"So they busted in, totally denying us our rights; searched through our gear and arrested us!" Langly said heatedly.
The sweet smell of pancakes drew Mulder's attention away from his laminated menu to see the waitress serve them at another table. He turned to Langly who was reciting his rights as an American citizen, and wondered if he would be able to stomach the pancakes, if he had to wash them down with Langly's hippy sentiments.
"Can I take your orders guys?" the waitress said as she pulled a pencil out of her hair and flipped open the order book.
"Eggs over easy and a glass of juice," Byers asked.
"Eggs, scrambled and bacon for me," Langly ordered handing back the menu.
"Just a coffee for me," Frohike said without looking up.
"And how about you green eyes?" she asked winking at Mulder.
"Pancakes please and a glass of OJ."
She walked away with the menus and Langly continued with his patriotic tirade.
"Enough," Mulder said. "Enough. Listen what do you expect? You publish instructions on how to kill the clones then you publish a list of clones that have replaced high ranking officials." Byers had the gumption to look embarrassed but Langly only snorted. "You're giving genuinely crazy people a bad name!"
Laughing now Frohike slapped Mulder on the back, making him wince.
"Well Mulder, thanks for getting then out."
"After breakfast we'll have to get online and spread the word!" Langly said leaning back as the waitress arrived with their orders.
"And sweep the office. Who knows what those FBI guys left behind!" Frohike added sipping his coffee.
"If we put our equipment into the safe and set of a mild EMP?" Langly suggested.
"An EMP? No." Byers spoke up always the voice of reason. "We'll just do a regular sweep. No EMPs."
Mulder ate his breakfast quickly not wanting to get too involved in the conversation that surrounded him and was rapidly becoming a risk to national security.
"Alright guys I gotta go." He slurped up the rest of his juice. "Can I give you a ride?"
"No, we got work to do."
Without waiting to find out what Langly meant Mulder grabbed his jacket and left.
***
Scully dropped the heavy shopping bags on the table and sighed with relief. It didn't usually seem like a long walk from her car but then she wasn't usually home long enough to shop for this much food. She flicked on the stereo and smiled at the sound of James Taylor that greeted her as she remembers the night before. The shopping was put away quickly and she found herself sitting on the couch with a coffee when the phone rang. Despite her resolve she couldn't stop the smile that crept across her lips as she answered it.
"Hello?"
"Dana?"
"Bill, I." Her disappointment undisguised.
"Geez Dana don't sound so sad!"
"Sorry bill. How are you? Enjoying your time with Mom?"
"Yeah, it's great to have her here. I'm loving it…but…"
"But what?"
"I don't get time off often."
"No, neither of us do." Her mind whirled as she pre-empted her brothers attack and she stole herself for the emotional onslaught.
"Exactly. I was hoping you might join us out here for a few days."
"Bill-"
"Who knows when we'll get the chance again!"
"Bill I-"
"And I know Mom would love to see us both together."
Scully sighed, knowing that she was beaten and would be on the next available flight to California. The guilt trip always worked on her and Bill knew it. She flustered at the mental image of his smug grin but pushed it aside at the thought of her mother's happiness.
"Okay Bill. I'll see what I can do."
"There is a flight out of Washington at 4.20 this evening."
"I'll call you with the details."
After hanging up the phone she momentarily thought of not calling to book a flight, of plugging out her phone and opening that bottle of wine she'd bought earlier but the mental image that sprung to her mind of her mothers face as Bill expectantly told her the news of her daughters imminent arrival moved her limbs and gave her a new found will to make the booking. Her bags were quickly packed and she hurriedly ate a quick sandwich before rushing out to the airport, her mobile in her hand as she tossed the idea around of calling him. All the while wondering why he hadn't called her.
***
His brow was tainted with sweat, curling around the side of his face and racing under the collar of his tee shirt, it settled against his lower back, cooling his body and keeping it warm at the same time. Usually he ran the same route every day but unknowingly he found himself pounding the pavements in the small park near his home. The relative calmness the park offered him was in direct contrast to the spinning motion of his brain as he played over and over the event of the night before. As if he was going to garner any more information than he already had.
After getting away from the LGM he returned home for the shower he'd missed that morning in Frohike's haste. But moments after dressing and sitting on his couch the idle bounce of his feet as his finger flicked through the endless cable channels he decide it was the stillness he needed to escape, the quiet torture he was inflicting on himself as he remembered and reviewed.
