Author's notes: This story was supposed to be a stand alone but I decided to add it as the aftermath of Pillars of Sand. So here is chapter 2 of Pillars. In this universe, Diana didn't die and is working on the X-files with Scully and Mulder. Mulder obviously hasn't talked to Scully about his dreams but they have impacted his thoughts of her a great deal.
Awkward, was all Dana Scully could think as she slid into the passenger seat of the Ford Taurus where Mulder and Diana were waiting. She had given herself a mental pat on the back for not rolling her eyes when she walked into the office earlier that morning and had cheered in her head when she offered to go to the crime scene to gather medical evidence with the pathologist on duty first. Supposedly the Lieutenant on the scene was an acquaintance of Mulder's and had requested their expertise on the case.
But it was awkward now as she sat in the car, waiting for Mulder to start the engine.
She had been walking with him and Diana after they had met her at the crime scene. It was sunny outside and she had taken off her jacket and was clad only in a green Henley long-sleeve shirt and black pants that draped over her black shoes. When she had looked up, Mulder had looked at her like he was surprised to see her looking so casual. And on the way to the car, it became apparent that someone else had noticed her dressed down nature and attitude, and had liked it.
"Agent Scully," Lieutenant Turner said, crinkling his handsome face in a sweet smile, "You left your jacket over there. And also, I was wondering if I could have a word with you."
"Yes, of course," she replied, with as much confusion as anyone that was standing around her, so she followed him mostly to retrieve her jacket.
"I could easily get your phone number from the case-file on record. I know that." Turner's eyes crinkled in another smile as he stopped in a clearing a little ways off from the car and Scully could feel herself blushing, "And I know we still have a ways to go on this thing before it's solved, but I thought I might just ask you if maybe I could call you sometime. We could have dinner. Um, you know, when the case is over of course."
"Oh." Scully's mind reeled. It had been forever since anyone had asked her out on a date, "Um, sure, that sounds nice."
"Okay then," Turner said as he winked at her, "Well, I'll see you around until then, Dana."
"Bye." Scully said quietly as she turned and walked away.
What she didn't know was that Mulder had watched their exchange through the windshield. He'd been noticing men looking at her a lot lately. He wasn't sure what it was about her demeanor but she seemed a little more relaxed. Her hair was growing out and she had updated her wardrobe a bit, and all in all, the complete package of her was mesmerizing.
She was always beautiful, but lately he was aware that other people were starting to take more notice. His jaw clenched at the thought and he looked out his other window. From the way that Turner had watched Scully walk away, Mulder was pretty sure that he didn't want other men to start taking notice of his partner.
The car was silent when Scully sat in the passenger seat and buckled her seatbelt. Diana had opted to sit in the back, which surprised her, and Scully sat and waited. The car did not start.
Mulder looked at her expectantly after a brief pause, "Did Turner have a question about the case?"
Scully looked at him with honest confusion, "No, he didn't." She was dazed. Mulder looked a little angry and Scully had no idea why, but the tone of his voice made her retreat into silence.
Mulder's jaw clenched at Scully's guarded answer and started the car. On the drive back to the Bureau she would catch him sending glances her way but instead he would engage in conversation with Agent Fowley as Scully stared out the window.
The events of the next two weeks were a string of unexplained events for Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully. It wasn't so much the caseload that she was enduring with the two like minded people she shared an office basement with, but the fact that men seemed to be crawling out of the woodwork, left and right, asking her out on dates, was a phenomenon that she wasn't quite used to.
She had yet to go on a date of course, but just knowing that men were interested was secretly liberating and in some instances she felt more like a woman. Not a colleague, not a doctor, not a brainy know it all, but a desirable woman. It had been a long time.
All these thoughts passed through her head as she readied herself in the mirror. Ethan Minnette had called her for a small favor. He was doing an investigative report for the news station he was working for and needed a date for a theme party that he was attending to get information and access from an informant. With Scully's medical expertise and FBI trained knowledge he had convinced her that having her with him would be more fruitful to his truthful investigation than bringing someone from off the street.
