Coming Home (3/6)
Part three
by Nessy and Cirglas
Disclaimer and everything you need to know is in part one.Please read the other parts beforehand, this chapter won't make
much sense standing on it's own. This has a little cursing in it,
but nothing worse than what you see on the show.-------------------------------------------------------------
Mulder got up and went to the closet on the other side of the
room. He took out what he needed. A pillow, a throw blanket.
Everything still there where it used to be. Waiting for him to
come back. /Well, I'm back now./ On his way back to the living
room he left her door open. He knew it would have been nicer to
allow her some privacy, but /I need to make sure everything's all
right./ He moved the couch to the side a little so that he could
see her from where he slept.
Then he flopped down and enjoyed the view until he fell asleep.
-------------The next morning...
Scully's alarm clock tore her out of a peaceful slumber. As always
she hit the stop button without even opening her eyes. /Years of
routine.../ Lazily she stretched and finally opened her eyes. And
looked directly at Mulder's sleeping form on her couch.
/Um... I thought my couch was a few feet to the left yesterday./
/Well, I guess he made himself comfortable./
/Sure, fine, whatever./ Scully, too hungry to shower, pulled on
the jeans and sweatshirt from yesterday. Then she padded to the
kitchen on bare feet. She stuck some bagels into the oven and laid
out the table for two. Fetching a warm bagel she headed back to
the living room. She walked over to the couch. Mulder looked so
contented lying there: his arms crossed behind his head, his feet
dangling off the arm rest on the other side of the couch. /Since
Mulder's back again, I guess I really need a bigger couch./
/Why not a bigger bed?/
/What?!/
/You heard me./
/I don't think I understood you right./
/I think you did./
Mulder stirred in his sleep and brought Scully out of her
thoughts. She leaned over the sleeping Mulder and watched him
sleep a few moments longer.
Finally, inspiration hit Scully and she dangled the toasted and
deliciously smelling bagel under Mulder's nose.
After a few seconds he jerked his head forward and took a big bite
out of it. At the same time a very awake Mulder grabbed her wrist
and pulled her down on top of him. Scully's shocked gasp turned
into giggling as he started tickling her.
"Please...Mulder...stop." She barely got those words out between
giggles.
"Why? It's fun."
"Don't... I'm...ticklish."
"I wouldn't have noticed." He liked to hear her laugh like this.
Such a rare opportunity. She seemed so much like a little girl.
But to his disappointment she said:
"I ...give ...up...uncle! ...UNCLE!" Since she had said the magic
word he had to stop. After all you couldn't break rules. Only bend
them a little.
Relieved that he had stopped, Scully took a few gulps of breath
but was too exhausted to move. Mulder started to realize that
Scully now did not at all seem like a little girl anymore, but
instead very womanly. He felt her small, soft body, pressing
against his, and heard her ragged breathing. His arms were still
around her where he had tickled her. It would be so easy to say
something that would make her face turn up in his direction. That
would leave their faces very close. Then he would only have to
touch his head forward just a little bit and their lips...
Scully seemed to notice in which direction his thoughts were
heading because she cleared her throat and said.
"Um... breakfast is ready." Mulder dropped his hands from around
her. /It would have been too good.../
Scully rolled off of him and headed for the kitchen without
checking if he followed. Mulder had no choice but to do just that.
"Mulder, I'm really sorry I have to leave but you didn't even tell
me you were going to show up anytime this year let alone this
week. And I've got to teach my classes today."
Mulder looked at Scully while she ran around in her trench, purse
under her elbow, looking for her keys and at the same time
clipping on her earrings. She looked so silly he had to smile.
"Don't worry about it, Scully, I can manage a few hours without
you." /But not very long./ "By the way, looking for these?" He
dangled her keys in the air.
"Oh, thanks, Mulder." She took the keys from his hand and gave him
a quick peck on the cheek which really effected his equilibrium.
"And I promise I won't be long." As she closed the door behind her
she added: "Don't annoy the neighbors too much."
