Christmas 2009
"You absolute cheat!" Mulder heard Scully shout from the dining room, followed by laughter. He frowned as he finished pouring a cup of coffee, wondering what she was yelling about, and left the kitchen.
Scully and Charlie, along with Kyle and Glen, two friends of his from the Navy who had tagged along for Christmas, were sitting at the far end of Mrs. Scully's dining room table, a deck of playing cards between them.
"Okay, it's my deal now," Charlie said, gathering the cards and shuffling them.
"I've got my eye on you, little brother."
"Watch all you want. You know I'm better at this game than you and you're just mad about it. I'm not scared of you. I'm bigger than you, although that wasn't a difficult task to achieve." He pumped his eyebrows and she punched him on the arm. "Jesus, Dana."
"Thought you weren't scared of me," she said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at him.
"I'm not. I just forgot how hard you can hit. God," he said, rubbing his arm with a frown.
"Now next time you won't forget. Deal," she said and Charlie narrowed his eyes at her as he began dealing the cards.
"Oh, that coffee looks good," Mrs. Scully said as she walked over to Mulder, leaving the group of church folk with whom she had been speaking. "I think I could really do with a caffeine boost."
"Here, take this one. I haven't added anything to it or had a drink of it yet."
"Oh no, Fox. That's okay."
"Take it," he insisted, handing it to her and nodding. "I'll get another cup."
"Oh!" Scully shouted and then put a hand on her mouth, Glen watching her.
"What are they playing?" Mulder asked Mrs. Scully and she laughed as she turned to watch them.
"Oh… they're playing a game they made up when they were younger. I've never played it, but I've had to separate many games that became too… complicated. Yeah, I'm gonna go with complicated." She smiled at him and he raised his eyebrows in question. "Let's just say, you've chosen to love a very stubborn and competitive woman."
He laughed loudly and Scully turned her head to look at him, but then quickly turned her attention back to the game.
"Oh, you don't need to tell me that," he said, still chuckling. "We've played some… complicated games ourselves over the years."
"Yes, but with yours, I'm sure it didn't lead to physical fights or calling insults at one another," Mrs. Scully said. "There was a lot of that in our house at times, but with that game… it cranked it up to a new level."
"Big personalities tend to do that," he said and she nodded. "You want me to get you anything for your coffee?" She smiled at him and patted his hand.
"No, thank you. I'll go and do it and get you a cup as well. Why don't you go and see if they'll include you in the game?"
"Okay," he agreed. "But first, I'm going to need some more fudge."
He filled a small plate with fudge and other baked treats then made his way to the other end of the table. Sitting down beside Scully, he watched the nearly silent game being played as he ate a peppermint cookie.
From what he could understand, a card was either drawn from the main deck or the discarded pile created by the players, which were placed face down. It was fast paced and he was mesmerized by what the end goal would be.
Scully suddenly drew in a sharp breath and Charlie laughed quietly, his eyebrows raised. Mulder tried to look at the cards in her hands, but she held them too close.
She put down a card and Kyle took it, pausing before he added a different card to the discard pile. Glen took one from the stack and then discarded a different card. Charlie took Glen's card and then put it back, not being the one he wanted. Scully drew from the pile and discarded a different card quickly.
Kyle picked up her card and then slapped all of his cards down onto the table. Mulder looked at Scully in confusion, but she had eyes only for the game, watching Glen and Charlie intently.
Two more times around, the stack of cards nearly depleted, Glen was the next to lay down his cards. And then it was down to Scully and Charlie.
He grinned at her and she exhaled slowly, leaning forward and narrowing her eyes at him. He drew a card and added it to his hand. Shuffling through his cards, he took his time choosing his discard.
Now Scully exhaled in irritation and Charlie's smile grew. He put his discard down slowly and she snatched it quickly. A second later, her cards joined Kyle's and Glen's on the table.
"Now who's better?!" she shouted and Glen and Kyle laughed.
"You won once," Charlie said, gathering the cards again. "Don't get cocky and be a sore winner."
"I beat you. That's all that matters."
"Yeah, yeah. Your deal," he said, pushing the cards to her and rolling his eyes with a smile.
"Hang on," Mulder said, leaning forward. "What exactly is this game?"
"FUGOC," they all responded and his eyes widened.
"Excuse me?"
"FUGOC. It's an acronym," Scully said as she shuffled.
"I figured," Mulder said with a chuckle.
"We had to call it that as kids because it stands for-fucked up game of cards," Scully said, turning her head to look at him, the smile on her face vanishing nearly immediately.
"Dana Katherine Scully," Mrs. Scully said as she set the cup of coffee she had promised to Mulder onto the table. "On Christmas Day? Please watch your language."
"Watch my language? I'm forty three years old, Mom," Scully said as Charlie clucked his tongue in mock disappointment and the others laughed.
"And the day doesn't really matter as she says that word all the time," Mulder said, looking at Mrs. Scully and shaking his head as he heard Scully's gasp of disbelief. "I keep trying to break her of the habit but…" He sighed dramatically. "Maybe this year my Christmas wish will come true."
"You're lucky I don't punch you," Scully said as everyone laughed again. He looked at her and grinned, while she stared at him with hard eyes.
