Disclaimer: The X-Files was created and therefore is owned by Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions and Fox Broadcasting. I am using these characters without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
***
Pressed up against him, hips conjoined; he had never felt closer to anyone in his entire life. It was all her. He could smell her shea butter moisturiser; feel the softness of her skin against his arm. He wished she would never leave his embrace.
As he tightened his grip around the bat, she pushed her body further into his. His breath caught in his throat. This was too much.
He lessened his hold of the bat and her body, moving away from that which he wanted more than life itself.
"What's wrong, Mulder?", she turned in his direction, questioning.
"Nuthin', just checking you're holding it right"
"Am I?"
He almost laughed at her eagerness , she was always wanting to be the best, seeking to prove to everyone else that she was capable of everything, anything. He knew it. Since the moment she walked through the door, looking like a fiercely independent school-girl, he had never doubted that she would be capable of proving her critics wrong, of achieving anything that she set her mind to. Including winning his loyalty, his respect, his...love.
He had known for a while now that he loved her, thinks he did from the beginning. He had thought that his days of wanting somebody in his life had faded and gone when she had waltzed into his life, demanding to be held in the esteem that she felt she deserved; that he knew she was worthy of.
Part of him wished he didn't. It had become so much harder to have her with him in the field, when he knew they could get hurt or worse, since he had realised that he wanted her to be his life; his all. But he knew that even attempting to mention his concern would garner him a raised eyebrow, a roll of her cerulean eyes and a quick, yet stern, dismissal of his doubts.
She was endlessly beautiful but he also knew her stubbornness ran deeper than even he could understand.
So he didn't say anything. Choosing instead to show his commitment to her in ways that would hold significance to only her; in ways that weren't overtly demonstrative but that he knew she would understand.
He hoped it was enough. For now.