"Off the street?" Scully had said incredulously on the phone with Ethan, trying to hide the laughter in her voice, "You would actually do something like that? It's been, what? Six years since I've seen you and you're already stooping to that level?"
"Well, you know, anyone after you would be a hard act to follow," Ethan laughed as he teased her, "I want to thank you Danes. I know it's been a while since we've spoken, but I hope that I can still consider you one of my friends. I hope I'm not messing up any plans that you have for this weekend. "
"Nope, no plans Ethan," Scully said into the phone, taking care not to sigh too heavily in case Ethan would hear her longing.
"When we lived together, I remember Friday nights to be very busy." Ethan said and Scully could hear the teasing leer in his voice. Had he been like this when they were dating?
"Ethan, I don't have anything to wear on such short notice." Scully said avoiding Ethan's flirting.
"Yeah, that's no problem. You can stop by the station Thursday night and we can look through one of the anchor's wardrobe. There might be some evening wear around. Just head over and ask for me and I'll get you a pass to come in. If you need it, I can probably finagle someone to do your hair for free too."
"Well, okay, I guess you've covered everything." Scully said, "You can fill me in on the story then too."
"Will do Danes, but hey, gotta get off the phone. I'll see you tomorrow night."
And with that he hung up. Scully calculated how many times she had been asked out that week. Two times was a world record in the last five years she had been working for the X-files. She wasn't complaining.
And here she was readying herself in a borrowed dress that was two sexy for her liking but was, as Ethan assured, the kind of dress he needed her to wear to the event. Her job was to drive men to distraction while looking at every detail of the room and its occupants. She scoffed at Ethan's suggestion that she could distract anyone of the opposite gender, but secretly she hoped it was true. And being undercover as Ethan's date was a little gift she was giving herself to revel in the feel of what it would be like to be a desirable woman.
The theme was set in the 1940s and she had found a black halter dress that hugged her body but exposed her back. The bottom of the dress flowed out at the knees and made a flowy look as she walked in it with her high heels on which were visible through the sheer fabric of the dress's bottom. She was weary in showing off her tattoo, but she figured that Ethan would get a kick out of it. He used to make fun of her for trying to be un-sexy and he would never have guessed that Dana Scully was capable of allowing someone to brand her permanently.
12:30 a.m.
En Route to Scully's Apartment (after the event)
"Scully," she answered on the third ring as she drove home.
"Hey, did you turn your phone off? I've been trying to reach you." Mulder said by way of greeting, "I was calling to see if I could drop by tomorrow to pick up those reports you worked on this morning."
"Well, I'm actually in your neighborhood, Mulder, I can drop them off now if it's not too late." Scully said as she shifted in her seat. Her back was starting to feel a little sore and she wondered if she might have a bruise from the events of the evening.
"Oh, you are? Well, of course, you can drop them off now. Saves me the trouble tomorrow I guess." Mulder said confused, "What are you doing on this side of town Scully?"
"I'll be there shortly Mulder," Scully said quietly as she hung up the phone without answering his question. She was too tired for this cloak and dagger routine but opted for it because it would be easier to let him guess in person.
1:05 a.m.
Mulder's Apartment
Mulder's eyes widened at the site of Scully standing outside his open apartment door holding the reports he had requested.
"Gee Scully, I'd hardly think dropping off reports would call for formal wear," Mulder quipped to hide the fact that he had practically checked her out as she walked through the door. She was wearing an overcoat, but her hair looked so elegant in a silver pin on the side of her hair making her bangs swoop across her forehead. She had done something to it to make the ends curl around her face in an old-fashioned flapper style. It looked very good on her.
Mulder's eyes widened even more when she faced him and took of her jacket. The ensemble was so un-Scullylike and so sexy he had to keep himself from stuttering like a fool. He felt a weird ringing in his ears and he shook his head to make it stop. She had asked him something but it sounded so far away.
"Mulder, do you have a first aid kit and some ice?" she asked again. Suddenly he could see the tiredness in his partner's face and without question, he scrambled ungracefully to find her requests. He hoped that she was oblivious to his obvious nervousness.
