Timeless (4/?) by Elisa P. Black Scully was surprised by her partner's grace as he led her expertly among the other dancers. It was nice to be with him away from work and especially good to see him smile. Smiling back, she wondered if she was doing the right thing by taking their relationship to even this level. A friendly date, they'd called this. The silence which had fallen between them was getting too awkward and she racked her mind for something to say to lighten the mood. Mulder had apparently been thinking along the same lines as he spoke first. "My mom gave me dance lessons for my 14th birthday." Scully had not expected anything like this and dissolved in laughter. Encouraged, Mulder continued, "She said she wanted me to be a perfect gentleman." She giggled some more and replied, "She did a good job. You are one... most of the time." He grinned. "Hey, that's good. I don't even try to be one most of the time." They both noticed that the music had stopped a while ago and laughed. Being tired, they sat down at a table to order dinner. The silence fell again but this time it was companionable. Then Mulder flashed her a grin. "What?" she asked, confused. "Your dress. I've never seen you wear anything like that before. It's nice." His smile was sincere. Scully felt a spark of delight running through her but quickly squelched it. She had been feeling something more than friendship towards her partner for some time now, but she hardly dared to act on it. She wondered if maybe he'd been feeling any of t he same things. There was one way she could think of to try finding out right now. Half hoping that it would lead to discussing themselves without being too obvious, she asked, "Did you notice how Natalie and Nick were acting towards each other?" "Hmm, like friends?" guessed Mulder, disinterested. She sighed in mock sadness. "No, like they're in love." "In love?" he perked up. "How's that?" "They're trying to hide it for some reason but it's there. Trust me. Women's intuition." "One of the most mysterious paranormal phenomena," Mulder deadpanned. "Oh, stop it. Look, they're heading this way." Nat smiled dreamily as they headed towards Mulder and Scully. "They're in love." Nick looked at her in confusion. "Really?" "Yes, can't you see it?" "No, but if you say so." Nat shook her head. "Must be a guy thing." They settled down with the other couple for a nice dinner. She drank deeply the smooth elixir of his blood. Her desire and relief, his fear and astonishment crashing through her. Memories, not her own, and his life flashing before both their eyes. He was hers in this ecstasy, hers to control or destroy; she had the power. The connection faltered then, his little heart was fighting hard, but had to let go. She sat still dizzy with the blood and the freedom she'd felt. Shock set in as she heard screaming. A plump 30ish woman barreled toward her from the direction of the restrooms and tackled her. "You killed my baby! You killed my baby!" She was being thrashed by the crazed woman but couldn't feel a thing. Damn it, this wasn't right. She'd just killed a boy; she should be punished. She should feel pain. She wanted to feel pain. The word vampire crossed her mind. No, it couldn't be; vampires didn't exist. Then what was she? What had she just done? Was this a nightmare? It was more real than any she'd had before, but at the same time, it was completely unreal. She shook her head but the confusion would not clear. Sirens sounded in the distance, many blocks away she knew, but they seemed to be right outside. How? She had to run and hide, somewhere very far away from people. Even now she was seeing the woman in a strange light, her mind clouding over with a weird feeling. Her mind which was telling her that it was wrong to stay around the woman even as it told her that it was wrong to run away from justice. Maybe she should wait for the police outside? She pried the woman's white-knuckled hands off her throat and ran off into the coolness of the night without looking back. She was too afraid. She had ran as fast as she could. Ran until she had noticed the sky lightening, until she had seen the day coming. What before would have been dim grayness was now blinding and what had been coolness was now too warm for comfort. She'd dived into an abandoned apartment building and fallen asleep immediately. When she woke up to darkness, she'd ran again, hungry as before, yet not daring to stop. Nightmare or reality? As much as she hated to admit it, this had gone on too long to be the former. Now she'd stopped to get her bearings when she should have been running to the ends of the earth to destroy herself, the monster. She'd stopped and she would pay. But she knew that she would never die willingly, because she was afraid, because her cou rage had abandoned her. Footsteps approached and everything was lost in the bloodlust. End of Part 4