bed, and it was too late to turn back. Scully was sighing aloud now, as Lisa removed the stockings she was wearing.

On the bed, Lisa gently sucked on Scully's nipples, her hands running free over her body. She moved her mouth down to Scully's stomach, her legs, parting them slowly. Scully felt herself take a deep breath as she felt Lisa lower her mouth onto her, feeling her legs trembling. She clutched at the pillows as the waves of sensation flooded her.

Lisa moved back up to lay beside her, kissing her fully. Her hands roamed Scully's stomach and then her fingers went to probe the mass of moist hair between Scully's legs. She slipped two fingers between the vaginal lips and Scully gasped aloud as she felt Lisa's cool fingers touching her clitoris. She closed her eyes and imagined herself floating away. Lisa began to rub using slow circles, her fingers moving easily in the wetness.

Scully gasped out loud as Lisa increased the pressure and the speed. She couldn't think of Lisa, or Mulder, even. All she could feel was the sensation of hovering on the brink of orgasm, and that she had spent far too many nights alone for too long. Her orgasm crashed over her suddenly, and her body spasmed on the bed.

Scully awoke in Lisa's embrace. She ran one hand down Lisa's back gently, not wanting to wake her. So smooth, she thought, and for a few minutes she was entralled by it's delicateness. She had almost forgotten that she was in bed, in a hotel room in a strange city, with another woman.

She was jolted back into reality by the sound of a light knocking on the door. Lisa stirred and lift her head. "Did you order room service?" she asked sleepily, a smile on her lips.

"No," Scully answered, disentangling herself and getting up.

Lisa sat up in bed. "Who is it?"

"Shh," Scully answered, reaching for her robe and putting it on, tying the sash tightly around her waist. She went to the door, made sure the chain was on tight, and got up on tiptoe to check the peephole. It was Mulder. She sank back to her normal height, onto her feet. She turned to look at Lisa, who was sitting up in bed, the sheets wrapped around her body, her face full of questions.

"Come back to bed," Lisa pleaded with her, but Scully shook her head.

"Shhh," she repeated again, putting a finger to her lips to instuct Lisa to keep quiet.

She unlocked the door, being careful to leave the chain on. The door opened about four inches and Scully looked through the space at Mulder. "Hi," he said to her, smiling. "Did I wake you?"

Scully looked at her watch and tried to pretend that she was exhausted. It was 9:45pm. "I guess I fell asleep," she said to him. Her heart was racing, thumping so loud against her rib cage that she was sure he could hear it. If he knew what she had been doing...and to think he came here to tell her that he loved her. Oh, Mulder, she thought, I'm so sorry.

He leaned against the doorframe, his eyes calm. He was completely unaware. "Aren't you going to ask me in?" He pretended to sound hurt.

"Maybe we should talk in the morning," she said. "I'm really tired, Mulder."

His hopeful expression faded. "Sure, OK."

"I'm in room 412. I'll talk to you in the morning," he said, and she nodded, her throat tight, making it impossible for her to speak.

She closed the door and re-locked it. Then she turned to face Lisa. "I'm afraid you're going to have to leave," Scully said to her.

Lisa's face twisted. "I get it. I'm just a quick lay, to warm you up for your partner, right?" Her tone was bitter.

"No, Lisa--" Scully said, but Lisa was already out of bed, getting dressed, throwing Scully's clothes aside angrily.

"Look, I heard his tone of voice. He wasn't asking to come in and go over case files." Lisa was pulling her sweater over her head and slipped into her shoes. She turned to face Scully angrily. "Dana, I'm in love with you. I don't know if I actually love you or not, but I didn't just do this because I wanted to get off. It meant something to me."

Scully pulled Lisa close to her fiercely. "It meant something to me too, Lisa. I just don't know what. I'm just a little overwhelmed right now."

Lisa wrenched free from Scully's embrace. "Let me know if you ever figure it out," she retorted and left. Sculyl stood where she was in the middle of the room, her mind in a hundred places and her heart feeling like lead. She didn't move for almost fifteen minutes, and then she finally sat down on the bed.

