"Alex? Alex, love, I've brought some lunch. Where did you go? I know you were hungry," Mulder said.

The house was empty. Alex's clothes lay in a heap by the door. The computer at which he had been working to restore his lost knowledge was still on, the tutorial cheerfully asking him for the answer to the next question. He was already up to undergraduate level English and history. Soon he would be as well informed as he ever was.

Alex was not in the garden, but the side gate was open.

Oh, no, not the side gate! The new neighbor had a koi pond. She had mentioned it when Walter asked her about the small construction crew in her back yard a month ago immediately after she had moved in.

Koi, fat, slow, golden fish that would have looked as delicious to Alex as a juicy steak to Walter.

Mulder heard a woman's voice ask with bemused curiosity, "What ever are you doing in my pond, Mr. Krycek?"

Alex's husky voice said, "I'm hungry. It's good. Do you want some? Walter says that it's polite to share."

"Oh, ick! You are really strange!" the woman exclaimed.

There he was sitting on an ornamental stone lily pad in the middle of the large pond. The remains of a fish dangled from one hand as the other picked a fragment of the pink flesh from the bones.

"Ms, I'm so sorry. Listen, my friend had a head injury and has an occasional odd spell. He didn't mean any harm! I'll pay to have the fish replaced," Mulder said.

"Well, that was the biggest fish in the pond. He wasn't very nice; it's true. He ate all of the smaller fish and two of the frogs also," the woman, a young woman in a white dress said. "Hi, I'm Loony. You must be the other one. I've met Alex and Walter."

A goofy looking big gray dog lolled at her feet. It had one drooping ear and its tongue was lolling out of the huge toothy mouth.

Mulder accepted her hand and noticed that several people were waving from the house, trying to get her attention. She turned around and impatiently made pushing back gestures at them. She seemed reluctant to take her eyes off the naked former water baby in her pond.

Alex finished his meal and threw the bones back into the water. He dived in and washed the remains of lunch off his face and hands. He came out clad in water, droplets rippling down his sleek body, now faintly golden with the sun. It was hard to keep the clothes on him. He really hated them so he often had an all over tan.

The loony dog or was it a wolf approached and bowed, stretching down on its huge forepaws, its hind end waving a fluffy tail happily. Alex laughed and got down to imitate the gesture.

All right, that was it. Alex had stolen his last free fish. Mulder grabbed him by one elfin ear and led him to the garden bench. He pulled the brat over his knee and said, "I told you that you would be spanked if did that again! You ate Kersh's prize-winning discus. You tried to eat the piranha at Doggett's house. No more!"

Thwack, thwack, thwack, the blows resounded and Loony seemed fascinated. She remarked, "It's my birthday. Give him some for me too."

"Good idea!" Mulder's hand flew until his lover sobbed and said, "No more fish! I promise. I won't ever go fishing again unless you or Walter bring me."

Letting Alex up, Mulder brushed the tears and a stray fish scale from his repentant lover's face. "Now, then we had better go home and get you dressed."

"Oh, must you?" asked Loony.

Mulder scrutinized her and smirked. There was a young lady who amply deserved a spanking of her own. A woman carrying a bowl of darkly ripe cherries came from the house and asked, "Loony, what are you doing? Shouldn't you have shared your birthday treat? You are a very bad girl!"

As Mulder dragged Alex off through the gate, he heard a despairing wail. "But it's my birthday!!!!"

<G> Believe me, she deserves both the naked Alex and the spanking!<G>