Chapter 5
2 Weeks Later
Friday

Two weeks have passed since the incident at Scully's parents' place with Mulder and Sarah, planned by Bill. Scully has told Mulder that she has forgiven his apologies, but he could tell she was still disturbed and upset by what had occurred. Even if she has forgiven him, she will not talk to him as much as he tries. With that said, they continued to fight over ridiculous things which led into why they were fighting in the first place. To make matters worse, The X-Files has become difficult for them, because they are fighting and their assistant director, Walter Skinner was starting to get very frustrated with them, which resulted in a shouting match between him and Mulder earlier that afternoon. With all of the stress and troubles he was experiencing he decided to head to the bar, it was a Friday and he needed to get away from everyone and everything. However, hours later, he was still there and now even the bar tender was getting annoyed by him. She walked back over to Mulder to see if he wanted anything else to drink, because by now he has definitely had too much to drink.

"Would you like another, Sir?" She asked.

He looked to her, did a slight head nod and twirled his right index pointer in the air then pointed down to the bar table.

"One more," his words slurred together, "Yeah!"

He heard the door jingle and looked over to his left when his eyes spotted Scully's brother enter the bar with his ex-girlfriend Sarah at his side. Mulder did not understand why Bill and his ex-girlfriend had shown up at the bar Mulder goes to. Considering Bill is way far out of town and hardly ever goes to the bar, because he is a good citizen. Mulder watched over his left shoulder as the two headed over to a table in the back. Anger immediately bottled up inside, but he was too drunk to even sit still on the stool, let alone try to fight the guy. The bar tender sat his last shot of whiskey down on the counter and Mulder looked to her and saluted her.

"Thank…you," He thanked her.

He chugged it down left the change on the counter and stood up tall to stretch and get his balance. The bar tender watched him carefully when she noticed the man who entered with the female just moments before was watching him. Mulder took a few small steps, then a couple big ones over to his jacket, slipped it on and walked out to the back. Just as he headed to the back, Bill excused himself and followed after Mulder. When Bill stepped outside he saw Mulder pissing by the dumpster, Mulder's left hand up on the wall and head down with his eyes closed and mouth open.

"I sense things are not well with you and Dana still, Mulder," Bill's voice spoke, startling him.

Mulder glanced back to him confused.

"Oh it's just you," Mulder muttered, "I thought I heard an annoying little pest."

Mulder zipped up his jeans and started to head down the alley way and Bill continued to follow him.

"My sister is still hurt, she's depressed…"

"What was your first clue?" Mulder called back to him.

"Gee I don't know, perhaps the night you left home unannounced," Bill replied back.

Mulder stopped in his tracks and looked back to Bill, turned around and then faced him.

"You got something to say to me, say it," Mulder said, "Go on, say it…just…to let you know…I'm not the one that caused this pain on Dana, you are, you big….asshole."

Bill looked up and down at Mulder and stepped a few inches closer to him.

"Feel better?" Bill asked.

"No, where's my gun?" Mulder asked, searching his pockets, "Oh shucks, I guess I left it at home…"

Mulder trailed off and then pulled out another spare gun from his right pant leg and looked up to him.

"Oh look at that," Mulder said.

Mulder shoved Bill against the wall and put the gun underneath his jaw. Bill stared into Mulder's eyes with anger.

"You know Dana would never forgive you if you killed me," Bill said.

"No I think she would, because she would feel more relieved more than anything, because you would be gone from her life you controlling bastard," Mulder explained, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you now."

"Your job," He replied.

Mulder looked to him confused then Bill punched him hard into his side. Mulder lost control of his gun and the two started to wrestle, hitting and punching each other left and right. Eventually, because of too much drinking, Mulder lost and now Bill had him up against the wall, nearly choking him to death with Mulder's own gun against his side.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you, Mr. Mulder," Bill ordered.

Mulder breathed hard, "Scully."

Bill looked up and down at him and stepped back.

"Go on and get out of here, I don't want to see you anymore," Bill snarled.

He threw the gun at Mulder who grabbed it quickly and stared at Bill.

"You…drunken bastard," Bill added.

Mulder watched Bill walk off and Mulder decided to head back home, but at the last second asked the cab driver to bring him over to where the Lone Gunmen lived.

The Lone Gunmen's Den
11:45 P.M.

He looked to their door when he arrived and then pounded on the door. The three inside quickly turned and looked over to the door wondering who it was and paranoid. Frohike looked over to the two, then slowly inched closer to the door, put his hands into fists and stood up on his front toes a bit.

