Title: "First Kiss"
Author: Angela W.
Category: Alternative Universe
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A group of women friends discuss the first
time they kissed the men who are now their husbands.
This is kind of a follow-up to a previous fanfic of
mine called "Byers Dreamworld". You might want to read
that one first, but I think you should be able to
understand this one without it.
Timespan/Spoilers: This expands on the concept
featured in the dream Byers had at the beginning of
"Three Of a Kind" in late Season Six. All eps up to
that point are fair game.
Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me.
They are the property of Chris Carter and 1013
Productions.
Feedback: If it's nice or contains *constructive*
criticism, feedback is valued. Don't bother to tell me
I have an ark complex; I already know that.
Archive: Feel free to archive anywhere.

"Mommy," said Jackie Byers, coming up to where her
mother was sitting with the other women guests at
their party, "were you surprised the first time Daddy
kissed you?"
Suzanne smiled a bit and rolled her eyes. As a mother
of two, she'd grown used to her daughters asking
somewhat embarrassing questions in public. "Go play
with Emily and your sister, dear," she said. "We'll
talk about the first time Mommy and Daddy kissed
later."
There was silence for a moment after Jackie left.
Then Melissa Pendrell grinned and said, "Well? Were
you? Surprised, I mean?"
Suzanne blushed slightly. She like Melissa a lot, but
sometime the woman was almost as bad as her daughters
about asking embarrassing questions! Still, she was
among friends, and the wine cooler she was drinking
had loosened her inhibitions just slightly. "No," she
answered, "HE was!"
"You kissed him?" Dana Mulder asked.
Suzanne giggled. "It's kind of a long story."
"We've got time," Samantha Langley said.
"Okay," Suzanne said. "Well, John and I were friends
- good friends - from the time we first met as college
freshmen. But, during the first couple of years we
knew each other, I was dating this guy named Grant.
He was a real jerk. I don't mean he was physically
abusive to me, but he just treated me like dirt. We'd
plan on going out and half the time he'd just not show
up, he belittled my opinions, stuff like that. Grant
was also fooling around with other girls every chance
he got. John knew that, but I didn't. One day I caught
him - Grant, I mean - with my roommate. So I told him
it was over and went off to be comforted by John. John
did a great job of it. After a couple of hours of
cuddling and consoling it just hit me - I mean like a
blinding flash of light - how much I loved John. So I
kissed him."
"I take it he was surprised?" Sharon Skinner asked.
"Yes. And THEN he refused to take me seriously!
Claimed I wasn't ready for another relationship, that
it was just a rebound sort of thing. Four solid MONTHS
I had to spend convincing him that he was my true
love!" Suzanne said.
The other women smiled and Suzanne decided to turn
the tables.
"What about you, Missy? Were you surprised the first
time Sean kissed you?"
"Yes and no," answered Melissa, blushing slightly.
"We're going to need more details than THAT,"
Samantha said. "I'm sure Dana already knows all about
this, but the rest of us don't."
"I wasn't surprised that he kissed me, but I was
surprised by my reaction to it."
"Go on," Sharon prompted. "After all, you started
this."
"Jackie really started," Melissa said in
self-defense. "But. . .okay. As I think all of you
know, Sean and I met at Fox and Dana's wedding. He
asked me out for the following Saturday night and I
figured why not? I mean, he didn't really seem to be
my type - too straight-laced - but he seemed like a
nice enough guy and I figured it would be better to go
out with him than sit at home crying in my coffee over
the fact that my YOUNGER sister had just gotten
married while I hadn't even been on a date in six
months!"
"Aw, Missy!" Dana said, reaching over to clasp her
sister's hand briefly.
"Anyway, he picked me up and it went pretty much like
I'd expected. Dinner at a nice, but not spectacularly
expensive restaurant, followed by a nice PG-13 movie
that was obviously designed as a "date" movie. He
drove me home and walked me up to the door of my
apartment. I'd had to carry the conversation for most
of the evening - you all know how shy Sean can be in
social situations - and I'd just about decided if he
ever called again I'd be busy. I figured I'd let him
kiss me goodnight and that would be the end of it."
"So?" prompted Suzanne.
"So he kissed me. And MY GOD, that man can kiss!
When he finally broke the kiss I whimpered. He told
me goodnight and left. I was in agony until he called
again and asked me out for dinner the following Friday
night. I went. I wanted to say, 'Can we just skip the
damned dinner and get right to the kissing?' but I
figured that might shock him, so I didn't. Anyway, the
second date went better. He loosened up, talked more.
I got him to come in for coffee, so we could kiss more
than once."
Dana giggled. She'd heard the story before, but it
was still funny to think of the unassuming Agent
Pendrell evoking such a strong response in her sister.
"Okay, Samantha, your turn," Sharon said. "The first
time you and Langley kissed has got to make a good
story!"
Samantha rested her forehead on her knees briefly,
then looked up at the other women. "We're talking
LANGLEY, here! You know it's going to be bizarre."
"Well, I want to hear," said Suzanne.
"Okay," said Samantha, with a small sigh and slight
blush. "I'd know Langley for years; ever since I was
in law school and Fox first ran by his place with me
in tow. I won't exactly say I was attracted to him,
but I was always sort of intrigued by him. He's SUCH a
contrast to all the suit-and-tie types I met at
college, or at work, or at most of the parties I went
to. We became friends, after a fashion, although we
ragged each other a lot - Langley would tease me about
being such a button-downed, conservative type and I'd
tease him about being such a laid-back, beach bum kind
of guy. So one day, I dropped by his place to ask him
to run a computer trace for me and he was eating ice
cream. It was summer and I was hot, so I asked him if
I could have some ice cream, too. He said 'Open your
mouth and close your eyes'."