"What happened?" Mulder asked concerned as he came back into the living room, having taken time to regroup, and set the supplies infront of her on the coffee table as he sat next to her, "You don't look like you have a cut on you."
"On my back Mulder, something hurts but I can't see it." Scully said as she looked through his kit.
"Let me see." Mulder said as he stood and grabbed her hands to stand up with him and turned her around. He almost wished that he hadn't done that because her back was so exposed to him and he had trouble taking his eyes off of her tattoo. Looking up more he saw a big bruise forming on the middle of her back and he reached out to touch it.
"Ouch." Scully said at his touch, "I guess it is something then. Is it bleeding?"
"No, but it looks like it's going to be a pretty bad bruise. What were you doing Scully?" Mulder said as his hand trailed down her back.
"I went to a party and I got pushed up against a railing. I guess it was a harder push than I thought it was." Scully said as they both sat down. Mulder took the ice he'd also gotten for her in the kitchen from her hand and refrained from calling out the obvious innuendo embedded in her statement and turned her to face away from him on the couch as he placed the ice pack on her bruise.
"Was it a theme party or something? Nice outfit Scully." Mulder said, feeling safe since her back was to him. He hoped his voice wouldn't give away the fact that he appreciated greatly the appearance she was gracing him with tonight, bruise and all.
"Yeah, I went with Ethan, ouch Mulder, don't push like that," Scully said as she looked over her shoulder at Mulder.
"Sorry, what was the party for?" Mulder tried to mask his annoyance when Scully mentioned the fact that she had been with another man. He hadn't entertained the thought and his jaw clenched, "And aren't you dating Turner now? How many guys are there?"
"Who told you about Turner? And there aren't any guys Mulder, I was just doing a favor for Ethan. I used to date him when I started working for the Bureau. He needed someone for the party he was attending and wanted me to consult undercover."
"So I assume there was some sort of confrontation with, what, an informant? Is he an FBI agent too?"
"No, he's a journalist. And yes, he does have an informant that invited him to the party to provide him with some sort of information. Ethan talked to him before we went into the stairwell and we needed a place to discuss a way to put a surveillance camera in the men's bathroom when someone went through the stairwell and knocked into Ethan and he pushed me into the rail when he lost balance. We both almost fell over the side and we were four floors up. The jerk that pushed him was drunk."
Scully turned towards Mulder and took the ice pack from his hands and set it on the table, "Thanks Mulder, there are the reports you needed. I'm going to head home, it's late and I'd like to get out of these clothes."
Mulder stood as Scully stood and when she turned towards him she lost her balance from her three inch stiletto heels at the same time Mulder's arm snaked behind her to catch her fall. The placement of his hand met her bruise and she gasped at the pain and fell quite heavily into Mulder's front and all they could do was stare at each other, Scully's hands gripping Mulder's biceps.
Mulder's eyes glazed over and his gaze drifted to her lips. There were a million thoughts in his head that should have prevented his actions in this predicament. These same million thoughts had kept him from doing what he was about to do in the past, but the only thought he would let get through at the moment was that he would explode if he couldn't kiss her. So he did.
Affectionate thy name is Fox William Mulder, Scully thought as she drifted awake from Mulder kissing her on the back of her neck. They were in his bedroom, both wearing matching gray t-shirts. They made out like teenagers on his couch the night before and he had held her during the night after she had showered and changed into the t-shirt he had offered her to be more comfortable.
But she wasn't comfortable. It had been a long time she had slept with a man, and honestly, even though they hadn't gotten past third base, the part that scared her the most was that it seemed like they had been making out like this and sleeping together for years. She had never known such ease with a man before, not Ethan, not Jack, not Daniel and definitely not Ed Jerse.
That fact alone made her turn in his arms from the spooning position and kiss him straight on the mouth.
"I didn't mean to wake you." Mulder said between kisses as he smiled lazily.
"Liar." She said and kissed him more forcefully.
"Okay, maybe I did," Mulder said boyishly and boldly rolled on top of her, "Maybe you woke me up first."