"Let's just keep the f words to a minimum, please," Mrs. Scully said. "We have guests here and Father McCue is coming over in a bit and I don't want him hearing any of that."
"Oh, I'm sure he hears much worse when he is in confession," Charlie said. "People spilling their darkest secrets… Come to think of it, do we have any rum? I know Father McCue is partial to it. If we got him drunk, maybe he'd tell us some of them."
"Getting a priest drunk? Suggesting he break his seal of sacrament? That's definitely worse than saying fu-" Scully said, feigning horror at Charlie's suggestion.
"I agree," Mrs. Scully interrupted, putting her hand up. "Charles William Scully, I'm surprised at you."
"Are you really, Mom?" he teased, raising his eyebrows, and even Mrs. Scully had to laugh.
"Just… try to act like the adults you claim to be," Mrs. Scully said and walked away, shaking her head as she went to rejoin the other party guests.
"So, what is FUGOC?" Mulder asked and Scully scoffed as she shuffled the cards again.
"You want to learn how to play after the way you tattled on me to my mother? I don't think so. Not without some kind of an apology. Or your coffee."
"That's the second cup I'll be giving up in the past ten minutes," he muttered, sliding the cup over to her. "And fine… I'm sorry I snitched on you. Now, explain it to me."
"FUGOC," Charlie said, stealing what was now Scully's cup of coffee and taking a large drink. "God, that's good. Mom's Christmas coffee is the best."
"Glad you enjoyed it," Mulder and Scully said simultaneously.
"Whoa, that was spooky," Kyle said and Mulder grinned, bumping his leg into Scully's.
"Yeah, we've heard that before," he said and Scully chuckled softly.
"Anyway," Charlie went on. "One day when it was pouring buckets outside, we had nothing else to do and so we made up this game."
"And after we came up with it, and we explained it to Bill, he said that's one fucked up game of cards and it stuck. But of course we couldn't call it that, so we decided on the acronym," Scully said, looking at Mulder.
"Go on. Tell me how to play."
"It's sort of a combination of Go Fish and Old Maid, but there's no talking. We don't ask for cards and everything is up to chance as you never see the card you're choosing until it's in your hands," Scully explained.
"Okay," Mulder said with a nod. "So the first one with all their cards matched wins?"
"If you don't have the old maid card," Charlie said.
"Which is which card?"
"That's the fun part-"
"The challenging part," Glen interrupted and Kyle nodded.
"Why?" Mulder asked.
"Because it's different every time," Scully said with a grin. "The person dealing the cards decides before the deal which card it will be and which suit. They tap the table twice when they are ready and then they deal the cards."
"And they don't change it?"
"They aren't supposed to," Scully said, glancing at Charlie. "But that's what you have to trust. And you have to try and figure it out by certain gestures they do, sort of like a pitcher and catcher with the signs they use for pitches."
"Oh… that's… I like that," Mulder said with intrigue and she smiled.
"I knew you would."
"Okay, so… you're dealt the cards and you simultaneously have to watch the dealer for clues about which old maid card to be on the lookout for and try to match up the cards that are in your hand?" Mulder asked and Scully nodded. "Does everyone know the signs and signals?"
"Yeah, it's a certain set of signs that everyone learns when they play the game."
"Okay. Show me. Play a round or two. Then deal me in."
Two hours and many glasses of alcohol later, Mrs. Scully came over again to ask them to keep it down.
"Mother," Charlie said, raising his glass of whiskey to Mrs. Scully. "A toast to you, this fine Christmas Day. You are truly the embodiment of the Christmas spirit and I appreciate you."
"Hear, hear!" Scully said, raising her own glass, her cheeks pink and her eyes glassy.
"Charlie," Mrs. Scully said, shaking her head and trying not to laugh. "Can you all just quiet down a little bit? Please?"
"Oh posh and pish," Charlie said affecting an English accent. "We shall continue to celebrate the day, Mother."
"God," she said as she walked away and everyone at the table, save for Mulder, who had remained sober for the evening, burst into uproarious laughter.
The card game was abandoned and instead they caught up, laughing and drinking until it was time to go.
"Goodbye, little brother," Scully said, hugging Charlie for a long time as they stood in the foyer of the house. "It's so good to see you. Please tell Renee I said hello and hope to see her next time, but I understand her wanting to see her own family."
"I will sis," he said, pulling back and smiling at her. "Love you."
"Love you too," she said, swaying as she stepped back. "Oh, I… am drunk."
"That you are," Mulder agreed, laughing as he put a hand out to catch her, holding her steady. "It was good to meet you, Charlie. Hope to see you again soon."
"You too, Mulder. Make sure she's okay. That Irish whiskey really gets on top of you."
"Will do. Goodnight and goodbye."
"Goodbye," Charlie said, smiling as he closed the door behind them.
"Come on, Scully. Let's get you home."
The next morning, hungover and swearing she would never drink again, Scully laid on the couch. As she slowly sipped on a can of warm ginger ale, Mulder practiced the gestures he had learned in order to play FUGOC. He wanted to be ready to challenge Scully to a game.
As soon as she was no longer groaning, repeatedly stating that her very eyeballs were aching, and cursing the person who first discovered alcohol, it would be the first thing he asked.