Hello Reader,
So sorry this has taken me so long. But I'm back!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and just know, I am thankful for every comment!
Happy reading!!!
M
Mulder knew, depending on the situation, five minutes could feel like five hours or five seconds. This moment felt like the latter.
He needed to make sure he said enough to address the situation, but not too many words that would complicate it. Even though, in his mind, it wasn't that complicated, he took a deep breath.
"Diana was someone I used to date. And trust me when I say it has been, and is, over between us."
Scully dropped her arms to her side; her eyes landed on his momentarily before shifting to her feet.
"Go on," she said quietly.
"It wasn't healthy, for various reasons. Some of those reasons were because of me, and some were because of her. I won't lie; I should have been more aware of the situation."
Scully tilted her head and sighed into her shoulder. "Then why—" he didn't let her finish.
"Because she works at the academy and knows how to hold things over me. My guess is she heard I was seeing someone and wanted to destroy it."
Scully looked up and for the first time, he was genuinely afraid of losing the best thing that had ever happened to him. He could tell she was pondering. A palpable silence settled between them and Mulder opened his mouth to speak, but Scully beat him to it.
"I do appreciate your honesty, Mulder. But I need some time to process; this brings up some stuff from my last relationship that I—" She didn't finish her sentence and only shook her head.
She was tearing up again. This time, her tears flowed freely down her cheek.
"May I?" He asked her, motioning for her cheek with his hand. She nodded and he wiped her tears with his thumb.
"I understand," he said, nodding his head slowly.
But the thought of time apart made his knees weak and his eyes began to fill up with water.
Scully sighed.
"It's late, Mulder. I should go."
Her voice was sad and it made his stomach lurch.
Scully stepped to the corner of the sidewalk to hail a cab. She raised her hand to flag down the yellow cars, but to no avail; they continued to zoom past her.
"Let me," Mulder said. Even though he had no desire for her to leave him, he knew he had no choice.
He easily waved down a taxi, and she looked up at him, mouthing a small thank you. He nodded and shrugged at his accomplishment.
"I'm so tall; they see me a mile away," he said sheepishly, his voice cracking a little as he spoke.
"Mulder, you know how I feel about you. Please, you must know—" She waved to his apartment, calling attention to the woman still standing in his living room. "It's just a lot to process. Call me in a week." She finished.
He nodded. "Scully, you have my word. This will all be taken care of. We will never have to deal with Diana again."
Mulder opened the back door of the taxi and recited Scully's address to the driver. Scully hugged him as he held the door open for her. He slipped his free hand around her tiny waist, then planted a soft kiss on the top of her head.
"Okay, Mulder."
That was the last thing she said to him before he watched the yellow cab drive off. He wasn't able to dwell much before his mind switched gears back to the problem in his apartment.
He regretted ever dating her and he'd never felt that regret more than he did at this very moment. How could he have been so careless with his time? Well, this time he'd be clear when he let her know; under no circumstances was he ever going to date her again. They were a mistake and he was prepared to tell her just that.
March 1987
University of Maryland Medical School, Department of Pathology
Dana Scully took a deep breath and calmed her nerves. She closed her eyes, then opened them, focusing on the list of names that had been posted to the faculty door.
This was it.
The list was for a new program geared toward first-year medical students looking to train in the field of medical-forensic pathology. It was a year-long intensive and it started in the summer. She had never wanted something so bad.
Okay, in alphabetical order, she moved to the S's :
Sommer…Srathford…Sutherland...
Scully
Dana Scully
"YES!" She shouted.
Several students passed her by; some laughed, some clapped but they all smiled. Everyone knew what it was like to find their name on a list. She couldn't wait to call Missy and her mom. She smiled to herself as she left the building and headed to the train.
A moment of sadness crept in as she remembered him—remembered Fox Mulder. It had been a year, and he still found his way into her thoughts.
There were moments she wanted to call him, yell at him, and ask him why he never called her. She had waited the entire week. Then one week turned into two, three, and before she knew it, she was starting medical school and their time together was a thing of the past.
But Fox Mulder wasn't that easy to forget about. He crept into her dreams, her fantasies, and her thoughts more often than not.
She still hadn't been able to make sense of the series of why he had never called, and Missy, for a short time thereafter, would urge her to call and confront him.
"Don't you want to know, Danes?" She would say when the topic of Fox Mulder came up between them.
But one thing about the Scully women, they were stubborn, and Dana certainly was no exception to the rule. Eventually, Melissa stopped bugging her, and they never spoke of him again.
She sighed and closed her eyes, resting her head on the window of the metro. She wondered if he ended up with his assignment. She knew how much he wanted to be in the BSU.
Surely he made it.
As much as her heart broke, she still hoped he was doing well (but it didn't mean she couldn't wish he had contracted some rare rash that made him break out in hives) she smirked against the cold glass at the outlandish thought.
She wondered if his assignment would be local. She knew enough to know that the headquarters for the behavioral science unit was at Quantico.
She certainly wondered—
She chastised herself. All she wanted was to forget about the handsome FBI agent she met at the coffee shop—the coffee shop she conveniently avoided now.
The train stopped and she gathered up her things, suddenly excited about the news she would soon share with her sister and mother.
For now, she'd shove Fox Mulder deep down until the next time he popped back into her thoughts. She sighed heavily as she stepped off the train and into a new chapter of her life.
