Facing Facts
Part 3
by Trycee
Time-Line: Season 7, before All Things.
Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Files, this is written for fun not profit.
Scully could feel her mother's eyes on her as she ate her meatloaf and mashed potatoes. "Umm...really good," Scully said, glancing up to her mother. "It's been along time since I've had this..."
"A long time," Maggie said, watching her daughter.
Scully glanced up to see the classic eyebrow raised and she was surprised to see her expression on her mother or vice versa. She knew she looked like both of her parents but she often thought that she including her siblings looked more like their father...but in this instance, she could clearly see that she was the spitting image of her mother. She wondered if her auburn hair would get darker the older she got as well. She was awaken out of her reverie by her mother's booming voice. "What's going on?", Maggie demanded.
"What do you mean?", Scully said, dropping her eyes.
"Dana Katherine Scully...you can't hide things from me!", Maggie said, raising both eyebrows.
Scully looked down at her plate and then back up into her mother's eyes. "I'm on vacation..."
"As flattered as I am...", Maggie began. "I'm not buying it..."
Scully smiled shyly and then cleared her throat. Maggie knew immediately that Dana was trying to be cautious. "Really...I have a week off...a surprise to me..."
Maggie's eyes narrowed and she could see Dana swallow hard. Just then, Scully's phone rang and she looked relieved. "Scully?"
"Agent Scully...this is John Byer's..."
"What's wrong with Mulder!", she said, jumping up from her dining room chair.
"Nothing...I don't mean to alarm you...Its just...Mulder's getting a little drunk...We thought we'd tell you before he got out of hand..."
Scully glanced at her mother for a second and then focused on the phone call. "Where is he?"
"He's with us...at our place..."
She rolled her eyes. "John...put him in a cab...I'm sure he'll sleep it off...but I'm not driving back just because he's drunk...I'm on vacation...", she stressed. "Mulder's a big boy, he can handle himself..."
"We just thought...that maybe..."
"What that I'd come and take him off your hands?", she asked angrily. "Look...I'm with my mother...I've got to go," she said, hanging up.
She sat back down and Maggie was staring her dead in the eyes. "Dana...what's going on? Did you and Fox have a fight?"
"No, " Scully said, looking down at her hands. "Nothing like that...I just needed to get away...", she sighed.
"So you're avoiding him...", Maggie said, sitting back.
Scully had a flash of surprise cross her face but then she looked back down to her hands. Maggie watched as she then tucked a piece of stray hair back behind her ear. "Okay...Yes...I'm avoiding him..."
"But why?", Maggie said, shocked.
Dana was staring at her nails as if they were the most fascinating things in the world. Maggie shook her head. "Dana...You love 'em...You can't hide your feelings forever..."
Scully huffed. "What?", she said in a high pitch voice. "Ha...What?", she said, avoiding her mother's eyes.
"I know you...and I know love when I see it...", Maggie said, standing up and walking over to her daughter's side. "You haven't dated a man since you met him...Why do you think that is?"
Scully's head dropped. "I've tried too...", she said, quietly.
"But they're not him, are they?"
Scully glanced up into her mother's eyes. "No...they're not..."
"Then why are you avoiding him?"
"Because I don't know if I'm ready...", she said with a hysterical laugh. "I...ah...I wanted this day to come...but I never thought it would...", she said, as a single tear trailed down her cheek.
"Your terrified aren't you?", she said, wiping away her daughter's tear. "You're past that all now, the both of you...past the what-if's...the maybe's...the hoping...It's time...don't you think?"
Scully nodded though she was unsure. "What if...What if..."
Maggie chuckled. "I wish you could see what the rest of us have seen...even Bill knows you're in love with him and that Fox is in love with you...why do you think Bill hates him so much?"
"Because of Missy?", she said, looking at her mother. "He knows Mulder is in love with me?"
"First of all...Bill doesn't really believe Fox was the reason for Missy's death. I've had long talks with Bill, just he and I and I know that for a fact...He just hates him because you're in love with him...and he's your big brother. We've all known you both were in love for years...even Missy knew it..."
