Another way it could happen:
"Honey? Uh, Dana, I mean, uh, Scully I guess?" Mulder winces. They got over this surname awkwardness a decade ago.
Dana, Scully, whatever her name is comes in from the kitchen, drying her hands with a dish towel, which he knows will immediately go into the laundry. Her OCD is still kind of a problem, and they're working on it, though he supposes that now she's past 50, she's not going to change this late in the game. It's almost comforting when he thinks about it like that.
She arches an eyebrow at him. "Yes, Fox" she asks acidly. Ouch. Okay, so that was called for.
"I just got an email from Director Skinner. Apparently he wants to hire us both as Supervisory Special Agents in Charge co-managing the newly expanded Department of..." here Mulder pauses, momentarily stuck. Is this even real life?
He recovers his equilibrium quickly. Okay, so his leg where Boggs shot him and his shoulder where Dana or whatever-her-name-is shot him are both a little arthritic and dodgy now. But he was a badass back in the day dammit! He came back from the goddamn dead!
He clears his throat. "Department of Evidence Qualifying as Unusual or Abnormally Ludicrous. E.Q.U.A.L. " He hangs his head. Anything he says will be the wrong thing, and so he chooses silence as the better part of valor.
"E.Q.U.A.L?" Scully echoes, her eyebrow arching from questioning to extreme skepticism. Mulder's seen men shot after that expression. Hell, Mulder's *been* shot, not to mention slugged with a fierce right hook, after that expression.
"Walter says it's a new era in crime fighting, one refocusing priorities on inclusion and co-representation of historically oppressed minority classes."
"So he's saying it's easier to hide the X-Files in a department that the Bureau will automatically write-off, but will have essentially unlimited funding for reasons of political correctness?" God love Scully, she's always been sharp as a tack, and she doesn't even play by the rules anymore.
Mulder feels a growing excitement. This has the potential to be awesome. He doesn't let it show on his laconic face of course. He's still cool. And about to be a badass again.
"And it pays 500 large. Each. I'm not sure Skinner makes that much," he says, letting his surprise show in his voice. Not that money's an issue after that massive settlement with the military over their Abu Ghraib bullshit in the early 2000's. Still, more is always better when it comes to the Foundation.
"Hmmm, E.Q.U.A.L.," she says, looking thoughtful now. "We get our badges back with full arrest powers? And our guns?" It doesn't matter that they have a literal arsenal in their storm cellar, some of it, okay most of it not even legal. And a fully equipped shooting range with state of the art soundproofing. Scully wants her Sig Sauer. It's a thing.
"Roger that, ma'am," Mulder says, finally smiling at her. He knows it's a foregone conclusion. "It was fun, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, when it wasn't horrible. It was the best time of my life," she says, smiling back. "I met my husband in the Bureau, you know." With a quick indrawn breath, she straightens. "Let Director Skinner know Agents Mulder and Scully will be reporting for work on Monday, 8AM. We'll need an escort to our basement offices, *plural,* until we can get our badges made up."
Mulder has to sit there, stunned for a few seconds. Five minutes, and everything's changed again. And yet stayed the same.
"Well hurry up, Mulder" she says briskly, walking back into the kitchen. "Dinner's getting cold, and I've got plans for you later."
Like he said. Totally. Awesome.
-E.Q.U.A.L.-
#writing #xfiles2015