"You're more than that" - Requested by viceversawrites - April 3rd, 2019
Season 3 - Reassurance

For three years it had been a joke, something that -if mentioned- was done with so much disregard that she was sure he didn't give it a passing thought.

Spooky Mulder.

Basement Dweller.

Obsessor.

Loner.

Loser.

Terms she wouldn't apply to him herself, but she was quickly realizing today that he did.

They were in a packed elevator when the six letter word usually only reserved for cheap, orange and black Halloween decorations was mumbled, laced with careless malice and aimed at the back of her unsuspecting partner's head. She smirked up at him, expecting some casual banter about his ridiculous nickname when, instead of a smile, she saw him chewing on his cheek and looking at the ground like a dejected child.

" I heard he's a genius."

"Yeah, aren't most psychopaths?"

She whipped around to glare at whoever thought this was an appropriate conversation for a cramped elevator. What she saw was several pair of eyes looking back at her and just as many vicious sniggers. She didn't know who said it, but she knew it was a sentiment that was shared among the group.

" I heard they sent her down to keep him in check."

"No fair. Do you think if I pretend to be on the verge of a mental breakdown the government will assign me a personal hot piece of ass?"

She was just about to whip around again when Mulder's hand on the small of her back led her out of the opening elevator doors and into the hallway, a burst of laughter acting as a departing gift.

They'd reached their office door when she realized he wasn't going to talk about what just happened. She was contemplating letting it go herself, not wanting to act as if it was anything that warranted attention, but he'd been so happy when she ran into him in the lobby. Jovial, talkative, flirty even. Now his shoulders where slumped and he was uncharacteristically quiet. He cared. She hadn't thought he did, but the evidence was glaring in her face. Mulder's feelings were hurt and she'd never felt such a sense of fierce protectiveness.

"They're wrong you know," she stammered, awkwardly breaking the silence with little regard for tact.

"Who's wrong, Scully?" he deadpanned, giving her a subtle signal that he wanted to drop it. A signal she wasn't going to take.

"Those people in the elevator. They-"

"Call me Spooky Mulder. They think I'm insane. A loser, someone who, at the prospect of getting respect, is a laughable joke," he repeated as if reading off a slip of paper. She couldn't help but think of his eidetic memory - every word probably burned into his brain like a brand and he could remember each syllable so vividly he knew the intonations by heart.

He looked like he was about to say more, but stopped when he looked at her for the first time since leaving the elevator. She was sure the hurt he was trying to repress was manifesting on her face instead. Mulder sighed in resignation and shrugged, "If I need to be the black sheep in order to make them comfortable in their complacency- I don't really care. I'll just resign to my fate of being the spooky guy in the basement."

Scully stood in shock for a moment as she watched him sit down and boot up his computer. She honestly didn't understand him sometimes. Last month she made a disparaging comment about her weight and he practically all but wrote her an ode in the middle of a gas station. " How could you even say something like that Scully? I thought you were the voice of reason in our partnership. Not even I could believe in something as ridiculous as that." Yet here he was tearing himself down in front of her with little regard.

She walked over to him and when he looked up and saw her approaching he was already on the defensive. "Scully, listen. It-"

She interrupted him by grabbing one of his hands in hers and placing her other hand on the side of his cheek, drawing his attention to her and halting his words in his throat. "Mulder, you're more than that. So much more."

Mulder let out a breathy, nervous laugh and she knew him well enough by now to know he was going to laugh it off. She wasn't done. "You're brilliant, on a level your peers couldn't even begin to understand. Hell, your case findings are studied at Quantico as part of the curriculum for Criminal Profiling," she praised.

Mulder's cheeks started to flush under the attention and, as much as she wanted to rejoice in this momentous occasion, she didn't want to embarrass him. She stroked his cheek with her thumb one final time before letting it fall away. "You are the sweetest man I have ever met, and the depths of your loyalty astound me."

A small smile quirked on his lips and she knew she'd reached him, at least a little. "I want you to remember all that the next time someone calls you that ridiculous nickname," she demanded, squeezing his hand for emphasis before making her way over to her chair to set up her stuff.

"The same goes for you, you know?" he stated quietly.

"I'm the sweetest man you've ever met?" she teased to break the seriousness of the room.

He laughed lightly before rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. "N-no, um, you're more than what they said you were too."

"Wha-oh, I'm more than just your personal hot piece of ass?" she replied with a cocked eyebrow and an amused smirk.

"Yeah. Well, I mean-I don't- I'd never say that's what you are. I mean, I'd never talk about you like that-not that I don't think you're attractive, um," he stammered, clearly to overwhelmed by the sentiments she'd thrown at him to find his usual eloquence.

"You're my partner, not some spy sent to personally ruin me. You're as much a part of the X-Files as I am," he said honestly. She stared at him with stunned surprise. That was a heavy claim and she could tell he meant it.

"Thank you, Mulder," she smiled, touched.

"No. Thank you , Scully."