His eyes seemed to want to get everything at once. The flashing of light from cameras of very exited people -- yeah, he had a camera himself, but it was tacked under his jacket, waiting for the precise moment to take it out. People, maybe strangers, or maybe people who had already met (because it wasn't really necessary to know anyone in this circles, you could go over and say hi and start chatting like you've known each other for a live time with no difficulty) talking amicably.

Walking over to one of the set up tends in the first wing of the room, Kevin looked at what the guy standing there was selling. One of the many opportunities this Expo gave you, besides meeting more X-Philes in one place than ever possible, was get acquainted with the latest gossips on the show and, of course, buying whatever memorabilia you didn't have yet. Official magazines and Episode Guides were perfectly lined up on the rectangular table. Kevin recognized more than a couple of those magazines, owning almost half of them.

There were also a couple of posters to sell. The one that caught Kevin's eye had to be the first poster ever published of the serie. It had taken him some time in finding it, and buying it, Kevin remembered, but it had been well worth it. The black and white picture shown Mulder and Scully in their classical business suits, side by side, looking straight at the camera. Yeah, it was the very same poster that Kevin had hanging on the left wall of his small apartment, side by side of his "I want to believe" poster.

Another poster caught his attention. This was one of Kevin's favorites by a mile, only tied by his beloved "I want to believe" one. It was just down right beautiful. It held Mulder and Scully, showing only their faces, looking right at the camera. Their enigmatic and serious posture seemed hypnotizing if you looked at it long enough.

Kevin continued walking down the hallway, trying his best not to be caught in the excitement and end up buying half the place. The last thing he needed was spending more money in his addiction. Only counting the posters and magazines, Kevin was sure he had a small fortune worth in souvenirs. Uh, and he hadn't even thought about his videos. Original from Fox, of course. Yeah, his work was mostly paying for this.

"You're so very wrong in so many levels!"

The voice made Kevin turned around slightly, his attention being drawn away from the posters. A young man, probably in his late teens, was talking to another man, this one on his early twenties, his dark brown cowboy hat catching the attention. The boy's blue eyes were shinning brightly, amusement visibly in them. Kevin turned back to the table.

"You're nuts!"

Another voice said and Kevin couldn't help but turn once again. The older man was the one who spoke this time, taking off his sunglasses -- even though they were inside the building and it was most definitely night outside --, brown unconvinced eyes looking back at the blond.

"I'm telling you, Kaddish is the one where the Golem appears. Not The Calusari. You're wrong Alex, accept it."

"Wasn't Kaddish where Scully saw this guy getting out of her hand?"

"No!" The blond waved his hands in the air exasperatedly, "That was Fresh Bones. Colonel Wharton tried to kill Mulder by stabbing him on the stomach."

"Are you sure?" Tilting his head, crossing his arms in his chest, his tattoos visibly under the bright light, Alex wasn't convinced.

"I'm afraid your friend is right," Kevin intervened softly, his southern drawl more evident with each word, calling the attention of both guys. He smiled friendly, hoping they wouldn't mind the interruption. "It was in Kaddish where Isaac, a Jew, was murdered and Arial, his fiancée, brought him back from the death, but as a Golem. A body without soul."

Kevin took a step closer, leaning against the side of the next tent. "In The Calusari, this boy, who killed his younger brother, father and grandmother, had a dead twin who was trying to kill the whole family." Kevin smiled slightly. "The Head Calusari chanted so the spirit of the dead boy was vanquished. The man even told Mulder that the evil already knew him."

Both guys were looking at Kevin, Alex with a surprise look, the blond one was visibly pleased. "In Fresh Bones," Kevin continued, "Haitian refugees wanted to be send back home and, since they were being held back, Bauvais, worried for his people, started killing the Marines. Even though he really didn't kill them, just gave them this poison so they'd look dead and be buried. Colonel Wharton, the head chief of the place, tried to kill Bauvais, who was supposed to be dead already, and hurt Mulder in the process."

Alex looked between Kevin and his younger friend; his brown eyes wide open. "And you knew this Nick?"

Nick, smiling fully, nodded.

Alex turned around, his eyes falling on Kevin's face, then back to Nick. "I sure as hell don't know who's more wacko between you two." He shook his head in amusement.

Placing his arm around his friend's shoulder, Nick laughed well naturally. "Come on AJ! After all this time, you gotta know something about it."

AJ only turned to glare at him, not even bothering mouthing an answer.

Nick laughed again. Dropping his arm to his side, he offered his other hand to shake. "Nick Carter. This is my friend Alex McLean. Nice meeting you."

"Kevin Richardson." Kevin shook Nick's hand steadily, a small smile on his lips. "It's a pleasure meeting you."

"A Phile I see."

Kevin nodded. "Yeah, I've been following the show since the very first episode, even though didn't become a fan until the end of the first season."

AJ offered his hand as well, shaking Kevin's. He looked between the two of them. Maybe now that Nick had someone to talk to, who shared his fascination -- or addiction -- to the goddamn show, he could be left alone.

