Author's Note:
I had this idea and it just kept screaming at me inside my head, so I had to write it down as a one-shot 😊
It's a little angsty, a little on the serious side but mostly romantic and just… aww!
If you want to make me happy, please leave a comment and let me know what you think! And if you want to, you can come out and play on Twitter with me ( tt_hale_)
Hope you enjoy!
"Why don't you pack some things to leave at my place?" Mulder asks from the entryway to Scully's bedroom, leisurely sipping at his beer as he watches her unload some clothes from the carry-on she took to their trip to Illinois back into her dresser.
"What do you mean?" she asks back, taking a quick glance in his direction as she goes about organizing her stuff.
He shrugs noncommittally but keeps his focus intent on her. "I don't know, just some essentials for when you spend the night. I was thinking maybe I could keep a suit here, if that's okay with you. Just so we don't have to go back to our places before we go into work, for instance."
She keeps her head down in an attempt to hide her fond smile at his words. She's noticed how her partner has been apparently trying to move them towards a committed romantic relationship without actually pushing her, as if afraid he might scare her off.
Unsurprisingly, ever since the first time they had sex a few weeks ago, they haven't really discussed what it means in terms of their relationship status – if it means anything at all, really –, but from the way he's been acting so far, he seems to definitely want to make things more official.
"I'll think about it," she replies vaguely before she makes her way to stand before him and starts playing with his tie. "In the meantime, I think you wouldn't have a problem using this same suit to work tomorrow, right? I mean, you probably have an extra shirt in your bag."
"I do," he tells her with a seductive grin, right before he reaches down to place a not-so-chaste kiss to her lips. "A different shirt, another tie. I even have a pair of clean boxers."
"That's fortunate," she replies with a smirk, moving to kiss him again.
There is nothing ambiguous about this kiss. Their lips feel feverish and demanding, their hands roaming each other's bodies of their own volition, searching and still learning the maps to their forms. Scully tips her head back and Mulder's mouth finds her jaw almost immediately, moving down her neck and pulling her body much closer to his, as if he's trying to defy a very basic principle of physics and merge their bodies together.
His arousal feels evident against her belly.
Unwittingly, she releases a moan as she pushes him back gently before the kiss grows into something else entirely. "How about you order us some food?"
"I can do that," he says, accepting her efforts to slow them down, even if he's still watching her with fire in his eyes.
She pushes her lust down and turns serious, hoping she can assure him a little about what she wants and how she feels about them. "Mulder, of course you can keep some of your things here, okay? And I'll pick out some things to bring to your place next time we stay there too."
His smile is infectious, his desire to kiss her overwhelming, but this time out of pure joy. "Look at us, all grown-ups."
She can't help but laugh at his words. "You're ridiculous, you know that, right?"
"Oh, I've been called much, much worse," he replies with a smirk.
"Go order the food while I start the shower," she instructs him. "And then maybe you could join me," she adds the suggestion seductively.
"Oh, that sounds really good," he says in a tone an octave lower than usual, running his hands over her sides and pulling her into his body for a chaste kiss. "But how about I do you one better – I could run to the store around the corner and make us some dinner."
She looks up at him, surprised. "You cook?"
"What do you mean, I cook? Of course I do!" He exclaims in mock offense.
She eyes him skeptically. "Mulder, in the seven years I've known you, I haven't seen you prepare a meal once."
"Well, it's no fun cooking for one," he easily explains, amused by her suspicions. "But I assure you, I can at least boil some water and make us some pasta pomodoro."
She laughs. "That sounds good," she concedes. "I don't know that that's actually better than my idea," she starts with a teasing gleam to her eyes, "but I do appreciate the gesture."
He gives a peck to her lips. "I'll just change out of these clothes and be on my way."
That gets a full-blown smile out of her. "So domestic," she teases him as she watches him strip.
"Enjoying the view?" he teases back.
"Wouldn't you like to know," she jests as she starts removing her own work clothes, in a much more organized way.
When she gets down to her bra, but still in her pants, Mulder speaks again. "You know, Scully, I'm getting the distinct impression you don't want me to leave."
She throws him a pair of jeans that she picks up in his suitcase. "Grab us a bottle of red wine while you're at it," she says, finishing it with a tight-lipped smile.
He maintains their banter as he starts putting on his casual clothes. "Drinking on a school night… aren't you a rebel?"
She eyes him salaciously as she drops her pants down and then makes her way to her dresser to remove her earrings in just her underwear. "Oh, there are some many layers to the Scully onion, Mulder; you have no idea."
And just like that, the joke's on him.
With his hands full of groceries bags, Mulder uses his knee to knock on Scully's front door. He waits a couple of seconds more than he usually would and, when she doesn't answer, he knocks again.
