Title: Happiness - Truth and Consequences
Author: shawntaw
Category: MSR, Au
Rating: G

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.  I am making no profit. But 
I am sure letting them have some fun...

Summary: Byers spills the beans and the cops show up at Maggie's 
house...

Feedback makes me very happy at shawntaw@hotmail.com  :)

TO DANIELA LABOD WHO HAS MADE A WEBSITE OF MY STORIES:

www.geocities.com/corran_14776/shawntaw.html

Thank you.:)

Note: There has been a request for longer parts.  I actually wondered 
whether or not I was making them too short.  I have a tendency to 
type what I can until I have to get back to RL and then post it, but 
I will take a little longer (don't worry, not too much longer) so 
that the posts will be longer.  We'll try it and see what all of you 
think...If it is causing me to be too long posting, let me know! 
Thanks!:) Now on with the show...

**********************************************************************

Byers smoothed down his hair self-conciously and looked up at the 
camera as he rang the bell to be let in.

"Hey dude," Langley's voice said through the speaker,"Just a second."

Byers heard the locks being disengaged and the thick door creak as it 
began to open.

Langley gave him a greeting smile at him and stepped back to the 
computer station he'd been working on when the bell rang.  Without 
comment, he slipped back underneath and went back to work.

Byers paused, surprised at his friend's lack or curiousity about his 
date with Kimberly, but started for the kitchen when he smelled food 
cooking.

"Frohike?"

Frohike turned from the stove, a red bandana tied on his head, waving 
a spatula.

"Byers! We didn't know if you'd be back for supper or not, man, but I 
made enough anyway."  He gestured at the skillet in front of 
him. "Grilled cheese."

Byers sat at the small table in the kitchen area and waited for the 
inevitable interrogation to begin.

Frohike busied himself humming and flipping grilled cheese sandwiches 
onto a plate.

Byers tapped his fingers restlessly on the tabletop.

"Oh for goodness sake! Isn't anybody curious how my date went?!" 
Byers finally exploded.

Frohike turned with a surprised look on his face.

"We thought we'd butted in enough for the day.  Langley and I decided 
not to talk about it unless you did first."

Then Frohike's face spread into a feral grin.

"So, give.  How did it go?"

He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Byers rolled his eyes and tried to supress the smile he felt curling 
the corners of his mouth.

**********************************************************************

Bill Scully had already escaped to the half-bath down the hall and 
Scully was leading Skinner and Mulder up the stairs when the sirens 
that had been worrying the group stopped in front of the house.

Red and blue strobes flashed across the curtained windows by the 
front door.

Scully paused.  The two men on either side of her stopped as well, 
Skinner squinting at the windows.

"Mom? Maybe we should stay and talk to the police officer.  After 
all, we're F.B.I."

Maggie unsucessfully stifled the snort of laughter that rose in her 
throat.

Her daughter stood bare-footed and rumpled in her casual clothes, 
while to one side her F.B.I. partner stood in boxer briefs with his 
face, neck and forearms covered in drying mud.

On the other side of her daughter stood an assistant director of the 
F.B.I., squinting myopically in his white briefs, caked with mud and 
a little blood, sporting a split lip and a cut on his forehead.

"Honey, I don't think that is such a good idea under these 
circumstances."

Scully's eyes sparkled with laughter but she held it together.

Mulder felt no such restraint.

"Excuse me, Mr. Officer," he began to showboat and strutted back down 
the few steps to the entryway, "but I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder and 
this is my A.D. Walter Skinner.  I'd flash you my i.d., but I'm 
afraid I left it in my other undies-"

Scully cleared her throat to keep from giggling and pulled him back 
to the stairs.

"Mulder, just get upstairs," she shoved him in front of her.

"Seriously, Maggie," Skinner was saying, "I have my i.d. in my pants 
and if you have a robe or something-"

She shook her head, "Walter, I'll handle it. Just get upstairs and 
clean up."

He hesitated, but followed Scully and Mulder up the stairs after a 
moment.

Loud knocking echoed up the stairway as the three reached the top.

They were just out of sight of the doorway, so by unspoken consent 
they paused on the top landing to listen.

**********************************************************************

Byers' mouth turned up in a secretive, embarrassed smile.

"It went fine," he said.

Frohike scoffed.

"Looked more than 'fine' when we were there!  You hadn't been there 
more than, what?..half an hour?"

He elbowed Byers suggestively.

"I had no idea you were such a fast worker."

Byers flinched.  He wasn't going to be able to continue the charade, 
no matter what Kim had said.

He didn't want them thinking that about her.

Langley came traipsing into the kitchen area.

