Oversized Scrubs - Requested by (no one, I just did a master post of all Scully's scrubs and it made me think of this) - March 23rd, 2023
It was just something he'd gotten used to over the past few years of working with her. If Scully was doing an autopsy, chances were, he'd accidentally get a clear shot down her shirt.
Black lace. A pink bow. Some sheer thing that haunted his dreams. He never meant to see any of it, he looked away as soon as his brain caught up to his eyes. It just sometimes took longer than he was proud of because of the southern redirection of his blood flow.
It was just something he'd gotten used to over the past few years of working with her. If Scully was doing an autopsy, chances were, he'd accidentally get a clear shot down her shirt.
The first time it happened, he almost couldn't believe his eyes. It was like his mind was treating the creamy, pale expanse of Scully's torso like a Rorschach test. Scully's clothes were usually baggier, at least her suit jackets were, but for some reason, more often than not, the small woman wore scrubs that were several sizes too large for her frame. This meant the neckline would fall away from her torso if she bent down even slightly, and since he towered over her, he was always in the line of sight.
Mulder never said anything because it felt inappropriate to bring up. He knew the autopsies physically took a toll on her without making her feel like she needed to modify her posture so her pervy partner would stop looking at her breasts.
Only, that was just it. While he'd have the decency to look away, he'd often turn his head to find the local medical examiners making a similar discovery before suddenly paying a lot more attention to her than they previously had been.
Sometimes they smirked at him like getting a free peek at the unsuspecting medical doctor was an inside joke, and it made his blood boil.
Much like it was right now.
He didn't particularly like Officer Gonzalez to begin with, the man seemingly couldn't differentiate confidence and arrogance and made it everyone else's problem. Mulder hadn't expected him to come to the autopsy bay, but apparently, the man wanted to treat the victim's body like a carnival attraction. Mulder hadn't been paying attention to what he was saying, but he noticed when the constant hum of the background noise came to a halt.
When he glanced over to see if Gonzalez had left, he saw a sleazy grin had been what sealed his mouth shut. The man looked like he was trying to raise himself up on the balls of his feet, and it became painfully obvious to Mulder why that was when he glanced at Scully who was currently bent over the body as she collected debris samples.
Deep purple satin.
He immediately pulled his attention up towards her face and saw she was completely none-the-wiser to the fact Gonzalez was treating her job proficiency like a strip tease.
"I thought you were going to canvas the area for more bodies?" Mulder stated firmly, stepping in front of the officer to effectively block Scully from his line of sight.
Gonzalez smirked at him, and Mulder knew he was only chagrined because he thought he'd stepped on Mulder's toes. "Well, I'll leave you to it," he replied, the real meaning of his words causing Mulder's jaw to clench.
He stood there for a minute until he couldn't hear the departing officer's footsteps, but the sound of Scully's murmured voice caused him to turn back around. "I thought he'd never leave."
She was still hunched over, and he was still avoiding looking at the valley of her torso. A familiar weight settled uncomfortably in his chest, and he felt like a prick for not mentioning it to her sooner. Over three years of working together, there had to have been at least a couple dozen people who had leered at her without her knowing because he was too chickenshit to say anything.
"Hey Scully," he stated, walking towards the other side of the table.
"Hm?" she hummed in reply. She glanced up when he didn't answer, and, upon seeing the look on his face, stood up straight. "What's wrong?"
"Um," he sighed, stopping when he caught sight of the tape recorder hanging down from the ceiling between them. "Could you turn that thing off for a second?" he asked, gesturing to the tape recorder.
She gave him a look, but complied nonetheless. "Is something wrong?"
"Well," he paused. Knowing he had to have this conversation didn't help him when it came to figuring out what to say. "I don't want you to take this the wrong way."
She cocked an eyebrow and continued to stare him down. "Then say what you mean."
"Why are your scrubs always so big on you?" he asked.
"Because most of the places we go only have scrubs for men," she replied, compiling his guilt. "Why do you ask?"
He bit his cheek and rubbed his chin. "I just wanted to let you know that… sometimes, when you bend over… it's easy to see down your shirt."
