Disclaimer: I still own nothing. Although I am trying to get the right to the third movie… yeah right.
Chapter summary: scully decides to weigh her options. The agents go for some weapons training and are pushed even closer together. Mulder inadvertently makes an analysis of scully and proves he knows her best of all.
A/note: its Tuesday! (Actually its Saturday now.) Im trying out different writing techniques and this is one of them. I'd like to publish these accordingly. As in Monday chapter on Monday, Tuesday on Tuesday etcetera. But as me and tashy have always said, DAMN TIME ZONES! And again, im sorry for not updating lately. I've discovered a category, its called UST. If you know what that is, congrats, if not, you will.
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Okay, so he may not have been the apple of every woman's eye. Not all women would appreciate his unruly brown hair or hazel eyes. Not all women would have admired his height and lopsided grin. His physical attribute, whilst rather appealing to scully; were not always sought by the common female.
Regardless, frank was nothing compared to Mulder.
Mulder was motivated and passionate. He was protective of her, but allowed her the dignity of independent thought, though it often contradicted his own opinion. He respected her beyond his desire to make her believe in the truth he was fighting for.
No, frank would never be able to stand up to what she saw Mulder was.
Admittedly, she enjoyed the title 'Mrs Spooky'. Not because it implied that they were more than 9 to 5 work partners, though they were friends beyond their occupations. She was proud of her title. Being Mulder's partner took her more places and shown her more unbelievable things than any of her peers could imagine. Being his partner let her see the world far more clearly than she imagined anyone could.
The thoughts flowed seamlessly through her mind.
The kettle had boiled a long time ago; she never noticed. She was troubled; she felt as much for her partner and friend at work as she did for her new partner in her personal life; and trusted him far more too.
Guilt was her strongest emotion. It easily crippled her. She was being unfair to frank. The fact she found more painful was that she was being unfair to herself and Mulder together too.
Scully rubbed her forehead. Her palm was moist. Stress from anxiety, apprehension? Maybe. Probably. Her face, her hands. She couldn't tell which showed her fear better.
Ignoring her morning rituals, she left for work.
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Mulder sat on the ammunition bench. His gun was loaded and he had filled his and Scully's spares. The first half of the day practice was moving targets. Excellent, his favourite. Not. He wouldn't put it past scully to hit a fly at half a mile. He tended to spend too long aiming, and by the time he pulled the trigger, the target was gone. It was static targets at which he excelled.
Just as he went to check his watch for the forth time; scully stepped onto the range. Whoever thought of putting an indoor range on the sixth floor of the J Edgar Hover building was a complete genius; although the people working on the fifth and seventh floor would strongly disagree.
"Morning sunshine. Someone decide to sleep in?" Mulder poked.
"I was here earlier. I waited for you at the office but I got bored and came up here. I didn't know skinner booked the range so early." Scully said, pulling off her white jacket.
"You didn't get the note from Arlene?" Mulder said casually as he put his hands in his pockets.
"What note? There was the usual stack of paperwork, but nothing from Arlene." She ditched her jacket on the bench next to Mulder's.
Mulder's eyes went a little wide for a second and he arched his eyebrows. He pulled a yellow sticki-note out of his pocket.
"Uh… this one." He said guiltily.
No words. None were needed. They had never been necessary since they met.
'Shame on you Mulder.'
'I'm sorry scully.'
'You're forgiven Mulder'
'Thank you'
"So which round first?" Scully asked whilst removing the 9mm smith from her holster. Mulder did the same.
"Moving targets. I don't think I'm gonna cut the 84 needed."
"Is that the new standard now? Last year it was only 80. Things are moving up I guess."
"Yeah I know. You're gonna have to help me out."
"Give and take Mulder. You need to give me a bit of guidance with the static targets." She loaded a magazine into the pistol, making a click as it did so.
"Deal." His own magazine locked into place; he replaced the weapon on the bench, pointing down the range of course. "Ladies first."
Had anyone else attended to her femininity as obviously as he did, she would have shot them once to make them run away quickly, then a second time for the actually comment; she had a better chance at hitting them. She tolerated his sexual innuendo and teasing, and consequentially tolerated his occasional attempts at chivalry he reserved mostly for her. Actually, it was probably the fact he reserved it for her that made her forgive it easily.