"Ha. Ha. Ha."
Then she was gone. And Mulder already began to feel extremely
lonesome in the big apartment. /Nonsense. I'm a big boy./
He decided it was time to get started on something useful, so he
walked over to the phone and called The Gunmen.
"Hello?" It was Byers.
"Turn off the tape, guys. It's me."
"Oh, okay." A soft click. "Hey, Mulder how are you doing?"
"Oh, fine. Is Frohike listening?"
Frohike's voice: "Sure, Mulder. Can I do anything for you? Oh, by
the way, where did you sleep last night? I hope you didn't make a
pass at the lovely Agent Scully."
"Matter of fact, yes, you can do something for me." He wisely
ignored the other questions. "Could you bring my suitcase over to
Scully's? I need some stuff out of it."
"Sure, I'll be there right away. I never refuse an offer to come
to Scully's apartment."
"Well, sorry to disappoint you, Frohike, but Scully isn't home."
"In that case you have to wait another half an hour. I'm in the
middle of something right now."
"Yeah, right. In the middle of 'Redheads Do It Better'?"
"45 minutes, Mulder."
"Okay, okay, I didn't say anything. See ya later."
15 minutes later, Mulder emerged from the shower feeling much
worse. Well, the shower had been good, but he had seen something
very unsettling in the bathroom. A man's razor and cologne. That
had made him think. Now, looking through Scully's closet in search
for a t-shirt, he found a man's sock and a tie. And the tie wasn't
his. His had more... personality. And this one had somebody's
initials on it. 'C.S.'
Dwelling on the fact that Scully must have had male company he
waited for Frohike to show up.
Deling-dong!
Mulder got up from the couch and went to the door. After checking
if it really was Frohike he opened the door. /Finally./
"Hi, Mulder, here's your stuff. You sure Scully's not here?" He
tried to look around Mulder's lean form.
But Mulder was not in a good mood. "What did you not tell me?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Frohike was confused.
Mulder held up his findings for Frohike's inspection.
"Where did you find that?" Frohike asked even more confused.
"In her closet. You sure you told me everything there is about the
two and a half years I was gone?" Mulder's eyes pierced the little
gnome.
"Hey! The observation was 24 hours a day. She doesn't have a
boyfriend. I'm sure, because ... okay, I offered to substitute
myself to her since you weren't there. But she turned me down. So
if not me, then nobody."
Mulder just had to smile at that. "I don't know if I'm reassured
by your explanation."
"Well, anyway, I gotta go. See ya later today?" Frohike wanted to
get out. Fast. A grumpy Mulder was not the best company.
"Um, no, I still have some ends to tie up."
"Oh, okay. Say 'hi' to Agent Scully for me."
Then Mulder closed the door behind Frohike.
"That makes 10.25."
"Here. Keep the rest."
"Thank you, sir. Have a nice day."
Mulder got out of the cab and stretched his aching muscles. He
really needed to get a car; those back seats were torture. But he
had a lot of things to do. First he needed a place to stay.
/How about Scully's place?/
And that car problem.
/Scully's car is nice./
Then he needed to take all his belongings out of the storage and
into some new apartment.
/Scully'll help you./
And he needed some more clothes.
/Scully can pick them out./
Oh, yeah, and a job would be good, too.
/Scully will get you your old job back./
And maybe he should finally get a life.
/You have a life. Scully is your life./
Um... quite a few 'Scully's. That brought him to the last topic on
his mental list. "What am I gonna do about Scully?"
He entered the mall and headed for the men's-wear store. How far
would - could - he go with Scully? He wasn't quite as sure as
Frohike that she didn't have a boyfriend. /For sure she must have
a lot of offers. She's a remarkable person./ Maybe what he felt
for her wasn't mutual. Did he interpret her ministrations wrong?
Even before he had gone underground there had been something
special between them. The sight of her always caused something to
tingle inside him and made his mood lighten. Somehow every room
became warmer, every group of people more friendly with her in it.