"The Erlenmeyer Flask, I know." Nick nodded enthusiastically, his blue eyes dancing around. "I know exactly what you mean. That chapter turned more than one person into a fanatic. I actually started seeing the serie in mid season. The Jersey's Devil was my first contact with the show. Had to borrow a friend's tape to see the first four chapters."

Nick laughed. "I was lucky actually. If Howie hadn't asked AJ to tape the show so he could watch it after work, I don't think I'd have been able to watch it at all."

"Now that would have sucked. Missing Pilot, Deep Throat and Conduit. Squeeze wasn't of major importance, though." Kevin said with a small smile of his own.

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean." Nick laughed, his eyes shinning brightly in the already lit room. "Squeeze isn't my favorite chapter either. Even though Tooms is a good sequel."

"I think they handled it well. The death of Tooms was exactly what was needed. It just gave us enough information to satisfy our needs and..."

"Of course, as any good Phile would know," Nick turned to look at AJ, who glared at the blond and sighed, "the ever famous line: They're out to put an end to the X-Files, Scully."

Before Nick could finish the quote from Tooms, Kevin beat him to it, "I don't know why, but any excuse will do."

"Now, I don't really care about my record," Nick continued, remembering Mulder's thoughtful look as he finished, "but you'd be in trouble just for sitting in this car and I'd hate to see you to carry an official reprimand in your file because of me."

Kevin, a soft smile on his face, said Scully's line. "Fox..."

"And I... I even made my parents call me Mulder. So... Mulder." Nick added, pausing in the exact moments when Mulder had paused.

Green eyes meeting blue ones, Kevin finished. "Mulder, I wouldn't put myself on the line for anybody but you."

The air seemed suddenly thick between the two men. Two pair of very different set of eyes looking at one another. Their lips clasp shut, their heartbeats at one similar out of the range rate.

And AJ saw all of this.

He saw how Nick focused only on Kevin's green eyes. He saw how his old time friend found himself mermecized by the mysterious and captive look of this strange man that had interrupted them not even minutes before but now seemed as familiar with Nick as AJ himself.

The always known as wild child in their circles couldn't help but smile. Yep, Nick was most certainly liking this guy. Hell, he even had this fuzzy look in his eyes. AJ tried his best to hold his chuckle. The last thing he wanted was break the moment.

Nick, lost in the bottomless of emerald light shinning back at him, could feel his heart beating faster than usual. He blinked once, then twice, then looked away, his eyes darting to meet AJ's own brown eyes over his ever present sunglasses.

At the break of eye contact, Kevin looked down at his own feet, clearing his throat softly. What the hell was that?

Nothing, he answered himself. Nothing at all. Just a nice guy who knows his own share of X-Files' quotes. That's all.

AJ sighed softly. Just what we need, he thought to himself, Nick is lost as his usual blond self. He fixed his eyes with Nick's blue ones and glared at the younger but taller man. Yep, he most certainly would kick some sense in his friend if Nick didn't see the fact that he was starting to like this Kevin guy.

"Hmm..." Nick staggered, clearing his throat after finding it suddenly dry, "is this your first Expo?" Stupid! Such a lousy question. He held himself before mentally slapping his forehead. And he sure as hell didn't need to look at AJ to realize that the older man wanted to do the very same thing.

"Yeah," Kevin said, trying to hold himself from blushing -- if it was either ought to the fact that after begin a Phile for so long he hadn't been able to go to an expo until this point or because of those impressive and penetrating blue eyes, he didn't know. "I've been wanting to go to an expo before. I heard the Vancouver one last year was great."

"Damn right!" Nick clasped his hand on his mouth at the loudness of his voice. He chuckled slightly, looking around, pleased with the fact that no one had given him a second glance. Even though in this kinda of Expos, you usually don't care about what the other was doing, he wasn't about to see how far that would go. "It was awesome. Gillian and David were there. Hell, I was even able to get their autographs. And it was even better because I got to go with a real Phile." His eyes moving to land on AJ. "Not like others."

AJ only snorted. "Yeah, well, I wasn't thrilled to come either, now was I?"

"At least Howie understand me when I'm ranting about the season." Nick pouted, huffing softly. "Sucks that he had to work."

"Howie?" Kevin couldn't help but ask, not really knowing what they were talking about. He remembered hearing the name before, when they were talking about the first chapters of the season, but he had forgotten to ask about it back then.

Nick nodded. "He's a friend of us. He's a Phile, even though there still are some stuff he doesn't know about the show, he's better than AJ I don't get why the smoking bastard is doing that McLean."

Kevin chuckled as AJ shot Nick the finger, not feeling the slightly bit intimidated by the fact that Kevin was a newcomer and not a ten year old friend.

"Are you from Vancouver or from here?" Kevin smiled. "I mean, not many people would travel all the way from New York to Vancouver ought to just an Expo."

