Title: He Meant Those Words
Rating: K
Status: Complete
Spoilers: None, just an extension of Triangle after Scully leaves the room.
Archive: Sure, just drop a note first.
Feedback: Yes, please
Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended, characters and show reference belong to their creator CC and 1013. I wish I could be so creative as to have invented them but sadly…I am not. If you know the characters, they aren't mine. Blah, blah, blah, you know the drill but please leave a review.
Summary: At the end of Triangle Mulder admits to Scully he loves her. His woman scoffs at the notion believing it to be a narcotic induced drabble. As she leaves his room for the night and returns to her motel there is a knock at the door.
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She had no sooner taken her jacket off than she heard someone knocking on her motel room door. She thought it might be Skinner with questions about Mulder's latest exploits, wanting to talk about how she knew where Mulder went. He had to know she received word from his three closest friends. How else would she have known to ask about the coordinates and the Queen Anne.
She kicked off her shoes and padded to the door. Opening the door she found Frohike standing in the doorway.
"Frohike, are you okay, what are you doing here." Scully asked, stepping aside to let him in.
"Agent Scully I'm glad you're still up." Melvin stepped inside and stood opposite her.
"I just got in. Did something happen to Mulder? Is everything okay with you guys?" she asked again moving to put on her jacket if needed.
"Everything's fine. I can't stay long we're playing HALO with some players from the local online community. I've come for a different reason. Do you have a few minutes to talk?" he asked as he moved to the small table and pulled out a chair. "Is it okay if I sit?"
"Of course, do you want anything to drink?" She looked at him questioningly.
"No, I'm only going to be here a few minutes. I was waiting in the hallway outside Mulder's room for you after we all left."
"Okay, is there something wrong with him I am not aware of. I looked at his chart and everything seems good. His electrolytes are off, but they'll straighten out over night with the fluids while he rests." Scully reassured him as she pulled out the other chair and sat down.
"I don't like getting involved in matters that aren't mine, but I've known the guy now for years and the one thing Mulder is not is a liar."
"I'm sorry did he say something about his adventure that isn't true. I mean we found him and that ghost ship in the ocean. I didn't believe we would find it or Mulder." She was worried he lied to his three best buddies, that is not at all like Mulder.
"No, he didn't lie, he doesn't lie that's what I am trying to tell you. I overheard what he said to you after we left. I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I was waiting for you so you wouldn't have to walk back to your room alone in the dark. I'm sorry." Frohike wrung his hands with worrying hoping she would forgive him.
"Frohike, how sweet of you to think about that but I would have been fine." She looked at him. She cared for and respected him so much. She covered his hands with hers and rested them on the table. Watching him worry she saw the care he had for his eccentric friend. "Don't worry, Mulder was just rambling. They have him so doped up on painkillers and antibiotics he'll tell you he saw Mother Teresa in the morning."
"No, he meant it. I've known Mulder for years and even if he doesn't remember saying it, which he will he means it, every word." Frohike stated this as fact emphasizing it with his stern expression, eyes boring into hers, and nodding his head.
"I appreciate you letting me know you believe he was being truthful." She was worried about the same thing. What if he was telling her the truth, didn't she owe telling him the way she felt about him. "He will no doubt be embarrassed if he does remember in the morning." She patted his hands.
Frohike looked at her. "You don't understand, he has told us. I'm sure you know we spend our Saturdays playing video games when he's in town. He's over the moon for you. He is so afraid of losing you as a work partner he won't say anything to you. He respects you. He loves you Scully and it's not a surface love. He has a deep, profound, devoted love for you. We know about his relationships with Greene and Fowley and trust me, it's you. We all know it he's a changed man since you walked into his life. So, he may not remember telling you but just know he told you the truth. The Fox Mulder truth as he always has. The two of you may not always agree or see eye to eye but he has never lied to you." Frohike slapped his palms on his thighs and rose to leave.
Scully sat staring at him with her mouth slightly open. "Why wouldn't he just tell me, we spend every Sunday together going over our notes and sharing dinner."
"Probably for the same reason you have never told him." Frohike looked at her with eyebrows raised. He wasn't expecting a response from the ever-stoic Agent Scully so, he was taken back when she actually spoke.
"I'm terrified, Frohike" She looked down at her hands as she fiddled with interlocking her fingers then unlocking them over and over. Several seconds of silence passed before she repeated herself. "I'm afraid he'll tire of my incessant belief in science, grow tired of my attempts to find the answers he seeks with hard data. I don't want to lose him either." He saw tears well up in her eyes.
He placed his hand over hers and looked at her. "He loves that about you. He loves your scientific mind, your intelligence, he calls you brilliant. He loves the way you challenge him, the way you have as much belief in your science as he does in his paranormal, conspiracy, alien theories. He loves that you take care of him, you watch out for him, you bandage him up and spend time with him getting to know him. No other woman has ever taken him and his passions seriously. They've never gotten to know the man behind the spooky reputation."
"Frohike, I am sure he has plenty of women who take his passion and drive seriously. He is an interesting man, he's handsome, creative, loyal what woman isn't looking for those qualities. He has studied every X File and has read more books on native America culture, paranormal events, alien sightings and UFO's than I thought possible. I doubt we've had a case he is not familiar with in some way."
"Mulder doesn't want any woman he wants you. Do you see him with other women, talk about other women. He loves the way the small of your back feels in his hand, he loves the way you look at him when you see something for the first time. He loves your apartment, the way it smells like you, the way it's cozy and has your touch all over it."
