Disclaimer: as hard as I am trying, I still don't own these characters… damn! Sadly, they belong to his majesty, the creator of the X Files universe and beyond; Chris carter. Who knows? Maybe one day I will create a show with characters as awesome as Mulder and scully; (if it's even possible?) then Chris carter will write fan fiction!! (Evil laugh).

Summary: scully is allowed back to school earlier than she was supposed to. Bill confronts her, she meets krychek, spots Mulder with Diana (uh oh!), scully gets into trouble and gets saved by three nerds… hmm I wonder who that is.

A/note: if (god forbid), you actually like bill; I turn him into a big asshole. If you like Diana (your crazy), I made her a mega bitch (if possible…). I had to write a dramatic chapter! I also took a leap of faith and made Mulder do something mean (but not deliberately!!) this chapter is told from scully's POV; and a little bit from mulder's.

PS: sorry for the long wait! :(

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Scully sat in silence in the principal's office; by her self, waiting for Mr. Spender to arrive and tell her if she was allowed back. Her suspension ended in two days, but the school had reviewed the case and considered ten days a bit harsh. Her rib had healed well, but she was still sore. She sat in silence in front of his desk and took in her surroundings; the office was quite bare, the mahogany desk had simple stationary, an ash tray and a manila folder resting on top. Behind it was a large deep red, leather chair, it looked too important to be living in the office of a public high school. The room was dimly lit and smelled of cigarette smoke, 'where the hell is he?' She thought to herself. As soon as the thought entered her head, the door opened.

Mr. Spender was a gray haired man in his mid fifties. He wasn't around that much, not many of the students had actually had a full conversation with him; he had this creepy habit of standing in classes and watching the lesson in total silence though. He was so illusive; scully wondered whether even the teachers saw him. He sat down behind his desk and leaned back into his leather chair; his eyes watching scully like a predator; they were the kind a normal person would hesitate to meet. 'I'm not afraid of you' scully thought as she looked right back. Her pride wasn't going to fail her now. She was going to be the first to speak;

"So, Mr. Spender; can I come back to school?" She said confidently, if not somewhat arrogantly.

He simply tilted his head slightly; he leaned forward in his chair and picked up the folder on his desk. His eyes left hers to look at the document in front of him.

"You have only been at this school a few weeks miss scully; and you have behaved yourself; excluding this incident of course. I took the liberty of pulling your personal records from the other schools you have attended. Your reputation has followed you here; all of your teachers say you are a bright and pleasant student. They say you have adjusted well to your new environment…"

Scully would normally have smiled at comments such as these; but in this office, she felt the need to keep her guard up; she felt as though this man wasn't to be trusted. She kept her face blank and tried the best to keep eye contact. Mr. Spender continued;

"They also say you have developed a friendship with fox Mulder;" scully cocked her head slightly. "It is blatantly obvious that you are not a violent character, miss scully; hell you haven't had detention since the fourth grade." He opened one of his desk draws at pulled out a box of cigarettes. "This leads me to wonder what factor contributed to this sudden change. It makes me wonder why you felt the need to get into a fight." He put a cigarette in his mouth, and lit it.

Scully knew what he was asking. She also knew the story that Diana was spreading around the school; Diana had heard a rumour about Melissa and that she had a thing for Mulder, apparently scully got all defencive and attacked her. Scully wasn't going to tell him, it wasn't any of his business, he thought what Diana had said was true. Heck, scully hadn't told anyone her side of the story. Not even Mulder. Admitting the truth would bring up uncomfortable questions that scully didn't want to answer. The only people who knew the truth were her and Diana.

"Sir, can I, or can I not come back to school?" She said sternly.

He hesitated and closed the folder before him. He placed it on his desk and flicked the ash off the end of his cigarette.

"You may… I don't think you'll be getting into any more conflict with Miss Fowley. Am I correct?" A hint of satisfaction penetrated his voice.

Scully stood from her chair and raised her eyebrow condescendingly. No way was she gonna let him win. "Of course Mr. Spender." And with that she left the office. She headed down the hall. No one was expecting her to be let back, luckily class was already running, and there was an hour till the day ended.

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Scully walked towards the library, her home work in her arms. She came to the library and found a lot of desks were occupied, except for one table that had only one person sitting at it. Crap. It was rat boy. She took a deep breath and sat down at the desk; sitting directly opposite him. He looked up at her; "hi." He said nervously. Scully pitied him. He looked like a sad, somewhat hen pecked, lonely guy; she smiled in politeness.

