Mulder's Hotel Room

"You were scared." Scully was saying. "You froze up. It could have happened to anyone."

"But it didn't, it happened to me!" Mulder threw himself onto the bed in frustration. "There's a reason I hate this case so much. There's a reason Phoebe wanted me on it."

"Because you're afraid of fire."

"It's more than that. There's a reason. I was in my friends' house when it burned. The two of us shouldn't even be alive right now." Mulder shuddered, the memories all too vivid, broken glass, tentacles of smoke curling around him. "His... brother and sister were on the second floor. Someone set the house on fire. They didn't know who."

"Mulder you need rest."

"They didn't even have a chance. Their bodies were burnt to a crisp." He swallowed hard. "It was her ninth birthday, Scully. I was there to give her a present." He sat up abruptly. "Are the kids OK?" The words rushed from his mouth.

"Mulder..."

"The boys, Scully. Are they OK?"

"They're just shaken up. They'll be fine."

"Do they have any idea what happened?"

"You're friend's got people on it right now. Oh, by the way, she asked you to go see her as soon as you woke up." She haden't forgotten to mention it earlier, just hadn't wanted to.

"Then I'm going to change and head downstairs."

"You need more rest. If she cares enough to see you she'll come up here?"

"If she cares enough to see you?" Mulder repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying-"

"I know you're not wild about Phoebe- don't try and deny it, you've antagonized her since you met her - but you're not the only one on the X-files anymore. So far you've picked all of the cases and I'm deciding to investigate this one and I don't think that's at all out of line."

"That's not what I meant." Scully said quietly. "It's not about picking cases. I'm just worried she's not good for you."

"Are you going to apologize?"

"No."

"Well." Mulder picked up a pair of jeans off the floor and headed to the bathroom.

"Mulder."

He turned. "Yeah."

"The fire. I can take a look of you want, maybe find something local PD missed."

"No thanks. That's your coping mechanism, not mine."

The bathroom door slammed shut.

They made it through the rest of the investigation speaking to each other as little as possible, Mulder and Phoebe in the field while Scully was in the lab. Once L'Ively was brought to the hospital they parted ways immediately. The following morning, Scully entered the office to find mulder sitting in her chair.

Mulder broke the silence. "OK one of us has to write the report on this thing."

"It's my turn." Scully replied curtly.

"Right, but you weren't there for much of the later stages of the investigation."

"Because you weren't talking to me."

"It's not like that was a one sided thing. And I think it's in both our interest not to include that in our report."

"Fair point." Scully noticed a cassette tape on the desk. "Who's that from"

"Three guesses." Mulder gave her a wry smile.

"What's on it?" Scully asked, annoyed.

"No idea. Didn't listen to it."

"Are you going to?"

"Nope." With a graceful flick of the wrist it landed in the trash can.

Scully smiled despite herself.

"Don't try to act like you're not impressed with that." Mulder warned.

She walked around to the back of the desk. "Are you going to give me back my chair"

"No." he teased.

"Give me back my chair."

He spun around to face her and stood up. "If we split the report in half." He reasoned. "It'll get done quicker."

Scully pretended to think about this for a minute, then leaned in and whispered conspiratorially "Bet you I finish my half first."

He leaned in until their faces almost touched. "You're on."