* * * * *

The case went as terribly as I expected it to.

You see, there were two kinds of people who don't readily believe in my theories: skeptical scientists, and closed-minded bitches. Now, I don't think it's necessary to give an example of each, but I will. Scully is a skeptical scientist; she questions everything, which although frustrating is respectable. Questioning everything is her way of proving its validity, something which makes her less vulnerable to lies than I am. When adequate proof is given to her, however, she *will* believe.

Then, there is the latter type of non-believer: the closed-minded bitch. Prime example: Becky Vass. She was torturous on this case. You can show her everything, all the evidence she needs, and she simply denies your theory. She lacks the integrity of the skeptical scientist: she will believe what they pay her to believe. Not only that, but she will treat you like some kind of idiot, a fool off the street, for believing the things you do.

My favorite encounter with Vass was the following:

"Agent Mulder, that is utterly laughable. UFOs do not exist."

"But surely you saw what I did, Agent Vass. You heard the same testimony, saw the same lack of evidence of a break in...saw the girls returned to the same place together, how do you explain that?"

"A cult. They meticulously broke in to avoid us finding them. When religion is involved, people are desperate, they want to do what they think is right, and they will do anything and everything to do that. Therefore, they left behind nothing."

"There is no evidence of that!"

"And there is of little green men?"

"Look at the chemicals that killed them! They're unidentifiable!"

"Anyone could have made them in a lab."

"You're ignoring everything we found--"

"Agent Mulder, UFOs do not exist. Cults do. That is what they will believe, and that's what's going into my field report. There is no such thing as aliens. Maybe you ought to have your head examined. Seriously, what makes you believe in that crap? It makes you sound like an idiot, honestly."

"What makes you believe that you have any right to be so disrespectful when you speak to me? Not only am I your partner, but I've been doing this *way* longer than you have. You have every right to disagree with me, but none to insult me."

"What, you're old partner never insulted you? Or were you too busy with other things to notice?"

"Who do you think you are? You're a green agent who just walks in here and begins telling me how to work and then insults me? Scully and I may not have always agreed but we respected one another. Agent Vass, I'd love to respect you, but it's a two way street. Give a little, get a little."

"'Night, Spooky," she said, walking away and heading for her hotel room.

The woman made me furious, but not in the way Scully used to. Scully made me want to prove it to her, to make her believe. Becky Vass made me want to stab somebody. Honestly, she was so damn annoying. I knew she'd never agree with me, never believe. No matter how much evidence was there, she would find a way to try and make me look wrong. The case could scream UFO and she'd find a way around it.

They may have let me keep my job, but they made it a living hell.

So, I was thrilled to get home to Scully. I was angry with the rest of the world, frustrated, and upset. I needed the one person who was able to take all of that away. She was my constant, my touchstone; she did that for me in a world of dreams and in the crueler real world. When everything was wrong, I knew she would always be right.

I arrived at the airport while she was still working. The flight was uneventful, as Agent Vass was the last person on the planet I wanted to have eventful conversation with. Instead of waiting for Scully to finish work, I took a cab to her place. I let myself in with my key and shed my jacket.

I glanced at my watch, noting it would be an hour or so until she got home. I briefly entertained the thought of cooking her a dinner, but when I found nothing that I knew how to cook in her house, that idea vanished. I wasn't a terrible cook, but my skills were limited to things like simple pastas and steaks. Scully really had to do some food shopping, but I figured she hadn't felt the need to. She's a small woman and eats a lot of health food crap, which was in abundance at her place. I found the majority of it (like those non-fat tofutti rice dreamsicle things in her freezer) barely edible.

Instead, I called up a local Italian place and ordered two chicken parmesan dinners with spaghetti for us. I just wanted a nice evening, something slightly romantic for the two of us. We didn't share that often and I knew that at a time like this, our relationship as lovers was vitally important. It seemed to be all we had left. Work was falling apart, and I needed her to be my shelter from that. I wondered if she felt the same way. As good as I was at getting into peoples heads, I never really could get into hers.

I set the table and searched for some candles. I knew things were a mess in our lives, and I wanted her to be happy. It was more than that, though, it was selfish: *I* wanted to be happy. I wanted, just for a moment, to forget the X-Files, Agent Vass, smoking men and consortiums. I wanted to be lost in her, in a place that I would never ever want to be found from.

She walked in about five minutes after the food had been delivered. It was sitting, still wrapped to stay warm, in the kitchen. I didn't emerge from the kitchen right away, but waited and let her walk into the apartment. I know what she must be thinking. She was probably wondering when I'd come home, when she'd have time to do her paperwork, why life was so unfair...

"Hello?" she called out. "Mulder?"