June
There were twelve students in all and only one other woman was in the program. It baffled Dana at how little women were represented in the medical field—honestly, any field for that matter. She rolled her eyes and huffed in frustration at the thought of how much more still needed to be done in the area of women's lib.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you were selected because you all stood out among your peers and you all decided to give up your summer for long hours in the morgue and forensic theater to learn the intricacies of forensic pathology," Dr. Stewart said.
Dr. Stewart's reputation had preceded him. He was an older doctor with white hair and a distinguished chin. He was a no-nonsense professor and practicing doctor of pathology who pushed his students past their comfort zone.
He expected only the best and had no room for incompetence. He continued talking as he passed around a sheet of paper with the course outline and objectives.
"You will all start with an A. You do your job and do it well; you keep your A. If you don't do your job, fuck it up. You get an F. There is no in-between in this line of work."
Several students shifted uncomfortably in place, while others even gasped. No doubt worried about their GPA. But Dana saw it as a challenge. Their professor continued, explaining the long hours they would be working (8 to 9 on Fridays) and that there would be two resident mentors assigned to a group of six, respectively.
"We will be working closely with the FBl's Behavioral Science Unit on several of their high-profile cases."
Dana felt the blood from her face drain. She wanted to raise her hand and ask if he could repeat what he just said because surely it wasn't what she thought he said.
Her mind raced.
What if…
What…
The professor's stern voice pulled her from her spiral thinking.
"Any questions?"
Not one student raised their hand to ask a question, for fear of looking stupid. In Dr. Stewart's class, all questions were dumb until proven otherwise.
And no one ever wanted to be the otherwise.
"Great! See everyone bright and early at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow at the medical center pathology lab, ready to work. And be prepared to stay late."
Dana tossed and turned all night. She wasn't able to get much sleep. How could she?
Her mind was racing.
She went back and forth, thinking it was plausible, to thinking there was a slim chance that Fox Mulder would be working with the team.
She hadn't dared tell Missy for fear of a long, drawn-out discussion on fate and things that are "meant to be."
Her alarm didn't surprise her that morning either; she'd already been awake—adrenaline and nerves saw to that. She did, however, find herself spending a little more time on her hair, which caused her to wage a silent war within herself about being foolish over the entire situation.
She packed her lunch, grabbed her things, and yelled to Missy to not wait up for her as she shut the apartment door behind her.
Dana took a deep breath as she started her early morning trek to the rail station. She had an hour train ride ahead and she was ever hopeful that she would spend it trying to catch up on the sleep she had missed—doubtful, she thought—because Fox Mulder was making sure of that.
When Dana arrived, she quickly scanned the room. Her fellow teammates had assembled at one end of the forensic theater while Dr. Stewart was talking to a short man in a suit. There was no sign of him (no sign of Mulder) and a long sigh of relief escaped past her lips as she sat down.
"What's up with you?" Annie said, adjusting her glasses as she looked Dana up and down.
"What do you mean?"
"You look like you didn't get any sleep last night."
In a sarcastic tone, "Annie, you have no idea."
Just then, Dr. Stewart moved to the middle of the room. "Okay, people, this is Special Agent Stevens; please give him your attention."
"Thank you." Agent Stevens said as he took a seat on the corner of a medical table.
"First, I want to thank you all and Dr. Stewart for working with us again. As you may or may not be aware, this is the third year we have done this program. And all three years have led to substantial breakthroughs in the cases we have worked on."
Dana started to relax. Although she'd be lying to herself if she didn't feel a tinge of disappointment, she shook her head at the notion and shifted her focus back to the agent's voice.
"Let's begin. Please open your computers to the email you received this morning—" he said, clasping his hands together in a clap.
Before he could continue, the large metal doors to the exam room swung open, and a familiar voice vibrated off Dana's skin and landed square in the pit of her stomach.
"Sorry, I'm late. Parking was a nightmare!"
Before Dana had a chance to comprehend what her eyes were seeing, Agent Stevens spoke, "Ah, everyone, this is my partner, Special Agent Fox Mulder. He's the best we have when it comes to criminal profiling. He's also the worst at time management."
The students laughed as the tall agent waved and took a spot next to Agent Stevens.
Dana did not laugh.
She felt sick.
"Guilty as charged. To the latter, that is, the verdict's still out on the former." He said it with a sheepish grin plastered across his face.
Dana's stomach flipped and she suddenly felt like she was going to throw up. He hadn't seen her yet. He looked wiser (which was silly—because it wasn't that long ago) and he was just as handsome.
Shit, She whispered under her breath, and Annie turned, furrowing her brow at Dana's tiny outburst.
He was still talking and Dana suddenly felt like she was trapped; it would only be a matter of seconds before he would see her.
And then what?
She shifted in her seat, and when she did, a stack of papers fell from her lap onto the slick tiled floor, scattering the papers everywhere. She quickly knelt and picked up the papers, silently chastising her clumsiness to herself. Annie and another student helped and she mouthed a thank you to both.
He was still talking when she sat back in her chair and then the inevitable happened.
His eyes shifted toward her direction and she couldn't help but meet his gaze. Then the enormity of the situation suddenly came crashing in on her.
Dizzy and sick to her stomach, she rushed out of the room, covering her mouth and fighting back the urge to throw up this morning's two cups of coffee rising up her esophagus.
The last thing she saw before she bolted through the double doors was a look of shock on Special Agent Fox Mulder's face.