Discalimer- I don't own Mulder and Scully, so Chris Carter and his minions- PLEASE don't sue, it ain't worth it. Seriously, I live in a box. That's nothing. I USED to live in a box with a sink. Take pity, Oh great one!

Doppelganger

She knocked on his door.

He's not here. she decided before two seconds had even passed.

She turned to leave, then stopped.

Be calm! she instructed herself and took several deep breaths.

She knew she could do it, Eddie Van Blundht had charmed her and he never even knew her.

She knew Mulder so well she thought she could probably work out what he was going to say for anything she said.

But he always managed to surprise her.

She worked up the courage to knock again, then almost ran for it.

This was very out of character for her, she always seemed so brave and so strong. Especially in front of him.

Now it didn't seem to her like she had the courage to wait outside his door.

But she forced herself, she had to see him. Even though she knew she'd never say half, or even a quarter of the things she wanted to say.

She doubted he'd say half, or even a quarter of the things she wanted to hear.

But she had to see him.

She knocked one last time and although her whole body froze up in tension she didn't think about leaving again.

She started to get worried. He couldn't have been away. He'd have called.

He couldn't have been with friends. Apart from the gunmen she was his only friend.

Unless he's with some sort of doppelganger version of me...she thought.

Then she thought Shut up Dana!

A doppelganger was meant to act out a persons deepest fantasies. To do what the person would never have the courage to do themselves.

She dreaded to think what her own one of these fictional creatures would do if it was around Mulder.

She didn't exactly dread. She dreamt.

She was about to phone his cell when he called from behind her.

"Hey Scully!"

She jumped.

"Mulder!" she half gasped.

He chuckled softly.

"Who were you expecting? this is my apartment building after all."

"You didn't answer the door."

He looked at her strangely.

"I was just at the store. Is something wrong Scully? I-"

"What did you buy at the store?" she interrupted him.

"What?" he looked just as confused as she felt.

"Did you buy anything?" she asked again.

"Just the bare essentials."

Enough with the pointless, not to mention mindless small talk! she scolded herself.

"Do you want to come in?" he asked, sounding slightly concerned.

"No." she answered too quickly. "I mean, yes." she corrected herself.

"Okay." he unlocked the door and they went inside.

She sat on the couch, her knees felt weak and she was worried she'd fall if she didn't get control of herself.

"What's up?" he asked, going to sit beside her.

"What?"

"Well, you turn up here at this late hour, I'm assuming you want to talk and it can't wait."

She looked around the room.

The two of them. Check.

Couch. Check.

Merrily blazing Fire. Mulder had no fireplace. C'est la vie.

Wine.

Wine. We don't have wine! Scully panicked.

"I just wanted to talk."

"About something in particular?"

"About anything."

"We have a long car drive tomorrow, well technically today, couldn't we have talked about anything then?" he teased her.

"Yeah, you're right, I'm sorry, it's late." she stood up hurriedly to go.

"No, no wait. You know I always want to talk about nothing in particular with you no matter what time it is."

"Well, it really is nothing in particular." she warned him.

"Fire away." he smiled.

"Well, we don't really talk much do we Mulder?"

"Of course we do. There's a killer. It's alien, no it's not, yes it is, no it's not, yes it is! see? I've memorised some of our best conversation."

She sighed. "Exactly. I mean really talk."

"Sure we do. I know almost everything about you."

"But do you know it through conversation?"

"How else would I?"

"Maybe you know less about me than you think." she stated, not unkindly.

"Try me." he challenged her, with a charming smile.

She pretended to think hard.

"Favourite colour?"

"Easy, apple green."

"Childhood fear?"

"Hopefully not aliens... okay, clowns."

"But that one's obvious Mulder, every child's scared of clowns."

"Don't ask the questions if you don't like the answers Scully."

"Okay...true hair colour?"

"Oh, don't make me laugh!"

"What about...my badge number?"

"I don't know you're badge number!"

"Think about it."

"JTT0332...I don't know..."

"JTT0331613."

"Right, that's what I meant."

She moved closer to him on the sofa. He looked surprised but he didn't move away.

"Lets stop talking now." she muttered.

"That's different from 'Mulder, shut up' " he commented.

"No, it's no different, I'm still Scully."

She moved closer still.

Just as he leant towards her, she moved away abruptly.

"Does that store you were at sell wine after 11 pm?" she asked breathlessly.

He looked vaguely hurt. "You have to be drunk to kiss me Scully? Or is this some overblown romantic gesture?"

She sighed, the moment was definitely gone.

"It's because that's the way this happened last time, isn't it?" he asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she lied.

"Eddie Van Blundht." was all he said. They both knew he didn't need to say any more.

"Mulder..." she worked up the strength to keep going. "Do you believe in doppelgangers?"

He felt it would be too immature not to answer her, besides, he was interested in where the conversation was going.

"This is me you're talking to Scully. I won't dismiss anything quickly."

"What do you know about them?"

"Aren't we meant to be off-duty?"

She gave a small nervous laugh. "We are never off-duty."

Mulder privately agreed, and wondered if this bothered her.

"All I know is that they're supposed to be exact doubles of a person. Appearing in many different forms, many different ways, mimicking actions and causing havoc and sometimes-"

"Sometimes even carrying out that same persons deepest wish, their dreams, their strongest fantasies?" Scully interrupted him.

"Well, yeah."

He studied her face carefully, as he had did many time before. She surprised him sometimes. She wasn't ranting about some psychological explanation for it and saying with his fancy Oxford degree he should know the same.

"Mulder...do you think that perhaps, maybe it's possible that Eddie Van Blundht was in a weird way a version of your doppelganger? Or a representation of one?"

He wasn't going to admit he had thought of that before. Scully was, surprisingly, the religious one, he didn't want to admit that maybe the disaster with Eddie could have been a sign from God. To tell him to act quickly, or he and Scully may have been nothing more than work-partners. Mulder made that last thought disappear. He knew they would always be more than work-partners. He'd always care about her more than he cared about anything else. He went over all of this before he decided to answer her.

"Scully...I've did quite a few things in my life that I regret. Not acting sooner with you is the biggest. It will always haunt me, that I know that could have happened with us, if I'd only acted a certain way, did certain things right. I wanted to know you like he did that night, and treat you the way he treated you. But you won't understand this Scully, how could you..." he sighed. "Before your...before the cancer- despite petty things that seemed huge then, the X-Files closing, little arguments over the paranormal and sunflower seed shells left lying around the office- I always thought I could never lose you. I was never worried about it, although I worried about you I always put these thoughts to the back of my mind. Then, when I thought something might happen to you, I was too late. He beat me to it. He got to you first. And any effort made by me would just look like a pathetic second attempt."

"Mulder," she began, "Eddie Van Blundht disgusts me-"

Mulder nodded, but he was purposefully looking away from her. He finally made himself and he finally saw the soft blue eyes, full of kindness that he had fallen in love with and memorised.

"I know that." he said softly.

"He was only after one thing," she continued flatly. "Waiting to make his move,"

She'd also started staring at the ground. She looked up to face him.

"And if you were to kiss me now," she carried on, her voice shaking slightly, but what you could hear was nothing compared to the way she and Mulder both felt inside.

"if you were to kiss me now, after so many years of mutual friendship, and respect, and trust... the key qualities to any relationship, then I'd know."

He didn't even need to ask what she'd know. He just stopped putting of the inevitable, and kissed her.

"You know?" he repeated.

"I know." she replied.

The End