Scully's eyes widened as she felt what he was talking about nudging her thigh.
"You bring your penlight to bed Mulder?"
"What? No. Flashlight maybe." Mulder said as he kissed her chin.
She was going to kiss him back but the sound of her cell-phone alarm alerted her that she had somewhere to be on this particular Saturday morning.
"Mulder, I have to go." Scully said as she looked at him apologetically after she had shut off her phone.
"What? Another date I don't know about?" Mulder teased, but secretly hoped she wasn't meeting anymore men.
"No, I'm supposed to be having lunch with my brother and my mom. I forgot. I wasn't planning this to happen." Scully said as she tried to move from under him.
Mulder groaned. This woman would surely be the death of him.
"Sorry Mulder, I can't miss this one or I'm sure to be disowned. Charles hasn't been around from overseas in a long time and I really wanted to see him."
"Oh, since it's Charles then it's okay," Mulder smiled and then rolled off of her.
"Can I borrow this t-shirt and some boxers? I don't feel like wearing that dress home." Scully asked as she propped her head on her elbow to look at him.
"Only if you bring them back." Mulder said, looking at her with puppy dog eyes.
"I'll bring them back tonight." Scully said.
"Sounds like a plan. And you might want to bring your own clothes if you're going to stay over." Mulder challenged knowing there were many words left unsaid from the previous night, the previous years to be exact, and he was wondering how far he could push her.
Scully looked at him for a beat and decided to not worry about the consequences.
"Okay, Mulder, sounds like a plan."
She quickly got out of bed and grabbed boxers out of his drawer and then walked out into the living room. Moments later, he heard the door click shut and finally, he let go of the breath that he didn't know he had been holding.
What was he getting himself into? He asked himself. Then he shook his head, he knew exactly what he wanted and the only thing he could do now was prepare himself and his apartment for the oncoming night.
Mulder's Apartment
7 P.m.
In all fairness, being a man didn't mean that he couldn't freak out. He had been cleaning all day which alleviated the pressure he was feeling since Scully had left that morning. The bedroom had clean sheets, just in case, the dishes were washed and all of his mail was pushed into a pile and placed in a box in his closet for some future day when he would find them again and go through them.
But now, he was concerned because he hadn't heard from Scully all day. He figured she was having a great time with her mother and brother but he wondered if maybe she was having second thoughts. That actually made him feel even worse but he was too lazy to get up from his couch and do anymore cleaning so he put in a movie and stared off into space, hoping that the night ahead would turn out better than what he was dreading.
His condition was worsening. His man crush, as he had dubbed in his head to make him feel more macho, was causing slight tremors in his back. He thought back to where this had all started and wondered if it had started with him. He couldn't grasp a time when he might have thought Scully felt romantic feelings towards him.
She was always so cool and collected offering support whenever he needed it and comfort was always a balanced street in their partnership. They depended on each other and he was comfortable with that. He just wanted to make her happy. But in return, he hadn't been happy in a long time until she had stopped by last night and they had kissed like the world would end with the oncoming sunrise.
Mulder ran a hand over his face. He hadn't dated anyone from work since Diana and that was a disaster. She ended up leaving him anyways and now she was back hinting that she wouldn't mind picking up where they had left off. In another time that was something he would have welcomed, but those days were the pre-Scully days. And no matter what Scully might think after the fiasco that the El Rico case had catalyzed, there was no doubt in his mind that if it turned out to be a disaster with Scully and if she left him, he would hunt her down and make her see reason. He had never even thought to go after Diana when she left.
And if he looked back at the last few weeks, or maybe months, he realized that Scully had been pushing away personally. He had lightly flirted with her, as was his usual behavior, but he had noticed that she didn't smirk at his comments as much, didn't let him lead her out an open door with a comfortable hand on the small of her back and any mention of spending time outside of work without a case was met with an excuse or a request for a rain check. So why was all of this happening now? That was a question he might want to address tonight. He let out a frustrated sigh and turned off the t.v.
