Rating: I'm giving it an R, just because, in spite of a little outdoor amour, no one even gets their clothes off.

Summary: Less than 24 hours to go...

Spoilers: Not unless I missed some weddings on the series. So I'm going to say no.
 

"There is a rock streaming with water,
whose source, men say, is Ocean,
and it pours from the heart of its stone a spring
where pitchers may dip and be filled..."

Euripides, "Hippolytus," Lines 121-124. Translation by David Grene. Copyright 1955 and used without permission.
 

Decumanus Fluctus
 

May 14, 2000

"They're here." Ellen had been standing outside, waiting for the arrivals, and she raced back in.

The male half of the party rushed in. "Sorry we're late!" Byers looked sincerely chastened.

"Mulder!" Dana screamed, as she saw her husband bringing up the rear, carrying their squirming daughter. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

I saw Mulder grin sheepishly, and sign, "Hey, we were just watching the ballgame, and it went to extra innings-"

I saw Dana sign viciously, save it.

Frohike, being our elder statesman, was in charge of damage control, and apologized profusely to Dave. Dave, perpetually calm, just shrugged, told everyone to sit down in front, and we'd walk through the whole thing. Having a spouse in law enforcement had certainly taught him not to get rattled over such trivialities as latecomers to a wedding rehearsal.

Langly nudged me, and he looked honestly penitent. "Sorry. We just sorta got caught up in the game."

"Okay, ladies on the left, you guys on the right. Here's what's going to happen. Way we start off, guys, you're coming in from over there." He pointed to a door on the right side of the room. "What order you coming in?"

Langly looked as if he'd been caught in a pop quiz on something he didn't study. He looked urgently at Frohike.

"Langly, Byers, Jason, Michael, Mulder, and Renegade." Langly visibly relaxed.

"Okay. Ladies?"

"Ellen, Dana, Joan, Shelby, myself, and my mom," Miranda announced. She'd obviously worked this out with Frohike; there was no hesitation in her speech.

"Any kids? Flower girls, that sort of thing?"

"Hell, no," Miranda responded rapidly and tartly.

"Okay. You guys. Out the door. Wait. Ladies, back of the room." We went to our appointed places. "All right, guys, come on in. Take it easy, it's not a race. Langly, you stand right here." He motioned Langly closer to him. "You'll be facing me. Okay, ladies, let's go." Ellen started off, walking at a pretty good clip. "Els," he called to his wife, "slow down already. You're not running after a suspect. Or Alex." We all laughed; we were well acquainted with their hyperactive young son. Dana stepped forward next, pacing herself carefully, looking solemn, like she might have looked when she made her first communion. When she'd completed her walk up the mile of aisle, Joan stepped out tentatively, but picked up reassurance as she got to the front. She smiled sweetly at her baby brother, and he grinned back at her.

Shelby was next; she looked surprisingly calm and happy. Then it was Miranda's turn. She looked very poised, very beautiful-and I was struck by how mature she seemed.

Frohike was standing next to me. "Are you ready, my dear?"

"For a walk with you, Frohike? Always," I smiled. "I have to warn you, though-I freak out in crowds."

"Nonsense," he shook his head. "You take my arm, you look right at Langly, and you'll be fine."

"I hope I don't trip."

"You won't. Allison, my dear, you're the bride. You can't do anything wrong tomorrow. Remember that."

"Okay."

"Sometime in this century," Dave's voice was calm, but I got the feeling we were supposed to get moving.

"Let's go." He offered his arm, and I took it. "Now just look ahead, my dear. Watch your boy. There, he's watching you now. And he's smiling." He was. And I smiled back. And then...

I slipped into a fit of giggles.

"Allison Ruth!" My mother's voice rang out. I straightened up.

"Sorry," I called out, blushing madly. By then, everyone was cracking up. Even my mother laughed-a little. "Frohike, you make such a good father of the bride."

"Don't I, though?" He looked a bit wistful. Probably thinking of his own estranged daughter.

We reached the altar. Dave turned to my mother.

"Will you be giving your daughter away?"

"I did that once already. I don't do seconds," she shook her head firmly. "I'm only paying for this one because I didn't have to pay for her first one."

"Uh, Dave? Frohike's going to give me away." Frohike looked a bit surprised, but surprise gave way to pleasure.

"Okay. I'll ask who gives this woman in marriage, and you just say, I do." Dave turned to Frohike, who was beaming by now.

"And you better do it," Langly called out to Frohike, and everyone laughed again. "Give her up, that is."

