Scully sat at her desk and drank coffee from a cheap porcelain cup. She groaned because of the taste and quickly placed it on the desk. The door opened and Mulder entered, holding a stack of paperwork.
'Good morning.' He greeted her.
'Good morning.' She replied. They shared a smile and Mulder went to his desk and sighed.
'Scully?' She looked up at him. 'Can I ask you something?'
'Go ahead.' She answered, putting her pen down.
'I'm going to my mother's house tomorrow night for dinner and I was thinking maybe you could come.'
Scully had met Mulder's mother before, but that was when she was his work partner. Now, they were basically in a relationship. How would she react to Scully being with Mulder?
'Scully?'
'Oh- sure.'
Mulder smiled.
'That's great.'
'But, would it be too much trouble for her?'
'No- I'm sure she'd be fine with having you over.'
Scully smiled.
When they met that night, Mulder stayed at Scully's house and they relaxed on the couch whilst they drank champagne. It was after four hours of talking about their ambitions and hopes until they realised it was 2:00 in the morning. They went to bed, made out, then without thinking about it fell asleep.
Scully woke up close up to Mulder's face. He breathed on her nose and it tickled. She slowly slid her arms out and moved out from under the sheet, trying be as quiet as possible. She turned on her coffee machine and opened her pantry to pull out a box of muesli. All the bowls were dirty, so she went to the top cupboard to pull one out. Because it was too far back she had to take a chair and stand on it to be able to reach the bowl. When she obtained it, she lost her balance and tried to grab the cupboard door, but she fell back and hit her head on the counter.
Mulder had woken up before he heard the loud crash coming from the kitchen. Straight after the noise he pulled his sheets off and jumped out of the bed. When he went into the kitchen he saw Scully sitting there rubbing the back of her head.
'Dana!' He exclaimed, running to her. 'Are you okay? What happened?'
'I- I hit my head on the counter.'
Mulder went behind Scully and looked through her hair and see if she was bleeding. Fortunately, she wasn't- but she still had a concussion. Scully lay with her back on the counter.
'You'll be okay- do you have an ice pack or something?'
'There's one in the freezer.'
Mulder was still recovering from the anxiety he felt when he heard that crash. What if it had been serious? He looked through the freezer and found the ice pack then handed it to Scully.
'I'll make you some coffee.'
'Really? I can do it myself.' Scully said, putting the ice pack to her head.
'It's fine.'
After they ate breakfast, the two left the apartment and decided to go for a short walk. At least, they thought it would be short. First they went to the park and laughed at the memory of being in the fountain, then decided to sit on a nearby bench. Mulder sat casually with Scully next to him and his arm around her. He felt happy with her. He didn't feel awkward like he did when he would usually be in public by himself. Then he realised, he had always felt happy around Scully. This was why he had such strong feelings for her. He was in love with Scully. But what worried him was that she didn't feel the same way. He pulled her closer towards him and they sat in silence, embracing their surroundings.
'Dana?' He finally asked.
'Yeah?'
'Are you wanting a relationship with me? A long term relationship?'
Scully nodded.
'I-' she sighed. 'Yes, I am.' But Mulder wasn't fully convinced. It wasn't going to stop him from being with her if she didn't know what she wanted- he knew that Scully would have to love him. They had known each other for so long. Surely she felt the same way.
They left in the car at 3:00. When they arrived, Mulder's mother was standing outside, watering a bed of flowers.
'Fox- hello!' She cried out to him when he opened his car door. He waved at her and went up the path with Scully following.
'Hi!' He went to his mother and they kissed each other's cheek. Scully greeted her and did the same.
'How are you?'
'I'm great how have you been?'
'Oh, I've been just fine. So Dana are you staying for dinner?'
'Uh- yes. I am. If you don't mind of course.'
'Don't worry about it. I'm happy that you're here.' Mulder smiled. His mother talked to Scully in a way that made her realise she knew about their relationship. How much had he told her about them? Scully was a reserved person most of the time, and she didn't want many people knowing about her and Mulder being girlfriend and boyfriend. Even the idea of calling someone her boyfriend was weird to her.
They went inside and sat down in the living room. Mulder's mother poured them both a cup of tea and gave them a slice of cake. Scully and Mulder shared a suppressed smile with each other on account of his mother's kindness, and how she was being somewhat cute to make sure they were comfortable and happy.
'So.' She asked. 'How long have you been together?'
The two looked at each other.
'Uh,' Mulder said. He then looked back to Scully, as if wanting approval. 'A few weeks now.'
His mother grinned.
'Oh- I just have to go and turn on the oven.'
She left Mulder and Scully to go to the kitchen.
'Sorry if she's too weird for you.' Mulder said, turning to Scully.
'What? No- Mulder she's fine. So nice of her to welcome me like this.'
'She was excited the moment she heard we were in a relationship.'
Scully frowned.
'When did you tell her?'
'Just the other day- when she invited me.'
'Okay.'
'Why did you not want her to know?'
'No, of course I did. She is your mother.'
Mulder smiled.
'Okay. I'm just happy that she's been so good about it.'