I said nothing but slowly walked out of the kitchen and towards her. She saw me all of a sudden and sucked in her breath a bit.

"Miss me?" I asked.

"Mulder, what's all this? Dimmed lights, candles, and, do I smell Italian?"

"You do. Thank the good folks at Angelo's, as I cannot figure out how to throw together anything worth sitting on your plate," I smiled.

"Mulder, you didn't have to go through the trouble.."

"Shh," I quieted her, and closed the distance between us with a kiss.

"I missed you," she said.

"Missed you too."

"I didn't know you'd be getting back today."

"Me either."

"How was the case?" she asked.

"Terrible, but it doesn't matter. I don't want to talk about that now." I kissed her again, this time longer. I pulled away to add, "Come on, the food'll get cold."


We enjoyed a lovely dinner and took comfort in one another's presence. When we were together like this, everything was okay. It didn't matter that we didn't work together anymore because we still lived our lives together. We still ate dinner together and kissed together and woke up in one another's arms together.

Moment like the ones we shared later that evening, my arms around her small frame, pulling her sleeping body closer to me through the night made me happy. Feeling her body against my own assuaged all of my worries and fears. It told me that *something* was right in the world. I knew that due to our lack of being together the rest of the time, moments like this would become all we had to hold on to.

The weeks progressed in a similar fashion. Agent Vass would effectively make me look like a fool to AD Skinner with her reports, and I would come home and let it all go. I'd tell Scully about it and she would be there for me. Sometimes we just held each other and talked for so long... It was so mushy. If the story were about any other two people on earth I would have wanted to vomit--but it was Scully and I. Nauseatingly mushy was okay, because everything else was stark in contrast.

She would come home from work bored and unsatisfied with her job. I would come home angry and annoyed with my new partner. We would talk it out, let go of all of our anger and hatred and frustration. Once it was gone, there was nothing but one another. We reveled in that, spending each and every night together in one of our bedrooms. Things had changed. We spent more time together outside of work than we used to, because outside of work was all we had.

It may sound like things were better, but they weren't. Yes, Scully and I used to spend less nights together, but the nights we shared were happier. We had exchanged the good humor and satisfaction of our work--the knowledge that we had helped someone, that we were doing the right thing, and the occasional fun adventure we shared--for nightly sex to make up for all of our other losses. What kind of trade was that? Don't get me wrong, I love Scully and sex is great, but I missed good, clean fun. I never thought working together on the X-Files was all that fun, but the fun in our relationship left with our partnership.

About two and a half months into my partnership with Agent Vass, I found a lead that would change everything. An anonymous informant gave me information concerning the conspiracy. He said that it lived on, in a new location.

Skinner was less than enthusiastic about letting me go on the case. He insisted that I didn't trespass anywhere or break any laws or mess around with the military. I knew that he knew Vass was against me, against the cause. I knew that he wasn't the bad guy, but was rather trying to avoid a run-in for both of us with Kersh. Kersh was steadily moving up to Deputy Director, and had rising influence over the other ADs. His position at the right hand of the Director insured him that.

Apparently the surviving members of the consortium had relocated to an industrial area in Pennsylvania. They were operating out of a factory building, where tests continued to be done. According to my source, everything was there: information on abductees, women's ova, genetically altered human beings, maybe even hybrids. What piqued my interest most was the ova. The informant said that they had created more children with it, trying to engineer them the way they wanted.

I knew it could be another Emily situation. I knew that there could be information on her cancer, on the chip in her neck, on her infertility, on what really happened when she was abducted. Hell, I knew there could be a child born of her ova there... I knew that Scully would want to go. That was why I had to keep it from her. If she went, Vass would rat me out. I would lose the X-Files.

I couldn't bear the thought of losing the X-Files. Even though it was harder work now, I was still able to fight for the cause. I was still able to try and expose it to everyone else who would listen. I would be able to go down to Pennsylvania without Scully having to know and wanting to join me. She couldn't join me. I couldn't let us ruin our chance of getting the proof that could change everything. I couldn't let her ruin it by joining me. I couldn't lose the chance to know if the conspiracy still lived on. I couldn't lose my chance of being the one to expose it...

I should have known that she wouldn't let me go unasked... I should have known that she was smart enough and dedicated enough to figure out what was going on. I should have known was how it would affect her...

How it would affect *us*.

Notes: Bum bum bum. Thanks for sticking around and reading everyone! And thanks for the kind reviews… I'd love some more! Umm, I'd like to take a quick minute to thank Agent Balinski once again for listening to me complain about my jerk boyfriend and for talking me out of stupid ideas. If it weren't for you I'd probably be dead in a ditch somewhere anyway. ;-)