"Many people -- sane people -- wouldn't do half the stuff Nick does, that's for sure." AJ shook his head again; remembering the stuff the young blond had pulled just because it had to do with that damn tv serie he was totally addicted to.

"Hey!" Nick complained, slapping AJ's arm in the way. "I'm not that bad."

"No, there you're right." AJ waited long enough for the blond to smile proudly before finishing his sentence. "You're worse."

"Well, it's every Phile's trait that you gotta do something crazy for the sake of the show." Kevin said as he saw Nick pout at AJ's words, then smiled at Kevin's reassurance. "I mean, I've spend a small fortune in memorabilia."

"Of course! Otherwise, we just would be like every other fan of some lame tv show."

"We're special," Kevin added. "We'd do anything for the show."

Kevin and Nick looked at each other, then burst out laughing. It was well known in the Phile circles that, not only you can become friend with any other Phile in a matter of minutes, but also that when it comes down to buy or see something about The X-Files, Philes aren't the ones to stay put. Nope, they go along for the action.

"You two are crazy. Crazy!" AJ lifted his hands in exasperation. It was bad having Nick this nuts about a show -- a show! -- but now Nick also had ammo. Good God.

Kevin laughed, glad he wasn't alone in the gathering. He had asked Brian to join him, but the younger man had an exam tomorrow and had to stay back home to study. "I never did get to ask you guys, what do you do? I mean, I couldn't go over to the Vancouver expo because of work. I couldn't take time off, so it totally sucked."

"We're in NYU. I'm freshmen in Biology and Alex here is third year in Architecture."

Kevin started at the two of them, a small smile on his lips. "That's great." He chuckled. "I've never met college students that would go all the way over to Vancouver just hence of an expo."

"Yeah, well, I'm special like that."

"You're stupid like that." AJ corrected the blond, rolling his eyes. "I still can't understand how you could spend half your savings in that trip. And the other half in X-Files' stuff!"

"Well," Nick started, "at least I don't spend my money in cowboy hats or sneakers." Nick flicked AJ's hat, the piece of clothing moving slightly to the side.

"Hey!" AJ rearranged his hat, glaring at Nick. "Don't go dishing the hats man."

Kevin chuckled at the interaction between the two friends. "And, what about this Howie friend of yours?"

"Oh," Nick bit his lower lip, a habit of his Howie himself had tried to get him out of, "he's doing his History thesis; should be finished before the end of the year. Actually, I met AJ by my mom. Our moms are old friends -- God knows how. AJ has known Howie since high school. That's how the three of us met back... how long J, four years?"

AJ nodded. "Four, five. I don't remember."

"Both Brian and I went NYU." At Nick's lifted eyebrow, Kevin continued. "He's my younger cousin. We've been rather close since kids. He's senior in Computers and Technology."

"What about you?" AJ dared to ask at the new guy. Kevin did seemed like a nice guy, for which he was glad -- he was sure Nick was really liking him, if the way the blond started at Kevin's green eyes was any indication. "You said you had work, what do you do?"

"I'm an Accountant at the Plaza," Kevin slowly, blushing slightly. He still didn't know how, but whenever he talked about his work, he'd blush. At least when he was talking with people outside his work. Brian had call it out on him more times than he could count, and he had promised to work on it. However, now, as he wished the color wasn't too deep, he realized it hadn't worked at all.

"You work at the Plaza?"

He was barely able to nod before his eyes fell to the floor and the soft pink color that had taken over his chiseled cheeks became a deep crimson color.

Nick chuckled slightly, the sound only making Kevin cringe unconsciously. "Gosh, that's so cool."

Kevin bit his lip, not really knowing what else to do. His reaction was more out of a habit than anything else, because before he could stop himself, he was lifting his eyes to meet Nick's soft aqua blue ones. "Thanks."

Nick grinned at him, his blue eyes dancing, shrugging nonchalantly. "Sure. It sounds really great."

"Biology sounds amazing." His nervousness could be seen at the way his fingers were fidgeting with each other. At twenty six, CEO Accountant of one of the most important Hotels in the US, he was nervous over a blond blue eyed eighteen year old. That was a new one. "I don't think I could ever study something like that."

"It's not that hard, you know. It's really amazing once you get the hang of it. The way everything connects with something else and makes things work in a way you've never thought before --"

"And that's why we never ask him about his career," AJ finished for the blond as his hand moved over to cover Nick's mouth. Releasing Nick, he shook his head. "Once he gets started, it's almost impossible to get him to finish."

"Yeah, well, that means he's really doing what he wants to. That's good."

AJ nodded. "I know. And I'm happy he found a career that could hold his attention for more than a minute --"

"HEY!"

But Nick's complains fell on deaf ears as AJ continued, "-- but that doesn't mean I wanna hear about it 24/7. After the first thousand times, you kinda get bored of it."

Nick was about to complain about how AJ wasn't any better when it came down to the design a building had or the internal structure of a construction when the tilting of the lights of the hallway took his attention away from the topic.

