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Title: Weekend at Scully's Disclaimer: CC?? Who's that?? Of course they are ours... Aren't they?? Where is my pill??? Summary: Mulder needs to spent some time at Scully's (that is obvious, uh?) and *everything* happens. It was late... very late, when Scully finally got to bed. She'd had to spend the whole evening going through a file consisting of a woman's claim that she was attacked by aliens. Scully, to say the least, wasn't impressed, in her opinion the woman was clearly insane and needed urgent medical attention. Of course, she couldn't tell Mulder that. She remembered one of their first cases when she had told Mulder 'she had a life'. Yeah, right. For the last 6 years she'd spent her 'life' with Mulder, chasing the truth, having sacrificed friends, normal working hours, not to mention a *normal* life, to listen to peoples' accounts of absolutely *anything* that lacked scientific evidence. That wasn't a *life*, it was something that you'd expect to find in an over-dramatic television show. So, why didn't she just quit? No, there was a big reason why not to... Scully was interrupted from her thoughts by a knock at the door. She didn't need to be psychic to know who it was, no one else was so inconsiderate as to come over at 2:34am. Scully got out of her bed and went to answer the door. And, obviously, it was Mulder. And of course, his face didn't reflect the lack of sleep, since he didn't sleep at all... Which, under Scully's point of view, didn't mean she shouldn't sleep either... But his sheepish grin had this weird power over Scully, that made her forget everything about sleep...and work...and family...and breathing... "What's up, Mulder?" "Hey...I was just wondering if you felt like playing Trivia." His humor attempt fell flat when Scully arched what Mulder had got to call The Eyebrow. Yeah, with capital letters. "Okay, may I come in for a second? Please?" Scully entered the living room, followed by Mulder...and his baggage... "Urm...Mulder...What the hell is all that?" "What?" "Mulderrrrr." "Ok, they are my clothes... My wife caught me with another woman, and she won't let me sleep at home..." He seemed to feel particularly funny that night...but unfortunately, Scully didn't. A new attack of The Eyebrow was floating in the air, so he explained himself. "Scully, my neighbor thought that it'd be a great idea if he smoked on bed. And his sheets thought that it would be a great idea if they started to burn, so the firemen took me out of bed tonight, and I only had the time to get some clothes and go out the building..." "Wow...Mulder, I'm sorry, I didn't know..." "It's ok. No great deal, at least he didn't burn the whole building ... it's just that firemen told me that it'd be uninhabitable at least for a week, and I thought that... Well, the Gunmen are kind of short of space and..." "Sure Mulder, don't worry. You can stay here...err...yeah..." A whole week with Mulder on her heels? She didn't know if the idea was appealing or terrifying... They had just finished a case, so they wouldn't be on the field again at least in ten days... There was no way out. Scully faced the unavoidable, and started to get her sofa ready. As she made her way into her bedroom to fetch the blankets and pillows it suddenly struck her just what she was letting herself in for. 24 hours a day with Spooky Mulder. God, she couldn't even get away from him at work!! What were they going to do with themselves? Scully rarely had guests; she could barely remember how to entertain them. And there was definitely no way that she was going to spend the whole of next week talking about 'conspiracies'! Boy, this was going to be a *long* week... After getting the sofa ready and donating some of her wardrobe space to Mulder's somewhat crumpled clothes, due to emergency packing, Scully found herself once again seriously contemplating some sleep; she was exhausted. Mulder may live without sleep, but Scully desperately needed to restore those energy levels for the week that she had ahead of her. Of course, she thought to herself, if she stayed up she might get to sleep on Mulder's shoulder.... Scully handed Mulder a freshly made cup of tea, whilst the silent battle continued in her head. "Here you go, Mulder. Look, I'm burnt out, I'm gonna go grab some sleep." Scully shook her head in an attempt to try and get rid of her thoughts. Mulder was her partner, *just* her partner... "Okay, 'night Scully." "Good night," Scully replied, as she wearily strolled towards her long awaiting bed. Just as she was about to turn into her room and leave Mulder's sight, she heard him call to her. "Scully?" As she turned around she was greeted with Mulder's warm, comforting face. Staring into his hazel eyes, Scully suddenly realized that this week wasn't going to be a horror that she'd never want to experience again, it was simply going to be a week with her best friend. And Scully was willing to do everything that it took to make it special. "I just wanted to say, thank you." He finished his declaration with a warm smile that went straight to Scully's heart. "'Night Mulder." Scully answered, and with a smile left for bed. Next morning, Scully woke up when she heard a bird singing... Or was it Mulder screaming? She got up and put a robe on as fast as she could before entering the bathroom. She knocked at the door cautiously. "Mulder?" "Ourrghhfff... yeah?" "You decent?" "It depends of what you consider decent..." She entered the bathroom, looked around, and began to imagine ways to kill Mulder. He was now with a towel over himself, shivering, and with what seemed a cut over his right eyebrow. Beside him was the mirror... or what remained of the mirror. The water was still running in the shower, and there was soap all over the floor. "May I ask you what the hell has just happened in here?" She tried to not to sound as annoyed as she was... which was a lot. "Urm... I don't think you would buy the 'nuclear explosion' excuse, right?" "I don't think so." Now she actually sounded as annoyed as she was. "Okay... I was going to take a shower, so I entered there, opened the tap, and then frozen water began to soak me everywhere. Hot water didn't seem to be working, so I tried to separate myself from the water that kept falling, I slid with the soap, and flew out of the shower and hit my head against the mirror... Basically, I think that's all." Scully tried to remind to herself that she should be mad at him, but she couldn't help laughing at the poor man bleeding and wrapped in a towel in front of her. He just arched both eyebrows and stared at her. "I-I'm sorry... it's just that it's funny... Not the mess you made here... but... It's just that there's this neighbor who takes long hot baths every Saturday morning, and the rest of the building doesn't have hot water until half an hour later. I guess I should have warned you." "I think