6.
6.20am
Scully awoke with her alarm, it wasn't fair, and she hadn't slept well at all. The night had been spent tossing and turning deciding what to do, whether she should reply to Mulder's e-mail or ignore it just like she had the others. She'd thought about them so much. His heart had been poured into those long e-mails that he used to send her and she knew every word was the truth but how could his last one just say 'I'm sorry' it didn't make sense. Perhaps he was tired of writing the lengthy letters and having no response. Or did he have other intentions? Had he decided that he'd had enough of the running and decided to end it all? As the thought crossed Scully's mind a stabbing pain hit her heart making her blood run cold. Her face fell. What if he had done something stupid? Fresh tears formed in her eyes and so not to wake her 'love' she softly padded to her en suite bathroom to cry. Turning on the shower she let the sobs wrack her body.
Even after all this time, the self-persuasion that it was over, Scully realised she felt the same as she had before. She may hate the way he had abandoned her but there was good reason even if it hurt like hell to admit it. She was still in love with Mulder. She just wanted him safe and home so she could whip him into a pulp for scaring her half-to-death with his continued disappearance. Stepping out of her nightclothes Scully walked into the steaming shower. She had to get focused but the tears remained and even the water's soothing beat against her skin couldn't stop their flow. How her heart ached for Mulder, why had it come to this to make her realise exactly what she felt for him? Her every emotion seemed to be pouring out of her as she sank to the floor of the shower hugging her legs to her chest, she couldn't control it. She was in love and it hurt more than her abduction experience to know Mulder might not be coming home.
9am
Scully had composed herself enough to eat a small amount of toast swallowed with a black coffee. Her thoughts were aimed at her student's work that she still hadn't marked. She felt awful for not being up to date with the marking but things had slipped recently. She wasn't performing to the best of her abilities and was beginning to wonder if she should visit her doctor. 'Stress and heart ache' she thought there was no other explanation aside from 'the dreaded change' but she wasn't going to follow that route just yet. The pile of coursework was slowly declining as she read through each assignment giving marks here and there for insight and the ability to view the case study objectively. At least some made the attempt to be reserved of emotion whilst others seemed to be involving themselves too much, 'a prospective Quincy' she thought reminiscing of the old TV show she had watched as a student. She smiled at the recollection. How things had changed. Today, the things Quincy was trying to solve were actually easier. Post-mortem analysis no longer took days but a few hours and everyday tests were relatively simple. Medicine had changed rapidly over the past few decades and each day new discoveries were made but the public demanded better cures for these discoveries. How could you cure the common cold? No one had accomplished that! Her eye caught a sudden movement at the window, making her jump out of her skin! Slowly rising to her feet Scully went to investigate only to find her neighbours cat scooting out of her garden, tiny muddy paw prints were visible against the white of Scully's window frame, with a soft smile she found a cloth to wipe them away.
'Pesky cat!' she said to herself.
8.45am
Mulder had seated himself in a booth of a café; it was best not to be openly seen. He felt guilty for not calling Skinner, Reyes or Doggett but they would have told him to let go of his 'home-coming' idea. They didn't realise how much he needed Scully, just to see her smile at him would mend the crack in his heart. What had he done! How could he have destroyed all that was precious to him? He imagined her sat reading a book or poems to her new lover, by an open fire, and began to feel the jealousy boil within his veins. He knew it could all be a figment of his imagination but something told him that he was right. Scully loved another and didn't love him. For once he couldn't blame her. Six years was an incredibly long time to be without your lover. He wondered if she had got William back. He knew she never taught past two thirty and Mulder, being curious, wondered if she raced home to her son or her new lover. He figured she may have both but it didn't sound like Scully, she would have settled for one or the other. She may want both but something would stop her from 'having her cake.' Her selflessness would keep her longing for one whereas his own selfishness had cost her their son in the first instance.
Opening his wallet to check his money he saw the beaten up photo of Scully holding William, he'd caressed the photo so many times he knew every crease, every line and especially every contour of her face. $10, that was all he had. A light breakfast for him that day, this money had to last until he saw Skinner. Toast and a tea would just about fill him up.
He was intent on going back to the University to find Scully and make her see that he did love her. Who couldn't love her? She was so beautiful. Not like the catwalk models but an intelligent, funny, self-assured beauty that anyone who knew her could recognise just as he had the day that they had met. It had been uphill from then. A love based upon mutual respect and trust. One that they had built upon but without noticing that it was what they were doing. There was no struggle between them, they thought of each other as friends, the kind of friend you could tell anything to and not have to worry about. It came as a surprise to him when he woke up one morning and realised that he was totally in love with Scully. Mulder had rolled back into bed, that morning, groaning because he couldn't believe he had let it happen. She would never feel the same.