"Hi, I'm Dana scully."

He dropped his pen onto his book and offered his hand. "Alex krychek. Nice to meet you." She shook his hand. They were slightly sweaty. Eew…

"Nice to meet you too." She always gave people the benefit of the doubt.

The two studied in silence, until Alex stood and left her to study on her own. She was slightly relieved, the silence was incredibly uncomfortable. After about ten minute, scully was startled when someone slipped into the chair next to her. It was bill.

"I didn't think you were allowed back for a few days?"

"Well I convinced spender to let me come back early. I don't want to miss out on the fun."

"Dana, I've got to ask… why did you hit Diana? Is it because she liked that spooky Mulder guy, and you got jealous? Or-" scully glared at him. How dare he speculate! It wasn't any of his business, and why the hell did he believe Diana's story?! Bill took her stare entirely differently.

"So it's true… Jesus Dana! You're getting possessive over an asshole like that and take it out on Diana?! She's not that bad if you got to know her! She says she's over the whole incident!"

Scully's mouth opened in shock. Bill was taking Diana's side and hadn't heard her side of the story. True, she hadn't told it.

"Bill! What Diana is going around telling people is not the truth! I am not possessive over Mulder!" Her voice was raised. Bill stood up from his chair next to her shaking his head;

"Dana, I don't want to hear it…" and with that he walked away.

Scully sat in furious, brooding silence. How could bill possibly believe Diana over his own sister? How could he think she was so territorial as to start a fight? Her thoughts were interrupted the bell. She gathered her books and threw them into her bag. She stopped and checked herself; because no mater how angry she felt right now, showing it was not an option. It was a weakness, which was something she didn't need to flaunt in front of the school. She took a breath and stepped out of the library into the now crowded hallway.

She was ignored by her peers, all occupied by their own lives to notice her. Scully walked down the hall towards her locker; but stopped when she saw Mulder at his locker, with Diana. She stood frozen in her place and watched as Diana took mulder's hand in her own. Scully instantly turned and ran down the hallway and out into the court yard. She was stressing out to the max. She noticed the stares of the other students; she had to get out of there. Scully took off towards the school oval out climbed to the top of the bleachers. She sat and brought her knees up to her chest. She felt very alone and small at this moment as she sat and watched the footballers start their practice.

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It was almost 5 o'clock, but scully still sat on the beachers. She sighed; her family would be getting worried about her by now. She stood and walked down the steps. She walked around behind the bleachers; she spotted three guys sitting underneath with laptop computers in their laps. Boy, did they look like nerds. One was dressed slightly formally and had well combed brown hair. Another had longer blonde hair that came to his shoulders and thick glasses. The third was rather short and had very short, very short hair. Scully continued past them, she walked through the court yard and spotted pair of guys walking towards her. They looked like seniors. She looked at the ground and attempted to walk past them; but accidently walked into one of them.

"Oops… better watch were you're going." He said grabbing her shoulders.

"Sorry, I was just in a hurry to get home."

"We can walk you home, you shouldn't be walking around by your self… could be dangerous." The other boy said.

Scully felt a wave of insecurity wash over her. "No thank you." She tried to push past the boy. He let her go, but they followed her.

"What? Don't you trust us?"

"I don't know either of you" she was beginning to panic.

The other guy grabbed her wrist, spinning her around. "Well I'm Daniel Waterston, and this is my mate Ed Herse. Now you know us."

"Look, I don't want you guys to walk me home. I will manage just fine." She tried pulling her wrist free of Daniel's tight, painful grip, unsuccessfully.

"Hey! we are trying to do a nice thing here. The least you could do is oblige us."

"Let me go! Let go of me now!" Scully struggled against Daniel's grip. She heard multiple footsteps behind her.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" It was the three nerds from under the bleachers, scully wasn't thrilled, but she was relieved. She turned back to Daniel and Ed. Daniel let go of her wrist. "Come on, Ed; let's go, I don't want to deal with the weirdo brigade." They walked away. Scully rubbed her now very red and sore left wrist. Shit, that's gonna bruise. She turned to the three guys standing behind her.

"Thank you." She whispered.

They approached her. She was cautious, and she certainly wasn't going to show any weakness if front of three strangers, but they had just helped her out.

"I'm frohike. This here's Byers and Langley;" the shortest guy said. He pointed to his two friends. Langley approached scully and held out his hand. Scully frowned.