And how she had reacted to his being back... well let's say he had
thought they just might be able to ... come clean on some feelings
he was harboring towards her. He wondered why he had been so
naive. After all he couldn't expect her to have waited for him to
come back. It had been years, for crying out loud! And they
hadn't even been together romantically before he left. So why had
he been hoping for it - almost expected it - now?
Maybe it would even be better for her if she had found someone
else. Because of him so much harm had been inflicted upon her. And
if she was happy with someone else... well, he thought that he
might be able to endure it if he were sure she was happy.
But he was positive that he would have to move to another city if
that was the case. Or another continent. Or planet. He just
wouldn't be able to bear the - however small the chance may be -
sight... or actually even thought of Scully lying in someone
else's arms every night, whispering endearments in his ear, crying
out in the heat of passion...
Mulder was sitting rather lost on Scully's couch, not knowing what
to do with the newly found time. He didn't have any experience
with it, since when he used to be bored he rummaged around in the
file cabinets and found himself and Scully a nice new case to
which he could direct his attention.
And during the two and a half years he traveled around through the
States he had had a lot of free time, but he hadn't just waited
for something to happen. He had always had something to do or
plan. Or fantasize about his 'Coming Home' to Scully. How she
would be overjoyed by his return, how she would fall into his
arms, kiss him silly and how they would celebrate his return
properly... but all that had been wishful thinking. Anyway, it had
kept him from being bored.
He hadn't waited for Scully to show up.
He realized with a start that that was exactly what his problem
was. He was bored because Scully wasn't there. And, God, how he
wanted her to be there.
He reached for another sunflower seed, popped it in his mouth,
cracked the shell open with his teeth and spat the shell out and
missed by a mile the bowl he had set up just for that purpose
alone. /I better clean this mess up before Scully comes home./
Hey, that sounded nice. Scully was coming home to him. A big grin
spreading across his face, he contemplated the possibilities of
those simple but promising words.
The telephone shook him out of his reverie. Thinking it might be
Scully checking up on him he answered it.
"Dana Scully's residence."
A startled pause. Then: "May I speak to Dana please?"
/A male voice?!/ "Sorry, but she's still at work. Can I take a
message?"
"Who are you, anyway?!", the friendly voice - suddenly not so
friendly - demanded.
Mulder resisted the understandable urge to answer with 'her
partner' out of habit and said, "A friend."
"Well, tell her I, Charles, will pick up the stuff I forgot the
next time I'll be over."
/Charles?/ C.S. Those were the initials on the tie. 'The
Boyfriend'. The horrible sense it made scared Mulder terribly. "O-
oh, okay, I-I'll tell her as soon as she gets home."
"What are you doing in her apartment alone anyway?"
"I-I'm an old friend of hers. I'm visiting her...for a few days...
um...", Mulder sputtered.
That made the man on the other end of the line speak up even
louder: "Now, listen here, buddy. I don't know who you are and I
don't really care. That is unless you hurt Dana in any way. Then
I'll figure out who you are, where you live, and then I'll kill
you. Slowly and painfully. Have a nice day."
The line went dead.
/Nice fellow./
/Careful. That guy was probably her boyfriend./
/One more reason to dislike the guy./
/But.../
That was when the door swung open and revealed a smiling but
obviously tired Scully.
"Hey, Scully, what are you doing here?"
"'Scuse me, Mulder, but - as I reminded you yesterday - this is
my apartment."
He smiled at the silliness of his own words. "No... I mean...
sure... but what I meant was: Why are you home so early?"
"To tell you the truth, I don't trust you when you're bored. You
always get into trouble then. Like going off on some stupid X-File
without me or something."
"Why did you think I would be bored?"
She looked to the sunflower seed shells and back to him. "You
were, weren't you?"
He looked to the floor sheepishly. "Yeah."
"See? And so I said I had a headache and sent my students home
early. They sure didn't mind."
By now Scully had shrugged out of her trench and scarf - it was
getting cold, even for November - and was beginning to clean up
the mess he had made. He rushed to her side and tried to stop her
with a touch to her forearm.