"Better get to our seats," Nick said good naturally.

Kevin nodded, realizing what the lights meant. He had been to his share of meetings and operas, and knew perfectly fine that that was their calling.

The three of them entered the huge conference room, Kevin finally able to see just how many people had attended the gathering. There had to be, at least, five hundred people, from men and women. There were more than just a couple of teenagers, around Nick's age, and Kevin only smiled calmly.

This was the culmination of his fanatism. This was what being a Phile was all about. Talking with the ones who shared his obsession -- because coming this far could only be called as an obsession -- and interchanging ideas. This was it.

Kevin was brought out of his stupor as Nick touched his shoulder lightly. "Lets go this way." Kevin nodded, following the blond and his tattooed friend into one of the lines.

AJ sat first, Nick sandwiched in between him and Kevin.

"This is going to be great," Nick whispered in Kevin's ear, surprising the older man. "Down right amazing."

Kevin, his fingers fidgeting once again, nodded. He was excited, that was correct, but he just wasn't sure if it was because of the Expo or the man sitting on his right. And, to tell the truth, he didn't even want to know.

There was a moment of silence before seeing the men who were making one of the most amazing series become possible walk out on stage. The three most amazing writers Kevin had ever heard of, the greatest minds behind television today: Frank Spotnitz, John Shiban and Vince Gilligan.

Frank walked over to the stage right, Vince on stage left and John in the middle. All three were standing with cordless mics about 5 feet from each other.

Frank smiled. "Uhhh... can you hear me? We're going to introduce ourselves first, one by one, and then open up the floor for questions. Are there microphones out there for questions? ok. Uh.. I'm Frank Spotnitz. I'm co-executive producer of the X-Files."

Both Kevin and Nick applauded with everything they got. To say that the audience joined them would be an underestimation.

"I've been with the show four years now - since the beginning of the second season." Frank continued. "I've written and co-written about 16 or 17 episodes and I'm working on the movie right now (the movie that will be coming out in June). So, umm, you can ask me about any of those things or any of the other episode and this is John Shiban." Frank finished, motioning for John to continue.

Applause was heard again as John started speaking. "Hi. I am John Shiban, co-producer of the X-Files. I've been on the show since season three. Uhhh... wrote... uhh, enough... four solo episodes I believe? Four or five solo's and writing with these guys for a couple of episodes. Don't know what to talk about.... so I will turn it over to Vince Gilligan!"

Nick leaned over to Kevin, still clapping. "Vince is the best. Memento Mori was down right amazing. You just gotta love the guy."

"Yeah, I know what ya mean." Kevin said, smiling. He had almost died while Memento Mori. The amount of angst showed in that episode was breathtaking. The way Mulder had fought to try and save Scully could just kill you and, to top things, Scully writing in her journal. It was from that very same episode that had come one of Kevin's favorite quotes: That you should know my heart, look into it, finding there the memory and experience that belong to you, that are you.

And, if that wasn't enough, the almost kiss between the two of them had surprised Kevin. He had spend almost four hours looking for the picture of the kiss that had been taped but not aired, printing it right away. The way they had placed it, Mulder kissing Scully after she had decided to fight for her live, was amazing. He had supposedly kissed on the top of head, then on her forehead and finally on the lips. However, they had only kept the kiss on the forehead. More than one fan had been completely disappointed.

"Uhh... Hi, I'm Vince, supervising producer of the X-Files. I have been with the show since October of '95 on staff. I did an episode about a year before that, uh, freelance. Done six or seven solos and a couple of episodes with these two guys. And uhh, I guess we should throw it open to questions?"

"Yes, we could." Frank took over. "These guys look normal but they are very disturbed and I can explain that to you if you wish. Over here?"

Kevin turned around slightly, trying to see the girl asking the question.

"Um, first of all, my name is Suzy. In one of the first seasons, I'm not sure which it was, there was an episode called Calusari?"

Kevin heard Nick sighing, turning over to see his blue eyes. Nick shrugged. "Beginner. The last thing she can do is remember the name of the chapter if she's gonna ask a question."

Chuckling, Kevin turned to see the girl again. Nick was, most definitely, very serious when it came down to his knowledge about the episodes.

Frank nodded. "Calusari, right."

"Ok, yeah... that was second season. Um, at the end of the episode, the elders are telling Mulder that he should be careful because the evil will recognize you and it might be back." She paused long enough for Frank to nod. "Are you guys going to do a second half of that episode anywhere along the lines?"

"I don't think we will do a sequel per se, although the idea that evil might recognize Mulder could come back in some other show but we don't have any plans to do that right now."

Nick sighed and Kevin couldn't help but turn around once again. "There goes a shot at a very good episode. I had already imagined a million scenarios for the evil to recognize Mulder. Sucks."

"Well, I'm sure there're enough stories about that that you can read," Kevin said, a small smile on his lips. That was another of the sides of a fan, you just had to have read fanfiction at some point. And he had, God had he. Half his free time was spend searching for X-Files' stuff and the other half reading fanfic at the master of Archives: Gossamer.

