From: Kris Harnage Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1998 16:35:00 -0700 (PDT) Subject: NEW! The Conversation; VAH-UST; PG TITLE: The Conversation AUTHOR: Katwoman DATE WRITTEN: 8 July 1998 E-MAIL: kris_harnage@yahoo.com FEEDBACK: Please! Please! I live for e-mail. Pretty sad, eh? DISTRIBUTION: Sure. Fine. Wherever. Just let me know! Please send to ATXC; submitting separately to Gossamer. RATING: PG CATEGORY: VAH-UST SPOILERS: US5 up to and including "Folie A Deux" KEYWORDS: Angst, UST and a little humor thrown in for good measure. SUMMARY: What if Scully and Mulder had gotten stuck in that elevator at the end of "Folie A Deux"? DISCLAIMER: "The X-Files" and all its characters belong to Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions and 20th Century FOX Television. I do not own them and never will, but I do borrow them often without permission, so -- neener, neener, neener! Come and get me, Chris. I'd like to see you try! COMMENTS: I was bored at work today (nothing unusual, *and* I'm not complaining) so, of course, I felt like writing fanfic (also not unusual). I have a long list of story ideas, but -- alas -- it was at home, so this is what I came up with. Whether or not it's any good, I have no idea. I just wasn't too thrilled with how this episode ended, but then, Chris does that to us a lot, doesn't he? DEDICATED: This one's for Devanie, who loves reading angst/UST as much as I love writing it, and whose positive feedback is always wonderful for my ego! Thanks, girlfriend! :) AUTHOR'S NOTE: After editing this for me, my best friend, Shannon, informed me that I've answered a fanfic challenge with this one. Cool! I didn't even intend to! So, Sara Lynn, this one's for you, too! Hope you like it! "THE CONVERSATION" By Katwoman J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building Washington, D.C. May 11, 1998 4:30 p.m. "What did you tell him?" "The truth ... as well as I understand it." "Which is?" "Folie a deux -- a madness shared by two." Just as Scully finished what she was saying, the elevator lurched and came to an abrupt halt, sending both her and Mulder crashing to the floor. She landed practically on top of him. "Are you OK?" he asked her, standing up quickly and extending his hand to her. "I'm fine, Mulder," she said, taking his hand and allowing him to help her to her feet. "I just hit my elbow on something hard, that's all," she added, rubbing her right elbow with her left hand. "Yeah, that would be my sternum," Mulder said, patting his chest area. "Ooooh ... are you OK?" Scully asked, looking at him with true concern. "I'm fine, Scully," he said, echoing her typical answer to that question. "Glad I could break your fall," he remarked a bit sarcastically, a smirk on his face. "Sor-ry," Scully reproved, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow at him. "Next time, I'll try my best to fall elsewhere." "I was just kidding, Scully. Just trying to lighten the mood, ya know?" "That's your problem, Mulder," she replied, not amused in the least. "You always have to go for the sarcastic remark or joke when situations turn serious." "Are you saying I should be more like you, Scully? Hardly ever letting a smile cross my face, let alone laugh out loud?" Scully was stunned, as well as hurt by Mulder's tactless remark. She glared at him for a moment or two, not knowing what to say. "Let's just drop it and see what's holding up this damn elevator," she finally said, trying -- without much success -- to hold in her anger. "Are you going to make the call, or shall I?" she asked him, pointing to the emergency phone on the panel. "Oh, do allow me," Mulder said, snatching the receiver from its resting place. Scully bit her bottom lip and looked away from him. "Yeah, this is Agent Mulder. We -- meaning Special Agent Scully and I -- are stuck in elevator 16," he said, reading the number off the information card on the panel. "Oh really? Well, how long do you expect this to take?" he asked angrily. "Fine. Yeah, we're fine. Sit tight? Well, what else *can* we do?" Mulder slammed the phone down on its receiver. He then looked at Scully, who still wouldn't look at him. "They've got six elevators down -- some type of computer problem -- and since we're the only one with just two people stuck, we're at the bottom of the list. Looks like we're going to be here a while." "Great," Scully said. She sighed and sat down in the back corner of the elevator -- as far from Mulder as she could possibly get. She leaned against the wall and smoothed her skirt across her legs. Mulder followed Scully's lead and lowered himself to the opposite corner -- so that they were facing one another. He leaned against the panel wall. They sat in silence for what seemed an eternity. Mulder finally remembered the bag of sunflower seeds he had in his inside coat pocket. He took out the bag, popped a few in his mouth, then held the bag out to Scully. "Seeds?" he offered. "No thanks," she said, still not looking at him. Scully reached in her jacket pocket, took out a small pack of sugarless gum, unwrapped a stick and put it in her mouth. She didn't offer Mulder any. "Not sharing today, are we?" he asked, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "I didn't think it would go too well with your sunflower seeds," she chided, trying to keep her voice even. "Well, I *could* save it for later," he shot back. "Fine! Here!" she practically shouted, throwing a stick of gum at him. "Thank you ... thank you very much," Mulder said, trying to impersonate Elvis. He picked up the gum from his lap and stuck it inside his coat pocket. Scully gave no reaction to his impersonation, and she still wouldn't look at him. she thought glumly. Mulder didn't know what to do. Jokes and innuendo weren't going to get him out of this one. Obviously, his remark had stung Scully more than he'd intended. "I'm sorry," he finally said to her. "I didn't mean what I said. Or at