it would have been a good idea, yeah..." he smiled at her. "Errr...I think I am going to put some clothes on, if you don't mind..." "Yes, go change. I'll try to clean this, and then I'll take a look at your cut, ok?" "Sure. And I'm sorry." Scully listened as Mulder's feet pattered out of the bathroom and into Scully's bedroom, closely followed by a trail of wet foot prints. Standing alone in the bathroom Scully turned off the shower and stared at the mess around her. Shattered glass on the floor; water covering every surface possible; and soap *everywhere*. Thinking about Mulder's accident and the tragic time that they were going to experience trying to tidy this mess up, Scully could do nothing more but... fall to the floor in hysterical laughter. Mulder was in the middle of putting his shirt on when he heard a thud come from the bathroom and Scully. Mulder did his default action to this and ran into the bathroom yelling her name. He stopped suddenly at the door to see her sat in the middle of the bathroom laughing so heavily that Mulder was scared she was going to deprive her brain of oxygen. The thud had obviously been her fall to the floor. Mulder could do nothing more but stand at the door staring at her dumbly. He hadn't heard her laugh like this since their first case, and he was worried that his presence had finally made her go insane. "Scully...? What's so funny?" Mulder must clearly have missed the joke. They were sat in a completely wrecked bathroom that was going to take quite a few hours, and a trip to the local store for a new mirror, before it could be returned to it's usual neat state. Then there was Ms-Organized-and-Neat Scully who apparently seemed to find the whole situation completely hysterical. "Mulder," Scully managed between both laughing, and gasping for air, "it's just that.... let's get some breakfast..." Mulder helped Scully to her feet as her laughing slowed, and followed her into the kitchen. Scully got out some bread and popped 4 pieces into the toaster whilst Mulder worked on making some coffee. They worked in silence at getting breakfast ready; Mulder too scared to speak in case Scully started acting insanely again, and Scully trying to get over the shock that her bathroom had left her in. Scully obviously didn't realize that she was covered in soap, as she sat straight down on her freshly cleaned sofa after handing Mulder his breakfast. She didn't even seem to notice after she'd sat down. "So, where do we start?" Scully asked as Mulder sat down and started munching on his toast. "Urm... Scully... I know you like having everything clean, but I don't think that's the way to keep your sofa immaculate..." Somehow, that comment made her smiled fall from her face. But it didn't make her lose her composure, as Mulder would have thought. She just looked at him, looked down at her sofa, looked again up at him, got up, went into her bedroom, and emerged from it with clean clothes. It amused Mulder, until she spoke again. "Okay, this is the deal: I'll go to buy another mirror, and you stay here cleaning the bathroom. Everything you could need is inside that closet." At that point, Mulder could only start panicking. "Scully, I though you wanted to improve your bathroom's state, not make it worse..." "Come on, it won't be that difficult. You make it, you fix it. Besides, can you imagine a better way to spend a Saturday morning than cleaning my bathroom?" "Okaaay... Now go, before I change my mind!" They finished their breakfast, and Scully left the building. She was half scared about how she would find her poor apartment when she returned, but it was worth it if she got to see Mulder with a broom. Not that she didn't think he couldn't make it...Ok, she *did* think he couldn't make it. Hell, she had seen his apartment, and not that it was dirty, but it was not something you would call "neat" either. It only took her an hour to find a new mirror. When she arrived her house, she opened the door cautiously and looked around. She knocked at the bathroom's door, and entered it. What she found there just let her speechless. Nothing new, that's the truth. Just her old bathroom. As clean as before. Which was, indeed , quite surprising. Oh, and a smiling Mulder in the middle of it. With a baseball cap on his head and an apron. "So?" Mulder asked with a childlike look. "Is that your cleaning uniform?" She didn't think she was capable of stop looking at that stupid Knick's cap. Mulder merely nodded. She examined it all, and then went back into her living-room. There, she bent down, and started looking under the sofa and the table. "Scully...what are you doing?" "I'm looking for the one who cleaned my bathroom. I'm sure there's someone here..." "Ha-ha. Very funny. Scully, you hurt me. I can clean, you know?" "Yes, Mulder, and I can be the next Queen of Africa." "I did it, and you can't believe it..." Scully stared at him, and decided there was no use about arguing. She'd never find out if he had done it by himself. "Ok, Mulder. You did it. And now, what?" "Let's go for McDonalds, my treat!" Mulder answered gleefully. "Mulder, we practically just had breakfast, and can't you find anything more healthy to eat than all of the greasy food??" "Aww, come on Scully, it was hard work cleaning that bathroom, and a man needs his food!" Mulder stated, and ran into Scully's bedroom, fishing through her wardrobe for some of his clean clothes. Scully used this opportunity to sit and wonder in awe how on Earth Mulder managed to tidy the bathroom all by himself, he couldn't even keep his own apartment tidy. There had to be something more to this than it appeared. Scully mentally ran through a very short list of people that Mulder could have called upon for help. Of course, thought Scully, the Lone Gunmen! Scully then held her breath as she suddenly realized something. What if Mulder and his little friends here, had done something to the bathroom *apart* from tidy it? She didn't trust Mulder's friends as far as she could throw them, and she knew how Frohike felt about her. She would bet her life on it that they had but a camera in that bathroom. Know all she had to do was find it, and then think of a way for MAJOR payback.... Scully was pulled from her reverie by Mulder's entrance back into the living room. As Scully looked up at him she noticed that he had completely changed and put on a clean pair of jeans with a dark tee-shirt. "Mulder, as you seem to be such a wiz, you can put the mirror back up before you go out." Mulder looked a little shocked at being asked to do even more, but then figured it was his fault, so leaped to action enthusiastically. This gave Scully the time she needed top give this idea a quick think over before they went out for lunch. It dawned on Scully that she didn't even have any evidence that Mulder and the Lone Gunmen had done this. Hell, I don't need evidence, I've known them for 5 years... No, she