Her phone was buzzing in her pocket. She pulled the knitted glove off her right hand with her teeth and tapped the green button to answer the call.
"Scully, it's me," she heard a familiar voice say, "watcha doin'?"
She wasn't surprised at all to get a call from him out of office hours on a Saturday afternoon. Since they were back working together for the FBI, they had grown closer again. And she was grateful for it. She had been the one leaving, but that didn't mean it had been any easier for her to live a life without the perfect other than for him. It had been like missing a limb and she wouldn't have survived her mother's sudden and unexpected passing without him. Mulder had been a great comfort and Scully felt her love for him winning back the upper hand over the disappointment and frustration she had to deal with during the last months of their cohabitation in their Virginia country house.
"I'm trying to find a Christmas tree that isn't crooked, fits nicely into the corner of my living room and doesn't cost a fortune!" She shook her head at a man holding out a thin douglas fir tree which seemed to have been chopped weeks ago who mumbled under his breath something like 'goes tree shopping three days before Christmas and wants to make a bargain.'
"Let me stop you there, Scully. Pack your bags, we're gonna spend Christmas at Bill's!"
"I'm sorry, what?"
Not only wouldn't she call Mulder and her older brother close and thus eager to spend the holidays with each other, what had to be even more astounding was the fact that Bill had been stationed at the Army's European headquarters in Germany for more than a year now. That was the reason he hadn't been able to come to Washington in time to say goodbye to their mother and Maggie Scully had died with only her daughter and son-in-law at her bedside.
"You heard me right. We're ordered in by the American Forces in Germany to investigate a case of a poltergeist terrorizing a dentist."
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"No, far from that! They were incidents as such in the South of Germany already at the beginning of the 1980s. A voice spoke through the faucets in a dental practice. It was top of the news for weeks until it suddenly stopped." What he didn't tell her was that later on the dentist had been convicted as a phony who liked seeing his face in the newspapers and simply wanted to promote his practice nationwide.
"Are you saying we're shipped to another continent on the public's dime because a few anxious patients in a dental practice heard voices and freaked-out?"
"We're not talking about some people who are afraid to go to the dentist here, Scully. Scientists from the respected Fraunhofer Institute of Physics have examined every corner of the room and found no explanation whatsoever for the phenomenon, so they want us to get to the bottom of things. I got us tickets for a night flight to Frankfurt. You can sleep on the plane. I'll meet you at the airport at the Lufthansa check-in in two hours."
"Wait, Mul-" she started but he had already hung up.
She sighed. Christmas outside Washington? What would've sounded like a really bad idea only half a year ago seemed appealing to her now. She had dreaded the holiday season without her mother being around and had thought of visiting Bill's family in Germany herself, but an air passage to the other side of the Atlantic was above her current budget after renting and furnishing an apartment of her own.
The idea of seeing her brother and his family, her youngest niece in particular, on the Bureau's expenditures sounded tempting. It actually made her heart leap a tiny bit. And if she was honest, having Mulder around for Christmas would also be nice. So, two hours later, Scully met Mulder at the check-in counter of the German airline with two hastily packed suitcases. She had thrown in clothes for all kinds of weather conditions. Bill had once told her that the winter weather was unpredictable in Central Europe, varying from almost spring-like temperatures of 60 degrees Fahrenheit to nasty winters with lots of snow and freezing temperatures.
The flight from Washington to Frankfurt took only 7 hours and 45 minutes, but with the six-hour time difference between the two countries and Germany being ahead of the US, they left D.C. at 5:30 pm and reached their final destination at seven o'clock the next morning. After one of those usual, not really mouth-watering and little appealing airline dinners, Mulder convinced Scully to have some red wine to make her sleepy, and as soon as their trays had been taken care of by the flight attendant, her eyelids became heavy and only moments later, her head came to a rest on his shoulder. He asked for a pillow and a blanket to make her comfortable and warm.
Mulder, for his part, wasn't able to sleep a single minute and passed the time watching two movies (Ghostbusters, to stay in the subject matter, and The Santa Clause, to get into a Christmas mood). After that, he listened to the latest Adele album, and later, he played a stupid computer game. Although his body was getting stiffer by the hour, he didn't dare to move too much in order not to wake his partner who clung to him more and more. He got up only once to use the restroom and returned to his seat as quickly as possible to find her still sleeping with her head leaned against the window.