Scully stepped up to firing booth and pointed the weapon down the range. She removed the safety switch with her thumb.
"Ready." She waited.
"Fire away" Mulder encouraged as he pressed the start button. The course was fully computer controlled and electronically scored. The static course was easy enough (or at least scully made it look so), 20 target come into view for about 3 seconds and then disappear again. Scully hit every single one. It bewildered Mulder that she could do so well on moving targets, yet she couldn't aim straight on the static targets. It was almost as weird as the flukeman.
As far as Mulder saw, by the end of the course, she hit them all roughly in the centre. She turned and smirked at him. Mulder wasn't irritated by her smugness at all. He knew she was only perfect for half the course; he was perfect at the other.
After a minute or so, the computer on the bench showed scully's score. 91 out of 100.
"Nice…" Mulder commented.
"You're up Mulder." They swapped positions. "Remember; don't take your time aiming. Just point it and pull the trigger."
He raised the 9mm. "okay." He said unconvinced.
Scully reset the course and started it. By the end of the run, she could see his problem clearly. It was as she thought; he was still aiming. He was too stiff, too jumpy when he moved. His score came up on the computer screen. 62 out of 100.
Mulder sighed. "That's not good scully." He tossed the empty magazine on the bench and picked up a full one.
She stopped him from reloading by placing her hand on his. "We'll go again. This time, I'll shoot. You, follow my lead."
"Ooh. I love it when you take charge!" Mulder mocked. She gave him 'the look'. "Alright, alright." He resigned.
Scully pointed her on weapon down the range. Mulder, leaving his on the bench, came up to stand behind her. He linked his fingers with hers around the pistol grip. She was too short for him to see down the battle sights; so this would be to teach him to react quicker.
"Ready?" moving one hand to hover above the start button.
"Yeah." Scully replied quietly. Yes, she was intimately aware of his very close proximity. His hand came back to hers quickly, but they had no time to relink. She felt it better they didn't. One hand entwined with hers was enough to distract her.
With his reaction being a little slower than hers, the first few shots were rough and uncomfortable, they weren't in sync. After a few shots, his movements matched hers better. Or maybe hers matched his. One or the other. Either way, she no longer led, they moved together, in sync.
The round flew by compared to the first. It was louder. The targets were bigger. She could smell the smoke from the ammunition clearly. Hell, her senses were so unusually heightened; she could smell the cotton of Mulder's shirt behind her. She was aware of everything around her.
They separated without awkwardness and waited for the score to come up. 88 together.
"See Mulder, you can pass this." She smiled shyly.
"Maybe. 'Cept when I do this tomorrow and get accessed, I won't exactly be able to shoot with you. I'll be on my own." Mulder said light-heartedly.
"I'll be there too Mulder. And the assessor will be there too." She replied, passing him a spare magazine.
"You know what I mean."
"Don't aim-" she began.
"Just shoot?" he concluded. She nodded once and patted his shoulder, offering him her good luck.
Mulder went through the course for the third time. He remembered what she told him. The memory of her standing in the cage of his arms. The feeling of her small delicate porcelain hands wrapped in his. His right index finger pulled the trigger, forcing the firing pin to hammer onto the bullet casing and sent the last round through the centre of the target. He didn't want to see his score. With his eyes closed; he put the safety catch on and removed the magazine, facing down the range the whole time.
"86 Mulder. Another pass." Scully smiled. He turned to face her, a small smirk forming on his lips. "Well done!" She unconsciously gave him a congratulatory rub on his shoulder.
She quickly removed her hand and occupied herself with changing the program to static targets.
"Ladies first again scully." He put the safety on his 9mm for the last time.
"I don't think so Mulder. I'm not fantastic at fixed targets." She said, turning to face him full on.
"Well I am. How 'bout you do this round and I guide you?" he offered carefully.
Had any other agents been in the room, she would have refused his offer politely. But this was Mulder, and she trusted him.
"Alright."
She reloaded. With her gun in her right hand, she raised it to point down the range towards her target. She rested it in her left hand.
Mulder came up behind her gingerly, though his hesitation was fairly well hidden. "Okay, relax your shoulder; you don't need to be tensed up and ready to move." He rested his hand on her shoulder, slightly brushing her neck. "Let the other hand take the weight." He ran his other hand parallel to hers and held onto her left hand, encouraging her to loosen her grip slightly.
