The silence in the car was more deafening than a sonic boom. The windshield wipers went back and forth again, splashing the rain more than clearing it, becoming almost pointless. It dribbled down the side windows and she mentally created races out of the drops, watching them until they detoured and ran together. She sighed and leaned her head against the glass, closing her eyes against the animosity that seemed to flood around them. After that talk on the bench, the decision to move forward and stick together, things had been okay for a while. The were at least able to be in the same room without biting each other's heads off, but at the same time, their shared amazement over that fact really brought to light just how bad things had gotten. It weighed on both of them, it was a constant thought, and eventually it had become the subject of another fight. This one hadn't been as bad as the others, as they yelled and looked at the edge that they had come so close to falling off of, scared that this time, gravity would get the best of them.

So instead of slowing down, taking a step beck, charting a new course, they had stopped completely. Stopped fighting, stopped talking, stopped looking at each other. Cold turkey. They stopped being friends. It wasn't a hard transition, but it was definitely not a welcome one. Neither one of them wanted it, but it ran that direction before either one of them could change it, and it was out of sight before they could figure out the logistics of changing it together.

"Hey Mulder," she said softly, cutting through the noise of nothing.

"Yeah?"

"I don't know what I want to say to you, but I want to say something. And I need you to know that."

He was quiet for a while, and she wasn't sure if he was going to reply or ignore her. Neither action would have surprised her all that much.

"Saying ditto would be cheap, so I'll say that I know what you mean and I agree."

She nodded and looked out the window again. She wasn't sure where they were headed, but she didn't really care. Mulder knew and for once, she trusted that he would get them there.

"I think we need a safe word."

"What do you mean?"

"I think that there are a lot of things that are going to come up this weekend, and if it turns into a fight, I don't think it would be good for us to fight in front of people. So we need a safe word if things start to get too… heated."

She nodded.

"Maybe it should be something that makes us laugh."

"We always liked the word oblong."

"Budapest."

"Rhinoplasty."

"Perpendicular."

"Titillating."

"Umlauts."

"We have a lot of words that make us laugh."

"We've been bored a lot."

He smiled and nodded, taking an exit off the freeway.

"Scully?"

"Yeah?"

"We're going to have to stay in a cabin together."

"I know."

"I am gonna apologize now for anything I might do that could be annoying."

"And I am gonna apologize for snapping at you for doing things that aren't really annoying, but I feel like I have to be wenchy anyway."

"You're not-"

"But I have been."

"Maybe."

"You tend to take all the blame sometimes, Mulder. Don't."

"It's easier that way."

"But it's not fair."

"You're right."

"It's a habit. But I also need to stop letting you take the blame. This is both of us here."

"Thank you for that, Scully. Sometimes I forget that you're my partner and not just someone I work with."

"I forget too."

"I want you to know that no matter how corny this stuff is, and no matter what they make us do, I really am going to do whatever I can to fix this."

"Me too, Mulder. And if we fail, well at least it makes a good story."

He chuckled and gave her hand a little squeeze. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday they were going to be fine.