"Grilled Cheese!" he exclaimed in delight and plopped down into a 
chair.

"Nothing happened, Frohike," Byers continued the conversation 
smoothly.

Frohike looked at Byers incredulously as he none-too-gently plunked 
down a full plate in front of Langley.

"You don't have to lie, man.  We were there."

Langley took a huge bite from one of his sandwiches and watched the 
interplay between the two men, slowly clueing in to the topic of 
conversation.

He swallowed.

"Dude, you were standing in her apartment wearing a robe and lipstick 
on your face," Langley added his two cents.

"It was Kim's idea," Byers began as Frohike brought a plate for him.

"I bet," Frohike snickered as he sat down with his own sandwiches.

"No," Byers sighed in frustration, "I mean, it was her idea to make 
you think that something had happened.  She didn't like your 
assumption that I couldn't...that a woman would never.."

He cleared his throat as an awkward silence fell over the three men.  
There was no sound except chewing and the ever-present soft hum of 
technology that always permeated the air in The Lone Gunmen's den.

"You caught that, huh?" Frohike finally said.

Byers simply nodded, his lips a tight line as he chewed on a bite of 
his sandwich.

"Sorry.  We just got so used to rejection, that we assumed Kim was 
game-playing you."

Langley was nodding his agreement with his mouth full.

"We keep forgetting that Byers could be a smooth man with the ladies 
if he just tried, right Langley?" Frohike continued with a teasing 
tone and kicked Langley under the table to encourage his response.

"Yeah, maybe he can get us dates too," Langley said in his own joking 
manner.

Byers dipped his head and turned bright red, smiling from ear to ear.

The two other men laughed.

**********************************************************************

"Hello, Officer O'Donnelly.  May I help you?"  

Maggie was relieved to see that the police officer at her door with 
his hat under his arm was an old family friend.  In fact, he attended 
her church.

"Good evening, Maggie.  Believe it or not, we got a call that you had 
a muddy brawl going on in your front yard."

"You did?"

"Yes.  And I should also tell you that on my way up the walk, I 
stopped to look at your front yard and it does indeed look like some 
sort of wrestling match took place.  I also found these," he held out 
Skinner's mud-caked glasses, "Any of this sound familiar?"

Maggie shoulders sagged as she took the glasses and she 
sighed, "Well, to be honest with you Brian, my son and my date sort 
of had...an argument tonight.  And my daughter's fiancee' tried to 
break it up.  But its over now and everyone is cleaning up as we 
speak."

He seemed to hesitate, shifting foot to foot.  This was very 
uncomfortable for him.  He had known her husband.  He watched and 
admired this upstanding woman from afar every Sunday at Mass.  His 
wife had passed away over five years ago, and he had been trying to 
screw up the courage to ask Maggie Scully out.

"Maggie, I'll be honest with you.  This is a domestic disturbance and 
I should write something up on it.  Was anyone hurt?"

She stood in the lighted doorway, dignified.

"Not anymore than usual for brawling men.  Nothing requiring the 
hospital, if that's what you're asking."

"What caused the fight, if I may ask?"

Maggie frowned, "Well, we haven't actually gotten around to 
discussing it yet, but I get the impression that my son feels Walter, 
my date, was acting inappropriately towards me."

"He was defending your honor?"

Maggie straightened, affronted.

"He thought he was, apparently, but it was unneccessary.  If my honor 
had needed defending, I would have done it myself."

Officer O'Donnelly compressed his lips so he wouldn't smile.

*I bet you could to, couldn't you, Maggie?*

One of the things he had always admired about Maggie Scully was her 
strength.

"I'll tell you what, Maggie," he said finally, putting his hat back 
on his head, "I'm not going to write this up.  But you have to 
promise me that this won't happen again."

"I'll have a talk with my son tonight."

Officer Brian O'Donnelly nodded, turned and strode back to his car.

*Maybe I'll get the guts to ask her out this Sunday...*

**********************************************************************

Ok, I'm stopping here for now.  My goal is to rein in this story; it 
has branched off in a billion directions when originally the focus 
was supposed to be on Mulder and Scully.  It sort of got a mind of 
its own and now Byers/Kim and Skinner/Maggie have their own sub-plots 
going.  And I guess Bill Scully too...

What can I say? I'm a romantic at heart.  And I love comedy...

I started this because I felt that Season 8 and 9 were so dang DARK...

When could our heroes have a little happiness?...and so here we are!
*L*

Anyway, coming soon - more Mulder/Scully focused stories (but we're 
not going to completely lose touch with the others, of course!)...

Thanks for all the feedback!  Ahhhh! I needed that!:)