IV.
He made love to her in the rosy light of dawn, her body still warm from sleep. She went down on him during breakfast, and he could never look at cereals the same way afterwards. He slipped in the shower while navigating the issue of their height difference, spraining his ankle. Fortunately, she was his doctor, a fact that saved them some embarrassing explanations. And even more fortunately, it was just his ankle that was sprained.
She laughed more, he noticed, while counting her freckles in the early morning light.
He stopped standing way too close to her all the time. Now that their bodies knew each other so intimately, they could not be trusted in close proximity anymore. Mulder and Scully found out after accidentally kissing in the elevator of the Hoover Building.
October turned into November, bringing the first cold storms of the season. He bought an extra-thick blanket for his bed to keep her warm. Some of her clothes and toiletries moved into his apartment, some of his things migrated into hers.
They went to the movies and to the carnival. She couldn't stop teasing him after finding out that the haunted house had actually spooked him. He cooked roast beef for her, the second dish he could master, and she liked it just as much as the tomato soup.
One day, she allowed him to touch her in the office, and shortly after she was bent over the desk with him pounding into her from behind. They agreed it had to be a one time thing. It happened again one week later.
All in all, it was a honeymoon period as honeymoonish as they come, rarely interrupted by mayhem and monsters, until, one evening, he fished a colorful card out of his mailbox. It was one of the rare evenings they did not spend together, and he hit speed dial on his cell.
"Scully, your mom invited me for Thanksgiving."
"She did what?"
"It was in the mail today. She didn't tell you?"
"No."
"Does she know about us?"
"Noooo."
"Are you sure? She's your mom. Maybe she can sense it or something?"
"Mulder, I think she's sensing it since 1994."
"Fair enough."
"I will tell her, I will, I just want to enjoy our bubble for a little longer."
"What shall I do?"
"Well, do you want to come?"
"Do you want me to?"
Even without seeing her he knew that she was rolling her eyes.
"Mulder, this is ridiculous. She invited you. And I … I'd love to spend Thanksgiving with you."
A smile brightened his face.
"I'll call her."
X
The doorbell rang.
He was nervous, she could tell from the way he was clutching the flowers, and for the hundredth time in the past days, Scully felt guilty and selfish for wanting to keep him her secret just a little longer.
The door opened, revealing her mother.
"Dana, Fox, it's good to see you."
And just like she had known that 14 years old Dana had snitched her cigarettes, Maggie Scully knew that the relationship between her daughter and her partner had changed, significantly so. It was in their body language, was in the glow on her cheeks, was in the way they had arrived together without neither noticing nor questioning it.
Biting her lip, she tried to hide her smirk, as she hugged her daughter, hugged Fox Mulder as well.
"Thanks for the invitation, Mrs. Scully. It was a pleasant surprise."
The older Scully woman regarded him a sincere affection, accepting the offered flowers.
"Fox, I've considered you a part of the family for a long time. I never told you, not in so many words at least, but you should probably know it."
Unbeknownst to Mulder, his partner's eyes had turned to slits, as she observed the interaction between her mother and her lover, noticed the way he averted his gaze; noticed how her mother seemed to be enjoying herself. Finally, she sighed.
"Alright, Mom, we have to tell you something."
Maggie Scully turned towards her daughter, hopeful expectation written all over her face.
"Yes, Dana?"
"Mulder and I … we are a couple."
"Ha, finally!"
"Mom!"
"I'm sorry. I'm just so, so happy for the two of you. It is serious, isn't it?"
Mulder and Scully exchanged a glance, and he took her hand, bringing it to his mouth for a brief kiss before answering.
"We love each other."
A surge of warmth enveloped them, as Maggie Scully opened her arms, embracing the two of them at once.
"I've known that to be true for a long time. Let's go inside. Let's eat, drink, celebrate. Oh, and Dana?"
"Yes, Mom?"
"I'm gonna tell your brother."
X
Bill Scully survived the big revelation. Miraculously, Mulder survived it as well, and, even more so, he found himself enjoying the day.
When they left in the evening, casseroles of leftovers in their hands, his heart was as full as his stomach. He relaxed in the passenger seat, for once utterly comfortable to let her do the driving.
"Your place or mine?"
"Hmm, your fridge is bigger. Scully, would you think less of me if I popped open a few buttons of my jeans?"
"Mulder, I did that hours ago."
"God, I love you."
She laughed out, but his words still warmed her from the inside out, still made her giddy with happiness.
Love.
Of all the possible and impossible things she had unearthed down there with him in the little basement office, this one still stunned her the most.
That, while looking for all the truths out there, they had found the most unbelievable thing right there in each other.
Love.
The end.