"Scully, stop. You don't have to do this. I'm taking advantage of
your hospitality way too much already."
She didn't even turn towards him. Only said: "What do you mean?
You've slept on the couch many times before. And you sure as hell
weren't concerned about my hospitality then."
"Well, I just think it's about time I got an apartment of my own."
This time she did look up. And Mulder wondered at her surprised
and slightly disappointed expression. "Mulder, you don't have to
move out yet. You can take your time and look for an apartment you
really like. Until then you can stay here."
"But, Scully, I really don't want to bother..." /Here it goes./
"With your boyfriend and everything."
He would have thought she hadn't heard him if it wasn't for that
questioning eyebrow. Otherwise her body had frozen in that
position.
"Um...well, Charles called...and..."
"Charlie?", she asked, not quite believing her ears.
"Yeah, and he sounded... um... quite... protective of you..."
A slow smile crept over her face. "He did, did he?"
"Yeah, and so...well, I guessed that..."
"You guessed that he was being protective because he loved me."
"Um...well, yes."
"Well, in that respect you are probably right."
She couldn't believe it was possible but his face fell even more.
"Mulder. You ever hear of persons being referred to as brothers?"
He looked at her confused.
"Well, I always thought a guy with a photographic memory wouldn't
forget something like that so easily, but... MULDER! Charlie is my
younger brother! That ring a bell?"
Mulder's body slumped and embarrassment showed in his eyes along
with something she realized was relief. "Why, Mulder, is that the
green-eyed monster I see?" The humor in her voice didn't stop him
from wincing at the thought he had let himself be deceived by
jealousy. Embarrassed he plopped down on the couch. He buried his
face in his hands ashamed of his deductions. Scully walked over to
him and, standing in front of him, ruffled his hair. Unconsciously
he leaned towards her and rested his head against her belly.
"Don't worry, Mulder, you still are the only man in my life." The
smile of someone who had won the most precious thing in the world
slowly lit his face - with only her belly seeing it.
"Does that mean I get to stay here for a while longer?", his
muffled words met her ears.
Since he didn't look up at her face, he missed the answering grin.
Supper at Tony's had been great. It had been as if they had never
been separated. The door opened and Scully and Mulder poured into
her apartment talking and laughing. Just in time to hear her
machine picking up the phone.
"Hi. You've reached the answering machine of Dana Scully. I'm
sorry, but I'm not at home right now but if you leave ---"
"I'm here. Yes, please?" Scully had rushed over to the phone.
"Hi, Dana, It's Mom."
"Oh, hi, Mom."
"Hi, sweetheart. How are you doing?"
"Matter of fact, fine, Mom."
"Yes, I can hear that. Is there a particular reason for all that
laughing?"
Scully looked over to Mulder. "Well, yes. Mom... Mulder's back."
"Oh, honey, that's wonderful! We have to celebrate that. Why don't
you two come over for dinner tonight? I'll fix something nice to
eat."
"Oh, wait a sec." She looked over to Mulder. "Mom invited us for
dinner tonight. You want to go?"
He frowned as he contemplated the question. Scully smiled at him,
held the hand over the mouth piece and said: "Don't worry, neither
Bill nor Charlie will be there."
He smiled at her. "Hey, nobody should ever be able to say I
wouldn't grant your mom a wish." He smiled greedily. "And if she
still cooks as good as she used to..."
"Okay. Mom? We'll be there... let's say at about seven?"
"Sure, honey, that's fine."
"Well, see you later, Mom."
"Yes, bye, Dana."
Scully hung up the phone and looked over at Mulder. He wore a
silly grin on his face. She raised a questioning eyebrow at him.
He shrugged and said, "Guess I'll be called 'Fox' again from
tonight on."
Scully smiled. She knew how he hated that name. But somehow he
didn't mind her mom calling him that. Maybe as a compensation for
his mom, who didn't seem to be too forthcoming with affection
towards him.