"Oh, relax, Blonde Boy. Anything to keep you amused and quiet." Frohike shook his head. He turned to Dave and sotto voce, "I'm sorry. He's a bit of a brat."

"I heard that!" Langly said loudly. Dave was laughing, but determined to keep things moving.

"Okay, here's where I go into my shpiel about marriage being an honorable institution and all that," Dave continued. "Then I'm going to ask Ally and Langly if they've come of their own free will and consent to this union."

"You better say yes," I warned Langly.

"No, I was dragged here forcibly under threat of extreme physical torture," Langly rebounded, making a sarcastic face at me.

"Then I'm going to ask if anybody has any reasons why this marriage shouldn't proceed."

"You might not want to do that," Byers warned.

"Why?" Dave looked puzzled.

"Well...certain members of the crowd are likely to be, shall we say, somewhat irreverant."

"In other words, you could be here all day listening to the wit of computer geeks trying to one up each other," Frohike clarified.

"Hmm. I am supposed to ask it...suppose we say, we assume there are no objections?"

"Works for me. And I don't give a fuck if they do," Langly nodded.

"That's fine," I agreed.

"Okay, next you'll be asked to state your intentions," Dave moved on, still smiling, still not the least bit rattled.

"Uh-I think that's kinda personal, don't you?" Langly cocked his head to one side.

"It's just stating that you intend to get married to this person. We already are reasonably aware of your other intentions," Dave quipped dryly. "Having done that, you'll be given your ketubah."

"Marriage contract," I reminded Langly.

"The one with the no-tickle clause?"

"Only if it says you do dishes nightly."

Dave went on. "The prayers will be said in Hebrew, but then we'll translate them into English. After that, you two will say your vows to one another. Don't worry, you just repeat after me."

"Nothing in there about I have to do dishes, is there?" Langly asked him.

Dave grinned. "No, nothing about dishes. I mean, there are people who live on paper plates, so it'd be sort of pointless." He smiled at Ellen, and she smiled knowingly back. "Okay, then I spew forth a few words of wisdom, and then, Langly, you get to indulge in a bit of destruction."

"Cool." He grinned.

"Try to keep the glass fairly thin. A heavy one could send you to the emergency room."

"No, thank you," we all fairly shouted.

"Okay, then we do the closing prayers, I pronounce you husband and wife, and then I present you to the congregation. Mr. And Mrs. Ringo Langly."

"Don't I get to kiss the bride?" Langly whined.

"As soon as I pronounce you, you do." Dave smiled. "Try not to make it last too long. People get hungry and then they get crabby. Then, Langly and Ally walk down the aisle, and Miranda and Byers follow, and then Shelby and Jason, and Michael and Joan, Mulder and Dana, and Renegade and Ellen." He looked over and winked at his wife. "Try not to hurt him, Els." We all laughed, particularly in view of the size of Renegade, who could actually make Ellen look petite. "Then you get to greet all your guests. Any questions?"

"Nah, I think we could do this without fucking up too bad. Whaddya think, Ally?"

"I think we'll manage."

"Great. One more run through. Then, let's eat. Pasco's, you said?" He indicated that his attention was on Frohike.

"Yes."

"Okay," Dave smiled even bigger than before. "Once more, with feeling."
 

The second run-through was a disaster; all the male party members came out doing "Walk Like an Egyptian," and things went downhill from there; still, Dave didn't seem to be annoyed-he was laughing as hard as anyone. We all left the convention center screaming with laughter. Then the men tried to shanghai the limo, which my mother pointed out was for HER party. They changed their minds in a hurry.

Pasco's was on the riverfront, a bit of rundown elegance with fantastic seafood. My mother, who has eaten in top of the line restaurants around the world, raved about her lobster.

Fortunately, Frohike had rented us one of the private upstairs rooms, or we would have scared away the other patrons, of which there were many-there was a long line out the door and people were stacked ten-thick at the bar. We were loud, rowdy, rude, obnoxious, and loving every moment of it. My mother, now sufficiently libated, was in the spirit of the party; her early pensiveness had given way to a more expansive spirit.

It was wonderful to see my brother Rob and his wife Laurie again, and my two nieces, who had grown up so much, I was astonished. They thought Langly was the greatest. I was a bit saddened, but not surprised, that Dan and his family hadn't come. They never did respond to the invitation. I asked my mother if they had received it, and she assured me, bitterness in her voice, that they had, but since my mother hadn't offered to pay airfare and hotel for them, they decided not to attend.