In the morning, Scully got up for find that the message light on her phone was blinking. She called down to the front desk to pick it up. She was surprised that she hadn't heard the phone ring. It turned out that it hadn't rung. "You have a visitor in the lobby. She wanted to come up when you were awake."

Scully sighed heavily. "You can tell her to come up."

She hung up the phone and looked around the room. There were no obvious signs of what had happened the previous evening, but as Scully looked at her reflection in the mirror, she could see something different about herself. What was she doing? Hadn't she been waiting all this time for Mulder?

But then there was Lisa. Something about making love to that woman had done something to her, touched something in her that she didn't understand.

There was a knock on the door. Scully checked the peephole and opened the door to Lisa. Her eyes were red from crying, but the first thing that Scully saw were the bruises. New bruises. There was a ring of black under one eye, and her jaw was swollen and red. There was a long scratch across one cheek.

Lisa just stood there, almost unresponsive to Scully's widened eyes.

"My God," Scully breathed, taking Lisa's arm and guiding her into the room. "What happened?"

"The usual," Lisa responded tonelessly. "He's going to kill me, you know. He's told me so."

"Lisa, why don't you have a restraining order out on him?" Scully asked, as she wrapped ice in a washcloth and pressed it to Lisa'a face, not sure which injury to deal with first.

"The police don't consider bruises to be serious enough."

"What?" Scully asked incredulously.

Lisa patiently explained that police reports could be filed against an abusive spouse, but laws specifically stated that restraining orders were strict as far as how abusive the person was. A man could abuse a woman, and as long as he didn't break any of her bones or cause her to need stitches, he could still be as close to her as he wanted. She explained that there had been a restraining order before the finger cutting incident, but that it had expired and that her husband had sworn to her and to the court that he wouldn't abuse her again.

Unfortunately, Lisa had tried to believe his promises.

Every subsequent attack that occurred was accompanied by a warning to her not to tell the police what had happened. And Lisa, paralyzed by fear, had obeyed.

Scully was appalled. She had no idea that the laws in some states were still so lenient on domestic abuse cases. "Lisa," she said finally, after she had heard enough, "I want you to come back to Washington with me. You can find a good job there. He'll never know where you are."

"Why should I do that?" Lisa asked tonelessly.

"Because I want you to be safe," Scully replied honestly.

"You don't want me like this. I'm a victim."

"Lisa, listen to me," Scully said to 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 stared her down. Scully was about her height, and about the same body size. If she tried to pull herself away, she knew the federal agent was more than able to keep her firm hold on her upper body. Scully was definitely the stronger of them. "Why would you want me?" Lisa finally asked. "Besides, you're hot on your partner."

Her question brought doubts into Scully's mind. She did feel something for Mulder, although she wasn't quite sure that she understood exactly what it was, especially after what had happened with Lisa and what she had said to him. She didn't want to think about that. She was used to pushing those uncertain feelings down deep within her. "How can you say that after last night?"

"I..." Lisa was at a loss for words. Scully reached out her and gently kissed her. She did care for this woman, and did want to help her. Everything else would have to be worked out later. Lisa and Mulder...she would have to deal with that later. Right now she needed to help Lisa get away.

"Why don't you go home and get whatever you need. Come back here and I'll arrange a flight back to Washington for this afternoon. We'll get this all taken care of, don't worry."

She sounded more sure than she actually was, but she knew that she had to give. And Scully knew that with a little work and a few strings pulled, she could come through for her.

Lisa nodded and left, leaving Scully alone.

A shower, Scully thought, a shower and some breakfast, and then I have to go talk to Mulder.

After eating, Scully felt better. Her stomach began to tighten up, though, as she walked down the hallway to Mulder's room. She paused outside the door and then knocked.