Forget man crush, Mulder thought, right about now he was feeling like a love-sick pansy. He felt vulnerable. He admitted to himself that Scully could have anything she wanted. He would make her his queen if she just didn't give any indication that she was having second thoughts about the possibility, extreme possibility, that they could be more than friends.
En Route to Mulder's
7 p.m.
Dana Scully was a nervous wreck. The lunch with Charles had been fun and it was good to see her mother smiling and excited that her youngest son was finally back for a visit. She had threw herself into the conversation with her brother and for that brief lunch-time moment, she had forgotten that the night before had been an event that went against any FBI protocol between male and female partners.
She had quickly gone home after lunch and had spent the majority of the time in between then and now trying to figure out what pajamas to bring to Mulder's. She'd shaved her legs, plucked her eyebrows, shaved her arm pits and had run around the apartment like a chicken with its head cut off looking for things and then tossing them aside.
She had picked up the phone several times to call him but had quickly put it back in the receiver thinking that if she heard his voice she would shrivel up and utter the words that easily came to her whenever faced with unheard and unexplained events. She'd even said the words allowed in hopes that it made her feel better.
"Mulder, I don't know if this is a good idea," Scully said allowed in her car as she drove, wondering if the tone of the way she said it would give her a sign that what they were doing was a bad idea.
She sighed and stepped on the gas. It was pointless for her to believe that this wasn't something she wanted. She had always been attracted to him. She just didn't want to show it. She had chose, since the beginning, to show him that she was his equal; to show him that she could save him as many times as he had her from the badgering erosion of the truth.
She hadn't even gotten a phone call from Mulder all day. She had gotten two calls from Ethan and one call from Lt. Turner and seeing their names pop up on her caller i.d. had made her quiver with nervousness. These were two very attractive and interesting men who were interested in her and it was wrong of her to hope that they would still be around if Mulder decided that he didn't want to be with her.
She had never been one to think in that capacity, but she was scared, and being scared made people do weird things. But she had refrained from calling them back. The pressure was on with her and Mulder, and if she couldn't make it work with him, she would be ruined for any man afterwards.
Scully shook her head, not taking her eyes of the road. The truth was, she had been ruined for any man the day she had walked into Mulder's basement office.
The knock on the door startled Mulder and he sat up straight on his couch. He stood and straightened his clothes. He looked around the living room to make sure it didn't look like he had cleaned too much and continued on his slow walk towards the door.
The knock came again.
He opened the door. He stared at Scully and she stared back. His breath stopped. It started again.
"Hey Scully, come on in." Mulder said, hoping that he sounded casual.
"Mulder, here are your clothes." Scully said as she handed them to him in a brown paper bag, "washed and ready."
"Thanks Scully," Mulder said grabbing the bag with his left hand and grabbing her arm holding the bag with his right, "come on in."
"Mulder…" Scully said as she hesitantly let him pull her.
"Scully…" Mulder countered as he continued pulling her. He shut the door without letting her go and then continued pulling her towards the couch.
He stopped midway between the couch and his bedroom, not wanting to frighten her but hoping against hope that he wasn't right about what he had been thinking earlier; the part where she decided she didn't want this.
With fear making him move, he dropped the bag and pulled her into his embrace and kissed her on the forehead. To his relief she let him and then hugged him back. Yeah, Mulder thought, definite love-sick pansy.
Mulder leaned his head down further to nuzzle her neck and placed a kiss below her ear, smelling the familiar scent of her perfume.
"You look nice." Mulder said, his voice muffled in her hair.
Scully nuzzled closer.
"Mulder, what are we doing?" Scully asked.
Mulder lifted his head and gave her a leer, "Moving towards the bedroom?"
Scully tried not to laugh at his comment as she looked up into his face. Seeing the hopefulness there she kissed him on his cheek, his jaw, his neck.
Mulder cleared his throat when she kissed him there again, "Definitely moving towards the bedroom."
"How about we move towards the couch?" Scully suggested as she raised her eyebrows.
"Okay, Scully," Mulder said, not letting go of her hand.
To be continued...Feedback makes me write... : ) hint hint...