As relieving as it would've been for his shoulder to leave her in this position, he enjoyed their physical contact too much, and the smell of her hair and the warmth of her body was a good enough compensation for a few strained muscles. So he slipped back into his seat and gently shoved her huddled form back to its prior resting place against his body. When she put her hand on his thigh in her sleep, Mulder stopped drinking to keep his bladder from calling for another visit to the restroom.
Scully slept through the entire flight and had to be shaken awake when breakfast was served one and a half hours prior to landing.
After their arrival, they picked up their luggage and made it through customs and passport control quickly. Bill Scully Jr. was waiting for them at the arrivals hall. Scully furrowed her brows. "Mulder? Why is my brother picking us up and not the Army Liasion Officer? Don't we have to report to the authorities directly? It's 8 o'clock in the morning, we have the whole day to get familiar with the case."
"Only because you slept like a log the whole night through doesn't mean I did," Mulder replied, hiding from her that he had enjoyed every single minute of his insomnia. "I need a shower and a nap. Your brother can drop me off at our hotel, I check us in, and you can spend the morning with your family. We're going to meet the Liasion Officer in the afternoon."
Mulder held his breath. Scully was the daughter of a Navy Captain and had been picked up plenty by Army Liasion Officers during her childhood and youth, she knew the usual procedures. To his relief, she only shrugged, then waved at her brother.
Mulder had never seen Scully's brother in uniform. He looked dashing, he had to admit, and also a bit formidable. He hugged his sister as if she was a brittle creature, and she almost vanished from sight with his long arms encircling her tiny frame. Mulder was taken aback by the deep, true brotherly love he saw on Bill's face. Scully almost melted into her brother's embrace, and Mulder realized how much she needed this family reunion. The funeral had taken place six months ago and she missed her mother terribly. Scully had always been a family person. She felt uprooted now that her mother had passed away and both parents were lost to her., Mulder knew. He mentally patted himself on the shoulder for having seized the opportunity to bring her here.
"Welcome to Germany." Bill stretched his hand out a little awkwardly for Mulder to shake and gave him a curt nod. "How's the flight been?"
'Very nice with your sister's hand on my thigh,' Mulder thought but just said "nice and quiet" instead.
"My car's outside. It's just a 30-minute drive back to the base," Bill told them. He lifted Scully's suitcases onto a baggage cart, stubbornly ignoring Mulder's. He obviously wasn't ever going to forgive him for having dragged his sister into the darkess of the X-Files, but Mulder was so used to being treated this way by Bill Scully that he only shrugged. He had been confronted with a harsher behavior than being given the cold shoulder, so he let him lead the way and followed him silently, pulling his suitcase along.
The car ride took a little longer than 30 minutes because of a heavy traffic jam on the highway. Scully was sitting in the passenger seat next to her brother, Mulder in the back. Of course, Bill hadn't wanted him in the front, but Mulder didn't mind. He looked out the window as the landscape slowly drifted past. He was a bit disappointed that the congested highway didn't allow for them to go at a faster speed. The lack of a general speed limit on the German Autobahn and the idea of going at a speed of 95 miles per hour and faster sounded exciting.
The army base was located in Wiesbaden. The first street sign Mulder saw told him the city was 45 kilometers away from the airport in Frankfurt. As Germany had the metric system, he had installed a converter app on his iPhone to translate miles into kilometers and degrees Fahrenheit into Celsius. He typed in 45 kilometers and got 28 miles, that really wasn't very far. It was minus eight degrees outside, the car's information systems told him, so he typed -8 into his app.
"Woah, it's only 17 degrees outside, Scully! And I hoped we would escape the chilling temperatures back in D.C."
"It's still morning," Bill said, "it's gonna get a bit warmer during the day, but they predicted a white Christmas this year."
"Is the hotel close to your house, Bill?" Scully asked.
"Yes, just a few blocks away. Within walking distance. Everything is a bit closer in this country. Germany is smaller than Montana, can you believe it!? Actually, why don't you stay at our place, Dana? Tara would love to have you."
"I know but it's more convenient for Mulder and me to be door to door while working on a case. We use to work until late, and it's nice to be able to just lie down and stretch out on your bed after a night of poring through files and discussing theories."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your work is always the top priority, I know."
"It's what brought us here, after all, Bill," she explained.
Mulder looked out the window and didn't take part in the conversation. He was so glad that Scully had asked to be accommodated in a hotel with him instead of in her brother's house. This trip would be a lot less fun if she slept far away from him at night and not in a room next to his. That Bill would invite Mulder into his house also, had been totally out of the question, of course.
