Author's note:
This was inspired by a post on Twitter. Early seasons. They are in love but they just don't know it.
Scully's mind was trying to make sense of what her eyes just observed. She rounded the corner and bumped square into Mulder's chest. Instinctively, he reached his hands out to grab either side of her shoulders. Grateful for his assistance, she steadied herself.
"Mulder, I don't know how to say this," clearing her throat and visibly shaken, "I just saw our suspect."
Mulder somewhat confused at her noticeably dazed state, "Great Scully, where is he?"
Once Scully had settled her stance, he removed his hands from her shoulders and reached for his holster, unclipping the safety latch.
"No Mulder, it's not a he."
"Okay, she then, where is she?"
"No Mulder, I..It's.."
"What is it, Scully, what's wrong?" Now he was worried. Scully usually doesn't shock easily, and whatever happened to her had clearly shaken her.
"Do I need to call the paramedics; talk to me, Scully." Looking her up and down for any sign of injury.
She didn't know how to say it, in all their years together she had never admitted to seeing anything outside the realm of science. She believed everything had a natural explanation.
But this. This wasn't natural, it was unnatural. It was by all accounts, a monster . She stood frozen, staring at her partner. Mulder returned a worried look, "Scully please, you're scaring me." Still on alert, he kept one hand at his holster and repositioned his other hand at her forearm.
Then she blurted it out, "Monster."
Mulder thought she said monster. But he wasn't sure, "Excuse me, what did you say?"
"Monster, it was a monster."
"Wait, did you just.."
"Monster, yes I saw a monster."
Dropping his hand from his holster he reached around to the back of Scully's head and pulled her in close. With both his hands gripping his partner- one on her forearm and one at the back of her head-he leaned down and met her lips with his.
Overtaken by her declaration, he couldn't help but kiss her. He waited a long time to hear those words and he let his emotions get the best of him. He pulled away almost as quickly as he had planted his surprise peck.
"Scully, I don't know what came over me," clearing his throat and removing his hands from her person, "I am so sorry, Scully..I."
Scully, not only wearing a shocked face, now had the cupid-red cheeks to go along with it- responded with a slow nod.
Mulder continued, "I didn't mean to, I mean. Scully are you okay?"
She could tell Mulder was sincere, while she had never imagined Mulder kissing her in the middle of a dimly-lit hallway in pursuit of a suspect; admittedly she had imagined locking lips with her partner a few times or two. She gathered her composure and played it cool. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath in, calming her nerves and her skin, "Mulder," it was her turn to speak and fill the awkward silence, "It's okay."
She continued, "Don't worry about it."
"Scully, are you sure, I feel terrible."
"Don't. It happens to the best of us." Mulder sighed a deep breath of relief and his shoulders dropped slightly.
"Besides, I might be willing to kiss you too if you admitted to me that aliens were merely a newly discovered sub primate."
Mulder chuckled at her example, "Well that's not gonna happen Scully."
"Well then Mulder, I guess I won't be returning the gesture any time soon," Scully said as she reached for her gun, signaling for him to follow her, "C'mon, Mulder don't just stand there, we have a monster to catch."
As both agents walked quietly down the long hallway searching for their suspect, neither one was aware that their thoughts- while separate- were both lingering on the short kiss they shared moments ago and the anticipation of whether it would happen again.
