John and Monica said their goodnights and headed upstairs.
Mel, Will, Mulder and Scully remained in the living room. The silence was thick…and very uncomfortable.
"I still think it was ridiculous for Dee to get so mad," Mel murmured.
William sighed heavily and rubbed his eyes wearily.
"Well it was," she mumbled, folding her arms across her chest.
"You know how she gets," William said lamely.
She shrugged and turned her gaze to Mulder and Scully.
"Sorry things got out of hand at the restaurant," Mel apologized.
Scully couldn't help but smile at the memory of Dee dumping her plate of pasta on Williams lap.
"It happens," Mulder replied, stretching his arms above his head.
There was a loud banging at the door. Mel stood up, a confused look splayed on her face. She opened the door to a red faced Brett.
"Brett! Wha-"
Brett pushed past her and stalked into the living room where William rose quickly from his seat.
"Outside, Now!" Brett demanded, pointing furiously at Will.
Will remained calm and shot a look towards Mel.
"Don't look at her!!" he yelled.
"What do you want Brett?" William asked, raising an eyebrow.
Brett mumbled an incoherent word or two and lunged at William. Will braced himself just as Mel jumped in front of Brett. He barely missed plunging into her.
"Brett, get the hell outta here! What do you think you are doing?!" Mel shouted, shoving him with all her strength.
He stumbled backwards, almost landing on the coffee table. Scully shot Mulder a look. They were both prepared to pull someone off of someone. This wasn't looking too good.
Brett got back into Mel's face, his eyes flashing with anger. She looked back at him with the same fervor.
"So what? You want to be with him now? You think this pansy ass is better than me? I always knew you were a whore," he seethed.
William clenched his fist but Mel beat him to the punch. Her fist met his jaw with a sickening crack. She whimpered and held her hand in her other hand, trying to shake off the pain. He raised his hand and slapped her…hard. Her head snapped to the side and blood poured from her nose.
Mulder shot up and grabbed on of Brett's arms. Scully went to Mel's aid and tried to pull her away from the flailing arms of Brett and Mulder. William lunged at Brett, tackling him to the floor, causing Mulder to crash down with them.
Mulder stood up and tried to pull William off of Brett. He was throwing his fists repeatedly into Brett's face. Brett howled in pain and tried in vain to push William off of him.
"William stop!" Mel screamed.
The sounds of hurried footsteps clambered down the staircase and John and Monica burst into the room. Monica gasped and ran to her daughter who was being held back by Scully. John and Mulder worked together to pull Will off of Brett.
"Get the hell out of my house," John said to Brett, who stumbled out of the house as quickly as he could.
As soon as Brett was gone and William's heaving breath calmed, John asked, "What the hell happened down here?"
"I'm going to kill that sonuvabitch" William muttered, wiping blood off his face with the back of his already bloodied hand.
"Brett came in here trying to start something with Will so I tried to get him to leave and he ended up hitting me," Mel said weakly.
"What's wrong with your hand?" John asked, nodding towards the hand that she cradled.
She looked down sheepishly.
"Your daughter has one hell of a hooker!" Mulder said.
"Lets go put some ice on that," Monica said, and then nodded towards William, "and we'll get you cleaned up as well."
Mulder and John watched as Monica and Scully fixed up a wincing William and Mel.
"Skinner is going to kick your ass for this," Mel muttered to Will.
"I've heard that one before," Mulder said.