A/N: This is a lot shorter than the last one...

October 1

Scully didn't want to admit it, but she missed her partner. Maybe she didn't miss working with him, but she hadn't had a hug in a long time, and her laughs were few and far between. She went home from Quantico every night, ate dinner alone, watched TV alone, read a book alone. It was getting depressing.

So when she ran into him in the hallway at Quantico, her first thought was to wrap her arms around him and apologize and beg him to take her back. Instead, she remained a safe three feet away.

"Hi Scully," he said, trying not to meet her eyes.

"Hey. What brings you over here?"

"I had a meeting. How are you doing?"

"Good. How's everything in the basement?"

"It's okay. Are you busy right now?"

"I have to teach a class in half an hour."

"Oh."

"Did you want to have a cup of coffee?"

"You have time?"

"Yeah."

He smiled slightly and nodded.

They walked together to the cafeteria and paid for their coffee, then chose a seat in the corner.

"So…" she began, twisting the Styrofoam cup around and around in her hands. "Do you have a new partner yet?"

"I did for a while. I drove him crazy."

"I'm sorry."

"How about you? Are you enjoying teaching again?"

"It pays the bills."

"Do you miss being out on the field?"

"Yeah," she said after a long sigh.

"How's your mom?"

"Good. She misses you."

"I miss her too."

"You should call her sometime. She would love to hear from you."

"Scully, I'm sorry about everything. I didn't mean what I said and-"

"Mulder, stop. I don't want to talk about this right now."

"When are you going to want to talk about it?"

"I don't know. It still hurts. I'm just not ready."

"I'll be here when you are."

"I need to go. Thanks for the coffee."

"Scully, don't give up on me."

"I wouldn't do that to you, Mulder. I think you know me well enough to know that."

"Do I?"

"Mulder, I said I don't want to talk about it and that means that I don't want to talk about it. Can you please respect that?"

"Yes."

"I'll see you later."

October 13

Scully picked her phone up off the night stand and sighed. No one had called her after 9 p.m. in a long time.

"Hello?"

"Scully it's me."

She took in a deep breath.

"Hi, Mulder. Is something the matter?"

"No, but I'm writing up some reports for Skinner and I can't find the master expense report for July. I thought you might have a copy."

"Yeah, I do. I'll e-mail it to you in the morning."

"Did I wake you up?"

"No, it's fine."

"Okay. Well, thanks."

"Mulder, I'm sorry I was so short with you the other day. I just… I'm still trying to figure things out and I'm just not ready yet."

"It's okay, Scully. I understand. I just don't want you to forget about me."

"I will never forget about you, Mulder."

"Take your time working through this. And even if we can't be partners, I still want you as my friend."

"Okay. I'll talk to you later."

"Goodnight, Scully."

"Hey Mulder?"

"Yeah?"

"Happy birthday."

He chuckled.

"Thank you. Go back to sleep."