Title: Emotional Fire (And Six AMFs)

Category: MSR

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Agent Scully has never had a reason to distrust her partner, Agent Mulder…until now.

*Note: This story takes place quite a while, but not long, after Scully's discovery of Mulder in Diana's arms, written with some of Scully's thought process (In italics) but not necessarily in her POV.*

Disclaimer: This doesn't belong to me, the idea does, but the characters belong to Chris Carter and FOX Productions. The song lyrics are credited back to Cher since I borrowed them for the purpose of this story.

My heart is burning with the heat of this emotional fire…

Every time I see you, I'm on fire, every time we touch…

Can't you feel me burning with desire?

Baby be the one to give me some emotional fire.

10:45 AM, Mulder and Scully's office. February 23rd-

It hurts to even look at him. He smells of her perfume, even now. How could I be so silly to think that I had entered into his mind in any fashion? We're partners, Dana, stop looking at him like he's your property…because he's not. I love him, despite everything that has ever gone wrong, I love him. What's a woman to do? I can't throw myself at him, nor could I just announce it to the world that I'm in love with my work partner, and I definitely cannot make a move without knowing if he would ever feel the same way—not after seeing, the two of them like they were. I can't understand why you can't see how much I care about you, more than just a partner, and more than friends. Scully's thoughts raced, her fingers tapping the lacquer desktop. She didn't realize she was annoying him a little. She almost had forgotten he was even in the office with her. She stopped the tapping and began rifling through a file of papers to distract her from looking at him.

"Scully? Are you listening to me? Where is the case file that I gave to you when I came down from Skinner's office?" Mulder asked, as he rifled through each and every file atop his already disheveled desktop.

"Huh? Um, yeah, sorry, they're on the bottom of the stack," Scully seemed off kilter, annoyed even as he questioned, "right where I said they'd be."

She watched him as his eyes darted towards her and then back towards the desk. That's right, don't answer me right away, take your sweet time. Scully tried to hide her frustration.

"Well, would it trouble you any to maybe help me look for them?" He knew before even opened his mouth that this was going to cost him.

Her lips parted, taking in a deep breath, as she turned slightly away from his line of vision. Her eyes glared hard in his direction as she composed herself again.

"Well?" Mulder's eyes were dancing as his second attempt to pick at her was seemingly working this time.

"Sure, fine, whatever," Scully's blue eyes burned a hole through him as she stood, took the papers from the bottom of the stack and handed them to him. "There. Anything else I can get you?"

"What is suddenly pissing you off today? You're more uptight than usual, Scully," Mulder knew exactly what button to push this time, he almost smiled as his words effortlessly rolled off his tongue and out at Scully.

You should know—your mouth seems to get you into more binds without saying a single word, Mulder. Scully almost smiled at the mere thought of saying that out loud, but she decided against it.

"You know what…forget it. I have had a really long week, traffic was not exactly great today, and once again you bailed on the paperwork yesterday that kept me here an hour later…which earned 30 minutes with Skinner wondering why you hadn't signed off on a case. I covered for you, again," She almost took joy in finally steaming off. Where were you anyway? Were you off with Diana again?

All Mulder could do was grin and it wasn't just your ordinary grin…it was one of those shit eating grins that you'd easily punch a lesser person for. Scully bit her lip, glared hard, and sat back down at her desk. Why are you doing this to me right now? Do I seem to be enjoying it in the slightest, Mulder? Scully closed her eyes for a moment to reassure herself that he was maybe just being clueless this time. She pressed her hands together and brought them up to her face, rubbing her eyes, while trying to put together a believable apology.

"I'm sorry." Scully muttered in spite of herself and watched as he continued to grin at her, like a child would. "I don't want to argue…this past month has not exactly been kind to me and I am in serious need of a break. Even one night at home would suffice."

"You're stressed out and that's fine—I shouldn't have pushed the issue when I knew exactly what you'd say," Mulder was already half propping himself up against the side of her desk as he reached out and moved a strand of hair out of Scully's face. "You really need to pick up on when I bait you into an argument, Scully."

She stared blankly at him, her eyes trying to search for any semblance of understanding from him. You're lucky that I love you or I'd hit you right now, Mulder. Now, why can't I just say this out loud? I don't want to be let down—I don't want to let you in just to push me away for another Phoebe, or Bambi, or Detective White, or Kirsten, or Diana.

Mulder's lips curved into a soft smile, "I think we should just get back to work and I'll try very hard to be good, okay?"

If only you knew what you were really baiting me into. Mulder, I wish you understood, I wish you knew how much this hurts. You wouldn't understand. Scully took a deep breath and flung a dry erase pen at him as he walked back towards his desk.

It missed.

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Ok chapter two will be coming soon! I have to really re-evaluate this story line and kept realizing that the re-write of the original was STILL too short. Give me suggestions please!