There was no assigned seating; I ended up at a table with Anne, my two nieces, Renegade and Lu, his significant other, Jo and Dana. Lu had formerly been with the FBI as well, in the Computer Crimes Division, and with a little help from me in translation, they extensively traded war stories. Langly was seated with Miranda, Jason, Byers, Juliet, Joan, Shelby-and my mother. Ellen was sitting next to Frohike and obviously enjoying the experience, and Mulder and Rebecca, Michael, and Dave rounded out the third table. The noise level was rock-concert volume.

"Frohike, you've outdone yourself," I told him when we'd all gotten back to the Westin. "That was a wonderful dinner."

"Well, it's the groom's parents' responsibility to provide the rehearsal dinner," he said, as if I needed an explanation. "Joan is very short of cash right now, and I do feel...responsible for him. He is like one of my kids. You all are."

"Joan's a pretty recent entry back into his world. You've always been there for him, Frohike, and I appreciate it." I kissed him on the cheek, and he beamed.

"By the way, who are you staying with tonight?"

I was amazed. "With Langly. Who'd you think I was staying with?"

"Well, it's supposedly bad luck...never mind." He smiled. "See you in the morning for the big one."

"To a California girl, that sounds like an earthquake," I laughed.

"No less of an event, my dear. Good night."
 

"Party continues in the bar," Jason informed Langly and me as he passed by us. "We're gonna throw our stuff upstairs and then we'll be down."

"Well, babe?" I took Langly's arm.

Langly was looking a little shell-shocked. "Tell the truth, I don't think I could drink anymore right now...I was so dehydrated at dinner, I actually drank water."

"My father said never drink water. Fish fuck in it. Of course, he did steal that from W.C. Fields."

"Usually good advice," he concurred. "Know what, though? This is all getting a little crazy. I need to get out for a while."

"Alone, or do you want company?"

"Well, with you, that'd be cool. But I don't think I can party right now."

"Besides, we have to save our strength for tomorrow."

"Yeah, Eleanor did order 40 bucks a head. Hate to disappoint her by not doing my part."

"She sees you drinking water tomorrow, and she'll smack you silly."

"Let's go for a drive."

"We don't have a car."

"Mulder does." He grinned wickedly.
 

"Mulder!" Langly pounded on the door to the Mulders' hotel room.

"Langly, what if Becca's asleep?" I hissed at him.

"Mulder, you asshole, open the door!" Dana wasn't going to be able to hear us.

Finally, Mulder stuck his head in the door. "What?"

"Did we catch you in the middle of something?" I asked.

"Just trying to get Becca situated before I went down to the post party. I'll be down in a few."

"Gimme your car keys, Mulder," Langly demanded.

"Say what?"

"I said, you drove, we wanna go out for a while. Gimme your keys!"

Mulder debated the wisdom of this request for a moment, then produced a ring of keys. "I'm only doing this because you're getting married tomorrow. Any other time, I'd tell you to go fuck yourself." He grinned at us then, the famous Mulder shit-eating grin. "There's so much as a scratch on it, your conjugal life'll be over before it gets started." He then raised one
eyebrow-it was amusing how much he and Dana's facial expressions mirrored one another's. "You are planning to be back in time, aren't you?"

"Since it's my own wedding, guess I'd better be there. Thanks!" Langly tossed the keys up in the air as we headed back down the hall.

"So where're we going?" I asked eagerly.

"Back to where it all began," he said, still tossing the keys and catching them-hadn't missed yet, to his credit.
 

We headed out towards Chesapeake Bay. At first I'd been confused, thinking he'd meant the old offices in Southeast DC-and I was not looking forward to cruising that neighborhood after 11:00 at night-but I had had a lot of tequila, and the brain was more or less on cruise control.

We were quiet on the drive there. It'd gotten to be tradition-a drive to the Bay meant a time to be silent, to reflect, to be alone. I did interrupt the reverie a couple times, however.

"You nervous?" I asked.

"No. Okay, yeah, I am. You?"

"You'd think the second time around would be easier, but it's actually harder."

"Yeah, well, that's 'cause you know what to expect."

"Not true. I only know how much I don't know of what to expect." Namely, everything.

The drive as we approached the Bay was very dark, and the stars shone brilliantly. A perfect stargazer's night. Temps in the 60's, very light breeze.

I can't see for shit in the dark, and Langly can't either, but he'd been here so many times, it didn't matter. He led me through the small passageway that led to the isolated portion of beach he staked claim as his own. The water was calm, lapping the shoreline very softly.

I groped in my purse, found a hair scrunchy-the same one he'd worn the first time we were here-and pulled his hair back. All these small rituals. I already had mine back in a butterfly clip; when I'd figured out where we were headed, I'd bundled it up to keep it off my face.