The door slammed loudly behind him and he was jogging down the cement steps his earphones in and music playing as his phone started to ring.
"Hi. You know what to do BEEP"
"Mulder it's me. I'm just calling to let you know I'm going to be out of town." Her voice reverberated around the cold and empty room the low gurgle from the fish tank her only audience. "I'll be in San Diego with Bill if you need to contact me. I'll be back by Friday evening."
Now running the unfamiliar routes Mulder finally succumbed to his aching limbs and made his way home. After another shower he found himself sitting in the same tired position, his fingers dancing over the controls. To his right he noticed the small red light blinking and begging for his attention and it was with a weary stretch that he reached over to replay his messages. Smiles played on his lips as he heard her voice telling him about his stolen car but were quickly pushed away at the next message.
Jumping for the phone he punched in her number but got only her machine. Trying, hoping, he tried her mobile but again messaging services taunted him. With a resignated sigh he lurched back to his customary horizontal position on the low soft leather couch and pushed a breath of air passed his lips.
"Great."
***
As she wandered from the kitchen with a cup of hot chocolate, Scully passed the smouldering fire and wondered if she should stoke the embers. Bill, Tara and her mother would be back soon but glancing at the clock she noticed it was nearing midnight so she decided against it and made her way to bed.
The smells of the family home invaded her senses bringing her back to the childhood years she'd spent here on the base. Even though the room was decorated differently she could almost smell Melissa's incense sticks and perfume and she wouldn't have been surprised to trip over a pair of her own muddy sneakers.
Sitting on her bed, nursing the hot chocolate in her hands, she looked at the floral print papered walls and imagined the star charts she had pinned to her walls as a kid. The shrill ringing of her mobile brought her hurtling back to the present and it was a moment before she realised what the penetrating noise was.
"C'mon, where are you!" she mumbled, her hand buried deep in her still packed bag, feeling the vibrations but not finding it's touch. "Hang on hang on hang on" Finally she wrapped her fingers around it and pulled it free from its confines.
"Hello?"
"Scully." A familiar voice said softly from the other end. "Hi, its me."
"Mulder, what's up?" knowing it was nearing 6am in Washington.
"Nothing…I eh…I"
"What's the weather like over there?" she asked deliberately blandly, changing the subject with a purposeful dull topic.
"It's just getting bright. Looks like it's going to be a dull day."
She imagined him lying on the couch, bathed in the blue light from the aquarium as the dawn announced itself silently creping across the room.
"It was beautiful here today, not that I saw much of it. They have gone out for dinner."
"You didn't go?"
"No, I was too wrecked from the flight."
"How is eh, Bill?"
She smiled at his question knowing that there was no love lost between the two men. "He's fine. He was asking after you!"
"Did your mom tell him to?" he joked letting her low chuckle wash over him.
"Its kind of odd being here."
"Yeah?"
"Bill is living in the same old house at the base."
"A lot of old ghosts?" The words penetrated their conversation like a hot knife and he will an acme weight to fall on him at the slip up.
"Something like that," she admitted quietly. "I'm sitting here in my old room."
"Wishing there was a teenage boy climbing up the trellis?" His voice was low and their conversation almost whispered, straining against the unknown bursting to be let free.
"Not quite." She laughed louder this time, freer. "My father had taken it down long before I had a chance to put it to good use. Melissa saw to that."
"Deprived childhood Scully?" Laughing loudly with a husk he dried up all her mirth.
"No not
deprived."
"Well Scully if I wasn't 3000miles away, I'd climb up to your window."
"Thanks Mulder, the gesture is noted." A small wave of pensive silence swirled around them.
"I'm glad you decided to join your mom in San Diego, Scully."
"You are? So you could sneak into work?"
"No." He laughed again. "I just think you'll relax a bit more out there with your family."
"I dunno Mulder they can be very trying."
"As trying as me?"
"I wouldn't go that far."
"Anyway I'll let you go to bed. Good night Scully."
"Goodnight Mulder. I'll see you soon."
As she swapped her phone for her drink she slipped in between the sheets and rested back against the wall behind her. The chocolate drink was now gone cold so she replaced it on the dresser and switched off the lamp. Just as she was slipping into an oblivious slumber she heard the rest of her family coming in but her tiredness and desire to stay in her Mulder infested room kept her in bed where she was carried away to sleep without effort.
** It's been over a month since I updated, and for that I apologise! I'll finish it as soon as I can I swear!**