"A voice coming from the faucet in a dental practice? You call that a case?"
"Bill," Scully said in a warning voice, "leave it, please!"
Bill rumbled, and Mulder grinned, still looking outside.
After a refreshing shower and a replenishing three-hour nap, Mulder asked the receptionist for the way to the address of the Scully residence at the Hainerberg housing area Bill had given him earlier. The installation was quite big but thanks to Google Maps, he had no problems finding his way. He reached the house after a 15-minute walk his legs welcomed after having been stuck for too long in a too narrow seat row for people his height. 'The Scullys - Bill, Tara, Matthew, Jason, Pete & Sarah' the nameplate at the front door said. Sarah had been the latecomer to the family, the long-awaited baby girl of the Scully clan. Maggie had been thrilled to have a first granddaughter. Bill and Tara had given her three grandsons until then, Charlie and his wife Brenda had two boys, Alexander and Michael, and Scully and he had William...in a former life, they had William. A past life.
He knocked, forcing a sigh back down his throat. Scully opened the door and beamed at him. Her smile made his gloomy thoughts evaporate in an instant.
"Hey, Mulder, good to see you," she greeted him. "You look well rested. Do you want to come in for a moment?"
"I think I better wait out here."
"Okay, just a sec. Let me grab my coat."
Mulder wasn't keen on meeting the happy family just yet. Tara had always been friendly to him, it would be nice to see her again, and he was curious how the boys had grown since the last time he'd seen them at Maggie's for Thanksgiving a couple years back. And he was looking forward to meeting baby Sarah, of course. She was two and most certainly cute as pie. Still, he would get his chance to see all of them, but for now, he wanted to have Scully to himself. She was a different person when she was with her family. She was Dana Katherine, Danes, aunt Dana, someone's beloved daughter, sister or aunt among them, but most certainly not Fox Mulder's anything. His attendance at Scully family gatherings had always meant a challenge for everyone and he was neither in the mood currently for an awkward dinner conversation followed by uncomfortable silence, nor for Bill Scully's scoffing. Mulder preferred to spend some time alone with Scully and appreciated her willingness to head out with him.
It only took her a minute until she joined him outside, pulling the door shut behind her. She believed he was picking her up to work on the case, of course, so buttoning up her coat, she asked, "Mulder, are we going to meet the Liasion Officer now?"
It was chilly outside. The temperature had dropped again after a temporary high of about 30 degrees during the day to a freezing 10 and it was starting to get dark already. As for December 21st, the shortest day in the Northern hemisphere, had just been yesterday, it already got dark in the late afternoon.
"Well, actually, I've just spoken to him and he told me that he wouldn't be available today because of something else he needed to take care of, so he asked us to meet him tomorrow morning in his office at the base."
"Oh! Why have you picked me up at my brother's then? What are we going to do now?"
"I heard they have a wonderful Christmas market downtown at the market square. It's called Twinkling Star Market and it's supposed to be very nice, with a huge Christmas tree, vendors who sell handcrafted Christmas items, food and drinks. There's even a jazz band playing Christmas carols. Have you ever had a traditional mulled wine, Scully? One made by a local winemaker of their own red wine? With cinnamon and cloves and orange peel? It's nothing like the one we get at home in a beverage carton."
"Is it close?"
"Everything is somewhat close here, Scully. Wiesbaden is not that big. 280,000 people, that's it, plus 20,000 at the base. The concierge told me there's a taxi company authorized to service US installations. He gave me the number. I could call us a cab to bring us downtown. It's just a 10-minute ride. Are you in?"
She was in need of something to warm her up, Mulder figured. She wasn't dressed properly for the weather. Her coat was warm enough and she had wrapped a scarf around her neck, but she hadn't thought of bringing some gloves or a beanie. She had to be cold and a hot beverage would do her good. He realized that sticking to his little scheme was paying off when she ordered him curtly, "get the cab, Mulder."
"So, Agent Mulder, when are we finally going to start working on the case?"
Scully looked at him above the brim of her mug, taking another sip of the hot, sweet and slightly intoxicating liquid. He had been right with everything. The cab ride hadn't even taken ten minutes, the Christmas market was delightful, and the mulled wine flowing through her veins warmed her up from within.
"Uh, Scully I have a confession to make."
Her right eyebrow shot up. "A confession?"
Mulder shifted his weight from foot to foot and cleared his throat. "Yeah," he admitted meekly.