"Wait till it recoils and comes back to this spot, before you take the next shot…" he squeezed her hand gently. He moved in a little closer to her neck. "You ready?" he whispered with very gentle authority.
'Ready? Please! You've single-handedly turned me into human putty! It doesn't matter whether I am or not, you say, I do sunshine!' Her inner voice confessed. She mentally slapped her conscience into silence. "yes." She tried to say confidently, but only succeeded in whispering.
He left her. (Thank god, or she would soon collapse) she heard the tap of the switch and watched the target retreat to the back end of the range.
She felt her shoulder automatically tense. She quickly recalled Mulder's instructions. The effect he had on her. Her muscles loosened slowly.
BANG BANG BANG!
The individual shots left echoes in the enclosed range. In her minds eye, she imagined Mulder standing behind her, his arms folded over his broad chest and horrendous tie. She could almost perfectly see the pride in his eyes as he watched her successfully hit the targets.
Of course, all this was based on what she imagined in Mulder.
Realistically, he was probably leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets and happily occupied with a bloody sunflower seed.
Last shot. She took very careful aim and landed it on the inside of the nine line. It was so close to a ten it wasn't funny at all.
She let out a long breath and removed her safety glasses. She saw Mulder out of the corner of her eye. She turned and offered an accomplished smile. Her logic was correct. One hand in his pocket, the other flipped a little seed between his straight frosty teeth. Exactly as she assumed.
Except his eyes did shower pride and admiration done on her like sunlight.
Maybe not exactly as she assumed.
"Sweet shooting scully." He said encouragingly, vaguely pointing down the range. "Looks like a pass from here."
"Well I guess I can live with that…" she sighed in a tone she often reserved for the bodies she performed autopsies on.
He snorted at her. She gave him the eyebrow, "what?"
"I just realised something oddly profound scully. Something I really should have noticed much earlier. Especially given my college education." He chuckled.
Great. He was analysing her. She admitted it was bound to happen. Though she hated when people did that to her. Padgett did it and that creeped her right out.
"Really?"
Scully's score came up on the computer screen. 85. Close call. She didn't let it distract her though.
"Mulder?"
"Huh? Oh right. Nah, I just realised you fit the profile of an only child. Almost as much as I do, if not more so." He stated nonchalantly.
"I do not." She defended.
"Yes you do. Don't argue with my logic."
"You don't know me that well Mulder…" privately, she wanted him to prove her wrong.
"Sure I do. You're an excellent reader. You are comfortable being by yourself when the occasion permits it. Not that I know the specific details of your childhood; I'll guess you were well behaved in school, not a social butterfly and allowed yourself the time to facilitate your creative pursuits." They holster their weapons.
Mulder continued. "You are most comfortable in the company of one or two people outside your family, yes?" they put on their jackets.
Scully nodded slightly.
"You got along fairly well with your parents and preferred the conversation with adults and found relationships with older people more fulfilling than with those your own age."
If she chose to, she could have accused him of referring to her relationship with Daniel. But he gave no notion of going down that path; she let him finish his soliloquy in silence.
"you strive to achieve intellectually and are determined to assert your independence as a woman, but this makes you a bit stubborn at times…" he added that last bit for his own amusement.
He paused and smiled. "How'd I do?"
She gave him a shy but amused all bearing-smile. "I think you only got one very important fact right Mulder."
"What's that?" he held the range door open for her.
"You do know me very well…" she admitted before stepping through the door.
He took his place beside her. "Then I'm one lucky man."
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The office was so boring compared to the activities of the firing range.
She and Mulder sat and wrote reports in their basement office. How entertaining. Not really. She did enjoy the companionship she and Mulder displayed this morning. Though it was shown to no one. She enjoyed the fact they could be so close to one another with out worrying about their proximity being too close for any other agent's liking.
She loved being able to freely give and receive support form him. She was a little tickled with the knowledge that he actually paid attention to her, and knew her better than anyone else did.
God, she was pretty pathetic. It certainly takes a real Idiot to fall in love with your partner isn't it?
What would he have thought? What would he think if he knew he was the one weakness to the mythical armour he so admired her for?
During this silent epiphany, frank didn't cross her mind once.