We sat down where we'd gone the first time, me in front of him, and he pulled me gently into him. I snuggled against his chest, listening to his heartbeat, which was not as slow and steady as it normally was. I noticed mine wasn't either, at least when we first sat down, but as the minutes passed, both of us calmed. He nuzzled my hair and I kissed him softly on the neck. Between his scent, his soft skin, his silky hair, the sand, the breeze, and the smell of the water, I was getting...

Incredibly turned on. I pushed myself more firmly against him and let out a long sigh. This time, he swallowed that sigh with a very warm kiss-God, how does this guy do it?-first just mouths touching, then more exploring. I felt his tongue dart into my mouth and within moments I was gasping, murmuring his name, and burrowing down into him.

"God, you're little," he rasped-his breathing had become ragged, and leaning against him, the distinct outline of an erection pressed up against me. "Feel like...I'm gonna swallow you up." Listening to him moan, feeling him shudder, I was getting damper every second. I leaned hard against his maleness, and...

Exploded. Like all the stars in the sky were fireworks, in a flash of hot light. "Langly," I murmured, barely able to get his name out.

"Ally," he whispered. "Don't move. I-I..." he threw back his head, in a hard fit of passion, and I could feel him pulsating wildly under me. Little cries escaped him, somewhere between pain and pleasure.

And that made me come again-with a vengeance.
 

We sat, snuggled together soundlessly, for a long time after that. Ragged breathing gave way to smooth, slow rhythms again.

"We're soaked," he mumbled after a time.

"We'll just have to wear our jackets around our waists when we get back," I giggled. "Didn't you ever do that in high school?"

"Couple times." He was dreamy, drowsy. I hoped he could stay awake for the drive back to Baltimore; I had a feeling I sure as hell wouldn't be able to. "Know something?"

"No," I said gently, moving my forefinger over his lower lip.

"Never brought a girl here before. You're the first."

"Really. I'm honored."

"Used to come out here after the big breakups-hell, they weren't that big a deal, but when they'd happen, I'd feel like I was dying...sorta nice that now I come out here with you, and instead of thinking about how shitty I feel, it's more like, I'm so happy you're here, and it's just quiet and we're alone..."

"Does this mean that we've deflowered the beach, then?" I giggled.

He laughed back. "Yeah, looks that way." He snuggled me again, kissing me on the forehead. "Know what? It's after two. It'll be three when we get back to Baltimore-and I guess we've sorta got a big day ahead of us."

"Yeah, sort of." I giggled again. "Langly?"

"Uh-huh?"

"I'm really happy, babe."
 

The bar was closed by the time we got back to the Westin; therefore, we encountered no one from our party. There were out of town guests staying there, but if they couldn't drink, they probably either decided to go to sleep or get their own and take the party to their rooms. We passed by a bored-looking night clerk who couldn't have cared less if we were going to bomb the place.

The elevator doors opened for us, and on the ride up to our floor, we engaged in another long, delicious kiss. We were in that weird state that exists between excitement and exhaustion. Going to bed right now sounded really good.

Except that when we stepped off the elevator, there was total chaos on the floor. Doors were flung open, music was playing at ear-splitting volume, and people were milling about wildly.

"Langly! That you?" We were greeted by a medium-sized man in black hair-and I do mean black, the way red meant red for me those days-three nose pierces, and several eyebrow rings.

"Hey, Byteslut!" Langly high-fived him happily. "What's up?"

"'Bout time you got here, dude! You're missing your own party!"

"I didn't know about any party," he looked confused.

"Well, we just thought you'd be around, but this tall dude-brown hair, real straight looking, said you took his car and your old lady and bailed. This your victim?" He eyed me.

"This is Ally, and yeah, she's the one," Langly grinned sleepily.

"Well, come on already! Burton ordered a whole shitload of stuff, we all kicked in, and it's great!"

It was now after 3:00 a.m. We looked at each other. We were totally tired...but we didn't get to see these people all that often.

"Whaddya say, one drink?" Langly asked me, sotto voce.

"I can do one drink."

"Okay, show us the way," Langly smiled at Byteslut.

"His name's really Walter," Langly whispered to me.

"I'd go by Byteslut, too," I giggled, thinking of Skinner. Another one of the many guests we'd be seeing tomorrow. Skinner'd be jealous; this guy had hair.
 

We stayed for one drink. And then another...and another...and another...

Sometime around 6:00 a.m., we went to sleep.

Eight hours to go.

END OF PART 83