"He didn't!" Dana said with a shriek of laughter.
"He did," Samantha confirmed. "I mean, the man had
known me for four or five years and I would have been
willing to lay bets he honestly didn't know if Sam
Mulder was Fox's younger sister or younger brother!
And suddenly he's got his tongue halfway down my
throat! No preliminaries, nothing. He's lucky I didn't
bite him!"
"You were mad?" Missy asked.
"No, just shocked! When we finally came up for air,
he just stared at me. I think kissing me was probably
an impulse thing on his part. He said 'Samantha, I'm
sorry.' And I said, 'Langley, if you don't kiss me
again within the next ten seconds, I swear I'm going
to borrow my brother's gun and shoot you!' So he did.
Things pretty much progressed from there."
"Your turn, Sharon," Dana said, before anyone else
could speak.
Sharon smiled and said, "Well, it's been a LOT longer
since Walter and I first kissed then it has for the
rest of you. We've been married for nearly 20 years,
you know. But, yeah, I still remember the first time
he kissed me."
"We're listening," said Suzanne.
"Walter and I were neighbors. We lived right across
the hall from each other at our apartment complex and
we'd say hello or comment on the weather or stuff, but
we weren't really friends for the first year or so we
knew each other. I never really thought he was my
type. Quite frankly, I thought he was too old for me.
There's actually only eight years age difference
between us, but I figured there was more like 12 to
15. He's always sort of looked the same. I mean, even
back then, he was balding and wore glasses, while I
was just out of college. And I only ever saw him
coming or going to and from work, so he was always
dressed conservatively."
"So, how'd you move from the barely platonic to the
romantic?" asked Melissa.
"One evening, I'd been out on a date and I made the
mistake of inviting the guy in for coffee. Then the
guy wouldn't leave, wouldn't take no for an answer,
and it seemed like I was right on the verge of being
date-raped. So I screamed. Loud. I remembered that
Walter was an F.B.I. agent and hoped he'd be home. He
was. He came barrelling through the door wearing
nothing but a T-shirt and a pair of jogging shorts,
brandishing his gun. I know it sounds horribly
old-fashioned and unliberated, but I felt JUST like a
princess who was being rescued by a White Knight!
Walter punched the guy and cuffed him, then asked if I
wanted to press charges. We talked it over and decided
it would be a good thing, so the guy would learn that
"No" means "No"! Walter made the arrest and took the
guy down to be booked. Then he came back, still
wearing nothing but a T-shirt and shorts. He looked so
scrumptious that I couldn't resist. I kissed him.
Unlike you, Suzanne, it only took me two weeks to
convince him that the kiss wasn't just gratitude."
"We haven't heard from you yet, Dana," Samantha said.
"I've heard this one," Missy said. "I heard it about
fifty times in one week!"
"Well, the rest of haven't, so hush!" Suzanne scolded
gently.
Dana sighed and smiled. "It was about eight months
after Fox and I first began working as partners. While
we were on that short-lived special division called
the X-Files unit, investigating all that weird stuff.
There was a man we'd arrested for a series of murders,
but the evidence was so offbeat that we couldn't get a
convinction, so the guy walked. Fox was furious,
claimed he KNEW the guy was going to kill again, but
we weren't allowed to even keep him under surveillance
as part of our regular working duties. So we were
doing our regular work during the day, while Tooms was
at his job, then staking out his house during our
off-hours."
"So you were basically working double-shifts?" Sharon
asked.
"Yes. I was only going home to shower and change,
getting what sleep I could in the car during the
stakeouts. Fox kept telling me I didn't have to be
there, that he didn't expect me to share his
obsession, but I figured he was my partner, I should
back him up. Besides, spending the evenings parked in
a car with my sexy Special Agent Mulder wasn't exactly
a hardship!"
"So you were already. . .attracted to him?" Samantha
asked.
"Yeah, and I was fairly certain he felt the same way,
but we'd both been working real hard to ignore it. I
was doing my damndest to maintain a strictly
professional relationship with him and, honestly, he'd
been a perfect gentleman. Never did anything that
could even vaguely be construed as sexual harrassment.
But on this particular evening, I'd gone out to get
us some sandwiches and drinks for our makeshift supper
and when I handed him his sandwich he said, 'If
there's an iced tea in that bag, this could be true
love.' Then I handed him his tea. So he smiled this
big smile, and brought his hands up to my face. What I
remember the most, after all these years, was how
slowly he moved. Like a slow-motion movie. He gave me
every chance to back away or say no, but I just sat
there, mesmerized. Then he kissed me. It was just
gentle and sweet, our lips barely brushed, but I felt
it all the way down to my toes!"
"Tell them the rest," Melissa suggested.
"Well, after we'd caught the guy in the act - Fox was
right about him trying to kill again - and gone home
and caught up on our sleep, I told Fox it wouldn't
work. That we couldn't become romantically involved as
long as we were still partners. He sort of sulked, but
agreed to abide by my wishes and said he wouldn't try
to kiss me again as long as we were still partners.
Then, less than two months later, the higher-ups at
the bureau decided to shut down the X-Files unit. I
was sent back to Quantico and Fox was reassigned to
the ISU. I was stunned and saddened; I loved being his
partner and being out in the field. I wasn't thrilled
to be back in the classroom. But the evening of the
first day we worked apart, he showed up at my
apartment with this huge smile on his face. I asked
him what he found so heartwarming about this situation
and he said "Must be fate, Scully. We're not partners
anymore." Then he kissed me again. After that,
everything was smooth sailing."

Author's e-mail addy: tapw63@yahoo.com