XI
"That was damn brilliant, Scully, telling that old lady that we're into the occult," Mulder said excitedly as soon as their room door closed behind them. "Tomorrow why don't we head down to the library or Hall of Records and see if we can research her family, especially the grandmother?"
"Sounds like a plan," Scully said tiredly, sitting in one of the desk chairs and kicking off her dusty white deck shoes. "For now, I think I'm going to read for a bit and then hit the sack. Driving around southeastern Kentucky for hours wore me out."
Mulder automatically went on the defensive. "Look, how many times do I have to tell you I'm sorry? I didn't—"
"Jesus, give it up! I wasn't bitching," she snapped back, getting her pajamas out of her suitcase; they still hadn't taken the time to unpack. "I was just stating fact, that I'm tired."
"Then leave the getting lost out of it from now on," he snarled. The only good thing about the bad day they'd had was that his simmering desire for her was now completely gone—at least for the time being. As she went into the bathroom he added, "And hurry up, I want to change and have a soak."
The door slamming in his face was the only answer and Mulder quickly realized that perhaps letting her know that he wanted to get in there anytime soon had been a mistake of monumental proportions, especially when he also had to use the bathroom for the purpose for which it had been designed.
The next morning when they left the room they were still sore at each other but, although they hadn't talked about it, Scully thought they might have buried the hatchet enough to keep pretending to be a loving, newly married couple. As they began down the hall a pair of young maids came around the corner and instead of giggling and blushing, this time they both looked solemnly at the older couple and nodded in a quiet manner. Once they were out of earshot Mulder leaned over and said, low, "What do you think that was all about? Yesterday they thought we were the funniest thing they'd ever seen."
"Maybe they're mourning the death of the man that was killed yesterday," Scully grumbled, annoyed that he was paying attention to the cute little maids in their tight uniforms. "Who knows? Is it important?"
"Jesus, what crawled up your ass and died?" he muttered, standing up straight again. "You're not exactly helping here, Scul—er, Sally."
"I didn't start it, Mueller," she gritted out as they entered the hotel restaurant and were immediately waved to an empty booth by the hostess standing near the bar where they'd sat the night before, which was just on the other side of a waist-high room divider. "And no one ever said I had to be nice on this assign—honeymoon."
"Wouldn't hurt," he grumbled, opening a menu and hiding behind it.
Chickenshit, Scully thought.
They were sullenly quiet until after their orders were taken, then Scully heaved a sigh, looking around to make sure that no one was in earshot. "All right, Mulder, what is going on with you?"
"Me? Me?! You're the one being a raging bitch!" he snapped, but kept his voice low. "I didn't deliberately get us lost, you know. It was an honest mistake."
"Christ, you think I'm still angry about that?" she said with exasperation. "I'm done with that, have been since we got back here. I'm annoyed because you've been acting like a sulking child."
"Because you've been pissy with me since yesterday afternoon," he hissed back.
"Then how about we just let it go like two adults instead of acting like children?" she said, thoroughly sick and tired of his attitude and knowing that this was the only way to put a stop to it. "I will if you will."
Mulder heaved a sigh as well, rubbing his face with one hand. "All right. Fair enough. So you interested in my idea about going to the library or Hall of Records if they have one?"
They paused while coffee and small glasses of ice water were delivered by a solemn-faced waitress.
"Yeah, that sounds like a plan," Scully agreed, reaching for the tiny creamer cups while Mulder added a few ice cubes from a glass of ice water to his black coffee. The rest of the meal passed in a comfortable near-silence, the equilibrium of their partnership mostly restored and all about as right in their world as it got.