"Fire away," she encouraged him, eyeing him with a look of expectancy. He had hoped to be able to procrastinate this a little longer, like one or two more mulled wines longer at least, but the moment had obviously come. He cast his eyes down and looked at his feet, unable to look at her when the realization of what he had done struck her.
"Well...there is no case."
"I see," was all she replied, leaving him dangling in the air, hiding what this revelation evoked in her. She didn't seem too surprised, though, and, what was even more astounding to Mulder, not angry. Maybe just not yet.
As she said nothing, just looked at him with her eyebrows seemingly nailed at her hairline, he felt the need to explain further. "I made it up. Not the ghost story in a German dental practice 35 years ago, that actually did happen."
She was still calm, too calm to Mulder's liking. He had expected her to blow up once he told her, to ask him how he could mislead her like that, if nothing had changed and he still couldn't be trusted, why he wanted to ruin her Christmas by dragging her to a foreign country, but none of these questions were asked. Actually, nothing was asked and it made him nervous. He could see how she bit the inside of her cheek which usually wasn't a good sign as it meant she was trying to keep something inside she didn't want to say.
Eventually, after Mulder felt like he had to shake a reaction out of her, she said, "but the ghost in a dental practice at an American Army base these days, that one you made up."
"That one, yes," he conceded contritely and couldn't keep himself from speaking out what kept him guessing. "You don't seem surprised."
Scully's exterior was somewhat relaxed but her eyes bore into her partner as if she wanted to make him shiver with her intensive gaze. Their color made him think of an ice-cold mountain creek rather than the warming waters of the Carribean they usually did. She took another sip of her mulled wine without releasing him from the magnetic pull of her beguiling irises. Instead of saying something, she cocked her eyebrow in that significant wordless gesture she had the mastery of doing so perfectly and Mulder's mind started spnning. 'Oh boy, I'm in trouble,' he thought. The longer it took her to form the words of what she wanted to say, the worse it would be for him. After what seemed an eternity, an eternity he halted between 'she appreciates the effort' and 'she's furious', she finally deemed him worthy to let him know in which direction the scale was going to drop.
"I suspected it from the moment we weren't picked up by the Liasion Officer at the airport. I left a message for him with the switchboard to give me a call at my brother's and the longer it took for him to call me back, the more suspicious I got. I called Skinner eventually and found my assumption confirmed. Imagine my confusion when he asked me whether I was enjoying the vacation time you had filed for the both of us."
"Shit, I should've let him in."
"Let him in on what, Mulder? Why did you make up a case in Germany?"
"Would you have come here with me for Christmas if I had simply asked you?"
"Probably not."
"See!"
"Why did you want me to come here so desperately in the first place?"
"Scully, come on, I'm not that insensitive. I know how much you miss your mother, and I realized that the first Christmas without her would be very hard on you, especially with no other family member around for you to spend Christmas Eve with. So, I thought I should bring you here to be with your brother's family, and a case seemed to be the best way. I could always make you follow me on a case."
He flashed her one of his boyish grins, his puppy eyes sparkling with his thirst for adventure and childish joy, a facial expression he knew would do the trick. He had used it countless time to appeal to her. And to his immense relief, a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth when she said, "I was angry when I realized how you'd manipulated me to follow you. Again. For the hundredth time, probably. But then I saw your intentions, and they were all decent and honorable. But Mulder, if not the Bureau, who paid for the airline tickets?"
Now it was his time to remain quiet. He took a sip of wine instead of supplying an answer.
"Mulder?" Scully insisted.
"Another mulled wine, Scully?"
"Mulder!"
"They're really good, aren't they? Why don't we have this stuff in America?"
"You paid for the tickets," she stated. "Are you insane?"
"I would've gotten us business class seats, but in that case, you would've instantly known that we weren't going on our government's costs. I got us an upgrade for the return flight though. It will be much more comfortable. You will be able to sleep in one of those comfortable lie-flat seats." He and his long legs would also appreciate the luxury of additional space.
"Mulder, that's an awful lot of money!"
"Consider it my present for you. Merry Christmas, Scully," he said with a gentle smile, squeezing her upper arm.
"That's very sweet of you, but I can't accept that."
"Yes, you can. You have to! Let me do this for you, please. All I wanted was for you to spend Christmas with your family."
Mulder saw how she struggled with herself, how the notion of him spending so much money for her was bothering her, but then she stepped forward into his sphere and cast a soft kiss on his cheek. "Thank you, Mulder."
"You're welcome."
