AN: and here is the next chapter. As usual, I don't own these characters and am not making any profit from this, only little happy dances when I get a review :)

Chapter 5 Overreacting

Dana Scully's apartment

Friday 17 March 2000

9:25 PM

Scully was dozing on her couch when she heard a knock on her door. *Who can that be at this time of night?* she thought. The only person who came unannounced at this time of night was Mulder and she hoped it wasn't him. She didn't want to face him like this. Slowly she made her way to the door and stood on her toes to look out the peephole in her door. A sigh escaped her, it was Mulder... She opened the door for him, but before she could even say anything he had seen the bruises on her face and her split lip and started to shout.

'What the fuck, Scully! Where is your idiotic boyfriend, I'll kill him for hitting you!'

'Mulder, calm down, this isn't what it looks like…'

But for she could continue Mulder had made his way in to her living room, livid.

'Don't defend that scumbag. I thought you knew better. Where is he, please tell me he isn't here. Or maybe better yet, tell me he is here so I can give him a matching set!'

He was seething; she had never seen him so livid. But before she could respond she heard a small voice from behind her.

'Please don't hurt Dana, don't hurt me…'

Scully's heart broke when she heard Katie and she saw the shock on Mulder's face when he saw the little girl. Her big brown eyes brimmed with tears; some had already made their way on to her angelic face. She looked so scared and so fragile.

'Mulder could you please go into the kitchen and wait for me there?'

Without waiting for a reply Scully went over to Katie and picked her up and went to sit on the couch with her on her lap.

'He isn't going to hurt us honey, he is a good guy. Remember I told you not all men are bad? That there are men who are nice and who you can trust? Well, he is one of them. He was just scared when he saw my black eye and my lip, but if you want too I can ask him to come over here and you two can meet. His name is Fox and we work together at the FBI and he really is a nice guy. He would rather die than hurt me or hurt you.'

She and Katie had had a talk about men in general and her dad a just 2 weeks ago. She couldn't remember what had been the reason it came up, but she had stressed that not all men were like her father. That there were good men in the world, men you could trust and who would do anything in their power to protect you. She'd talked about Mulder in particular, as an example. She had explained that he was her best friend and that he would do anything for her and that he would never ever hurt her. She'd even suggested that, when Katie wanted too, she would ask Mulder to come over and meet her.

'But he was so angry and he was shouting. I got scared he was going to hit you just like my dad did.' Katie replied softly.

'I know honey, and I'm sorry. He just didn't expect to see me like this and that scared him a little bit I think. Do you think it will be okay if I ask him to come over here and meet you? I've wanted you to meet him for some time now. He's my best friend and I'll bet he would want to be your friend too.'

Katie nodded shyly and Scully sat her down on the couch and told her she would be right back. She sighed again and went to the kitchen. She would have to talk to Mulder first before introducing him to Katie, but knew that she couldn't take too much time.

She made her way over to the kitchen. Mulder was standing at the sink, visibly shaking. Before he could say anything she addressed him.

'Mulder, please listen for a minute. I will explain everything to you later after Katie has gone back to bed, but could you please find a way to hide your anger for a little while, for Katie's sake? She's a scared little girl right now and she doesn't need to see you fly off the handle. I promise I'll explain everything when she's gone to bed, but for now I would very much like the two of you to meet.'

Mulder had looked her in the face the whole time and she could see the anger in his eyes. Not necessarily towards her, but towards the person who had done this to her. He nodded and with a big gulp of breath steadied his breathing and pushed his anger down. She could see him relaxing a little bit. The promise to tell him everything seemed to calm him a little bit.

Together they made their way to the living room. Katie was still sitting on the couch, looking very small. She was wearing pretty pink pajamas with little stars on them. She wasn't crying anymore, but there were still streaks on her cheeks from the tears she'd shed.

'Sweetie, I want you to meet my best friend. This is M... Fox; remember what I just told you?'

Scully corrected herself, she was about to introduce Mulder as Mulder, but decided that using his given name would be better. She couldn't see the smile on Mulder's face when she introduced him as her best friend and used his given name, because she was looking at Katie.

She saw Katie nod shyly and saw she was looking at Mulder with a little bit off fright in her eyes. It was so hard to see her look at a man and be instantly afraid. She wanted to teach the little girl that not all men were evil. That there where good and gently and kind men in the world, and that Fox Mulder was one of them.

'Hello Katie, it's very nice to meet you,' Mulder said to the little girl. He knew she was afraid of him, so he didn't approach her just yet. It hurt him that the girl was afraid of him. He was ashamed that he had made her feel that way by the way he'd reacted when he had seen Scully's bruises and split lip.

'Fox is a very funny name,' Katie said and a small smile graced her lips.

'Yeah, it is, isn't it? I think Katie is a very beautiful name for a beautiful girl.'

Katie relaxed a bit and Scully sat down next to her and gestured to Mulder to sit on her other side. Now it was time to introduce these two properly.

'I've told Katie that we work together and that you don't want to hurt us. I've been Katie's Big Sister since January and we've spent some time together on the weekends since then. This weekend we're having our first sleepover and we're going to have a lot of fun, don't we Katie?'

'Yes, Dana said we can do whatever I want to do this weekend, as long as I listen and do my homework as well.' Katie answered, still looking slightly wearied at Mulder.

'I'm sure you're going to have a lot of fun with Dana. I know I always have a lot of fun with her when I spend time with her. Do you know what you want to do yet?'

'We've talked about it and maybe we will go swimming or go to the zoo. I've heard they opened a new one not too far from here. It has all kinds of animals and some rides and an indoor playground.'

Dana saw Katie's eyes lit up when she mentioned the Zoo, Fox also saw it. He decided to try to loosen the girl up a little bit and joke with her.

'I think I know where you want to go,' he said to the girl, 'I bet I can guess what you want to do. You want to go to the library and look at stuffy books all day.'

Dana caught up on Fox's intentions and decided to play along.

'Oh, I hadn't thought about that, I think that would be so much fun, wouldn't it Katie?'

Seeing the look on Katie's face she immediately realized that Katie thought their suggestion was for real and that she would have to spend the day in a stuffy library.

'Oh honey, Fox was just making a joke. We can do whatever you want to do tomorrow. Would you like to go to the zoo?'

Katie nodded and her eyes lit up again. 'Can we really?'

'Yes we can, but right now it is time for you to go back to bed again. It's really late and if we are going to spend all day at the zoo tomorrow you'll need all the sleep you can get. So let's get you back to bed. Say goodnight to Fox.'

With that Dana stood up and took Katie's hand and after saying her goodnight she took the girl back to "her" bedroom. They hadn't decorated it yet, so other than a bed, with a pink duvet, it could have been a normal spare bedroom. Dana was planning on taking Katie shopping on Sunday, so that they could buy some decoration and stuff for the room.

After tucking Katie in, Dana went back to the living room. She knew she had some explaining to do.

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