Here's the next chapter guys! Thanks so much for the reviews, and for those of you who mentioned not being big on angst, don't worry, I'm planning on there being relatively little angst. Almost nonexistent. But there does have to be some for plot purposes, just to keep it interesting.

Hope you enjoy!

Monday, 1 September 2014

University of Maryland

7:55 am

"8 am class…yeah, wonderful idea, Dana," she murmured to herself as she pulled her car into a parking space before quickly reaching over to grab her bag and books from the passenger seat.

There was five minutes before her class started, and if she didn't hurry she wasn't even going to make it into the building in time, let alone the lecture hall. Rather than listening to her mother immediately, she had continued to fuss about her daughter after she had finished getting ready, causing her to leave later than she had intended. She had been almost out the door, leaning in to give her little girl a kiss on the forehead when the baby had let out a pathetic little cough. Although it may have been slightly exaggerated (as babies have a tendency to do when they get colds), it still pulled on her heartstrings, and she almost pushed her way back into the house to cuddle the child until her cold was gone. Her mother, however, had basically shoved her out the door and locked it behind her just to get her to go to class. Although they didn't live extremely far from campus, a combination of her hesitance to leave and the start of morning traffic caused her to run late.

Now, here Dana was hurrying across the main Quad to get to the science building. As she entered the building, hastily adjusting her bag on her shoulder, she attempted to check her watch as she turned a corner to go down the hall her class was in. 7:58…she was almost there, she could definitely make it.

Just as that thought left her head, Dana felt something solid run into her as she completely rounded the corner, causing her to drop her books and fall back onto her butt. Blinking a couple of times in shock, she looked to her books scattered on the floor with the contents of her purse spilling to mingle with them.

"Oh, I'm so sorry…" She heard an embarrassed sounding voice mumble. Glancing up, Dana saw a tall boy with dark hair and a distinguished profile standing over her, a small blush on his face. "Here, let me help you with that," he said, kneeling down next to her in order to help.

Blushing in part embarrassment and part anger, she got on her knees to quickly try and gather the contents of her purse back into the bag before he could start helping. "No, thank you, I don't need your help!" She replied a little more snappishly than she had intended. That's what being late for class did to her, and now she was going to be really late thanks to this asshole.

When she finished shoving the items back into her purse, she turned to stack her books, only to find they were already nicely stacked in front of her and the boy still kneeling at her side with a sad puppy look on his face. Pursing her lips, Dana picked up the books and stood, quickly starting to hurry down the hall to her class without saying anything to the boy.

She didn't get very far before she heard the voice from behind her call, "Wait!" Letting out a frustrated sigh, she stopped and turned around, frowning when she saw him holding a small object. "I-I think you m-missed something…" the boy mumbled, blushing a bit as he held out the item awkwardly. When she finally realized what it was, Dana began to blush furiously as well and quickly snatched the tampon from his hand and dropped it back into the purse with the other emergency supplies she carried.

Before she could start off down the hall again, the boy once more called out to her and she clenched her teeth in frustration. "What?" She snapped, looking at him in annoyance before checking the time on her watch again. 8:08. Wonderful. At least it was a bigger class and her lateness was less likely to be noticed if she slipped in the back.

"Woah, sorry…" he muttered in response, holding up his hands in defense. "I was just trying to help after I ran you down."

Dana quirked an eyebrow at him and pursed her lips, making a show of glancing at her watch again so he knew she had somewhere to be other than talking to him. "And I was hoping maybe you could point me in the direction of room L2 200," he added sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand. "I figured the L2 meant level two, but it doesn't look like that since I already went up there and there was no such room."

Letting out a sigh, Dana glanced to the stairwell leading down just down the hall from them. "I'm going to the same room," she answered after a few moments, turning and signaling for him to follow her. "L2 stands for lower two, by the way. This is the main floor, you have to go down two levels to find lower two."

The boy gave a baffled look as they began to descend the stairs and then shook his head. "Whose idea was that?" He exclaimed. "Clearly someone who thought it would be hilarious to get students completely lost on their first day."

Dana couldn't held but smile and shake her head a bit at those words. "No one understands engineers," she added with a small laugh. "Everyone gets lost the first time they have a class in this building."

They turned down a hall when they got to lower two and just as Dana moved to open the back door to the lecture hall, she noticed the boy looking at her in what could almost be considered admiration. "What?" She asked quietly, her eyebrow quirking.

He seemed to realize that he was staring in that moment and quickly looked down at the floor, a small blush rising in his cheeks. "Um, it's nothing," he said quietly. "You just have a really beautiful smile." Dana looked at him in shock as he looked back up at her. "That's all." He watched her for another moment before holding out his hand. "Fox Mulder," he said.

Dana stared at him and then down at his hand and back up again. "What?" She asked in confusion, a little disoriented from the unexpected compliment.

He laughed and shook his head. "My name. It's Fox Mulder," he clarified, managing to take her hand. When she still didn't say anything to him, he tilted his head just slightly. "Now would be a good time to tell me your name, Red."

Dana's eyes widened and she pulled her hand away quickly. "It's Dana," she said shortly, the nickname causing her sour mood to come back. "Dana Scully. And you, Fox Mulder, have made me…" she looked down at her watch again. "Fifteen minutes late for class." She gave him a small glare and yanked the door open with her free hand. "I'm sure you can find your way to your seat from here," she hissed over her shoulder as she made her way quickly to the nearest seat to the door so she wouldn't be noticed.

She had set her purse and the books for her other classes on the floor and set her notebook on the long lecture table in front of her when she noticed someone sit next to her. Glancing to her left, she saw Fox Mulder giving her a sheepish smile. Rolling her eyes, she looked to her notebook and clicked her pen a little more forcefully than necessary.

God, this was going to be a long day.