The time until they had to leave for Mrs. Scully's was spent by
making Mulder at home. Scully helped him put his stuff in 'his'
side of the closet, shoe shelf, book shelf, her - um... their -
desk and she even let him get his own password for her computer so
he could use it. Although he probably knew hers anyway.
The only problem with making some space for him was in the
bathroom. She swept the stuff in the cupboard over to one side and
offered him the rest of the cupboard. That was about two and a
half inches. /Women's beauty stuff take up a lot of room. I can't
believe how much stuff she has. Her apartment is at least twice as
big as mine used to be but she needs every square foot of it. She
probably has many more good memories than I do. And so she has all
these reminders of good times. Well, I'm starting to collect good
memories now, too./
When they were finished with moving Mulder in, it was already
about time to leave again.
As Margaret opened the door to greet Mulder and her daughter, the
sight of those two together again almost brought tears to her
eyes.
After giving Dana a quick hug she did the same with him and said:
"It's good that you're back, Fox."
"Well, it was time for me to come home, Mrs. Scully."
She smiled knowingly at him and let them in to the house.
/Don't they realize how perfect they are for each other?/
Maggie noted with interest how Mulder helped Scully out of her
coat and then hung it up for her. And that he got her chair for
her when they sat down at the table. He was so sweet to Scully
that Maggie even wondered if he would cut the meat into bite-size
pieces for her daughter. But she knew - and apparently Mulder knew
it, too - that Scully wouldn't let him continue with the pampering
if it got too obvious. So he only watched Scully carefully as she
cut her steak by herself.
Scully was really enjoying herself. All in all it was a wonderful
evening. Well, except for Mulder. He was beginning to be a little
annoying. And that smile on her mom's face was broadening with
each of Mulder's gestures. But Mulder seemed to be getting
distracted from his ministrations by the great meal her mom had
offered them. Her suspicions were verified when Mulder said:
"Mrs. Scully. This is absolutely fabulous. I think I have never
tasted anything halfway as delicious as this in my entire life!"
"Well, you ought to let Dana invite you for dinner more often
then. I taught her everything I know. I'm sure her husband will be
taken good care of someday."
Scully shot her mom 'A Look', one which her mom purposely ignored.
Over supper Maggie noticed that she had two very quiet visitors.
Well, with words. Their silently spoken words with looks and
touches were quite loud. Just like now. They were looking -
staring - at each other and she could bet they weren't even
listening to her. So she wanted to test that idea.
"You two already decided on the names of your children?" Scully's
head whipped around and she stared at her mom. Had she heard what
she thought she had? The smug grin on her mom's face said so.
"Mom!"
"I just wanted to see if you were listening. I'll stop. Promise."
Well, Maggie continued. At every opportunity she threw in some
comment that let Scully blush in embarrassment and Mulder smile.
Like:
"Fox, I'm sure you'll someday make a great husband and father."
"You two look like two love-sick teenagers."
"Dana always says she doesn't have any time for a boyfriend.
Right. I'm sure she'd make some time if the right guy asked."
But probably the worst comment was:
"Stop bickering, you two. It almost sounds as if you were
married."
It was so embarrassing! Her mom was trying to set them up! She
would never live through this. So naturally, the first thing she
did when out of her mom's house, she apologized for her mom's
behavior.
His good-natured reply was: "Can you really cook that well? I
might consider marrying you."
Scully was thankful for the darkness surrounding them, for he
couldn't see the dark crimson creeping up her cheeks. But she
wrapped herself in feigned exasperation: "Muulllderrrrrr..." He
didn't seem to see past it and so she was rescued from a real
reply.
End of part three
So this is love, mmh hmm umh hmm, so this is what makes life
divine... oops, sorry... got a little carried away...yeah, we're
working on the next part...promise...
We' ve known each other
For a long, long time
But I never really noticed
all the magic in your eyes
I've been around you
A thousand times before
And you've always been a friend to me
But now I'm wanting more.
----- Mariah Carey (I've Been Thinking About You)