Character: Dana Scully
Fandom: The X-Files
Rating: PG-13
Prompt "Oh love and hate are two sides of the same blade". (Kushiel's Dart) 42 on scifi_muses on LiveJournal
Setting: Season Six Episode: Arcadia
Scully stood in front of the second desk and simply stared.
"I asked them to keep it in here for you," Mulder grinned like he had personally carried the desk down to their refurbished basement office himself. "I figured it's about time you had your own place to spread out your girly things."
"Girly things?" One eyebrow arched imperiously up at him. That didn't stop the wide smile on her own face. "And how long did it take you to hide your adult magazine stash in your new desk?"
"I'll have you know I've got none in there," Mulder replied loftily, placing his nameplate on the front of his desk. Finally, this office was Fox Mulder's once again. It felt good to know that. She smiled slowly at the nameplate on the front of his new desk, feeling at peace with the world for the first time in months. This was the way things should be.
Scully took her time looking over their new situation. The office had once been an old copier room, filled with used equipment and boxes of unsorted X-files. Mulder had shifted it to some semblance of order, but even when she had come on board it had been little more than a hole with a wall of filing cabinets and a slide projector. Now it was roomier, much of the flotsam and jetsam of the Bureau's office pool having been burned away. The room was spacious by comparison, the floor retiled, the walls repainted, the lingering smell of mildew now gone. And in the ceiling above, where Mulder once had peppered the tiles with pencils there was now a glass covered space that looked up to the street level, allowing sunlight to stream over the new bank of filing cabinets that lined the walls.
Perhaps having a fire in this place hadn't been so bad after all.
"I've already started getting the files organized," Mulder was already moving around the office like a dervish, perusing through files and opening empty drawers. "Diana and Spender only had access to the files I managed to piece together before they unceremoniously kicked my ass to the curb, but everything I've done since has conveniently been with me."
He'd never told her that. "Mulder, you were supposed to turn those over."
"What, Kersh didn't notice, and I doubt boy wonder did either. Besides, they served as some light, bedtime reading. Still getting used to the new waterbed." He spun to watch her as she began unpacking her things. "So what do you think?"
"I like the skylight," she replied honestly, relieved that she would at least have a bit of sun in her life.
Clearly Mulder was unimpressed with things such as nature or sunshine. "It feels a bit sterile in here still. Too boring."
"I'm sure you can liven the place up with some picture of a two-headed chicken you clipped out of one of your magazines."
She earned the desired smirk out of him, causing her to grin cheekily as she placed a photo of her family by her computer and an old baseball of Mulder's he'd given to her for a birthday right beside it. It felt good to be home, she admitted. And it was home. Compared to the crowded, stifling feeling of the bullpen upstairs, this felt right. No one else was in the same space, chattering behind her. She didn't feel the eyes of the rookies watching her every move. This was her space, there with Mulder, and no one could possibly violate this.
The soft knock at the door caused both she and Mulder to turn and stare, Mulder in surprise, Scully in loathing. Diana Fowley nodded curtly to both of them, trying to look as inoffensive as possible. "Hello, I'm sorry. I was just coming down to gather the last of my things." She didn't bother addressing herself to Scully, focusing only on Mulder.
Scully felt her mouth tighten and continued to unpack her boxes in silence.
"Uh, sure," Mulder hemmed, shooting a furtive glance towards Scully. She pointedly ignored it. He reached behind his brand new desk to pull up a carton filled with what Scully presumed were Diana Fowley's possessions. Not that there was much. Scully had the distinct impression she was rarely in the office, and if she was, she hadn't been working X-files. Not the way she and Mulder had anyway.
"Thank you," Fowley murmured as she took the box, pausing as she glanced between Mulder and Scully. She clearly wanted their attention, and Scully gave it to her reluctantly.
"I wanted to apologize for the events last week, especially the CDC." She sounded truly sorry at least, looking somewhat embarrassed even. That was a first for Diana Fowley. "What you were put through was uncalled for."
Scully bit her tongue as she nodded curtly. She wanted to demand that Agent Fowley tell them both what she knew about Cassandra Spender, about the tests that were done to her, about the program that had involved Scully. But she instead decided to busy herself with putting pens in her cup holder.
"Thanks, Diana," Mulder replied, as if speaking for them both. "These things happen in the field, especially with the X-files."
Scully snorted softly, separating her black pens from her blue ones. If Fowley noticed, she said nothing.
"Yes, well, it was unfortunate." She shrugged as if this was indeed a normal response to that sort of situation. Scully had hope that would be the end of their conversation, but to her annoyance the woman remained, glancing around the office she had so recently herself occupied.