His mother came back and sat down in the chair opposite them.
'Are you okay with having a roasted chicken Dana?'
'Yeah that sounds great.' She answered, nodding and smiling.
The three talked until the dinner was ready.
The food set out on the table looked delicious. When Mulder's mother cut the chicken it looked perfectly cooked, and steam was still rising up from the roast potatoes.
'This is too much Teena.' Scully said, sitting down.
'It's no trouble! I rarely see Fox,' she said, patting his back, 'so I wanted to make the dinner special.'
Mulder's cheeks turned red and Scully laughed.
After they ate, Scully left the dining room and went to the bathroom to wash her hands. Mulder followed, and as she stood in front of the mirror turning off the tap, he came up behind her and put his arms around her waist.
'Hello.' He said, pulling her back.
'Hello.' Her voice sounded tired.
'Are you okay?'
'Yeah, I'm fine. My head still hurts sort of.'
Mulder kissed the back of her head.
'Is that better?'
She smiled, turned to him and kissed him. Whenever they kissed, Mulder would always have to bend his neck because of the height difference. He didn't mind doing it though. Scully left the bathroom and Mulder washed his hands. When he went back into the dining room, no one was there. He heard laughter and talking then went back into the living room. Scully was sitting on the couch next to Teena looking through a photo album together. He groaned.
'Oh- Fox,' his mother said looking up, 'I was just showing Dana some old photos of you from when you were younger.' Mulder collapsed into the chair. Dana eagerly turned the pages and grinned.
'You looked exactly the same.'
'This one is from when he was just a baby.'
'Awww.'
Mulder could feel his face heating up. He covered his cheeks with his hands so they couldn't see.
'You were so cute.'
Mulder grinned. Scully noticed a photo of Mulder with Samantha. It made her feel sad to see them so happy together.
At 10:00, they decided it was time to leave. Scully hugged Teena.
'Thank you so much for dinner. It was so nice to come over.'
'I should be thanking you. I'm happy that you came over, you made the night much more enjoyable.'
'As compared to spending the night with me?' Mulder asked. His mother laughed and shook his arm.
'Goodnight Fox. Goodnight Dana. Drive safely.'
'I hope we can see you again sometime.' Dana cried out to her as they walked down the path.
'You too!'
The drive home was very quiet, until halfway through Mulder spoke up.
'Thanks Dana. I really appreciated you coming over.'
'I had a fun time. Thanks for inviting me.'
'I hope she didn't bore you with those photo albums.'
'Are you kidding? I was hoping that I'd see photos of you from when you were a kid.'
'Was I really that cute?'
'You still are.' Mulder looked over at Scully and blushed.
'You're blushing again.' The fact that she had pointed it out caused him to become even more embarrassed.
When they parked in the car park of Mulder's apartment building, they leaned in towards each other and kissed. One thing led to another, and Scully was soon sitting on Mulder in the driver's seat, kissing him whilst licking the inside of his mouth with her tongue. He made a quiet grunt sound and began touching Scully's shoulder with his arm under her shirt. She leaned in closer towards him as they kissed and soon they moved to the back seat of the car. Mulder quickly took his shirt off and helped Scully with her's, then he unzipped his pants and pulled up her skirt. With his arms on the seat, Fox curved his back then moved inwards and outwards. Scully wrapped her legs around his hips and put her arms around his shoulders. They both moved together with a steady motion and after Mulder came they lay there and held each other.
'I love you.' Mulder said between kisses.
'I love you too.'
When they went back upstairs to Mulder's apartment, they lay cuddled up on the couch and watched a movie together. Scully soon fell asleep, so Mulder turned the television off, kissed Scully's forehead, and pulled a large blanket over them.
The next day they decided to stay on the couch under the blanket. They had endless conversations about memories from their childhood. It was nice for them to just relax and be so close to each other. Scully noticed that Mulder avoided telling stories from the age he was when Samantha disappeared. She didn't expect him to, she knew it would have been difficult for him to think about that period, but at the same time she felt it was necessary so he could let go of those thoughts to someone he trusted.
'Fox- after Samantha was taken how was it for you?.. I know you won't want to talk about it, but now that I'm your girlfriend, you do trust me don't you Mulder?'
'I've always trusted you. After she was taken it was terrible for me. I blamed myself so often. I stopped sleeping for a while. I thought that,' he tilted he head, 'maybe whoever took her would come back. I was always ready for that time. And when I say always I mean, everyday since I moved out of that house.'
Scully kissed Mulder.
'I guess it was like that for me too. I still blame myself today and I don't think I ever will stop. My sister died because of me Mulder.'
'Don't say that.'
'No. She did.'
Mulder returned a kiss to Scully.
'If I were to go back in time, if I couldn't change Samantha being taken away then I would tell myself it was my Dad's fault. Because I- I hated myself Scully.'
His eyes began to tear up.
'And if I knew it was him- then it would have been so much easier for me.'
Scully nodded and kissed Mulder again. She had only just realised how much her disappearance impacted him as a boy. To have to keep living with the idea that it was his fault when it wasn't- that made Scully's eyes water.
