A Visit to Venus Springs

There's something mysterious in a picturesque Colorado mountain village where romance is rampant and the birthrate is astronomical. MSR, Mulder/Scully, mature. Romance/family/humor/drama

Disclaimer: The X-Files are owned by Chris Carter, 1013 and Fox. This fic is purely for entertainment purposes.

Set before All Things.

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"Pack your suitcase, Scully!" Fox Mulder ordered cheerily as the petite redhead walked in their basement-office door.

"Good morning to you too, Mulder," Scully replied wryly to his enthusiastic greeting. Noting that her partner remained gleefully unapologetic, Scully sighed and inquired, "What's the case?" picking up the mottled brown file folder from his desk to examine its contents.

Seizing his opportunity to pique Scully's interest, Mulder launched into the details of the background information he had collected.

"A little town in Colorado—Venus Springs. It seems that there are certain…aberrations concerning pregnancies and births in the area."

"Aberrations?" Scully scanned the case file quizzically, "Tails? Horns? Snouts? An extra face?" she shrugged, nonplussed as she was by the bizarre litany of oddities that now seemed to pass for everyday occurrences in her world.

"No…no…, nothing like that," Mulder waved away Scully's cynical query. "It seems that Venus Springs has an annual pregnancy and childbirth rate fifteen times that of communities, similar in region, average age and economic status.

Scully chuckled a little at Mulder's insistence that a little enthusiastic procreation warranted an FBI investigation.

"Well…the name of the place is a bit suggestive," Scully grinned as she tossed the file flatly back onto the battered wood and walked round to lean against the edge of the lone desk as Mulder leaned back in his chair. "Maybe the town attracts a certain typeof people just by that …virtue…alone."

The corners of her mouth twitched upward at her tiny joke.

Her partner laughed at Scully's minor attempt at levity.

"Do you really think that many people paid attention in their high school humanities class? Come on-it was an elective, Scully," Mulder dismissed, unconvinced that the town's namesake and knowledge of her famed sexual proclivities would have been quite so widespread and influential.

Sapphire eyes narrowed as a fiery eyebrow rose, Scully's arms crossed in her typical response of stubborn disbelief.

"Mulder, the answer may be as simple as people moving to the area because of schools…housing…healthcare…," Scully listed the more obvious reasons for a town full of couples at their reproductive peak.

"But, Scully, this town has historically had abnormally high numbers of pregnancies—and…and unusual ones as well," Mulder rifled through the folder, "Last week a fifty-six year-old woman gave birth to a bouncing baby boy—eight pounds, twelve ounces," Mulder handed the page to Scully for her inspection.

"Unusual, but not completely without precedent," Scully made her requisite attempt to dissuade her partner that the case in question truly qualified as an X-file, handing the paper back dismissively.

"Come on, Scully—it could be an…an energy vortex…a…magnetic field anomaly…," Mulder's green eyes danced wildly with the possibilities. "Some sort of hormone-laden biological agent…or …."

"What did you tell Skinner so he'd sign off on the requisitions?"the pragmatic Dana Scully asked bluntly.

"Polygamists and the child-brides who love them?" Mulder teased.

Grasping for a plausible excuse, Dana groaned, "But, Mulder, I haven't had a chance to pick up my dry cleaning…there's no time before we catch our plane," her plaintive blue eyes closed momentarily in resignation.

"You won't need it anyway," Mulder assured , standing to gather the X-file, Scully's handbag and her jacket in an attempt to hurry his partner along. "Just jeans…shorts…a bikini…," he was hoping to slip that one in unnoticed.

"A bikini?" Scully scoffed with a barely contained smile.

"There's a spa there—seaweed wraps, mud baths…couples massage…," the green-eyed agent added nervously.

"Couples massage?" the redhead questioned flatly.

"I thought that we ought to check out all possible leads…and that we'd have better luck if we posed as a happily married couple rather than FBI agents looking to tear the place apart with shovels and backhoes."

"Happily married couple, huh?" Scully shook her head and grinned knowingly. "Who are we this time—Howard and Marion Cunningham? Ralph and Alice Kramden? Lucy and Ricky Ricardo?" the practical agent asked wryly.

"Come on, Scully, I really don't think I could pass for Cuban," Mulder played along, smiling. "After your previous objections, I decided to just keep things simple—our reservations are under Mr. and Mrs. Fox Mulder…."