Nick tilted his head to the side. "Yeah, I know what you mean." He smiled. "I know exactly what you mean."

His eyes still fixed on Nick's, Kevin could feel a small shiver run down his spine. What was this young kid doing to him?

"Uh, My name's Jenna. I just wanted to ask you guys: there's been a lot of speculation this season that you guys are kind of writing in a kind of rift, or separation, in relationship between Mulder and Scully but there's like, ever since the events of Emily and Christmas Carol there has been something between them - that there has been a distance between them. Are you specifically writing that in or are we just seeing that?"

This time it was Kevin who chuckled and Nick turned around to meet his eyes. "This is so totally wrong. They are just seeing things." Kevin turned almost totally, doubling his arm and placing it on the back of his seat. "I think it's the other way around. They seem just so together lately. We've got Patient X, the Red and the Black, Kill switch, Schizogeny to prove it."

Nick nodded. "Yeah. Totally. My god, Patient X and Schizogeny were just amazing. The whole quote: Hey, Scully, is this demonstration of boyish agility turning you on at all? It was so funny."

"It seems like Mulder never stops trying to hit on Scully."

Frank turned to look at John, giving him the opening to answer. "Hmmm... distance between them... Vince?"

After receiving a very clear look from his friend, Vince laughed as he answered. "Uhh... That is not anything conscious on our part. I think Mulder and Scully's relationship is probably, I would think, is stronger than ever. You know, sometimes, with the logistics of doing a tv show and also doing a movie just about simultaneously, sometimes its very hard for the show to get two stars, to schedule their time such that they can do the work in the week they need them to do. Sometimes, frankly, we have to endeavor to schedule one scene with just Mulder or just Scully. We do that as little as possible because, honestly, who wants to see Mulder and Scully together? Maybe that's what you're thinking of but no, that's not a conscious thing on our part to show a rift between them."

Frank decided to take the mic. "I think one of the interesting things between their relationship is how much is unsaid between the two of them. And you gotta watch and sort of look for subtle signs of communication where Mulder would take Scully's hand or one of them would touch the other or their is a look between them that is meant to convey something that we don't want to say. And it leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Sometimes we are surprised by the way these things get interpreted out there. One of the interesting things that has happened this year is the reversals of their roles: In the beginning of the season Mulder believing, because of his meeting with Kritchgau, that he may have been mislead that the entire alien / UFO phenomenon is a cover story to disguise what the government has actually been up to. And we see a real reversal of the roles that Mulder and Scully played ending this two-parter, that was just broadcasted, where we see them shift back... possibly... to the more familiar positions. So somewhere in there, I think, this impression may have been developed."

"Oh my God, that's so right." Nick turned around, his arm very much like Kevin's -- doubled and over the back of the seat. "There are just so many signs. I don't even think we're seeing them all. Mulder's classical hand on Scully's lower back."

Kevin nodded. "What about Mulder's look? The way he needed of her in Paper hearts and Herrenvolk, the whole crying on her shoulder. He's always needed her. Even through Krycek."

"Especially through Krycek! Remember the line when Mulder said But he’s a lot more open to extreme possibilities then..."

"Then I was?" Kevin asked, taking Scully's line as his.

Nick smiled, surprised at the fact that Kevin could remember such an old quote. "...then I assumed he would be." He finished, just as Mulder had.

"And what about their looks? That's gotta mean something! The one that pops from the back of my head right now is in Irresistible and Scully was having problems with the case."

"Oh, god, yeah. Totally!"

AJ took a look at the two of them in their very own world, shaking his head incredulously. Nick had invited him over so he could have someone to talk to, and AJ ended up being ditched by the dark haired man. "Fucking amazing," he muttered under his breath, crossing his arms on his chest. "Now I know what Scully feels whenever Mulder ditches her. Fucking prick." And AJ knew he was talking about Mulder and not really Nick, since it was great, after all, that the blond was liking someone.

He wasn't so much as hurt, as he was surprised. Nick, as opened as he was, had never been the kind of person who would just talk with an stranger. He didn't know if it was the Phile environment or the guy that was bringing that out in Nick.

Sighing softly, AJ turned to look at John Shiban continuing to answer. "Chris Carter has said that Mulder and Scully, in a way, are having a romance. Even though it's not a sexual romance, this is a relationship and it is complicated. And sometimes they are at odds, sometimes they don't agree, sometimes they are concerned for each other, they are worried that one is going to endanger themselves, etc. Sometimes those things aren't resolved and we like to leave it there because it makes them more real to us and more interesting people if they have that kind of long-term up and down that you go through in a relationship like this."

"But you can give us something for God's sake." Kevin shook his head and knew that Nick was looking at him. "We've been waiting five years already, we so deserve something."

"Patience is a virtue."

Kevin glared at the blond. "Five years Nick, in case you forget. Five years!"

