Disclaimer: All characters related to the X-Files do not belong to me, but to Chris Carter and 1013 Productions. I am merely borrowing them for my own devices. No copyright infringement is intended.


Please R&R.

Spoilers: No particular episode, but just to be safe, everything up until the Millenium episode, but not including.

Too Few Words, Not Enough Time

By Kimberly Warner




Saturday, 4:45 PM

The sun was hot on her arms as she drove through the frustrating rush hour traffic. It was maddening, this stop and go jungle of rubber, steel and pavement. *I must be insane. This is my day off. Why am I out here?* The thoughts swam angrily through Dana Scully's mind. But what choice did she have? The urgency in Mulder's voice on the phone could not be ignored.


"Scully? Yeah, I need to talk to you." Her partner's voice had seemed uncertain as he spoke.


"You are talking to me, Mulder."


Mulder coughed out a nervous laugh. "No, I mean, in person. Please," his voice became utterly serious, "it's important. Meet me at my apartment?"


Sighing, Scully took a long look at herself. She was disheveled, still in a bathrobe and slippers, and really in no state to go anywhere. Yet she could not ignore Mulder's earnest plea.


"Are you sure this can't wait? What's so important?" Knowing that she'd end up going anyway, she began rummaging around for some clothes as she talked.


"It just is important. And no it can't wait. Please Scully, humor me?"


"All right, all right…I'll be there." She sighed.


"Great!" She could almost see Mulder beaming on the other end of the phone. Mulder, beaming? "Oh, and Scully?"


"Yeah?"


"I-I'll see you when you get here."


"Bye Mulder." And then she hung up.


Now, here she was, stranded in traffic on an unusually hot Saturday, just because of her partner's mysterious "need to talk." Of course, she hadn't convinced herself that she was really mad at him for it. For some reason the things he did never kept her very angry for long.


After over several years of working with him, Scully assumed that she was…used to…working with Mulder. No, that wasn't it at all. And she'd admitted it before, but never out loud. They'd both gone through too much together to just be used to each other. Scully knew that they shared something special, something that transcended mere friendship.

It was strange, really. As she drove, Scully thought of all the things they'd been through together and it occurred to her that if there were two people in the world who were least alike, it was her and her partner. Her cool skepticism and his burning desire to believe in the impossible should have been enough to keep them as nothing more than friends, but, as Scully realized, they had become something more.


A smile crept across her face at the simple knowledge that Mulder had always been there for her, both good times and bad. He was really the only one who ever had. Six years and they both had already experienced more, and seen more, than most people do in a lifetime. They had saved each other's lives on countless occasions, they had shared in each other's joy and grief...they were the best of friends. They completed each other.


Their friendship was something, which Scully did not doubt. She never did.


Inadvertently, she found herself drawn back to pondering why Mulder had called her over. Knowing him, it could be any number of things; an X-File being at the top of her list. But no, that couldn't be it. Mulder wouldn't have sounded so desperate, so...boyish. Scully laughed out loud at the thought. What would make her partner sound boyish? Serious, yes. Sarcastic, yes. She could even remember mournful, at times. But boyish was not something she normally associated with Mulder.


Her curiosity was definitely piqued though. She now couldn't wait to get over to his apartment to find out what exactly what was up.


Fate, if Scully even believed in it, unfortunately had other plans that day.


It was a freak accident really. Scully had just started passing through the intersection leading onto Mulder's street when it happened. She saw the car before it careened into hers; a large black pickup truck with mismatched fenders and dark, tinted windows. Funny, how the driver didn't even seem to put on his brakes. She would remember that moment for all eternity; the horrifying crash, crunching of metal and glass all around her, the pain...it lasted forever.

Just before Scully succumbed to the quiet darkness, she couldn't help but think that she would never, ever see Mulder again. That, it seems, was the most painful thing of all.