Mulder opened it and gestured for her to come in. He didn't say a word until the door was shut behind them. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed. Scully took a seat in the chair by the window. "Mulder, look," she started, trying to remember what she had planned to say when she was in the shower. "I'm sorry about last night. I just...there's more going on here than just the case."

"Why don't you tell me about the case?" he asked, his tone cool and professional.

Scully spent the next 10 minutes filling him in on why there was no case. Finally she sighed and looked at him. His face was slightly disbelieving. "What?" she asked.

"What does being here in Chicago have to do with Lisa Anderson?" he asked.

Shit, Scully thought. How do I explain this one? "Mulder, I know Lisa Anderson from a few years ago. She's...very important to me." Did that even begin to explain it?

"Look, Scully," he said, his voice tired. "I heard her last night in your room. I don't know how long it's been going on, and I don't want to know. It's none of my business. I just don't know why you didn't tell me. Why you made me think that you wanted something between us."

He knew, she thought, momentarily relaxed, but then she stopped. "Mulder, it hasn't been going on. It just happened last night. And I do want something with us," she blurted out before she could help it. She lowered her head and rubbed her eyes. "I'm just so confused," she confessed to him. "I don't know why last night happened. All I know is that for so long, I have wanted and needed you. I've needed you to be tender with me, gentle with me. And because we're both so stubborn, we haven't admitted any of our feelings, and so I've just been lonely, Mulder. Do you know how that feels?"

He watched her intently. She still wouldn't look at him. "I know how it feels, Scully."

"I needed some kind of intimacy, and Mulder, she was there, and...oh, I don't know. I feel something for her, but it's not the same thing that I feel for you." Her voice was slightly muffled, one hand shielding her face from him.

"Which is?" he asked. "Scully, I told you how I felt about you. It was so hard. But I told you."

She didn't answer him right away. When she did speak, it was obvious that she was holding back tears. She looked up at him. "I love you, too," she whispered.

He came over to her side and kneeled down on the floor so that he was looking up at her. "What about her?"

"I don't know. I don't love her, but I care about her. She's in trouble, Mulder."

Mulder reached one hand up and wiped a stray tear from Scully's cheek. "Do you want something between us, Scully?"

She knew what he was asking. She knew that he wanted some kind of promise from her. It was what she had wanted for so long, and Lisa or no Lisa, she still knew that she wanted to be with Mulder. Sad as it was for her to admit, she knew that there was a future for her with Mulder. She knew that she hardly knew Lisa, that she didn't know if she was in love with her. She knew how she felt about Mulder. It wasn't about the fact that Lisa was another woman. It was about being in love with someone, caring about them, knowing them better than she knew herself. Those were things she felt about Mulder. She didn't know if she felt those about Lisa. She knew that she had to chalk it up to needing intimacy, a level of intimacy that she and Mulder weren't quite ready for.

And it was about learning something. She had learned that as much as she loved Mulder, as much as she cared about him and fantasized about him, there was something about the emotional closeness with Lisa that Scully knew she would never experience again. And it saddened her, for she had relished every moment of it.

"I love you, Mulder," Scully repeated, louder this time. He smiled at her and took her hand, kissing it, then getting up to lean over and kiss her, very gently on the lips.

Scully closed her eyes as his lips touched hers. They were rougher than Lisa's, she thought, and then she felt the unhurried gentleness that his kiss brought to her, and she relaxed, let him put his arms around her. Their first kiss was everything she had hoped it would be.

The ringing of Scully's cel phone from her jacket pocket cut short the kiss before it could deepen any further. Scully pulled away to answer it. "Hello?"

"Dana," she heard, and thens he heard glass breaking.

"Lisa?" Scully asked, and Mulder backed away a little. "Lisa, what's wrong?"

"Dana," Lisa said, and her voice was filled with pain. "Please, Dana, help me."

"Oh, God," Scully breathed. "Lisa, is he there?"

"Dana," Lisa sobbed. "He's hurting me!"