There was a moment of silence that made his balls rescind into his body in fear. "I wasn't trying to look, it's just-"
"I'm constantly bent over during an autopsy," she finished flatly.
"I just thought you might want to know," he replied, looking towards the door where Gonzalez had just exited.
When he turned around, he saw her attention had followed his and her eyes snapped back with a look of understanding. "Is that why you, in so many words, told him to get lost?"
"I also thought his cologne smelled bad," he joked lamely. Scully looked down at herself, as if really assessing her scrubs for the first time. The collar of the shirt was so big that it effortlessly exposed her collarbones; no matter how she shifted or adjusted, the shirt dwarfed her. His gaze flickered down and he noticed a small protrusion on her hip and the way her pants legs were rolled up a few times.
"Why didn't you tell me you were having a hard time getting scrubs in your size? I could have told the morgues to have some ready for you before we fly out," he asked.
"Mulder, you know most of the autopsies I do are spur of the moment," she sighed. "And while that's a sweet gesture, I already have to deal with their surprise at seeing a female pathologist. I don't want to deal with their frustration at being requested to accommodate me."
"I could always-"
"Is it really that bad?" she interrupted with a frown, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I'm just tall, so, uh, yeah," he stammered awkwardly. "You don't even have to bend over very far for it to gape."
Her lips pursed to one corner of her mouth as she let her head fall back in defeat. "Did someone say something to you?" she asked, her tone pitching up slightly like it did on the rare occasion she got embarrassed.
That wasn't what he'd meant to do, and the guilty knot of pressure in his chest was beginning to creep up his throat. It was now obvious to him the large scrubs were a subtle sign she wasn't invited into the space she had a right to, that it already was uncomfortable for her, and now he'd gone and made her self-conscious.
"I've caught a few guys staring," he admitted softly. "I should've mentioned it earlier, I just," he paused, taking a deep breath before exhaling, "so much time has passed that I didn't want you to think I hadn't said anything because I was ogling you."
"You weren't?" she asked. The soft inflection of her question made his eyes widen before he saw the smirk on her face.
"You already have one potential sexual harassment complaint you could file against me from when you found all those videos in the cabinet," he teased back.
"I would never file a complaint for that. You were just being such a good friend for holding onto Frohike's collection for him," she deadpanned.
Mulder openly chuckled at that, and Scully looked pretty proud of herself for it. He was relieved they were able to diffuse the tension with humor, but he knew he'd unleashed something that was bound to continue to be a problem.
He was about to say something when he saw Scully lift the bottom of her shirt up. The action revealed to him that the drawstring of the pants was effectively useless; instead, Scully had taken a hair tie and cinched the waistband herself. He watched as she deftly removed the drawstring from the scrubs and re-cinched the waist before letting the hem of the shirt fall back down.
Scully then took the string and tied it around her waist like an apron, adjusting the fabric as needed. "How very MacGyver of you," he teased.
She offered him a small smile before clearing her throat. Then, looking at him with the utmost expression of professionalism, she said, "I'm going to resume working now. Will you tell me if it's bad?"
"Are you giving me permission to look down your shirt?" he asked playfully.
"One-time offer."
Scully bent over, only this time glancing up at him as if to check if he was looking. There was an eroticism to the action he hadn't expected and it made his breath catch in his throat. "Well?" She asked, her voice deeper from craning her neck up.
Mulder let his eyes flicker downward and was met with the sight of her collarbones peeing over the collar of her shirt. "Leer-proof," he replied.
"Good," she nodded, flicking the tape recorder back on and signaling the end of the conversation.
He stuck around for a while, waiting to see if she found anything notable from the external exam before deciding to take his leave. There were a few family members he needed to interview, and he still felt a little grossed out seeing the organ removal process.
Mulder let her know where he was going, but he was stopped right when he got to the door.
"Mulder," she called out softly, making him turn around to look at her.
"Yeah?"
He watched a sly smile spread on her lips as she continued working on the body. "Your fly's down."