A/N: My first XF fan fic in 6 years because I'm excited and I can't believe they're coming back?!
1. (I guess we'll just have to adjust)
They're genuinely surprised by how quickly the auditors move because the day they get back from Oregon Skinner is walking into the basement and telling them they're being shut down again.
"It seems that, this time, it's for good," he tells them, his eyes downcast.
Mulder shakes his head, immediately refusing defeat like so many times before. He argues against the men who refuse to open their minds to extreme possibilities and who tirelessly work to quiet any line of questioning that doesn't fit their finely tuned script. It's the same old song and dance but even Skinner can hear how over rehearsed it seems.
Less than a week later they've cleared out the office and waiting for reassignment in his apartment. She makes tea and he folds laundry.
"You don't sound as upset about it as you did last time, Mulder," she says from somewhere around his living room.
"Maybe it's time, Scully," he replies from his bedroom, grinning at the scrap of green lace he finds tangled up in his basketball shorts. He turns to make a dirty joke he's sure will make her eyes roll into the back of her head but instead finds her leaning against the doorframe, pale and shivering. She tips forward and he barely catches her before she hits the floor.
The next day, when he stands in Skinner's office, listening to Krycek and Marita spout some tale about a crashed UFO and finally ending that Cigarette-Smoking Bastard, he thinks about Scully radiating in her hospital bed and the blob on the sonogram he has folded up in his wallet. He tells them to go fuck themselves.
2. (a thousand years we'll be singing)
She comes home glowing.
"It worked?" he asks and she nods her head.
After months of doctor's appointments and hormone treatments and a litany of prayers, here she is smiling brighter than any and every sun.
"I'm pregnant."Her smile is infectious and so are her tears. She takes out a piece of photo paper and holds it up to the light for him. "They did an ultrasound to confirm. Look, Mulder."
She had the technician circle the cluster of cells with red ink and he calls it beautiful.
"Mulder, our baby is the size of a pea right now. It's basically a blob," she laughs.
Our baby.
"It's the most beautiful blob I've ever seen."
That night he lies in her bed and holds her close, talks to her stomach while her hands play with his hair. He makes promises he already made to her, promises of stargazing and baseball, of swim lessons and bedtime stories. He promises he will be better than both of his fathers.
He kisses her stomach and thanks the God he doubted because Scully believed enough for the both of them and she has taught him how to count his blessings. She is more than he ever thought he would have. Now he looks at her and starts to believe again.
He kisses her hands, her hair, her cheeks. "Marry me," he whispers into her mouth and she sobs out a laugh.
3. (I can't find the words to make it sound unique)
Naturally, he gets stung by a bee at the worst possible moment.
"It must have gotten into my shirt," she reasons, sparing a glance to the dead insect in his right hand before digging its stinger out of his left. "We should keep it. Maybe get the Gunmen to run some tests on it. I'm sure it's from the facility in Texas."
"Yeah? Are you sure?"
"Aren't you curious as to why somebody is growing corn and farming hundreds of thousands of bees in the middle of the desert?"
He still wants to kiss her but the way she's focusing on the damn bee makes him think the moment has passed. It almost doesn't matter. She stays.
Sort of.
He can't talk her out of leaving the Bureau and, considering his new assignment running background checks on overeager farmers, he doesn't really blame her. He understands that going back to Quantico would be a step down for her and he can't deny the fire he sees in her eyes when she talks about using her medical degree to heal people instead of cutting up dead ones.
A year later she becomes Dr. Scully, he is just barely Agent Mulder, and more than a few other things have changed between them. They are still partners according to at least one definition of the word, he still tries to seek the truth and she still keeps him grounded; but now they keep slightly regular hours and their smiles come just a little more easily. Now, every meeting begins and ends with kisses on cheeks that sometimes feel like promises.
When she finishes her residency he surprises her with dinner and a stethoscope engraved with her name.
"At least no one will call you 'Mrs. Spooky' anymore," he says as they sit on her couch with a bottle of wine.
She rests her head against his shoulder and takes his hand. "I actually liked being 'Mrs. Spooky'."
4. (I'll be your steady satellite)
Instead of sitting in her glorious bathtub with a much needed glass of wine, she is sitting on Mulder's couch waiting for him to come home because she decided to let impatient curiosity get the best of her and scanned Duane Barry's supposed alien implant at the grocery store, subsequently (maybe), causing their system to meltdown. She had seriously considered just going home after that, but a nagging little voice in the back of her head that suspiciously sounded just like her mother urged her to take the exit to Alexandria and not Georgetown and, now, well, here she is.
