Timeline: 1x3 Conduit

Category: Post Episode

"Do you still stand by your earlier judgment, Agent Scully?" Section Chief Scott Blevins asked with derision evident in his voice.

Scully leaned forward, handing the file back to Blevins. "Agent Mulder found Ruby Morris when every local authority was ready to give up on the case as a runaway."

"According to this report, Ruby Morris won't give an account of where she'd been."

Scully swallowed. "Yes, that's true. She was traumatized. Her mother didn't want any more trouble. Darlene Morris isn't the most popular of people in her town."

"Agent Scully, forgive me, but this all seems to be rather unimportant. It looks as if Ruby was a runaway who came home."

"She was suffering from medical conditions that Agent Mulder believes…"

"I've read the report, Agent. Are you telling me you agree with Agent Mulder's wild assumptions?"

Scully gripped the arms of the chair more tightly. "No, I would need further evidence to come to a conclusion like that."

"And no such evidence presented itself."

"No, sir."

"And you still haven't answered my question."

Scully ran the interrogation back through her mind. Which question out of the twenty that he had asked her was he referring to?

"You assured me before you and your partner ran off on this case that Agent Mulder's personal agenda wasn't clouding his professional judgment. Did you not?"

"Yes, sir. I did."

"And after your experience on this case with Agent Mulder would you still stand by that judgment?"

Scully paused: she wanted to frame her answer carefully. "Agent Mulder has been deeply affected by the childhood trauma of losing his sister."

Blevins raised his brow, waiting for her to finish.

"But, Agent Mulder found Ruby Morris, which is the material point."

Blevins shook his head. "We're finished here, Agent Scully," he said tossing the file onto the corner of his desk.

Dana walked from Blevins' office and waited to exhale until she'd passed his secretary. She had been dreading that meeting and while it hadn't gone particularly well, she was relieved that it was over. And she felt like she hadn't undermined her partner, which had been a concern. She knew his conduct would be brought up again, and after her experiences with him over the course of the case, she was convinced that if Agent Mulder had a weakness in his professional performance, it was the tendency to let his personal tragedy get in the way of his work.

He had acted unhinged at times and while his determination had worked in Ruby's favor, she wasn't so sure that these types of cases didn't take a real toll on her partner. He had been sullen ever since their return from Iowa. Sullen and distracted. He looked like he hadn't been sleeping and he'd been drinking an inhuman amount of coffee. Too many child abduction cases and her partner might not be fit for assignment.

The elevator door opened and Mulder turned his head from the vending machine, where he was inserting quarters and perusing his options.

"Hey," he said, drawing his partner's attention as she exited the elevator.

"Hey," she said pausing in the hallway.

"Can I get you a soda?" he asked. He already knew what she'd want: a Diet Coke.

"Diet Coke would be good," she replied.

Mulder hit the red and white button with the palm of his hand and the soda can tumbled out. She came over to retrieve it as he began inserting more quarters.

"Thanks," she said straightening up.

"Sure."

The machine was always out of Lipton Iced Tea. He'd have to get Dr. Pepper—a poor substitute. Scully popped the tab of the soda as he reached for the Dr. Pepper and they began walking down the hall back to the office together.

"How'd the meeting go?" he asked in as normal a tone as he could manage. He had a bad feeling about Agent Scully's report. The abduction of his sister was public knowledge and something he didn't doubt Section Chief Blevins wouldn't mind trading upon.

"Blevins wasn't in a good mood," Scully replied.

Mulder held the door for her as she walked into the office. "Huh. He's usually so pleasant."

"It was an old fashioned grilling. Finding Ruby wasn't enough for him, I guess."

Mulder walked over to his chair and slumped down into it. Finding Ruby wasn't enough for him either, unfortunately. He'd wanted to find her, but he'd also wanted a chance to talk to her about her experiences. And finding Ruby didn't heal his own wounds. Rescuing children never healed his own wounds, as much as he wished it would. And as for Blevins, he probably was hoping Mulder would have hung himself on this one.

"Was he giving you trouble about me?" He watched his partner ponder that question for a moment.

"A little," she confessed.