The spot where her lips had met his skin tingled and he felt a pleasant fluttering in his stomach. After all these years she still had the power to do this to him. A simple kiss on the cheek and he was hovering above the ground.
Scully took another swig, then asked somewhat casually, "what made you think I would celebrate Christmas without any family around back in D.C.?"
"Huh? Bill is based in Germany and Charlie has made it clear at the funeral that him surfacing for a family reunion would be a once-only occurrence. Any distant relatives I don't know you planned to spend the holidays with?"
"Not so very distant."
Mulder asked himself whom she was talking about. Her parents were dead, her sister was dead, and he'd never heard of an aunt or cousin or great grand uncle she was particularly close to. What family secret had she been hiding from him for the last 23 years?
"Are you going to tell me about the black sheep of the family now? The one Scully you only whisper to each other about on the quiet, hiding their existence to the outside world?"
He grinned, then pursed his lips. Mulder thought he was being very funny, but Scully wasn't laughing. She shook her head, supplying eventually, "I meant you, you dumbhead!"
"Me?"
"Yes, you! That you are here with me makes the whole thing perfect. You are family, Mulder, my family." She showed him a loving smile and evoked another pleasant tingle in his stomach with it, one he didn't really know how to handle.
"Hmm, I think your brother would like to discuss that. I doubt he's ever seen me as a family member."
"My brother simply thinks he needs to protect his little sister, that's all. He's never understood what you are to me, Mulder. You and I, we are a family. Nobody would question it if things were different...if we still had William."
A sad sigh escaped her chest he was sure she would've liked to keep inside. Mulder noticed her wall coming down and although he hated to see her hurting, he was also grateful for she hardly ever spoke about William. She preferred to keep her son locked up in her heart with nobody to share him with, not even him. He chalked it up to the alcohol in Scully's system that she was so vulnerable and defenseless right now for her to expose her inner self, her weak spot.
Mulder closed the gap between them and pulled her into an embrace. Because of their thick winter coats, he was almost unable to encircle her completely, but when she rested her head on his chest he kissed her hair. Lacking the words to soothe her everlasting pain over the loss of her son he said nothing. He only held her, rocking her gently, and stroked her back.
It took her some long minutes to recollect herself. The jazz band resumed playing after a break they had taken and the melody of Baby, It's Cold Outside filled the air, the soft voice of the lead singer resonating in Mulder's ear. A perfect cue.
"How about another one of those wonderfully warming wines, Scully?"
She backed away from him, brushing some tears away. "Well, I guess I should eat something first or I'll be drunk by the end of the next mug and you have to carry me home, Mulder," she deadpanned.
Swoosh! The ban was broken, the protective armor around her heart re-installed. Mulder was grateful again because he brought her here having ulterior motives in his mind, and they had certainly not been to make her sad. He was on a mission, and he was about to undertake step two in its completion. The way to a person's heart was through their stomach, wasn't it?
"I overheard some locals earlier who were talking about a booth offering latkes with applesauce which are supposed to be really good. Interested?"
"You overheard some locals? Since when do you speak German, Mulder?"
"I had a German roommate for a year when I was in Oxford. I picked up some words."
"Some words. Like latkes and applesauce. Ordinary, every-day vocabulary, so to say."
"Well, it so happened that my friend Klaas Hansen and I spoke about our favorite dish once and his was his mother's latkes with applesauce. I memorized it. Maybe because I liked it a lot myself."
"Your mother made latkes with applesauce for you?" The tone of her voice revealed how hard it was for Scully to picture Teena Mulder, a somewhat stiff and cold woman with only little motherly affection, at the stove making her son happy preparing his favorite dish.
"Not mine, his!"
"Ah, okay. How did that happen?"
"Klaas brought me along for a home leave once over a long but too short weekend to fly to the US and back. His family lived on one of these little North Sea islands. We took the bus from England and a ferry and his father picked us up with the horse-drawn cart he usually used to drive the tourists around the tidal flats. It was pretty cool. Klaas was the oldest of five siblings and his mother made dozens of latkes to feed everyone. They were delicious. The Hansens grew their own apples and potatoes in the garden next to their house. The applesauce was sweet, thick, and a bit chunky. Mrs. Hansen was a very kind woman, hospitable and caring. Everybody was very nice to me and tried to make me feel at home, nobody was making fun of my name. It's one of the fondest memories of my studenthood, to be honest. I have never forgotten Klaas's mother asking me over and over, "noch ein Kartoffelpuffer, Fox?' I ate until I was so full I couldn't move for hours."
