A knock on the door waked Scully up, Mulder and she had finally solved a case in a Little town where all the pets went missing under mysterious circumstances, the responsible men for this was an animal shelter worker who took them because he felt lonely, so they had flown up there only to find that it was not an x file after all.
She was exhausted, they had slept almost nothing those days and the lack of sleep was getting to her, she had an awful headache that had been with her most of the day, that's why immediately after getting to the motel she had jump over her bed, with her suit and shoes on, obviously she had past off a few minutes later.
Now the headache was getting worst and her eyes ached too "great" she thought, a second knock remembered her that there was someone out there, and someone impatient "coming" she said, she stood up and walked towards the door. When she opened it, she saw Mulder, he was shaking and his face was soaked in sweat, at first she thought that he had gone out for a run, but he was too pale and he wasn't wearing sport clothes, he was wearing a pajamas pants and a light grey t shirt "Hey Scully, why are you still dressed up? It´s over midnight" She looked down and remembered that she hasn´t been able of even take her shoes off "I don't feel well, Mulder" he smiled at her "that makes two of us, can I come in?" She touched her forehead, realizing that she probably had fever "yeah, why not?" The agent let her partner in and closed the door, he lied down on top of the bed, still shaking. She walked towards him and touched his forehead "Mulder, you have fever" he touched her forehead as well "so do you" She smiled "he always think in my health first" she thought.
"Come here, lay down with me" his request found her with her walls down "what? I think the illness affected your brain" "C'mon Scully, I'm sick, please, just for tonight, I promise to be good" "in your dreams" she answered, almost whispering "if you only knew" he thought.
Scully got into the bathroom and soaked a hand towel with cold water, while she looked herself on the mirror and realized how pale she looked and shiners that were appearing under her eyes. When she got into the room again Mulder was still over the sheets, still shaking. "get into the bed" she said in a tone that didn't let Mulder make any jokes about it and made him obey "the bed is cold" he complained, she sat down by his side and put the soaked towel on his forehead, then she ran her fingers through his dark hair "better?" "Much, thanks" she smiled at him, for a few moments the time stopped and they forget where they were, the cold night and that them both had fever and they just stayed like that , looking into each other. Mulder yawned once and that brought them both back to reality.
"How do you wanna do this" "What do you mean?" asked Scully "I mean, I'm on your bed and it's warm in here and… I'm not going anywhere" she smiled, stood up, took her silk pajamas of her bag and walked to the bathroom "Mulder, relax, I'm not letting you get back to your room, you are on fever and soon enough I'm gonna be just like you… I think that we are both grown up persons, we are partners and we should be able of sleep in the same bed" "What had I just said? I must be on fever too" she thought "speak for yourself" he thought.
When she came out of the bathroom she was wearing her silk pajamas and was even paler than before "Scully, I must be honest, you look terrible" "and you don´t?" he smiled "I mean you look sick, you know you always look beautiful" She ignored the last part and climbed on top of the bed and got into it, immediately she felt the heat emanating from Mulder´s body and without even think about it twice she cuddled up against him, he tensed up, afraid of scaring Scully, but when she didn´t move he hold her waist and brought her closer to him, she lied her head on his chest getting closer to him and closed her eyes, before she drifted back to sleep she thought that she hasn't been as comfortable as in that moment in her whole life.
Mulder heard a noise coming from the bathroom, he looked at the watch on his night table, it was 4.00 A.M. he remembered that he was in Scully's room, but Scully wasn´t with him, he touched her side of the bed, it was still warm, he got up and walked towards the bathroom "Scully, are you OK?" He opened the door and saw Scully leaned over the hand washer, washing her face "yes, I'm fine, go back to bed" "Scully don't lie to me, did you puke?" "Maybe" he got closer to her and touched her forehead "It's my turn of taking care of you" he caressed her cheek and kissed her forehead "c'mon" Scully lied down in bed and closed her eyes "wait me here" "where are you going?" "To a drugstore" Scully sat on bed "no, you are not going anywhere, you are sick" "so do you" "Mulder please, I'm not in the mood for discuss right now, just, let's get some rest tonight and at first time tomorrow we'll go to a pharmacy, both" "OK" He got into the bed and once again brought Scully closer to him and started to trace patterns on her lower back, that place reserved only for him "How are you feeling?" "A little bit better" "try to get some sleep" Scully passed out a few minutes later but Mulder stayed up for an hour or so more, staring at Scully, even ill she was beautiful and he admired how strong she was. At the FBI she was known as the ice queen but he knew her better than that, he knew that she had had bad experiences with her relationships in the past and that her walls were up only for protecting herself, and somehow in the past six years he had found a way for break her defense down, she had become his best friend, his reason to live for, his partner in so many ways. He had told her that he loved her and she only answered oh brother, but she didn't need to say it, he knew she loved him back.