Chapter 4: After midnight
In the middle of the night Scully woke up. She stared into the darkness for a while and listened to the sounds around her. There wasn't much to hear. In front of the motel a car pulled up and somewhere a dog barked. Then she heard a sound not far away. It came from inside the room. She rolled over to the nightstand. A dull feeling dispersed through her stomach as she carefully turned on the bedside lamp. She looked in the direction where the sound came from. On the sofa across from her lay Mulder snoring comfortably. Now she remembered that she had to share the room with him. She turned around and glanced at the clock radio on the nightstand. 3.30, way too early to get up. So she just rolled out of bed and went into the bathroom. She had to cover her eyes from the bright light in there. Scully leaned over the sink, cupped some water in her hands and drank. When she came back out a few minutes later and passed Mulder on her way to bed, Scully heard him mumbling. At first she wanted to ignore it and go back to bed but then she realized he was talking in his sleep, so she stepped closer and listened.
"Oh that's so good, Beckie", she heard him say. She wanted to wake him up but decided to keep listening. She couldn't understand everything but she tried hard and heard: "A little lower…yeah right there!" and "Uh, don't stop it, Beckie."
She decided it was better not to wake him and sneaked back to bed. She thought about that Beckie until she fell asleep. And it took her almost an hour to fall asleep again. Mulder and the women had always been a mystery to her.
Mulder had already gotten dressed and was just making his "bed" when Scully woke up.
"My god! What time is it?" She asked blinking. The morning sunbeams tickled her face.
"7 o'clock. Time to get going", Mulder replied wide awake.
Scully slowly got out of bed. "Man, why didn't you wake me up, Mulder!"
Unconsciously, she sounded much more aggressive than she wanted to. She was apparently upset about the "Beckie dream".
"You were sleeping so soundly I didn't want to wake you."
Scully strolled towards the bathroom. "Yeah, I didn't sleep very well."
Mulder watched her disappearing in the bathroom. He didn't know what he had done wrong or why she was so upset.
"Although you had the bed? I had to sleep on the sofa!", he tried to defend himself.
"Oh well, you did sleep like a log", she said and closed the door.
Mulder even made her bed and searched for his wallet and the car keys. Then he took the Stamp novel and continued reading. He could read 4 pages before Scully came back out of the bathroom. She had taken a shower. She had a towel wrapped around her body and another one on her head. It definitely caught Mulder's attention.
"Keep reading, Mulder. Don't look, okay?"
"Okay!", he assured her and hid behind the book. He had already read more than half of it.
Scully walked over to her suitcase, anxious not to lose the towel. She took out some clothes and got dressed. It looked pretty amusing how she tried not to show too much skin. She felt observed, but every time she turned around and glanced at Mulder, he seemed engrossed in the novel.
When she was done she cleaned up her things and turned to Mulder. "Alright, Time to get going."
Mulder put the book aside and followed his partner out the door.
In the car Mulder stuck the key in and while he turned it in the ignition, he softly mentioned over the engine noise: "But I did look!"
On their way to the Stamp residence they stopped by a little restaurant to have an ample breakfast. Everybody in there watched them. It had probably got around that the FBI was in town and everybody wanted to see those ominous people that work for the government. But obviously Mulder and Scully didn't come up to those people's expectations because after a while more and more people abandoned their bad tasting coffee and left the uncomfortable restaurant. By the time the two agents were done, they were the only customers in there.