Scully and I have shared hotel rooms before. We even had to share a bed once. We were fighting that week, and she had PMS. It was not the most pleasant experience in the world but despite that, I survived. But sharing a room at her mother's house, with both of her brothers in the vicinity was an adventure that I wasn't sure I was prepared for. I saw the look on Bill's face when Maggie suggested that we share a room. He wasn't happy, but he wasn't going to say anything. I went outside and retrieved our overnight bags from the car and took my time walking back into the house.
I was going to have to play my cards carefully tonight. Scully and I were on friendly terms, but I knew that one wrong move could send us reeling in the wrong direction. She needed to be affirmed as my partner and friend, but I couldn't be obvious about it. It certainly wasn't going to be easy, but nothing in our lives ever is. Fortunately this translates to never being boring either.
I braced myself and entered the house again, hearing her rare giggle almost as soon as I opened the door. She was sitting on the loveseat, her legs tucked underneath her, one finger twirling a strand of hair. I wanted nothing more than to join her on the couch, pull her into my arms and kiss her forehead, but I am much too smart for that. If it was just the two of us in the room, I might have risked it.
"It was either a Great Dane or a baby giraffe because it came up to her chin," Charlie was saying. "And she walked by every night, even when it was 20 degrees outside. I can't believe you don't remember her, mom."
"She was the same woman that used to walk her bird in the summer. Remember we'd have the windows open and about 8:30 every morning we'd hear "Mighty hot out, mighty hot!" And there she'd be, walking that bird as if it was the most normal thing in the world."
Maggie laughed.
"I remember the parrot, but I don't remember the dog."
"Well they say the mind is the first thing to go."
Maggie just rolled her eyes.
"Do you remember Old Bob at least?" Scully asked.
"How could I forget the 90 year old man that mowed the lawn in his underwear and black socks? I'm not that old, Dana."
"His underwear and black socks?" I asked, sitting down next to Scully. She shifted a little, and I noticed it was a shift towards me. Maybe this would be easier than I thought.
"Yep. He only did it twice that we know of, which I am forever grateful for, but we sure had a great laugh about it."
"We had a pretty good collection of eclectic neighbors over the years," Bill chuckled. "There was the family that never mowed their lawn. They'd just come out with a weed whacker once a year. What was their name?"
"The Stankey's," Scully answered. "I remember because I though their last name was Stinky until I was about 12. Of course that wasn't far to go for a joke."
"And we teased that kid of theirs mercilessly," Charlie added.
"Peter, whose butt crack was always showing, even when he was standing up."
"Yeah, but we took care of that problem, didn't we, Dana?"
For a second, I saw what I would classify as Scully's Panic Face.
"Charlie, we swore we would never tell anyone about that."
"But we're adults now. Mom can't ground us for this. You should tell the story. I think Mulder should know what you're capable of."
She turned and looked at me and I raised my eyebrows.
"Forewarned is forearmed."
"Alright. But this does not ever get discussed again. It was funny at the time, but now that I have grown up, I am pretty ashamed that I ever did something so mean to this poor kid who just needed to pull his pants up every once in a while."
"Dana, am I going to regret hearing this story?"
"It wasn't my most shining moment, mom."
"Don't leave anything out."
"Okay. This was back when we still took the bus to and from school. It was a little less than an hour each way, and Peter Stankey always sat in front of us, and he would lean against the seat in front of him, giving Charlie and I a pretty good view. Now usually we would wad up paper and have contests to see who could throw the most paper balls in his pants. I was taking home ec at the time though and I happened to have some craft glue in my backpack. Charlie thought it would be a grand idea to... how do I say this?"
"Close the butt crack show for good," Charlie supplied.
"Yeah, I guess. I didn't want to do it at first, but he dared me, so I squirted a bunch of glue down Peter's pants."
She was blushing, half from embarrassment, and half from trying to restrain her laughter. I couldn't believe that she had actually done something so mean, much less that she was telling the story now. I wanted to laugh so badly, and I held it in for as long as I could before it sprung forth in a loud guffaw. Bill and Maggie took that as their cues too, both exploding with laughter.
"What happened?" I finally managed to ask.
"Peter bought a belt," she replied, finally letting a giggle out.
"Did he know it was you?"
"I doubt it. He never said anything and we never got in trouble for it."
"I can't believe you would do that."
"I was a bully back then," she admitted. "I just never got caught."
"Dipping hair in inkwells?"
"That, or letting loose 50 mice in the school gym during girls volleyball practice."
I had never been so shocked in my life.
"Dana Scully, I never knew you."
"Neither did I!" Maggie exclaimed. "I thought you were my most well behaved kid."
"Sorry to disappoint you mom, but if you knew all the crap I did back then, you would have had a heart attack."
"How did you manage to not get caught?"
"No one would ever in their wildest dreams suspect a Scully kid not named Melissa to ever do anything even close to being wrong. We were golden children. It didn't matter what state we were living in or how long we had been there, every adult for 20 miles around seemed to know that we were harmless. Plus, I'm pretty. No one wants to believe that the pretty girl did anything wrong."
"So why don't you use those feminine wiles more often?" I asked. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I knew it was a mistake.
"I do. Just not when you're in the room."
Whew, close call.
"Ever used those feminine wiles to get out of a ticket?" Bill asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"I still have never been pulled over."
"With the way you drive, sis? And the small animals that you've run over?"
"They should know not to walk in the middle of the road."
"But you didn't even pull over to check if that cat was okay."
"Charlie, first of all, that was a long time ago. Second, I was doing 60 when I hit it. The cat was dead. And I went out there the next day and found the family and apologized."
"I guess you did all you could then," he muttered, rolling his eyes.
"I did! I felt bad enough about it. You don't have to rub it in."
"You're my sister. I have to rub everything in."
I could see the tiniest bit of a blush starting up her cheeks. My hero instinct took over.
"So maybe she drives a little bit on the defensive side, but let me tell you, when you're trying to escape from a death-ray, you want someone with those skills in the driver's seat."
She scoffed, but the split second glance in my direction conveyed gratitude.
"A death-ray?" Charlie asked.
"It was not a death-ray."
"Yes it was. It was a ray of explosives that caused death. Death-ray."
"Mulder, it was rigged."
"It was not! How did she even know we were coming? And how do you explain it happening in places where she had no resources to rig it? And how do you rig something like that? She didn't own a space station or anything."
I could not believe we were debating a case in front of her family.
"Obviously, you did not read my report."
"Obviously, you did not pay attention during the case."
She sighed.
"I just want you all to know that this is the kind of crap I have to put up with on a daily basis," she muttered, mostly to Bill and Charlie, as Maggie was used to this kind of after-dinner discussion.
"Not daily. You have those days that you don't talk to me."
She sighed, her frustration becoming a source of much amusement to both of her brothers.
"Mulder, I swear."
That was all it took. I know that tone of voice well enough to shut up before she retaliated in a way that I definitely would not enjoy.
I just watched her after that, as she fended off her brothers' teasing and dished out some of her own. I love when she's happy and relaxed like this. She looks younger. It's almost like she can forget all the crap that has happened since she joined the FBI, and be a normal woman for once.
I always say that I couldn't love her more (okay, I don't say it out loud), but at times like this, I think I do. Or maybe it's just that I fall in love with the other side of her. Either way, nights like this stick in my memory, and I wouldn't change them for anything.
A/N: Ha, I just discovered that I cannot write as Mulder. I used to be so good at it. Ack.