It wasn't until much later that he had been told by Scully that she had realised months before him that she, too, was in love with him. Mulder smiled remembering her face breaking out into a happy smile when he had finally told her exactly how he felt. That smile was all he thought about, every minute of the day.
Opening a piece of a paper, Mulder, re-read Scully's work schedule. He couldn't believe how easy it had been. Pretending to be an adult student to the seemingly new receptionist had gained him a copy of the entire timetable for the forensic science department. Mulder had written Scully's timetable on the back so not to have to stare at the complicated schedules. It looked more like a mixture of bus timetables than a schedule for lecturers.
Today she was in the Labs from 11.30 with year two – Toxicology- and all he had to do was find them, scrub in and… and what? That was where his plan faltered. He didn't know what to do. Maybe he would just watch. It would be easier the following day, he could watch her lecture, but he had to see her today. He had to.
10.30am
Scully chatted away with the Administrator for her Department, Carolyn, they both laughed about the newest student affair that seemed to be developing. Not because it was funny but the fact, the girl, following three dates had declared undying love for her male partner. In many ways Scully felt the slice of loneliness that ached within her, to have Mulder back would change her life. It was not to be.
Scully stopped mid-conversation as a song came onto the radio, it reminded her so much of Mulder's being away from her, 'Right here Waiting' by Richard Marx.
"Are you ok?" Carolyn asked trying to type at the same time.
"Yeah, this song used to mean a lot to me, I think it still does." Scully sighed leaning against her friend's desk.
"Reminds you of that guy you really loved?"
"Yes, it does…" Scully trailed off as a familiar buzzing sound rang in her ears. 'Just what I need today, of all days!' Scully thought as the noise got closer and the tingling began in the base of her neck.
"You've gone all pale are you sure that you are okay?" Carolyn asked seeing Scully's face fall just as the tingling began.
"Yeah, fine, I've got to go get prepared for my class. I'll speak to you later, okay."
"Sure." Just then the phone rang, Carolyn answered allowing Scully to leave. As she reached the office door Carolyn called her back.
"What?" she mouthed at Carolyn feeling a little impatient as the tingling continued its 'natural' course across her shoulders and moved towards her lower back.
"Thanks" she said into the receiver as she hung up. "There are no lab groups for you today. There is a gas leak in the lab building. I hope you have a lecture prepared or something. I'll post notices for you." She rifled through some papers before finding a book, which she opened urgently. Running her fingers down the pages Carolyn found Scully a lecture hall in which she could teach.
"Lecture hall 591! The kids will hate it. That's the room I had last year that the students swore had seats that gave then numb bums. I guess it'll have to do though. Can you ring groups two and three? They'll be expecting to come in this afternoon for their lab groups. Make the lecture one thirty this afternoon, that way there is plenty of time for them to get here. On second thoughts, can you ring group two, I'll ring group three."
Scully said. She wanted any excuse to get away from the buzzing and tingling that was causing her discomfort in the nicest possible way! Sometimes it would stop if she left the room that she was in, almost like it lost reception.
"Sure. That's no problem."
"Thanks." I'd best get ringing around then." Scully smiled before leaving the office for good.
As predicted the buzzing and tingling ceased once she reached the safe haven of her office. It was too much to bear and with a gas leak too!
Booting up her computer Scully found the list of students' telephone numbers and began her task of telephoning each one. By 11.00 she had successfully spoken to all of her students. Each said they would be there, only the commuters would be missing the lecture but she promised to e-mail them the notes.
Sighing with relief, Scully set herself the task of printing her lecture. Thank goodness she hadn't deleted it from her computer files!
10.35am
Mulder could see Scully, through a window on the first floor, from where he was walking, through Scully's building's car park. She was laughing with someone in the building, he wasn't sure where she was but he had to find her, to get close to her, to see that smile properly. Opening the door he felt the nerves course through his body, what if she rejected him?
He got closer to the reception office but stayed around the corner so not to be seen, he had to compose himself before seeing her.
"Lecture hall 591!" he heard Scully protest, he knew where she was going to be now and opening the university map he located where he would chance meeting her again! He had to talk to her, he had to make her see sense and love him again, but not now. She was too busy with the gas leak problem to want anything to do with him. He turned away steeling a look at her before she left and as he did a cold shiver ran down Scully's spine, just before she left reception to go to her office where she noted the tingling had disappeared.