She paces and tries not to think about what the little piece of metal sitting on Mulder's desk could mean if Duane Barry was telling the truth or even a half-truth. She knows Mulder will say it was alien abduction, but as she walks in between his living room and the kitchen she decides to concede to government involvement. It's not that outlandish, not anymore; not after all she has seen. She watches his fish, paces some more, gets a little nosy and looks through his video titles and allows herself to feel a little bit pleased when she notices how many redheads populate his newer tapes.
When he finally comes home she fills him in over the tub of ice cream she bought for herself. He doesn't ask why she came to his place instead of her own and she doesn't offer an explanation.
"Well, it's late and we're both exhausted. I'd invite you to stay the night so you won't have to drive all the way home but, unfortunately, we're sitting on my bed."
She tilts her head to the side. "Why don't you have a bed?"
"There's no point in having one. You know I don't sleep much and most of the time I'm out of town working on cases." He shrugs. "I figured it was more economical to turn the bedroom into a storage space and sleep on the couch."
"Never mind how terrible sleeping on this is for your back, what if you brought someone home with you?"
"It's just me, Scully. It's always just me."
She tries not to pout. "Well, I'm here. You have me."
He chuckles, "Scully, if I had you like that, I'd go and get a bed."
Amused and just shy of frustrated, she sighs, looks at him with clear and decisive eyes, and says, "Mulder, you have me."
It takes a moment for it to click.
An hour later, as Scully dozes on his shoulder and he considers what kind of bed he should buy, his phone rings.
5. (Please don't be in love with someone else)
He thinks he might have a crush on the cute little redheaded pathologist at Quantico. The thought doesn't occur to him until he's standing in his bathroom, wondering if he should dab on some of that fancy cologne his mother gave him for his birthday two years ago because he might see her later. It's been so long since he has even entertained such a thought that he's not even sure what he's feeling. It might be a legitimate crush, or, he just might like that, despite her obvious skepticism, she actually listens to his weird theories before making solid arguments against them, and humors him enough to run the odd tests he sometimes requests.
'Cute' is a very good word to describe her, he thinks; 'cute and petite' as she barely reaches his shoulders. She is not the type he usually finds himself attracted to, preferring women who are taller and a little more buxom; but Dr. Dana Scully is smart as hell, smart enough to keep up with him. He likes that.
And he really likes her smile.
She has a great smile.
And a great laugh.
He made her laugh the last time he saw her. They were standing over the body of a man who may or may not have been mauled to death by a Goatman, arguing over the legitimacy of his theory, when he cracked some lame joke he doesn't remember, but he remembers her laugh and how it bubbled out of her after she tried to stifle it behind her rose-colored smile. That day he walked out of Quantico with a slight spring in his step, despite having his theory undoubtedly disproven.
Weeks later he runs into her at a little coffeeshop somewhere between the office and Quantico and he does his best to ignore how the space seems so much brighter the second he sees her or how something in his chest flutters when she smiles and invites him to join her at her little corner table. They sit and talk and meeting for coffee quickly becomes a regular thing that morphs into drinks after work. She tells him about some journal articles she found interesting and he tells her about the three different partners he had assigned to him in the last year.
"I don't blame them for leaving," he says, picking at the slice of pie they split between them. "It'd be hard to climb to the top with Spooky Mulder's reputation weighing you down."
"Reputation?" He rolls his eyes at her wide-eyed expression. "Look, Mulder, regardless of what people may say, you're a talented profiler and a great agent. If it wasn't for you some of these cases wouldn't even see the light of day, crimes would go unpunished and victims would be left without a voice. I mean, okay, some of your theories are pretty out there, but you ask the questions others are afraid to ask. It's one of the things I admire most about you."
She blushes at her own admission and he is struck by how much he wants to kiss her.
A month later A.D. Skinner tells him that Dr. Scully's transfer request has been denied. He doesn't know whether to be pleased or upset.
In the end, he asks her out to dinner and afterwards they sit on her couch and drink coffee neither of them actually wants. He tells her about Samantha, lays his theories and beliefs out for Scully to see in all their fantastic glory. He isn't the least bit surprised when she looks at him with a raised brow and critical eyes, but he is surprised when those eyes soften and her hand reaches for his.
+1. (It was always me and you)
They break-up and then they get the X-Files back.
It's funny how things work.
Mulder and Scully sit in their new-old office, admire the new-old poster that hangs on the wall, and, with 22 years of history between them, begin again.