didn't need evidence, they had definitely done this, no doubt about it. As her mind continued to work at ideas for payback, she finally found the perfect plan... She made a phone call, and hung up as Mulder was entering the living room. They left to the McDonald's. It was all Scully had always dreamed of. Full of screaming children and smelly food. She spotted a free table, and told Mulder to grab the food while she was waiting there. He did as ordered, and sat down in front of her. "So, are you ready for lots of oil?" he grinned. "Sure...eat before you're not hungry anymore..." she mumbled. "What?" "Nothing." They ate in silence for a while, and then Scully looked over Mulder's shoulder and smiled. An evil smile. Mulder arched his eyebrow at her questioningly His question was answered as Frohike patted his shoulder. "Hey, Mulder." Byers said, as the three Gunmen sat beside them. "What are you doing here?" He sounded surprised. Scully smiled mentally, thinking that he was definitely in for a surprise... "I called them Mulder." "How so?" Now he was really curious. "I wanted to tell you all something..." She concentrated to not to laugh in the following minutes, and tried to sound hesitant. Mulder took her hand in his. "Scully, is there something wrong?" He sounded concerned, and she almost felt pity for him and stopped the charade. Almost. "No, nothing bad. Well, at least I think so..." she looked down to regain her composure. Mulder though it was to avoid looking at him, instead to avoid the laughter. "Come on, Scully, what's up?" "Okay...Uhh...I-I'm...I'm pregnant." She could have sworn that Mulder's eyes had flown out of their cavities, and Langly had started coughing. "You-you... But how?" "Come on, Mulder. I'm sure it hasn't been *that* long." Frohike joked. Mulder shot him a stare that made him close his mouth. "Well, Mulder, I guess that it was that single time we didn't take care..." "It's Mulder's?!?!" This time, the three Gunmen spoke at the same time. And Mulder opened his eyes even more, if that was possible. "WHAT?! No, no, nonono... Scully what the hell are you talking about?" he started to seem a bit annoyed, but his confusion went beyond that. Scully put a hurt face. "Mulder, don't deny it anymore... We can tell them... Besides, I'm sure this is your son. I told you that the wild affair with Frohike happened a long time ago..." And then, three things happened. Byers and Langly just remained staring at her. Frohike began to open and close his mouth, and Mulder approached Frohike. "Frohike?! You and Scully...? Now I'm going to kill you." Frohike stepped back. "And what about you? You told me there was nothing between you two, and then you let her pregnant!" "I haven't done anything!!" he was now dangerously close to Frohike. Byers and Langly now looked one another. "Yeah, now deny it... You don't deserve her..." And just when Mulder was about to hit Frohike, Scully spoke again, like thinking aloud. "Or maybe it's Skinner's..." "WHO?!?!" The four men looked at her, Mulder forgetting about Frohike, and she lost it. She started laughing even harder that she had in the bathroom. When her laughter ceased, several minutes later, there were tears over her cheeks. <Who would have thought that a weekend with Mulder would be this fun?> Her four friends continued in the same position, waiting for an explanation. "Look, I want a complete explanation on how *exactly* Mulder managed to clean my bathroom when he can't even keep his own apartment tidy," Scully sounded angry, and the 4 guys surrounding her knew that they had to sort it out before she did something extreme. Suddenly, Frohike cut in... "How can you worry about that when you've got a baby on the way!!! Whatever happened to being 'infertile'?" "Shut up, Frohike," yelled Mulder. "Look, Scully, I know how neat you love your apartment to be. I figured that your laughing fits were just part of the shock that you must be undertaking, and once it wore off I was going to be in serious trouble. There was no way I was capable of doing it all by myself, so I called in a couple of..... shall we say, friends, to help me. I called Byers up, and he got the others over to tidy your bathroom for me. With 4 of us, we got it done real quick, and it's spotless." Scully listened intently to Mulder's description of events that had occurred whilst she was out purchasing a new mirror to replace the one that Mulder had pretty much destroyed. "What's wrong with it, anyway, Scully?" Byers asked. "Why did you call us here, and almost get Mulder to kill Frohike?" "You've put a camera in my bathroom." "Mulder," Frohike mumbled disappointingly, "why did you tell her?" "SHUT UP FROHICKE!" Mulder yelled it even louder this time. "Scully, how did you know?" "I can't believe you let them do it, Mulder. I let you stay in my apartment, I trust you to look after it whilst I leave you alone in it. You betrayed my trust Mulder!" Scully's voice had risen in volume as she continued with her accusation. By the time she had finished she looked like she was about to cry. It worried Mulder to see her like this. Mulder got up from the table that he was sat at and walked over to her. Gently putting his arms around her shoulders and lifting her from her chair, he guided her as they walked towards another table away from where the Gunmen had now taken to eating their food. He sat Scully down, and sat down next to her. Mulder was surprised that he had her full co-operation in this little operation, but just put it down to whatever had got her into this mood in the first place. "Scully?" Scully continued staring at the ground. "Scully, I didn't know that it would effect you like this. And I also have something else to tell you." Scully was still staring at the ground, but at this point, looked up intrigued. "When I went to put your mirror up, I took it down. Honestly, I'm taking you back now, and you can look everywhere in that bathroom, I swear you won't find it. I took it down, look." Mulder pulled it from out of his pocket. "You think I'd let them spy on you?" Scully just smiled, and remembered this was *Mulder*. "Anyway, Mulder, you shouldn't have called them and brought them into my house without telling me, and definitely, you *shouldn't* have let them put that on my bathroom, whether you took it down or not." "And what else could I have done to get their help? I didn't have a choice." "You could have given Frohike your video collection..." They both smiled at that. "So...are we ok again?" Mulder asked cautiously. Scully hesitated, and then looked up at him. "Yes, we're ok. But if you do anything close to that again, I'll let your neighbors know what you do with your poor fishes." "They just die on me, Scully!!" he grinned. "However... What the hell were you thinking about when you told us all that? I almost had a heart attack!" "One word, Mulder: payback." "Gee, remind me to not to play with you again...When