Nick nodded, laughing. "I know. I'm thinking the same thing. Hopefully something will be out with the movie. I've heard that they are planning on having them kiss."

"Yeah, I heard the same thing." Kevin rubbed his eyebrow in concentration. "But I really don't think that much will happen. That will break the spell."

"Not really," Nick shrugged. "That'll make them more real."

"They are real enough."

Nick looked at Kevin hard. "No one can take five years of UST." Nick said using the common term for the Unresolved Sexual Tension that seemed ever present in the relationship between Mulder and Scully.

Kevin chuckled. "Yeah, you're right."

Frank looked around. "Don't you think we should be performing somehow? We're just standing up here with microphones..."

"We should do the human pyramid," Vince answered.

"We have a tumbling act we could do." Frank shrugged, laughing. "Go ahead..."

Another girl came up the mic, smiling at the guys. "Hi, my name is Rachael. Um, I was wondering, this is going out to all of you, what are your favorite episodes?"

Frank smiled. "All of Vince's episodes are my favorites."

The audience applauded as John answered, "Yeah, I guess. Anything where Mulder and Scully hold hands or nearly kiss."

The audience went wild and Kevin and Nick chuckled. "Oh god, that was brilliant," Nick said, wiping away a couple of fake tears.

Frank laughed at his friend's answer. "That's called sucking up to the audience."

Kevin turned around, eyes wide as he looked at Frank, then back at Nick. "No, that was brilliant!"

The same girl continued. "...and is their any plans to bring back Darren Morgan?"

Nick applauded at that. "Darren, yeah!" He turned around, talking directly to Kevin. "Darren was so cool!"

Smiling at the blond, his nose wrinkling and his eyes dancing, Kevin had to agree. "I know what ya mean. I think he wrote the very first fun episode."

"Small potatoes!" The two of them said at the same time, resolving into a fit of giggles.

AJ turned to glare at them, a look of exasperation on his face. "Will you guys keep it quiet? Some of us are actually trying to listen to them!"

Nick looked at him, and then shrugged. "He's nuts." Shaking his head, he got back to the subject at hand. "Oh god, that episode was beyond nuts."

Kevin agreed again. "I was laughing so very hard, it hurt! The part when Scully is about to kiss Darren thinking it was actually Mulder was priceless!"

"And Scully's reaction afterwards," Nick pointed out, "when she realized she was this," Nick brought his forefinger and thumb within an inch of each other, "close to have a lizard baby was crazy."

"Darren, we see him everyday, because he is writing for Millennium, which is just next door to us, and he's absolutely miserable." Frank shrugged. "Hates writing, hates his own shows. And we keep hoping he will come back but if we invite him, that will make it less likely that he will. But he has an idea, he claims, but he just hates the process so... who knows if he will feel like doing it again. My favorite episodes... I have many, many favorites but among them, I would have to say Duane Barry, Clyde Bruckman with Darren," more applause, "those are two that come to mind off hand. Many of Vince's, John's, and some of the one's we have done together I love or just had fun doing. Like Leonard Betts was fun show for us."

"Yeah! Leonard Betts..." John nodded.

"Leonard Betts was a fun one." Vince finally spoke up.

John shrugged. "Great minds think alike."

"You guys want to answer that question?" Frank turned to look at them. "What are your favorite shows?"

"As with Frank," Vince continued, "I don't really have a favorite but the one's that frank mentioned and, uh, Jose Chung, 731 / Nisei, Colony / End Game, Elegy was a great one, The Walk.... uh, I'm just kissin' ass up here, I don't know." He laughed, "I love them all, except for a couple."

Nick turned to look at Kevin. "Elegy! The last scene almost killed me!"

"Oh god, I almost forgot about that one. Of course!" Kevin nodded enthusiastically, feeling like a teenager all over again. "The whole Scully seeing the last victim so implied that she would be the next."

"And she would have been if the guy hadn't died."

"And then she saw the guy in the rearview mirror of her car!" Kevin chuckled. "I so would have screamed."

"I think she bit her tongue not to."

The questions continued like that, mostly about episodes and small scenes that weren't really clear for the fans. Scenes that both Kevin and Nick had over analyzed more times than they could count and knew by heart. Scenes that AJ didn't actually remembered, but that didn't matter that much, since half the things people were asking was totally beyond AJ's knowledge.

It didn't seem like an hour later when Frank said, "Two more questions, sorry."

Another girl came up the mic, asking, "My name is Liz, and my question is, why did you kill Pendrell!?"

"Oh God," Nick couldn't help but gasp, he was so shocked.

"I know. I mean, I didn't like the bastard, but he was still nice." Kevin sighed softly, remembering the way Cigarette Smoking Man -- his won father -- shoot him. "Poor Pendrell."

"I don't think he deserved that death," Nick shrugged. "He was just trying to survive."

"Ohhh... I know." Frank nodded while the crowd seemed to still be in shock.

John lifted his hands in surrender. "I didn't do it!"