Still no answer.
Thinking that maybe a sexy surprise is in store for him – actually, hoping for one, if he's honest – , he sets the bags down on the hallway floor and pulls out his keychain, finding his own key to let himself in the apartment. Her living room is drowned in darkness, and he takes it to mean that the game is on.
"Scully?" he calls out to her as he pushes the bags into the apartment with his foot and closes the door behind him.
Suddenly, he feels a sharp blow to the back of his head and instantly drops down, passing out a couple of seconds later.
Stepping over the male agent's body lying on the ground, Donnie Pfaster makes his way to the bedroom and announces as soon as he sets the door ajar, "Now, we're ready to start, girly girl."
The criminal had been hiding in the closet since the moment Mulder and Scully walked through her apartment door earlier that evening, listening to their flirty banter, to the sound of their passionate kissing, to their intimate conversation. He then waited for Mulder to leave for the store to attack Scully, using the element of surprise to his advantage as he jumped out of her closet behind her back. Subduing her wasn't as easy as he had expected, but eventually he managed to tie her up, gag her and lock her in her own closet. Then all he had to do was wait in hiding by the front door so he could knock out her partner once he returned and then get to business.
Walking back out to the living room, Pfaster uses the flat sheet he got out of Scully's bed to immobilize Mulder – a precaution for if and when he wakes up. He's never done this before with any witnesses, but the idea of causing this man to live through the redhead's suffering only adds to the excitement of it all.
Before the murderer gets the chance to tie the male agent up, though, he hears footsteps coming from behind him. When he turns around, his prey is no longer a victim; Scully is standing right there in front of him, gun in her hands. And she doesn't even hesitate before she empties her clip right into his ribcage.
Up until this moment, Scully had been acting on instinct, fighting for her own life and fueled by the loathing she felt toward Donnie Pfaster. Now, as her adrenaline goes down and her eyes focus on the sight of the man she loves laying blacked out in her living room, desperation takes over her emotions.
She cannot lose Mulder.
Dropping to her knees next to her partner's unconscious body, she frantically repeats, "Mulder, wake up," over and over, as she alternates between touching his face and shaking his torso. The sounds of sirens approaching can finally be heard, and she is reminded that she had managed to dial 911 and dropped the receiver before Pfaster grabbed her and threw her on the floor – which means the dispatcher must have heard their entire altercation and traced the call to her apartment. "Help is going to be here any at any second, do you hear me? You have to hold on, Mulder. Please, wake up."
Soon enough, two Metro PD officers arrive at her place, and it's only when she notices the embarrassed look on the male rookie's face that she remembers she's just in her bra and panties. Excusing herself to quickly cover herself, she listens as the officers split their efforts into trying to wake Mulder and call in for back-up and medical assistance, and when she's back to the living room – now wearing a silk robe – she's relieved to see her lover sitting up against the wall by the door.
"Thank God; I was worried there for a minute," Scully tells him as she runs her fingers through his hair.
"What the hell happened?"
She brings her partner up to speed on the evening's events and then calls her boss to inform him of their suspect's demise – Skinner assures her he will be there in under fifteen minutes. In that short meantime, her apartment turns into a textbook crime scene; there are police officers all over the place, cataloguing evidence in the living room, the bathroom and the bedroom and asking both partners for their statements.
"Agent Mulder," a familiar voice calls out from outside of Scully's home and the agent turns his head around in time to see A.D. Skinner walking in. "I got here as soon as I could," the older man assures him, eyeing the police officer standing there. "If you'll excuse us, I need to speak to my agent," the bald man pretends to ask as he flashes his badge at the cop; it's really an order.
Once the third man is out of earshot, Skinner addresses his male subordinate. "Agent Scully called me about Pfaster's killing, saying that he'd broken into her apartment and attacked her. Were you here when it happened?"
"No, Sir," Mulder starts to explain as Scully finds her way to the two men in conversation.
"I'm glad to see you're okay, Agent Scully," their boss states sympathetically. "Can you explain to me what exactly took place in here?"
Mildly uncomfortable, the redhead starts recounting the evening's events. "Well, Sir, Agent Mulder and I had just arrived from Illinois and were planning to have dinner. He stepped out for about twenty minutes and during his absence, Donnie Pfaster attacked me. He'd been hiding in my bedroom's closet without our knowledge."
"I thought you said you weren't here," Skinner directs at the male agent.
"Yes, Sir. As Scully mentioned, I arrived with her but had to step out for a while. When I returned, Pfaster knocked me out before I even had the chance to know that he was here."
Organizing his thoughts, the assistant director elects to start from the beginning. "Why did you leave?"
Mulder clears his throat. "I – uh, I went to store to grab the food." At their supervisor's inquisitive look, he only adds, "We were going to cook."
