One month later.

Mulder sat in his office, listlessly throwing pencils at the ceiling. He was bored out of his brains. Cases had all but dried up and Scully was still on leave so he had no one to talk to. Her physical injuries had faded to almost invisible scars; it was the mental side of things that still troubled him. He knew she would never be entirely her 'normal' self again, but she seemed to be coping better than before.

An amused voice cut through his contemplation.

"I see old habits die hard."

He looked up to see Scully standing in the doorway, dressed in a suit consisting of pants, jacket and blouse. She slipped out of her coat and hung it up on the stand, much to Mulder's perplexity.

"What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too," she laughed, walking over to his desk and leaning on the edge. She looked a hell of a lot better than before. Her eyes were slightly brighter, but some of the pain they tried to conceal still shone through.

"You're not supposed to be back at work till the week after next." He was sat up properly now, staring at her. She couldn't help but smile at his facial expression.

"I know but I was feeling better and there's only so much Oprah, Rikki Lake and Jerry Springer you can watch before you start to go insane." Mulder laughed at this.

"Well I'm glad because the office has been real quiet without you. I've even started talking to myself again."

"What do you mean again?" She shot back with a smile. Mulder looked at the floor, feigning hurt and embarrassment. Scully laughed again. Mulder expression suddenly changed to serious.

"Scully I got a phone call from the hospital this morning. Evan Chandler came out of his coma. It looks like he's going to pull through." Scully's face set into an unreadable expression. Mulder placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Have they set a date for the trial?" Scully said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.

"June 15th."

A few minutes of silence passed.

"Anyway," Mulder broke through it cheerily, trying to lighten the mood a little. "I hope you're in the mood for typing 'cause Quantico need the reports for the last three autopsies you did. Apparently you've got to hand them in before you go home tonight." Her shoulder's sagged and she closed her eyes in exasperation.

"You'd better be kidding."

"Nope. Swear on my life it's true." She moaned slightly before standing and crossing the room to her desk. It was just how she'd left it before… everything.

She sat down and flipped on her computer, searching through a drawer to find her autopsy notes.

"Did you say the last three?"

"Yup." She stared at him.

"Well that's funny, because I handed those in to Skinner the morning we had our briefing." Mulder winced.

"Ok busted. But there is a case report that you need to do."

"Why didn't you do it?" There was a pause.

"Because… you do them so much better than I do?" Scully smiled and shook her head. "I left the file on your desk for you."

"Oh how thoughtful," she replied, rolling her eyes.

"That's me." She quickly found the file where Mulder had left it and began reading. Mulder went back to throwing pencils at the ceiling.

"And what are you supposed to be doing?" She asked without lifting her head from the file.

"Seeing if I can break my record," he replied simply and went back to aiming. A few minutes later he gave up. Instead he sat watching Scully. He made a mental note never to let her out of his sight on cases again. As he stared at her he realized that Chandler had been right; she was beautiful. Even with the slight scars her face now bore thanks to that SOB, her features were still striking.

How had he not noticed this before? He had spent almost every day of his life with this woman for the past six years, yet he'd failed to notice her unbelievably prominent beauty. He'd bet money that almost every other agent in the Bureau had noticed except him. God he was an idiot at times! She suddenly looked up and caught him staring.

"What?"

"Nothing," he replied. She shook her head as she went back to reading the file.

"It's good to have you back partner," he said after a few minutes of silence. She looked at him again and smiled.

"It's good to be back, partner."

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Sorry it's taken me a while, been swaped with school and crap. Hope you liked it.
Lily
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