Mulder shrugged, taking a large swallow from his soda. "Sorry about that. Professional hazard of working with me, I'm afraid."

His partner was still hovering by his desk, having not walked across the room to the table he'd had set up for her. She looked as if she was thinking something through.

"You found Ruby, Mulder. Everyone else had given up on her. I'd given up on her. So, I don't mind getting raked across the coals…not when our work turns in these kinds of results."

Mulder nodded in response. He didn't want to discuss the issue any further, so he picked his glasses off the desk and slid them on, pretending to get back to some paperwork. His partner felt the relief in finding Ruby that he wished he could feel. But he noticed that Agent Scully was already talking in terms of "we". It wasn't his work, it was their work. He wanted to believe that this was genuine. He wanted to trust her. He wanted to believe that she hadn't criticized his ability to separate the personal from the professional to Blevins. Maybe she hadn't. Maybe she'd defended him. That would be novel: he wasn't used to people sticking their necks out for him. If she really meant all she said, then perhaps she was the partner he didn't know he'd been looking for.

Personally, she might be a blessing as well. It was after cases like these that he felt really dark and lost. It was when he couldn't sleep and didn't have much of an appetite. Even after just a couple of days it felt like his suit was hanging a little loose on him today. If he continued to drink coffee and soda in the amounts he'd been indulging in as of late, he'd be gifted with an ulcer within a month. But he had to admit that this case would have been worse without Agent Scully alongside him—not just professionally, but personally as well. He found himself opening up to her, motivated by his desire to trust her and to have a connection with someone. There was some comfort in being able to say those things out loud to another human being, who wasn't getting paid by the hour to hear your sordid tales. He didn't want to regret that.

Dana slid into her chair at her temporary working station—just a table set up where she could do her work when they weren't out in the field. The space wasn't ideal and it contributed to her feeling that this wasn't her office, but she was sure Agent Mulder had put in a request for a desk for her. The FBI could be painfully slow about filling such requests, but it would arrive soon enough and she wasn't above making do for the time being.

She surreptitiously watched him over her nose, as he flipped through papers. He looked strangely calm. It must have been a studied appearance, because when she'd left for the meeting with Blevins, he'd been nervous and jittery. Probably a combination of too much caffeine and a fear that she would unmask him in her meeting. She didn't particularly enjoy making her partner feel that way. She would have liked to reassure him before she left—I won't hang you out to dry—but she didn't trust herself to say anything to him about the case. Not when it had become so clearly personal for him. It felt strange to know such intimate details about her partner's past. She hadn't just become acquainted with his quirky work habits—like antagonizing local authorities and making frequent use of innuendo. No, she knew intensely private things about him.

Dana considered herself a rather private person. Maybe growing up with two brothers who were always eager to get into your business had made her hold her cards close to her chest, but whatever the reason, she didn't share much about her past with anyone. Those people who did know intimate things about her were mostly from her past, like Ellen, a childhood friend. They'd experienced things alongside her—she didn't have to get into the details, they just knew them.

That Agent Mulder had willingly told her about his sister's abduction on their first case together had been somewhat shocking. It certainly wasn't the Scully way of conducting yourself. Her sister Melissa could be messily open like that, but Dana hadn't heard from Melissa in ages. Boyfriends and lovers weren't usually so forthcoming either. And yet, while it shocked her, it also seemed to her to be a good sign. Partnership required trust, and this could be a sign that Agent Mulder was willing to trust her.

But now she knew even more. More than she wanted to know. She'd seen him react to Ruby Morris' disappearance, she'd taken to heart his private confessions to her during the course of the case, and she'd watched him mourn the loss of his sister all over again after they'd returned from Iowa. She couldn't imagine what else was causing his behavior. So, she'd searched out the X-File on Mulder's sister, Samantha. She'd listened to a tape marked: F. MULDER Hypnotic Regression Tape Session Number 2B: June 16. She wasn't prepared for what she heard. Nothing could have prepared her for that. He was a figure of strange repute. He seemed powerful to her. And yet, now she knew just how fragile her partner truly was. She wasn't about to tell that to Blevins or any other ass on the force who didn't recognize the important work Mulder accomplished, personal flaws or no.