"Who is it?" Frohike asked loudly.

"Who do you think it would be?" Mulder responded, "It's Mulder, open up!"

Frohike looked back to the two who shrugged and so Frohike unlocked the seven different locks down the door, the main one and then opened up the metal door and found Mulder standing before him, beaten up badly and looking a bit drunk. Langly and Byers stood behind Frohike astonished by how Mulder looked. Mulder looked to the three as he rested his left hand to the door frame and wiped the dripping blood on his right side with the sleeve of his t-shirt.

"What the hell happened to you?" Langly asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Mulder replied, "I just don't need Scully to find me like this. Let me in, please."

The three let him enter and they closed the door and relocked it back up. Just as Mulder was getting comfortable enough on the stool off to the side there were a couple more pounds that sounded. Everyone jumped and looked over to the door confused, wondering who was at the door. Frohike looked over to Mulder and Langly this time answered to the knocks.

"Who is it?" Langly yelled.

"It's Scully," Scully's voice sounded, "I'm looking for Mulder, do you know where he is?"

The four exchanged looks and as soon as Mulder heard Scully's voice, he scrambled to the back room and closed the door quietly while Frohike, again, undid all the locks, the main one, and then opened the door and saw her standing before him looking rather worried and concerned for Mulder's whereabouts. She looked between the three of them as Langly and Byers looked more nervous than Frohike; she suspected the three were up to something. Frohike cleared his throat and then let her inside and Byers finally spoke up to break the awkward silence.

"No, we don't know where Mulder is, why?" Byers asked kindly.

"I got a call from Bill, my brother, that he just encountered with Mulder at the bar. Apparently Mulder is drunk and the two got into a fight out in the alley. I want to make sure he is alright, but I don't know where he is at the moment and assumed he be here with you three," Scully explained.

Then a loud bang occured in the back room as if something big had been knocked over by accident, crashing to the ground, followed by a voice cursing up a storm. Scully crossed her arms over her chest and looked over to the three cocking her right eyebrow and they smiled with a slight shrug and nervous laughs. Scully then walked over to the door, opened it and discovered Mulder who whipped around instantly and saw Scully in the doorway.

"Oh hi Scully," Mulder greeted her, nervously.

Scully entered and closed the door behind her so the two could have privacy from the other three.

"How'd you, um, know I'd be here?" Mulder asked.

"You weren't at home and the lone gunmen are closest to your favorite bar. Bill called me and said he just fought with you near a bar, so I put two and two together and tracked you here," Scully explained.

Scully walked over and started to observe him to make sure he was alright. Mulder then started to get annoyed, sometimes he hated that she treated him as if she was his mother.

"Well, if you knew I was here, you didn't need to come check, I'm certainly just fine, Scully," Mulder replied with attitude.

Scully looked into his eyes with anger.

"I came to make sure you are okay, just because we're fighting doesn't mean I stopped caring about you," Scully pointed out, "You mean too much to me; you are my boyfriend after all."

"Oh am I? Last I checked we haven't been really "together" for the past couple of weeks," Mulder shot back, being a dick now.

Scully stood up straight, resting her hands to her waist now, and looking hard into his eyes with anger now.

"Mulder stop it…"

"Stop what?" Mulder asked, "I'm just presenting the facts to you."

"Stop fighting with me…"

"Certainly, let me know when you're ready to be civil more too, then we can stop fighting all we want," Mulder replied, standing up.

She grabbed his shirt and he stopped and looked to her quickly.

"I'm not finished…"

"Well I am, and just to let you know I think I can take care of myself. I'm pretty sure I was just fine on my own before you walked into my life six years ago," Mulder interrupted her, "I think I can handle taking care of myself without your help, Scully."

He pushed her tiny hands off his shirt and started to walk out of the bedroom. She grabbed his left wrist that swung backwards and she yanked him back. He nearly lost balance and he looked back to her.

"Mulder, stop being such a dick!" Scully pleaded, "Please just talk with me…"

Mulder faced her.

"Oh, you want to talk? I didn't understand that you wanted to talk, since you haven't been showing interest in talking to begin with," Mulder said.

"Mulder!" Scully snapped.

"No, we're not talking about anything, Scully. I've tried talking to you the past two weeks about all of this shit…matter of fact, I'm done dealing with this shit; we're done," Mulder said.

"What do you mean by that?" She asked quickly.

"You know exactly what I mean by that Scully. Do I need to paint you a picture?" Mulder asked, "Excuse me, I have a cab to catch."

He walked off and left her alone with the lone gunmen.

To be continued…