you said it I began to think how on hearth could I have forgotten about doing something like that!! You know.." "Yes, you bought it straight away, uh? I guess it was a good idea...although I didn't even remember that I can't--" Scully trailed off and her face saddened. Mulder noticed it, and realized why it was. "Hey." He took her hand. She smiled. "I'm fine. By the way, why did you want to kill Frohike?" she tried to lighten the mood." I mean, it wouldn't have been a crime if he and I... you know I can understand he felt betrayed by you, but..." In that moment, Frohike appeared in front of them, saving the day for Mulder, who made a mental note to thank it to him later. Scully noticed his obvious relief. <Urm...that was getting interesting. We'll go over it later, Mulder> Scully mused. "Agent Scully, I must apologize. We--" "It's ok, Frohike. Really." She cut him off. He looked actually surprised. "Well, thank you. And about your baby, I have to say that I had always suspected it, and that I'm happy for you both and sure hope you'll be happy..." Scully just laughed, and wondered how could she like him, as weird as he was. "Melvin, my friend, you're an idiot." Mulder smiled. It was an uneventful ride home, as Mulder and Scully sat in silence for the entirety of the ride, left with their thoughts. Frohike had been incredibly pleased when he eventually found out that Scully was *not* pregnant, although had seemed quite embarrassed that he was the last one to catch onto the joke. He had scurried out of the McDonalds, taking Byers and Langly with him, leaving Mulder and Scully to finish their meal in silence. Finally at the door to Scully's apartment, Mulder took out his spare key and unlocked the door. Mulder was surprised how Scully's first act wasn't to storm into the bathroom, desperately searching for any trace that the Lone Gunmen had left. It surprised him that she had enough trust in him that she just walked through the door, and slumped on the sofa. "Um, Scully, don't you want to go and check the bathroom?" Scully looked up at him stood in front of her, with her eyes reflecting the trust that she found in him. "I trust you Mulder, I know that you wouldn't let them do anything." Mulder felt a surge of adoration for this woman that was sat in front of him. She followed him to the ends of the Earth; put her life in his hands; he had even *failed* her on some occasions that he hated to recall, and she would always come back to him and put all her trust in him. It suddenly occurred to Mulder that maybe he was taking the whole situation a little too dramatically, this was *only* about a bug in a bathroom....Mulder gave only a smile in return to Scully's statement. "So Scully, how about we just watch some television. I need rest! Today's been way too stressful." "Sure Mulder, whatever...." Mulder switched the television on and sat himself down next to Scully. Saturday's afternoon programming was not everything anyone would have dreamed of. After changing from one channel to another about a hundred of times, Mulder stopped at one of them, but neither of them noticed, since they were not paying attention. Several minutes later, Scully realized that they were intently watching something with "Barney, the dinosaur" in it. She looked over at Mulder, who was very serious, looking at the TV. When Kermit the frog appeared on it, and his expression didn't change, she suspected that he wasn't watching it, indeed. And that amused her. A lot. After a couple of minutes of Scully-staring, Mulder felt observed, and looked back at her. "A penny for your thoughts, Mulder." "What?" Scully just grinned. "Nothing. Just... do you like this show?" "Uh, yeah, it's a great--" in that moment he looked (really looked) at the screen, and saw some pink pig dancing and singing. He glanced again at Scully, and they both began to laugh. "So what? It's very educational! And look at that pig...In the wise words of Frohike, it's hot!" Mulder said between laughs. When their laughter subsided, Scully spoke again. "I think we're way too bored." "What makes you think that, Scully? I really like that show." he gave her a lopsided smile that made her melt. She smiled. "It has been a while since I laughed this much in one day." "I think I feel offended, Scully. Are you implying that I'm a clown?" Typical Mulder: try to lighten the mood when anything becomes serious. "No, I'm implying that we should repeat this every now and then." "What? Me putting cameras in your bathroom? Anytime, anywhere, Scully. Although I think I can improve it, and set it on fire, so that it's more expectacular.." That way, he won a cushion in the face. "So what do we do now?" "How about some mind-boggling word game, say 'Scrabble'?" Scully asked indifferently. Scully had been the family champion when she had played it with her parents, brothers and sister many years ago. They used to play it whenever they were all in the house at the same time. Maybe this was her chance to amaze Mulder with her ability at playing a word game. "Sure Scully, whatever...." Mulder hadn't actually paid much attention to Scully's question, he'd returned to staring at Barney wondering if he was one of the alien life forms that he had spent so much energy searching for. Scully leapt up from where she was sat and made her way into her bedroom to retrieve 'Scrabble'. She hadn't played it in years, and pulling it out of the cupboard brought back a lot of memories, particularly of Melissa. Pushing the memories to the back of her mind, in the fear that she would start to cry, Scully made her way back to the living room. Barney had obviously finished, and the familiar voice of the news reporter could be heard, informing the rest of the American population of the hurricane that had stormed across Utah. Scully was suddenly very happy that she had never taken that transfer.... Looking across at Mulder she was greeted with his form sprawled across the sofa fast asleep. It amazed Scully how this guy couldn't sleep at night, but could happily sleep in the middle of the day.... Scully placed 'Scrabble' down on the table next to her and gazed at him as his chest rose with every breath he took. I guess 'Scrabble' will have to wait until later However much Scully had wanted to show off her talent, Mulder sleeping was a rare things for her to see. And he looked at so peace. She didn't know how much time she spent like that, just looking at him. It was like watching TV, she never got tired of it. She was about to put a lock of hair away from his forehead when suddenly, without opening his eyes, Mulder spoke again: "Do you like what you see?" Busted. "Urm...I was--I was just..." Damn! Why on earth was he so intuitive? The phone started ringing, and Scully was sure again that God did exist. Mulder picked it up. "Pizza-Hut, may I help you? Oh, hi Mrs. Scully!... I'm fine, thank you...Yes, she's over here, wait a minute." He