From starbuc810@aol.com Sat Apr 05 11:13:07 1997 Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: THE GAMES WE PLAY (REVISED) (1/1) From: starbuc810@aol.com (Starbuc810) -------- THE GAMES WE PLAY OK TO ARCHIVE Spoiler: Probably occured before Season 4 Rating: G Content: Simply a discussion between two logical adults. Classification: V, with possible R - open to interpretation Summary: Mulder and Scully take a (forced) road trip and make some interesting discoveries along the way. DISCLAIMER: They aren't mine. All credit goes to Chris Carter and 1013. TITLE: The Games We Play (1/1) 7:04 a.m. Sunday Spring "Good morning, Scully," Mulder said, smiling lazily into the phone. He heard her groan - a curse directed towards him, no doubt. "I'll be by in an hour," he told her, still smiling. "Mulder?" Dana Scully rolled her eyes in mock disgust. "Mulder - " She smiled as she realized she was, once again, talking to herself. The dial tone announced that her partner had hung up, and experience told her that he was on his way over. She jumped into action, throwing scattered files and papers into her briefcase on her way to her kitchen. She threw a few dirty dishes into the dishwasher and put on a fresh pot of coffee. Dana slowly made her way into her bathroom, smiling in remembrance of her evening. If she'd known - or even thought - her partner would be so obnoxious as to get her out of bed on a Sunday morning, she *certainly* would not have stayed up so late. Mulder silently let himself into Scully's apartment. He grinned as he heard her perfectly in tune "caterwauling". Mental note: a new aspect of Scully's life to tease her about. Mulder helped himself to a mug of coffee and poured a second for Scully. Seating himself at the table, he began reading the files that he had tucked into his briefcase the night before. Minutes later Scully presented herself - cool, calm, composed - but with a disarming sparkle in her eyes. Worth looking into...a new challenge...a mystery! One that Mulder decided instantly to unfold. Scully watched her partner beam at her from across the table. Taking a sip of the hot, strong brew, she glanced through the file Mulder handed her, a quiet smile playing at her lips. "Mulder, you've got to be kidding!" she almost shouted, nearly choking on her coffee in the process. He shrugged. It was a line he'd heard before. "We're going to - Camble, South Dakota to investigate a 'ghostly apparition' - this is ridiculous. Couldn't this wait until Monday? What does this have to do with *us*?" she asked incredulously. "Five people have died shortly after describing nearly identical accounts of this apparition. This isn't your normal run-of-the-mill ghost story, Scully. There's something out there..." he finished eerily. Scully shook her head in disbelief, constantly amazed at her partner. "When do we leave?" she asked, taking their mugs to the sink and carefully rinsing them. "In an hour. Once we reach..." Mulder shook himself mentally, realizing he was watching his partner intently as she finished loading the dishwasher. He hoped she hadn't noticed. If she didn't know, she couldn't confront him about it, could she? "We have a six hour drive once we deplane...bring some reading material," he smiled. X X X X X 3:24 p.m. Sunday "So what's with this smile you've been wearing all day, Scully? Hot date last night?" Mulder winked suggestively. His fingers drummed on the steering wheel as he recalled his own Saturday night - spent, of all places - on the internet, chatting with a 'mystery woman'. Scully glanced up guiltily, vowing to ignore his playful teasing. "Actually, no." She laughed at the thought. "Of all the things I could have been doing - *should* have been doing," she amended, "I was - I met somebody over the internet, and we talked for hours..." Mulder's eyes narrowed at the dreamy tone that the ever-professional Agent Scully's voice had taken. "Interesting," he grumbled. "So it's love over the internet for Dana Scully," he teased. "Sounds like you had a late night," he suggested with a grin. "I *am* tired," Scully admitted. "I was online until four-thirty this morning. And it was *not* 'love over the internet'...and I got a phone call this morning from my obnoxious partner..." "That's a dangerous game you're playing, Agent Scully," Mulder told her with mock severity. "It takes two to play, Agent Mulder," she replied, carefully watching the dreary, cloud-covered landscape pass by. < The games we play...> Scully was silent for a while, silently regarding her partner's strange mood. "And it's just that - a game. Although I have to admit I liked it. I enjoyed it...it seemed to me that I must know him from somewhere. Maybe I did. Maybe I do..." Scully let her voice drift off, fully realizing that it would infuriate Mulder. She successfully hid a smile as she turned once again to the window, suddenly finding the freshly turned earth along the road very interesting. "Did you get a name?" Mulder asked, biting back hearty laughter to voice this concern. "He could have been some sick weirdo, some porn-loving freak, a - " Mulder skimmed over some of his worst habits and said seriously, "It could have been Frohike!" Scully smiled as Mulder listed off possible character flaws. "No, I didn't get his name...he was...a mystery." "You don't deal with enough mysteries, Scully?" Mulder asked with a grin. "Apparantly not," she smiled wryly. "I could have found out everything about him in an instant, had I wanted to..." In her mind she saw the words on the computer screen, the words that made her doubt herself for perhaps the first time. < You're intrigued.> She denied it, of course. "You mean you didn't want to find out?" Mulder asked, eyeing his partner in amazment. "You weren't - *intrigued*?" He placed special emphasis on the word. Scully glanced up sharply, searching her partner's face suspiciously. "Slightly," she admitted reluctantly, arching a deliate eyebrow. < You are becoming transparent...I can see r right through you. You *are* intrigued.> "I admit I spent a good part of the evening trying to find out. With the utmost subtlety, of course," Scully smiled. "It was - fun. Relaxing. We talked about the most *normal* things," she said, in awe, perhaps, that normalcy still exsisted in the world. "But obviously he never clued you in as to his identity..." Mulder prodded, unwilling to let this subject die. "Oh, he did!" Scully laughed. "But he didn't give me the right clues." "What do you mean?" he asked, his hazel eyes narrowing suspiciously. "I knew he was lying. About the 'clues' to his identity. And I knew that he could know nothing of me - unless, like me, he had access to all those 'secret' government things he made joking reference to. I hid my tracks well." "You did," Mulder mumbled under his breath. Scully decided not to call him on it. She smiled lazily at her partner, watching him stiffen in reaction to her words. She was especially enjoying this game they played now. "In spite of all that, do you think he really knows you? Knows who you are, I mean," Mulder amended quickly. "I know he does," Scully looked pointedly away from her partner. Eyes wide and innocent, he turned to her, attempting to turn the tables. "But do *you* know who he is?" She buried herself in her diet cola. "I have a few leads," she mumbled, blushing slightly. < But I do know you. Perhaps not physically, but spiritually...> "So who do you think he is?" Mulder asked again, curious to hear her answer. He was asking for it, he knew. Hell, maybe he wanted confrontation. Conflict. He thrived on it. At least then it was in the open, out there...his heart on his sleeve, for her to trample on as she liked. Scully smiled a beatific smile, and for a long moment didn't answer. Mulder exhaled, mentally kicking himself, suddenly aware that he had been holding his breath in anticipation of her response. "I think," Scully began slowly, soberly. "I think that, in a strange way, we are kindred spirits. I think I have known him - forever." She glanced cautiously at Mulder, whose gaze was firmly fixed on the road before them. < We are kindred spirits, you and I. Soul mates.> < I feel that I can trust you.> < And what is Trust? An exceptional gift to be given. Not to be taken lightly.> < An exceptional gift...how true...> "But do you *know*?" Mulder asked again insistently, this time catching her gaze, locking her eyes to his. "I think we both know." End THE GAMES WE PLAY 4/2/97 < STARBUC810@AOL.COM >