"Give me the address, Lisa. The address, Lisa," Scully pleaded. Lisa finally gave it to her. There were more crashing noises in the background. "I'm on my way," Scully promised her, but Lisa wasn't answering anymore. "Lisa!" Scully tried again, with no response. She hung up the phone and looked at Mulder. "We've got to get over there. He'll kill her."

"Who?" Mulder asked.

"Please, Mulder, I'll explain it to you on the way there. Just please, come with me. She needs help." He looked at her panicked face, and nodded.

When they got to the house, he was gone. Mulder and Scully searched the large house on the hill but there was no sign of Lisa. Finally they went to check the garage. They found Lisa's body, slumped over in the front seat of the car, her face battered and bloodied. There was a small trickle of blood coming out of the corner of her mouth, but before Scully or Mulder could get her out of the car, it began to slowly roll backwards out of the garage and down the driveway. The driveway curved, but the car would go straight, gathering speed. Mulder and Scully both could see the jagged rock formation at the bottom of the hill that the car would surely crash into if they didn't somehow stop it from rolling.

All of this took place without any words exhanged. Scully had told Mulder Lisa's story on the way over, and although he was still not comfortable with the subject of Lisa, he was furious when he heard about her inability to get protection from her abusive husband.

"Mulder, look," Scully had said to him as she noticed the car moving.

Mulder and Scully sat in the emergency room of the local hospital, waiting for the doctor in charge to come out and tell then how Lisa was. Mulder had kept Scully in the waiting room to try and calm her. He was worried that if she was examining Lisa, that she would have a hard time separating her professional judgement from her feelings.

"Agents Mulder and Scully?" a doctor came out of the examining area. Scully stood up.

"How is Lisa?" she asked, her voice tired.

"I'm sorry. We did everything we could for her, but she died of massive internal bleeding to the brain. She was injured so badly that there was not much we could have done to save her." The doctor's voice was tired as well.

Mulder immediately got up and went to hold Scully. She fell into his arms and let him hold her close for the first time in a long time. She didn't cry. She just closed her eyes and let him hold her.

Washington, D.C. Two days later

Scully opened and closed her eyes, trying to get her vision in focus. She struggled to recall where she was. As the room's blurriness faded, she saw the familar form of Mulder standing nearby.

"Hi," he said to her, smiling. She smiled back. He had a comfortable bed; she had slept well for the first time in a week.

"How long did I sleep?" she asked, pulling herself upright. She was wearing his Redskins jersey and a pair of gray sweats that he had loaned her. She hadn't wanted to go home when they got back to Washington, and she had been too tired to unpack her suitcase to find something to sleep in. She felt as if she was swimming in the clothes that were too large for her, nevertheless, they were comforting. They smelled like Mulder.

"About ten hours. I called Skinner and told him you had the flu and that you wouldn't be in today."

She smiled at him gratefully. She hadn't wanted to face work quite yet. "Mulder," she said, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I don't know...everything."

He came over and sat on the edge of the bed next to her. "Scully, I don't know exactly what was going on in your mind, but I do know that we're still the same people. Everything that happened before this trip...the feelings, they're all still there. At least on my part." He paused, looked down, the back to her. "It's not easy for me to admit all of this. You know that."

She knew. He was terrified to care about someone for fear they would go away. And she didn't exactly have a great track record. She nodded. "Mulder, we both know how we feel about each other. We've known for a long time."

"We're both stubborn," he said, and she acknowledged that by nodding her head. "And according to the Bureau, we aren't allowed to do this."

Scully knew that as well. She had used that as an excuse to deny her own feelings for him. "Is is worth it?" she asked him.

"I've never gone by the book, Scully, you know that," he answered, his mouth twisting into a grin.

Her expression was still serious. "Do you still want me?" she asked fearfully.

He answered her by leaning in to kiss her gently. As their lips touched, she felt her arms go around him. She let herself feel the emotion in the kiss. It deepened, and she felt the ache for what had happened to Lisa melting away.

@>~~>~~~ END ~~~<~~<@

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