gave Scully the receiver, and she took it, kicking him in the process. "Hi, mum... Yeah, that was *Fox*... yes, well, he's staying here for some days... No--No!!...not like that... he can't stay in his apartment... Mum!!... Okay, stop that, what did you want?... Tomorrow?....eeeh...well, yeah, sure, tell him I will.. Okay... Sure, mum, bye." "Was that you mom?" Mulder grinned at her. "Very funny. Mulder, now I think you better go to sleep again, because you are probably going to need it..." "Why, Scully? Aren't you going to let me rest tonight? Something corny in your mind?" He leered at her. Hell, why did that look made her melt? Ok, get a grip of yourself "In your dreams, Mulder... May I ask you something? Uhh... Do you like children?" He shot her a puzzled look, and she continued. "I have just promised my mother that I'd look after my nephew Matthew tomorrow... And I was hoping you wouldn't mind... You're usually nice with children, so I guessed..." They say that when you are about to die, your whole life passes in front of your eyes. Mulder supposed he was dying, because he began to see his own childhood... And not that he didn't like children. He did. They looked so cute in the pictures... But the fact was that he had never taken care of one as young as Scully's nephew... and that was *not* a good thing... Anyway, how old was the kid? Whatever, if he was under 16, he was way too young to his taste. "See you in the morning, Mulder." "Yeah, 'night Scully." Scully headed off towards her bedroom to catch up on the sleep that she lacked from the night before, whilst Mulder made himself comfortable on the sofa Picking up the television remote he flicked hastily through the channels until he came across a late-night movie that fitted his idea of enjoyment. Settling down, Mulder listened to the characters in the movie, in the aim that it might help in drift off to sleep. He was thinking about Matthew, and what the Hell he was supposed to do to entertain him. He'd managed to get out of Scully that he was 6 years old, this had just worried Mulder even more. What was he supposed to do with a 6 year old boy?? Oh well, at least Scully would be there....... Surprisingly, Mulder fell to sleep quite quickly, as his mind had raced with thoughts of her soon-to-be-visiting nephew; the bug in Scully's bathroom, and the whole Scully-pregnant fiasco. What a day today had been.... Scully fell to sleep almost immediately, finding comfort in the warmth of her bed. In the distance, seemingly far away from her heavy, dreamless sleep, Scully heard her bedroom door open. For a moment she wondered what it was, but fell surrender to the sleep that her body was begging for, and turning over she returned to a state of pretty much unconsciousness. On hearing the door slam, Scully leaped up from her sleep, and in record speed switched on her lamp while grabbing her gun that she always slept with on the bed-side table. It wasn't until Scully switched the safety off, and pointed the gun with deadly intent, that she got a look at the face of the man, now standing in front of the closed bedroom door. It was Mulder. Thinking about it now, it didn't surprise her, who else would have walked so freely into her room? And if it would have been an intruder you could be certain that Mulder would already have caused a whole lot of noise trying to kill him for ever attempting doing anything that may hurt *his* Scully..... "Mulder?" He didn't answer, but walked until he was beside her, and sat on the bed. He wouldn't look at her, and she was beginning to worry. "Mulder? Is there anything wrong?" He just lifted the covers, and got himself into the bed. Her eyes widened while he put his arms around her. "Mulder, what the hell are you doing?" "Ssssshhh...Scully, don't wake me up, I'm sleep walking..." "You aren't supposed to talk when you sleep walk." She smiled. "Since when have I followed the rules?" He smiled too, secretly hoping that she would buy...or that she wouldn't protest, at least. He was way too comfortable to move. Well, he had waken up and couldn't go back to sleep, so he had thought that maybe, just maybe, she would help... "Mulder... go back to the sofa." But just maybe... "Aaaawwww, Scully. You're not fun. you got to watch me sleep, it's my turn now." "Mulderrrr..." "Besides, I have something to tell you. You know how I'd love to help you tomorrow, but the thing is that I have just remembered that I have an appointment tomorrow to donate a kidney." "Oh, a kidney?" She smiled and got up. She instantly missed his arms around her. "Yep, a kidney." He said proudly. "Mulder... OUT!" she tried to sound annoyed, but she was still smiling. "Ok." He said as he walked pass her. "But don't be mean to me or I'll leave your nephew with the Gunmen." He closed the door as he heard the "tump" of her pillow against it. The rest of the night they slept peacefully, although Scully kept wondering what would have happened if she just would have pretended he was really sleep walking. When she woke up, she smelled something... it was not fire, so she relaxed. She entered the kitchen, and found Mulder doing something that could be named as cooking. "Hey, Scully " he said cheerfully. "I thought I'd make up for yesterday's mess, and I'm cooking your breakfast." "Anything that includes pizza?" "Ouch, Scully. You wound me. I can cook, you know?" "Yes, and I can play baseball." "Of course, you had a great teacher." They both grinned at that, remembering a night not so long ago... Yes, they had had more fun lately than in six years. And they were beginning to enjoy it for real. Their thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Scully went to open it, and found his brother Bill with Matthew in his arms. Damn, she had though her mother would bring him. Bill in the same room as Mulder only meant problems, and she knew it. As Bill walked into the apartment he started chatting seemingly happily towards his sister. "Hi Dana. Thanks a lot for agreeing to look after little - " Looking across towards the kitchen Bill stopped short as his face froze and he stared evilly at Mulder. Mulder was used to it by now with his reputation, and he just glared back. Bill wasn't just in shock at seeing Mulder in Scully's apartment...... He looked at his watch to reassure himself, and then silently wondered why Mulder was her at 8:00am. He just hoped like Hell that this wasn't what it appeared to be; he did NOT want to see Mulder in this family... "Bill?" Scully asked. "You were saying....?" She tried to ignore the *very* clear anger and hatred written all over his face, and figured that it would be safer if she just got Bill out as soon as possible. She didn't want her apartment to turn into a murder scene, with either her brother or best friend as either the murderer or the murdered. "Yeah, anyway, sorry Bill, Mulder and I really have to get on with our breakfast. If you just give Matthew