Scully crossed her arms, smiled at him and threw him an amused look. "Cute story. Juvenile Fox getting fed with homegrown produce by his German university roommate's mother. After all these years, you still surprise me."
"That's good, isn't it? I don't want you to get bored hanging out with me."
Now she laughed whole-heartedly. "No, Mulder, I don't think my life will ever be boring as long as you are in the picture."
Mulder held his hand out. "Let's go then. The booth is opposite the merry-go-round."
"You overheard the locals say," Scully stated matter-of-factly, accepting the hand he offered.
"Exactly," Mulder replied with a satisfied grin and dragged her in the direction of a historic carousel at the other end of the Christmas market. Now that it was dark, more people arrived to let their workday end with a warming mulled wine or Christmas punch. Mulder was in the front, held on to Scully's hand and pulled her along behind him through the crowd, mumbling "excuse me" here and the German equivalent "Entschuldigung" there.
After several minutes of fighting their way through groups of people drinking, eating, and chatting, they reached the booth they were looking for. It was quite busy and Mulder had to stand in line for some minutes until it was his turn to order the food. "Zwei Kartoffelpuffer mit Apfelmus, bitte," he said to a woman inside the food truck, his American accent threaded into the unfamiliar words. "Sehr gerne," the woman said. She obviously understood what he wanted. A moment later, she handed him two paper plates, each loaded with three huge deep-fried latkes and a gigantic scoop of applesauce. "Sieben Euro, der Herr," she said. "Vielen Dank," Mulder replied and gave her a ten euro bill. Tucking the change into his pocket, he motioned for Scully to move to one of the nearby bistro tables.
"Not bad, Mulder," Scully said, "I didn't know you were fluent in German."
Scully wasn't easily impressed, and he had managed to elicit an appreciative remark from her with the short exchange at the food truck already, a more sophisticated conversation might leave a lasting impression on her. His language skills hadn't exactly made her bow to him in awe so far, his Spanish was more than fragmentary and besides the 'je t'aime' a leggy exchange student from Paris had once breathed into his ear he didn't know any French.
Flattered by his partner's open admiration, Mulder replied cockily, "watch this!" He dug up the German words from deep down his memory and approached one of the bistro tables. "Ist diese Platz frei?" he asked two young women standing at one of them loud enough for Scully to hear. He tried to sound like Klaas had sounded, but he had to admit that his American accent distorted his pronunciation quite a bit. The tiny grammar mistake he made, however, passed unnoticed by him. The two young women looked at each other, then smiled at him and nodded, waving their hands in a welcoming gesture. Mulder smiled back and moved closer to the table. "Vielen Dank, meine Damen, sehr freundlich von Sie. Wunderbar," he said as he put his paper plate down, having the grammar slightly wrong again - German grammar can be tricky - and pronouncing the last word in a way that made the two women giggle girlishly.
"Wo kommen Sie denn her? Sie sind nicht von hier, oder?" one of them asked.
"Uh," Mulder hesitated, "do you speak English? My German isn't that good." He heard Scully chuckle silently behind him and chided himself mentally for having laid in on a bit thick with respect to his German conversation skills. "Did you ask me where I was from?"
The women looked at each other and grinned. The other one said, "your German is very good, but you sound like you're English or American. I asked you where you were from, right." The woman was in her late twenties, but she was obviously flirting with Mulder. From her vantage point behind Mulder's back, which was even broader with the thick overcoat he was wearing, Scully noticed the way the girl flashed him a toothy smile, her eyes beaming at him.
"I'm from Washington, D.C.," Mulder told her.
"Cool!" the other female shrieked. She was about the same age as her friend and equally excited about their foreign male company at the table. Scully made her presence known by coughing slightly. "Excuse me," she interfered in the little chat the three of them were having.
Mulder turned around, put his hand on the small of her back and nudged Scully forward, positioning her between him and his female conversation partners. "Scully, these two gentle youngsters let us share their table."
The features of said youngsters froze as they realized the man they had probably deemed worthy some overtures on their part was in the company of a female, a good-looking one to top it. The fact he had called them youngsters was probably also somewhat disillusioning.
Scully suppressed a grin. Mulder was still hunky and made an impression on women, even when they were almost half his age. She had been looking at the girls, how they had instantly checked him out when he first approached them, how they had opened their eyes wide and how they had pursed their full, perfectly made-up lips. She had to give them credit, though, they recovered quickly and managed to make a decent face at her.