"Well, it is my apartment. What does he expect from me?" She looked down as she smiled.
"What, nothing. Geez he takes what you offer, your friendship, your science, your company. He loves every minute he spends with you; he'll take whatever you offer. I've never seen him so wrapped by a woman. I didn't mean that the way it sounded. What I meant to say was he finds you intriguing, captivating, special, and he loves that thing you just did, the smile while looking down."
"I do not have him wrapped. I would never treat him like that." Scully said barely above a whisper.
"The three of us know that with certainty. You have never used the way he feels about you to gain anything from him. The two of you amazed us. Each of you will admit how much you respect each other, how much you trust each other, share ideas, have such honesty between you and yet when it comes to the heart, you're both so clueless, scared, or stubborn."
"Why hasn't he told me." She asked him with softness in her voice.
"Because he doesn't want to scare you off. He's worried you'll ask for a transfer. He's afraid you won't feel the same way. He's willing to settle for you as a best friend and work partner if that's all you offer him. He's a great guy, but he's a mess when it comes to you. Your abduction nearly drove him to insanity. He thought he lost you. He calls you his gift, he considers you a gift from the stars. You know 'cause we are all made of stardust, carbon, calcium, blah, blah, blah. He says Billions of years in the making and she shows up at my door one day. Tell me that's not a gift. He meant what he said, he loves you. So, there you have it. Do with that information as you wish but we never talked. Capiche?"
She sat there absorbing the words, hearing them but not quite grasping them. Frohike bade her goodnight and left closing the door behind him. She sat in the chair, and she realized she should have said I love you more after all, if he wasn't going to remember there would be no reason to regret them. Her words would have been the truth. She does love him, more than she ever thought possible. She thought she had been in love before, but nothing compared to the feelings she had for him.
Scully put her shoes back on grabbed her jacket and door key. She walked into his room finding just a small light on. One of his nurses put the funeral size bouquet of flowers Skinner bought into the oversized vase on the table. Mulder was asleep, looking peaceful. His face was relaxed, his shoulders slumped in sleep. She heard him breathing, confirming he was asleep. The low hum of the vital stat machine was the only noise in the room. She walked to the bed rail where she stood an hour ago listening to him making a declaration to her, she wasn't ready to hear. She admonished herself for rolling her eyes at him and walking out with a breathy 'oh brother' as her only response. She leaned over and lightly kissed his face and with the faintest of whispers muttered. "I love you more."
She took off her jacket and sat in the chair next to his bed. She pulled her jacket up over her chest under her neck, turned off the light and fell asleep.
"Scully. Scully, you awake." Mulder whispered to her from his bed.
She opened her eyes and saw him sitting up in bed. She sat up and her jacket slid to the floor. She picked it up and walked over to him. "How are you feeling Sailor Mulder?"
"I'm good, better than last night. I didn't know what you wanted for breakfast, so I asked the nurse to bring you some eggs and toast with hashbrowns." He looked at her as she walked to the bed and placed her hands on the bed rail.
"You didn't have to do that." She said as she brushed the hair off his forehead with her nails. He smiled at her loving the feeling of her touch.
"I'm ready to get out of here and fly back home."
Scully looked at him as she brushed his hair back. The bruise under his left eye was apparent. "Where did you get this bruise Mulder?"
"You punched me on the Queen Anne just before I jumped overboard." He knew she'd think he was still hallucinating.
"Mulder, I would never punch you." She leaned forward to see the small purple bruise on his cheek. She ran her thumb over it, feeling a small lump.
"You were an OSS Agent in 1939 Scully, I told you to turn the ship around or in all likelihood I wouldn't exist, and neither would you. You did it Scully, you persuaded them to turn the ship around and here we are."
"I think you told me that same story last night."
The nurse walked in with the ordered breakfasts and placed them on the stand next to the bed interrupting them. She smiled at them and walked out. Scully looked at the trays and gave the dish that included bacon to Mulder, placing it on his bed tray. She unwrapped his utensils and placed the napkin in his lap.
"Eat so we can see if the doctor will release you and get us both home."
"Where's the guys?"
"They flew out this morning with Skinner. Think about that, the three friends you have who are bigger conspiracy theorists than you are flying back with Skinner. I'd love to be a fly on the plane to see that." She sat in the chair and ate her breakfast watching him eat his. "Thank you for ordering this for me."
"Imagine my shock when I woke up and saw you in the chair sleeping. I did think I was hallucinating. There you were sleeping with your jacket over you. I was going to get you a blanket, but I didn't want to wake you. Why did you come back Scully, I watched you leave last night."
"I decided I'd rather be here with you in case you needed anything."
"I have a nurse buzzer."
"I wanted to be here Mulder, where I belong and where I know you'd be if I was in the bed."
"I appreciate that Scully and yes, I'd be here all night sleeping if you were in this bed."
They looked up from their breakfasts and looked at each other. They smiled, not saying a word aloud. They didn't need to, his ordering her food, her brushing his hair off his forehead with her nails even though it didn't need it, sleeping in a chair next to his bed all night. They said it all in their gazes, touches, gestures, smiles, they didn't need words. Somewhere in his smile she knew, she just knew he heard the words she whispered to him hours ago when she returned to spend the night bedside with him as they would always do for each other. Content with that knowledge she tore her eyes away from his and finished her breakfast.