to me..." Scully took Matthew away from his father's arms, and led Bill towards the door. Practically pushing him out, she said her goodbyes and carefully shut the door. "I'm sorry Mulder, I didn't know Bill was coming, if - " Mulder cut her off. "Don't worry about it Scully, I'm used to him." "I don't even know why he hates you! He has no reason to, I mean - " Scully was beginning to babble endlessly, it was clear that she had felt very uncomfortable with the whole situation. "He's only being a typical brother - he's worried about you, he knows what kind of insanely dangerous things we work with and he thinks he's going to lose you. The only problem is he thinks that I'm the reason all this is happening. And you know what Scully? It *is*." He walked over to Scully, and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. Scully gazed at him, wondering why on Earth he seems to blame everything on himself. If she thought it would do any good she would have answered his statement, with a whole one of her own on how it isn't his fault, she's here because she wanted to. Though, lately, she'd taught herself not to even bother, he never absorbed it into his paranoid brain. "Here you go Mulder, hold Matthew while I finish off the breakfast..." She handed Matthew over to Mulder. And then he panicked. God, he was little. Tiny. And his head... What if it fell to the floor? It didn't seem to be well attached to his body...He really wished it had been her older nephew who showed up, the one obsessed with that farm movie. Ok, Mulder, you are an FBI agent. If you can deal with a global conspiracy, you can hold a baby for a minute... So he took Matthew from Scully's arms, and held him, waiting for the kid to start crying. Surprisingly, he didn't. He just stared at Mulder's face, and started giggling. Mulder smiled. "Hey, you. What's so funny?" Then Matthew took Mulder's nose in his little hand, and squeezed it, laughing harder. That made Mulder laugh too. "Scully, I think he has found a new toy. A big one, by the way." He was beginning to feel more or less comfortable with the baby...or at least, he didn't feel like he was going to drop him anymore... Which was a lot. Scully looked at them and smiled as Matthew tried to communicate something to Mulder, in a language that obviously only he could understand. Mulder looked at him seriously, and nodded. "Yes, Matt, buddy. You're right. I think it's about time we look for a girlfriend for you. I'm taking you to a sex-shop tonight." Scully slapped him in the shoulder and took Matthew in her arms. "Mulder, I really wouldn't like him to be a murderer at the age of seven, thank you very much." They sat and had breakfast. Well, they *tried* to have breakfast at the same time as they tried to entertain Matthew, but he seemed to have found a new interest in throwing Scully's food to Mulder. They found it quite funny, until the baby threw Scully's orange juice all over her, starting from her head Then, only Mulder found it funny. Matthew only looked slightly amused. "Mulderrrr... this is not funny." "Oh, yeah, Scully. Believe me, it is." he answered, between laughs. He took it as a revenge for her laughter the day before. He finally took Matthew and got up. "Hey, Scully, as much as I like the way your hair looks with that sticky thing, I think you could use a shower... My buddy and I will have fun until then, won't we, Matt?" Matthew merely grabbed Mulder's T-shirt, and Scully sighed, nodded, and entered her bathroom, silently hoping that the kid wouldn't have his hair died in green when she was out. Mulder put Matthew on the floor while he was cleaning the orange juice's remains. "You know, Matthew? You did a pretty good work there. But next time, try with something hotter, like--" His suggestion was interrupted when he noticed that Matthew was not there anymore. Hell, he was a baby, he thought he wouldn't go far! "Matthew? Hey, buddy, don't scare me..." He walked out of the kitchen, calling his name, until he saw that the bathroom's door was opened. He cautiously peeked inside it, and called Matthew again. And then he spotted him, about to grab the shower's curtains. "Matthew, no!" Too late. A very soaked and very naked Scully was with very huge eyes in front of a very surprised Mulder now. And a very laughing Matthew. The first thoughts that raced through Scully's mind were that one Mulder had a photographic memory, and there was absolutely no point in trying to cover herself because he could pull the image up at any time that he liked, and two Mulder had seen her naked before, this wasn't the first time. Although Scully's mind was racing, her body did nothing but stand in shock at the situation she had found herself in. It wasn't until a few very long seconds later, that her brain started to function and she reached hastily for the towel and started to yell at Mulder..... "MULDER, what the HELL are you doing in HERE??????" As she wrapped the towel around herself, Mulder could do nothing more than grin at the mental picture that would always be stored in the deep recesses of his mind. "Umm...." Mulder answered, still grinning. He refused to take this situation seriously, the picture of her naked body was nothing new to him, just like his was nothing to new to her. "Matthew found his way in here, I swear - this was all his fault, I was just trying to get him out of here before he did anything stupid...... obviously, I'm no good at looking after kids...." "Well I knew that already, there was no need to inform me of that!! But you couldn't even keep your eyes on him for two seconds while I took a quick shower??" "Scully, calm down! You're going to give yourself an aneurysm or something! You know me, I'd never take advantage of you - this was a pure accident. And what's the problem, I've seen it all before. I'm sorry, okay?" Scully's face softened as his words made clear sense in the head. "I'm sorry Mulder, it's just...." Mulder walked over to Scully and wrapped his arms around her tightly. Surprising Mulder, she returned the hug, wrapping her own arms around him. Mulder stroked Scully's back, and spoke softly into her hair. "It's okay Scully, I know it's stressful having me stay here with you. And it also means that you have to put your entire trust in me just to feel at home in your own apartment. But I promise, from the bottom of my heart, I didn't mean to cause any trouble when I came here. Look, if you want me too I can stay in a hotel for the last few days, I don't -" Scully pulled back slightly, but still left her hands snaked around his back. She wanted to feel the strength an d warmth that his hugs always gave her for a few more seconds. "No Mulder, I want you to stay here, I like having you here, I'm just," Scully hesitated, "I'm okay, honestly, just let me hug you for a little while longer." Mulder let out a quiet chuckle, and pulled her even closer to him, rubbing her back, and rocking