"Oh, hello! Are you also from Washington?" one of them asked Scully.
"Yes, yes, I am," Scully replied. "Thank you for allowing us to share your table."
"No problem, we're done anyway. You can have the whole thing to yourselves. Enjoy the...uh..." One turned to the other and mumbled, "was heißt denn Kartoffelpuffer auf Englisch?"
"It's latkes," Mulder told her, "Kartoffelpuffer is latkes in English," and made them both giggle again, probably because his way of pronouncing Kartoffelpuffer sounded very different from theirs.
"Okay, mister, enjoy the latkes then. And have a nice stay in Wiesbaden. We have to go now. Tschüss!"
"Tschüss, and thank you very much, ladies. It was nice talking to you." His friendly nature earned him another smile and one last gaze, then they turned around and were swallowed by the crowd a moment later.
"Nice girls," he said, redirecting his attention to Scully. "How do you like it? The latkes and the applesauce?"
It wasn't exactly the kind of healthy food she normally preferred. The latkes had been deep-fried in a huge pan with lots of oil and fat was dripping off her fingers. The applesauce was very sweet with a hint of vanilla and cinnamon. But the food was hot and soft and rich, and it tasted very good. Plus, the fat would help her come to terms with the alcohol she had been drinking.
"It's good," Scully said, dipping another piece of latke into the applesauce and popping it into her mouth.
"Did you see the Ferris wheel, Scully? Care to take a ride? I bet the view from up there isn't so bad. We might even see the base."
Scully turned around and followed his index finger when he pointed to a spot behind her. In the distance, there was a huge Ferris wheel, probably about 50 meters high. The gondolas were illuminated festively and seemed to hover through the air.
"Look, Scully, it's called 'Out of Space'. It will be like flying our own private spacecraft. If that isn't a Ferris wheel we should ride, I don't know what is," he said, a smirk flashing across his face.
"It's cold, Mulder. I assume it's freezing up there in the night sky. I've never heard of a flying saucer with central heating."
"I can keep you warm," he offered a bit overhastily.
"I don't know."
"Come on, Scully, don't be such a party pooper. We can have another mulled wine once we're grounded again," Mulder supplied in addition, hoping to allay her last concerns with it. "When was the last time you were riding one of those?" 'It's romantic,' he had on the tip of his tongue but managed to swallow down before it slipped out. He didn't want to reveal his intentions just yet, not before she had nowhere to go as in up high in the German sky in a gondola of a space-themed Ferris wheel.
Twenty minutes later, Mulder had bought two tickets and they were standing in line to get on. Probably because of the low temperatures, there wasn't too much press of people and Mulder indicated the supervisor for them to get a gondola to themselves. He threw the man a knowing look and got a conspirational wink back. The guy threw Mulder a blanket, murmuring, "viel Spaß, ihr Turteltäubchen!"
"What did he say?" Scully wanted to know once they were seated and the gondola had taken off.
"He said' 'have fun'," Mulder translated, leaving aside the 'lovebirds' the man had added. But Scully wasn't so easily be taken as a fool.
"I understood that. I meant after that. What did he say after the 'have fun'?"
"I didn't understand that either," he lied. "It's not important, Scully. Let's just enjoy the ride." He draped the blanket over their legs, put his arms around her shoulder and pulled her close.
The guy got the message, of course. Maybe they weren't regular love birds, lovey-dovey teenagers who were totally crazy about each other and unable to leave their hands off the other, but Mulder was eager to complete his mission, that much was sure. Christmas was a romantic holiday, and this wonderful Christmas market had worked well to get him into a romantic mood. All that was left for him to do now was to get his rational, factual partner into a romantic mood as well. Then the evening might end in a way he had hoped it would ever since the idea of flying her to Germany had first popped up in his mind. Actually, ever since they had started working together again, he hoped for them to return to what their relationship once was before he had ruined it, a deeply romantic one.
"Look at the lights, Scully," Mulder pointed to the Christmas market below. The huge Christmas tree in front of the city hall was sparkling and the nicely-lit booths and food trucks spread a festive mood. The noise from down there wasn't more than a muffled hum up above in the sky, where they were rising higher and higher at a pleasantly slow speed. "Nice," Mulder mumbled out into the dark night sky and pulled Scully closer, tucking her under his arm.
"It really is nice, Mulder. I have to thank you again for bringing me here. I owe you one."
