From: Tony Delgrosso Date: 23 Apr 1998 00:38:54 GMT Subject: Bottlecaps (1/1) Title - Bottlecaps Author - Tony Delgrosso E-Mail address - tdelgros@frontiernet.net [feedback encouraged] Rating - PG Category - V Spoilers - None Keywords - Summary - Short character study. First fanfic, written merely as an experiment. She had to knock for five full minutes before he managed to undo the lock and let her in the apartment. It was instantly obvious that he'd been drinking for hours; all of the empties had been neatly put away, yet the coffee table was still littered with bottlecaps that covered manila folders, magazines, and other assorted scraps of paper. Scully closed the door behind her and sat down on the couch, next to where he'd plopped himself back on the floor. The weeks leading up to the conclusion of the murder case had been sheer hell, and Director Freeh had for some reason asked to personally review the case summary. Once it was over, Mulder spent hours abusing his body in some sort of personal ablution, turning himself into a pickled, brooding mess that she found more humorous than annoying for once. "Is there any beer left?" She didn't drink beer at all, but it was the first thing she could think of to start the conversation. "Sorry Scully. Drank every last one of 'em. You shoulda been here earlier when the party stared," Mulder replied, trying very hard to stay attached to the floor, and doing an admirable job of it. "I can mix you up something if you want-" "No, no, that's okay. I'll only stay for a minute. I just came by to see how the summary went today." Mulder was now sitting relatively upright, resting his head on the table and flecking bottlecaps towards the wall with his finger. "The what?" Plink. "The case summary. You know, big fat report? Took us a week to write?" she answered wearily, and with not a little sarcasm. Plink. "The director is a short smelly bastard, y'know," He had wanted to throw 'arrogant' in there too, but couldn't get the word out. Plink. "He grilled me for an hour on a grammatical point, for chrissake." He made little punctuation marks in the air with his hand. Plink. "I mean, it was a watertight report, so what was the point, other than to make me look like a moron in front of Skinner?" Poink. The bottlecap struck Scully under her eyeball and made her jump backwards on the couch. Mulder took no apparent notice, and continued talking to himself while she dabbed at her face and tried to figure out if she'd ever see again. She finally interrupted him. "Mulder, look. I've got a lot of things I want to say, so just listen and let me get them all out before you jump in." "I thought you said you were only staying a minute," he said snidely, because he instantly knew what was coming next. A lecture that he was in no mood to listen to from anyone, least of all Scully. "I just think you've worked way too hard on this case," she continued in spite of his remark. "You know, taken it too personally. I think you need to spend some time away. Detach. Get your thoughts together and-" "My thoughts," he said slowly, "are none of your business right now. Stop trying to drill into me, Scully, okay?" She stared at the top of his head, still resting on the table, for what seemed like hours. Finally she just began, "Mulder," but then stopped. He said nothing. She touched his head gently and briefly, got up from her seat and moved towards the door. She looked back once, quickly, and left. The silence once again absorbed him. Later on he flipped one of the folders open, and gazed blankly at the crime scene photographs of the dead girl. At length he closed the folder, breathed a heavy sigh, and went back to flinging bottlecaps at the wall. Plink. Plink. Plink. ----------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- | Tony Delgrosso | tdelgros@frontiernet.net | --------------------------------------------------------------- | Personal Assistant to MangoSundae. super!nutboy | ---------------------------------------------------------------