A/N: Everyone loves reviews!
3. 34 PM EST-Time, Friday
Common highway, South Carolina
Mulder was sitting behind the stearing wheel of Scully's red car, lead it along this coastal road. The air conditioning was working to its maximum but the sun was heating the inside up as if they were sitting in a green house. Mulder exhaled and directed his view at the unnaturally blue Atlantic to his left. "Why does your Granny have to live in the south?" He asked exhausted and wiped some sweat off his forehead.
Scully turned her head towards him and pushed her sunglasses up, so they came to rest in her auburn hair. "You know that most of the retired people are heading south. It's nice and warm here. That's much better for their arthritis."
"Yeah … but it's not just warm around here … it's boiling hot, Scully! Please, remind me of not moving to the south when I'm old. Not even if I have arthritis."
Scully grinned and changed her position on the passengers seat as her eyes looked at Muder's pair of jeans. "For starters, you could have put on short trousers instead of jeans."
Mulder looked up from the street and right into her blue eyes. "Oh no, I couldn't have. Otherwise, you would have made fun of me and my pale legs."
"Is that so?" Amused, she shook her head and cast an eye over to the shimmering ocean beneath the coastal road.
"Of course – and you do know how low my selfconfidence is."
Scully laughed out loud. "You? A low selfconfidence? And that says Special Agent Fox Mulder, always doing what he wants to do, even if it is extensively restricted."
Mulder smiled, thinking about her statement and concentrated on the street again. It was a lovely day and Mulder felt great. Well, he would have felt great, if there hadn't been this awful heat.
Scully sat beside him using a map as a selfmade fan to cool herself down.
Something inside of him was going crazy about this weekend. In both a good and a bad way. Right next to him Scully sighed and so he turned to take a quick look. Her cheeks were red and she stared out of the side window, watching the landscape they were passing. She was wearing a short sleeved white blouse and a beige skirt. Rather unusual for her, but … very cute, Mulder thought and gave her an assuring smile as she turned her head and took a look at him, as well.
"You should better have a look at the street, otherwise you might lose the way and we could get lost!" She teased and he did as she ordered immediately.
"Me? Lose my way? Never. Because, who hasn't heard of Georgias metropolis Lincoln Landing?" And once again he gained one of her rare smiles. He loved it.
Then there was silence between them, but not an awkward one. Nobody felt the need to start a conversation. They just shared the moment without the necessity to make some small talk, which was relieving. They just drove towards Georgia's northern border, admiring the coasty landscape and attending to own thoughts, while Mulder was trying to find another radio station.
4. 47 PM EST-Time, Friday
Savannah, Georgia
"Oh, damn, and what am I supposed to give your granny as a present, Scully?" Mulder was desperate. He was coming to a birthday party, wasn't even invited in the first place and on top of this disaster – he didn't even have a present. Right now, he was strolling through Savannahs historical old town desperately searching for something. Anything!
Scully smiled lovingly and showed him a pharmacy across the lively street. "You could give her supoorting stockings or feeding cups – one can never have enough of that!"
He glared at her and rushed past lots of tourists, who didn't seem to mind the heat and humidity, because they were hopping happily through the streets, taking as much photos as possible. "Very, very funny."
It really seemed to bother him and Scully was more than glad, that she had bought her present over three months ago. "Mulder," she tried to reach him with her calm and soothing voice, while watching his profile, "my granny won't expect a present. She doesn't even know you're coming along. Just … just be a good boy and my granny will worship you, believe me."
Mulder shook his head in denial and headed straight for a souvenir shop along the street. "I can't. I can't do that." He rummaged through the shops' typical offer – miniature Savannahs made of plastic and T-Shirts that said 'Georgia – the peach state'. Her granny would think he had no manners if he showed up without a present. He couldn't let that happen.
"Well, but you wouldn't give my granny a T-Shirt from the same state she's living in, would you?" Scully grinned and observed the fabric of the peach state shirt.
Mulder turned his face towards her and his light brown eyes met her blue ones. "No, I'd rather give her the plastic city." He asnwered ironically. The impression on his face was deadly serious but then slowly the façade started to collapse and his mischievious and boyish smile appeared. "Oh come on, Scully, I do have a better taste than plastic cities!"
Scully smiled again, feeling a little relieved, and started to check her surroundings for maybe there was another shop worth looking at, while Mulder continued to examine the shop's offer. "Hey, what about flowers?" She suddenly bursted out, having spotted a very nice florist's shop.
Mulder's head appeared from in between two postcard rags. "Flowers?"
Scully nodded and shrugged her shoulders simultaneously. "Why not? If I was in my granny's position, I'd be very pleased with flowers."
"I … I don't really know. Don't flowers say I didn't' know what else to buy?"
"Well, maybe they do …," Scully replied and shifted her weight from one leg to the other, "… but you really don't know what else to buy." Scully stated plainly.
"Oh Scully, please – this gnaws at my conscience. Be kind!" But Mulder didn't have any better ideas and so he and Scully entered the florist's shop. After ten minutes in the florist's shop they were finally able to continue their journey. But Mulder felt more uncomfortable with every mile. They were approaching Lincoln Landing. And suddenly, he thought that it wasn't such a good idea to join Scully for her granny's birthday party. He felt unsure, for he knew that Bill Scully would also be there.