A/N: I'm sorry this is so short again. I am having a hard time making these chapters much longer, but hopefully I will be able to update more often, if I could get my brain working.
"Bunkbeds?" Scully said, dropping her bag on the floor. "Are they serious?"
"I get the top! I mean, if you-"
"And this is where you stop just short of making an inappropriate joke."
"You know me so well."
She smiled and moved across the room to flop down on the bed.
"I haven't slept on a bunkbed for about 25 years, and I haven't had a twin size since college. If this is some kind of psychological experiment to bond us as if we're siblings, I reject it now and say we get outta dodge."
"Now Scully, we agreed to try this," Mulder replied, climbing up to the top bunk. "Besides, that first meet and greet session wasn't so bad."
"I guess you're right. Though I don't understand how methods used in marital counseling and anger management are going to help us."
"Maybe we'll be surprised. Maybe we'll find out that we should be married instead of partners."
"Maybe you'll find my shoe lodged in your nether regions."
"You talk big, but you fight fair. I rest in that fact."
"I think Skinner is cackling maniacally somewhere."
Mulder laughed and rolled over to look at the ceiling.
"Would you make fun of me if I said I felt like going to bed already?"
"It's barely nine o'clock."
"That's not what I asked."
"Anyone else, no, I wouldn't make fun. You, the perpetual insomniac? Probably."
"You wound me."
"Just doing my job."
They fell into silence, listening to crickets chirping outside. They were in the middle of nowhere, for lack of a better description, and had been meeting other troubled partners for the last few hours. It seemed that every government faction had pairs that wanted to kill each other, every city had detectives that were out for their partner's blood. It was as if reassignment was such a black spot on a personnel file, that a softer, psychological approach was being taken. No one else really seemed interested in the trust exercises or personally revealing "games" that the instructors had talked about, but Mulder and Scully figured they'd been through worse. It was only a week after all. They could slog through. And if they came out the other side more functional and more civil, then it was worth it. And if they didn't? Well, neither one of them really wanted to think about that.
"Hey Mulder?"
"Hey Scully?"
"Can I tell you something?"
His head popped over the side of the bed and he looked at her upside down.
"What?"
"I'm kind of scared."
"About?"
"Neither of us is very gracious when it comes to introspection. I'm afraid that one or both of us is going to lose it. On someone else or each other. I don't want that to happen."
"I can't promise it won't, but I can tell you that I'm going to do my best to keep it from happening on my end."
"I wish this hadn't gotten so out of hand, Mulder. I wish we could have slowed it down or something. I think back and I'm desperate to know where we went wrong. When we stopped listening and caring about each other and let this hate take over. Did we see it coming? I don't know. I don't remember. It seems like it just happened over night. Came out of nowhere. And if that's true, then it could happen again."
"You wanna know what I think?"
"Always."
"I think that we're so scared of losing each other, and in the last year it's become so forefront in our minds, that we're pushing each other away."
"Do you think we can fix it?"
He sighed and sat up, then jumped off the bed, kneeling on the floor next to her. She rolled onto her side, one hand propping her head up, and suddenly he was in that dark hotel room again, looking into her innocent eyes, hoping that she would understand, frantic to make her believe. He reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, an action he had wanted to partake in that night, and so many times since then.
"I want us to fix it, Scully. I really do. I don't think things will ever be exactly the same, but I don't think they'll stay like this. We've gotten through a lot, and I think it's prepared us for this. We're going to be okay, we just have to work at it."
She nodded and he raised up a littler higher on his knees.
"Scully, anyone else, I would have given up."
"Me too."
"Can I come up there?" he asked softly after a moment. She nodded and he climbed up with her, mirroring her position, his hand on her hip. It had been so long since they'd had contact, and for a moment, they just absorbed the feeling, getting to know it again. It had never occurred to either one of them how often they touched each other, and they only realized now that it had been absent so long.
She remembered the last time they had been this close, the last time she had felt his hand on her, the last time his face was the only thing in her line of vision. She remembered it and she missed it, and a tear slid down her cheek as she longed for it again.
"Hey," he said softly, reaching up to wipe the tear away. "We're going to be okay."
She wanted so badly to hear those words again, the ones he had spoken so few times, but in such a simple and contented sort of way that she knew he meant them all the time. This morning she would have slapped him for saying them, but right now she needed them. Three words that brought her home. She closed her eyes and let her mind replay his voice from months ago, recalled his lips next to her ear, his arms around her tightly as if nothing could ever tear them apart.
"I love you."
He had said it with such conviction, that even when he was hurling insults and words of hate at her, she still believed those three little words. Maybe that's why it hurt so badly.
"You promise, Mulder?"
"I promise. You?"
"I promise."
They were quiet again, their eyes locked. No communication was needed, verbal or otherwise. They just were.
"We should get some sleep," he said finally.
"Yeah."
He moved away from her and stood up from the bed, stretching and yawning.
"Hey, if I get cold in the night, can I come back down here?"
"No way, you're a pillow stealer."
"I'll bring my pillow with me then."
"No deal. I am a spacious sleeper and you my friend are not. Don't forget I've shared with you before. I always wake up with my personal bubble totally invaded."
He chuckled.
"I've missed this."
"Me too."
He grabbed a change of clothes and moved into the bathroom and she sighed to herself, her hand running over the slightly warm place he had left. She wanted him back there, next to her, in the place she had always found herself. Maybe in time.