her slightly in his arms. He liked the contact that they often shared, it assured him that Scully would be there for as long as he needed her, and also let him show her that he would always be there for her, no matter what time of the day or night, and whatever the problem was. Scully had almost fallen to sleep in Mulder's arms as she listened to the deep rhythm of his heart beating, when Mulder suddenly looked around the bathroom. Making Scully jump at the sudden movement she looked up at Mulder's face. "Um, Scully.... where's Matthew.....?" Mulder rushed out of the bathroom while Scully gathered her clothes. He was fast, dammit!! When she was kind of dressed, she got out and found Mulder looking frantically around the living room. "Mulder, where's he?" He finally sighed, smiled, and gestured Scully to go beside him. They both looked at the sleeping child under Scully's table. "Gee, Scully, for a moment there I forgot he was this small, and thought he could have jumped all by himself into the microwave..." "Yeah, I was on the verge of panicking there, too... What do you think my brother would have done to you if something had happened to his son?" Mulder shuddered. "Hum... words as 'quarter' come to mind... But then, you wouldn't let him, would you?" He showed her his best puppy-dog smile. Scully pretended to meditate about it. "Well....do I get your TV if you die?" "Owwww, that hurts. Am I that cheap? Besides, Frohike will get the TV." They both smiled at each other, and then Scully realized she hadn't finished dressing. "Hey, Mulder, pick him up while I'm finished, and think about what we're going to do to entertain him for the rest of the day, ok?" She entered back into the bathroom, and Mulder held Matthew as he sat on the sofa. He looked at the little kid, who seemed beyond peaceful, and grinned. "You know, Matt? You're so cute it's a wonder you're Bill's son... Not that I'd say anything against your dad..." he whispered. In that moment, as if he had heard the man who was holding him, Matthew opened his eyes, and Mulder found himself looking inside a pair of eyes exactly like Scully's. He extended a finger, and the baby took it into his hand. He continued whispering to him. "Hey there. You see? You don't look at all like your dad... You have your aunt's eyes. You're lucky, they are the most beautiful ones I've ever seen." And it's not the only thing beautiful in here he thought, remembering the bathroom's scene. Scully grinned from where she had been listening, hardly believing it. Then Matthew shook his hand, with Mulder finger in it, and Mulder tickled him softly. The baby giggled, and Scully decided it was a perfect moment to interrupt. "Hey, boys. Having fun?" "Sure, we were talking about you, about how bad your cooking is. I'm taking him out for Chinese tonight, partner." Sure, MulderShe smiled. "What do you say if we go for a walk into the park?" "Sounds good to me." Scully opened the door to her apartment hastily, and practically fell inside Her and Mulder were SOAKED. Their walk obviously hadn't been such a great idea. When they'd decided to go out the sunshine was glorious, but as they were walking along, chatting and playing with Matthew, all of a sudden it just rained. And it wasn't just rain, it turned into a storm almost immediately with raging thunder and lightning that had caused the once laughing Matthew to automatically start crying. Scully was beginning to wonder who she could even have began to think that having Mulder stay with her was a good idea, straight from the word 'go' he'd seemed to bring trouble into whatever they did. Mulder followed Scully through the door, pulling his shoes off using his feet, whilst he held Matthew in his arms, wrapped in Mulder's jumper. As the rain had started pouring, and Mulder felt himself getting soaked, the first thing that he thought about was Matthew getting ill. The last thing he needed was to make Bill's son ill, Bill hated him enough.... Scully walked into the bathroom, and grabbing a towel through it at Mulder. Turning around she walked into her room and hunted around for some dry clothes to put on. "Come on Matthew, let's get you all dried up," Mulder said enthusiastically. He laid Matthew down on the kitchen surface, and started to dry his hair softly, being careful not to hurt him. As Mulder continued with what he was doing, Scully walked out of her room, dressed in clean clothes, and with her hair around her shoulders still slightly damp. She watched Mulder as he dried Matthew focusing on his task, and taking it seriously. The sound of Matthew's laughing filled the room, as he giggled whilst Mulder dried his feet. Scully smiled as Mulder began to tease Matthew and make him laugh even more. She was amazed at how well Mulder had taken to Matthew, and the thoughts crossed her mind of how he would be a great father to her children one day.... WOW Scully, where are you going with that?! 1. You can't even HAVE children, and, 2. Who on Earth says that he's going to be the father?! "Mulder, go get dry, I'll stay with Matthew now." Mulder nodded, handed the kid to Scully, and left the room heading to the bathroom. Scully put Matthew on the floor beside the table, and got some white papers and markers from her desk. Then she sat beside Matt. "What do you say if we draw for a while, uh?" she handed him a marker and began drawing with her own. "Hey, Matt. Look, a dog." But Matt had obviously better things on his mind, Scully discovered as he began drawing over her face. She tried to get him to use the paper, but without any success. After some minutes, she concluded Matthew wasn't paying attention to her elaborated speech about how useful a piece of paper is, and she gave up, turning her face towards the baby to allow him better access. When she turned her face again, she found Mulder leaning on the door's frame, smiling evilly. "My, Scully, for crying out loud. I had always suspected that your real vocation was being a clown, but I never thought you'd be that confident about it." "Ha-ha, Mulder." She got up and entered the kitchen, followed by an amused Mulder, and wondering how many times had she cleaned herself that day. She put a cloth under the running water, and rubbed her face with it. She managed to clean most of Matthew's paintings, but there were some remaining stains. Mulder approached her. "Here, let me." He took the wet cloth from her, put one hand under her chin, and washed her face gently with the other. Breathe, Mulder. You know you can do it... It's only skin... Scully's skin. Nah, *human* skin... Sure... When he finished, they stared one another without a word for a couple of seconds, Mulder unconsciously caressing Scully's chin , until they heard Matthew's giggling from the living-room. And the spell is broken... Scully thought. They smiled to each other, and Mulder removed the hand that he hadn't noticed was there. Scully surely had. "Well, I