**I posted this about a month ago for a couple of days but it was bugging me and needed tweeking…so I tweeked!!! **
Mulder lay on the couch huddled on his side with his basketball curled in his lap. It had been a long day without Scully at the office. She left early, before lunch hinting at a doctors appointment and that she mightn't be back. He wondered briefly about asking her what required a doctor's attention but decided against it, feeling that if she wanted to tell him she would have done. So having left early himself, unable to stand her empty desk laughing at his unease he didn't know what had transpired at the doctors office.
Friday night television mocked his lack of a social life and he held the phone in his hand threatening to call her during every ad break but always finding an excuse not to. He twirled the basketball in the crook of his legs and watched the orange and black spinning colours in the unnatural light cast from the TV. Finding no solace in the beers he had drank he turned to his video collection but lacked the desire or energy choosing one would entail.
A soft knock on the door smashed through his thoughtful reverie and he sat up to attention, knowing the cause to all his worries stood anxiously on the other side of the door, glancing up and down his short hallway while she waited for him to answer.
He glimpsed around the room and quickly swept up the empty beer bottles and pizza box he had casually discarded earlier. Throwing them into the kitchen sink and closing the door behind him he stood at his from door and took a deep breath, trying to seem like he had just woken. He slowly opened the door and shut his eyes to mere slits the light behind her stinging his already tired eyes. She stood before him wearing what she had worn to work earlier telling him that she had yet to reach her home. The flickering hall light sprinkled an aura around her and she stood still staring at him with clear blue eyes, silently waiting for his acknowledgement of her unexpected presence.
"Scully, what's up?" he said eventually.
"Nothing I just thought…you weren't…" she stammered trying so hard to remain calm but the quiver in her voice giving her away.
"Come in, sit down, can I get you anything?" he asked suddenly fully alert and any pretence he was trying to carry off dispelling under the weight of his concern.
"No I just wanted to talk to you," she said quietly as she sat into his comfortable couch a single hand reaching out to touch the ball that rested against its arm.
"What about?"
"Just…talk…" she said not meeting his gaze.
He sat in next to her and fiddled with his fingers unable to keep them still, his ever-present energy needing to be dispelled someway. The deviant light from the TV seemed to suit her mood so he left it on with its sound muted.
"You weren't at the office when I got back," she said, partially adding a questioning tone to her voice.
"I left kind of early," he admitted as if he was caught skiving off school.
"I was there at about 3pm."
"So I left really early."
She smiled at him and relaxed back into his couch taking a deep breath, inhaling sharply the distinctive smell of his flat and finding a soothing release to it.
"I've been thinking," she began and he moved to look at her sideways not wanting her to stop talking if he turned his full attention on her.
"Yeah?"
"About me…about you…about us."
Mulder's heart stopped when the words came tumbling from her mouth. He unknowingly held his breath in anticipation of her next words and wondered what path she had chosen.
"This past year has been really tough on me."
Mulder's thoughts immediately taunted him with images of their cases in an ever-expanding sequence of horror. He suppressed the shiver that threatened to convulse through his body and turned to face her fully, lifting one of his legs onto the couch, knowing that it was his strength she desired not his patience.
"I lost my father, I've been in more life threatening situations than I have ever had the misfortune to survive," she admitted and he didn't miss the slip in her tongue, but wondered if she did.
"Go on…" he urged softly when all the fight seemed to drain from her body and her shoulders slumped lower.
"But I also met you," she said with an air of finality that confused him.
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you ever think about death Mulder?"
"It's not something that keeps me awake at night," he joked and she smiled at his self-derisive humour knowing only too well the terror that staved off his sleep.
"I've been thinking about death. Or rather about life."
"You're loosing me Scully," he confessed, unable to admit to him self the worry that was building up in his chest.
"I went for a medical today."
"Is there something wrong?" he asked dreading the answer.
"No, but I had something very important to do and I need your help."
She took off her coat that he hadn't even noticed she was wearing and draped it over her knees. Fumbling in the pocket she pulled out a folded A4 envelope and handed it to him.
"Could you sign this for me?"
"What is it?" he asked even as his long fingers ripped it open and pulled out the neatly typed stapled sheets of paper. "Your will?"