"I felt really bad about that." Frank continued. "Actually, that was a tough call. There were drafts of that script where he lived. Um... and I don't know what to say except that: the story would work better if he died. That's the other thing about doing a show like this: Chris started establishing it at the beginning by killing Deep Throat at the beginning of season one, is that no one is safe. I think it just creates a level of anxiety for the audience that you can't count on (except for Mulder and Scully, who obviously have to live for the show to continue) you can't count on anybody surviving and I felt bad too."

Vince shrugged. "Just be glad that we didn't kill Frohike. The original draft of Memoirs of a CSM had him getting killed, so..."

"Oh God!" This time it was Kevin who gasped. "I remember reading about it a couple of weeks after the episode first came out and I almost died of the shock. That would have been so very awful."

"I'm sure that if Frohike died, the Lone Gunmen would have died." Nick shook his head sourly. "It just wouldn't have been same without him to taunt Scully or get Mulder jealous about his passes with her."

"Actually," Frank cleared, "Morgan / Wong wrote Musings of a CSM, which was originally called Memoirs of a CSM, and in the first draft, Frohike gets shot at the end! And the three of us read it and you can ask my girlfriend that I couldn't sleep that night I was so upset! You can't kill Frohike!!"

The crowd laughed and Kevin and Nick were nodding enthusiastically. Nick heard AJ muttering to himself, "who in the world is Frohike?" and just had to turn. Nick sighed out in frustration. "He's the short guy from the Lone Gunmen." Seeing AJ's still confused resemblance, Nick sighed again. "Remember the three loons that help Mulder?" He waited long enough for Alex to nod before continuing, "Well, Frohike is the short one. The one that's after Scully."

"Oh!" AJ said when enlightenment stuck. "The dwarf."

Nick glared at him. "You aren't that tall either J."

Alex only shot him back the finger.

"And we went into Chris's office the next morning and said This cannot happen! Frank continued. Don't kill this poor guy! and so he got a reprieve." The crowd laughed and he paused for a moment. "Last question."

"Hi, I'm Sherry. My question is for Vince. I was wondering if you enjoy writing the more humorous episodes or the more serious ones?"

"I am very lucky to do both, but honestly, probably the more funnier ones are funnier to write." Vince shrugged. "Its sort of like eating hot fudge Sundays, where you don't want to have one every meal. You want to spread it out some. You want to get some other serious ones in-between. Probably, as far as fun to write, the funny ones."

"I thought that Bad Blood was hilarious." The girl giggled at that.

"Thank you."

"Before we go," Frank took the mic, "let me just suck up a little bit and tell you that all of us are always amazed at how smart our audience is and its a struggle for us to try and be smart enough to write these shows and its a pleasure to have an audience like you. We're grateful you come out to these things, I hope it's worth your $25 bucks. They worked very hard to make these better than the old conventions and if you went to any of those, I think you can see its quite a bit better." Nick was nodding enthusiastically at this and Kevin could only chuckle at the blonde's antics. "You make our jobs possible and we appreciate that."

"Thank you." Vince stood up along with Frank, waving at the crowd.

"Thanks!" John smiled at the fans. The three of them made a small bow then walked out of the stage.

A voice over, very Mulder-like in the most serious episodes, spoke. "Gilligan, Spotnitz and Shiban... lets give them another hand for the writers. Chris Carter's main guys on the show. It's a real treat to have them out here today and they are serious when they mean it. They are internet junkies as well so, if you've got fast fingers, you know where to find them."

Kevin and Nick continued clapping for a good minute after the three of them had left. AJ was standing besides the blond, looking at him funny. "Nick," he started, "they're already gone. You can stop clapping."

Nick only shook his head. "They are great or what? Amazing. I just can't believe the way they can write. Mind blowing!"

"I know what ya mean," Kevin looked at the stage where the tree most stunning writers he had ever seen had stood only minutes ago. "They are just great. The way they write and weekly? I don't think I could do it."

"I don't think most people could do it." Nick stopped clapping, blue eyes finding green ones. "Having such an endless fountain of inspiration and being able to put that on paper so you can please million of people..."

"... and enjoying yourself while doing it," Kevin finished for the blond, eyes still locked with the blue ocean looking back at him. "Having your life and soul being written is beautiful."

Kevin and Nick stood there, just looking at each other, a soft smile on each other's lips. It was amazing the way it seemed like everything around them had just disappear and the only thing real -- the only thing making them real -- was each other.

AJ looked at Nick, then turned and glanced over at Kevin and let out a soft sigh, shaking his head as he did so. It was more than obvious that they were really into each other. How else was he to justify the lovey-dovey way they were looking at each other, like they were the only thing that mattered in the whole wide world? With a lopsided grin on his face, AJ put on his sunglasses. Oh yeah, those two were so very close to drooling for the other it wasn't even funny.

Nick was the first to break eye contact, turning to glance at the floor, a soft blush creeping his cheeks. That was... intense, to say the least. Daring to take a small peak at Kevin's face, he looked down again. Oh, yeah, intense.