think I better..." she mumbled, stepping away from him. "Yeah, yeah." He sighed as she exited the kitchen. Scully wandered into the living room feeling Mulder's eyes still watching her from the kitchen with every step. She hated moments like what had just happened, it made her feel out of control - anything could have happened if Matthew hadn't started to giggle... Mind you, she was in no way complaining about the close proximity that they often shared leading up to these moments, definitely NOT! She walked over to Matthew, picking him up and turning around to find Mulder still staring at her, well, actually, more like *gazing*... Suddenly the phone rang, shocking Mulder out of whatever he was dreaming about, and causing Scully to carefully place Matthew on the floor before walking over to answer the phone. "Hello?" Scully muttered into the phone. Mulder made his way over to where Scully had been drawing with Matthew and started to clear up all of the pens and paper that had been left out in the attempt to clean Scully up. Meanwhile Matthew made his way across the floor until he was stood practically beneath Mulder's feet. For some reason which was still to be figured out, Matthew had taken incredibly well to Mulder, especially considering the way his father felt towards the guy. Suddenly, a loud sound of glass smashing filled the apartment. Mulder had tried to get a glass out of the cupboard, but being so clumsy, had only managed to knock it over, until it fell to the floor and smashed into a million different pieces. "MATTHEW!!!" Scully yelled, in the middle of a sentence depicting the reasons exactly why Mulder was staying at her apartment. Having been near the glass when it broke, he instantly grabbed a piece in his small hands, and started to play with it. In terror both Mulder and Scully watched as a familiar green substance started to ooze out of his skin where the piece of glass had cut his skin.... Mulder kneeled down near Matthew, with the heart on his throat, while a terrified Scully took the crying kid's arm in her hand. His mind registered briefly that alien kids didn't cry, did they? He looked at Scully in horror as she was about to touch the green goo. He grabbed her arm, attempting to stop her, but she stared threateningly at him, and he let her continue with her task, while he looked down to the floor. When he looked up again, he saw Scully sigh in relief, holding Matthew tight. "Sc-Scully?" he asked tremulously. "Ink, Mulder. Green." She answered, without releasing Matthew, who continued sobbing. "He also cut himself a bit in the hand, but that's all." Mulder began to breathe again, and sat heavily on the floor. He had panicked Literally. And not only because of the possibility that Bill was one of them.. Or Matthew... It was for Scully. He couldn't remember a single time when he had seen her that scared before. Hell, he couldn't blame her. Especially not after Emily... In fact, she didn't seem that relaxed now. If very relieved, she still seemed a bit worried about the kid's cut, and was looking at it carefully. "Is it deep?" Mulder asked as he caressed Matthew's head, his face wet with tears. "No, it has almost stopped bleeding." She told him as she got up. "I'm going to disinfect it." He followed them to the bathroom, and looked at Scully while she took care of Matthew's little hand. He had stopped crying, and was now quietly hiccupping. Mulder felt instantly guilty about the whole thing. Not only he had managed to scare the hell out of Scully, but he had made the child cry, and that made him feel beyond bad. All because of the stupid glass... "Hey, Scully... Uh, I am going to go now... I think you have more than enough with one child to take care of, ok?" He exited the bathroom, Scully on his heels. "Mulder, what are you talking about? You can't go home." "Yeah, I know. I'll just go to a hotel, or stay with the Gunmen, or whatever Uhh... thank you for letting me stay, ok ?" He entered her room, and began to pack his things. "Don't be silly, Mulder. Where does all this come from?" "Scully, it's my fault. Gee, and what's new..." he sighed. "I dropped the glass, and Matthew cut himself, and I'm only giving you troubles, and then that green stuff... I was scared..." he trailed off. "I was scared too. Come on, it could have happened to anyone. Kids hurt themselves everyday. It's nothing, Matt is okay. And as for the green stuff... Well, I think we are way too jumpy about that. Maybe your paranoia has touched me at last." She smiled. Mulder smiled shyly too at that comment. "Yeah, I think we overreacted, didn't we?" Scully nodded. "So you are not mad at me?" he asked with his patented puppy-dog look. "No, Mulder. I was kind of having fun until then, you know?" Saying that he was relieved at that point was an understatement. <Jeez, Scully, I love you > he thought. "Wh-Wh-what??" she asked. Mulder panicked the way he had before. When had he started thinking aloud? Had he been so relieved that he had let his mind act on its own? He kicked himself mentally (or at least, he hoped this time it was mentally...) and grabbed Matthew from Scully's arms, heading for the kitchen. Too bad she followed him. "Mulder, what--- Just what?" "What about what?" he feigned to not to understand. "You know what I am talking about." "Oh, that... Well--I--We-You don't have to say anything. It was an impulse. We had been under tension and all..." She didn't let him escape that easily. Not this time. Mulder was panicking, and his body was definitely letting him know it - all the signs were there, heart beating faster, taking deeper breathes, his mouth was becoming dryer by the second and he could feel his blood pressure rising like crazy. It's now or never.... he thought to himself. He'd loved her from the night she fell into his arms after asking him to inspect the mosquito bites. It was that very moment when he knew that there was no way he was going to be able to live the rest of his life without this woman in it. Now stood in front of him with a look telling him she wasn't going to give up with this, she looked more beautiful than ever to him. Staring deeply into her eyes, she gave him all of the strength that he needed to go ahead with what, in the end, was inevitable. Swallowing slowly, taking one more deep breath, and never breaking contact with her eyes he repeated his earlier words. "I love you". Speaking slowly, and precisely taking care not mess up his words, he finally said it. With every word the smile on Scully's face grew bigger, until at the end of his declaration she walked into his arms, wrapped her arms around him as tightly as possible, and whispered against his chest: "I love you too." THE END!! <finally....> "Lord know we've got our bad days, and more than once we've disagreed, but you've always been a friend to me..." "A friend to me", Garth Brooks
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