She didn't reply and her eyes suddenly seemed to become enthralled with a piece of fluff that clung to the side of her ankle. Mulder's eyes watched her for a second before turning their attention to the writing in front of him. She looked on through her thick locks as he briefly scanned the three pages in relative silence, the only sound coming from his lips as he read unknowingly aloud every few words. When he reached the end of the final page he carefully placed them onto the table beside them and disappeared into his bedroom.
For a moment Scully stared after him in shock, unsure of what had just taken place until she heard him approaching the room again and appearing in front of her. Silently he sat down again and reached over for the pages. Using his knee as a balance he warily signed the bottom of all the sheets. She didn't speak while he folded the pages up and slipped them back into the envelope and he didn't speak when he handed it back to her. She pushed it deep into her pocket as if burying it in her clothes would hide it from their minds but when he saw her trembling hand he couldn't stand the distance anymore. Unsure what kind of relationship was forming between them Mulder decided to persuade it in his direction and carefully placed a long arm around her shoulders pulling her small shaking body against his broad chest.
She sank with his insistence into him, feeling the heat and catching his smell in the back of her throat. As he stroked her hair away from her face with his other hand he pulled her legs onto the couch so her whole body rested against him. She slowly slid down his chest, her quiet sobs shaking her diminutive self, until her head rested on his lap. She laid like that rhythmically shaking them both with her whimpers until the TV station had turned to static.
When her shaking stopped and her ragged breath calmed to a soft even intake of air he tried to sit forward to see her face.
"Scully?" he said softly and when she didn't answer he sat back into the couch, loving the feel of her slight weight on his lap and her thigh under his hand where he was reaching down the length of her body from when she squirmed to get nearer to him earlier.
His only fleeting wish for the remote control scattered to the wind when she stirred against him, emitting a moan he had rarely heard before and never from her lips. Her full lips he noticed. Her full partially open lips he noticed. But before he could let those thoughts invade his mind he looked away and rested his head against the wall behind him.
Calm down Mulder, he thought, or she will be awake in a second.
He managed to stay calm for a few more minutes until she moved again, this time turning towards him and moaning deeper, for longer. He decided he need to get away from this position and after a moments thought he carefully reached down to her knees and hooked a hand beneath them, at the same time sliding his other hand around her neck. He slowly stood and angled her body against his to support it as he walked towards the bedroom. Luckily he didn't make the bed so dropping her onto the cool sheets was easy. He pulled off her shoes and tried to undo her top seeing that she was wearing a t-shirt underneath but his fear of disturbing her was too great so he settled for only her shoes and carefully draped the duvet over her.
He went to the bathroom and moments later emerged from it wearing only his boxers and a grey t-shirt. Carefully he rested onto the bed beside her, trying desperately not to disturb her and lay back slowly always watching her for a sign of alertness. He crossed his legs at his ankles and reached over to her, resting a gentle hand on her side, as if his mere touch would keep her in a restful sleep for the rest of the night. With her body curled up next to his but barely touching he took tremendous comfort in her presence alone and felt his eyes slowly drifting to sleep.
At some time during the night she woke on the wrong side of the bed. But the window was on the wrong side of her room. And the door…
Suddenly aware of the weight that rested on her torso she glanced over to see Mulder asleep on the bed beside her, over the covers with a small frown creasing his otherwise peaceful features. She smiled at the thought that he had carried her in here that chivalrously as ever gave her the sheets as he lay shivering on top. Carefully she slipped out of the bed and slowly pulled her trousers off, dropping them to the floor. Her blouse, which she noticed was already half open was easily discarded and she went into the living room for the blanket that perpetually hung over he back of his couch.
When she returned and got back under the covers she arranged the blanket over them both and Mulder immediately turned into her heat, holding her trapped with an arm around her waist with a sleepy murmur he stilled against her. Smiling snugly Scully rested her head back further into the pillow and closed her eyes over basking in the warmth of his grasp.
No work tomorrow, no life threatening cases, she thought as her mind drifted off. Just waking up with Mulder to look forward to.
With a final contented sigh Scully let the sleepiness claim her, her closed eyes missing the small relaxed smile creeping across Mulder's lips.
** More fluff…long live the fluff…**