Skinner watches the two partners closely for about five seconds, mulling over what the evidence in front of him could possibly amount to. These are two agents that have been partnered for over seven years and are highly dependable on one another, have no romantic relationships to account for as far as he's concerned and were apparently sharing an intimate home cooked meal together before all hell broke loose. If he is to believe the office rumors, maybe these two are more than just work partners.
The A.D. runs his eyes over the scene around him again, this time with more attention.
He spots the grocery bags on the floor and notices that a bottle of red wine is peeking out – apparently, dinner included alcohol. Right next to it, there is a keyring forgotten on the floor, even though a different set of keys is already hanging from the door lock – most likely, Mulder had unlocked the front door to his partner's apartment with his own key upon returning from the grocery store and then it had been knocked out of his hands once the offender had attacked him.
Looking back at the duo in front of him, he takes in their appearance – Mulder is wearing a grey sweater over a white T-shirt topped with a leather jacket and plain jeans. If they had come straight from Illinois where they had been investigating the case, why was he wearing casual clothes? And Scully, well, the female agent is in a white silk robe, seemingly not wearing much underneath – technically, she could've been surprised as she changed her clothes while her partner was out, so he doesn't want to overthink this particular piece of evidence.
Hoping he won't need to confront these two, Skinner moves on. "Then what happened?"
"Pfaster jumped me in the bedroom," Scully resumes her explanation. "I fought him and ran out to the living room to dial 911 but he attacked me again before I had a chance to talk to the police. He subdued me, restrained me and put me in the closet. While he waited for Agent Mulder to return, I managed to untie myself and found him standing over my partner's body, in what looked to me like an attempt to strangle him. I announced myself and when he charged at me I had to shoot him until he stopped."
"Can I see the bedroom?" the older man asks.
The female agent leads her partner and their boss further into her apartment and steps aside to let them enter her private sanctuary. From the doorway, Skinner can see the mess the place is – a bookcase is knocked down on top of the bed, the wall mirror is completely shattered and clothes and bedlinens are scattered everywhere. The sight of two very different carry-ons in the room catches him attention – yeah, well… it still could signify a lot of things, but it's getting harder and harder to ignore the obvious implication with that one, right? He's ninety-nine percent sure that one of those bags is Mulder's, and why would his bag be inside Scully's bedroom if he wasn't spending the night?
To make matters worse, the bald man spots a rumpled male business suit lying on the floor.
Skinner feels a headache coming. It's not as if there's any official directive prohibiting FBI partners from engaging in intimate relations (except while on assignment), but with these two, things simply tend to be more difficult. He knows that technically he can't just ask them any questions about their sexual lives – and even more so, he really wants to respect their privacy – but something's gotta give here. Eventually, he questions, "Is there anything specific I need to know?"
Scully pulls the robe a little tighter against her body, but still she stares straight into her boss's eyes with dignity – she will not be made ashamed of their new-found relationship, especially not in her own home. "Not that I can think of at this time, Sir."
Their supervisor takes a chance with the other half of this partnership. "Agent Mulder?"
"What Agent Scully said," it's all Mulder replies, looking fiercely protective.
Skinner sighs. "I see," he lets the words linger in the air for a few moments before he speaks up again. "I'll need both of your reports on my desk by COB tomorrow," he announces professionally, though not unkindly. "But other than that, I'd expect you to take the day off tomorrow – and you, Agent Scully, should take the rest of the week to recuperate."
"I'm fine, Sir," she says cooly.
"Even so, you know we'll have to wait for ballistics to confirm the shots and for the autopsy to be done before you can head back out in the field. Purely protocol."
She nods, resigned.
"Do you have a place you can stay?"
This time it's Mulder who speaks. "Yes, Sir; she'll be staying with me, at least for tonight," Mulder reports without any difficulty. He knows for certain that Skinner won't question the logic on that situation, even if the younger agent knows he's only confirming his boss's suspicions about the nature of his relationship with Scully.
"I don't know how your landlords still put up with you two," Skinner jokingly says, playing dumb.
"Me neither," the lanky agent replies, turning to his partner and taking her hand. "Maybe we should buy a house, Scully. Move in together. What do you say?"
Skinner is utterly embarrassed, desperate to avoid their faces. His plausible deniability is hanging by a very slim thread.
Scully, for her part, looks surprised at first but quickly recovers. "Well, I think it's a little soon for that, Mulder. But let's see how it goes."
Mortified, the assistant director gives up. "Well, I'll leave you two to work things out here. Call me if you need anything," he says as he turns to leave but stops. "And agents? I'm glad to see you're alive and well. And together."
(All characters and quotes directly from The X-Files do not belong to me and are used only for entertainment and not profit. No copyright infringement is intended)