Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to my god, Chris Carter, but he let me borrow them again.
Chapter one
Dana Scully woke in a bed that wasn't hers, but wasn't unfamiliar. It hadn't been for quite awhile now. She lay still for a minute, taking in the moment before she had to return to reality. She looked over at the man laying next to her. Envying him for his peaceful slumber.
Fox Mulder stirred slightly, but didn't wake.
She liked it better when she could leave while he was still sleeping. No awkward words could be exchanged, and their actions didn't need to be explained.
She quietly got up and dressed.
Dana exited the apartment building. The night, or early morning, however you wanted to look at it, was comfortably cool for summer.
It was nearing five am. She needed to get home to change and shower for work.
Dana got in her car and headed for home.
As she drove home, Dana reflected on her situation for what seemed like the millionth time. She never thought that she and Mulder would have this kind of relationship. It really was out of character for her; for both of them.
It was a year ago that they decided on the arrangement, well that Mulder asked her for it. They knew that it was difficult to carry on relationships with other people. It was too complicated with the work they did, but they were human and they did have a need for physical contact. They both knew that they could trust each other to not become too invested in it or at least to not complicate things.
Four months ago it was easy for her, but now, Dana knew that she was starting to feel something more then just lust for her best friend.
They always had a comfortable friendship, and it always seemed that with time they may have crossed into that territory, but this arrangement was Mulder's idea. No true commitment, nothing to keep him tied down. She was fine with it in the beginning, but now she was feeling like he was getting the better part of the deal. She blamed him for her feelings she was developing for him, and for the feelings of being used. She reprimanded herself; she knew that was not how he saw it and that was never how would want her to feel. She was just letting herself get confused.
Dana knew that she could end it anytime, but the thing of it was, she didn't want to. Any way that she could be close to him was worth all the confusion and pain.
They were close, but they didn't have a relationship, only that made any sense to them. What they had was indescribable. They didn't expect things from each other, that was what made it easy. If one wanted to hang out, then they would, if one wanted to go out, they would, but they never said it was a date and they never said they were together in a romantic way. And that is where everything became confusing.
Dana parked in front of her apartment building.
She sighed. Maybe she should end the arrangement. She was the one getting hurt. Mulder seemed to be doing just fine.
Dana unlocked the door to her apartment and walked in.
She went into her bathroom and undressed. The shower felt wonderful on her tired body.
Lately she was more tired then usual, but she figured it was because she was with Mulder during the work week and they had had trying cases lately. Maybe they needed to limit their meetings to weekend's only. She would talk to him about that later.
She finished and dressed. Impeccable as usual.
She looked at the time, it was only six-thirty. She didn't need to be in until eight. She decided that she needed a bit more sleep. She laid on her couch and dozed off.
Dana was annoyed when she heard her cell phone go off for the third time. She didn't want to get up. She sat up groggily and was surprised to see that the sun had fully risen and that it looked like it was nearly noon.
She looked at her watch, it was eleven, "Oh st," she said and quickly answered her phone.
"Scully," she said.
"Hey, it's me, where are you?" Mulder said obviously worried.
"Sorry, I fell asleep, I was just so tired," she explained, getting up and walking into the bathroom.
"You know, if you kept some of your clothes at my place, you wouldn't need to leave so early," he said.
"Mulder, couples do that, we are not a couple," she said tactlessly as she fixed her hair and straightened her clothes.
"I know, it would just be convenient is what I meant," he said sounding small.
She sighed, "I wouldn't feel comfortable, that's all, look, I'm heading out now, I'll see you in twenty," she said and hung up before he could respond.
Dana made her way to the basement. Mulder was just typing up something. She was hoping it was the report on the last assignment they had. She wasn't looking forward to doing it.
He looked up and smiled slightly at her.
"Sorry," she said again.
"Don't worry, but, um, you will need to explain to Skinner, we had an unexpected meeting at nine," Mulder said looking at his watch, "Three hours ago,"
She groaned, putting her stuff on her desk, "I'll call him," she said and dialed Skinner's extension.
Mulder listened to the one-sided conversation.
"Yes, sir, sorry, we'll be up right now," she said and hung up.
"Are we in trouble?" Mulder asked getting his suit jacket.
"He didn't say," she said and led the way out.
They seated themselves in front of the A.D.
"Well, I asked you here, because I have assignments for you two," Skinner started.
Mulder and Scully exchanged bemused glances.
"Assignments, sir?" Mulder asked stressing the pluralism of the word.