"So, it must feel good to be back where you belong?" Again she addressed Mulder, as if Scully wasn't standing there, loudly dumping paper clips into her desk drawer.
"Yeah, it does. Great to be back doing the work I love." There was a wealth of meaning in Mulder's words. Scully felt her teeth grinding as she slammed her stapler on her desk with perhaps more force than was needed. They both turned to glance at her, Diana as if she was surprised Scully was still standing there, Mulder as if she had somehow lost her mind.
"Stapler slipped," she shrugged coolly, shooting them both a stiff smile.
"How about you, Agent Scully," Diana finally turned her attention to the other half of this partnership for once. "You'll finally have a desk in here. Something to be grateful for."
Scully's fingers tightened on the heavy metal stapler, contemplating the weight of it and how it would feel against Diana Fowley's skull. Mulder, however, adroitly stepped in, sensing the storm brewing on the horizon.
"Look, it's great seeing you Diana," Mulder began, ignoring Scully's choked cough as she finally let go of her blunt instrument. "Scully and I have a lot of work to go over, get set up, we've been out of the game for months now. We're looking forward to getting back in the saddle."
"Of course," Fowley nodded, again managing to ignore Scully in the small gesture. "I better get going myself. I'm moving departments, back to anti-terrorism."
"Good!" Scully winced at how pleased Mulder seemed by this. "You had a talent for that."
"Yeah, well it's good to go with what you know," she agreed, shooting him a speculative look. "You know, last week, at my apartment…if you ever just want to come by and talk…"
Scully felt her eyes widen but she managed not to allow her shocked gaze turn up to Mulder. Her heart raced as she heard him cough and shuffle, suddenly becoming very busy with something he grasped desperately off his desk. "If you're in town, Diana, I'll keep in touch. Better not keep you from your new job."
"Right," she muttered, glancing between the two of them once again. Scully didn't dare meet the other woman's eyes. She was half afraid that she might start a whole new fire in the basement office. "Agent Scully, best of luck working with Fox again."
"Thank you," Scully managed solicitously, resisting the urge to point out that she hadn't ever stopped working with Mulder.
"Fox," Diana shot him a small, knowing smile. "Perhaps we'll see each other around."
"Yeah," Mulder nodded as he tried his best not to look as if those words meant anything. Still Scully noticed him watching Diana Fowley thoughtfully as she made her way out of the door, the sound of her steps lingering along with the scent of her perfume. Scully at least waited till she heard the elevator open and close before she turned on Mulder.
He had at least the grace to look embarrassed. She didn't know Mulder's face could be so red. "Scully, whatever she implied, or whatever it sounded like she was implying, she and I aren't…"
"Mulder, it's your life," Scully cut him off as something painful formed deep in her chest. Whatever Diana Fowley had implied, even if it weren't true, he certainly hadn't been opposed to the idea of rekindling some sort of relationship with her. And why not, Scully reasoned, they had a past, a history. Those weren't just things one could walk away from.
Except Scully's heart cracked ever so slightly at the thought. Suddenly she was very glad that she had never, ever given more credence to her feelings than acknowledging their existence. What if she had foolishly admitted them to Mulder, or worse yet, had indulged in the belief that they would lead to anything? This could be so much worse.
"Honestly, Scully, I went to her apartment last week to confront her with what you showed me. Nothing more torrid than a hug happened."
"Funny, because you told me you nearly gave up that night," Scully couldn't help but jibe him with that. "Did she convince you it was better to give in than to fight?"
Again another guilty glance, another flush to his cheeks. Scully had hit a sore spot. Funny, she didn't feel triumphant about it.
"Things are always complicated with Diana, Scully."
"I know," she snapped, yanking folders out of her box of things. "And I suppose Diana Fowley always will be."
He clearly didn't like hearing that from her. He ran agitated fingers through his hair, as if hoping to divine some way of fixing this situation he found himself in. "Scully, this is nothing personal against you."
"Why would I assume that anything you do with me is personal," she replied stiffly, arching an eyebrow at the very idea. She was ignoring, of course, the fact that he had once uttered "I love you" in a drug addled state, or that he had once nearly kissed her outside of his apartment, or the fact that he had gone to Antarctica for her.
Her words hurt him, and Scully felt slightly triumphant at this. "You think I don't care?"
"Mulder," she sighed, drawing out his name with the expanse of her breath. Barely hours back in their old office and they were already arguing. "I just don't want to discuss it. Clearly Diana Fowley and her place in your life is not my business."
Mulder looked mutinously ready to challenge her on it, but snapped his mouth shut as she turned back to unpacking. "Right…well I'll just get back to organizing…something."
Not really the sort of auspicious beginning to their new start that Scully had expected.