least, I didn't mean for it to come out that way. But you could smile and laugh a little more, you know." Scully finally looked at Mulder, virtually staring him down. "WHAT have I had to smile and laugh about lately?" she asked, her voice now raw with emotion. Totally caught off guard by her question and her tone, Mulder had no answer. He looked at Scully for a few more moments, then had to look away from her scrutiny. He contemplated her question, thinking back over the last few months. He thought about the tragedy on the Pennsylvania bridge in which she was involved, and how he had ignored her to the point of nearly losing her for good this time. He remembered the case with Marty Glenn, the blind woman who tried to act like she was stronger and more capable than she really was -- which reminded him of how Scully always tries to come across. Then there was the case with the four identical girls. Scully had seen visions of Emily during that one, but -- once again -- he didn't listen to her ... didn't *hear* what she was trying to tell him. And finally, just last week, Scully thought he had turned against the Bureau, because he didn't let her -- his partner of six years, not to mention his best friend -- in on what he was really doing. he berated himself silently. "No, I guess ... I guess you haven't had much to smile about lately," Mulder eventually said to her. "And I'm sorry about that, because it's mostly my fault." Scully looked at him again, totally astonished. "I ... I don't know quite how to respond to that, Mulder," she said. "Yes, part of it has been your fault, but not ... not all of it." "I'm really sorry. Sometimes I get so caught up in our work ..." "I get lost in the shuffle," she finished for him. "Yeah, I guess you do." A few more moments of silence passed between them. "Do you still want me as a partner, Mulder? Or would things be easier for you to go it alone again -- to not having me poking holes in all your theories, like I did on this case?" Now it was Mulder who looked at Scully totally astonished. "Now I don't know how to respond. Is that ... is that what you want, Scully? Do you not want us to be partners anymore?" he asked with apprehension, afraid of what her answer might be. "No ... no, of course not," she answered. "I just don't want it to be like ... like *this* anymore," she said, gesturing with her arms to their current seating arrangement. "What do you mean?" "What do I mean?" she repeated his question, somewhat disheartened. "You mean you don't feel it? You don't feel like we've grown apart? You don't feel this ... this *wall* between us?" she asked, gesturing with her arms again. "Well, yeah, but all couples ... including those who are partners, best friends ... whatever ... go through periods like this, don't they?" he asked. "Maybe so," she said, then paused. "But that doesn't make it any easier. We've been like this for months and months -- ever since ..." She looked down at her lap. "Since Emily died," Mulder said, now finishing her sentence. Scully's head shot up at the mention of her lost daughter's name. Her eyes were glistening. "I know," Mulder continued. "I felt a closeness to you before then ... when your cancer went into remission ... when we were trapped in the woods together ... even during that weird 'Great Mutato' case. I felt like we were getting closer than we'd ever been. But then ..." his voice trailed off. "But then all hell broke loose on us ... yet again," she said sadly, trying desperately to hold back her threatening tears. Mulder stared into Scully's eyes, finally seeing the pain that was so evident ... that had been there for the past five months ... that he had been too blind or just too damned stubborn to see before. "What can I do to help you?" he finally asked her. "You're doing it," Scully replied softly, sniffling a little. "What? What am I doing?" "You're paying attention to me again. You seem concerned about me again," she said, clearing her throat. "I ... I don't expect you to have all the answers, Mulder. And I don't expect you to solve all my problems, because I know you can't. I don't even expect you to believe everything I tell you, just as I have a hard time believing some things -- OK, most things -- that you tell me ... " Mulder smiled at that one, but said nothing, allowing her to finish. "I just expect you to be there for me when I need you. After all, that's what partners -- and best friends -- are for, right?" "Right," Mulder said, smiling at Scully again. She finally smiled back at him. "Scully?" "Yes, Mulder?" "Next time I'm being an insensitive jerk or I start ignoring you, I give you permission to do whatever necessary to get my attention and straighten my ass out. Well," he paused, "make that *almost* anything. Getting shot by you once is enough to last me a lifetime," he said, with a lopsided grin. Scully laughed out loud, which was music to Mulder's ears. "Deal," she said, returning his smile once again. She took off her right heel to rub the bottom of her foot, which had been aching all day. "Wow, two smiles and a laugh -- this must be my lucky day," Mulder said, teasing her a bit. "Must be, Mulder," Scully said, her eyes shining, now with happiness. "Mine, too. Who'd have ever thought getting stuck in an elevator could be a good thing?" Mulder chuckled. "You really *don't* watch porno movies, do you Scully?" Mulder playfully ducked, as Scully threatened him with the shoe she still had in her hand. "OK, OK," he said, holding up his arms to defend himself. "Make that no guns *or* those killer high heels of yours!" #####FINIS##### ******************************************************* SCULLY: "I had you." MULDER: "No you didn't." SCULLY: "Oh yeah ... I had you big time." MULDER: "You had nothing. Come on, I saw you jiggle the handle." -- "FIGHT THE FUTURE ******************************************************* _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com