"Yes, I have a case for you Agent Mulder, in Connecticut, " Skinner said, "And Agent Scully, I need you to teach at Quantico, a professor there is on maternity leave, they need someone to fill in for the six weeks, and since you used to teach, they asked for you," he said.
"Um, of course," she said.
"Will I be working alone?" Mulder asked.
"No, Agent Erica Matthews, will be assigned to you for this case, you will meet with her later, you and Agent Matthews are to fly out tonight," Skinner said, "All right, well then you are dismissed, and Agent Scully, you can leave for the rest of the day, the professor at Quantico will need to update you with her lesson plans,"
"Yes sir," she said.
They both returned to the office.
"I'm surprised," was all Mulder said as he looked through the case file.
"Anything good?" Scully asked.
He looked at her wryly, "In your standards, or mine?"
She smiled at him, "Never mind, then," she said and picked up her purse.
"Hey, can we talk for a minute?" Mulder said placing the case file down.
"Yeah, what about," she said.
"Us," he said simply.
"Uh, anything but that, I thought we agreed with everything in the beginning," she said uncomfortably.
"Yeah, but…you're right," he said and dismissed the whole conversation, "Anyway, are you all right?"
"Yeah, why," Scully said.
"You never sleep late, or show up to work late, is anything wrong," he asked with deep concern.
"I'm fine, but i was thinking that maybe we should only see each other on weekends," Scully said awkwardly.
"Yeah, we can do that," he agreed somewhat reluctantly.
He sat behind his desk and picked up what he was doing earlier. She looked at him confused. Maybe they really did need to end the arrangement, if it was going to start affecting the way they worked together. She didn't want to lose the friendship.
"The arrangement, in retrospect, really was a bad idea. What were they thinking?" Dana thought.
It was unusual for him to bring up their "arrangement" at work. At work, they were Mulder and Scully, just partners, friends, but nothing more. The office was sacred ground, not to be befouled with their personal doings.
She shrugged it off and was about to leave when a woman entered the office. A beautiful, leggy, blonde blue eyed, and not to mention the chest, woman.
"Hi," she said looking at both of them, "I'm looking for Agent Mulder,"
"Hi, I take it your Agent Matthews," Mulder said, standing up to shake her hand, and offer her that smile Dana hated when it wasn't directed at her.
The woman offered a smile of her own, "Oh, Erica is fine,"
Dana rolled her eyes, annoyed with the way women were with him, but she knew that Mulder didn't mind. Why should he, he wasn't taken. Dana had no claim on him. She swallowed her feelings bitterly.
He's not your boyfriend, he's your partner and just someone you fuck, she told herself.
Finally Agent Matthews looked at Dana.
"Hi, you must be Agent Scully," she said extending her hand.
Dana took it, and smiled politely, "Hi, well, good luck with the case; you too Agent Mulder," she said trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.
She forced a smile at Mulder and walked out of the office.
"Why does it seem that the F.B.I. is hiring supermodels all of a sudden," she thought feeling slightly inferior, pushing the button to the elevator.
"Scully," Mulder called and walked over to her.
She was waiting for the elevator and damning it for being so slow. She put on her best 'I don't care' look and turned to him
"Yeah," she said.
"Um, can I call you later?" he said softly, so only she could hear him.
"Probably not a good idea, I mean you might be busy, with the case I mean," she said a little harsher then she meant.
He looked slightly ashamed, "I would like to though, if you didn't mind,"
"You can, if I'm home, I need to head over to Quantico," she said turning back to the elevator, still damning it.
"Dana…" he started.
"Mulder, don't worry, okay, I'll see you when we finish our assignments, you owe no explanations," she said sincerely.
"I'll miss you," he said suddenly.
She only looked at him, surprised. He leaned in to kiss her, but she quickly turned her head and he instead caught her cheek.
"We're at work, it's inappropriate," she offered as her excuse.
He looked at her disappointed, "Right, I forgot, see you later," he said annoyed and walked back into the office.
She looked at him regretfully. The elevator didn't show up still. She decided to take the stairs.
Author's note:
one: I started writing this story for my pleasure and it only made sense to me, and it probably only still does, sorry for that, but then I thought it might be post worthy if I really worked on it, so here it is.
Two: I know Scully's character is confusing, that her thoughts contradict her actions, but I promise in later chapters it will all come together and make sense; I meant for the story to be written this way. And it does get better, anyway, let me know if I should continue or trash the whole idea, thanks for reading.