Biting his lower lip, Kevin turned to look the other way. What was that? Was the thought that kept running through his mind. How can I like him so much? Was the other question that was nose to nose with the first one.

Laughing to himself, AJ shook his head. Could it be true that they weren't seeing what for him seemed so very obvious? Alex, being the good friend he was, decided to put those two out of their misery. "Guys?" The two of them glanced up guiltily and AJ had to fight the grin that tried to make its way over to his lips. "It's getting late, ya know?"

Nodding, Nick run his fingers through his hair. "Yeah, it's getting late."

With that, the three of them walked over to the front entrance. People were saying their goodbyes, hugging each other and exchanging phone numbers or emails as they departed. And as the three of them reached the threshold, Nick couldn't help but sigh. Great, he thought sourly. Just freaking great. Of course it had to be my luck that in a day like today, it had to be raining. Apparently, at some point during the Expo, it had started pouring rain in his cold evening of March.

Glancing at his watch, AJ smiled. "It's barely nine. I think I just might go over and see if I can help Panda with her report."

"What?" Nick squeaked, his voice getting really high at the question. And if he hadn't been worrying so much about the situation, he would have been blushing by this point.

"It's nine," AJ said calmly, shrugging nonchalantly and trying his best to fight the grin that was making its way over to his face. He knew Nick was blond, but AJ hoped to all the stars above that he would see the opening he was trying to give Nick. "Amanda has a report due tomorrow, so I just thought I could help her out with it."

"Alex--"

"See ya!" With that, AJ took off running down the street, not really minding the raining at all.

Oh, you sure are one hell of a friend Alexander, Nick thought angrily as he watched the retrieving form of his friend. It's so very you to leave me alone in a situation like this.

"Hmm..." Kevin started biting his lip, watching Nick glaring at the street down which AJ had took off running. "You have a way of going home?"

Nick shrugged. He hadn't been thinking about that exactly when he had seen AJ took of on his own. "It's ok. School is close by." He turned around and tried his best to smile at Kevin. "I live in the dorms. It's within walking distance."

"No, no..." Kevin waved at the outside. "It's pouring rain. You just can't go walking. I can take you."

"No, I wouldn't want you to go out of your way."

This time it was Kevin who shrugged. "Don't worry about it, ok? I'd feel horrible knowing that I let you go all by yourself with this weather."

"Kevin--"

"Please," Kevin drawled slowly, his eyes lowering and requesting this simple act and Nick couldn't even imagine saying no to those eyes. "Let me."

Nick was only able to nod. I wonder if there's something you can't get with those puppy dog eyes and that southern drawl. "Thanks."

Kevin smiled tenderly at him. "My pleasure." He looked out of the hall and couldn't help but grimace. "I parked down the street." Glancing at Nick, he frowned. "We'll have to walk. Sorry."

"It's ok." And it was. For Nick, it most certainly was. As long as he got to spend a couple more minutes with Kevin, it was totally worth getting soaked in this rain.

It was amazing the way Kevin was feeling for someone he had just met. Never before in his live had something like this happened. He shrugged, not really planning on questioning fate.

"Ready?"

Nick nodded and, grinning like fools, the two of them took off running for the end of the street where Kevin's dark green Pathfinder was parked. Kevin unlocked the driver's door and got in, Nick following his suit.

Kevin started to chuckled, not really being able to believe he had just walked under the rain and hadn't been bothered at all by that.

"That was great!"

Kevin nodded at Nick's enthusiastic comment. "Yeah," was the only thing Kevin could think of answering.

Starting the car, Kevin realized that Nick was only wearing his pants and a cotton sweater. It was so very cold, Kevin was sure Nick was freezing cold. Kevin, being the gentleman he was, started taking off his jacket.

"You must be freezing!"

Nick shook his head, moving away from Kevin's reach as much as his seat allowed him to. "No, you only have a shirt under that. You'll freeze!"

"No, please--"

"Kevin--"

"Please."

And once again, Nick could only nod.

Kevin smiled softly as Nick agreed. This boy sitting by his side had to be one of the most enigmatic people he had ever met and it was down right breathtaking for Kevin. He couldn't help but wonder if Nick was feeling the same way Kevin was.

As he placed his jacket on Nick's shoulders, the blond turned around and met his eyes. Dazzling blue eyes found piercing green eyes, a tender smile on Nick's lips. Arranging the neck of the coat, his hand brushing the soft flesh of Nick's neck, Kevin just knew. The way his eyes shone and his smile enchanted was telling Kevin more than what he needed to know.

He turned around and started the car. Kevin could feel Nick's eyes on him and he couldn't help but smile at the effect the blond had on him. He didn't need to turn around and look at Nick to know the man was smiling. He knew. He just knew.

And as Mulder had so wisely said on Tooms, "If there's an ice tea in that bag, could be love." Even though it hadn't actually been tea and Scully's answer had been, "Must be fate, Mulder. Root beer." For him, it had been fate.