In the soft light that filters through the motel room window Scully looks a million miles away from the scared girl who ran into my room last night. She sleeps like she has lost herself completely to dreamland, abandoned herself to that realm where she has no control. Her auburn hair, like firelight against the ivory pillow, hides the mind I know so well.
I pause, my hand resting above her cheek, afraid to touch her, yet afraid not to. In a few hours we will once more be on the road, searching for a truth less alien than the one we refuse to acknowledge; the truth that makes my heart beat that much quicker in my chest, that leaves me breathless when she looks at me with her indecipherable gaze. But for now, her breath gentle against my fingers, the world can wait.