"I have a first aid certificate; I just wanted to see if your wrist is okay." He said calmly. She careful placed her wrist in his hands. As he examined it;

"I'm Dana scully. I'm still fairly new to this school. I only started this year."

"Dana scully?" Byers looked at frohike and Langley with his eyebrow raised and a smile on his face, his friends returned it.

"What?" Scully wondered. They probably heard about her and Diana. Langley released her hand.

"It will bruise a lot, but it ain't broken or anything." He moved away to stand by his still smiling companions.

Frohike put his hands in his pockets; "so you're Dana scully? We've heard heaps about you from a friend of ours."

Scully was confused. They aren't thinking of me and Diana fighting… who are they talking about?

"Who's been talking about me?"

"Fox Mulder. He talks about you quite a lot. He says some very nice things about you." Byers smirked.

"I'm sure. He seems to have found a new friend to replace me though." She mumbled loudly.

The boys looked confusedly at her and each other. Scully elaborated;

"I saw him getting nice and snugly with Diana fowley today. He doesn't care about me," she remembered that no one knew she partly fought for Mulder. "And I guess he never will! God knows why I believed him when he said he hated her!" She felt some small tears forming in her eyes. Why? Why?! Why was this getting to her! Why did she care?

Frohike stepped forwards and stood closely in front of scully. "Dana; we can guarantee you that Mulder cares abut you and your safety. What ever you think happened with him and Diana; it wasn't what it looked like. He does hate her, especially after what she did to you. Look, you have no reason to trust us; we only just met, but you can definitely trust Mulder."

Scully looked at her feet and watched a lone tear drop fall and hit her converse. They didn't know. Mulder didn't know. And maybe scully didn't know what she saw today in the hall. She wiped her eyes and looked up. "He doesn't know the real reason why I hit Diana, he doesn't know what I did for him… thank you guys, and I appreciate your help." With that she turned and run through the court yard down the road.

Frohike, Byers and Langley looked at each other and walked bag towards the oval.

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Mulder watched scully run from behind one of the buildings. He turned and leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. Was what bill said true? Did she hit Diana because she said something bad about him? He didn't believe for a second that scully would do it for no reason; or even a reason as petty as the one Diana had described. It must have been personal if she managed to poke at scully's iron coated nerves. She had seen him… she saw him with Diana. Oh god…

He slid down the wall and punched the ground, hard. She saw him talking to Diana and took it the wrong way. He punched the ground again, ignoring the blood beginning to trickle onto the ground. He brought his hands up and covered his face. He recalled the conversation in the hall;

'Fox?' Diana tapped his shoulder.

"what do you want Diana?' he said harshly turning to face her.

'How are you?'

'I'm feeling a bit lonely since you beat the shit out of my best friend, leaving her at home with a cracked rib!' he said sarcastically and angrily.

'She threw the first punch, and she was being very possessive of you fox. How can you be friends with a girl like that? You don't need her.'

'Oh and suppose you know exactly what I need…' he snarled.

She stepped forwards and grabbed his hand. 'You need someone to comfort you' she smiled sweetly.

He held his glare for a few seconds, he was so angry he had to stop and gain control of himself. He wrenched his hand from hers.

'I certainly don't need you. I never have. I have a good friend in scully. She actually gives a damn, unlike you.'

'Fox, you know that's not true;' Mulder scoffed at this and diverted his eyes. Then he spotted scully running through the front doors and outside. She wasn't supposed to be here? Mulder thought. Diana continued anyway. 'Ditch the red head, fox, you know where you belong.'

Mulder looked at Diana. 'You know what Diana? Fuck you!' He pushed her out the way and ran down the hallway into the court yard.

He stopped and looked around for scully but didn't see her. He had basketball practice to go to. He would stop by her house later.

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After basketball practice Mulder walked around the side of the building and spotted scully talking to his friends; the lone gunmen, they called themselves. Langley was looking at scully's wrist. What happened? He was about to go and find out but stopped and listened to what they were saying, he slipped back around the corner so they wouldn't see him. When scully left them; Mulder felt his heart break.

Now he sat against the wall; blood running down his arm, but he didn't care yet. He needed to tell scully about what had happened. He felt his heart ache in pain, he had hurt her and now it was hurting him too.

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Yes I know I wrote the F word… oh well; it was satisfying to write. Let me know what you think, I like reviews. Poor scully. On the plus side we got to meet the cigarette smoking man, rat boy, the lone gunmen. Yeah I know I made ed herse a bad guy… does anyone really object??