"Nah!" he stopped her with a wave of his hand. This was worth every penny he'd spent on airline tickets. "I'd do everything for you just to make you smile, Scully."
She sat up and flashed him one of those wonderful smiles he loved so much. A smile not wide and toothy, but one that reached her eyes and made her face glow. She placed a kiss at the corner of his mouth. Not on his cheek, at the corner of his mouth with her lips touching the outermost ends of it. If he turned his head just a little, his lips would land fully on hers, but before he could finish that thought she had already returned to her prior position under his arm, so he kissed her temple instead.
They had already made it three quarters through their first round and were on their way down again. When they passed through the entrance area without a stop, Mulder caught the eye of the guy who had made them mount the gondola and had given them the blanket. He winked at Mulder, showing him a quizzical face as if asking what he was waiting for. How many full circles would this thing do, Mulder wondered. How much time was left for him make her let him kiss her? Really kiss her. And then he was dealt a lucky card when Scully's teeth started clattering on their way up in the dark night sky.
"Are you cold, Scully?"
"I told you it'd be kinda chilly up here."
"Come here," Mulder offered, turning her body toward him and pulling her legs into his lap. He folded the blanket to put two layers of the warming fabric over her. He blew into his palms, then cupped her face with them. "Better?"
"Uhumm," Scully purred. "Why are your hands always warm, Mulder?"
"So I can heat you up, Scully," he replied, rubbing her back to prove it. Scully rested her head on Mulder's shoulder, thawing slowly under his ministrations.
They had made another full round by now, passing the blanket guy again. He threw Mulder a sympathetic look, shaking his head. 'I made some progress!' Mulder wanted to shout at him. This had to be done delicately. He couldn't just throw himself at her, but he saw the predicament he found himself in. They wouldn't be riding this Ferris wheel forever and if he wanted to tease a kiss out of her, he needed to come up with an idea. Quickly.
To his luck, Scully herself supplied the perfect cue. "God, Mulder, I'm so cold. I can hardly talk, my whole face is frozen. My lips feel numb and stiff, I bet they're blue already."
Jackpot!
"Let me have a look, Scully." With his index finger, his very warm index finger, he lifted her chin to meet her eyes. "Yes, your lips have turned purple and they look very cold. Someone would need to do something." With this, he pressed his lips, his very warm lips, onto hers.
Her lips were indeed freezing, and he was afraid she wasn't feeling anything, but her pleasant hum told him otherwise. "Mmmmulder, so warm," she mumbled appreciatively, her lips in contact with his all the time.
Mulder answered, his lips also not leaving hers while he spoke. "My body heat at your service, my lady!"
Scully giggled, which encouraged Mulder to push a little further. He put one hand on her neck and, pulling her closer, he intensified the kiss, praying for her not to break it. 'Don't overdo it, Mulder!' he warned himself, but her lips tasted too delicious, the last kiss they shared been far too long, and his craving for this too demanding for him to be able to stop now. Instead, he gently brushed her lower lip with the tip of his tongue and found his prayers answered when she opened her mouth to welcome him. Their tongues said their hellos and embraced each other like long-lost friends. That was what they were: long-lost friends, partners, lovers.
He was amazed by how familiar the sensation was as if not two years had passed since their last real kiss but two minutes. Kissing her felt like coming home. There was no awkwardness, no hesitation, no having to get to know each other again. Mulder was hit to the core by the intensity of his feelings and hoped that Scully was enjoying this as much as he was. His doubts were washed away when he felt her hands, her very cold hands, cup his face, her thumbs stroking his cheeks. Mulder mentally high-fived himself when he realized that they were making out, really and truly making out. Like teenage lovebirds after all, or 'Turteltäubchen' as the Germans called them.
When they passed the blanket guy again at the bottom of the wheel, Mulder was too occupied with sharing his body heat with the woman sitting on his lap now, the blanket wrapped around her like a cocoon, but he could literally feel the guy's acknowledging look resting on them before he heard him murmur, "na, geht doch!"
'Yeah,' Mulder thought, 'you're absolutely right, man! There we go!'
Author's Note: I started this story a year ago as an answer to a writing challenge that sent our favorite agents abroad. In the midst of writing, a lunatic drove a truck into the Christmas market at Berlin, Germany, and killed 12 people. I didn't feel like finishing my fluffy story back then and awakened the draft only recently from its long sleep.
If you want to have a look at the Christmas market of my hometown, type 'Twinkling Star Christmas Market Wiesbaden' into your browser.