Scully smiled shyly. "Really?", she said, as her stomach tightened.
"You know that he is, don't you?"
Scully looked her mother in the eye. "Yes...I know..."
"Then what are you waiting for?", Maggie asked.
"Ah...", Scully began. "It's...not...that easy...The rules state..."
"Horse pucky...", Maggie huffed. "Your afraid that if you let him know that things will change and that you'll lose your friendship...the one your so comfortable in..."
"Yes," Scully sighed.
"You're dad and I were best friends too...", Maggie smiled widely. Her eyes were distant, remembering her husband. "You're gonna have to face the fact that things have already changed between you...I saw it in his eyes when I met him...when you went missing...How he acted when you were gone...not as a partner...but a man in love...I saw it in your eyes when he gave you that video...Dana, you can't go one family dinner without worrying about him or having this far off look in your eyes like you can't be happy without your better half... and Dana...Fox is that half...You can either be miserable and pretend that you don't know that you're in love with him or you can be happy..."
Scully looked her mother in the eyes. "Okay..."
"Okay," Maggie said, turning from her. "Let me get the ice cream," she said, heading towards the kitchen.
Scully sat in the dining room alone. Her mind was on Mulder and she knew the reason he was drunk. She knew it was because of her brush-off. She sighed loudly and shook her head. Ah...Mulder..., she thought to herself. I do love you...
"Pizza!", Froehike said, dumping the large cardboard box on the table. Within a few minutes, each guy had grabbed a piece and was tearing into it.
Mulder smiled. "Good...Better than near my place..."
"Put some food on that stomach, Mulder...", Byers stated. "It'll help to absorb some of the alcohol.
"I'm not drunk...I know exactly what I'm doing...and saying," he said, as his eyes rolled slightly.
"Right!", Langley said.
"You guys ever been in love?", Mulder said, suddenly.
Froehike tapped Byer's on the leg getting his attention. "I have...", Byer's said. "You know the story...Suzanne Modeski..."
Both Froehike and Langley were silent. Mulder chewed on his crust and then reached down and grabbed another slice. "I don't know what more I can do...", he said, with a sigh. "I told her I loved her once...she didn't believe me...", he said, pouring himself another glass of bourbon. The last drop fell into his glass. "I had it all planned out...a whole weekend...I was gonna take her sight seeing...like tourists...Go wherever she wanted to go..," he sighed. "Not as Agents but as a man and a woman...I was even willing to go shopping with her...and hold the bags like some whipped wuss..."
Froehike exchanged glances with Langley and they both hung on his every word. They were getting the drunken exclusive and they were hoping he would spill it all before he was too drunk to give them all the rest of the details. No one spoke a word as they waited for him to speak.
"I've been planning it for weeks...", he said, taking a larger cup of the liquor this time. "I wanted to dazzle her...take her to the game uninterrupted this time...I wanted to take a carriage ride through Central Park..."
"Cliche," Langley coughed.
Mulder seemed unfazed. "I just wanted...to show her this time...not just tell her..."
They waited for him to continue but when he didn't, they looked at each other. They turned back and Mulder had fallen asleep on the couch sitting up, still gripping the glass of bourbon. They pulled the glass from his hands, and then helped his long legs onto the couch. He curled up to a pillow and they placed a blanket over him. "Let him sleep that off...", Byers said, shaking his head.
"Damn...I feel guilty now looking at this tickets," Langley said, tossing them down on the coffee table.
"We got to convince him to go ahead with the date...We have to intervene...", Byers said, thinking. "I don't think she sounded too eager to come back though..."
"We'll kidnap her if we have too," Froehike said.
Langley and Byers looked at him closely again. "I gave up on that fantasy along time ago," Froehike huffed.
"Okay...we need to work out the details...", they said, walking back over to the computers. "These two are hopeless...if we don't intervene...they may never get together..."
"But it has to seem like it's their ideal...", Langley said. "Or partially...something...we'll work it all out..."
"Gotcha...", Froehike added. "It'll kill me...but it must be done..."
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